Necromancy is the practice of utilizing energies from the plane of negative energy. Spells such as negative energy burst or fear are all powered by this unique form of powerful energy. This form of magic can be used for good or for ill, just as any evocation or enchantment spell.

Necromancy is closely associated with the animation of the dead. Just like a spell of negative energy, animating the dead can be used for good or for ill. Although a cruel necromancer could animate a dead farmer and terrorize a village, a benign necromancer could animate a goblin to defend this village.

Unfortunately, the practice of animating the dead is a great taboo in most surface cultures and roundly condemned by many otherwise benign deities. The reasons for this are complex and varied, but have nothing to do with the actual consequences of animation but everything to do with a deity controling its followers.

In the Underdark, animating the dead could be an extremely useful practice that would greatly improve Sanctuary's defensive capabilities. Even the animated remains of deep lizards and rothe would be an impressive boon to our town. What moral hazard does an animated animal or goblin represent to Sanctuary's moral character as a place of goodness in the Underdark?

As it stands, necromancy is criminalized and driven into the shadows. The practice of animating unwilling citizens is sadly not unknown. Proper regulation could bring necromancy out of the shadows, and ensure that it is done only by specially licensed, responsible practitioners. Laws could be drawn up that would criminalize animating those unless they have specifically (and charitably) willed their body to such a purpose. I am sure many of Sanctuary's most dutiful and valiant defenders would volunteer their bodies for such a purpose, wisely hoping to defend Sanctuary in death even as they did in living.

There are countless examples of benign undead. Who has not heard the tale of the mother's spirit that returned to save her child, or the stalwart defender whose corpse rose up from the gate-attack to continue his defense? Even the elves are well known to entrust the protection of their most sacred ancestral sites to baelnorns, a form of sentient undead lich.

In Sanctuary, we do not have the luxury to believe the lie that animation is, under all circumstances, a terrible sin. Our town is imperiled by all manner of terrible dangers. Other settlements made up of surfacers survive safely in the Underdark by choosing to wisely live in harmony with peaceful unliving, and we should do the same.