Laws that would govern a non-Evil system of government run by a lich?

[The Aboleth]

Hey, everyone!

The campaign I am running has a kingdom in it that is ruled by a lich. The kingdom went "off the grid" centuries ago after a failed invasion/liberation attempt by various human kingdoms; players have been told that attempts over the years to send spies into the lich kingdom have failed to the point that the spies are "never seen or heard from ever again once they cross into the kingdom's borders."

The players will soon be trying to infiltrate the kingdom to obtain an ancient artifact of immense power. Shockingly, they will learn that the kingdom is actually fairly run by the lich, and that the citizens seem happy to live in the kingdom despite it being ruled by an undead abomination. The lich, for his part, does not rule fairly out of a sense of Goodness*, but rather Pragmatism: He reasons that if his people are happy and the legal system is fair, then he'll be able to focus the majority of his energy on his research ("Rebellions are a waste of my time," he would say).

*I know some people here will ask, so let me state clearly: The lich sees himself as Evil, and I'm not trying to play him off as Good. I am, however, trying to convey that he values being pragmatic above being Evil. Please don't turn this thread into a "Nobody would like being ruled by an Evil lich, you're playing the game wrong!" discussion. Thank you!

What I need from you is a list of laws that might make sense for this kingdom. I imagine the kingdom's population to be a mix of humanoid races, undead beings (mostly vampires), and the occasional werewolf. Here is what I have so far:

1. All citizens have the right to fair and equal treatment under the law.
2. If accused of a crime, the defendant has the right to face their accusers in a court of law, and also has the right to a fair trail.
2. No citizen's life or property may be unlawfully taken from them.
2A: The penalty for murder, if convicted, is forfeiture of the murderer's soul to our Lord.
3. No vampire may drink the blood of the living unless the living person in question gives their lawful consent.
3A. The use of magical compulsion to gain consent, under this or any other circumstance, is illegal and punishable under the law.
4. At no point may a citizen of the kingdom discriminate against another due to their race, religion, gender, living or unliving status, or other similar reason.
5. In the event of a legal or business dispute that is unable to reach a conclusion by conventional means, one or both parties in said dispute may petition our Lord to mediate the matter and render a final judgment.

That's all I have so far. Is there anything you would add or change? I feel like numbers 1 and 4 are similar but wasn't sure if I should combine them or not.

Thanks in advance for your help, everyone!

[Keravath]

I'd suggest that the lich have a lawful evil alignment since chaotic or neutral might not lend themselves to setting up an ordered system of government.

People put up with a wide range of governments. Just look at most medieval governments in the past, most people didn't have anything resembling rights to anything. They were beholden to the local land owner who in turn owed their allegiance to local lords who owed their allegiance to the king/emperor/ruler. Armsmen were often used to enforce this structure at each level and social mobility was mostly unheard of ...

Slaves owning and other practices where relatively common.

Overall, your list of rules for your society might be considered exceedingly generous.

What are the lich's goals?
1) Create a society that remains peaceful, productive and doesn't cause distractions while supplying all the needed resources.

How to do this?
- keep the people reasonably happy
- religion is "the opiate of the masses" so create a church with the lich at the head of it ... get most of the population to worship him
- suppress the worship of other gods but establish a second "underground" church also controlled by the lich to channel those who don't want to fit in
- have a hierarchy of government in which the higher ups are inhibited from taking too much advantage of those lower down
- have a set of rules/laws that sets out what can be expected of each class of citizen along with rules to allow class mobility through exceptional performance or some other mechanism
- have traveling performers and shows to keep folks happier and hard working
- have an enforcement arm of spies that watches the ruling classes and a second independent one that keeps an eye on the rest
- have a council of "dukes" subservient to the lich
- limit the size of villages or towns ... perhaps only have one larger city ... since most rebellions will originate in the city where people congregate this makes it easier to set up spying and enforcement

The keys are that the people perceive a society where folks are allowed little freedoms and a good life but no major say so that they feel free even if they are not.

There will always be folks desiring more power or who just don't like the system and the other mechanisms are to find these folks and channel them into more helpful careers than rebel :)

[ruy343]

For the overall feel, you might read through Curse of Strahd to see how they put Strahd at the center of everything going on in this kingdom, much like how you want your Lich to be in your adventure. Everything points to him one way or another. Make the Lich or fear of the Lich constantly show up.

As for laws, you have two choices: if the lich is lawful evil (as suggested above), then he might have an overarching system of laws for his kingdom. If he's more chaotic, then individual settlements might have varying laws, perhaps serving as a contrast to one another in how they're ruled. Naturally, if a good-hearted ruler arises in a given settlement, your undead friend will make life difficult for him.

[Sigreid]

You're pretty much describing Latveria under the rule of Dr. Doom. 😁

[Slayn82]

The novel "the experimental log of the crazy lich" covers this situation quite a bit, although that Lich turns out to be good -ish. Its also a hilarious little story.

In order to prevent a certain disaster, a lich forfeits his position at the head of an army, just to create a place where several races coexist. He implemented a fairly modern body of laws, so those races would get integrated and on the future willing to fight along each other, and combine their respective strengths.

[ciarannihill]

I feel like a Lich might also had a pride thing in there about his ruling. Doesn't want people talking smack about his ability to rule people, so he keeps things running smoothly and "justly" to minimize trouble and make sure people don't besmirch his good name.



Anyways to answer your question, you have a good start, I would say look into the laws for Waterdeep that they detail in Dragon Heist if you have it. Take the laws they have, remove any you think a Lich wouldn't care for and then rework the punishments to work for this darker society.

[Resileaf]

If you want to add a dash of humor: A catch and release program for plucky adventurers who get big ideas.
Catch the adventurers who poke around trying to find a way to take down your rule, and kindly let them know that their actions are bothersome and will have consequences next time. Then teleport them to the other side of the world (Preferably after subtly putting a tracking spell on them that will alert the authorities if they show up too close to your kingdom again).

[Sigreid]

If you want to add a dash of humor: A catch and release program for plucky adventurers who get big ideas.
Catch the adventurers who poke around trying to find a way to take down your rule, and kindly let them know that their actions are bothersome and will have consequences next time. Then teleport them to the other side of the world (Preferably after subtly putting a tracking spell on them that will alert the authorities if they show up too close to your kingdom again).

Could be fun for the lich to show how much better his system is and try to recruit the players against their homeland. Could also be fun for the characters to lear the missing spies are just enjoying a better life in a fairer society.

[Damon_Tor]

You're pretty much describing Latveria under the rule of Dr. Doom. 😁

I came here to post this.

I suppose you need to establish why he even wants to rule a Kingdom. How does the nation and its resources benefit him? Very powerful spellcasters shouldn't want for much, not much that can be delivered by a medieval fiefdom anyway. You mentioned in his laws that he takes the souls of the executed. Why does he want them? What if there aren't enough souls to suit his purposes one year? Does he railroad people through the courts just to supply him with fodder for... for whatever he's up to? If so, the families of the executed and the soon-to-be executed would be a likely source of revolutionary thought.

Also, he's going to want to make sure no other upstart wizards and sorcerers become strong enough to oppose him, either by making sure they don't become strong enough or by making sure they can't oppose him. As such, magic use would have to be highly regulated, and anyone who uses magic would probably have to subject themselves to some kind of curse that prevents them from using their magic against the Lich, and that's if they can get themselves a license to use magic at all.

And of course he needs to be sure that any religion of any prominence in his Kingdom has no problem with an Undead monarch, because if that sort of dogma takes root there's another way for revolutionary thought to develop. Some sort of state-sponsored Lich cult makes the most sense, with a handful of other "harmless" religions being allowed, with others being expressly blacklisted. And of course Clerics would have to register their magic the same as anyone else.


Could be fun for the lich to show how much better his system is and try to recruit the players against their homeland. Could also be fun for the characters to lear the missing spies are just enjoying a better life in a fairer society.

That some good stuff right there.

[Blacky the Blackball]

One fun thing I've done in the past with a lich is that I had them create a Simulacrum before they did the ritual to become a lich. That way they've got a non-undead version of themselves as a trustworthy minion that they can use in diplomatic situations where showing up as a lich would cause problems.

[Darth Ultron]

Well, even with a lich lord, the government would have fairly ''standard' laws. After all, the only way you can have a society is with basic rights and protections for people. Plenty of ''normal human" places are ruled by people at least as bad as a lich....maybe worse.

But the Undead, does give some fun twists:

1.Death is not ''the end", and undead remain full citizens and keep their rights and stuff.

So this would have the average person plan to become undead when they die, in some way or another. It could also have the nice twist of the poor become ''undead wards of the state".

2.Crimes can be punished not just by ''death'', but also ''eternal slavery" as undead.

A big crime deterrent.

3.Ghosts/speak with the dead/talk to the undead would be common, so again you can ''keep someone quiet" just by killing them.

4.Undead slavery would be quite common, maybe even normal slavery.

5.Undead labor would create a much more at least 18th century life style...maybe even 20th.

For example a water pump house could have several undead skeletons, ghosts, or such to pump water out for the city. Or farm the fields. Or just about anything else.

[Sigreid]

Well, even with a lich lord, the government would have fairly ''standard' laws. After all, the only way you can have a society is with basic rights and protections for people. Plenty of ''normal human" places are ruled by people at least as bad as a lich....maybe worse.

But the Undead, does give some fun twists:

1.Death is not ''the end", and undead remain full citizens and keep their rights and stuff.

So this would have the average person plan to become undead when they die, in some way or another. It could also have the nice twist of the poor become ''undead wards of the state".

2.Crimes can be punished not just by ''death'', but also ''eternal slavery" as undead.

A big crime deterrent.

3.Ghosts/speak with the dead/talk to the undead would be common, so again you can ''keep someone quiet" just by killing them.

4.Undead slavery would be quite common, maybe even normal slavery.

5.Undead labor would create a much more at least 18th century life style...maybe even 20th.

For example a water pump house could have several undead skeletons, ghosts, or such to pump water out for the city. Or farm the fields. Or just about anything else.

Serious crimes would likely lead to you feeding the phylactory.

[ImproperJustice]

This same idea was explored heavily in a campaign in Heroes of Might and Magic 4.
The Lich there came to the realization that nothing united the rest of the world faster than a power mad Lich bent on world domination.

So he started an Undead Empire with living citizens with the intent of creating a prosperous nation, so he could persue his research unimpeded in the long term.
His empire would provide security and prosperity for its living citizens. His only requirement was that upon death, their remains would go to the labor and work force, or be held for research purposes.
He saw no reason to go to war, because hey, he’s immortal and all his foes will perish eventually. Same deal with trade negotiations. Juat wait until someone more open minded comes along, they always do......

It’s a fun n concept to run with and challenge the PCs over.