A lich as depicted in Battle for Wesnoth.

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In modern fantasy fiction, a lich (IPA: /ˈlɪʧ/) (sometimes spelled liche, cognate to German Leiche "corpse") is a type of undead creature, usually formerly a powerful magician or king, who has used evil rituals to bind his intellect to his animated corpse and thereby achieve a perverse form of immortality. Liches are depicted as being clearly cadaverous (as opposed to the generally more appealing forms of vampires), their bodies desiccated or even completely skeletal. Liches are often depicted as holding power over hordes of lesser undead creatures, using them as their soldiers and servants, and thus are a threat both individually and as leaders of belligerent forces. Lich is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany. ... Long Island College Hospital (LICH) is a teaching hospital situated in Brooklyn, New York Founded in 1858, the hospital has 516 beds. ... Image File history File links Wesnothlich. ... Image File history File links Wesnothlich. ... Battle for Wesnoth is a turn based strategy game designed in June 2003 by David White. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 151 languages. ... For other definitions of fantasy see fantasy (psychology). ... Look up cognate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Undead (disambiguation). ... Not to be confused with Magic (illusion). ... The Fountain of Eternal Life in Cleveland, Ohio Immortality (or eternal life) is the concept of living in physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time, or in a state of timelessness. ... Further reading Christopher Frayling - Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula 1992. ...

Various works of fantasy fiction, such as Clark Ashton Smith's "Empire of the Necromancers", had used lich as a general term for any corpse, animated or inanimate, before the term's specific use in fantasy role-playing games. The more recent use of the term lich for a specific type of undead creature most likely originates in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893-August 14, 1961) was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. ... In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lich is an undead creature; a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ...

Historical background

The lich developed from monsters found in earlier classic sword and sorcery fiction, which is filled with powerful sorcerers who use their magic to triumph over death. Many of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories feature powerful wizards whose magic enables them to return from the dead. Several stories by Robert E. Howard (such as the Skull-Face novelette and the short story Scarlet Tears) feature undying sorcerers who retain a semblance of life through mystical means, their bodies reduced to shriveled husks which they manage to maintain mobile and active. Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, has stated that he based the description of a lich included in the game on the short story The Sword of the Sorcerer by Gardner Fox^[1][2].The term "lich", used as an archaic word for corpse (or body), is commonly used in these stories. Other imagery surrounding demiliches, in particular that of a jeweled skull, is drawn from the early Fritz Leiber story "Thieves' House". This article is about a fantasy sub-genre. ... Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893-August 14, 1961) was a poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories. ... Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936)[1] was a classic American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. ... Ernest Gary Gygax, 2004 Ernest Gary Gygax (born July 27, 1938 in Chicago, Illinois) is best known as the author of the well known fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), co-created with Dave Arneson and co-published with Don Kaye in 1974 under the company Tactical Studies... Gardner Francis Fox (May 20, 1911, Brooklyn, New York – December 24, 1986) was an American writer best known for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. ... Fritz Leiber portrait by Ed Emshwiller on July 1969 special issue devoted to Leiber. ...

In Roman Catholicism and the Church of England, the word "lychgate" refers to a covered area at the entrance to the cemetery where the casket awaits the clergy before proceeding into the cemetery for proper burial, "lych" being a word meaning body or corpse derived from Old English. In fantasy, the lich is an undead creature that was never buried in a grave. This is different from other types of undead creatures, such as vampires and zombies, which were buried and subsequently returned from the dead. The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[3] in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communions thirty-eight independent national churches. ... A traditional English lychgate. ... For people named Coffin, see Coffin (surname). ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon[1], Old English: ) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Further reading Christopher Frayling - Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula 1992. ... For other uses see Zombie (disambiguation) A zombie is a kind of undead, or figuratively, a very apathetic person. ...

The underlying idea of eluding death by means of arcane study and black magic can be traced to Middle Eastern folklore, and the method of achieving immortality by placing one's soul in a jar (which is usually hidden in some vast fortress) is suggestive of the burial practices of Egypt. This would make the lich a very-far-from-its-roots mythologization of Egyptian pharaohs. (For the Ancient Egyptians, the purpose of the mummy was to provide a place for the soul to fly back to; it was free to exist in both the afterlife and the physical world [the latter to commune with its descendants].) A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see Pharaoh (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Mummy (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Afterlife (disambiguation). ...

Eastern Slavic legends tell of a powerful dark wizard or a demon, Koschei the Deathless, who evades death by having his fiery soul placed in the eye of a magical needle. The needle is inside an egg, which is inside a duck, which is inside a hare, which is locked in an iron chest placed at the roots of a great oak tree on the magical island of Buyan. Koschei can be killed only by breaking the magical needle, which is much like the phylactery of a lich. This image is consistent with the modern interpretation of the lich, possibly marking it as the "truer" origin of the concept. In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter, the villain, Tom Riddle, wanted to extend his life so split his soul into several parts, storing them in precious artifacts special to him, creating horcruxes. The horcruxes had to be destroyed before Voldemort himself could actually die. The horcrux is thus similar to a lich's phylactery. Slavic mythology and Slavic religion evolved over more than 3,000 years. ... Ivan Bilibin: Koshchey the Deathless In Russian mythology, Koschei (Russian: , Koshchey, also Kashchei or Kashchey or Kościej (Polish)) is an evil person of ugly senile appearance, menacing principally young women. ... Buyan Island, by Ivan Bilibin. ... Phylactery can mean: The Greek term for a Judaic tefillin, leather boxes worn on the arm and head, and which contain scrolls enscribed with specific Biblical verses. ... Joanne Jo Murray, née Rowling OBE[1] (born 31 July 1965),[2] who writes under the pen name J. K. Rowling,[3] is a British writer and author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. ... This article is about the Harry Potter series of novels. ... Tom Marvolo Riddle is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. ... A Horcrux is a class of magical objects introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. ... Lord Voldemort (born c. ...

Liches in Dungeons & Dragons

Main article: Lich (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons game (and other works of fantasy fiction that draw upon D&D for inspiration), a lich is a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means. They are necromancers who are unsatisfied with the level of power that they currently have, wish for longer lives, and seek to unburden themselves from the necessities of bodily functions (such as eating and sleeping) so that they might dedicate every moment of their existence to the attainment of knowledge and power. Liches convert themselves into skeletal undead creatures by means of black magic and necromancy, storing their souls in magical receptacles called phylacteries. They do so to extend their lives in order to study the deepest levels of magic. With their souls bound to material focuses, they can never truly die. If its body is destroyed, a lich can simply regenerate or find a new one. According to the Dungeons & Dragons mythos, the only way truly to destroy a lich is first to destroy its phylactery, thereby removing its anchor to the material world, and then to destroy its physical form. Since removing one's own soul in order to evade mortality is against the natural order of the universe, and the process involved in becoming a lich is unspeakably evil, they are almost always evil-aligned (Vecna is a canonical example). Rarely, a lich can be good or neutral due to the events driving them to become a lich. They are among the more powerful and dangerous undead, and are frequently served by other undead creatures. A lich can only create one phylactery, which if lost can never be replaced [1]. In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lich is an undead creature; a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means. ... This article is about the role-playing game. ... In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, the lich is an undead creature; a spellcaster who seeks to defy death by magical means. ... Not to be confused with Magic (illusion). ... For other uses, see Undead (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Black magic (disambiguation). ... This article is about the general subject of necromancy. ... This page is about the core essence of a being. ... Tefillin, also called phylacteries, are leather objects used in Jewish prayer, containing Biblical verses. ... In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Vecna was a powerful wizard who became a lich, and eventually achieved godhood. ...

See also

• List of fictional liches
• Baelnorn
• Koschei
• Nazgûl
• Wight
• Wraith
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Main article: Lich Blizzards game series Warcraft plays host a number of liches who belong to the Undead Scourge: Araj the Summoner, Amnennar the Coldbringer, Ras Frostwhisper, Rage Winterchill and KelThuzad, who holds the position of majordomo to Arthas Menethil. ... Ivan Bilibin: Koshchey the Deathless In Russian mythology, Koschei (Russian: , Koshchey, also Kashchei or Kashchey or Kościej (Polish)) is an evil person of ugly senile appearance, menacing principally young women. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium, the Nazgûl (from Black Speech Nazg (ring) and Gûl (wraith, spirit); Ringwraiths, sometimes written Ring-wraiths), also known as the Nine Riders or Black or Dark Riders (or simply the Nine), are evil servants of Sauron. ... Wight is a Middle English word for a creature or a living being, especially a human being. ... For other uses, see Wraith (disambiguation). ...

References

External links

• A detailed description of liches in fantasy
• An article about the lich cards in Magic: The Gathering