A Living Corpse Using Magical Enchantments

The longest a living corpse can remain using Hermetic spells is one year, the maximum duration of Hermetic formulaic spells. This serves for some purposes, but if a magus wants to create a longer-lasting living corpse, he must create enchanted items that can maintain their spell-like effects indefinitely. He still needs to personally cast the spell that summons the ghost, because Incantation of Summoning the Dead is a ritual spell, and ritual spells cannot be instilled into enchanted items.

Just like any enchanted item, the magus must decide the physical shape and material of the enchanted item and the type of enchanted item to construct: invested device, lesser enchantment, charged item, or talisman. Lesser enchantments and charged items work well on others, and are a good choice if the magus wants to create living corpses as henchmen and staff members. A lesser enchantment necessitates high Lab Totals in the required Technique and Form combinations. Charged items don't cost vis and allow for lower Lab Totals, but have a limited number of uses before the magic is exhausted. Lesser enchantments and charged items must be created in a single season, and both types of enchanted items can only have a single power. A Muto Vim spell-like effect can be instilled in an enchanted item, but to be useful, the effect must be instilled in the same enchanted item with the other effect it is intended to affect.

Invested devices can be created over several seasons and can hold multiple enchantments, including linking trigger enchantments that can activate other powers. This combination of linking triggers activating other spell-like powers is especially important if the magus wants to become a living corpse without the aid of an assistant (see Personal Living Corpse, later). While he could rely on someone else to activate the magic, using an assistant or collaborator to activate an enchanted item means trusting that person to complete the task. If the assistant fails, there is little that the magus can do about it, since he will be dead at the crucial time of activation. A talisman is a good choice for the necromancer who is determined to become a living corpse, since it can hold many more powers than an invested device, and its total allotment of powers is not limited by its shape or form.