Lives of the Necromancers; or, An Account of the Most Eminent Persons in Successive Ages, who have Claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the Exercise of Magical Power was the final book written by English author William Godwin. The book concerns paranormal legends from western and middle-eastern history.

Lives of the Necromancers; or, An Account of the Most Eminent Persons in Successive Ages, who have Claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the Exercise of Magical Power was the final book written by English author William Godwin. The book concerns paranormal legends from western and middle-eastern history.

Witchcraft in Europe in Middle Ages and Early Modern Period was believed to be a combination of sorcery and heresy. While sorcery attempts to produce negative supernatural effects through formulas and rituals, heresy is the Christian contribution to witchcraft in which an individual makes a pact with the Devil. In addition, heresy denies witches the recognition of important Christian values such as baptism, salvation, Christ and sacraments. In Early Modern European tradition, witches were stereotypically, though not exclusively, women. European pagan belief in witchcraft was associated with the goddess Diana and dismissed as "diabolical fantasies" by medieval Christian authors. Witch-hunts first appeared in large numbers during the 14th and 15th centuries. It was commonly believed that individuals with power and prestige were involved in acts of witchcraft and even cannibalism. Table of Contents: The Superstitions of Witchcraft by Howard Williams The Devil in Britain and America by John Ashton Lives of the Necromancers by William Godwin Witch, Warlock, and Magician by W. H. Davenport Adams The Witch Mania by Charles Mackay Magic and Witchcraft by George Moir Witchcraft & Second Sight in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland by John G. Campbell Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the South-Western District of Scotland by John Maxwell Wood Practitioners of Magic & Witchcraft and Clairvoyance by Bram Stoker Witch Stories by E. Lynn Linton Mary Schweidler, the Amber Witch by Wilhelm Meinhold Sidonia, the Sorceress by Wilhelm Meinhold Glimpses of the Supernatural – Witchcraft and Necromancy by Frederick George Lee Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft by Sir Walter Scott La Sorcière: The Witch of the Middle Ages by Jules Michelet Modern Magic by M. Schele de Vere

"The reader should bear in mind, that what is put down in this book is but a small part and scantling of the acts of sorcery and witchcraft which have existed in human society. They have been found in all ages and countries. The torrid zone and the frozen north have neither of them escaped from a fruitful harvest of this sort of offspring. In ages of ignorance they have been especially at home ; and the races of men that have left no records behind them to tell almost that they existed, have been most of all rife in deeds of darkness, and those marvelous incidents which especially astonish the spectator, and throw back the infant reason of man into those shades and that obscurity from which it had so recently endeavored to escape. I wind up for the present my literary labors with the production of this book. Nor let any reader imagine that I here put into his hands a mere work of idle recreation. It will be found pregnant with deeper uses. The wildest extravagances of human fancy, the most deplorable perversion of human faculties, and the most horrible distortions of jurisprudence, may occasionally afford us a salutary lesson. I love in the foremost place to contemplate man in all his honors and in all the exaltation of wisdom and virtue ; but it will also be occasionally of service to us to look into his obliquities, and distinctly to remark how great and portentous have been his absurdities and his follies." (William Godwin) The book has been originally published in 1834. This is a professional reproduction

In classical antiquity, there was much interest in necromancy--the consultation of the dead for divination. People could seek knowledge from the dead by sleeping on tombs, visiting oracles, and attempting to reanimate corpses and skulls. Ranging over many of the lands in which Greek and Roman civilizations flourished, including Egypt, from the Greek archaic period through the late Roman empire, this book is the first comprehensive survey of the subject ever published in any language. Daniel Ogden surveys the places, performers, and techniques of necromancy as well as the reasons for turning to it. He investigates the cave-based sites of oracles of the dead at Heracleia Pontica and Tainaron, as well as the oracles at the Acheron and Avernus, which probably consisted of lakeside precincts. He argues that the Acheron oracle has been long misidentified, and considers in detail the traditions attached to each site. Readers meet the personnel--real or imagined--of ancient necromancy: ghosts, zombies, the earliest vampires, evocators, sorcerers, shamans, Persian magi, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, Roman emperors, and witches from Circe to Medea. Ogden explains the technologies used to evocate or reanimate the dead and to compel them to disgorge their secrets. He concludes by examining ancient beliefs about ghosts and their wisdom--beliefs that underpinned and justified the practice of necromancy. The first of its kind and filled with information, this volume will be of central importance to those interested in the rapidly expanding, inherently fascinating, and intellectually exciting subjects of ghosts and magic in antiquity.

For he was perfectly aware that fear, and a sickening kind of repulsion, formed a very large element in his emotions. For nearly two hours, unless three persons had lied consummately, he--his essential being, that sleepless self that underlies all--had been in strange company, had become identified in some horrible manner with the soul of a dead person.

After being betrayed and cursed by an extremely rare spell, Oren, a powerful and influential player, finds himself as a 1st level Goblin!Without even a fraction of his previous power, he vows to pull through and have revenge on those who betrayed him.His thorough knowledge of the game's world and his unique ability to immerse himself entirely are his only advantages. But first, he must figure out how to survive long enough playing what is basically a low-level fodder monster!