Lich King

Ok, I had an idea for a campaign that had an LN necromancer ruling a kingdom.

What are some non-evil things you would do with an army of skeletons?

Public works projects with free skeleton labor

Send them across the country to campaign against anorexia.

Where does he get the skeletons? The biggest hurdle is that messing with dead bodies is a big taboo

Hold festivals of the dead, where the skeletons brandish the names of the people they once were and parade through the streets, greeting and conversing with their descendants, remote family, and those who still remain. Something like Dia De Los Muertos, except with living skeleton family members.

Recycle skeletons with damaged bodies to be talking head companions and advisors for the people and their leaders.

Occupy the dangerous jobs that do not require incredible strength so that more dead are not made.

>Occupy the dangerous jobs that do not require incredible strength so that more dead are not made.
"My father worked the mines... 'til the day it took his life..."

What could go wrong?

Build roads, hospitals. Tend the farms. Fight monsters. 24/7 police force.

Unending physical labor, so lots of big fancy architecture and stuff like that
Turn all work animals into the undying kind
The festival idea here works depending upon if the undead are self-aware or not
Lots of manservants
Probably some weird stuff with skeleton/ghost prostitutes

The possibilities are endless

Imagine the headache of dying only to now be on perpetual jury duty.

Can skeletons have headaches?

Make the kingdom into chinese ancestor worshippers. That are not afraid of skellingtons, of course.

Skeletons would wear ceremonial clothes and worshipped as venerable ancestors. There would be feasts in their honor, and each person would be glad to serve their family, clan, and kingdom after they die.

Well, what if it was a rotating thing?

Living people can volunteer their bodies to be animated for dangerous jobs, like how people donate their bodies to science.

Your body works for x number of years as a deep miner, manual laborer, guard, ect. And after that time, your body is put to rest. You spirit just chills in an afterlife, and you have done some community service after you die.

>chinese
>not afraid of skellingtons
No such thing.

Hey, things in The Protomen didn't go THAT badly.

OK..OK..OK!
There is Potential here
The whole damn place is rationalized through RECYCLING!
Why let the dead just rot?
Every corpse is cleaned of flesh, the flesh is turned into compost for the crops the skeletons are turned into free labor. Whenever you lose a family member you gain a servant!
It isn't messing with dead bodies, it's just efficient. The body was just a vessel for the soul after all. The body returns to nature, the bones are used as labor (better than slavery since the skeletons have no free will of their own) all while the soul has left for the afterlife.

Bring them back for closure of loved ones
Binding the corpses of criminals to run errands without worrying about them breaking the law
Forever pets

I wonder if chinese DMs that use skeletons in their games are hanged as race traitors.

I'm just imaging all the headaches that causes in the afterlife.

People from this kingdom are good, and should go to a good afterlife. But the gods are prejudiced against undead.

"You gave your body over to a necromancer?"
"Yeah, I think it's just building roads or something."
"But...but that's evil!"
"Why?"
"..."

Just make better gods then. Skeleton working the fields to feed the city or defending his family against bandits is not evil. Stupid gods.

A nation that has tireless, free labor for baser jobs can focus more on the fine arts.

Imagine a whole generation that didn't have to worry about food or shelter, and could focus on making new pieces of literature, or studying science and magic, or perfecting cooking.

Skeleton magic could lead to a great utopia.

Ancient Greece had that but because of slaves.

Ancient Greece with skellingtons?

>1&2
Okay, I don't usually mind the good/neutral necromancer thing but raising self-aware undead is slavery and mind-rape neatly rolled into one and is unequivocally capital E Evil. Unless you can somehow obtain their consent beforehand.

nice

Skeletons fulfill the same role as ubiquitous robots in a scifi setting. Municipal janitors, city watch backup (commanded by a sapient skeleton or living officer), sewer workers, groundskeepers for the parks, file clerks. Dress them up nice so they're a bit less spooky and keep them clean with the occasional polishing.

I recommend not having commitment of corpses to public works be mandatory, but instead giving tax breaks for citizens who sign up to donate their bodies to the city.

>"My father worked the mines... 'til the day it took his life..."

Then he got promoted to supervisor.

If it's a cultural thing, that could be easy. Sure, grandpa swears blind that King Arthas is evil, but dad didn't have to work in a mine and now you're a wizard, and you know that when your grandson is a man your corpse will be reinforcing the kingdom's magical defenses. Fair's fair, after all.

All the same boy-lovin flavor with none of the messy warmongering and slavery.

Plus, skeleton work force always replenishes itself.