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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''Though some might say there is not much point to turning the earth into one gigantic graveyard, these people are fools and will never understand anyway.''
|'''How to be a Villain''', Neil Zawacki}}
A practitioner of a kind of [[Whatevermancy]],
▲{{quote|''Though some might say there is not much point to turning the earth into one gigantic graveyard, these people are fools and will never understand anyway.''|'''How to be a Villain''', Neil Zawacki}}
▲A practitioner of a kind of [[Whatevermancy]], Necromancers are the masters of the art of death. Necromancy, the magic of interrogating the dead, has been practiced since at least Ancient Greece, where it was known as ''Necyomantia'', and probably earlier.
In typical media they're the epitome of the [[Evil Sorcerer]], showing none of the respect [[Due to the Dead]], using the [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|dark arts]] to create an army of [[Dem Bones|skeletons]] and [[Night of the Living Mooks|zombies]] (or any kind of [[The Undead|Undead]] being) to ravage the countryside or enslave souls of the damned for their own evil and twisted purposes. Any villain that practices necromancy is guaranteed to fall hard onto [[The Dark Side|the far side]] of the evil scale, and any hero who dares to dabble in it can kiss his position on the good side [[Moral Event Horizon|good bye]].
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Only metaphorically related to [[Thread Necromancer]], where one resurrects dead forum threads.
Do ''not'' confuse with [[I Love the Dead|necro-romancer]]. Or a [[Vampire|Neck-romancer]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The [[Big Bad]] of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]] of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' uses forbidden Human Transmutation and could be seen as a necromancer.
* Meiou (Dark/Underworld King) Ixpellia from the ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' franchise. The [[Warrior Prince|Ancient Belka king]] who ruled over the Garea empire and had the ability to raise an army of [[Night of the Living Mooks|Mariage]] out of a battlefield of corpses. [[Anti-Anti-Christ|She's actually a nice little girl being forced to do things she doesn't want]], but having an army of cyborg zombies that invades and burns down neighboring countries [[Shrouded in Myth|gave her a rather bad reputation]].
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* Faust the VIII from ''[[Shaman King]]''. He's the descendent of the original Dr. Faustus who made a [[Deal with the Devil]] and Faust learned about being a shaman and necromancy from his books. He did it to resurrect his wife from the dead so he's got the [[Necromantic]] thing going on as well. Finally, his basic fighting technique is to summon tons and tons of skeletons. Not to mention he's about the most evil character we see until [[The Big Bad]] shows up. {{spoiler|Faust makes a [[Heel Face Turn]] after that though.}}
* Doll from ''[[Half Prince]]'' is a spell caster class called necromancer; she doesn't really summon zombies, she summons flaming spell monsters which generally act as meat shields for her team. However, if she's really motivated, she can summon a freaking undead dragon; however, since it generally scares her, she's only done this twice so far.
* The protagonist of ''[[Ghost
* Eucliwood Hellscythe of ''[[Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?]]'' is one of the rare [[Dark Is Not Evil|sympathetic]] necromancers. Her magic allows her to heal, kill, and create zombies (in this case, [[Our Zombies Are Different|immortal, self-aware undead]]).
* One of Kenshiro's creepier one-shot foes from ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' was an evil priest-looking guy by the name of Zaria who could hypnotize people into "zombies" via ''Nanto Ansho Ken'' and ultimately revives a group of his mooks that Kenshiro had just given the [[Your Head Asplode]] treatment to. Naturally, Kenshiro considers this level of disrespect for the dead [[This Is Unforgivable!|unforgivable]].
* The most powerful [[Telepathic Spacemen|Newtypes]] of [[Gundam]]'s Universal Century can perform a limited and relatively benign form of necromancy, communicating with and (in extreme circumstances) drawing power from the spirits of the dead. In fact, since it requires a great deal of human empathy, [[Dark Is Not Evil|it's pretty much exclusively limited to heroic Newtypes]].
* Emperor Muge Zorbados, [[Big Bad]] of the [[Super Robot]] series, ''[[Dancougar]]''
* The main character Chihiro from ''[[
* The somewhat recent manga [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Necromancer]] features one as the main character.
* ''[[Rental Magica]]'' had one overenthusiastic fellow who used a rare magical substance to raise a crowd of zombies and was impatient enough to slaughter a village for this purpose rather than [[Grave Robbing|unobtrusively collect corpses]] like everyone else does. His former supplier; came to wear a widow's outfit after the incident and sent the protagonists to deal with him when he tried to gather another portion of the magic plant on his own. He also used a [[Paper Talisman]] to incapacitate a ghost, but this only made her more upset after she shrugged it off.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
== Comics ==▼
* As of ''[[Brightest Day]]'', [[Aquaman]] can animate and control the corpses of sea creatures as a side effect of his death and resurrection. As the main page for the comic states, "Summoning a zombie kraken may be the most awesome thing he's ever done."
* Thomas Edison in ''[[Atomic Robo]]''. {{spoiler|Later [[The Undead|Undead Edison]].}}
* [[The Goon]]'s arch enemy, the Nameless man uses massive zombie
* ''[[Evil-Ernie]]'' is able to raise and control the dead. Seeing as his goal is to wipe out all life on Earth, this ability gets him on-track very quickly.
== [[Film]] ==
* In both ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'' and ''[[Dragonslayer]]'', the wizards (Merlin
* {{spoiler|William Dobb}} from [[Dead and Buried]] is
==
▲* In both ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'' and ''[[Dragonslayer]]'', the wizards (Merlin & Ulrich respectively) are called necromancers at some point. As neither film involves undead hordes and feature more traditional wizards, it is clear the older meaning is being invoked.
▲* {{spoiler|William Dobb}} from [[Dead and Buried]] is a nexcellent example of this, what with {{spoiler|him making a town entirely populated by zombies of his own creation, who he views as his children and his works of art, as well as a very unhealthy interest in the dead.}}
* Malory mentions that Morgan learnt "nigromancy"... in a nunnery...
** While most of her magic doesn't seem that related to the dead, she is the one who ends up taking Arthur to Avalon... which has interesting implications.
* A remarkable benign example appears ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''. The Necromancer shows Gulliver the spirits of lots of dead people, so he can interview them and learn about the past (and eat food made by a great dead chef).
* Necromancers in [[A Madness of Angels]] tend to try their hand at immortality by swallowing papers with the traits they wish they had in a [[Golem]]-esque way. They die for real as soon as the paper is taken out, but it in the meantime, they live [[Exact Words|exactly]] to the constraints of the paper (meaning if you forget to, say, write down that you still want to see colors or [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|actually feel things]], you're life undead won't be [[Nightmare Fuel|very pleasant]]).
* In [[J. R. R.
** Sauron appears to have more control over the corpses of the dead than their spirits, if the Barrow-Wights are anything to go by; according to the supplementary materials they are evil spirits (not the souls of the original deceased) sent by the Witch-King of Angmar, Sauron's [[The Dragon|Dragon]] to possess the bodies of dead kings to torment their former subjects.
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Discworld]] novel ''[[
** Note that they use the classical definition of contacting spirits to ask about the future, which is apparently evil. Contacting them to ask about the present or past, on the other hand, is okay.
** This is continued in ''[[
* [[Garth Nix]]'s ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' trilogy features several necromancers as
* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[John Carter of Mars|The Chessman of Mars]]'', Tara is accused of being "one of those horrid Corphals that by commanding the spirits of the wicked dead gains evil mastery over the living"
* Averted in the novels based on Diablo (see Video Games).
** ''Legacy of Blood'' has Kara Nightshadow as a heroine, and is genuinely one of the good guys. She often has to explain to other characters how her use of death magic doesn't conflict with her apparent [[Character Alignment|alignment]].
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* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter]].'' It's possible to reanimate a person's corpse into an Inferi, but Necromancy is considered virtually useless because the body has no soul (in keeping with Dumbledore's statement in the first book that "No spell can raise the dead") and thus no will or intelligence. They do, unfortunately, work rather well if you have a large number of them guarding an artifact, as Harry finds out...
** Given that wizards seem to have more success enchanting inanimate objects with certain amounts of animation and intelligence if they want assistants, this is about the first setting I've seen where necromancy is [[Awesome but Impractical]].
* Necromancy is an aspect of [[Witch Species|Sartan]] magic in ''[[The Death Gate Cycle]]'', but is forbidden because for every person brought back to life, another somewhere dies untimely. The Sartan of [[Mordor|Abarrach]], however, were desperate enough to disregard this, and became a whole culture of necromancers.
* ''[[Chronicles of the Necromancer]]'' is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], and features a good necromancer as its main character.
* Brian Lumley's ''[[Necroscope]]'' series gives us both sides of this. Those that talk to the willing dead are called Necroscopes, the evil bastards who torture the dead are Necromancers. [[Black and White Morality|There are no crossovers between the two]].
* Chloe Saunders from the ''[[Darkest Powers]]'' trilogy. In fact, she is almost certainly the most powerful necromancer in existence, and possibly the most powerful necromancer to ''ever'' exist. In a necromancer's case, though, having a lot of power is [[Blessed with Suck|not always a good thing]]. Most necromancers eventually [[Mad Oracle|go insane later in life]], and the trend seems to be that [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity|the more powerful they are, the faster it happens]].
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* The Zombie Master in Piers Anthony's ''[[Xanth]]'' series may qualify as a necromancer as his power is raising the dead, ie: creating Zombies. This does not make him popular but he is in fact a regular sweetheart and gets the girl (okay after a few hundred years spent undead but still..)
* The writings of [[Clark Ashton Smith]] featured a number of necromancers. Notable examples being ''The Empire of the Necromancers'', ''The Charnel God'', and ''The Last Incantation''. The reasons run the gamut from [[Necromantic]] to [[Night of the Living Mooks]].
* [[H.P. Lovecraft
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' story "[[The People of the Black Circle]]", the king is murdered by necromancy.
** In "[[The Devil in Iron]]", Khosatral Khel revives his city with it,
{{quote|
* In [[Amanda Downum]]'s ''[[The Drowning City]]'' and ''[[The Bone Palace]]'', the protagonist, Isyllt Iskaldur, is a necromancer. She is not portrayed as evil, although she is sometimes treated as such by others. Her abilities do not appear to include summoning zombie armies, but do include dealing with ghosts, whether communicating, capturing or banishing, as well as raising the dead temporarily, experiencing the final memories of the dead, aging and corroding non-living things rapidly, invoking cold, and related things.
* Necromancy is an aspect of [[Black Magic]] in ''[[Mithgar]]'', and mostly follows the more traditional sort, as a necromancer's primary abilities are used in summoning and compelling dead spirits, usually to force information out of them. One necromancer, Baron Stoke (also one of the series' [[Complete Monster|viler villains]]), ''did'' learn to create a zombie army, but died before he could use it or pass the knowledge on.
* Towards the end of ''[[The Belgariad|The Malloreon]]'' by [[David Eddings]], we learn that among the many forms of magic practiced by the Dals was necromancy. Much like the older meaning of the word, the necromancer we see summons back the spirit of the recently dead to answer questions.
*
* Subverted in ''[[Septimus Heap]]'': DomDaniel is referred to as a necromancer, but none of his abilities match the epithet.
* Necromancy is naturally an important part of ''[[The Witch Watch]]'', given that the start involves the protagonist being raised from the dead ''by mistake.''
* The protagonist of ''[[Frankenstein]]'', naturally, creates a monster using parts of corpses, using science rather than magic.
* Ned, the main character of ''[[Pushing Daisies]]''. The soul gets revived along with the person in his instance, so no zombies. In fact, one of the first things he says in the series is an objection to those he revives being called undead, when they're merely "alive again".▼
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* Ned, the main character of [[Pushing Daisies]]. The soul gets revived along with the person in his instance, so no zombies. In fact, one of the first things he says in the series is an objection to those he revives being called undead, when they're merely "alive again".
** There are, however, plenty of gruesome cases where it's probably a blessing that he sticks to his guideline of keeping them alive for only one minute (otherwise something else dies); at any rate, even the better cases aren't quite normal afterward, as while they ''can'' be killed again (and thus permanently), they nonetheless stop aging.
* ''[[Angel]]'' refers to necromancers on occasion, and features Los Angeles necromancer Magnus Hainsley as a minor villain in the last season. As expected from a series that constantly subverts fantasy and horror tropes, Magnus turns out to be a short, bald fast-talker who seems more like a car salesman than a sorcerer. He does prove to be a powerful enemy, though, given that he has "power over the dead" and the heroes confronting him are a vampire and a ghost (or close enough to a ghost for his purposes).
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* [[Rush]]'s ''"The Necromancer"''.
* ''Necromancer'' by [[Van der Graaf Generator]], in the spirit of [[Good
== [[New Media]] ==
* In ''[[Descendant of a Demon Lord]]'', Necromancy is a highly esoteric (and depending on the location, illegal) discipline of magic. In 7.1, Celes [[Press-Ganged|aggressively recruited]] some bandits to be her soldiers, telling them she'd kill them and animate their corpses if necessary, and some of those listening seemed to consider necromancy not real. Necromancers are almost always bad people, but necromancy is not regarded as something inherently evil by many sorcerers or other monsters. Like most tools, it can be used for good or bad. Unsurprisingly many decent sorcerers would jump at the chance to learn necromancy no strings attached. Still, since necromancers tend to be bad, they are often distrusted.
* The protagonist of ''[[Vigor Mortis]]'' is a natural necromancer, whose existence contradicts the doctrine of the dominant religion where she lives, and where most magic is regulated, necromancy is one of the few schools of magic that is outright banned.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
* Bakeneko and Nekomatas are [[Yokai]] that can control corpses like puppets.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* A good deal of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' creatures are called necromancers, while the actual creatures generally have creatures types of cleric or wizards. Users of [[Black Magic]] in the settings tend to have dead minions.
* ''[[Dungeons
** Interestingly enough, earlier D&D editions had healing spells in the necromancy school. But since necromancy was categorized as magic over life forces, it made perfect sense.
** The 3.5 supplement ''Heroes of Horror'' include the class Dread Necromancer which, among other things, ''turns into a lich'' upon reaching level 20.
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*** However, in Pathfinder, the oft-called 3.75:th edition, Necromancy Specialists gain the Command/Turn Undead ability as well.
*** As do the Dread Necromancer (see above)
** The 2nd Edition had a guidebook called ''The Complete Book of Necromancers'', as it seemed Necromancers had too much potential (as villains, mostly) to simply be a chapter in ''The Complete Book of Wizards''.
** A rare case of a Good-aligned Necromancer was detailed in ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon Magazine #283]]''. Danna of the Skull is a Necromancer of the Anatomist [[Prestige Class]] who uses her skills for forensic investigation, although her spellbook is not listed. Of course, the article where Danna appears is in one of their [[April Fool's Day| tongue-in-cheek April editions]], meaning the material contained within is not intended for any serious campaign; Danna is obviously meant as a parody of [[The X-Files|Agent Dana Scully.]]
* Used many, ''many'' times in various ''[[The World of Darkness]]'' gamelines:
** ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' had the Giovanni clan, a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Mafia family of vampires with a long history of necromantic practices]]. The corpses served multiple purposes, one of them being that, [[Vampire Bites Suck|since the Giovanni bite causes a lot of pain]], they provided a more reliable means of blood than feeding on live humans.
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** ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' has the Necromancer Archetype; however, it's less about raising the dead and more about understanding the mysteries of death and the Underworld. Though, as the titular Sin-Eaters have death-themed powers (making them ''all'' necromancers in a way), there are of course rituals to raise zombies.
* ''[[GURPS]]'' has the Necromantic College of magic. In fact, the highest-level Healing spell, Resurrection, requires its casters to know some necromancy, including Summon Spirit.
** The
* In ''[[Exalted]]'', Necromancy is to Sorcery as the Underworld is to Creation; a deadened reflective parody, requiring a different set of initiation Charms to access and being a form of [[Mutually Exclusive Magic]]
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' has mortal necromancers, vampires, and the Egyptian themed lich-priests. There's also Nagash, the first and greatest necromancer, an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] who attempted to raise all the dead of the world as his servants. It used to be that necromancy automatically drove one insane; this seems to have been relaxed, though the vast majority of necromancers are still villainous.
** The setting makes a difference between those that use the lore of death (more classical necromancy, communicating with the dead and one of the eight winds of magic) and those that use necromancy (animating the dead, a form of dark magic).
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* In ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'', necromancers are quite common, and are the reason for [[The Undead]] being a faction in themselves and a major, recurring threat to Wesnoth. The allure of immense power and potential immortality (via transformation into a Lich) draws in practitioners of the dark arts, and although the extreme strain of their training causes most of these 'Dark Adepts' to become [[Squishy Wizard|extremely frail and weak physically]], it does give them [[Glass Cannon|impressive magical firepower]]. The Adepts' higher-level promotions, the Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, and Lich, often lead the Undead armies in battle, making them perhaps the most powerful individuals in the Wesnoth-verse
▲== Video Games ==
▲* In ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'', necromancers are quite common, and are the reason for [[The Undead]] being a faction in themselves and a major, recurring threat to Wesnoth. The allure of immense power and potential immortality (via transformation into a Lich) draws in practitioners of the dark arts, and although the extreme strain of their training causes most of these 'Dark Adepts' to become [[Squishy Wizard|extremely frail and weak physically]], it does give them [[Glass Cannon|impressive magical firepower]]. The Adepts' higher-level promotions, the Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, and Lich, often lead the Undead armies in battle, making them perhaps the most powerful individuals in the Wesnoth-verse <ref>(the characters, not the actual units)</ref>. However, they are hated by everyone. ''[[Zero-Percent Approval Rating|Everyone]]''. Necromancers, both alive and undead, have been involved in so many wars and battles throughout the various campaigns, since before the creation of the titular kingdom to hundreds of years after it's fall, that they have become somewhat of a cliche in Wesnoth.
* A core profession in the MMO ''[[Guild Wars]]'', which can animate fleshy minions from corpses, vampirize heath, and fling curses (and [[Combat Sadomasochist|they often have to sacrifice a percentage of their health bar to do so]]). There's also the Ritualist class introduced in Factions, which are Necromancers of a sort dealing in binding the spirits of the dead rather than animating corpses. The game is heavily geared to dual-class, and unsurprisingly, these two work ''great'' in combination, whichever is primary.
** Also worth noting is that neither are evil. They're both ''dark'', certainly, but both PC and NPC Ritualists and Necromancers are most often unambiguously on the side of good. They serve Grenth, the god of death and cold, but Grenth isn't an evil god (though he can be a bit cruel when [[You Mean "Xmas"|Wintersday]] comes around). In fact, he basically punched out the ''old'' god of death, who ''was'' evil, and took over.
* Necromancy figures heavily into ''[[Warcraft]] 3'' and ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', including a World of Warcraft playable race composed entirely of undead.
** And while the game has yet to bring in an actual Necromancer class, it does have the Death Knight, who gets death-themed powers and a ghoul pet.
** In the game's expanded universe, necromancy is usually
* An endgame boss class in ''[[Fire Emblem]]: Sacred Stones''. For the record, he ( {{spoiler|Prince Lyon}}) didn't start out the game as evil, but began a slow descent into madness. Him being
** Similarly, the Summoner class (
* ''[[Diablo II]]'' has its Necromancer player character. He can raise skeletons, summon golems, revive the dead, dish out poison and element-less magic damage, debuff enemies with curses, and a favorite of many players: make enemy corpses explode.
** In a sort of inversion, it should be noted that the Necromancers in Diablo II are not presented as evil at all; the manual describes them as simply being "very much in touch with the natural cycle of life and death", making them sound a little like a different kind of Druid, and putting them more in the Neutral-to-Good range. While their in-game player model is certainly gaunt, pale and lanky, by their given back-story, they're not even particularly dark or emo. (It might be noted that their theme is not completely consistent here.)
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** It's somewhat implied that Necromancy is the only type of true magic (rather than divine miracles, such as those used by the Paladin) in the game's world that ''doesn't'' have the potential to corrupt its user into a servant of the demons.
* Two Glyphs in ''[[Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia]]'' allow you to summon zombies to fight for you.
** Which is in turn taken from the Necromancer enemy in that game. ''[[Circle of the Moon]]'' also has a Necromancer boss who sometimes summons skeletons. Shaft takes this to bizarre levels in ''[[Rondo of Blood]]'' - he summons previous ''Castlevania'' bosses in the main fight against him (not necessarily dead ones though), but in the next level you fight ''his ghost'', who summons ''the skeleton of the first boss and an enemy in the second stage''.
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' has a sect of necromancers called the Order of the Black Worm who use evil Black Soul Gems to capture the soul of sapient beings. Good necromancers do exist, but their presence is overshadowed by the evil ones since the Cyrodiil Mage's Guild banned necromancy out of fear of the Order.
** [[Alternative Character Interpretation]] holds that the the Black Worm wasn't evil. Given that the Guild's decision caused most non-necromancers to to leave as well, and the fact that necromancy is only illegal in the Province of Morrowind, means that the guild was
*** Necromancy is only tolerated, not generally approved of, and even that mostly only in Cyrodiil. In Morrowind, you can find a book that explains that necromancers are not well-liked anywhere in the Empire, but can reanimate the corpses of executed criminals if they manage to get an official license. Anything more than that, though, and they become their own customers, so to speak.
*** It was tolerated much as any other school of magic, and no more prone to the kind of abuses the Guild is responsible for policing. For centuries mages defended their right to study necromancy for the sake of philosophical research on the nature of
** By the time of ''[[Skyrim]]'', the Mages' Guild is long gone, and its equivalent in that game, the College of Winterhold, is just fine with teaching necromancy. Necromancy is also better represented mechanically - where previously the player could at best hope to get a Summon Zombie spell, ''Skyrim'' allows you to zombify specific dead things, up to and including [[Our Giants Are Bigger|giants]]. Granted, the two College members who practice it are a guy who wants to keep things on the down low and someone who was kicked out of Morthal because of a [[Noodle Incident]].
* A whole army of Necromancers are the primary antagonists in ''[[Nox]]''.
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* A secret class in the [[Game Boy Advance]] version of ''[[Final Fantasy V]]''. They are basically glorified [[Mega Manning|Blue Mages]] who can't be healed by normal means, and are only available once the [[Bonus Boss]] is [[Bragging Rights Reward|killed.]]
* Subverted in ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]''. While he is known throughout the world as The Necromancer, Jade never re-animated corpses. {{spoiler|He ''did'' invent a technology, called fomicry, that could create perfect copies of people, including the recently deceased. The replicas of his human test subjects retained no memories of their originals, so Jade eventually gave up on fomicry as a means of "reviving" the dead. It doesn't help his image that he used to collect the remains of dead soldiers to further his work.}}
* ''[[
* The first ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' game, ''Blood Omen'', features Mortanius the Necromancer as one of the main antagonists and most powerful member of the Circle of Nine. In something of an aversion, his powers are connected to the Pillars of Nosgoth, specifically the Pillar of Death, making them completely natural and no more evil than throwing a fireball. In fact, [[The Atoner|he's one of the most sympathetic characters in the series]], setting the series in motion by bringing the main character back to life as a vampire as part of an elaborate [[Evil Pllan]].
* {{spoiler|Dynos}} in ''[[Arc Rise Fantasia]]'', although before his name is revealed he's called the "Deathchanter".
* Roswell of ''[[Yggdra Union]]'', although he's not evil. {{spoiler|Nessiah}} is one of these as well.
* Given the existence of [[Dem Bones|Dry Bones Troopas and Bony Beetles]] (aka Dry Buzzies), [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser]] qualifies as this. Given the existence of Dry Bowser, and his subsequent resurrection, [[Overlord, Jr.|Bowser Jr.]] takes after him.
* Orin of ''[[Touhou]]'' isn't actually a [[Catgirl|neko-romancer]], but she does have a lot of trappings of one, ordering spirits around and fighting with a troupe of "zombie" fairies (Touhou fairies are immortal, and these ones are just dressing up). The series' real necromancer is Seiga, who raised a [[Jiangshi]] subordinate, though Seiga doesn't do much with the dead otherwise.
* The MMO ''[[Rift]]'' also has Necromancers as one of the mage souls (classes). The backstory is that the soul comes from a heroic necromancer named Corthana. She had been kidnapped by the evil cult necromancers. She learned the magic of necromancy from them but was clever and took out all the parts that [[Big Bad|Regulos]] had snuck in to brainwash them into being his evil minions. When her paladin brother busts in to save her, she turns on the cultists, slaughters them with their own magic, and even tore out her own blood to heal her brother when he was injured. But as they fled, [[The Dragon|Regulos' high priest]] caught up with them and slew her brother, and in her rage she became an avatar of a lich and avenged him right then and there. By the time the game takes place in, her heroic deeds have redeemed the art of necromancy and the necromancer players are even praised for continuing her legacy (especially as Ascended necromancers seem to actually possess her [[Ghost Memory|knowledge and memories]].)
** Necromancers, if not evil, are unfortunately easily corrupted and quick to succumb to megalomanium, this is why the art is still frowned upon, even though it's not an outright horrible thing for someone to do.
* [[Big Bad Wannabe]] and [[Hot Witch]] Daria from ''[[Warriors of Might and Magic]]''.
* Necromancers are a staple of [[Artix Entertainment]]'s fantasy games. Necromancer itself is a class in ''[[Adventure Quest]]'', ''[[Dragon Fable]]'' and ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]''.
** Specific necromancers include Zorbak, Kabroz, Vayle, Noxus and Obsidia.
** Zorbak's robot in ''[[Warp Force]]'', Zorboz, can reanimate ''machines'' and turn them undead.
* The February 2012 update of ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' features them. It's actually the first type of magic put in the game, and being Dwarf Fortress, the players themselves are able to use it. Keep in mind, so are migrants to your fortress, and even random merchants or whoever else reads one of the "secrets of the life and death" written on slabs by the gods, which inconveniently results in body parts in the refuse pile coming to life and attacking you.
** As It happens, quite a few mainstream [[
* The first ''[[Golden Sun]]'' didn't have many references to necromancy, but ''The Lost Age'' has the Dark Mage class series, unlocked with an artifact in a small [[Bonus Dungeon]] under Kibombo (where it's normally kept for the local witch-doctors to use), which can summon zombies and inflict curses upon enemies, among other things.
** ''Dark Dawn'' doesn't have class-enabling artifacts like the Tomegathericon, and by extension no Dark Mage classes... but Himi's exclusive Curse Mage class series does much of the same, which is pretty weird since she's normally a cute little [[Shrine Maiden]].
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* The freeware RPG ''[[Master of the Wind]]'' has several characters involved with necromancy and treats it as a complex, divisive issue in the world of Solest (the game's setting).
* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] III'' features the necromancy-themed faction as the protagonist for the fourth set of campaign maps, and the antagonist of the final campaign. Pop-up boxes featuring story snippets tell how the necromancers raze whole villages and then raise the bodies of adults as zombies or skeletons (a theme central to one campaign in the first expansion, and connected with most campaigns in the second). That said, necromancers are hardly the ''worst'' people that can be found, and at least some of them seem to keep some measure of ethical compass.
** As a town, necromancers were introduced by ''Heroes II''. They were aligned with Archibald, the... not so good... candidate for the throne of Enroth.
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest]]'' has Chrome, who can only raise near-mindless zombies that are [[Zombie Gait|very slow]], and the far more competent La Croix, who's capable of raising Queen-class monsters, dragons and even {{spoiler|a Monster Lord}} with the same intelligence they had in life.
* In ''[[Wizard 101]]'', the Death School is one of seven schools available to players. [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|You know, cause this game is for kids!]]
* The Sorceress in ''[[Dragon's Crown]]'' has spells that can animate corpses, a case of [[Bad Powers, Good People]].
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Black Mage Evilwizardington of ''[[8-
* Xykon from ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''.▼
▲* Black Mage Evilwizardington of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' is skilled at necromancy. He reconstructed and redecorated the Temple of Fiends by willing it to change, as it was made from corpses.
▲* Xykon from [[Order of the Stick]].
** And also his newest major minion, [[Nightmare Fetishist|Tsukiko]], who not only creates the undead but... uh... [[I Love the Dead|really likes them]] too.
* The world of ''[[Erfworld]]'' knows them as "Croakamancers". Of the main characters, Wanda Firebaugh the Croakamancer.
* The lead villain of ''[[Harry Potter Comics]]''.
* [[Aloof Big Brother|Jacob]], [[The Dragon|Helixa]], and [[Dark Is Not Evil|Rilian]] from ''[[Dominic Deegan]]''.
** On his airship trip Dominic meets a "good" necromancer {{spoiler|actually Rilian in disguise}} who claims that his job is more traditional speaking with the dead than animating corpses.
* Richard from ''[[Looking for Group]]''.
* ''[[True Villains]]'': [http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2011-12-02-Necromancy%20at%20its%20Finest-jpg.htm It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be painless. It is not going to be legal. It is, however, going to be] '''fun'''.
* Yakuv from ''[[Reliquary (webcomic)|Reliquary]]'' is an unusual good guy version; necromancy is considered a Gift from God in his culture.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* From the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]:'' The Bone White Queen, the [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of Disease and the consort of the [[Complete Monster|Blood Red King]], is the most powerful Necromancer in the setting. She is fond of killing entire families with various plagues, then reanimating them as minions.
* ''[[Viridian Dreams Quests|Necromancy Quest]]
* ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' has a
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Dr. Byron Orpheus of ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' is a professional necromancer. Though a [[Large Ham]], he is (arguably) one of the ''nicest'' people in the series. He is quite polite when speaking with dead souls, and is horrified when he thinks that his attempted resurrection of {{spoiler|Hank and Dean}} has instead resulted in bringing them back as zombies.
** Although he does trap the souls of two "foul mouthed rednecks" in some dolls after they wouldn't stop calling him gay. One would think that he'd be used to it, judging by the way he looks and dresses.
** Said rednecks were hassling him in the hopes of starting a fight. And he did try to warn them.
* The ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' series has Mozenrath, definitely the "raise an army of zombies against the hero" type of Necromancer, though he has non-necromantic powers as well and isn't seen raising the zombies on-screen (or [[Not Using the Z Word|calling them zombies]]). It's possible he inherited some of the zombies, but he can create them as well, as shown by the zombie version of his mentor in his first episode. And at least [[Red Right Hand|part of him]] could be considered Undead.
* [[Big Bad|Megatron]] from ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' does this ''with robots''.
* I don't recall him ever being referred to as one directly, but Skullmaster of ''[[Mighty Max
** Of course, he's got plenty of other kinds of magic at his disposal.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Characters As Device]]
[[Category:Undead Index]]
[[Category:Paranormal Tropes]]
[[Category:Wizards and Witches]]
▲[[Category:Necromancer]]
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