I hold Liches in highest regard as a character archetype, to me they symbolise a dark enlightenment, where they finally overcome the desires and needs of the body, becoming free from that to pursue their magical dreams.
A while back I began to wonder whether the fantasy world depictions sometimes virtue signal! That's right, virtue signal. Let me explain.
A wizard (typically, or essentially a magic user) seeks to extend their life, often in the pursuit of magical knowledge, and alleviate themselves if physical needs. This is a transitory goal. There's no suggestion that this is unique to Necromancer specialists, nor that it is an end goal in itself.
And, one would think, if a caster succeeded in this, they would want to keep it a secret, and not have it inhibit their ability to move around and interact with creatures when necessary. And certainly wouldn't want to devote more resources to it than necessary.
Why, therefore, is it an unspoken tradition that the first thing many Liches appear to do upon the realisation of their dark enlightenment is to ...
Bin their entire wardrobe, and instruct their tailors to make a brand new wardrobe covered in special undead symbols? Like your 'secret' is literally written on your shoulder...
Let's not stop there! They then knock down their current house/castle/place of abode and build a brand new special 'undead' building, to what? Make sure that even the 8int barbarian can understand he's fighting a Lich before even entering the front door... Once more great secret keeping.
But they're not done yet! You see that skeleton legion they have... They all need knew custom made 'undead' armour with lots of special undead symbols just so if anyone happens to come across them they know who's skeletons they are...
What ever happened to discrete skeletons in robes?! Wearing the armour of yesteryear?
Why would the greatest of dark sorcerers ever do any of these things? Would you
1) not care about your clothes, nor that of your minions or the decor of your castle as these are irrelevant egotistical things, the very things you're meant to be free from now you're a Lich. What needs to be done, should be done with cruel cold efficiency, using the clothes and armour which work, is cheap, and ideally not attention grabbing, and similarly using a building for its practical purposes and not being sidetracked into unnecessary decorations.
2) use illusion and enchantment magic to hide those few things which do give away your undeadness. Discretion, stealth, subtlety, efficiency, pragmatism, all things which I think any self-respecting Lich would value.
If I was a Lich, I'd tell NO-ONE!
I'd never allow my building to display such symbols, and where magical symbols were necessary, they be hidden on the underside of stones or disguised into artwork or the structure of the building etc.
I'd use every form of magic I could to keep my body looking nice, actually being nice if I could or just illusion magic if I couldn't, I'd still try look beautiful and be able to seduce, endear, disarm with innocence and subtlety.
I'd dress discreetly so I could pass a regular human when I needed too. The assassin's dagger should never be seen, only it's effect should be seen. Is it not more interesting to encounter an mysterious person with a slightly off aura and behaviour than a big scary monster who proudly wears what he is on his shoulder?
It reminds me of how at they're core, undead a dual image, one of life often at its prime, and one of a shadow old, faded and tattered. That a building looks haunted because one can clearly see people use to live in it but was then abandoned and left to rot. A brand spanking new building with a ton of goth art, doesn't say haunted... It says 'new'.
The same can be said of the undead themselves, that a zombie is frightening because you can see they were once human, and have become something darker. A ghost is only ghost because it has elements of a person who was once alive. The entire interest if becoming a vampire is the reconciliation of one's previous human life with one's new undead status, as is that of a ghost. The entire purpose, as a necromancer, of raising dead rather than making golems and constructs is that the previous human element frightens people and has such a psychological effect and command over them. The dichotomy of the two images, of life, of it's shadow, is what fundamentally makes something undead and nor merely a random monster or spirit like a Daemon etc.
Lastly I don't see why undead should have their own language or symbols, surely the language and symbols which matter are those which directly relate to the spiritual realm, to daemons and divinities who's very essence and substance is partly these symbols and language.
Daemons have symbols and language, because that is part of their substance; undead just are. They're what happens when dark energy possesses the flesh or conjures forth the image of the dead.
Whilst I'd preferentially follow Tzeentch if I was to follow a god, as i can recognise in myself a lot of common ground in our personalities, I'd choose to follow a path like that of a Lich, albeit one characterised by discretion, illusion and subtlety. I'd value being able to infiltrate human societies to get access to the knowledge I wanted, I'd want my servants to be equally discreet, unnoticeable agents like rogues, and if I summoned skeletons warriors, I'd summon them in the armour and weapons that they died with, and I'd consider that to be part of their effect. I'd want my ghosts to look like who they once were to get to people psychologically, or simply be nebulous dark shadows which play at the corner of one's vision.
I fundamentally disagree with Warhammer undead development. In the first few editions undead and chaos overlapped; the chaos list could directly include undead troops and the realm of chaos books had undead chaos champions.
In 4th edition undead and chaos seamed to truly part ways and become to opposing factions, particularly in the story of Nagash.
In 5th edition vampires and tomb kings separated creating a bizarre break, apparently now Khemri had no ghosts or ethereals despite the background clearly describing them, and the vampire counts' skeletons couldn't hold a bow like their southern counterparts nor manage a catapult despite the background clearly describing them as existing. But the worst was that Liches disappeared 😭!! Arkhan was the sole surviving Lich of old (whom therefore inherits the place of being my favourite single character in all Warhammer who's not a Daemon, but it was the first time I really stood back from Warhammer as my loyalty to their undead was hurt), Nagash having become something else, and At best the Nechrach bloodline sought to replace them. For a while I made peace with the Nechrach, whilst they dwindled in options and power over the editions, lamenting the loss of Hienrich Kemmler along the way, and watching as Necromancers got crushed into oblivion as just lvl1 hedge wizards with no capacity to command the undead.
Briefly the End times recombined then, but by then Arkhan stood alone, and as a later edition special character had zero options to personalise, and Kemmler was gone.
And in age of sigmar they seam shattered, broken and having lost almost everything which made them undead. Nothing more than a parody of undeath. If a zombie could die a second death and come back a shadow of what it once was as a mighty zombie... it would be Warhammer undead today.
D&d has done a far better job of keeping the Undead, and their alignment with the daemonic, alive. Though the move away from being healed by negative energy undermines them greatly.
You see, whilst the daemonic represent the destructive side of the dark, the Undead were uniquely creative; the great Necromancers and Liches of old holding a position towards their undead minions that echoed that if a cleric towards the living. Their magic had a significant side which created, which buffed, which aside it's dark veneer essentially healed them. The daemonic was intertwined in their existence, as often the origins of necromancy had been handed down to humans from the Daemonic.
I don't expect anyone to really read this, it just what my current thoughts are as brush of some old undead minis, the only other minis and books to survive my life struggles aside from Tzeentch's stuff.
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