Undead=Evil

[Blightedmarsh]

Also interesting thought, but perhaps you could make a special form of the phylactery for citizens of this nation to keep there souls bound to there corpse? It would allow there mental stats, memories, etc to stay within a normally mindless undead and there old class levels, etc. So you might find preserved zombie shop keepers who died 50 years ago from drinking to much/etc who act like they never died, still boastful and trying to haggle peoples to the last copper. I believe there was a material from forgotten realms that could be made into a dagger that could store the soul of the last person you killed near it. Something like that could be used, sealed to keep the soul permanently inside (with the owner willing) and put on or in a zombie or skeleton to keep them "alive".

Citizens have at least part of their souls bound to the material culture of the city. For example an journeyman sculptor works on his masterpiece. Upon completion he has a peace of his spirit bound within it when he donates his work to the city in exchange for his official and civic recognition as a master sculptor

They then reincarnate as new people upon death (the messy way, not the magic revive character way). Memories, personality and experiences would be more or less lost ...but it might be possible to get flashes of what you where through dreams or when in contact with an artifact that holds a proportion of your soul.

I like the idea of ideas, memories, skills and experiences being directly recorded and preserved in archives (some of which may be open to the public, others available by special permission and still others sealed as most secret).

If you where willing to under go the ritual, if it where felt that you had earned it, if you had an "elder" willing to sponsor and if you managed to pass an interview and vetting procedure you would be made a into some kind of sentient undead as befits your role and status.

Over-expansion is definitely one of the biggest contributors to the fall of empires. Seems like the particular version you prefer is an empire in decline rather than a standing nation. Extra chaos = extra fun, being the idea?

It helps to explain why people would hate necromancy but also why they are not the absolute terror of the world.

I just realized necromancers are the most optimistic people in the universe.

They would have to be goers to take on the universe.