Mockery of Life

Mockery of Life

Mystic

Basic

400 hours

Requires: either Consecrate Cemetery or Summoning Circle

This vile ritual combines necromancy & nethermancy to summon a spirit to inhabit a recently deceased body. The animating spirit has access to the body's memories & skills—physically stored in the brain—based on time of death. This spell does not actually restore life, nor does it repair any damage. It does, however, prevent further decay or necrosis from the time the ritual is initiated. If the Mockery of Life ritual is begun within 5 minutes of death, there is neither noticeable loss of memory nor of function (other than whatever damage caused death); further delays, up to three weeks under optimal conditions—near frozen, with no organic molestation of the corpse—degrade memory, appearance, and general functioning. A severely rotted, excessively damaged, or partially eaten body cannot effectively be revived. The initial ritual involves three hours of casting & burning incense, followed by burial in ground specially prepared with either the reversed version of Consecrate Cemetery or within a specially prepared summoning circle. It cannot be stressed enough that this spell does not resurrect the body, merely summons something to inhabit it and borrow the memories. One of the main dangers of this ritual is that a quietly malevolent spirit will inhabit the corpse. It is not uncommon for a child "saved" with this spell to later slay "his" entire family while they sleep—or cause them to turn on one another, resulting in the same effect.