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===Necromancers and Skeletons===
[[Image:Mon-skeleton1.jpg|thumb|115px|left|Skeleton on the move.]]While many believe that [[Necromancer]]s are evil, they are really Priests of [[Rathma]] who mostly have just received a bad reputation and nickname due to their study of life and death. They dedicate their lives to the sacred balance of life and death as well as the natural balance between [[Order]] and [[Chaos]]. To them, death is merely as a natural part of life and they do not seek to deny its arrival. They truly comprehend the balance of all things, and understand and accept their place in what they refer to as the [[Great Cycle of Being]]. In truth, they never suffered corruption from magic that other ancient [[mage clan]]s like the [[Vizjerei]] did. In the end, they use the naturally existing forces and spirits to raise inanimate objects (including Skeletons) to help their cause against imbalance between extra-planar forces on Sanctuary. In most cases you will find skeletons reanimated by a Necromancer to be of help against the [[Darkness]].
===Skeleton Summoning, Intelligence and Power===[[Image:Mon-skeletal-shieldman4.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Skeletal Shieldman|Shieldmen]] protect [[Skeletal Archer|archers]].]]Skeletons themselves generally have a quite limited intelligence, even if their capability to understand and carry out orders exceed those of a [[Zombie]]. They are more organized, and blindly determined to whatever task is set before them. Even simpler less powerful forms of skeletons are capable of using simple tools, and they have been observed to use swords, clubs, bows, and even armour and shields (often equipped in the same armament in which they fell). They are walking vessels of [[Hell]]'s influence on the mortal realm (besides the ones raised by a [[Priest of Rathma]]), and are corpses and spirits of the deceased, which are twisted and corrupted, are imbued with a hatred for the living that defies understanding. They don't seek consume the flesh of the living like [[Zombie]]s, but they are intent on extinguishing the life of their victims. Some reports have also said that victims of some of these skeletons have risen themselves as skeletal soldiers against the still living.
===More Powerful Skeletons===
The bones of truly powerful individuals still retain some part of their essence, and also some of their old power. It's harder to corrupt the truly good or independent, but the effort will at the same time produce even more powerful servants. Using the bones of a deceased [[sorcerer]] makes it easier to create spellcasting undead horrors. They can also be induced with the capability to summon skeletons themselves, making [[Skeletal Summoner]]s truly dangerous. They are more powerful and they attain a higher level of intelligence, making it possible for him or her able to replenish the ranks even in the field.
===Prime Evil Skeletons===
Most [[undead]] (including skeletons) are brought to life on this plane through power from [[Mephisto]]. Some variants are adapted by other [[Prime Evils]], [[demon]] lords or specific dark [[sorcerer]]s of humankind. Some skeleton summonings require extra treatment, especially if the intention is to make the reanimated creature extra powerful. One example is the {{iw|Reanimated_Horde Reanimated Horde}} used by [[Baal]] in the assault of [[Mount Arreat]]. The Reanimated Horde consisted of warriors that had their hearts turned black while they were still alive, and were given a new existence as skeletons, with vengeful fury. They had an extraordinary level of ferocity, and the lingering power in them even allowed them to re-animate themselves if they were destroyed.
===Extraordinary Skeletons===
[[Image:Mon-skeleton-king1.jpg|thumb|right|175px|The Black King, [[Leoric]].]]Bones of '''extraordinary''' men and women can be infinitely more powerful than any regular skeleton, and retain a significant portion of their own personality and memories, if not all of them. An example is [[King Leoric]], who was reanimated by the [[Lord of Terror]] himself, as he was not able to overtake his mind completely. Diablo still managed to corrupt Leoric's mind, which is the source of the madness he retained as an [[undead]]. Due to the power of Leoric as an entity, even defeated it was possible to summon him again, 20 years later (in [[Diablo III]]). The amount of power needed to permanently displace his spirit from this realm will be significant.
==="Life" of a Skeleton===Skeletons are generally frail, and the general consensus among students of undeath is that you don't have to utterly destroy every single bone to stop a skeleton, but rather just deal enough damage to it in order to dispell the summoning spell. As mentioned, the bones can later be induced with dark energies anew to rebuild it, easily replacing damaged parts. Even though these monstrosities are frail, people find them very dangerous in numbers as a single stab of a sword in the wrong place could potentially bring down any warrior. With enough numbers, they can bring down any hero.
In some cases, the [[undead]] are being continuously kept alive by their summoner, and killing the controlling [[necromancer]] or evil [[sorcerer]] will also either dispel the magic keeping the undead moving, or at least rendering them immovable, lacking orders.
===Healing===
Life energy, primarily channeled through magic granted by the [[High Haven]]s unto human vessels, such as [[Paladin]]s or priests of the Light will have a very destructive effect on a Skeleton. Magic that will [[heal]] living creatures will in turn damage or dispel undead. An example is the Paladin [[Holy Bolt]], which can either heal friends of the Paladin, or damage the undead that might cross the path of the hurling spheres of pure Light.
===Skeletal Humor===
The capability of humour of these creations is strange. The traveller and writer [[Abd al-Hazir]] made the following comment on the topic in his [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir: Entry no. 0008|eight]] entry from the book [[Writings of Abd al-Hazir]]:
:: ''I am at a loss to explain the average skeleton's somewhat ludicrous mental predisposition, however. Perhaps the implausibility of its own existence makes the skeleton think it hilarious to hide in a barrel, cackling intermittently for some three hundred years until a victim happens by?''
As with most undead, the only way to permanently destroy the creature, is to burn the bones to ashes on a pyre.
