“Two minutes. Two centuries.
It all ticks by so quickly. You are so like your ancestors, did you
know that?” - Pinhead, Hellraiser: Bloodlines
No
one wants to die. Of
all the schools of magic, none
is more synonymous with the pursuit of immortality than necromancy. Keepers, Unmade, Conduits, Doll Makers, Fateless, Dreamers, and Beholders, are
all ultimately inspired by the immortality which master necromancers
can achieve with relative ease:
the
immortality of the Lich.
Surrounding
themselves with dusty tomes, undead minions, and the ghastly
ingredients of their arts, necromancers
are fearful figures who
seemingly embody the worst excesses of spellcasters. While
nearly all wizards are capable of wreaking terrible destruction or
misery, the personally deadly and often disturbing nature of a
necromancer’s spells marks them out as especially repugnant in the
eyes
of most. Any potential positive applications of the school are
forgotten the moment
someone sees a loved one’s corpse rise from their grave. Barely
tolerated by most societies, necromancers
have been given suitably grim appellations such
as Deathless,
or Reapers.
The
existence
of liches
has
been attested
to as long as necromancy itself. Indeed,
the very pursuit of the deathly arts may have
began as
an attempt to achieve immortality. Unlike other schools, the
ritual to achieve this transformation
is relatively well known, even to those on other paths. The lich
removes their soul from their body, placing it in a receptacle known
as a soul-cage. Their body continues to age, but their trapped spirit
never flees from the material plane to the afterlife. Even if their
corporeal
form
were to be destroyed, their spirit endures, and forces their body to
rise once again.
Fools.
The
pathetic beings
known as
liches to
scribes and commoners alike
are those who did not truly have the stomach for what must be done.
Who would want to spend an eternity as a slowly moldering corpse?
These
tyrants
of death
will
accept nothing less than the full
blush
of life. To
them,
all
life is reduced to mere kindling
for the crucible
of their souls.
They are known
as True
Liches,
The Greedy,
or Hungry
Ones.
“Humankind cannot gain
anything without first giving something in return. To obtain,
something of equal value must be lost.” - Alphonse Elric,
Fullmetal Alchemist
As explained by the quote above,
and honestly at least once a volume in the manga, magic in Fullmetal
Alchemist runs on the principle of equivalent exchange. You get out
what you put in. And while the comic often played fast and loose with
the concept, one area where it never wavered is with regards to human
transmutation. There is simply no way to bring someone back from the
dead in the setting without giving up something massive in return,
and even then, whatever comes back will be a horror show. The Elric
Brothers lose their body and a bunch of limbs between them when they
try to get back their mother, and their master Izumi’s organs were
severely damaged by her attempt to resurrect her own child.
Seemingly a way to subvert the
law of equivalent exchange, the philosopher’s stone is in reality a
horrific expression of (in)human selfishness and malice. A stone does
have nearly boundless power, because it is made up of the condensed
life energy of humans. The first philosopher’s stones in the
setting known to us were created from the entire population of the
country of Xerxes in a single night; hundreds of thousands of souls
to grant immortality (and near limitless power for alchemical
rituals) to two beings: The Dwarf in the Flask and Van Hoenheim. By
the time the story of the manga begins, the creation of more
philosopher’s stones has become the subject of a centuries-long
conspiracy which underpins the very culture of Amestris, and the
nature of alchemical theory itself. The Dwarf in the Flask has had
centuries to both cover its tracks, and to embed operatives at the
highest levels of the government. For all intents and purposes, he
would be unassailable without the intervention of Hoenheim.
Other, crude or flawed stones
also exist. But they too are derived from the same sort of casual
murder required for the greater stones. Equivalent Exchange is
impossible to subvert. There is no way back through the door; the
dead are death and the stone will never bring them back. Anyone who
creates one is guilty of a sin so profound that it cannot possibly be
truly washed away.
“Come
on, get up! Attack me! You’ve only suffered the loss of your legs.
Summon up your familiars! Transform your body! Heal your severed legs
and stand! The evening is still so young!” -
Alucard, Hellsing
When one imagines the
immortality of a lich, it is one of prolonged existence, not of youth
or beauty. In a sense, upon becoming a lich the necromancer freezes
what life force remains within them, occasionally reinforcing any
gaps which form with their magic. A Hungry One takes a much different
approach to the solution of their constantly depleting life force:
they take it from other living beings. With these stolen lives, a
True Lich can not only extend their lifespan indefinitely, they can
also control their apparent age, heal themselves, interrogate the
souls of those they have slain, or to resurrect themselves from all
but the most dire of demises.
The means to become a True Lich
are distressingly simple to recreate; it is only the great costs,
both personal and moral, that make these creatures mercifully rare.
Through repeated use of both Magic Jar, Death Ward, and
Death Knell, the necromancer crafts a permanent feedback loop
within themselves in a ritual named Opening Wide the Maw. In a
metaphysical sense, each of the Greedy has transformed themselves
into a creature similar to a vampire, wight, or wraith. Much like
those lesser creatures, the Hungry directly devour the life energies
they feed upon; the precise means vary, but they usually take the
form of blood-drinking, or the direct scouring of their victim’s
spirits through a life-draining touch. True Liches do not create
spawn when they feed, their victims are incorporated into them in
their entirety.
In return for all of their
myriad advantages compared to other immortals, the Hungry must
contend with a constant need to feed on souls. While most of the
Greedy have within them enough lives to persist for centuries, the
abyss where their spirit should rest yearns to feel full once more.
Instead of whiling away their existence in seclusion like other
immortals, Hungry Ones are constantly on the prowl for sustenance.
Any ethical reservations have long been discarded on the road to
becoming immortal, so no method for gaining souls is off the table.
Other sentient beings are seen a little more than prey, and are
treated accordingly. While the less subtle of them simply leave a
wake of abandoned villages and haunted survivors, others among the
Greedy cultivate death cults dedicated to either sacrificing
themselves in their ruler’s name, or bringing them a constant
supply of souls to feast upon. It is sometimes whispered among sages
knowledgeable in such matters that the gods of the underworld
themselves may have earned their thrones by way of similar paths, but
the wise tend not to dwell on such insights for long.
To
the world at large, True Liches are the thing of nightmares. Often
mistaken for their lesser cousins or for some strange form of
vampire, legends regarding the Hungry filter down through the ages in
the form of tales of undying kings or queens, of maidens bled to keep
a noble woman beautiful, or of baleful
ancestors
who appear to steal the souls of their sinful descendants. These
stories are discarded
as
mere fancies, deals with fiends, or unique circumstances, but this
does not usually save a lesser
necromancer
accused of soul-theft from the pyre. True Liches are rarely at
serious risk from fearful mobs, or even determined groups of undead
hunters, possessing enough personal power to annihilate dozens of
assailants with a wave of their hand and some
muttered words.
Most of these supposed Kings and Queens of Death are
undone by their own base urges, their hunger driving them to reckless
actions which inevitably end in them being either sealed away,
trapped,
or simply starved away into nothingness.
The
majority of the rest are claimed by the lassitude that seems to
afflict nearly all immortals. Those
few who
have survived for millennia are dangerous, crafty, and above all,
careful.
Game
Information
As undead creatures, the Hungry
do not need to eat, sleep, drink, or rest in any way. Any autonomic
functions they perform are either out of habit, or a form of
conscious mimicry of life on their part. Unlike other undead, Greedy
Ones cannot be turned. True Liches are immune to death spells, as
well as any harmful spells from the Necromancy school. Owing to their
deathless nature, True Liches are able to endure crippling injuries
such as decapitation, dismemberment, or conflagration. Even if
rendered incapable of movement, the Hungry can still spend SP (see
below) or cast spells. Instead of being rendered unconscious or dead
at 0 hit points, Greedy Ones must be reduced to a number of negative
HP equal to their constitution score times five. Even then, this may
still not mean the end of them.
True Liches power their
frightening abilities by the same means through which they attained
their immortality; stolen souls. In mechanical terms the number of
spirits one of the Hungry has access to is measure by the number of
Soul Points they possess. Each Soul Point (SP) is equivalent to a
single HD from a healthy humanoid. Most NPCs are only capable of
giving a single SP, but monsters or humanoids with character levels
can provide a number of points equivalent to their HD. Only sentient
beings can be said to have souls. Animals, vermin, or other forms of
non-sentient life cannot provide soul points. The particulars of how
sentience is defined within a campaign world is beyond the scope of
this article.
To harvest soul points, a Greedy
One must kill the creature themselves with either a spell or effect
from the necromancy school, or during a short ritual requiring 10
minutes times the sacrifice’s HD. The points are added to the True
Lich’s pool immediately. Victims who have been devoured by a True
Lich crumble into dust and cannot be restored to life by any means
short of a Wish spell or True Resurrection unless the
Lich who stole their soul is slain before they can spend it.
A member of the Hungry will not
die from old age as long as they have a single SP left, but their
apparent age degrades by a decade for every month they go without
gaining more soul points. True Liches who have let their bodies
degrade to elderly status may take physical aging penalties as
appropriate until they refresh themselves. A True Lich begins to age
at the natural rate for a member of their species if they are reduced
to their last soul point. At the end of every month a Hungry One does
not gain any new soul points they must make a save against Death,
Fortitude, or Constitution (as appropriate to the
system) and upon a failure they must seek the closest form of
sentient life and attempt to devour it using the most direct means at
their disposal.
Hungry Ones may only spend SP
once per turn, but any amount may be spent, split among as many
effects as they wish. They can choose to spend soul points on their
own turn, or as a reaction to another creature’s actions. Spending
SP does not consume an action, leaving them free to attack, move, or
cast spells as normal. There is no upper limit to the amount of SP
that a Hungry One can possess. Below are a few horrifying feats which
soul points can be used to perform. Referees are encouraged to think
of more.
SP Cost
|
Effect
|
1
|
The Tyrant of Death reduces
their apparent age by a decade.
|
1 per query
|
The Lich questions ones of the
souls they have eaten, but not yet absorbed. This functions as a
Speak With Dead spell with
perfect clarity and truthfulness.
|
2 + 1 per die/round
|
Bolstering their bodies with
nercomantic energies, the Greedy is able recover from grievous
wounds in mere moments. For each soul point they spend the Lich
may choose to gain Fast Healing
of 5, or to have the healing effect last for 5 rounds; each point
spent in addition to the first 2 increases the effect by either
another 5 points of healing, or additional rounds of duration.
|
2 per level of spell
|
Using their mastery of the
deathly arts, the Hungry One burns soul points into necromancy
spells, replicating the effects of any spell of that school that
they have knowledge of. A
Hungry One may not
cast a whose level is higher than they can through their class
abilities.
|
4
|
Instead of succumbing to a
failed save or hostile effect, the Hungry One may choose to
automatically succeed their save or end the effect instead.
|
1 + HD of Creature
|
Digging into their store of
pilfered souls, the tyrant of death summons one of the beings
which they have eaten, but not yet absorbed. Crafting them a body
from pure soulstuff, the Lich brings them back as a revenant for a
short time. The summoned soul persists for a number of rounds
equal to ½ of the Lich’s HD, rounding up. It is utterly loyal
to their summoner, though they still possess their old
personalities.
|
Lich HD x 3
|
Overcoming their shame at
falling prey to death, the Hungry One prevents themselves from
slipping into the afterlife and then reconstructs their body. This
rejuvenation takes a 2d4 weeks, and the Lich’s body begins to
reform in a place of their choosing.
|
“All
that remains is a pale shadow, wandering from battle to battle. I
have come to
believe that those frightening immortals are, in fact, frail sobbing
children.” - Arthur Hellsing, Hellsing
Well, that’s all folks! I’m
done with the alt-lich cycle of articles. Onward to more
Thousand-Thousand Islands content. Thanks for reading!
