Advanced necromancy allows to permanently create undead slaves that will serve you until they are destroyed or run out of magic. This discipline is not taught at academies nor by the Mage Association.
Only the Crown is allowed to have an army, be it living people or not doesn't matter.
Turning yourselves or others into vampires or lichs, instead, that's forbidden magic and as such is a capital offense. I'm also going to explain why necromancy is so strictly regulated, what are its risks and how to defend against it.
Let's start with a little demonstration."
With a snap of her fingers, Professor Zeneff took out the skeleton of a rat from her dimensional ring.
"Normally your subjects will not be this clean. I purposely removed all the unnecessary parts to avoid most of you puking. I'm telling you this because necromancy is useless if the carcass is older than five days.
Past that time frame, the chances of success decline fast. Only fresh bodies can be turned into undead. Things like necromancers raising whole cemeteries are just folklore and fairy tales."
Lith knitted his brows, becoming more pensive the more discrepancies he found with what Kalla had taught him
- "Five days? The corpses Kalla stores in the forest are at least months old. Even those I rose back in the quarantine zone were dead from weeks." Lith thought.
"The good news is that I can already ace this class, the bad news is that it seems to be a colossal waste of time."–
Professor Zeneff cast her spell, allowing Lith to spot the first differences between true and fake necromancy. When Lith created an undead, he would send a single tendril of darkness magic in the corpse creating a blood core.
By adding a spark of light magic during the process, he would imprint the creature with his lifeforce and bind it to his will.
The Professor, instead, had created a dense fog of dark energy that was going in and out the rat's skeleton, like it was looking for something. In a few seconds, the fog was completely absorbed by the bones and a red light shone from the empty eye sockets.
Before the process was completed, Zeneff executed a second spell that left a glowing mark on the creature's head. The class gasped while the undead stretched its limbs producing an oddly amusing rattling sound.
"This is what is considered a success." The Professor sent the rat doing a round of the class with a simple wave of her hand.
"As you can see, the creature is perfectly functional and obeys to my every command. Unlike all the other disciplines you have studied before, necromancy isn't as simple as point and shoot. It involves willpower and the use of multiple elements even at its first tier."
A second snap of her fingers produced a metal cage containing a second rat skeleton. She repeated the darkness spell but this time she didn't perform the light one. The new undead went into a frenzy, clashing against the bars with all its strength, trying to reach Zeneff.
"This, instead, is an aberration. It happens when due to the magician incompetence or lack of willpower the creature is allowed to go on a rampage. Usually its first victim is the necromancer itself."
While she spoke, the undead kept emitting a shrill sound that resembled the cry of a child. It charged against the bars over and over, until bone bits started to fall on the teacher's desk.
"Creating and controlling an undead require focus. The stronger your creation, the harder it will be to control. Bit more than you can chew either by sheer power or numbers and that's what happens." She pointed at the cage.
"Back in my day, when necromancy was taught during the first year, a lot of students died by the paws of these little monsters that they kept as pets."
A familiar looking girl raised her hand.
"What's on your mind, miss…?"
"Lady Mirna Kratic." She gave the Professor a deep bow.
"Why someone should want such a thing?" Mirna couldn't stop turning her head to keep watch on both the undead rats.
"Excellent question, Lady Kratic. The answer is: for power and control. It was a way to show off one's talent and have loyal bodyguards 24/7. Bullying makes the undead much more appealing than the living." Zeneff sighed.
The Professor closed her eyes, taking deep breaths. Suddenly, the first undead ran towards Mirna. It jumped on her desk and said:
"Also, mostly because of this."