The War of the Dead (The Complete Collection)

Necromancer. Master of the dead, and creature of legend. Stories tell of two necromancers. One reanimated the bodies of its enemies to use as mindless slaves. The other ripped the very souls from its victims to create an army of darkness and shadow. The two necromancers worked together, each complementing the others vile magics with their own. But each secretly thought their own magic to be superior. Fear of their enemies was the only tie that bound the two creatures together.
Before the culling the lands of men were covered in forest, and the monsters within slaughtered each other in an endless war for domination. When man came to make a place for itself in this hostile land, many monsters, including the necromancers, joined them in their fight, urging them ever onward. It was at the behest of these monsters that the forest burned, and their kin were destroyed. On the eve of victory, however, the monsters that had fought beside the humans, turned against them.
Flush with undead minions from the long war, the betrayal of the necromancers could have destroyed humanity. It was only their hubris that saved mankind from from destruction. Now that they finally had no enemies with the strength to stand against them, each believed their partner should become their slave. They turned their powers upon each other. Their armies were ground into dust, and by the end of the day both had fallen, proving once and for all that they were equals.
A thousand years later, the only evidence that the necromancers ever existed is the strange magic in what remains of the forest north of Ilar and Thelryn, and it is there, in the small town of Thorlin's Point, that our story begins.