Lich

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Lich (巫妖)
Alias(es)	Undead spellcaster; “main villain” of horror stories 73
Species/Race	Intelligent undead created when an arcane spellcaster transforms themself to escape death 73 173
Affiliation	Varies; notable lich factions include the Tangled Sigils and Arcane Secret Society 83 185
Occupation/Role	Arcane researcher, necromancer, ruler, or secret-society operative
Status	Extant
First Appearance	Chapter 73

Background

Creation

A lich is an arcane spellcaster who pursues immortality by killing themself through a necromantic ritual and preserving their soul within a phylactery or soul gem. The transformation is sought by mages who refuse to age, die, or abandon their research before attaining greater knowledge and power 73 121 163.

The ritual requires a prepared soul vessel, negative-energy poison, extensive enchantment work, and the caster’s ability to remain conscious through unbearable pain while extracting their own life essence and soul. Once the ritual begins, the caster must complete its invocation alone; failure results in permanent death, madness, or a crippled undead existence without a coherent personality 173.

A successful candidate resurrects from their corpse in one to ten days. Their body initially may retain its living appearance, but eventually dries and decays until only a skeleton animated by negative energy remains 173 177.

Mindset

Lichdom removes aging, hunger, fatigue, pain, disease, and the need for sleep. This allows a lich to devote all available time to magical study, experimentation, and long-term schemes 173 177.

The state can also blunt desire and intense emotion, producing the cold rationality valued by many spellcasters. Over long periods, negative energy and undead instincts may erode a lich’s remaining humanity, leaving it willing to disregard or destroy others in pursuit of its interests 173 185.

Appearance

A lich may initially resemble the mortal they once were, but prolonged undeath gradually reduces the body to a dried corpse or exposed skeleton.

• Withered or skeletal humanoid body, often concealed beneath dark robes 73
• Empty eye sockets lit by faint ghostly light 73
• Aura of negative energy and unnaturally chilling eyes, even in recently transformed liches 224
• Advanced decomposition eventually removes skin, muscle, and organs entirely 177 467

Abilities & Skills

Phylactery-Based Immortality

A lich’s soul is preserved in a phylactery—also called a soul gem—which anchors its continued existence and enables resurrection after bodily destruction 163 173.

• Destroying a lich’s body does not permanently end it while its phylactery remains intact.
• Destroying the phylactery prevents resurrection and permanently kills the lich 163 183.
• Possession of a phylactery gives another party decisive leverage; Zuo Si repeatedly uses captured soul gems to compel liches into service 174 355.
• Liches carefully hide their phylacteries using guarded towers, traps, deception, trusted agents, isolated locations, or even other living beings 354.

Arcane Spellcasting

Liches retain the magical knowledge and caster levels they possessed in life. Veteran liches can employ high-level spell combinations, battlefield control, teleportation, illusion, and defensive magic with exceptional precision 183 518.

• Documented lich spellbooks contain magic as powerful as Time Stop, Meteor Swarm, Wish, Soul Bind, Finger of Death, and Animate Dead 183.
• A lich can combine invisibility, teleportation, force effects, disabling spells, and area attacks to prevent enemies from closing into melee 518.
• Liches are immune to mind control, making ordinary domination magic ineffective against them 180.
• Negative-energy spells can repair an undead lich’s damaged body, functioning as healing magic rather than harm 462.

Undead Resilience

Liches can continue operating despite injuries that would incapacitate or kill living creatures.

• They do not require air, food, sleep, or rest 173 177.
• Negative energy can reconnect shattered bones and restore severe physical damage in moments 462.
• Their undead nature grants resistance or immunity to certain effects, though specialized holy, positive-energy, and anti-undead attacks remain dangerous 183 518.

Weaknesses & Countermeasures

• Phylactery destruction — The most reliable permanent solution. A lich whose soul gem is found and destroyed cannot return 163 183.
• Positive energy and holy weapons — Greater Strike Undead, Sunburst, holy water, and weapons such as the Sun Blade can severely damage or purify undead 183 281.
• Anti-magic suppression — Antimagic Field can expose an invisible lich and suppress its spellcasting, though it also removes allied buffs and does not prevent physical combat 518.
• Casting denial — Silence, Dispel Invisibility, and Dimensional Anchor can prevent a lich from chanting, hiding, or teleporting away 183.
• Prepared ambushes — A lich that fails to establish defenses immediately can be overwhelmed before casting a single spell 183.

Variants

Variant	Description
Lich	A self-transformed undead spellcaster whose soul is stored in a phylactery or soul gem 73 163
Dragon Lich	An undead dragon whose phylactery requires dragon corpses or skeletons as resurrection vessels, making its soul anchor comparatively difficult to conceal 354
Half-Lich	A heavily decayed lich often reduced to a skull or isolated bones. Half-liches possess exceptional resistance, supernatural flight, and a smaller target profile than ordinary liches 522 851
Legendary Lich	A lich whose spellcasting has reached legendary levels; such beings may wield powerful spells, artifacts, and large undead forces 215 750

Lich Organizations

Organization	Lich involvement
Tangled Sigils	A secret society led by Sigil Lords, including liches such as Lagon. It controlled agents, families, merchants, and conflicts from the shadows while sacrificing anyone necessary to preserve secrecy 83 93.
Arcane Secret Society	An organization formed around seven liches transformed with Zuo Si’s assistance. Its core members pool magical knowledge, conduct research, hunt rare resources, and entrust their soul gems to Zuo Si 185 210.

Notable Liches

Lich	Notes
Lagon	Great Sigil Lord and leader of the Tangled Sigils; a calculating lich who sought to recruit or corrupt Zuo Si into joining his organization 73 83 93.
Vanesa	A Level 15 necromancy specialist who accepted lichdom to escape imminent death, then became a major organizer within the Arcane Secret Society 173 185.
Astar	Zuo Si’s former mentor, an archlich whose pursuit of magical knowledge outweighed any attachment to his destroyed homeland 163 179 180.
Sapherakhta	A Dragon Lich and Sigil Lord who created cursed artifacts and later became one of Zuo Si’s controlled undead assets 93 355.
Kangs	A legendary half-lich whose tiny body, flight, magical resistance, and stealth casting made him a formidable opponent before Zuo Si seized his phylactery 522 523.