Could be a spiritual thing. Perhaps the physical body needs a proper burial in order for the spirit to move on. But, then, they might as well exhume the bodies to cremate after. You can honestly justify it, but most people just don't care enough to do so.So there's this thing writers do in fantasy i never understood, if necromancy exist why the heck do they bury dead people ? i mean you'd think something like cremation would be the go to no ?
And I don't think people would have time to cremate the corpses in a war where the undead are the winners and jumping at the corpses? Yeah let's run back to the city or town conquered by the undead so we can torch the corpses, just in case.So there's this thing writers do in fantasy i never understood, if necromancy exist why the heck do they bury dead people ? i mean you'd think something like cremation would be the go to no ?
I'm not talking in a war but as a general practice, i mean for a necromancer a cemetery is more or less a warehouse, i just commented it here because it came to me while reading this chapter.And I don't think people would have time to cremate the corpses in a war where the undead are the winners and jumping at the corpses? Yeah let's run back to the city or town conquered by the undead so we can torch the corpses, just in case.
It's a good question. For starters one would consider what are the burial traditions in any fantasy settings and why they exist. As a real life example, let's take Christian burials. We bury the bodies, because our belief at the time and for a very long time was that we would be resurrected for the final judgement bodily. Ie. you would need your body to be at least somewhat intact, in order for Christ raise you back from the dead. This is why burning of bodies was banned for a long time and still is in some branches of Christianity. You can even see this influence in most European languages, the very word for "funeral" is commonly related to burying or being buried. Though burials aren't unique to Christianity in anyway.So there's this thing writers do in fantasy i never understood, if necromancy exist why the heck do they bury dead people ? i mean you'd think something like cremation would be the go to no ?