The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Who is Thomas talking to?
Conspiracy Theorist:
Lets see what Mirror Harry is up to in Mirror Mirror.
morriswalters:
He's a Vampire and he eats Starborn's.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on February 26, 2022, 11:46:38 AM --- No, he read Kemmler's how to book, he has the talent to pull it off, as apparently most wizards do. That's why one of the Seven Laws is against it. However raising Sue once doesn't make him a necromancer. Since he didn't raise Mort from the dead, it wasn't necromancy.
--- End quote ---
I think there's a bit of a miscommunication, a differing definition, around the term "necromancer."
It seems to me that @Mira is using it as a functional/behavioral descriptor: someone who summons/binds the dead (corpses and/or spirits), someone who regularly does so. Is that correct, @Mira?
On the other hand, @ConspiracyTheorist seems to be working more on the basis of it being something inborn: a natural proclivity or talent, regardless of whether said talent is actively pursued. Is that correct, @CT?
Personally -- if my understanding is correct -- I think both are correct: Harry DOES have an exceptional gift in this regard, substantially beyond most wizards' ability. Harry does NOT routinely study or practice this, and only uses it rarely.
But Sue wasn't Harry's first act of necromancy; he had another stand-out instance: defeating Bianca, by summoning a vast number of shades. Notwithstanding the "weakened barriers" making that easier, we have to note that Harry:
* Did use necromancy
* Used it on an impressive scale
* Used it to defeat the student (Bianca) of a necromancer (Mavra)
* Failed to defeat Bianca using his own favored magical specialties (which usually are effective)
* Did all of that without formal necromantic specialization, just raw will & magic and... native talent
Conspiracy Theorist:
I had forgotten about the shades in the Ramps mansion, there is so much in GP to pick apart, some things get overlooked. That would be his first shade summoning, Sue was his first zombie.
Kemmler would have been proud. Necromancer is both a proclivity and a vocation, the incompetent get their faces eaten off fairly quickly by a zombie they raised, and can’t control or get charged with necrophilia when they can’t raise the dead and have a freshly dug up body in their basement they can’t explain, and no matter how much you explain the cops can’t parse the difference between Necrophiliac and Necromancer,
Given this natural ability plus Soulfire (which he had for neither event) it can only be a matter of time before Harry does a successful resurrection of his own Einenjharen. My moneys on Mister, for those who think he is just a cat. Plus he has the Shroud. You know he is going to resurrect some body.
Mira:
--- Quote ---
But Sue wasn't Harry's first act of necromancy; he had another stand-out instance: defeating Bianca, by summoning a vast number of shades. Notwithstanding the "weakened barriers" making that easier, we have to note that Harry:
--- End quote ---
That isn't the definition of necromancy though, he called up ghosts, true, but did he reanimate their corpses, making them zombies? No.. Nor did he use them to foretell the future.
--- Quote ---noun. a person who uses witchcraft or sorcery, especially to reanimate dead people or to foretell the future by communicating with them: In the story, the boy is killed by a serial killer and then revived as a zombie by a necromancer.
--- End quote ---
Nor was he brought up on charges before the Council for necromancy at the end of Grave Peril.. And since those shades were human unlike Sue he would have been brought up for breaking one of the Seven Laws of Magic.. So patently just calling up shades isn't considered necromancy. Or more to the point like he did in Changes, Harry reversed the vamp attack on him, it was perhaps the first indication the the Red Court in their lust for power or revenge don't really think things through..
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version