Becoming a Lich

To keep the meridians in check liches usually employ the use of charms, sometimes directly nailed to the bones similar to fracture repairs, this is seen as the "training wheels" of the lich as its generally only necessary to do with the first body as by the time a lich reforms the meridians have accustomed themselves to their new form, though some liches decide to keep gilding themselves for added benefits or aesthetic reasons.

Paranoid liches might feel compelled to take extra measures to protect their phylacteries from destruction but this is often redundant as over time, the abandoned body inside of the phylactery grows to resent its tormented existence and becomes cursed by itself, often becoming hostile to his owner, some even becoming an undead creature on themselves,elder liches have come to dread the destruction of their current body due to having to confront the tormented monstrosity of a phylactery they are linked to and its often the reason they choose to become demi-liches as the soul gems take the role of additional auxiliary phylacteries.

There are liches who stay by their phylacteries and display them proudly, this is regarded as pure idiocy but it soon dawns upon an elder lich on the deep end of the slippery slope that perhaps its the wisest thing to do.

It essentially involves becoming skilled enough in the magics of spirit and death that you can conjure the embodiment of your own mortality and lock it away inside a specialized vessel, while at the same time usurping its place in the chain of creation. You now have all the powers of a Death with none of the responsibility, and something your death lacks:unkillability. If you're destroyed, the universe gets a bit confused as to how you're both destroyed and also fine inside your phylactery, so it simply resets you where it already thought you were. So long as your death remains intact, the universe won't allow you to die

What exactly is a captital-D Death? Is that like the grim reaper in your setting?

Lichdom, the series of ritual and steps to becoming a dark immortal creature, is one of the oldest and best researched magical phenomena in the world. It’s a simple process, really; just fiddle with the connection between your soul and your body so that it’s loose enough to be knocked apart, and create something that will “suck” your soul in after it departs your body. Almost every wizards worthy of the title knows how it’s done.

The reason it’s done so rarely is the number of risks involved: First in shunting around bits of your soul (which creates severe derangement if done incorrectly and weakens your natural protection from entities that prey on souls), then in creating a device which can suck a soul in without destroying it, and most importantly, in avoiding memory death; because while your immortal soul is easily moved, your memories reside in that squishy bit of flesh you’re so eager to evacuate.

And, once you do have your soul attached to this object, you better have some way to project yourself. Otherwise, congratulations, you’ve just trapped yourself in a black oblivion until you’re released from the rock or the universe ends, possibly in a vegetative state if you didn’t think to find a way to transfer your mind as well.

So the actual lichdom is the easiest part of becoming an effective lich; it’s all the admin work that scares off those not terrified of death.

I haven´t thought a lot about Liches in my setting but there are a few things that I could share. Firstly the ritual to become one is not set in stone, with Necromancers always trying to improve or change it. To become a Lich you need to die, and while that does not sound like a lot it sure does fuck your shit up. Also, if you fuck up during the ritual any mistakes are permanent, so one can become crippled physically, mentally, spiritually and magically (that is you fuck up your ability to spellcast) to many degrees.

Why on earth would you want to change a ritual that could very easily go horribly wrong like that? Wouldn't it make far more sense to just call immortality good enough, and use the tried-and-true method?

Dear OP-
Read these threads.
Lich 'Psychology' (at least in properly written function)

All of the Liches from 2e-3.5/(some theoretical)
archive.is/T1uoa

Reading material:
Blueprint for the Lich (Dragon magazine/best of Dragon Magazine)
Van Richten's Guide to the Lich
Monster Manual 3.5
Lich Monster Class Template Web enhancement
Monsters of Faerun 3.5
Libris Mortis
Dungeon Magazine
Dragon Magazine
Kingdoms of Kalamar Villians Design handbook
Dragon Compendium
Kobold Quarterly Issue 3

Lichdom is usually a curse inflicted upon a worshiper for some great crime or negligence. They are left to pray for death until their deity relents. They will do all they can to ensure their environment is suitable for this prayer, and will respond violently if interrupted. The few who actively seek to become a lich will join an undeath cult and work their way into its inner circle. The secret initiation into the inner circle includes the transformation. This brings with it great responsibility, as their deity can revoke the boon should they fail to fulfill their cult obligations.

I like this user, it's neat.

The closest thing my setting has to liches would be data humans. These are people who made the choice to plug into an AI program and live life through a robot, only to never unplug. If you spend a few decades living like this, day in and day out plugged into the machine, the AI program will start learning your habits, making choices for you. Eventually the person dies, but the robot personality lives on as if nothing has happened.

To become a lich is the equivalent of a medieval alchemist's Magnum Opus. There are whole cadres of people searching for it, fabled people who have done it, and almost no recorded evidence of it actually happening. The reason it's like this however is because everyone rises from the dead anyway.

The difference with being undead and being a Lich is that a Lich remembers their former life. Lichdom is true immortality in that it preserves the self across the boundary of death. To do so they must find a method to project themselves as a ghost using the fourth element of creation, Blaze, the light of the soul. Once they are a spirit, they must bind that spirit with magic and machine (the method of which is the true difficulty behind the creation of a lich. It's easy to become a ghost, but it's much harder to stay sane and sapient once you become one) and then re-bind the soul to a phylactery, which is then bound to the lich's own corpse once more. Lichdom is something sought after by anyone who fears mortality, but it's rare to be able to actually pull it off. Most who do end up mutilated ghosts, their attempts to bind themselves to their memories mutilating their psyche.

i beg to disagree. go check out that scooby doo thread.