The Empire of Necromancers by Clark Ashton Smith Review
This one was a strange one because I quickly recognized the problem: the lack of Chekov's Gun. I'll get into that in a moment. The story follows two necromancers, Mmatmuor and Sodsma who travel to this land called Tinarath to practice their dark arts. Unfortunately for them, they are thrown out and head to the dead land of Cincor where they begin to raise the dead. One of the aspects that is common among Lovecraftian-style of writing is that the stories don't go into details of the spells. It's like the opposite of Harry Potter where each spell has a name and a purpose and a way to cast them. Here, the spells are intentionally vague. The pair resurrect a few dead on the way to the city of Yethlyreom and reanimate many of the dead, including the royalty. The two plan to conquer the land that threw them out when the undead emperor, Illerio, begins to recall his memories. Now here's where the gun doesn't come into play, Illerio consults with an ancestor named Hesta...