Liches¶
"He is an arch-lich and suffers no rivals. He has several liches under his command, but will destroy any that become too powerful." — of the Necromancer Rodrizhal (S153)
A lich is a dead wizard who kept everything but his life. "Liches have their full personality, attributes, skills and memories from its life … The lich has its own mind and cannot be made into a servant except by negotiation" (S253). Alone among the corporeal undead they are "fully sentient" (S253), and alone among them they bind their souls into a phylactery from which they return when destroyed. The sources know three grades, the minor lich, the lich and the demi-lich, and one realm ruled by them, the Necromancer's Delvarn.
Making a lich¶
The Namakan rune-lore treats lichdom as an animation like any other, but with a price: "Liches require the physical body (restored to full health) of the person being animated. The soul must be fully present (dead with a few days or artificially bound to the body using Bind Soul)" (S253). The Runebinder's Animate form grades them Minor Lich, Lich and Demi-lich (S251); the rules live under Mechanics (Namakan Animate Form), the practice under Namakan Runecasting. In Delvarn the choice is not the wizard's: the Necromancer's Deathmongers "select living candidates to become Wights or Liches (or deathmongers)" from the townsfolk each town is required to offer (S153).
The grades¶
Minor liches are the lich's lesser kin and its servants' rank: the Necromancer's Deathmongers and Deathpriests "can be living or minor liches" (S153). A minor lich "is not able to have a Phylactery," and it is decaying: "they lose 1 health per day and they do not naturally regain health. They must be healed by magic that can heal undead" (S253).
Liches keep their minds entire and are "corporeal undead" whose touch paralyses (S253). The sources name a few. Rodrizhal, the Necromancer, is an arch-lich; his lieutenants are Tatruna, "Right Hand. Powerful Lich, about 20% of Rodrizal," whose phylactery he "has hidden well and moves occasionally," and whom he "likes immensely, but will kill her off once she reaches 25%," and Nul'Xenul, "Left Hand … About 5% of Rodrizal" (S153). His Crypt Sovereigns are "liches which govern a province within Delvarn … roughly about 11. Each one resides in and controls a Basalt Crypt (Large Tower that emerges from a mound of basalt)" (S153). The Baelim Necromages are "elves which were transformed into undead to avoid their corruption … They can still use magic, but from a different source (the Necromancer & their undead form)," working in towers animating the dead and forming "special corps in major battles against the Sancturi" (S153). On the coast of the Broken Sea, Koltric, "lich pirate lord wizard," one of the seven lords of Azmeran, "now resides in Marshford" (S361). In the Sancturi campaign the companions met Ix'ghol, a "broken Lich. Can talk, but just skeleton" (S176). Among the demonlords of the Demonlands, Cuoridaz the Necrolord keeps "a lich-like demon wrapped in iron coffins" to manage her undead reinforcements and necroforges (S336).
Demi-liches have shed the body. "The demi-lich has its full personality, attributes, skills and memories from its life … The demi-lich is incorporeal and has no physical body, but is bound it its phylactery which is an object to which its soul is bound" (S253). It "can move through solid material as if it weren't there, however it cannot end its turn inside a solid material," and "has no way of interacting with the physical world except with magic" (S253).
The draco-lich¶
Rodrizhal "defeated an Elder Black Dragon and turned it into a Draco-lich under his control (and he controls it's phylactery)": Druk'rhinatraz, the Black Draco-Lich, which "breathes a Necrotic Shock-cloud" (S153). It is described with its master on the Figures page.
The phylactery¶
"A Phylactery is where a Lich stores its soul. When the Lich's form is destroyed, they will reform at their Phylactery after 2d4 hours per health. Demi-liches respawn in only 1 hour per health. A Minor Lich is not able to have a Phylactery" (S253). A lich who has split its soul may keep more than one: "the Lich's soul is stored in multiple Phylacteries based on Split Soul or other equivalent effect. All fragments of their soul act as a viable Phylactery" (S253). Whoever holds the phylactery holds the lich: Rodrizhal rules his draco-lich by its phylactery and hides and moves Tatruna's (S153).
Gap
No source says how a phylactery is destroyed, what it is made of, or whether a lich dies for good when it is.
Earlier accounts¶
The register's older demonologies and compendia do not describe liches; the Namakan rune-lore of the Sancturi Imperium is the oldest account. It notes that liches, like vampires, are immune to the runes that herd lesser undead (S253).
In Play¶
A lich is met as a ruler, not a monster: the Necromancer "controls the area through his minions" and is "believed" to reside in "a large tiered citadel," and his goal is "the creation of life, to become a creator and permanently conquer death. He also aims to create a godless society of living and dead, where the gods are not relevant" (S153). Killing a lich's body buys hours; the phylactery must be found, and a careful lich keeps it where no one will think to look and moves it when they do (S153).