Lich
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- This article is about the undead creature. Lich is also a city in the district Gießen, Hesse, Germany.
The term lich comes from the Old English lic, (pronounced the same) which means "corpse"; an alternative spelling is "liche". The word is cognate with modern German Leiche, meaning "corpse"; for the linguistic background see lich on the German language Wikipedia.
In modern fantasy fiction, a lich is a type of undead creature, usually an evil magician. The usage of the term "lich" as a specific type of undead creature originates in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game; previous works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "Empire of the Necromancers", had used the term as a general term for an animate or inanimate corpse.
In old Roman Catholicism, the "lych" or "lych gate" is a covered area at the entrance to the cemetery where the casket awaits the clergy before proceeding into the cemetery for proper burial. As such, the suggestion as to the fantasy undead creature, the Lich, is of an undead creature that was never properly buried, never made it to the grave. This is different from other types of undead creatures, such as vampires and zombies, who were buried and returned from the dead. Since most religions maintain that only God or a god can bring someone back from the dead, there is also a suggestion of hubris in the idea of anyone but a deity reanimating dead. Hence, the idea of Undead is the idea of an unclean, unholiness.
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Liches in Dungeons & Dragons
In the Dungeons & Dragons game (and many unrelated works of fantasy fiction that draw upon D&D for inspiration), a lich is a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means. Liches convert themselves into an undead skeleton by means of black magic and necromancy, storing their souls in magical receptacles called phylacteries. In some sources the method of becoming a lich is referred to as the Ritual of Endless Night. The lich creation process is often described as requiring the creation and consumption of a deadly potion which is to be drunk on a full moon. The potion invariably kills the drinker but if the process is successful he rises again some days later as a lich. Occasionally, this metamorphosis occurs by accident as a result of life-prolonging magic.
Unlike most other forms of D&D undead creatures, the lich retains all of the memories, personality, and abilities that it possessed in life- but it has a virtual eternity to hone its skills and inevitably becomes quite powerful. Like other powerful forms of undead (such as a vampire or mummy), a lich has unnatural powers owing to his state. For example, he can paralyze mortals with a mere touch, and can, through force of will, summon other lesser undead to protect him. Liches can radiate an aura of horror which can send weak-willed would-be foes to flight. The lich is capable of sustaining tremendous physical damage, and is immune to disease, poison, fatigue and other effects that could not affect something which is not alive. However, despite all his undead "gifts", a lich's most valuable resources are his vast intellect, his supreme mastery of sorcery and limitless time to research, plot and scheme.
Since a lich's soul is mystically tied to his phylactery, destroying his body will not kill him. Rather, his soul will return to the phylactery, and his body will be recreated by the power keeping him immortal. Thus the only way to permanently destroy a lich is to destroy the phylactery as well. Therefore, the lich will generally be extremely protective of the priceless item. The phylactery, which can be of virtually any form (but usually appears as a valuable amulet or gemstone), will often be hidden in a secret place and protected by powerful spells, charms, monsters and/or other servants; the phylactery itself is usually of magical nature, meaning its destruction will generally be little easier than attaining it.
Liches are usually among the most powerful undead creatures in almost any setting in which they appear, and are one of the most powerful non-unique undead creatures in the D&D game. Several D&D gods were liches before becoming deities; these gods include:
- Vecna from the Greyhawk campaign setting,
- Velsharoon and the drow goddess Kiaransalee from the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
- Vol, chief deity of the Blood of Vol religion in the Eberron campaign setting.
- The githyanki lich-queen Vlaakith CLVII has been attempting to attain godhood.
Other well-known liches are Klaxx the Malign (from Dungeons & Dragons 2: Wrath of the Dragon God), Lyran (from Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II), and Deimos (the final boss in Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom).
Other forms of liches
Still in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, one can also encounter the Archlich, which is not, as the name implies, a more powerful type of lich. Archliches are good liches which are able to memorize spells through intuitive nature and do not need spellbooks; they also do not become demiliches (see below) but remain in their form for eternity.
If a lich exists long enough, it may reach a point where it feels it cannot learn any more in its present state and seeks other avenues to attain knowledge. The lich's interest turns away from the physical realm, and its soul voluntarily leaves its undead form and phylactery, using astral projection to travel across other planes of existence. The magics preserving the lich's body against the ravages of time weaken, usually causing the body to gradually deteriorate until only a skull or even a single skeletal hand remains; this advanced form of lich is known as a demilich. Despite its ruined body, a demilich is far from powerless; if disturbed, the skull will levitate and suck the souls from nearby living creatures. The most notable demiliches are Acererak, found in the classic adventure Tomb of Horrors, and Kangaxx, one of the most powerful adversaries in the PC game Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.
Other races also have their own special versions of the lich, which are not necessarily evil; for example, an Elf from the Forgotten Realms setting can become a baelnorn, or an Illithid can become an illithilich, also known as an alhoon; a powerful Beholder wizard can become a death tyrant. A dragon can also become a dracolich. Dracoliches are greatly feared, for they are far more powerful than ordinary liches. A dracolich that becomes a demilich would be an extremely powerful monster, even by dragon standards.
Liches in other fiction
Many other works of fantasy fiction have borrowed the term and concept of the lich from D&D to lend an element of supernatural fear to their cast or atmosphere. Such works include the computer and video games NetHack, Warcraft III, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, the Might and Magic, Final Fantasy, Tales of Phantasia, Warlords and Ultima, ADOM series of computer and video games, the Mage: The Ascension and Shadowrun role-playing games, and the novel The Scar by China Miéville. They also appear in The Kingdom of Loathing, but are featured as "lihcs" because they are found in the "Misspelled Cemetary". David Drake's Lord of the Isles series of novels used the term to mean the corpse of a drowned man, animated by magic, which can only be destroyed by smashing its skull. In the video game Disciples II, the most powerful liches are referred to as Arch-liches, though several other varieties of this term have appeared in other works. Andrew J. Offutt's Conan and the Sorcerer, a 1978 pastiche of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, features the Sand-Lich, Tosya Zul. The book series Rise to Heaven features the lich Soveliss, who chose the path of lichhood instead of succumbing to a life-threatening disease.
Other notable sitings include:
- The character of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series stores fragments of his soul in a very lich-like manner; evidence from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince spells this out. Whether or not he actually qualifies as a lich is a subject of debate, as his body is living, not undead.
- Skeletor, the primary villain of Masters of the Universe, could possibly be considered a lich, because he has a bare skull for a face and possesses extensive magical abilities. Since he was mortally wounded in his original near-human Keldor identity and then immediately brought from the brink of death and transformed by his former master Hordak's dark magic (although this origin only applies to the more recent, revised continuity), he may qualify as undead and uninterred.
- In the animated film Anastasia, Grigori Rasputin appears as a magic-using undead creature whose soul is held in an external container.
- Liches also appear as high-level Necromancer soldiers for hire in the popular Heroes of Might and Magic computer game series, where they act as the Necromancer army's only ranged attack unit.
- In the Warhammer world, undead wizards are known as necromancers rather than liches; a necromancer who fails, for whatever reason, to control the process of becoming undead becomes a ghostly wraith. A liche is simply a supremely powerful necromancer. The most famous are Nagash, the powerful "Father of All Undead", and Heinrich "the Lichemaster" Kemmler, the most feared necromancer in the Old World.
- In the Warcraft Universe, liches are undead necromancers and warlocks with additional powers over frost. The first liches were death knights and Orc warlocks under Ner'Zhul, who were confronted by Kil'jaeden after the destruction of Draenor. Ner'Zhul was offered a choice between serving the Burning Legion or eternal punishment. Selfishly chosing servitude, Ner'Zhul was then torn apart, and his soul was given great psychic powers and then placed in a tomb of ice that would later become the Frozen Throne. After his transformation into the Lich King, Ner'Zhul's minons were then transformed into Liches. Under the Lich King's power, their necromatic powers became terrifyingly amplified and were also granted magical control over ice.
- In the Magic: The Gathering card game, there are 3 lich-themed cards (Lich, Nefarious Lich, and Lich's Tomb). In exchange for paying with life points every time damage is suffered, they enable the player to pay with a different resource (either game permanents or cards in the cemetery). The player doesn't lose for having 0 life or less, so if used correctly, they can be very powerful.
- The "Undead Lich" plays an important role in Guild Wars, being the ultimate villain. His true identity is revealed once he has successfully tricked the storyline driven players into, without realisation, foolishly obeying his will.
- In Final Fantasy I, "The Lich" is encountered as one of the 4 crystal bosses, himself being the one of Earth.
Historical background
While this usage of the term "lich" is particular to Dungeons & Dragons and other modern fantasy fiction, the underlying idea of eluding death by means of arcane study and black magic is not. It can be traced to Middle Eastern folklore, and the method of achieving immortality by placing one's soul in a jar (which is usually hidden in some vast fortress) is suggestive of the burial practices of Egypt. This would make the Lich a very-far-from-its-roots mythologization of Egyptian pharaohs. It should be noted that the Ancient Egyptians did not fear death (they were not eluding death), and that the creation of the mummy was for the soul to fly back to; it was free to exist in both the afterlife and physical world (to commune with its descendants).
Eastern Slavic legends tell of a powerful dark wizard or a demon, Koschei the Deathless, who evades death by having his fiery soul placed in the eye of a magical needle. The needle is inside an egg, which is inside a duck, which is inside a hare, which is locked in an iron chest, placed at the roots of a great oak tree, on a magical island of Buyan. Koschei can be killed only by breaking the magical needle, which is much like a phylactery of a lich.
Like many of the creatures found in Dungeons & Dragons, the Lich was derived from monsters found in classic sword and sorcery fiction, which is filled with powerful sorcerers who used their magic to triumph over death. Many of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories feature powerful wizards whose magic enables them to return from the dead. The term "lich", used as an archaic word for corpse, is commonly used in these stories. Other imagery surrounding demiliches, in particular that of a jeweled skull, is drawn from the early Fritz Leiber story "Thieves' House".
There is also a melodic death metal band out of Brewster, Ohio called Lich.