PDA

View Full Version : Title: Lich King ["No I mean the title is Lich King"]



Arcanist
2012-11-18, 06:47 PM
I've seen that title get tossed around in some stories, some games, whatever, but I've always wondered how you actually go about gaining that in your belt of titles.

I've had some theories, but none of them really made sense to me (nothing I say to myself makes sense though...) Is a Lich King:

A) A King who has achieved Lichdom

OR

B) A King who rules over other Liches

OR

C) A Lich who has fancied himself a crown, killed off an entire city and turned everyone into an Undead abomination like him.

Please feel free to add your own opinion on what actually would qualify you for such a title, because so far, nothing makes sense on this subject for me... :smallconfused:

Ichneumon
2012-11-18, 07:01 PM
I'd say the titel goes to any particular Lich who manages to be bad ass, it's as simple as that.:smallamused:

TheCountAlucard
2012-11-18, 07:07 PM
When one is powerful enough, there's an unsurprising dearth of folks who would argue the point of one's royalty.

Winds
2012-11-18, 07:35 PM
The example I know of is from WoW, he qualified for A and B. Depending on how exact you are about the title 'Lich'. Though I know I wouldn't argue with a type three, most times I've seen examples of a necro that...excessive, I suppose? 'King' is the very smallest title I'd expect them to go for.

TuggyNE
2012-11-18, 08:39 PM
When one is powerful enough, there's an unsurprising dearth of folks who would argue the point of one's royalty.

Basically this. It's like the old joke, "what does an 800 lb gorilla eat? whatever he wants!" Except with fewer gorillas and more zombies. :smalltongue:

In marginal cases you might get other kingdoms referring to you as the "self-styled Lich King", which means "yeah we don't really think so but no need to rock the boat".

Xefas
2012-11-18, 09:37 PM
Granted, if I was an immortal, nigh-invincible undead monster that only gets more powerful over time, I probably wouldn't opt for a title that declares my one weakness.

This is only really a problem for D&D Liches, that have the phylactery thing, but I'm just saying - if I were one of them, I'd be spreading a title like "Xefas, He That Is Easily Maimed With Nonmagical Swords", or "Xefas, Pope of The Electrically Conductive", or even just something neutral, like "Xefas, Emperor of Funkytown".

I wouldn't say "Xefas, The Lich King", because now everyone knows I'm a Lich, rather than assuming I'm one of the other billion kinds of undead. Hell, you're better off magically disguising yourself as a demon, or a fey, or something, and being Xefas, Demon Prince, or Xefas, Princess of Fairybunnies - something to make your inevitable competition bring the wrong kind of kryptonite.

Zelphas
2012-11-18, 10:13 PM
Granted, if I was an immortal, nigh-invincible undead monster that only gets more powerful over time, I probably wouldn't opt for a title that declares my one weakness.

This is only really a problem for D&D Liches, that have the phylactery thing, but I'm just saying - if I were one of them, I'd be spreading a title like "Xefas, He That Is Easily Maimed With Nonmagical Swords", or "Xefas, Pope of The Electrically Conductive", or even just something neutral, like "Xefas, Emperor of Funkytown".

I wouldn't say "Xefas, The Lich King", because now everyone knows I'm a Lich, rather than assuming I'm one of the other billion kinds of undead. Hell, you're better off magically disguising yourself as a demon, or a fey, or something, and being Xefas, Demon Prince, or Xefas, Princess of Fairybunnies - something to make your inevitable competition bring the wrong kind of kryptonite.

I imagine that if a DM did this to his players, books would be thrown at him when Xefas, Princess of Fairybunnies laughed at their cold iron...

Lord Raziere
2012-11-18, 10:16 PM
No Xefas…

if you go with that option, people will come and go "oh he is actually a lich!" sure if most people don't survive, you will continue to be known as something else, but eventually it will leak out that the title isn't actually true.
then, people find out I'm a lich, and destroy my phylactery

what I would do, is the opposite: name myself Lich King, then disguise myself as a demon.
Now imagine that people come, thinking they will just find my phylactery and destroy it, but find that I'm a demon instead.
They won't be prepared for facing a demon, won't have the demon's kryptonite and die.

BUT!

say if people survive, and report back that I am actually a demon?

THEN, they will come carrying demon kryptonite, and try it on me- and it won't work! then I kill them anyways, and start building up my fearsome reputation as a crazy demon who calls himself a lich king, who is somehow immune to demon kryptonite.
Now people won't know what to do at all, because I'm conquering across the landscape as a seemingly invincible lich king disguised as a demon who is somehow immune to things demons should be vulnerable to, because I'm actually a Lich King.

so for just using a visual rather than verbal deception, I establish a far more resilient and useful lie. :smallcool:

snikrept
2012-11-19, 12:58 AM
A lich becomes a king the same way anyone else becomes a king.

He orders enough heads lopped off until people around him start accepting it.

Kalmarvho
2012-11-19, 02:47 AM
Well, I can think of three 'Lich Kings' right off the bat.

1) Arthas/Ner'Zhul, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft

This falls under 'Lich who is a King'. A powerful undead who rules the dead. Also, spiders.

2) The Witch King of Angmar

Technically a Witch King, not a Lich King. Powerful 'undead' who used to be a king. So, Lich who used to be a King, kept his title.

2) Lich King, Adventure Time

The original name of the character now officially known as 'the Lich'. Not really king of anything except skeletons, which he is eager to make more of.

Doorhandle
2012-11-19, 03:07 AM
Granted, if I was an immortal, nigh-invincible undead monster that only gets more powerful over time, I probably wouldn't opt for a title that declares my one weakness.

This is only really a problem for D&D Liches, that have the phylactery thing, but I'm just saying - if I were one of them, I'd be spreading a title like "Xefas, He That Is Easily Maimed With Nonmagical Swords", or "Xefas, Pope of The Electrically Conductive", or even just something neutral, like "Xefas, Emperor of Funkytown".

.

Well, I sort of imagine that it's like the title "Red Baron" or "Hammer of the Scots:" It's not a title you give to yourself, it a title given to you by your enemies just for being so goddamn horribadass.

Also, I imagine the name is given because they control/rule over such huge army of undead, it like they own a kingdom or empire: certainly the case with Arthas. Which makes sense: most mindless undead are controlled with ultimate sovereignty by their necromancer, and after all, who's to say you aren't a liege when you have an entire continent under your iron fist?

edit: Granted, makes less sense with the last mentioned lich king who doesn't have an army, but at his full power he would have, and he certainly has the resources to make one.

Courier6
2012-11-20, 03:31 AM
I like to think that a Lich King is a lich with a penchant for wearing a little crown:smallbiggrin:

Axier
2012-11-20, 09:15 AM
A Lich King, in traditional ways of speaking, would infer a King who is a Lich. More like a title than the actual occupation. Examples would include clan names like the Wolf King, might come from a clan whos "totem" is that of a Wolf, but he himself would not be King to Wolves.

A King of Liches would infer a lord over liches. In this case, the king does not need to be a lich himself. One could master liches and be a human, or even an alien. An example would come from Eberron, where this one queen lich gets lich phylacteries and makes them into Grisgols.

A Lich who fancies himself a king, would be either a Lich King, or a king of Liches, depending on who he is trying to convince. Your not a king, until you either have a populace that likes you, or you kill them and turn them all into zombies and mindless slaves.

BootStrapTommy
2012-11-20, 03:07 PM
A Lich King is someone who fancies themselves a Lich King.

It could be just a random king who is not even undead ruling over other mortals. Or just a farmer with a big ego. Or a duke with a mental disorder. Who says it has to be any of those things?

Amnestic
2012-11-20, 08:12 PM
Well, I can think of three 'Lich Kings' right off the bat.

1) Arthas/Ner'Zhul, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft

This falls under 'Lich who is a King'. A powerful undead who rules the dead. Also, spiders.

I'm afraid not. While Arthas is indeed an Undead, he's not a Lich. Liches in Warcraft are a specific type of undead best described as highly magical skeletons, they also generally have a certain image theme (http://www.wowpedia.org/images/1/12/Lich.JPG) to them centering around floating skeleton with a skirt-type cloth covering across their bottom half.

Wowpedia actually lists his race as 'Demigod (Undead)', so he's something of a unique beast in that regard.

/Nerd off.

Kalmarvho
2012-11-20, 08:32 PM
Well, Arthas started out as a Death Knight, which doesn't seem too far from the qualifications.

Warcraft's Lich definition is very specific, true.

BootStrapTommy
2012-11-21, 12:50 AM
I'm afraid not. While Arthas is indeed an Undead, he's not a Lich. Liches in Warcraft are a specific type of undead best described as highly magical skeletons, they also generally have a certain image theme (http://www.wowpedia.org/images/1/12/Lich.JPG) to them centering around floating skeleton with a skirt-type cloth covering across their bottom half.

Wowpedia actually lists his race as 'Demigod (Undead)', so he's something of a unique beast in that regard.

/Nerd off.

Regardless our friend Kalmarvho is correct in calling him a Lich King, since that is the name given to him throughout Warcraft and many mediums. In this regard I do believe it is an undead king scenario, with Lich used simply as a name to denote a powerful undead, not a specific type of undead. In other words, a King who happens to be a Lich. I would also like to point out that Liches in Warcraft are simply powerful undead. They only have a standardized form do to the games original RTS format, not because they have a standardized form in the Warcraft universe.


Warcraft's Lich definition is very specific, true.

I'd argue that point. For one based on the above reasoning. The nature of RTS. And secondly because Arthas is repeatedly called the Lich King in the franchise. It would be self-contradictory if what you say is true.

Grimsage Matt
2012-11-21, 12:57 AM
Websters on what a Lich is (http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Lich).

So, what is a Lich King? A Undead with the leadership feat and is seriously badass, with some SLA or Magical abillity (Even limited). Basicly, the God Emparah could be considered a Lich king at this point....