Editing Necromancer (section)

== Exalted ==
As far as magic in Exalted goes, spells are more rare, and usually more niche, then the omnipresent charms that spirits and Exalted use. Nevertheless, sorcery is an intrinsic part of Creation (and Yu-Shan, and Malfeas), seared into its firmament by the Primordials. In [[Exalted]], however, necromancy is not merely a school of sorcery. Necromancy is not sorcery at all. When the Primordials died and became the Neverborn, they made the Underworld, and that new world was governed by a new type of magic. That was Necromancy, the dark mirror to sorcery.

The Neverborn are the strongest contender for Exalted's [[BBEG]], and despite Exalted's amoral themes and scarcity of powers that are necessarily evil or good, you have to go through the Black Treatise with a fine tooth comb to pick out the spells that don't poison the world, cause indiscriminate harm or show excessive cruelty - and most of what's left are attack spells. This is more true the deeper you go into the circles of Necromancy. Part of why that is might be the art's historical innovators. Mortals and most Exalted can only access the first circle of Necromancy - most Dragonblooded and spirits can't learn it at all. In the First Age, the [[Dark Eldar|increasingly decadent and insane Solars]] led Necromantic research. In the Second Age, the present day of the setting, the chief innovators are the Neverborns' own slaves, who are the only ones that can access the Void circle.

It might come as no surprise, after reading all that, the Necromancy is not a popular choice for Exalted players, or at least those not playing loyalist Abyssals out to murder Creation. In addition to its unsavory nature, a lot of Necromantic spells just don't do anything ''useful''. Many of its spells amount to useless manipulation of, or pointless cruelty against, ghosts (which in Exalted are meager foes, who can't learn spells, excellencies, or combat charms). One spell lets you change what a ghost looks like, another lets them (not you, them) see their fetters, a third teaches them to play the drums, and a fourth bakes them a delicious meal. [[Derp|These are real spells]]. A lot of the spells that are useful only work in the Underworld, where the living cannot regain Essence. Nevertheless, the Black Treatise had barely hit shelves when Exalted fans started compiling abridged lists of the useful spells, and those who are fighting against the Neverborn and their slaves could do a lot worse than learn Necromancy.