What are some motivations for a Lich to do what he or she does beyond just power or immortality?
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, usually. But that takes time... so much time... and human lives are so short.
>>47041149
>beyond just power or immortality
Not "just" power or immortality. Supreme Power and... and fucking IMMORTALITY!
>>47041149
Fear
>>47041149
>What are some motivations for a Lich to do what he or she does beyond just power or immortality?
Well, I met this particular Lich. He wasn't in it for power or immortality, but rather he wanted to X. And he would do anything for X.
>>47041149
Ensure they are remembered eternally, even if that requires them to be remembered as a fucking psychopath?
Some personal obsession or vendetta? Maybe they became a lich so they could wipe out the family that ruined them and since achieving this they've gone on a campaign against unscrupulous businessmen?
Ask yourself what they want the power and immortality for.
Throwing out shit to get us started.
power
> Create a perfect society where skellingtons do all the hard labor and now everyone has time to read.
> Show up those ponces at the magic school and give them what for, that'll teach them to expel me
> The King is corrupt, I will save the kingdom blahblahblah
> Wanted to push the art as far as he could to see where it could go and treats necromancy with a scientific bearing
Immortality
> Genuinely scared of the afterlife and true death
> Wanted all the time in the world to read books and travel
> Believed that he was so good that he did the world a favour by preserving all his know-how
power and immortality
> Look at me I am the God now
>>47041149
The Lich originally wanted to pursue Divination, but after a freakishly detailed vision outlined the coming invasion of the dead souls of the world to snuff out the last lights of life he decided to pursue necromancy and ascend to lichdom in order to better understand and fight against the coming apocalypse.
I know heroic liches are a meme but I still like them.
>>47041149
True believer. Believe in Death god/cult or just magic, whatever made him or her Lich. Or some other dark gods cults, demons.
May also believe/think that turning everybody into undead is best choice or only choice what make sense, both giving them immoratlity and stripping most people from free will.
>>47041370
>And he would do anything for X.
But would he do *that*?
They're a follower of some death god, and want to be able to praise them for eternity and be their champion.
They believe there's going to be some grand battle at the end of time, and they want to stick around until then and try to be the victor and get some sort of cool prize.
They didn't intend to be a lich, they just got so heavily into magic it was going to happen at some point.
>>47041149Love?
>>47041791
>But would he do *that*?
He would. X was the only thing that mattered to him after all.
>>47041747
Aren't death gods usually really unhappy with undead? Like ultimate blasphemy unhappy?
They want to experience everything that one could possibly experience.
Want a lawful neutral Lich?
Make them want to bring justice to the world, becoming the ultimate judge. Using the souls of the wicked in the dark ritual, they've now become an immortal lich, able to find and punish evil for all eternity.
Want an evil lich?
Same as before, but their idea of justice is twisted. Or they've done it so long they've lost the sight of justice and have started punishing people with capital punishment for the smallest of wrongdoings.
>>47041955
Alternately, Judge Dredd style obsession with the law but the laws if their civ were cruel and kinda evil by ''modern'' (that is, contemporary) standards.
Mage: the Awakening posits that lichdom usually first takes root in a mage's mind when they start to think that they know better than anyone else. "For the greater good of humanity, I must continue my work," yada yada. Even other reapers utterly despise mages who extend their life for mundane ends, because they're walking abyss magnets.
>>47041149
>just power or immortality
>just
C'mon, that's pretty much the end game, after you've got those you can amuse yourself with whatever.
>>47042031
THE CRIME IS LIFE
THE SENTENCE IS DEATH!
>>47041844
Depending what gods. Some espeially evil ones may be even responsible for undead.
There could be evil and good gods of Death even unholy god of both Life and Death.
>>47041149
Keep her corpse looking fabulous.
>>47041844
Depends entirely on your gods and metaphysical system.
I run a game with a God of Death that seeks to be more like a stern but comforting father or a chill uncle to souls passing on (depending on what they need on an individual basis), and is generally a really nice guy because he cares about your well-being. He wants to to have a good, happy life so that it gives some nice context to your soul after you're dead and allows you to pass on to whatever afterlife you get with minimal discomfort.
If this lich turned himself into what he was to impress this deity, the deity would not be "blashphemy unhappy," he'd be upset in that way you're upset when your favorite character in a TV show has something tragic and heartbreaking happen to them. He'd want to make this lich's life better to ease his soul on, but he can't, because the gods here cannot interact too much. He'd need to find a champion to do it for him--an actual champion, not the mockery of life and death that this poor, mislead soul has created of himself.
>>47043124
Something tells me that most of those was never alive, so to speak.
>>47041149
saving the world (by putting themselves in charge)
my liches usually want just that
their undead lieutenants are usually dicks
I am a Lich. I became immortal because of -
>>47041149
Enjoyment. Some people just want to have fun.
>>47041149
some just want to ensure that the things they manage stay well managed and don't trust others to carry on for them
What the fuck do you mean "besides immortality"
That's like asking why we have cars but not to go somewhere too far to walk
I mean yeah, there are secondary usages and desires, but they are incredibly unimportant compared to the primary function.
>>47041149
Stupidity: the guy lost a bet and now has to endure immortality as best as he can, or perhaps he made a promise to a friend/wife/child and will do everything to see it done, or maybe he's a neet who can't bear to let death bring him away from his loved entertainment products.
>>47041341
This. Fear is one of the greatest motivators there is, and it's also perhaps the most deeply engrained in the psyche of all sentient life.
>>47044848
So, this guy pretty much.
>>47041149
He really didn't want to die before he saw the end of his favorite elvish soap opera. He kinda regrets it now though. The show really went downhill after season 947.
>>47044928
Lost their partner, so sought Lichdom so that they can have another go at wooing their loved one when they are eventually reincarnated in the far future. (She, Big Trouble in Little China, etc)
I assume that most just want to avoid the oblivion/eternal torment they would receive if they died, since most of them are evil
A lot of them are ambitious and have grand plans for themselves, but I see most as just derping their way onto ennui
Acererak from the original Tomb of Horrors comes to mind, he didn't seem to have much plans besides raiding all the libraries of the multiverse while his skull floated in the middle of a dungeon
>>47041149
He's trying to do something else that's infinitely more important but is rapidly running out of time.
Short storytime.
>Players arrive at an out of the way village after getting strange reports from travelers.
>Village was once subject to a nasty plague, lots of people fell ill, but that seems to have subsided.
>Arrive on scene, everything seems pretty normal at first.
>Talking to the innkeep, one of the players notices her speech is somewhat off.
>More weird happenings, occasional person will just freeze mid sentence and stand frozen with the occasional blinking, the occasional farmer will work the field for days straight with no rest, food, or water.
>Temple's priest has locked himself in his room in constant prayer and fasting, condemning the town but rambling like a madman.
>Temple is mostly administered to by an acolyte in his stead, a young man in his mid to late teens.
>Finally, after some discoveries and veiled hints, the players find an underground section beneath the temple.
>Winding hallways, weak skeletal warriors, etc. abound.
>Finally come to a large "laboratory" of sorts.
>The walls are lined with townsfolk in suspension within fluids, in various states of illness from the plague that ravaged the town, some with their faces frozen in horror, others appear to be sleeping.
>Lone acolyte at the end of the room half yells, half pleads with the PCs to stay back, he can fix this.
>At the noise, some in stasis begin to stir.
>Acolyte turns to PCs, his face is missing patches of skin with some bone exposed, no trace of the youthful looks of before.
>Battle commences, PCs slay the young lich (Don't remember that he has a phylactery or know he's a lich), then releases and mercy kills the townsfolk in stasis.
>Last words are pleas to stop, "I can fix this, I can... fix... this..."
>>47046785
It was later found out the acolyte was a prodigy that discovered the secret to "immortality," and although he was unable to cure the townspeople from the plagues hitting the town, he could suspend them to halt their decay unto death. With his power, he created simulacrums to fill the roles of the missing people, spending considerable energy for their upkeep and daily routines (Also explaining why sometimes the people didn't act right, he was essentially puppeteering the better part of a town all the while preforming his experiments at night and acting as the people's leader in absence of the priest.).
So, a good-ish aligned acolyte prodigy takes it on himself to save his village from a plague as the leader of the people, a priest, declares that the plague is the natural order of things and a matter to test the faith of the people. PCs slay him because undead are evil, especially ones that experiment on innocent townsfolk. Acolyte sees everyone he ever loved and was attempting to cure slayed like sick sheep by the PCs who think he's caused the plague in the first place.
And through all of this, the PCs made one fatal mistake -- they didn't actually destroy the acolyte's phylactery. Later on, when the lich recovers, they're going to have one hell of a time on their hands.
>>47044729
Immortality isn't a bad motivation, just kinda boring.
Time to fix your mistakes.
>>47041149
>Current setting working on
>Based on the Science-Fantasy Brave New Worlds threads we had a while ago
>Magic-Industrial Revolution is underway
>A strong Divination Wizard looks ahead to see the glorious spacefaring future ahead of mankind
>Realizes he'll be dead almost a century before this
>Spends life searching for a way to survive until he can visit other worlds
>Eventually, desperate, he transforms into a Lich, performing the necessary Evil rituals
>Lich hides out for a while til spaceflights start up and he sneaks off world
>Explores the entire star system, and then starts to get bored of it all
>Realizes it'll take millenia or longer until interstellar travel becomes a thing
>Goes a little crazy
>Now seeks to increase rate of human scientific/magical advancement by any means
>Completely burned out ethics and moral sense
>Full on mad scientist mode
>All he wanted was to see the stars
I had a great conversation with someone about a Paladin-turned-Lich for the sake of their patron diety. The idea was that there were many gods in this world and they were kept alive by their followers devotion. The Paladin's God had fallen out of favor and he was among the last worshippers so to keep his God alive he became what he despised to he could worship them eternally.
>>47042982
>>47047262
Pretty neat.
>>47041149
To keep a promise. Not to steal from an RPG, but...
> be warrior monk
> be on a journey with bros to save the world
> manage to do the thing, but wind up as the only survivor
> last request of your bros; make sure our families get to live peacefully because of our sacrifice
> yeah, that's a doable thing
> thousands of years later their great great grandbabbies are incestuous emperors of a ghost-policed kingdom of "any law broken is punishable by death"
> just what muh bros wanted, right?
>>47047302
That's actually pretty cool.
>>47046019
This.
There is something attractive about the character that can't let go of their terrible responsibilities.
The ones that just want to rest, just lie down and sleep, just drift to sleep in the cool and wormy earth. They just want to let go but are terrified of what will happen if they do. Too many people rely on them for them to simply stop.
>>47041149
My GM once had an anarchist lich who was trying to start a quasi-communist revolution among the peasants so society would collapse. He thought that systems of governance were stifling people too much, and that the world's true potential could only be achieved after all limits beyond one's own merit were torn down.
Kinda like Armstrong now that I think about it.
>>47041149
Every other century kill the patents of hundreds of kids for next generation of Disney heroes or impregnated hundreds of women for the next generation of saint Seya heroes.
Alternatively, start a magic school for poor people so they don't be oppressed by the mages aristocracy.
Lastly, you know the tarrasque is coming back and you were the one who stopped it the last time so you became a lych and wait in front of the mountain were the beast slumber.
I AM BECOME LICH, ETERNAL LIBRARIAN and the bathroom is left of the non fiction section
>>47047656
>not having an immortal Lenin instead
7/10, it has potential
>>47046845
The question you should be asking then is not "why do you want to be a lich", but rather, "why do you want to be immortal"
>>47041149
Lich has specific way they believe humanity should go, but it will take more than a single life to achieve his dream.
>>47041236
This guy gets it
>>47048302
>Necro-Lenin uses skeleton work force to labor on behalf of the landless peasantry after expropriating the aristocracy
>>47041149
Well I don't know about you OP, but power and immortality both sound pretty good to me.
>>47041149
>>47041149
He wishes to receive minority status so he has to pay less taxes
>>47047223
He was actually still alive. People just kinda, live for hundreds of years in that setting
>>47041619
>I know heroic liches are a meme
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Baelnorn_lich
>>47041149
World domination
Bringing loved ones back from their afterlives in the outer planes
Invading the outer planes
Pursuit of knowledge
Creating a race of domestic cat girls that grow no higher than gnomes
Paying off magic college debt
Trying to find all the socks that went missing after doing laundry
Helping their grandmother with the computer
Searching for a way to kill Queen Elizabeth
Gaining custody of their children
Creating jobs for the poor
A way to effectively enforce law and order in 3rd world countries
Curing every kind of cancer
Influencing Muslims to convert to Buddhism
Repairing NEET/degenerate society in Japan
Cleaning up streets in India and create functional sewage and water systems across the country
Gaining Hong Kong's independence from China
Uncensoring Chinese media
Also trying to evict the assholes next door that blast music at 3am and smoke weed and cigarettes so god damn much the smell is in my apartment.
>>47041149
The only "optimal" reason to pursue lichdom are the undead features.
>Never need to sleep again (Not really that big since most usually get by with 2 hrs/day)
>Undead immunities
>Improved mental stats
>CHA to HP (great for helping sorcerers catch up)
>Eventual ascent to Akalichood
Cons
>Inferior Resurrection mechanic (Advanced Clone also stops aging and doesnt have the pesky 1d10 regeneration period)
Basically, you can say that someone would only intelligently pursue lichdom if they were either a Sorcerer desperate to catch up to a wizard (they never will), someone with extreme long term planning intent on becoming an Akalich,
Most casters going "muh immortality" are probably the never-weres who spent too much of their time taking it easy instead on working for their 8th level slots and are now desperate to get around dying of old age.
>>47041149
Lichdom as a result of increasingly out-there double-dog dares.
>I dare you to sacrifice twenty unnamed first-born children to the dark god of secrets.
>Nuh-uh!
>Well, then, I quadruple-dog dare you! You can't back out of a quadruple-dog dare!
>>47044486
>I am a Lich. I became immortal because of -
My intense fear of death. All creatures have it, I have the means to ease it.
>>47048794
Actually, he was essentially a bunch of ashes wrapped in bandages and sustained by the power of the Eliacube that unnaturally prolonged his life.Once the cube was destroyed, he only lives just long enough to reach his family's grave and turn into dust.The only people that live for hundreds of years in the Wakfu universe are demigods, those who use some kind of magical artifact, and enutrofs to a certain extent.
>>47041189
neeeeeeeeeeeeerd
>>47041149
Divine purpose. For more complcations have them serve a good deity, or perhaps a dead deity they wish to resurrect.
>>47055996
Double tweest, deity doesn't want his help or the task is impossible but he's delusional and refuses to let eveything he's done be for nothing. Deity wants him dead for reals so his soul can finally know rest where it belongs.
>>47041149
The players in my game found a talking skull locked in a secret passage in their current dungeon crawl. It's story is that it was a minstrel in real life that banged a necromancer's wife and got turned into what he is now, but the reality is that he's a demilich bard obsessed with heroic narrative. He finds a way to attach himself to a party, offers bits of advice to provoke them to greater heroics for song material, and then eventually leads them into folly for grand, heroic deaths for even better song material. Pic related.
>>47056219
>>47056219
15/10
I don't even like bards but that's actually pretty nito.
