And with strange eons even death may die.
- H.P. Lovecraft
"The Call of Cthulhu"
Throughout this guide, I have attempted to impart the sheer threat implicit in the existence of a lich. I do not believe any realm or plane of existence holds a more dangerous creature - except for one, and that is the subject of this chapter: the demilich. Here is a creature so evil and powerful that the lich by comparison would be little more than a quasimancer to it. The demilich is so nearly omnipotent that magic is more an old habit than a life's ambition!
I simply cannot fathom a mind so old, potent, and surely warped as that of a demilich. In fact, I have never seen one, nor met anyone else who has. All that I have to show that such a monster exists is a fragment of a legend recorded in the journal of Mirinalithiar. Its veracity is highly questionable and I feel disposed to ignore it-yet I cannot. If there is the remotest possibility that such an abomination exists, we must take steps to learn about it. We may never possess the power to destroy it, yet we may learn the best way to avoid its plans and its wrath.
Here are the pertinent passages from Mirinalithiar's diary.
It is told that there came to be trapped within this land a skull with precious stones for teeth, but nothing else to betoken significance. The realm from whence it came is lost in the dust of ageless time, and to whom it belonged no one can say. In its resting place did the skull lie for time out of mind. Never did it stir until its resting place was disturbed.
Then came Androlinatar, greatest of all explorers, who found the resting place of the skull with magic given to him by the gods themselves. With him came Elinver, greatest of all wizards, and Jazapan, greatest of all warriors, and Honik, holiest of all priests. With them came their legion of faithful and valiant followers. As a mighty army they took the lands before them, and so they came upon the resting place of the skull.
When they entered the resting place of the skull that had lain there for time out of mind, it immediately arose from the ground and spoke to them, saying, "I am Hero's Bane, the invincible".
Without warning the skull lashed out at Androlinatar and all his company of the mightiest men who ever lived, and it ripped their spirits from their breasts and changed their souls into priceless gems, which it wore as its teeth, and the mighty were powerless to stop it.
Their many servants were instantly burned to ashes where they stood, except one, who was sent hurtling from the mountain alive but broken, that he might take warning to the world, gnash his teeth in despair, and die.
With no evidence to support the existence of this creature, I have consulted and speculated with numerous sages, mages, and priests. To my surprise, they have recounted similar legends to me of monstrous powers within the confines of a disembodied skull, of gems that entrap living spirits, of creatures who sail unfettered among the countless planes, absolutely disinterested in the affairs of any single world, let alone any single person! With the help of these scholars, I have written this chapter. The knowledge contained herein may be of little or no use to the reader (an encounter with a demilich is as hopeless an exercise as a person may attempt!), but if knowledge is power, then the reader is always wise to gather as much knowledge as possible.
My best guess at the origins of a demilich is that it is an undead wizard who has lived so long, learned so much, and gathered such power that it has literally achieved a new level of existence. The creature's definition of power itself has evolved entirely beyond the grasp of the mortal mind, so the demilich has abandoned all mortal exploits in order to survey realms in which only the gods tread. Having no interest in the world that gave it form, the demilich surrenders that form, and its body crumbles to useless dust. All that remains is its skull.
By the time its body falls into ruin, the lich has learned virtually all the arcane secrets of its world - all things that both should and should never have been discovered. It has had millennia to reflect upon its evil and the nature of power, and it has mused upon things that even the blackest hearts would call vile. Perhaps the new demilich abandons its grasp of the concepts of good and evil we know them. Perhaps good and evil do not even exist in its new understanding. The creature may now seek knowledge that, in the grand scope of things, is entirely neutral - mortal emotions and perspectives are trivial, petty, not worth consideration. Mayhap the demilich joins the deities themselves to dance through the ether, enjoying whatever inconceivable lives they have. Or the demilich may become the very heart and soul of evil, influencing others to follow in its path and spread destruction Theoughout the realms of the living, everywhere.
Of any of these things, I can never be certain. All I can do is contemplate what they must be like, and, ironically, hope that I never learn the answers to my own questions!
In this mortal world, there is much opportunity for the lich to exist for quite a long time indeed. The world we know seems to be all too closely connected to darker energies upon which the lich feeds for its survival. Indeed, the lich is likely able to channel this dark energy through its body and spirit for centuries.
Whatever the duration of its life in the physical world, the unchecked lich is destined to undergo a gradual transformation. This change is a subtle one that requires little specific effort from the lich. Most of my consultants agree the conversion must occur naturally; in no way can any creature, living or dead, purposefully pursue such a course-the gods themselves would surely intercede. Rather, I suspect that the lich becomes more engrossed in its studies and meditations over time, until it has no care for matters in the physical world at all. In fact, it would not be surprising if a lich were to relocate to a place where it might never be disturbed by anyone from the physical realm.
In this case, it is reasonable to assume that the lich would begin to neglect the maintenance of its own body, working instead to greater efforts in absolutely pure research and meditation. As the undead wizard delves deeper into the theoretical, theory becomes more substantial while substance becomes increasingly theoretical.
After a time, our mundane perspective on the world and its secrets would likely become pointless to a lich, even a nuisance. The lich would have no more reason to consult its extensive collection of tomes that deal with the manipulation of this world. Perhaps all the information in the gigantic library shrinks in the budding demilich's vast consciousness, until the entire accumulation fits into a tiny, rarely visited corner of its incredible mind!
I have an image in my mind, of a lich upon a throne of bone - bone of enemies it crushed when it entertained concerns over the material realm of people and monsters. Without rest or sustenance, the lich thinks upon unknown subjects every moment of every day - days that do not exist as it sits upon that throne without an audience. It has long forgotten the undead servitors it once commanded, long forgotten the evil projects it initiated with the labor of their skeletal backs, long abandoned exploits that rocked the mortal world to its foundations.
Now it merely sits and contemplates who knows what, of ethereal regions beyond the physical realm, of spaces beyond even that. Its once powerful alchemical solutions have dried and fallen into powdery neglect. Even magical items that would conquer a world have lost their luster, and they sit in chests of which the lich cannot be bothered to remember the location. The wood of its benches, the paper of its tomes, all things consumed by age have disappeared in the face of eternity.
Ultimately, all physical remains of the lich slowly and inexorably decompose beyond recovery. All that is left of the dreaded lich is an object that will probably last forever: its skull. The former receptacle of that formidable mind finally comes to rest atop a mound of dust that was once its body. Perhaps it will sink into the seat of the throne upon which it once sat.
Again, I have an image in my mind, of a skull lying in a pillow of dust, its empty sockets devoid of even the dimmest hint of a reddish glow where once there was a blaze of unconquerable evil.
Final Analysis
By the time a lich allows its body to fall into dust, it has learned all it can of its physical world, or at least as much as it needs to; there simply is nothing else to concern it within the realm of mortals. Hence, it becomes an incorporeal entity, free to travel to places of which we can only imagine. Perhaps the lich perceives the very forces that comprise and drive the world and begins to drive them itself.
What fate awaits on the other side of physical reality? Does a demilich become a part of the evil that surrounds us? Is it absorbed by a greater evil that has throughout the millennia plotted for demiliches to come into being, so it may snatch their energies and satisfy its own grand master plan? Does evil even have a meaning to the once-mortal wizard anymore? I'm afraid that we will never know. Perhaps demilichdom is merely another step in an infinite line of lives. Mayhap becoming a lich is but the first of many steps toward some unknown state of transcendence.
Whatever the end result, whether pure immortality is truly achieved, the price is centuries of pain, torture, and an evil scourge upon a land of innocents. The ultimate price is the lich's personal spirit. Once transformed into a lich, a being can never experience the simple joys of living, nor can it enjoy the afterlife we achieve through our gods. In a real sense, the lich lives forever yet has nothing to live for.
Still, one happy conclusion may be gleaned from all this supposition: The demilich has no interest or use for the world as we know it. Wherever it has gone, it seems to have no reason to return unless to defend the place where its mortal remains sleep away the eons. So long as we mortals do not disturb its rest, I think it safe to say that the demilich will return the favor. If by some great accident the reader should come upon the remains of a demilich, nothing can help him anyway.
When a lich attains demilich status it abandons all attempts to reconstitute its body, choosing rather to explore the Outer Planes (except those demiliches within the Ravenloft setting on the Demiplane of Dread, who are limited to the border ethereal). Therefore, its body breaks down and eventually dissolves into a skull, a few bones, and a pile of dust.Its has the ability to re-form its body at any time, but most demiliches clearly feel no inclination to do so. Indeed, a demilich in need of a physical body could conjure a a healthy one out of thin air or, more likely, simply commandeer the body of any bystander.
Dr. Van Richten hopes that the demilich has no affect upon the Prime Material Plane, but when the lich has passed on to another stage of existence, its will might still be felt in the physical world. Perhaps it will embark on a large-scale conquest in an attempt to drain an entire realm or world of all life essence, and players' heroes might come into play as pawns in a cosmic chess game. Or the demilich may attempt to cross swords with the gods, themselves. Whatever the case, an adventure directly involving a demilich calls for extremely high-level heroes and maybe even an avatar or two.
Since the Ravenloft setting on the Demiplane of Dread is effectively sequested from the rest of the multiverse, a demilich there cannot penetrate any plane beyond the border ethereal. On the other hand, it may be the only creature that can actually escape the Demiplane of Dread of its own volition. In any event, the Dungeon Master is strongly urged to exercise great care in the use of demiliches. They are rare to the verge of being unique, and they should not be portrayed as omnipresent villains who gallivant across the cosmos, playing havoc with the laws of the gods.
The final resting place of a demilich will be so obscure that the greatest of adventuring parties could and it only by the most incredible of coincidences. Even so, the demilich will not make a great effort to secure its remains because it simply has no reason to do so. When the time has come to enter demilich status, its undead body is an irrelevance. Genera! information regarding the demilich can be found in the Monstrous Manual tome, in the "Lich" entry. It will be especially necessary for the Dungeon Master to tailor the demilich's abilities to the needs of the campaign, more so than for any other monster. The demilich is as close to godlike in status as a monster can be, so its powers must be unique and specialized.
The following information provides some guidelines for additional powers that may be accorded to the demilich.
Possible Powers
The demilich can be afforded the ability to perform actions that affect the Prime Material Plane on a large scale. Even though it is a disembodied life form caught between the Negative Material, the Ethereal, and the Astral Planes, the demilich can affect the Prime Material Plane by directing energies from those planes it inhabits. This should be achieved only when conditions on the Prime Material are perfect - for example, during a special eclipse or the passing of a bizarre comet. At such a time, the gateways between the planes are weakest and the spirit of the demilich is strongest, as the demilich is then able to draw from many sources.
The physical manifestation of a demilich should not be within the scope of adventuring parties to combat. The only way to defeat a demilich is to stumble upon its remains and destroy them in the manner described in the Monstrous Manual tome. The demillch's powers should be used indirectly, perhaps to begin or end grand campaigns with an event of cosmic import or travesty. Here are some suggestions for demilich powers.
The demilich can inhabit and control one hundred undead creatures of any type at once, maintaining both the creatures' innate abilities and endowing them with full sentience and lichlike powers. A legion of liches with a single consciousness can decimate entire armies!
Of all the terrible monsters I have hunted, the lich has been the most elusive. Its only association with mortals lies in the acquisition of the arcane that all wizards crave. The lich is a gourmet who feasts upon the magic of the world. When it has what it wants, it abandons the company of civilization and withdraws to candlelit chambers in unknown recesses, to digest what it has taken in. Unfortunately, its appetite is insatiable.
Because of its secretive ways, I have had more difficulty unearthing solid information about the lich than any other creature of the night. Only Harmon Ruscheider has observed a lich at length and lived to tell the story, and only because the lich - whose name he never learned - accidentally destroyed itself in a power ritual. Alas, Dr. Ruscheider went mad and died with the knowledge he was given. Although I crave that knowledge, I realize in this case that ignorance is, indeed, bliss.
However, ignorance also is a hypnotic state that desensitizes one to impending doom, and I must never surrender to it. If the observations I made in my introduction to this subject are true, then my own beloved Darkon is ruled by a lich - one who cares all too little for privacy! In writing this treatise, I have put my life in more jeopardy than a warrior who goes to battle without arms or armor.
So be it. May this and all my dissertations upon the cursed monsters of this world far outlive me. If even one phylactery is smashed to a thousand shards because of the ink I have shed, the score will be more than even!
