Necromancy in 40k?

[Lord Kallozar]

Does necromancy exist in 40k?

 

If it does not, would it be too far fetched to create a DIY warband that would introduce necromancy? Or is that a step too far?

[Panzer]

Well Nurgle has actual zombies. Part of the disease consists of the infected actually dieing and then coming back to 'life' as zombies. Poxwalker are another kind of zombie-like undeads created by a Nurgle plague. The difference between those two are mainly that Poxwalker mutated even after death and that they are concious and aware (not really in control though).

Apart from that there isn't much classic Necromancy in 40k. Lots and lots of death themes considering the IoM is one huge deathcult but it's not like we have actual necromancer or such walking around like in AoS since there isn't really a realm of death or something.

I guess the closest thing to a Necromancer in 40k would be Typhus who spreads those plagues.

[The Unseen]

There is that one Eldar god-avatar now running around now.

Straight up resurrection there.

 

Otherwise it's pretty much just Nurgle and the supernatural diseases that turn dead men into walking corpses.

[redmapa]

Depends on how strict you are with the definition of necromancy but 40k has a lot of using the dead in different ways, for example the Eldar use the souls of their dead to power their Wraith constructs, the Necrons are a whole race of the non-living/undead and their hordes are rebuilt from near destruction, the Adeptus Mechanicus also has Servitors whose flesh can be repurposed and reused to create other servitors and there's other more arcane technologies to bring dead bodies into use and finally you have the Thousand Sons and their Rubrics which are basically armors powered by the diminished embers of their occupants soul.

 

Nurgle has the more typical necromancy.

[Noctus Cornix]

There's actually proof that there is some form of traditional necromancy in the galaxy. In The Talon of Horus, the Word Bearer Sargon is a fledgling psyker who had his throat cut during the Great Crusade. It's shown in the novel that Sargon uses dead bodies to speak for him. The main character makes note that Sargon isn't just animating the corpse (which implies that this is a thing other sorcerers have done) but fully departs a part of his essence and soul into the corpse. 

[Cryptix]

The Keys of Hel are used by the Iron Hands during the Heresy and beyond to resurrect fallen warriors.

[Lord Kallozar]

Thanks for the replies so far. So would it be credible fluff wise to have a sorc that has learnt necromancy and resurrected a small army of ghostly space marines?

[Panzer]

Thanks for the replies so far. So would it be credible fluff wise to have a sorc that has learnt necromancy and resurrected a small army of ghostly space marines?

 

If you want ghostly space marines take a look at the Legion of the Damned.

[Brother Dallo]

Erebus brings one human back to life in Betrayer, who has been dead for a year. Won't name them as it's a bit of a spoiler if you haven't already read it.

 

Dallo

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Fabius did a similar job on some of the Emperor's Children, it's a bit unclear how much warp help he had though, or if it was just his being an insane genius?

[Panzer]

Overall it seems that actual necromancy is more of a chaos thing.

[Closet Skeleton]

The Ynnari and Mortarion's foster dad have both been called Necromancers in the fluff.

 

Depends on how strict you are with the definition of necromancy but 40k has a lot of using the dead in different ways, for example the Eldar use the souls of their dead to power their Wraith constructs, the Necrons are a whole race of the non-living/undead and their hordes are rebuilt from near destruction, the Adeptus Mechanicus also has Servitors whose flesh can be repurposed and reused to create other servitors and there's other more arcane technologies to bring dead bodies into use and finally you have the Thousand Sons and their Rubrics which are basically armors powered by the diminished embers of their occupants soul.

 

There is no strict definition of necromancy, its a fantasy term used in a lot of fantasy settings derived from a set of European words that had pretty broad and loose usage to start with (in Spanish the Greek root got corrupted by false etymology to just mean 'black magic' in general).

 

 

Thanks for the replies so far. So would it be credible fluff wise to have a sorc that has learnt necromancy and resurrected a small army of ghostly space marines?

 

That's not too different to the Thousand Sons. There's enough wacky poorly explained chaos warbands in the fluff that you should be able to get away with what ever.

 

I've seen completely fluff breaking converted theme armies at official tournaments (last GT I was at had a vampire Blood Angels army with batwinged mutants and a looted Tyranids/Ork army using the Tyranid rules and that was at Warhammer World where they ask you to send in photos of extensive conversions ahead of time to get them approved).

[Slasher956]

Necromancy - the bringing back to life of the dead....

 

I give you the the living saint & her pet bodyguards .... the Emperor of Man is a Necromancer!

[Laughingman]

In the  Dark Heresy RPGs ? a relic of the dark age of technology called a Sarcosan wave generator was capable of reanimated the dead, in a similar way to the Keys of Hel described in some of the Heresy books. 

[Panzer]

Since it seems we're going to argue about what necromancy actually is, here is the official definition:

"a practice of magic involving communication with the dead – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge, to bring someone back from the dead, or to use the dead as a weapon, as the term may sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft."

 

So actually a lot of things apply. I'm going to ignore the whole"black magic or witchcraft" part or else we could just include everything and it wouldn't help anybody lol

 

If I recall correctly on Baal is a place only Mephiston has access to where he communes with past Chief Librarians. That would be necromancy as well.

Nurgles plagues since they are warp(magic) infused are necromancy.

Whenever the Legion of the Damned appears it's necromancy.

Everytime Celestine gets refused to rest in peace it's necromancy.

Fabius Bile reviving himself as a clone of himself. Necromancy since he actually dies for a while (though to be fair there is no 'magic' involved here).

I guess one could argue that the latest Clone Fulgrim was necromancy as well considering he even had the Primarch aura and not just his memories (a Primarchs memories get written in their DNA for whatever reason so any clone would have them) implying it has Fulgrims actual soul. (no 'magic' involved here either)

I think Bile also brought Eidolon back to life if I recall correctly. That as well would be necromancy (but again no 'magic' involved ... it's quite curious how Bile manages these feats without any psychic abilities).

Guillimans return to 40k. Necromancy (Yvraine killed him to be able to ressurect him with her gods power).

Khorne reviving that one Ork Waaagh fighting against his Daemons on one of his Daemon worlds over and over again. Necromancy.

Khorne reviving Khârn over and over. Necromancy.

 

 

So yeah if you want to make a DIY warband centered around some guys 'summoning' Marines one way or another for one reason or another, that should be perfectly within reason of what's possible in the 40k universe.

I'd say the most fitting ways would probably be to go with just either a Tzeentch worshipping warband and use the TSons rules if you want more ghostly Marines as Tzeentch is the god of change and ghosts do have some aspects of such due them usually not having a fix form and such ... or Nurgle worshipping warband and use the DG rules if you want more zombie-like Marines as Nurgle is the god of death and decay. Or possibly a mix of both. Just because both gods hate eachother it doesn't mean their mortal followers can't work together and crunch-wise if you split your army into two detachments it works out perfectly fine too.

[Chaplain Killmer]

Well this sounds like Craftworld Eldars to me. Iyandens whole defense rests on the dead alled back into wraithbone bodies.

[Torbenos]

The Thousand Sons Sorcerer Iskander Khayon did some necromancy as described in the book The Talon of Horus. A Dark Eldar Scourge was mortally wounded but he bound her soul to her corpse and she kept "living" for all intents and purposes. She was even unaware of the fact that she was dead.

[firestorm40k]

In the 'Inquisition War' trilogy by Ian Watson, the following happens (spoilers if you've not read it):

 

The main character (who's name I can't remember) basically goes on a quest to bring his dead lover back. He retrieves her soul from the immaterium (or such as is my understanding), unfortunately when he restores her soul to her corpse she is basically completely insane, screaming in hysteria and terror continuously.

So it doesn't go well...

 

That's what I can remember, mind you I read it 14 years ago.  But does that count?

[PipX]

There are pretty much two examples of "Necromancy" in the 30k/40k setting following along what I've read and seen in the lore, and the examples above. You have more of the reanimated corpse type necromancy where physical bodies are reanimated somehow like with the Sargon of the Black Legion initially using sorcery to use bodies to speak for him, or like plague zombies/pox walkers where a warp based virus or magic is used. 

 

Then you have soul based "Necromancy" with the best examples being Eldar soul stones and Wraith shenanigans, and the stuff with Ynnead. To a lesser extent stuff with the Emperor with entities who have become "Imperial Demons" like Celestine or the Legion of the Damned. I do believe there are some Chaos examples as well, the general theme on this one is something either protected the soul or kept it whole once it went into the Warp so it wasn't torn apart by demons. 30k has a few examples of people brought back completely, but they tend to either be insane or have a period of readjustment from remembering being torn apart in the Warp (And also gain some extra features) or they tend to have merged/brought something back with them in the case of Tormageddon being a melding of a daemon and the soul of Tarik Tormageddon.

[grailkeeper]

There is a space marine with the zombie plague in one of the Soul Drinkers novels and the Thousand Sons are Necromancy from a certain perspective. 

 

There is also Karloth Valois the old Necromunda Special Character  http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Karloth_Valois . If someone on a civilian world can get into necromancy surely someone in the warp can.

[ThatOneMarshal]

In flight of the eisenhorn nurgle infected a bunch of dead death guard traitors while they were in the warp, basically making them zombies in the precess

 

I always wanted to make a thousand sons style army where it had an undead wraith feel to it. Like the cultists were skeletons or something.

 

I wouln’t put it past chaos to be able to remain in age a dead thing.

[Ranulf]

In the 'Inquisition War' trilogy by Ian Watson, the following happens (spoilers if you've not read it):

 

The main character (who's name I can't remember) basically goes on a quest to bring his dead lover back. He retrieves her soul from the immaterium (or such as is my understanding), unfortunately when he restores her soul to her corpse she is basically completely insane, screaming in hysteria and terror continuously.

 

So it doesn't go well...

 

That's what I can remember, mind you I read it 14 years ago.  But does that count?

 

Meh'Lindi.

 

And yeah, it goes down about as well as it did in Pet Cemetery.

 

-Ran