WSG#23[F]: Necromancy of Hammerfell

[Lutemoth]

In light of upcoming Halloween, I thought it'd be a welcomed topic pertaining to necromancy, and anything related to the infamous Scourg Barrow of the Dragontail Mountains. If you haven't learnt yet, Hammerfel's Scourg Barrow is the veritable capital of all things ghoulish and undead, and a key point in the Warp of the West.

In this week's WSG, there are a myriad of ideas you can run with:

- Varieties of undead

- Undead preparations

- Ritual attire

- Tools and equipment

In Hammerfell, where worship of Arkay is strongest, the dead are almost always subject to Arkay's Law. There are exceptions after large battles or in remote areas where death occurs far from meddlesome priests. Fortunately, the dangerous terrain and creatures in the deserts and mountains of Hammerfell makes the acquisition of corpses possible, though they are often in poor condition and require special care in preparation.

The situation for these necromancers goes beyond followers of Arkay. As you can tell, necromancy is the pinnacle of loathing for the Redguards, as it is a magick, and an unholy one. Hence, the center of this worship is nestled in the Dragontail Mountains, far beyond common travel. Now, get dark and deviate something horrific! I expect you resident artists to disgust us proper!

This week's Submitted results

The Olde ye Bard
[url=http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ragmanjy2.jpg][img]http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5580/ragmanjy2.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/9752/scancw1.jpg][img]http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/9752/scancw1.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Macar
[url=http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pageyg0.jpg][img]http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2904/pageyg0.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zipep8.jpg][img]http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2350/zipep8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Lady Nerevar
[url=http://img280.imageshack.us/my.php?image=undeadcm5.jpg][img]http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/4494/undeadcm5.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Morden
[url=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4271/necromanceray9.jpg][img]http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4271/necromanceray9.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Chahiero
[url=http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5753/necromacyscrollzm4.gif][img]http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5753/necromacyscrollzm4.th.gif[/img][/url]

Gnomey
[url=http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=necrofelllv8.jpg][img]http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/381/necrofelllv8.th.jpg[/img][/url][url=http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=necrofellctk0.jpg][img]http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8937/necrofellctk0.th.jpg[/img][/url]

CrisG9
[url=http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=themageandthedeademporeruk8.jpg][img]http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7754/themageandthedeademporeruk8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Horodnicdragos
[url=http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=paintingok1dp3.jpg][img]http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/3347/paintingok1dp3.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Harke the Apostle
[url=http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lfunnelbrainhookpv4.jpg][img]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8868/lfunnelbrainhookpv4.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Pound
[url=http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=undeadcopyhe5.jpg][img]http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/931/undeadcopyhe5.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[The Old Ye Bard]

[url=http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ragmanjy2.jpg][img]http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/5580/ragmanjy2.th.jpg[/img][/url]

It's supposed to be a spirt, bound into rags and a mask by the controler for a physical form. I hope it's something new and fresh

[lb003g0676]

Great topic. Thats good TOYB, but it would be cool if you could extend on that.

[horodnicdragos]

Indeed. I'll give it a try as soon as I'm home. Great topic!

TOYB: Something with more details. If you can't do it try to do ambient scenes.

[The Old Ye Bard]

t'was only a 5 minute sketch in Photoshop, I'll to a better one on paper

[Macar]

It was two years ago when they burned old Torlin Fletcher. This page from a blasphemous tome was found in his cellar along with the body of the legionare who'd gone missing the week before. He went to his death trying to deny it, but he just couldnt explain the evedance. We've kept the scroll here in the temple ever since- to guard it.

Tetrise on restoring the corpses of the infirm

[url=http://img241.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pageyg0.jpg][img]http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/2904/pageyg0.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[Nalin]

Very nice macar!

[Lady Nerevar]

ooh, me like macar! great idea, would be neat if implimented into teh gmae world.

as for my submision. more then a bit stereotypical, and arguably over detailed, but an submision none the less:
[url=http://img280.imageshack.us/my.php?image=undeadcm5.jpg][img]http://img280.imageshack.us/img280/4494/undeadcm5.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[Lutemoth]

very unique, Macar! You don't mind if I try that technique?

And LadyN, I adore that outfit he has, it's very suiting to Necromancers of the Dragontail Mt.

[Macar]

Be my guest. Thanks for the compliments.

I'd like to see the idea used as a quest seed. Maybe as a quest to steal the page back for the necromancers. Or maybe to prove the poor man's inocence (he was framed, incase you didn't catch on). Perhaps I should write it myself... *strokes beard*

[Gnomey]

I'm stuck. First I couldn't think of an idea, so I thought "Who are these people, how should the player feel when he runs in with them?" This is what I want to make my entry about; the mood of the Necromancers. Let me put it this way: I do not think they would be like the Sixth House, they certainly are organized. Being like an evil mages guild is so dull, though. I want to have something unique, something slightly ritualized, slightly like the Vampire clans of Vvardenfell, and then there is the big, missing part. I think I've got enough to make a sketch, but I would like it if you could throw some ideas in as to how these people work.

[lb003g0676]

Macar, just BTW to go along with all the standing compliments, you are getting better at drawing every time i see your work, those faces are GIGANTIC improvement, great work dude.

I am suck for as on this WSG, I have a few functional weird zombie creatures, that have been sewn together from existing in game animals, and such. And prepared in a way that is pretty freaky. Meh, that sounds good now I might upload it some time tomorrow.


LN I think that it's really cool, and there had to be be chains in there. I would love to say that is has some philosophical meaning, about ti chaining down the soul of the living dead, so that the souless creatures can roam and do the creators bidding. And I guess it has to a certain extent. But mainly it's just kinky .

[Macar]

@Pound: That's what happens when I use an acual refference. Thanks to Mr DaVinci for that one.

[Morden]

Decided to do an ink drawing of a Necromancer tonight... not something i've done for a long time. He's a Soccer Hooligan with lots of fetishes and trinkets. I sort of tried for that Yoku look.


[url=http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4271/necromanceray9.jpg][img]http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4271/necromanceray9.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[Macar]

What's with his eyes? He looks like a real bruiser- like he could do some serious damage without using magic.

It's nice to see some penicils from you Morden

[Morden]

he could do some serious damage without using magic.

I've always been interested in the battlemage concept.. somebody who can augment their fighting skills with magic or vice versa. A bruiser with darkmagic talents would be pretty tough to beat.

[Gnomey]

Yes, and I like the break from the stereotypical depiction of Dark mages, and mages in general, as being naturally weak and hiding behind their power. It makes me so mad... Anyway, I'll have something up tomorrow, or I should. I still can't think of anything for the general 'mood' of the place, except that there are two branches: One is the scientific, studious branch, (if you look close you might see a Telvanni. ), the other is the religious branch. I could only really think up an idea for this second branch, and have gone past that and made up half the points of the King of Worms religion on the spot. Bad me.

Edit: Naturally they are all just concepts, which should be up here tomorrow, with a lot of text explanation...

[lb003g0676]

i have had an almost perverted idea.



Maybe some Necromancer, take bodies, leave them for a month or so, for the local wildlife to take every meaty mollusk, until the bare skeleton is left.

Then they take the intact skeletons and bathe them in rock pools at the coast preferably for the salt to help dehydrate them skellingtons once dried. However just a saline pool will work.


Once this has been done the skeleton will be very hard and VERY dry, so then soaking the completely inoffensive bones in Vinegar can make them go bendy. Then when the bones are rubbery all sort of augmentations can be created, with the bones bending. After the changes have been made, the skeleton can be dried out once again, and it can have mutated form to fit the augmentations. No violent bending of the bones, others when drying out the bone will slowly fracture.

[Chahiero]

Necromancers revere and worship the undead in the same way cults and witches revere and worship the daedra. They hope to gain the "divinity" of lichdom through service to their unknown masters.

I have a few ideas for my own pieces in here. Stay tuned, I'm working on them now

[Morden]

Once this has been done the skeleton will be very hard and VERY dry, so then soaking the completely inoffensive bones in Vinegar can make them go bendy. Then when the bones are rubbery all sort of augmentations can be created, with the bones bending. After the changes have been made, the skeleton can be dried out once again, and it can have mutated form to fit the augmentations. No violent bending of the bones, others when drying out the bone will slowly fracture.

What about a pool of adamantium?

[Chahiero]

Here we are. Some of the conclusions are, intentionally, open ended. Others are, intentionally, vague. Even others are, intentionally, incorrect.

Whipping of the english grammar aside, and that done, here it is:

[url=http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5753/necromacyscrollzm4.gif][img]http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5753/necromacyscrollzm4.th.gif[/img][/url]

Plain-text for those who have difficulty reading small type:

The Followers of Death
a short report on the Necromancers of the kingdom of
Daggerfall compiled by Chahiero of Summerset Isle

The followers of necromacy in Daggerfall are many, but secluded. Unlike other places where magic is relatively speaking, less prevalent, such as Morrowind, Daggerfall enjoys (or is troubled by, depedning upon one’s point of view) a much greater membership in this most secretive of “guilds.â€Â￾

Religion?
The Necromancers see the state of undeath as the ultimate divine form. They seek to conquer death by attaining the state of lich-dom. How they purport to do this is a mystery, even to the handful of lesser members of the guild I managed to find and question

The Art
Necromancers do NOT animate the undead lightly. They see the animation of undead creatures as a high art form and extension of divinity, and feel that failure to create a perfect specimen condemns one to live without lichdom, or at the very least, sets them back on the path to this lofty height they seek. As such, they study intensely the lore of Alteration and Enchantment to strengthen their knowledge of Necromancy before even attemption to create the simplest of undead creatures. Many of the more advanced practitioners experiment feverently, if cautiously, creating new undead forms and improving others. They also study disease in all its form, to prevent it from afflicting their half-living subjects - they take great pride and care in the function and health of their charges.

Morality and the Disciple of Death
Many people perceive the Necromancer as a vile being who twists the undead to their foul, dark purposes. In truth, they are just like any mage - there are some that use their magic for the greater good, while others use their power for more malevolent ends.

[Macar]

Oi. This WSG isnt about Daggerfall- it's Hammerfell Necromancy. I know they both involve falling weapons.

None-the-less, nice peice. Thought the necromancer ?her? self looks more like a thief.

[Chahiero]

The Necromacer is based *right* on one of the Necromacer's guild-member sprites from TES2: Daggerfall. Shes the right-hand woman of the leader in Scourg Barrow (sp?)

Anyways, I was working on that for my side project and it kinda fit in. So it got posted.

[Gnomey]

Ok, this is my contribution, at least until I get more ideas. This is also posted in my new thread, Worship of the Worm King, which explains the idea further.

The black and white had to be redone after I deleted the wrong version. Stupid me. In the center is how I imagine the King of Worms to be shown as. Either that or something like a dead king, but I chose the plain version. At the top right is a pyramid. At the bottom are the Aedra, beginning, and Daedra. They are naturally at the bottom to show that the Worm King, at the top, is better. Indeed in my view those to are connected by Worm King worshippers to the "Mundus", what I believe refers to the mortal plane, Nirn. This is because the (D)Aedra effect the world and are pretty much tied up in it. The Worm King, however, is a lich, and so above that. He has great knowledge and great power, and is not tied in with the world. (Any more). Anyway, to the right of the triangle is a tiny picture of a ritual in the happening, with three lich-priests, or Knowing priests, are standing above an alter upon which an initiate is lying. I prefer the black-and-white version, as I screwed up the position of the initiate priest in the colour version. Ignore that. Finally, at the bottom right, a before and after pick. First is after one version of the ritual, second is after becoming a lich in that version. Now discuss away.

[url=http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=necrofelllv8.jpg][img]http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/381/necrofelllv8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://img219.imageshack.us/my.php?image=necrofellctk0.jpg][img]http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/8937/necrofellctk0.th.jpg[/img][/url]

[Macar]

Good to see some activity here again! CA has been dead this week. Maybe between me and Gnomey we can necromance the WSG. Appropriately.

Here's an atmospheric of a necromancer fixing up a corpse. A litte caption:
[url=http://img120.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zipep8.jpg][img]http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2350/zipep8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Being a Necromancer isn't all glory. You must daily enter domain that is unimagined by lesser men- only dreamed of in thier most terrifying nightmares. You must spend your hours with skinless, bloodsoaked abbominations. You must be ready to cohabitate with the stench of putrified flesh, and feasting worms. If you do, however, have the strength to bare it- the reward is unlimited power and a host of festering thralls at your command

[CrisG9]

A humble first offering from a new joiner, peeking at this great process here, I am not versed as much as many in the lore properly so please accept this in the spirit of an attempt without the knowledge of the proper setting you all know far better than i, an imprisoned Emperor as thrall of a Necromancer....

[url=http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=themageandthedeademporeruk8.jpg][img]http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7754/themageandthedeademporeruk8.th.jpg[/img][/url]

I hope to visit as I can, thanks

[Macar]

Hey Cris. Nice of you to jump in and get your feet wet.

Now this is just my oppinion, so dont take it to the bank. I think that 3d concepts arent as useful as ones that are drawn. Because most of the time when people do the 3d ones, they use models that arent original- and that somewhat limits creativity, IMO. What need most are new ideas.

[CrisG9]

OK

[Macar]

How about a little discussion, people?

Do you like any of these ideas? Do you dislike them? I like Your's Gnomey, it's interesting the way you styleised the worm king by adding the stars inside his robe. The only thing I would add is that it would be a nice touch if he were more frightening looking that just a clean skeliton.

I'm still hoping to see entries from some of you. Lute and Pound, I'm looking at you.

[Gnomey]

Well, the stars inside his robe aren't really meant to be there, they just work for now. There should be some design on the inside of his robe which symbolises knowledge. You know, he has knowledge hidden in the folds of his robe. Then there's the third eye, the eye of knowledge rather than the two natural eyes, those of mundus, the Aedra and Daedra. This is closed because only those who are devout to him, priests, may share his knowledge. It's all the bits I forgot to add due to being tired, that and colouring the stars golden. Oh well.

Basically, rather than being frightening or sumptiously dressed, this Worm King fresco is all symbolizing. In my view he is seen as the god of greatness and knowledge, he naturally inspires awe, but if you anger him something hidden shows it's face. In short his bight is worse than his bark, rather than the other way around.

[horodnicdragos]

I really liked this topic so I thought I may give it a try. Here's my attempt on a simple ambiental scene.

http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4361/paintingok1.jpg

[lb003g0676]

@Pound: That's what happens when I use an acual refference. Thanks to Mr DaVinci for that one.

Well, the good thing is, is once you've seen one bit of anatomy, you start remebering it in your work. And once you remember it, you improve, so you can do that anytime.

[Harke the Apostle]

This is a quick sketch of a de-braining hook (enters through
a nostril), and a funnel to pour either brain-dissolving drugs inside the head for those hard to reach places, or wax and herbs to seal it up. In case you hadn't guessed the tubes fit nicely into both nostrils.
Indispensable for the necromancer who is not overly fond of the stench of rotting brains.

[url=http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lfunnelbrainhookpv4.jpg][img]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8868/lfunnelbrainhookpv4.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Here's more:

http://www.civilization.ca/civil/Egypt/egcr06e.html

I could make this into functional concepts as well, if you think these tools are of any use to TR.

[Macar]

Gross. That image has stuck with me since the first time I read about it. I cant shake the image of what it would feel like to have a sharp hook shoved up your nose to scrape the inside of your head. *shudders*

Why would a necromancer bother removing the brain? I guess it might be necisiary of certain kinds of undead. particularly skellies.

BTW- Herdoitus describes the way that Egyptians mumified the poor... *Disgusting Alert* They would inject fluids into the anus and then plug it up. It would sir for a couple days durring which the innards would be disolved. Then- when the time had passed they pull the plug.. then it all comes out at once and they gave the body back to the family (without the trademark linen bandages. He commented that this process left nothing more than skin and bones!

[Amrod]

Why would a necromancer bother removing the brain?

They don't. I'm pretty sure that there is lore stating that zombie servents need a brain. Other organs are fine to be removed, but I'm pretty sure the brain is needed somehow.

[Macar]

In OB zombies can loose thier heads and still keep moving cant they?

[lb003g0676]

In OB zombies can loose thier heads and still keep moving cant they?

The lorelessness of OB in it's glory.

[Fairwater]

Well the necromancers could remove the brain not for magical purposes but for studying the brain. Perhaps studying if their spells have any permenate effect on the brain.... or even a melding of studying the brain and coming with new ways of controlling the fresh dead. Also how they could reanimate the brain (of the freshly decised) to have smarter minions.

[Macar]

When you pull it out of the nose- there is'nt much to study about it. It comes out in chunks.

And actualy, the more I think about it, the less the brain-hook makes sense. They used the hook because they didnt want to defile the corpse by cutting the cranium open. Obviously, necromancers show no such scruples. And if they wanted to study it, it would make more sense that way.

[Lady Nerevar]

maybe they want it for a potion?