Necromancer

Necromancer
Species Information
Status	Active
Notable Traits	Weapon Eyes Supersonic Scream Melting Breath Freezing Breath Shape Shifting Flight Healing Inducing Sleep
Season(s)	1

“	The atheists must have reprogrammed her [the necromancer] to be a caregiver. {...} It wasn't successful. She's reverting. It looks like she murdered all her children bar one.	”
	— Mithraic soldier talking about Mother, a re-programmed necromancer[src]

A Necromancer is a model of military android designed by the Mithraic as a weapon against the atheists, during the Religious War in the 22nd century.

Necromancers are extremely dangerous and are essentially "killing machines," armed with the ability to disintegrate any living thing using powerful soundwaves and to melt or freeze any physical surface with their breath. These dangerous traits are heightened by their being able to fly, shape-shift, and induce sleep, giving them physical and psychological advantages over their targets. However, their more lethal abilities cannot be activated without their eyes, which, upon being removed, render necromancers incapable of transforming to their metallic form.

Though necromancers are typically aligned with the Mithraic and exist to kill on their command, they can be re-programmed to fulfill other purposes. Such is the case with Mother, a Mithraic necromancer that was re-programmed to be a caregiver by Campion Sturges, an Atheist android architect, in order start a peaceful, godless colony of human children on the planet Kepler-22b.

History

According to Carl, a Mithraic medical android, the instructions to build necromancers were allegedly found in ancient Mithraic scripture. They make use of a technology based on "dark photons", which were supposedly discovered as a result of messages encoded in Mithraic scripture.

Overview

Necromancers appear to be ordinary androids when dormant, outwardly indistinguishable from humans. When in metallic form, however, they can employ their various lethal abilities. The ability to transform, however, is dependent on the necromancer's eyes; without them they are rendered powerless and vulnerable to damage as any normal android.

Throughout Raised by Wolves

Mother

Mother discovers her ability to shape-shift after the death of her fifth child, Spiria. Mother physically transforms to Spiria to ease her son's grief. He is amazed, and Mother notes that she didn't know she could do that.

Mother has what she believes is a dream of the Battle of Boston and sees herself flying above the ground in her metallic necromancer form. It is later revealed that this may be a memory of her former use under the Mithraic's control, rather than a dream. Upon detailing her visions to Father, he believes she may be breaking down and advises a systems check. Soon after, Mother becomes overloaded and begins exhibiting erratic behavior.

Mother enters sleep mode for an extended period of time, but wakes up upon the arrival of three Mithraic soldiers from the Heaven's Ark. Perceiving a threat, she keeps on high alert.

As the soldiers make a ploy to take Campion with them and deactivate her, she becomes enraged and attacks them, causing her to fully realize her necromancer capabilities. She flies above the ground and employs her supersonic scream to kill two of the soldiers. She then shape shifts to mimic Marcus and boards the Ark, only to kill nearly all of the adults aboard and kidnap the children to raise on her planet.

Now aware of her true nature, she reactivates Father and informs him of their new objective in raising the kidnapped children. She removes her necromancer eyes and keeps them in a pouch, only to be used when absolutely necessary to protect her family.

Original Mithraic necromancers

In the year 2120, the Mithraic leadership announced their intentions to purify the Earth to prepare for the coming of Sol. During this announcement, they unveiled the Necromancer model, showing off at least nine flying Necromancer units that would carry out this purification.

In a flashback to the Battle of Boston in 2145, necromancers can be seen attacking the atheists from above, supposedly on the orders of the Mithraic.

After Mother crashes the Ark, in the present-day, the surviving soldiers mention that no necromancer of theirs has ever been successfully reprogrammed until her.

Powers and Abilities

Necromancers have a wide array of advanced offensive and defensive abilities. They can shift into a form that resembles sculpted metal, in which they are impervious to bullets. In this state, they can also levitate, giving them a tremendous combat advantage.

The eyes of a necromancer appear to project a form of radiation that causes gruesome burns and swelling on exposed skin within the necromancer's visual field. A necromancer can also completely disintegrate a victim from a distance using a focused blast of sound, audible as a deafening shriek. At close range, necromancers can dissolve or freeze objects by breathing on them, presumably by using their ability to access the fifth fundamental force of nature previously discussed; that is, dark photon energy. They can also exhale superheated breath hot enough to melt metal.

They are also capable of interacting with the planet's electromagnetic field allowing them to move the planet's crust through magnetic levitation. Using this allows them to interfere with technology and also manipulate the earth, dirt, and rocks around them. This may also be the basis for their ability of flight.

Known Necromancers

• Mother

Production

Development

In an interview with showrunner Aaron Guzikowski, he explains,

The original conception of it [the necromancer] didn’t really change much, in the sense that it’s a superweapon, the modes of weaponry that she uses. Ridley definitely came up with the blonde’s appearance. The way she does her curve, that kind of Christ pose flying, that’s [what] Amanda actually naturally did when we had her up on the center of the cable, instead of what she ended up doing when she was really flying around. Some of it came through that process, from the very beginning in the script we had the supersonic sound that blows people up. I always was terrified as a kid just by nature, looking into the eye of something, you could be hurt. I loved that idea and wanted to manifest that in mother a little bit. But anyway, she’s more akin to a nuclear bomb than she is to the kinds of Androids we’ve seen in other kinds of films and TV. She represents something larger, both God and the devil, the beginning and the end. A little bit more of that.

Trivia

• Necromancers cannot activate to their metallic mode without their eyes.
• Mother tells Mithraic soldiers that her name is Lamia. In Greek mythology, Lamia was once a queen of Libya that was loved by Zeus. When jealous Hera discovered Lamia was pregnant with Zeus’ child, she caused Lamia to miscarriage and cursed Lamia with the appearance of a monstrous half serpent. This caused the monster Lamia to murder all the children she could find. Out of pity, Zeus took Lamia’s eyes which caused her to slumber.

Multimedia

Images

Videos

Raised by Wolves Pilot Scene

Raised by Wolves Necromancer's Siren Scene