“A lich is a powerful undead sorcerer who possesses tremendous magical power.”
With that description out of the way, basically any undead that can use spells does qualify as a lich…with the only true distinction actually gived in game in some cases, its the philatery, but even liches themselves in wow in most cases we just kill them and thats it, its kinda rare when we actually have to deal with an filactery.
So if i use the mage covenant spell as an example… am i a lich? or not?
Lich turns itself into a lich with magic,
Undead skeleton mage is some dead mage.
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one of them is cool as hell
the other is just a scrawny nerd
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You pretty much explain the difference; a Lich will have their soul bound to a phylactery and are essentially immortal.
Skeletal mages are not and do not bind their souls to a phylactery.
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A lich is almost dead and hangs onto life by magical means. A skeletal mage is undead.
hmmm…so the maldraxxus mage covenant spell turns me into a lich then?
in theory, because also as i said…most liches we kill are dead dead, no philactery to be founded
If I had to guess liches are more powerful than the average skeletal mage. They also have phylacteries.
Like maybe the difference between an archmage and an ordinary mage in terms of power.
If we killed a Lich and did not find and destroyed their phylactery then that Lich isn’t actually dead.
With that in mind - what Liches are you referring to?
The answer is: a phylactery.
The most iconic difference in lore (both WoW and other settings/systems) is the phylactery that makes liches very hard to put down permanently - skeletal mages don’t have these.
This gets a bit muddy with our player characters since we can pop back to life unlimited times, but in terms of lore characters, only liches were able to pull this off previously.
mostly random liches that dont even got names.
Most liches in wow with philactery usually got a quest associated with their philactory.
But if you go to icecrown for example in these zones with a lot of undead random crap, there are some random liches there, something like that.
The idea here is that Lichs retain their minds and their powers as well as their individuality. The Phylactery I think should be brought up by blizz more often because it means most of the times we kill a Lich we haven’t actually done anything. They’ll come back shortly enough and return to what they were doing unless you deal with the Phylactery.
Skeletal mages are often without wills of their own though they may retain some of their personalities. This is not always the case. However they never have a phylactery and will die upon being destroyed. They do not come back.
Also Lich’s are supposed to be immensely more powerful than the average Skeletal Mage.
interesting, so you´re saying a lich compared to an undead skeleton its similar in comparison with like a forsaken undead and a mindless zombie?
Also liches get to float around and have those weird tusk things, even if they’re human liches and not orc liches.
Skeleton mages are lame and are just magic-y skeletons.
I would draw a chad lich and virgin skeleton mage, but I am lazy.
Eh, in a way.
I don’t think thats quite exactly right but its close enough.
Liches are generally more powerful and unless their Phylactery is destroyed immortal, as well as having freewill and their old personalities… (often twisted towards evil though).
Skeletal Mages are usually raised as minions, sometimes with personalities, and only rarely with wills of their own. Once they’re defeated they are done as well as they have no phylactery to regenerate them.
EDIT: I should also note in WoW the Lich King can exert extreme will upon most undead, especially if he raised them. Liches are not immune to this.