On the Army Of The Red Spear 001: Overview and Spirit-Bound Liches

You may blame Themaskedferret. As anyone who has passingly interacted with me will know, I like the sound of my own voice and sight of my own typing and it takes very little encouragement for me to talk at length, most especially about myself. Themaskedferret made the fatal error of asking to know more information.

So we shall start an irregular series of blog posts about the Aotrs¹, the Army Of The Red Spear (from which I take my internet handle since, well, forever), to be updated as and when I feel like it, am promoted, have free time etc. etc.

It is difficult to know where to begin. There is a lot of deeply-interlocking information to impart, from a brief history of the Aotrs - from which a further expansion of galactic history is required, to my own specific situation, to the hardware and technology of the Aotrs itself.

After consideration, then, I felt we should begin with a very brief overview of the Aotrs and then a look at Spirit-Bound Liches; what they are and what their capabilities are.

Overview of the Army Of The Red Spear

The Army Of The Red spear was established approximately 2700 years ago by Death Despoil the Lichemaster, as his personal army. The Aotrs has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It has grown into a powerful modern empire with a very respectable level of technology, significantly higher than the galactic average. Though ruled absolutely by Lord Death Despoil’s decree, the Aotrs is in practise a functional meritocracy.

The Aotrs is both the all-encompassing empire and the primary armed force. (Strictly, the former is a subsidiary of the latter). In addition to the Aotrs proper, i.e. the military organisation, there are three second-line military forces - essentially garrison and local police forces. They and the majority of the non-military populations on the twenty-six full inhabited worlds and smaller non-military colonies are comprised of living beings, predominantly of elf, human or orc-kin stock.

The Aotrs as the organisation itself consists predominantly of free-willed spirit bound Undead, mostly skeleton warriors or Liches. Recruitment is drawn from by merit from the ranks of the other organisations or by discovery of promising individuals encountered during operations or even by direct volunteer recruitment if the volunteer can likewise prove their merit. It is not a requirement to be a Lich, or even Undead in the Aotrs proper, but the vast majority select that option.

Spirit-Bound Liches

Overview
Spirit-Bound Liches are a form of created Undead. Spirit-Bound Liches are distinct from Phylactery-Bound Liches (typified by the sort of creature in Dungeons & Dragons) in that the soul is bound directly to the body, not to an artefact.

Nomenclature note: The following information also equally applies to Skeleton Warriors. "Skeleton Warrior" is nomenclature used to specifically describe a Spirit-Bound skeletal Undead with no spellcasting ability; basically a Lich but with no spellcasting ability. As Spirit-Binding, unlike Phylactery-Binding, is not something you generally can do to yourself (it's difficult to cast spells when you're dead; i.e. your soul is separated from your body), this is possible, unlike Phylactery-Binding which requires the prospective Lich to be a spellcaster.

(Aotrs basic training requires learning basic necromancy spells (e.g. creating animated undead), so by far and away the number of people that cannot be taught magic is small enough that the Aotrs is composed of Liches and Skeleton Warriors are very much a minority, smaller even than the number of living Aotrs members.)

A Spirit-Bound Lich is created with the appropriate spells first by animating a dead body as a skeleton (typically the body of the soul in question), summoning a spirit (i.e. the soul or ghost) of a given creature and the binding it to the animated body, transforming it into a Spirit-Bound Undead. The body does not have to be a skeleton - or necessarily, the creature's own body - but the former is Aotrs cultural preference and the latter is preferred for other reasons, such as Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement (discussed below).

The spirit-binding process - like so much magic - various from world to world, depending on the functioning of magic, but the specific version of Aotrs spirit-binding is the most advanced, since it has been refined to perfection over the course of almost three millennia. Spirit-binding is similar to how a living soul is attached to a body. There are ultimately only so many ways you can tie a soul to the physical plane.

(Consider how you attach two objects to one another. There are, when down to basics, only so many ways of doing so. You can meld them together (.e.g. welding), to can attach them via some sort of physical link (screws or nails - or rope) or stick them with some sort of adhesive. While the specific details of those methods may vary, the broad conceptual methods are few.)

Spirit-Binding in this fashion ties the soul to the body much closer than a living soul's bond. This close bond allows a Lich to consciously and subconsciously affect their body in ways that a non-Spirit-Bound undead cannot. It is illustrative to imagine a typical haunted house scenario, and all the sort of tricks and abilities that a haunted house is often shown to use; the noises, speech, the mysterious lights, blood appearing spontaneously, poltergeist activity (not done by actual poltergeists!); regeneration of damaged parts and so on. Now then imagine that a Spirit-Bound Lich is in the same situation, but "haunting" their own body. Because the volume is smaller (and in the case of Aotrs Spirit-Binding, the bond itself much more advanced and engineered), the effect is more pronounced.

A Spirit-Bound Lich on the physical plane appears as a skeleton with glowing red points of light ("eyeglows") in their eyesockets. (While it is possible for Liches to have other eyeglow colours it is extremely rare.) These eyeglows convey emotion in a manner not unlike the subset of the living eye and eyebrow. An intense emotion (hate, rage, triumph) will causes the glow to brighten or even spill luridly forth from the eyesockets (as my avatar is depicted as showing) quieter more, retrospective moments cause the glow dim soften, perhaps even to a dark pink. The expansion or contraction of an eyeglow is akin to the widening or narrowing of the eye; and a single expanded eyeglow is the equivalent of a raised eyebrow. A lich can even "close their eyes," which turns off the glow - or to blink (perhaps incomprehensibly at the latest display of human stupidity...) It is thus surprisingly possible to read the emotions of a lich, despite the lack of a facial expressions (or mobile bones, as many cartoons use), once you have your head around the differences.

If you can look at a Lich on the ethereal plane - especially one who is young (i.e. has not been a Lich for very long (relatively!)) - you can most often see the ghostly version of them in life.

It is possible, under very rare circumstances, for a Spirit-Bound Lich to form "naturally." This requires a necromancer to be killed at the precisely right moment during the casting of the right sort of necromantic spell AND the negative energy and magic to intermix in the exactly right way. It is certainly a sufficiently small chance that it would far too risky to try deliberately, but it has happened by accident. (With Aotrs thaumatergy, certainly, you could likely spend time and effort to improve the chances, but it is just far quicker to do it the other way.)

Powers and Abilities
As is the case with a lot of Undead, the specific powers of one individual can vary considerably, as by the very nature of the effect of the soul on the body, it will manifest in different ways. Aotrs Spirit-Binding tends to produce more standardised result than other methods, but even there, the common abilities may be present to a greater or lesser degree. Age and experience also has an effect.

The general plethora of powers granted to a Lich by Aotrs Spirit-Binding run as follows.

• By the nature of the bond itself, it means that a resurrection or other life-restoring spell simply cannot function against a Spirit-Bound Undead, since there is no free soul to restore.

• Extremely high resistance (more-or-less immunity in practise) to almost all forms mind-attack and control. Almost all of these effects typically work on the brain and as well as the mind, and Spirit-Bound Undead don't have any actual physical brain structure to work on, nor even an analogue to one, like technological creatures do. As an analogy, a real-world equivalent of the D&D spell Dominate Monster would still work on a Cybertank (a xenocidal, tank-shaped technological creature) or a Transformer, as they have a brain, just not an organic one.

• Regeneration of damage from most sources at a rate that varies from several orders or magnitude above natural healing (i.e. damage heals in minutes, not weeks), to full-on Wolverine-like healing factor levels, depending on the individual. Portions of the body severed will slide back towards each other and reassemble over time (not unlike the T-1000 in Terminator).

This regeneration does not apply to everything - attacks imbued with holy (slash positive) energy attacks, and attacks which deal heat damage (i.e. fire, lasers and, sadly, thus most energy weapons) deal "permanent" damage. "Permeant" damage is like damage to a human; it will heal, but at more a conventional rates akin to a living being's natural healing rate. By the nature of this effect, it means that positive energy harms, rather than heals undead in the reverse of what it does to living creatures.

The same process essentially renders a Lich immune to most-shape -altering magics. This is not quite a blanket immunity; a lich forced into another form will likewise tend to gravitate quickly back towards their natural form, nor does it stop such changes is they are initiated by the Lich him or herself. (Even accidently, as I once discovered.)

• An aura of supernatural fear and awe, as do most super-power creatures (angels, demons, dragons, demi-gods etc). The size of the radius depends on the individual and their power, but usually starts at about ten feet and is not usually more than twenty or thirty. A Lich can simply choose not to emanate this aura if they choose (we in the Aotrs tend to refer to it as "turning it on/off" for obvious reasons).

• The ability to drain the life-force and health of a living creature, on touch, and to a lesser degree, merely by standing in proximity; as a by-product, both of these effects also produce a great deal of elemental cold energy, increasing the harm further. The life-drain is essentially permanent and irreversible, aside from rare magic (or even rarer very high technology) or over a long period.

(If I were to equate this into RPG terms for illustrative clarity, in D&D (3.x), this would equates closest to Con Drain - which, aside from magic healing only "heals" if you put your stat points into in at level up; similarly in Rolemaster, the effects equates easiest to reducing the temporary Constitution stat, which again can only be healed by (the much rarer stat-healing) magic or by level-up (though in RM - naturally - there are several alternate ways of handling it, one akin to D&D's negative levels). The cold portion is easiest to equate to cold damage in D&D and Cold criticals in Rolemaster.)

These effects are strongest on contact, but, depending on the individual, the radius of effect can vary from 5 feet to much greater. The strength and radius of both these and the fears effects are the most variable of the typical Lich traits and a lot depends on personality, strength and even desire. Like the fear aura, a Lich can suppress ("turn off") one or both of the effects at will, and independently of radius and contact.

(For example I myself, having to deal with living being on the station regularly, typically keep my auras of, but my contact effects on; while I am going about incognito on Earth, I am sort of obliged to turn them all off, for obvious reasons!)

A skilled Lich can further control the rate of the effect - it is possible, with some training, so stand next to someone and slowly turn the aura up until their life subtly drains away, with the first indication the moment they collapse but seconds from death.

• Because the nature of Undeath and negative energy, the status of Undeath combined with the bond provides significant protection to privatives energies. (I.e. the forms of energy that only exist without magic or high technology as absences of their opposite energy form - cold to heat and shadow to light - and, of course, negative energy to positive energy).

This grants absorption (i.e. the energy heals, not harms) of both negative energy and elemental shadow energy (i.e. the privative of light, best thought of as being like a darkness-version of lasers). Similarly, a Spirit-Bound Lich is highly resistant (to the point of practical immunity) to Cold energy (and totally immune to the harmful effects natural non-energy cold). This does not necessarily preclude the sensation, just any potential harm. (It still feels jolly cold if you go standout side in space, for one thing, it just doesn't hurt or anything.)

• Considerable innate resistance to magic, psionics and similar supernatural energies.

• Slightly enhanced senses, especially with regard to vision and hearing (we can see much further into the EM spectrum and hear higher and lower frequency sounds than humans). We can also see the emanations of life-energy coming from living creatures; this ability is best thought of as us seeing life-energy as a "colour" rather than an illumination.

• Enhanced speed and strength due to the "haunting" effect, and increased intelligence and the projection of one's will (going hand-in-hand with the fear aura). The intelligence boost is a combination of both the lack of physical brain capping thought-speed and various other factors (including some inherent boosts laid down by the Aotrs Spirit-Binding spells in addition).

• The "haunting" effect also allows the Spirit-Bound Lich to perform other "minor haunting" effects on their own body - essentially allowing manipulation of the immediate physical world. What this boils down to is that a Lich has the ability to do pretty much any action we could do in life (except excrete and perform sexual activity), including eat, speak or sigh in exasperation.

Consumption bears special note - ingested food (such as my beloved chocolate or cereal) does not visibly drop down into the stomach (nor drop out of it like in a cartoon), but disappears into the ethereal body.

As an anecdotal side-note, it IS possible to surprise a lich who has just drunk something enough to do a spit-take, but rather than spew out what was just "swallowed," it either creates or pulls a random liquid from somewhere in the universe. (Again "haunting" effect.) Most of the time, it's usually related to what has been drunk (which has, of course, been absorbed and re-radiated as energy on the ethereal plane), but not always. (I've personally expelled fruit-juice, custard, and on one unusual occasion, grade-3 brake fluid...)

Comparsion to Phylactery-Binding
As a comparison, Phylactery-Binding has only two major advantages over Spirit-Binding. Firstly, and most notably, a Phylactery-Bound Lich is only killed when the phylactery is destroyed. If the body is destroyed, it can re-form. A Spirit-Bound Lich is killed if the physical body is destroyed (by sufficient amounts of energy damage.) A Phylactery-Bound Lich can also ascend themselves to undeath, whereas a Spirit-Bound Lich needs to be dead (not Undead) so its spirit can be rebound into the body. (In the same way you use a resurrection spell on a living being.)

The former advantage is the most notable, but the trade-off is that, in general, a Phylactery-Bound Lich does not get anywhere near the amount of abilities as a Spirit-Bound Lich, nor do they get much effect from Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement. The general consensus is that a Phylactery is a good stop-gap measure, to avoid death, but being stronger and thus less likely to be killed in the first place (and/or being part of an organisation that will make an effort to get you back even IF killed) is more preferable. There are a few Phylactery-Bound Liches in the Aotrs, of course, and on occasion, their specific primary talents can prove very useful.

Phylactery-Binding also has several other disadvantages - it is much more risky, can only be accomplished by a (living, usually) spellcaster and requires a large amount of time and money and resources to create the Phylactery. (By comparison, I can create a Spirit-Bound Lich permenantly in the time it takes me to cast three (component-less) spells.)

Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement
The final subject we will touch on today is Spirit Vessel Will Reinforcement or "SpiV-Wi-Re-ment" as it is abbreviated to. (As coined by Lord Yeller, because he thought that sounded jolly funny, and Lord Death Despoil, who has never been known for his lack of sense of humour, made official).

Spiv-Wi-Re-ment is the process by which, over time, a Lich's soul's bond to the body intensifies, granting further and improved abilities, granting increased physical, magical and often mental abilities. For many Liches, SpiV-Wi-Re-ment happens as a very slow gradual incremental improvement that comes along with experience and practise over centuries. But for some Liches, SpiV-Wi-Re-ment can occur in a sudden dramatic leap once every few centuries. As the will portion is deeply personal, such leaps tend to come at moments of drama, or crisis or enlightenment. These sudden instances can have profound effects on the Lich, sometimes granting entirely new mutations or powers.

I underwent one of these events (as alluded to in my profile description). Long story short, I attempted an ill-advised attempt to use Mana-Moulding (which is essentially the dangerous practise of wrestling magic into a desired effect without using a spell) which backfired and stuck me in... What I can only describe as a chibi form for some weeks. When I finally had a moment of pure, unadulterated frustration, it triggered a SpiV-Wi-Re-ment instance - the result of which restored my normal form, but I came out of it with a skeleton made of a mithril alloy, not bone. (Which, as you can imagine, I was VERY chuffed about.) I was incredibly lucky - I am not NEARLY old enough (I'm only 37, and have been a Lich for something less than twenty years) to have been expecting SpiV-Wi-Re-ment to be kicking in. It was not quite an event for the annuals of history, but it was of sufficient rarity that it sort of underlined why Lord Death Despoil elevated me as such a young age, to a Commodore with a sector command. (That is also NOT common.)

I will discuss Bleak Despair sector next time.

(At what I hope is significantly less length. Ye gods that more extensive than I expected it would be! Don't say I didn't warn you about what happens when you get me going off on one...)

¹Pronouced "ay-o-ters;" "ay" in "hay" and"o-t" akin to "oat")