One thing I rarely see in fantasy games is clerical lichs, which is odd since evil clerics have more power over the undead than magic-users tend to. One source for potentially awesome clerical lichs that fits well with the general anti-Catholicism of the Gothic is the idea of corrupt popes. Wikipedia happens to have a list of Sexual Active Popes right here that is chock full of interesting fellows ready for lichdom. Check out John XII, Benedict IX, and (of course) Alexander VI for inspiration.
Also worth looking at: antipopes.
BEFORE
(art by Andres Serrano)
AFTER
(art by Jean-Jacques Grandville)
The Cadaver Synod should be right up your street then....
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was surprisingly spoiled for choice when it came time to pick images for this post.
DeleteAlexander VI had parties where who ever copulated the most won a prize - i think he has several entries in book of lists under sex
ReplyDeleteone of worlds oldest bank accounts is for illegitimate archbishops kids
you'll see Alexander with his antichrist hat hiding under bridges in a few paintings - did wonders for anti church sentiment
i think that might be him first panel hiding
http://www.thedialecticalplaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/hieronymus_jerome_bosch_sculpture_picture_5.jpg
Yeah, they mention those bank accounts in Defoe's Roxana even!
DeleteYeah, thought of Laurens' painting immediately on seeing this post's title. Crop out the pointing guy and you have a great image of a lich with his press secretary.
ReplyDeletehttp://pharyngula.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cadaver_Synod.png
Lichetary.
DeletePress Secretary to a Lich - hahaha, at last a use for Alistair Campbell
ReplyDeleteI've been leaning toward that idea for an upcoming campaign -- the Lich archvillain's chief henchman is a bard who sings of the Lich's deeds of conquest and cruelty. The bard's not exactly "evil" himself, just overawed. He's partly inspired by Dennis Hopper's photographer character in Apocalypse Now.
DeleteHahaha...I could work with that, actually.
ReplyDeleteAs the cover of my first D&D trapper-keeper proudly exclaimed in black sharpie, "Liches is Bitches".
ReplyDeleteThat needs to be a tattoo.
DeletePope Benedict IX's ultimate fate is obscure to history. The truth is that he is still with us to this day, haunting the catacombs beneath Rome. Nearly a thousand years ago he sold the Papacy three times so he could raise money for the materials to become a lich!
ReplyDeleteSo that's how you get the money for the material components...
DeleteOkay, I'm not quite sure what happened with that post...
ReplyDelete