If you are already familiar with Hermetic alchemy and it's interlacing with psychology and philosophy, jump to the conclusion labeled "THE OLD MAN?" I don't really say anything new on that subject.
INTRODUCTION
The Necromancer Guild (Philosophy of the Knife) is fundamentally based upon references to Alchemy. It is called the Alchemy of the Flesh in-game, and referred to also as necro-alchemy in various texts. Mostly OOG commentary, if memory serves, but there are also things like the alchemical symbols drawn by Book. And, of course, we refer to our achievement as the Great Work - the Magnum Opus. These alchemical processes were also used by Jungian psychology and are actually of some import to the 20th century philosophies that the Philosophy of the Knife also references.
In Hermetic Alchemy, the Magnum Opus, the Summum Bonum, the Great Work, is generally held to be the conversion of the base (lead, flesh) into the supernal (gold, spirit). This is held to perfect the character and gain immortality. Various products of this are held out as possible - not only the creation of gold, but the creation of another life, or a rebirth into an immortal or spiritual being of transcendent substance. Quite obviously, rather than the "gold" thing, the nechromists in Dragonrealms are aiming towards more of the latter two. The ability to create Risen suggests the creation of life, and the ascension to immortality . . . well. The ability to make gold, itself, is held out by the mythology often as a "red herring" or other distraction. Possible, but why bother? It is not, itself, fundamentally useful.
There are many, many different steps listed as part of the Magnum Opus. Various tools are listed as part of this, such as the Philosopher's Stone. The Stone is sometimes the Great Work itself, and sometimes is merely a vehicle to its attainment, and sometimes the attainment is referred to as the Holy Grail, or that itself is where the attainment lies. It all depends on what specific version of the mythology you're using at the time. But regardless of what version of the Great Work you're referencing, it has at least three distinct steps. Why always at least three? Because you cannot simply improve to get where you want to go.
It seems contrary to common sense, at first. How is it that simply working at something to improve it will not be enough? Does not a blade sharpen when you apply a honing stone to it? Well, yes, but how did you get to the point where it was a weapon in the first place? You must, in order to get a knife, take iron ore, and destroy what it is (a raw stone) in order to extract the metallic form of the iron. This can then be forged into the blade you want, itself a process that is a bit complex. Many other topics can be used as a metaphor, of course. In order to get a beef sandwich, you don't simply put together a few ingredients, to improve them into being a sandwich - first you must acquire your ingredients in the first place, which will likely require killing a cow. Alchemy does not presume that everyone has these ingredients. Neither do the Philosophers. In order to get usable ingredients, you are probably going to have to kill someone, and that's just to start!
NIGREDO
So, the first step is the most dramatic. Descent. Degradation. Decay. Destruction. It is called "Nigredo" for blackness, and is associated with rot and burning things. For the Necromancer, we can trace this as starting the moment that they hit JOIN, and continuing until they are Forsaken, both in the eyes of the Gods, and in the eyes of society. It is only once one's body is "purified" of Divinity's hand that the true Work can begin, and it is only once one has lost one's ties with society that they can claim to be an autonomous "self-made man" of any kind. This also is important, because Jung identifies this step as the confrontation with the self and one's desires. The "dark night of the soul" is not merely a challenge, it is a challenge issued by the self. It is being faced with how awful one really is. A Necromancer can be considered to also introduce this phase into subjects with a quick slash of the throat.
ALBEDO
With the culmination of Nigredo being hitting rock-bottom, the ascent is marked by a "whitening." Now things are looking up, because you couldn't really get any lower than that. This stage is designed to refine the subject - to reveal the "good" parts. People don't like talking about this as much as the previous stage, because it's less dramatic. There's also some disagreement on where it ends, in part because from the easily recognized tenor of "things get destroyed" of Nigredo, the latter stages tend to be more of the characters of "things get improved or created." However, when we look at the Necromancer, we can say that albedo starts when the Necromancer is forsaken and starts actually working on the hard part - achieving the Great Work of the Alchemy of the Flesh, and bringing forth life. To return to the knife-forging metaphor briefly, this is somewhere between the reduction phase of smelting and the actual forging of the knife. A Necromancer creates this phase at the point when they start hewing in to the cooling corpse to get it ready for their dread magic.
CITRINITAS
The third phase is referred to as Citrinitas, for a yellowing or golden colour. It is the achievement, the goal, the conquest. It is the final step. It is the completion of the knife on the forge. Here would be Transcendence, if the Necromancer could ever attain it. The Necromancer, as they complete their exercise of the Art to raise the zombie - or even to heal themselves - moves through this phase in doing so, albeit in a lesser rehearsal than the true Great Work. Here lies the living immortality, the necromancer who "made it." Conflict is resolved, the hilt is incorporated, the blade is balanced, opposites are unified, and the impossible is achieved. It is the advent of wisdom, and strongly associated with the tutelary "Merlin" figure in stories.
There is also a fourth step known as rubedo. There are also seven, ten, fourteen-step systems . . . the tendency to use the basic structure of this three-part "destruction, purification, completion" process* remains true, even if one adds several dozen steps within it. If one is referring to four steps, the one after this is "rubedo," and in our knife-making metaphor would be grinding the knife's blade to sharpen its edge so you actually have something that can cut decently. But technically, at that point, you have a knife still. The importance of this denouement varies. In psychology, it is critical as it represents the incorporation of all the disparate elements of the personality into a whole Self, between id, ego, and superego.
THE OLD MAN?
The interesting part about this, and why I bring it up, is that the phase of Citrinitas is often represented or embodied as a sagacious old man, itself variously representing God, Hermes Trismegistus, Christian Rosenkreutz, and other figures, themselves not entirely meant to be taken as the-thing-as-it-is, but a symbol. This tiresome layering of symbolism until original meaning is utterly obscured and Postmodernism cackles with glee brings us to the figure of the Old Man in Dragonrealms. He is a man, he is "divine" in some abstract sense, and he appears to Necromancers. He exists seemingly as an opposition figure to Necromancy, yet it is not entirely clear what his personal stance, and he certainly does not take hardball tactics that would illuminate this. He doesn't ally himself with the Gods outright, and while he (jokingly?) inquires if Xerasyth will repent, he doesn't seem that bothered with stopping anyone outright. Instead, he serves a role as a "guardian of the gate," questioning those who strive to seek ever further. In this conflict, their resolve is tested, and some fail and turn from the Philosophy. Others may not "succeed" against the Old Man, but gain enlightenment of some kind.
So, here's where I bust out my crazy theory.
The Old Man is Transcendence itself, or a Transcendent necromancer bodhisattva of some kind. He offers the choice of Redemption not out of some ideological commitment to the Immortals, but because it is his role to offer choice, and to test the resolve of those involved. It is the ultimate representation of attainment, the opportunity to remake yourself into what you want to be - even if it means turning your back on what you've become. Of course, in representing that, he is not very helpful in a strict sense - you are, after all, supposed to be remaking yourself, and not him doing it for you.
That, or he's Urrem'tier, and the reason he's an indifferent jerk when the fire-being (Immortal?) talks to him is because . . . Urrem'tier is kind of a jerk.
Seriously.
Jerk.
* The process can also be even more simplified into "break down and then join together," or "solve et coagula." Perhaps "nemmiro ia usho?"
---
"Tapeabarala asu chakapar oseane Gerenshuge sinuar sedea."
