An Undeath Worth Living - Can there be a good lich?
Hullo, my dear readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen comes from graham-cheshir. They say, “Here’s some asks on your ideas toward liches. How do you think one could become a lich without becoming evil? What kind of beings might offer the method of becoming a lich to mortals? And what means of fueling their phylactery could exist beyond feeding it souls? Curious what you come up with.”
I’m going to preface my article today by saying that I don’t like undead…at all. I mean, I love them as adversaries, because I feel that they’re villains through and through, and there’s no need for equivocation on it. I leave my tragic, pitiable vampires for White Wolf games and other styles of role-playing.
That being said, the idea of “Good” undead has existed for some-time. In earlier editions of D&D, there were entities in the Forgotten Realms called Arch-Liches. These creatures went through a process similar to a lich’s transformation and sacrificed themselves to an undead existence in order to protect and help people, rather than for selfish reasons. Likewise, there were the Undying ancestors of the Aerenal elves in Eberron. Whether they were good or not probably depends on how you think of things, but they certainly weren’t running around draining people’s souls and what not.
So let’s take the idea of an Arch-Lich and go with it. We will define an Arch-Lich as being something like a bodhisattva – someone who could move on to enlightenment but who makes the sacrifice and stay behind for the betterment of others. Perhaps they pledge to protect a bloodline, or a kingdom, or a holy relic, or a sacred site. Whatever their reason for staying, it must be one devoted to a good cause and not motivated by a selfish desire to continue their existence for their own sake. This is the only way I could imagine a lich-like creature not being evil.
Many beings might offer this arch-lich existence to mortals that they find worthy. Gods, especially gods of death, might assist in this process, as might their various angelic proxies. Very good beings such as holyphants, unicorns, couatls, and even ancient gold dragons might guard the secret. They will not offer it easily, and anyone who comes to them looking for the knowledge is likely to have to go through many tests and quests to prove their worth. But hey…that’s the kind of stuff campaigns are built around! Perhaps the one who seeks to be an Arch-Lich might even need to find and destroy a lich, bending its phylactery to their own needs.
Once the Arch-Lich takes its new form, you need to decide what fuels its phylactery, if anything. I think of the need to feed a phylactery souls to be a by-product of the very selfish nature of a normal Lich. They are stealing lives from others to fuel their own, and this is represented by the consuming of souls. If the gods of good want an Arch-Lich, it could be that they will imbue the undying champion of good with a touch of their own immortality, thus eliminating the need for anything to sustain them. In essence, they become like a messenger of those gods, immortal and partly celestial.
Alternately, if you want there to be something the arch-lich has to do in order to prolong its existence, perhaps they need to do great and noble deeds. The doing of these actions sustains them – in essence their own legend becomes what fuels their phylactery. It could also be that the destruction of other undead, demons, devils, and other incredibly evil creatures feeds their phylactery in a way similar to the methods employed by more traditional liches. Whatever you decide, it should definitely reflect the more goodly nature of the Arch-Lich.
I hope you like my ideas, gc. If you use them in your campaign, let me know about it!
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