Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

I’m wondering if any of you can shed some light on why necromancers in Tyria are socially accepted. I’ve been playing for quite a while and it’s something i’ve never figured out. It’s not commented on in the story (as far as I’m aware) if you’re playing one. And you can run around with your horrible undead minions and no-one bats an eyelid – not that I’m expecting guards to run up and arrest you, but still….
Another thing is that Trahearne is also wholeheartedly accepted as the Pact’s commander even though he’s a corpse botherer.

Thanks for your replies.

There has never been a stigma against necromancy in tyria. They don’t consider the practice unhealthy or evil in any way, as their culture has a much easier time dealing with death than our cultures do, mostly due to the fact that tyrians of all races have definate and definable proof that there is a separation between “soul” and “body” even though they have different ideals about where the point of separation is and what happens (or doesn’t happen) to the “soul” when they die.

Tyrians see necromancers minions as gross, but not necessarily evil. Kinda like going to the bathroom.

The idea that messing around with corpses is evil is simply a concept that doesn’t exist in tyria.

necromancer are historically accepted because the gods were actually active at one time.

hell, back when orr was still not ruined, the gods chilled with regular people until people started going blind

back in GW1, Necros were essentially priests of Grenth, the human’s god of death, and were a well respected position.

nowdays, human necros are in the same position: they worship grenth.

Charr don’t care about the gods, but hey, the ability to… recycle corpses is useful in a fight.

Sylvari have no taboos about death, no sylvari has yet died of old age, and so death fascinates them (hence why trahearne is a necro, he’s really more of a death-scholar to the sylvari).

Asura, it’s another school of magic to prove their mastery of (and asura really don’t care about respect for the dead, if there’s anything to be learned from a corpse, they’ll learn it, what else would you do? bury it?)

Norn are similar to humans, necros are highly spiritual, I believe they serve raven, but I’m not sure.

as for the monstrosities, understand just HOW MANY corpses there are in tyria, we managed to actually cause extinctions back in GW1. it’s these animal bones and flesh we animate, and they are essentially “flesh puppets”, not self willed undead, if there is any human material in there it’s maybe a bone or skull or two, and we don’t touch the soul, that belongs to grenth.

Thanks for your quick replies! Great answers too. I understand now.

Snakebite.2745:

It’s not commented on in the story (as far as I’m aware) if you’re playing one. And you can run around with your horrible undead minions and no-one bats an eyelid – not that I’m expecting guards to run up and arrest you, but still….

In general there isn’t too much recognition of player professions… generally there isn’t much profession lore. Yes I’m beating that old drum :P

Snakebite.2745:

Another thing is that Trahearne is also wholeheartedly accepted as the Pact’s commander even though he’s a corpse botherer.

Minions work a bit differently. The exact mechanism I’m unsure of, but they don’t need to dig up someone great uncle to make a minion. It’s a bit easier to accept if a necro isn’t corpse bothering anyone you might have known.

PopeUrban.2578:

There has never been a stigma against necromancy in tyria.

Magic isn’t that big of a deal in Tyria. Someone people have blue eyes some people can summon fire from the heavens.
Necromancy more or less as we know it now has been around since the time of King Doric and the splitting of magic among the bloodstones http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/King_Doric so that’s well over a thousand years.

While Necromancy is overall socially acceptable it is still rather creepy/disturbing to the uninitiated. In the Ghosts of Ascalon novel several of the main characters have notable squick reactions to their companion necromancer making a minion of a soldier they just killed.

Also, historically necromancy is a school of magic that was more regulated than other schools do to it’s potential for misuse/abuse.

So while necromancy is fine to practice openly there are limits on what is socially acceptable and even then necromancy is still generally viewed as a bit creepy.

Yeah, someone still find necromancy creepy. It’s normal, they use dead bodies or part of them…
But I see the Order thing more as a regulation of magic in general.
The bad guy that time happened to be a necro, but it wuold have been the same if he was a mesmser, elementalist or monk.

Necromancy had a worse reputation in Cantha than Tyria(usually beetween ritualists), though.

Just to add on to what others are adding…

Necromancy DOES have limits to what is allowed and what is viewed as evil.

Raising a dead sentient being is taboo, it’s not ok, it is looked down upon, it is seen as WRONG. (Necromancers in Tyria do not reanimate corpses at this point.)

Example: Palawa Joko, while a lich…is evil because he kills people to add to his undead army.

Current necromancers make golem-like constructs, but they aren’t made out of dead humans, or dead charr, and they never had minds of their own.

I think Trahearne comments at some points about how his minions were never alive, so Zhaitan cannot claim them.

I think that’s the separation…Necromancy isn’t evil if the minions weren’t alive.

Blood magic, curses, etc…aren’t evil unless intended for evil, but I’m assuming a mesmer who makes people go crazy or an elementalist lighting people on fire would be considered respectively evil.

another example: Bria in ascalon kidnaps children to try to add them to her minion pool. She’s evil as well…so I think it’s more intent than just there.

although I’m sure people find necromancy and users of it creepy.

Culturally, Raven shamans use death magic.
Humans have grenth
At this point…Charr are generally distrusting of most magic-users, but they’d see it as useful.
Asura are curious about everything, and I think there’s a long gone asura (oola?) who believed that Necromancy was the key to perfecting golemancy

No norn spirit is linked explicitly to a profession.

Also, the whole “No necromancer users sentient corpses” is false. In an event in Kessex hills (I think), to fight a centaur necromancer who was murdering merchants and travelers, you collect the remains of the humans. The necromancer human ally then raises those remains into a group of flesh golems.

It’s not popular, and the TYPICAL line of seperation we see in gw1 between good and evil necromancers is that evil ones tend to use zombies, skeletons, fully humanoid undead, and good ones tend to use the more unidentifiable minions that are more a creation of bones and flesh then somebody making a dead human stand up and fight.

However, as many have said, necromancy is viewed as a dark art, not an evil one. Human necromancers in GW1 policed themselves in the form of a mostly unseen order, and took out those that went evil (experimenting on fellow refugees for example, put a death warrant on that necromancer). It’s a refreshing thing compared to other settings honestly. I once praised a guy because he understood that grenth was a dark fellow, but wasn’t an EVIL one.

Also necromancy is reanimation of the flesh. Ritualist return the soul. The taboo around necromancy in typical mmos is that you are reversing death. In Gw2 necromancy is simply dark magic that uses blood, flesh, bone and souls to perform magic. Its all about where you got them from.

One could argue that with Zhaitan. The risen are just resurrected corpses, they retain some of the original personality because the brain is unchanged. However the souls of the risens are no longer present. The taboo comes from using dead humans/other races as the source.

Temihal.8651:

Yeah, someone still find necromancy creepy. It’s normal, they use dead bodies or part of them…
But I see the Order thing more as a regulation of magic in general.
The bad guy that time happened to be a necro, but it wuold have been the same if he was a mesmser, elementalist or monk.

Necromancy had a worse reputation in Cantha than Tyria(usually beetween ritualists), though.

I’ll agree with the at most creepy, but not evil. Do we think coroners who do autopsies are evil? I mean, most of us wouldn’t want to be in such a job, but we don’t assume those who do have nefarious dark purposes.

Also, not all necromancy involves moving dead things around in Tyria. There’s chilling and life sapping and generally moving life energy around (in ways that can remove it from enemies, true, but a sword does that too and warriors aren’t evil because they carry steel).

But wait. So when a minion is created it uses no life force. But you can reap life force from its death. Where is the necro getting the souls from? And when we gain life force from the ambient death of allies aren’t we rending their souls? And we should lose life force in wvw when enemies resurrect.

In GW 1 Necromancers “‘(exploit)’ the corpse, in essence using it up” in order to make a minion, and they would “exploit” any dead: even dead allies / friends. Minions were only raised from a corpse, and never created from “nothing” with one exception. You could gain a minion without a corpse by using the elite skill “Aura of the Lich.”

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Minion

There was a bit of a story that has been referenced before. Verata was guilty of “unethical practices.” He was not guilty for trying to expand necromancy, but for kidnapping Ascalonian citizens and experimenting on them.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Renegade_Necromancer

Daniel Handler.4816:

But wait. So when a minion is created it uses no life force. But you can reap life force from its death. Where is the necro getting the souls from? And when we gain life force from the ambient death of allies aren’t we rending their souls? And we should lose life force in wvw when enemies resurrect.

We aren’t messing with the souls at all. I see it as more of the flash of energy at the moment of death, and not that we are sucking out souls from the dying. Likewise, in terms of WvW (which is a nebulous area to poke into in the first place with the respawning), if I harvest energy from a golem exploding, and then the golem is rebuilt/reactivated, the original energy isn’t taken back.

HappyDale.5398:

In GW 1 Necromancers “‘(exploit)’ the corpse, in essence using it up” in order to make a minion, and they would “exploit” any dead: even dead allies / friends. Minions were only raised from a corpse, and never created from “nothing” with one exception. You could gain a minion without a corpse by using the elite skill “Aura of the Lich.”

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Minion

There was a bit of a story that has been referenced before. Verata was guilty of “unethical practices.” He was not guilty for trying to expand necromancy, but for kidnapping Ascalonian citizens and experimenting on them.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Renegade_Necromancer

Yep! The order only went after him because he was literally murdering his fellow refugees. The idea of making minions last longer (which was Verata’s research, IIRC), was perfectly fine to them, if not something they’d love. The methods of researching it was what they hated.

As has been mentioned above, some races do have some stigma regarding necromancy. Humans are a bit squeamish regarding necromancy and see it as being disrespectful to the dead (if the dead is one who should be shown respect to) – however, this squeamishness is usually held in check by the understanding that use of necromancy has the blessing of Grenth. Norn appear to have a similar attitude – although both can also see necromancy as honouring the dead, if the minions are used to gain vengeance for the dead.

Sylvari, asura, and charr simply regard it as another branch of magic. Charr might even have less suspicion regarding necromancers than other magic-users: among the charr, there is evidence that necromancy was always more associated with the Ash Legion than the Flame, which may make it less distrusted than other magic types.

Going that next step and creating ‘true’ undead, in which the soul is bound to the undead body, instead of simply creating minions which do not contain a soul, does seem to be regarded as evil. Additionally, killing sapients for no other reason than to create undead of either type is murder and viewed accordingly – acceptable minion sources are nonsapient creatures, things that were dead before you came along, and in combat situations, raising a minion out of someone you needed to kill anyway is just being practical. There is some additional suspicion of necromancers because of the potential they might go on a killing spree for minion-related experiments, much like people would be suspicious of someone hanging around dark alleys with a knife – but necromancy itself is not viewed as good or evil. Morality questions arise out of how it’s used.

Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that it’s in lore that all minions actually do use corpses. However, in Guild Wars 2’s time, necromancers are able to use long-dead corpses that are assumed to be buried just about everywhere rather than needing a fresh corpse. Aura of the Lich probably used the same justification.

Regarding Soul Reaping: Keep in mind that this also triggers on things that were never alive like golems. My take on this is that all animate beings – whether living creatures, undead, or constructs – in Tyria have some magic to them that makes them animate. When the creature, undead, or construct dies (or is destroyed), some of this magic is released, and it is this magic that the necromancer harvests as energy (GW1) or life force (GW2). The soul is not harmed by this process – the energy that is harvested is the energy that was keeping the body alive (or pseudo-alive), not the energy of the soul.

The GW2 lore by which players never actually die but are instead defeated is a little harder to reconcile. My guess would be that the explanation would be that when you’re brought that close to death, some of that energy leaks out at the moment you lapse into unconsciousness, and the necromancer harvests that. Particularly since in GW2 it’s well established that a necromancer doesn’t have to kill to reap life force.

So, to answer some of Daniel’s questions above:

First, raising a minion requires that the necromancer doing the raising put some energy into the minion in the first place (and there may be some still lingering in the corpse to begin with). Getting life force out of it is essentially recycling the power that was used to animate it. The energy has changed form in the process, but the law of conservation of energy allows that. :P

Second, when you get life force from allies dying… you’re just making use of energy that the ally was going to lose whether you took it or not. They’re not in any way harmed by it.

Third, when it comes to “resurrection”: this process likely involves the resurrector doing something that replenishes the animus energy in the target. It’s not any sense of claiming back the energy that was lost (and possibly converted into life force), but replacing the energy with energy from a new source.

After doing a quick look here is what I came up with for resurrection. This is in reference to humans, and you could possibly expand it to include Norns (Spirits) and Sylvari (Pale Tree).

“Grenth allows the existence of resurrection, especially for heroes so they may continue obtaining Favor. However, he has been known to withhold such a blessing (likely those he deems unworthy).”

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Resurrection_Shrine

Resurrection is different, and refers to bringing someone who has died back to true life rather than as undead. This was something that was explicitly part of the lore in GW1, but in GW2 that magic is no longer available (for reasons that have not really been explained from an in-universe perspective – from a design perspective, it’s so they can have character deaths be a dramatic moment without invoking the ‘why don’t they just resurrect them?’ question).

Well depending on how you want to interpret the words of Oola https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Oola, it’s possibly that necromancy does not resurrect the dead, simply animates the dead. It seems golemancy is the attempt to give life to the inherently lifeless.

Someone told me there was a dynamic event during the GW2 bêta involving the repression of a norn performing necromancy… Never found evidence it actualy existed :/

Concerning Humans, I heard NPCs express their dislike of necromancers a few times in DR. You have to spend some time in the Grenth Low Road to hear some of their dialogues.

Bonus:
During a Personal Story mission a lionguard said:

Trahearne, the necromancer? Comes through here every few months on his way to Orr. That guy creeps me out.

Vilenia.3081:

Someone told me there was a dynamic event during the GW2 bêta involving the repression of a norn performing necromancy… Never found evidence it actualy existed :/

Concerning Humans, I heard NPCs express their dislike of necromancers a few times in DR. You have to spend some time in the Grenth Low Road to hear some of their dialogues.

Bonus:
During a Personal Story mission a lionguard said:

Trahearne, the necromancer? Comes through here every few months on his way to Orr. That guy creeps me out.

concerning humans, you also hear a few npcs openly and completely casually talking about necromancy.

Aka, the dad trying to get his son to follow in his footsteps. The Sylvari graveyard worker finds it weird how some humans act around corpses, but that’s a normal “Ew dead person.”

IIRC, there was another case where a civilian woman was complaining about grenth being icky or something, and a guy nearby replies (without any disgust, disapproval, or any real tone to his voice) “Maybe you should rethink your profession.” Said lady was a necromancer (or it’s heavily implied as such). edit: Kinda like somebody complaining about idiots, but being in a help desk/public services job.

In GW1, there was one bounty on a norn necromancer alongside other ‘legendary’ beasts or foes as I recall.

So really, some people are creeped out by it, others simply don’t care. Somebody being creeped out by Trahearne isn’t that odd. He is a firstborn sylvari necromancer..

Kalavier.1097:

In GW1, there was one bounty on a norn necromancer alongside other ‘legendary’ beasts or foes as I recall.

Worth clarifying here that that norn was declared a ‘notorious foe’ (not quite a bounty) because he “fought without honor” and “poisoned, cheated, and murdered” as much or more than because he reanimated his victims.

Is the implication now that necromancers have honed a sixth sense to the presence of life force? Is this some sort of enchantment placed upon themselves?

" If I can just concentrate, I can sense life force. It’s not strong or reliable… "

Like any of the other profession abilities we’ve been arguing about the last couple days, there is no canon statement as to how it works exactly or even what form it takes, but a life force, as you say, ‘sixth sense’ is written into the game.

Really, the only time I recall we heard something against necromancers as a whole was in Factions during the ritualist’s missions.
And even that was quite bland.

People usually have problems with a single necromancer, and that can happen with any other profession.

My question is how do some necrosmancers interact with other classes in lore. For example a Necromancer viewing a Guardian as too zealous or devoted or vise versa Guardian views Necromancer as something vile and must be exterminated. if that is the case where have there been peaceful interactions, like chase of persued goal (outside the destiny edge 1 and 2).

Zakhelm.4618:

My question is how do some necrosmancers interact with other classes in lore. For example a Necromancer viewing a Guardian as too zealous or devoted or vise versa Guardian views Necromancer as something vile and must be exterminated. if that is the case where have there been peaceful interactions, like chase of persued goal (outside the destiny edge 1 and 2).

You should read up.

Necromancy is not vile. It’s a job not the entirety of their being.

Your profession does not influence how people treat you in modern tyrian society. All others are from antiquated individuals.

I have a question regarding shades. Are shades created from corpses or are they summoned from the underworld like there are portals they come out of in queensdale?

As for the idea that binding the souls to the body’s of the dead being taboo, why are ritualists accepted in GW1 if the following is true:

“Ritualists channel other-worldly energies that summon allies from the void and employ mystic binding rituals that bend those allies to the Ritualist’s will.…..Where the Ranger lives as one with the spirit world, the Ritualist can and will be its master.”

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Kalavier.1097:

In GW1, there was one bounty on a norn necromancer alongside other ‘legendary’ beasts or foes as I recall.

Worth clarifying here that that norn was declared a ‘notorious foe’ (not quite a bounty) because he “fought without honor” and “poisoned, cheated, and murdered” as much or more than because he reanimated his victims.

Yeah. Was meaning it more as a “That’s the one case of norn being against necromancers offhand I can think of.”

Zakhelm.4618:

My question is how do some necrosmancers interact with other classes in lore. For example a Necromancer viewing a Guardian as too zealous or devoted or vise versa Guardian views Necromancer as something vile and must be exterminated. if that is the case where have there been peaceful interactions, like chase of pursued goal (outside the destiny edge 1 and 2).

Monks and necromancers were implied to have some tension, but for the most part got along fine if they were on the same team. :P

Guardians, I’ll note are NOT paladin equivalents. Some people think of them as such, but they are not. It’s a mix of paragon, monk, and ritualist as I recall. While they are defensive and protective focused for the most part(hence name lol), it’s not like they have a code of honor. I’ve seen separatist/bandit guardians :P.

Mhenlo and Eve got along fine, and for the most part everybody in that specific group got along fine with Eve (though it probably helped the method by which she joined the party was literally saving their kitten from a brand of charr chasing them). I’ll note that Eve got kicked out of a school for wayward girls which was run by a monk (IIRC) though. That was more of her getting at forbidden books and (IIRC at that point), having a pet skull she talked to. Knowing GW necromancers, I find it completely believable that Adam talked back to Eve.

Hell, in the battle of gandara, when the second sunspear assault point is cleared of the flamethrowers and the reinforcements arrive, Kormir casually orders the necromancer that was in the second squad to “make some reinforcements” out of the fallen Kournans. So I’d say this about necromancer interactions with other professions. It depends on the situation and individuals (duh), but also the nature.

Everybody seems perfectly fine with necromancers as part of a joint military force, see sunspears and the necromancer in the Ebon Falcon squad (or Devona’s team). On a casual basis outside of combat, it varies. I remember reading the pre-searing trainers had a variaty of reactions or interactions, but that was true for all professions. I think the mesmer and monks reacted the worst to necromancers (and same in response other way around), but then again two of the three necromancer trainers in pre-searing went crazy during it and we had to kill them post searing. Not the best example of necromancers :P.

castlemanic.3198:

I have a question regarding shades. Are shades created from corpses or are they summoned from the underworld like there are portals they come out of in queensdale?

As for the idea that binding the souls to the body’s of the dead being taboo, why are ritualists accepted in GW1 if the following is true:

“Ritualists channel other-worldly energies that summon allies from the void and employ mystic binding rituals that bend those allies to the Ritualist’s will.…..Where the Ranger lives as one with the spirit world, the Ritualist can and will be its master.”

For the most part, ritualists used spirits tied to specific emotions. “Spirit of rage.” or “spirit of sorrow” and such. They didn’t explicitly yoink somebodys soul from their body (or from the underworld) and use it. I kinda view it as if it’s like… the demons from dragon age? It’s more of a specific emotion/aspect that is given a form by the mists.

Course, ritualists were from cantha and were a part of it’s culture and lore for a long, long time, so there may have been some general acceptance of that part there.

By the way, on this subject, I swear Liandri the concealing dark is a necromancer/mesmer. :P

castlemanic.3198:

I have a question regarding shades. Are shades created from corpses or are they summoned from the underworld like there are portals they come out of in queensdale?

As for the idea that binding the souls to the body’s of the dead being taboo, why are ritualists accepted in GW1 if the following is true:

“Ritualists channel other-worldly energies that summon allies from the void and employ mystic binding rituals that bend those allies to the Ritualist’s will.…..Where the Ranger lives as one with the spirit world, the Ritualist can and will be its master.”

As Kalavier pointed out Ritualists primarly summoned and bound spirits of various concepts such as pain, rejuvenation, etc, not the actual souls of the dead. However I can think of at least one example of a Ritualist forcibly binding the soul of a person. So it was entirely within their power to do so but they didn’t employ it often.

I think the general concept behind ritualists is that they are (or at least were) summoning spirits of the dead. The emotion-based name is indicating the nature of the spirit.

Or at least, that’s what they believed. It’s possible that they had been summoning mist reflections all along without realising it.

Kalavier.1097:

Mhenlo and Eve got along fine, and for the most part everybody in that specific group got along fine with Eve (though it probably helped the method by which she joined the party was literally saving their kitten from a brand of charr chasing them). I’ll note that Eve got kicked out of a school for wayward girls which was run by a monk (IIRC) though. That was more of her getting at forbidden books and (IIRC at that point), having a pet skull she talked to. Knowing GW necromancers, I find it completely believable that Adam talked back to Eve.

Eve got kicked out of the school after she physically assaulted another girl, bit her ear off and swallowed it whole (Source: Factions manuscripts). I’d say that’s quite enough grounds for the expulsion, even if she hadn’t dabbled in forbidden texts and without any potential bias towards particular schools of magic.

castlemanic.3198:

I have a question regarding shades. Are shades created from corpses or are they summoned from the underworld like there are portals they come out of in queensdale?

It’s safe to say that they are invoked from the Underworld itself.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Zakhelm.4618:

My question is how do some necrosmancers interact with other classes in lore. For example a Necromancer viewing a Guardian as too zealous or devoted or vise versa Guardian views Necromancer as something vile and must be exterminated. if that is the case where have there been peaceful interactions, like chase of persued goal (outside the destiny edge 1 and 2).

You should read up.

Necromancy is not vile. It’s a job not the entirety of their being.

Your profession does not influence how people treat you in modern tyrian society. All others are from antiquated individuals.

As I’ve noted before, GW2 is rather unique in how it treats magic in that magic isn’t treated as being particularly unique at all. There’s no Magical Guilds / Academies / School anywhere, it just seems people figure it out own their own, maybe at best have a mentor to show them a thing or two. The person summoning fire from the heavens doesn’t cause anyone to take note, or particularly care.
Which is odd since in the history of Tyria magic had a significant impact on the Jotun (according to Thruln the Lost) and Humans (as indicated by the story of King Doric) societies.

Kalavier.1097:

Guardians, I’ll note are NOT paladin equivalents. Some people think of them as such, but they are not. It’s a mix of paragon, monk, and ritualist as I recall. While they are defensive and protective focused for the most part(hence name lol), it’s not like they have a code of honor. I’ve seen separatist/bandit guardians :P.

And Charr can also be Guardians and Charr aren’t… well Charr aren’t the ‘moral high-ground’ and ‘for the greater good’ types.

It’s not as in-your-face as it is in GW1 (where the starting quests of each character are essentially finishing off your training at an academy, and others play significant roles in the story, such as Nolani and the academy that the Chosen were supposed to be being taken) but there certainly are teaching institutions in GW2. The asura education system is probably the most detailed, with the three colleges and at least one equivalent of a grade school in Metrica. Charr have the fahrars, while sylvari do their learning in the Dream.

Humans are a little more ambiguous. Richer folk have schools and tutors, while lower classes are probably less likely to have the opportunity to develop magical talents and have more informal means of doing so when they do. Certain organisations, such as the military orders, probably have their own training regime for those with magical potential – I have a suspicion that the ‘Mesmer Collective’ may in fact be a cover for a Shining Blade combined training and screening process for mesmer agents, and while we don’t see Seraph spellcasters in the field, the presence of miniatures for such implies that they exist, it’s just that as usual ArenaNet has been frugal with creating more than the most basic variations for a faction we rarely fight.

Norn probably don’t have any such organised schools, but learn magic entirely through more informal arrangements, such as being taught by a parent or apprenticed to a shaman or other spellcaster.

Certainly, though, we’ve been told that becoming a full spellcaster is akin to getting a PhD in the effort involved – so we’re talking the equivalent of about seven years on top of childhood schooling. Simple magic is easy, at a level where children can do it instinctively, but being an elementalist or mesmer or necromancer requires training at least equivalent to an apprenticeship or university degree. The difference between a full scholar profession and the person who’s just figured out a few things on their own is like the difference between a physics professor and the kid who’s learned to throw a ball accurately and that they can push on a wall or other surface to get a boost in the opposite direction – what the kid is doing is still physics, but the professor has much more capability and understanding. Similarly, the initial steps on the path to magic are fairly simple (as opposed to some settings where you might have to study for years to be able to cast a single cantrip…) but mastering a scholar profession requires a lot more investment.

I came across this story about the origins of Marjory. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Marjory%27s_Story:_The_Last_Straw

It seems to imply a lot of things about necromancers and necromancy and I would love some other opinions. One very interesting piece of lore is

My necromancy surged in me, responding to the presence of the recent dead. I let the power swell and flow through me.

And this seems to imply that becoming a practitioner changes you. That the act of attunement is not limited to elementalists. Or more troubling that magic is sentient.

It has been said that wherever magic is so is the mind, perhaps the training of practitioners results in acquiring unconscious processes to the degree they exist like breathing. A human has to focus to change their rate of breathing and an elementalist has to focus to change attunement, but both will perform them without thinking.

If you look in the orphanage in the human home instance, there is a number of desks and a blackboard with some writing on it (also some silly stuff like a catapult launching somebody :P). I take it as there is probably some schooling for the lower tiers of human culture, but it’s not as advanced or in-depth. Covering the basics they’d need but little else.

For magic, probably a lot of mentoring involved.