The living dead are generally seen as a bad sign. It's even worse when the shambling hordes are at the beck and call of an evil wizard bent on world domination. Necromancers make great villains since it's usually pretty easy to know whose side to be on when one party is invoking infernal beings and building an undead army.
Video games feature plenty of this particular brand of the bad guy - after all, not only do they provide the game with an antagonist, but also wave after wave of bony foes for the heroes to smite. Here are some of our favorite necromancers in games.
This article contains spoilers for the games listed within.
6 Sandro (Heroes Of Might And Magic)
In a world packed with powerful spellcasters, the necromancer Sandro is one of the mightiest. A playable hero since the first Heroes Of Might And Magic game, Sandro was a Warlock until the Necromancer class was added in the sequel. He proceeded to appear in every Heroes game set in the world of Enroth until the franchise was acquired by Ubisoft and the setting rebooted. The new setting, Ashan, also has a necromancer named Sandro, but he is a different person than the original.
A skeleton in a cloak wielding evil magic, Sandro is about as iconic as a necromancer can get. The megalomaniacal villain also appears in some Might And Magic RPGs, making him one of the few characters to make the crossover.
5 Lyon (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones)
Don't let Lyon's quiet demeanor and lousy base stats fool you - he's got plenty of dark magic brimming inside him. Of course, that could be on account of him being possessed by the Demon King Fomortiis. As a longtime friend of Ephraim and Eirika, Lyon attempted to avert a disaster he had foreseen via magic. Instead, he awoke Fomortiis and spends the game as a pawn in the demon's scheme to manifest fully in the world.
Lyon's ongoing possession is a major plot point throughout Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, and his friends are forced to kill him before they are able to seal Fomortiis away for good.
4 Lady Comstock (Bioshock Infinite)
Lady Annabelle Comstock - or at least the version of her that Booker encounters in Bioshock Infinite - isn't so much a malevolent entity as she is an anguished force of nature. Murdered by her husband Zachary to make her a martyr for his cultists to rally around, Lady Comstock's eternal rest is interrupted when Zachary uses Elizabeth's power to partially pull her spirit back from an alternate reality. The entity - the Siren - is simultaneously alive and dead, and is unable to bear the pain of her quantum state.
As the Siren, Lady Comstock attacks Booker and Elizabeth several times before being banished. Each time, she animates the corpses of previously-defeated enemies, ensuring a constant struggle for survival until she is finally dispersed.
3 Heinrich Kemmler (Total War: Warhammer)
All magic in the Warhammer world is inherently dangerous, and dabbling in Necromancy is more perilous than most. Only the most monstrous of spellcasters will attempt to animate the dead - even the depraved Dark Elves of Naggaroth would hesitate before turning to the evil art. However, the Lichemaster Heinrich Kemmler, a mortal human, considers power over the dead to be worth the risk.
Kemmler is a playable Legendary Lord in the first Total War: Warhammer game, in the service of the Vampire Counts. His ability to animate fallen soldiers from nearby battlefields is unmatched, especially when supported by other practitioners of his vile form of magic. If the player starts as Kemmler, he expands his vampiric master's influence with the intent of subverting the Von Carsteins and claiming their power for himself.
2 Iratus (Iratus: Lord Of The Dead)
The title character from Iratus: Lord Of The Dead is as dangerous a necromancer as can be. Able to command even the higher orders of undead like mummies and vampires, Iratus will stop at nothing in achieving his goals. Following him on his quest for world domination is like playing Darkest Dungeon in reverse - his minions strike fear and terror into the hearts of mortal heroes, causing them to flee and even die of fright!
Of course, Iratus and the other iconic Necromancers on this list would be nothing without the one fantasy villain to rule them all...
1 Sauron (The Lord Of The Rings)
In The Hobbit, Gandalf leaves Thorin's Company before they enter Mirkwood, citing pressing business in the south. He is going to meet with other Wizards and powerful Elves to push back the forces of the Necromancer, a powerful being that has taken over a region of the forest. Although the battle is never detailed in Tolkien's books, it is revealed in The Lord Of The Rings that the Necromancer is one of the many epithets of Sauron, the Dark Lord himself.
Sauron is an ever-present threat throughout The Lord Of The Rings, whether it's in a book, a movie, a video game, or a TV show. His power over the forces of evil is absolute, and though his use of the undead is limited to the Ring-Wraiths and occasional Barrow-Wights, none can deny his might as a Necromancer or his status as one of fantasy's greatest villains.