Necrism
Necrism
Rigen has a lot of power over life, but also some control over death. Casters dedicate their study to learn how to control the Rigen still located within dead creatures to create servants. While some perceive it as a dark magic others view it as a means to understanding greater mysteries that mortals have yet to unravel.
When a person or creature dies the bound Rigen they possess begins to detach and return to the Atmopool. This process is completed after five full days, regardless of a creature, or person’s size. A Caster with the right knowledge has the ability to manipulate this Rigen before it returns to the Atmopool. By imbuing a part of their own Rigen into the corpse they are able to establish a connection and force the bound Rigen to stay bound to the corpse. By doing so they are able to cause muscles to spasm and activate a few of the most basic cognitive functions.
Rigen controls the use of muscles and powers enough brain activity for the reanimated corpse to be of use to the Caster. The Caster does not have psychic control over their risen subjects however. They provide commands and the subject accomplishes them as best they can. Because only a few of the lowest brain functions are reactivated a risen corpse does not possess any intelligence, knowledge, skills, or spells that they possessed while they were alive. This means that the creature will accomplish their commands in the most straight-forward way possible.
The risen creature is able to see, hear, and smell provided that they still possess the required anatomy to do so. A risen creature only obeys their masters commands and control can only ever be given to another Caster with an appropriate level of Necrism. The master’s skill level determines many qualities of the risen creature including the duration of its reanimation. However, the corpse continues to decay regardless of a caster’s use of Necrism. While a Caster may have a favored corpse that they reanimate multiple times, deterioration is not halted or slowed. This also means that a risen corpse has no ability to recover from an injury. Once the animation duration ends the Rigen begins to detach once again. If a Caster chooses to reanimate that specific corpse again they must do so within a week.
Because the Personal Rigen of the Caster has been imbued into the corpse, it is able to act without direct supervision. There is no limit to the distance a risen creature can be from its master. To a caster using Auristics, the risen creature possesses an aura identical to the Caster that raised them.
Prerequisites
The Caster must have a great understanding of Personal Rigen and how to manipulate it. In order to learn Necrism the Caster must have at least 40 skill points in Rigenology.
Initial Learning
An instructor is required to learn Necrism and cannot be self-discovered or self-taught. The instructor must be at least an Expert with the spell.
Skill Levels
Apprentice
With the guidance of an instructor the Caster learns the process of connecting to the corpse’s Rigen. They are limited to small creatures that are no larger than a house-cat. The connection is poor which causes the creature to have very sluggish movement and difficulty in standing. Commands are limited to single words like “follow”, “guard”, “stop”, and “attack”. The process of imbuing Rigen and connecting requires 10 minutes. Reanimation lasts for up to 30 minutes. A Caster can only control one risen creature at a time.
Journeyman
Casters are now able to reanimate humanoid corpses or any creatures that are smaller than humanoid. The risen creature functions and moves more slowly than their living counterparts. Journeymen are able to better activate the brain functions to allow simple commands of up to five words to be followed. Any action the risen creature takes is the equivalent of an apprentice. Reanimation requires about 8 minutes to perform and lasts for up to 2 hours.
Expert
At this stage the reanimated creature is able to move with the same level of grace and speed as their living counterparts. Experts are able to control more than one creature that is smaller than a humanoid, provided that they paid the base spell cost for each creature. Any action taken by a risen creature is the equivalent of a Journeyman. Reanimation requires about 5 minutes and lasts for 24 hours.
Master
With their greater experience, a master is able to control multiple humanoid corpses at once, provided that they paid the base spell cost for each one. Enough of the brain is active to allow for more complex commands, though the corpse will still take the most straight-forward action to fulfill the commands. Any action taken by a risen creature is the equivalent of a Journeyman. However, a Master can imbue the base spell cost again to a corpse to raise its capabilities to that of an expert, and once more to raise them to Master. The reanimation process requires less than a minute and lasts for up to one week.
100 Points
A Master with 100 skill points is able to have one designated corpse as their “Elite”. An elite corpse regains some of their higher cognitive functions. This allows them to think independently of their master while still being subject to their will. While reanimated, the corpse does not decay and has regained the ability to read and communicate one language that it knew in life. The Elite corpse automatically performs any action as though they were an expert. With an additional expense of the base spell cost the master can upgrade the Elite’s actions to that of a master. A Master with 100 skill points is only able to control one elite corpse at a time.
Costs
All the Rigen for Necrism comes from the Caster’s Spellpool. The base cost is 36 points for when the Caster is beginning their Necrism to the best of their ability. When using Necrism to a point that a less experienced caster could produce, the amount taken from their Spellpool is reduced. The following table shows cost regarding a Caster’s capability and the level of Necrism they are performing.
| Apprentice | Journeyman | Expert | Master | 100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spell Level | |||||
| Apprentice | 36 | 18 | 9 | 5 | 3 |
| Journeyman | 36 | 18 | 9 | 5 | |
| Expert | 36 | 18 | 9 | ||
| Master | 36 | 18 | |||
| Elite | 36 |
Risks
Necrism is fairly dangerous as it requires a lot of Personal Rigen to use. Overspending their Spellpool is fairly possible which can cause unconsciousness or even death. Otherwise, the greatest risk of Necrism is for a risen creature to interpret a command in a way that would cause it to target its own master.
Article Credit to Abraxas.
0 Comments