This entry was first posted on my Patreon on July 30, 2024 and has been reproduced here in its original form.
This illustration isn't taken from any particular moment in the Vulturesong plot, but I had been holding onto the initial sketch for several years prior to importing it in to Photoshop and beginning to paint. Kroza's two scythes are the reformed remnants of her wings that she rips out of her back to use as weapons upon entering the mortal realm once again. Her school of necromancy is severely misunderstood.
As Death itself, Kroza gathers the souls that have remained trapped in the fabric of the mortal realm and releases them by stripping away the emotional energy that caused the mortal to suffer. This energy, which was so willing to remain in the mortal realm, is a power that can temporarily bind to bones, which will arrange and move according to the mental power of the necromancers. While these minions can also move on their own, the necromancer must focus on the anatomical structures that allow creatures to move and fight in order to puppeteer them. Necromancy is therefore an incredibly difficult practice, and champions that can control more than a few minions is exceedingly rare. Not all energy needs to be used to create minions: the emotional energy that is released from souls can also be used directly against daemons, or infused with a weapon. This power lasts a very short time, but because Kroza appears in the mortal realm so infrequently, there is usually a massive amount of spiritual energy in all corners of the world that needs to be cleansed by her and her necromancers. Kroza herself can feast upon the energy of souls for short bursts of power, but her time spent in the mortal realm and being around mortals is what regenerates the health of her body.
Kroza's school of necromancy has no effect on non-daemons/hellspawn, and while visually terrifying to unfamiliar onlookers, it is completely harmless to the vast majority of mortals. To those who remember her true teachings, the necromancy taught and practiced by Death herself is considered a holy and purifying art. Daemon necromancers and mortal psychopaths have created a corrupted school of this magic, but instead of the energy of Suffering souls being attached to bones, it attaches to flesh, and creates zombies. These minions will last for as long as the flesh exists intact: afterwards, they will collapse, cursed, and remain immovable and untouchable by mortals. The rituals to release and purify these zombie minions is significantly more complicated and pose a great risk for failure and danger for any mortal who attempts to cleanse them.
More about necromancy will be added to a later post, but I hope you've enjoyed this introduction!
This was the last painting I made in Photoshop before picking up Procreate for iPad. It includes a photo of an ungulate I took while visiting the New York Museum of Natural History (exact species unknown).