Necromantic Magic is a lot more problematical in the sundry religions that incorporate direct Ancestor Worship or Veneration. That'd include the bulk of Eastern and African religions as well as many Native American religions (Contrary to the image in the minds of most of you White Eyes, there are a LOT of different Native Religions, and most of 'em have as many splinter groups as Eastern and Western religions have developed... so, just 'cause you heard ONE Shaman's Religious Ceremony, don't think you know drek about another one, neh? :-). Due to cross-cultural dispersion and repeated religious suppressions in both the East and North America, a lot of these religions have developed a sort of flavor-of-the-block kind of inconsistency: What a Buddhist Monk in Chiba is telling his "Flock" about the Role of the Revered Ancestors might be TOTALLY different from the skat taught at a temple three blocks away, and might have more in COMMON with the teachings of a Pueblo Shaman or a Hindu Brahmin... the end result is a mix that only has a few consistencies, and a certain range of similarity. I myself have some background in the beliefs of the Algonkian tribes (preachers kid'n all that), but theology was never my strong suit... so I had a heart-to-heart with some monks at a local temple, and together we hashed this jizz out:
There're two key beliefs shared by most religions incorporating Ancestor Veneration. First is that Death is much like Life, being a process, a place where existence continues and involves change, just as Life does. This is in direct contrast to the sundry Judo-Christian (and derivatives like Islam) beliefs in a timeless Heaven and eternal Hell, though the Catholics picked up a bit of it in the concept of Purgatory. The other shared belief is that the Spirits of the Dead come in basically two flavors: those who died "well" and were properly buried and had the right things done for them, and those who died untimely or "unclean", or were buried without the proper rites. The first sort become (either immediately or after some period of time), the sort of spirits who get lumped together as "Ancestral Spirits", while the second class become dangerous or malignant "ghosts". These beliefs tie together with each other and with the normal lives of the Living because when a descendent reveres an ancestor, that ancestor gets a better spot in the afterlife... in return, the benefitted spirit is expected to aid the Living descendent in return, giving HIM a better spot in THIS life. I know that's an oversimplification, but that's the general gist that remains common worldwide. Mind you, WHAT constitutes a "good" death and burial, and what kind of death constitutes grounds for a ghost to become the DANGEROUS sort of spirit, varies by the village or shaman or Houngan or... well, you get the idea.
This makes figuring out the difference between PROPER relations with the Spirits of the Dead and actual NECROMANCY VERY hard to track down -- spirits that would be considered the sort appropriate to pay respects to in one place are classed as malignant hellspawn in another. And the means of properly converting a malignant ghost to a beneficial one vary even more. You might think that this is all drek, and that only Necromancers should really care about it. WRONG. Thing is, most of these traditions are age-old, dating from LONG before the Awakening, so the rituals and signs are things that DON'T require magic. That's right, the normal guy-on-the-street who follows one of these religions halfway EXPECTS to run into the issue... and since the Awakening, a lot of times he HAS had to. This isn't as bad as it looks though... most times, beneficial spirits will ONLY appear to their descendants -- so it's the sort of thing you probably ignored when Granny-whatever told ghost stories... heck, maybe it's Granny who's knocking at the door. In that case, you can probably do a little digging to see what gives yourself. On the other hand, if you're in a place where the locals put a lot of stock in Ghosts, and you run into something that you HAVE to deal with... well, my advice is ask a local Religious type. For one thing, as often as not, it'll give 'em a chance to feel more knowledgeable than you, which tends to make 'em feel good. Also, you're a LOT less likely to honk off the locals by turning a mild-mannered sprit into something that drags people, including you and your team, from their beds. For those of you who prefer number-crunching in your magic like your physics, look at it this way: The Awakening has proved time and again that local BELIEF shapes the expression of what actually Awakens in the vicinity -- so a consultation with locals will give you the inside track on how to deal with it. And VERY few Ancestor-Venerating cultures disapprove of the Ghosts so much that mentioning ones presence will get you labelled as a Necromancer, so it's not like you have anything to LOSE.
However, BECAUSE these cultures believe that the Dead are very much involved with the Living, offenses against the Dead ARE offenses against the Living. That means that ANY Conjury or Sorcery that affects the Spirit World, PARTICULARLY Spirits classed as Ancestral Spirits by the locals, is apt to have MUCH tighter laws about it than the oh-so-tolerant UCAS has if the Ancestor-Veneration-Cults have ANY say in the matter. While practicing Zombification in the UCAS is apt to net you only a fine and a tight rein on your Thaumaturgy License in many jurisdictions, in Haiti or much the Carrib League, it'll net you a stint AS a Zombie, though generally the still-living kind. And how many of you noticed the fact in the Piracy Post a while back that the Voudoun sorts that do long-term spirit-binding DON'T bind Loa? Obeyifa, in fact, can't summon LOA... stock in trade of Vodoun, and revered as Spirits of the Dead, at ALL. Welcome to the Sixth World, Omae -- whether you want to call 'em "Local Superstitions of Backward Cultures" or not, the fact is, those "Local Superstitions" sculpt the Local Astral no matter WHAT side of the chicken-or-egg debate you come down on... take heed, or be taken.
Now, as to how to tell when what you're up against IS necromancy (ie, forbidden contact and control of the Dead)... well, that's trickier. Ancestor Cults DO tend to carefully define acceptable practice, but it varies a LOT by the local customs. That means, if you run into unfamiliar magic, keep a sharp eye out. The traditional creep show that Necromancers run in Primarily Western spots is NOT always the case in non-Westernized areas... or else tends to be buried in the Creep Show that Westerners look at MOST Nonwestern Magic as. Take your time, do your homework, and try to let the locals handle the Magic end. Not that I'm trying to counsel myself out of work, but I'm professional enough to know when home-field advantage outweighs training. And when dealing with Things that even LOOK like Spirits of the Dead, home-field wins 99% of the time, particularly in areas where Banishing a Ghost means 500 bloodthirsty local Believers get the word you just dropped their granddaddy into the Lower Hells (or local equivalent). A morass best avoided altogether, neh?
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