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

[Iosue]

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."

Originally originally, in Old English, it simply meant "body, form", and combined with the prefix "ge-" (pronounced "ye") meant "alike", hence our modern word "like" to mean "the same", as well as the suffix "-ly".

This has been "This Word in Old English", by Iosue se Hragra. Góde níhte ond God bletsie.