Death Magic¶
"Expulvation deals with the severance and/or destruction of the spirit. Often shunned by those of good alignment, it is commonly referred to by it's nickname: Death Magic." — the Expulvation college (S293)
Death magic is the magic that feeds on life and souls. Its practitioners capture souls and burn them for power, sever spirits from their bodies, bind the dead to serve them and spread rot through the living. It is not one tradition but a family that turns up in every school: an arcane college, a Namakan rune discipline, the curses of Elder gods and the craft of necromancers. Everywhere it is shunned. What a soul is, and what it means for one to be destroyed or chained, is told under Souls and Spirits; the undead it raises are described under Undead.
The dark energy¶
"Death Magic deals with the destruction and consumption of lifeforce and life energies. A hallmark of death magic is the dark energy it commands. Black, insubstaintial smokey trails and creatures are the products of death magic" (S414). Its first tool is a prison for souls: a death mage prepares a soul vessel, "any non-living item" turned "into a container that can store souls for future use", then captures souls from the newly dead, "a burst of dark shadowy energy exists their lifeless body, making the body arch briefly before falling back to lifelessness" (S414). Captured souls are spent. One "Dark Sacrament" consumes "a powerful soul" so that the mage may cast beyond their own power, "surrounded with dark energy, which suddenly implodes into you" (S414). The Soul Knife, "a blade of dark energy" that "springs from your hand and buries itself deep in your target's body", consumes a soul to strike (S414).
In the schools¶
The arcane college of Expulvation, the Aether domain's college of destruction, is the arcane form; its first working is the Soul Knife, "a direct attack on the spirit of the target" (S293). Its sister college Spectromancy "specializes in the empyrean undead (apparitions) and the binding and warping of undead spirits to serve you", working through "the shroud", "the limited reality that apparitions are able to experience while existing in the in-between (partially on the material, shadow and astral planes)" (S296). The archive's Ethereal college works the soul and the Ethereal plane, including disrupting undead (S404).
The Namakan runecasters of the Sancturi made death a discipline of their own. The Runebinder's forms Animate, Death and Oblivion raise the dead, collect and spend souls, and turn necrotic power to healing; the rune-lore says a zombie needs "a fairly intact corpse" and that "the soul residue must still be present (~10 years)" (S253, S254, S255). Even their uncommon runes include a Hungering Dark that "consumes soul" (S231). The discipline is described under Namakan Runecasting, its undead under Undead.
Bloodrot and the Elder curses¶
In the Proturan campaign the Elder Goddess Teneb'Vari spreads corruption through the forbidden forest of the Etterwood, turning its creatures in four stages from Dark Feeder to Dark Scourge, after which the dead creature "becomes an undead and is under the direct control of the spirit of Teneb'Vari" (S052); the beasts are described under Scourged. Its cultists are led by a Necruspex, "equivalent of an Ascendant" (S052).
The magic of blood and blight answers it. Morwen's Tome of Bloodrot "grants Bloodrot Sovereignty from a Bloodstone embedded in the dark silvery clasp which keeps the book locked"; opening it "requires a Blood Source" and an incantation (S052). Bloodrot Sovereignty makes a mage's rot "effective against fleshy corporeal undead (not skeletal)", and the tome's Bloodrot workings, "a high-magic crossover with blight", explode infected corpses "showering the area with infectious and acidic blood", infect the wounded, quicken a plague so that "anyone dying due to bloodrot spews a cloud of Bloodrot spores upon death", or turn the infection into a paralytic toxin (S052). The tome draws on the rubrics of "Blood and Blight" (S052).
Corpserot is the demons' version. The demonlord Vileryth, "Lord of Corpserot, Bone Demon", rules a Demonblight near Urdhar, and his creatures are "drenched in Corpserot Ichor": rot-wyverns that launch spikes of it, wights that hurl it, and skeletons "covered with, and grown from Corpserot Ichor" (S050).
Withering Death¶
Isador, who ran a syndicate in Proturas, planned to keep a crew loyal with it: "a Withering Death Spell placed on the leader ... Hidden from detection. It's basically a horrible death", "woven in such as way that any attempt to dispel it is likely to trigger it" (S039).
The Necromongers¶
In the Fourth Age, in Angorath, necromancers called Necromongers serve a hidden master. One, Eggrin, passed off "a necromantic summoning circle" as a protection circle and flooded a refugee enclave with zombies; an "Undead Necromonger", "a commander of undead", calls up the dead by touching an orb (S328). Under the name Salaran he "charmed the Earl and convinced him this project will protect Ornwell from the encroaching Blight", with "several Necromongers (Wizards) and laborers" at work and cages holding candidates "of half-elves / high elven blood" (S328).
The Necromancer of Delvarn¶
The most famous death mage of the Fifth Age is Rodrizhal, "known only as the Necromancer", an "arch-lich" who "suffers no rivals" and rules Delvarn through undead patrols (S153). "His goal is the creation of life, to become a creator and permanently conquer death. He also aims to create a godless society of living and dead, where the gods are not relevant" (S153). His law has four articles: "No fighting, No stealing, No religion, Obey the Dead" (S153). His undead "can freely attack demons and other magic-users" (S153).
Gap
No source says how the world at large regards death magic beyond its being "shunned by those of good alignment" (S293), whether any order licenses or hunts its practitioners, or how soul vessels and phylacteries relate.
Earlier accounts¶
The earliest magic-user draft divides death magic between two spheres: Death, in the Spirit sphere, the "manipulations of the spirit/body connection", and Necromancy, in the Living sphere, which manipulates "the dark energies of the negative energy plane, controlling dark emotions, and imbuing death and corruption"; both are marked as fields "often associated to evil or rogue wizards" (S371). The Compendium lists the Necromancer as a "Dark Caster" of the Spirit sphere (S372, see Casting Focuses of the Earlier Ages). The 2014 Death Magic list is the source of the soul vessel and the dark sacrament above (S414).
Legacy rules for death magic are kept under Mechanics: Death Magic, Aether Colleges and Death and Oblivion Forms.