Why do necromancers aspire to become liches? A Lich seems to me to be nothing more than an ugly zombie with magic...am I missing some other hidden benefits of being a Lich here?

The chance to dance on your friends' graves and wallow in your own misery afterward.

Eternal life and a ton of power. Every megolomaniac's dream...

They have cheap life insurance and a complete dental plan. I also know somebody who runs a dating service so that they can hook up with hot necrophiliacs in their neighborhood.

R...really? Can you give me that dating service number man?

Lichs also get oh, so cool generic brown robes.

Honestly, that just seems to me like a dumb thing to do. I'd rather just do what the Telvanni do: do smaller crap that extends your life.

C'mon! There are any number of good ways to make prosthetic bodies that arent "Ugly", and a lich has all eternity to experiment with what rubber covering to use.

Hmm, good point... becoming a lich sounds more and more like a good idea...

Its basically the same thing, except instead of having your skin rot, your sanity does instead.

I think its just easier to bind your soul to a suit of armor or something. Basically, Lichs do the same thing except instead of binding their soul to a suit of armor they bind it to their own body. The body dies, but their soul lives on. Its really gross, and binding it to armor, or and axe or a Dwemer robot seems much easier and cooler.

There is more to death than beauty?

Yes. There is power! There is power of life and death itself! Heh hah! Heh hah hah! HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!!


I would make suuuuuch a good Necromancer... ^_^

Ahh yes..power..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7eIUo4RC_I ahahahaha errr, minutes...unlimited minutes...

Can lich's unbind them selfs? say they wanted a new body, could they bind their soul to another, younger and not so much of a rotting body? or are they stuck with the same one forever.

Seems plausible. There may be a few more... strings attached, of course...

I thought the sanity thing was more subjective, i.e., it had nothing to do with the magic but with the person. I know Aryon is a good deal younger than the other councilors but I'm sure he's dabbled in the same thing. Also, check Fyr; he could be OLDER than the current councilors, but he seems more on the ball than them. But he used to be a Psijic, so that could have a bit to do with his sanity retention.

In D&D (the place where the Lich was invented) it is a permanent transformation. I believe it is stated in Oblivion during a DB quest that it is permanent in TES too.

That's why it baffles me wy anyone would chose their own body as a host. Why not a shiny set of armor? Or perhaps a giant Dwemer robot?

Armor rusts and breaks. It also gets stolen.

Dwemer robots rust, break, short-out, degrade, and have a myriad of other problems.

Bah! Those liches arent thinking grand enough. If i wanted immortality, i sure wouldnt use such an... unrefined, disgusting way. Umaril had the right idea. Became a Daedra. Bound forever to the Waters of Oblivion. Reborn as much as he wanted. Controlls aurorans. Only combined power of 9 divines could topple him. Even then, it's questionable. Also, if we're getting into the subject of immortality and binding your soul to something, why not boind it to some artifact, bury it somewhere where NOBODY will ever find it, then wander as a ghost posessing people and living out their lives? That way you wont be a social paraih (i mean, come on, really. What reaction will the guards have to a lich trying to buy a beer at Olav's tap and tackle?)

Doppleganging also seems another option instead of posession.

Liches arent imaginative enough.

I kinda support the Full Metal Alchemist-esque armor-binding method. I'm not too sure Mortazo means binding to something like an axe or other object that can't technically move. You might as well kill yourself.

I'd probably bind myself to a coat jacket and scare the hell out of people passing me by on the coatrack, like Peter Griffin did when he donated his body to science in that classroom.

Maybe he means sentient weapon style? As in, someone picks up the weapon, you posess them, and become them? Body's life runs out, you hand the weapon to another mortal, and posess him, etc.

The sanity of alien immortals is frail enough. There's no place like home.

Sounds like Umbra.

Not exactly, their bound to a phylactory (glorified soul gem) which possess the body and turns it into the Lich. If said body is destroyed, the Phylactory can simply be placed in a new body, and the lich has a body again.

Liches in Elderscrolls do seem to die though after their body is destroyed, there's no magic gem that drops, nor do any seem to come back.

There's a book to be found in a DB quest that explains this. The phylactory is only needed during the transformation process, but afterwards it is useless.

Unless you're not quite sure where home is.

I'm talking about your own body, of course.

Ah, well in that case...I think placing yourself in New Sheoth would be easier.