endling bones

by Eron12 with Heroforge

-Magnati, independent necromancer

"Every necromancer on Scarterra covets endling bones whether they admit or not. This was always the case and always will be as long as a single endling corpse still exists.   When the the Third Age dawned and the scars of the Second Unmaking were still fresh, endling bones were not particularly hard to find and the Red Era saw a lot of powerful undead monsters primarily for this reason.   Endling bones are not a renewable resource. With each passing century, endling bones became more and more scarce.

  Nowadays, most necromancers go their whole lives without ever laying eyes on endling bones. Endling bones are certainly a prize worth killing over and more than a few necromancer alliances have been broken by the discovery of endling bones."

by Eron12 with Heroforge

-Magnati, independent necromancer

Endling bones have three potential uses based on how much of the endling's body is intact.   If you only have a tiny bit of endling bones, they can crushed into powder to make necromantic reagents. The undead created by these reagents are no more or less powerful than any other undead, but a miniscule amount of powder is required per minion.   If you have access to larger bones, you can splice the bones with a common corpse and make enhanced undead minions.

  Ordinarily, an undead minion assembled out of the bones of more than one creature into a single undead minion than that minion is going to be more than a little clumsy, but the latent power of endling bones more than compensates. Skeleton based undead with endling bones added to their recipe are a tier above their normal counterparts.   If most or all of an endling's skeleton is accounted for, the endling can be raised as extremely powerful undead minion...and at a astonishingly low cost in reagents. It's almost unheard of to find an intact endling skeleton in modern times though.   Using endling bones always results in powerful undead, but the results are difficult to predict, which makes using endling bones all the more appealing to experimentally minded mages such as myself.   Before I forget, I suppose it's worth noting that endling bones of mortals are far more powerful than endling bones of beasts but beggars cannot be choosers. I'll take any endling bones I can get my hands on, which these days is mostly dinosaur bones.   Undead made from or with dinosaur bones tend to have great strength and little else, but sometimes brute strength is all that is required."

by Eron12 with Hero Forge

-Akeem of Magicland

 

"Because of necromancers, it's almost impossible to use endling bones to advance legimitimate scholarly research.   A lot of ancient historical sites have been descrecated by looters, and necromancers are among the most enthusiastic looters you'll ever see. They just don't just take endling bones. They will take anything of value they find. They end up in possession of more than a few ancient relics and texts left by extinct species and cultures. This means if intrepid scholars want rare ancient texts, we often to have to haggle with very questionable people."

by Me with Midjourney

-Mistress Estera, leading council member of the Sabbatzarod Coven

 

"There have been attempts to use endling bones for non-necromantic uses, but necromancers tend to get in the way.   Yes, I understand that not all necromancers are bad people, more than a few are my friends. But the worst mages are almost always necromancers.   My mentor's mentor did some research on endling bones, until one day a necromancer murderered him and took his endling bones. I still have his notes. If I found some endling bones, I could theoretically resume the work.

  All mortal thought connects to the Astral Plane. Any knowledge known or once known is in the Astral Plane, but there's so much flotsam floating around the Astral Plane that finding a specific piece of knowledge in the Astral Plane is like finding a needle in a haystack.   The best way to find a needle in a haystack is with a magnet. Let's say, hypothetically I had the skull of a khnumar, I could thereotically devise a ritual to use the khnumar skull to act as a magnet in the astral plane to pull lost khnumar lore towards myself."

Carcelli, Parchment Background by Zeta Gardner

-Carcelli the Arcane Priestess

"Very few jurisdictions have formal laws on the books regulating the trade or possession of endling bones because it's not something kings and queens have to deal with very often, so they don't bother passing royal edicts on it.   In the 19th century of the Feudal Era, most of the known examples of endling bones are enshrined as holy relics at temples, and theft of these bones is treated as would any other theft of a holy relic.   The Keepers believe that the khnumar were favored people of Khemra, and a lot of Khemra temples have extremely well-guarded Khnumar bones enshrined within them.

  Greymoria has created far more than mortal races than Khemra or any of the rest of the Nine, so more than a few endlings' are children of Greymoria in some form or fashion. Greymoria is also the goddess of necromancy.   This has led to a lot of 'intense thelogical discussion' among Greymoria's living Children on whether Greymoria would prefer the bones of her lost children be preserved for eternity or used to advance the necromantic arts. And when Children have intense theological discussions, people tend to die.   I hope I never see an endling bone."