Why do graveyards exist in your world?
In our world, graveyards serve a purpose. They provide a place where we can honour, remember and respect the dead.
In a world where magic (and necromancy) exists, why would anyone build a graveyard?
Respecting the dead is important, sure, but graveyards create a major strategic threat. All it takes is one necromancer to sneak in and suddenly you have a zombie army to deal with.
So why would anyone risk it?
Why bury the dead in the one place, just waiting for someone to use the bodies for their sinister purposes?
One answer is… they don’t. As a game master, you can simply write graveyards out of your setting.
But…
Graveyards are cool. They provide an easy way to instantly add a spooky atmosphere, horror and dread to your story.
So let’s take graveyards as a given. That leaves explaining why the townsfolk would be so foolish.
Whenever anyone does something seemingly foolish, it’s sometimes because the alternatives are unexpectedly worse.
Alternative: Cremation
If necromancers exist, you’d think cremation would be very popular. I can’t imagine anything more horrific than seeing a deceased loved one stumbling towards you, eager to devour your skin.
Destroying the body would stop that from ever being a possibility.
If that isn’t common practice in your setting, it must be because that makes things worse.
Maybe destroying a body creates new problems. A corpse contains some residual vital magic - a remnant of the spark that once animated the flesh.
In an intact body, that spark is safely contained, slowly fading as the bones turn to dust.
But if the body is too badly damaged, then it releases all at once. Maybe this is where ghosts come from. Or perhaps this unleashed spark causes bad luck or disease. Maybe foul creatures feed on this spark, so it lures werewolves or evil spirits to the town.
Maybe this needs a critical mass to be a danger. After all, sometimes bodies will be destroyed by fire, acid or spontaneous volcanoes - would that always doom the area to ghosts and vampires?
It might. It’s your world, after all. Maybe it’s more interesting if releasing a vital spark carries the risk, rather than certainty, of foul monsters coming to down.
Alternative: Unmarked grave
A handy alternative to burying someone in a graveyard would be to take them into the woods and bury them under a tree.
This not only keeps the location safe from necromancers, but the grave becomes a family secret. They can still visit the grave whenever they want, but no one outside the family will know where it is.
That includes necromancers.
I can see two problems with this.
One, maybe any necromancer worthy of the title can locate corpses, like dowsing for water. Now, they’re free to resurrect people at their own pace, away from watchful eyes.
Two, it’s a common fantasy trope to say that nature has magic of its own. Bury someone in the woods, in the ocean or in the plains, and maybe dryads will find a use for the body…
Alternative: Ritual burial
Consider this situation: you have to bury (not destroy) a body, such that it can’t come back as a zombie. What do you do?
Extra challenge: the solution has to be cheap enough that peasants can do it, and simple enough that any town priest can perform it.
You could soak the body in holy water, tie the bones into a bundle, bury the coffin under heavy stones…
Second challenge: you’re a necromancer, familiar with these practices. How do you get around them?
Some might be insurmountable for low-level necromancers. Others will be trivial with the right spell or dedicated tool.
It’s like keeping your home secure. You can easily deter your basic thief, but nothing will stop a determined, skilled criminal.
What’s the current status in the arms race between priests and necromancers? Whatever it is, I bet defence is struggling to keep up with offense.
The solution: Graveyards
Burying your dead keeps them save from wild animals and nature spirits. It creates an attractive target for necromancers, sure, but at least that’s a single, defensible target.
A nightly patrol will help keep intruders out. Stone walls will help keep the restless dead inside.
It’s not perfect, but what is?
Sometimes, you have to go with the solution that works and hope for the best.
That idea underpins Footprints - my guide to creating living worlds populated with real enemies, not random encounters. Every foe the party faces is doing the best they can - stacking the odds in their favour without having to blow all their resources all at once.
If graveyards are a reasonable compromise - if an imperfect one - then what about goblins, kobolds and manticore? What do they do that makes sense, given their goals and resources?
Figure that out and your creatures come alive. They have lives outside of getting stabbed by the PCs until they cough up loot and XP.
It adds a richness to your settings that can’t be ignored.
You can find Footprints here: