List of liches

Main article: Lich

• Richard, one of the main characters in the web comic Looking for Group, is a subversion of the old "lich stays in his lair and plots" paradigm. Richard likes to go about killing things. Amusingly, he has no trouble changing facial expressions despite having just a skull and two yellow orbs.
• Ruthie, the main villain of the Ministry comic is a variation of a Lich. Although she possesses supernatural powers, her main skill lies in manipulating the mad.
• Blizzard's game series Warcraft plays host to a number of liches who belong to the Undead Scourge: Araj the Summoner, Amnennar the Coldbringer, Ras Frostwhisper, Rage Winterchill and Arch-Lich Kel'Thuzad, who holds the position of majordomo to Arthas Menethil, the current Lich King. The ruler of the Scourge, first Ner'zhul, now Arthas, is known as the Lich King.
• In The Elder Scrolls, Liches are undead human necromancers who have imbued themselves with their necromancer magic, and transform into liches. Liches rely upon black magic, both from their staves and from their spells. They will also usually summon an undead underling, such as a skeleton warrior.
• In Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Liches are a powerful form of undead, but can be summoned with a spell by a necromancer, or by the player if they have a high enough conjuration level. Also, players joining the Dark Brotherhood are required to assassinate the necromancer Celedaen, before he completes his transformation into a lich. The character Mannimarco is also supposed to be a lich, even if he appears as a normal High Elf in the game.
• The Warhammer Fantasy setting includes liches such as Nagash and near liche characters such as the Lichemaster, as well as Liche-Priests in Khemri.
• The last boss in Guild Wars Prophecies is a Lich, he summons the Titans of the Ring of Fire Islands
• The action-RPG PC game NOX features enemy sorcerers called liches.
• In the MMORPG Tibia a lich is a mid-strong undead creature with an arsenal of spells
• The Horned King from Disney's "The Black Cauldron" (1985) and the Lloyd Alexander books that inspired the film bears a resemblance to a lich even though he isn't one.
• Morda from Lloyd Alexander's book Taran Wanderer, part of the Chronicles of Prydain. Morda kept his life force in a bone fragment.
• In AdventureQuest, a character with the Necromancer class is able to become a Lich upon death. There is also a dracolich, which is an undead dragon.
• In Times of Lore, a wizard who has transformed himself into a Lyche resides under a ruined temple in the desert. He is depicted as an inanimate corpse sitting on a throne.
• In the Sega Master System game Phantasy Star, Liches feature as a minor enemy in some dungeons.
• The "Gray Witch" in the anime/manga Lodoss (Note:Kala the Gray Witch only puts her will in a Head ornaments before her death, not her Soul. And the ornament controls the next person who wears it)
• Golden Sun uses liches as an enemy
• The game Disciples II: Dark Prophecy features Liches as powerful creatures serving the Undead Hordes.
• The GURPS supplement GURPS Undead enables a wizard to become a lich, who requires monthly doses of a special elixir made from "some rather unpleasant materials (free but illegal)" to survive. In the GURPS Technomancer setting there are several "atomic liches" who were created by experiments with radiation and who now secretly work to promote death and destruction.
• Dark Lich is a boss from the SNES game Secret of Mana, and the game's sequel Seiken Densetsu 3. In Secret of Mana, he first appears as the game's main villain, Thanatos, before showing his true form.
• The Iron Liches as bosses from the PC game Heretic.
• In City of Villains, a Necromancer Mastermind's most powerful pet is a Lich
• In the original Final Fantasy, Lich is one of the Four Fiends of Chaos, associated with the element of Earth. He causes the earth to rot and decay by blocking the power of the Crystal of Earth from escaping the cavern in which he rests. A vampire, his subservient, is encountered before him as a sub-boss battle.
• In Final Fantasy IV, Scarmiglione, the Earth Fiend, is a Lich-like undead wizard, commanding zombies in battle.
• In Final Fantasy Tactics there is a 'Rich' summon (due to a mistranslation)
• In Final Fantasy IX Lich is the Earth Guardian of Terra.
• In Final Fantasy XII, a Lich is a monster which can be found in the Tomb of Raithwall.
• In Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, a Lich is the boss of the undead-filled area Rebena Te Ra. This Lich, unrelated to the Lich of other Final Fantasy games, resembles a giant Yuke.
• Liches appear in the game Vagrant Story, where they are 'evil' type enemies described as mages who gained eternal life through making pacts with demons. They are powerful magic users capable of teleporting around the rooms they appear in. The game also features lich lords, more powerful versions of the basic lichs, and Death, a Lich-like enemy who resembles the Grim Reaper and is tasked with hunting down the possessed.
• In the remake of The Mummy and its sequels, the main villain Imhotep is rendered immortal through the Curse of Hom Dai. His body was reduced to a skeleton by scarab beetles and sealed in a coffin. After being accidentally revived he assimilated the flesh and organs of a group of thieves who opened a cursed chest. Imhotep was also skilled in necromancy, being able to animate the corpses of his long-dead priests, and in the second film animates the mummies being kept in the British Museum.
• "The Lich" is the final boss of the "Forsaken Province" territory in the game Gauntlet: Dark Legacy.
• Liches are prominent villains and player characters throughout the Might and Magic series, notably Might and Magic VII, VIII and IX.
• The Heroes of Might and Magic series' Necropolis faction contains Liches and Power Liches (alternatively named Archliches and Lich Masters in the fifth game) as troops. Some Liches are also major storyline characters and protagonists, such as Sandro the Necromancer and Nicolas Gryphonheart.
• In Heroes of Might and Magic IV, Lich is a class of hero attained by mastering the death magic and chaos magic skills. Lich heroes can age enemy units by attacking them, reducing their attributes.
• In Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, liches are a form of undead
• In Ultima Online, a lich is a type of undead enemy with a strong melee attack and powerful spells. There are three types of liches: the regular lich, the more powerful Lich Lord, and the nearly invincible Ancient Lich.
• Liches also feature as undead spell-casters in dark robes in the game MU Online.
• In the MMORPG Nexus War a lich is one of the classes characters can take after a certain level.
• In the text-based MUD MajorMud, Zanthus the Lich is featured as the most powerful NPC in the game.
• While not created in the same manner as the traditional lich, Pious Augustus of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem could be seen as one, as his body and soul were corrupted when he touched one of the three hallowed relics of the Ancients, and transfromed into a skeletal, emaciated monster with vast magical abilities and a keen intelligence (though bound to serve his Ancient masters). He is also referred to in the game as "The Liche". Like many other liches, he had control over the Ancient's undead monsters.
• In Warlords 3:Reign of Heroes, the undead faction is named "Liche King," suggesting that it is lich-controlled. In the game, Liches are a non-recruitable ally to the undead faction that inspires fear.
• In Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria, Liches are the second level Undead unit. They are fairly weak rank-and file fighters who have an extremely unreliable death gaze.
• Bane, Horseman of Death and leader of the undead faction in the Warlords series of videogames, is described in Warlords Battlecry III as 'a giant lich riding a chariot'.
• In the Might & Magic series, Liches are a class of player upgraded from a Necromancer, or in Might & Magic 7 from a wizard who has allied himself with necromancers.
• In the Chzo Mythos, an amateur adventure game series, Chzo's serveant, the Tall Man was a lich.
• The roguelike computer game NetHack features lich, demilich, arch-lich and master lich.
• The roguelike computer game ADOM features lich, lich king, emperor lich and master lich.
• Ogre Battle and its sequels feature lichs, generally as the most powerful type of spellcaster. They may also be capable of recruiting undead characters.
• In the online game Kingdom of Loathing the lihc (sic) is a monster in the Misspelled Cemetery parodying the lich
• In the online game Clan Lord Liches appear frequently in the Dark Temple and are part of a pirate-like community of non-player characters called "Darshaks."
• The novel Monster Planet features a powerful lich who is the leader of the zombie army.
• One of the bosses inside several versions of the MMOG, "Gunz: The Duel" there is a boss known as a Lich. It is possible to reach this boss by defeating several enemies in an underground/dungeon (as the game names the map) "Quest" match.
• In the Game Boy Advance game Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django, the Lich and Lich+ enemies appear as minibosses.
• In Tales of Phantasia, some enemies could summon a lich that would do damage to the player characters.
• The gimmick of WWE wrestler The Undertaker once involved him being an immortal and virtually invulnerable undead being via a funereal urn that he carried to the ring, which was said to contain the "spirit of the Undertaker" and said to be the source of his superhuman power.
• In the animated series of He-Man, He-man's arch enemy Skeletor could be considered a lich, due to his skull face and magic abilities. In the most recent edition of the animation, a backstory elaborates on Skeletor's origins, explaining he was originally an evil warlord named Keldor who was mortally wounded by King Randor many years ago. In order to survive, he made a pact with the spirit of the ancient overlord Hordak. In return for his life and the power to defeat his enemies in Eternia, he would serve Hordak. This resulted in his transformation into Skeletor.
• Necromancers in the computer strategy game Battle for Wesnoth may be upgraded to the powerful lich unit, and lichs are used as villains in many of the game's scenarios and campaigns.
• In EverQuest II, Varsoon the Undying is a relatively young lich (only 300 years or so old) who remains in the Chamber of Immortality within the Ruins of Varsoon. While the Ruins are located in The Thundering Steppes, his tomb is on an island off the northwest coast of Antonica. Lucan Dlere, the overlord of Freeport is also a lich.
• The 1997 animated movie Anastasia depicts Rasputin, the main antagonist of the film, as a lich. Because of the terms of the curse he put on Tsar Nicholas II and his family, Rasputin cannot die until the entire royal family has been killed-as long as his reliquary is intact. This, along with his desire for revenge against the Tsar, is more than enough to motivate him to finish the curse by killing Anastasia-and a fierce compulsion to protect his reliquary, a green vial with a skull on top. At the end of the movie, the vile thing slams to the ground, cracking and causing him great pain. Anastasia kills him by grinding it to powder under her high-heeled shoe.
• In the MMORPG Grand Chase, a Lich is a boss in the Forsaken Barrows, capable of holding down players with zombies, summoning undead orcs, and using lightning bolts.
• Thorion the Master Summoner of Roke in the Earthsea series of books becomes a form of lich when he (or an aspect of himself seeking dominance) returns from the Land of the Dead. Claiming that he has 'summoned himself' back to life, he begins to seek political power in the vacuum left by the absence of an archmage. While the full tale is detailed in 'Dragonfly', a short story in Tales from Earthsea, parts also appear in Tehanu and The Other Wind.
• In the Bleach series, one of the Espada in Aizen's army known as Barragan Luisenbarn has a released form that greatly resembles a Lich. He even commands a small group of Arrancar that he refers to as Dragons. Furthermore, these subordinates refer to their Espada lord as a king and sometimes as a god further indicating Lich like qualities of Barragan Luisenbarn.
• The MMORPG RuneScape features a fictional race called the Mahjarrat, who are extreme evil, immortal and shapeshifting mages. These creatures have a true form what looks exactly like Liches, and have the same intentions. Many quests of RuneScape are about these creatures. They are no Liches, however.
• Many video games and published works in a Dungeons and Dragons setting make use of the lich:
  • the webcomic The Order of the Stick uses Xykon as its chief villain
  • the computer RPG Planescape: Torment references the creature, but comes no closer than the minor character Strahan Runeshadow, a necromancer aspiring to lich-hood. There are surprisingly many intelligent animated skulls, but they are all of quite different origins than lichs.
  • the computer RPG Baldur's Gate 2 and its expansion pack Throne of Bhaal frequently uses lichs as mid to high level enemies, including Kangaxx the Demilich (BG2) and an unnamed Demilich in ToB.
  • the video game Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II includes the lich Lyran.
  • the computer game Neverwinter Nights allows powerful players to summon lichs
  • the Neverwinter Nights expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide uses the lich Belpheron in the plot, although he was destroyed before the game's start. Belpheron appears briefly as an enemy in Hordes of the Underdark expansion (though his name is spelt Balpheron). Though not a true lich, the character Kel-garas (also appearing in Shadows of Undrentide) has attained undeath through similar means (namely, binding his soul to a phylactery).
  • The campaign setting of Ravenloft contains the powerful and scheming lich Azalin.¨
• In the comic book Gold Digger, the Lich King - one of the deadliest and most evil adversaries in the entire run of the book - is created by accident when John Diggers, grandfather of the book's eponymous protagonist, becomes the victim of his own ultimate masterpiece, the spell "essence inversion" which transforms the very essence of a being into its opposite. Unfortunately dr. Diggers was a very kind, good-hearted and loving man.

He did not use a phylactery, but was typical in every other way - being a consummate schemer.

References

In the Japanese manga and anime series Naruto - the shinobi Kakuzu was able to steal the hearts of his enemies and implant them inside his own body. These hearts were represented by phylactry-like animal masks. Each of the masks was a 'life', and Kakuzu could not be killed until they were destroyed in sequence by Kakashi, Hidan, and Naruto. Kakuzu was composed of a black, ropelike substance but outwardly resembled a healthy, adult male.