Lich
Liches are the remains of great users of Primal magic who embrace undeath as a means of preserving themselves. No longer a living being, they have become a race unto themselves.
The secrets of becoming a lich have long been lost in the middle seas region. Only in the far reaches of the @western continent are there rumors that the tradition lives on.
Basic Information
Anatomy
A lich appears as an extremely aged humanoid. Depending on how long an individual has been a lich, they may have ceased attempting to cover up the slow decay in their eyes, and other areas of soft tissue, leaving just skin exposed.
Genetics and Reproduction
A lich is created by an arcane ritual that seals the essence of Primal magic in a magical matrix. This matrix is often associated with a magical item known as a phylactery. Doing so binds the essence to the mortal world, preventing it from dispersing after death.
A phylactery is traditionally an amulet in the shape of a small box, but it can take the form of any item possessing an interior space into which arcane sigils of naming, binding, immortality, and dark magic are scribed in silver.
Ecology and Habitats
Liches often withdrawl from the world due to the stigma of their transformation. While some are able to maintain the illusion and remain a part of society, most seek rather further knowledge through independent research.
Dietary Needs and Habits
A lich doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.
Biological Cycle
The lich has ceased living. Its previous biological cycle is replaced only by the cycle of decay of its current form. Once the body has reached a point of uselessness, the Lich is able, through Primal magic and the powerful magics used to become a lich, to form a new body.
Rumors persist of liches being able to steal a body, but this has never been proven.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Liches can see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic.
Perhaps most disturbing is that Liches can actually see the seal placed upon Zihæt, looking just beyond it into each of the inner planes and the ethereal plane.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Few liches call themselves by their former names. Instead they sever links with their families and previous identities, adopting monikers instead.
Major Organizations
Liches do not have any social structure or organizational structure. Instead they have been found in positions of power in many secret societies and powerful global organizations.
Common Myths and Legends
The myth persists that a lich must periodically feed living things to its phylactery to sustain the magic preserving its body and consciousness. However, on Zihæt the magical field is sufficient to sustain the essence trapped within the matrix of the phylactery.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
As this violates the natural cycle of life on Zihæt, there is a great stigma against liches amongst the native races and the powerful beings that came after the The Great War. Rumors persist of evil deeds performed by Liches outside of Zihæt. And though no known lich on Zihæt has ever committed such terrible acts, the risk remains.
Scientific Name
Undead
Geographic Distribution
Discovered by
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