"Necromancy had been a headache for the Baelan for more years than anybody could remember. The art was utterly forbidden under Academy law, which condoned the summoning of demons but shuddered with horror at any attempt to resurrect the human dead. Unfortunately, and for no clear reason, it remained enduringly popular with some members of the Cities. A few decades ago, when Christoté was still shattered from the effects of repealing a foreign invasion and the protracted, bloody war which followed, a strongly nihilistic cult had swept the region. Its tenets combined as many ways to cause outrage as possible and included some half-baked ideas concerning the purity of the deceased and their role in the salvation of the world. The result was a series of robberies of mortuaries and healing hostels, even of funerals being hijacked in mid-procession. Doubtless graveyards would have been dug up as well, if everybody in the Cities were not cremated. Embarrassingly for the social elite, several of their members became embroiled in the cult. Embarrassingly for the Academy, a couple of wizards must have been as well, as several of the experiments met with success. The result was a few zombies lurching around the streets for months afterwards, Huwdone House and the Baelan screaming blame at one another - in short, the usual unholy mess.
"The cult had died away after its leaders found various ways to destroy themselves and the post-war recovery created a more positive national mood. By the time Calli arrived at the Baelan, necromancy was down to a few scattered cases. It was, however, proving resilient against attempts to destroy it entirely. A legacy of the nihilistic cult was that necromancy first entered the Christotan statute books. This was one more way to infuriate the Baelan - some reckoned Huwdone House were into quadruple figures by now - who held that all magically related crimes were exclusively their jurisdiction. Even worst was the fact that Huwdone House didn't even consider necromancy to be a capital crime. The Academy punished all wizards who raised the dead by disembowelling them, burning the remains and burying the ashes under an oak tree. They wished to continue this custom. Yet all Christoté would do was sling them into jail for a decade or so. They didn't even surrender them into Academy hands at the end of the sentence."
(from A Shining Light)