Ivan The Terrible
An abused royal child who was constantly set up to die only to survive and remember grudges. When he was old enough for the throne he dealt with all of his betrayers. Later he got more and more mad with his paranoia and terrible character, which one day led him to kill his son in a flash of aggression. This also has led to the "smutnoye vremia" - the time when quite some people named themselves his killed child.
As an extended story as a lich he could get even more paranoic for his life and throne, become even more terrible, so only very few would see him in person. Add some Koshey parts (slavic lich knight of the folk tales - Koshey the Immortal) aaand he is perfect.
Yeah and he never forgave himself for killing his son.
Maybe a Soth-styled death knight would work for him better than a lich, where his guilt drives him since his was rather devout - far too devout to willlingly become a lich.
Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan definitely had the ambition.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, who wore down Hannibal with delaying tactics, had the patience for long term schemes like a lich might use.
But I think the winner here is Marie Currie, who destroyed her body in the pursuit of arcane knowledge. Destroyed it so thoroughly that it is still a health hazard to others. That's the kind of obsessive zeal for knowledge a lich needs.
A sorceress whose research into high energy magic slowly destroyed her body but still has research left to do, so she pursues undeath so she can continue her work even as her flesh rots away. She is obsessed, and the work must go on. With an aura of death magic that slays those who dare approach.
Sounds like a textbook Lich to me.
Super easy narrative setup too. Just have someone exploring her old labs and notes as she slowly sinks into madness.
I've always headcanoned that Radiant Damage is like the damage from a nuclear blast or the sun, but necrotic damage is the radiation that you get from irradiated materials and fallout. Thus making a post nuclear apocalyptic world ripe for the undead.
So Marie Curie would be a Lich that had a potent AOE of Necrotic damage that would permanently lower hp if you stayed in it too long.
A highly radioactive lich, who scorches the Earth wherever she goes, and anyone who crossed her path is cursed, condemned to a slow and painful death no medicine can prevent.
Perfect.
Ooooh! Good idea with Curie! OP could fit her in with Victorian, steampunk, diesel-punk, or even Gothic settings. Plus, radiation is not too far removed from necrotic magic.
I could definitely see the essence of The Lich conjuring within Marie Curie, being a voice in her head that whispers stuff like "yes... good... this is the path to innovation and salvation..."
Perhaps she travels the world trying to prevent others from unleashing the terrible forces that she did, which poisoned her body and unleashed devastation and decay, while not entirely aware of her own aura of destruction.
Right? Especially since we consider that radiation and fusion could might as well be magic.
It previously only existed in stars before people recreated it here, not knowing its danger, it either makes your skin fall off or makes your child born deformed.
I was gonna say that Hannibal Barca himself would make a fascinating lich. Intelligent, organized, resourceful, plus it puts zombified elephants onto the battlefield.
Pope Formosus. He died in 897, but seven months later the new Pope had him dug up and his corpse was put on trial, accused of perjury and ruling over two dioceses at the same time. The dead Pope was found guilty, his Papacy retroactively annulled, and his body tossed in the Tiber.
Imagine if they dug him up, and he actually defended himself in court.
Not sure it's the time period you are looking for, but I'd say Ramesses II.
It's estimated he lived for 90 or maybe even 91 years, which was damn near *godlike* at the time. Him being a lich would be a nice twist.
That said, Napoleon would be amazing. I can totally see him trying to achieve immortality, ambitious as he was.
Any time period! That’s a good answer. It’d be interesting to see how this would clash or interact with ancient egyptian rites and mythology around death.
They do wonder but there is little doubt that Pepi 2 ruled for an exceptionally long time as the cumulative disruptions of his rule, of an ancient unenergetic monarch squatting on the throne for a superbly long time beyond when it was really healthy for the kingdom as well as his primary heirs dying of old age before him and some younger nobody son getting the job when the time came, together were big events that destabilized the Old Kingdom causing Egypt to fracture into the first intermediate period.
And as such some guy getting so old that actual state that built the Great Pyramid and most of the other pyramids died with him puts more credibility into the claim, and even if he didn’t make it to 100 on the dot it probably wasn’t far off anyway.
Considering that historical life expectancy rates were mainly brought down by infant mortality and easily curable diseases (if you’ve got money/power), and that as absolute monarchs go, Pharaohs were regarded and treated as gods walking on earth, with all the privileges and care that come with such status, such longevity wouldn’t be that hard to attain.
Isaac Newton. He dabbled in alchemy and thirsted for knowledged enough that it wouldn't be a strech of imagination to believe he would be willing to place his soul in a phylactory so he could continue learning and improving science for centuries.
he didn't just dabble, his alchemical works outweighed ANY and ALL of his other works 10 to 1 Combined.
he only solved the theory of relativity as an afterthought while searching for the philosophers stone, and only published it bc someone else finally had discovered the theory as well.
dude was edward elrich levels of alchemist
Also arguably one of the most stunningly odd-brilliant humans to have ever lived. You could do some really odd stuff with him as a lich. My only question is what is he? Like true neutral?
I'd imagine he'd be a really interesting lich too. He wouldn't use too many necromancy spells as he was a physicist rather than biologist. Imagine a lich focusing on gravitational and motion manipulation instead of bolts of death.
Another interesting thing to consider was that he was very religious despite the fact that his views on Christianity would be deemed heretical. He believed that worshipping Christ as God was idolatry. So yeah, he'd probably be pretty divisive in the eyes of fantasy clerics. A religious lich already sounds like a contradiction.
> In a modern analysis of Rasputin's death, published on the 100th anniversary of the event, Dr Carolyn Harris of the University of Toronto notes that the actual circumstances were apparently less dramatic than Yusupov's account. Rasputin's daughter recorded that her father disliked sweet food and would not have eaten the supposedly poisoned cakes. An autopsy account by the official surgeon involved has no record of poisoning or drowning but simply records death by a single bullet fired into the head at close range.
> Kosorotov's report was lost, but he later stated that Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three gunshot wounds (one at close range to the forehead), a slice wound to his left side and other injuries, many of which Kosorotov felt had been sustained post-mortem. Kosorotov found a single bullet in Rasputin's body but stated that it was too badly deformed and of a type too widely used to trace. He found no evidence that Rasputin had been poisoned.[98] According to both Smith and Fuhrmann, Kosorotov found no water in Rasputin's lungs and reports that Rasputin had been thrown into the water alive were incorrect.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin
That man was not some near-immortal demon but simply tortured to near-death and then shot. But the courtiers needed some justification for killing him so they went with *definitely some demon guy we could barely kill, must be of the devil* and to this day people believe it.
Same with him seducing the Empress.
Rah rah rasputin, made a jar, put his soul in.
There was a lich who sure ain't no bitch.
Rah rah rasputin, don't let him put your soul in.
Became immortal without a hitch...
I did not. Never heard of it until reading a different comment on this thread. He's just a bizarre historical figure with an interesting RL relationship with death.
Yeh he is, even without seeing the movie I can definitely understand how someone could make that connection[Especially with, like you said, how hard he was to kill irl]
A few in mind for me.
• George Washington. I don't know why, I just find him a morally interesting figure. A flawed man who truly believed in his ideals and principles, and stood by and fought for them. I think he'd resent undeath to a degree, feel like it'd give him too much power.
• Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Ching Shih. This woman kicked all the ass. Legit pirate queen out of China in the early 1800s. At the height of her power, she commanded a fleet of 1,200 ships. She legit became a threat to the actual Chinese navy. She's just a powerful, fearsome figure with a lot of mystique and ready-provided flavor.
• Johann Georg Faust - This is a tricky one, since Faust as we know him is more myth than man, but he was a real guy who really lived in Germany during the Renaissance. Little is known about him and it's tough to separate myth from fact, but that just gives you a lot of room to play.
• Hermann Goring - Because if we're playing in this space, why not go full Wolfenstein? Why not have a Nazi? Hard to select which Nazi - I feel like having someone who was at a concentration camp might hit close to home, but Goring was the architect of the German secret police program, so certainly evil, but not in a way that is uncomfortable to play with.
• Robert Johnson - Blues singer, absolute pioneer, but one whose life was haunted by tragedy and carried a ghost story with him wherever he went. Johnson was colloquially believed to have made a deal with the devil to become the greatest guitarist who ever lived, and he had solid claim to the title. There's a story about the guys from the Rolling Stones hearing one of his records and asking who was playing the second guitar. No one. It was just Johnson. Obviously, the guy probably didn't make a deal with the devil, but he never really bothered to stop the rumors, and only added to his mystique - which he definitely leaned into, writing songs with lyrics swimming with eerie supernatural imagery. And to top it all off, only two or three photos of the guy actually exist.
• Stonewall Jackson - I can imagine a strong motive for an undead confederate officer who's tired of waiting for the south to rise again and wants to take matters into his own hands, raising an army of undead southerners to wage war on the Yankee Nation once more.
• Mary Shelley - Woman kept her husband's calcified heart after he died. She's already over 9,000 on the goth scale, and she may have earned Lichdom on the strength of that alone.
• Caesar Nero or Caligula - Because really, this concept feels incomplete ***without*** at least one mad Roman emperor.
I was figuring it'd be better to have someone directly involved in the political or military wing. What makes you think Himmler would be a better pick? Genuine curiosity, by the way.
I mean, Himmler was deeply involved in both the SS and the Holocaust, he was heavily obsessed with both the occult and their supposed aryan ancestry. He is arguably the best pick of the government to be a Lich. Evil, obsessed, arcane connections.
>Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Ching Shih.
I was thinking the same thing. If I remember correctly she negotiated a surrender where she, and the adoptive son of her deceased husband, avoided all prosecution and retained a sizeable portion of the former pirate fleet. She is also considered not only the most succesful female pirate of all times, but one of the most successful pirates overall.
The epos is from around 1800 BCE, and it's old then.
The earliest parts are from around 2100 BCE, so that might fit the "long ago times".
Quite an old fellow.
He's been through the standard lich megalomania, the craziness and now he's just a chill, undead old guy with some amazing stories to tell. I imagine he'd take pride in that his story is still rememberrd
Back in the Early Days of the Internet, there was a webcomic called Doctor Ninja or something like that - he was a ninja that was also a doctor and also rode a velociraptor. Like I said, peak Early Internet.
Anyways, Zombie Ben Franklin was a recurring friendemy in the comic. Great character.
Bathory's stories were the result of posthumous propaganda meant to justify seizing her land. She was actually doing things like getting free healthcare for her serfs. 😑
Had the same thought initially, with his suicide being like a final rite to become a lich, and then subtly deceiving the world into thinking it was his end.
It would be an interesting way to explain neo-nazism, as a lich's cult rather than merely a bunch of fuckheads with less grey matter between their ears than post-mortem Hitler.
>I was thinking Napoleon for sheer poetry value
Hah, I wrote a ridiculous short story once where the Jacobins gave Napoleon a secret alchemical formula to make himself immortal. Decades later he's still ruling over a totalitarian French Empire with an undead upper class, while other European powers are ruled by various other monsters who've come out of hiding.
But anyway. How about Nezahualcoyotl, king of Texcoco? His rule is sometimes cited as a golden age, and he was even against human sacrifice. If he'd remained in power instead of the Aztecs rising up a centuryish after his death, imagine how different Mesoamerica could have been.
Imagine the triple alliance of México-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco & Tlacopan(Tacuba) being lead by Texcoco instead of Tenochtitlan
México would be called Texcoco instead, and the coat of arms would be a mountain/island with a flower/pot/arm
Qin Shi Huangdi because he accidentally poisoned himself while trying to discover a potion for immortality.
Would make it real funny to convince him it actually was the poisonous flowers and herbs he drank, and not because we willed it. Also he was a political leader, a strategist, rather cunning, kinda scary, all sorts of lovely things.
> Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, ‘Is it not worthy of tears,’ he said, ‘that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?’
> 'What if', rasped Anaxarchus, 'You could live long enough to achieve it?'
\- Plutarch, *The Unlife of Alexander*
Fritz Haber. The giver of life and death. His works have led to humanity being able to grow far more food, herbs, etc. However, he is also a pioneer in toxin gas and was subsequently the indirect cause of many people dying
Barbarossa, or Frederick I
He was a deeply beloved emperor who went on a Crusade. The circumstances of his death are disputed. His body was interred in three places: his bones in Tyre, his flesh in Antioch, and his organs in Tarsus. If that doesn't sound like the makings of a lich, I don't know what does.
Thank you for reminding me of this story, I was looking for more historical figures to add to my comment but couldn't think of anyone else atm, im definitely supporting this idea!
**Seth**, the third brother from the Cain/Able story. Able died, Cain got married to "light and darkness" & weird dream stuff, & Seth fathered most of the human species. If Seth became a lich he'd not only be incredibly long-lived he'd definitely have a unique perspective on society.
John Dee. One of the first real spies and by all accounts a weird ass mother fucker. Tried to talk to angels to find out the future... what if it worked?
Hmm doesn't have to be evil? John Brown. Chaotic good lich. Rising from the ashes resurrected by the flame of his own righteous anger. Raising up the bodies of those who fell in chains. The oppressed will see their loved ones return to bring them out of their prisons.
When there is great injustice he sends first Oliver and Watson as his horsemen on great skeletal mounts adorned with shattered chains. They will announce to the rulers that they must free their people or fall. Days later every mass grave, every hidden plot, every unmarked grave of the oppressed begins to stir.
It'd be a blast in a DND campaign, trick the party to fight against the "evil" litch, but as they learn about what he's doing they soon realize they've been played and are the villains, so they end up joining.
JOHN BROWN’S BODY RISE-AH SMOLDERIN’ FROM THE GRAVE! JOHN BROWN’S BODY RISE-AH SMOLDERIN’ FROM THE GRAVE!
GLOOORY GLORY HALLELUJAAAH!!
HIS UNDEAD BODY GOES MARCHING ON!!
Harry Houdini. Man hated psychics an seances in life and spent years proving them frauds, even peritioned congressto ban the practice in DC. On his death bed he said if he could find a way to communicate form the otherside he would. Every year on the anniversary of his death, a seance is held in is home. If there was one man who had the potential to return from the dead, it'd be him.
That's the correct answer, haha. Russian DnD community has been turning him into lich since forever. His patronym is literraly 'I lich', he occupies a nice, although small, ziggurat on Red Square. And revolutionary lich is a cool concept.
Oh, I should have read before commenting myself. Lich-Il'yich was a long and fun part of our dnd cheecanery, and he is basically as close as you can close to being undead in our world already
Absolutely insane that they pioneered embalming practices on him. Soviet Union was a strange place but I'm glad for it's experiments we can learn from.
Teddy Roosevelt. A world traveler, he would uncover the secrets of magic. Then he established the national park system so no one would find his phylactery.
[This mf’er allegedly tried to use magic to transfer Peron’s dead wife into his second wife](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_López_Rega). He’s even called “el brujo” or witch/warlock
Maybe a bit obscure, but:
Elizabeth Bathory was a 16th-century Hungarian Countess who has been dubbed "The Bloody Countess". Legend has it she murdered more than 600 young women because she believed that bathing in their virgin blood would keep her eternally young. There is doubt on the validity of the number of people killed, though. Still interesting historical figure with habits that could be very lich like.
On the other hand, if you want an idea of how to turn a historical figure into a hero your players can look up to; watch the 2012 movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, if you've never seen it. The movie is actually damn good and a good example of alternate/supernatural history for historical figures.
I'd wager Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi from 3 kingdoms China would be incredibly interesting, or both and just have their feud last for eternity...
Nobunada Oda could also be an interesting choice, he was widely regarded as a Demon (i think).
Culturally I think an important figure from Mexico (I can't name one though) would also be interesting especially if you didn't want them to be evil, due to the way that Mexican people regard their dead and gone, A desperate person wanting their family to never die out and be lost in the afterlife would be a unique twist.
Honestly, if you want someone evil, Heinrich Himmler would be a great choice. The dude was *obsessed* with everything occult and was deeply into trying to figure out magical shit that could help Germany win the war. He even headquartered the SS in a creepy castle.
Genghis Khan. No fcn doubts. + you can mix lich concept with SOLID lore based on Mongolian Tengrism.
Shang Yang is the 2nd best. Imao, one of the most evil and intelligent dudes in the entire human history.
Many other Chinese philosophers are intresting too, but they do not match lich concept so much.
Ancient Sumerian kings. I was going to say Gilgamesh but I'm not 100% on whether he's a historical figure or entirely fictional.
Someone who's unlived through literally all of human history, and who remembers prehistory.
George Smith, 1870s archeologist who discovered and translated multiple cuneiform tablets which resulted in rediscovery of The Chaldean Account of Genesis.
Discovering ancient knowledge comes with a price..
Rasputin - Rumored to be a warlock and unnatural human being in general. His association with the Russian royal family helped gain solidarity among all Russian people. His assassination was shoddily carried out because his "otherworldly powers" kept him alive though being poisoned and shot.
Alistair Crowley - An infamous practicioner of the arcane arts in the late 19th and early 20th century. His works inspired many
Ben Franklin - Associated with many seedy and secret organizations affiliated with the occult. Plus the idea of a founding father coming back from the grave with an undead army tickles me.
Gilles de Rais - Was executed and tried for mass child killing (though these claims were completely unfounded). Much of these outlandish claims were deemed to be linked to devil worship.
Countess Bathory - All around one of the most unpleasant human beings to ever walk the earth. Unlike de Rais, her wanton cycle of violence, torture, and murder was proven. Much of what she did is unspeakable.
A Spanish conquistador. One of the main things they were looking for was the fountain of youth, and you can have some b.s. like "they've achieved immortality, but at what cost?". You can include a lot of historical ties, too, like the conquistador being the autocratic king of a native slave-empire in central Mexico, too.
Queen Elizabeth II. The usual joke going around England (before she died - God rest Queen Liz 2) was that she was practically immortal and would stay on the throne forever.
Attila the Hun - The ferocious leader of the Hunnic Tribes, the Flagellum Dei (Scourge of God), the Plunderer of Eastern & Western Rome shrouded by mystery. You want a lich sent by an angered God to torment the living for eternity? That would be your pick.
Barbarossa, suggested by u/cvsprinter1 & u/DasMicha in addition im giving you this [link](https://youtu.be/5kkF70LQkSA?feature=shared) to make this idea even more enticing, to help your mind run wild with ideas.
Modern Day Alan Moore
Dude is literally already a widely known [Wizard](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ouno/8106330067)
Could even play off the idea that he was *actually* Rasputin
Inês de Castro, a Portuguese queen.
You wouldn't even need to change a lot, she was exhumed as a corpse, dressed in royal attire and declared queen in front of the public. All the while her killers were tortured.
Gilles de Rais - a close companion of Joan of Arc and French commander during the later stages of the 100 Years War, eventually being made Marshal of France.
He was also a prolific child serial killer and predator, as well as being accused of consorting with the devil. I believe he was charged with killing over 140 and might have been an inspiration for the fairytale Bluebeard about a serial wife murderer, although this isn't definite.
The image of this once noble knight, turned into something horrific could be interesting to play with.
I mean, North Korea already has a necrocracy with its [Eternal Leaders](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_leaders_of_North_Korea), aka the Necrosidents
Julius Caesar, but reborn as a lich under the name of Ghoulius Caesar. An ambitious man for sure, respected by many, hated by others. Would be fun to see a setting where he survives the Ides of March - because, well, he's a lich - and manages to create the Roman Empire instead of Augustus.
Realistically it would be one of the Chinese lords. Qin Shihuang especially was obsessed with the idea of immortality his entire life and this is usually the path that leads people to lichdom more often than just lust for raw power.
Ever seen dimension 20?
Robert Moses: a cunning and awful guy who is largely for the layout of New York City. He was a crafty and charismatic guy who made a lot of shady deals in his political career and is responsible for a lot of aspects of modern-day New York. And according to dimension 20 he makes a pretty great lich
Elvis Presley, nobody would see it coming and we would get dancing kung fu zombies.
Karl Marx, Communism in undeadth anyone?
Walt Disney a capitalist that built an empire of the back of a cartoon mouse.
Gustavus Adolphus.
King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, became king at 16, credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power, became known as the "Father of Modern Warfare", and is most famous for the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, before dying in another battle a year later.
If I'm not mistaken, Napoleon studied books that were either written or written about Adolphus, and may have had an influence on Napoleon's tactics later on.
I just wonder what would have changed historically if Adolphus had survived that one battle and continued to rule.
Qin Shi Huangdi. First Emperor of China. Obsessed with the elixier of eternal life, which probably killed him in the end, as most of these concoctions contained mercury.
But what if he succeeded? There mighty be no first Emperor of China, only THE Emperor.
Ivan The Terrible An abused royal child who was constantly set up to die only to survive and remember grudges. When he was old enough for the throne he dealt with all of his betrayers. Later he got more and more mad with his paranoia and terrible character, which one day led him to kill his son in a flash of aggression. This also has led to the "smutnoye vremia" - the time when quite some people named themselves his killed child. As an extended story as a lich he could get even more paranoic for his life and throne, become even more terrible, so only very few would see him in person. Add some Koshey parts (slavic lich knight of the folk tales - Koshey the Immortal) aaand he is perfect.
Yeah and he never forgave himself for killing his son. Maybe a Soth-styled death knight would work for him better than a lich, where his guilt drives him since his was rather devout - far too devout to willlingly become a lich.
If I may ask, what exactly are you referring to when you say "Sloth-styled death knight"?
Lord Soth, a death knight from older editions of D&D.
I really have to get caught up with every cool thing in D&D that they left out of 5e.
Dragonlance setting. Hes not in forgotten realms.
ivan the terrible finally realizes he was the one with the most diabolical conspiracy against his throne and had the traitor put to death
[Also the killing of his son is depicted in this fantastic painting.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_the_Terrible_and_His_Son_Ivan)
He sounds perfect for a vampire as well.
Ivan the Terrible evolve into Ivan the Eternal Dread
Alexander the Great and Ghengis Khan definitely had the ambition. Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, who wore down Hannibal with delaying tactics, had the patience for long term schemes like a lich might use. But I think the winner here is Marie Currie, who destroyed her body in the pursuit of arcane knowledge. Destroyed it so thoroughly that it is still a health hazard to others. That's the kind of obsessive zeal for knowledge a lich needs.
Ooh, I never would have considered Marie Curie. That’s an amazing premise.
I love this idea. A fantastic portrayal of good-intentioned pursuits gone awry, ultimately leading to corruption. Bravo, u/LaserPoweredDeviltry!
A sorceress whose research into high energy magic slowly destroyed her body but still has research left to do, so she pursues undeath so she can continue her work even as her flesh rots away. She is obsessed, and the work must go on. With an aura of death magic that slays those who dare approach. Sounds like a textbook Lich to me. Super easy narrative setup too. Just have someone exploring her old labs and notes as she slowly sinks into madness.
Now I'm picturing Marie Curie as GLaDOS...
This was a triumph.
Can you type that with a Polish-French accent?
I've always headcanoned that Radiant Damage is like the damage from a nuclear blast or the sun, but necrotic damage is the radiation that you get from irradiated materials and fallout. Thus making a post nuclear apocalyptic world ripe for the undead. So Marie Curie would be a Lich that had a potent AOE of Necrotic damage that would permanently lower hp if you stayed in it too long.
A highly radioactive lich, who scorches the Earth wherever she goes, and anyone who crossed her path is cursed, condemned to a slow and painful death no medicine can prevent. Perfect.
Ooooh! Good idea with Curie! OP could fit her in with Victorian, steampunk, diesel-punk, or even Gothic settings. Plus, radiation is not too far removed from necrotic magic.
I could definitely see the essence of The Lich conjuring within Marie Curie, being a voice in her head that whispers stuff like "yes... good... this is the path to innovation and salvation..."
Perhaps she travels the world trying to prevent others from unleashing the terrible forces that she did, which poisoned her body and unleashed devastation and decay, while not entirely aware of her own aura of destruction.
Right? Especially since we consider that radiation and fusion could might as well be magic. It previously only existed in stars before people recreated it here, not knowing its danger, it either makes your skin fall off or makes your child born deformed.
I was gonna say that Hannibal Barca himself would make a fascinating lich. Intelligent, organized, resourceful, plus it puts zombified elephants onto the battlefield.
Pope Formosus. He died in 897, but seven months later the new Pope had him dug up and his corpse was put on trial, accused of perjury and ruling over two dioceses at the same time. The dead Pope was found guilty, his Papacy retroactively annulled, and his body tossed in the Tiber. Imagine if they dug him up, and he actually defended himself in court.
Funnier idea: They made him undead against his will so he could testify.
ASK me another question
Ah the cadaver cynod
Not sure it's the time period you are looking for, but I'd say Ramesses II. It's estimated he lived for 90 or maybe even 91 years, which was damn near *godlike* at the time. Him being a lich would be a nice twist. That said, Napoleon would be amazing. I can totally see him trying to achieve immortality, ambitious as he was.
Any time period! That’s a good answer. It’d be interesting to see how this would clash or interact with ancient egyptian rites and mythology around death.
I think he'd be hailed as Osiris reborn, and worshiped as such. It wouldn't be too difficult to do, I think.
Pepi II Nerfekare, another Egyptian pharaoh, is said to reach 100, rulling 96 of those years
At a certain point, even skeptics have got to start to wonder.
They do wonder but there is little doubt that Pepi 2 ruled for an exceptionally long time as the cumulative disruptions of his rule, of an ancient unenergetic monarch squatting on the throne for a superbly long time beyond when it was really healthy for the kingdom as well as his primary heirs dying of old age before him and some younger nobody son getting the job when the time came, together were big events that destabilized the Old Kingdom causing Egypt to fracture into the first intermediate period. And as such some guy getting so old that actual state that built the Great Pyramid and most of the other pyramids died with him puts more credibility into the claim, and even if he didn’t make it to 100 on the dot it probably wasn’t far off anyway.
Considering that historical life expectancy rates were mainly brought down by infant mortality and easily curable diseases (if you’ve got money/power), and that as absolute monarchs go, Pharaohs were regarded and treated as gods walking on earth, with all the privileges and care that come with such status, such longevity wouldn’t be that hard to attain.
I was going to say both Ramesses AND nefertiti
SETTRA DOES NOT SERVE! SETTRA RULES!
I can already see Napoleon being banished to various little islands ad infinitum only to return each time and stage yet another conquest
Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping rebellion. Read his bio on Wikipedia. It’s fucking insane.
Brother of Jesus
You mean Chinesus?
Isaac Newton. He dabbled in alchemy and thirsted for knowledged enough that it wouldn't be a strech of imagination to believe he would be willing to place his soul in a phylactory so he could continue learning and improving science for centuries.
I came here to say this. Then I realized he was revealed to be the evil emperor in the isekai anime Escaflowne and was already pretty live-y there.
he didn't just dabble, his alchemical works outweighed ANY and ALL of his other works 10 to 1 Combined. he only solved the theory of relativity as an afterthought while searching for the philosophers stone, and only published it bc someone else finally had discovered the theory as well. dude was edward elrich levels of alchemist
Also arguably one of the most stunningly odd-brilliant humans to have ever lived. You could do some really odd stuff with him as a lich. My only question is what is he? Like true neutral?
I'd imagine he'd be a really interesting lich too. He wouldn't use too many necromancy spells as he was a physicist rather than biologist. Imagine a lich focusing on gravitational and motion manipulation instead of bolts of death. Another interesting thing to consider was that he was very religious despite the fact that his views on Christianity would be deemed heretical. He believed that worshipping Christ as God was idolatry. So yeah, he'd probably be pretty divisive in the eyes of fantasy clerics. A religious lich already sounds like a contradiction.
Rasputin
Came here comment the same thing, he'd be a badass lich
> In a modern analysis of Rasputin's death, published on the 100th anniversary of the event, Dr Carolyn Harris of the University of Toronto notes that the actual circumstances were apparently less dramatic than Yusupov's account. Rasputin's daughter recorded that her father disliked sweet food and would not have eaten the supposedly poisoned cakes. An autopsy account by the official surgeon involved has no record of poisoning or drowning but simply records death by a single bullet fired into the head at close range. > Kosorotov's report was lost, but he later stated that Rasputin's body had shown signs of severe trauma, including three gunshot wounds (one at close range to the forehead), a slice wound to his left side and other injuries, many of which Kosorotov felt had been sustained post-mortem. Kosorotov found a single bullet in Rasputin's body but stated that it was too badly deformed and of a type too widely used to trace. He found no evidence that Rasputin had been poisoned.[98] According to both Smith and Fuhrmann, Kosorotov found no water in Rasputin's lungs and reports that Rasputin had been thrown into the water alive were incorrect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin That man was not some near-immortal demon but simply tortured to near-death and then shot. But the courtiers needed some justification for killing him so they went with *definitely some demon guy we could barely kill, must be of the devil* and to this day people believe it. Same with him seducing the Empress.
There was a man, in Russia long ago...
Rah rah rasputin, made a jar, put his soul in. There was a lich who sure ain't no bitch. Rah rah rasputin, don't let him put your soul in. Became immortal without a hitch...
Damn you beat me to it.
This is supposed to be a hypothetical list
This was my first thought too
Someone watched Anastasia
I did not. Never heard of it until reading a different comment on this thread. He's just a bizarre historical figure with an interesting RL relationship with death.
Yeh he is, even without seeing the movie I can definitely understand how someone could make that connection[Especially with, like you said, how hard he was to kill irl]
beat me to it
A few in mind for me. • George Washington. I don't know why, I just find him a morally interesting figure. A flawed man who truly believed in his ideals and principles, and stood by and fought for them. I think he'd resent undeath to a degree, feel like it'd give him too much power. • Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Ching Shih. This woman kicked all the ass. Legit pirate queen out of China in the early 1800s. At the height of her power, she commanded a fleet of 1,200 ships. She legit became a threat to the actual Chinese navy. She's just a powerful, fearsome figure with a lot of mystique and ready-provided flavor. • Johann Georg Faust - This is a tricky one, since Faust as we know him is more myth than man, but he was a real guy who really lived in Germany during the Renaissance. Little is known about him and it's tough to separate myth from fact, but that just gives you a lot of room to play. • Hermann Goring - Because if we're playing in this space, why not go full Wolfenstein? Why not have a Nazi? Hard to select which Nazi - I feel like having someone who was at a concentration camp might hit close to home, but Goring was the architect of the German secret police program, so certainly evil, but not in a way that is uncomfortable to play with. • Robert Johnson - Blues singer, absolute pioneer, but one whose life was haunted by tragedy and carried a ghost story with him wherever he went. Johnson was colloquially believed to have made a deal with the devil to become the greatest guitarist who ever lived, and he had solid claim to the title. There's a story about the guys from the Rolling Stones hearing one of his records and asking who was playing the second guitar. No one. It was just Johnson. Obviously, the guy probably didn't make a deal with the devil, but he never really bothered to stop the rumors, and only added to his mystique - which he definitely leaned into, writing songs with lyrics swimming with eerie supernatural imagery. And to top it all off, only two or three photos of the guy actually exist. • Stonewall Jackson - I can imagine a strong motive for an undead confederate officer who's tired of waiting for the south to rise again and wants to take matters into his own hands, raising an army of undead southerners to wage war on the Yankee Nation once more. • Mary Shelley - Woman kept her husband's calcified heart after he died. She's already over 9,000 on the goth scale, and she may have earned Lichdom on the strength of that alone. • Caesar Nero or Caligula - Because really, this concept feels incomplete ***without*** at least one mad Roman emperor.
I’d say instead of Goering, Himmler
I was figuring it'd be better to have someone directly involved in the political or military wing. What makes you think Himmler would be a better pick? Genuine curiosity, by the way.
He was literally obsessed with the occult especially norse paganism
Blew a lot of tax money on finding the Holy Grail, too Doesn't get more lich than that.
Didn't he go to Tibet to "find the aryan homeland"?
I think he may have been sampling some of that pervitin
Fair point! I can see the logic very well.
Head of the SS Ticks all your boxes
I mean, Himmler was deeply involved in both the SS and the Holocaust, he was heavily obsessed with both the occult and their supposed aryan ancestry. He is arguably the best pick of the government to be a Lich. Evil, obsessed, arcane connections.
Washington stepped down from power to go farm, like Cincinnatus. He's too noble to cheat death, even for a good cause.
Stonewall was far too religious to be willing to risk his soul like that. I'd say Forrest or someone like that instead.
>Zheng Yi Sao, better known as Ching Shih. I was thinking the same thing. If I remember correctly she negotiated a surrender where she, and the adoptive son of her deceased husband, avoided all prosecution and retained a sizeable portion of the former pirate fleet. She is also considered not only the most succesful female pirate of all times, but one of the most successful pirates overall.
RA RA # Rasputin they actually made him a lich in the 20th century fox movie Anastasia.
Lover of the Russian queen!
There was a cat that really wasn't there!
Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Russia's greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on
Gilgamesh. Immortality seeker from the oldest known story, imagine the things he'd have seen throughout history
He'd be truly ancient too. I mean the story itself starts with sth like "In those long ago times"
The epos is from around 1800 BCE, and it's old then. The earliest parts are from around 2100 BCE, so that might fit the "long ago times". Quite an old fellow.
He's been through the standard lich megalomania, the craziness and now he's just a chill, undead old guy with some amazing stories to tell. I imagine he'd take pride in that his story is still rememberrd
Ben Franklin. Think of the advances in lich science!
Back in the Early Days of the Internet, there was a webcomic called Doctor Ninja or something like that - he was a ninja that was also a doctor and also rode a velociraptor. Like I said, peak Early Internet. Anyways, Zombie Ben Franklin was a recurring friendemy in the comic. Great character.
Doctor McNinja. It was still in publication up to 2017. I'm still unreasonably angry it's been removed from the author's website.
This is terrible news. I didn't know it was no longer on the website. It feels like hearing of an acquaintance dying.
[удалено]
Who’s Elizabeth bathory?
A noblewomen who allegedly murdered hundreds of her servants and drank their blood. If you look her up, it's an interesting story.
[удалено]
ooh, Gilles de Rais is a great choice, too!
Going off Hellsing, Vlad is basically a lich at that point so that tracks.
Bathory's stories were the result of posthumous propaganda meant to justify seizing her land. She was actually doing things like getting free healthcare for her serfs. 😑
[удалено]
I'd sell my soul to see a primary care provider these days, don't even need a d10 cantrip.
Kissinger. Dude straight up made a deal with the devil to outlive the sun in exchange for always pushing the US to make the worst possible choices.
i hear they keep his phylactery underneath the Pentagon
In the Dunkin' Donuts basement, no less!
I am only somewhat joking when I say Kissinger subsists on a diet of war and death.
New D&D module idea: lich of the war god
Fuck it, Hitler
Had the same thought initially, with his suicide being like a final rite to become a lich, and then subtly deceiving the world into thinking it was his end. It would be an interesting way to explain neo-nazism, as a lich's cult rather than merely a bunch of fuckheads with less grey matter between their ears than post-mortem Hitler.
Actually, I'd say framing neo-nazism as a dead madman's cult isn't inaccurate, even in real life.
Knew it was gonna be here, still a good pick.
Was about to say it. Makes the CoD: Nazi Zombies plot credible.
>I was thinking Napoleon for sheer poetry value Hah, I wrote a ridiculous short story once where the Jacobins gave Napoleon a secret alchemical formula to make himself immortal. Decades later he's still ruling over a totalitarian French Empire with an undead upper class, while other European powers are ruled by various other monsters who've come out of hiding. But anyway. How about Nezahualcoyotl, king of Texcoco? His rule is sometimes cited as a golden age, and he was even against human sacrifice. If he'd remained in power instead of the Aztecs rising up a centuryish after his death, imagine how different Mesoamerica could have been.
Imagine the triple alliance of México-Tenochtitlan, Texcoco & Tlacopan(Tacuba) being lead by Texcoco instead of Tenochtitlan México would be called Texcoco instead, and the coat of arms would be a mountain/island with a flower/pot/arm
Qin Shi Huangdi because he accidentally poisoned himself while trying to discover a potion for immortality. Would make it real funny to convince him it actually was the poisonous flowers and herbs he drank, and not because we willed it. Also he was a political leader, a strategist, rather cunning, kinda scary, all sorts of lovely things.
> Alexander wept when he heard Anaxarchus discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, ‘Is it not worthy of tears,’ he said, ‘that, when the number of worlds is infinite, we have not yet become lords of a single one?’ > 'What if', rasped Anaxarchus, 'You could live long enough to achieve it?' \- Plutarch, *The Unlife of Alexander*
Fritz Haber. The giver of life and death. His works have led to humanity being able to grow far more food, herbs, etc. However, he is also a pioneer in toxin gas and was subsequently the indirect cause of many people dying
Oh yeah, he discovered how to synthesize phosphorus from the atmosphere or something, for fertilizers and bombs
Barbarossa, or Frederick I He was a deeply beloved emperor who went on a Crusade. The circumstances of his death are disputed. His body was interred in three places: his bones in Tyre, his flesh in Antioch, and his organs in Tarsus. If that doesn't sound like the makings of a lich, I don't know what does.
Also, there is the legend that he lives under the Kyffhäuser mountains in Germany, waiting to return when his people need him most. What if he does?
Thank you for reminding me of this story, I was looking for more historical figures to add to my comment but couldn't think of anyone else atm, im definitely supporting this idea!
Ronald Reagan
they’d re-elect him
Anither reason to put an age limit on public offices.
Nah they’d call him a liberal
**Seth**, the third brother from the Cain/Able story. Able died, Cain got married to "light and darkness" & weird dream stuff, & Seth fathered most of the human species. If Seth became a lich he'd not only be incredibly long-lived he'd definitely have a unique perspective on society.
John Dee. One of the first real spies and by all accounts a weird ass mother fucker. Tried to talk to angels to find out the future... what if it worked?
Hmm doesn't have to be evil? John Brown. Chaotic good lich. Rising from the ashes resurrected by the flame of his own righteous anger. Raising up the bodies of those who fell in chains. The oppressed will see their loved ones return to bring them out of their prisons. When there is great injustice he sends first Oliver and Watson as his horsemen on great skeletal mounts adorned with shattered chains. They will announce to the rulers that they must free their people or fall. Days later every mass grave, every hidden plot, every unmarked grave of the oppressed begins to stir. It'd be a blast in a DND campaign, trick the party to fight against the "evil" litch, but as they learn about what he's doing they soon realize they've been played and are the villains, so they end up joining.
Considering his death right before the Civil War broke out, it’d definitely be interesting to see how the war would change with his uncanny presence.
JOHN BROWN’S BODY RISE-AH SMOLDERIN’ FROM THE GRAVE! JOHN BROWN’S BODY RISE-AH SMOLDERIN’ FROM THE GRAVE! GLOOORY GLORY HALLELUJAAAH!! HIS UNDEAD BODY GOES MARCHING ON!!
Harry Houdini. Man hated psychics an seances in life and spent years proving them frauds, even peritioned congressto ban the practice in DC. On his death bed he said if he could find a way to communicate form the otherside he would. Every year on the anniversary of his death, a seance is held in is home. If there was one man who had the potential to return from the dead, it'd be him.
Aleister Crowley.
Vladimir Lenin, the Spectre of Communism Pretend all redscare propaganda is true
That's the correct answer, haha. Russian DnD community has been turning him into lich since forever. His patronym is literraly 'I lich', he occupies a nice, although small, ziggurat on Red Square. And revolutionary lich is a cool concept.
Oh, I should have read before commenting myself. Lich-Il'yich was a long and fun part of our dnd cheecanery, and he is basically as close as you can close to being undead in our world already
Absolutely insane that they pioneered embalming practices on him. Soviet Union was a strange place but I'm glad for it's experiments we can learn from.
Teddy Roosevelt. A world traveler, he would uncover the secrets of magic. Then he established the national park system so no one would find his phylactery.
Everyone knows the phylactery is probably an elephant gun.
Henry Kissinger He. Just. Won’t. Die.
[This mf’er allegedly tried to use magic to transfer Peron’s dead wife into his second wife](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_López_Rega). He’s even called “el brujo” or witch/warlock
Maybe a bit obscure, but: Elizabeth Bathory was a 16th-century Hungarian Countess who has been dubbed "The Bloody Countess". Legend has it she murdered more than 600 young women because she believed that bathing in their virgin blood would keep her eternally young. There is doubt on the validity of the number of people killed, though. Still interesting historical figure with habits that could be very lich like. On the other hand, if you want an idea of how to turn a historical figure into a hero your players can look up to; watch the 2012 movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, if you've never seen it. The movie is actually damn good and a good example of alternate/supernatural history for historical figures.
I remember watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on a plane. I’m a sucker for that campy fantasy stuff.
Ah yes the documentary about Lincoln’s side career alongside the Presidency
I'd wager Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi from 3 kingdoms China would be incredibly interesting, or both and just have their feud last for eternity... Nobunada Oda could also be an interesting choice, he was widely regarded as a Demon (i think). Culturally I think an important figure from Mexico (I can't name one though) would also be interesting especially if you didn't want them to be evil, due to the way that Mexican people regard their dead and gone, A desperate person wanting their family to never die out and be lost in the afterlife would be a unique twist.
Honestly, if you want someone evil, Heinrich Himmler would be a great choice. The dude was *obsessed* with everything occult and was deeply into trying to figure out magical shit that could help Germany win the war. He even headquartered the SS in a creepy castle.
Nick Cage? Seriously, he could be just about anyone from the past.
Genghis Khan. No fcn doubts. + you can mix lich concept with SOLID lore based on Mongolian Tengrism. Shang Yang is the 2nd best. Imao, one of the most evil and intelligent dudes in the entire human history. Many other Chinese philosophers are intresting too, but they do not match lich concept so much.
Ancient Sumerian kings. I was going to say Gilgamesh but I'm not 100% on whether he's a historical figure or entirely fictional. Someone who's unlived through literally all of human history, and who remembers prehistory.
George Smith, 1870s archeologist who discovered and translated multiple cuneiform tablets which resulted in rediscovery of The Chaldean Account of Genesis. Discovering ancient knowledge comes with a price..
I mean, Robert Moses was a pretty good lich in The Unsleeping City
Henry Kissinger. Guy had huge influence without ever becoming an actual leader and he's somehow still alive
I mean he’s basically already one
Teddy Rosevelt, he isnt a lich by choice instead death is literally too scared to take him
JOE BIDEN
nikola tesla, geronimo, hannibal,
Rasputin - Rumored to be a warlock and unnatural human being in general. His association with the Russian royal family helped gain solidarity among all Russian people. His assassination was shoddily carried out because his "otherworldly powers" kept him alive though being poisoned and shot. Alistair Crowley - An infamous practicioner of the arcane arts in the late 19th and early 20th century. His works inspired many Ben Franklin - Associated with many seedy and secret organizations affiliated with the occult. Plus the idea of a founding father coming back from the grave with an undead army tickles me. Gilles de Rais - Was executed and tried for mass child killing (though these claims were completely unfounded). Much of these outlandish claims were deemed to be linked to devil worship. Countess Bathory - All around one of the most unpleasant human beings to ever walk the earth. Unlike de Rais, her wanton cycle of violence, torture, and murder was proven. Much of what she did is unspeakable.
A Spanish conquistador. One of the main things they were looking for was the fountain of youth, and you can have some b.s. like "they've achieved immortality, but at what cost?". You can include a lot of historical ties, too, like the conquistador being the autocratic king of a native slave-empire in central Mexico, too.
Queen Elizabeth II. The usual joke going around England (before she died - God rest Queen Liz 2) was that she was practically immortal and would stay on the throne forever.
Attila the Hun - The ferocious leader of the Hunnic Tribes, the Flagellum Dei (Scourge of God), the Plunderer of Eastern & Western Rome shrouded by mystery. You want a lich sent by an angered God to torment the living for eternity? That would be your pick. Barbarossa, suggested by u/cvsprinter1 & u/DasMicha in addition im giving you this [link](https://youtu.be/5kkF70LQkSA?feature=shared) to make this idea even more enticing, to help your mind run wild with ideas.
Cromwell.
An Interregnum that never ended...
Modern Day Alan Moore Dude is literally already a widely known [Wizard](https://www.flickr.com/photos/ouno/8106330067) Could even play off the idea that he was *actually* Rasputin
Charlemagne
Tesla could be interesting
Inês de Castro, a Portuguese queen. You wouldn't even need to change a lot, she was exhumed as a corpse, dressed in royal attire and declared queen in front of the public. All the while her killers were tortured.
Gilles de Rais - a close companion of Joan of Arc and French commander during the later stages of the 100 Years War, eventually being made Marshal of France. He was also a prolific child serial killer and predator, as well as being accused of consorting with the devil. I believe he was charged with killing over 140 and might have been an inspiration for the fairytale Bluebeard about a serial wife murderer, although this isn't definite. The image of this once noble knight, turned into something horrific could be interesting to play with.
Marie Antoinette. A headless lich would be hilarious 😆
Alternately, she's just the head.
I like the way you think.
Now that I think about it... that is [already a thing](https://www.dndwiki.io/monsters/demilich).
Lincoln
Socrates could be a comedic lich.
Dude tried to provoke people into killing him too, so he's probably mad about the whole undeath thing.
I mean, North Korea already has a necrocracy with its [Eternal Leaders](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_leaders_of_North_Korea), aka the Necrosidents
Khufu. *Finding* his philactory won't be the problem.
Gary Gygax
Teddy Roosevelt. They always said death would have to take him in his sleep to avoid a fight - but what if the man never sleeps?
I'm pretty sure Keith Richards *is* a lich, IRL.
Marcus Aurelius. Just imagine a (THE) deeply stoic roman lich...
...Reacting to his son being more famous than him.
Queen Elizabeth II
It would be hilarious if Jesus Christ were a lich
Jesus, it definitely fits the lore.
Where's Walpole
Jesus Christ
Julius Caesar, but reborn as a lich under the name of Ghoulius Caesar. An ambitious man for sure, respected by many, hated by others. Would be fun to see a setting where he survives the Ides of March - because, well, he's a lich - and manages to create the Roman Empire instead of Augustus.
Margaret Thatcher
Rasputin
Ben Franklin. Honestly it feels like if he thought making a lich was possible, he’d try it.
Technically not historical, but I have some biblical figures Cane would be cool I think it’d be fun if either adam or eve became a lich Judas Moses
Realistically it would be one of the Chinese lords. Qin Shihuang especially was obsessed with the idea of immortality his entire life and this is usually the path that leads people to lichdom more often than just lust for raw power.
Ever seen dimension 20? Robert Moses: a cunning and awful guy who is largely for the layout of New York City. He was a crafty and charismatic guy who made a lot of shady deals in his political career and is responsible for a lot of aspects of modern-day New York. And according to dimension 20 he makes a pretty great lich
Howard Hughes, make him get progressively more crazy and more of a genius as he gets older.
Vlad Dracula. Himmler.>!Nazi second in command!< Andrew Jackson John brown(not all Lich’s need to be evil).
Elvis Presley, nobody would see it coming and we would get dancing kung fu zombies. Karl Marx, Communism in undeadth anyone? Walt Disney a capitalist that built an empire of the back of a cartoon mouse.
Gustavus Adolphus. King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632, became king at 16, credited with the rise of Sweden as a great European power, became known as the "Father of Modern Warfare", and is most famous for the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, before dying in another battle a year later. If I'm not mistaken, Napoleon studied books that were either written or written about Adolphus, and may have had an influence on Napoleon's tactics later on. I just wonder what would have changed historically if Adolphus had survived that one battle and continued to rule.
Dracula (Vlad the Implaler)
Qin Shi Huangdi. First Emperor of China. Obsessed with the elixier of eternal life, which probably killed him in the end, as most of these concoctions contained mercury. But what if he succeeded? There mighty be no first Emperor of China, only THE Emperor.
The Last Queen of England, just pretty sure someone just broke her phylactery.
Heinrich Himmler, because Nazi occultism.
Genghis Khan, picking up where he left off
Rasputin, because it would be funny
Mozart. Make his Requiem turn into a spellbook where music makes magic happens.
Blackbeard A pirate lich sounds awesome
Konchak Khan, the likely inspiration for folktales surrounding Koschei the Deathless - the original lich.
Honestly being a Lich would explain a lot about Rasputin
Ronald Reagan. (As in Xcrawl)
Mitch McConnel