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A question that has often been asked is how exactly Necromancy works. Blizzard unfortunately are yet to answer this question, and have made the task harder by offering several different senarios that are difficult to link together in one single Law of Necromancy. I however, have done my best, using a mix of Logic, those mentioned senarios, and a ton of speculation. Enjoy
A Report on the various arts of returning the dead sentience
By Cain William Herat-Baker
In the history of Azeroth, there have been two practiced ways of persuading people that should be dead to hop to their feet and walk around for a bit longer. The first is the art of Animation and the second, far rarer, is the gift of Revivification. While this document is solely about the former, the later must be understood in order to fully appreciate animation.
Revivification, often misinterpreted as resurrection, is a gift that can only be bestowed by the eternal beings of the cosmos. Of these many different beings, the few to have actually gifted their art to a sole requester have been the spirits of Azeroth and Dreanor, whom have in the past been known to offer a Shaman whom has ultimate respect and favour the single opportunity to return their friend to the mortal coil, the act of revivification. Theoretically, this is because of strength of numbers, there are many different spirits which can work together to permit a spirit to return to its body without the use of enchantment, while others, for example the priests of the Holy light, only have one deity to ask. Therefore, again theoretically, it may be possible for a ritual of priests to perform a revivification ceremony, each of them pooling their individual favour from the light to cause the same effect as the Shamanistic spirits.
Animation has its subsections as well. To the knowledge of the author, there are three separate methods of animating a corpse. The first, and favourite among the scourge, is the basic school of necromancy, weaving necromantic magic into a broken body, in order to replace the missing parts that prevent it from being viable. The more necromancy required raising a body completely, the more drain on the spellcaster; however it is possible to raise a body by only replacing the main requirements – forgoing unrequired organs such as the bladder to create a fragile but working skeleton. This way is quicker, and can be cast over a wide area, meaning skilled necromancers can potentially raise an army of weak ‘ghouls’ in a very short time period. Unfortunately, the lapse of magic degrades far quicker than a more advanced undead, and its mental capacity is completely limited to ‘kill that not that’ therefore should a more permanent undead be required, a longer ritual is needed to completely reconstruct the body.
The second method, a far more recent discovery, was the Scourge plague, created by Noth the Plaguebringer, and later re-created by Grand Apothecary Putress in the Forsaken ‘new plague’ or ‘Blight.’ The exact science of the re-animation is a highly protected secret, however in essence it works in the same way as necromancy, in that its magics replace the missing parts of the body, most of which have been melted away by the Plagues corrosive nature.
The Third and most recently discovered method was the gift of the Val’kyr. The gift is unique to the other two methods, as it is the only one to instantly return the Spirit of the diseased to the body, much like Revivification, except with a dead body. The body itself is raised through the usual form of Necromancy, which the Val’kyr are so naturally skilled at they can instantly raise several Corpses to their full biological capacity in a single, short spell.
A commonly asked question is one that asks the difference between a mindless undead and a Forsaken. The difference is quite simply this – the mindless undead have simply been animated by a necromancer, while the Forsaken spirits have found their way back to their bodies – either under their own steam, by extensive therapy, or because they were raised by a Val’kyr. The first forsaken managed this by the former method – admittedly the most difficult, which is why in the first decade of their existence the Forsaken numbered few. The first forsaken died quicker than they could find Undead whose spirits had managed to find their way back, so they began capturing scourge that were already animated, and helping their spirits find their way back. Unfortunately necromancers were very well protected by the scourge, so it was near impossible to perform a similar routine on them, which meant the Forsaken were incapable of raising their own corpses and getting their spirits back while they were still fresh – a far easier task than locating the spirit of the long dead. Captured Scourge were often held in facilities such as Deathknell, where they slept until the spirit found its way back of its own accord.
Fortunately for the Forsaken, following the death of the Lich King the Val’kyr absconded, and joined the Forsaken. No longer did the Forsaken need to capture scourge just to stay alive, they could both raise their own Forsaken and return their spirits to them instantly. From this point on the Forsaken expanded, and moved from a small collection of individuals to an Army, capable of subjugating Lordaeron.
Necromancy is one of the few Schools of magic that cannot be dispelled. It is so tightly woven in with the dead body dispelling it would be as difficult as dispelling the blood from someones body. However, contrary to popular belief, The Undead must still eat. Necromancy is unique in that it requires absolutely no magical attention to maintain the enchantment, however to prevent the enchantments wasting away over time they must still be fuelled by something. That something is the same fuel that keeps a living body going – food. The enchantments also require a small amount of air to survive, however the amount needed is so small an undead can last for days on a single lungful of air. Taste is no longer a problem for most Undead- necromantic replacements are not as finite as sensory nerves, however they must still eat – Anything from the fine cuisine of Silvermoon to whatever unfortunate thing they just killed. Forsaken – a proud breed of Undead – tend to prefer to continue eating normal foods, although sometimes they let them go stale and in food shortages they have no problem with eating flies or cockroaches, which are plentiful in the Undercity.
Necromancy has its shortcomings. No matter how well it is maintained, it will still eventually degrade with time. It also does not prevent the biological tissue still remaining from Rotting, and without magical attention the rot may kill an Undead by removing vital parts of the body the Necromancy initially had no need to replace. Necromancy is also a relatively weak protective spell, tests performed in the Apothecarium has shown that it actually shows exactly the same resistance to a blade as human flesh, with the outer layer providing a slightly stronger shell – ironically equal to that of Human skin, and, as the continued survival of the corpse relies entirely on its maintained biological rhythm, if the body is no longer viable due to the necromancy being cut away, the Undead will die. This answers the question on how to kill an undead – in exactly the same way you would kill a Human you stupid Orc. Necromancy once gone is gone forever – there is absolutely no way to bring an Undead back from his True Death, because the Necromancy leaves a trace that is unique to each undead – and without a sample of the exact same Necromancy it is impossible to return the Undead with a new spell. However, practice has shown that an application of strong Shadow magic can repair holes in necromancy after a concentrated ritual, similar to how the Holy Light can repair living tissue, and time will also permit the necromancy itself to patch up the holes, provided the undead is still ‘alive.’ Should the actual flesh be damaged, the Undead can be healed by both the Holy Light- repairing the flesh , at great personal pain due to Bartholomew’s law, or by a Shadow priest extending the already present Necromancy to fill in the gap.
For reference, Bartholomew’s law states that no body that is biologically dead can endure the Holy Light without experiencing extreme pain, including the Undead. This is because the Holy Light heals because of its anti-death properties – and using it on an Undead causes it to fight the Necromancy for dominance, at great pain to the victim. It is believed that constant channelling of the Holy light can actually dominate the Necromancy in the body – an easier task for those previously mentioned Ghouls that don’t have much necromancy keeping them up – which will result in the undeads final death. This is only possible if the light Is being channelled forcefully, as the acceptance of the undead to the pain can actually prevent them from falling apart.
The last question being answered here is that of Death Knights and liches, scourge agents that have maintained their minds. The answer to both is very simple – Early Death Knights and liches, such as Arthas and Ajar, both began weaving their necromantic magic before their death. The constant exposure to the necromancy caused it to have an effect on them, eating away at them until at last they died biologically, but their bodies were maintained by the present necromancy. As they didn’t experience the actual shock of death, their spirits remained in their bodies and therefore they maintained their minds. A similar process is applied to many scourge necromancers, who have died without even noticing. At the end of his reign however, due to the discovery of the Val’kyr (Who are actually evil Spirit guardians inhabiting and warping the bodies of female Vrykul) the Lich king was able to raise Death Knights without the need to corrupt living ones. The first of this breed of Death Knights failed miserably after they abandoned the Lich King at the Battle for Lights Hope.
