thinking about magic of life and death
cuz life and death are two sides of the same coin. one cannot exist without the other. life needs to die to be alive, and death needs life to be its definitve end. magic of life and death respectively deal with causing or maintaining each of these. healing magic sustains life, death magic eradicates life. the result of merging these two is undeath, a fugue state of life and death at the same time. the summoned zombie has been brought back from the grave to serve in a form beyond its termination date and is sustained by magic.
so what's the absence of life and death called? unlife? it's like putting a hole into the world in the shape of where something should be, but isn't. I think many people have experienced that sort of feeling before, when you look at an empty corner in a room and go "there should be something there, like a shelf or a bookcase". the emptiness desires to be filled, but unlife magic keeps the hole from being filled with anything. a house goes without tenants or landllrds for years. a pregnancy results in no child at all. a space in your social circle where a friend should be remains vacant. the gap in your memory can't be closed, because no memory was stolen to create it. such magic seems much more terrifying to me than reanimating meat puppets
