Satrap of Saturn

  lich & mummy I thought I'd gather a few notes on the development of two major undead across the editions, ended up with more than a few. I started with the 1e Monster Manual because I have it, and I don't know offhand where the lich began its textual unlife before that, but there is some ooky undercarriage to paw at, what with the phylactery being so prominent: that's the greek term for a major piece of Jewish ritual gear, the tefillin worn on head and arm in the daily prayers. So uh look forward to that.  Lich 1e  'A lich exists because of its own desires and the use of powerful and arcane magic. The lich passes from a state of humanity to a non-human, non-living existence through force of will.' [Nice and generic] 'It retains this status by certain conjurations, enchantments, and a phylactery.' 'most often encountered within its hidden chambers, in vast wilderness or vast underground labyrinth... solidly constructed, stone, very dark.' 't...

[the orange cat text infra is incomplete and perhaps inclines toward an account vaster and more significant than my desire and my faculties are capable of enclosing to my own satisfaction; we have decided to post the yearning embrace that may not be quite exactly, on the principle that it discloses secret and obscure matters we brooded over for years of childhood. years wherein we discovered a sovereign space, an orb of our own: our consciousness and immediate, undeniable senses.  Those were the last years of the cold war, hot as hell and horny on main to let those missiles fly and rain lasery hellfire from the strategic defense initiative satellites. churchy america kept mouthing the words that they feared God, the true Master of the Universe, but He-Man was a deadly terror to these people. They did not understand a world where they could declare their faith only to find defiance in every department store, a sexy body builder with a blasphemous challenge, and this was a world of m...