Everything

Africa is perhaps the most culturally diverse continent on Earth. Naturally, each culture has its own portrayal of death. The result of this diversification, and the resulting collision of philosophies, is that the very composition of wraiths is fundamentally different in Africa. This leads to obstacles other Necromancers find difficult, but not impossible, to overcome.

The wraiths that haunt the African continent are comprised not of two but four distinct aspects. First, there are light and dark aspects that correspond roughly

with those of Western wraiths. Then, there exists the Dreamself (the emotional presence of the soul upon the world) and the Heartlife (the soul’s connection to our world via their Fetters).

For example, in the beliefs of the Yoruba people (which form a noteworthy part of the population of West Africa), death is seen as a transition from one state to another and not necessarily the end of life. Life continues in the next world, which is separate from this one. As with other necromantic traditions, ancestors play a large part in the relationship between the living and the dead in Yoruba beliefs. Ghosts are treated with reverence and respect when encountered by the living, rather than with fear.

The Ghiberti family, with their roots in western Africa, has long had the opportunity to examine this belief structure and adapt their style of Necromancy to accommodate it. As such, they do not suffer the same mechanical penalties to their practices that others do (as outlined in “Incompatible Beliefs?” pp. 85-86) but it is a teaching that they have extended to few outside of their ranks, so they have been able to maintain their monopoly on Giovanni affairs in the Dark Continent.

In terms of its practice, the core of Necromancy shares many hallmarks with classical theurgy. A Necromancer summons a being (in this case, a wraith) to control, just as a theurgist would summon a spirit and attempt to bind it to her will. By extension, it could be argued that Necromancy is not far from the more spiritual Paths of Thaumaturgy.

The Warlocks may have demonstrated that their Hermetic practices cover a much wider spectrum, but the Giovanni have found that Necromancy can approach death from multiple angles, each with its own powerful effect. Thaumaturgy has leapt forward over the centuries with the generation of new Paths covering a myriad of differing themes, whereas the Giovanni have demonstrated that anything within the purview of death is within their grasp. Ghosts, the underworld itself, corpses… it’s a far longer list than just the word “death” might first imply.

Necromancers historically have not generated new Paths and rituals as easily as the Warlocks (as painfully evidenced by the length of time it took the Pisanob and the Ghiberti to develop the Ritual of Pochtli), but they do create them. Their formulaic approach has allowed them to construct their own way of creating the effects of other death-related powers, and it has served them since the nights the Giovanni family were first brought under the wing of the Cappadocians.

Based upon accounts of the Telyavelic Tremere’s ability to summon temporary hordes of ghostly combatants, the Giovanni have been able to partially replicate the power previously known as the “Army of Souls.” The Necromancer chants a prayer to the dead while standing in the center of a circle made from the ground-up remains of a cremated corpse, the coffin in which it was buried, and the headstone of the deceased’s grave.

System

At the end of the chant, if the ritual is successful, the number of successes rolled determines how many drones (mindless ghosts, rather than full-blown wraiths) the Necromancer can summon. These ghosts appear as ethereal images of warriors long dead. Although they can not materialize fully in the physical world, they can use their own powers to hurl objects or frighten away attackers, in defense of the Necromancer. The ghosts return to their rest at the next sunrise.