Thinking about it, let's say we agreed that necromancy is a-ok and there's no problem with doing it.
Would we be willing to spare the AP to get good at it?
That's a pretty gigantic hypothetical, but even if there were zero associated problems with it (health-wise and socially), I'm not even sure we'd really take full advantage of the ability to raise and bind the dead to be servants or armies for us. I think we'd see a lot more interest in picking up the offensive direct-damage Battle Magic spells like Gaze of Nagash, Curse of Years, and Wind of Death, since that's directly missing from Ulgu's spellbook.
I can't really see the thread really
wanting to raise an army unless the Everchosen, Nagash, or a world-shaking Waaagh comes along.
I expect the main reason Boney was willing to give us a whole +20 to wielding Dhar is that he doesn't expect us to actually use it.
Like, imagine if we got a trait that just gave us +20 to using Ulgu. It'd be insane. Every other trait would pale in comparison to the sheer advantage.
I think part of the reason we got a +20 to wielding Dhar is to hammer in the point that Boney has always emphasized whenever dark magic users show up: It's
easy. It's so easy to fall to temptation. To tell yourself 'just this once', or that it's worthwhile, or that you will be different from literally all the others before you.
And it's easy in the
literal sense that it gives a lot of power. Necromancers with only the merest whiff of magical power can start throwing around beefy spells and become threats to entire provinces if left alone long enough because of the power Dhar gives them, and they don't typically have the original Liber Mortis to study or have seen Dhar in so many different contexts.
Mathilde... does and has. And best of all, she's been able to reach this understanding without needing to touch the damn thing, which gives her a leg up on all those other petty necromancers simply because she still has her sanity intact and can reason out its nature purely through theory. This is as ideal as circumstances get to understanding it, for humans.
And even then if she ever actually used it, it would take its terrible price on her. It would cheapen the overall point that Boney has always kept consistent, that people fall to the temptation of Dhar because it is powerful and because people are capable of incredible self-delusion to justify their own actions and thoughts. I think that temptation will remain with Mathilde for the rest of her life.
