The Association of Conjurers, Summoners and Necromancers
Alignment: neutral, any.
Putting the "romance" back into "necromancer"...
In the world of Wizardry, even since times before the Great Disaster, Necromancers have always had a bad name. Their magic stems from the recuperative and destructive powers the body has over itself; it dabbles in ways to control the body after the spirit has departed, leaving it tarnished with a dark reputation. Great power to both kill the body and trap the soul with a single spell is a cause of fear in most ordinary people. It is the most unnatural of magics.
History
The Necromancers
It was to confront Necromancy's poor reputation that two enchanters, Mabbut Clegg and Dale Farramon, both members of The Sect of Eshost, left the relative safety of their own sect in 819 to challenge this traditional thinking about this much misunderstood branch of magic. With support from one of the senior Diviners of the Pale Flame, Greg Tober, they intended to carry out pioneering study into the field of necromancy and so established the Sect of Necromancers. They were determined to improve the knowledge of this school amongst mages everywhere. They set up a new base in the south, not far from Tarn, but they kept their operation low-profile and out of the way they did not want to attract many misunderstanding visitors.
They found the initial running costs very high, and struggled. To keep money flowing in, they continued teaching the school of Enchantment but many of their students were unaware of some of the work that was taking place in the buildings where they studied. They received little help from the Sects they had left (The Pale Flame and The Sect of Eshost) in setting up their new venture. The irony is that it was the new sect who influenced the Pale Flame into finally adopting necromancy as one of their own schools in 1104. The new sect took ten years to find its feet and nearly went under several times. It was not until they perfected spells such as Transfer Life and Chill Touch that they finally became established among their peers, and only then that they resolved their financial issues.
By 1100, the group had grown considerably, and had done some startling research into their school. When the plague hit, the Pale Flame and the Sect of Necromancers worked together in an attempt to counter its effect. History records this as an abject failure both sects failed to make any impact on the effects of the disease, but the magic users did not see it as wasted effort. Some important research had been done under the pressure of finding a cure, and the Pale Flame had provided the Sect of Necromancers with the knowledge to complete several new spells. As knowledge of this branch of magic increased, the bigotry and hatred against it reduced. By the year 1200 the sect had expanded to three centres in the southern Empire, but it had not reached into the north.
Conjuration and Summoning
As a response to the growth in agriculture in Caldonacia in the run up to the crisis in 1159, many support services had sprung up. There was a rise in demand for metalworking and blacksmithing for agricultural use, and this lead to some interesting changes to the industrial processes. Some of the less-scrupulous businessmen began to secretly use magic to help with the production of low-grade steel for farming use. Although kept under wraps, and well away from the prying eyes of any of the commoners, the end result was a necessity for everyday life for Caldonacia's grain farmers. One of the most perceptive conjurers, Dornan Rees, is documented as using unseen servants and conjured elementals to provide this expensive, but hard wearing metal to the community. His business model meant he could easily undercut his competitors, and it is estimated that he was producing 80-90% of the steel used for farm equipment in Caldonacia during 1155 and 1156.
By 1158, with very small overheads, no staff and a massive turnover, Rees had become extremely wealthy. He was very popular in the local community, and sponsored many public activities. He built himself a reputation as a philanthropist and an eccentric. He invested in many projects before he realised there was a gap in teaching for his particular skills with summoning. So he decided to use his cash to establish a new magic user sect in Caldonacia devoted to the study of his area of expertise; conjuration and summoning spells through the Summoning school. Just like his steel business, this quickly became a success. By 1160, the sect was taking more of his time, and he lost some of the focus on his industrial efforts, just at the time when Caldonacia's farming policy was changing.
While the sect thrived, the unfortunate mage fell upon hard times. King Bruan's farming policy began to bite - grain was subsidised centrally and pumped into Ticetia to manipulate and finally dominate the marketplace, and there was less money in the farming industry. Being a farmer in Caldonacia during this time was very risky; people were relying on handouts and subsidies from the King and forced to keep their prices low. While this just about kept the farmers in business, all the farming support industries suffered really hard times and there were new competitors springing up who could match Rees' price and quality.
The King ensured his farmers were protected during this time, but Dornan's steel business, like many others supporting farmers, was left hanging. The reliance on subsidies meant that few farmers were spending money on capital equipment, and Dornan found it hard to predict the demand for his metals. As new competition pushed prices down, Dornan found his company struggling he had no handouts from the King, and his order book was empty. Rees was in deep financial trouble by 1167, he focussed his efforts on keeping his farm tools industry going; this turned out to be a futile gesture, as he went bankrupt in 1168.
Dornan had seen what was happening, and to protect his Sect he appointed a trusted friend to run its affairs early in 1167, and severed all financial ties. Dornan's Sect of Conjurers had reached a plateau during that time, and although it had become popular with Cadonacias conjurers and summoners, Caldonacians unpopularity in the other kingdoms ruled out expansion into other territories. In the run-up to his bankruptcy, Dornan cut his few staff in a desperate attempt to keep his business afloat, but this was not well received. One of his former employees reported the use of magic to the authorities, and an angry mob turned up at factory, ransacked the place and lynched him. He was rescued by King Bruan's militia, but not before his factory was burned to the ground by the rioters. He was later burned at the stake for witchcraft, but they never discovered his ties to Dornans Sect of Conjurers.
Creating the Modern Day Sect
When the second great plague struck in 1242, the political situation between the Empire, Caldonacia and Ticetia had changed utterly. The mistrust of three generations previously was largely forgotten, Ticetia had risen as a power, and the plague brought similar problems to all people. Both the Sect of Necromancers and Dornans Sect of Conjurers and Summoners were hit hard financially; the plague stripped them both of members and of income.
The necromancers pressed ahead with research into the plague's causes and ways to contain it, but again they could do nothing to contain the effects of the disease. They were powerless when it hit their own establishments in the Carrodian Empire. Their mages fled north to Caldonacia, where they met up with members of the ailing Dornans Sect, with whom they sought refuge while they carried out their work into the plague. After three months of working in the same buildings, the sects naturally joined forces. The necromancers had nothing left in the south, and the conjurers were in desperate need of help to keep their sect alive. It was decided that the name of Dornan Rees was politically difficult to keep as he had been burned for witchcraft. The new sect wanted to avoid being seen as a protest organisation, and so the Sect of Conjurers, Summoners and Necromancers was born.
The necromancers clung on to their roots in the Empire, and insisted on a move back south when the plague had run its course. It was not until 1348, over a hundred years after the plague, and six years after the unification of Arthea that the funds were raised for this move and a suitable property was found. To this day, the Association of Conjurers, Summoners and Necromancers have only these three centres in Caldonacia and one in the Empire.
The sect has a larger following today than would be expected for such a small base of operations. There is also a great rivalry between the necromancers and the conjurers in the sect, so much so that the members almost behave like two separate Sects. It was partly to stem these differences, and partly to give a higher image to the sect that the school of Divination was introduced into the sect in the 1390's. Divination has traditionally been seen as a high-brow school of magic, requiring high intellect and expensive material components which keep it out of the reach of many. With Divination came some fresh impetus to the sect, and some fresh minds to challenge the thinking of the established magic users.
Amongst mages today, the sect has the image of a high class organisation, with ample wealth. The sect does not speak against this apparent position, as it is indeed wealthy; it has a large membership in proportion to the number of centres it maintains. It applies no restriction to the membership based on income or apparent wealth, though, and is always happy to accept new recruits from any background provided they can afford the fees.
Membership
Membership is open to all of any background, but does tend to focus on those based nearer to the sect's centres of operation in Caldonacia and in the former Empire.
Membership Fees
Membership fees are not cheap but the sect focuses on high quality teaching and maintains a high standard of facilities, so maintains good value. It also sub-contracts teaching facilities from the Pale Flame, with whom they have had a good working relationship for many years (since they co-operated to help with the Plague). Membership fees, therefore, reflect this. They have both a joining fee of 500gp, and an annual renewal membership fee of 250gp. This rises to 350gp for members of tenth level and higher.
Alignment
The sect places no alignment restrictions on its membership. While it purports to be largely neutral, it does behave as though it were a good sect. There are members of all alignments, including evil, but as is often the case with sect work, the sect becomes more important in support terms to the mage than alignments considerations.
Symbols
Because of the divisions in the sect between summoners and necromancers, the sect has in the past used more and more intricate and often outrageous symbols for various occasions and situations. There has been general agreement now, though in the use of a symbol of a lit brazier. Some more old-fashioned necromancers, however, still use the symbol of a human skull, while the same generation of summoners seem attached to the pentagram symbol.
Additional Spells
Level 1
Shadowform (Summoning)
Range| Touch
Components| V, S
Duration| 3 rounds/level
Casting Time| 1
Area of Effect| creature touched
Saving Throw| none
By using this spell, the caster is able to hide either their self or another creature in dim light by wrapping their body in shadow. The spells effect remove chances of detection by infravision, and in darkened areas provide almost total invisibility. The spell can only be used where there are shadows, at night or in dark places. The mage gains a magical +10 bonus to their hide skill in these conditions. The spell effects can be cancelled at any time by the caster, and will disappear as soon as the mage makes an attack, as with the invisibility spell.
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