Is there a History of how the Phylactery and Liches came to be?

Questions
Is there a book covering the history of how Liches came to be? How about theories put up by players?
Do Liches automatically go insane over time?
Do they always turn skeletal?

Is there a book covering the history of the phylactery?
Was it given by a god/dess to a mage?
Did someone discover how to make one on their own?
Was it originally meant to the used the way it was? (Soul removed from contact with body and hidden elsewhere.)

Reason
What I'm wondering is if the phylactery was originally a public device which was inserted into civilians so they'd be revived in case of a tragic accident and someone else discovered it could do more, or that someone found a fully functional Auto-Revive System and tinkered with it to get what now causes a Lich.

Likely Answer
Yes, Liches were probably created by a mage in their laboratory for the express purpose of undead immortality or handed to someone by a god/dess, but does anyone know for sure?

The concept of the D&D Lich apparently came from a story by Gardner Fox, who is mostly forgotten now, but was a comic book writer who also wrote fantasy, and one was featured in a story of his, "The Sword of the Sorcerer"

(This was discovered years ago here, actually)

Not having read it, I don't know if it explains any of your questions.

a-d said:

Questions
Is there a book covering the history of how Liches came to be? How about theories put up by players?

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If you mean the in game lore, I'm not aware of one.

Hmm- on second thought, there might be something in an old Ed Greenwood Dragon Magazine article, actually; he interspersed tons of random lore in his Cult of the Dragons articles and so forth.

a-d said:

Do Liches automatically go insane over time?

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No; in fact, in 1e, they were immune to insanity.

a-d said:

Do they always turn skeletal?

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Without some sort of magic or item to prevent it, yeah- the body is dead and rots away. That said, the most infamous lich in my campaign world looks like the singer Paul Simon in about 1980; a young, fairly handsome man with short, dark hair and unremarkable looks. If you didn't know it was Dzaram, you would have no idea that he is a lich.

a-d said:

Is there a book covering the history of the phylactery?

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Not that I've seen.

a-d said:

Was it given by a god/dess to a mage?
Did someone discover how to make one on their own?
Was it originally meant to the used the way it was? (Soul removed from contact with body and hidden elsewhere.)

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No idea.

a-d said:

Reason
What I'm wondering is if the phylactery was originally a public device which was inserted into civilians so they'd be revived in case of a tragic accident and someone else discovered it could do more, or that someone found a fully functional Auto-Revive System and tinkered with it to get what now causes a Lich.

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Everything I've ever seen indicates that lichdom is an expensive and hard to perform process that requires the intentional death of the would-be lich, so I'd say no. However, AFAIK there's no solid answer to this.

a-d said:

Likely Answer
Yes, Liches were probably created by a mage in their laboratory for the express purpose of undead immortality or handed to someone by a god/dess, but does anyone know for sure?

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AFAIK the lichdom process was invented by the first would-be lich. Since the original 1e lich specifies "magic-user or cleric/magic-user" and makes no allowance for cleric-only liches, I'd say the theory that it was handed down by divine agency is probably wrong.

Outside of game lore, I was going to post that "separable souls" are a recurring theme in many cultures as a limited form of invulnerability for monsters. One creature might keep its heart in an egg and bury it underground. Another might keep its head in hole in a tree. Unless you destroy the body part or object that contains the creature's soul, that creature is typically invulnerable.

That might be where Gardner was coming from with the idea.

As for in-game lore, you could find one of these myths, then reskin it for your setting. Perhaps the first lich was a dark Odinesque diety.

When the god Ekos was new, the titans ruled the land. Chief among them was Harloc, the titan of Venom. One touch of his blood or skin would kill even a god. Luckily, it was said, he had a weakness. Ever paranoid, he had hidden his heart so that none could slay him without piercing it.

After many ages, Ekos found it, beating within a river of lava, deep within the Earth. One chop of his axe, and the age of the gods began.

As he grew older, and younger gods threatened his sovereignty, and their created races fed them worship energies. He knew that one day he might fall.

He found an old giantess, a half breed Titan who he had let live, and asked her where the Titan had been when he died, for he had not been there. She told him, and he paled to hear it. The secret she said, was writ on his flesh, in the ink of his own poisoned bile. She helped Ekos prepare for the journey.
She impaled him on hooks and attached the hooks to ropes. A thousand striges came and bore him up to the secret land high in the mountains of Elskunnar in order to read the secrets of Magic from the tattooed skin of dead titan of Venom. Even though the titan was dead, Ekos knew, one touch meant death.
As he hung suspended and weak for days, he read the tattoos. Here he learned the secrets as his lifeblood ran out. His hand faltered, and he grazed the flesh of the titan with his right hand. Death crept up his arm.

As he neared death he came to the part he had searched for. The secret of the Separable soul. He worked the spell, then bit off his own arm and dropped it into the mouth of the venomous dead titan. He became the first lich. Ekos the Caustic rules the shadows to this day, answering the prayers of every assassin, necromancer, and grave robber who dares call his attention.

IIRC in addition to Fox, there were a few stories by CAS that inspired the lich ("Empire of the Necromancers" perhaps??---it's been years since I've read CAS, though, so I could be off on the title).

One of Len Lakofka's first articles in The Dragon was "Blueprint For a Lich" in TD26, and it's still one of the best sets of guidelines for creating and using phylacteries IMO---worth checking out.

the Jester said:

If you mean the in game lore, I'm not aware of one.

Hmm- on second thought, there might be something in an old Ed Greenwood Dragon Magazine article, actually; he interspersed tons of random lore in his Cult of the Dragons articles and so forth.

No; in fact, in 1e, they were immune to insanity.

Without some sort of magic or item to prevent it, yeah- the body is dead and rots away. That said, the most infamous lich in my campaign world looks like the singer Paul Simon in about 1980; a young, fairly handsome man with short, dark hair and unremarkable looks. If you didn't know it was Dzaram, you would have no idea that he is a lich.

Not that I've seen.

No idea.

Everything I've ever seen indicates that lichdom is an expensive and hard to perform process that requires the intentional death of the would-be lich, so I'd say no. However, AFAIK there's no solid answer to this.

AFAIK the lichdom process was invented by the first would-be lich. Since the original 1e lich specifies "magic-user or cleric/magic-user" and makes no allowance for cleric-only liches, I'd say the theory that it was handed down by divine agency is probably wrong.

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Based on a quick wiki and internet search I would agree with most of this but not all.

Re: Insanity - I think he meant evil. The answer to "do they automatically become evil" I think it has to do with the nature of becoming a lich that it is an expressly evil act to WANT to do it, regardless if you succeed. Think Voldemort, he is a lich - had phylacteries and everything. You ARE evil if you want to do it at all.

I agree, as far as "nothing to prevent it" thing. A lich is a dead body that still moves, thinks, talks and functions. Unless it is kept from rotting it will.

Was it given by a god/dess to a mage?
Did someone discover how to make one on their own?
Was it originally meant to the used the way it was? (Soul removed from contact with body and hidden elsewhere.)

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About that..
Um, well, it all depends on the setting. In general lichdom isn't a boon bestowed upon a mage, it is something they work toward - sometimes taking most of their life so that they can work on their real tasks in an afterlife.
As far as I know, it (in a classic sense - non-DnD) is something that is known and takes years to accomplish. It is a dark art which mages simply should not do, but do in order to become immortal. Asking "if they discovered how on their own" is like asking about the origins of the first vampire. Some will say deal with the devil, others will give a story about infection from bats, or perhaps it was that he drank too much blood, or that hell spat him out, or god punished him, etc.

Re: Is it a public device - Where did you get that? I have seen nothing suggesting it is public, well known or partially accepted to have a phylactery - in DnD. Then again, in the real world, a phylactery is a charm, amulet or bobble used for protection so I guess they could have other forms. Or you could make other forms. But generally any device which houses a soul is going to be a rare, unique and awesome thing not just a random bobble.

[MENTION=95493]Tovec[/MENTION] "Insanity" to "Evil" is quite a jump. Anyway.

The Lich was one of the very first creatures ever introduced to D&D, way back in the original Dungeons and Dragons. At the time, they were exclusively "Evil". Most things were given definite alignments back then.

The alignment shift to Evil is not only due to the inherently Evil act of transforming into a Lich, but the process of gathering the necessary items to perform the ritual. In some editions, you need the blood of a good aligned infant slain by the potential lich, or some other such Evil ingredient.


Hilariously, 3.0 brought into existence the "Good Lich", which I personally abhor. The Arch-Lich (Good, divine casters turned Lich), and the Baelnorn (elven liches) are both good aligned, but generally weaker than an actual Lich.

grodog said:

IIRC in addition to Fox, there were a few stories by CAS that inspired the lich ("Empire of the Necromancers" perhaps??---it's been years since I've read CAS, though, so I could be off on the title).

One of Len Lakofka's first articles in The Dragon was "Blueprint For a Lich" in TD26, and it's still one of the best sets of guidelines for creating and using phylacteries IMO---worth checking out.

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And Conan's sorcerous adversary from The Hour of the Dragon. I think he qualifies as a Lich.

Gardner Fox's contribution is that he was, AFAIK, the first author to use the term "Lich" for an undead sorceror. Originally, the word just meant "dead person" or "dead body."

I think that Fox was using the word in the original sense and was just looking for an archaic word to refer to his undead sorcerer (lich instead of corpse.) Been a while since I've read Fox.

There are a lot of myths and stories about placing a soul somewhere else and allowing the "undead" creature to continue to survive even when its body is destroyed.

For example, the One ring in Lord of the Rings.

Sauron can not be killed permanently until his ring is destroyed.

Tovec said:

Re: Insanity - I think he meant evil. The answer to "do they automatically become evil" I think it has to do with the nature of becoming a lich that it is an expressly evil act to WANT to do it, regardless if you succeed. Think Voldemort, he is a lich - had phylacteries and everything. You ARE evil if you want to do it at all.

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Sekhmet said:

[MENTION=95493]Tovec[/MENTION] "Insanity" to "Evil" is quite a jump. Anyway.

The Lich was one of the very first creatures ever introduced to D&D, way back in the original Dungeons and Dragons. At the time, they were exclusively "Evil". Most things were given definite alignments back then.

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Just to clarify, in OD&D, Liches are listed under the alignments of Neutral and Chaotic (in . Chaotic implies evil in OD&D, but they can definitely be Neutral as well. AD&D codified liches as "Neutral (evil)". So, a bit of both, but definitely a strong Neutral component to them.

WRT OD&D alignments being more cut-and-dry, that's only partially true as well: since there were only 3 alignments (L, N, C), there was certainly fewer options, but many monsters can be any alignment (humans, storm giants, lycanthropes, etc.), but quite a number of monsters appears in L and N (elves, rocs, centaurs, etc.), or N and C (chimerae, ogres, giants, beholders, bugbears, etc.).

Graphing the changing alignments of monsters from OD&D to Holmes to AD&D would be an interesting exercise, someday....

DMKastmaria said:

Gardner Fox's contribution is that he was, AFAIK, the first author to use the term "Lich" for an undead sorceror. Originally, the word just meant "dead person" or "dead body."

I think that Fox was using the word in the original sense and was just looking for an archaic word to refer to his undead sorcerer (lich instead of corpse.) Been a while since I've read Fox.

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I think you're right on that one as well, but it's been awhile since I read Kother (or Kyrick?)