Undead servants · Earth magic

Priests of Earth

The soil remembers the dead

What this guild is about

Life and death share the earth.

Dhubr gives life through the earth and rules the dead. His priests learn both: they shape the land, raise undead servants and repair those servants with energy from the nether plane. You fight alongside a dangerous companion that you have to prepare and keep alive.

Dhubr sustains nature and commands the dead, and the order holds that a full Earthpriest masters both paths. In play that means a partnership between caster and minion: you choose what to raise, learn how to keep it going and add your own spells to the fight. The guild suits players who like preparing and building up a fighting pair over time, and who don’t mind that most people are afraid of their servants.

You might feel at home here if…

You like preparing a servant and learning how to keep it going.
You don’t mind watching two lives in every serious fight.
You want to learn both Dhubr’s earth magic and his necromancy.

A dark-elf Earthpriest in brown robes directs a small skeletal servant.

Lore & origins

One god, two paths

Beneath the Temple of Earth in Graemor lies a cavernous hall decorated with the raw power of Dhubr’s element, and undead servants follow their masters through it. The priesthood reaches down into the living earth, and death is part of its daily company. Its teachings describe Dhubr as a god who upholds nature and gives life, and who also rules dead beings and their souls.

Many believers find the two sides hard to hold together and choose one path. Dhubr accepts their devotion, but the priesthood holds that a fully accomplished Earthpriest should understand both. The Path of Earth studies the lore and rituals of everyday priestly work, including shaping land and nature for peaceful or offensive ends, in a classroom of bookcases and religious objects. Across the main hall, the Path of Necromancy trains among caskets, anatomical charts and practice skeletons.

The necromantic school teaches raising and commanding undead servants and dealing with death and the nether plane. It separates its religious practice from the independent necromancers whose cruelty gave the art its bad name, but many communities still shun the priests. Their brown robes with black and green trim mark Dhubr’s authority over the mortal and nether realms.

A vast cavern beneath a temple, with stone platforms and a deep cleft.

A place in the world

Beneath the Temple of Earth, Graemor

The main guild hall occupies a great cavern beneath the temple. Religious study and earth lore lie to one side; caskets, skeletal teaching specimens and the Path of Necromancy lie to the other. Undead servants accompany their masters through the shared hall.

Read about the world

Their role in a fight

Keep your servant fighting.

You fight through an undead servant and the spells that keep it going. Raising a minion is only the start; keeping it in working order during a fight is a separate job. Earth magic adds direct damage and disruption. Watch the servant’s condition along with your own, because your plan falls apart if the creature carrying it does.

An Earthpriest strikes the ground with his staff as a tremor unbalances foes in a rocky pass. — Tremor breaks the footing and concentration of grounded foes.

With a party

Your servant is another fighter in the party, and your earth spells can hamper enemies around the group. Make sure everyone knows who looks after the minion: ordinary healing can’t repair undead, so that is your job. Coordinate your attacks and disruption with the others.

On your own

With a minion, fighting alone feels like a small party. Prepare a suitable body, raise a servant you can manage and keep enough power in reserve to repair it. You are still casting throughout, and the Path of Earth’s travel and attack magic gives you more to do between fights as well as during them.

Trade-offs

Necromancy needs preparation and carries risk. Stronger bodies are harder to animate, and too little knowledge can raise an angry spirit or a hostile undead. Your servant needs its own kind of repair magic, so you manage more than one character’s health and attacks.

Abilities

Signature abilities

Conjure Undead
Raise a fighting servant
Turn a fallen body into an undead minion. Most forms need a humanoid corpse, and the stronger the original creature, the harder it is. Your necromantic knowledge affects what you can raise and how good it is. Casting again while you have a minion banishes it and stores much of its experience for a later servant of the same type.
Solidify Skin
Restore undead integrity
Despite the name, this repairs your undead minion. You channel a little nether energy through your own body into the servant and restore part of its integrity, which ordinary healing can’t do. Stronger restoration spells come later.
Tremor
Disrupt grounded enemies
A small earthquake damages creatures standing on the ground and can knock them down, breaking their concentration. Flying creatures are unaffected. It uses up sulphur, so carry some.
Earthbind
Return through the soil
Bind yourself to a place in the wilderness, then use the spell’s gate to sink into the soil and travel back there. You have to set the destination first; it can’t take you just anywhere.

Progression

Learn the two faces of Dhubr.

The priesthood starts with faith in Dhubr, then moves on to the Path of Earth and the Path of Necromancy. As your knowledge grows you can raise and repair stronger servants, and earth lore adds travel, disruption and other practical magic. The priesthood encourages both paths, though individual believers may focus on one. Your robe gives you the Earthpriest guild commands. Learn each new minion type before relying on it, and check the lesson requirements before you spend your advancement: a bigger servant is only useful if the rest of your training can keep it going.

Read the guild reference Plan a reincarnation