Re-reading #114 made me realise something

[Thrax]

In #114 we see the first (from our perspective) demise of Xykon (with at least one death before when he was turned into a lich). Roy decapitates him, and then throws both the head and the body into the Gate.

Throws Xykon into the Gate.

If I remember correctly, behind that gate is a giant rift in space-time continuum that's semi-sentient and devours everything it meets, soul and body. We've been told repeatedly, there's no resurrection if you get eaten by Snarl. And Xykon gets thrown in there.

So it leaves us with two possibilities:
1) Lich's respawn in his phylactery is enough to circumvent Snarl's total and complete destruction of the victim.
2) Xykon is not Xykon for most of the comic.

[Winter]

Throws Xykon into the Gate.

Roy does not throw Xykon into the Rift, but against Dorukan's Seal which protects the gate. The Seal then destroys Xykon, just as it has already destroyed numerous goblins that Xykon sacrificed to examine what the seal does (or for fun, opinions might vary).

Xykon never touched the Rift or the Gate.

[RMS Oceanic]

He doesn't throw him into the gate per se, he throws him into the protective ward Dorukan set up and had been previously established to kill goblins that approached it.

Interesting theory though. :smallsmile:

[Cicciograna]

I think that the sigil on the top of the Gate (which gate?!?) prevents Xykon to cross it, and that it is the sigil itself that destroys the lich.

EDIT: swordsaged twice!

[Thrax]

Where's the information on seal killing Xykon from? Not that I doubt it, I would just like to personally see the wrench thrown into my theory. :P

[Winter]

Where's the information on seal killing Xykon from? Not that I doubt it, I would just like to personally see the wrench thrown into my theory. :P

Just watch Xykon getting thrown at the seal. Also note the seal stays totally intact by Xykon hitting it. Therefore, Seal and Gate are unaffected by Roy's Xykon-throw.
I'm pretty sure there's some Word-of-Author-comment on that somewhere (here on the board or in the books).

[Kish]

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0096.html[/url) and in the following strip, Xykon and Redcloak discuss how walking into the seal on the Gate fries goblins. (There's a bonus strip in Dungeon Crawling Fools that demonstrates this more directly.)
Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0106.html), Xykon tries to trick someone in the Order into touching (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0109.html) the gate, like the late goblins did.
Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0114.html), Xykon touches the sealed Gate. Says, "AAAARRRGH!!!"
Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0115.html), Xykon, still suspended against the Gate and clearly outside it, goes BOOM.

Not shown: Numerous people on the board think this somehow destroyed the Gate and complain, some time later, when Miko charges the Order with destroying the Gate and Roy's response is to yell at Elan.
Edited in response to below reply:
Also not shown: Numerous other people (me among them) point out that the self destruct rune was what destroyed the Gate.
Also also not shown: The people in the first numerous group insist they're pretty sure the Gate had already been destroyed by then, because Xykon being thrown into it is totally different from a random goblin touching it...for some reason.

[gorocz]

Not shown: Numerous people on the board think this somehow destroyed the Gate and complain, some time later, when Miko charges the Order with destroying the Gate and Roy's response is to yell at Elan.

Elan destroyed the gate by pressing the self-destruct here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0118.html).

[ThePhantasm]

That is Kish's point.

[Cuthalion]

Where's the information on seal killing Xykon from? Not that I doubt it, I would just like to personally see the wrench thrown into my theory. :P

Also, the Boom! usually doesn't happen when things go through things. :smallcool:

[gorocz]

Not shown: Numerous people on the board think this somehow destroyed the Gate and complain, some time later, when Miko charges the Order with destroying the Gate and Roy's response is to yell at Elan.
Edited in response to below reply:
Also not shown: Numerous other people (me among them) point out that the self destruct rune was what destroyed the Gate.
Also also not shown: The people in the first numerous group insist they're pretty sure the Gate had already been destroyed by then, because Xykon being thrown into it is totally different from a random goblin touching it...for some reason.
Yeah, sorry if it sounded like I was accusing of being amongst them, I only wanted to fill in the part why it isn't so (which apparently, as you say, doesn't have to be as obvious as we might think and apparently can be also refuted, despite every character in the comic agreeing on it).

[Rorrik]

Where's the information on seal killing Xykon from? Not that I doubt it, I would just like to personally see the wrench thrown into my theory. :P

To clarify, you can see power emanating from the seal (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0114.html) above the gate, stopping Xykon in the last frame. This is what destroyed him, he never passes the gate.

[RiOrius]

Here (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0106.html), Xykon tries to trick someone in the Order into touching (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0109.html) the gate, like the late goblins did.

Just a quick addition: Xykon's motive for getting the PCs to touch the gate isn't to kill them, but to bypass the protection and unseal the gate (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0097.html).

[137beth]

Okay, I never thought about the sigil destroying Xykon before the rift but...

He is a lich. His soul was not in his body, but was in his phylactery. Therefore, even if his body had fallen into the rift (as I assumed it had before viewing this thread), only his body would have been unraveled. His soul would still be in his phylactery, intact.
Now, if his phylactery had fallen into the rift, then he would be completely annihilated from existence. But it didn't.

[monkeyslinger]

Actually, in SoD (I think) Xykon says that his soul only goes into the phylactery if his body is destroyed, so destroying the phylactery wouldn't have any effect unless his body were also destroyed.

[Winter]

Actually, in SoD (I think) Xykon says that his soul only goes into the phylactery if his body is destroyed, so destroying the phylactery wouldn't have any effect unless his body were also destroyed.

Yes, that is how it works.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Yes, that is how it works.

And in fact the comic shows this - we next see him in the philactry (with the MITD making comments), and then at several points throughout the regeneration.

I'd fish out the exact issues, but I'm at work at the moment.