Death

Death is a Sorcerous path of Magic. It's considered "dark magic", due to its association with darkness (and other unpalatable things); its reputation is similar to Blood, which was excised in Dominions 6.

Death mirrors Nature, which is associated with life, in many respects. The energies it pulls on often come into conflict with the light magic of Astral. It also pulls upon things from a world derivative of our own, like Glamour, but these things are often more "real".

Considered foul and fearsome, Death takes a while to disseminate through the world of man. Much of the masters of the Early Ages learned their arts directly from the Underworld, where most of the dead congregate, and very few of them are human. The arts transfer poorly between different cultures, resulting in many of the disasters that set up the Middle Ages. Death is always present in one way or another, however; and in almost every faction with a history of loss or decline, there are dabbling Death Mages to call upon the past.

← This is the icon used in Dominions 5, by the way. It sees more use in guides.

Death has a somewhat long list of spells, though many have similar effects. A wide array of summons is available to even average Death Mages, though Death Gem efficiency and Fatigue efficiency come with higher power or research.

Death's damaging spells deal in non-elemental forces, and quite a few have debilitating side effects. While Magic Resistance helps against most of them, a few spells punch through even a successful throw, either halfway or entirely.

Death also has some spells tailored against the Undead. Of course, most Undead are summoned by Death Mages. Astral and Nature offer Undead counters, too, but with not quite as much reach or ease.

Skill Level	Early Research (0 - 3)	Medium Research (4 - 6)	Late Research (7 - 9)
1 (a dabbler)	Lesser Death-Touching Expensive Cursing Personal Pierce Resistance Lesser Dead-Raising Limited Anti-Undeath Decay Fear "Damage" Weakness Lesser Undead Leaders Site-Searching	Spirit-Rallying Fatigue Bombing
2 (average)	Scout-Summoning Greater Death-Touching Stealthy-Shade-Summoning Undead Elite Summoning Undead Leaders Shadow Attacks Dead-Raising (Skellies) Lesser Mage-Summoning	Calling Death Angels Lesser Zombifying Greater Dead-Raising The Extra-Life Ritual Greater Weakness Greater Shadow Attacks Undead Enslavement Ghosts	Finger of Death
3 ("mastery")		Ghost Dogs Remote "Ghouling" Zombie Elephants Greater Fear "Damage" Personal Invulnerability Undead Horsemen Weakening Clouds Mage-Summoning Close-Ranged Soul-Sucking Zombifying Greater Anti-Undeath	Death-Master-Summoning Mass Corpse Mobilization
4 ("god-like")		Greater Undead Leaders Ranged Life Drain Mass Pierce Resistance Darkness Fatigue Carpet-Bombing	Grim Reapers Mummification Ritual Friendly Zombifying Quick-Action Plagues
5		Remote Leprosy Outbreaks	Death Angel Assassinations Immortal-Summoning Greater Zombifying Traveling via the Nether Population Killing Remote Cavalry Raids More Undead Elites Supreme Dead-Raising Self-Immortalizing
6			Stealing Sorrows as Gems
7			Killing Everyone Slowly Mass Bone-Breaking Undead Army Enslavement Dead God Unboxing
8
9			Absolute Darkness

Every school of Magic has something for Death, even later on in the Research.

These will list effects with Death as the primary path.

• Death/Fire: Bane Fire, a foul flame that ignores Fire Resistance and causes Decay.
• Death/Air: Highly lethal winds and clouds, and giant zombie eagles.
• Death/Water: Stygian water that confers Invulnerability, underwater genocide, and giant zombie turtles.
• Death/Earth: Golems that irradiate nearby fellows to death, and rapid dead-raising in battle.
• Death/Astral: Nothing that Astral isn't the primary path in, unfortunately.
• Death/Nature: Nothing that Nature isn't the primary path in, unfortunately.
• Death/Glamour: Nothing that Glamour isn't the primary path in, unfortunately.

A Death Mage with 3 or higher does a better job at holding themselves together while old, resulting in fewer age-related Afflictions. One with 4 or higher no longer fears death, and thus has +10 Morale.

The Undead benefit greatly from knowing Death Magic, at least if they wish to stick around longer than the standard 500 years. Each level of skill lets them extend the spells keeping them together by another 50%, in an additive manner.

Last but not least, each level of skill in Death Magic provides 50 points of Undead Leadership. It does not provide any Magic Leadership; perhaps it's a matter of different energies, or maybe Magic Beings don't have the same souls as most "creatures".

• This sort of Leadership also lets Death Mages command Demons.

There are nine "generic" items that boost Death, four of which are artifacts. Three of the others require paths other than Death to craft, leaving the Skull Staff (with 2 and Construction 5) and the Skullface (with 5 and Construction 7). A 2 mage with the Skull Staff can always summon a 3 mage upon reaching Conjuration 7. This situation leaves Empowerment, rushing for artifacts, or begging as the ways to close the gap and acquire a Skullface.

Unlike every other path (except for technically Holy), Death does not have a spell that can boost itself in battle. Power of the Spheres (an Astral spell) and Hell Power (a Blood spell) can both do it, however.