Editing Lich (section)

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==
Like most things involving necromancy, liches are a product of one big dick named Mannimarco. Being a bootleg Nagash, Mannimarco decided that being alive sucks and that being an immortal wizard of master race in a magical order so powerful they casually control time is just too casual for him. So with a bit of finagling and semi-related breaking of time, he managed to simultaneously achieve godhood (reigning over necromancers), continuation as the same immortal wizard necromancer, and achieving (more) immortality as an indestructible lich at the same time. Thanks to the time break, the three are simultaneous separate existences of the being. Of course, the lich one was casually destroyed in Oblivion's Mage's Guild questline. Though his questionable achievements did inspire a lot of necromancers.

These undead mages are considered to be the most powerful among undead due to their mastery of necromancy and various magical arts. Though, given the inconsistency of the Elder Scrolls universe, lich powers and methods to become one usually depend on what game in the series you're playing.

*In High Rock and Hamerfell (Daggerfall), liches as powerful as powerful mages and have benefits of undead like resistance to normal weapons (read “any non-fantasy weapon”), resistance to diseases, etc. 
*In Morrowind (Tribunal expansion), liches decided that magic is for pussies and with only few of spells they also utilize strong melee weapons. Combine this with undead immunity to weapons and high resistance to frost this makes them rather nasty tanks instead of powerful wizards. They also lose the divine blessing protecting their souls from being trapped in a gem.
*In Cyrodiil (Oblivion), liches are the closest to classic lich. Those liches are no joke, having immunity to weapons, resistance to elemental magic save for fire (because undead), and ability to reflect both magic and normal attacks. Combine this with big tier magic like summoning and protective spells and you get a rape machine... unless they didn’t see you. Despite all of this liches of Cyrodiil are fragile and two hits with non-normal weapon is enough to kill them. 
*In Skyrim (...Skyrim) they don’t have liches in normal “necromancer turn undead” way, but they have dragon priests. Those members of ancient dragon cults who sucked dragon-dong the most were given immortality in the form of undeath. A dragon priest is one of the stronger enemies the game has to offer, they cast protective magic from spell and physical damage, they fly around with staff that has adept and expert level of magic (instant death if you don’t have resistance to it), they use Storm Atronachs (the big demons that shoots lighting and hit with rock hands), and they are generally tough... and they are also a damn cowards. Seriously, fighting these guys is what a fight with a mage actually looks like: bastards with lots of protection, they use minions, and always run away from you. If all previous liches had at least some sort of close combat ability, dragon priests don’t want anything to do with it, so you just need to run as fast as you can in order to hit them. Morrowind liches think that they are nerds.

As for transformation into one, it’s pretty much the same as in D&D: varying on an individual basis. It can go from being cursed to suck on souls, to a classic phylactery, to a pact with demons, hell you can combine the wrong ingredients and create poison that will strip the flesh from your bones and increase your magical power and this will count. One interesting note is dragon priests, who have the most original way of obtaining lichhood. When dragons transform cultists they also create draugr (Viking zombie). While it can be created without a dragon priest's involvement, draugr serve both as bodyguard and as daily meal. To put it simply, you can’t fully kill draugr while their dragon priest is around because they are connected, and while draugr slumber they accumulate what is basically life-energy that allows the priest to keep themselves not-fully-dead and powerful while the draugr receive just enough to be mindless zombies with only goal: protect the dragon priest.

Overall, being a lich in the Elder Scrolls universe is kind of a bummer, considering that in the same games you have 9001 options to become immortal. Sometimes you don’t even want to, considering the fact that there are several different heavens and with right cards, you can get access to all of them.