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Lich

2019-01-03T03:48:16Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: /* Death Knight */ everytime -> every time

[[Image:KR_12_bard_lich.jpg|right|thumb|400px]]
'''Liches''' (from ''Leiche'', German for "corpse") are spellcasters, typically [[necromancer]]s who have managed to master their self proclaimed 'art' to cross the line between life and death, becoming undead creatures of immense mystical power. After decades of research, practice, gathering of rare-materials, spell components and forbidden dark-lore, an aspirant to-be performs a ritual that extracts the soul/'life force' from it's body and places it in a phylactery. This object, often in narrative is usually an ornament of value to the Lich in it's past life, barring that- it's usually appearance-wise on par with the like of a reliquary, a small sealed box with bindings on it with varied iconography, sometimes with an item inside. This transformation process in tabletop tradition is left vague but given implication it is an evil act- though many sources have gone on to explain and detail the likes of such a transformation.

After culminating the ritual with the caster's death and subsequent reanimation, that sometimes follows a brief period of inactivity- the Lich comes to be. The Lich features the unique benefits that the undead are privy to, and should the lich's physical body ever be destroyed, It will reform at the phylactery- though in older works- this has been limited to the concept of possessing actively present corpses to return to unlife, and this is possible so long as the phylactery remains intact. This makes liches nice persistent foes for a [[DM]] to throw at an adventuring [[party]]. Other benefits of lichdom include the ability to (un)live without eating or sleeping, giving the lich that much more time to 'get things done', though in some cases there is a type of maintenance that must be performed by the Lich for it to retain its hold on the world of the living, and in addition the Phylactery offers protection against various magics and effects that could be used to harm the soul.

The ritual/ceremony for becoming a lich (and many other applications of necromancy) tend to involve sacrificing innocents, trafficking with evil outsiders, using a freshly cut out heart of a sentient being, desecrating holy ground to perform the 'art', abusing the souls of the dead, worshiping evil gods, and generally being a bigger dickhead version of Prometheus in the grand cosmic scale- often with all of these examples playing into one another, so it's a given that over various mediums liches are generally of evil [[alignment]], especially certain since the proceeds to this state of being also accommodate the fact that turning into an undead creature tends to erase mortal trappings and turns its subject into something more akin to an unfeeling uncaring machine, but a person who neither eats nor sleeps and reforms after being destroyed can certainly do a lot of good given the idea it is part of a fantasy genre where magic can benefit people and one has all the time in the world to continuously develop it in a state of pure academia; depending on the setting, it may be possible to become a lich without doing anything irredeemably evil (or even mean-spirited) for the good of all. And even in some settings where Lichdom is in the general standing of- if the local citizens hear of it, an army is raised to combat it- because it is that much of a social taboo, there do exist good variants of this Undead creature.

To note- Phylactery use does not explicitly mean or make a Lich- a Lich- as this is fiction and at the most strained view of the concept, a Lich is fundamentally an undead/undead-like spellcaster who has extended their lifespan via unnatural means. Extended from this, unnatural may constitute unholiness or otherwise, something about the being that clearly earns it its name, due to it being a walking withered corpse missing its eyes, in place, unnatural glowing pinpoint lights presenting to an onlooker clear negative visual stimuli.

==Liches in Dungeons and Dragons==
[[File:Osterneth the Bronze Lich.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A rare example of a female lich.]]
Liches have always been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons, following through the tabletop system and its settings and editions continuously up to the 5th edition as a part of the lore as deities, adversaries, characters in novels, and more with later editions featured as playable options for players seeking means to retire his/her characters ingame- through OD&D-AD&D to 2e, and 3.5, liches have followed a progressive evolution in form, functionality and inclusion, peaking at 3.5 before 4e came in and returned the state of this creature to its older rules and regulations in the first edition, as an evil undead creature that maintains its imperfect immortality through the consumption of souls.

Back in 2e D&D, liches came in multiple types depending on what kind of magic was used to create them. Your common lich was a former wizard, with separate stats in other splats for clerical, bardic and psionic liches.

==Liches in Pathfinder==

==Liches in Warcraft and World of Warcraft==
The first Lich of the setting is the Lich King, created by kil'jaeden after merging the tortured soul of the former Warchief and shaman Ner'zhul into a set of armor and the runeblade Frostmourne, then encasing it inside a magical ice-crystal.

Other Lich like Kel'thuzard, a former necromancer was created by Arthas after he invaded warcraft elf-land and dump the said necromancer's ashes into the magical waters of the Sunwell (with a bit help from a burning legion dreadlord Tichondrius). They go on to create more liches, both from orcs amd humans, but this process is rather unclear. A few bit of information states that one has to commit suicide, and the involvement of a higher being (Lich King or Kel'thuzad for example) is neccessary for their ascension.
Liches are seen as evil by both the Horde and the Alliance.
It should also be noted that the first sentient undeads of the setting were the Death Knights created by Gul'dan, which shared a similar process of creation with the mainstray lich. The soul of an orc warlock was sealed within a gem, and that gem was then placed on the body of a slain human knight. The process was fuelled by the sacrifice of a few dozen orc necrolytes.

==Liches in Mythology==
Russian mythology brings us Koschei the deathless, an archetypal lich with a rather original way of storing his phylactery. Koschei's soul is hidden in a needle, which is hidden in an egg, which is hidden in a hare, which is hidden in a duck; all of this in a locked chest buried under a tree on the Russian equivalent of Atlantis. Aside from his original fusion of magical, culinary, and geographic defenses, he also differs from most liches in that he kidnaps princesses instead of studying magic all the time like a [[Thousand Sons|fucking nerd.]] Is the namesake for [[Kostchtchie]].

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==

==Lich Variants==

===Archlich===
A lich who took longer to become a lich, and has a diminished spellcasting capacity (some spell-like abilities and '''9''' spells from their original spellbook) but isn't evil in the trade-off. Introduced in [[Spelljammer]], but mostly ignored by later settings and editions (except for a mention in Monsters of Faerûn), up until it got to be an [[Epic Destiny]] in [[4e]].

===Baelnorn===
A good-aligned [[elf]] lich, created willingly from an elf who wants to be undead only to guard something very important or who wants to stick around beyond death to keep watch over their family.

===Boneclaw===
In fifth edition, boneclaws are the result of a failed attempt to become a lich. If the soul fails to go into the phylactery, it instead binds to a random evil humanoid, whom the boneclaw becomes enslaved to. The boneclaw is permanently destroyed only when the humanoid it is bonded with dies or stops being evil. This connection is a complete 5e retcon; boneclaws first appeared as a fairly generic-fluffed undead mook in the [[Monster Manual]] 3 for 3rd edition, and were refluffed an [[undead]] [[construct]] created by [[hag]]s, using the assembled carcasses of [[ogre]]s and trapping the spirit of a slain [[oni]] in it for brains/motivation, in 4e's MM1.

===[[Death Knight]]===
Essentially the [[gish]] version of a lich, an undead warrior-wizard. Originally just the next step up from the skeleton warrior by gaining some increased HD and spell-like abilities, they got more lich-like in 4th edition, complete with their chosen weapons doubling as their phylacteries. In 5th, a Death Knight is what happens when an evil paladin dies. Every time they die, they come back again until they atone for their sins. Which is completely optional.

===Deathless===
A race of goodly lich-like undead created in 3rd edition for the [[Eberron]] setting. They're fueled by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy and are basically "reverse liches".

===Demilich/Demi-Lich===
A lich who derped around for so long that his body is just a flying bit of skeleton (usually a skull) full of soul gems. Despite their small size, they're much nastier than a normal lich; their spellcasting is even stronger, they have oodles of opportunities to cast Soul Trap and bone you, and they like to fly juuuust out of players' easy reach. They are also immune to most spells and magical effects, except for a few holy-powered ones and one derpy second-level spell called ''shatter'' that screws them something fierce by blowing out their soul gems. Their lore's flipflopped between editions, going from the next step in lichly evolution to a weakened form caused when a lich either gets too bored with existence ([[Pathfinder]]), or fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after a long time, but that some [[Tomb of Horrors|like the infamous Acererak]] prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

===[[Dracolich]]===
Lichified [[dragon]]s, mostly associated with the crazy Cult of the Dragon from [[Forgotten Realms]] who want to create dracoliches to rule the world. They still have phylacteries, but need to possess a dragon's physical remains to come back rather than just regenerating.

===Drow===
[[Drow]] and [[Drider]]s got their own lichly variants back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], due to that ruleset not being able to handle slapping templates on existing creatures.

===Dry Lich===
Basically a mummy lich, and the ultimate result of the "walker in the waste" prestige class. Can't be good aligned, but doesn't have to be evil aligned either. They also get some cute Con-draining and desiccating attacks liches don't, and ''five'' phylacteries in the form of canoptic jars containing their organs, all on top of getting the template for free as part of their advancement.

===Fireliches===
They come from the [[Spelljammer]] setting and are what happens when an idiot [[wizard]] undergoing the lich transition ritual casts a fire spell in the Phlogiston... which is, essentially, an entire dimension full of flammable gas. The result is a cursed undead who basically exists as a giant free-floating sapient fireball with a skull in its center. [[Grimdark|Said skull is perpetually screaming in pain, as their existence is one of endless burning torment from the fire engulfing their very soul.]] They have the bad habit of crashing into spelljammers like sapient missiles in a futile attempt to end their tortured unlife.

===Grey Shivers===
Spiders that take up residence inside the skulls of destroyed liches, and absorb fragments of the lich's soul, turning them into sapient, spell-casting monsters. Whilst still being little spiders hiding inside skulls.

===Illithiliches===
Sometimes synonymous with Alhoons. These are [[Mind Flayer]] liches, and the inevitable result of any illithid that chooses to abandon the Elder Brain, as they're all ''terrified'' of the idea of ceasing to exist after death. 5e distinguishes them from alhoons, with illithiliches being the much-more-powerful and dangerous version and alhoons being illithids who were not powerful enough to become illithiliches and so took an alternative method of becoming undead to escape death.

===Inheritor Liches===
Hailing from the [[Red Steel]] setting, they are what happens when one of the local Inheritors turns into a lich.

===Master Liches===
Another [[Spelljammer]] creation, they were turned into liches by pacts with [[Demon Prince]]s or [[Arch-Devil]]s, but then betrayed their master and fled into Wildspace to avoid paying their debt. The big difference is that they don't have a phylactery, but have a fairly potent regeneration ability.

===Power Liches===
In the world of [[Might and Magic]], they were the long skirted bone dudes, who were the only shooters of the Necropolis town. And they were such badass shooters. They appeared in Might and magic 7 as well.

===Scroll Mummy (Grisgol)===
A construct created by destroying a lich's body and then trapping its phylactery inside of a construct made out of broken magic items and pieces of magic scrolls. The lich will reform in a few days if the Scroll Mummy is destroyed.

===Suel Liches===
Originally from [[Greyhawk]], they are a sort of lich-wraith hybrid; in their natural state, they're immaterial beings of pure Negative Energy, the twisted souls of wizards slain by the Rain of Colorless Fire, so they possess living hosts to interact with the world around them. But, said body decays at a rapid pace, until eventually it crumbles into nothing and they gotta grab a new one.

===Vassalich===
A lesser form of lich introduced in the [[Ravenloft]] setting - mages who couldn't get the mojo to transform themselves, so they sold themselves as slaves to existing liches and became weaker knock-offs. They can turn into real liches, in time, but it's not easy and their masters keep a tight grip on them.

==List of Famous Liches==
* Acererak: Creator of the Tomb of Horrors/Tomb of Annihilation.
* Erandis d'Vol: Probably better known as Lady Vol or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of both the [[Blood of Vol]] and the Emerald Claw.
* Koschei: A character from Slavic folklore who is much older than the concept of a lich but matches the description of one. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside a chest under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life.
* Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown: Villain protagonist of the anime Overlord. Was a gaming nerd and a salaryman who got trapped in the body of his character and sent to another world with all of his treasures and loyal minions.
* Nagash: one of the villains of Warhammer Fantasy. Why else would you read this page?
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the Githyanki
* Vecna: Lich who became a god.
* Voldemort: Villain of Harry Potter. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects to keep him alive.
* Xykon: The big bad of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, or at least thinks he is. Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Lich.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The MGE's take on the lich-as-monstergirl.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Whilst being one of the two most famous free-willed undead - the other being the [[vampire]], unlike their fellow "willful dead", liches are almost never seen in a sexified light. This probably has to do with the fact that, whilst the vampire has both obvious monster traits ''and'' a long history of being presented in a darkly eroticized light anyway, a lich is hard to define as anything more than an undead [[wizard]]. Not helping is that whilst even non-monstergirl vampires are traditionally portrayed as sexy, voluptuous women with red eyes and elongated canines clad in gothic dresses that flatter their figures, the traditional depiction of a lich is... a skeleton clad in moldering ragged robes. Worse yet, liches are usually depicted as being indifferent to their physical form - even Osterneth, one of the few named female liches of D&D, has her vanity end at plating her bones in bronze and studding them with gemstones.

This, then, presents a would-be monstergirl maker with quite the dilemma: how to actually make a female lich look sexy? Preferably without going the copout of either "they look just like sexy living women, but that's an illusion to disguise that they're skeletons" or "they just look like sexy living women and their lichdom manifests in their powers". Many ultimately go with routes similar to the [[Flesh Golem]] or [[Zombie]], relying on a "sexy preserved corpse" or "artifical" theme for the lich's body, representing how the lich's physical form is a shell that it can wear and discard as it likes.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the lich is presented as just a dead-eyed human woman with corpse-grey skin and an ominous-yet-sexy "wizardly" robe. They are described as being, essentially, pervy female nerds who turned themselves into undead so they could better study and master the diffuse array of perverse applications of magic in their world.

That being said, the titular Magical Girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are sometimes jokingly referred to as liches outside of the show. But there are some non trivial differences between them and D&D liches. For example if a D&D lich were to have his phylactery destroyed he would be fine until personally destroyed (and would fail to regenerate as a lich with a functional phylactery would). Magical girls from Madoka Magica on the other hand die instantly if their soul gem is destroyed. Also it's perfectly possible that Magical Girls might continue to age as humans do, despite Sayaka's claims of zombie-hood.

==See Also==
* [[Death Knight]], the surprisingly badass [[fighter]] version of a Lich.
* [[Drew the Lich]], a [[Quest]] where [[/tg/]] played a lich.
* The [[Millennial King]], a story and setting inspired by /tg/ speculating on what a good necromancer would be like. To make a long story short: he becomes a lich and leads his kingdom to an era of prosperity with a skeleton-powered industrial revolution.
* [[Deep Rot]], a skeletal supercomputer constructed by a mad lich.
* [[Dreadnought]], which, when a Librarian is entombed within, is basically a mecha-lich.
* [[Heucuva]], the lamer [[Cleric]] version of a Lich.
* [[Nagash]], everyone's favourite Warhammer lich.
* [[The Bank of Liches]], what happens when a bunch of liches decide to pool their phylacteries in a safe and secure location.
* [[Vecna]], a god that is a lich.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]]

Lich

2019-01-03T03:46:49Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: /* Liches in Dungeons and Dragons */ Consistent caps and it's -> its

[[Image:KR_12_bard_lich.jpg|right|thumb|400px]]
'''Liches''' (from ''Leiche'', German for "corpse") are spellcasters, typically [[necromancer]]s who have managed to master their self proclaimed 'art' to cross the line between life and death, becoming undead creatures of immense mystical power. After decades of research, practice, gathering of rare-materials, spell components and forbidden dark-lore, an aspirant to-be performs a ritual that extracts the soul/'life force' from it's body and places it in a phylactery. This object, often in narrative is usually an ornament of value to the Lich in it's past life, barring that- it's usually appearance-wise on par with the like of a reliquary, a small sealed box with bindings on it with varied iconography, sometimes with an item inside. This transformation process in tabletop tradition is left vague but given implication it is an evil act- though many sources have gone on to explain and detail the likes of such a transformation.

After culminating the ritual with the caster's death and subsequent reanimation, that sometimes follows a brief period of inactivity- the Lich comes to be. The Lich features the unique benefits that the undead are privy to, and should the lich's physical body ever be destroyed, It will reform at the phylactery- though in older works- this has been limited to the concept of possessing actively present corpses to return to unlife, and this is possible so long as the phylactery remains intact. This makes liches nice persistent foes for a [[DM]] to throw at an adventuring [[party]]. Other benefits of lichdom include the ability to (un)live without eating or sleeping, giving the lich that much more time to 'get things done', though in some cases there is a type of maintenance that must be performed by the Lich for it to retain its hold on the world of the living, and in addition the Phylactery offers protection against various magics and effects that could be used to harm the soul.

The ritual/ceremony for becoming a lich (and many other applications of necromancy) tend to involve sacrificing innocents, trafficking with evil outsiders, using a freshly cut out heart of a sentient being, desecrating holy ground to perform the 'art', abusing the souls of the dead, worshiping evil gods, and generally being a bigger dickhead version of Prometheus in the grand cosmic scale- often with all of these examples playing into one another, so it's a given that over various mediums liches are generally of evil [[alignment]], especially certain since the proceeds to this state of being also accommodate the fact that turning into an undead creature tends to erase mortal trappings and turns its subject into something more akin to an unfeeling uncaring machine, but a person who neither eats nor sleeps and reforms after being destroyed can certainly do a lot of good given the idea it is part of a fantasy genre where magic can benefit people and one has all the time in the world to continuously develop it in a state of pure academia; depending on the setting, it may be possible to become a lich without doing anything irredeemably evil (or even mean-spirited) for the good of all. And even in some settings where Lichdom is in the general standing of- if the local citizens hear of it, an army is raised to combat it- because it is that much of a social taboo, there do exist good variants of this Undead creature.

To note- Phylactery use does not explicitly mean or make a Lich- a Lich- as this is fiction and at the most strained view of the concept, a Lich is fundamentally an undead/undead-like spellcaster who has extended their lifespan via unnatural means. Extended from this, unnatural may constitute unholiness or otherwise, something about the being that clearly earns it its name, due to it being a walking withered corpse missing its eyes, in place, unnatural glowing pinpoint lights presenting to an onlooker clear negative visual stimuli.

==Liches in Dungeons and Dragons==
[[File:Osterneth the Bronze Lich.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A rare example of a female lich.]]
Liches have always been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons, following through the tabletop system and its settings and editions continuously up to the 5th edition as a part of the lore as deities, adversaries, characters in novels, and more with later editions featured as playable options for players seeking means to retire his/her characters ingame- through OD&D-AD&D to 2e, and 3.5, liches have followed a progressive evolution in form, functionality and inclusion, peaking at 3.5 before 4e came in and returned the state of this creature to its older rules and regulations in the first edition, as an evil undead creature that maintains its imperfect immortality through the consumption of souls.

Back in 2e D&D, liches came in multiple types depending on what kind of magic was used to create them. Your common lich was a former wizard, with separate stats in other splats for clerical, bardic and psionic liches.

==Liches in Pathfinder==

==Liches in Warcraft and World of Warcraft==
The first Lich of the setting is the Lich King, created by kil'jaeden after merging the tortured soul of the former Warchief and shaman Ner'zhul into a set of armor and the runeblade Frostmourne, then encasing it inside a magical ice-crystal.

Other Lich like Kel'thuzard, a former necromancer was created by Arthas after he invaded warcraft elf-land and dump the said necromancer's ashes into the magical waters of the Sunwell (with a bit help from a burning legion dreadlord Tichondrius). They go on to create more liches, both from orcs amd humans, but this process is rather unclear. A few bit of information states that one has to commit suicide, and the involvement of a higher being (Lich King or Kel'thuzad for example) is neccessary for their ascension.
Liches are seen as evil by both the Horde and the Alliance.
It should also be noted that the first sentient undeads of the setting were the Death Knights created by Gul'dan, which shared a similar process of creation with the mainstray lich. The soul of an orc warlock was sealed within a gem, and that gem was then placed on the body of a slain human knight. The process was fuelled by the sacrifice of a few dozen orc necrolytes.

==Liches in Mythology==
Russian mythology brings us Koschei the deathless, an archetypal lich with a rather original way of storing his phylactery. Koschei's soul is hidden in a needle, which is hidden in an egg, which is hidden in a hare, which is hidden in a duck; all of this in a locked chest buried under a tree on the Russian equivalent of Atlantis. Aside from his original fusion of magical, culinary, and geographic defenses, he also differs from most liches in that he kidnaps princesses instead of studying magic all the time like a [[Thousand Sons|fucking nerd.]] Is the namesake for [[Kostchtchie]].

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==

==Lich Variants==

===Archlich===
A lich who took longer to become a lich, and has a diminished spellcasting capacity (some spell-like abilities and '''9''' spells from their original spellbook) but isn't evil in the trade-off. Introduced in [[Spelljammer]], but mostly ignored by later settings and editions (except for a mention in Monsters of Faerûn), up until it got to be an [[Epic Destiny]] in [[4e]].

===Baelnorn===
A good-aligned [[elf]] lich, created willingly from an elf who wants to be undead only to guard something very important or who wants to stick around beyond death to keep watch over their family.

===Boneclaw===
In fifth edition, boneclaws are the result of a failed attempt to become a lich. If the soul fails to go into the phylactery, it instead binds to a random evil humanoid, whom the boneclaw becomes enslaved to. The boneclaw is permanently destroyed only when the humanoid it is bonded with dies or stops being evil. This connection is a complete 5e retcon; boneclaws first appeared as a fairly generic-fluffed undead mook in the [[Monster Manual]] 3 for 3rd edition, and were refluffed an [[undead]] [[construct]] created by [[hag]]s, using the assembled carcasses of [[ogre]]s and trapping the spirit of a slain [[oni]] in it for brains/motivation, in 4e's MM1.

===[[Death Knight]]===
Essentially the [[gish]] version of a lich, an undead warrior-wizard. Originally just the next step up from the skeleton warrior by gaining some increased HD and spell-like abilities, they got more lich-like in 4th edition, complete with their chosen weapons doubling as their phylacteries. In 5th, a Death Knight is what happens when an evil paladin dies. Everytime they die, they come back again until they atone for their sins. Which is completely optional.

===Deathless===
A race of goodly lich-like undead created in 3rd edition for the [[Eberron]] setting. They're fueled by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy and are basically "reverse liches".

===Demilich/Demi-Lich===
A lich who derped around for so long that his body is just a flying bit of skeleton (usually a skull) full of soul gems. Despite their small size, they're much nastier than a normal lich; their spellcasting is even stronger, they have oodles of opportunities to cast Soul Trap and bone you, and they like to fly juuuust out of players' easy reach. They are also immune to most spells and magical effects, except for a few holy-powered ones and one derpy second-level spell called ''shatter'' that screws them something fierce by blowing out their soul gems. Their lore's flipflopped between editions, going from the next step in lichly evolution to a weakened form caused when a lich either gets too bored with existence ([[Pathfinder]]), or fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after a long time, but that some [[Tomb of Horrors|like the infamous Acererak]] prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

===[[Dracolich]]===
Lichified [[dragon]]s, mostly associated with the crazy Cult of the Dragon from [[Forgotten Realms]] who want to create dracoliches to rule the world. They still have phylacteries, but need to possess a dragon's physical remains to come back rather than just regenerating.

===Drow===
[[Drow]] and [[Drider]]s got their own lichly variants back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], due to that ruleset not being able to handle slapping templates on existing creatures.

===Dry Lich===
Basically a mummy lich, and the ultimate result of the "walker in the waste" prestige class. Can't be good aligned, but doesn't have to be evil aligned either. They also get some cute Con-draining and desiccating attacks liches don't, and ''five'' phylacteries in the form of canoptic jars containing their organs, all on top of getting the template for free as part of their advancement.

===Fireliches===
They come from the [[Spelljammer]] setting and are what happens when an idiot [[wizard]] undergoing the lich transition ritual casts a fire spell in the Phlogiston... which is, essentially, an entire dimension full of flammable gas. The result is a cursed undead who basically exists as a giant free-floating sapient fireball with a skull in its center. [[Grimdark|Said skull is perpetually screaming in pain, as their existence is one of endless burning torment from the fire engulfing their very soul.]] They have the bad habit of crashing into spelljammers like sapient missiles in a futile attempt to end their tortured unlife.

===Grey Shivers===
Spiders that take up residence inside the skulls of destroyed liches, and absorb fragments of the lich's soul, turning them into sapient, spell-casting monsters. Whilst still being little spiders hiding inside skulls.

===Illithiliches===
Sometimes synonymous with Alhoons. These are [[Mind Flayer]] liches, and the inevitable result of any illithid that chooses to abandon the Elder Brain, as they're all ''terrified'' of the idea of ceasing to exist after death. 5e distinguishes them from alhoons, with illithiliches being the much-more-powerful and dangerous version and alhoons being illithids who were not powerful enough to become illithiliches and so took an alternative method of becoming undead to escape death.

===Inheritor Liches===
Hailing from the [[Red Steel]] setting, they are what happens when one of the local Inheritors turns into a lich.

===Master Liches===
Another [[Spelljammer]] creation, they were turned into liches by pacts with [[Demon Prince]]s or [[Arch-Devil]]s, but then betrayed their master and fled into Wildspace to avoid paying their debt. The big difference is that they don't have a phylactery, but have a fairly potent regeneration ability.

===Power Liches===
In the world of [[Might and Magic]], they were the long skirted bone dudes, who were the only shooters of the Necropolis town. And they were such badass shooters. They appeared in Might and magic 7 as well.

===Scroll Mummy (Grisgol)===
A construct created by destroying a lich's body and then trapping its phylactery inside of a construct made out of broken magic items and pieces of magic scrolls. The lich will reform in a few days if the Scroll Mummy is destroyed.

===Suel Liches===
Originally from [[Greyhawk]], they are a sort of lich-wraith hybrid; in their natural state, they're immaterial beings of pure Negative Energy, the twisted souls of wizards slain by the Rain of Colorless Fire, so they possess living hosts to interact with the world around them. But, said body decays at a rapid pace, until eventually it crumbles into nothing and they gotta grab a new one.

===Vassalich===
A lesser form of lich introduced in the [[Ravenloft]] setting - mages who couldn't get the mojo to transform themselves, so they sold themselves as slaves to existing liches and became weaker knock-offs. They can turn into real liches, in time, but it's not easy and their masters keep a tight grip on them.

==List of Famous Liches==
* Acererak: Creator of the Tomb of Horrors/Tomb of Annihilation.
* Erandis d'Vol: Probably better known as Lady Vol or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of both the [[Blood of Vol]] and the Emerald Claw.
* Koschei: A character from Slavic folklore who is much older than the concept of a lich but matches the description of one. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside a chest under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life.
* Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown: Villain protagonist of the anime Overlord. Was a gaming nerd and a salaryman who got trapped in the body of his character and sent to another world with all of his treasures and loyal minions.
* Nagash: one of the villains of Warhammer Fantasy. Why else would you read this page?
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the Githyanki
* Vecna: Lich who became a god.
* Voldemort: Villain of Harry Potter. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects to keep him alive.
* Xykon: The big bad of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, or at least thinks he is. Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Lich.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The MGE's take on the lich-as-monstergirl.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Whilst being one of the two most famous free-willed undead - the other being the [[vampire]], unlike their fellow "willful dead", liches are almost never seen in a sexified light. This probably has to do with the fact that, whilst the vampire has both obvious monster traits ''and'' a long history of being presented in a darkly eroticized light anyway, a lich is hard to define as anything more than an undead [[wizard]]. Not helping is that whilst even non-monstergirl vampires are traditionally portrayed as sexy, voluptuous women with red eyes and elongated canines clad in gothic dresses that flatter their figures, the traditional depiction of a lich is... a skeleton clad in moldering ragged robes. Worse yet, liches are usually depicted as being indifferent to their physical form - even Osterneth, one of the few named female liches of D&D, has her vanity end at plating her bones in bronze and studding them with gemstones.

This, then, presents a would-be monstergirl maker with quite the dilemma: how to actually make a female lich look sexy? Preferably without going the copout of either "they look just like sexy living women, but that's an illusion to disguise that they're skeletons" or "they just look like sexy living women and their lichdom manifests in their powers". Many ultimately go with routes similar to the [[Flesh Golem]] or [[Zombie]], relying on a "sexy preserved corpse" or "artifical" theme for the lich's body, representing how the lich's physical form is a shell that it can wear and discard as it likes.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the lich is presented as just a dead-eyed human woman with corpse-grey skin and an ominous-yet-sexy "wizardly" robe. They are described as being, essentially, pervy female nerds who turned themselves into undead so they could better study and master the diffuse array of perverse applications of magic in their world.

That being said, the titular Magical Girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are sometimes jokingly referred to as liches outside of the show. But there are some non trivial differences between them and D&D liches. For example if a D&D lich were to have his phylactery destroyed he would be fine until personally destroyed (and would fail to regenerate as a lich with a functional phylactery would). Magical girls from Madoka Magica on the other hand die instantly if their soul gem is destroyed. Also it's perfectly possible that Magical Girls might continue to age as humans do, despite Sayaka's claims of zombie-hood.

==See Also==
* [[Death Knight]], the surprisingly badass [[fighter]] version of a Lich.
* [[Drew the Lich]], a [[Quest]] where [[/tg/]] played a lich.
* The [[Millennial King]], a story and setting inspired by /tg/ speculating on what a good necromancer would be like. To make a long story short: he becomes a lich and leads his kingdom to an era of prosperity with a skeleton-powered industrial revolution.
* [[Deep Rot]], a skeletal supercomputer constructed by a mad lich.
* [[Dreadnought]], which, when a Librarian is entombed within, is basically a mecha-lich.
* [[Heucuva]], the lamer [[Cleric]] version of a Lich.
* [[Nagash]], everyone's favourite Warhammer lich.
* [[The Bank of Liches]], what happens when a bunch of liches decide to pool their phylacteries in a safe and secure location.
* [[Vecna]], a god that is a lich.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]]

Lich

2019-01-03T03:44:30Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: it's -> its

[[Image:KR_12_bard_lich.jpg|right|thumb|400px]]
'''Liches''' (from ''Leiche'', German for "corpse") are spellcasters, typically [[necromancer]]s who have managed to master their self proclaimed 'art' to cross the line between life and death, becoming undead creatures of immense mystical power. After decades of research, practice, gathering of rare-materials, spell components and forbidden dark-lore, an aspirant to-be performs a ritual that extracts the soul/'life force' from it's body and places it in a phylactery. This object, often in narrative is usually an ornament of value to the Lich in it's past life, barring that- it's usually appearance-wise on par with the like of a reliquary, a small sealed box with bindings on it with varied iconography, sometimes with an item inside. This transformation process in tabletop tradition is left vague but given implication it is an evil act- though many sources have gone on to explain and detail the likes of such a transformation.

After culminating the ritual with the caster's death and subsequent reanimation, that sometimes follows a brief period of inactivity- the Lich comes to be. The Lich features the unique benefits that the undead are privy to, and should the lich's physical body ever be destroyed, It will reform at the phylactery- though in older works- this has been limited to the concept of possessing actively present corpses to return to unlife, and this is possible so long as the phylactery remains intact. This makes liches nice persistent foes for a [[DM]] to throw at an adventuring [[party]]. Other benefits of lichdom include the ability to (un)live without eating or sleeping, giving the lich that much more time to 'get things done', though in some cases there is a type of maintenance that must be performed by the Lich for it to retain its hold on the world of the living, and in addition the Phylactery offers protection against various magics and effects that could be used to harm the soul.

The ritual/ceremony for becoming a lich (and many other applications of necromancy) tend to involve sacrificing innocents, trafficking with evil outsiders, using a freshly cut out heart of a sentient being, desecrating holy ground to perform the 'art', abusing the souls of the dead, worshiping evil gods, and generally being a bigger dickhead version of Prometheus in the grand cosmic scale- often with all of these examples playing into one another, so it's a given that over various mediums liches are generally of evil [[alignment]], especially certain since the proceeds to this state of being also accommodate the fact that turning into an undead creature tends to erase mortal trappings and turns its subject into something more akin to an unfeeling uncaring machine, but a person who neither eats nor sleeps and reforms after being destroyed can certainly do a lot of good given the idea it is part of a fantasy genre where magic can benefit people and one has all the time in the world to continuously develop it in a state of pure academia; depending on the setting, it may be possible to become a lich without doing anything irredeemably evil (or even mean-spirited) for the good of all. And even in some settings where Lichdom is in the general standing of- if the local citizens hear of it, an army is raised to combat it- because it is that much of a social taboo, there do exist good variants of this Undead creature.

To note- Phylactery use does not explicitly mean or make a Lich- a Lich- as this is fiction and at the most strained view of the concept, a Lich is fundamentally an undead/undead-like spellcaster who has extended their lifespan via unnatural means. Extended from this, unnatural may constitute unholiness or otherwise, something about the being that clearly earns it its name, due to it being a walking withered corpse missing its eyes, in place, unnatural glowing pinpoint lights presenting to an onlooker clear negative visual stimuli.

==Liches in Dungeons and Dragons==
[[File:Osterneth the Bronze Lich.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A rare example of a female lich.]]
Liches have always been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons, following through the tabletop system and it's settings and editions continuously up to the 5th edition as a part of the lore as deities, adversaries, characters in novels, and more with later editions featured as playable options for players seeking means to retire his/her characters ingame- through OD&D-AD&D to 2e, and 3.5, Liches have followed a progressive evolution in form, functionality and inclusion, peaking at 3.5 before 4e came in and returned the state of this creature to it's older rules and regulations in the first edition, as an evil undead creature that maintains it's imperfect immortality through the consumption of souls.

Back in 2e D&D, liches came in multiple types depending on what kind of magic was used to create them. Your common lich was a former wizard, with separate stats in other splats for clerical, bardic and psionic liches.

==Liches in Pathfinder==

==Liches in Warcraft and World of Warcraft==
The first Lich of the setting is the Lich King, created by kil'jaeden after merging the tortured soul of the former Warchief and shaman Ner'zhul into a set of armor and the runeblade Frostmourne, then encasing it inside a magical ice-crystal.

Other Lich like Kel'thuzard, a former necromancer was created by Arthas after he invaded warcraft elf-land and dump the said necromancer's ashes into the magical waters of the Sunwell (with a bit help from a burning legion dreadlord Tichondrius). They go on to create more liches, both from orcs amd humans, but this process is rather unclear. A few bit of information states that one has to commit suicide, and the involvement of a higher being (Lich King or Kel'thuzad for example) is neccessary for their ascension.
Liches are seen as evil by both the Horde and the Alliance.
It should also be noted that the first sentient undeads of the setting were the Death Knights created by Gul'dan, which shared a similar process of creation with the mainstray lich. The soul of an orc warlock was sealed within a gem, and that gem was then placed on the body of a slain human knight. The process was fuelled by the sacrifice of a few dozen orc necrolytes.

==Liches in Mythology==
Russian mythology brings us Koschei the deathless, an archetypal lich with a rather original way of storing his phylactery. Koschei's soul is hidden in a needle, which is hidden in an egg, which is hidden in a hare, which is hidden in a duck; all of this in a locked chest buried under a tree on the Russian equivalent of Atlantis. Aside from his original fusion of magical, culinary, and geographic defenses, he also differs from most liches in that he kidnaps princesses instead of studying magic all the time like a [[Thousand Sons|fucking nerd.]] Is the namesake for [[Kostchtchie]].

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==

==Lich Variants==

===Archlich===
A lich who took longer to become a lich, and has a diminished spellcasting capacity (some spell-like abilities and '''9''' spells from their original spellbook) but isn't evil in the trade-off. Introduced in [[Spelljammer]], but mostly ignored by later settings and editions (except for a mention in Monsters of Faerûn), up until it got to be an [[Epic Destiny]] in [[4e]].

===Baelnorn===
A good-aligned [[elf]] lich, created willingly from an elf who wants to be undead only to guard something very important or who wants to stick around beyond death to keep watch over their family.

===Boneclaw===
In fifth edition, boneclaws are the result of a failed attempt to become a lich. If the soul fails to go into the phylactery, it instead binds to a random evil humanoid, whom the boneclaw becomes enslaved to. The boneclaw is permanently destroyed only when the humanoid it is bonded with dies or stops being evil. This connection is a complete 5e retcon; boneclaws first appeared as a fairly generic-fluffed undead mook in the [[Monster Manual]] 3 for 3rd edition, and were refluffed an [[undead]] [[construct]] created by [[hag]]s, using the assembled carcasses of [[ogre]]s and trapping the spirit of a slain [[oni]] in it for brains/motivation, in 4e's MM1.

===[[Death Knight]]===
Essentially the [[gish]] version of a lich, an undead warrior-wizard. Originally just the next step up from the skeleton warrior by gaining some increased HD and spell-like abilities, they got more lich-like in 4th edition, complete with their chosen weapons doubling as their phylacteries. In 5th, a Death Knight is what happens when an evil paladin dies. Everytime they die, they come back again until they atone for their sins. Which is completely optional.

===Deathless===
A race of goodly lich-like undead created in 3rd edition for the [[Eberron]] setting. They're fueled by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy and are basically "reverse liches".

===Demilich/Demi-Lich===
A lich who derped around for so long that his body is just a flying bit of skeleton (usually a skull) full of soul gems. Despite their small size, they're much nastier than a normal lich; their spellcasting is even stronger, they have oodles of opportunities to cast Soul Trap and bone you, and they like to fly juuuust out of players' easy reach. They are also immune to most spells and magical effects, except for a few holy-powered ones and one derpy second-level spell called ''shatter'' that screws them something fierce by blowing out their soul gems. Their lore's flipflopped between editions, going from the next step in lichly evolution to a weakened form caused when a lich either gets too bored with existence ([[Pathfinder]]), or fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after a long time, but that some [[Tomb of Horrors|like the infamous Acererak]] prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

===[[Dracolich]]===
Lichified [[dragon]]s, mostly associated with the crazy Cult of the Dragon from [[Forgotten Realms]] who want to create dracoliches to rule the world. They still have phylacteries, but need to possess a dragon's physical remains to come back rather than just regenerating.

===Drow===
[[Drow]] and [[Drider]]s got their own lichly variants back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], due to that ruleset not being able to handle slapping templates on existing creatures.

===Dry Lich===
Basically a mummy lich, and the ultimate result of the "walker in the waste" prestige class. Can't be good aligned, but doesn't have to be evil aligned either. They also get some cute Con-draining and desiccating attacks liches don't, and ''five'' phylacteries in the form of canoptic jars containing their organs, all on top of getting the template for free as part of their advancement.

===Fireliches===
They come from the [[Spelljammer]] setting and are what happens when an idiot [[wizard]] undergoing the lich transition ritual casts a fire spell in the Phlogiston... which is, essentially, an entire dimension full of flammable gas. The result is a cursed undead who basically exists as a giant free-floating sapient fireball with a skull in its center. [[Grimdark|Said skull is perpetually screaming in pain, as their existence is one of endless burning torment from the fire engulfing their very soul.]] They have the bad habit of crashing into spelljammers like sapient missiles in a futile attempt to end their tortured unlife.

===Grey Shivers===
Spiders that take up residence inside the skulls of destroyed liches, and absorb fragments of the lich's soul, turning them into sapient, spell-casting monsters. Whilst still being little spiders hiding inside skulls.

===Illithiliches===
Sometimes synonymous with Alhoons. These are [[Mind Flayer]] liches, and the inevitable result of any illithid that chooses to abandon the Elder Brain, as they're all ''terrified'' of the idea of ceasing to exist after death. 5e distinguishes them from alhoons, with illithiliches being the much-more-powerful and dangerous version and alhoons being illithids who were not powerful enough to become illithiliches and so took an alternative method of becoming undead to escape death.

===Inheritor Liches===
Hailing from the [[Red Steel]] setting, they are what happens when one of the local Inheritors turns into a lich.

===Master Liches===
Another [[Spelljammer]] creation, they were turned into liches by pacts with [[Demon Prince]]s or [[Arch-Devil]]s, but then betrayed their master and fled into Wildspace to avoid paying their debt. The big difference is that they don't have a phylactery, but have a fairly potent regeneration ability.

===Power Liches===
In the world of [[Might and Magic]], they were the long skirted bone dudes, who were the only shooters of the Necropolis town. And they were such badass shooters. They appeared in Might and magic 7 as well.

===Scroll Mummy (Grisgol)===
A construct created by destroying a lich's body and then trapping its phylactery inside of a construct made out of broken magic items and pieces of magic scrolls. The lich will reform in a few days if the Scroll Mummy is destroyed.

===Suel Liches===
Originally from [[Greyhawk]], they are a sort of lich-wraith hybrid; in their natural state, they're immaterial beings of pure Negative Energy, the twisted souls of wizards slain by the Rain of Colorless Fire, so they possess living hosts to interact with the world around them. But, said body decays at a rapid pace, until eventually it crumbles into nothing and they gotta grab a new one.

===Vassalich===
A lesser form of lich introduced in the [[Ravenloft]] setting - mages who couldn't get the mojo to transform themselves, so they sold themselves as slaves to existing liches and became weaker knock-offs. They can turn into real liches, in time, but it's not easy and their masters keep a tight grip on them.

==List of Famous Liches==
* Acererak: Creator of the Tomb of Horrors/Tomb of Annihilation.
* Erandis d'Vol: Probably better known as Lady Vol or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of both the [[Blood of Vol]] and the Emerald Claw.
* Koschei: A character from Slavic folklore who is much older than the concept of a lich but matches the description of one. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside a chest under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life.
* Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown: Villain protagonist of the anime Overlord. Was a gaming nerd and a salaryman who got trapped in the body of his character and sent to another world with all of his treasures and loyal minions.
* Nagash: one of the villains of Warhammer Fantasy. Why else would you read this page?
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the Githyanki
* Vecna: Lich who became a god.
* Voldemort: Villain of Harry Potter. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects to keep him alive.
* Xykon: The big bad of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, or at least thinks he is. Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Lich.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The MGE's take on the lich-as-monstergirl.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Whilst being one of the two most famous free-willed undead - the other being the [[vampire]], unlike their fellow "willful dead", liches are almost never seen in a sexified light. This probably has to do with the fact that, whilst the vampire has both obvious monster traits ''and'' a long history of being presented in a darkly eroticized light anyway, a lich is hard to define as anything more than an undead [[wizard]]. Not helping is that whilst even non-monstergirl vampires are traditionally portrayed as sexy, voluptuous women with red eyes and elongated canines clad in gothic dresses that flatter their figures, the traditional depiction of a lich is... a skeleton clad in moldering ragged robes. Worse yet, liches are usually depicted as being indifferent to their physical form - even Osterneth, one of the few named female liches of D&D, has her vanity end at plating her bones in bronze and studding them with gemstones.

This, then, presents a would-be monstergirl maker with quite the dilemma: how to actually make a female lich look sexy? Preferably without going the copout of either "they look just like sexy living women, but that's an illusion to disguise that they're skeletons" or "they just look like sexy living women and their lichdom manifests in their powers". Many ultimately go with routes similar to the [[Flesh Golem]] or [[Zombie]], relying on a "sexy preserved corpse" or "artifical" theme for the lich's body, representing how the lich's physical form is a shell that it can wear and discard as it likes.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the lich is presented as just a dead-eyed human woman with corpse-grey skin and an ominous-yet-sexy "wizardly" robe. They are described as being, essentially, pervy female nerds who turned themselves into undead so they could better study and master the diffuse array of perverse applications of magic in their world.

That being said, the titular Magical Girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are sometimes jokingly referred to as liches outside of the show. But there are some non trivial differences between them and D&D liches. For example if a D&D lich were to have his phylactery destroyed he would be fine until personally destroyed (and would fail to regenerate as a lich with a functional phylactery would). Magical girls from Madoka Magica on the other hand die instantly if their soul gem is destroyed. Also it's perfectly possible that Magical Girls might continue to age as humans do, despite Sayaka's claims of zombie-hood.

==See Also==
* [[Death Knight]], the surprisingly badass [[fighter]] version of a Lich.
* [[Drew the Lich]], a [[Quest]] where [[/tg/]] played a lich.
* The [[Millennial King]], a story and setting inspired by /tg/ speculating on what a good necromancer would be like. To make a long story short: he becomes a lich and leads his kingdom to an era of prosperity with a skeleton-powered industrial revolution.
* [[Deep Rot]], a skeletal supercomputer constructed by a mad lich.
* [[Dreadnought]], which, when a Librarian is entombed within, is basically a mecha-lich.
* [[Heucuva]], the lamer [[Cleric]] version of a Lich.
* [[Nagash]], everyone's favourite Warhammer lich.
* [[The Bank of Liches]], what happens when a bunch of liches decide to pool their phylacteries in a safe and secure location.
* [[Vecna]], a god that is a lich.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]]

Lich

2019-01-03T03:42:23Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: it's -> its

[[Image:KR_12_bard_lich.jpg|right|thumb|400px]]
'''Liches''' (from ''Leiche'', German for "corpse") are spellcasters, typically [[necromancer]]s who have managed to master their self proclaimed 'art' to cross the line between life and death, becoming undead creatures of immense mystical power. After decades of research, practice, gathering of rare-materials, spell components and forbidden dark-lore, an aspirant to-be performs a ritual that extracts the soul/'life force' from it's body and places it in a phylactery. This object, often in narrative is usually an ornament of value to the Lich in it's past life, barring that- it's usually appearance-wise on par with the like of a reliquary, a small sealed box with bindings on it with varied iconography, sometimes with an item inside. This transformation process in tabletop tradition is left vague but given implication it is an evil act- though many sources have gone on to explain and detail the likes of such a transformation.

After culminating the ritual with the caster's death and subsequent reanimation, that sometimes follows a brief period of inactivity- the Lich comes to be. The Lich features the unique benefits that the undead are privy to, and should the lich's physical body ever be destroyed, It will reform at the phylactery- though in older works- this has been limited to the concept of possessing actively present corpses to return to unlife, and this is possible so long as the phylactery remains intact. This makes liches nice persistent foes for a [[DM]] to throw at an adventuring [[party]]. Other benefits of lichdom include the ability to (un)live without eating or sleeping, giving the lich that much more time to 'get things done', though in some cases there is a type of maintenance that must be performed by the Lich for it to retain it's hold on the world of the living, and in addition the Phylactery offers protection against various magics and effects that could be used to harm the soul.

The ritual/ceremony for becoming a lich (and many other applications of necromancy) tend to involve sacrificing innocents, trafficking with evil outsiders, using a freshly cut out heart of a sentient being, desecrating holy ground to perform the 'art', abusing the souls of the dead, worshiping evil gods, and generally being a bigger dickhead version of Prometheus in the grand cosmic scale- often with all of these examples playing into one another, so it's a given that over various mediums liches are generally of evil [[alignment]], especially certain since the proceeds to this state of being also accommodate the fact that turning into an undead creature tends to erase mortal trappings and turns its subject into something more akin to an unfeeling uncaring machine, but a person who neither eats nor sleeps and reforms after being destroyed can certainly do a lot of good given the idea it is part of a fantasy genre where magic can benefit people and one has all the time in the world to continuously develop it in a state of pure academia; depending on the setting, it may be possible to become a lich without doing anything irredeemably evil (or even mean-spirited) for the good of all. And even in some settings where Lichdom is in the general standing of- if the local citizens hear of it, an army is raised to combat it- because it is that much of a social taboo, there do exist good variants of this Undead creature.

To note- Phylactery use does not explicitly mean or make a Lich- a Lich- as this is fiction and at the most strained view of the concept, a Lich is fundamentally an undead/undead-like spellcaster who has extended it's lifespan via unnatural means. Extended from this, unnatural may constitute unholiness or otherwise, something about the being that clearly earns it it's name, due to it being a walking withered corpse missing it's eyes, in place, unnatural glowing pinpoint lights presenting to an onlooker clear negative visual stimuli.

==Liches in Dungeons and Dragons==
[[File:Osterneth the Bronze Lich.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A rare example of a female lich.]]
Liches have always been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons, following through the tabletop system and it's settings and editions continuously up to the 5th edition as a part of the lore as deities, adversaries, characters in novels, and more with later editions featured as playable options for players seeking means to retire his/her characters ingame- through OD&D-AD&D to 2e, and 3.5, Liches have followed a progressive evolution in form, functionality and inclusion, peaking at 3.5 before 4e came in and returned the state of this creature to it's older rules and regulations in the first edition, as an evil undead creature that maintains it's imperfect immortality through the consumption of souls.

Back in 2e D&D, liches came in multiple types depending on what kind of magic was used to create them. Your common lich was a former wizard, with separate stats in other splats for clerical, bardic and psionic liches.

==Liches in Pathfinder==

==Liches in Warcraft and World of Warcraft==
The first Lich of the setting is the Lich King, created by kil'jaeden after merging the tortured soul of the former Warchief and shaman Ner'zhul into a set of armor and the runeblade Frostmourne, then encasing it inside a magical ice-crystal.

Other Lich like Kel'thuzard, a former necromancer was created by Arthas after he invaded warcraft elf-land and dump the said necromancer's ashes into the magical waters of the Sunwell (with a bit help from a burning legion dreadlord Tichondrius). They go on to create more liches, both from orcs amd humans, but this process is rather unclear. A few bit of information states that one has to commit suicide, and the involvement of a higher being (Lich King or Kel'thuzad for example) is neccessary for their ascension.
Liches are seen as evil by both the Horde and the Alliance.
It should also be noted that the first sentient undeads of the setting were the Death Knights created by Gul'dan, which shared a similar process of creation with the mainstray lich. The soul of an orc warlock was sealed within a gem, and that gem was then placed on the body of a slain human knight. The process was fuelled by the sacrifice of a few dozen orc necrolytes.

==Liches in Mythology==
Russian mythology brings us Koschei the deathless, an archetypal lich with a rather original way of storing his phylactery. Koschei's soul is hidden in a needle, which is hidden in an egg, which is hidden in a hare, which is hidden in a duck; all of this in a locked chest buried under a tree on the Russian equivalent of Atlantis. Aside from his original fusion of magical, culinary, and geographic defenses, he also differs from most liches in that he kidnaps princesses instead of studying magic all the time like a [[Thousand Sons|fucking nerd.]] Is the namesake for [[Kostchtchie]].

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==

==Lich Variants==

===Archlich===
A lich who took longer to become a lich, and has a diminished spellcasting capacity (some spell-like abilities and '''9''' spells from their original spellbook) but isn't evil in the trade-off. Introduced in [[Spelljammer]], but mostly ignored by later settings and editions (except for a mention in Monsters of Faerûn), up until it got to be an [[Epic Destiny]] in [[4e]].

===Baelnorn===
A good-aligned [[elf]] lich, created willingly from an elf who wants to be undead only to guard something very important or who wants to stick around beyond death to keep watch over their family.

===Boneclaw===
In fifth edition, boneclaws are the result of a failed attempt to become a lich. If the soul fails to go into the phylactery, it instead binds to a random evil humanoid, whom the boneclaw becomes enslaved to. The boneclaw is permanently destroyed only when the humanoid it is bonded with dies or stops being evil. This connection is a complete 5e retcon; boneclaws first appeared as a fairly generic-fluffed undead mook in the [[Monster Manual]] 3 for 3rd edition, and were refluffed an [[undead]] [[construct]] created by [[hag]]s, using the assembled carcasses of [[ogre]]s and trapping the spirit of a slain [[oni]] in it for brains/motivation, in 4e's MM1.

===[[Death Knight]]===
Essentially the [[gish]] version of a lich, an undead warrior-wizard. Originally just the next step up from the skeleton warrior by gaining some increased HD and spell-like abilities, they got more lich-like in 4th edition, complete with their chosen weapons doubling as their phylacteries. In 5th, a Death Knight is what happens when an evil paladin dies. Everytime they die, they come back again until they atone for their sins. Which is completely optional.

===Deathless===
A race of goodly lich-like undead created in 3rd edition for the [[Eberron]] setting. They're fueled by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy and are basically "reverse liches".

===Demilich/Demi-Lich===
A lich who derped around for so long that his body is just a flying bit of skeleton (usually a skull) full of soul gems. Despite their small size, they're much nastier than a normal lich; their spellcasting is even stronger, they have oodles of opportunities to cast Soul Trap and bone you, and they like to fly juuuust out of players' easy reach. They are also immune to most spells and magical effects, except for a few holy-powered ones and one derpy second-level spell called ''shatter'' that screws them something fierce by blowing out their soul gems. Their lore's flipflopped between editions, going from the next step in lichly evolution to a weakened form caused when a lich either gets too bored with existence ([[Pathfinder]]), or fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after a long time, but that some [[Tomb of Horrors|like the infamous Acererak]] prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

===[[Dracolich]]===
Lichified [[dragon]]s, mostly associated with the crazy Cult of the Dragon from [[Forgotten Realms]] who want to create dracoliches to rule the world. They still have phylacteries, but need to possess a dragon's physical remains to come back rather than just regenerating.

===Drow===
[[Drow]] and [[Drider]]s got their own lichly variants back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], due to that ruleset not being able to handle slapping templates on existing creatures.

===Dry Lich===
Basically a mummy lich, and the ultimate result of the "walker in the waste" prestige class. Can't be good aligned, but doesn't have to be evil aligned either. They also get some cute Con-draining and desiccating attacks liches don't, and ''five'' phylacteries in the form of canoptic jars containing their organs, all on top of getting the template for free as part of their advancement.

===Fireliches===
They come from the [[Spelljammer]] setting and are what happens when an idiot [[wizard]] undergoing the lich transition ritual casts a fire spell in the Phlogiston... which is, essentially, an entire dimension full of flammable gas. The result is a cursed undead who basically exists as a giant free-floating sapient fireball with a skull in its center. [[Grimdark|Said skull is perpetually screaming in pain, as their existence is one of endless burning torment from the fire engulfing their very soul.]] They have the bad habit of crashing into spelljammers like sapient missiles in a futile attempt to end their tortured unlife.

===Grey Shivers===
Spiders that take up residence inside the skulls of destroyed liches, and absorb fragments of the lich's soul, turning them into sapient, spell-casting monsters. Whilst still being little spiders hiding inside skulls.

===Illithiliches===
Sometimes synonymous with Alhoons. These are [[Mind Flayer]] liches, and the inevitable result of any illithid that chooses to abandon the Elder Brain, as they're all ''terrified'' of the idea of ceasing to exist after death. 5e distinguishes them from alhoons, with illithiliches being the much-more-powerful and dangerous version and alhoons being illithids who were not powerful enough to become illithiliches and so took an alternative method of becoming undead to escape death.

===Inheritor Liches===
Hailing from the [[Red Steel]] setting, they are what happens when one of the local Inheritors turns into a lich.

===Master Liches===
Another [[Spelljammer]] creation, they were turned into liches by pacts with [[Demon Prince]]s or [[Arch-Devil]]s, but then betrayed their master and fled into Wildspace to avoid paying their debt. The big difference is that they don't have a phylactery, but have a fairly potent regeneration ability.

===Power Liches===
In the world of [[Might and Magic]], they were the long skirted bone dudes, who were the only shooters of the Necropolis town. And they were such badass shooters. They appeared in Might and magic 7 as well.

===Scroll Mummy (Grisgol)===
A construct created by destroying a lich's body and then trapping its phylactery inside of a construct made out of broken magic items and pieces of magic scrolls. The lich will reform in a few days if the Scroll Mummy is destroyed.

===Suel Liches===
Originally from [[Greyhawk]], they are a sort of lich-wraith hybrid; in their natural state, they're immaterial beings of pure Negative Energy, the twisted souls of wizards slain by the Rain of Colorless Fire, so they possess living hosts to interact with the world around them. But, said body decays at a rapid pace, until eventually it crumbles into nothing and they gotta grab a new one.

===Vassalich===
A lesser form of lich introduced in the [[Ravenloft]] setting - mages who couldn't get the mojo to transform themselves, so they sold themselves as slaves to existing liches and became weaker knock-offs. They can turn into real liches, in time, but it's not easy and their masters keep a tight grip on them.

==List of Famous Liches==
* Acererak: Creator of the Tomb of Horrors/Tomb of Annihilation.
* Erandis d'Vol: Probably better known as Lady Vol or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of both the [[Blood of Vol]] and the Emerald Claw.
* Koschei: A character from Slavic folklore who is much older than the concept of a lich but matches the description of one. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside a chest under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life.
* Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown: Villain protagonist of the anime Overlord. Was a gaming nerd and a salaryman who got trapped in the body of his character and sent to another world with all of his treasures and loyal minions.
* Nagash: one of the villains of Warhammer Fantasy. Why else would you read this page?
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the Githyanki
* Vecna: Lich who became a god.
* Voldemort: Villain of Harry Potter. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects to keep him alive.
* Xykon: The big bad of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, or at least thinks he is. Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Lich.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The MGE's take on the lich-as-monstergirl.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Whilst being one of the two most famous free-willed undead - the other being the [[vampire]], unlike their fellow "willful dead", liches are almost never seen in a sexified light. This probably has to do with the fact that, whilst the vampire has both obvious monster traits ''and'' a long history of being presented in a darkly eroticized light anyway, a lich is hard to define as anything more than an undead [[wizard]]. Not helping is that whilst even non-monstergirl vampires are traditionally portrayed as sexy, voluptuous women with red eyes and elongated canines clad in gothic dresses that flatter their figures, the traditional depiction of a lich is... a skeleton clad in moldering ragged robes. Worse yet, liches are usually depicted as being indifferent to their physical form - even Osterneth, one of the few named female liches of D&D, has her vanity end at plating her bones in bronze and studding them with gemstones.

This, then, presents a would-be monstergirl maker with quite the dilemma: how to actually make a female lich look sexy? Preferably without going the copout of either "they look just like sexy living women, but that's an illusion to disguise that they're skeletons" or "they just look like sexy living women and their lichdom manifests in their powers". Many ultimately go with routes similar to the [[Flesh Golem]] or [[Zombie]], relying on a "sexy preserved corpse" or "artifical" theme for the lich's body, representing how the lich's physical form is a shell that it can wear and discard as it likes.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the lich is presented as just a dead-eyed human woman with corpse-grey skin and an ominous-yet-sexy "wizardly" robe. They are described as being, essentially, pervy female nerds who turned themselves into undead so they could better study and master the diffuse array of perverse applications of magic in their world.

That being said, the titular Magical Girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are sometimes jokingly referred to as liches outside of the show. But there are some non trivial differences between them and D&D liches. For example if a D&D lich were to have his phylactery destroyed he would be fine until personally destroyed (and would fail to regenerate as a lich with a functional phylactery would). Magical girls from Madoka Magica on the other hand die instantly if their soul gem is destroyed. Also it's perfectly possible that Magical Girls might continue to age as humans do, despite Sayaka's claims of zombie-hood.

==See Also==
* [[Death Knight]], the surprisingly badass [[fighter]] version of a Lich.
* [[Drew the Lich]], a [[Quest]] where [[/tg/]] played a lich.
* The [[Millennial King]], a story and setting inspired by /tg/ speculating on what a good necromancer would be like. To make a long story short: he becomes a lich and leads his kingdom to an era of prosperity with a skeleton-powered industrial revolution.
* [[Deep Rot]], a skeletal supercomputer constructed by a mad lich.
* [[Dreadnought]], which, when a Librarian is entombed within, is basically a mecha-lich.
* [[Heucuva]], the lamer [[Cleric]] version of a Lich.
* [[Nagash]], everyone's favourite Warhammer lich.
* [[The Bank of Liches]], what happens when a bunch of liches decide to pool their phylacteries in a safe and secure location.
* [[Vecna]], a god that is a lich.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]]

Lich

2019-01-03T03:39:31Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: Correct tense

[[Image:KR_12_bard_lich.jpg|right|thumb|400px]]
'''Liches''' (from ''Leiche'', German for "corpse") are spellcasters, typically [[necromancer]]s who have managed to master their self proclaimed 'art' to cross the line between life and death, becoming undead creatures of immense mystical power. After decades of research, practice, gathering of rare-materials, spell components and forbidden dark-lore, an aspirant to-be performs a ritual that extracts the soul/'life force' from it's body and places it in a phylactery. This object, often in narrative is usually an ornament of value to the Lich in it's past life, barring that- it's usually appearance-wise on par with the like of a reliquary, a small sealed box with bindings on it with varied iconography, sometimes with an item inside. This transformation process in tabletop tradition is left vague but given implication it is an evil act- though many sources have gone on to explain and detail the likes of such a transformation.

After culminating the ritual with the caster's death and subsequent reanimation, that sometimes follows a brief period of inactivity- the Lich comes to be. The Lich features the unique benefits that the undead are privy to, and should the lich's physical body ever be destroyed, It will reform at the phylactery- though in older works- this has been limited to the concept of possessing actively present corpses to return to unlife, and this is possible so long as the phylactery remains intact. This makes liches nice persistent foes for a [[DM]] to throw at an adventuring [[party]]. Other benefits of lichdom include the ability to (un)live without eating or sleeping, giving the lich that much more time to 'get things done', though in some cases there is a type of maintenance that must be performed by the Lich for it to retain it's hold on the world of the living, and in addition the Phylactery offers protection against various magics and effects that could be used to harm the soul.

The ritual/ceremony for becoming a lich (and many other applications of necromancy) tend to involve sacrificing innocents, trafficking with evil outsiders, using a freshly cut out heart of a sentient being, desecrating holy ground to perform the 'art', abusing the souls of the dead, worshiping evil gods, and generally being a bigger dickhead version of Prometheus in the grand cosmic scale- often with all of these examples playing into one another, so it's a given that over various mediums liches are generally of evil [[alignment]], especially certain since the proceeds to this state of being also accommodate the fact that turning into an undead creature tends to erase mortal trappings and turns it's subject into something more akin to an unfeeling uncaring machine, but a person who neither eats nor sleeps and reforms after being destroyed can certainly do a lot of good given the idea it is part of a fantasy genre where magic can benefit people and one has all the time in the world to continuously develop it in a state of pure academia; depending on the setting, it may be possible to become a lich without doing anything irredeemably evil (or even mean-spirited) for the good of all. And even in some settings where Lichdom is in the general standing of- if the local citizens hear of it, an army is raised to combat it- because it is that much of a social taboo, there do exist good variants of this Undead creature.

To note- Phylactery use does not explicitly mean or make a Lich- a Lich- as this is fiction and at the most strained view of the concept, a Lich is fundamentally an undead/undead-like spellcaster who has extended it's lifespan via unnatural means. Extended from this, unnatural may constitute unholiness or otherwise, something about the being that clearly earns it it's name, due to it being a walking withered corpse missing it's eyes, in place, unnatural glowing pinpoint lights presenting to an onlooker clear negative visual stimuli.

==Liches in Dungeons and Dragons==
[[File:Osterneth the Bronze Lich.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A rare example of a female lich.]]
Liches have always been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons, following through the tabletop system and it's settings and editions continuously up to the 5th edition as a part of the lore as deities, adversaries, characters in novels, and more with later editions featured as playable options for players seeking means to retire his/her characters ingame- through OD&D-AD&D to 2e, and 3.5, Liches have followed a progressive evolution in form, functionality and inclusion, peaking at 3.5 before 4e came in and returned the state of this creature to it's older rules and regulations in the first edition, as an evil undead creature that maintains it's imperfect immortality through the consumption of souls.

Back in 2e D&D, liches came in multiple types depending on what kind of magic was used to create them. Your common lich was a former wizard, with separate stats in other splats for clerical, bardic and psionic liches.

==Liches in Pathfinder==

==Liches in Warcraft and World of Warcraft==
The first Lich of the setting is the Lich King, created by kil'jaeden after merging the tortured soul of the former Warchief and shaman Ner'zhul into a set of armor and the runeblade Frostmourne, then encasing it inside a magical ice-crystal.

Other Lich like Kel'thuzard, a former necromancer was created by Arthas after he invaded warcraft elf-land and dump the said necromancer's ashes into the magical waters of the Sunwell (with a bit help from a burning legion dreadlord Tichondrius). They go on to create more liches, both from orcs amd humans, but this process is rather unclear. A few bit of information states that one has to commit suicide, and the involvement of a higher being (Lich King or Kel'thuzad for example) is neccessary for their ascension.
Liches are seen as evil by both the Horde and the Alliance.
It should also be noted that the first sentient undeads of the setting were the Death Knights created by Gul'dan, which shared a similar process of creation with the mainstray lich. The soul of an orc warlock was sealed within a gem, and that gem was then placed on the body of a slain human knight. The process was fuelled by the sacrifice of a few dozen orc necrolytes.

==Liches in Mythology==
Russian mythology brings us Koschei the deathless, an archetypal lich with a rather original way of storing his phylactery. Koschei's soul is hidden in a needle, which is hidden in an egg, which is hidden in a hare, which is hidden in a duck; all of this in a locked chest buried under a tree on the Russian equivalent of Atlantis. Aside from his original fusion of magical, culinary, and geographic defenses, he also differs from most liches in that he kidnaps princesses instead of studying magic all the time like a [[Thousand Sons|fucking nerd.]] Is the namesake for [[Kostchtchie]].

==Liches in the Elder Scrolls==

==Lich Variants==

===Archlich===
A lich who took longer to become a lich, and has a diminished spellcasting capacity (some spell-like abilities and '''9''' spells from their original spellbook) but isn't evil in the trade-off. Introduced in [[Spelljammer]], but mostly ignored by later settings and editions (except for a mention in Monsters of Faerûn), up until it got to be an [[Epic Destiny]] in [[4e]].

===Baelnorn===
A good-aligned [[elf]] lich, created willingly from an elf who wants to be undead only to guard something very important or who wants to stick around beyond death to keep watch over their family.

===Boneclaw===
In fifth edition, boneclaws are the result of a failed attempt to become a lich. If the soul fails to go into the phylactery, it instead binds to a random evil humanoid, whom the boneclaw becomes enslaved to. The boneclaw is permanently destroyed only when the humanoid it is bonded with dies or stops being evil. This connection is a complete 5e retcon; boneclaws first appeared as a fairly generic-fluffed undead mook in the [[Monster Manual]] 3 for 3rd edition, and were refluffed an [[undead]] [[construct]] created by [[hag]]s, using the assembled carcasses of [[ogre]]s and trapping the spirit of a slain [[oni]] in it for brains/motivation, in 4e's MM1.

===[[Death Knight]]===
Essentially the [[gish]] version of a lich, an undead warrior-wizard. Originally just the next step up from the skeleton warrior by gaining some increased HD and spell-like abilities, they got more lich-like in 4th edition, complete with their chosen weapons doubling as their phylacteries. In 5th, a Death Knight is what happens when an evil paladin dies. Everytime they die, they come back again until they atone for their sins. Which is completely optional.

===Deathless===
A race of goodly lich-like undead created in 3rd edition for the [[Eberron]] setting. They're fueled by Positive Energy rather than Negative Energy and are basically "reverse liches".

===Demilich/Demi-Lich===
A lich who derped around for so long that his body is just a flying bit of skeleton (usually a skull) full of soul gems. Despite their small size, they're much nastier than a normal lich; their spellcasting is even stronger, they have oodles of opportunities to cast Soul Trap and bone you, and they like to fly juuuust out of players' easy reach. They are also immune to most spells and magical effects, except for a few holy-powered ones and one derpy second-level spell called ''shatter'' that screws them something fierce by blowing out their soul gems. Their lore's flipflopped between editions, going from the next step in lichly evolution to a weakened form caused when a lich either gets too bored with existence ([[Pathfinder]]), or fails to eat enough souls. Fifth edition goes both ways, stating that most liches eventually become demiliches after a long time, but that some [[Tomb of Horrors|like the infamous Acererak]] prepare for this by fitting their skulls with gems that devour souls while their spirits cruise through different planes of existence in search of greater knowledge.

===[[Dracolich]]===
Lichified [[dragon]]s, mostly associated with the crazy Cult of the Dragon from [[Forgotten Realms]] who want to create dracoliches to rule the world. They still have phylacteries, but need to possess a dragon's physical remains to come back rather than just regenerating.

===Drow===
[[Drow]] and [[Drider]]s got their own lichly variants back in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], due to that ruleset not being able to handle slapping templates on existing creatures.

===Dry Lich===
Basically a mummy lich, and the ultimate result of the "walker in the waste" prestige class. Can't be good aligned, but doesn't have to be evil aligned either. They also get some cute Con-draining and desiccating attacks liches don't, and ''five'' phylacteries in the form of canoptic jars containing their organs, all on top of getting the template for free as part of their advancement.

===Fireliches===
They come from the [[Spelljammer]] setting and are what happens when an idiot [[wizard]] undergoing the lich transition ritual casts a fire spell in the Phlogiston... which is, essentially, an entire dimension full of flammable gas. The result is a cursed undead who basically exists as a giant free-floating sapient fireball with a skull in its center. [[Grimdark|Said skull is perpetually screaming in pain, as their existence is one of endless burning torment from the fire engulfing their very soul.]] They have the bad habit of crashing into spelljammers like sapient missiles in a futile attempt to end their tortured unlife.

===Grey Shivers===
Spiders that take up residence inside the skulls of destroyed liches, and absorb fragments of the lich's soul, turning them into sapient, spell-casting monsters. Whilst still being little spiders hiding inside skulls.

===Illithiliches===
Sometimes synonymous with Alhoons. These are [[Mind Flayer]] liches, and the inevitable result of any illithid that chooses to abandon the Elder Brain, as they're all ''terrified'' of the idea of ceasing to exist after death. 5e distinguishes them from alhoons, with illithiliches being the much-more-powerful and dangerous version and alhoons being illithids who were not powerful enough to become illithiliches and so took an alternative method of becoming undead to escape death.

===Inheritor Liches===
Hailing from the [[Red Steel]] setting, they are what happens when one of the local Inheritors turns into a lich.

===Master Liches===
Another [[Spelljammer]] creation, they were turned into liches by pacts with [[Demon Prince]]s or [[Arch-Devil]]s, but then betrayed their master and fled into Wildspace to avoid paying their debt. The big difference is that they don't have a phylactery, but have a fairly potent regeneration ability.

===Power Liches===
In the world of [[Might and Magic]], they were the long skirted bone dudes, who were the only shooters of the Necropolis town. And they were such badass shooters. They appeared in Might and magic 7 as well.

===Scroll Mummy (Grisgol)===
A construct created by destroying a lich's body and then trapping its phylactery inside of a construct made out of broken magic items and pieces of magic scrolls. The lich will reform in a few days if the Scroll Mummy is destroyed.

===Suel Liches===
Originally from [[Greyhawk]], they are a sort of lich-wraith hybrid; in their natural state, they're immaterial beings of pure Negative Energy, the twisted souls of wizards slain by the Rain of Colorless Fire, so they possess living hosts to interact with the world around them. But, said body decays at a rapid pace, until eventually it crumbles into nothing and they gotta grab a new one.

===Vassalich===
A lesser form of lich introduced in the [[Ravenloft]] setting - mages who couldn't get the mojo to transform themselves, so they sold themselves as slaves to existing liches and became weaker knock-offs. They can turn into real liches, in time, but it's not easy and their masters keep a tight grip on them.

==List of Famous Liches==
* Acererak: Creator of the Tomb of Horrors/Tomb of Annihilation.
* Erandis d'Vol: Probably better known as Lady Vol or The Lich Queen (to us at least. Not a lot of people know about her in her setting). She is an NPC in [[Eberron]] and is the leader of both the [[Blood of Vol]] and the Emerald Claw.
* Koschei: A character from Slavic folklore who is much older than the concept of a lich but matches the description of one. His phylactery is a needle inside an egg inside a duck inside a hare inside a chest under a tree on a mythical teleporting island. Good luck finding it.
* The Lich: An absolutely terrifying villain from the goofy world of Adventure Time. Is the personification of a nuclear bomb who seeks the extinction of all life.
* Momonga/Ainz Ooal Gown: Villain protagonist of the anime Overlord. Was a gaming nerd and a salaryman who got trapped in the body of his character and sent to another world with all of his treasures and loyal minions.
* Nagash: one of the villains of Warhammer Fantasy. Why else would you read this page?
* [[Vlaakith CLVII]]: Lich-queen of the Githyanki
* Vecna: Lich who became a god.
* Voldemort: Villain of Harry Potter. Although he is never called a lich, he is barely human because of how he split his soul into pieces which are placed in seven objects to keep him alive.
* Xykon: The big bad of the webcomic The Order of the Stick, or at least thinks he is. Is an epic level sorcerer planning to take control of a god killing monster. A charming psychopath who misses being able to drink bad coffee.

==Monstergirls==
[[File:MGE Lich.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The MGE's take on the lich-as-monstergirl.]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Whilst being one of the two most famous free-willed undead - the other being the [[vampire]], unlike their fellow "willful dead", liches are almost never seen in a sexified light. This probably has to do with the fact that, whilst the vampire has both obvious monster traits ''and'' a long history of being presented in a darkly eroticized light anyway, a lich is hard to define as anything more than an undead [[wizard]]. Not helping is that whilst even non-monstergirl vampires are traditionally portrayed as sexy, voluptuous women with red eyes and elongated canines clad in gothic dresses that flatter their figures, the traditional depiction of a lich is... a skeleton clad in moldering ragged robes. Worse yet, liches are usually depicted as being indifferent to their physical form - even Osterneth, one of the few named female liches of D&D, has her vanity end at plating her bones in bronze and studding them with gemstones.

This, then, presents a would-be monstergirl maker with quite the dilemma: how to actually make a female lich look sexy? Preferably without going the copout of either "they look just like sexy living women, but that's an illusion to disguise that they're skeletons" or "they just look like sexy living women and their lichdom manifests in their powers". Many ultimately go with routes similar to the [[Flesh Golem]] or [[Zombie]], relying on a "sexy preserved corpse" or "artifical" theme for the lich's body, representing how the lich's physical form is a shell that it can wear and discard as it likes.

In the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], the lich is presented as just a dead-eyed human woman with corpse-grey skin and an ominous-yet-sexy "wizardly" robe. They are described as being, essentially, pervy female nerds who turned themselves into undead so they could better study and master the diffuse array of perverse applications of magic in their world.

That being said, the titular Magical Girls from Puella Magi Madoka Magica are sometimes jokingly referred to as liches outside of the show. But there are some non trivial differences between them and D&D liches. For example if a D&D lich were to have his phylactery destroyed he would be fine until personally destroyed (and would fail to regenerate as a lich with a functional phylactery would). Magical girls from Madoka Magica on the other hand die instantly if their soul gem is destroyed. Also it's perfectly possible that Magical Girls might continue to age as humans do, despite Sayaka's claims of zombie-hood.

==See Also==
* [[Death Knight]], the surprisingly badass [[fighter]] version of a Lich.
* [[Drew the Lich]], a [[Quest]] where [[/tg/]] played a lich.
* The [[Millennial King]], a story and setting inspired by /tg/ speculating on what a good necromancer would be like. To make a long story short: he becomes a lich and leads his kingdom to an era of prosperity with a skeleton-powered industrial revolution.
* [[Deep Rot]], a skeletal supercomputer constructed by a mad lich.
* [[Dreadnought]], which, when a Librarian is entombed within, is basically a mecha-lich.
* [[Heucuva]], the lamer [[Cleric]] version of a Lich.
* [[Nagash]], everyone's favourite Warhammer lich.
* [[The Bank of Liches]], what happens when a bunch of liches decide to pool their phylacteries in a safe and secure location.
* [[Vecna]], a god that is a lich.

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Undead]]

Tiamat

2019-01-03T02:54:57Z

2605:A601:91E:EF00:F4FF:CC0C:74C7:84D: /* Domain */ Correct case for conditional.

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Tiamat
|Symbol = [[File:Tiamat Symbol.jpg|200px]]<br>Five chromatic dragon heads in a circle, or a dragon head with five claw marks
|Alignment = Lawful Evil
|Divine Rank = Lesser God
|Pantheon = Dawn War, Draconic, Faerûn
|Portfolio = Evil Dragons, Wealth, Greed, Vengeance
|Domains = '''3E:''' Evil, Law, Scalykind, Tyranny<br>'''4E:''' Tyranny, Vengeance<br>'''5E:''' Trickery
|Home Plane = '''[[Great Wheel]]:''' ''Azharul'' ([[Baator]])<br>'''[[World Axis]]:''' Banehold, ''Azharul'' (Tytherion)
|Worshippers = Evil Dragons,
|Favoured Weapon = ''Dragon head'' (Heavy pick)
}}
'''Tiamat''', also known as the Polychromatic Dragon and the Mother of Dragonkind, is the goddess of Chromatic [[Dragon]]s in [[Dungeons and Dragons]], and was a centerpiece of the lore until [[4E]] was introduced.

==Genesis==
She was created alongside her "brother" [[Bahamut]] when the Primordial Erek-Hus slew Io, the father of Dragons. Rising from the corpse of her "father", she and Bahamut destroyed the Primordial, before turning on each other. Where Bahamut represents the nobility and sense of justice his father had, Tiamat represents his other characteristics: avarice, pride, arrogance, and the raw power to get away with it. Unlike her one-headed brother and two-headed father, Tiamat has five heads, with each head being of a different color (White, Black, Green, Blue, and Red). She has the abilities of all of the chromatic dragons, with each head able to use its associated breath weapon, on top of her immense physical size and a massive, sting-tipped tail, like that of a Wyvern.

==Domain==
She is a vain, greedy, lustful and arrogant goddess, expressing what would be extreme hubris if she weren't already a god. Though she is a paragon of dragon strengths, she shows few of their weaknesses; she is not impatient, nor overconfident (when dealing with other gods). Her primary concern is the propagation and well-being of chromatic dragons as a whole, ensuring her children become owners of the world. She believes this goal necessarily requires overthrowing the rule of Bahamut and establishing supremacy over metallic dragonkind. Like [[Anonymous]], Tiamat never forgets and does not forgive. Although she is not adverse to occasionally burning a village to the ground for the lulz, Tiamat is not exactly an up-front goddess; she is a long-term plotter and schemer, carefully manipulating others in [[Tzeentch|Tzeentchian]] plots that are so subtle and so long-reaching that an enemy would likely find themselves unprepared even if they had foreknowledge of what she had planned years in advance, making her a deity of [[Just as planned]].

==Dwelling==
Tiamat lives in the astral domain of Tytherion, a realm shared with [[Zehir]]. Her realm is Azharul, located in ravines and hewn out in the rock of Tytherion. Why the goddess of dragons lives underground and the lord of serpents in the highest reaches of the domain is the story of how Tiamat set up her realm. After her defeat at the hands of Bahamut, Tiamat took a liking to Tytherion and set up shop there, chasing Zehir's followers to their bastions and temples, large buildings build above ground, leaving Tiamat with the rest. Though they wage no open war, Tiamat is constantly scheming against Zehir, planning on claiming the domain for herself one day.

==Servants==
Tiamat's first and foremost servants are the chromatic dragons. About 95% of them serve their goddess in some way. Those who prefer a different deity have a grim fate waiting for them: in the depths of her lair behind a pair of 100' adamantine doors Tiamat has a collection of the souls of those chromatics sworn to other deities, locked up for eternity. Tiamat has recently begun to create the Spawn of Tiamat in notable numbers, who are born from the eggs of dragons instead of the regular wyrmlings, or from two Spawn of the same kind mating. Dragons who sire the Spawn of Tiamat consider it a good omen and a sign of Tiamat's favor to [[grimdark|have part-dragon monsters born instead of their own children born from their eggs]]. These are divided into five groups, based on their color: the Blackspawn who consist of strong raiders (and one type looking like [[Lolth|spiders]] for some reason), the Bluespawn who are mostly unintelligent beasts of war, the Greenspawn who are small(ish) ambushers who work best in forest and swamp environments, the Redspawn who are the Spawn's primary source of magic (fire magic of course), and the Whitespawn who gather in large numbers and excel at fighting in cold environments and clan warfare.

Aside from the Chromatics and Spawn, Tiamat counts a notable number of humanoids amongst her servants, mainly [[Dragonborn]] and other part-dragons, and [[Human|Humans]]. Most Kobolds worship individual dragons as gods, but the smarter ones who know about Tiamat might turn a tribe to her worship instead. The Queen of chromatic dragons demands reverence, homage, supplication, and tribute from her subjects. As a dragon, her hoard is believed to be worth ''trillions''.

Another thing of note is that Tiamat "likes" to "give audience" to mortals in her "inner sanctum". In other words, Tiamat [[Monstergirl|likes her some non-divine dick]]. Most of the time this means she fucks a chromatic that impressed her, but she's also known to have courted [[Exterminatus|catastrophic]], [[What|metallic]], planar and scourge dragons. Amongst her current fuckbuddies is a Dragonborn, though it's not mentioned if she takes her human shape before [[Furry|having sex with humanoids]].

==Depictions==
* In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Tiamat first appears as a unique boss-monster in the [[Greyhawk]] setting. Later, she has the first layer of the Nine Hells assigned to her as her 'home plane,' giving her Outsider status and the ability to avoid permanent death.
* In the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, she was powerful enough to kick the shit out of both the [[DM|Dungeon Master]] and the Venger, the show's main antagonist, giving you a general grasp of how goddamned powerful she is.
* When she feels the need to deal with mortals, she typically assumes the form of an exquisitely beautiful dark-haired human sorceress.
* In the [[Dragonlance]] setting, the goddess of evil stuff "[[Takhisis]]" uses a Tiamat form as her avatar and is essentially a slightly tweaked version of her.
* In AD&D 2nd edition, the [[Forgotten Realms]] campaign setting has a religion dedicated to her.
* In D&D 3rd edition, she's pretty much still the same, though she favors her natural, five-headed form.
** Her cult and an avatar appear in [[Red Hand of Doom]]. Pretty much all the dragon themed books have evil dragon stuff related to her.
* In D&D 4th edition, she is no longer considered a unique type of dragon, but always referred to as a goddess who happens to have a draconic primary avatar.
* In [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]], her cult in the Forgotten Realms attempts to bring her back to Faerun from the Nine Hells, which is the focus of the first major storyline, "Tyranny of Dragons". If your players ''really'' fuck up, the cult could even succeed. In a lot of ways this version is like the Dragonlance Takhisis, because if she actually succeeds and returns to Faerun, the first thing she does is eat all the Cult of the Dragon cultists and humiliate their leader Severin, who brought her back - despite them worshipping her - just because she feels like being a dick, again.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:TiamatDragon.png|Tiamat, Queen of the Chromatic Dragons, and about to fuck your shit up
File:Tiamat.jpg|Tiamat's humanoid form
Image:Tiamat_actionfigure.jpg|With kung-fu action grip
</gallery>
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[[Category:Awesome]]