Alchemical Necromancy

Alchemical necromancy is the application of the techniques and theories of alchemy to necromancy (i.e. manipulation of bodies and the physical undead in particular), which results in greater abilities to manipulate both living and dead bodies. This is an arcane art that seems to be exclusive to the Storyverse, and there are various universities throughout the Stories that are dedicated to learning it.

Overview
Before explaining alchemical necromancy further, first consider a brief summary of alchemy in most fictional settings: it is essentially chemistry combined with magic, specifically using four traditional elements (air, water, fire, earth), and sometimes a fifth element (aether or pure energy) to transform objects and create new ones.

In comparison, alchemical necromancy involves the use of bodily elements that are analogous to the traditional alchemical elements in order to manipulate bodies. They can modify (for better or worse) both living bodies and dead ones, but they can only create undead/living dead, or in some cases "empty" bodies that can be possessed by a spirit. They cannot create brand new living bodies.

As a contrast, necromancy is usually simply raising various forms of the dead with little to no modifications, other that perhaps improved magical ability by the undead itself, or other manipulations and magic related to the undead. Necromancy in some settings can also cover séances, channeling, exorcisms, and other ways of communicating with or manipulating the dead. In other settings, necromancy is specifically the control and manipulation of dead bodies, and is grouped with things like channeling and exorcism under the topic of spirit work.

Elements Used in Alchemical Necromancy
Alchemical necromancy involves the following elements. The parentheses shows their equivalent traditional element in regular alchemy:

Other non-traditional ‘elements’ that play a role in alchemical necromancy include the following: Note that urine, feces, bile and vomit are not elements that can be used in this art. The first two are byproducts that living bodies actively have to get rid of in order to stay alive and healthy, and the latter is a bodily reaction use most often to eject harmful things in the stomach. In comparison, tears and mucus are helpful bodily functions and not necessarily always a negative reaction. Another comparison is bile, which is simply a substance used to help digestion.
 * Bone (Earth)
 * Flesh (Fire)
 * Blood (Water)
 * Breath (Air)
 * Soul (Aether)
 * Nerves
 * Skin
 * Organs
 * Nails
 * Hair
 * Saliva
 * Mucus
 * Tears
 * Bile

Titles
Some experts in this field will have a title specific to what element they excel in and what they do with it. For example, a Seamstress of Bodily Flesh is an expert of Flesh and creating "empty" bodies in particular. In this particular case, an empty body is formed from dead flesh and can be possessed by a spirit. The following is a list of other example titles, though they can be very varied.

As is probably obvious from the titles, alchemical necromancy has been traditionally a woman-dominated field. In ancient times, it was also only taken on by women, as far as we know from the histories of various Stories.
 * Seamstress of Bad Blood (expert in Blood, especially extracting or causing blood-born diseases)
 * Seamstress of Sleepful Breath (expert in Breath, especially to improve or otherwise manipulate sleeping habits via breathing)
 * Seamstress of Baleful Flesh (expert in Flesh, especially to morph existing bodies into new forms)
 * Seamstress of Reinforced Bone (expert in Bone, especially to strengthen weak bones)
 * Seamstress of Corrupted Soul (expert in Soul, especially to removed corrupted Soul from a body, or otherwise cause it)
 * Seamstress of Animalistic Flesh (expert in Flesh, especially creating undead animals and possibly chimeras of different animals)
 * Seamstress of Monstrous Flesh (expert in Flesh, especially to create dangerous monsters)

There are other titles that can be taken on besides Seamstress. For example, the title Seamster is the traditionally masculine title for alchemical necromancy. There are also plenty of more gender-neutral titles in modern times. The following list shows examples of such titles:


 * Tailor
 * Clothier
 * Needleworker
 * Costumier
 * Couturier
 * Sartor
 * Outfitter

Also from the titles, while this skill deals with bodies and the undead, it is likened to making and repairing clothes, where the clothes in this case are bodies.