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Grave Fromthe

There is no magic more vile than that of necromancy, the art of raising the dead. To practice it is to court damnation, yet there are those willing to take the risk.

N ecromancy is an abhorrent form of magic, born from the chaos of the wars of the

past, set loose on the world by the folly of the Elves. Its practitioners can raise the dead with a word to be their slaves, or suck the life from the living with a gesture.

Necromancers are loathed and feared in equal measure. They are pitiless individuals, without morals or conscience, their only desires to expand the span of their lives and increase their power. For the great irony of the Necromancer is that they fear death over all other things Thankfully, the path of this dire sorcery is arduous and fraught with peril. It requires many decades, even centuries,

of study. However, perseverance does have its rewards - the most powerful necromancers are able to raise armies numbering in the tens of thousands, and are nigh-on immortal.

Necromancy is an indiscriminate art, its incantations will re-animate every dead creature nearby. The decomposing bodies of dogs, rats, birds and horses will be raised along with the corpses of warriors and long dead heroes. All are enslaved to the will of the necromancer.

While Undead armies are all but unstoppable in battle, the Necromancer is its lynchpin – destroy him and the entire army will collapse, like puppets with their strings suddenly cut.

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13From the Grave

Ghouls are loathsome scavengers who feed upon corpses. Their ancestors were evil men, who devoured the fl esh of their fellows to survive the cataclysms at the end of the last age and were cursed for it. Further debased by centuries of inbreeding and the ingestion of magically tainted corpses, Ghouls are no longer human. By far the worst of their kind are the Corpse-Mothers, bloated brood mares who rule the Ghoul clans with fi sts of iron.

Skeleton Warriors are the most prevalent of all the creatures in a Necromancer’s army, for the world is littered with battle sites from the past. Necromancy is truly the most evil of arts, for although a Skeleton will behave as an automaton, to animate his slave a mage must call back the soul of the slain warrior from the peace of death. Trapped within their former mortal shell, these spirits are tormented by what they are made to do, and should they fall, they are damned.

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Unlike a Necromancer’s other servants, Ghouls are not truly undead but live and breathe as other creatures, bound to the dark wizard’s services not by magic, but by the promise of easy meat.

Mhorgoth began life a man. Once, he was joyful and charismatic, but the fates seemed to take against him, striking Mhorgoth with tragedy after tragedy. Adopted by the Elves, Mhorgoth was tutored by their mages who sought to channel his natural ability for good. Yet their watch upon him was not vigilant enough, for Mhorgoth took it upon himself to study necromancy, to bring back those he had lost.

The Elves discovered this, and sentenced Mhorgoth to death by burning in the Eternal Flame of Knowledge. But Mhorgoth’s art was mighty, and he escaped moments before his demise. A mask of iron covering his charred fl esh, Mhorgoth is now utterly insane and has sworn vengeance upon the world.

The artillery of the dead, Balefi re catapults hurl ensorcelled skulls at the enemies of the Necromancer. On impact, the skull detonates with a roiling blast of magical energy, laying low those who have not fl ed. After a battle the bones of its victims are gathered up and prepared with runes and dark curses, ready to destroy yet more bold warriors.

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15From the Grave

Skeleton Warriors are terrifying foes to face, knowing nothing of fear, remorse, pain or exhaustion. The magical fi elds binding them together are notoriously diffi cult to destroy; if hacked in half, a Skeleton will merely drag themselves forward, the need to kill impelling them on. Even when fi nally stopped, they may yet prove a threat, for with just one spell, a Necromancer is able to re-knit smashed bone and force the fallen to rise once again.

Revenants are ancient heroes infused with the Necromancer’s power, deadly undead warriors whose power is far greater than that of the lesser unliving.

In some cursed locations steeped in evil and depravity, the spirits of the dead linger, refusing to move on. Malicious and fi lled with a burning hatred for the living, some of these spirits are strong enough to manifest in the material realm and drain the life from those that incur their wrath. These are the Wraiths, and are the deadliest of all the Undead.

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