Mental Characteristics
Intellectual Characteristics
Morality, Philosophy & Taboos
Biography
Early Life
It is public knowledge Michinus Mirakonan was once an early King of Tormyra, though his status of being a founder of the kingdom is up to debate, and the Once King has avoided answering at every occasion, citing events for which there are no records. Archeologists and historians generally struggle to gain an audience with him.
When the King ceased to be one of the truly living, he abdicated his throne to his descendants. It's been said he has raised an army against rivals for the throne. The fact he still lives despite the edicts of Zyrian, the Elven Goddess of Death demanding the destruction of the undead suggests he has power, access to power, beyond what a mortal should have.
Education
Where his Magic was taught to him has been lost in history. Some say he made a deal, others say he studies, and a few say he was born with it.
If he had been taught in the University of Tormyra , such records have been worn away, lost, or sealed. He does come through the various classrooms when bored enough, and may offer lesson details or methodology behind casting the spell.
It is generally known Michinus takes on apprentices who are mages of some kind of promise, though said apprentices either die, or live to become great beings. Most die. Records left by his former apprentices suggests age has had an impact on the Once King, though he is still sane.
Accomplishments & Achievements
It is presumed he had founded Tormyra and the Tormyra Royal Family . He has not spoken on the matter himself, however.
Failures & Embarrassments
No one suggests he has failures to be embarrassed of, and if there are any, they've likely been lost to history, or not recorded.
Personality Characteristics
Undead may not sleep, but his every footstep and motion seems weighed, as if every action requires contemplation and effort to ensure it is both correct and necessary. On his "better" days, he has made his way outside of his tower and among the mortals in a place such as a market.
While he speaks in a cadence of great age, he is forgetful of minor unimportant details (such as names of places, the passage of time) out of mere age, but also recognition of how names will change simply because they have.
He is intently focused on achieving his goals, he enjoys the mindset of younger mages he has taken as apprentices over the centuries, and how they will take an idea and approach it from an angle he had not considered that is wholly their own.
He knows actions have consequences in politics, so he has to time his appearances to the court to remind them he still ... lives, but he cannot appear so often as to undermine his heirs who rule in his stead. Not unless he actually wants to take the throne once more and break his oath.
Michinus has centuries of mastering the art of politics and law, that he can essentially do as he wished without many meaningful repercussions. However, recognizing the corrupting power of absolute power, he took a blood-oath before his Undeath to obey his heirs as long as they sit on the throne.
Since his undeath, he has been cautious to give his word, but he does try to take care of what he considers "his" - "his" apprentices, his research, his experiments, his servants, his network. In a way, he views Tormyra as "still his." He mourns the loss of his apprentices, when he realizes they're dead.
Motivation
Michinus is loyal to his family, having come down onto those who have tried to overthrow his descendents and stared them in the eye to ask one question - "Will you survive the consequences of my wrath?"
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Personality, Quirks, & Vices
He has, according to rumors, disintegrated a person for suggesting a small brush to clean his nostrils and ears with.
He forgets names, or he remembers ancient names for things and uses those instead. Or mistakes people for whoever held that position at some point in the past.
There are coats of dust and the smell of dried parchment, but the dust does not form into dust-bunnies as he has magical servants who keep the dust from building up. He is not dusty.
Social
Religious Views
Despite his continued existence being an abhorrance to the Tormian goddess of death, His Late Highness
Social Aptitude
more words
Wealth & Financial State
He is an abdicated undead King, and has ways of acquiring money for himself to pay for whatever he needs. His personal archive is greater than the Magical Archives, and he's had thieves try to break in. It's uncertain what happened to those trespassers.
Family Ties and Contacts
The Tormyra Royal Family are his descendents from his firstborn child, the Queen Izathel Mirakonan.
He has stated that he will defend The Kingdom of Tormyra for as long as his line rules it.
Hobbies
I am fond of observing my apprentices.
In the past century I was a fan of Marvel Comics. At some point I got distracted, and Marvel Universe degenerated in something unpleasant, but between one thing and the other I remember noticing a fail in X-Men's premisse. You know the Mutants, who are hated everywhere for being Mutants and use their power to try reduce friction between mutants and humans; they make enough sense when we look only one place, one culture. Once you start considering the variety of ways of life, religious and moral perspectives on Earth, the notion that every place would react to Mutants with the same bias becomes inconsistent. Unless the hate for mutants was biologic, not cultural. But then it would have to be present in every Marvel hero, they could be able to fight it (being heroes) but they could never dismiss the feeling as absurd. Undead have this same problem in most settings, I believe. Is "life against death", too often. Thing is that: to see death as evil, as an enemy, is a cultural bias. Not every culture puts it that way. And it isn't even a consistent representation where it is present. Contemporary Medicine studies corpses, violating medieval feelings against that, every hospital uses "blood magic" to keep people alive in emergencies. And we are no longer scared about the morbid practice of take parts of dead corpses to place them inside living people. Transplants are an morally accepted practice, welcomed enough. Abuses must be avoided, but the practice in itself is not evil (or if it is evil then we can no longer see that, and are all morally beyond saving). How is that no country sides with their mutants? Some families place, "family", above everything else! Homo Sapiens be doomed, my cousin is my cousin before he is a human, a mutant, a drug dealer or anything else. Some parts of the world place religion before everything, and family right after that: a mutant who follows true faith is still way more valuable as a person than a human who follows the wrong faith, or has no fait at all. Somewhere will not me humans against mutants, but "our" humans and mutants against "their" humans and mutants. How is that no Lich sides with his family, and stays around protecting it? How is that no family sides with his lich too? I suspect that in a large world with many cultures at least some nations would consider being undead secondary. Family still being the most important element in organize loyalties. There is a character in Jewish/Christian/Islamic mythology who almost kills his son, obeying his God. Is the desirable actitud to those cultures, if I understand the narrative well. However, that is the extreme example of obedience, precisely because is not the easiest decision to make. Even in those cultures, many people would say that obey God is not THAT important . Certainly, some royal families would start considering change religion and embrace new deities. If placed in this situation. in a world like yours. "Perhaps atheism isn't such a bad idea after all". Since people do not have any bigotry against necromancy in my world, in most places, and I wanted most Sharitarnes to not be undeads, I had to balance every undead "model" with some disadvantage. Liches are all former living necromancers, because the magic that makes them must be done by the person who is to became a Lich, and it is the most difficult achievement only possible to me most accomplished necromancers. And in addition to that, liches on Sharitarn cannot stay too long in the same place, or close to the living. Their very presence changes the environment and in a few decades their home starts do becoming unhealthy for the living. The deadly taint spreads, and grows, if the lich remains in the same place for centuries. Because of that, the existence as a lich has to be an existence as a nomad, with little contact with civilization. A character like your king would probably be a mummy if he existed on Sharitarn (less powerful, but the second best thing, and have the opposite problem: a mummy is connected to one and only one place. Can't move, and it's vitality and power weaken when they distance themselves from home).
The life v undeath is more like a Goddess of Death being annoyed that the undead are not "where they belong - in her domain." However, atheism along the lines of "there are no gods" doesn't make sense in my setting because the gods are real and provide power to their favored followers, however, they can be defied or a person can chose to not worship that person. In this setting, Mich actively defies the goddess of death of the pantheon he follows, but most of his cultural power and influence is political - his family holds the throne, and he will obey his family for as long as they hold the throne. While I've not written about it yet, he does hold sway over the political views that hold power, which in turn sways the academic views. The religion side actually gains strength because people can observe Zyrian's followers trying to kill him and put him to rest "where he should have been long ago" and as a(n un)living example of the price being paid for defying the goddess. I love thinking about how my characters change in other settings, and I love that you've applied how Michinus would most closely match something in your setting.
My impression is that evidence and believe are not closely connected enough for factual evidence of deities prevent ALL people from believe that they do not exist. Someone will always find alternative evidence. Probably for the best. Skepticism keeping an open door for the unlikely is what makes so hard for anyone to lie for everybody, all the time, and get away with that. But it also means that not even the most obvious facts will be Universally believed, ever. On the other hand, I wonder if someone like 'our' hero here could hope to set some sort of bargain with the Godless of Death, eventually. Like the Kings in our (arguably)real world used to do. They would build large temples, and give presents, to buy a better place in the afterlife or some other sort of favour from God. Or from Gods, depending on time and place. Perhaps good old Zyrian would grant the nice Lich a free pass in exchange for an Anual Festival in her honour. And some religious order of Scholar Priests to be kept by the Former King. Or something in that direction. Sweet deal for all parts involved.
There are a lot of possible options for stories and games, though I admit, Zyrian is a pretty tough cookie to negotiate something like that with for her own reasons that I need to type out as well. In this setting, there is the recognition of other pantheons being true, but people follow the ones they believe have an impact or interest in their own lives and culture
Make sense. Is notoriously tough to negotiate with Death.