The Liche Chronicles

Since the advent of the internet, there are no secrets anymore. The secrets to turning yourself or a buddy into an undead horror are there for the researching.

I, Kitric, am in an almost unique position, in that I have an undying Liche for an ancestor, mentor and companion. Arkruel Morthelm is only one of three Liches extant in the world at this time, as far as I can ascertain. I am certainly not about to identify them since they value their privacy.

Let us first clear the air of common misconceptions. The Egyptians were a death obsessed culture, but one centered upon an afterlife. They were not interested in creating a walking mummy. The major religions mostly believe in the undead (spirits) but teach that commerce with them or their creation is an abomination. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” may be politically incorrect these days, but remains the proper translation of the text in the King James bible.

Necromancy was an accepted part of life, however, in Assyria, Crete, and England before Christianity came and ruined everything fun. Formulas for the creation of undead can be found in the writings of Assyria and Crete. I can assure you that they work quite well if no mistakes are made causing the spells to boomerang with unpleasant results. I recommend that the acolyte necromancer spend several years studying the languages of ancient Assyria and Crete. Next the acolyte may translate the appropriate texts using dictionaries of ancient languages to modern English that can be accessed on the net.

Olde English texts describing in detail the process of creating unlife are unavailable to the best of my knowledge. We find tantalizing references to the practice of “Craeft Naecra”, the study of necromancy and to the creation by wizards of “Gastlice Licwiglung”, ghastly constructs, but no formulas are now generally available. The youngest Liche created herself outside of Aberdeen, Scotland in the latter part of the fifteenth century. She must have possessed, or still possesses, impressive grimoires, but they have not yet been placed upon the net. Perhaps she is waiting for a book deal.

The undead really have no age. Grandsire was born in Crete, that cross roads of the ancient world, but not necessarily of Minoan parents. His children were of course born before he became undead. My ancestors lived for a while in Northern Italy, then entered Britain as legionaries in the Ninth legion, stationed near York where they interbred with native women.

My own branch of the family can be traced to southwest England prior to the Norman conquest. They were ship captains and pirates in Elizabethan times and fought against the Spanish armada. My ancestors then moved to the American colonies, settling both in New England and near New Orleans. Arkruel and I now reside in the South, with homes in both Northern Florida and Shreveport, Louisiana.

Let us spare a few words for all the sightings of ghosts and spooks of various kinds. Undoubtedly ninety percent of ghosts can be attributed to over active imagination or booze or drugs, or lack of sleep.

Most of the remaining ten percent may well be the result of the “waking dream”, a phenomenon discovered by sleep scientists a few years ago. Evidently, pressure on the brain may very occasionally cause a waking person to see things that are only in his mind as if he or she were dreaming. Typically, you see something in the room with you. But since you were not asleep, you do not wake and say “what a nightmare”. You just come back to reality believing you saw some creature in your room.

So, do ghosts and worse really visit the living? There are certainly enough stories of events and horrors that can not be explained any other way. Liches are always solitary beings intent on accumulating more wealth and power. A Liche would never bother to come around your bedroom in the night to scare you. Vampires, ghouls, ghosts, maybe. I don't know do you?

The End