Necromancy

Necromancy is a magical craft dealing with death. A practitioner of necromancy is called a necromancer.

Necromancy is forbidden by the White Council's Fifth Law of Magic.

Description
Necromancy is the practice of using magic in dealing with dead things. Necromancers can animate and control corpses, control ghosts, access the knowledge stored in dead brains.

Magic is essentially a force of life and Necromancy makes a mockery of life by twisting it and by destroying it.

Although necromancy is forbidden by the Fifth Law of Magic, the Law only forbids wizards to reanimate people, not necessarily animals. The powers generally fall under a certain control of what could be called the soul.

While necromancers can use their power to animate the dead, there are also a myriad of other uses that fall under the field.

Some necromancers are able to switch bodies. It is unknown if this method could prolong life by invading a younger form. This ability was used by the necromancer Capiorcorpus, aka Corpsetaker.

Another use is the ability to draw information from the minds of corpses.

Necromancy also seems to have some sort of effect against Black Court vampires. This is not a known fact but by a statement that Harry Dresden had made to the Vampire Mavra and what seems to be true undeath in the case of the breed seems to bear it out. "I know how to turn Necromancy against the Black Court."

Dead Beat
In Dead Beat, necromancy features prominently. A group of necromancers, the Heirs of Kemmler, who try to acquire the Word of Kemmler, which contains knowledge of the Darkhallow, as well as how to wield power over the Black Court.

Harry Dresden exploits a loophole in the Laws of Magic. In this, he reanimates the bones of Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, commenting that resurrection of older creatures is not a matter of complexity, but raw power, of which he has plenty.

Known necromancers

 * Cowl
 * Grevane
 * Capiorcorpus
 * Kumori
 * Heinrich Kemmler