Brainstorming with Duck (Theme: Necromancy)

[l8rose]

These are some ideas I've come up with before about Necromancy. Might be a little outside the realm of what you're looking for but figured I'd share in case it helps jumpstart an idea for you.


Creation of a "perfect" zombie. One that looks completely human (or whatever species it's from) and gives off no discernable trace of being a walking corpse. The "perfect" zombie, of course, still has limitations of typical zombies (stories I had this for had zombies with zero personality and incapable of doing anything other than acting on their hunger and so on). Easy to reveal though as a cut would show that the zombie doesn't bleed.

Capturing a soul at the time of death, preventing the person from moving on and allowing the captor to interrogate/torture the soul. Could also use the soul to increase the necromancer's power.

Necrosis of another person's body parts and then being able to control that part. Think like the Devil's Hand, Ash's Evil Hand or something similar.

Clairvoyance through a dead man's senses. Basically, hearing and seeing what would be around the body at the time. For extra squick, works with just a head.

Grafting dead parts onto the necromancer's body to improve themselves. Like Frankenstein and His Monster in one body kind of deal.

Then there's playing on the idea of Cytotoxins. Basically, the venom that causes people's bodies to rot. Could be a touch based thing where the necromancer can't touch anyone else or they spread their toxin to someone else and get to watch them rot.

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

Here is everything I thought about !

Memory of the dead : Like in 'Kill the hero', you can take a corpse and read his memories. Not everything, of course, but moments where the emotions of the person were strong, key points, and the minute before they died. Since it's their memories, it includes their emotions too. And it can be violent and quite traumatic for your MC to 'feel' like dying, but it's also an ability that may be necessary in some situations (you see a lot of dead bodies, you don't know why, you read the memories of the corpses "A dragon is hiding underground ??? Better go away quickly !")

Augury. You could theoretically ask the souls of the dead about future events.

Of course, you could conveniently figure out who is the murderer by asking the victim too.

Augury would be the direct opposite to 'memory of the dead', having both doesn't make sense. Either the souls aren't here and you use their corpses, or the souls are here and you ask them.


Chimera creation : You can raise corpses and use them as zombies. That's good. Now here is a problem : What do you do if you want stronger zombies ? It depends on how realistic you want your story to seem. Is it game-like where you level up your army ? Or do you have to personaly search for the corpses of strong people ? Or, another idea, do you modify your zombies ? Like : "It would be stronger with the jaws of a crocodile, but then its snout is too long and it falls out of balance. I could give him bear legs, that should get rid of the problem ! Oh, but I'm bad with anatomy, I sould probably first search how reptile skin works before I stitch it together... Why is it so hard to connect two types of muscles ????"

 

[Phantonym]

Idea: They don't raise the dead they just manipulate and control bone matter. They can craft things out of bones and animate bones but they don't have to be dead. Like one skill they can use to (if they are strong enough) have the bones of a creature tear themselves out of said creature. Just an idea

 

[AncestorDuck]

These are some ideas I've come up with before about Necromancy. Might be a little outside the realm of what you're looking for but figured I'd share in case it helps jumpstart an idea for you.


Creation of a "perfect" zombie. One that looks completely human (or whatever species it's from) and gives off no discernable trace of being a walking corpse. The "perfect" zombie, of course, still has limitations of typical zombies (stories I had this for had zombies with zero personality and incapable of doing anything other than acting on their hunger and so on). Easy to reveal though as a cut would show that the zombie doesn't bleed.

Capturing a soul at the time of death, preventing the person from moving on and allowing the captor to interrogate/torture the soul. Could also use the soul to increase the necromancer's power.

Necrosis of another person's body parts and then being able to control that part. Think like the Devil's Hand, Ash's Evil Hand or something similar.

Clairvoyance through a dead man's senses. Basically, hearing and seeing what would be around the body at the time. For extra squick, works with just a head.

Grafting dead parts onto the necromancer's body to improve themselves. Like Frankenstein and His Monster in one body kind of deal.

Then there's playing on the idea of Cytotoxins. Basically, the venom that causes people's bodies to rot. Could be a touch based thing where the necromancer can't touch anyone else or they spread their toxin to someone else and get to watch them rot.

the ideas are interesting. might look more into it.

 

[Alski]

What did you expect? Im curious

i was expecting @Count_Quackula

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Corpse Mask: A spell with variable power levels. At the lowest level, it allows the caster to take on the features of a dead person by wearing a part of them (does not have to be the face - could be a finger, hair anything). Only the body part worn and those adjacent are disguised and anyone who knew the deceased could immediately tell this is not them. At the next level up, the caster can take on the full form of the dead, including voice, if any - only those who really know the dead person can tell that the caster is not them. At the third level, the caster also adopts mannerisms and has access to some of the surface thoughts and recent memories of the victim. At the highest level, they know everything that the person they're wearing knew in life. (As an aside, one of my conceptually favorite villains from the old Ravenloft setting for D&D was Jacqueline Montarri, who kept a collection of heads. Her curse was, if she ever put her original head on her body, she would die - but any other head she could resume her old appearance or become the person she was wearing, complete with both sets of memories).

I don't think I've posted his first scene yet, but in Between Worlds, the Lord of the Dead (a creepy dude who believes all undead things are his true children) has four hands - two skeletal ones that have no visible limbs attached, just hands that float around him and do stuff for him, and his normal, gaunt gray ones with arms attached to his body. A spell to summon "Dead Hands" or something like that might reflect this in mortal realms.

If you go into folklore, there's something called the "Hand of Glory" - this is made by taking the hand of a dead murderer, rendering the flesh down into tallow, mixing the tallow with wax and some other ingredients, and creating a candle over the bones, with wicks on each finger. Different traditions give this thing different properties, including wish granting, divination, and summoning the spirit of the murderer the hand came from.

Oh, and there is also the ability to create a true Zombi; take a normal person, give them certain special drugs and keep them locked up in a box a little larger than a standard coffin, with minimal food and water for a set number of days and they will emerge from said box a mindless servant who remembers nothing of their life, requires about half as much food and sleep as a normal person, and is allegedly a lot stronger as they feel no pain so don't feel muscles tearing.

 

[Kiuisuke.Kenzaki]

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1. Death-Echo Bind​

• Description: The necromancer can "bind" the death echo of someone they've killed, replaying the moment of their death in a loop that traps the victim's soul. This echo can be weaponized as a spectral assassin, but it disintegrates if the necromancer's own will falters.
• Twist: The necromancer begins to hear faint echoes of their own death the more echoes they bind.

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2. Sanguine Seeds​

• Description: The necromancer plants seeds made of coagulated blood in the corpses of their enemies. These seeds sprout into horrific plants that drain the life force of anyone nearby and feed it to the necromancer.
• Twist: With each seed planted, the necromancer’s veins turn more vine-like, replacing their circulatory system.

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3. Marrow Sculpt​

• Description: The necromancer can extract and manipulate bone from corpses (or their own body) to create temporary weapons, armor, or grotesque constructs. They can even use the bones to graft extra limbs onto themselves.
• Twist: The more the necromancer uses this ability, the more brittle their own bones become—until their skeleton is replaced by something entirely foreign.

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4. Rotting Harmony​

• Description: The necromancer channels decay into a melody or chant that causes everything around them—plants, animals, even objects—to wither and crumble. The necromancer can use this to sow chaos or clear a battlefield.
• Twist: Overuse causes the necromancer’s own body to resonate with the melody, accelerating their personal decay.

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5. Phantom Graffiti​

• Description: The necromancer can leave ghostly “marks” on surfaces or people. These marks are invisible to normal sight but attract wandering spirits, which can manifest as whispers, illusions, or sudden poltergeist attacks.
• Twist: Each mark slowly spreads across the necromancer’s skin, becoming glowing runes that connect them more deeply to the realm of the dead.

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6. Grave-Skin​

• Description: By touching a corpse, the necromancer can temporarily "wear" their identity, including their memories, voice, and skills. This is perfect for espionage or manipulation.
• Twist: Each time they wear a grave-skin, a piece of the necromancer’s humanity is permanently replaced with fragments of the corpse’s identity.

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7. Death Spiral​

• Description: The necromancer creates a swirling vortex of spectral energy that grows stronger with each death within its radius. Allies and enemies alike are pulled in, their souls fueling its devastating power.
• Twist: If the necromancer dies while the spiral is active, their soul becomes trapped inside it forever, turning them into the vortex’s eternal warden.

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8. Flesh Tapestry​

• Description: The necromancer can weave together the bodies of multiple corpses to create a massive, grotesque creature or structure. A wall of faces, a giant hand made of limbs, etc.
• Twist: The tapestry whispers constantly, revealing secrets or madness-inducing truths to anyone nearby—including the necromancer.

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9. Soul Incubation​

• Description: The necromancer can plant a piece of their soul in a dying body, which will incubate there and “hatch” into a minion that carries a fraction of their power. This minion grows stronger over time.
• Twist: The more pieces of their soul they plant, the weaker their original soul becomes, and they risk becoming a hollow shell.

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10. Corpse Puppeteer​

• Description: Instead of just animating a corpse, the necromancer can inhabit it like a remote-controlled body. This lets them fight on two fronts, but the more time they spend puppeteering, the more they feel detached from their original body.
• Twist: Overuse of this spell makes their original body begin to rot, forcing them to eventually inhabit a corpse permanently.

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11. Rot Nova​

• Description: A shockwave of decay radiates outward from the necromancer, rapidly aging or decomposing everything in its path. Plants wither, steel rusts, and flesh turns to dust.
• Twist: The nova steals life energy to fuel the necromancer’s transformation, but if used recklessly, it can drain their humanity instead.

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12. Undying Debt​

• Description: The necromancer can create a pact with someone, granting them a second life after death. However, the resurrected person is bound to the necromancer’s will and cannot disobey them.
• Twist: The more debts they collect, the more their own soul becomes fractured, tied to the enslaved spirits.

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13. Oblivion Bloom​

• Description: The necromancer plants a “seed” of void energy in someone or something. Over time, this seed blooms into an explosion of anti-life, erasing anything it touches from existence.
• Twist: Each bloom drains a fragment of the necromancer’s existence, making them physically and spiritually fade.

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14. Final Breath Arsenal​

• Description: The necromancer can capture the final breath of someone who dies near them. These breaths can be unleashed as unique weapons or tools, each tied to the victim’s personality.
• Twist: The necromancer slowly begins to lose their own ability to breathe, becoming reliant on captured breaths.

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15. Grave Paradox​

• Description: The necromancer can temporarily reverse time for a corpse, bringing it back to the moment before its death. However, it must relive its death over and over as long as the spell is active.
• Twist: Each paradox created destabilizes the necromancer’s own existence, as if they are rewriting their own future.

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[beast_regards]

Augury would be the direct opposite to 'memory of the dead', having both doesn't make sense. Either the souls aren't here and you use their corpses, or the souls are here and you ask them.

Ouija board is augury / divination - or necromancy if you like - since it is supposed to be a method to commune with the spirits of the deceased, sometimes long time deceased, and you could ask them about the future.

 

[HiroXV]

Like a zombie?

Sorry for the late answer.
Well, when I think about a necromancer, don't they summon dead people? So it's basically zombies, why not make it so when a zombie you summoned kills someone, they too become another zombie under your control.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Augury would be the direct opposite to 'memory of the dead', having both doesn't make sense. Either the souls aren't here and you use their corpses, or the souls are here and you ask them.

Not necessarily accurate - Divination can involve precognition (knowledge of future events) or postcognition/retrocognition (knowledge of the past, often also referred to as "object reading") as well as clairsentience (the ability to use one or more senses remotely - also called "remote sensing" or broken into specific sensory groups - clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. for individual senses). An augury is a form of divination usually using bones, blood or corpses to perform IIRC.

 

[Thraben]

Greeting Friends. First of all, If this is the wrong sub, it's beasts_regard's fault!

I am planning my book and want my MC to be a Necromancer. Original, I know, praise me.

I want him to start as a human and slowly transform into something undead, maybe a Licht-like creature...

Well...

Any ideas for interesting spells? Not just about Summoning, but something different? Like the corpse Explosion in Diablo.

My spell so far: No name yet, but something like a curse that let ones body rot the more the kill.

Ok so this one is super niche but there's a spell in a d&d 3.5e book (either Libris Mortis or Ghostwalk, don't remember which) called Bloodstar
The description implied a floating orb of blood in the air, and whenever someone gets injured near it in a way that draws blood, it sucks a little more blood out of them, widening the wound and injurying them further. Idk, that sounds rad as hell for a spell that won't hurt his own undead minions but will be AoE.

Similarly from d&d 3.5e (though admittedly I only know it from Spell Compendium and not from wherever it is originally from) is Junglerazer
It's a lot more gimmicky. It does massive damage to plants, 'vermin', faeries, and most animals, but not people. Basically, superchraged magic bearspray/bushwhacking

Bloodstar could be a thematic combat option that makes for an interesting action scene, and JR is a worldbuilding/utility spell for flavor.

 

[corruption]

Explosives in undead set to be triggered when the undead is destroyed

Skinwalking: Skin someone while still alive and trap their soul in the skin. Can be worn to pass as them and hide the actual person's soul from detection.

Sword of Undeath: A sword given to people considered heroes that when used to slay something curses the dead being to turn into an undead over a period of time

Spirit House: an Astral pocket dimension that spirits can go to, and is used by the necromancer to give them a massive party as an afterlife, if they help him when he needs it

 

[DarkDuck09]

Now there's more of us!? How many fucking ducks can this forum hold!?

To enter the brainstorm session, I pose to you a counter to necromancy: The double tap; for it's hard to be able to reanimate pink mist and spaghetti.