The Lich (Origins)

[kolvar]

As far as my dictionary goes, the pronounciation of litch is something like litsh.
And as far as the origin goes: You have a monster that looks like a corpse and you want an oldish name for it. Zombie etc is taken, walking corpse does not have the ring, but there is this one word, more germanic, more archaic: lich.

 

[tarchon]

He is the big inspiration for how necromany is presented in fantasy. His stories are full of the undead, including undead wizards and necromancers, and he often used the work lich as an archaic word for corpse. It's entirely natural that in the hunt for new D&D monsters, someone who'd read Smith's would think a undead wizard would be a cool foe. And if you have an undead wizard, and a sentence like "the lich walked towards me" (meaning "the corpse walked towards me"), it's an easy step for the word Lich to be come the name of a new monster. I'll have a re-read of his stuff and cite some specific short stories.

You're right on with this - it was used occasionally as a synonym for corpse, and as far as I can tell it was only in D&D that it became specified to an animated corpse. "Skeleton" and "shadow" developed similarly, but with those, people were aware that they already had more generic meanings. "Lich" wasn't invented for fantasy particularly, but it's rare enough that the generic meaning is not usually recognized.

 

[mmadsen]

I think the big infuence was Clark Ashton Smith.

Absolutely. His Death of Malagris (from 1934) involves a very D&D-style lich:

"Verily," murmured Nygon, "there is naught here to frighten or dismay us. Behold, it is only the lich of an old man after all, and one that has cheated the worm of his due provender overlong."

"Aye," said Fustules. "But this man, in his time, was the greatest of all necromancers. Even the ring on his little finger is a sovereign talisman. The balas-ruby of the thumbring of his right hand will conjure demons from out of the deep. In the volumes that lie about the chamber, there are secrets of perished gods and the mysteries of planets immemorial. In the vials, there are sirups that give strange visions, and philtres that can revive the dead. Among these things, it is ours to choose freely."​

 

[Psion]

How appropriate: thread necromancy of a thread about necromancy.

In addition to the above story, another was Empire of Necromancers.

 

[Shayuri]

As far as undead mages and liches...it's a convention of folklore that the key to immortality via the black arts is to place one's soul in a vessel other than one's body. Sometimes this vessel was a body part...which then had to be removed and stored separately. Other times it was an inanimate object. That's the origin of the "phylactery" at least.

There's all kinds of stories about sorcerors who remove their hearts, little fingers, etc...and can't be killed while that removed organ remains sound. Inanimate objects are less common, and more likely to be modern, but I'll see if I can't dig up any references...

It's worth pointing out that these undying mages didn't usually LOOK dead though. I'll see what I can turn up.

 

[frankthedm]

"Sticks", by Karl Edward Wagner, first published in the March 1974 issue of Whispers refers to an undead creature as a lich, later revealed to be a magic user.

Good story. Really recommend it.

 

[mmadsen]

How appropriate: thread necromancy of a thread about necromancy.

Fully intended, by the way.

In addition to the above story, another was Empire of Necromancers.

In The Empire of the Necromancers though, the "liches" are simple reanimated corpses, used for slave labor, not undead necromancers:

After a while, in the gray waste, they found the remnant of another horse and rider, which the jackals had spared and the sun had dried to the leanness of old mummies. These also they raised up from death; and Mmatmuor bestrode the withered charger; and the two magicians rode on in state, like errant emperors, with a lich and a skeleton to attend them. Other bones and charnel remnants of men and beasts, to which they came anon, were duly resurrected in like fashion; so that they gathered to themselves an everswelling train in their progress through Cincor.​

(Read the story if you want to see how they diverge from D&D's zombies; I don't want to ruin it for you.)

 

[mmadsen]

As you can see -- thanks to Google -- Clark Ashton Smith used the word "lich" in many stories:

The Stairs in the Crypt by Clark Ashton Smith
At first the partially-revived lich lay somnolent and unmoving in a numb and ... Suffice it to say that, in the fullness of time, the lich had recovered its ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/199/the-stairs-in-the-crypt - 27k

The Empire of the Necromancers by Clark Ashton Smith
These also they raised up from death; and Mmatmuor bestrode the withered charger; and the two magicians rode on in state, like errant emperors, with a lich ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/61/the-empire-of-the-necromancers - 27k

The Last Hieroglyph by Clark Ashton Smith
Terror quickened in Nushain's heart, and it came to him that the shrouded shape, whether lich or phantom, resembled the weird, invasive hieroglyph that had ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/111/the-last-hieroglyph - 43k

The Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith
"For," said Avyctes, "I have called up, in all the years of my sorcery, no god or devil, no demon or lich or shadow, which I could not control and dismiss ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/53 - 35k

The Abominations of Yondo by Clark Ashton Smith
Then, with one stride, the titanic lich took half the distance between us, and from out the folds of the tattered sere-cloth a gaunt arm arose, ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/2 - 21k

The Death of Malygris by Clark Ashton Smith
Behold, it is only the lich of an old man after all, and one that has cheated the worm of his due provender overlong." "Aye," said Fustules. ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/39/the-death-of-malygris - 34k

The Infernal Star (Fragment) by Clark Ashton Smith
He was close to the oaken library table, on which The Testaments of Carnamagos lay open at the lich-destroying formula, with the leaves weighted by a small ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/101/the-infernal-star-(fragment) - 68k

Necromancy in Naat by Clark Ashton Smith
So, in answer to the unholy rites and incantations of necromancy, Yadar arose to such life as was possible for a resurrected lich. And he walked again, ...
www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/151/necromancy-in-naat - 50k​

 

[Akrasia]

No one seems to be paying attention to what The Grumpy Celt actually asked. The origins of the word "lich" are all well and good, but what are the origins of the actual monster? ...

I read somewhere that -- irrespective of other possible sources for the 'lich' -- Gary Gygax based the D&D lich on a character from one of R.E. Howard's Conan stories (most likely Xaltotun from 'The Hour of the Dragon', but Melan might be right in identifying 'Thulsa Doom' as the character).

 

[ruleslawyer]

I recall H.P. Lovecraft used the word lich to describe an undead sorceress. (Dreams in the Witch House, maybe? I don't recall the specific story...)

The Thing on the Doorstep is the one that features the word "lich." However, it's being used in the standard context (corpse), rather than anything related to undead or spellcasting.

I'd say Thulsa Doom is more spot-on than Xaltotun. After all, Xaltotun has the semblance of a living man, and where not referred to as a living man, is called a "mummy."

IIRC, the Gods of Lankhmar are full-on skeletal beings, not merely skulls.

Finally, 11th level for lichdom is going back to OD&D, not 1e. In 1e, a lich was either a magic-user (minimum 18th level) or a magic-user/cleric (18th level in EACH). Scary, hmm?