Quote Originally Posted by Gez View Post
It's a healing spell, not a necromantic one. It revives the corpse as a normal living person, with their original soul and mind and free will, though a bit worse off -- they lose a level in the process, or two points of Con if they were level 1.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/raiseDead.htm

You want zombies, you'll get Animate Dead instead. It's a lower level spell, but a necromantic one, instead of a healing one.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/animateDead.htm
Ah I remember that one now, huh, for some reason i thought it had stricter requirements than that as to who it could raise. I suppose level 9 casters isnt that legendary after all. Not exactly super common, but as you said, one in every capitol city isnt unreasonable.