Environment

Special abilities

Fight power 3 | Dark vision 20 | Aura vision 15 | Magic vision 10 | Aura invisibility 5 | Damage to magical beings 1 | Weapon invulnerability 2 | Protection from spirits 1 | Vulnerability to silver 1 | Evil essence 1 | Spell tolerance 3 | Healing tolerance 2

A true rarity among the undead are liches: once powerful sorcerers, most often necromancers, who voluntarily gave up mortality and transformed themselves into undead of their own will. With a dark ritual they separated their soul from their body and bound it to a magical focus, thereby gaining immense power and the ability to pass between the Interface and the True World. Apart from them, only some of the ancient vampires can do this.

A lich usually keeps the form it had in life, but its body bears unmistakable marks of death. Its skin is colorless and ashen, almost stony in harsh light. It usually wraps itself in dark robes that hide its decaying shell; from the shadow of the hood only the cold, motionless gleam of its eyes can be seen.

Only a sorcerer who has given himself entirely to the Darkness and knowingly sacrificed his own humanity in exchange for immortality can become a lich. Gradually he loses the last remnants of compassion and understanding for the world of the living, and of the scholar's mind only a cold will remains, striving for power, knowledge and dominion over death.

It surrounds itself with hosts of undead servants and spreads its influence from the safety of hidden residences. Many try to build realms of the dead or turn the surrounding land into a domain where life gives way to undead existence. A lich is a powerful wizard and commands above all necromancy.

Immortal Soul

The true essence of a lich lies not in its body, but in the object or magical focus to which its soul is bound. Destroying its bodily shell therefore only weakens it temporarily; as long as this bond lasts, the lich can rise again.