Kindly Necromancers

[AlexanderHowl]

While the fantasy stereotype of necromancers is that they are acolytes of dark gods who do unspeakable things to the living before turning them into zombies, that is really a modern invention. Before their portrayals in the 19th and 20th century, necromancers were just practitioners of magic who spoke to the dead for information, though they might have been able to negotiate with the dead for services in the material world (depending on the rules of the setting). Now, there were practitioners of magic that did creepy things with the dead, but that was because magic was creepy, not because necromancy was necessarily creepy (though Christian and Muslim religious traditions banned it like any other form of magic).

How would you portray a kindly necromancer? Let us set aside the stereotypes implicit in Magic and avoid stuff like necromancers committing necrophilia and raising zombies. Would they be individuals skilled in the abilities of the Death power or the abilities of the Spirit Control power? Would they individual skilled in the Path of Spirits who specialized in the dead? How would you represent them?