Movies - The Necromonger Way

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	Movies - The Necromonger Way

The Necromongers are an interstellar nomadic religious extremist society in the fictional universe of the film The Chronicles of Riddick
. The Necromongers are a militaristic theocratic imperialistic dictatorship, led by a supposedly divine military religious ruler known as the Lord Marshal. Their origins are unknown. They are biologically human, but claim to expand their ranks solely by conversion.

The 10th Necromonger Crusade

At the time of The Chronicles of Riddick in the 26th century, the Necromongers are engaged in a bloody crusade, the aims of which are somewhat obscure. In the introductory narration of film it is stated that they are blazing a trail to the Underverse, a constellation of dark, new worlds, the promised afterlife of Necromonger myth. The passage seems to imply a physical journey with an actual destination, which seems odd in light of the nature of the Underverse. The most likely resolution is that the Necromongers think of the Underverse as both the destination of deceased souls and a real planet (or group of planets). Some Medieval Europeans held similar beliefs about Purgatory, which they believed to be an island in the southern hemisphere. Judging by the fact that the Necromongers visit (and destroy) several inhabited planets along the way it may be presumed that the human-inhabited regions of the galaxy lie between the supposed location of the Underverse and the Necromonger planet of origin. The Necromongers travel between planets in large spacecraft which apparently expel huge amounts of (presumably) superheated gas as a consequence of their operation, giving them the appearance of a comet when viewed from a planet unfortunate enough to receive a visit from them. This would be consistent with either a fusion-torch or antimatter-fusion hybrid based drive system, possibly suggesting that they do not possess faster than light travel. After the Necromongers have landed and subdued the local defenses they assimilate (convert) much of the local population. The conversion appears to be accomplished through a ritual where a blade inserted into nerves is said to cancel all the other pain received by the brain (it is called a "mark of the Necromongers"). The process seems to be essentially a form of behavior modification. The Necromongers do not seem to be interested in ruling planets. Once they have converted a certain percentage of the native population they leave. However, they follow a scorched earth policy and destroy all human life before exiting the system.

The Necromonger Way

The Underverse is both the afterlife of the Necromongers and the ultimate destination of their interstellar journey. Entrance to the Underverse is restricted to those who follow the Necromonger religion. There also seems to be a concept of each person having an appointed time of death in their cosmology, and if a person is killed before his time (the criteria for this is never explicitly given) he will not pass on to the Underverse. The Lord Marshal is supposed to have seen the Underverse, and his divine status at least partially derives from this. It is unknown whether he saw the Underverse in a vision or actually traveled there in a ship. It does not seem to be an initial requirement for the office, as at the end of the film they accept Riddick as their Lord Marshal simply because he killed the previous Lord Marshal, as per the Necromonger law that dictates "you keep what you kill". However, information from the DVD extras say that the first act of a Lord Marshal is to make a pilgrimage to the gates of the Underverse.

Necromonger Society

The Necromongers expand their ranks by conversion alone. We know that they have an institution of marriage, but this may be simply a vestigial custom from an earlier stage of their evolution. As mentioned in the DVD extras, the process of conversion renders them incapable of reproducing in the normal manner because the concept of procreation is in direct conflict with their set of beliefs. The Necromonger faith dictates that "life is antagonistic to the natural state" and therefore the creation of Life must be forbidden. One can say that if they truly did not procreate they would probably not be able to sustain large planetary populations, but since we never see their planet of origin and they are completely uninterested in human-inhabited worlds save as sources of converts this is not particularly persuasive either way.

It is fair to say that the Necromonger society is very patriarchal, as we haven't seen any Necromonger females in their military ranks. Then again, most of the Necromongers that we do see are in heavy battle armor that would make sex differentiation difficult. Generally, the Necromonger society appears to be a meritocratic dictatorship.

It is unknown whether the Necromongers are originally of human or alien origin. They are biologically human, but since they do not procreate this may simply be a reflection of their long journey through the human-inhabited portion of the galaxy.

Their armada seems to be a self-contained society, which would be consistent with a lack of faster than light technology (without which a prolonged interstellar voyage would take at least decades). However, the speed with which a Necromonger frigate tracked Riddick to Crematoria (an entirely different star system) suggests that they do in fact possess faster than light travel. Perhaps only their small tender vessels are so equipped, or perhaps the Necromonger planet of origin is so far away that even with faster than light travel it would require centuries to reach.

(Ed: the Riddick universe plainly has FTL travel, as Jack/Kyra referred to Riddick "protecting her from the other side of the galaxy;" even if not taken literally, the implication is strong that Crematoria, Helion Prime, and the ice-world of U.V.6. orbit different stars.). The novelization of Pitch Black

states that Riddick was chased through three galaxies by Jonze and that Riddick used to work on a planet in the Sigma Galaxy but the novelization of The Chronicles of Riddick by Alan Dean Foster gives the impression that humanity inhabits only one galaxy.

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