Even so, some bring the dead back to life. Necromancers rip ghosts back from the veil, and stuff inhuman spirits into dead bodies to control them. This is very difficult, taking many years of study and experimentation, or the patronage of a powerful devil, in exchange for your soul.
But what if it wasn't?
Level One Necromancy
The wizard's apprentice finds a dead dog by the side of the road. Poor thing. Nothing to be done now, just bury it. But the child has heard whispers behind the veil. He knows something can be done. He touches the body, feels magic course through him. And the dog stands up. It licks his face, and bounds happily away in a half-rotted body. Why, think the child, has nobody though of doing this before?
Resurrection is easy. Trivially easy. A 1MD wizard can pull it off. A peasant could do it with a ritual and some incense. It's one of the simplest spells that can be cast.
It's also the stupidest fucking thing you could do.
When a necromancer brings back a ghost, they risk violating the law of Tubul, god of death. Consulting the dead is allowable, so long as they are willing, but binding them or incarnating them in this world is a crime against Tubul. And the only reason they can do it is because he's off-world, distracted by outsider forces.
When they create a zombie or other undead, they're opening the door for a spirit, allowing them into the body and binding them to their will. A wizard's apprentice doesn't know this. A peasant who speaks the words and burns the tallow candles under a new moon doesn't know this. The spell is easy to cast because you're not contacting a soul or binding anything to your will. You just open the door.
Don't call something up that you cannot put down. Don't summon what you cannot banish. Don't invite a guest into your home if you can't get them to leave. Because the entities that take advantage of human idiocy aren't the kind to politely go once they have a hold in this world. They're malignant, inventive and absolutely petty. It's usually several spirits in one body. You brought Grampa back after the heart attack? He's planning on throwing all the children into the river in a sack. That little girl that got run over by a carriage? She's captured the neighbors and forces them to play tea party with live weasels.
That dog? It's now the World's Most Evil Dog.
Because they were brought into the world willingly, they have to be forced out of our world, instead of just snipping the cord that binds them. They are under nobody's control, and will cause damage for no reason other than they can. That is why wizards keep their apprentices on a tight leash, and why any hint of occult activity is likely to cause a panic.
That is why you don't draw weird symbols in the sand. That is why you don't go looking through the wizard's bookshelf. That is why the dead stay dead.
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