The Imperium Necromatica
"Whilst the other kingdoms may quiver in fear at the prospect of death, we do not. Whilst the other kingdoms may dwindle as their heroes and soldiers die in this horrific war, we do not. Whilst the other kingdoms accept that they are bound to fail, we do not! We understand the cycle of life and death, the great circle of Being, the very web of life that we are all caught by. It is for this reason that the Imperium Necromatica will continue to defend its territory with unrelenting intent and it is for this reason that we will not lose!" - The Black Widow, Necromantic Queen of the Imperium
The Undead
Dome: Created from the skeletal remains left by the Necromatica’s assaults, domes are warriors created to serve the Necrid Warlord that breathed unlife into them. Generally humanoid, domes are unthinking, and mechanically obey the commands of their Warlord exactly as told to. Because they follow simple commands unthinkingly they are unskilled and not overly difficult to deal with individually. However, their unthinking nature and magical simplicity to create means that domes are used to form large armies, often using the bodies of the conscripted soldiers who served their warlord in life, locking them into a perverse eternal servitude. Because of their unchanging nature and lack of logistical needs such as rest or food, domes are used to press long battlemarches, to engage in sieges and other actions that would wear down living soldiers. Since domes are essentially controlled by simple commands from their Warlord masters, if they are separated from their masters’ control, either through magic, distance or the death of that Warlord, domes will continue to mindlessly follow the final order they had received relentlessly until their own destruction. Amongst the enemies of the Necromatica the domes are feared not for their fighting skill, but for this unquenchable relentlessness and for the sheer numbers that can be called to serve. For where there is a single dome, there is invariably a hundred more. Domes make up the primary forces of the archer and cavalry units within the Necromatica army, but a large number of them also serve as basic infantry.
Gast: Gasts are created from the residual emotions that departed souls leave upon the physical plane, and the ones used by the Necromatica are invariably created from the violent shades left behind in the constant battles. Taking the form of brooding and wispy shadows, gasts usually flicker in and out of the edges of living creatures’ peripheral vision and attack with brutal mental assaults that often leave the victim gibbering in horror, stunned and dazed or collapsed from the terror that such malevolent emotions can bring about. Gasts are an important part of any Necrid Warlord’s plans, as their ability to induce paralyzing mental effects and their incorporeal nature make them excellent vanguards. However, unlike domes gasts are composed almost entirely of aspects of the departed’s being, and as such are some of the most willful and vicious of the Necromatic Minions. It is not uncommon for a gast to attack anybody near the area of the gast’s death, or simply to attack anyone around it in a malevolent, hateful rage. Because of this it is usually more powerful Warlords who utilize gasts, as well as Psychopomp Artesians, who control and manipulate gasts through knowledge of psychology and gast behaviour, rather than through magic. Uncooperative gasts are often used to fuel the spirit magic that the Necromantic Arcanists utilize, so even if an arcanist does not believe he can control a gast he will often extract one alongside a dome or njambii and store it for later magical applications.
Njambii: Njambii are flesh creatures, raised bodies that serve as thralls to a magical master. Njambii must be raised through rituals utilizing recently dead bodies, and bear the basest of animal instincts, to feed and mate. Because they are little more than stupid beasts njambii are easily enslaved by the Necrid Warlords who commonly raise them, tying them to their master by powerful magic. Unlike domes though njambii cannot be completely manipulated so easily. Rather, they are more like feral dogs restrained on magical leashes, prevented by magic from harming their masters or allies for the most part. If their master is killed or control is severed then the njambii are released from their magical bonds, free to roam and fulfill their instincts to the best of their capacity. Njambii are quick, strong and agile creatures, not held back in their actions by fear of personal injury like the men and women they once were. They have a tendency to move in packs and hunger only for living flesh. Given that njambii were once humans they are not ideally suited for hunting, but the vestiges of human intellect that exist give njambii a form of slow and animalistic cunning that can be far more deadly that any claws or fangs. These creatures are often used in the front lines of war, a monstrous horde supported by the paralyzing gasts and the supporting cover fire of dome archers. Directed against enemy units, the njambii are a terrible plague of war.
Mumiyyah: Mumiyyah are preserved creatures, hardened to stonelike flesh through advanced embalming techniques. These creatures are similar to njambii in that they have an instinctual desire to kill and destroy, however this instinct is not for sustenance but simply because the mumiyyah enjoy destruction. The mumiyyah generally prowl about in the shrouds or bandages they were embalmed in, the material fused to their rocky flesh. This stiffening of the flesh means that mumiyyah cannot move quickly or with any form of agility, being forced to shamble around drunkenly. However, the lack of agility does not mean that the mumiyyah is any less dangerous than an njambii. Whilst njambii cannot be killed except by severing the connection between the brain and the body or having certain vital organs overwhelmingly destroyed the mumiyyah does not suffer this weakness, as all of its organs are removed from the body prior to embalming and stored in phylacteries. Their bodies are also incredibly hard to destroy, and warriors have been known to break their weapons on the skin of a mumiyyah, so they cannot be disabled by the removal of limbs either. All mumiyyah carry plague in their touch and in their bite, and the Necromatica utilize the mumiyyah as catapult fodder, launching them into fortified villages, that they may wander around and spread the plague within the contained environment. The most assured way to kill a mumiyyah is to destroy its phylacteries, which must be kept within relatively close range of the mumiyyah for it to function.
Upir: The upir are some of the most horrific undead creations of the Necromatica, the spark of unlife reanimating them fully. To create an upir requires a living being to be cultivated by another upir, or for a recently dead and non-decayed body to be baptized in blood and mystic oil before being buried in natural earth. When upir are born they retain all the memories of their previous life and all their previous intellect but are twisted by death, their bodies becoming bloated and ruddy, with bulging eyes and all pretenses of civility stripped away. Upir are strong in body, evil in mind and coarse in language and in intent, primarily concerned with sexual pleasure and feeding, consuming the blood of their victims to reinvigorate themselves. However, most upir are fanatically loyal to the Black Widow as she provides them with the choicest morsels to consume and pervert. Upir are sadists and like njambii and domes have endurance far beyond regular humans, making them excellent soldiers. However, of all the undead that the Necromatica create the upir, being the closest to life, have the greatest number of weaknesses. Perceiving the world through the veil of darkness, strong light of any form is a bane to them, stunning and disorienting them. They are also highly vulnerable to heat of any kind, the mystic oil that imbues them being highly flammable. Finally, their existence revolving around collection of blood means that damage to the main blood-controlling organ, the heart, is invariably fatal.
Dhampir: Dhampir are perverse beings, not alive but also not undead. Dhampir are not created, rather they are grown, the offspring of an upir and a living prana arcanist. Dhampir are bred by the Necromatia as some of their most elite troops, possessing superhuman strength, speed, stamina and durability beyond even that of an upir. A combination of undead and living magic flows through their veins, imbuing them with some of the best traits of both the living and the undead. They possess incredible eyesight and a honed sense of smell that makes them excellent trackers and interrogators, as they are able to smell emotions. However, this same keen sense of smell can temporarily leave them dazed if suddenly exposed to particularly strong or pungent smells, such as that of garlic. The dhampir also possess a magical talent for shapeshifting, able to change their form to an almost incorporeal mist, as well as shifting their bodies into more warlike forms with vicious fangs, natural scale armor and terrible fangs. However, unlike their upir parents, dhampir are still predominantly alive and as such do drink blood to sustain themselves, eating, drinking and resting as any regular person may, though they require smaller amounts of all of these things. Also, they do not inherit some of the weaknesses of the upir, though they still sport a minor aversion to strong light. Dhampir compose the personal guard of the Black Widow, and are trained in basic spellcasting as well as their bladed longarms.
Revenant: Though the njambii is considered to be the primary ‘fleshly’ undead of the Necromatica the revenant is far more deadly and vicious. A revenant is born when a person is killed in a violent manner, yet the body remains almost entirely intact. Formed from the hateful anger at the injustice of the person’s death, the revenant that inhabits the body is fixated by the vengeance that fills its decaying soul. For the revenant is unique amongst the undead minions, being the only minion that retains its soul in death, much like the Lich Arcanists or the Heartless Sages, and as such is the most versatile of the undead minions once swayed to the service of the Necromatica. Revenants look almost as they did in life, and generally are equipped for service in the area of their previous expertise, as they retain all their memories and skills. However, their eyes are deeply bloodshot and the decomposition process sets in, as they are not alive in any form. Because of this revenants degrade over a period of months, but their body is held together at all times by their irresistible urge to avenge their deaths. Once a revenant has completed its vengeance it collapses and the unlife flees from it, its soul finally able to lay at rest. Revenants are the rarest of the ‘common’ undead due to their single-mindedness and willingness to attack the Necromatica if it was in any way responsible for the revenants’ deaths.
Deathly Champion: The deathly champion is the pinnacle of the Necromatica’s undead warriors, a hero so great that the will of the people sustains them after death. In the constant warring state of the Necromatica both internally and against external forces the need for legendary heroes can become so great that the simple people lock onto any hero that can represent hope or success for them, resulting in a continuing cycle of death and resurrection. These heroes grow to hate the adoration of their communities, as they feel the pain of each death and the bliss of deathly repose each time, only to be sundered from it and thrown back into the war. This changes the heroes, making them cruller, harder, less human. These deathly champions are invaluable to the Necromatica, as each time they die and rise again hope and morale is boosted, and their skills are undeniably effective. However, each deathly champion reacts differently to their resurrections, despite all bearing the pall of death in their eyes. Some use the community’s hope to fuel them, some abandon their community entirely and some seek atonement for their past actions, having seen what lies beyond death. Each resurrection makes a champion more inhumane in body and in mind, but as long as the common people believe in them these heroes will be forced to rise again and again. When a champion dies it is usually a public burial or death seen by the people that forces them back to unlife once more.
The Necromancers
Bloodhoney Queen: The Bloodhoney Queen is one of the strangest practitioners of necromantic magic, a woman who presides over the obscure art of creating bloodhoney. Bloodhoney is made of the dying essence and the life blood of intelligent beings, crafted by swarms of undead bees that live inside necromantically-charged hives of tainted wood. Blood red in coloration, bloodhoney is deliciously sweet and invigorating, being a panacea for disease and a source of extended youthfulness. However, the substance is also quite addictive and more importantly is also very difficult to create, taking a great amount of time and care. Bloodhoney queens exchange their wares for dark favors from the elite, and to meet the demand they do insidious things, such as fighting other Queens to take over the hives and corner the market on bloodhoney supply. They also serve in the Necromatica military, commanding enormous swarms of undead bees to fight for them. The queens are capable of communicating with their bees as well as other insects, and share a hive mind with their swarms, all creatures perceiving what all others in the swarm perceive. Once a swarm has mortally wounded a being, it settles upon the being, extracting the life essence for bloodhoney and swelling the supplies of the magical ambrosia. Truly skilled queens keep swarms within their own body that create royal bloodjelly, a far more potent form of bloodhoney that provides regenerative talents and eternal youth.
Skindancer: Perhaps the most shamanistic of the Imperium’s necromancers, the skindancer learns the art of removing a being’s skin in a single piece and treating it through a ritual so that they can then wear the skin and masquerade as the flayed individual. They can swiftly and easily infiltrate targeted communities, shedding skins and identities as easily as a normal person might shed clothes. They are beyond shapeshifting, their dark souls sowing seeds of chaos, distrust and discord wherever they go. For this reason the skindancers are prized as the greatest of spies and saboteurs. Their shamanistic necromancy allows them to draw on the vestiges of magic and knowledge contained in the skins, so they can temporarily wield magicks of many forms, making them highly versatile. Skindancers are cannibalistic, consuming entire flayed bodies rapidly to dispose of evidence, gorge on any latent magicks and heal their own wounds and stamina. Master Skindancers slide into skins as naturally as clothes, able to wear skins from creatures of different sizes and shapes to themselves, and even draw upon the latent magical remnants in the skins to emulate any magical auras or identifying spells that existed on the flayed being, and the truest masters of Skindancing learn how to reincarnate their souls into skins preserved in brine, and utilize spare skins as puppets, controlled by magical strings that spread from the twisted mind of the Skindancer himself. Unsurprisingly, skindancers are the boogeymen of many horror tales, both within the Imperium and outside of it.
Boneblade Reaper: Skilled hand-to-hand combatants, the Reapers have used their necromantic arts to learn martial combat styles utilized by and against the dead. The reapers are known to be some of the most enthusiastic studiers of death, embracing it not simply as an inevitability but as something more, intertwined with life at every stage, and come to love death. Not simply dealing death, but rather death in its entirety. The Boneblade Reapers shun the undead used by the majority of the Imperium’s necromancers, preferring to act as an avatar of Death itself through the crafting of enchanted boneblades and the carving of deathly runes into their own skin, which serves to protect the Reapers from physical harm in much the same way as armour would, as well as anchoring their souls permanently into their bodies. Because of these runes Reapers wear nothing but loincloths, belts and simple enchanted jewelry, and the ever-raw runes and black eyes give the Boneblade Reapers a wild, fearsome look. The Necromatica employ Reapers as assassins, utilizing their ability to transfer death with a mere touch and their storage of necromantic magic inside their scribed boneblades to slip through magic-dampening barriers. Reapers utilize the speed of death to enhance their own speed and agility, and are by far the most agile of the Necromatica’s troops, weaving through battles, dealing swift death as they go. When a Reaper dies they must engage in martial combat with an otherworldy psychopomp, and victory allows them to once more inhabit their bodies.
Bone Rider: The elite cavalry of the Necromatica, the Bone Riders are necromancers who animate skeletal beasts, steeds that are untiring and never balk from their tasks. Bone Riders spend long years learning to summon steeds, beasts that are imbued with an intelligence far beyond what they would naturally possess. Through their study the Bone Riders learn how to become immune to hexes, curses or natural effects that may eventuate from touching such deathly creatures, and how to channel negative energies to harm the living and heal and soothe their undead mounts. Bone Riders are trained in the use of lances, spears and greatswords whilst mounted, as well as crossbows and even scythes, carving their way through enemies with dread ease. They wear full-bodied armour, and the dragon lance is their official weapon of war. Bone Riders learn how to temporarily bind their souls to their steeds, so that they can attain the same natural abilities as their undead mounts, and can live on within their steeds should they die on the battlefield. These armoured necromancers are often also seen as the commanders of coaches pulled by undead creatures, and serve as the trainers of many creatures, both undead and living, for war. It is a common sight to see a Bone Rider trampling through a battlefield on a Skeletal Warg or Warhorse, but to see a band of Bone Riders sweeping down upon you from the sky on fearsome White Zombie Dragons is truly a sight fearsome enough for legends.
Deadlight Whisperer: Through a life lived in swamps or marshes, the Deadlight Whisperers have learnt that the horrible stench, the rotting plants, the stagnant water and the disease that lingers in such places are aspects of nature, though few would like to admit it. These places of decay teem with incorporeal spirits such as will- o-wisps and corpse candles, flickering lights that many dismiss as tricks of the marsh gases. However the Whisperer knows better, having lived amongst them for long enough to learn the languages of the dead. Whisperers know many secrets of the dead that other necromancers do not, and are viewed by many other necromancers not to be necromancers at all. On the battlefield Whisperers talk with the spirits of the dead soldiers, learning useful information and temporarily melding with the spirits to gain the skills of the dead. For this reason Whisperers are invaluable as spies and infiltrators, as well as interrogators of deceased targets. Additionally, the Whisperer has the ability to conjure up deadlights to fight for them, which can act much like gasts. A whisperer can call many different types of deadlights to fight, and some of the most powerful have been known to be able to become incorporeal deadlights themselves, making them the most powerful and skilled of infiltrators. They have been known to utilize spiritfire, to feed on the terror people experience from the deadlights and even to reincarnate as deadlights in their marshy homes, able to be eventually form a physical body again.
Soul Thief: The soul thief is a curiosity within the army of the Necromatica, for though they are not official units they are tolerated and sometimes even encouraged by commanders and other warriors, but loathed by other necromancers and commoners. They are hated by necromancers because they steal away valuable souls that could be used for magical investment, and even worse, the soul thief consumes souls to enhance his own power, forever destroying the soul and damaging the circle of Being. Amongst commoners soul thieves are despised because, quite frankly, nobody really wants their soul stolen, and a lurking soul thief has a tendency to unnerve most people. However, this is somewhat offset by the fact that soul thieves are inherently charming beings, and as such they serve as entertainers, bards, helpful jack-of-all-trades and charismatic speakers. Field commanders like soul thieves because they often provide entertainment and relaxation for the other warriors in times of rest and by consuming enemy souls prevent fallen foes from being properly resurrected. Soul thieves generally carry unobtrusive soulforged weapons that drain a being’s soul with a killing blow, to transfer either into a soul gem or within themselves, if they are willing to face the madness. The soul thief uses the souls to power his necromantic magic or create lethal blasts of undead energy, or to create spectral apparitions such as a phantom steed or blade. A thief with a large cache of spare souls can become one of the most lethal enemies in combat.
Trafficker of Quintessence: The quintessence trafficker varies from the soul thief in that he realizes that each soul has an inherent value. Whether it be by selling the soul to necromancers for magic, aetheric beings to consume or even to psychopomps who are obliged to lead the souls to new planes of existence, the trafficker is always out to make some money by the laundering of souls. The trafficker is a middle-man, a supplier, not a combatant, and as such prefers to hang back during battles, striking at opportune moments by acquiring the souls of dead or dying people, whether it be by purchase, mutual contract or simply taking them. Because they draft contracts with dying people who need to live to fulfill them, quintessence traffickers are skilled healers and are employed in the military as such. Quintessence traffickers utilize the souls they have to call rare spiritual guides to lead them to Empyrean, an otherworldly city of the psychopomps that traffickers set up shop in. Here they can sell on the souls to psychopomps for hard cash or in exchange for services rendered, often leaving the traffickers either protected by angelic auras or able to summon demons to fight for them. Traffickers are often known to have a line of credit kept open with powerful necromancers or citizens of Empryean, in order that they may be resurrected when killed. Traffickers often also command Soulless, beings who’ve defaulted on a soul contract, and sell these sentient servants on to the Necromatica for profit.
Prana Arcanist: Prana arcanists are rare necromancers, those born with a gift of powerful magic imbued into their very beings. These necromancers contain a lifeforce other than the soul, known as prana. Prana can be expended to create magical effects simply though visualization and understanding, but expending prana shortens the lifespan of a prana arcanist, which burns away at a far faster rate than regular lifespans do anyway. Because of this you tend to find prana arcanists are either highly conservative with their magic, attempting to save the life they have left, or are incredibly reckless with it, feeling that since their lives are already shortened they may as well have as much effect on the world as they can before they die. These are the sorts of prana arcanists found in the Necromatica military. The most powerful of the field mages, these arcanists generate incredible magical effects, powerful attacks and impenetrable barriers. As a prana arcanist expends their prana their hair turns progressively from blonde to pure black and their bodies become gaunt and pale. Prana arcanists are incredible healers as well, able to fix the most severe of wounds, but tend to be highly selfish with their magic, going so far as to become highly skilled physical combatants so they don’t have to rely so much on their magic. Some take a step further though, becoming prana upir that steal the minimal prana that exists in everybody, becoming more and more monstrous as they subsist on stolen prana.
Lichbound: The lichbound are generally the commanding mages on the battlefield, mages who are skilled enough to have learned how to become an undeaed lich, preserving their life forever. By carving out their own heart and storing it in a magical phylactery, a lichbound ensures that he will live forever, but at the cost of horrific emotional stasis. Cursed by (or freed by) complete emotional sterility, the lichbound focus completely on learning the arcane ways, studying necromancy in all its forms. As such, lichbound are incredibly wise and powerful mages who can control legions of the undead with ease, their own emotionally void minds serving as clear commanding sources. As the lichbound lives for longer and longer without a heart they take on a more and more cadaverous look, becoming desiccated and vicious. Lichbound and psychopomp artesians usually serve in commanding pairs, one providing the tactics, strategy and control of the mechanical hordes whilst the other is the emotional being who inspires morale amongst the sentient soldiers. Lichbound are the most consistent commanders of the Necromatica army because even if their bodies are destroyed their souls will return to their hidden phylacteries, allowing their bodies to regenerate back into the form they held at the time of removing their heart. The only way to kill a lichbound is to destroy the heart contained with the phylactery, but such knowledge can make for a powerful bargaining chip if anybody should obtain and be able to open a lichbound’s phylactery.
Psychopomp Artesian: The psychopomp artesian is an outright sadist. He engineers undead not through magic but through science. He creates chimeras, horrid beings made of mismatched bodyparts that are restored to life through electricity and science, but also he creates revenants and upir and dhampir and even gasts through science, by exploiting his vast knowledge of the creation process and psychology of many different undead beings. Revenants are their favoured being to create, however. Since revenants naturally occur from particularly unjust deaths where the dead may want vengeance, he creates them through engineering situations where such a death takes place. He creates the blood/oil mix to create prime upirs, and forcefully interbreeds upir with prana arcanists to get dhampir for the elite forces. He knows how to resurrect domes and njambii by engineering the correct circumstances of death and environment, and controls them through psychology and training rather than through the magical thrall that most necromancers use. In this way, the psychopomp artesian views the undead more like beasts or animals than magical thralls, and trains them in such a way, using techniques of starvation and fear, as well as more esoteric techniques to train creatures that feel neither. On the battlefield psychopomp artesians lead their trained forces from aboard large armoured war creatures, sometimes living, sometime dead, wielding enormous barbed whips and flaming torches with which to incite their troops to attack. They are also equipped with voicecasters that allow them to issue loud commands all the way across the battlefield.
Black Widow: The queen ruler of the Imperium Necromatica, the Black Widow is a corpulent necromancer, bloated by magical energies and life fluids harvested from countless lesser beings. A terrible witch, she is the paragon of upir life stealing, who collects the mystical threads of life from each individual being, and uses them to weave a web of life and death that she nestles in and cocoons captured enemies in so she can drain their blood and their prana and convert them into her specialised undead minions. These minions are fanatically loyal to her and vary from the subtle and sentient to the willingly sacrificial hordes. Her morbid feeding keeps her young and healthy, and she can easily regenerate almost any wound she receives. Additionally, her eyes are filled with the true deadlights, paralysing those who gaze into them so she can creep up and cocoon them in strands of eternity. The Black Widow is the ultimate commander of the Necromatica’s undead forces, utilising scrying to keep track of her minions and watch over her entire kingdom.Though she is usually transported by ten Broken Ones in a giant litter she can move very swiftly unaided, as her countless years of feasting have mutated her in profane ways, granting her a terrible black-haired spider-like body. It is said that should the Black Widow ever die, the Necromantic Intelligence will bind all her undead minions into a united task of finding a thousand pure souls to sacrifice in order to resurrect her grotesque body.
Necromantic Intelligence: A necromantic intelligence is not a single being. Rather, it is a malignant force that emerges within an area where a crime of truly terrible proportions has been committed. The dead rise up and form a basic linked intelligence with a single goal in mind, sustained by a physical focal point to that particular necromantic intelligence. Within a necromantic intelligence the environment shifts, plants withering and dying, water becoming stagnant and brackish and obscuring mists drifting across the entire area. Within a necromantic intelligence’s area of effect any being that dies will become an undead of some sort when the sun sets on the land, becoming enslaved to the intelligence’s single-minded hive goal. The most terrifying aspect of a necromantic intelligence is that it possesses both purpose and will, and subtly plays at the minds of all who are within its boundaries to further its purpose. Additionally, the necromantic intelligence perceives everything that its resident undead see, and coordinates its minions with clever tactics. Necromantic intelligences often spring up on battlefields, and powerful necromancers learn how to create mobile intelligences that, though small, traverse the land in pursuit of their purposes, tainting all that they pass. An intelligence dissipates once its purpose is achieved or a consecration ritual is performed at its focus, though it will sense the ritual and defend itself. The most powerful necromantic intelligence of all is the Imperium Necromatica itself, which whispers to the Black Widow, fueling its purpose to conquer all of life and death.
Excluding the title for each unit I come in at 27 words under the 5000 word limit. Hell yeah. With the titles it becomes 5 over. But I'm sure you guys will cope with that