It doesn't have to be fearun but I would prefer it.
I'm curently in mood for such stuff so if you have read anything good on the topic I would be grateful..
The Complete Book of Necromancers (2e) recommends the works of Clark Ashton Smith. I've never read any of his fantasy stuff (as far as I remember), but I've read some of his SciFi stuff so I'm sure its just as good.
BTW - that D&D book I mentioned above - if you can get your hands on it, it is an absolutely indispensible source of Necromantic lore for the D&D game. It also contains a mini-setting which is officially part of FR (the Isle of the Necromancer Kings), and there is a lot of background-story for everything presented, which you should enjoy (including cults, NPCs, magic items and spells, tomes of dark knowlege, etc)
There's even a short-story (a vingette, really) about the time Loviatar 'punked' Cyric. :D
Other than the trilogy with Szass Tam, can't recall many necromancers, the King Pinch novel ... ?
Not in Faerun, Leso Varen in Feist's Darkwar and some other novels, Radulski's Kingdom of the Necromancer, Elaine Cunningham's The Blood Red Harp, Jordan's Conan the Invincible, Nix's The Old Kingdom books, Gail Martin's Chronicles of the Necromancer (not that good), Warhammer's Nagash novels, to name a few
Szass Tam in the haunted lands trilogy, is a necromancer... even if his relationship to death magic isn't really stressed.
Lauzoril's daughter from... The Simbul(?), was a necromancer, and in some ways more interesting. I wish we'd heard more from her. I hope Lauzoril sent her to the Simbul for training before the Spellplague.
Thanx for the suggestions..
I read a Clark Ashton Smith short story once, though I can't remember the title. It was a good story though, and dealt with necromancers as the protagonists. They'd raise the dead to ask them questions and have them help them, in the style of the original ancient world necromancer.
HP Lovecraft normally deals with aliens and eldritch horrors, but 'Herbert West - Reanimator' is pretty close to necromancy.
I've not read them, but the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell Hamilton has the title character as a professional animator of the dead, to question them for legal purposes, as well as controlling the undead. (At least until it became all about sex magic instead, ahem.)
Thoth-Amon (Conan stories by Howard) was a powerful Necromancer, but only appears in a couple of the stories. His Marvel-comics counterpart (and even cooler incarnation IMHO) was named Kulan Gath, and he was a very uber-evil dude (He murdered spiderman and handed the X-men their butts!). Any of the Hyborian Age Necromancers from Stygia would be a perfect fit for a Necromancer out of Mulhorand.
The Elric novels, the few that I read, tend to use the old word 'nigromancy' anyway - black magic (literally 'black divination'). It sounds a bit rascist today, but that's not intended.
Medieval views conflated all forms of magic into one big evil evil thing, and all the words became interchangeable. But a modern day version of the ancient necromancer would probably be John Edward.
(Though much less evil.)I recall this Ravenloft game I once played. The city was protected by an army of zombies... not a bad use for dead bodies, if they keep more people alive.
HP Lovecraft normally deals with aliens and eldritch horrors, but 'Herbert West - Reanimator' is pretty close to necromancy.
that's how some of them start, it's an useful tale for necromancers, tough Lovecraft describes it like it's a big deal
There's also the tie-in Realms of the Dead anthology coming out early 2010, and you can bet good money there will be at least ONE necromancer in there. (Ahem.)
Cheers
It's a battle between a necromancer ( somebody who manipulates the dead so that he can gain power and knowledge from them ) and a necroscoper ( someone who actually communicates and is friends of the dead/like a third eye, only much more powerful )...basically the vampires were necromancers and this kid is a necroscoper, so it's a battle between vampires and the dead/undead versus dead
http://www.amazon.com/Necroscope-Brian-Lumley/dp/0812521374
This reminds me of some battle between undead and the sorrowsworn.
The only other thing that comes to mind are some White Wolf, Giovanni novels.
I seem to recall that in one of the Cleric Quintet novels, the antagonist for one of them was a cleric/Necromancer.
-I don't remember that...I know there was Kierko (Sp?) Rufo, who became a vampire, that evil Wizardess, and Caddery's evil Cleric father, but I don't recall any necromancers...
There was one unique undead in the series (the assassin, Ghost), but he was brought-back by an artifact, which had nothing to do with Aballister.
Aside from pre-lich Szass Tam, I can't think of any other prominent Necromancers in FR lore or novels.
Unless you count the stuff in the CBoN, which is FR canon, and even discusses one living in an estate just outside of Waterdeep - one Ellandra Tolbert. She was born in Neverwinter, and travels the Swordcoast, and is a member of the Anatomical Society in Waterdeep (a necromantic academy that specializes in research of the dead). Her best friend and confident is the priestess of Loviatar Yola, whom she freed from slavery years ago.
The novel Bloodwalk has Morgynn, a dark bloodmagic wielding sorceres who creates and commands a host with undead and demons through plaguelike magics.
The main protagonist - Aballister - used many necromantic spells, but I don't think he was a Necromancer (specialist Wizard). If anything, he seemed more about 'summonings', which lends itself more to a Conjuror.
I think he was just a generalist wizard--he even has stats in the Villains Lorebook.
