Necromantic Prosthetics

by Me with Hero Forge

-Lloyd the Physician (also a necromancer)

 

]"Necromancy is not just the magic of death, it's the manipulation of primal life energies. Necromancy can be used for good as well as evil, but throughout Scarterra, Necromancy's malefici uses are more well-known than their benevolent uses.   Necromantic Prosthetics is a spell that can be used for good. It will not feel the same, or look the same, but it will functionally adequately. A prosthetic hand can pick up and manipulate objects almost as well as normal hand. Far better than a hook.

  Normally, a metal hand or metal or wooden foot is crafted. The spell can also be cast on a glass eye or similar fake eyeball. As long as the replacement looks and moves more or less like the natural body part, the necromancy magic will animate it and link it to the person's life force so they can move their eye or flex their fingers.   The spell costs nothing to cast and it's permanent, so this is good option for amputees. The most expensive part is crafting the prosthetic which needs to be made by a skilled craftsmen to make nonmagically.   It is possible to graft a body part from an undead creature onto a living person. This is unfortunately what the spell is best known for. I've never done it of course. The most infamous malefic mage in dwarven history, Dyrik Mykrrún, famously had a skeleton arm which he had also infused with horrifying additional powers. It's supposedly easier and cheaper to put magical enchantments on an undead limb or eye than a mechanical limb, not that I've ever tried. It's the metaphysical equivalent of making a magical item into a prosthetic.   Because of Mykrrún and mages like him, many amputees refuse to accept a necromantic prosthetic, entirely, fearing such prosthetics are superanturally tainted. Over the years, I've used this spell to help seven people and I can attest none of the prosthetics I made were tainted or cursed. Though in a few cases the prosthetics wore out after a few years and had to be replaced. Thirteen people have told me they didn't want it and refused my potential treatment, even if I paid for the prosthetics.   A guru levelHealer theurgist can regrow lost limbs, and this is naturally preferable to using a necromantic prosthetic. The problem is that theurgists with this power are extremely rare. There is nothing stopping someone from using a necromantic prosthetic to get by until they can find such a healer. Three of the seven patients I made prosthetics for have done this."