You got one post to tell me WHY Necromancers and motherfucking Liches don't have armies of fuck huge T-Rex skeletons and other dinos.
>inb4 muh setting.
I know you fa/tg/uys love to boast about your setting, so lets have some good examples.
(Pic related)
>>47293948
Because fossilized bone is just rock. Now if you had actual bones then You could have your dinosaur army
Trex skeletons don't exist. Look up fossilization dumb ass.
>>47293948
Why do I need a tyrannosaur when I have 6 million locusts?
>>47294016
So you'd need geomancers instead?
I used to date a guy whose brother insisted that Dinosaurs were a global conspiracy by a cabal of scientists to convince people evolution was real
>>47293948
Aren't there living dinosaurs in many fantasy settings? I mean, you'd still have to find dead ones or kill them, which is no small feat in and of itself.
>>47294018
Well, it's a sort of Skeleton of Theseus problem.
>>47293948
Because in MUH SETTING, animating the dead works by putting a fragment of the reanimator's soul into the corpse. A fragment of a human soul tries to move a corpse in human ways, which doesn't work very well for a T-Rex.
Of course, if a T-Rex decides to raise an army of the dead, then it all works out fine.
>>47294176
They're more into vampirism than necromancy, though.
>>47294075
The American education system at work, everybody!
It's actually kinda funny because every single necromancer my party has run into has had at least one big fucking dinosaur as the centerpiece of his/her army.
>>47294192
>>47294216
At least it's not a giant mechanical spider.
>>47293948
Why bother with undead dinos when you can use live ones?
I don't know how many siege ankylosaurus I've murdered in the last campaign.
Plus the fuckers use the tendons and bones to make really fuking good composite bows.
>>47293948
Remember when Harry Dresden did that.
Wasn't there an explanation as to why no one bothered doing it and he was an idiot for trying.
I mean it's not like you need to steal a full dinosaur skeleton, you could just raise tigers and gorillas or something.
>>47294018
>>47294016
So we combine Geomancy and Necromancy.
>>47294176
>>47294075
I'm intrigued. Any more details?
>>47295118
I imagine the benefit of Living vs. Dead is it's own conversation/thread. But if I can add my own 2 cents, I'd imagine it's the usual benefits. No food or maintenance cost, unwavering morale, tireless, and generally fucking intimidating.
Any other questions?
I've always ran liches like fucking nerds. Give them a 13th century almanac and the lich would dwell on that years record breaking tamato yeild and find it much more interesting than another group of people trying to kill him.
>>47295453
If your Liches are always bookworm nerds, than why would any adventurers try to kill this seemingly shy Bro?
>>47293948
Because in my setting you cannot animate skeletons.
You need muscles, tendons and other squishy parts for life magic to reanimate.
>>47295375
>I'm intrigued. Any more details?
MUH SETTING fag here:
Given that the soul is kinda important to the whole "being a person" thing, reanimation is generally done by the ignorant and/or suicidal: put too much of your soul into dead bodies and your soul and body die too, leaving you just another zombie. Various groups and entities have tried to find workarounds, but the only beings that know enough about manipulating souls are demons. Demons are completely opposed to the creation of undead because it ruins souls, so they're not helping.
Some research groups have managed to create animal/human hybrids that are similar enough to humans to be reanimated effectively by humans, and one even claims he managed to get a hybrid to reanimate an animal. His claims are mostly ignored, given that nobody's seen a hybrid that wasn't a gibbering retard at best.
The reason reanimation is used instead of just magically animating rock or something safe is that reanimation is:
Fast. It takes a matter of seconds to stick soul in a corpse, and months to get a rush-job golem moving.
Cheap. Corpses are (generally) free, constructs cost more than fancy houses.
Easy. Anyone with basic magical talent can fuck up their own soul, imbuing the unliving with false life takes years of study.
>>47295519
Interesting.
So in your setting can Souls be detached from the body, or is it strictly your own soul that you are doing the necromancy with?
>>47295568
Souls can be detached from the body, as evidenced by demons taking their pay and the occasional dead apprentice who tried something stupid, but as far as anybody knows it's a one-way process and invariably fatal. The demons surely know more, given that they seem to have an insatiable need for souls, but aren't telling.
The only way anybody's figured out to use somebody else's soul for reanimating the dead is by teaching that person how to do it the normal way. Interacting with somebody else's soul is impossible, barring demon bullshit. Looking at somebody else's soul is easy enough though. Examining the soul is fundamental to both false and true divination, healing, mind control, and even teleportation, all due to the way the soul is influenced by the body.
What further compounds the mystery is that nobody's found a way to look at their own soul in any detail: The best anybody gets is "it's part of me" and that's instinctive to anybody with magical talent, deep spirituality, keen awareness, or even just a lot of time to spend introspecting.
>>47295488
Dude, do you have ANY IDEA how much the famine-struck kingdom next door would pay for those agriculture notes? Pants this fucking nerd already and steal his notes!!
>>47293948
because everyone knows t-rexes could tell the future and are gradually working towards getting their entire species reanimated through time shenanagins http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2013/10/after-his-burial-and-before-his-death.html
>>47294075
To what end?
I mean cool, I'll go along with any crazy theory for a while but why on earth would they do that shit to begin with? What's the point in tricking people into believing that?
>>47294176
So it's simple, we take the necromancer's brain and put it into the T-Rex.
>>47295375
So we combine Geomancy and Necromancy.
No, he means that complete T-Rex skeletons actually don't exist as of yet. We just find a handful of T-Rex bones here and there and speculate on what a full skeleton would look like from cross reference between specimens as well as our general understanding of dinosaur anatomy. T Rex is hard to preserve.
>>47296638
>Have T-Rex Skull
>Have Elephant Body
>Have Manticore Tail
I can make this work
>>47295267
Well there were a few things said. First off most people avoid necromancy period, cause laws of magic, so there's that. Second off, human bodies are easy /convenient i think was part of it. Finally, it only worked cause it was Halloween. Basically cause it was halloween border between life and death is real thin, and that's what made it possible. It was still compared to lifting an engine block vertically, simple, but hard. Fortunately Harry isn't lacking in magical muscle.
>>47296961
>>47296638
plus you can use the Geomancy aspects to give the thing your creating skin of stone.
>>47294064
Exactly. And, fancy that, one of the primary forms of magic in Muh Settan is in fact a form of elementalism Not!Bending, which would give Terramancers control over fossils.
So there you go. Big fuck-off dino skelly for the wizard. Though the Astrolomancer has him beat, if he knows the right way to Call for (and has the power to summon) a Stellar Beast in 'dinosaur' configuration.
>>47293948
Because not every fucking setting has living dinosaurs in it, and fossils are fragile as shit. They're not even bone anymore, just not particularly durable rock, so necromancy won't fuckin' work. You'd have to make a construct instead of playing to your strengths as a Necromancer.
>>47293948
Skeletons can use ranged weapons and wear human armor
Reading this thread made me realize what dark sorceries were required to create the zords. Zordan had to turn living creatures in to giant mech with the ability to be mind controlled by the morpher. Remember that the zords actually felt pain. He also would have to send them into comas for however long he felt like, only to be woken up by some teenager to go fight to the possible death.
Was Zordon a lich?
>>47296555
Because the devil, obviously
>>47293948
Its been far too long to assemble such an army. Most rests are only partial, sp you'd need to dig up dozens of skeletons to assemble a single T-Rex.
Even if you did there'd be many other complications. To start off, animated skeletons are overall far worse servitors than normal zombies, since they need a steady supply of magical energy to hold together in place of flesh and ligaments. The lack of flesh also makes them way more prone to being incapacitated by broken bones, and fosilized bones are extraordinarily fragile, so you'd have to reinforce them using geomancy (since as stated fossils are stone).
Worst of all is that in case of a vital piece is ruined you can't just go to a graveyard and dig up a replacement for it.
Honestly, it can be done, but its simply not practical at all. You could make one or two of the things, but certainly not an army. You wouldn't even want them on an army, since their large size would make them easy targets for catapults and other war machinery.
Its the sort of excentricity you'd have on your evil lair, but even as a guardian you'd be better off with a zombie dragon or putting together a semi-sentient zombie abomination (don't forget that lack of brains makes skeletons unable to take decisions on their own. They just follow very simple, magically engraved instructions that they cannot deviate from).
An experimented necromancer can create zombies with some degree of agency so that they can adapt to the situation at hand. This ability to evaluate is vital in battle situations, since you cannot be expected to be the sole working mind controlling each unit. A chain of command of sufficiently intelligent zombies with the appropriate communication skills is necessary to lead the army. In fact, you want your zombies to be as intelligent as you can so they are apt commanders that can actually add to your own plans with their own innovative ideas.
>>47293948
Well they do in my setting, because everything is better with dinosaurs
>>47297043
It's actually because Butcher is a hack and his magical system/setting has absolutely no intgerity or reasoning behind it.
Guy probably thought they were actually bones too.
>>47299693
Oh look, it's you. Well,can you provide an example of a magical system that has integrity and reasoning behind it.
>>47299693
It think that moment was the Shark Jump of the series for me. It had been progressively getting worse, but it wasn't until he was riding a t-rex that I finally gave up.
>>47299495
I never considered this.
So going with the idea of eccentricity, could one have a setting/villain who place animated dinosaur skeletons as a sign of wealth and power?
Using your argument, a rather egotistical Lich or boastful Necromancer would have said T-Rex as the showpiece of his dark collection, with ever more necromancer trying to out shine their rivals with their own even more ancient Dino skeleton.
You can even make a quest out of it with your party hired put by a necromancer to steal his rivals Dino parts.
>>47294075
I've worked with several people who are convinced that dinosaurs are a hoax.
Can't blame the American public education system, because they went to private schools.
>>47293948
>>47299495
>Its been far too long to assemble such an army. Most rests are only partial, sp you'd need to dig up dozens of skeletons to assemble a single T-Rex.
Not only that, the most complete specimen, Sue, was only 85%, and while T. rex is one of the better preserved dino species in the fossil record, there are still only 60 some found.
>>47296638
>T Rex is hard to preserve.
Actually, it's one of the better preserved specimens...
We've even found soft tissue in one.
>>47298936
>Was Zordon a lich?
Only because in the Sentai, both the Dinozords and their bonded Teens had been in magical stasis since prehistory...
>>47300838
>Can't blame the American public education system, because they went to private schools.
Let me guess, Private CHURCH Schools?
>>47293948
Because there is no skeleton left?
>>47298815
>Because not every fucking setting has living dinosaurs in it
Those must be boring settings.
Because fantasy settings are based on our medieval period and they didn't have postmodern academics to fabricate dinosaur bones to try and convert the population to secular humanism yet.
Dinosaur bones didn't exist back then.
>>47304144
Explain ammonites.
>>47293948
They can't be revived because they were never alive to begin with. God just put them in the ground to test our faith.
>>47304263
Crustacean. Not a dinosaur.
Necromancers don't think dinosaurs are cool.
>>47293948
>>47294016
>>47294018
Because undead dinosaurs are a shitty use of Hit Dice. They can't go up stairs, through small openings, operate devices that use opposable thumbs... it goes on for a long time.
It's like in a wargame that has you build an army within a point limit; just shoving 1 or 2 fuckhueg uber-units usually makes for a shitty, easily defeated army. Necromancers want to win, too.
>>47295488
>13th century almanac
Maybe it's set in the 12th century and they need to know who wins all the horse races?
>>47305542
>Tournament results by year:
>Lancelot
>Lancelot
>Lancelot
>Lancelot
>Lancelot
>Galahad
A guy could make a lot of money, if he could arrange the bet.
>>47293948
>You got one post to tell me WHY Necromancers and motherfucking Liches don't have armies of fuck huge T-Rex skeletons and other dinos.
A) First off, it's usually based on HD, and a shitload of zombies is better for controlling a town full of levl 0 peasants than a single dinosaur skeleton.
B) Assuming dinosaurs are extinct in your setting, finding a complete skeleton is almost unheard of. 99% of what we know about dinosaurs comes from collections of fragments and gaps filled in by comparing multiple fragmentary finds with one another. And that's after months of painstaking excavation by entire teams and even longer sitting in a collection. You aren't just going to go waltzing in your backyard, trip over an exposed bone, do some digging with your shovel, and unearth a complete Gorgosaurus.
C) Symbolism. What makes necromancers all creepy is how they corrupt what we once understood as life. Part of why seeing dead bodies is creepy because we know what they're supposed to look like alive and they aren't doing it. We're used to seeing dead animals, especially dead dinosaur bones, so they aren't *as* creepy.
>>47305787
A) was already covered in >>47305533, but your post was a much more comprehensive assessment. Well done.
>>47293948
They don't have armies of them due to it being difficult for the necromancers to actually reach the nation that's infested with dinosaurs - they'd have to travel halfway across the continent, or have someone ship an army's worth of dinosaur corpses by ship around most of said continent.
And really, if they wanted an army of Big Nasty Beasties, they could go for the giant crocodiles and the hydrae that are native to the swamplands of the necromantic nation
>>47293948
The feathers get into everything.
>>47299693
Has more than most magic systems Ive seen. Yeah its not perfect, and I admit harry's constantly rising power level was kinda offputting, and some feats arent thought out well, but I find it to be at least fairly consistent and it does at least give a small nod to basic physical laws. But I could be blinded since Ive been reading them a long time, for the sake of discussion, discussion not arguement lets keep things civil, what objections do you have?
>>47305787
>>47305883
B) and C) are just "it's hard" and "it's not as creepy. There are plenty of necros who don't give a shit about being creepy, and in any case they aren't afraid of doing time consuming, difficult, tedious things.Hello, becoming a lich in the first place?
>>47296555
Fucking religious nuts... Usually it's to do with Science (as an entity) supplanting the Church as a moral authority, taking over the world and noisily destroying humanity through hubris.
Occasionally it's the revelatory system, the idea that things were perfect six thousand years ago and every day since has only been a muddying of God's perfect plan. All attempts at gaining knowledge or applying rationality is a pollution of God's will. The second type need to be on fire all the time, imo.
>>47300838
True, the really religious nuts send their kids to private, religious schools. Then they complain about the public education system corrupting their kids by not teaching them their crazy religious stuff and not holding mandatory prayer in school.
>>47306283
>private, religious schools
>not homeschooling
>>47293948
>"inb4 muh setting."
>mfw this guy again
i really hope you aren't the same guy who did 2 threads whining about the phrase "depends on the setting" but you can't be too sure nowadays
but back on topic if you want an answer ask yourself this question "does/did my setting have/had dinosaurs?" if no that's why, if yes then like others said before in this thread fossils are rock not bone and even if that wasn't the case you're not going to 100% guaranteed there's a dinosaur skeleton wherever you're standing
>>47304876
>Necromancers don't think dinosaurs are cool.
Then I've got a bone to pick with them.
>>47306333
Kek.
Don't know who that faggot complaining about home brew settings is, but I meant "Muh setting" as an attempt at a conversation starter. Figured people would start sharing their home brews with dinos.
>>47293948
Dinosaur souls are long gone and shoving souls into anatomically unfamiliar corpses has suboptimal results. I mean, regular undead already have shitty motor skills.
>>47306848
Take this as a clear message that you need to work on your communication skills.
>>47300808
Probably if Liches were to have some kind of contact then that'd be the case. Maybe a society were use of necromancy is a cultural tradition and thus widespread, where most of the top aristocrats and personalities would be some kind of undead, be it liches, vampires, geists or zombies.
In such a society something like animating a T-Rex would be considered something akin to fine art, requiring a broad knowledge of the magical arts (besides necromancy) and the ability to combine them to create the zombie.
I don't think the antiquity of the fossil would matter too much, but instead its rarity and specially the aspect of the creature. The more exclusive and the more fashionable the better.
Precisely because of this any sample of soft, organic tissue would be priceless. With their mastery of undeath they could probably be able to 'grow' a zombie from a well-preserved DNA sample. Why?, Because of the scales, feathers and their lush colours. Plus, as stated before: zombies > skeletons. Those who couldn't afford a zombie would probably gild their skeletons, lushly decorating them with tinted metals and jewels as a sign of their wealth. Same goes for zombies, who would wear harnesses, crowns and all sort of armors, from fierce T-rexes with battle armor as battle mounts to small feathered saurs with pearls, emeralds and diamonds to make them look like extravagant peacocks.
The truly wealthy though, those at the pinnacle of society who can afford several tissue samples could create mutant undead abominations by combining their flesh through the most unholy rituals. Giant serpents, zombie insectoid mutants, dinosaur hydras, ancient dragons. Nightmares beyond imagination are all possible.
Those that the liches were truly proud about could even act as guardians of their phylacteries as a sign of their pride and trust in their ineffable power.
>>47306886
That's pretty awesome, and also you taught me the right definition of ineffable.
>>47306886
This man knows how to world build.
Stare and learn from him.
>>47307014
I think you're giving him too much credit, but yeah it's pretty ok.
>>47306086
>B) and C) are just "it's hard"
There's nothing "hard" about B. it's just statistically unlikely. Like winning lotto... only even rarer. if your plan hinges on something so unlikely occurring, then it's not "hard". It's downright unrealistic and asking why it doesn't happen more often is ridiculous.
And C is important because magic and fantasy is all about the power of symbols and ideas. The reason that necromancers as a concept in stories and games exist is because somebody wanted to have characters based on this disturbing concept.
If all you care about is making magical stuff move and do shit for you, then animate a bunch of rocks or something. If all you want is to be immortal, then drink from the well of eternal life, attain spiritual enlightenment, reincarnate and regain your previous memories, or whatever other options you can dream up.
Very rarely is necromancy in a setting the only way to get magic servants or immortality. The only reason to have to include necromancy in your setting is to have an option for bad guys to show just how bad they are, for not bad guys to be unfairly stereotyped as bad guys, and/or to "freak the normies" by mucking with cultural taboos and acting like nothing's wrong.
The above isn't bad, but admit you're doing it. When you lose sight of why it even exists in the first place, you start getting lead down all kinds of false logical conclusions based on an original foundation that was based nearly entirely on subjective ideas to begin with.
>>47307873
>statistically unlikely
So all you need is patience, and immortality... wait.
As to your other point, a persons in-character reasons for being a necromancer don't have to fit into your grand narrative purposes. Just because you have two ways to do something, say lighters and matches, doesn't mean that the only reason to use matches is to piss off environmentalists who hate the use of paper products. Other things like availability, personal affinity, and so forth contribute to the path a person takes.
>>47307873
>statistically unlikely
That's making the assumption that a complete fossil of the desired species still exists.
>>47293948
Where the hell are you going to find a dinosaur soul to animate your body, even if you do find a complete T. rex skeleton in good condition? It's been millions of years; they've all dissipated by now. Human skeletons? Human souls are easy, there's always thousands of them on the border between life and death in most places, and if you're lucky the original animating soul of the body in question may still be intact and retrievable with only minor degradation. Resurrecting long-extinct animals is nearly impossible.
Also, complete dinosaur skeletons in good condition are very hard to find, and fossilization has rendered them very fragile and makes them much less suitable as hosts for vital energies. Animating a fossilized skeleton, especially considering the necessary reinforcements, has more to do with golemics than ordinary necromancy, and requires both much greater skill and a substantially more healthy soul to decant. With a good-quality host shell, similar souls like contemporary giant lizards or dragons could be used, but with such a low-grade shell you'd practically need a living dinosaur already to extract a soul that would bind successfully.
In practice, you'd basically be constructing a chimeric soul or artificial servitor, making the whole exercise just building a dinosaur-shaped golem. Very labor-intensive, and not really worth the effort; as long as you're practically going to construct the material shell from scratch anyway you might as well do something crazier.
>>47293948
I want to be a necromancer, sit inside the up-armored ribcage of Giants and use them as necro-mecha. I shall call them 'siege zombies.'
I use the skeletons of beasts like dinos to make very comfy necro-mobile-homes that I can ride inside in comfort.
>>47307950
>So all you need is patience, and immortality... wait.
If, as >>47307999 suggested, a complete fossilized skeleton of the animal in question even exists. And assuming you actually extracted it without damaging/losing it. And assuming you could actually put it together.
Fuck it, just animate something else. You have to want to do nothing else but make a dinosaur from fossilized remains for this to actually work.
>>As to your other point, a persons in-character reasons for being a necromancer don't have to fit into your grand narrative purposes.
And those in-character reasosn are created by out of character people for out of character reasons. There can be harmony, but we mustn't lose sight of what's really going on.
>>Just because you have two ways to do something, say lighters and matches, doesn't mean that the only reason to use matches is to piss off environmentalists who hate the use of paper products. Other things like availability, personal affinity, and so forth contribute to the path a person takes.
Environmentalists don't go around preaching the dangers of match use. Settings don't go out of their way to describe that using matches is frowned upon. No setting features people who use matches being creepier or morally repugnant compared to those who don't.
Now- if a setting DID do all that, and STILL decided to feature matches and people played characters that used matches, then yes, they pretty much would be doing it for those reasons.
But even that analogy falls short, because matches in fiction have context outside of fantasy settings, while necromancy really doesn't.
>>47293948
There's already perfectly good dragon corpses lying around for them to use, so going digging for inferior versions seems a waste of time.
>>47307014
>>47307247
Yeah, its not so much as to say its proper world-building. Its a start but that's that. It needs to have more aspects to be a truly appealing world.
Lets part from what we already have. We've mentioned that this society of undead would be aware of DNA and thus have modern-day biology knowledge, more or less. Thus its pretty reasonable to expect that they'd be equally advanced in other sciences and have a reasonable degree of technology. Magiteck being a thing in the setting. For those that can afford it anyways (it would be the irl equivalent of owning a sports car or something).
As to what degree of technology that'd be that's up to the personal taste of the DM. Maybe its the equivalent of the 1920s, when interest on science, art and fashion is booming among the bourgeoisie and the wealthy. It would be fun to see them attending the world's science fairs at the most fashionable capitals of the world, taking the opportunity to show off their latest, most extravagant 'pets' as a sign of status, and both socializing and making business with the rest of the undead high society.
In this context we could create an adventure centred around the collection of strange creatures around the world, since its still is the early 1900s and the world still isn't completely explored.
I can imagine them using Jules-Verne-like / steampunkish machines to explore such dangerous places as the depth of the oceans, the depths of the jungle, the highest peaks in the world and the most unforgiving deserts in the world all to capture mythical, beasts and unique specimens (albino gorillas, bicephalous anacondas, woolly rhinos, rocs, jackalopes and whatnot).
The good thing about this is that it makes it easy for characters to have a wide array of distinct backstories. From aristocrats to mercenaries to ex-factory workers. There are people from all paths of life and no shortage of work for those daring enough to take it.
>>47308152
Talk about pimp my ride.
Or is it "Necro" my steed?
>>47308160
For an immortal lich, infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters isn't a matter of if, but when.
I'm not saying that it's an unrealistic goal, just that liches have, traditionally, not always worried about realistic goals, and certainly not from the same perspective as regular people.
>>47308253
Sweet.
So in this high fashion magical world, would Necromancy become the undesirable, yet necessary science (similar to those who stuff animal corpses) so that all of the scientific/magical world can fully understand how these beasts function and work?
How far can mere Necromancy and magic allow for complete resurrection of long dead species?
It can be a zoological ultra ark, with nearly all of the species of the world immune to extinction, (if of course there is monetary and magical interest in doing so).
I think we're on to something /tg/.
>>47308282
>For an immortal lich, infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters isn't a matter of if, but when.
Unless it's a matter of not- as in the thing they're waiting around for doesn't actually exist, and even if it does, it doesn't mean they'll get it.
Infinite doesn't mean everything is going to happen eventually.
So I suppose the answer to OP's question is that there is some Lich sitting around waiting to do exactly what OP has described, but will never actually accomplish their goal before they are happened upon by some goody-two-shoes adventurer that destroys them.
Given enough time, it's bound to happen.
Dinosaurs have lots of HD, it would take an epic level necromancer to have an army of them.
>>47293948
Probably because complete, non-crushed, dinosaur skeletons are very rare. At most a necromancer could have an elite squad of dinosaurs. That and dinosaur bones dont actually exist any more, the fossils they left behind are just bone shaped rocks
>>47308341
Wait, are you seriously saying that in a universe with no concrete best-before date, where creating new life forms is a thing that canonically happens, and dinosaurs are a thing to begin with, that a lich just WON'T EVER happen?
Unless you say that dinosaurs can never exist in your specific fantasy setting for the same reason that industrial revolution-era technology can't exist, but then that's just setting fiat.
A much more reasonable explanation is saying that liches and liche-creation technology are statistically like to cease to exist in setting by the time dinosaurs come around again, along with the conditions that caused the discovery of lich-making techniques is the first place.
>>47308563
The comment I made that started this particular tangent was based on the assumption that dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years and the necromancer is trying to use fossilized remains.
If that's not the case, then- as I pointed out before and after in my post- it's simply a matter of how one wants to spend the HD and what the personal aesthetic of whoever is writing/playing the setting/character is.
>>47294176
Will undead created by the rex-lich walk like t-rexes?
>>47308715
But of course.
>>47308334
The other way around actually. Its the pursuit of the finest necromantic craftsmanship what impulses the research of biology and early attempts at biochemistry. Neurology, cardiology and cellular biology are all subjects of great interest and is not common for distinguished members of the scientific community to be necromancers, undead or both. Specially considering that unlife does give you an eternity to research.
In this world probably Necromancy would be a practice considered proper of the high class and ancient knowledge is passed through generations of centenary liches to their succesors as the heads of their families, since its exprcted the oldest, most experienced (and powerful) member of the family would act as the patriarch. Maybe there was never a tabu regarding necromancy in this world to begin with.
So now we have a culture with defined customs, a certain flavour and its unique idiosyncrasies to explore alongside a guild-like system to serve as an appealing adventure hook that allows for players to visit all corners of the world, offering a lot of variety. What we need now is a bad guy, every setting needs at least some big bad right?
To keep it in line with the early science theme I'd suggest an eugenist lich, a mad scientist but at the same time a figure of weight for his (her?) ample experience. Someone who proposed the superiority of undeath and sought to purge all life to create a world of zombies to experiment on using the DNA of several species (recurring to the designated adventure gild) to create the perfect unlife form and achieve total domination with it as the world's master race.
If you like it thus far why don't you give ideas of your own?, I'm going to sleep and if the thread still exist when I wake up I'll try to keep expanding on this.
>>47309233
>I'm going to sleep
Where do you live, the Atlantic Ocean?
>>47293948
this is a good point.
>>47294016
yea in our world dino bones are fossilized, in warhammer and other fantasy settings they still exist. it actually makes no sense that some lich or necromancer hasn't tried to do this.
>>47309415
Spain, so more or less yeah.
>>47293948
because animating skeletons in my settings is more like marionette puppetry, which doesn't even count as necromancy.
But is terribly complicated and getting motions right for most skeletons requires observation and understanding of a living specimen's movement patterns (thus, why humanoid skeletons are commonly used compared to animals), so if they tried applying it to a T-rex, they're probably going to end up manipulating it like it was drunk. VERY drunk. And brain dead.
>>47309233
Well if I can be so bold, I would consider a major villain to be a mad abomination. Ala Frankensteins monster.
In a world destined to reach the "ultimate" being through unquestioned scientific and dark arts, than one potential villain would be a failed version of said being. (Version .01).
In it's twisted state, it seeks to destroy and upturn the existing world that made it. Leaving it up to the players eventually to decide if this golden age is truly what it tries to be, or if this abominations quest of vengeance is natural and just.
Just a thought of course.
