Aaron Peori Setting Homebrew: Necromancy, The Broken Enlightenment
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Necromancy: The Broken Enlightenment
A History of Necromancy
When the Primordials forged Creation from the inchoate chaos that existed before time they forged a language of understanding with which to cooperate. This process made all things possible, time and space and life and death and all the facets of existence. The shinma were fixed by their efforts and the elements and the fabric of the Loom of Fate spun from their essence. The full understanding of this method is beyond the capability of all but the Primordials themselves, even the greatest Twilights of the High First Age could only decode the simplest arrangements of this language of will-working. This process was called Sorcery.
It was not enough.
Nobody knows who it was that journeyed through the deepest and most dangerous realms of the Underworld, who navigated the rivers that had grown impassably violent and dense that far from the sanity of Creation or who wandered the unspeakable horrors of the Deep Labyrinth to come across the tombs of the dead Primordials; the Neverborn. It is known what their goal was.
The idea was simple; scholarship of the secrets of the highest tiers of Sorcery, beyond even the Adamant Circle into the realm which the Primordials themselves used to forge all existence, was impossible because so much of it had been lost in the Primordial War. Perhaps the breaking of the Primordials into the Yozi had shattered their capacity to employ their most useful secret. Perhaps the Three Spheres Cataclysm had burned away most of its vocabulary. Perhaps the dead and sunken Primordial corpses, which existed beyond the reach of these events, could be mined for hidden secrets.
The conspiracy which cracked open the tombs of the dead yet dreaming corpse-titans and turned their fitful nightmare influence loose upon the Underworld came to be called the Black Nadir Concordant. They succeeded in finding a truth that was not contained in Sorcery, a way of manipulating raw Essence and will that defied the limitations of Sorcery. Truly it seemed they had stumbled upon the secret of exceeding even Exalted understanding and standing as peers to the ancient Primordials themselves.
They were wrong.
Long before the full understanding of what they had unleashed was achieved the practice of Necromancy had spread throughout the First Age. Mystery cults and illegal research projects began to appear faster than the Deliberative could suppress them and entire regions broke ties with the Deliberative to practice the black science openly. Horrific experiments multiplied and inflicted lasting and seemingly unhealable wounds on the geomancy of Creation. By the time of the Usurpation the true cost of Necromancy was being explored even as the Deliberative began to ponder legalizing it. Some say this was one of the more dire causes for the Dragonblooded uprising. Others claim that the continued spread of the practice throughout the Shogunate was only possible because the Terrestrial Exalted could not police it as well as the Celestial Exalted had been able to. Certainly the aberration that was Mamara's Fell was beyond any Necromantic experiment before it.
What is Necromancy?
The Black Nadir Concordant was attempting to bypass the limits of Sorcery in their explorations. In a way, they succeeded. In a far more important way, they failed utterly. Sorcery can been seen as the utilization of a system designed by the Primordials to found Creation, of which Sorcerers gain only a very limited understanding. In effect, all Sorcerers are driven slightly mad by their Initiations into Sorcery as their entire worldview is sent askew. It is said that Sorcery changes the Sorcerer as much as the Sorcerer changes the world. Perhaps an exaggeration, but one that is useful enough that it is common wisdom among the more reputable Sorcerous Academies.
In principle, Necromancy is nothing more than another form of Sorcerous initiation, much like the more common Salinian School or the Infernal Enlightenments available to Infernals and Akuma. A creature that learns a Necromantic Initiation is just like any other sorcerer. They conjure the same spells in the same manner as any other Sorcerer. The spells are twisted and distorted by the Necromantic Enlightenment in the same manner a Infernal distorts a spell through their patron Yozi's understanding of Sorcery. Whereas a Salinian Sorcerer would conjure a swarm of obsidian butterflies and Malfean Sorcery would conjure a plague of brass wasps, a Necromancer would evoke a cloud of razor sharp bone locusts. Instead of brass skin a Necromancer would transform their skin into the desiccated leathery flesh of a mummy. The Sorcerer may travel in a miniature tornado but a Necromancer is carried across the earth atop a monstrous carpet of skeletal arms that burst forth from earth in front of him, fling him over obstacles and snatch projectiles from the air. None of these aesthetic differences effect the underlying mechanical effects of the spell. Players are encouraged to come up with their own variations on these spells with Storyteller approval.
Like Sorcery, the Necromantic Enlightenment is broken up into three levels designed as Charms, available at Essence 3, 4 and 5. Colloquially these are called the Shadowland, Labyrinth and Void Circles but this is an affectation not a statement of meaning. Any creature capable of achieving the equivalent level of Sorcery can learn Necromancy of the same level with some caveats. Countermagic (or equivalent effects) of the appropriate Circle operates equivalently between the various forms of Enlightenment. An Adamant Circle Countermagic will disrupt a Solar Circle Sorcery as much as a Void Circle Necromancy, Sapphire Countermagic is equally effective against Celestial Sorcery, Labyrinth Necromancy or God-Machine Weaving and so on. Unless explicitly detailed otherwise in the Charm which grants access to Sorcery any Sorcery spell may be learned by an equivalent Necromancer and vice versa at the same level of Enlightenment. A Shadowland Necromancer can learn a version of Open the Spirit Door as easily as a Terrestrial Sorcerer can learn the Rune of Sweet Passing. Some spells will be easier or more efficacious if cast using one form of Enlightenment or another as outlined in the individual Enlightenment Charm learned but in principle there is no other limit unless spelled out by that Charm.
The primary weakness, and benefit, of Necromancy is that learning Necromancy does not actually manipulate Essence in the same way that Sorcery does. Instead it creates Resonance. It is impossible to employ Necromancy without becoming tainted by this dissonant energy. All beings that learn any Necromancy Enlightenment Charms gain a Resonance track if they did not already have one. This track starts empty but learning certain Necromancy spells earns Resonance points and certain extremely potent spells grant Resonance dots as well. Most beings do not have a way of naturally expelling Resonance. Only Abyssal Exalted can natively reduce their Resonance track, all others must do so through certain spells and rituals. These rituals are well known to the Immaculate Order and most exorcists across Creation and are difficult to perform secretly without extensive preparation. Any creature with one or more dots of Resonance is considered a Creature of Darkness, with all the penalties that entails. Because of this Necromancers are extremely secretive and rare, most Exalted consider losing access to many of their most potent Charms to not be worth it, as well it makes them a target of suspicion for their peers. Necromancy is illegal and punishable by death in both the Realm and Lookshy.
Necromancers who do not have a native Resonance track or other condition that imposes penalties for Resonance instead suffer the following effects: For every two dots of Resonance they have they suffer a -1 external penalty on rolls to regain Willpower from rest as their sleep is filled with disturbing images. The only way to regain Willpower once they have achieved 10 Resonance is to fulfill a Motivation, which tends to make Necromancers dangerously obsessed.
The Profane Truth of Necromancy
Given the limitations and dangers of Necromancy why would one ever study it? For some, it is seen as not a choice. For almost all Abyssal Exalted, as well as a certain percentage of Dragonblooded and Lunar Exalted who have acquired Resonance by being too close to the Underworld, learning Necromancy is easier than Sorcery and the dead are easier to entreat than elementals or demons. Many mortals can not find a teacher willing to guide them through Sorcerous Initiation but Necromancers are always on the outlook for people willing to pursue knowledge or power at any cost.
The other major reason to study Necromancy is that many Necromancers seek to transcend the limits of Sorcery. The ultimate goal of many Necromancers is to defeat the fundamental laws of Creation, to defeat Death and Time. Necromancy is an act of transgression against existence, a profane rejection of the very laws of time and life. Necromancy sickens Creation, violating the established order. Whereas a Sorcerer manipulates the laws of essence in ways both expected and unexpected the Necromancer causes those laws to break down and shatter. In this way, the Necromancer hopes to undo Death.
Of course, no Necromancer has ever succeeded. If it is even possible to succeed, such a feat would need to break all of causality and destroy the Loom of Fate and murder the shinma themselves. Such insanity is not worth contemplating, but for the Necromancer this reasoning is a fiction meant to deceive. They are convinced that some experiment, some research, will allow them to bypass the laws of samsara and ascend to transcendence. In effect, Necromancy tends to attract those who have exhausted all other avenues in the pursuit of the impossible, the desperate or the mad.
Mechanically what this means is that while Necromancy is still limited to the absolute mandates of Sorcery (no effecting Celestial events without the permission of the Incarna, no time travel, no bringing back the dead) it has a lot more wiggle room than Sorcery does. However this wiggle room comes at a cost. Any effect which exceeds the normal limits of Sorcery is going to induce a point of Resonance on the Necromancer when he learns the spell, and the casting of spells which greatly violate natural law tend to accumulate between 1 to 3 Resonance (depending on the Circle) when cast. In effect this means that a Necromancy spell can be slightly more powerful than its Sorcery equivalent in terms of area of effect, duration, raw damage and so on (no more than half again as powerful if it accumulates 1 Resonance per Circle of the spell).
Necromancy that accumulates Resonance is also subject to two limitations that normal Sorcery is not. First, it is hated by the Unconquered Sun. Any Necromancy effect that accumulate Essence when learned or cast is weakened when exposed to direct sunlight, typically by about half its area of effect, duration, raw damage and so on. This effect also extends to the green light of Ligier, who hates Necromancy with a fervor that borders on madness for reasons he is unwilling to explain. This does not effect Necromancy cast in Autocthonia, the Deep Wyld, the Underworld or other places where the full light of the sun does not shine. Further, any spell of the Labyrinth or Void Circle that is cast is considered a Blasphemy effect (see Infernals, page 103) that may draw down the ire of Heaven. Such effects may be hidden if cast in a Shadowland or otherwise shielded with sufficient Trappings of Death. Frequent use of Necromancy will also permanently damage local geomancy and causality in a region, though the effects of this are best left to the storyteller and should serve more as plot device than as punishment. It would take years of high level magic to do permanent damage to a region.
A History of Necromancy
When the Primordials forged Creation from the inchoate chaos that existed before time they forged a language of understanding with which to cooperate. This process made all things possible, time and space and life and death and all the facets of existence. The shinma were fixed by their efforts and the elements and the fabric of the Loom of Fate spun from their essence. The full understanding of this method is beyond the capability of all but the Primordials themselves, even the greatest Twilights of the High First Age could only decode the simplest arrangements of this language of will-working. This process was called Sorcery.
It was not enough.
Nobody knows who it was that journeyed through the deepest and most dangerous realms of the Underworld, who navigated the rivers that had grown impassably violent and dense that far from the sanity of Creation or who wandered the unspeakable horrors of the Deep Labyrinth to come across the tombs of the dead Primordials; the Neverborn. It is known what their goal was.
The idea was simple; scholarship of the secrets of the highest tiers of Sorcery, beyond even the Adamant Circle into the realm which the Primordials themselves used to forge all existence, was impossible because so much of it had been lost in the Primordial War. Perhaps the breaking of the Primordials into the Yozi had shattered their capacity to employ their most useful secret. Perhaps the Three Spheres Cataclysm had burned away most of its vocabulary. Perhaps the dead and sunken Primordial corpses, which existed beyond the reach of these events, could be mined for hidden secrets.
The conspiracy which cracked open the tombs of the dead yet dreaming corpse-titans and turned their fitful nightmare influence loose upon the Underworld came to be called the Black Nadir Concordant. They succeeded in finding a truth that was not contained in Sorcery, a way of manipulating raw Essence and will that defied the limitations of Sorcery. Truly it seemed they had stumbled upon the secret of exceeding even Exalted understanding and standing as peers to the ancient Primordials themselves.
They were wrong.
Long before the full understanding of what they had unleashed was achieved the practice of Necromancy had spread throughout the First Age. Mystery cults and illegal research projects began to appear faster than the Deliberative could suppress them and entire regions broke ties with the Deliberative to practice the black science openly. Horrific experiments multiplied and inflicted lasting and seemingly unhealable wounds on the geomancy of Creation. By the time of the Usurpation the true cost of Necromancy was being explored even as the Deliberative began to ponder legalizing it. Some say this was one of the more dire causes for the Dragonblooded uprising. Others claim that the continued spread of the practice throughout the Shogunate was only possible because the Terrestrial Exalted could not police it as well as the Celestial Exalted had been able to. Certainly the aberration that was Mamara's Fell was beyond any Necromantic experiment before it.
What is Necromancy?
The Black Nadir Concordant was attempting to bypass the limits of Sorcery in their explorations. In a way, they succeeded. In a far more important way, they failed utterly. Sorcery can been seen as the utilization of a system designed by the Primordials to found Creation, of which Sorcerers gain only a very limited understanding. In effect, all Sorcerers are driven slightly mad by their Initiations into Sorcery as their entire worldview is sent askew. It is said that Sorcery changes the Sorcerer as much as the Sorcerer changes the world. Perhaps an exaggeration, but one that is useful enough that it is common wisdom among the more reputable Sorcerous Academies.
In principle, Necromancy is nothing more than another form of Sorcerous initiation, much like the more common Salinian School or the Infernal Enlightenments available to Infernals and Akuma. A creature that learns a Necromantic Initiation is just like any other sorcerer. They conjure the same spells in the same manner as any other Sorcerer. The spells are twisted and distorted by the Necromantic Enlightenment in the same manner a Infernal distorts a spell through their patron Yozi's understanding of Sorcery. Whereas a Salinian Sorcerer would conjure a swarm of obsidian butterflies and Malfean Sorcery would conjure a plague of brass wasps, a Necromancer would evoke a cloud of razor sharp bone locusts. Instead of brass skin a Necromancer would transform their skin into the desiccated leathery flesh of a mummy. The Sorcerer may travel in a miniature tornado but a Necromancer is carried across the earth atop a monstrous carpet of skeletal arms that burst forth from earth in front of him, fling him over obstacles and snatch projectiles from the air. None of these aesthetic differences effect the underlying mechanical effects of the spell. Players are encouraged to come up with their own variations on these spells with Storyteller approval.
Like Sorcery, the Necromantic Enlightenment is broken up into three levels designed as Charms, available at Essence 3, 4 and 5. Colloquially these are called the Shadowland, Labyrinth and Void Circles but this is an affectation not a statement of meaning. Any creature capable of achieving the equivalent level of Sorcery can learn Necromancy of the same level with some caveats. Countermagic (or equivalent effects) of the appropriate Circle operates equivalently between the various forms of Enlightenment. An Adamant Circle Countermagic will disrupt a Solar Circle Sorcery as much as a Void Circle Necromancy, Sapphire Countermagic is equally effective against Celestial Sorcery, Labyrinth Necromancy or God-Machine Weaving and so on. Unless explicitly detailed otherwise in the Charm which grants access to Sorcery any Sorcery spell may be learned by an equivalent Necromancer and vice versa at the same level of Enlightenment. A Shadowland Necromancer can learn a version of Open the Spirit Door as easily as a Terrestrial Sorcerer can learn the Rune of Sweet Passing. Some spells will be easier or more efficacious if cast using one form of Enlightenment or another as outlined in the individual Enlightenment Charm learned but in principle there is no other limit unless spelled out by that Charm.
The primary weakness, and benefit, of Necromancy is that learning Necromancy does not actually manipulate Essence in the same way that Sorcery does. Instead it creates Resonance. It is impossible to employ Necromancy without becoming tainted by this dissonant energy. All beings that learn any Necromancy Enlightenment Charms gain a Resonance track if they did not already have one. This track starts empty but learning certain Necromancy spells earns Resonance points and certain extremely potent spells grant Resonance dots as well. Most beings do not have a way of naturally expelling Resonance. Only Abyssal Exalted can natively reduce their Resonance track, all others must do so through certain spells and rituals. These rituals are well known to the Immaculate Order and most exorcists across Creation and are difficult to perform secretly without extensive preparation. Any creature with one or more dots of Resonance is considered a Creature of Darkness, with all the penalties that entails. Because of this Necromancers are extremely secretive and rare, most Exalted consider losing access to many of their most potent Charms to not be worth it, as well it makes them a target of suspicion for their peers. Necromancy is illegal and punishable by death in both the Realm and Lookshy.
Necromancers who do not have a native Resonance track or other condition that imposes penalties for Resonance instead suffer the following effects: For every two dots of Resonance they have they suffer a -1 external penalty on rolls to regain Willpower from rest as their sleep is filled with disturbing images. The only way to regain Willpower once they have achieved 10 Resonance is to fulfill a Motivation, which tends to make Necromancers dangerously obsessed.
Infernal Exalted may never have a Resonance track or Resonance points. The very nature of the Essence that empowers them abhors and rejects such an event. Any Charm or other supernatural effect that would induce such a state that manages to pierce all other defenses the Infernal uses fails and instead causes the Infernal to gain one Limit. If the Infernal attempts to voluntarily induce a Resonance Track or Resonance points on themselves the attempt fails painfully, causing one Aggravated Health Level and one Limit dot for each such dot of Resonance they would have gained.
This obviously means that Infernal Exalts may not gain Necromancy Enlightenment (or use spells that gain Resonance or cost Resonance). However, as it is the nature of the Ebon Dragon to transgress boundaries those who study the Sorcerous Enlightenment of the Ebon Dragon may gain some limited understanding of Necromancy.
An Infernal may learn the Charm Ultimate Darkness Internalization, activating it to transform his Essence in a way that allows him to count his Ebon Dragon Enlightenment Charms as equivalent Necromancy Charms. However, he still does not gain a Resonance Track or Resonance Points. Gaining Resonance points in this state instead causes one level of Aggravated Damage and a point of Limit that may not be removed until the Infernal returns to his natural state. Effects which require the expenditure of Resonance instead cause one Aggravated Health Level and a point of Limit.
The Ebon Dragon, in his magnanimity, has made a version of this effect available to all Yozi in the creation of Akuma. Such Akuma are explicitly divorced from the Yozi's usual soul architecture and as such gain a Resonance track and Resonance points as normal for a Necromancer. These Necromantic Akuma are more dead than alive, and most Yozi see them as horrific abominations to be destroyed on sight though a few keep such experimental creatures secret for their own purposes. Rumors persist, despite all of Cecelyne's efforts, that Malfeas himself has sealed away an unspeakable monster within his most hidden vault that once might have been the remnants of his dead fetich.
This obviously means that Infernal Exalts may not gain Necromancy Enlightenment (or use spells that gain Resonance or cost Resonance). However, as it is the nature of the Ebon Dragon to transgress boundaries those who study the Sorcerous Enlightenment of the Ebon Dragon may gain some limited understanding of Necromancy.
An Infernal may learn the Charm Ultimate Darkness Internalization, activating it to transform his Essence in a way that allows him to count his Ebon Dragon Enlightenment Charms as equivalent Necromancy Charms. However, he still does not gain a Resonance Track or Resonance Points. Gaining Resonance points in this state instead causes one level of Aggravated Damage and a point of Limit that may not be removed until the Infernal returns to his natural state. Effects which require the expenditure of Resonance instead cause one Aggravated Health Level and a point of Limit.
The Ebon Dragon, in his magnanimity, has made a version of this effect available to all Yozi in the creation of Akuma. Such Akuma are explicitly divorced from the Yozi's usual soul architecture and as such gain a Resonance track and Resonance points as normal for a Necromancer. These Necromantic Akuma are more dead than alive, and most Yozi see them as horrific abominations to be destroyed on sight though a few keep such experimental creatures secret for their own purposes. Rumors persist, despite all of Cecelyne's efforts, that Malfeas himself has sealed away an unspeakable monster within his most hidden vault that once might have been the remnants of his dead fetich.
The Profane Truth of Necromancy
Given the limitations and dangers of Necromancy why would one ever study it? For some, it is seen as not a choice. For almost all Abyssal Exalted, as well as a certain percentage of Dragonblooded and Lunar Exalted who have acquired Resonance by being too close to the Underworld, learning Necromancy is easier than Sorcery and the dead are easier to entreat than elementals or demons. Many mortals can not find a teacher willing to guide them through Sorcerous Initiation but Necromancers are always on the outlook for people willing to pursue knowledge or power at any cost.
The other major reason to study Necromancy is that many Necromancers seek to transcend the limits of Sorcery. The ultimate goal of many Necromancers is to defeat the fundamental laws of Creation, to defeat Death and Time. Necromancy is an act of transgression against existence, a profane rejection of the very laws of time and life. Necromancy sickens Creation, violating the established order. Whereas a Sorcerer manipulates the laws of essence in ways both expected and unexpected the Necromancer causes those laws to break down and shatter. In this way, the Necromancer hopes to undo Death.
Of course, no Necromancer has ever succeeded. If it is even possible to succeed, such a feat would need to break all of causality and destroy the Loom of Fate and murder the shinma themselves. Such insanity is not worth contemplating, but for the Necromancer this reasoning is a fiction meant to deceive. They are convinced that some experiment, some research, will allow them to bypass the laws of samsara and ascend to transcendence. In effect, Necromancy tends to attract those who have exhausted all other avenues in the pursuit of the impossible, the desperate or the mad.
Mechanically what this means is that while Necromancy is still limited to the absolute mandates of Sorcery (no effecting Celestial events without the permission of the Incarna, no time travel, no bringing back the dead) it has a lot more wiggle room than Sorcery does. However this wiggle room comes at a cost. Any effect which exceeds the normal limits of Sorcery is going to induce a point of Resonance on the Necromancer when he learns the spell, and the casting of spells which greatly violate natural law tend to accumulate between 1 to 3 Resonance (depending on the Circle) when cast. In effect this means that a Necromancy spell can be slightly more powerful than its Sorcery equivalent in terms of area of effect, duration, raw damage and so on (no more than half again as powerful if it accumulates 1 Resonance per Circle of the spell).
Necromancy that accumulates Resonance is also subject to two limitations that normal Sorcery is not. First, it is hated by the Unconquered Sun. Any Necromancy effect that accumulate Essence when learned or cast is weakened when exposed to direct sunlight, typically by about half its area of effect, duration, raw damage and so on. This effect also extends to the green light of Ligier, who hates Necromancy with a fervor that borders on madness for reasons he is unwilling to explain. This does not effect Necromancy cast in Autocthonia, the Deep Wyld, the Underworld or other places where the full light of the sun does not shine. Further, any spell of the Labyrinth or Void Circle that is cast is considered a Blasphemy effect (see Infernals, page 103) that may draw down the ire of Heaven. Such effects may be hidden if cast in a Shadowland or otherwise shielded with sufficient Trappings of Death. Frequent use of Necromancy will also permanently damage local geomancy and causality in a region, though the effects of this are best left to the storyteller and should serve more as plot device than as punishment. It would take years of high level magic to do permanent damage to a region.
One of the most frequent tools in any Sorcerer's toolkit is the summoning spell. Whether calling demons, elementals or the restless dead it is the nature of sorcerer and the necromancer to surround themselves with spirits and otherworldly beings. As with all things, the version of enlightenment you use can effect this greatly.
Most sorcerers, those who have reached enlightenment through the Salinian, Devonian or Silurian method, may summon demons, conjure elementals and call up the restless dead with the appropriate spells of the appropriate circles. Exalted sorcerers may bind demons and compel elementals, but they may not bind the spirits of the dead using normal Sorcery. Ghosts and other creatures of death are not bound by Primordial surrender oaths and thus can not be task or abissically bound. However the Sorcerous version of Summon Ghost does allow the Sorcerer to engage in the usual battle of wills; if successful the ghost so summoned must remain in the summoning circle until either the next sunrise or until the sorcerer releases it. Further the sorcerer can send it back whence it came at any time so long as it remains in the circle. Any bargain struck with the restless dead within the circle is sealed as if it were an Eclipse Oath with Essence equivalent to that needed to cast the spell. Banishment spells work as normal.
Infernal sorcerers, both Exalted and akuma as well as Infernal cultists, can summon and bind demons based on the Laws of Cecelyne (as discussed in the Infernals book). They may also conjure elementals but may not bind them, as the elementals were freed from Primordial control by the Surrender Oaths. However you may seal them within their binding circle with the usual clash of wills until the next sunrise or the sorcerer releases them. Any bargains established with the newborn elemental are sealed as if by an Eclipse Oath of Essence equal to that of the binding spell. However, they have no power over the dead. An Infernal Sorcerer may not learn Summon Ghost or higher Circle equivalents, nor do their Banishment spells effect the dead. Those who have learned Ultimate Darkness Internalization may summon ghosts in the same manner as regular sorcerers while under that Charms effects, doing so does not cause damage or Limit to accumulate. However they will be unable to conjure or oath bind elementals in this state, and any oaths they have will immediately dissolve the moment they activate Ultimate Darkness Internalization as if the Infernal had broken it.
Necromancers may summon and bind the restless dead in the same manner as most sorcerers summon and bind demons and subject to the same limits. This summoning manipulates the Resonance of the unquiet dead to twist their Motivation into one compatible with the Necromancer's binding. For the ghosts the summons feels astonishing similar to the call of Lethe and they naturally resist it, thus all ghosts resist binding instinctively even if they are otherwise friendly with the summoner. Demons may be called using the Summon Demon spells, but may not be bound. Instead if they are defeated in a contest of wills they are compelled to remain in their summoning circle until the next sunrise or the summoner releases them, and they may be banished so long as they are contained. Any bargains reached between a Necromancer and a demon will be enforced as the equivalent of an Eclipse Oath with an Essence equivalent to the minimum required for the summoning spell. Necromancers may not conjure or bind elementals. The Resonance effect is incompatible with any attempt to create life in this way.
Most sorcerers, those who have reached enlightenment through the Salinian, Devonian or Silurian method, may summon demons, conjure elementals and call up the restless dead with the appropriate spells of the appropriate circles. Exalted sorcerers may bind demons and compel elementals, but they may not bind the spirits of the dead using normal Sorcery. Ghosts and other creatures of death are not bound by Primordial surrender oaths and thus can not be task or abissically bound. However the Sorcerous version of Summon Ghost does allow the Sorcerer to engage in the usual battle of wills; if successful the ghost so summoned must remain in the summoning circle until either the next sunrise or until the sorcerer releases it. Further the sorcerer can send it back whence it came at any time so long as it remains in the circle. Any bargain struck with the restless dead within the circle is sealed as if it were an Eclipse Oath with Essence equivalent to that needed to cast the spell. Banishment spells work as normal.
Infernal sorcerers, both Exalted and akuma as well as Infernal cultists, can summon and bind demons based on the Laws of Cecelyne (as discussed in the Infernals book). They may also conjure elementals but may not bind them, as the elementals were freed from Primordial control by the Surrender Oaths. However you may seal them within their binding circle with the usual clash of wills until the next sunrise or the sorcerer releases them. Any bargains established with the newborn elemental are sealed as if by an Eclipse Oath of Essence equal to that of the binding spell. However, they have no power over the dead. An Infernal Sorcerer may not learn Summon Ghost or higher Circle equivalents, nor do their Banishment spells effect the dead. Those who have learned Ultimate Darkness Internalization may summon ghosts in the same manner as regular sorcerers while under that Charms effects, doing so does not cause damage or Limit to accumulate. However they will be unable to conjure or oath bind elementals in this state, and any oaths they have will immediately dissolve the moment they activate Ultimate Darkness Internalization as if the Infernal had broken it.
Necromancers may summon and bind the restless dead in the same manner as most sorcerers summon and bind demons and subject to the same limits. This summoning manipulates the Resonance of the unquiet dead to twist their Motivation into one compatible with the Necromancer's binding. For the ghosts the summons feels astonishing similar to the call of Lethe and they naturally resist it, thus all ghosts resist binding instinctively even if they are otherwise friendly with the summoner. Demons may be called using the Summon Demon spells, but may not be bound. Instead if they are defeated in a contest of wills they are compelled to remain in their summoning circle until the next sunrise or the summoner releases them, and they may be banished so long as they are contained. Any bargains reached between a Necromancer and a demon will be enforced as the equivalent of an Eclipse Oath with an Essence equivalent to the minimum required for the summoning spell. Necromancers may not conjure or bind elementals. The Resonance effect is incompatible with any attempt to create life in this way.
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