Necromancer (job)

Necromancers are a recurring Job class in the Final Fantasy series. While only selectable as a Job in Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade, they appear as part of the story in the world of Final Fantasy XI and as enemies in numerous games. They summon the Undead, or change living creatures into undead, to attack as well as using various other offensive dark magical arts. Often, they don't just create or summon the undead, but are undead themselves as well.

Final Fantasy V
Necromancers can summon a random undead or demon to attack by using their job's Oath command, and also may use various other evil spells by means of their job's command Dark Arts. In addition, they have innate undead status.

Before the player will have unlocked the Necromancer job, they will also have had encounters with necromancer monsters, including Necromancer, Hades, and Enuo.

Final Fantasy VI
Necromancers are an undead enemy who have the power to make the party members undead as well with their Zombie Stick. Besides this, they attack with black magic.

Final Fantasy XI
Necromancer was originally intended to be one of the three jobs introduced by the Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion; however, Necromancer ended up being dropped in favor of Puppetmaster instead. The expansion did introduce a significant faction of enemy necromancers, the lamiae of the Arrapago Islands who slay the people of the Aht Urhgan Empire in order to reanimate them as undead draugr under their control.

Besides the lamiae, the game also includes many other NPC necromancers. The pirates who attack the ferry that runs between Mhaura and Selbina include necromancers among their ranks who summon undead skeletons of those lost at sea to do the dirty work of actually boarding the ship and attacking; these necromancers cannot be targeted or attacked, but may be observed casting their spells on the deck of the pirate ship. An Elvaan necromancer named Fardimant X Boncourge appears in the mannequin quest "Knocking on Forbidden Doors", when an Elvaan mannequin-crafter named Enaremand seeks to call back his deceased fiancee Alsha's soul into a mannequin of his creation. At the very end of the quest, before leaving, Fardimant mentions that he may see the player again, but he is never actually seen or mentioned again; he may have originally been intended to figure in the job quests for the aborted playable Necromancer job.

Final Fantasy Airborne Brigade
Necromancers are a playable job in this game.

Chocobo's Dungeon 2
Necromancers are the second tier of the Marionetter enemy class. Like the other members of their class, they can summon monsters to attack the player; in their case, all of their summoned monsters are undead.

Etymology
A necromancer is one who practices necromancy. Necromancy is a claimed form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge.

The word "necromancy" is itself adapted from Late Latin necromantia, itself borrowed from post-Classical Greek νεκρομαντεία (nekromanteía), a compound of Ancient Greek νεκρός (nekrós), "dead body", and μαντεία (manteía), "prophecy or divination".

As necromancy was long considered to be a heavily forbidden act in Judeochristian belief, the term may sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft--especially that involving bringing death, gaining power from death, or dealing with the undead. Necromancers have long been staple villains in fantasy stories and RPGs, and the process of giving temporary animation to the dead to allow them to speak again was at some point stretched to the point of animating the dead indefinitely.