Necrolysis

Necrolysis, also referred to as The Trial, is a series of tests or events under which a newly deceased soul must pass, in order to strip itself of the physical life it is leaving behind. Upon passing the Trial, a soul chooses its final resting place. How the trial is performed, what resting places aer available, and many other mysteries persist, as those who undergo Necrolysis lose more and more of themselves to it, until they are nothing but an essence.

As may be implied by the concept of passing, there is an ability to fail Necrolysis. Those souls which do so, for whatever reason, become trapped in the Necrolossus, the place of the dead. There, they wait in eternal emptiness, always half aware, to be harvested for use by Necromancers of various factions. Each soul, upon death, fashions its own addition to Necrolossus, and it is in this addition that they will undergo their Necrolysis.

Those who pass Necrolysis cannot be summoned by Necromancers, though the pieces of themselves that were shed during the Trial can be harvested. These pieces are unlike the souls trapped, and have the tendency to rot away after very brief periods of time. Necromancers have been known to liken this to fabric unravelling when the binding strings, eg a soul, are pulled.

Famously, the Unselei Necromancer Lismore harvested the fragments of his entire family, and forced then to bind with his own soul, to fashion his artificial wings.

Necrolossus, as may be recognized by its name, shares much with Necrolosus, the planetoid. In fact, this planet is the physical projection of one particular person's addition to the Necrolossus, former Necromancer and Healing Mage Amoritia Tasartir.