Zor, Undeath and Unlife

by Bent C Dalager

Date: Thu, 12 Sep 1996 12:26:02 -0400

From: Bent C Dalager 

To: Multiple recipients of list 

Subject: [SW] Zor, Undeath and Unlife

Several valuable pages of the Jaiman book is wasted describing a vast tomb complex holding the dead royalty of Zor. Now, in this complex, all sorts of measures have been taken to make sure that noone tampers with the bodies and riches of the dead kings and queens. Among other things, pretty much all of the dead royalty have been turned into vicious undead that guard their own tombs for eternity.

This raises a question. How come a glorious realm as Zor, favored by the Loremasters and remembered as a great empire, employs the tools of the Unlife to protect their tombs? This use of undead implies a society that actually accepts this kind of practice, and quite possibly uses it for other means as well. Such as guarding other tombs, most obviously. Possibly for use in war time. The way I see it, this use of dark magic tells a lot about the society that used it.

I will disregard the possibility of the use of Necromancy being a secret, known only to a few elite members of some undertakers' guild or equivalent. Surely, something like this could not have gone on for centuries on end without _someone_ figuring out. And surely, at least the Loremasters would have found out sooner or later!

Another objection could be that this is something that only took place during a short, dark, time in the history of Zor. This seems to be refuted by the presence of undead in all tombs of Zor, spanning many decades and three royal lines.

Therefore, I assume that it was a known fact, at least to those in the higher echelons of power - nobility and such.

The rulers of Zor must have known of this, and as such, they must have been aware of the eternity of guardianship that would await them upon death. They must have known this and they must have accepted it. This may not be as serious as it sounds, as people can put up with a lot of stuff if it is only accepted by their culture as 'the way things work'. Further, they may have had religious or philosophical reasons to accept it.

That the rulers accepted this role as eternal guardians over past and future rulers and the riches that follow them may even have gained them some added legitimacy to be in their position of control. After all, "someone who is willing to make _that_ sacrifice can be my ruler any time" could be the going mindset of the populace.

And what about religion? Could a culture that heavily employs necromancy expect any sort of support from the Lords of Orhan? The Necromancers might worship some God of Death, but surely it would not be Eissa! Perhaps the Dark God of Death (I forget his name) or some local god, or just the concept of Death and Undeath itself. They could be some sort of Shamans for dead souls, but shamanism doesn't fit well with the cosmopolitan feel of their civilisation.

But the most important question is this; if the culture relies heavily on the dark magics of Necromancy, and does so for centuries, why does it not fall to darkness? What keeps it out of the grasp of the Unlife? It is well documented that Zor is frequented by Loremasters, and the realm is given one of the six Crowns with which to guard itself, so Andraax and the Loremasters can't have had much against Zor or their darker practices. How come?

My answer, in short, is that Necromancy in itself is not of darkness. It may be viewed as 'evil' by many cultures, but it is not necessarily so. Dabbling in the arts of Necromancy may lead on the way to serving the Unlife, but it does not have to be so. Unlike the other sure paths to Unlife (tapping its power directly in some way), Necromancy only leads there if you will it. Further, the use of Necromancy itself isn't intrinsically evil as long as you do not practice it on someone without their prior acceptance. In this way, it follows a general rule of conduct; as long as you don't trespass on someone else's personal rights, you're not doing anything bad.

As a consequence of this, the Unlife does not use Undeath so much because it has to or because one is an integral part of the other. It simply does so because it is practical, and it brings results. In short, it is a perfect tool with which to achieve its goals.

That Necromancy is considered 'evil' by most civilised cultures is a matter of cultural prejudice more than anything else. That and, of course, the fact that it is employed heavily by the Unlife, causing it to be connected with Unlife and true evil in people's minds.

In Shadow World, this view on Necromancy is supported by the presence of a non-evil Necromancer in 'Orgillian Horror' as well as the Necromancer on the 'Magic Isle'.

If anyone has any thoughts on this, do share them :-) I am interested in thoughts on the nature of Necromancy as well as on the dead realm of Zor.

Cheers, Bent D

-- 

Bent Dalager, Ign. Techn. University of Trondheim, Norway. bcd@pvv.ntnu.no

                 Become an ignorant technocrat you too !!!

                          DISCLAIMER: I disclaim. 

        My WWW homepage