Lich
Liches are undead spellcasters who have achieved a form of immortality by binding their souls to a magical object known as a phylactery. Their physical forms vary, but most appear as skeletal or gaunt humanoids with dried, leathery flesh stretched tightly over bone, or in some cases, almost entirely skeletal. Their eyes, if present, often glow with a cold, unnatural light—typically blue, green, or violet. Despite their decayed appearance, they often carry themselves with regal, composed dignity, wearing arcane robes, enchanted armor, or relics of their former lives. Their presence is accompanied by an aura of dread and ancient, malevolent power.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
Liches are among the most powerful arcane beings in existence. Their command of necromantic and arcane magic is nearly unmatched, often rivaling or surpassing that of dragons or demigods. Common abilities include:
- Necromantic Mastery: They can raise armies of undead, drain the life force of enemies, and curse entire regions.
- Spellcasting Supremacy: Liches retain the full spellcasting ability they had in life, often supplemented by centuries of study and dark experimentation. They command spells across multiple schools of magic, not just necromancy.
- Immortality: Unless their phylactery is destroyed, a lich is functionally immortal.
- Arcane Knowledge: Liches often hold secrets of ancient magic, lost civilizations, and forbidden lore.
Additionally, many liches develop unique magical talents or enhancements—some bind spirits to their service, others command constructs or magical storms, and some wield time-manipulating abilities or teleportation.
A lich’s primary weakness is its phylactery. Destroying it is the only way to prevent the lich from returning after its body is slain. However, locating a phylactery is rarely simple—it may be protected by complex wards, buried in sacred ground, hidden in another plane, or disguised as an unassuming object.
In addition to the phylactery, liches are vulnerable to divine or holy magic, which can disrupt their necromantic energies. Some are bound to specific locations or rituals, which can be exploited. However, due to their intelligence, liches often plan contingencies against such weaknesses, anticipating betrayal or attack long before it happens.
Genetics and Reproduction
Liches are not born but created—always through a deliberate and dangerous ritual in which a powerful spellcaster (typically a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock) uses forbidden necromantic rites to sever their soul from their body and place it within a phylactery. This process requires rare materials, immense magical knowledge, and often a sacrifice of innocent life or great betrayal to complete. Once transformed, the lich becomes undead, no longer aging, and immune to disease, poison, or exhaustion.
The phylactery serves as the anchor of the lich’s existence. As long as it remains intact, the lich cannot be permanently destroyed—if their physical form is slain, it will regenerate near the phylactery over time. Thus, liches go to great lengths to hide or guard their phylacteries, sometimes disguising them or placing them in extraplanar vaults.
Behaviour
Liches are brilliant, cunning, and immensely prideful. While they may appear calm or detached, they harbor immense ambition, paranoia, and often an obsessive drive to achieve some ultimate goal—whether it's ascending to godhood, reshaping reality, or conquering death itself.
Their long undeath tends to warp their perception of time, morality, and identity. A lich may spend decades working on a single spell, or centuries planning revenge. Many lose empathy entirely, viewing emotions as weaknesses of the living. Some, however, retain a cold shadow of their former selves, making them especially dangerous manipulators capable of deceit, seduction, or diplomatic trickery.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Liches are supreme rulers within the undead hierarchy. They command legions of undead, rivaling Death Knights in martial power and Vampires in charisma and manipulation, but surpassing both in raw magical prowess and strategic genius. Other undead often serve them out of fear or compulsion. Even powerful undead like Wights and Wraiths typically submit to a lich's will if they wish to survive.
In summary, liches are the apex predators of undeath—immortal, brilliant, and terrifying. They are the shadowy masterminds behind cursed plagues, undead armies, and cataclysmic rituals. Wherever they go, they bring death, but more dangerously, they bring purposeful, calculated ruin.
Civilization and Culture
Culture and Cultural Heritage
Liches do not have a society in the traditional sense. Most are solitary and secretive, obsessed with their own agendas. However, they may occasionally form councils, cabals, or alliances with other powerful undead or dark entities when mutual goals align. These arrangements are usually tenuous and temporary, as liches tend to be arrogant, territorial, and paranoid.
Many liches are former archmages, kings, or priests who sought to preserve their knowledge, power, or legacy. As such, they often view the living as lesser beings—useful tools, expendable minions, or nuisances to be swept aside. They frequently establish domains in ancient ruins, necropolises, arcane towers, or cursed castles, populating them with undead servants, magical defenses, and twisted experiments.
Some liches maintain a twisted mockery of their former lives—holding court with undead nobles, keeping libraries, conducting research, or preserving relics and trophies from their past. Others become fully inhuman, abandoning all pretense of mortality and existing only for the pursuit of dark knowledge or cosmic power.
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