Mellifleur
In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, Mellifleur is the god of lichdom and magic. Mellifleur is also known as the "Lichlord."
His symbol is a crystal vial held in a skeletal hand, with a ring on its fourth finger.
Publication history
Mellifleur was first detailed in the book Monster Mythology (1992), including details about his priesthood.[1]
Mellifleur was detailed for third edition in the article "Forgotten Faiths" in Dragon #359 (September 2007), by F. Wesley Schneider.[2]
Description
Mellifleur's features are fairly typical for his kind, though his clean, undamaged, clothing marks him as more concerned with his personal appearance than most liches tend to be. Green gemstones glow within his eye sockets.
Relationships
Mellifleur is opposed by Nerull, who seeks to recapture and absorb Mellifleur's power. For this reason, some neutral good deities will occasionally aid Mellifleur in the hopes of keeping the forces of Evil divided.
The yugoloth known as Typhus was empowered by a cabal of night hags to defeat Mellifleur's armies, back when the lich-god was attempting to seize control of the larva trade.
Realm
Mellifleur's realm, called Death's Embrace, can be found on the Plane of Gehenna. There, he hides many magical phylacteries, which can sustain him should he be overcome, or magically trapped.
In the 3rd edition Manual of the Planes, Mellifleur is called Melif and his realm, rising from Gehenna's deepest and darkest furnace, is called Hopelorn. Hopelorn is a mortuary city carved from obsidian and is a place where sarcophagi light the streets with a hellish red hue. The tiny slits of windows look out into the dead, black landscape. Liches, and other forms of undead, gather to research the arcane arts and the nature of life and death, dissecting captured fiends in fell experiments. Only the yugoloth race is avoided by the denizens of this place, for fear of bringing that race's wrath down upon themselves, as this is a plane where the yugoloths are at their strongest.
Dogma
Mellifleur encourages mortals to explore the secrets of life and death, and to ultimately become undead themselves.
Worshipers
Mellifleur is worshipped by some liches. Mellifleur delights in guiding mortal arcanists along the path to undeath, as his own power is increased by all such acts.
Myths and legends
Mellifleur was once a mortal wizard (or, as some rumors state, a yugoloth wizard) who performed the rites to make himself a lich. Due to an unforeseen conjunction of the spheres, Mellifleur's ritual tapped into divine forces sent by Nerull, who was, at that precise moment, endeavoring to elevate one of his servants to divinity. Somehow, Mellifleur's magic diverted this power into himself; thus Mellifleur became both a lich and a god in the place of Nerull's favored minion.
The illithids, who seem to know much that is hidden from others, tell a somewhat different story. They claim that Mellifleur interrupted not just one such apotheosis, but many, thus usurping the ascension of many gods on many different worlds. They say that, because of this, Mellifleur became not just a demigod but a lesser god in one unexpected surge of power. This forces Mellifleur to oppose the machinations of many outraged gods of evil.
References
- ^ Sargent, Carl. Monster Mythology (TSR, 1992)
- ^ Schneider, F. Wesley. "Forgotten Faiths." Dragon #359. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007
Additional reading
- Bonny, Edward. "Pox of the Planes." Dragon Annual #2. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1997.
- Boyd, Eric L. Powers & Pantheons. Renton, WA: TSR, 1997.
- Grubb, Jeff, David Noonan, and Bruce Cordell. Manual of the Planes. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.