Hello all,

I am new to the world of Shadowrun-4.0. I have not played since SR-2.0. I obtained the main rulebook and I was reading the magic section. I originally played a Wolf-Totem Physical Adept who became a Wolf Shaman. He then went on to become the leader of a new "pack" of adventurers. Our gaming group broke up andI did not play again. I am now getting back into a group and we are going to start playing SR-4.0.

While reading the main book I saw an entry that caught my attention. That entry being for the Dark King. It appears, from what I can see, that the Dark King is the mentor spirit for "necromancers". Is this something new that you can now summon the spirits of dead people? I don't remember this in 2.0.


Any help here???

i wouldn't say he's the mentor spirit for necromancers per se. certainly, if you envision your magician being a necromancer type, then dark king goes well with the theme, but he also fits other themes at the same time.

in any event, the most common way (using the BBB only) to make someone who summons the spirits of dead people is to use spirits of man extensively. remember that there's no such thing as a fire elemental or a sky spirit anymore, instead we have fire spirits and air spirits... which can be made to fit almost any role imaginable between the many types of spirits available (10 if you add in street magic).

so for example, it's not that shamans no longer summon city spirits and hearth spirits... rather, they summon spirits of man (mechanically) and flavourwise summon city spirits and hearth spirits.

magicians conjure fire, water, earth, air, and man spirits mechanically, but flavourwise is conjuring elementals (don't ask what a man elemental is though... i don't think anyone is quite 100% sure on that).

so yeah, anyways, for summoning ancestor spirits, the spirits of the dead, etc, you should use spirits of man generally.

I would have to say that is the best explaination on these forums!

If you have access to street magic three of the new spirtits also fit very well for the spirits of the dead, guardian for dead warriors, guidance for the dead wiseman and task for deceased craftsmen.

another option is to view Odin as the Dark King. he's a perfect fit, way better than the sky king that most people assign him to: he's got dominion over the spirits of the dead (like, say, all those dead warriors in Valhalla). he suffered great trials, plucking out his own eye and hanging himself for nine days to learn the secrets of magic--i tend to allow Dark King shamans to take a physical flaw in place of the -1 starting attribute (at least, that's what it was in SR3).

that said, my only Dark King shaman is definitely a necromancer. all of his abilities are couched in terms of speaking or commanding the dead. heck, when he does astral projection, i describe it as his physical body dying so that his spirit can escape and roam around.

funny, because I've seen Odin referred to as a necromancer a few times.

I have a follower of Dark King, who doesn't really steep himself so much in spirits of the dead, but a more hermetic style. His version is more hidden darkness. Pleasant and charismatic on the outside, but more scheming on the inside. In his background, he betrayed ateam he was on for some foci they were after, and toko them for his own. He sustained serious wounds in the fight though, and was near death. That was when Dark King appraoched him. It's more of a dark side for him.