[Telelion]

Necromancers, to be perfectly simple, should mance necro. They should have a kind of fixation with death- probably based on a fascination with the difference between things that are alive and things that are not. What -exactly- it is that leaves the body, etc. As such, when they're not raising spirits or animating corpses, they are probably best at using negative energy.

I think necromancy has picked up the connotations of inherent evil because it deals with death, which, as the purest manifestation of the unknown, would probably attract fear and stigma. If the particular setting in question leans towards a negative energy-wielding necromancer, that would lend even more weight towards the "evil" side of the scale.