Dear Diary,
When one says the word “lich,” what comes to mind?
Few societies ever put in research into dark arts, so the few who did, only do so against the will of their peers, drawn by the allure for something no other art can give them. They dig in isolation, seeking more and more power so no one could stop them. One of the earliest recorded groups wielded their knowledge like a hammer, opening practicing necromancy and self-importance.
They didn’t care for the fear and hate they garnered. Rather, they revelled in their dominance over “lesser” beings.
However, they did end up advancing the knowledge base of the craft of blood magic and soul manipulation. Their methods were abohorent, but there was nothing to be done after the fact.
When Wally Falcowolf left after their destruction, plans were drawn up to rob their abandoned labs before official research groups could seal them away forever. Mr. Falcowolf formed a group, the Honeycomb Club, to preserve any and all knowledge for future generations. The name was chosen to confuse or misdirect any who happen upon word of our existence.
One of the research the Honeycomb Club most sought out was the Phylactery creation techniques, for with time, one can get anything. The first version was incomplete, flaws the original creators never found due to their own self-destructive tendencies. This was what we started off with, and built off of, and why perfecting it was one of Honeycomb’s highest priorities
Phylactery Mk1
This type of Phylactery is the original spell that most legends come from, where the term “soul in a jar” comes to mind. The stories and myths of skeletal beings with embers for eyes and a star for a heart wandering the desolate were likely those who used the first iterations of Phylactery creation.
That glowing gem is where the creature’s soul is anchored, and the only weak point on their entire body. That makes it easily defensible, but extremely dangerous if the defenses are breached. By gaining control of their soul, you control their existence. A cornered lich will fight to the bitter end to prevent the theft of their Phylactery, because anything else is survivable.
Loss of one’s Phylactery is a path few can be saved from.
Now, the oft reported glowing appearance of Mk1 Phylactery users is partially true, and more a symptom of wear and tear. The first decades of implantation, assuming an ordinary life, would show almost no visible alterations to their appearance.
However, build up of severe damage would start to expose the currents of magic reaching out of the Phylactery that brings life to the body. The eyes, already common exit points of overflowing magic, are susceptible to mana leakage if damaged or lost, especially since a magical replacement of some kind is required in the event of ocular misplacement.
The process is relatively simple, the preparation and error-checking take up most of the time. It can be painful for some, as the body has to suddenly adapt to running most of its biological mechanics with the brain almost dead due to one’s entire mental load being transferred into the Phylactery crystal.
For those with healthy brains, the strange, disconnected feeling eventually fades, since the brain is another organ that one can relearn to use. For those with damaged brains, it would feel like your nerves are aflame as you feel the return of phantom limbs you forgot you’ve even lost. With the help of the Restoration Spell (sec2), partial organ rejuvenation can be done, including brains.
Some may encounter a slight issue with response delay, resulting in what appears to be a second voice in their minds. Fortunately, this can be reduced with training and treatment.
Experienced Phylactery users can somewhat reverse the process in an emergency, for example, if the Phylactery gets damaged. One’s ability to utilize this feature falls in proportion to how much of the user’s body is damaged. Very little can be done if the user’s body is already mostly sustained by the spell.
Though the previously mentioned attributes were what its previous developers most relied on, the Phylactery’s actual primary usage is for life extension. We have found nothing that can bring one back from death, that doesn’t result in mindless corpses or an alien spirit inhabiting the resurrected body. If one knows a fatal situation is approaching soon, one better choose quickly.
A side effect is the removal of certain biological limitations, though this only comes into play if the user puts in effort into exceeding them.
However, the Mk1’s fatal flaw is that it is not really all that good at life extension. Its creators were more focused on the power aspect, and didn’t last long enough to fully utilize, or rather, find out the failings of the longevity aspect. All the Mk1 is capable of doing is slow aging. Past three centuries or so, the user’s body starts truly entering a state of undeath as the crystal matrix used to keep the user alive starts requiring more power, more mass to operate, resulting in the oft heard legends of skeletal lich.
The problem originates from the Mk1’s inability to properly grow with its user, slowly getting more and more inefficient at storing the mind and memories and magic, resulting in the Mk1 leaching from its user to continue its primary function while slowly turning into a misshapen lump. Trying to start off with a larger crystal results in the logical conclusion of lugging a small boulder around to get anywhere.
Not to mention how this results in the Lich’s everything being a larger, harder to defend object.
On the plus side, within the first century after the user’s natural lifespan, there are mostly only positives. Normal fatal injuries become far more survivable, and non-fatal maladies become mere annoyances. A side effect of the slowed aging is more problematic for the young, so it is not as recommended unless the user is willing to spend multiple decades looking like a foal. Trying to manually age up afterwards is extremely unpleasant, and not recommended.
A bonus ability the Mk1 is capable of, is that the rawness of the spell itself allows the Mk1 to act as a temporary soul jar for others in the event of an emergency, until the second person’s body has been healed to a stable state. The pair should ideally trust each other due to the very, very close proximity they are to one another.
On a final note, users of any Phylactery tend to gain several notable oddities, even if their body is perfectly healthy. The aura of casted magic becomes slightly off, something a trained mage is able to catch. The slight perturbations of an organic mage become even, orderly, something that requires intense training to hide.
The rogues who abuse this gift don’t tend to have the resources or patience to fully hide themselves into regular society.
Which makes it easier to hunt them down.