A Commentary on the Necromancer War By Argus Tanglebeard

Though the Necromancer War lasted for less than a year, it would have a tremendous impact in, not only the Kingdom of Umberlyne, but the neighboring kingdoms as well. Indeed, ripples from the Necromancer war were felt all across our world. New species of undead creatures were loosed into the world, and terrible beings who only manifested occasionally, were now encountered with greater frequency. Even now, forty years later, the impact can be felt in many ways, not the least of which has been the birth of the tradition of cremation for the dead and the dissolution of the Necromancers Guild.

The war itself was characterized by mistaken assumptions and unpreparedness, particularly in the early battles. In hindsight, the lead-up to the war seems obvious, yet the key figures of the time missed several important warning signs.

The rise of Gavin the Fair to the seat of Guild Master was a minor scandal at the time, but had much greater import. His methods were not only slanderous, but ruthless, as he systematically ostracized and cut off the previous Guild Master from his supporters. Unsubstantiated rumors imply that during his campaign for the Master’s seat key supporters of his rival disappeared. Perhaps most foretelling was Gavin’s platform of advanced research. Until the time of the Necromancer War, their guild had performed a scholarly and utilitarian function, and had much less influence in the affairs of Umberlyne than the more powerful parent guild of the wizards, or the Guardsmen Guild.

Gavin the Fair emphasized research into necromantic powers and beings, advocating deeper research into the celestial beings governing death, the process by which undead rose in the wild, and their powers. He claimed that the Necromancers Guild was being held back. But at that time, the Guild performed its functions perfectly: Raising the dead with respect and the permission of the deceased or their family for use in hazardous mining and construction, and even defense of the city, and the study of dangerous undead which rose outside the control of the guild, offering means and ways for the Guardsmen to dispatch them and safeguard Umberlyne. What more did the Necromancers need?

Power. Gavin made the search for greater power and prestige very apparent in his campaign for leadership of the guild, yet at the time no one thought to question to what use this power would be put.

After he won the Guild Master’s chair, things appeared to return to normal. The guild continued to perform its functions and the change in leadership had no external effect on the society of Umberlyne.

But as much as four months before the onset of the war, the Necromancers Guild became suspect in suspicious activities. Over the five years that Gavin the Fair was Guild Master of the Necromancers, communications between the Necromancers and Mages Guilds dropped forty percent without notice. But if their increasing secrecy went unnoticed, the grave robbery and the rise in disappearances amongst vagrants and travelers did not. However, it took months for the Guardsmen to link these events to agents of the Necromancers Guild with even the most tenuous threads.

Finally, the people of Umberlyne had enough. Some historians argue that it was pressure on the king from the Wizards Guild to shut down their rival; that the mages were threatened by the smaller guild’s advancement and feared that the organization that was once no more than a branch of their own guild would grow to outshine them. Others cite the Churches’ outrage at the treatment of the dead. Some accounts even claim that the crackdown on the Necromancers was instigated by a group of wealthy merchants and nobles whose wives had “run afoul” of Gavin the Fair. Whatever the pressures and circumstances leading up to it, the King decreed that the Necromancers Guild would be dissolved.

Making the inn forever famous, the King and his advisors commandeered the Blazing Hearth tavern as headquarters for the confrontation. Here, Umberlyne first underestimated the Necromancers Guild. A small contingent of Guardsmen planned and led the approach, but relied on contracted mercenaries, and few of them even of the Shining Blades, as back up. Most of these non-guild enforcers would find themselves not up to the challenge, with some few notable exceptions.

The Guardsmen approached the Guildhall’s front doors to present the charges and to arrest every single Necromancer. Small groups of mercenaries and hired blades were stationed around the Guildhall to prevent the escape of anyone who fled and as backup if needed, but note that each group was only a small handful of warriors with only one Shining Blade for every five without guild training.

The Guardsmen instantly met with fierce resistance and summoned their back up. The fighting ranged from room to room and corridor to corridor inside the Guildhall. Necromancer acolytes and servitors put up unexpectedly organized resistance and the fully trained Guardsmen were given pause. An arrest that was expected to be carried out within the hour, instead took until well past dawn before all of the Necromancers were rounded up or slain.

It was during what would later be recognized as the first battle of the Necromancer War that three independent soldiers would distinguish themselves and place their mark on history. Led by the Dragonborn Palladin Rianna, one of the small groups penetrated deeper into the chambers beneath the Guildhall than the Guardsmen, who were being stymied on the first level. With Jordan of the Shining Blade and Kray Toryn, they attacked from the eastern face of the Guildhall.

All of the Necromancers resisted arrest, fighting to the death, and Rianna’s band pressed onwards, hoping to find and capture Gavin the Fair. In what seemed to be the lowest chamber of the Guildhall (another assumption by the Guardsmen, and one that would prove to their sorrow in later months), they encountered a Necromancer performing a ritual never seen before. Though they were able to kill the Necromancer and her acolytes, she rose almost instantly as a powerful undead mage, a being which would come to be known as a lich.

While Rianna, Kray, and Jordan survived the ordeal and vanquished the lich, both they, and the Guardsmen and wizards who occupied the Guildhall afterwards, failed to recognize the importance of the ruby that was the centerpiece of the ritual. Rianna and her band would come to face this lich three times before the secret of the phylactery was discovered and she was permanently killed.

After that night, the King declared that the Necromancers Guild was no more. All functions of that guild returned to the Wizards and the Guardsmen announced that the necromancers were defeated. The manhunt for Gavin the Fair, who somehow escaped the attack on the Guildhall, was considered mere mopping up by the Guardsmen.

Their ignorance would not last for long, however, and Gavin soon returned to make Umberlyne aware that it was at war.

However, out of this first battle, important lessons were learned. Though taken by surprise by the return of Gavin (who would quickly come to be known as “the Terrible”) and his undead forces, the Guardsmen learned not to underestimate him.

This first skirmish also saw the appearance of new heroes; Rianna and Kray Toryn, who would rise through the ranks in Umberlyne and lead several important battles. Their battlefield proposal and marriage has lived on in songs as well as history. Jordan of the Shining Blade would also appear again and again in the war, continuing her partnership with Rianna and Kray and establishing the effectiveness of small-unit tactics against the Necromancers. Her seduction and attempted assassination of Gavin are well-known.

But at the time of the return of Gavin the Terrible and the second battle of the Necromancer War, this trio of new heroes were still unimportant foot soldiers…