I'm currently trying to create a world for my video game where the protagonist/good guy is trying to master the arts of necromancy. For example, he will be raising skeletons from the grave to fight other evil beasts that oppose him. Since this concept is kind of "unique", I'm trying to understand the reasoning why this type of magic isn't ordinary to be mastered by the good guy, or maybe even get some tips how I could make this work.
Raise multiple corpses to fight for him (without permission from the dead).
Communication with the recently departed.
Takes place in a medieval era.
The protagonist is a necromancer that needs to save the world.
How do I make society not consider this as an type of "evil" magic and will leave him alone or even help him to save the world?
There are two reasons why necromancy is commonly thought to be evil.
Raising an army of any sort to terrorize the countryside is considered a pretty evil act.
To raise the undead is to desecrate their corpse and grave. This could also include transgressions against any religious institutions involved in the burial process.
Pillaging the countryside, desecration, and acts against religious institutions are considered evil in most societies.
The former can be avoided by not having your necromancers commit evil acts especially any acts involving the use of undead minions.
Let donating your body towards charitable labor be an acceptable funerary choice.
The honored ancestors of the living are animated, decorated and cared for by their descendants and used to construct monuments/temples to the wisdom of their generation.
Dead people are unsettling. They look like people, but wrong. It gets even worse when they do things dead people aren't supposed to do, like make noises or move — something that is known to happen with real corpses.
Besides the uncanny valley effect, corpses are also known to stink and spread disease. When people see your zombie soldiers, they'll be horrified.
In fiction, using tools that are considered gross signifies an evil character. Even relatively harmless symbols like spiders, snakes or blood are rarely associated with good characters.
Most people still have some possessiveness over their body even after they die. People draw the line in different places — many are ok with being used for organ donation or scientific experiments, but few would accept being taxidermied and used as an art piece. I imagine being used as a zombie soldier would be even more controversial.
It gets worse when the corpse in question is not your corpse, but the corpse of a loved one. Seeing that beloved dead person's body walking around and being used for tasks would be traumatic to say the least.
This is related to the first point. Dead people are not supposed to work in the world of the living. They may have various things to do in the afterlife, or they may just be gone. But using them for tasks is not the proper order of things and offends many people's religious sensibilities.
One way I could see to get around this is to make the zombies not very corpse-like at all. Maybe they're skeleton soldiers, but the important thing is that you can't tell which individual they were when they were alive, and that they don't stink, don't rot and don't spread disease. It should also be relatively clear that they're just material beings and the soul of the person in question is off doing whatever souls do in your setting.
The other option is to have zombie soldiering be an opt-in prospect for victims. Maybe there's some kind of spell a person can cast as they die, to free their bodies for use as a meat robot. A good guy would only use corpses of people that have explicitly allowed it.
A different option would be to have the undead actually be sentient. They're still walking corpses, but the corpse's previous owner is willingly cooperating the entire time. Maybe the soul is even able to leave the body whenever it wants.
A world where necromancy has no evil connotation, where bringing the dead back to life is openly embraced?
Figure: The reanimation of dead tissue, 1791.
By the end of the 18th century, electrical pioneers had begun to refine their knowledge of the often-fatal electric shocks that were a hazard of their research. Galvani in Italy had discovered how to make an animal's extremities twitch and jerk by the application of electricity, which doesn't sound all that surprising until you realize that the animals in question were already long dead.
There could only be one conclusion: the body, long thought by philosophy to be under supernatural control, was merely an electrical machine like any other.
Philosophy gave way to science as researchers like Vigouroux in France and Tarkhnishvili in Russia (modern-day Georgia) probed the electrical activity of the human body. By the twentieth century, humanity was ready for the next step. Kouwenhoven, a New York-born electrical engineer educated in Germany, began studying the electrophysiology of the heart.
Initially his work was motivated narrowly: the linemen running the first electrical wires to customers were dying from a previously unheard-of heart condition, and nobody knew why. Their employers, nervous about their profits, financed Professor Kouwenhoven's experiments.
Over the course of the next several decades, Kouwenhoven and his team dug into the electrical workings of the heart, finally surfacing a great secret of restarting a stopped heart by applying a countershock.
By the early 21st century, thousands of people each year have been brought back from the dead using Kouwenhoven's inventions and procedures. The practice of electrically inducing a heartbeat where once there was stillness is today embraced by all the ancient religions with hardly a second thought.
And yet... who among us can claim to know what it is we're really bringing back?
Well, according to OP, in his world the hero will fight "evil beasts". I'll use that in answer with an example that you can utilize by getting the parts that fit into your world and story.
Let's suppose humans can't directly fight these beasts - maybe they expel poisonous gas, so any "living" being would die if near them, even from the distance needed for firing an arrow. Or they can smell humans from a long distance, so only a non-human could approach them. Your world doesn't have gunpowder, and stone throwers are not exactly "portable".
However you have magic - but the distance needed for firing a fire ball is still too near to kill these beasts without being killed, or maybe they're immune to "magic damage" (in this case, you'll have a good excuse for why a creature would survive a ball of fire just because it's magic - but that is outside the scope of this question).
Also you don't have different planes of existence to summon creatures from there, and mental manipulation magic doesn't work on these beasts due to their alien minds. They don't have the technology and resources to build constructs, since most of their resources are expended fighting the beasts.
These beasts eventually attack the frontier towns, capturing people to eat due to their love for human flesh. They eat humans by absorbing their fluids and all soft parts, leaving only the hard bones, without knowing who was that person. They leave the remains of the dead in the middle of forest/fields/whatever that exists between the beasts lair and the human civilization, so after the beasts retreat to their caves the survivors can recover the bones to bury them, without knowing who is who - which avoids the negatives of "seeing my beloved ones as skeletons".
However, they don't reproduce so fast, and they don't need to eat so frequently (and/or have access to other sources of food, as animals, that are easier to hunt but not too tasty), so humans are not being extinct - or maybe they are, but the development of necromancy skills (see below) is fast enough.
This situation continued for centuries, so society evolved to live in these conditions - including culture and religion. Then a new religion (or other kind of social movement, maybe just a new branch of existent religions) emerged - a religion where hatred for these beasts was a dogma. They said: "The most desired thing for a spirit of someone killing these beasts was revenge - revenge by their own hands if possible". This civilization starts to change their view of necromancy - not only because their attitude changed, but because only the dead can approach the beasts to kill them without being "killed" - since they are already dead. So, they start to develop necromancer units to raise the victims of the monsters to destroy them as armies of skeletons! And your hero is one of these necromancers.
Communication with the dead is viewed as a good thing, since by that the spirits of dead can say how much they hate the evil beasts who killed them, boosting the morale of your troops.
So, this is an example of how you can make acceptable to use necromancy skills - have a hated enemy that for some reason can't be confronted by the living.
Mostly because necromancy in its core defies the cycle of life. Humans believe that everything have its beginning and its end. By being a lich or raising the dead you show that there is no end. And your death release you from your living duties.
In the same manner the stories of ghost who can't rest until they finish their earthly tasks. But with ghost they act on your own while necromancers and liches still have power over a corpse.
It's like when you wake up and say "5 more minutes". And someone will not let you rest those 5 minutes.
Edit to answer edited question: Remember that what is good or evil is made by society.So your examples of Sauron and Lich King are considered evil by their enemies. For their "people" they are good.
What is good? They cap the amount of casualties by recycling warriors, don't push economy into spiral by moving goods to war effort (dead soldiers already have their armour and they don't need to eat).
Also punishing dead enemy warriors by forcing them to fight on your side is a major psychological bust for your people "Don't let our boys die for our country" and down for enemies "We have to fight our brothers!"
Necromancy as magic is not always viewed as evil. Odysseus performs necromantic ritual during his travels. Ovid mentions it in his works as well. It's more of the dead divination (asking dead for guidance/answers/prophecies), than making undead creatures.
The Bible forbids even these practises and Mosaic Law prescribs the death penalty to practitioners of necromancy. Still, we have King Saul had the Witch of Endor invoke the Spirit of Samuel. The witch was quite shocked she succeeded and the whole thing ended badly for Saul.
And later Christians rejected the idea that humans could bring back the spirits of the dead and stated those were in fact disguised demons, connecting necromancy with demon summoning. During the Middle Ages necromancy became "demon magic", something evil and this kind of stuck.
Many people have brought up the reasons why it's considered evil to us in particular: death is sacred, uncanny valley, and typically necromancers are using the dead in... violent ways.
Here's one no one else has brought up; the souls. very often, necromancy involves binding the souls of the dead to their corpse in a way that isn't... pleasant for the soul involved. After all, if it was simple animation of bones and flesh, it'd be a golem, not a zombie. In many fantasy worlds, the existence of the soul is something that must be taken as fact, and those souls must be treated humanely, that is, allowed to move on. A zombie is more than shambling flesh; it is a torturous prison for what used to be a sentient being. It can build all the orphanages you want, you're still using labour derived from unwilling souls.
In some cultures, and even today, dead relatives are dug up and taken to festivals because the corpse was believe to contain the soul.
In ancient Egypt, living relatives regularly brought offerings to graves in order to nourish the soul of the deceased.
In European history, necromancy was limited to speaking with the dead and Christianity claimed that mediums were actually speaking to demons.
The dead generally came back to life under their own power as ghosts or revenants. Sometimes, they came back as man-eating monsters particularly if the now soulless corpse was possessed by a demon.
The concept of zombie slaves comes from the history of Afro-Caribbean religions and slavery. In the religion of vodun, a fate worse than dead is being enslaved after death. This is the horror of the zombie.
In ancient China, urban myths circulated that sorcerers sold their services to reanimate corpses in order to transport them to receive funerary rites, in contrast to Haitian zombies.
If the soul is not suffering, then there is no moral reason that animation is wrong except for respecting property rights. The corpse, by most laws of inheritance, defaults to the ownership of surviving relatives who are free to do with the corpse as they wish. If they want to donate the body as a laborer in order to pay off bills rather than deal with the additional costs of a funereal, that is their right.
For an example of how arbitrary the morality is, look no further than the Necroscope series. The protagonist is a medium or "necroscope" who speaks with the dead and may call upon them to rise from their graves and assist him. The antagonist includes "necromancers" who mutilate corpses to learn their knowledge, which the dead souls feel despite being dead. Otherwise the dead don't care about the condition of their unfeeling remains.
In the comic book fan community, the apparent death and subsequent return of a long-running character is often called a comic book death. While death is a serious subject, a comic book death is generally not taken seriously in the real world and is rarely permanent or meaningful other than for story or thematic purposes.
I can think of dozens of stories where the price to break the rule is incredibly high. A common theme is returning a dead person costs the life of someone else (the Naruto universe is one example).
We tend to view people who break rules very dimly anyways. The problem, as with any story, is that once you break a rule, breaking any other rule becomes steadily easier. Probably the best modern example of this would be Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter series. He discovers a way to cheat death, but doing so means killing someone to obtain this power. As you learn throughout the series, it involved killing not just people for the power to cheat death, but killing people who didn't like that he was killing people.
Necromancy seldom produces something as good as the original. It's like a caricature of the person. Zombies are mindless corpses. Most other stories will typically give you something that is just less than the original. In other words, Necromancy generally cannot satisfy the desires of the person who wants the dead returned.
The culture in which the Necromancer was born has no fear of death. Sure, children are afraid of everything, but if you think logically about it: Death is inevitable, so what do you have to fear? What is the difference between not knowing your timepoint and knowing your timepoint? You are content with your life, but once you know you die (which can happen any time!) you are devastated? Is that reasonable?
The culture came to the conclusion that it isn't. The rite of passage is in fact a (possibly deadly) test that you do not fear death. Once a marriage is completed, both spouses will in their first night share their most intimate secrets in the knowledge that every day could be the last day.
Once a person dies, all the people knowing the person will perform a sacred ritual. In it the person will say ultimately goodbye from the known and beloved person and treasure their recollection. The body will be completely annihilated because only animals are left rotting in the earth. Anything more like collecting remains is a sure sign that the farewell was either uncompleted or that the remaining person is sick and need to be cured. There is absolutely no connection between the body and the soul, it does not bother a person from that culture if bones are animated. Hint: This also means that both ghosts and undead leave the normal citizen unfazed.
The task of the necromancer is to allow spirits to fulfill unfinished tasks. If a person had shared everything with his soulmate and dies contently, he/she cannot be neither raised nor contacted. If this is not a case, the necromancer and the soul are beginning to bargain the price for salvation. The soul will finish a task for the necromancer, but it will also demand salvation. The worse the condition of the soul is (full of guilt, has debts, never talked to anyone about its problems), the higher the price the necromancer can demand.
If a necromancer dies before saving the soul, his/her soul belongs to the soul (Do I need to say that this is really, really bad?) Therefore most necromancers immediantely perform the salvation.
Hereby, I, undersigned ......................, further referred to as "tenant", agree to renounce ownership of my body, further referred to as "commodity", to ......................., further referred to as "owner".
In exchange for the commodity, owner shall provide next of kin with compensation, or services outlined in annex to this contract.
As of the signing of this document, tenant is the sole inhabitant of the commodity. Commodity may be collected at owners discretion upon date or conditions agreed upon in annex. Measures of collection include but not limited to repossession and eviction.
As per statutory laws, this contract is considered binding for eternity.
Zombies don't eat, offering monthly wage compensation for control of zombie to next of kin could easily lead to people killing themselves to support their family. If economy or political situation is bad enough. With time, that would easily become standard practice.
In feudal society ("society"), it gets even worse as serfs are pretty much lords (king or noble granted the land by king) property. Zombies don't revolt, don't eat, don't question and don't tire. Zombies are much better serfs than people. "Since they are my property, I can do whatever I want. I'll hire a Necromancer to zombify them all" will think every nobleman ever.
In more modern society it's not any better. A lot of seemingly voluntary things are not voluntary. Situation where your option is to die and sold off or have your family starve or worse, have entire family repossessed for debt or trespassing (because they couldn't afford rent, thus became trespassers) really isn't voluntary. It's a case of normalised and systemic threats.
Notice that mock up contract above is deliberately constructed in a way that explicitly permits murder. It's euphemistically referred to as eviction. Definitions in first paragraph are designed specifically to make it seem less evil.
If you are in pre literate society, forging signing such contract would be excessively easy. In fact, even in fully literate society, there is little means or incentive to verify validity of contract - they are dead anyway, why bother?
Animation of soulless dead, is pretty much completely out. If it's involuntary it's straight up evil. If it's voluntary then as shown above, it most likely isn't voluntary at all, and opens can of worms which will easily lead to very slippery slope.
Death is inevitable. Some may very well prefer to stay alive as undead with restricted agency, than pass away. If in your world it is possible to animate corpse and bind original soul to it while granting that soul sole control of the body, then it can work. In this case, Necromancers are pretty much MDs who step in after pathologists are done analysing what caused death.
If it's possible to bind soul to another body, then similarly to previous paragraph, we are back to capital "E" Evil whenever it's done.
Hey, guess what? Maybe Necromancers can disassemble their spells, figure out what slows down decomposition, and build spell around that? If it's better than mundane methods, sure it would be useful in funeral services. Heck, if this spell slows down growth of bacteria and fungi, maybe it can actually be used for food preservation! Food preservation is and has always been important.
Basically, I'm advocating for analysis and research into matter, to uncover and re-purpose "Required Secondary Powers".
One of the common tropes is someone expecting death taking measures to tie off the earthy matters. Unfortunately, not everyone has a chance to do so. Perhaps Necromancers merely contact the dead and represent dead to handle "unfinished business". They could be contracted by family, or deceased himself might take measures to contract such services before passing away.
As you can see, there are non-evil ways in which necromantic powers can be used, however they require out of the box thinking or re-purposing something people don't really think of when they hear "necromancy". Classic raise the dead for battle, will be evil no matter what, best you can achieve here is "lesser evil".
The problem of necromancy being evil is completely cultural, just as death rituals vary throughout the world it is entirely possible for a culture to exist that views necromancy as not only not evil but good in and of itself.
To begin with, the religious beliefs of the culture would likely have to view the body as a vessel for something that is the person. So a soul, spirit of life force whatever you want to view it as. This means that once the person has left the vessel than the vessel is useless unless used in some other manner.
Once the person left the vessel it would be wasted unless someone came along and used it, now they could use it for fertilization etc but that would leave the bones behind so even then skeletal necromancy would be possible and if the society needs workers wanted.
So really in order for this to work you need to build the culture and the religion of the society around the divorcing of the person from the vessel they inhabit.
First - why is necromancy evil? Short answer? It's a cultural thing. Long answer, not all cultures throughout history have considered necromancy evil (and we are talking about Earth Cultures, here). Etymologically, Necromancy comes to us from ancient Greek, and means - pretty much literally - divination by means of a dead body. The earliest Necromancy was probably practiced by shamans and druids, who would call upon the spirits of ancestors and the deceased to have questions answered or seek guidance; this kind of magic was practiced throughout the ancient world, from Babylon to Latinum, the Eastern reaches of Persia and down into Egypt. Divination of this sort only became widely regarded as evil during the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church branded Necromancy to be "demonic magic", espousing that it was actually the summoning of demons taking the guise of spirits in order to deceive the living, and that only the power of God could resurrect the dead. Despite persecution, Necromancy really flowered during the middle ages, spreading with the cultural imperialism of the Roman Catholic Church - because of this, most modern Necromancy still focuses on themes of divination and spirit summoning.
Literally Raising the Dead is not common in the aforementioned necromancy - for that, you have to look to other sources. One good example is the Saga of Hrolf Kraki from Norse Mythology. Without getting into the specifics, a Viking King has an epic show-down with his sister Skuld, who is a powerful master of Seidhr (viking sorcery), and other, darker magics. Skuld eventually turned the tide of battle using her mastery over life and death; through her magic, she was able to return any warriors who had fallen in battle to a semblance of life and send them back to the fray. It's worth noting that Skuld is the badguy in this story (of course, this is Norse Mythology, so bad-guy/good-guy dichotomies get a little wonky, in this example, Skuld is getting revenge on behalf of her beloved husband for a a number of dishonest manipulations by her brother Hrolf, a very Viking motivation for murdering, so you could argue she's justified).
As to why we find Necromancy unsettling - and now we're talking about Skuld's Necromancy here, not just divination - well, for starters, most cultures assign a certain level of ceremonial significance to the posthumous body. Just about every culture throughout history has had various rites associated with committing a loved one or community member to eternity, and many have gone so far as to associate the way that the body is handled during funerary rights with the way the spirit is received in the afterlife (if it is received at all). Viewed in this light, and tempered by the anti-sorcery rhetoric of the Abrahammic Religions (which were undeniably significant in shaping the evolution of many of the world's cultural views on death and the afterlife), it's easy to see why many people are attached to their bodies or the bodies of those they care for. Desecration of the dead is considered abhorrent in most modern societies, and it's hard not to interpret most forms of necromancy (whether you're actually animating the body, or simply using it as a ritual component) as a form of desecration based on current mores. Remember, though, that the Egyptians mummified the dead by ripping their brains out through their noses, bottling their innards, and filling them up with potpourri; a ritual that would almost certainly be considered desecration by today's standards, but was the highest honor that could be bestowed on a corpse in that time and place.
So, getting around to the point; again, the hatred of Necromancy in our societies is mostly cultural and religious - as the writer building your world, it's up to you to decide if these same ideas have taken hold there. There's some evidence that the ritualization of funerary rights began quite simply with the need to bury the dead because corpses are not a good thing to have lying around the camp. In general, human societies have had compunctions about eating their brothers and sisters, and if you're not going to eat and utilize it, you really only have one choice, dispose of it. Necromancy (Skuld Style) opens up the possibility for early cultures to make use of human corpses without having to eat them, thereby engendering a cultural norm. Of course, there are examples of cannibalistic human societies, so maybe in your world cannibalism was not uncommon, Necromancy came later, and by that point, it was generally considered normal to use human corpses for their potential value.
If you want Necromancy to be common in your world, you'll need a general cultural acceptance of it, which should be easy to write with some creative history, but there are other options. A few.
Necromancers are feared, but respected. Necromancers are viewed with some suspicion by most, but the Order works hard to make it clear that it's more valuable than it is dangerous. By consensus, Necromancers don't make new corpses, they just use the ones that turn up normally. They contribute to the general welfare by having skeleton servitors (zombie servitors are just nasty, and unhygienic, to boot) perform community service, and undead chain gangs dig ditches, pave roads, construct dams, aqueducts, and other buildings. In fact, life is usually pretty swell for your normal person, because most of the menial things are handled by the Necromancers; and the Kingdom is safe because its neighbors fear its necromantic guardians. In exchange, the Necromancers enjoy a steady supply of freely given subjects for their work. For your needs, this means that while people are a little icked out by the work of your protagonist, many will be willing to offer him a level of respect or courtesy befitting his association with the Necromancers they have come to rely on.
Necromancers are feared, but not hated. Noone can place when necromancy first became a thing, exactly, but the necromancers have been around since basically the beginning. Like anyone else who practices magic, the mundane people of the world look dubiously on them for possessing an unfair advantage, but the Necromancers have mastered the most important of Machiavelli's maxims. It is safer to be feared than to be loved; and it is important not to be hated. The Necromancers know that if the common folk - so numerous, the common folk - turn against them, it will be a bad day. They therefore take pains not to make themselves despicable, but they do not brook attacks or intrusions on their sanctums, responding with force and swift justice. In turn, everyone else has learned that the Necromancers are not to be messed around with, but since the Necromancers don't do insane things like raise undead legions and terrorize the living, the fear of reprisal is enough to keep most people from messing with a traveling necromancer.
Indoctrination. Maybe it didn't start this way, but the Church of Death now employs Necromancers. The Church is responsible for ensuring that a soul sees its way into the afterlife, as compensation for this valuable religious service, they take possession of the corpse. The Church maintains a standing garrison of undead warriors to protect its temples and the towns they stand in; it also patrols the streets and keeps the peace. Skeletons stalk in throngs around Wardens, acolytes who oversee the undead work-crews. The Church is essential, and though it rules with an iron fist and brooks no opposition to its teachings, it commands loyalty in all the usual ways. People are just used to the dead, by now, really.
The Undead have never been uncommon. In a world where sometimes, the dead just decide not to stop living, coexisting with such beings would be quite ordinary, as would the specialists who deal with the magic animating the undead.
Maybe they've just had a long time to get used to it. You can get used to a lot. Maybe in your world, Necromancers were regarded in a negative light, but the Liche King changed that by showing that just because a guy raises the dead, doesn't mean he wants to eat your flesh and slay your family. And why not? The Liche King has been in charge for a long time, and the Kingdom hasn't burned down or been smote from on high, or anything.
Closing note. This question largely has to do with cultural perceptions. It's therefore hard to say how we might feel about Necromancy if it were, you know, actually a thing that could and did happen. Portrayals of Necromancy haven't helped at all, really. You've already touched on this by pointing out that usually Necromancers are mad, evil, or both. Generally they're egomaniacal, murderous, and usually they're interested in conquering the world - typical comic-book villains for typical comic-book villainy. It won't be hard to bring a more nuanced angle to this aspect of fiction. What if, and I know I'm being speculative here, but what if there was a necromancer (or even more than one!?) who didn't want to conquer the world, slay all the living, and reanimate their corpses to go to his insane tea party? What if he had good hygiene and expected the same from his unliving tools? And what if he knew how to give a skeleton a spade or hammer instead of a sword and shield?
Some more good questions to ask going into your world-building: How long has Necromancy been a thing? Is there other magic, and how are other magicians regarded? Is there cosmic good and evil in your setting (our world is mostly grey and grey, but in The Lord of Rings there are obvious good guys and obvious bad guys, who go along with the associated gods - the same goes for most other epic fantasy settings)? If Necromancy is generally tolerated, are there some who rail against it? Is there a god who condones or even sponsors necromancy, what about one who opposes it? Is Necromancy accepted everywhere, or just in one region or country?
Have your necromancer ask the relatives, or even better if your world allow it, the dead himself if he will let the necromancer raise him.
For example, you could have your necromancer negotiating with peoples to get access to their corpse once they are dead, which would allow you to put more emphasis on the peoples themselves. If you have a way to talk to the dead, a system of contracts with the dead would kill two bird in one stone: the corpse can't be raised without the soul's authorization, and you can have interesting relationship between the necromancer and his "army of dead".
Have necromancy being well known and understood, so that there is no attachment to the body itself, and that "desecrating" the body of someone is not frown upon.
You may study the Talos Principle about this, in a lot of culture, the body is given by god and sacred, but in a culture where the body is only a tool, there would be way less, or no taboo on raising corpse left and right, since they are only bones that have no use.
He woke and found himself lying in bed. At first he thought that he had slept late, after a long unpleasant dream that still hovered on the edge of memory. He opened his eyes to an unknown ceiling.
'Hidr!...' he shouted, but only a mewling left his lips.
'Shh, rest now. You have been asleep for three days; your body is broken, and it's a miracle that it survived that long. But your feats of courage where witnessed by all, and this morning the Voice of Malik called for you. Today you join the Immortals,' She said, that lovely smile in her face.
They won. He would join his famous grand-grand-grand-grand-grandfather among the sacred warriors of Malik. And, most important of all - she survived.
And the kiss they shared afterwards would be the last he would experience while still breathing.
The ceremony itself was quick: They sat facing each other, the Voice and the Warrior, his heavy breathing betraying the precarious state of his flesh.
She spoke to him, and yet her lips were closed: she offered her hand, and yet she was sitting motionless in front of him. He took her hand, and all worries, all the weight on his shoulders seemed to vanish.
He saw his own body being taken away, to be prepared for his final residence.
He felt a gentle breeze, and closed his eyes. When he opened it again, he was back to the House of Healing, no longer a mortal. The world seemed to glimmer with new colors, his undead eyes absorbing both the natural world and the ethereal plane.
How about you only raise animals? If you have a strict no human rule, it would still be gross, but only PETA would think it was evil.
Then you can have evil necromancers that do use humans, that the good necromancers try to stop.
Call it resurrection or something else. Make the population resurrect the dead as part of their culture. That way the towns people will think it's fine and the dead will expect to be brought back at some point.
Explain how it puts the right persons soul into the right persons body and brings all the cells back to life and what not at its highest forms, or explain how there's a difference between ethical and non-ethical necromancy. You can always explain how necromancy isn't bad or you could attempt to just roll with it, but if you call it necromancy then you're going to get the connotation of bad along with it no matter what you do.
If you make ethical necromancy part of the culture then you should be able to justify whatever you want as good necromancy.
Instead of stealing bodies pay people for use of their body after they die, that alone will go a long way to a better image. Or if he can talk to the dead he can negotiate for after their death. "20 gold pieces to my family who live here, and you can have my bones."
Play it up as service to the community and you may even get volunteers without payment. Taking the time to bleach bones and clean off the rotten flesh will help too, so they are not a disease ridden mess.
Make it a point to keep a signed contract for your undead, or come up with a guild that regulates it with some kind of badge or stamp certifying legal necromancy vs grave robbing assholes.
As long as he is taking them against their will it's no different, for the moral perspective of most of the populace, than taking slaves and forcing them into your army.
Alright first of all, thanks for all the replies. I myself find necromancy a pretty interesting subject. I've seen some awesome and open-minded answers from this great community. That's why I've decided to answer my own question containing the reasons I found most helpful understanding and the tips most interesting that could help regarding the world I'm building.
Dead people are unsettling. They look like people, but wrong. It gets even worse when they do things dead people aren't supposed to do, like make noises or move — something that is known to happen with real corpses. Besides the uncanny valley effect, corpses are also known to stink and spread disease. When people see your zombie soldiers, they'll be horrified. In fiction, using tools that are considered gross signifies an evil character. Even relatively harmless symbols like spiders, snakes or blood are rarely associated with good characters.
The protagonist raising an army has no intend terrorizing any neutral beings at all. But like in most medieval societies, no peasant likes the mobilization of armies throughout his farm. This is almost impossible to avoid, especially if these armies are... well... dead. On regular basis its unsettling to even look at, let alone work with.
Just like the real world, the most active religion in this world has a lot in common with Christianity. Have researched some more I found that the Bible doesn't really like necromancy.
Necromancy is defined as the conjuring of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events. In the Bible, necromancy is also called "divination," "sorcery" and "spiritism" and is forbidden many times in Scripture.
No doubt the protagonist will have some problems fighting evil with risen spirits while the dominant religion is totally against it, and sees it as evil.
Maybe also one of the points I should have been more specific about. The idea of necromancy (like in most fictional worlds) is that risen undead need a soul attached to work. When binding these souls to bodies that are in a lot of fighting, labour and just unpleasant events, you might make a few angry or even suffer. Thank you for making me realize this.
Some creative idea's by sphennings I really like. This will make the society much more appreciate what you are doing with their dead ancestors, and are much more willing to let them fight for you. The terror level really decreases when you decorate the undead with pretty tulips and leave all the rotten flesh out. Also not harming the souls part is pretty important.
Only answer I found regarding the religions problem, which I found to be one of the largest. Very well written.
In the end it all just comes down to the world's perspective you build around a specific subject (duh). But in reference to the world I'm building, these are some pretty decent and creative solutions. I want to thank you all again for the great answers.
P.S. I hope all my thank you's won't be removed.
Talking to the spirits of ancestors is rarely depicted as being evil, but then one wonders if that isn't simply because western authors tend to depict anything non-western/from extinct cultures and christian as awesome-cool-quaint.
Ancestor spirit thing-dudes in conan-esque cultures, in oriental depictions and american indian are not normally evil, whilst ouija board and egyptian stuff is. Don't really think there's much logical consistency, except stuff like the egyptians practised human sacrifice.
Necromancy etc is taboo not because it's bad, But because people imagine it to be bad. Have you ever met a necromancer? How would you feel if it was ubiquitous? Any ideas?
Concerns about economy/cheap labor are a little silly, coz you're imagining that from the perspective of an economy in which necromancy does not exist.
Like an earlier answer "people would start killing themselves in order to earn their family money.." makes no sense, as they can work whilst alive..or learn to become a necromancer, presumably.
If you want to prevent such things, just have some plot-ban on suicides, such as something particularly nasty happens to their souls that simultaneously prevents their bodies being raised or bound.
If you have pantheistic/domain Gods, your Gods of murder & suicide could be particularly jealous of people using souls which should go to them an so ban necromancy on them.
Whilst souls/bodies of people that die of nat. causes or in accident, pursuit of faith, etc could be more freely repurposed. In this way, if these things are part of common lore then people's views on the use of corpses/souls would be altered somewhat.
I think the best way to remove the stain of evil on the practices of necromancy is to rework the way the dead are treated and perceived in your world.
There have been a number of comments already about why the practice of digging up such corpses is reprehensible, but those do not necessarily apply if the dead are more accessible. By burying the dead, they are locked away. It implies that we expect them to remain down there. Instead of burying them, put them in a location easy to walk out of. For example a crypt with a front door, where the dead are not stored in coffins, but are positioned as if they are sleeping. Why would the dead be buried this way? Because in this world/culture/religion, it is considered an honor if a corpse is reused by a Necromancer. Seeing your dead parents fight wild beasts doesn't have to be an affront if the people expect it - or even hope for.
As for the gory parts and the issues with free will, that can be solved by, for instance, having a necromancer employ good-aligned spirits to inhabit the corpses and do his bidding. The spirits could 'patch' the decaying corpses with ethereal material. If the face of the previous owner of the corpse is a problem, have the spirit conjure a face for himself. The spirits could refuse service if the necromancer wants to use them for evil purposes. The list of options doesn't end here, once you change the rituals in your world to be less grim and the status 'dead' to be less final.
Your peaceful farming country has always revered its ancestors. Every ancestor has worked hard for their entire life trying to improve the lives of their children, children's children, and so on. The Ancestors have always been there to help, especially in the spring and fall when the local necromancer would be able to temporarily reanimate them so they could help with the planting and harvest. Work and devotion to family is a foundation to the society, even in death. A party would be held as the dead re-interned themselves until next time. All was well with the world.
Who are they to say that animating the Ancestors is evil? Who are they to drown the local townsfolk, as a "test" to see if they are "witches" (what's a witch anyway?). When the local necromancer is found by the Questioners, the whole family is to be executed. Unknown to them, they missed their little boy who was out playing with the squirrels. Having lost his whole family to these red-pointy-hatted Questioners, he decides enough is enough: His father had taught him the basics of necromancy and he would do all he could to enact his revenge.
He starts with his little reanimated squirrel. Later he learns how to animate several at once. With practice he graduates to humans, and even bears. Over time he understands how to communicate with those recently dead to get information of defenses from those who were killed in those vile Questioner dungeons. He eventually can reanimate the dead to look like they are still alive, fully controlled by him!
And then the ultimate gift: a Head Questioner dies of old age in his sleep without anyone knowing but the boy. He can now take down the entire organization from within!
Have only restless souls be able to be raised, as an act of redemption, after which they are thanked and sent on to their eternal rest.
The "Army of the Dead" in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
In "The House of Hades", book 4 of Rick Riordan's popular "Heroes of Olympus" series, a legion of ancient Roman warriors is raised to fight an overwhelming foe.
I suppose you couldn't use this ability too often, at least in the same immediate area, or you might run out of restless souls.
Necromancy is used 'for good' sometimes.
Following Arthur C Clarke, who said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", think about organ donorship - the 'magical' use of corpses to sustain the living.
In ancient magical traditions, the perception of what is 'good' is far more related to intention/outcome than the actual methods by which it is obtained. Ideas of absolutism tend to be rejected because the metaphoric / allusional nature of the phenomenal world is a central thesis of magical traditions.
It's not just intent, of course. It's also insight (or wisdom). One must know what the consequences of one's actions are. But if one has powerful insight then the ability to use any form of magic for beneficial purpose is available.
In general, there are many divisions of necromancy - some of them are relatively benign, such as using corpses as medicine (see above) or for divination purposes; whereas corpse-raising (eg. zombies, or similar) are generally considered to be terrifying for soldiers to fight - because they find themselves fighting their own former comrades, and if they die they become just another soldier within the zombie army.
In general though, such armies only belong to fiction. Those who have claimed to raise the dead say that it is a long, arduous, and painful process - far more like Dr. Frankenstein's work (he was, after all, a necromancer of sorts) than just waving a magic wand.
Most of this is tips how it could work... But some are reasons why it's viewed as evil too.
One core reason why it is viewed as "evil" is probably the reason those characters use it for.
I'm not sure what Sauron did tbh (Ring wraith?), but the Lich King used them as an army against all living. That's quite a good reason for the living to be pissed.
The undead in that same universe however view necromancy as a means of reproduction. They can't procreate but can raise dead to increase the number of their own "race". I'm not talking about the mindless Scourge here, but the Forsaken. I assume your people is not undead, so you might have to think for another reason why they might "like" the idea of being raised.
A note at the warcraft lore, there was the cult of the damned. They hoped to get turned undead and sacrificed theirselves in the hope to be raised again. So they were hungry for power and didn't have problems adjusting their morale.
Also, another good reason would be some kind of patriotism. Serving even in dead. You could add some rituals etc. Embalming to preserve the body. Burial in armor to be ready when needed. If your undead preserve memories this is almost like resurrection.
Do they still decompose? If they are, they are an expiring army that can be used "one time only" or "for a limited time". Embalming and preservation might take a bigger role then. Maybe even create a caste of embalmers, that tend to the dead and keep them ready for the time when they are needed. This could be a honored job or a high religious position.
If they don't decompose they technically turn immortal upon being raised. If they even keep their personality that's quite a good incentive to earn being raised. The entire culture could focus their life to be raised and stay "alive" forever. That might sound a little dark to us, but if there was no stigma to it by our culture it could easily be normalcy.
Religion in general could take a major role here. Usually our real life religions want their deceased to rest in peace. Raising them to fight/work is not really resting, especially not in peace. So that's a good reason to see those who disturb the dead to do something wrong/bad. If however your god dictated servitude even in dead and being raised is an honor people who didn't manage to be heroes in life get a second chance.
You could even create cults that train in life and then kill themselves at their peak. Getting prepared and tended to, embalmed and all that stuff, just to be ready when duty calls them from their tombs.
Necromancy is viewed as bad from our cultural perspective but there are tons of reasons why it could be an honor in a fictitious culture to be raised again.
Maybe something that can throw a completely different light on this is the TV-series "Pushing Daisies" (think of this as a romantic comedy series). Here, the protagonist has the power to raise a dead person back to life by touching the corpse once. If he touches the corps a second time, the person dies again and can not be resuscitated again by the protagonist.
There is one trick to it though: if a person is risen from the dead, but not touched again (died a second time) within a limited amount of time (30 seconds in the series), one random soul dies in the vicinity (can be an animal as well).
This brings up several dilemmas (such as not being able to touched a loved one if you've resurrected him/her) but also opportunities (solving murder cases).
In this case they skip very lightly over death (I described it as a romantic comedy, can't do that if there's too much darkness overhead), but some of the problems related with "necromancy", especially this special case, are touched. As for an answer to your question: in this series they do not frown upon "necromancy", and the character is most definitely not an evil protagonist.
Convert self into lich. Do this before raising any other dead.
Since all bodies are yours and you are your own closest relative there's nobody to complain to.
Three things in your question make it hard to imagine your protagonist as the good guy: 1) the term "necromancy" itself, 2) the "without permission" part of the powers and 3) the "manipulate souls" part.
If you re-branded it "communing with the ancestors," if it required the consent of the dead, and if it didn't involve manipulating souls, it might be easier to sell it as a net positive. In other words, it's not just the powers themselves, it's the attitude with which they are used.
I might suggest that though this does not answer the question precisely in the title. Another approach might not be to create a world in which necromancy is not at all taboo, but rather make it merely considered a "lesser evil" assuming the threats this necromancer addresses are more dangerous or frowned upon.
"How do I make society not consider this as an type of "evil" magic and will leave him alone or even help him to save the world?"
That's easy: by picking the right society.
Make a story where the Night King is the good guy. Write it from his viewpoint and how he uses his powers to make the world a better place. A place not ruled by those selfish humans with their kings and queen with their betrayal of each-other and the gods.
Whether someone is evil is only a matter of viewpoint.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged magic or ask your own question.
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Still remember your entire Torah portion by heart? Wondering about the relevance of your portion to your life now and then? These stories grapple with the key text of the B-Mitzvah experience and attempt to find resolution, resonance and meaning.
If you are a bespectacled, precocious goyishe nebbishe nudnik of eleven with no friends—Jewish or otherwise—you are not invited to the Bar Mitzvah, and, for many years you will have no idea as to what happens in its sacred confines. Read More.
By looking for it, I DID find other aspects of my year of becoming a man. Read More.
Being Orthodox had its advantages. Chanting my Bar Mitzvah portion was no problem. I rattled it off with ease. The problem was the speech. There was so much I wanted to say, but my English wasn't good enough, and anyway, my speech had been written for me by my uncle, a renowned Rabbi, who gave me a tired presentation expounding on the laws of charity. Read More.
A Bar Mitzvah without Torah--Who's in?
The liturgical center of a traditional Bar Mitzvah is the 13-year-old's personal confrontation with a piece of Old Testament  the Torah portion. You learn it in Hebrew. You reflect on it. And you craft a speech explaining what the passage means to you, your family, your friends, and most importantly, to the handful of 13-year-old girls who, amazingly, agreed to come to your big day. Read More.
But everything attracts its shadow. We naturally seek safety and we are especially avid in moments of potential danger. There is nothing more dangerous than ritual, and so there is nothing so ossified, so caked over, so drained of feeling and authenticity as the traditional rituals. If there is a single unspoken conviction held by the people who lead them, who watch them, who participate in them, it is this: "You can't hurt me because I'm not even here." Read More.


Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) today celebrates the release of a new state-of-the-art acoustic guitar series and the expansion of the ever-growing California Series at Winter NAMM 2019 in Anaheim, Calif. The additions include the powerful, American-made Acoustasonic Telecaster and the beach-inspired California Series in satin finishes.
Equipped with a fully-hollow body and Fender's patent-pending Stringed Instrument Resonance System (SIRS), the American Acoustasonic Telecaster is designed to deliver a naturally loud voice with spirited harmonics. This hybrid acoustic-electric guitar boasts an Acoustasonic Noiseless™ magnetic pickup – designed for authentic, hum-free Fender electric tone – helping artists transition from a smooth acoustic voice to a bold electric tone at the flip of a switch, as well as omitting feedback and eliminating many of the complications associated with playing acoustic guitars live. A mahogany Telecaster neck with ebony fingerboard and open-pore satin finish make this contemporary guitar comfortable and easy to play.
New, sleek satin finishes come to California Series acoustic guitars inspired by and born from the lifestyle and laid-back culture of Southern California. Catering to the diverse aesthetic tastes of Fender's artists, these guitars present a distinct, bold look and sound that disregards acoustic guitar conventions while bringing the character and feel of Fender's famous electric guitars to the category. From the Stratocaster® headstocks and vibrant colors, to the distinctive Fender body shapes – Malibu, Newporter and Redondo – that make players stand out, the introduction of the satin line brings new style to performers on stage and off.
The expansion of the California Series now includes six additional colors, including: Satin Slate, Satin Bronze, Satin Olive, Satin Ice Blue, Satin Midnight and Satin Burgundy.
"The California Series is a true representation of a Fender acoustic guitar, and now with the addition of new satin finishes, artists have even more ways to express their vibe and personality on stage," he added.


text:
We sold everything we owned to visit every country in the world – with our baby in tow
in Inspirational, Most Popular, Relationships
A couple sold everything they own to visit every country in the world – with their baby in tow.
Chloe Egbert, 28, and her husband, Jordan, 31, quit their jobs and sold their home, car and belongings to fund their $62k trip around the globe.
The couple jetted off from their home in Orem, Utah, and headed to France in May 2019 – before visiting Malta, Italy and Switzerland.
They have since welcomed their son, Lennon, 18 months, who joined their travels at 12 weeks old.
The family has checked off 106 countries so far. They are currently in Andorra and will be heading to Monaco in six days.
Chloe, a former executive assistant, originally from Las Vegas, Nevada, said: "We wanted to take control of our own future.
"We sold everything we owned to fund our trip and want to show our son the world.
"Our aim is to visit every single country – so far we've achieved 106. We've got 89 to go.
"Jordan got a job at an electric vehicle company in March 2018. They were opening in Europe, so we had planned to live in Austria for two years.
"But while he was training the company was declared bankrupt.
"We decided to still go ahead and move abroad – but rather than staying in one place, we wanted to see as much of the world as possible."
They travelled to Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga, before the pandemic and travel restrictions put a halt to their plans in March 2020.
Chloe said: "We were in Tuvalu in the South Pacific and when we landed, we went to border patrol where they told us we couldn't come in because we were American.
"They worried we would have coronavirus – so we had to prove we hadn't been in the US for months, then they allowed us in – but we were told we had to leave straight away."
Chloe and Jordan then headed to Padre Burgos, in the Philippines, where they went swimming with whale sharks and relaxed on the beach.
But disaster struck when the President of the Philippines announced that there would be no domestic travel for 24 hours to try to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Chloe said: "We then flew to Manilla and again the President said that all foreigners had to leave within 72 hours – otherwise we would be stuck there.
"All public transport was closed. We were very lucky we were staying in a hotel right next to the airport.
"As soon as the President made the announcement we were trying to get down to Micronesia and our flights got cancelled."
The couple realised their travel plans were coming to a stop and decided to head back to the US.
They spent the pandemic in Hawaii, where Chloe got pregnant and gave birth to their son, Lennon, in February 2021.
In September 2021 they jetted off once again – this time heading to South America.
Chloe said: "It was hard to go back travelling. We were going to places where masks were still in force and attractions were closed.
"The rules were so strict, by November I was miserable. I had a baby that couldn't sleep unless he was on me.
"I couldn't do anything in the countries we were in as they were so strict – there was nothing to do, everything was closed."
Chloe then pulled the plug on travelling and moved the family back to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she suffered a health scare in April 2022.
She said: "I ended up having 20 kidney stones. I got surgery to get them out and I realised that life is too short.
"We booked the next flight from Las Vegas to London in June 2022."
They headed straight for Wimbledon, London – where Chloe watched American tennis player and friend Asia Muhammad play in the women's single.
Chloe said: "It was so nice to be back at the tennis. People were out, excited and happy everything was normal again. That's the moment I realised we could do it again, travel was back and happening."
While jetting around the world, Chloe and Jordan are working with brands as content creators.
Since travelling, Chloe has visited 106 countries and said that New Zealand is her favorite destination.
Chloe said: "There is an energy in New Zealand that I have only felt in Japan and Andorra.
"New Zealand is so pure and comfortable, as you can imagine my life is the least bit comfortable and New Zealand brings the comfort.
"Kiwis are crazy, they are the biggest adrenaline junkies and I love it."
After travelling the world since 2019, Chloe and her husband Jordan have picked up some useful tips and tricks along the way and say most of the strangers they encounter are 'good people'.
She said: "One thing I always tell people is that the news is solely for information.
"Good news doesn't always catch attention, do not define a country by its government and remember that people are good.
"We have experienced so much goodness over the world and very little bad."
One top tip from Chloe is that when travelling, you should stay loyal to one hotel.
She said: "We believe in staying loyal to one hotel, loyalty absolutely pays off, we are very loyal to Marriott Hotels and because we have stayed two years almost 500 nights and have reached the highest levels of status with them.
"Every Marriott we stay in, we get a free breakfast, room upgrades and late checkout – we are always treated like family."
You can follow Chloe and her family's journey at @countingcountries
1) Get a travel credit card
2) Explore different countries
3) Pack light
4) Talk to strangers
5) Stay loyal to one hotel
We've got a 40 year age gap but have proved the haters wrong to celebrate 17th wedding anniversary
Angler scores biggest catch of his life with SEVEN FOOT halibut

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


since yesterday, a preview version of Core Update 67 may be found in the testing tree.
We would like to release the stable version during or after the next weekend, so please help us testing!
New wireless kernel modules taken from Linux 3.8. This should fix problems with some wireless adapters since IPFire 2.13.
New version of the ASIX driver (4.5).
Update Accelerator now supports Windows 8 updates.
The installer has been fixed, so installation on HP/Compaq SmartArray RAID controllers is working again.
fireinfo 2.1.7 is included which comes with an updated blacklist for invalid hardware strings.
Duplicate mISDN modules have been removed, so mISDN is functional again.


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News Science & Society
Why it's so hard for a one-hit wonder to have a lasting music career
The musical qualities linked to a first hit conflict with those that make for lasting success
Some consider the Danish band Aqua (seen performing at the 2018 Jelling Music Festival in Denmark) as a one-hit wonder, thanks to their 1997 megahit "Barbie Girl."
Gonzales Photo/Alamy
By Chris Gorski
It's hard to predict which songs will become hits. It's even more difficult to predict which artists topping today's charts will go on to record more hits and who will see their fame fizzle out.
Now an extensive study of the pop charts provides some tips about how to avoid being a one-hit wonder. Artists with more variety in their catalog have a better chance to land repeat hits, says Justin Berg, a social scientist who researches creativity and innovation at Stanford University's business school. But there's a dilemma for artists who want to be popular over the long-term. Variety isn't what helps artists land that first hit, Berg reports March 24 in Administrative Science Quarterly. It's the similarity of a new song to recent hits.
"There actually isn't a way to thread the needle," Berg says. "You face a … trade-off as a new creator, between a likelihood of initial [or] sustained success based on the novelty of your portfolio."
The new insights could help artists from a variety of fields better understand the public impact of novelty in art — in music, visual art, books and beyond.
To figure out if there's some kind of formula that can help explain who becomes a flash in the pan and who becomes a musical staple, Berg focused on the pop charts, with their rich collection of data. "I figured I'd start with the industry … where the term one-hit wonder was coined," he says.
Berg used a database of about 3 million songs from 1959–2010 released by record labels that had produced at least one hit in the United States over that time. Of those songs, nearly 25,000 landed on the weekly Billboard Hot 100, which tracks the most popular songs based on sales data, radio play and now online streaming. That provided Berg with a list of nearly 4,900 artists who had one or more songs that made the list, his yardstick for defining a hit.
Berg then turned to a Spotify system that rates songs on 11 variables, including danceability, energy and key. This system provided metrics on most of the hits and nonhits from the 1959–2010 time window. Berg then noted how closely related hit songs were to the hits from the previous calendar year. He also compiled portfolios for most of the artists who had at least one song on the Hot 100, so he could quantify the variety and novelty of the songs they had released at the time of their first hit. These portfolios also allowed him to compare one-hit wonders to mega-hitmakers and to those who never made it big.
Hits are rare, the data show. Of the 69,000 artists in the original database, 93 percent never had a hit, 3 percent had one and 1 percent had two hits. The success rate for additional hits drops from there.
Berg found that musical artists with what he termed low-novelty portfolios that closely resembled other already existing music were about twice as likely to have initial success. But those who built a more innovative and varied catalog before fame hit were more likely to generate a series of hits.
"It's a music nerd's dream to read something like this," says Storm Gloor, a music industry researcher at the University of Colorado Denver. He says it puts some heft behind a lot of the intuition that artists and record executives have developed over the years.
Since the data end in 2010, the research may not fully capture the current state of popular music. Musicians are changing how they write songs to make them more appealing on Spotify or TikTok, says Noah Askin, a computational social scientist at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. "So much of it now is: How memorable is a given song? How much can you put it out as like a soundtrack to a short video clip?"
Berg doesn't want his research to diminish the accomplishments of one-hit wonders such as Los Del Rio, who recorded the 1990s smash "Macarena." "A lot of them in their time were quite famous and successful," he says. "You go out and try to make a song that catchy. It's not an easy challenge."
J.M. Berg. One-hit wonders versus hit makers: Sustaining success in creative industries. Administrative Science Quarterly. Published online March 24, 2022. doi: 10.1177/00018392221083650.
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CREEP Breaks Into Watergate Headquarters.
CREEPS breaks into Watergate headquarters.
"Hush Money" was given to Burglars.
Group Returned to the Watergate Building.
Nixon ordered CIA to overturn FBI Investigation.
Security Guard Noticed and Called Police.
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Saturday Night Massacre: when politicians resigned in Protest.
He agreed to release the Tapes.


ORLANDO, Florida – HARMAN's BSS Audio today announced its Soundweb London BLU-806 and BLU-326 with Audinate's Dante-enabled processors are now shipping. The BLU-806 and BLU-326 offer the same configurable signal processing features as the existing BLU-800 and 320 devices with the addition of Audinate's Dante digital media networking capabilities.
The BLU-806 and BLU-326 devices allow 64 incoming Dante channels and 64 outgoing Dante channels. Both new devices offer configurable inputs and outputs, compatibility with all Soundweb London input and output card options, logic processing capability, the 256-channel Soundweb London digital audio bus and GPIO.
"System designers using Soundweb London now have the choice of AVB, CobraNet or Dante as the digital audio transport, using BLU link to complement the application-specific transports. Most importantly, system designers are able to deploy each of these transports using a single software application," stated Iain Gregory, Market Manager for Installed Sound at HARMAN Signal Processing.
"During the past two years, the growth of Dante has been moving at a phenomenal pace and we are thrilled that BSS has developed their Dante solution so quickly," stated Lee Ellison, CEO of Audinate. "Since BSS announced the adoption of Dante last year, the commercial installation community has been extremely positive in anticipation of this release of the Soundweb London platform with Dante."
The BLU-806 and BLU-326 along with the other members of the Soundweb London family provide the building blocks of the perfectly tailored system solution.


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next anthropomorphic animals character >
< previous anthropomorphic animals character
Gus Goose
Religion: anthropomorphic animal
Name: Gus Goose
Other Names: Iron Gus
First Appearance: Donald's Cousin Gus (1939)
First Appearance (Additional Details): (comic book) Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #7 (Apr. 1941)
Creators: Carl Barks, Jack Hannah, Jack King
Number of Appearances: 343
Comic Book Appearances: 332
TV, Film Appearances: 11
Ally: Donald Duck
Ally: Grandma Duck
Employer: Grandma Duck's farm
Occupation: farmer
Location: Duckburg, Calisota, USA
Species: goose
Note: Donald Duck's lazy, food-loving cousin
Donald's Cousin Gus (1939) (lead character)
Suggested links for further research about this character and the character's religious affiliation:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gus_Goose
- http://www.comicvine.com/gus-goose/29-21536/
- http://amazon.imdb.com/character/ch0083110/
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031241/
- http://www.comicvine.com/walt-disneys-comics-and-stories-/37-136170/


I know that it has been eons since I last posted, but my life has taken a few hits since that last post in January 2010. On March 26, my dear sweet mother was diagnosed with lung and brain cancer and seven weeks later, on May 14, she lost the battle. Those seven weeks changed my life as I still deal with the lost. The one thing that I treasure most about my mother was her ability to create things...that's where I get it from. She was always busy using her hands, whether working on her "almost" prize winning roses, adding a faux finish to a wall or baking up some of her famous mac and cheese! The wonderful thing is that she shared her talents with anyone that was willing to learn! That is the legacy that she leaves, and I am all so grateful for it. I love and miss her dearly and will hold on to the memories that she leaves.
During the last five months, I also made the decision to allow daisiesndoodlebugs to waste away. While I love the stationery business, I was tiring of the hunt for the perfect paper. There was once a boom for papercrafting stores but now that has dwindled, making it harder and harder to get that perfect match. So, with that said, my blog website address is now http://www.nchandmademama.blogspot.com/. If you follow the blog, please make note of this moving forward and if I am linked to your page, please be sure to update.
While away, I was doing some crafting to take my mind away from the stresses of life. I was going to try and do a one post catch up but decided to take a little at a time. Handmade stuff is nice to share no matter when it was made. So in the coming days, I will be posting my wares. It is good to be posting again and talking about life.
In loving memory of my mother, Mary Pendergrass....the original "Handmade Mama"
She did make the best mac and cheese I have ever experienced in my life and will be very much missed by all of us :) Glad to see you back blogging!


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Sept. 29, 2019 / 3:00 AM	/ Updated Sept. 29, 2019 at 11:30 AM
'Sopranos' vet Narducci returns to mobster milieu in 'Godfather'
Karen Butler
Actress Kathrine Narducci co-stars in the new mob drama, "Godfather of Harlem," which starts Sunday. Photo courtesy of Epix
Actor Joe Pesci and actress Kathrine Narducci will be seen later this fall in the movie, "The Irishman." Photo courtesy of Netflix
Sept. 29 (UPI) -- For six seasons on The Sopranos, Kathrine Narducci played Charmaine Bucco, a fictional New Jersey restaurant owner who resisted following her childhood friends into the world of organized crime.
Narducci now returns to that milieu, playing real-life, New York mob wives in two of this fall's buzziest projects.
In Epix's 1960s drama series, Godfather of Harlem, which premieres Sunday, the actress plays Olympia Gigante, the wife of wise guy Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, played by Vincent D'Onofrio.
And Martin Scorsese's 1970s Oscar-bait movie, The Irishman, slated to hit screens in November, gave Narducci the chance to play Carrie Bufalino, the spouse of Joe Pesci's gangster Russell Bufalino.
"They are extremely colorful. They are both funny," the 53-year-old native New Yorker told UPI Thursday, noting that her characters are "ride or die chicks" when it comes to loving and supporting their men, however flawed they might have been.
"Russell Bufalino was a quiet don. Joe Pesci and I had a conversation that Carrie was probably very quiet, too, but also shrewd and very strong underneath that quietness, where I think Olympia was more outward and boisterous," Narducci said.
Since Gigante and Bufalino weren't public figures, Narducci wasn't obligated to imitate them. Instead, she concentrated on developing them as characters in a dramatic setting.
"I'm glad there wasn't a lot on both of them," she said. "There was nothing really on the Web except a few scattered pictures. I got to create them in my own mind, which I like better."
Godfather of Harlem follows Forest Whitaker's African-American crime boss Bumpy Johnson as he returns to his old neighborhood after a decade in prison to find the streets controlled by Italian mobsters, including Gigante.
Gigante was notorious for faking insanity for decades while he ran his crime syndicate. He eventually was convicted on racketeering charges, and then died in prison in 2005 at age 77.
"I was always fascinated with The Chin because he used to walk around New York City in a robe. In Little Italy, he used to talk to himself," Narducci said. "You were always interested in him because he was so mysterious."
The show also brought her back to the neighborhood where she grew up in real life.
"The whole thing was surreal -- just going back on the block where I was born and raised," said the actress, who now lives in the Bronx . "It was just really so amazing. It was sad, too, because the neighborhood's changed so much."
The Irishman is the supposedly true story of what really happened when the influential Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, played by Al Pacino, dabbled in politics and organized crime.
Narducci was only aware of the broad strokes of the tale before she got the job.
"I only knew the mystery of who killed Jimmy Hoffa and where is he? Is he in Shea Stadium? Is he buried under the Brooklyn Bridge? I only knew that and that he was the head of the union and he was Irish and that he started to give the Mafia a little run for their money and they had to get rid of him."
The actress wouldn't say if the film proves who is responsible for Hoffa's long-debated disappearance, but she promised "it's definitely worth the three hours to get to the end."
With The Sopranos marking its 20th anniversary milestone this year and the prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, scheduled for release in 2020, Narducci is thinking about the Emmy-winning drama's legacy, which, she said, put HBO on the map.
"It changed the way people look at television now. It upped the bar. It was a game changer," she said.
"As far as the show itself? That show brought people together. They had Sunday night dinners and it brought people together. It [started] conversation around the water cooler, and when the show ended, it left people high and dry. It was part of the culture. It really became part of the social life of people."
She thinks fans continue to miss the show's star, James Gandolfini, who died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 51.
"We never got enough of him. We want to still see him in movies and him on new TV shows and we're not going to get that," she said.
Godfather of Harlem premieres Sunday on Epix.
'Auggie' is Richard Kind's rare leading man role 'Downton Abbey' producer calls film a 'warm hug' in 'turbulent times' Nick Wolfhard relates to character in Netflix's 'Last Kids on Earth' Kristin Chenoweth's new album is 'for the women ... for us'
TV // 3 hours ago
Apple TV+ renews 'Home Before Dark,' 'Mythic Quest' ahead of premieres
Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Apple TV+ has announced it renewed "Home Before Dark" and "Mythic Quest" for second seasons before the first season premieres.
Luke Evans to star in ITV's 'Pembrokeshire Murders' miniseries
Jan. 20 (UPI) -- "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Alienist" actor Luke Evans has signed up to star in ITV's miniseries, "The Pembrokeshire Murders."
TV // 1 day ago
Jeffrey Epstein docu-series, Lorena Bobbitt biopic in the works at Lifetime
Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Lifetime has ordered a 4-hour docu-series called "Surviving Jeffrey Epstein."
TV // 19 hours ago
'Frozen,' 'Hamilton' co-stars lend voices to 'Central Park' cartoon characters
Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Kristen Bell, Josh Gad, Daveed Diggs and Leslie Odom Jr. have joined the vocal cast of the Apple TV+ cartoon, "Central Park."
Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The first three episodes of the thriller "Defending Jacob" will be available for streaming on Apple TV+ April 24.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus working with Apple TV+ on future projects
Jan. 19 (UPI) -- "Veep" and "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus has signed an overall deal to develop, produce and star in projects for Apple TV+.
Lifetime planning another V.C. Andrews movie event
Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Lifetime said it is working on a series of five TV movies based on V.C. Andrews' Ruby Landry novels.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Rob Lowe and Liv Tyler trained on the job, like real interns, for their roles on Fox spinoff "9-1-1: Lone Star."
TV // 2 days ago
Freeform renews 'Grown-ish' for Season 4
Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Cable network Freeform has renewed its college sitcom "Grown-ish" for a fourth season.
'Laguna Beach' alum Morgan Smith gives birth to third child
Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Morgan Smith (née Olsen) welcomed her third child, a baby boy, with her husband, Joel Smith.
Nicolas Cage, Kesha attend the 'Color Out of Space' premiere in LA


How do you prefer to get information?
A friend and fellow advocate wants to partner with me and an organization we both support to do a Twitter Chat. This would be specifically targeted toward the older spectrum of people with chronic illnesses. We both hold the contention that this group has different needs than people who are younger.
So I thought I'd ask. What sources do you/would you use for information? (This is the first time I've inserted a poll into my blog, so please forgive any minor glitches …) Please check all the answers that apply — including the over/under 50 years old one.
I vote that 2019 is a wonderful, healthy year for us all. Thanks for checking in and thanks for your input!.
Two of my RA heroes, Cathy "Cateepoo" Kramer and Lene Anderson are having a Facebook Live discussion this Wednesday. This session is not to be missed!
May is Arthritis Awareness Month. Usually starting in April I get inquiries from various groups asking my help in raising awareness of RA and other arthritic conditions. I don't mind helping out a good cause, but I tend to point out (rather obviously, I think) that people who read my blog are already aware of arthritis. We don't need reminding. In fact, what most of us want is to become UNAWARE of arthritis. We want all the pain, stiffness, fatigue and other symptoms and especially medical bills to just disappear so we are completely unaware that we've ever had the disease.
Most of us are caught in the dichotomy of wishing people understood our disease better and going to great lengths to keep it invisible to other people. It's a tough balance.
I do what most of us do. I show up when I'd rather lie down.
Invisibility is important to many people for lots of reasons. But awareness is crucial for a lot of important reasons, too.
I'm sure you're aware that I volunteer for a number of arthritis-related causes. While I've never asked you to support these causes, one of my favorites has a way to help without costing you any money. For every picture you upload, Johnson & Johnson will donate $1 to IFAA (International Foundation of Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Arthritis). You can upload one picture each day during the month of May. The picture can be of anything. It can be existing or one that you take that day. The goal is $15,000 – or 500 people taking a picture for 30 days. More information about this is below. You upload the picture via an app, which will remind you daily to upload a picture.
If you'd like to help, but participating in the daily ritual is not your cup of tea (or you live outside the US), you can donate directly via credit card or PayPal here. It's a small organization so every $ counts. Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. I don't ask for help often (if at all), but I believe in this organization and their work, so I'm asking now. Please help if and however you can.
You know you're going to take selfies, photograph your dinner, snap a shot of your pets – so why wouldn't you share them online through the FREE Johnson & Johnson Donate a Photo app and help the International Foundation for Autoimmune & Autoinflammatory Arthritis (IFAA) raise $15,000 towards driving global awareness about autoimmune and autoinflammatory arthritis?
Download the FREE Johnson & Johnson app on your iPhone or Android device NOW then you will be ready to go on May 1*.
Set up your account on the app*. It takes just 5 minutes.
You can link your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) so your photo automatically posts there, too!
May 1 – May 31, when you share ANY photo online, post them through the app and earn $1** for our cause. To learn more about this campaign, including how to set up a company, school, or group team, please visit our Donate a Photo page.
Believing in the truism that a picture is worth a thousand words, I've merged the X-rays of my left (anatomical) and right (reverse) shoulder replacements together.
The left/anatomical replacement is so named because it mirrors the body's natural anatomy. There is a socket in the shoulder that a ball joint — attached to the arm — fits into.
The right/reverse replacement is just the opposite. As you can see from the picture, the ball joint attaches to the shoulder with a disk/socket attached to the arm.
And I don't understand the technical aspects of why this is, but the primary difference between the two is that my rotator cuff on the left/anatomical side is a primary force in moving the arm/shoulder. However, on the right/reverse shoulder, the rotator cuff is basically bypassed and the deltoid muscle moves the arm. As I have had two previous rotator cuff surgeries on the right shoulder, the reverse replacement was the wiser choice. If they had done the anatomical replacement and I'd had future rotator cuff problems they very probably would not only have had to repair the rotator cuff (again), but remove the implant and do a reverse replacement anyway. Better to start there and avoid the issue altogether.
I hope whatever position your shoulders are in, that you're both healthy and happy.
I think we need to change our conversation with our doctors about pain because it's not really about pain, it's about getting our lives back. It's about being productive and healthy and happy and feeling like doing the things we both want and need to do. It's about the ability to enjoy life again. Pain has the power to take all of that from us.
I can't help but notice that many alternative pain management methods steal an inordinate amount of time away from patients. While you're soaking in a hot tub, or meditating, or doing exercises like Tai Chi, or reading, or doing acupuncture, or any one of the myriad other methods that are now being promoted instead of pain medication, you aren't living your life – you're dealing with your pain. How do you do these things when you have fulltime commitments like a job or a family? While these methods have been found to be effective, people are still putting their life on hold to deal with the situation.
So our goal, therefore, is to get our life back.


Education abroad is an integral aspect of the educational experience at Redlands, and we have a rich tradition of broadening student growth and learning through participation in international and domestic study away programs. Our goal is to create opportunities for students and faculty to explore diverse cultures and languages en route to becoming more broad-minded, interculturally adept, and knowledgeable citizens of the global community.
If you are a School of Business or School of Education student interested in study away, please follow those embedded links.


Pimpin Foolie - C.E.O of M.H.R.F.G Ent. Born Michael Dykes in 1987 in Augusta Georgia. Pimpin Foolie grew up in the slums and projects of Richmond County, Augusta, Georgia in the Lake Olmstead housing projects. Throughout Pimpin Foolie's fight with the struggle of poverty, in a home of 5 with his mother Tammy Marie Dykes A single parent, he was later introduced to A life of crime and drugs. Pimpin Foolie was incarcerated in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center on several occasions before he turned his life around, where he later found music as his passion and dream. Pimpin Foolie later founded M.H.R.F.G-ENT , with the help of a friend by the name of Eugene (Olmstead Foolie) Royal lll ,Which is an independent rap label, looking to make some noise in the music industry.


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Automotive Success story
Parts inspection with a twist
Customer benefits:
In-line X-ray inspection for zero-defect production
Highly flexible system technology
Seamless documentation and traceability
Effective alternative for managing a shortage of skilled workers
Success story (PDF)
The gripper seals the opening to the X-ray chamber during inspection, which requires the part to be rotated 180 degrees.
The inspection system has a compact footprint.
Inside the compact cell are a robot, a camera, and an X-ray chamber.
The X-ray inspection is thoroughly visualized and documented.
Robot-assisted X-ray inspection of vehicle locking systems
Kiekert is the world's biggest manufacturer of automotive locking systems. At its largest plant in Prelouc, Czech Republic, a workforce of some 2,400 produces around 180,000 side door latches a day on 60 assembly lines.
Among the numerous automated assembly and testing tasks involved is the 100% inspection of soldered connections. A high-precision Stäubli robot has the job of manipulating the latches as they pass through a compact X-ray inspection cell.
The latest development in the design of these locking systems is the incorporation of convenience functions such as Kiekert's proprietary Kiekert "Soft-Close" mechanism. As with all motor vehicle locks, the zero-defect principle applies. Consequently, the production engineers at Prelouc sought a way to subject the soldered connections in the plastic casing to 100% inspection.
In-line X-ray inspection of soldered connections
On detailed analysis, it was determined that X-ray inspection would be the best technology for 100% inspection. A Czech company designed and built an inspection cell in which all handling tasks are performed by a compact Stäubli TX60 six-axis robot.
These include handling the test component during the inspection process in the X-ray chamber. The robotic gripper is designed to seal off the entry port to the chamber, thus preventing radiation leakage during the test. After the first X-ray image is recorded, the gripper rotates the latch 180 degrees and a second image is taken. Kiekert also wanted the capability to rotate the components in 5 and 10 degree increments – a requirement easily met by the high-precision TX60.
The self-learning test cell
The compact inspection cell includes a screen that clearly and unambiguously displays the test results, including the X-ray images. All measured values are documented and recorded for traceability. The testing process also has autonomous learning capabilities. If a soldering parameter is changed, for example, the test cell's control unit can determine whether the change has had positive effects, based on the number of usable and defective parts.
Yet another beneficial feature of the robotic test cell is its flexibility. The system is able to test other parts, such as circuit boards that are soldered on an adjacent production line. Checking other parameters such as surface texture or completeness is possible without any issues.