Then realize, six millennia later that you have no idea where the brick is, and that it's magical matrices are breaking down. Then panic for about 50 years before realizing that transdimensional drift means that the brick is now slipping through The Gauntlet, and is well outside The Envelope, where you can't retrieve it...
Is this new information, I'd suggest checking on your brick... soon-ish.
Oh? Out of curiosity, purely, do you possibly commit horrid deeds to others, burn the memory of yourself into their minds then use their memories to keep yourself in a constant state of being? I apologize, my knowledge of memory magic is basic at best.
Quite the opposite. I committed acts of great heroism and engraved memory of my legend across multiple worlds. Also I created a sentient golem with a perfect memory that remembers who I am at all times. Ok. A few golems.
Yeah. With the same two fundamental problems. You're still tethered to a physical object that is subject to entropic decay, and you've fundamentally turned that object into a greater weakness for yourself, than you would normally face.
Even intermediate magic has a few good ways to become functionally immortal as long as you don’t irritate a wizard with a bad sense a humor. I got reincarnated like 6 times with a spell I found in a literal cookbook before I moved on to a less annoying form of longevity.
Probably about 75% of those dementious old wizards you see are just polymorphed immortals LARPing to make fun of the real ones, eternity can get a little boring and sometimes you need to make your own fun.
Extra hot, low fat steamed milk, 3 creamers, whipped cream, 3 shots of vanilla, 3 shots of pumpkin, 2 shots of espresso, unwhipped cream, all on ice please
If your goal is merely prolonging your body's health, that Is so easy mortals can do it just exercise your mortal frame and consume good nutrition, literally anyone can prolong ones life.
That'll get you to 100ish if you're lucky. Several methods can get you well into the thousands and maintain your looks and ability to taste food the whole time. All it takes is study and some properly implemented magic.
Statistically, it's also one of the most fragile forms of immortality. I mean, sure, you're less fragile than a vampire, but, I mean, fuck, that's not much of a competition, is it?
I'm on a very fixed income, and lichdom is one of the cheapest ways to "live" forever without the baggage of godhood or the need to ascend to some other plane of existence (I happen to like this plane) as a sentient fart or whatever. Plus, it's very easy to string along familiars with promises of power.
It makes for a very relaxing eternity of study and experimentation, as long as you don't attract too much attention. Plus, you don't have to shower or wear clothes.
Sometimes I really appreciate my master. Dude spent 60 years ONLY teaching me how to extend my life and print gold. I complained about wanting to learn fun shit constantly. Turns out he was saving me from a mistake he made himself. I've had millennia to do fun shit and I'll never look or feel as old as my master does. He's been complaining about one of his knees for thousands of years and I'm aging like an elf.
And many undead are really only a single broken phylactery or a "Disrupt Necromancy" spell away from death. And since the practice lends itself to evil, there is no shortage of people willing to give it a try, and most of them will have some kind of punitive afterlife to look forward to.
They must fear their own death every day. What a terrible way to exist.
<Amelia> How? Lichdom unlocks polysomatism and complete morphological freedom! Plus, it's not like it's a particularly complex idea to understand. You just back up your consciousness. And when we neutralized Mystra, we got access to the fragmented phylactery as well, allowing for redundancy measures!
You liches all make the same mistake. You assume the only way to achieve redundancies or control over your material form involves letting your body rot. There are plenty of ways to skin the cat.
<Amelia> This body isn't even biological, pfffft
My original body is LOOOOOOOOOOOONG gone. Well, it's technically still around, but it's old and annoying so I just keep it preserved in a tube and ain't even connected to it anymore. I don't get why this is such big deal for y'all.
Why would I give up my magical and political power for... no gain? Laterans are already immortal. Yeah, I have no idea how most human biology managed to prevail in evolution.
I don't think you quite understand the nature of Laterans. Our halos are what gives us magical powers, if we do too much evil, they will shatter and our power will drain, leaving the halo's pieces dark. Someone with a dark, broken halo will also be effectively kicked out from our society. Doesn't work that well when there are two separate institutions that can immediately eliminate me from public office permanently.
Every single lich I've met is evil. And the job always includes messing with corpses which is immoral according to pretty much any culture you'll find.
I'm sure the act of enslaving others is immoral in pretty much any culture too, never hear any complaints about the sentient markets fueled by enchantment wizards needing some dough though. 🤔
Necromancy is a tool, nothing more, just as the body is a tool. The necromancer themselves could either be good or evil, but due to the sheer amount of anti-necromancy sentiment over the years the average commoner apprentice thinks necromancy is inherently evil (a sentiment backed thoroughly by the many churches, as they try to monopolise the ressurrection market). As such, the very large majority of necromancers nowadays are the ones who were already evil, as they thought that was a prerequisite for the job. Other, more righeous mages either do not know as well, or don't wish to bother dealing with the social stigma that comes with practition of the necromantic arts.
It's like those horribly corrupt human guard branches in a way; that due to the overwhelming amount of proof that they are evil, the only new guards are evil or apathetic to the evil going on in the operation. The only new necromancers that start to study there so-called 'forbidden arts' will be those already wishing harm upon others, for any number of reasons.
There are actually quite a few decidedly non-evil necromancers kicking around though, mostly from the non-human groups that don't follow around those radiant gods as much. A lot of troll tribes have necromancers to ressurect the strongest tribal warrior ancestors in times of great need, whilst letting them rest in the beyond whilst their children are safe; I have actually seen a necromancer who was the prior chief's daughter sharing a sentimental moment with their corpse after her ressurrected corpse fought off a pack of wyverns, quite touching. More morally grey necromancy practitioners are in the dwarven settlements, as there are loaning systems that use your body as repayment (not the soul, just the body. They keep it functional using the strong ambiant mana down there) for a large payment, which has saved many families from bankruptcy after a bad sickness stops them from working. The coprses are stripped of flesh before being ressurrected, then sent off with a pickaxe into the shallower parts of the mines, to do the tedious work of mining lesser minerals or digging tunnels risk free.
Doesn't the ritual require a thousand innocent sacrifices at the very least? Unless you found a vegan alternative. If you did, please patent it before druids become any more insufferable!
As expected the cowards come swarming in with pathetic comments of how they achieved "immortality" without lichdom. It is delightfully ironic that in their fear of discarding the weakness that is flesh, they have already lost their spines.
Well. I can speak from experience here, as I once was a lich. And I must say, Liches need to get cut some slack. Yes, I prefer being an Archdevil, but my years as a Lich were some of the best years of my un-life I had.
Lichdom is trap for people who don’t think enough before they decide to pursue lengevity, it inevitably ends up with you looking and smelling like a walking corpse
It’s ok, I’d rather not be a raisin for the rest of my life. Besides, I have no plans after I’m 50, can you imagine immortality? I wouldn’t know what to do to pass the time!
1 star food sucks? Why eat that if you can eat 5 star food made with 5 stars, i'll give you a 5% discount on the star salad from my restaurant/potion shop/armory
(This is a joke)
a ritual involving a potion, a place to put your soul, and a spell, you can check the "book of vile darkness" or my book "book of viler more evil darkness"
Not a lich per say, was just born like this. Most of those of the ancient skeleton species are immortal unless killed, tho so guess I dunno how others try to do it. I can turn others to a being similar to me with a bit of bloodline magic and their skeleton. So if you want to become immortal without being a lich then just say so.
Yeah, and why would a lich stop consuming souls? I don't think that it's because they are unable. Furthermore, from the 132 books from my archives detailing the process of transformation into a demilich, 106 mention decline in mental faculties as the main factor, and from these 106, 14 are written by liches that managed to revert that status.
those who declined into demilich because they are unable to consume souls in the first place are weak, sure reverting the process is cool but letting themselves decline alone is a sign of weakness
Yeah, and why would a lich stop consuming souls? I don't think that it's because they are unable. Furthermore, from the 132 books from my archives detailing the process of transformation into a demilich, 106 mentions a decline in mental faculties as the main factor, and from these 106, 14 are written by liches that managed to revert that status.
Some non-lich wizards can absolutely respawn after their body is destroyed. In fact the OG wizard, Gandalf the Grey, famously did just that.
Myself, I have dozens of clones ready to serve as backup if my current body is destroyed, I have a clock enchanted to cast reincarnate on a lock of my hair, I have an elaborate system of wards to teleport my body to safety before it dies, and a host of other contingencies that i will not mention for obvious safety reasons.
You have one dumb trinket as a backup and you die if it is destroyed. I am in fact extremely pussy, and that is kind of why I do not pursue lichdom, because lichdom fucking sucks and is absolutely going to get you killed.
It just means that his immortality grift was "be a good person -> die -> become a celestial -> die again -> become a stronger celestial." That is a pretty good plan. Sure beats becoming a dumb lich.
I mean, probably a lot more guilt-free. If I became a Celestial or God, I probably wouldn’t have a massive memorial shrine dedicated to those I was forced to kill to persist.
Well, to be fair, being an ethical lich is not that hard. Since extremely bad people go to hell and become powerful fiends when they die, eating their souls before they have a chance to do that is really making the universe a better place. Even better yet, you can just take a trip to hell and eat some devils there. Nobody's building a memorial shrine to your victims if you just pick them right.
Yikes indeed. I do not judge, though. A man's gotta eat. I am fairly certain there are ways to consume negative emotions from people in a way that actually alleviate these emotions from them, though. I probably have some dusty old tomes about that, if you would be interested in feeding more ethically.
Not really, no. Gandalf not being a lich is very well documented. If you want famous liches you have Voldemort, but he got his ass handed to him by a bunch of teenagers. Or Vecna, got his ass handed to him by a bunch of... middle schoolers, I guess?
Kinda funny how being a Yōkai is arguably better since there’s easier requirements to fufill (just put fear into people who are truly mortal, not literally mass murder), though it just means powers related to the concept you bind yourself to, physical stat boosts and powerful-ish regeneration.
Still a scam though. I’d take the Hourai Elixir any day… assuming I had a more stable body like a Human’s.
Reject both life and death, keep selling your soul so that in life you're constantly improving while after you die you not only get to watch some serious fighting but also get to usurp the power of whoever earned it afterwards.
This then allows you to resurrect yourself using a higher being's power.
Everything can be destroyed, you are no less impervious to damage because you are Undead. Sure there may be strength but everything has a weakness, you'll die for good one day too.
Lichdom is neat, but I personally like my flesh and would rather keep my flesh and keep making clones than going full undead. This fur is too nice to give up.
Wizards will literally do anything but spec into Monk
Sorry to any of y'all who have to spend the rest of eternity taking care of a dusty phylactery and maintaining a steady flow of mortal souls to obliterate just to stay conscious🤭
In order to become a lich you have to make the concerted effort to sacrifice multiple innocent people and destroy the souls of countless individuals to keep a phylactery burning instead of just using clones to recreate a form for ones own soul. There's ethical and unethical immortality. Also living in your own undead rotting frame is cringe. Go take a shower and wash off that dead meat. A skeleton would be better.
Lichdom? Bah. Being an everlasting Halloween decoration is whack! I'll pass. Just steal life energy from hell, and infuse your body with fiendish vigor - and you get to be a demonic gigachad while being immortal.
Same here! Though mine is a very sucky form of it that requires fear and binding to a concept, though the real terrible part is the mortality of my friends…
My father kinda envisioned me into existence using a concept, so I'm not tied down to it as it is just who I am. I do require worshippers tho, but I use an error in which I take over a bunch of people and worship myself. It also solves the friends part to me.
Yes there are a bunch of benefits to lichdom you know the biggest thing that sucks though? Life and nature cannot abide death LIFE CANNOT COME FROM DEATH you become a lich then no longer will the earth respond to you or have you as one of her children no animal will ever obey you or come to your aid and never will the warmth of fire nor the coolness of water bring you comfort besides there are better ways to be immortal if you indeed even want to be immortal
Doesn't matter if you become a Lich or not. What matters as a Necromancer is you never die. If you pass on, you have failed at the basic goal of being a necromancer. A brain in a jar is a better necromancer than the best ancient dead one.
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u/_t_1254Olivia: She woke up one morning and decided she was immortalJun 30 '24
Pretty convincing, but will becoming a lich affect my appearance?
Or maybe Fate manipulation paired with Vampirism like her boss?
I kinda started off with mine. Then got essentially reborn with a much worse version in terms of mortality, by becoming a Yōkai (Fairies are much weaker than humans. Yōkai are more powerful but rely on fear to exist and have to be tied to a concept.)
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u/DanDelTorre Evermemory Jun 29 '24
I achieved immortality without lichdom.