Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Lich

What is a lich? A lich is one of the creepiest creeps you will ever find in fairy tale lore. I do not know for certain if they are grounded in reality, but they are fascinating regardless. Please allow me to explain to you what a lich is for those of you who may not have heard of it.

A lich is a very bizarre type of undead. He is not a zombie. And although completely sentient, he is not a vampire. The common lich is often completely stripped of most of his flesh. They often are shown having empty skulls for heads (often with a glow inside the eye sockets). They may still wear clothing for decency's sake. Despite this rather noticeable lack of common human bodily features, they are completely able to walk, talk, and communicate in an entirely civil manner.

The common lore and origin of a lich is a human wizard who gains a massive amount of power (or energy) that both makes him immortal while burning off all the extra flesh of his body in the process. All that's left are the parts of the human body that can stand the heat of what has happened to him.

The creation of a lich can happen in a number of ways. Even the previously blogged "void siphoning" can be the type of rite that makes the transformation possible. I've also seen lore where the wizard has to assemble a large number of magical items which he uses to give himself this strange transformation.

From a energy manipulation standpoint, I believe that the lich is the result of a ridiculous amount of energy being stored inside a corpse. Energy creates heat. Certain human properties cannot stand such heat and melts or burns away. Of course, this leaves the lich looking fantastically hideous, but looking pretty was never the wizard's goal. All he really wanted was power.

I know of absolutely no example of a lich being good. If you know one one, let me know about it. Liches seem to be as evil as they can be. They care nothing for others. Heck, they don't seem to care much about themselves either. They exist to create misery and woe to all those who they attempt to oppress. They act as if gods among men.

You would not want to meet a lich. He would posses an insane amount of power and would likely dispose of you easily. He might also try and enthrall you with his dark magic. Imagine having to serve the whims of an evil skeleton. Not good.

In most of the fiction I have seen involving liches, the stories usually revolve around the hero trying to prevent the wizard from turning into a lich in the first place. Most of the time, the wizard does succeed if only to show the audience what he has truly chosen to become. At this point the hero must fight the lich personally and defeat him in order to stop him from taking over the world with his dark magic. It does seem that this action would ultimately be a hero's job, as the lich should be an extremely powerful villain at that point.

So here is a little thought experiment for you. If you were standing only a couple inches away from a lich... would his skeletal form be cold, heated, or without any noticeable temperature? Take into account the amount of energy it took to make him this way... but also consider his demeanor towards man and himself. There's a bit of hot and cold going into this. Tell me what you think!

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