I don’t think liches are bad people because they have cheated death and subverted some kind of “natural order” of things or because Negative Energy has evil cooties. Eff all that.
Liches are shitty people because, to my mind and in the lore I have in my head, they have to destroy everything and everyone that they have ever loved in order to ritually gain immortality. They are the ultimate show of selfishness. They exemplify, my great work is more important than anyone. Liches believe that their minds and will can make the world better than every other person and so, after a while, they want only their minds and will to reign over a dead and decaying world.
A friend of mine said, “Maybe people who want all orcs to be evil just want to…ya know…punch Nazis.” How is the above post about liches different from All Orcs are Evil? I’ll tell ya. It is about nouns and verbs.
If people are evil because of what they are, because of a noun – you aren’t looking to punch fictional Nazis. You are looking to punch fictional Jews.*
*I don’t think the nouns and verbs idea is something I thought of. If I stole this line of thinking form you, please let me know and I’m sorry. Was it Mendez who said it? When I find it, I’ll cite it.
Liches aren’t assholes because their bones are showing or because their eyes shine with the lights of twin dead stars. Liches are evil because of verbs – because of the the things they do. The ritual to become a lich is filled with evil, selfish murderous acts. Verbs.
But it makes them great arcane villains. I love daring my friends to punch a lich right in their selfish, evil face.
I’ve been digging into the Midjourney algorithm for creating images, or as I like to think of it, painting with search terms. I’ve been having fun and thought I’d share one narrow group of things I’ve made, sharing some Midjourney stuff I’ve made every Monday.
I started with a really basic term and for whatever reason, the doors under these terms I liked are all orange. I’m not sure why.
doorway to a dangerous dungeon in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
After that I changed it up and made a door with a bit more guidance and loved these skull doors, especially the two grey slate doors with a skull on it below.
skull shaped doorway to a lich’s tomb in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Tried to get something for my favorite monster but it wasn’t really successful, the only door I really liked was this one.
doorway into githyanki citadel in the style of Dungeons and Dragons + Fiend Folio cover art
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
I’m interested in doing more Tiefling-related world-building. Got a pair of solid doors for a Tiefling barrow.
devil-shaped doorway to a tiefling monarch’s barrow in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
Why, you might ask, were the alien Illithid doors the most successful? Why more Illithid doors than anything else? Because when the algorithm makes up something odd, it doesn’t have to look like a door as we know it. Making surreal and alien things is a strong suit.
alien door to illithid spawning chamber in the style of Dungeons and Dragons
terms that led to Midjourney’s algorithm imagining the following images
If you use these doors in your gaming, I’d love to hear from you about how things shook out at your table.
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SPOILER! We are playing Tomb of Annihilation and this post will spoil some secrets concerning the Heart of Ubtao encounter. If that doesn’t matter to you – READ ON. If you want to play that module and don’t want to know the secrets behind it, maybe come back to this later.
Silver Sword Subject Divider
My friend, John, is playing Bugwump – a frog-kin wizard.
John mentioned that before the Lady of Pain sentenced him, he had been a powerful wizard, high-level (as the D&D folks say). So, when they met an Arch-Mage on the Godroads, it occurred to me to ask John if Bugwump knew this guy and he did. It was a cool encounter – reminded me of running into an old college buddy on a day when you feel like you haven’t accomplished anything. Suddenly, a strange moment – encountering an Arch-Mage on the Godroads – became very relatable.
The Heart is this magically floating mote of earth, about the size of 3 cottages. Valindra Shadomantle is there, an agent working for the Red Wizards. Though a powerful necromancer, she isn’t a Red Wizard herself. The big secret is that she is a lich.
As I read the encounter, I realized Bugwump might know her. The Arch-mage on the Godroads felt like running into an old buddy from school. Valindra was going to feel like…
…holy shit, Bugwump dated her, didn’t he? I asked.
John agreed. I mentioned that when they were together she’d take consulting work from anyone. She had helped liches hide their phylacteries and trapped dungeons and lairs against intruders.
Being Bugwump’s ex gave her this realness. Bugwump was much less scrupulous in his youth. We have seen that change from when we first began the campaign.
Hasn’t everyone dated someone in college who, if they turned out to be undead, you’d say, “Yeah, that scans.”
Through stealth checks the a Gem of True-Seeing the players figured out Valindra’s lichness. Bugwump told her that they’d meet her cohort of Red Wizards and come back to figure out what to do next with whatever Acererak was up to in the Lost City of Omu. He was lying and she knew it but suddenly, it wasn’t about adventurers stealing. It was an ex saying he’d come back when he never was going to come back.
I know that adventurers (particularly, bards) dating monsters is a kind of RPG-twitter cliche. Tonight it made a dangerous and interesting totally unbalanced encounter even more interesting.
Thank you, John, for making interesting choices.
Silver Sword Subject Divider
One more interesting moment from that game. The guides were frantically saddling the pterodactyls to get off the earth mote.
Drew’s knight, Jusko, knocked on Valindra’s door. He had a game board that we called Outlands Chess – it is round and the center of the board represents Sigil. You can win by taking the other’s Wizard or by taking Sigil. Valindra won by taking both but Drew’s roll had been higher (he rolled GREAT and she rolled poorly).
He learned about her through play and I let him ask questions about her to see what the game taught him about her character. Love it.
When characters play strategy games I almost never make the die roll about winning; I make it about seeing what you can learn about the person playing.
Githyanki Diaspora 
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