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Some time ago, I had an odd thought. I was looking through the old Libris Mortis book, and noticed the undead grafts. It led me down this train of thought:
In 3rd edtion D&D & Pathfinder, what does Necromancy get used for?
It's used to make minions, either mass-produced hordes of mindless skeletons, or one-off super-killy-monsters.
Some people completely forsake Mortality in favor of lichdom, becoming immortal and gaining nifty powers.
Other people can be brought back, different than they were before. Faster. Stronger. Deader.
People who lost limbs (or just want to be more killy) can graft on zombie and skeleton bits to their bodies.
Necromancy actually bears some superficial resemblance to robotics in Cyberpunk settings, obviously lends itself to dystopian elements, and allows similar plots and motifs in a fantasy setting. For example, you can make a mech-suit with a troll skeleton. Just put have a guy crawl inside the ribcage, add some armor plating, and strap a ballista to one arm.
We've all seen Necrocracies in other settings. High Cromlek in Bas Lag, Geb in Golarion, but this one goes the whole hog towards dystopian Necropunk:
A circle of powerful necromancers start selling their servies to a courrupt government that essentially becomes a merchant's guild that runs the city.
A sudden glut of cheap labor leaves an impoverished underclass that's forced to sell their own corpses to the zombie-crafters, people who are worth more dead than alive. horse-farms where the only point is to let them grow to full size before killing them and re-animating them as a Skeleton that doesnt need rest or feeding. A subculture of stupid teenage vampires who took the short route to undeath and wind up working for a criminal syndicate to feed their addiction and serve the one who turned them. those who dont fall into line wind up as beggars and junkies begging for passerby to give them a quick liter. Ghouls occupying the same status as androids; used as disposable servants, with a couple underground rogue ghouls plotting their revenge against the living. Hardbitten long-coat-wearing bounty hunters with crossbows and dead eyes that let them see life essence through walls. skinny Necromancer hackers who disrupt and mess with undead, yoink them away from their masters and launder them for sale on the black market. The area around the city is devoid of life, strip mined for black onyx, while distant expeditions bring back huge exotic beasts for conversion into the State's War Machines and secret projects. They've already wiped out the indigenous troll population to make bonesuits for the militia. Ghosts are everywhere, often taking the stand at their murderer's trial or executing their own will.
These are just random ideas
Stuff
That is a really inspired idea, I love it!
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These are just random ideas
Random *awesome* ideas.
Using animate dead in conjunction with bone armor to make an exoskeleton / mech sort of dealie has always been a favorite idea.
Hollowfaust had an elderly necromancer whose body was crippled up with arthritis who crafted a 'walker' that looked like a macabre spider made of bones, clacking along the stone corridors as it carried her in the central seat. I loved that visual.
I like the strongly *un* glamorous nature of this sort of necropunk ideal. Dracula / Lestat / Sparkle-Boy aside, a society steeped in necromantic elements should be ugly, not just 'life is cheap' ugly, but a bit dirty and faded and gross. Ghouls and vampires living in a state of desparation, concerned as to the availability of their next meal, while undead who are 'above' such concerns, like liches and mummies, look down on them as beggars, who must still prey on the living to survive, making them little better than the living, still slaves to mortal failings like hunger and need.
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Such a setting would still have normal living people in positions of power, with equal rights and whatnot. It's just that more and more of the higher-ups have gone lich, as the "secret" is pretty easy to uncover what with all the other liches practically publishing their autobiographies & particular rituals in peer-reviewed journals.
Plus, it gets into the fine distinctions of ensouled and sentient and mindless undead. Vampires and Liches maintain their original mortal soul (but twisted all to hell), while ghouls or wights are a new entity that might have some of the previous body owner's memories or personality traits. Ensouled Undead (including Ghosts) are offered full citizenship under the law, while everything else has the same rights as a run-of-the-mill skeleton.
True insanity sets in when you go into Magitech. Consider ideas like bio-tech and organic technology. The primary problems with these systems is that they would require feeding, are delicate and senstive to the enviroment, and need to be specially engineered. But, when you can turn organic tissue into undead tissue, suddenly it's so much easier to work with.
fans powered by rat skeletons on treadmills. Automatic crossbows strung with tendon and cocked by thigh muscles bolted to the lever. "horseless" carriages that have real undead horsepower under the hood.
Those last ideas are getting a little stupid, mind.
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What's more, there isnt anything particularly ambiguous about this setting. Cyberpunk is about how technology WONT solve any of our social problems, and will make things slightly worse. Post-cyberpunk is about how people rise above such problems by fixing the system and allowing real progress, ending in the Post-Singularity nerd-rapture. But Necropunk's Singularity involves everyone being turned into a hideous unliving abomination existing on a dead world, the end goal of The Whispering Way.
What's more, there isnt anything particularly ambiguous about this setting. Cyberpunk is about how technology WONT solve any of our social problems, and will make things slightly worse. Post-cyberpunk is about how people rise above such problems by fixing the system and allowing real progress, ending in the Post-Singularity nerd-rapture. But Necropunk's Singularity involves everyone being turned into a hideous unliving abomination existing on a dead world, the end goal of The Whispering Way.
I don't normally say this, as it sounds a bit bent, but I really wish you were either one of my players or my DM.
Great concept! PLEASE work this into something! (Or I might *evil grin* )
For example, you can make a mech-suit with a troll skeleton. Just put have a guy crawl inside the ribcage, add some armor plating, and strap a ballista to one arm.
This reminds me of Oz from One Piece lol.