Hey all I'm making what I'm thinking to call an Alchalich (al KA LISH), something moving into the idea of a steampunk lich, as int the immortal magic peoples and find myself lacking in the appropriate images. I will post what I have some some thoughts but hope to hear you thoughts on such a more 'scientific' undead.
I say lich as in a powerful magical undead type, but the magic flavor I lean towards is more like something steampunk, or 'magical battery' where you have to charge SLASH tap into the Æther flow somehow. Various ways have been found to do this, such as tattoos, batteries, rods, leylines; all sorts but the idea is that 'magic' is an unseen sea of power that drifts an eddies and what not. My version of the lich 'simply' has to use unholy arts to replace enough of his body so that he's fueled by magic and not blood, to suspend his aging into a unnatural frame or implant of some great power. To keep with the idea that this is exceedingly selfish, this usually has some need for large amounts of living sacrifices, or needing to recharge off of the living what fluids the lich still needs.
But I ramble; I need any and all images and ideas for a slightly more alchemical form of lich, whatever those words bring to mind is welcome.
Say that normal blood has 'life essence' in it or something, and the alchelich needs to replace his negative life essence blood at regular intervals with human blood.
Grayson Bennett
The Cryx from Warmachine might be up your alley.
Thomas Rogers
One idea I had was for a magical 'infection' of sorts to be part of it. Here the potential lich implants some kind of magically growing and storing crystal into his body. This is perhaps both painful and tends to drain the area he lives on of it's ambient magic.
The lich might have to trim and be careful he does not over use his own spells as he might accidentally drain himself of all power. And the trimming is important because they tend two grow quickly for some undetermined amount of time, so they poke out of one's body all awkwardly and can render the young potential lich unable to move as he just becomes a living inside-out geode.
Hey all I'm making what I'm thinking to call an Alchalich (al KA LISH), something moving into the idea of a chronomancy lich, as intthe immortal magic peoples and find myself lacking in the appropriate images. I will post what I have some some thoughts but hope to hear you thoughts on such a more 'physics-y' undead.
I say lich as in a powerful magical undead type, but the magic flavor I lean towards is more like something clockpunk, or 'magical battery' where you have to charge SLASH tap into the Æther flow somehow. Various ways have been found to do this, such as tattoos, batteries, rods, leylines; all sorts but the idea is that 'magic' is an unseen sea of power that drifts an eddies and what not. My version of the lich 'simply' has to use unholy arts to replace enough of his body so that he's alive by magic and not blood, to suspend his aging into a unnatural frame or implant of some great power. To keep with the idea that this is exceedingly selfish, this usually has some need for large amounts of living sacrifices, or needing to recharge off of the living for what time amung the living the lich still needs.
But I ramble; I need any and all images and ideas for a slightly more clockpunk form of lich, whatever those words bring to mind is welcome.
First off, going for Alchalich instead of filename's Alchemilich made me think of a lich fueled by booze. So if anyone in your group is as comedy-savvy as I am, they might joke that your character is a moonshiner trying to brew the elixir of life. Secondly, the idea of plugging things into someone to indefinitely extend their lifespan reminds me of the Mann brothers and Administrator from Team Fortress 2, where the rare metal Australium is used as a fuel for their immortality machines that zap them back to life whenever they die. The models between the three machines differ greatly in efficiency, so perhaps in the vein of needing living sacrifices for this fuel, an arms race of making the least cumbersome additions can be relevant.
Adam Hill
Nox was fucking cool.
Michael Hill
Hey all I'm making what I'm thinking to call an Vampiralich, something moving into the idea of a ‘parasitic’ lich, as int the immortal magic peoples and find myself lacking in the appropriate images. I will post what I have some some thoughts but hope to hear you thoughts on such a more 'scientific' undead.
I say lich as in a powerful magical undead type, but the magic flavor I lean towards is more like something biopunk, or 'magical life stealer' where you have to charge SLASH tap into the target’s life energy somehow. Various ways have been found to do this, such as tattoos, batteries, rods, leylines; all sorts but the idea is that 'blood' is an unseen sea of power that drifts an eddies and what not. My version of the lich 'simply' has to use unholy arts to revitalize enough of his body so that he's fueled by blood and not his own blood, to suspend his aging into a unnatural frame or implant of some great power. To keep with the idea that this is exceedingly selfish, this usually has some need for large amounts of living sacrifices, or needing to recharge off of the living what blood the lich still needs.
But I ramble; I need any and all images and ideas for a slightly more alchemical form of lich, whatever those words bring to mind is welcome.
I must have missed a meme somewhere. I used steapunk to mean 'not high fantasy, but more mechanical fantasy', steampunk just seems easier to say than 'more mechanically inclined magical technology setting'
That's more of a vampire thing than a lich thing. The lich thing is being completely immune to needs. Still, if you need something like that, have the lich require fresh Cerebrospinal fluid for the tank every once in a while. For extra rarity, make it the Cerebrospinal fluid of a spellcaster or wizard
How about a method where the alchemist, through a complex series of super, self reliant distilleries and extremely potent and rare components, catalysts and chemicals, the alchemist breaks their own body down through alchemical processes, distilling their very soul from their body. The distilled soul becomes a chemical base, and a single drop mixed in liquid and injected into an empty body, allows the owner of the soul to come to life, as an alchemical lich. The original soul is a limitless chemical, and thus can be injected into bodies as many times as needed, but if it is ever spilled out, the soul will dissipate, and the lich will die.
Carter Lopez
>Have self injected into water supply >Become whole city
Adam Gray
Empty body, user! But I imagine mixing your soul with a water supply would grant the Alchemist lich some kind of omnipresence in the city. He would have no control over anyone, but he will always have eyes and ears on anything going on.
Gavin Lewis
>That's more of a vampire thing than a lich thing. The lich thing is being completely immune to needs. AD&D liches needed to regularly buy Larva from fiends to sustain their undeath. You're maybe thinking of demiliches? Though their thing is more not being home and being indistinguishable from a room hazard.
Leo Nelson
>Mara Sov >Titan
>not a warlock >ohshitcrotawhatareyoudoing,song
Ian Cox
>Imagine an Orwellian Magocracy where each city they own or conquer has one of these distilliches in the water supply They don't need to report, the mage 'handler' would just peer into a glass of it and delve into its mind to see anyone or anything in the city that have drank its water.
Kevin Robinson
I am now seeing a brain in a jar in the town hall with some eyes and a mechanical hand attached who just suddenly screeches and wrights down someone committing a crime near the lichwater.
The criminal gilds would then HAVE to meet in taverns to avoid water. Anyone who brings a canteen inside is suspect . . .
Asher Peterson
>Watering down your liqueur is now even more of a serious crime >Water is a tightly controlled commodity. Smugglers bring in fresh spring water and criminals catch rain water in secret caches.
Colton Cook
> town guard has to inspect all barrels now, to make sure they don't have water. > moat is refilled by travelers who have to dump their water over before going on in
Which brings up, how far from this lichwater town can the lich still see through the water? Say a couple miles out from the center? Would the lich need little parts of his former body scattered around in guard posts.
And with that we name the posts after what lichpart they have so you can have the 'Post of the Guard of the Second Finger of His Royal Mageisty the King Lich's town guard' and other such long and over done names.
>Watering down your liqueur is now even more of a serious crime Wait, how is this a more serious crime? I mean, amongst the criminals it's a no-no, but not a crime as recognized by the state - unless, of course, you can make the distillich drunk this way...
>criminals dump a bunch of alcohol near the bank they're going to rob in hopes of dulling the spywaters
Would one be able to filter out this liquid lich: Could you infact make distilllich? and form that could you perhaps catch the lichy part and use that to make some kind of super booze? Like lichskey? Lichka?
David Roberts
Lichquor is an entirely different branch of that type of lichnomancy. Maybe if a 'pure' distillich gets stored in a vat for some number of years as its mind meditates and focuses its thoughts better. This fermentation of the mind might be linked to the alchemical process; A kind of Magnum Opus characterized by the four changes of Nigredo, Albedo, Citrinitas, and Rubedo. But while the common alchemist employs the Magnum Opus to create Philosopher's Stones or other alchemical elements, the Lichchemist instead uses it to transform its own body and soul, distilling it into an immortal substance. Most become Distilliches, but some might even crystallize themselves into walking Philosopher's Stones, or other stranger forms of lichdom.
Jonathan Taylor
> Thread about the fine points of making a liquid lich Never change /tg, never change
Chase Lewis
Thank you kind sir, I am trying to expand my distillery , which allready does make fine ciders, including Pixy Dust and nice dry Elf Tear. I've been looking into allying with a Lich and need all the info I can get.
Daniel Perez
Better to get an Alchemist that's obsessed with becoming a Lich, since someone who has achieved Lichdom might not distill into a Distillich - primarily because there's barely nothing left to distill. Your standard phylactery-skeleton Lich would probably make some fine alcohol additive, but it is a far cry from a true and proper Distillich.
Gabriel Thomas
Read hp love crafts the reanimator for alchemical necromancy
Chase Perry
Avoiding the alcoholich discussion for the moment, I quite like mechanical undead/barely clinging to life people - Mortal Engines's Stalkers, various questionably alive admech stuff from 30k/40k, the Storm King in Girl Genius
There's also a kind of half-mumification route you could go with an alchemical liche - replacing bodily fluids with preservatives, having mechanical/magical devices in place of amulets, having Canopic jars both for preservation and for phylactery purposes
Basically, ancient Egyptians believe that people have six parts of them that makes for a proper 'living' being. These are Ib/Jib (heart, the seat of emotions, thought, will, and intention), Sheut (shadow, image), Ren (name, fame, deeds), Ba (personality, uniqueness), Ka (vital spark), and Akh (intellect as its own separate thing, reanimated after death by combining Ba and Ka).
So it could be that an Ancient Egyptian Lich, or mummies, would have at least some of these preserved through magical means. They would still have to give up an aspect, perhaps the Ka, that makes them living - but the rest could perhaps be preserved. Now imagine a mummy who had their Jib crystallized, their Sheut forever trapped in a mirror-box, their Ren propagated through ever-popular stories, and had their Akh resurrected before they died.
Throw me another philosophical/mythical concept, I'll make a lich based on it, I guess.
Ayden Anderson
did you type this with a voice to text program op?
Joseph Nelson
I don't think that's really a lich, is it even considerable undeath?
Joshua Gutierrez
Cool Air
Justin Murphy
Why does there need to be a lich for every possible discipline? Liches gain immortality through magic (and doing lots of evil shit usually).
Alchemists already have a great stereotypical way of gaining immortality, the philosopher's stone (in some interpretations, at least) or any number of life-extending serums.
There doesn't need to be "evil path to immortality" for every archetype, it just waters the concept down.
Christopher Wilson
It doesn't, but we're having fun discussing the options. Personally I think it doesn't water the concept down, but makes it richer. What separates a traditional Necromantic Koschei Lich from, say, a Lich whose main magic discipline is Illusion? Would the latter be an invasive nightmare? Or would they exist as a self-perpetuating illusion?
Grayson Peterson
There shouldn't be an illusion lich. Pursuing immortality is generally evil (outside of being some kind of an already immortal outsider or deific blessing) and tying undeath into it is kind of the core premise of why undead are evil.
All liches are basically skeletons in dresses, that's the whole point.
Brody White
I'm not debating whether they are evil or not, of course they are. Just what flavor of evil would they be if they have x magic instead of necromancy. Fuck the old skeletons in dresses, that's your fetish now.
Leo Nelson
Goodness, I didn't really intend for that idea to be a focus of pouring liches I to water supplies, just that my idea was a lich distilling their soul into a chemical they can then repurpose and inject into new bodies to live forever until someone spills his soul. Similar mechanics to a normal lich.
Jackson Phillips
Being able to cast necromantic spells isn't a pre-requisite to being undead. So an Illusionist lich would still be a skeleton, he'd just be better at hiding that fact from people.
Parker Sullivan
You could always just make him a Frankenstein-esque abomination that killed its creator and started making more of itself.
In this case, the "secret magical battery" could be...an actual battery. Using electrical means to run an artificially preserved brain.
Andrew Howard
Magepunk, look up Pyrexians (particularly old school) or Esper in Magic the Gathering might give some ideas.
Jackson Cox
Then an artificer turned Lich could be a mechanical skeleton, enchanted with the necessary magic to keep them immortal.
Gabriel Barnes
Lich is just being undead and having a phylactery.
If it's mechanical, it's a construct and while there are ways to turn yourself into one, it rarely meshes well with magic.
But I suppose as long as you rip out your soul through some evil ritual and create a phylactery, you can stick it wherever it fits.
Jace Gonzalez
Best antagonist. Also digging OP's idea. Maybe his battery is an alchemical solution that when directly exposed to mana/aether/sexy magical juice reacts in a way that creates the necromantic energies required to sustain him? You could also make him approach magic in a scientific way and give him less spells but with extra metamagics and/or effects to his spells to reflect that he spent his time studying and perfecting what few spells he knew. Hell, if you're feeling particularly creative and generous you could let the party study his shit and learn some of his formulas when they inevitably loot his lair, which could be used as either magic reagents or to add some of his metamagic effects to their spells.
Luis Rivera
If you're already into alchemy, wouldn't it be more natural to search for immortality via finding the Philosopher's Stone and distilling the Grand Elixir instead of bothering with lichdom?
Jack Sanchez
There are probably other methods to immortality than lichdom for other magical schools too, but some people go for it anyway. Lichdom is usually for folks who seek inherent power from becoming a lich, as well as its a pretty quick method to attaining immortality.
Liam Cooper
How did they manage to make the 3d model look so dull compared to the painting?
Dylan Hill
I read a cool idea of something like that in some fanta-crap book. Salt mine, populated with mechanical spider-miners. At the very heart of it is a throne with a shriveled husk of a man, partially incased in salt, supported by thousands upon thousands of mechanical manipulators. When he speaks, same manipulators move his lips, tongue and even vocal cords. When he looks at someone, manipulators embedded in his eyeballs drag the dried out and partially crystallized eyes across the eyelids.
Lincoln Taylor
Immortality is conceptually evil unless you are already immortal by default in most settings. Something about breaking the natural order of things and meddling in godly business, presumably, so having an evil skeleton in a dress (or a vampire with a lisp) as prime examples of it is very much intentional.
If you want to continue with the theme of immortality = evil and stick to genre tropes, consider some kind of frankenstein's monster or homonculus or golem inspired version for alchemists. Or the usual philosopher stone that requires horrible sacrifices to create.
Camden Price
Eh, dark power doing the important bits that mechanisms can't (so not pumping dark ichor, but yes for keeping the malevolent intelligence in the brass-and-bone shell) works
Homonculi and dark!philosophers stone sounds pretty good
Logan White
Please, it's pronounced "lic-hu".
Samuel Morgan
>Not calling it a Brewed Lich
Joshua Carter
Maybe the Bhuddist self-mumification? The practice was best preserved in Japan, but seems to have existed in Tang China and Tibet as well.
Lucas Nelson
Xianxia/Wuxia settings don't deem it evil inherently, though some methods might be. Goes back to the Taoist myths, all the way to the Huang Lao of the Zhou.
Jackson Stewart
There's a fun idea for an alchemical undead/lich an alchemist pickling themselves in a mixture of chemicals that preserves them and turns them undead.
Just apply science to it. Blood cells die after about a month and are normally replaced by more cells from the bone marrow. Therefor in a lich who does not have living bone marrow to produce blood naturally they need to "find" a willing donor
Brody Edwards
I was going to recommend Vidoq until I realised where this picture came from
Hunter Green
>Kéden infantry Could I ask for sauce on that picture? Is that some art you found and labeled yourself or is it concept art for an existing setting?
Juan Wood
It's concept art for a private setting. Friend did it for me, I added the shield later though.
Every flag gets a short history that either informs or is informed by the nation that it represents.
Trosky is a nation formed by treaty and committee, they are a joke and every thing on their flag means something that was greed upon by their far more powerful neighbors. The castle means they have only a defensive army, each brick is for each county and each stripe is for each district, the white for peace and red for valor. Trosky exists only as buffer state for two major powers and was made up of land more or less taken from a third nation that still resents having half it's landmass taken by it's larger rivals.
That does sound cool - dark potions (best example I can think of is the one that made the Dark Juxges in Dread and Voldemort's resurrection) are pretty rad alchemical necromancy, and pickling/preservatives makes sense
Jordan Butler
Neat. I like that the modern flair is mixed consistently with the traditional stuff. Especially like the sword even if the guard dosen't make that much sense.
