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Most of this information comes from the Deathbane Clan of
dwarves, who have been cataloging and studying undead in every form for
three hundred years. Since liches have been extinct for several centuries,
a fair portion of the dwarves’ knowledge comes from historical accounts of
the races of the Kyriss Region and folklore of the black magic of the
Sisterhood of the Skyrmm (Witches).
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Back when the humanoids of the Kyriss were still little more than
tribes of barbarians whose technology was limited to wooden weapons and
fur clothes, magic was practically unheard of. Those few who possessed it
were priest-like; orc shamans, goblin witch-doctors, giant seers, human
oracles. This magic was gods-given, not the man-made thaumaturgical sort.
The powers the clerics wielded were generally subtle and generalized, but
practical; create water and cure light wounds were some of the most
advanced powers most tribes would ever see. Over the ages, these priests
were granted more potent spells in the pursuit of their gods’ goals, and
magic became common by the time metal weapons did.
Sages speculate that the Sisterhood of the Skyrmm arose at this time. From
ancient oral folklore, it is known that the “Skyrmm” was an evil entity of
some nature. While in the past credited with being a dragon, modern sages
concur that it was most likely a being from an Outer Plane, either having
been summoned or having wandered onto the Prime Material Plane by mistake.
The Skyrmm attracted a small cult of humans to it, and these humans fell
under its influence either by choice or through the being’s manipulations.
The followers called the being “T’ Hari Zdun”, meaning roughly “Great Dark
One”. From the Skyrmm, this matriarchal society learned what sages think
was the origin of “true” magic, spells not granted by a deity but rather
created by the caster herself.
This magic was not cast by invoking prayers and sacrifices to gods, but by
speaking True Words. “Words” in this sense were not noises of language,
common communication, but rather vocal entities that actually existed by
themselves. Speaking a Word actually brought the properties of that Word
into being. (For instance, uttering the True Word for “fire” would cause
flames to simply erupt, to come into existence from nothingness.) There
were True Words for many things; Words that brought forth primal essences,
and Words whose essences controlled, guided, or altered other essences.
It’s from these beginnings that modern spell somatic components originate,
and that’s why spell-casting words may only be spoken with effect by those
who study their powers. These are not ordinary speech sounds, but dynamic
bits of the multiverse. (In the writings of the archmage Mordenkainen,
spell-casting syllables are referred to as “the true building blocks of
the cosmos, which all things are mere reflections of”.) Knowledge of these
True Words barely exists today, and only in the form of the few high-level
Power Word spells known.
[The fact that many Outer Planar beings (demons, devils, daemons, and the
like) have a “True Name”, and that even the most powerful beings can be
summoned and controlled by one who knows their Name, lends credence to the
theory that the Skyrmm was indeed extra-planar in origin. The Skyrmm would
thus be familiar with this concept.]
With the guidance of their sinister patron, the female magic users
became powerful and feared throughout the Kyriss. They were known as
weythkes (pronounced “witches” in Cerythian). They developed magic that
could literally reshape the earth, control beasts and nature, and even
tear the fabric of reality. [One theory postulates that this was the
Skyrmm’s idea the whole time; at the height of their power, the Witches’
learning curve practically stopped dead. There is no mention of the Skyrmm
as a physical presence after this time period, but it becomes more of a
legendary or philosophical totem for the tribe. Perhaps the Skyrmm taught
the sorceresses just enough to open a gate back to its own plane for it,
then exited our world, leaving its devoted students behind.]
During the centuries practicing the arts of necromancy, the witches
elevated the power mortals held over the dead considerably. Before the
Sisterhood, communication with the dead was possible through auguries or
communion by the high shamans of certain races, but during the witches’
rise, zombies and skeletons from deceased beings were created and
subjugated. After a few decades, more powerful undead were mastered
(created?) by the Sisterhood, and abominations such as ghouls, ghasts,
wights, and their ilk became dangerously common in the countryside as
necromantic spell residue crept into the land and cultures.
The culmination of this mastery over death came in the form of a being
known as an aulyckhe, an Old Kalimarin term loosely meaning “battle dead”.
This was a person who was mortally wounded, but had not yet died. There
was no hope of saving them, so they were simply left in the moribund state
until they expired. This term eventually became lich in the more common
Plains Dialect, and today the word is no longer even used except by the
more reclusive foothills clans of Kalimarin humans.
The Witches were asked to grant a form of zombiedom to a barbarian
chieftain who wished to remain alive eternally, for he didn’t believe that
anyone could rule his people as well as he. For years the Witches worked,
under the tutelage of the Skyrmm. (It was during this time that the undead
known as Zombie Lords were created, most likely from the enemy chiefs
captured by the barbarian for the Witches to experiment on while they
researched his own immortality process.) Finally a horrific method was
discovered to transform even a living person into a sentient, self-willed,
powerful undead whose connection to the Negative Material Plane was
controlled so that they were not destroyed, mentally or physically, in the
process. Unfortunately, the process was mostly magical, and thus could
only be undertaken by the most skilled and powerful magic users. (Even
then, the success rate was dauntingly slim...)
In the history of Penderyn, there were perhaps twenty liches of note.
Mostly, due to association with the Witches and the sheer nature of the
process, these creatures were of evil dispositions, or at least neutrally
self-absorbed. (But not always.) Every known lich has long since
disappeared or was eventually destroyed, and with the last went the secret
knowledge of the transformation.
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