Book of Bone and Ebony

with his madcap logic. He is flanked by his deacons, those
ghosts who have reached enough enlightenment and
loyalty to Maru that they have taken pilgrimages with him
into the depths of the Labyrinth. These dark priests shroud
themselves in black robes, their faces concealed with
featureless black masks that hide their eyes and their
mouths welded shut with spiked, steel bands. Many attend
Maru’s sermons, for he is among the most popular
nephwracks at the moment, and his pews are almost always
SUMMONING THE PRESTIGIOUS DEAD
Necromancy is an incredibly diverse and powerful discipline. Even at the simplest level, a young Exalt can
call forth the mightiest and most powerful of the dead. While some necromancers content themselves with
simple war ghosts and surly ancestor spirits, the most ambitious seek out the names of the elite of the Underworld.
Rather than allow a common spirit to defend them, these necromancers wish to have the Emissary of Righteous
Victory at their side. Discontent with the simplest of ghostly whores, they seek to enslave the Mistress with the
White Hands herself. With great power comes great pride, and those who tread the fragile paths of ghost
summoning should be wary of the consequences.
The most powerful of the dead have no specific immunities to the bindings of necromancy. They are,
however, more powerful than most dead, and so, a necromancer should carefully consider some factors before
attempting to summon up a Ghost Lord. Of course, summoning requires either the ghost’s name or a piece of his
corpse. Names are especially difficult to gain, for the dead understand the power of them. The Mistress with the
White Hands is not actually named the Mistress with White Hands. Like many ghosts, she carefully hid her true
name away and assumed a sobriquet, allowing her name to grow forgotten. Any scholar seeking it would need
to devote a great deal of his time to research. A piece of the corpse is even harder to acquire, for the tombs of
the powerful dead are carefully sealed away, their bodies often decayed to dust over the long centuries. Should
a necromancer acquire either of these powerful tools, his difficulties are far from over. The Ghost Lords listed
in this chapter are very potent. Most will have an Essence of 5 and a Willpower of 8 or higher, meaning that a
novice necromancer will be forced to spend a great deal of his Essence if he wishes to master the will of the Ghost
Lord. Finally, even if the necromancer is successful in his binding, he may find the consequences of his actions
unpleasant. The Underworld doesn’t stop simply because one of its leaders has vanished, and chaos could ensue
when a councilman or an important courtier simply vanishes. Further, enslavement is enslavement, whether by
chains of soulsteel or chains of Essence. The dead do not enjoy being bound, and the necromancer should be
prepared to deal with the enemy he has made. However, if the necromancer can accommodate all of these factors,
nothing stops him from binding a powerful ghost to his will. The Exalted are mighty, as are their arts, and against
a master necromancer, all ghosts are powerless.
The exception to this rule are the Duel Monarchs. Lacking true names, they cannot be summoned. Upon
the coronation of a ghost as a Monarch, she loses her old name forever, and the new name that replaces it isn’t
truly hers either. This loss of name isn’t the same as an Abyssal or Deathlord casting her name into the Void.
Rather, it comes from an ambiguity of identity. As such, Monarchs cannot be summoned, for they are neither
entirely who they were nor who they currently are.
No statistics have been provided for the prestigious dead within this chapter, and the Storyteller is
encouraged to provide his own. As a guideline, the dead presented here are often the best in the Underworld at
what they do. Most will have powerful artifacts and powerful, unprinted Arcanoi. However, they are only ghosts,
and an experienced Celestial Exalt should have little trouble defeating them. As a general guide, the most
powerful of the dead should be slightly weaker than Second Circle demons.
33
CHAPTER ONE • STYGIA
full. Those who most fervently accept his philosophies sew
their eyes shut, so that they can see nothing but the perfect
darkness of Oblivion, and they sow their mouths shut, so
that they can speak no word Oblivion itself would not
utter. Those who wish to commune with the nephwrack
lord of the district can most often find him here, but
speaking to him before his cult is risky, for like all nephwrack
cults, his followers are fanatical, unafraid of death, bloodthirsty
and insane.