Kindly Necromancers

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, why is necromancy a necessary evil though? Death is not necessarily a bad thing, as it brings a release from pain, a rest from labor, and a cessation of suffering.

Necromancy generally isn't about being death priests who sit around and worship A Good Death. It's about digging up Grandmama and putting her to work digging your potatoes (undignified, not a rest from labor, and quite possibly a resumption of pain and suffering), or dragging her back from wherever she went to ask her where the family jewels are hidden, or what kind of dirt she has on Grandpapa.

Obviously it doesn't have to be, but people are highly suspicious that it will be that. Combine it with some religions doctrines that the dead are supposed to be immediately dispatched to their rightful reward after death, and necromancy raises the ugly question of "Are necromancers more powerful than divine will, able to divert the dead from their rightful and restful destinations?"
Some religions (including Christianity at various times and places) believe the entire body is also needed to go on to your just reward, so you can't even argue that you're just re-using it after the inhabitant has "moved out". Even though many of the various Christian religions don't formally teach that you need your body after death these days, it's common for people to have unstated worries that perhaps you do and it's better to be safe than sorry on that part. People are still buried (or cremated!) with their false teeth and prosthetic limbs, even if told that they will be bodily returned intact and youthful.

Humans also have an in-built dislike of rotting meat for health-and-saftey reasons, and the bodies of the dead are heavily associated with rotting meat for obvious reasons. Various preservation or rapid-disposal practices can break that association, but usually cultures that practice either tend to believe that either the body is needed (preservation) or must be disposed of before the dead can move on (rapid-disposal).

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In any society where ancestors are venerated, necromancers could give the living messages from the dead and use their abilities to give physicality to ghosts to allow them to accomplish their final tasks.

Certainly, but the people who do this are generally not called "Necromancers". They're either "regular old priests/shamans", or "regular old people" (if all you have to do is sacrifice at the family shrine or participate in a trance ritual, very common beliefs).

"Necromancer" has a built in values judgement, like the difference between "Archaeologist" and "Grave Robber".