Necromancy: The Hallowed Science

Someone on Quora asked:

How would you make a goodly aligned necromancer in Dungeons and Dragons?

This garnered responses from a lot of folks.

Options that came to my mind included:

• The Good Doctor - A humanist medical researcher who feels that it is not ideal to trust gods and magical patrons for healing and support, since they may have motives not aligned with those of individual mortals. Only a reasoned approach to magic can be trusted. Unfortunately academic understanding of magical healing and revivification is still in its infancy, but research continues!

• A Gray Gift - A necromantic prodigy. You didn't ask for this talent, but you can just perfectly envision how the entropic and animating forces intertwine within flesh. Sometimes you wonder how something so easy is so difficult for most folks to understand. Others view your abilities as ghoulish and unpleasant. But the gods can't have given you this understanding in vain, surely there must 11be some way you were intended to use your insight for the good of others.

• Goth With a Heart of Gold - People don't like my grotty, decadent magical and fashion choices? Well f*** ‘em! I've seen plenty of authoritarians and “upstanding citizens" bullying or marginalizing those who won't or can't conform, throwing the “freaks" in the gutter with last night's chamber pot. That will never be me. My necromancy is a metaphor for accepting what society rejects, scavenging the discarded and giving them worth again.

• Conscripted for the Common Good - Eat, drink and have fun while you live, but take care of that body of yours: it is only on loan from your community while you live. In our advanced society, there is just not enough manual labor available to get the necessary work done. Everyone in this community learns a little necromancy. The least among us may be merely exterminators and pest control, but entropy-work has uses in medical fields, the military, and most importantly labor “recruiting". Sure we all want to be studying history, literature or theoretical thaumaturgy, but everyone has to devote part of their time to public service.

• Licensed Supernatural Investigator - It's dirty work, but someone's gotta do it. In this hard boiled, violent world everyone needs something to give them an edge. Necromancy's just your something. Sure, it'd be easy to sell out your services to the mob, become another black magic goon. But, rough exterior not withstanding, you just can't help feeling something for every teary-eyed, hard-luck client who shows up at your office. This soft heart of yours sure doesn't pay the bills great, and it's libel to get you killed one day, but at least it let's ya sleep at night.