Necromancy

The following texts are all that remain of the book titled “On the Use and Practice of the Pure Arts”. These few pages were salvaged after the Order of Secret Lore declared the original text heretical and ordered it burned in the Great Necromantic Purge. What remains has been kept locked away in the vaults of the Tower of Secret Lore for many decades, its contents known only to a few. Whilst there is no record of the true author of the book, scholars believe the creator to be the sorceress known as the Right Hand of Kangaxx. If this is an honorary title or, in fact, the same woman has been serving Kangaxx for over a thousand years is a subject of much debate.

On the Origin of the Pure Arts
''Elves are, by their nature, arrogant. Their self-serving presence in the myth of our planets birth has left them with a sense of self-importance that is entirely beyond their actual ability. As such, their attempts to categorize magic and claim it as their own invention have been laughable. The rigid structuring of the arcane has left wizards feeling restrained, and the true nature of magic has been bastardized to the point where practicers must adhere to strict wordings of even basic rituals in order to achieve anything remotely effective. Freedom is seen as corrupting, innovation as rebellion. Even after the human race acted to redistribute the consensus on magic, the legacy of the Elves has meant only a few spheres of sorcery have ever truly been expanded upon.''

''However, I must admit that the Elven astronomers have at least used an effective method of drawing power. The evidence that magic must be astronomically and cosmologically based is compelling, and anyone who thinks they can progress in the arcane through tricks of hedge-witchery and herbalism is simply being ignorant. But, in their arrogance and pomposity, they have elected that only a few celestial bodies can ever be the source of power. My master attempted to prove this wrong. He demonstrated that there was far more in the heavens than the Elves could understand, that they had been blind and in their blindness had reduced magic to only a fraction of its true potential. But in demonstrating the finest of all magics, the Pure Arts, he was decried as a monster and exiled into the frozen wastes. And the world lost the chance to work peacefully with one of its finest minds. But my master continued his studies, even when so distant, and it was from here that the greatest of magics was born. That of Necromancy, which I shall expound upon here.''

''Necromancy relies not upon the Sun, which in its heat and brightness will burn out its energy all too quickly. Nor does it rely on the Moon, whose frigid and lonely appearance provides only the most meagre of anchors from which to create spells. Nor does it rely on the stars, who are too distant and ethereal to provide skill in anything but paltry fortune-telling. Necromancy relies on that other great celestial entity, one that only the most practised of eyes can see and sense; the Void or Vacuus. The space in between, the vast and endless darkness in which all of reality swims. As it is all-encompassing, it is the most powerful, a fact which many refuse to acknowledge. If we were to cram the Vacuus into the rigid system of the Elves, its habitat would consist of the wastelands of the worlds – the endless deserts or frozen tundras or deepest oceans – and its aligning Plane would be that of the Outside and Fey realms, where magic finds its truest and most uncontaminated forms. It is the Vacuus which grants the true name to Necromancy; a name which has been equated with wickedness by those who seek to shroud our studies in lies. They are the Pure Arts, for what could be purer than the smooth and unblemished darkness of the Void.''

This text will instruct how to connect one's mind with the Vacuus, the practice of enchanted nihilism and the methods by which one survives...