Posted By DanielBlack at

Asking for a friend... 😬

Anyone have any idea just how horrible a character would have to be to become a Lich?

I mean, would a few murders do it, or would I... er... my friend, have to massacre an entire city?

No one has ANY official info on how to become a lich.

There hasn't been anything to suggest you need to murder people, have a black soul, or even really be dislikeable. The only agreed upon part is the phylactery, and that is just because it is pretty standard for Liches.

Posted By Labbe at 10:26 PM - Wed Jan 09 2019

Posted By DanielBlack at

Asking for a friend... 😬

Anyone have any idea just how horrible a character would have to be to become a Lich?

I mean, would a few murders do it, or would I... er... my friend, have to massacre an entire city?

No one has ANY info on how to become a lich.

There hasn't been anything to suggest you need to murder people, have a black soul, or even really be dislikeable. The only agreed upon part is the phylactery, and that is just because it is pretty standard for Liches.

I specifically remember someone saying something about your soul becoming darker the more evil deeds you perform. Until you reached a certain limit.

They said your lifespan could be shortened by evil acts to something like 4 months? At which point they weren’t clear on what would happen.

Made me wonder.

No one knows. But I bet it'll take a LOT of story points. Some rando in a podunk town probably isn't going to be the server's lich. It'll probably take someone who is super active and involved in a major, if not the major, story line to fit the bill.

Posted By DanielBlack at 8:38 PM - Wed Jan 09 2019

I specifically remember someone saying something about your soul becoming darker the more evil deeds you perform. Until you reached a certain limit.

They said your lifespan could be shortened by evil acts to something like 4 months? At which point they weren’t clear on what would happen.

Made me wonder.

Yes, and yes, and prolly not.

Your soul becomes darker the more evil things you do as a mechanic of the game, this is true.

And who knows really? You could have to have a certain shade of soul to be able to become a lich, but this hasn't been discussed and won't be discussed in any kind of official capacity as that would ruin the surprise. If I was to guess, I would say you have to happen upon an npc that starts you on the path toward lichdom, and maybe it does take soul color into account to happen upon them, or maybe you might kill a few innocents in the act of becoming a lich, but there is 0 proof either way.

i do remember caspian implying the ritual to become one may or may not involve some nasty things. this was a long time ago back around kickstarter, and i can't remember what exactly he said and i have no clue where to look for it, regardless, we have no specifics on the ritual or liches, aside form what has already been said here about phylacteries.

just imagine the first lich beeing a kypip...little undead. :) or a dras. you would not even see a difference.

Posted By Labbe at 09:56 AM - Thu Jan 10 2019

There hasn't been anything to suggest you need to murder people, have a black soul, or even really be dislikeable.

I think there will need to be a sacrifice of some kind. Thats how it is in DnD... and even in CoEs own lore they describe litches as being born from evil actions...

Can we count this as this weeks "Officially Required Weekly Lich Question?"

Just to add some information about the affinity. We do know that you cannot be of light affinity to become a Lich this was covered in a very early Q&A with the developers when they still vaguely gave information on the topic of liches:

Rumour has it that there is the possibility of becoming a lich and getting some form of immortality. At least temporary immortality, and I can tell you that is not something of the light affinity can do.

Source - Q&A Transcripts

As well as them being referred to as ‘evil’ beings repeatedly, we also know that the idea of becoming a Lich requires a ‘dark magic’ and an ability to use it. Dark magic does suggest that you would indeed be darkening your soul:

At some point after game launch a dark magic will enter the world. This magic will make it possible for those gifted in such arts to transfer their soul from their body to a receptacle for safe keeping.

Source – Forums

But exactly what is required to become a Lich is very much unknown apart from those facts, nor do we know exactly what moves towards a dark affinity though it is likely not just murder.

i imagine if liches exist then it would most likely be a very costly thing to become one. giving yourself immortality doesnt stop your body from withering away. this would most likely mean that you would need a steady supply of people to keep it going, which would make npcs put bounties on your head which would lead to adventurers hunting you down which leads to you killing them if you're more skilled and powerful then they are. rinse repeat and you won't even have to leave your dungeon i think.

though exactly who you kill is up to you. you could be a lich that purely hunts on the wicked, or the exact opposite, finding the best subjects to be the pure of heart.

Posted By Pieoflords at 8:38 PM - Thu Jan 10 2019

i imagine if liches exist then it would most likely be a very costly thing to become one. giving yourself immortality doesnt stop your body from withering away. this would most likely mean that you would need a steady supply of people to keep it going, which would make npcs put bounties on your head which would lead to adventurers hunting you down which leads to you killing them if you're more skilled and powerful then they are. rinse repeat and you won't even have to leave your dungeon i think.

though exactly who you kill is up to you. you could be a lich that purely hunts on the wicked, or the exact opposite, finding the best subjects to be the pure of heart.

I doubt that, I read the wiki article, and it said your soul had to be very dark, and I don’t believe your soul darkens if you kill a bad guy.

Posted By Labbe at 11:06 PM - Wed Jan 09 2019

Your lifespan is shortened when you do Coup de Graces on people as it is not something to be done lightly. To my knowledge though, there is no spirit loss from simply doing "evil acts" just this one thing.

Your life span is shortened after receiving a killing blow, not dealing one. Huge difference here.

Posted By Vanguard at 2:46 PM - Sat Jan 12 2019

Posted By Labbe at 11:06 PM - Wed Jan 09 2019

Your lifespan is shortened when you do Coup de Graces on people as it is not something to be done lightly. To my knowledge though, there is no spirit loss from simply doing "evil acts" just this one thing.

Your life span is shortened after receiving a killing blow, not dealing one. Huge difference here.

Hmm, good catch. I'm not sure what gave me the impression that performing a CDG on someone made you lose spirit but I can't seem to find what originally made me think it.

Comment retracted

I imagine immortal spirit hits are insane.

It would be cool if you could just rip out people's souls to keep it going as vampyres have that market cornered. Perhaps some sort of CG ability that consumes the spirit they would have lost. Or turning people into weaker liches by spending spirit. That would be awesome. So that way you would be forced to consume souls or spirit from larger marks or snacking on many more commoners.

I gaurentee you the first person to do it will be a griefer tho lol.

Posted By Labbe at 5:14 PM - Sat Jan 12 2019

Posted By Vanguard at 2:46 PM - Sat Jan 12 2019

Posted By Labbe at 11:06 PM - Wed Jan 09 2019

Your lifespan is shortened when you do Coup de Graces on people as it is not something to be done lightly. To my knowledge though, there is no spirit loss from simply doing "evil acts" just this one thing.

Your life span is shortened after receiving a killing blow, not dealing one. Huge difference here.

Hmm, good catch. I'm not sure what gave me the impression that performing a CDG on someone made you lose spirit but I can't seem to find what originally made me think it.

Comment retracted

You can lose spirit if you get caught via the criminal justice system, but you wouldn't automatically lose spirit after committing a coup de grace. This makes the hiding, stealing and creating new identities more interesting.

We don't have a lot of information on lichdom, but I'd imagine if you're going to perform a lot of evil acts, you'd want to either hide your identity or have a very large following to protect you. Lich cult, anyone?