The reason there is fear for the Necromancer as a class is mostly due to it‘s quick growth. Once the Necromancer has reached the first stage of developing their class‘s rank they gain access to the ability to create greater undead. Of course the quality of the undead created will more or less depend on the necromancer himself but the fact they so quickly gain access to being able to create their greatest minions makes them such a terror as a minion oriented class.
The other reason is of course the three ways that a Necromancer can develop into a prime class in the future depending on where they focus themselves. If they focus solely on increasing their minion count to field vast armies of forces they often develop into Necrotic Generals where the number of minions is far beyond any other necromancer. Of course in return there is a lowered capacity for the greater and even some of the medium undead that these Necrotic Generals can field lessening the number of quality troops for higher quantity of lesser ones.
The second type is the Lich Lord, these focus solely on greater strength for those of medium or greater variety of minions and can field the most of these types than other Necromancers. That coupled with great mana reserves for their huge repertoire of spells make them a terror to fight as their armies are more or less made up of elites. However, the backlash for this is that the Lich Lord is very limited in how many of his minions can raise other minions which limits the number of a Lich Lords forces as a result.
The third type however is the most dangerous type given that it is also the one that requires three profession type classes to achieve. For those unfamiliar profession type classes are those unique classes that can fit into the profession slots while functioning as a class of its own. However as a result the Necrarch is the fusion of Lich Lords and Necrotic Generals capable of not only fielding vast armies of the undead but capable of empowering their armies through a mixture of craftsmanship, magical knowledge, engineering insights and mad genius.
With bone constructs empowered by sorcerous might and powerful undead at their sides it was no wonder that of the three factions of the Dead Lords, the Necrarchs had been the hardest to root out a millennia ago. There were however instances where a Lich Lord could become a Necrach with effort but it was deemed unfeasible as it was much harder to do than simply the requirements for the Necrarch demanded.
It is without a doubt that among the pinnacle of minion oriented classes. The Necromancer’s access to talent of some sort for Dark, Enchantment and the Necromancy schools of magic along with the fluidity of the minions capable of being used leave them in a league of their own. However as a result those necromancers that survive the current purge of their kin end up as monsters close to those of the Dead Lords of old.
- Excerpt from Understanding of history and it‘s monsters. By Yad-Hadim Imeros.
By the time lunch came around we enjoyed the sunny day‘s so frequent in Veta before the rainy season started once autumn came along. I sat with a cup of tea cooled through a bit of magic on a table next to me while I flipped through one of the many books from the cultivators I‘d gotten my hands on. Selma and Aldren had paid us a visit earlier in the morning and had been meditating with Freya, Camille, Morice and Akasha.
As they were all about to stand I gestured for them to stay and handed over what I‘d spent an hour after waking up making. It started with a single mana crystal the size of my little finger with a flickering ember of bale fire that I then formed into a small ball surrounded by four other crystals along with two more above and bellow. All of it very loosely connected with small bridges of fragile crystal. Then to finish it all off I had another sphere of spirit crystal that made the whole thing appear to be built inside of a seamless glass ball.
With a flick of my finger I sent one sphere to each one of them one at a time. “Here you are. Think of these as both a gift and a new aspect to your early training in mana.“ I said with a smile at seeing their eyes light up at my work.
Akasha had the biggest smile on her face I’d ever seen and the gleam in her eyes was just a bit more than the one in the eyes of the other girls. Aldren was the first to find his voice and looked towards me as he spoke. “What is this?“
“You are to move your mana into all of the crystals around the centre one, then you must keep it moving without leaking into the middle one for otherwise you‘ll have to wait for a while for the fire to burn up the mana within. While that happens though you‘ll have a rather good source of light.“ I said with a smile as I took out the first prototype which was still roiling with bale fire within it, casting a powerful yet soft blue light everywhere.
With an effort of Mana Devouring I dimmed the light down as I consumed the mana which fuelled the fire until only the small perpetual spark in its centre was left. “It‘s all connected so when you move your mana you also have to be aware of it so that none leak into the central crystal and cause that reaction. This will teach better overall awareness to your mana as well as fine tune your control. Then later you can use it as ever burning torches that you know how to easily light.“ I said with a growing smile as all of them looked at the balls just about the size of a fist in their hands.
Then I asked them to go and practice while taking Morice to the side. “I need you for something. I require you to run a few errands that‘ll come in handy in the next lesson I have for you before I test how you‘ve managed the spell I gave you.“ I started with a smile and Morice smiled right back at me, eagerness shining in his eyes.
“I haven‘t gotten all the things Vashanesh asked for and I‘ve added in quite a few as well. Here, take these with you. I have a few plans for armours I need made en mass from a few select blacksmiths, along with that I also need any surplus materials for all professions such as blacksmith, carpenters, smiths, apothecaries, alchemists, enchanters, masons and so on.“ I said as I handed him a small notebook and a stack of blueprint designs for armours, weapons, clothing and other things I required to be smithed or made for me.
“I also think that it is time to hire in some extra staff so that either of us doesn‘t have to go on these shopping trips all the time. Along with that we need to gather information on the markets so that we can invest and have a steady income so we aren‘t always relying on what we got in Bedelev.“ I finished and Morice looked like he agreed as he made the items disappear into his storage ring. I also handed him a small key chain that held the rest of the storage rings we had which I‘d emptied and sorted out last night while making the blue prints and documents.
With a nod Morice made his way out of the manor and I looked over to the others as they sat in a circle and practised with my gift. I ran a finger over the new robes I had gotten delivered just before lunch and I loved the almost cotton silk feeling of the fabric of the well tailored half robes. The integrated large hood would also serve well as protection when the rainy season arrived. Though with how my ears were it gave me a sort of cobra with a flared hood vibe with the hood up.
Saying my farewells to the kids I made my way down to the catacombs but this time I took the robes off me and stored them in my ring, opting to create clothing from shadow that I wouldn‘t have to burn. I then made my way through the sewers while making the brothers know that I wished to meet them with the spy spider that Dixaz had grown rather fond of.
By the time they arrived at the cavern I had already lit the place up and had four royal guard at my side. The two looked a little hesitant and then walked to me. Once they approached close enough they took the knee before me and waited for me to speak.
“Before we begin I have a gift to you from The Weeping mother. However I must warn that this process might be rather... uncomfortable for you.“ I said honestly and watched how the two looked up at me.
Their eyes glimmered with hope and I sighed gesturing one to approach me once on his knees before me I placed my hand upon Nerev‘s brow. “Do you allow me to bestow upon you the mother‘s blessing? It will hurt but you must endure.“ I said and at the firm nod I received from Nerev I began.
Slowly I wormed my influence into his body, his bones and grabbed hold over them. Slow at first I began to mould his bones with the help of his dna. Then as the changes began to really take hold Nerev groaned in pain but he never screamed when it got worse. I commended him in my mind on holding back like that. He‘d changed tremendously, he was taller than he used to be. Standing tall at 2.2 meters he was the epitome of a handsome young man in his mid twenties.
His former sneering smirk now a soft confident rise to his lips while his body who had been closing in on overweight had turned to a slightly out of shape body builder would have when the muscles had started to turn to flab.
Nerev stared at himself with wide eyes and so did Dixaz who stared slack jawed before excitedly moving to me as I gestured him to come forward and went through the same process with him. He let out a short loud hiss of pain at the worst part but otherwise much like his brother he endured. Whereas his brother looked square jawed and strong featured Dixaz‘s face had this diamond shape to his and his formerly bared teethed mad smile was now just a slightly amused little smile.
Both brothers shared similarities to their features with how strongly defined their jawlines were along with slightly similar builds though Dixaz was slimmer than Nerev which granted him a slightly gangly quality. However, it didn‘t hide the signs of malnutrition and severely unhealthy eating habits.
The two brothers on the other hand were too busy hugging one another and weeping in relief and joy to notice my complicated expression over their state.
“Thank you, thank you.“ Both brothers then half sobbed as they went to their knees and clutched at my legs, further complicating my feelings on the matter but making my mind up nonetheless.
“Gentlemen I have an offer of employment for the two of you.“ I started calmly as I ignored their thanks and waited until the two looked up at me. “I will require your soul oath of loyalty but in return I will provide clothing, food and board along with payment. In return I will have your loyalty, confidence and service.“ After I‘d said that it didn‘t take long for me to get both their loyalty via a soul oath on both their parts.
Soon after I had shown them how to get into the cavern and we were walking towards the soon to be Starlight Hypogean. I thought it was a little like creating my own little world under the city which is why I had decided on such a grand sounding name. Though I did intend for it to live up to it, for that reason I’d put a large quantity of incense to get rid of the smell once the cavern was sealed off from the sewers proper. The dead might not have to smell the air here but I for one wasn’t willing to smell it for much longer.
“Where are we going?” Nerev asked, his voice turned from the whiny sort of snivelling to a clearer toned voice rather reminiscent to the epic movie trailer voice just with less of that booming bass behind it.
“We are heading towards a little place I hope to call the Starlight Hypogean in the future. A bit grand but then again it was a dingy little underground town before that and I intend to make into something more. Then again perhaps I should simply call it the Starlight Keep?” I said before wondering aloud, on deeper reflection the Starlight Hypogean did sound rather pretentious now that I thought about it. Well I could workshop it a bit.
“Dixaz I’m going to introduce you to Vashanesh one of my most intelligent undead. To begin with you will work with him as the two of you will experiment on the limits of your craft. After which you and I will work together on trying to create a greater undead I’ve been contemplating the creation of.” I said with a smile over my shoulder but noted the slight depressed look that came over Nerev.
“Nerev do not think yourself useless. You have an equal amount of, if not more use than your brother as you grow. Rat’s are intelligent animals and given that I will provide the two of you with some specific benefits of being in my service neither of you will be useless, you’ll simply differ in type of use.” I said with a kindly smile at the two who seemed to brighten up at my response.
In comfortable silence we continued to walk with the two royal guards at my side holding up bone made torches with the same type of orbs I’d given the kids this morning only now their light giving “failure” state was used as rather good torches. Behind me walked Nerev and Dixaz and behind them the two other royal guards.
As we neared the arena I picked up a strained conversation being held in front of the arena. My eyes picked up the sight of Numiar and Vashanesh silently arguing over a table with the layout proposed for the cavern. Curiously I made my way to them and looked over the table with the miniaturized model of the proposed cavern. The two were arguing for the same thing just at different locations.
“It’ll be better to have the library more accessible to the researchers that’s most likely call this place home.” Numair silently hissed.
“That might be but some knowledge shouldn’t be accessed so easily therefore keeping it as an inner wing of the keep is the better choice.” Vashanesh argued back, in his near emotionless parchment like voice as he pointed at the area behind the keep, an area that would need to be carved out of the bedrock.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Both looked up at me with expectant tones as I approached the table with the Xebat brothers at my back. Numair stared wide-eyed at the two as I silently looked over the model. Noting a few bones crafted into ingots for ease of use and storage that myself and Vashanesh had come up with, I picked up one. Placing the ingot on a central plaza we’d designated which had been rather large due to Vashanesh wishing to have a monument there for some reason and began to mould the ingot in my hand.
Numair didn’t take his eyes off Nerev and Dixaz but Vashanesh looked down to see what I was doing on the model. In our haste to get some concrete areas for production, research and storage of one type or another we hadn’t gone much into quality of life and other things that would be required.
Slowly I created a stalactite that would connect to the ceiling and add to the structural integrity of the cavern. This stalactite was hollowed out while still holding a strong core for structural integrity it would be fit to hold a decent sized library to hold general knowledge, history and the like researchers would need to be accessible to them.
Then I took three extra ingots and created two towers connecting to smaller libraries of their own that also connected to a larger facility behind the keep inside the bedrock. “I think this would be good.” I said as I pointed to the first model I’d created. “This could hold history, science and other books that would serve as good references for researchers.”
I then pointed to the left tower. “Magical knowledge could be housed here.” I said as the left one had a larger area for itself than the right tower. “This one could hold scientific and project journals from our researchers and the one behind the keep itself will be the forbidden archive accessible to a select few.”
Both Numiar and Vashanesh looked over the change in the model as they mulled over what I’d suggested. I looked up at Nerev and Dixaz and gestured towards the model. “By all means do tell me if you feel something has been left out that we haven’t thought of before.” I said with a smile and the two approached the table with smiles on their faces.
We then spent some time going over it all and rearranged the model every so often until we were happy with the layout. With the total districts coming in at eight districts radiating out from the planned structure of the keep with a wall separating every two districts. The walls intended for noise reduction as much as for defence as moss was planned to be on the inner facing sides to help with noise reduction. The keep taking up the position of central district with the two library towers staying on either side of it. Then surrounded by housing and most of what the living would require to live here rounded out the central district.
From there were a trio of research, military and production districts that didn’t cause much noise. Focused on such things as Enchantment, Engineering and Architecture, Tailors, Bowyers, Intelligence gathering, Tactics and Cartography.
Followed by a middle district which housed the library at it’s centre with facilities focused on Bookbinding, Archiving, Engraving, Scribing work and Linguistic work for any works in other languages my little operation might acquire.
What followed was a small district intended for training purposes along with housing just around the facility which was then surrounded by a large storage district with distinct warehouses for differing types of material. Build for what you want to have right? This district in the middle of the storage one was intended for the acolytes I was planning to recruit from the cities orphan children.
After that came the district for the slightly quieter professions such as Engravers, Jewellers, Leather workers, Woodcarvers, Alchemists, Herbalists and Apothecaries.
Then lastly came the loudest of the profession facilities for Blacksmiths, Armourers, Weapon smiths, Artificers and siege engineers. Rounding out the eight general districts many of which were supplied by Nerev and Dixaz. The two were frightfully intelligent but lacked the self confidence to truly bring that to bear so it took a bit of coaxing.
Another thing I noted was the easy manner that Numair and Vashanesh began to work with the two brothers once introductions had finished with Dixaz and Vashanesh now speaking about his rune carving abilities. Numair and Nerev on the other hand were apparently both quite interested in magically active or effected minerals and metals.
I looked up at the ceiling that I intended to modify to have some light down here and thought on the material storage for bones needing to be filled. There were quite a lot of homeless with almost a full nine percent of the almost six hundred thousand that populated the capital city of the empire being homeless. So I wasn’t lacking for unmissed materials but dipping too heavily into that poll might also backfire in the long run.
Other than that annoying titbit of moderation material was plentiful and I also got an idea on how to use the skin for bookbinding. I intended to have a type of minion that was capable of flight and photographic memory to sneak into libraries and repositories of knowledge to copy what they held. Knowledge is power after all. Despite the near plentiful material I still needed to not only moderate how much I’d snatch at a time but I’d also have to try and find ways to put everything to good use. For that I’d need the type of researchers that the changeling society was. So for the continuation of my revenge and plans over all I needed them.
A mental nudge from Dust as he reached mental communication range made me create the closest shadow gate for him to fly into the cavern from above. Soon he’d perched on my shoulder as Abhorash had been let out before the landing. Dust dropping the storage ring with Abhorash’s prizes into my open palm. It didn’t take long to check it’s contents which made me raise an eyebrow. Cramped inside the ring was the corpse of a middle sized drake around the mass of an elephant, two corpses of animals akin to a mixture of a snake, salamander and turtle. With the head the shape of a turtles and the toughness of it’s shell somehow transferred over to the larger draconic scales upon it’s back. The size of these two was about that of a horse and I noted how one was a cleaner kill than the other.
Those three did appear to be a good catch except for the ogre and trio of orc corpses that filled up the rest of it.
I missed the ability to mentally converse with Abhorash as I looked from the ring over to him with a raised eyebrow. The look in his eyes told me he’d report once in private and I left it at that. While Abhorash stood over the other four I went ahead and began to mould a sort of worker skeleton which I intended to take up a lesser skeleton slot. I had decided to have any military potential at the medium or higher stage with a few select crafting type minions thrown in the mix but most of the labour and the like would be the lesser undead except for zombies. Those I’d just solely dedicate towards military purposes unless they were sanitary in some way.
Deciding to continue on with the Eternals from mtg idea I created something like a wooden puppet imitating a skeleton almost with jagged lines and edges to the single piece that made up it’s ribcage. While I worked I listened in on the conversation that all five were now having, mostly Abhorash and Vashanesh filling the newcomers in on how things worked in my service.
Numiar was the more wary about the whole thing rather than the brothers as I’d first suspected, the two very happy with what they’d already received on their part.
When I had finished the servant I looked it over as I raised it as a lesser skeleton, saving the design with my status ability of design management. That particular part was simply something as a quality of life feature for those in crafting or like myself perhaps requiring many of some specialized minion. It allowed for the saving of a design and if the material is on hand and can be shaped somehow with magic it could automate the process. It could also function as a storage space for blueprints for differing minions or items I might wish to someday create.
Using this feature I spent half of our remaining bone stock in creating a total of seventeen of these servitor skeletons as I’d decided to name them. With that done I had them move to the outskirts of the shanty town around the arena and begin to dismantle the town in such a way that we could reuse as much of it as possible should we wish to. Otherwise it could serve as material for something or another.
Looking over to the five still around the table I walked over and commanded them. “Vashanesh, take Dixaz with you and use half of our remaining bones to craft more stalkers. See if you can’t improve them somehow while still keeping them as medium undead. Numiar you will go with them and see if you can’t provide some insight given that you are an artificer.”
The three nodded to me, Vashanesh saluting with a fist to his chest, and left for the designated crafting area Vashanesh had claimed. Looking over to Nerev and Abhorash I pointed to the arena. “Abhorash see what Nerev is capable of and most suited for martially speaking, once you are done with that put Numiar and Dixaz through their paces as well.” I said and seeing the curious look from Nerev on the matter I decided to elaborate a little.
“I intend to find martial classes that fit both yours and Dixaz’s most fit style of fighting. I’ll also see if the two of you have talent for magic and then move on from there. You two will have two more classes than the one you have now in the future, one of which will be martial.” I said and seeing how much I intended to invest in them and their futures under me apparently made Nerev give me the same salute as Abhorash did when they left me. His face, one of gratitude as he left and I just smiled after him. That smile had made me feel complicated emotions but I couldn’t really put my finger on it. It was a strange mix of a joy of making others subservient to myself, guilt over what the two brothers might be put through because of me and joy at their future growth in my care. Sufficed to say I wasn’t really all that sure what I was feeling about the matter.
With that all done I took the remaining half of the bones we had left and moved to a secluded area where I could work without being disturbed. After I had allowed Dust to travel through a shadow gate back up top to meet up with Ashes.
Slowly before me the minion I’d thought of creating to manage the spy spiders and bone rats for me took shape. The core body was that of a woman, slim and fit with the shape coming from the layered plates of bone making it take the shape of armoured robes around the skeleton that was the base. The layered bone plates came together around the skull to create the likeness of a marble statue, the eyes filled with two condensed soul energy crystals.
The brain and heart were as condensed as I could make mana crystals with open space for much more in the hollows of the skeleton. The four arms I went with and fingers made a tad longer than normal with sharpened tips at the end of each finger would allow for longer reach. The legs on the other hand I decided to go with a pair of four insectoid spider legs while an abdomen came out near the tail bone on the humanoid body above.
Slowly it came together but I felt things were missing. Looking over my character sheet I went through the skills I could use to create energy capable of being infused into mana crystals. With that in mind I decided to fill the insides of the palms with dense mana crystals. Then in order I infused them with different skill energies. The upper right hand got Dark Lightning, the lower right got Black Fire, the upper left got Bale Fire and the lower left got Ephemeral Storm.
With that I thought at least offence was settled but defence was still lacking. Moving to the legs I looked over the five segments of the four appendages and thought on how to fill the hollows within. The first segment for all of them got a shadow infused crystal, just made to fill up the hollow but would need to be further condensed by the minion itself.
The next segment was split with two getting Conjure Shadows and the other two had Shadow Meld in the crystals. The third segments got Shadow Wall, Grasping Shadows, Drain Light and Shadow Walk to allow for utility and field control. Continuing this trend the fourth segment got Shadowfield, Ghost Walk, Astral Bind and Nachash.
On the last segments which all came down as spikes I decided on a slight random infusions in the crystals within. One got Shadow Spikes another got Miasma and the third got Icy Grip. The fourth however I decided on a sort of fail safe by infusing this one with Invocation, it was the only one I made as dense as possible from the beginning unlike the other segments.
Moving up I looked at the armoured segment at the collar bone area. Tapping at my chin in thought I created two dense mana crystals that could come together in an oval shape the size of my thumb. In one I infused Death’s Ward and the other I infused Ethereal Armour before placing them in a fitted slot at the collarbone.
Then I moved up and further worked on the mouth of the minion, giving it fangs similar to my own though made of mana crystals. These were then connected via organic looking circuitry of mana stone along the jawlines and the roof of the mouth down the throat into the now opened chest cavity. There I connected the six fangs with the minions core. Two of which connected to a place that would create, reinforce, purify and grow a crystal with the type of energy funnelled through the circuits. With that done I looked into allowing the jaw to unhinge for a stronger bite as I infused the lower fangs with Life Drain. The Canines I infused with Consume Essence and the first premolar turned fang was infused with Mana Devouring.
A little more fiddling and I had it so that crystals would be created from the Drain Life and Consume Essence in the area for each lung while the Mana Devouring would be given to the minion for it’s own use and reinforcement.
I realized my workflow was a little all over the place but the last part I intended to do was left. Moving over to the abdomen I opened it up a little and began to create a mana crystal with a few puppet like arms dangling into the hollow Abdomen. Into the mana crystal I infused the Raise Lesser Skeleton skill along with my designs on bone ravens, bone rats, spy spiders and the scavengers. Then I made sure the abdomen could open up to allow the minion created within to exit.
With that done I searched through my own storage rings and created a hooded robe with most of the long feathers from ravens I had left made part of the area around the top part of the hood and shoulders. Draping the slightly tattered robe over the minion I finished and took a step back.
Out of the corner of my eye I noted Numiar, Dixaz, Nerev, Abhorash and Vashanesh staring at me. I looked over and raised my eyebrow at them curiously.
Numiar was the first to come out of the semi trance the onlookers were in and looked at me. “It isn’t often one sees a necromancer spend so much time and care in creating their undead.” He paused for a moment and then nodded at me. “It’s rather eye opening… I see now that having you as a backer instead of enemy is in the Changeling societies best interest.”
At his admission I smiled and gestured towards the as of yet unraised minion. “Then by all means show me what the three of you have learned working together.” I said and watched as Dixaz, Vashanesh and Numiar quickly moved closer to inspect what they could improve upon with my work.
In the mean time I moved to Abhorash and Nerev. “So how did it go?” I asked with a smile.
“He has some talent for polearms I believe as well as the falchion and heavy mace. I will require a bit more time to see which ones he has the most talent for.” Abhorash reported and I enjoyed the genuine smile on Nerev’s face at the praise he was given.
A sudden mental nudge from Ashes told me I had to make my way topside once again. I guessed I’d lost track of time while working on the minion. Leaving everyone with Abhorash at my side I had Vashanesh close the cavern off from the outside. I’d grown familiar enough with opening shadow gates from the surface down or to the caverns old entrance from the entrance to the catacombs under my manor.
While on the way I had Abhorash fill me in on his tale and why he had three orc bodies in the storage ring he brought back. We had a lot of work to do to get any type of force up and going and I wasn’t one to waste time now after I’d heard Abhorash’s report. However I also needed more information to carefully plan.