LICH

[ryslighelpers]

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LICH

BASIC INFO Liches are undead, wraith-like creatures whose hearts are absent from their bodies. They can bring death and decay with a touch, and thanks to their great magical power, Liches are extremely difficult to kill. This monster's body goes through a great deal of change and decay during its transformation, and involves not only the body dying, but the moving of the heart into a separate object. MANDATORY CHANGES ● A state of undeath. One of the Lich's first changes is that their body dies and goes through rapid decay. Their heart must be removed from their body and be housed in a phylactery, detailed below. The Lich's body will have a vacant space where their heart used to be. ● Disconnected limbs and extremities. Some combination of the Lich's head, arms, hands, legs, and/or feet will detach from the body of the Lich, such that air can pass between the limbs and the body. This can manifest either as the absence of the connecting joint (arms detached at the shoulders; hands detached at the wrist), or by the connecting limb itself disappearing (having hands but no arms; a head but no neck). These may detach from the Lich over time, or all at once, but a disconnected limb can never be reconnected to the Lich's body. Liches must have a minimum of one disconnected limb, but there is no upper limit. ● Manipulation of body. The Lich's disconnected limbs can be controlled within an area of the body equal to their pre-death height; outside of this range, limbs become unresponsive. Should the head and torso be disconnected, this range will be defined by position of the torso, but the head will still be responsive. Liches cannot be killed by separating their body parts, but it can inconvenience them. ● Deathly body. Liches may become fleshless, necrotic, or skeletal, like a decayed body or corpse, or their flesh may become ethereal and phantom-like, like a spirit or ghost. These may be combined to any extent, so long as the end result is a deathly appearance. ● An affinity for decay. The Liches' magic can inflict decay on humans by touch. In this way, they can shut down a human's senses, inflict terror or fear, bestow insomnia or nightmares, numb sensation or control of limbs, or kill the cells of their victim's body, prematurely aging them or causing their body to rot. Prolonged physical contact is needed for more intense symptoms, and though these damages can be permanent when inflicted on a human, they would last a maximum of one hour on another monster. ● The need to feed on the energy of the living. This is done by using their decay magic to either age or decay their victims. A Lich will not be able to satisfy their monster hunger unless they feed within a six-foot radius of their phylactery (see the phylactery rules). [back to top] OPTIONAL CHANGES ● Any psychological changes are welcome! Feel free to pull from real world myths, canon creatures of this variety, or any other source! ● A fog form. This is an exaggerated version of their monster form that appears only during the fog and is a chance to make your monster more "horrifying" during the fog. ● Stealth form: the ability to retreat into and animate their phylactery. In this form, the Lich will have access only to their decay magic: anything that touches the phylactery while it is possessed can be fed upon. However, this does not grant the phylactery any additional toughness, and it can be destroyed as easily as normal. ● Armor flesh. Liches may have the appearance of armor plating attached to their body. It can be based on any metal, wood, glass, or other material that could be used to make armor. Damage to the armor is painful to the Lich, and it does not provide any more defense over non-armored Liches. ● An armored helmet or mask. Like the armor flesh, a Lich may grow a helm that adheres to their head and cannot be removed. Its design (that is, how fierce and terrifying it is) is up to you. No matter the design, it will not hinder their ability to eat or talk. ● Lich's Raiment. Rather than armor, or on top of armor, Liches may have a garment as part of their body that they can manipulate the same way they do their limbs. This can be a cowl, robe, cape, student uniform, etc; however, a Lich's Raiment cannot be removed, so they can't change outfits. This does not provide any more defense over unadorned Liches. ● Absent body parts. Rather than having pieces of their body disconnected from the whole, the Lich may instead lose those parts completely. For instance, they may exist as a body without a head, a ghostly specter that has lost everything from the waist down, or may be reduced to a single body part, like a disembodied head or a severed hand. ● The ability to cause inorganic decay. Used the same way as their organic decay magic, the Lich can rust metals to break locks, rot through or weaken floorboards, or make clothes threadbare. ● Liches may choose to demanifest themselves for a quick escape once per day. It involves the Lich decaying into nothing and reforming at their phylactery. This is a one-way trip, and the Lich cannot bring anyone or anything with them. This does not count towards the Lich's regeneration time delay. ● An obsessive personality. When interested in something (be it a person, a field of study, or a cause), a Lich will begin to obsess over it, dedicating excessive amounts of time to it and often foregoing other important matters in the meantime. ● Due to their ghostly nature, Liches may float a short distance above the ground, especially if they are missing limbs or appendages to stand on. They cannot fly, and floating speed matches that of walking or running. [back to top] ALLOWED SPECIES Liches are humanoid, but dead. Any sort of armor, clothing, mages, humanoid corpses, and/or Liches can be looked at for reference, in addition to general undead references. [back to top] ARTWORK Artwork generously donated and submitted by players as an example of this monster in various forms. This can give you an idea of what you can do with this monster. Want to donate? Submit your own AM Normal form by Carbon Fog form by Carbon Kain Highwind Normal form (with extra wings from Mana) by Carbon Korekiyo Shinguji Normal form by Nyanka Margaret Booth Normal form (gore warning) by Everett Rafe Adler Normal form by Everett Normal form by Rachel Ruth Langmore Normal form by Kaylee Rowena [back to top]

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(frozen comment) THE PHYLACTERY

[ryslighelpers]

All information stated below are mandatory rules and limits to the phylactery, and must be followed when playing a Lich.

● The phylactery contains the Lich's life force, essence, soul, etc. Liches feel pain when their phylactery is damaged, and die if it is destroyed. Regardless of what happens to their body, a Lich can only be killed by destroying the phylactery. For this reason, they traditionally will go to great lengths to keep their phylacteries hidden. Monsters that consume souls that want to feed on a Lich would do so by either eating their phylactery, or draining the Lich's heart from it.

● The item chosen to become a phylactery must be an inanimate object. A general guideline for size is "mundane household object," but can be no smaller than a thimble and no larger than a car. Examples include jewelry, clothing, paintings, amulets, knick-knacks, furniture, fountain pens, or so forth. However, a phylactery must be a complete object, and not a component of something else. For example, it cannot be a gear within a watch, it must be the whole watch.

● The phylactery itself, regardless of what type of object it is or its apparent material, is incredibly fragile. No special tools, skills, or strength are required to destroy a phylactery.

● Liches will always regenerate from and at their phylactery if their body is destroyed. This does not constitute death, and so regenerating from the phylactery is not bound by during-Fog resurrection rules, and does not go towards the Lich's death count, unless the player wishes otherwise. Regeneration takes time, and over the month the period between the Lich's destruction and their regeneration will increase each time this ability is used. The first regeneration will take two hours, and each subsequent regeneration will add one hour to this number, up to a maximum of 24 hours between bodily destruction and regeneration. This counter will reset monthly.

● Liches who become aligned to a God and gain the instant resurrection boon may regenerate at their phylactery instantly, or may regenerate in their God's domain with the phylactery teleported to them.

● A Lich will not be able to satisfy their monster hunger unless they feed within a six-foot radius of their phylactery. This can be done either by carrying their phylactery with them when they feed, or by bringing their victims to the phylactery. If the phylactery is not physically carried by the Lich, then it must be placed within line of sight of the Lich during this process. Because of this, a Lich is at its most vulnerable when it is feeding.

● Because the Lich needs space to regenerate from their phylactery, and must be able to go to it or transport it when they feed, phylacteries cannot be made from monuments, landmarks, or other immobile objects, and it cannot be placed in areas that can never be accessed. Liches who become aligned to gods cannot leave or store their phylacteries in their god's realm, but it can remain with them if they are carrying it.

● The phylactery's object and location must be maintained on the character's Monster Information page at all times, once they acquire one. A phylactery cannot be changed from one object to another unless it is first destroyed. If the Lich wants to change their phylactery — or you, the player, decide they need a new one — then the present phylactery needs to be destroyed. The Lich can then revive with a new phylactery. Regardless of method, this kills the Lich, and standard monster death rules apply.

(frozen comment) FAQ

[ryslighelpers]

Have a very specific question in mind? Here's some questions that have been asked in the past!

FEEDING:

When it comes to feeding on someone's energy, the Lich's hunger is only satiated when using the decay magic on a still-living person, correct?
This is correct. Decaying a body that's already deceased will not work, as there's no energy left in it.

And a person who's had their soul removed by a soul-feeder?
Those will still satiate a Lich, as those victims are still alive and have energy to spare.


MONSTER ABILITIES:

If a Lich who decays victims through touch were to wear gloves, would that barrier preventing direct touch allow them to shake hands, etc. without affecting the other person?
This is up to you.


MONSTER BODIES AND CHANGES:

Does the phylactery have to be an object found within the Ryslig peninsula? Or can one generate as part of their transformations, and if so, can it be something found on their homeland (with no functionality and the standard phylactery rules)?
Since the appearance of phylacteries is for flavor, it is up to the player whether they are based on an object that can be found in Ryslig, or something that can be found in the character's world. Furthermore, the phylactery can manifest with the heart/soul inside as a part of the Lich's changes, or it can be manually and magically created using something found within Ryslig. As long as it occurs as a part of the Lich's first changes, the method is up to player discretion!

If the phylactery is an object from home, does it need to be an object the character owns or has owned in the past? Or can it be an object which belonged to a different character, or some sort of omnipotent Macguffin?
It can be anything which exists in their canon, even if the character is unaware of its existence. If it had any sort of magical ability to it, or advanced technological function(s), that will be disabled. It's just a useless trinket now.

Can this functionality/ability be bought through Mana?
This would be a power upgrade of the object, with Ryslig nerf rules where applicable. Whether it's a good idea to make the phylactery a functional object is a whole other question, since a Lich might want to hide it away to keep it safe instead.

Can a Lich have two or more objects serving as their phylactery?
A Lich can only have more phylacteries if they purchase the ability from Mana, as it would potentially strengthen the Lich. The exception would be if destroying only one of the however-many phylacteries kills the Lich. This would be allowed!

Could a Lich have animal-like looks, like an animal skull head with horns?
Liches cannot have animal skulls, as this veers into Waldgeist territory. They can have bone armor and helmets, but they must always be clearly humanoid.

My Lich does not have a head. Do they retain normal functionality like sight, speech, etc.?
Yes, Liches may retain that normal functionality even if they lack a physical head. It's up to you whether a lack of limbs/other body parts limits what a Lich can do, so long as you don't add additional powers.

Can a headless Lich have a different part of their body function as a sense organ instead? Like an armored piece on their chest that they see or speak through in place of eyes or a mouth.
This would be fine, so long as it doesn't give the Lich any additional advantages and they remain vaguely humanoid!

So Liches can grow masks or helmets, and the player gets to decide how scary they look. Can my character have this mask/pair of glasses/headgear that they have in canon?
Of course! If you're ever in doubt of whether something specific counts as a helmet or mask, feel free to check in just in case. However, if it's undeniably a helmet or mask, the answer is always yes.

Can a headless Lich still have a mask or helmet? That is, would it be okay to have a floating mask (or similar) where their head ought to be?
Yes!

What happens if the raiment or helmet is damaged?
It would heal or regenerate as if it were part of the body, with the fog accelerating this process. How painful it would be is up to you.

The Lich info states that "their flesh may become ethereal and phantom-like, like a spirit or ghost." Does this extend to being incorporeal, and if so, to what extent?
If you'd like, your Lich could be just as incorporeal as a Shade!

Would a Lich still be able to eat/drink normal food, or would it just decay in their mouths?
How your Lich deals with normal food is completely up to you! You can get as gross (or as non-gross) as you'd like.

If someone were to steal the Lich's head, would they be able to yell while the body blindly stumbles around looking for the head?
Yes! A Lich who loses their head would still have a wobbling, disoriented torso.