| Lich | |
|---|---|
 Atlantean necromancer as depicted on the cover of Skull-Face by Robert E. Howard | |
|
Real Name |
Lich |
|
First Appearance |
Russian Myth |
|
Created by |
Unknown |
Origin[]
A lich is a type of undead creature. Often such a creature is the result of a willful transformation, as a powerful wizard skilled in necromancy who seeks eternal life uses rare substances in a magical ritual to become undead. Unlike zombies, which are often depicted as mindless, liches are sapient revenants, retaining their previous intelligence and magical abilities. Liches are often depicted as holding power over lesser mindless undead soldiers and servants.
Liches are sometimes depicted using a magical device called a phylactery to anchor their souls to the physical world so that if their body is destroyed they can rise again over and over, as long as the phylactery remains intact.
The lich developed from monsters found in earlier classic sword and sorcery fiction, which is filled with powerful sorcerers who use their magic to triumph over death. Something resembling the concept goes at least back to Koschei the Deathless from Russian Mythology and Tales such as Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard or the The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body.
The word 'lich' rhymes with 'witch' and is derived from the Old High German word lih or lika for "corpse". In modern and slightly-archaic English, graveyards are still occasionally called "lichyards", and a lychgate, or lichgate, is a covered gateway at the entrance to a graveyard where a coffin might rest for a time before a funeral. 'Lich' was used in reference to (sometimes undead) corpses by Clark Ashton Smith in the 1930s.
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Koschei the Deathless
- Tsarevich Petr and the Wizard
- The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
- The Death of Halpin Frayser (1891)
- Two Black Bottles (1927)
- Cool Air (1928)
- Skull-Face (1929)
- The Empire of the Necromancers (1932)
- The Thing on the Doorstep (1937)