Not evil dead

What non-evil causes would cause sapient skeletons to rise from the dead?

White Necromancy.

Dark souls is full of these.

Unpaid debt.
Heroic willpower.
Skeleton war.

Boredom.

revenge
revenants are not always evil
the love of trolling
crypt creeps are neutral and often protect holy sights and treasure

A desire to fuck every woman on the planet left unfulfilled at the time of death.

Guardian ancestors or defenders of some ancient site, knights and Heros who died before their time and continue on to finish their quest.
Generally something motivated; a temporary hold or reprieve on death death in order to solve some mortal affair before returning to their proper place.

Most of the cases that would lead to a immortal friendly undead work better with a ghost/spirit, like scholars that stick around to teach/advise forever.
Depending on cultural background you could do something like that with just a skull.

Unfinished business.

I'm sort of thinking about my players encountering a small town filled with undead, not hostile or anything, but they don't know why they've awoken and may need help. Seems sorta risky tho

A powerful but unfinished geas that chains the soul back to the body until completion.
Retribution for defilement of (non-evil) holy ground.

Once had a Paladin player who was a skeleton.
The story was that when he was killed in battle he burned so hot with a holy fire that his flesh melted with the earth shaking as he screamed "I'm not yet done!"

Cheap labour in a time of need

I had a mass undead conscription once. It was not really a good thing but it did save the kingdom. The monastic order that improvised themselves necromancers in those dark time took it far worse than the dead though. They wrongly thought they had damned themselves doing a terribly evil act, but actually remained good people all along. Now with severe ptsd, but still.
Most the undead weren't sapient though, but some were and literally went "Even in death, I still serve." and were ready to die as many time as necessary to spare the livings the horrors of war.

Could be some ancestor-magicky shit like with the Dunmer in Elder Scrolls?

boredom

depends_on_the_setting.jpg

In D&D, the only answer is "an Animate Objects spell" or "a deathless" (if we're in Eberron. ) The animation of normal undead is itself an evil act in D&D's version of deontological ethics, completely regardless of the intentions behind it or the consequences of it. In other settings, it depends entirely on what undead are and what "evil" is.

Good doujin

Might have a bone to pick with someone

Or he might wanna bone his wife one last time

Too much coffee.

Defending their once homeland.
Ancestors risen to to battle against a foreign invading horde
A counteraction to a supernatural plague that they cannot suffer.

You think that's humerus but it's just makes you look a heel.

Someone farmer lost his ox and his grandfather came to help with plowing.

Substandard trumpeteering.

When the matter haa been recycled too many times and hell is full, along with every other place they can go.

Death is like a ferryman, see.

The Second Coming.

End of the world
A lighting hitting the headstone
Desecration of the graveyard chapel
Escape from the Underworld
Excessively calcium-rich diet

The dead come back once a year to visit relatives.

Phat beats

COMFY
O
M
F
Y

What are you smoking user?

I mean, think about your bad christmases with all those relatives. Your crude uncle, your fucked up cousin, even your pesteing grandma.

Multiply that for 100 or even 1000.

It's downright horrifying.

In my last session I had undead being risen by a man who didn't realise he was a lich. They would just stand around until a cult took control of them.

My uncles are funny.
My cousins are cool (and one of them is eminently fuckable)
My grans are pretty cool and one of them was a damn good cook.
And I'd get to cook with my father

Sheer attachment to outlandish underpants.

Damn user you hit right in the feels, it's my father who taught me how to cook and it's something I'm very grateful for... Shit now I'm sad

Demonic powers begin walking the mortal plain, cant have that, GUESS I BETTER WAKE UP.

Uh, the plot of diablo 3. (Act 1 to be specific.)

Animation spells.
Not technically 'raising' the dead, but it's hardly evil by nature

A good song.

What is evil really?

Party time