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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Garnfellow" data-source="post: 2199273" data-attributes="member: 1223">More thoughts on AsberdiesOn a hunch I checked out the Greytalk archives to see what ideas had been kicked around there on Asberdies. Sure enough, there were a couple of good threads. The odd, seemingly random placement of this super-powerful lich in the Underdark, with so few additional details, clearly captured many readers' imaginations.The fabulous treasure in his lair -- a crown, orb, and scepter -- suggests to many that he once a king. His placement in the middle of the underworld, seemingly random, suggests he may have lost his faculties, which by extension leads many people to view him as a semi-tragic figure. Some of the interesting theories that were kicked around include the following:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He was human mage who studied in the Vault of the Drow before becoming a lich</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He is a drow lich, perhaps in league with Eclavdra.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He was once a cruel tyrant in the Yeomanry, later overthrown by a rebellion and forced to flee into the Underdark where he became a lich.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He was a Suloise wizard who escaped the Destruction by fleeing into the depths of the Hellfurnaces. Maybe he escaped with a dragon orb, but was driven mad after losing the orb in a battle with a shadow dragon. Or maybe he was driven mad by paranoia, solitude, or having seen too many horrors in the Destruction.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He was once a mighty hero who fell into corruption and then fled into the depths in shame. (This theory is so detailed <a href="http://www.greycitadel.com/greycitadel/greytalk.nsf/%5Cgreycitadel/Greytalk.nsf/SearchResults/555F4364674F39AE8525671200231F29?OpenDocument" target="_blank">a link to the whole post</a> is worthwhile.) </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He is a lich on the verge of demi-lichdom, who has withdrawn almost completely from the world, and now lives on in a dream-like twilight, having forgotten most of his past and is now only barely aware of his surroundings</li> </ul>Personally, I'd just as soon keep as many details of his past wide open in the spirit of D1. I think it's safe to posit only that he was once a king or mighty ruler, but overthrown or usurped and forced to flee into the deep underworld. Maybe he was such a terrible tyrant he had to go to such extreme lengths to escape his enemies. In any case, this all happened so long ago that no one on the surface world even remembers his name now.All of this is pushing me toward converting him as a full-on 20th-level wizard, but one so detached from reality as to be nearly harmless, unless the PCs are so foolish as to try and steal his treasure or harm him, in which case his survival instincts kick in and he lay down a ferocious bit of lichy asskicking. This would largely be an EXTREMELY creepy, weird side-trek and chance for good role-playing. You have this undead horror, shuffling around in the dark, sometimes going completely comatose as his attention wanders to other planes, while at other times he is chatting away merrily with his many magic mouths, thinking they are real people and that he is still very much alive and back in his old kingdom, holding court. If the PCs are careful and clever, he might show them some hospitality, generously offering them bowls filled with dust and goblets of cobwebs. But he is extremely nutty and paranoid, and if the PCs should say the wrong thing . . . and given how nutty he is, the wrong thing could be just about anything . . . his pathological paranoia kicks in, and he sees them as his ancient enemies, or servants of those enemies. In which case, run away!</blockquote>

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