Many consider necromancy a forbidden art claiming that necromancy inherently manipulates the soul of the bodies raised by necromancy and subsequently have their souls trapped within the undead body. This is a false rumor caused by the fact that many necromancers have historically enhanced their art with modeling of the soul and using it to create intelligent undead. Modeling in manners of the soul is a dark art that any practitioner should be careful with but a few bad apples should not dissuade others from taking up the practice of necromancy. Sadly these rumors have caused necromancy to be made illegal in many countries and within the countries that it is not illegal many practitioners find themselves shunned until they drop the art. I find myself particularly alone even among my magic pactioning peers for just dabbling in the art and I find this saddening for many useful tools can be gained from studying the magic.

– A Mages Guide To To’Mun By Dorvin The First Vitaemancer

Many gods and other mythical beings have claimed to have started from squalid origins, and many have claimed to have come from legendary ones; mine was sadly far more mundane in nature. I grew up in a small village a few days' travel away from the nearest city. We mostly served as farmers for the local lord to harvest produce from with very little reward for our labor returning to us. I was my fathers son and since little I had worked on the farm doing various tasks for my father most of which I found myself quite bad at doing.

I had thought my parents thought I would continue working on the farms like most others, maybe go into one of the other jobs I had seen around us like becoming a smith or something similar, but also they never really told me what I could and couldn't do. Luckily for me as long as I did my work I otherwise could mostly do whatever I wanted and while my work did take the largest portion of my days other then sleeping the time in between I would often find myself listening to stories when I was young of heroes and monsters and as I got older after learning to read (something few knew beyond the basics enough not to be tricked) I was able to further read some stories from the rare books I could get my hands on.

I thought there was something more beyond the small (proverbial) walls and large amount of land that mostly made up my current world, something exciting and something that could make my name echo through the annals of history like the characters in the stories I had read. With that I also was a somewhat adventurous child hoping to find something in the forest nearby the farm to help me go on some sort of quest like I had read in those stories about my excalibur or something similar.

Eventually I did find something special like I was looking for, which was a dead body leaned against a tree almost completely decomposed but still having enough flesh for there to be bugs on the body. After staring at the body silently for a time I soon somehow felt compelled to approach the body voices whispering to me to approach.

Most actually informative books will tell you to never approach such ominous things without the proper methodology in mind lest you risk your body being taken over by any number of things something that I would tend to agree with, but as a young child with dreams in his head and fire in his heart I investigated the body recklessly approaching.

While usually I should have been punished instead the body granted me visions of what I assumed at the time (correctly) was of the dead bodies, thoughts and memories. I saw through the point of view of a young child similar to me dreaming of becoming a great hero. I saw them grow up in rather better conditions then myself and join a mage academy the vision happening rather quick when covering the early years (most likely because the remnant or whatever existed of this form would not recollect its younger years with all that much clarity even if it was alive much less barley clinging on as it was now).

Sadly even with that abridged version it was getting late, and I knew if I didn't return soon for “supper” as I called it in those days I would possibly get into trouble. While if I told someone of the body I had found I knew it would possibly give me a decent reward probably involving some spending money which for a child would have allowed me to do a great many things, but I knew that if I kept the dead body secret and if it continued giving me visions I could perhaps do something far more than just buy some food for myself.

Instead I quickly dug a shallow hole and put the body inside before burying it in a shallow grave using the rest of the time I had before returning home the body to be exhumed later to hopefully continue seeing visions about the body's journey. I returned home that night eating my food then doing any of the late night talks I would normally do before heading to bed. My mind was active with many thoughts of what would happen tomorrow and the future as I drifted into sleep slowly, my imagination keeping me awake.

The next day I did my daily farmwork and ate breakfast contemplating the strange visions of yesterday from the dead body. After I finished my chores I quickly went back to the forest to further explore the visions the body would give me. As I dug the body up I soon felt the whispers it had given out yesterday enticing me closer again and soon I began having the visions it generated yesterday again. This time with far more time since I had planned ahead for this I sat there and listened to far more than I was able to previously.

As I went back into the person's memories I saw more of the person's life while within the mage academy. They originally learned the magic of the flesh to manipulate it to their needs seemingly being somewhat attracted to that field of specialization and having a talent within it, but as they continued their work in the rather grim but still legal art they felt themselves attracted to another magic close to fleshmancy but still distinct.

As they studied bodies to increase their proficiency I saw them slowly try to animate the body instead of trying to control it. This at first had little to no success, but as they tried for longer and longer they slowly had greater successes. As they started having success they began to get more and more secretive in their endeavors knowing that if they were found out they would quickly be at minimum banished for their interest in necromancy.

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As I continued watching them cast their forbidden spells, the vision abruptly ended with someone walking in while they were attempting to continue their necromancy, me not seeing what would happen next. After the visions I sat there within the forest for a while trying to comprehend and filter through the vision for some time simply laying on the leaves of the forest floor looking into branches and leaves that made up the forest.

After sometime I had finally got up knowing if I stayed any longer thinking about what I had seen in the visions I would risk getting a beating from my father for not doing my chores like I was supposed to. After reburying the body I began doing my chores cleaning out the Flina Coop and adding food to their coop for them to eat.

As I did however I thought about the visions of magic something I knew existed but never seen with how far we were from any large city or town. Despite being so far from civilization even though I had heard of necromancy many people even used the art to scare their children into doing things they wanted like going to bed. Flesh magic was still foreign to me however I assumed at the time it was just a more rare form of magic.

Through the visions I had learned the beginnings of the magical theories that would also be required to learn magic similar to the person I was watching had learned. Magic seemingly came from the comprehension of what you were trying to cast and using the mana that surrounds everything to cast whatever spell or have whatever effect you want using your intent.

While the vision did give me a headstart and I thought it would work as a cheat for magic casting, being able to cast spells similar to the person I watched, but whenever I tried I quickly learned my mistake. Sadly to cast spells it doesn't just require the holding of the theoretical knowledge (else a long book would be the greatest casters around), but instead also requires a comprehension of the topic to truly be able to cast whatever magics you wish to cast.

After I finished cleaning the coop thinking about the visions and trying to break down each part from the classes the person had taken, and the attempts of necromancy they had made I had begun eating dinner with my family. I had no siblings so it was just me and my parents. I sat there eating food, mostly consisting of foodstuff that had previously been gotten from our farm with light seasonings that my family could afford for our food.

As we ate I mostly kept to myself only giving short answers when asked as my parents discussed various matters I had done since I was a young child tending to keep to myself. Soon the discussion got to me however as they began discussing my future and I began listening in no longer lost in my own thoughts before my father turned to me and asked “Son, have you put any thought into your future?”

I thought about it silently for a second creating a awkward pause within the table knowing that if I told my father the truth about what I wanted to do it would not only make it seem like I looked down on the life he currently lived something that I wouldn't truly intend but also lead to my father explaining how people like us didn't really go out into the world instead I simply answered “I quite like reading and such. I was thinking about trying to become a scholar or a librarian of some sort.”

My parents and I have never been all that close since I was little. They were normal folk and provided me with what I needed as I grew up but they didn't provide me much more than that. Whenever I grew old enough to work like many parents of lower class folk I was put to work in the family with the upkeep of the farm, something that had progressively taken more and more of my day.

I still have a decent portion of my day for free time currently, especially in between chores . Soon however I will be at the age in a few years to go into some sort of specialization and then most of my free time will be gotten rid of. If I did become a scholar I would most likely soon enter an apprenticeship with any scholar that would take me to learn the craft if possible though it would be quite challenging since scholarship is usually associated with more upper class professions then many others.

My dad thought for a second “It's gonna be hard to find an apprenticeship in that field. Have you thought of any backup options if being a scholar doesn't work out?” As my father asked the question while still eating dinner I found it a little ironic about how the more realistic option I had replied to him with still was hard for someone from our position to pursue.

“I was mostly thinking about probably continuing working around here and taking over when you die.” It should be said that by taking over it didn't mean owning the farm as my father doesn't own the farm he just along with me and other workers mostly works the land that the noble family that live around here owns. So taking over mostly meant nothing more than just continuing his job, and it wouldn't really be hard for me to continue as a farmer if I did decide to mostly be able to do most of the jobs from what I had learned throughout my childhood.

“I think being a farmer while a honest profession doesn't really suit you son. I think you should see about being a scholar and if that doesn't work out you maybe could continue exploring other options. This farm has seen enough of our family in its time.” This surprised me. I had always thought my parents wanted for me to get an ok job and settle similar to what they did.

A little embarrassed at myself for assuming things about my parents and also a little surprised about what my father had said I just nodded and continued awkwardly eating my food not saying much else for the dinner. After dinner I finished up some minor chores I had to do and went to my room with some ideas in my head, and my parents support at least in a strange way that I am going to be something else.

As I sat on my bed I tried meditating on what I had seen in the visions concentrating on any small detail from the visions in hopes of learning greater depths from the vision I could get purely from my recollection. With that I also attempted to think about the things I learned from the vision in greater depth not only by concentrating on the details but also pondering and reasoning through the information on magic more specifically the study of the flesh the visions showed me, and minority the small insight into necromancy the visions had given me. I did this until my young mind could no longer sustain though as it drifted off into sleep exhausted from the mental rigor I had put it through throughout the entire day.