Chapter XVIII
I don’t know for how long I passed in and out of consciousness after the conversation I had with Moon, but eventually my body decided to make up its mind and stay awake, despite the fact that I was still very tired.
At least, it felt like I was tired. My body felt sluggish, but somehow my brain seemed like I had drunk three Monsters in quick succession. “What time is it?” I asked the empty room as I sat up.
However, since the room showed a distinct lack of timepieces or people, I was left to my best guess as to the current time. I wasn’t troubled by this though, as I had spent quite a few months before this moment with the sun as my only timepiece.
With a flick of my wrists, I threw the blanket off of myself and swung my legs out over the side of the bed. I noticed that I was still wearing my Awesome Pants of Wonder, though this didn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, when I was back on Earth, I would often fall asleep wearing my clothes, so this actually made me feel more at home. Without much ceremony, I got up and made my way over to the window of my room, yanking open the curtains and sliding open the window as soon as I had reached it.
“Now all I need is some bacon and eggs, and this’ll be the perfect beginning to the day!” I said as I looked out at the stunning view. From where my window was, I could see the inner courtyard of the castle, the city beyond, as well as the beautiful countryside far below the mountain, all bathed in the warm light of the rising sun. In the skies around the castle itself, I could see various Pegasi all going about their day as the ground-bound ponies in the city itself did the same.
I wasn’t really sure why I was so happy, but I had a hunch that it probably had something to do with the fact that last night was the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to sleep without waking up in a cold sweat, screaming about a particularly vivid nightmare. However, as I watched all the happy-looking natives go about their day, a nagging little voice in the back of my head intruded upon my good mood.
This is all going to go up in flames if you can’t get their weapon to work.
With a grim frown, I turned my back to the window and made my way to my writing desk. This time, remember not to overdo it, I thought as I picked up a quill and pulled a sheet of paper closer to me. I stopped, however, when I noticed that none of my notes from my previous work were here.
“Well, that’s no good,” I said as I threw down the quill. I wasn’t sure how much time I had left before They arrived, but I knew I didn’t have enough to waste any redoing any of my previous work.
My frustrated musings were interrupted, though, by the sound of the door gently creaking open. “Aleas?” I heard Evening say.
I perked up at that. I wasn’t really sure what the word she said meant, but I was pretty sure she was checking in to see if I was awake. “I’m over here.”
As soon as I had said something, she looked over at me as she opened the door wider. Her face broke out in a grin as she trotted towards me, her horn lighting up, causing my throat and ears to tingle as she drew closer. “I am gladdened that awake you being! We… have something yours, something we find.”
“Um… are you sure it’s mine? Other than my pants, I don’t have anything that I could say that is truly mine…” I told her, a little bewildered.
“It… hard explain… Have show, then understand,” she said, waving a hoof at me. “Can teleport, take quick, yes?”
“Yes!” I said, jumping up, but quickly brought my excitement down a notch. While the last two times that the ponies had used their ability to teleport on me had been quite disorienting, it still set off all the squee that my thirteen-year-old inner child could muster at the thought of doing it again. “I mean, yes, that would be fine.”
She looked at me oddly at this, a little startled at my sudden outburst, but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, all she did was cause her horn to glow once more. “One moment.”
There was a flash of purple, and the now familiar feeling of my stomach being turned inside out, followed immediately by the room around us being replaced with the lab that she had brought me to when she first teleported me. Something was different about it this time, though. For one thing, I noticed that none of the other scientists appeared to be in the room at the moment. Well, none of them except the two minotaurs from earlier. Neither of them seemed to have noticed us, which was probably a good thing, seeing as how they had gotten into a screaming match with each other.
“Um… should I be concerned about that?” I said as I gave Evening a worried look.
Before she could answer my question, a loud bang snapped my attention back to the two Minotaurs. One of them, this one with a dark green mane and lower half, but a light blue upper half, had slammed something down on the desk and was angrily stomping his way towards me.
Well, past me really. He seemed to be on a warpath out of this room, so I moved over to let him pass. He didn’t seem to notice me until he was almost directly on top of me, at which point he did a double take as he realized who I was.
He said something to me, something angry, biting, sarcastic and witty I’m sure, but whatever it was was completely lost on me because of my inability to understand him.
His tone was unmistakable, though, as was the wad of saliva he spat right on my forehead.
While his behavior was closer to the reaction that I had expected from the natives for quite some time now, I had been pleasantly surprised time and time again that they were nothing like how I thought. If I had received this kind of treatment before, when I was still alone in the woods, I probably would have turned and ran, looking for some place to hide from the perceived threat, all while feeling incredibly depressed.
Now, though, after all that I’ve gone through, after everything that the ponies had done for me, I was surprised at what I felt towards this person. There was no shame, no sense that, somehow, I deserved this treatment, and no feeling of deep despair.
What I did feel was a deep seated rage. Lucky for him, however, not only did I have far more self-control than he did, but his actions had also left me in shock, not quite believing what had happened.
As I raised a hand to wipe away the saliva, I was faintly aware of voices nearby. One was the voice of the second minotaur, who seemed to be shouting in anger, but became a lot fainter after I heard the door slam. The other was Evening’s, who seemed to be trying to get my attention. “I’m sorry, what was that?” I said as I snapped out of whatever trance I was in.
“You doing right?” Evening asked, clearly worried at what had happened.
“Yeah… I’m fine, what was that all about?” I said as I got my breathing under control. It was taking everything I had not to let the beast out to tear that jerkwad a new one, but somehow, I was managing.
“It… have do with thing we find. Need show before explain, not explain well without show first. Guess mostly jealous,” she said, worry still clear in her voice.
I chuckled at that. “I never thought anyone would be jealous of me, especially not after everything that’s happened.”
“Not worry, ignore Tooth Cracker, he not know what do,” Evening said as she levitated me a handkerchief. As soon as I had taken the offered cloth, she started cantering towards the back of the room. As I followed her, I did my best to wipe the spittle off my face and hand, thoroughly grossed out about what had happened.
Well, look on the bright side. If you ever get home, you’ll go down in history as the first human who has ever been spat on by an alien, I thought as Evening led me into a previously unobserved room in the back.
* * *
“How do you think he will react to this?” Celestia asked as she observed the tests that her ponies were running on the survivor. Though, at this point in their investigation, ‘survivor’ was probably being too generous.
“I do not know, sister. By his own admission, he has had no experience with this sort of thing. If you recall, he believed that magic was a fairytale, and that the soul was something that some people believed in, while others did not.”
Celestia sighed at that, cradling her head in her hoof. “I’m just relieved that he didn’t pull anything from beyond The Veil.”
“Agreed, though this does present an interesting conundrum. Would this still fall within the realm of necromancy?”
“I don’t think it does. Not only did he not pull anything from beyond the veil, but historically, these fragments have never been large enough to do anything other than hold some precious or traumatic memories. What we have here is an entirely new form of magic, one that I am unsure should be explored,” Celestia said uneasily.
Luna nodded her head at her sister’s words, but otherwise remained silent.
As the two sisters thought about this new conundrum, they were interrupted in their thoughts by the muffled sounds of arguing coming from the other side of the door. Luna rolled her eyes at this, her irritation mounting as she was forced to continue listening to the two minotaurs. “Are those two still going at it?”
“Of course they are. To Tusk Breaker, this is a matter of pride now, and he will not rest until the perceived slight against him is avenged. We are lucky that Thunder Hoof is able to keep him in line; otherwise, he would have challenged ~Alex~ by now,” Celestia answered with a sigh.
“That… would not bode well. No matter how the battle turns out, we would end up being the losers. We cannot afford infighting when the enemy is on our door,” Luna said with a grimace. Thankfully, however, the argument on the other side had come to an end, allowing the two sisters a moment of respite.
At least, that’s what they thought.
Only moments after they thought the argument had ended, the room behind them erupted in shouting again. “How dare you!” Thunder Hoof shouted, his voice clearly heard even through the heavy door of the observation room.
“What was that about?” Luna asked as the sound of a slamming door could be heard.
“I do not know, but I am sure we will find out soon,” Celestia said darkly.
Almost immediately after, the door to the observation room opened, allowing both ~Alex~ and Twilight into the room. Twilight had a look of pure disbelief, while Alex had a look that fell somewhere between bemusement and anger as he vigorously wiped his face with a handkerchief.
“Is everything okay?” Celestia asked after she cast the Translation spell on herself and her sister.
“Well, Tusk-”
“It not anything. Just misunderstanding of thing,” ~Alex~ said, interrupting Twilight before she could finish.
“What do you mean, ‘just a misunderstanding?’” Twilight asked incredulously. “Tusk-”
“-Is being child. Is being distraction. More important things deal with. Cannot waste time on him. Aliens come soon, will destroy everything if weapon not work,” ~Alex~ cut in, an eyebrow raised pointedly as he looked at Twilight.
Twilight grumbled at that, but otherwise held her tongue. Celestia and Luna on the other hand, shared a look between the two of them. ~Alex~ might not want them to know what had happened, but it was still important, especially if it involved Tusk Breaker. Minotaurs had a history of becoming unpredictable if their pride was on the line, and Tusk was no exception to that stereotype.
The whole thing needed to be taken care of now before it became a problem.
“Anyway, still not know what weapon even is, or what does. All know is need calculation device to make work. Would help if told how weapon works. Could help build,” ~Alex~ said after the awkward moment had passed.
“The weapon itself is already ‘complete’. It has been for quite some time. All we really need to ensure that it works is the ability to locate our targets. Otherwise, it will do us absolutely no good,” Celestia answered him.
The ~human~ thought about this for a bit, then shook his head. “But, how know weapon work? If enemy defenses able to defend against weapon? Or if enemy able destroy weapon? What then?”
At this, Celestia just started laughing, while Twilight looked at the ~human~ with a look of horror. Luna, however, managed to keep a straight face. “Trust me, if they were to be able to withstand this weapon, we deserve to be conquered. And if it were to be destroyed, then I believe we would have far larger problems to worry about than an alien invasion,” the Princess of the Night deadpanned.
~Alex~ still did not look convinced, however. “That what everyone say, but no plan survive enemy. Want see weapon, see in action, that give such confidence.”
“Oh, you won’t be able to miss it…” Celestia gasped between her giggles.
“We will… show you later. Trust us, however, when we say that this weapon is unlike any you have seen before,” Luna said cryptically.
~Alex~ gave her a piercing stare at that, but then dropped it with a shrug. “Fine. Guess will wait. See when demonstration about sun, yes?”
Luna smiled at that, her eyes full of mischief. “Oh yes. Don’t worry, we’ll get to both of those at the same time.”
At this, Twilight looked completely lost. “Wait, why does he need a demonstration of the sun? And why aren’t we telling him that the weapon is-”
Before Twilight could finish her thought, however, she was shushed into silence by Celestia. “I will tell you later, Twilight. For now, just know that we don’t want to spoil the surprise.” Both Twilight and ~Alex~ looked completely confused at this, but they let it drop.
“Anyway, not reason come. Evening say that have something mine? Not likely…” ~Alex~ said.
“Ah, yes. We did indeed find something of yours, but a more accurate description would be someone, though that is still not very accurate…” Celestia said as she motioned towards the window behind her.
~Alex~ moved forward to look through the window, his eyebrows furrowed in apparent interest. “That cold. Is machine? How able to do?” he asked, pointing at the small, metallic cat.
“That is a golem. It is a construct that is able to perform a variety of tasks based on how much Arcanite was used in its construction,” Twilight explained.
~Alex~ opened his mouth in understanding. “It very good, very life like. Act like real cat.”
“It’s… not supposed to,” Luna explained.
~Alex~ turned to her, his eyebrow raised in confusion. “What mean, not supposed to? What supposed to do?”
Luna shook her head. “It’s still supposed to act like a cat, but it wasn’t very good at it. The minotaur responsible for its construction is the foremost expert in golems mimicking life, and he could only get to a close approximation of how a cat should act. The tail would wave back and forth, but very stiffly. It would walk and mewl, but it was very apparent that it had no heart and soul behind its actions.”
The ~human~ nodded in understanding at that, then turned back towards the window. “So, what change? Look like someone come, fix, make better.”
“Yes, that was you,” Celestia revealed.
~Alex~ didn’t react at first. Instead, he just continued to stare at the cat, his gaze a million miles away. “No, I didn’t.”
“It may be hard to believe, but while you were busy with your little work session, you did far more than just write a whole ton of schematics,” Twilight said as she got closer. “You also grabbed one of the minotaur’s cats, tore out its arcanite core, and made a completely new one for it. One that we’re hard pressed to even call an arcanite core at this point, due to the level of complexity involved.”
~Alex~ continued to stare at the creature for a little bit longer, then looked down at Twilight. “You saying I made calculation device from golem, did you?”
Twilight nodded at that. “It appears so, though you seemed to have done far more than just turn a golem into a calculation device.”
“Indeed. Not only does it act more cat-like now, but it also speaks, and has a personality as well,” Luna expounded.
~Alex’s~ head whipped back to the Lunar Princess at that, almost giving himself whiplash. “Wait, you say I make thinking machine? Intelligence Not-Its-Own?”
“It’s… a little more complicated than that. What you did… you…” Luna started to say, but trailed off as she tried to figure out the best way to tell ~Alex~ exactly what he created.
“I think it would be better if we showed him, rather than explained it to him,” Celestia interrupted as she opened the door to the observation room.
~Alex~ looked a bit hesitant at that, but still entered the room, followed closely by the three ponies. The cat had his back turned towards the door, but turned around as soon as ~Alex~ cleared his throat. “Excusing me? Who are you?”
The cat turned his head around the moment it heard ~Alex’s~ voice, and began to talk. And talk. And talk. As it talked, ~Alex’s~ eyes grew wider by the second, his frame trembling with each and every word, and his mouth wordlessly moving, repeating one word over and over again.
“What is it saying?” Celestia whispered to her sister.
“I do not know. It is talking far too fast, and I am only able to pick up a single word out of every fifty it says. I believe it is talking about new bodies for the others, though,” Luna answered.
While they whispered to each other, though, ~Alex~ suddenly turned around, his face much paler than it usually was, while a look of abject fear filled his eyes. “No.”
“What?” Twilight asked, not quite understanding what the human meant.
“No necromancer. Not bring back dead. No,” he said, not really in answer to Twilight’s question, but more likely trying to reassure himself.
“We don’t think that’s what hap-” Celestia started to say, but the human ignored her, instead choosing to walk right past her, straight towards the observation room door, all while saying that same negative word over and over again.
~“Oh dear,”~ Luna heard ~Robert~ say, yet far slower this time, so that she could more easily understand him. ~“I think I may have broken him…”~
6268663 Thanks for that, google docs messed up.
6268663 If you see it mess up anywhere else, don't hesitate to tell me.
*Begins to make arcanite army*
This was a nice read I will wait patiently
Soon there will be an entire attack force of robotic critters all speaking in harmony, "Surrender, you will be assimilated."
Yay I've missed this story!! I really want to know what the two said to each other but darn it Robert! Give poor Alex time to process before info dumping.
We can only imagine what that repeated word may have translated as. Maybe "fecal matter"? In the meanwhile Robert is just blabbering on about how he's the instrument of their reincarnation....
Keep going! ;)
Go get the duct tape. duct tape fixes everything
alex:
*sees talking cat*
"oh god! I made a talking cat! hell no! kill that hellspawn with fire!"
Darn it! I hate/love it when a chapter comes out and some much/so little happens in it that I'm desperate for more.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good work.
Nice chapter.
Glad to see this back
Ah. They're weaponizing the sun and moon, but they need to aim properly!
Man I hate how necromancers are always portrayed so negatively. Is conjuring up the souls of the dead really a bad thing? What about allowing family and loved ones to say goodbye and achieve closure? What about summoning the spirit of a murder victim and getting witness testimony straight from the horse's mouth? What if your favorite author wrote a book that ended on a cliffhanger and then died before writing the sequel?
If I was a necromancer, I'd conjure the soul of Monty Oum and have him get back to work on RWBY. If I can't give him a physical body, I could still bind his spirit to serve as an adviser or something. "Get your dead ass up and get back to work you lazy bum!"
And who wouldn't want to resurrect Robin Williams and give him a hug?
That... huh... Why does he have his Awsome Pants of Wonder? After all he was naked when he was ambushed by the Krin retrieval force. Sure I guess the ponies could have sent a team to gather his stuff in the cave, but then he should probably have more stuff... even if most of it would have just been recently given to him by the ponies.
6269711 There is actually a really good, in story reason why it's so bad and looked down upon. You'll find out in the next chapter.
Don't worry Alex, it's not necromancy, and I can prove it:
Necromancy involves communing with those whose souls have passed into their afterlife (Heaven, Hell, Valhalla, Folkvangr, Hel, Niflhel, Nirvana, Elysium, Hades, etc), pulling these souls back to the material world, and reanimating expired bodies. While the first one is merely frowned upon and discouraged, it's the other two that are truly evil, as they upset the soul's rest or punishment and prevent the body's return to nature.
However, Alex's comrades didn't actually die. Due to the procedure of the aliens, their consciousnesses (and therefore, souls,) are strongly interconnected, possibly irrevocably. Essentially, they are all simultaneously individual souls and one big communal soul. To put it another way, it's like they've all been tied together with an indestructible rope; no matter what, no one can really go too far from the others. So long as at least one of them has a body, they all live. With that said, those who don't have their own body will enter a "low power" state so as not to overwhelm any given body. Building a robot or golem and allowing them to occupy it is less like necromancy and more like giving them an entire prosthetic body.
Of course, it's up to a character in the story to figure this out.
6269664 Pretty sure it's actually the
OrbitalFriendship Cannon. But I could be wrong!Sorry for the double post. This guy commented while I was writing.
6269711
Because it really, really sucks to be pulled back from eternal paradise. How would you feel if you had just retired and moved to the place you've always wanted to live, doing the thing you've always wanted to do, when suddenly someone shows up, chains you up in your old cubicle, and tells you to keep working? I don't know about you, but I'd feel like kicking his ass.
6269850
Point of correction: it's only evil if the person casting the spell is evil, or working towards evil ends. Lots of tales, both new and old, comment on powerful good people bringing their loved ones back. Even Gods have done so in stories. Of course, in all these tales, it's a big deal and/or epic struggle.
I'm actually worried if Alex brings back his friends: dying isn't something you just get over happening to you, not to mention they'd be coming back in bodies that can't really feel like a flesh and bone one can. Even as twisted as they had been forced to become, their senses had either been left in tact or enhanced.
6269910
No one said they had to be resurrected permanently. Bring 'em back to answer a few questions, or work for a while before sending 'em back to their "eternal paradise" at the end of the day. I'm sure all the people who died before completing their life's work would jump at the chance.
It doesn't have to be against their will either. Just ask 'em if they want to finish their work or not.
I haven't gotten any notifications of your Twitch streams lately, what happened?
6270057 Work happened. We're not doing twitch anymore, simply because we just don't have the time, and Walmart is going through a remodel. Later, if something special comes out, we might consider doing that. For now, we're sticking with youtube, mainly because we can get to it whenever we want, and you can watch at any time that you please.
6269959
As a general rule, those are specifically about people who died when they weren't supposed to, and normally, the person's soul is being saved from Limbo (AKA the Veil or the Space Between). There are also lots of stories where the protagonist tries to bring back someone who did die when they were supposed to, only to be told that what they're doing is wrong, and that they have to come to terms with the person's death. Also, being resurrected by a god is something else entirely, as said god is usually the ruler of whatever afterlife the individual is in, and therefore has the authority to send people back as needed.
6269968
My example was a simplified, watered down version of what it's like to be summoned. Even five minutes away from the afterlife is nothing short of pure torture. To make it even more insulting, those summoned are usually robbed of their free will in some way in order to, at minimum, prevent them from destroying whatever is binding them.
Asking first would fall into communing with the dead, which is frowned upon, but not necessarily evil. If the contacted was, in fact, so obsessed with their life's work that they'd be willing to suffer summoning in order to finish it, then it's not evil to summon them, as it circumvents what actually makes that practice evil in the first place (assuming that the summoned individual doesn't have a malicious goal, of course). However, this is the exception, not the norm. It's the same reason why BDSM isn't considered domestic abuse.
6269664 Killer Croc approves of this plan.
6269959 really it depends on what metaphysics you're working with. Under some metaphysics, ressurrection is cheap and perfectly normal and acceptable, to the point where Death sometimes doesn't bother bringing people to the afterlife; in others, even attempting a ressurrection risks blowing up your universe. This one seems to be going with "attempting ressurrection is extremely dangerous", without specifying exactly what that danger is.
6269968
In this story's version if equestria, the dead souls do not survive the resurrection intact.
Here, managing to pull a soul across the veil with 10% integrity is amazing luck, but even so the soul is irreparably damaged and unable to return to its origin without risking oblivion.
6270320 STOP READING AHEAD!!!!
Oh my. I had a bad feeling that Alex was going to go when he saw the cat golem and what the golem contains.
6270443 I'd say it was fairly inevitable, and of course he would see it as bringing back the dead.
Yay. Update!! While new chapter is good, I still would like more story exposition please. Can't really think too good anymore, so sorry for the abrupt changes in emotion. For me it's around 3:00 in the morning.
Wow, I'd be pretty pissed at being left a cat and someone refusing to revive the others. Especially with the assumption that they were all probably going to Hell. I think I'd have to revoke his bro card.
6269850
6269910
Embalming, have you heard of it? It makes bodies so toxic that the fluids leaching of caskets and contaminating soil and groundwater is a serious concern. It's widely practiced.
I think I'd like punishment interrupted, yeah? And what's to say having one's rest interrupted isn't desired?
Assumption and opinion. Who says the person is in eternal paradise? What if being pulled away reveals that they were basically blissed out of their mind and didn't actually have coherent thoughts? What if this individual has unfinished business?
Assuming they went where they were wanting and expecting to go.
Again, assuming. What they've always wanted to do might require them being back on Earth.
Pretty sure he was joking about binding him and making him finish the manga.
And again, assuming that the person will be bound in chains, and doesn't want to continue on what they were working on.
I take it you don't enjoy your job, then. That's an opinion.
Your two reasons for it Always Being Evil are pretty flimsy, and entirely based upon opinion. That sort of thing might be good enough for medieval peasants, but you're going to have to do better than that.
Really, the only things that would be worrisome would be the potential for abuse, reanimated corpses incidentally spreading plague, or causing the Gate to Hell being left open.
My money is on the Gate to Hell being left open as the problem. No idea what that might entail at this point, though.
The foremost would be a serious concern, but wouldn't make necromancy inherently evil. The next obviously wouldn't be a problem if you're using golems. The latter isn't a problem because these souls haven't crossed over.
Also, strictly speaking, necromancy is divination by summoning the spirits of the dead and compelling them to give information.
More generally, it can be extended to soul magic, spirit summoning magic, corpse magic, blood magic, curse, poison, and plague magic, reanimation magic, and even animation magic like golems. (The process can be effectively the same as reanimating a corpse, only using a non-corpse host material; both can be considered as creating an 'artificial soul') Basically, everything related to Fate, Death, and the Cycle of Life.
6270710
Embalming:
Just because something is widely practiced doesn't mean it's good. For example, smoking; very bad for your health, and yet plenty of people do it. I was actually going to mention it, but I decided it wasn't relevant enough.
Punishment:
If someone is in Hell (or equivalent), do you really think it's a good idea to let them out? Obviously, they're there for any number of evil deeds, and bringing them back would allow them to return to their deeds, which would be an evil act. In most religions, the underworld is a surprisingly sparse place, as only the truly wicked are usually sent there; the kind of folks who would leap at the opportunity to return to their evils.
Rest:
Rest is a bit of a misnomer. It's not rest as in "relaxing, or lounging about with nothing to do," but rest as in "freedom from having to do anything you don't like." It's something that's found only briefly on Earth.
Blissed out of mind:
This is a bit technical. Before I start, know this: gods are essentially hyper-personalities. They completely and utterly embody the values, vices, and quirks that they have, and therefore come to represent them. For instance, Loki the trickster god. All forms of mischief are a reflection of him (this goes for all trickster gods, who are individuals, but also intrinsically connected - it's very complicated beneath the surface).
As a soul grows closer to their god and the physical is stripped away, one of two things could happen, depending on the god. Either their personality is muted and absorbed by the god, leaving no soul to be raised, or it is amplified and more strongly defined to allow communion with the god. Given that being blissed out of one's mind would be a suppression of personality, which would be the inverse of the latter. It could occur in the former, but then there'd still be no soul to raise.
Assuming:
I've covered the point of raising someone who's gone to be punished.
Now, what could someone do on Earth that they can't or won't eventually be able to do in the afterlife? Remember that folks sent to the afterlife are given bodies built for their new realm of existence, and that any family and friends they have will also be there at some point.
Chains:
His point is still valid, as there are others who would do it. Even if their hearts are in the right place, they are still forcing a soul to leave paradise and tormenting them with undeath (side note: there is a distinction between necromancy and resurrection. Resurrection is the complete restoration, body and soul, of an individual on Earth, which is something so power intensive and complex that only a god could do it, and even they try to avoid it).
As I've said before, if an individual is truly so obsessed with some Earthly task that they would suffer undeath to see it completed, and said task was benign, it would not be evil to summon them. However, that is the exception, not the norm. Many things lose their sense of urgency in the face of eternity.
My job:
I love my job. However, when I retire, I expect to not have to do it unless I want to, and to do it wherever I please, not where my boss tells me to.
Opinion:
I think part of the issue is that you think that Paradise won't be able to cater to everyone; that it is limited in what people can do or where people can go there. Simply put, Paradise is far more expansive than anyone on Earth can imagine. For every possible desire, there is a place where that desire can be filled. Even those who find joy in violence and battle will have a place there. All of the different forms of Paradise are connected, so no one will be separated from each other. It's the ultimate freedom to do or have whatever you desire. That's not to say that everything will be easy, but whatever you want will be just within reach, and you'll have all of eternity to reach for it.
6270710
Mother of me, y u used Necromancy to give birth to me?
Nice,
do keep it up good sir/madame. Whatever you are
6271337 cdn.meme.am/instances/250x250/10761165.jpg
And so Alex noped straight back to bed.
6270827 I see a great deal of faith-based, nonstandard definitions here. The problem? Different people have different faiths. And maybe they went to Hell because they didn't pick Mormon. Why do you think paradise will be able to cater to everyone? You're presenting your beliefs as undeniable fact, when one belief is as valid as the next. I'm not actually claiming any knowledge of the afterlife other than ignorance.
You'll find that a great many people do not agree with your opinion that preventing a body's return to nature is evil. There's simply not enough negativity attached to the practice for it to be generally considered as such. In fact, for many, such is looked upon positively, though I'm sure most are simply ambivalent. If you're just stating your own personal opinion? I'd not go around declaring things evil based just on your opinion. It tends to get people to rally to arms against you. Well, unless that's your intent, in which case, carry on.
6271200 She did the necro with your dad.
Because she saw what other women go through in childbirth, and NOPE'd right to the Necronomicon.
Sacrificing a crow and a few pints of blood to make a homunculus sounded like a pretty good deal.
Pegasus ponies = Pegasi
6273822 Thanks for the catch! Already taken care of!
6273141
You're missing the point: One belief is as valid as the next. This is why I'm using the neutral Paradise instead of something like Heaven or Elysium.
Now, I'll concede that not allowing the body to return to the Earth may not necessarily be an act of evil, depending on the culture. That being said, where in the world is desecrating and robbing from a grave, crypt, tomb, or similar considered acceptable? In nearly every stretch of the world, it's considered an act that's at least nearly as heinous as unprovoked murder.
Also, I'm speaking from a fictional perspective, where ideas and opinions can be fact. In the fictional world, all religions can be true, even in spite of each other, and they can all be connected. While the lines between good and evil are far more blurred in reality, they can be solid outside of it. If you want to talk real world theology, then I have no interest in this discussion; it's not worth arguing about something so subjective.
I'm actually surprised that no one has commented on the major hints that I dropped in this chapter about what Robert and friends really were, or speculated on what those hints meant.
Aww, someone made the right sort of magical computer to upload his comrades backups to! Or at least their intelligences/souls.
6273990 well since you're making a point to point that fact out, then I'd have to say that all of them were machines, androids, etc, mainly due to it being that Alex can communicate with machines, and he somehow made another machine that has the 'mind' and 'personality' of one of the people Alex knew. Feel free to tell me if I'm off the mark
6276498 You're off. sorry.
6269711
Yes. People forget that base necromancy is a combination of life and death magic. Although it's usually crossed with shadow/demon magic, it can easily combine with white/holy magic. Where do you think all those revive spells come from? Instakill Immunity and 1HKO resist also count. Crossed with alchemy, now you have revival items. Crossed instead with enchanting, gear imbued with curse/doom resistance is born. Necromancy, just like all other arts, has its set of boons and limits. The key is combining it with other arts.
6276568
From what I understand, the golems are essentially synthetic focuses that house magical AI created in process similar to that described in the Red vs Blue series. While not actually being resurrected, the AI have been made in a fashion that causes them to form from the memory data concerning the memory/personality of another mind that has been intimately interacted with/observed.
However, functionally speaking, the end result is (to a certain extent) indiscernible from the original, to the point where it seems that necromancy has been used to invoke and anchor a dead soul/mind in a way similar to which one would create a homonculus to store a summoned familiar. However, there was no invocation, summoning, or necromancy involved, just thaumic enchantment of a pre-existing structure for the purpose of enhancement and a psionic "mitosis" of sorts.
Have I misunderstood?
6276906 Closer, but no.
6276869
Exactly.
Take the Blood Replenishing Potions and Skele-Gro from Harry Potter. Considering what they do, how much do you want a bet it was a necromancer that invented them?