is the blood supposed to be interpreted in a magical way, or like literally, i mean does the an heir inherit the blood itself or do they mainting their own bloodline? like does the higharc, once they pass on the body of the great great great grandson, lose a bit of their grip on like their own child, because the generation has advanced but on the opposite way?
Or here's a twist on your twist. The Hierarch doesn't tell his family that he inhabits the new body but instead tells them that he IS going to die and that he can pass down the strength of the lineage to an heir. They have done this several times and they don't understand the heir is the old Hierarch in a new body. Throughout the campaign you meet the family and they all want to become the heir not realizing it means having your body taken over.
That is utterly devious, and I love it. I can also some Hierarchs legitimately doing this, tuning the Heir into the new Hierarch, at the cost of their life. I'd also imagine ritual to do this would be far easier
Twist on a twist on a twist. An heir is chosen but a non-heir family member succeeds in killing the heirarch mucking the whole thing up and forcing the heir to start over!
have you ever watched ‘The 100’? there was an arc where some family was doing just that. they would choose certain people to ‘ascend’ to a higher station or elite position. but what they were doing in the ritual was uploading their minds to the new, younger body. the new person had no idea and their personality was wiped, so no one ever knew (except for the elite).
A few days ago, I was actually thinking, "What if we had 2 liches each make the other lich their phylactery?" And then this comes out. Imagine if 2 Hierarch families got married...
The child of one of these families would be incredibly powerful, I imagine. They would be the perfect Heir for one of the Hierarchs. Which one, tho? >:3c
The half-blooded double-heir might have the competing wills of both Hierarchs rend their mind or perhaps even give them autonomy because the influences neutralize each other. This is such a cool idea
Well here's the thing When a lich dies, their body gets destroyed, which kills the second lich, which destroys that liches body, which kills the first lich Basically it's a bad idea
Having a Talking skull being the comedic relief in every story, trying to make one character powerful and having its own arc of letting lichens go…Amazing
@@WishBone-ht2mx Maybe....or the Ranger's skull/upper body riding atop their companion. A humanoid torso jutting out from a skeletal bear's spine would look sick.
This is such a freaky villain!!! I love the idea of family bloodlines as intergenerational trauma is part of my interests. Echoing reality through fiction makes a story so compelling.
The artificer could make a magical suit of armor which keeps them alive, but the suit is powered by a rare element.... wait, this is just iron man. DAMN!
Something I realized on my... fourth(?) watch of the proposed Hierarch arcs; at 13:22, the child dead center has a gleam in their eye that outstrips everyone else's by FAR. Since the gleam and eyes seem to crop up during that segment as Hierarch bloodline markers, I believe that this child specifically is their bloodline's Heir. He doesn't even look like he's hit his teens yet, but his expression implies he already knows what's waiting for him.
You and your party have fought through countless members of the royal bloodline. From what you have seen, it has already become clear that the Undying Lord must be stopped before massive war can break out across entire nations. And you are now at the door of the final phylactery. The final heir to the throne. You all had come this far, and at this point, there was no turning back You bust down the door expecting a fight. There is none. You and the party find themselves in a child's bedroom outfitted with a fancy bed and a bookshelf full of literature. A single young boy, not even in his teens, stares out the window, watching the carnival that is playing in the streets a few blocks from here. A minute passes and he turns around to see you but is not surprised by your presence. He asks if you had come to kill him like the others? He had been raised from birth sheltered, as the Undying Lord's heir and had been forced to train for the day when he would house his grandfather, the hierarch himself. He was never given a chance at a proper childhood. He tells that he is aware of what you have been doing. He is aware of the damage his grandfather poses to the world. And he is very aware of the fate that's been prepared for him. With a smile on his face and a crushed look in his eye devoid of hope, he tells you that ever since he heard about the recent death of his relatives at the hand of a band of adventurers, he knew at some point, he would be next. Yet despite it all, he does not hate you. He does not blame you for trying to stop people from getting hurt. He just wished that he had been born under better circumstances. Perhaps if he was not born into royalty. If he was like one of the commoners below.... He bows his head, closes his eyes, his hands tremble slightly with fear and tells you to please make it swift. The faint sounds of the carnival and youthful laughter play from the outside in twisted irony
Imagine having to hunt down the last phylactery and its a baby. This is such an incredible piece of writing. Brilliant crafting. I look forward to the rest of the series
Funnily enough, that was the plan for a lich villain in a campaign...the twist being the baby grew up and is now hunting down the lich Oh and for extra "fucked up" points, the lich and baby were father and son, that's right, the lich turned their own child into a phylactery
I love the idea of a character that is a member of the family during the time of the selection for an heir, but they aren’t seen as strong enough to take the mantle. Their sibling who they were close to in childhood gets picked, and the pc runs away in shame. Now, years later, they learn of the ritual and return to confront their family and save their sibling, who’s been manipulated by the Hierarch’s influence and are close to achieving their full power. The drama potential is insane
That sounds interesting. The chosen sibling could become super devoted to the family over the years, maby even being willing to let themselfs get sacraficed for the good of the family, whily the pc is desperatly traing to save them and get it through there scull that its not worth throwing there life away for that. They see the pc as a weakling and a descrace to there family, but after the pc proves there worth and beats there sibling, the head of the family goes "You are now my hair", and doesnt give a shit about the sibling despite them giving there life and soul for the family Kinda help prove the point that they are all just powns for the higharch to use
I'm enjoying how they also play with the concept of living phylacteries. Both require living people to maintain their immortality, which feels like a very natural integration of the "you must actively maintain your undeath" rule.
I wonder what would happen if for some reason two families with Hierarchs would intertwine and someone bearing the blood of the two was born (and was close enough to be "pupeteered" by them). Like they don't know about it, but the poor character that was born like this was made full aware pretty early on and has to wrestle with his concious and two different orders. Or maybe two Hierarchs decide to posses their body at the same time. Or they fall in love...
Just thought of a story about a Hierarch not wanting to get an heir, but the entire family trying to force it on them out of fear their bloodline sorcerer powers will get taken away if the heir dies... Can be quite an interesting story, and even a PC with some tweeks
This sounds like a great alternate version where the hierarch is sort of the victim. If each hier becomes a new unwilling hierarch functioning as the source of power for their family (whom they do not control), and isn't the same soul possessing each hier... Cool alternate hierarch imo.
Imagine if there was a side quest in a campaign to help a benevolent sorcerer become a heirarch for an overall good reason, and then after that campaign ends they live long enough to see themselves become the villain of a future campaign.
Reminds me of in Order of the Stick when Vaarsuvius cast a spell meant to kill a dragon and all of its offspring...not realizing that the dragon was very, very ancient and had had many, many generations of disguising itself as a human and having hookups. Ended up killing something like a 3rd of the entire plane's population with the one spell.
A twist I’m thinking for the Heir is that they become a trimming, like some trees, and therefore only the descendants of the heir continue to be considered the “bloodline.” It could lead to stories with branches of the family regaining their free will and swearing vengeance for what the Hierarch did to them, maybe forming a group solely to take the Hierarch down
I like the idea of a Divine Soul Sorcerer Hierarch. Seen at their peak as a direct envoy to the gods, they convinced an entire church to keep them alive, creating a band of fanatics focused on their needs. Having the "divine blood" in your veins is seen within their ranks as an honor, and the greatest end you can have is to become the new vessel of the Hierarch!
I can think of one villainous twist for these Hierarchs that would make them seem that bit more malevolent, and that'd be for the Hierarchs to get their descendants to practice incest in the Hierarch's attempt at keeping their bloodline pure, thus keeping the Hierarch's ability to control their descendants all the more absolute. However, I could also see how generations of incest could cause the Hierarch's plan to backfire in the long run, as the Hierarch's bloodline would eventually be fated to die out from all this inbreeding.
maybe a little bit of a wierd idea but imagine a non-magical lich type charater like a lich barbarian with a rage so intense it keeps them alive or a monk so tranquil that he lives longer
I got you boss. Odr, the incarnation of madness: an Odr or òōr is Great barbarian warrior a true berserker of unbelievable strength struck down in the middle of an incomparable rage while covered in the blood and guts of at least 500 enemies, his bloody rampage lead to an otherwise impossible victory, and as such his soul was blessed and chosen for the high tables of Valhalla yet his rage was so unyielding that his soul alone struck down to Valkyries sent to take him to his just reward. blinded by rage and incomparable bloodlust he bathed in the blood of the divine and with it gained the ability to stay in the world of the mortal, The spilling of blood calls for him, The clashing of blade and the cutting of flesh are his hollowed bells, For when war rages and The blood floods the land, The Odr Shall again walk the fields of combat, from the blood of thousands a body will be born, a monstrous humanoid form standing many meters tall made of not but the life liquid of those who have fallen, from shattered weapons it's great battle Axes shall are formed, from blood it is born and in blood it will bathe, rage blood war madness. How to destroy? You must destroy The Divine blood that covers it's soul. Buddha: The last breath of the monk came as all others before it, in tranquility and in peace, 100 years had the monk meditated for, in 100 years it had not had a drop of water or an ounce of food, in 100 years it had not sleept for a second, in 100 years the monk had not stopped meditating, In this 100 years he had ignored hunger thirst pain and all other emotions in his pursuit of true enlightenment, And now as his last breath left him as his life came to an end .....he found it. Divine robes made of light, An old face of absolute tranquility and transcendent flesh ethereal and yet real, where the Monk's skeletal corpse once sat an immortal Buddha now stands, an incarnation of peace tranquility and prowess, be it Marshall or philosophical, his words the teachings of a true sage, his hands The devastating weapons of a marshal Lord. How to destroy? The Buddhas phylactery is the Bones inside it's body, beware a Buddha's Divine body can rapidly regenerate itself and the skills the Buddha developed and learned while being alive have not only been retained but have improved explosively, a Buddha is also usually The teacher and guide for entire monk sects, every single monk in the sect will gladly sacrifice themselves to protect the Buddha not because of some underhanded means by the Buddha but because the Buddha is so highly respected that to attack one is considered The single most evil action anyone can carry out, Even enemy sects will never under any circumstance attack a Buddha.
Another cool thing to think about is how you’d go about freeing the Hierarch’s descendants without just genociding the whole family - that would be a really interesting application of the spell “reincarnate!” Since a sorcerer’s power is bound to their blood and not their soul, maybe the souls of their descendants can be freed and given new bodies before their original ones are destroyed.
Imagine if a Draconic bloodline sorcerer became one of these against the wishes of the dragon that started the line. Eventually our bbeg would defeat its ancestor, enslaving the dragon with the intent to siphon its power for the line and maybe find a way to take over the dragon's body at some point. Have the dragon be a truly good dragon (bonus points if its a chromatic that turned good) and one could pull the heartstrings by having the final task being to kill this dragon, one time where there is no glory in killing a dragon,just a necessary evil to kill the wayward sorcerer it spawned. The dragon could be just laying down for a mercy kill or it could be forced to fight the party,begging them to end its suffering the whole time. If the dragon already has some connections with the party this could be quite the emotional moment.
This was awesome!!! Can't help but think of future possibilities! - Barbarian; A warrior of fierce ancestral experience who, when they rage, erupt into a flaming, skeletal beast (Essentially Ghost rider) - Druid; A sprig born from an elder tree as natures bastion against mankind for its wrong doings! - Paladin; A hero burdened with an endless duty to protect, serve, and slay those who defy its Deities/Masters will!
I think it is a bit weird for non spellcasters to become liches. It's not impossible but it's not something they should be able to do on their own. You can make it happen by getting help from others, ancient rituals, magic items but from that point it's similar, they need to keep fueling the undeath. They may be even more desperate in their methods because they have no control over this magic and no understanding of the process. The druid sounds really good though. Druids get extremely long lifespans anyway, it is easy to see one go even further in the name of their sacred duty, infusing themselves with elder trees, spirits, fey magic or even learning how to control their body like immortal jellyfish.
The external sources of power classes all have basically the same answer with different flavors. Its all the god or forces of nature they serve or draw on keeping them around or incorporating them in a way that grants them Lich-like qualities.
Now my creative juices are flowing but I got an issue: one thing you shouldn't forget is that becoming a lich is a perversion of nature or order, going against the way of things. So: - Honestly that just sounds like a cool barbarian path rather than a lich... Lich barbarian is more like a warrior constantly craving war to the point that even death couldn't keep it down, a legendary figure on battlefields. That might as well be their phylactery, their legend keeping them alive. Of course this needs them to have a legendary feat on the battlefield and the usual prep to become a lich and then being slain in combat. - Druid lich shouldn't be born with power, rather a druid that decided to steal power from nature, even if it's in order to protect it. It could be that the source of power is blood, and the druid do not need to harm nature and a great tree or even the forest itself is the phylactery. But the point is a lich isn't born with their power. They take it. - A paladin bound by their god is a weird case honestly, and that basically just feels like a more religious version of the normal lich, instead of a warlock patron giving you the secretes it's your god. And they have to be okay with you being undead, or at least tolerate it. Now my own ideas: - How about an Artificer who bound their soul to the machine. Que Warhammer Mechanicus speech. Can range from basically just an android to full on body horror abandoning the "inefficient" human form. Especially fun if the players have a warforge, since they are already a constant source of angst about whether they have a soul or not. Now imagine a machine with a genuine soul thrust in front of them. - A Monk who self embalms as the ritual. (Yeah, there are real monks IRL who did this btw, check Buddhist mummies) Not sure how to put a "lichy" spin on the rest of the points, maybe they become basically a ki vampire targeting martial artists, possibly permanently (or until killed) stealing their power.
@@andrewdowns3673 Basically an undead natural disaster, trailing destruction behind them like a storm not out of intent but just as a byproduct of their very existence. I like it!
@@andrewdowns3673 That's actually a pretty cool idea! Something like a split-identity character comes to mind for me. Someone who manipulates their kingdom into constant wars, either from behind the scenes or directly as someone in a place of political power perhaps? But the real reason for all their machinations is to constantly force a fight that they can, inherently, be in the center of.
"You heard those stories of bards sleeping with dragons? Yeah my grandpa decided to sleep with a lich and now i look like i was born in hot topic" -my new sorcerer
oh my god, this is an incredible idea! I love the idea of the ancient lich being protected by their massive league of descendants, born into powerful sorcery, and having to go through their entire bloodline to do so. I would say that it's even cooler than just a wizard with a special soul box, the power of the super-grandpa and their children is way more terrifying I love how you'd have to fight through the entire family of different sorcerer's to get to the head
Now this is an excellent lich, I can see one being born from a mighty blue dragon who left the desire to create the most extraordinary spell in all existence within their favourite descendant and so the Hierarch built this magic school where most of the teachers are of this family and groom the students that show promise to marry one of the teachers and thus create strong successors for the Hierarch to inhabit while the lich himself mostly stays in his study working on this spell.
I can just see a Hierarch using their youngest descendants as meat shields when they get attacked, so the adventurers have to choose not to kill any kids and face a stronger hierarch, or kill the kids and face a weaker hierarch, but with the weight of the young blood on their hands.
I actually played with this concept early in my campaign. There's a divine vestige who goes my *too many names*, but his Voldemort Name is Adonai. (Because he knows when you say his name tho, the party calls him the DA, short for "Divine Arsehole"). The party first found him trying to "make an heir" out of a young Elvish shrine maiden, after attacking and defiling the temple. The party weakened him to the point the eldritch patron of the temple could intervene, but that meant that somewhere out there, a baby died just to bring him back. However, the DA also has a few servants called the Kelet-hyele, who are angelic succubi golems, that seek out noblemen of various races to seduce and take the seed of. Any child born to a Kelet matches the race of the father, but becomes a Phylactery-Horcrux of Adonai. If he dies, he replaces one of his heirs, even if they haven't been born yet. One such heir was sired by the High Elvish Prince-Regent. The DA killed the High King and placed the prince under a Geas so that the fallen god could go after the princess, taking control of the entire kingdom and getting two backup plans out of the deal, should things go south. Luckily, the party got in the way after finding the escaped princess, captured and being returned to the castle. The fight was quite epic, the dragonborn Cleric-Barbarian used a Cape of the Mountbank to teleport him and the Bard-lock to the DA's face, so he could use the Kenku as a boxing glove with a prepared 5th-level Thunderwave, and the DA failed his save and went flying. Dragonborn was actually lucky, coz I gave the DA a custom spell that temporarily breaks the target's connections to any divines, which would have nulled his Cleric spells and abilities, and he succeeded the high DC Saving Throw. Nobody knows where the DA is now, but the party is on high alert for his next move. We found the Kelet who seduced the king and got some information out of her before her lifespan gave out, the last we heard of him, he launched an assault on the Goddess of Magic herself, but was defeated by her champions. And he's not even the ultimate BBEG in this campaign.
I love the thought of this and how you added sorta a Japanese twist on the last version of it. I really think that having family drama is my favorite. Like the tension between the pc and a sibling who doesn't understand how cursed being the golden child is. Or is a protective older brother who has been sent to find her not knowing he's going to turn her in to basically die. I love it
I want to make a sorcerer based off this now. The little sibling of a hierarch heir, someone ostracized for their weak magical powers but that same weakness is what allows them to fight against his ancestor.
Could be a sort of reversal of the power dynamic. Like the warlock has to deceive (such tricking the patron into possessing them only to find out it's a one way trip) or force the patron into being "swallowed" by the warlock. The warlock needs to work the ensure it's patron cannot escape.
Another thing that could easily be done is make one of the players be a descendant of the hierarch or something. It can go multiple ways, the crew member sacrifices himself to end the hierarchs life because he is the only descendant left or something. You could also make him the only family member that didnt get sorcerer powers and make him kill the hierarch, you could also make up a ritual to cleanse his blood of magic. There are many possibilities that could develop from this type of leech. I really like it.
Please get this video more views everyone, I NEED more DND classes as their Lich counterparts, this series can be so amazing don't sleep on it for the love of life, I will put all your souls in a magic Tupperware if this fails
I love this series! This is so creative and quite frankly needed in the D&D lore. Liches are one of the OG BBEGs (BBOG) and they always make for epic final bosses. So far, we have: Wizards - Liches Clerics - Mummy Lords Bards - Intoners Sorcerers - Hierarchs Now we're just missing Druid, Paladins, Rangers, Warlocks and Artificers I can even see martial subclasses that gain magic having the ability to become a lich. Imagine an Eldricht Knight that binds his soul to his weapon becoming a cursed blade that possesses those who wields it. Or an Arcane Trickster becoming a mischievous ghost-like being. I can even see the Barbarian with the Path of Wild Magic becoming a lich: A being fueled by the rage of their ancestors and their inherent chaotic magic, having to consume magic items and hunt down magic users for their magic for sustenance. Personally, I'm most excited for Druids. I'm extremely curious how they would turn out in lichdom considering undeath is an anathema to the natural order.
There's a GLoG class called the "demon blade" that's similar to the Eldritch Knight concept in your comment. One origin for it is a Fighter that essentially bound their soul to their favoured weapon, and they live on as long as the weapon does. They don't need sustenance, but lying unused on an empty battlefield is boring, and they can consume the souls of creatures they kill for power. They can possess unwilling hosts but they're stronger with a willing "chariot." 5e Eldritch Knights already have their "weapon bond" feature, so they're set up perfectly for an ability like this!
I can't wait to see your Druidic Lich. There's so many incredible ways to take that. Like an incredibly ancient sage that is feeding off of the cycle of death and rebirth, and has like packs of undead elk and forest creatures just living in deathly harmony in their ancient forest, completely overgrown and untouched for centuries.
Totally agree, though wondering how a druid (who is completely opposed to unnatural creatures such as undead ones) will justify becoming a lich. I feel their phylactery will almost definitely be an area of nature like a forest.
High-level druids already gain elongated lives. Maybe it can be a corruption of that. I imagine the long lives of druids involve binding their soul to something long lived, like a tree or fungal colony. What if a younger druid who hasn't quite learned things like 'scale' or 'patience' happens to get their hands on this ritual, let's say from a suspiciously knowledgeable old lady. They get the longevity, but the tree doesn't come out as healthy as it should; it starts to prematurely wither. The druid tries to keep it alive, but their own power is never enough. Soon enough, you have a paranoid nutcase driving an army of blights across the land, draining all life in order to feed his own.
Boom! Real world records show monks mummifying themselves to reach nirvana through meditation. Druids already lengthening life through natire/purity, but trade off from no phylactraphy is weaker physical states ie no resurrection after physical destruction
Was thinking he would just have a harem to keep “refreshing” his bloodlines. Could see a party having to save a woman chosen as sacrificial maiden to him
I love this concept so much! Wizard turns to regular Lich, Bard turns into Intoner, Sorcerer turns into the Heriarch! Can’t wait for the Druid variant of a lich and have them be the generals for a Vecna campaign and it be perfect!
Love the idea. I also can't stop thinking of a pair of good Sorcerers from different bloodlines who happen to be lovers going for this together and regularly reconnecting their bloodlines to keep them both strong enough to not have to possess any of their descendants. Maybe they are even somewhat open about what they are, but either way, the adventure is riddled with red herrings that make it look like these two are the overarching villains, while they are actually the biggest supporters of the party. Maybe one of them is even the descendant of the actual big bad, another Hierarch, and actively trying to capture and imprison that one in a way that they don't have to sacrifice themselves.
It's a nice idea but it's basically inbreeding and I can see many players not feeling comfortable with it or not seeing them as good guys. Definitely ask your players first before introducing something like this.
@@_Ve_98 I was thinking every five to ten generations at the minimum, or as close to the point where they turn into Figure Heads as possible. And with an expansive, branching and ever-expanding family, so there's always new blood added to the lineage as well. Not one family with two branches constantly intermarrying with their first cousins. But yes, probably something the GM should make sure the players are comfortable with. Though, retooling them from big goods to yes, actually big bads posing as big goods shouldn't be too hard for an experienced GM. That certainly wouldn't be the first campaign that was derailed by the players in the history of D&D.
I also tried to make Lich equivalent of other classes but the sorcerer has always eluded me and I love how you created it! I'm just gonna spitball the other ideas I had on the subject here, maybe they can give you inspiration. I'd love to see someone more competent than me create them properly. Artificier: Soul Receptacle. Basically a giant robot made to house the soul of the dead artificier or someone close to them. The robot itself would be the philactery and the maintenance cost is that the robot's fuel is... people's souls. I also thought that it would be fun if the "soul fuel tank" sometimes leaked into the receptacle itself giving un-life to an amalgamation of confused souls in a giant killer robot. Bard: Socialich. Enough said. Cleric: technically the Mummy Lord is a cleric Lich, we just have to make it less connected to ancient Egypt. Druid: a being that keeps un-living by leeching the life from the nature around them. Monk: Ki Scourge. This monk has to hunt down and kill other powerful monks to cling to their un-life. They use all of their ki to stay alive and as such they actually block ki from being used around them. Paladin: Death Knights are already Lich Paladins, just make them more powerful
I thought of a Hexbalde Warlock Patron once and it's bassicaly the artificer lich. He was this inventor who turned their mind into energy and became a giant flying robo-squid with flashligth eyes who'd send drones from it's mouth and could turn their arms into deadly weapons, or turning them into wires to transport his energy to whatever their wires were connected to (this makes them able to take over entire factories in the blink of an eye)
I always thought since Circle of Spore was the Necromancer subclass for Druids that a liche for Druids would involve giving up their body to their fungus, though this can involve many trial and error rituals of feeding body parts to some fungus to see if an appropriate reaction occurs. A circle of spores druid that’s suddenly missing a hand draws suspicion to their plans. When a positive reaction occurs, the druid will then give its full body and soul over to the fungus, making their body the first bit of fuel to power the fungus as a phylactery. This fungus colony can then even be split and spread to other locations to act as secondary phylacteries. The setback is that now that the fungus is acting as a phylactery, normal rot can only sustain it for so long and the body of a dying but still living (maybe) intelligent being is needed to keep each colony alive (hence, the more you spread them, the more sacrifices you will need as well). Due to the wicked nature of these fungi, even average circle of spore Druids look down on this extent of necromancy and will be wary of locations known for their extravagant fungi, knowing what wickedness may have led to such.
The Artificer Lich is basically just "mind-uploading." Seeing a mind-uploaded character in DnD would be interesting change of pace from the sci-fi settings that you'd expect to see them. The lack of an internet would severely limit what they'd gain from doing this, but they could probably make up for that with actual magic.
Bro the Hierarch is so cool, it honestly kind of feels like A Bhaalspawn situation (Although very different) Bhaal is obviously the Hierarch and in baldurs gate 3 especially The dark urge is similarly on the path of an Heir to a Hierarch, Bhaal pampers you with gifts, powers and praise for acting as his vessel and if you choose to accept him even your butler says that your Urges are wedded/bonded to your very being, you have become Bhaals living vessel to destroy the world, and if you fail him after you had the chance to break free but chose not too; he’ll just take over your mind and body to kill & rape across the sword cost to spread your Hierachs blood further. In Bhaals specific case one could see the potential danger that a hierarch could pose with divine power; little to no vulnerabilities that a mundane hierach would possess
Amazing vid as always, Figurehead is such a clever name for the Hierarch demi lich smdh My only question is after the Hierarch possesses the heir, do they still receive power from and control over their other living descendants or is it a total reset? The latter would make them vulnerable for a time until they can rebuild their dynasty, and I could see a great campaign unfolding where players need to decide whether or not to strike before or after the ritual! Especially if you have an heir player character who wishes to free their family. There's so much you can do with this!
What can a hierarch do once there is a large family tree? Can they strengthen their bloodline by sacrificing someone with the blood in order to strengthen the bloodline to others? Can they cast spells through/from blood relatives?
I wont lie I was totally kind of expecting an Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 type vibe where the "Lich" feeds off the magic that its heirs produce. Producing long lines of heirs of their magic just to reignite their dying power.
@@nomousecat Likely magic a up a solution. This also may be why some become warlock patrons. Heirarchs have something to gain from the clone spell, they may even awaken dormant clones as more loyal bloodline.
an interesting idea for that pc descended from a heirarch, as their blood is pulling them to get caught, perhaps the party encounters a large group of the family or just one powerful member of the family, someone that even the whole party can't fight, so they run, but the pc tries to slow the family down could be an incredibly nuanced moment cause it looks like the end of their character arc, standing up to their family, fighting to protect the people they care about, but its really just her blood, messing with her head, telling her to "save your friends, fight this unwinnable battle" so she gets caught
The "he found this cool talking skull" thing near the end kind of reminds me of the Skull Sorcerer from Ninjago. He is a powerful necromancer who gained his powers from a mysterious talking skull he carries around. The skull is also green like how demi-liches are always shown. Anyway, I really want to make a character who gets their powers from a demi-lich now
Man your ideas are so good that it really inspires me to work harder on my own creations because never in a million years would I have ever thought about this or any of your other ideas
This is not only going to be my favorite series you do, but genuinely this is my favorite video of yours BY FAR out of everything you have ever made. You genuinely have a great sense of writing and homebrew creation and I genuinely hope to see more of these Lich video's, especially for Warlock's. Genuinely good job Pointy Hat, keep up the amazing work.
This is such an awesome idea it actually reminds me of how in Naruto Orochimaru tried to take Sasuke’s body and gives the idea of the hierarch potentially being able to be overtaken by whoever they’re transferring into which would give the character all the power the hierarch had and it persisting within them still trying to take their body from them
You continue to outdo yourself Antonio, this is some seriously inspired and inspiring stuff! The story potential with a Hierarch villain could be limitless, you've once again filled my head with wild ideas you piece of magnificent millinery!
in old editions was a undead druid that keep himself alive stealing life from plants and animals and only can summon zombie animals as companions and wild shapes. it was caused by the darkfey magic or something like that that revert is conection with nature
There’s a game series called Dominions, and one of the nations is called Asphodel, Carrion Woods. The followers of this dominion represent the vengeful wild, seeking to strike back against an increasingly “civilized” world. I love that idea for a druid lich - who casts aside their focus on preservation of nature, and instead weaponizes it in vengeance against nature’s enemies. That turns a lich from a selfish/evil antagonist (who just wants to live forever) to a principled one - who your players might even sympathize with. So in the game Asphodel automatically kills its population in order to reanimate them with vines, which is pretty cool/horrifying too.
That is a really cool idea. Basically you have an entire campaign just off that single idea. Especially if you combine the NOC and PC aspect. When you meet your sorcerer friend they tell you their family is trying to catch and kill them. Then explains The Hierarch to the rest of the party. They go off first to hide from this powerful family and gather levels, items, abilities, etc to be able to challenge them. Very cool.
Holy hell, Antonio, you're unknowingly saving one of my campaign ideas ! I've had in a box somewhere the idea to make a "heroes come back from the dead after being betrayed by the world they saved" for a while and all of this will make for *amazing* material for this !
It's possible that some ancient descendants found a way to activate this ritual in reverse! Perhaps the descendants of the betrayed heroes found a way to trigger a resonance in their bloodline and draw the souls of their ancestors into their own bodies, allowing the heroes to be reborn and take their revenge, thus clearing their tarnished family name!
This is such a badass concept. There is so much you can do with this. I can see Game of Thrones style in fighting within the family to make sure their kid is the Heir. Alliances, betrayals, violence, intrigue, & espionage. Because closer blood ties to the Hiarch means more magic power & influence, descendants with weaker ties try to move up; while those with stronger ties try to maintain power. What is your pedigree & station within the family? Kids become adventures to escape, & kids become adventures to prove themselves worthy. What if they meet in the wilds? Do you know the truth? Do they? How will you react to such knowledge? Then there is the blood magic angle. Is it socially acceptable, ethical, or legal? Is it a secret shame or a source of honor? How will people outside of your family react? Finally, if you or someone dear to you is selected as Heir can you turn the ritual on the Hiarch. Hijack the ceremony to destroy the Hiarch & free your family, or bind your soul to the magic & install yourself as Hiarch. If so at what cost, & is it worth it to you? Yes, I can have fun with this concept😍🤩😋
This….this is so beautiful. I love playing Sorcerers so I’m ECSTATIC to see this new idea. Your art is always so engaging and I love your presentation. Please keep this up, your imagination is amazing.
I have a potential workaround for the Hierarch’s dwindling bloodline: feeding them his own blood vampirically to temporarily have full control over them, even blood-based puppetry. However, this would require the hierarch to remember to keep feeding them his own blood, which could weaken his physical body. And if he forgets, then they could break from his control, potentially completely.
Something of note for the eventual "with a twist" is that while bloodline is the most well known, it's not the only way a sorcerer can happen. Sometimes a god has a prophecy child for divine soul. sometimes you wandered too close to a feywild border and drank from a stream, and now you have wild magic or early psionics. Drank a drop of dragon's blood? A powerful artifact blasted you? You literally died? All of these are viable sorcerer awakenings, and I love the versatility that still keeps it in "its innate, but something had touched your soul through some means that awakened it" Edit: plus, all of these can still be passed down like the typical sorcerers, and can be adapted to this hierarch, which btw is great!
Thank you for bringing up Sea Sorcerer. I'm still upset they dropped that and never mentioned it again. For whatever reason, Sea Sorcerer just struck me and drew my full attention. Something about being a caster but having such massive defensive and control abilities appealed to me. (not to mention I also like the whole stormy watery cold aesthetic) Being resistant to all physical damage _(even magical),_ resistant to fire damage, taking half damage from any opportunity attack against you, being able to move through enemy spaces, unable to take crits, not needing to eat/drink/sleep, being able to breathe underwater, having a swim speed equal to your normal movement speed, and being able to curse enemies with your cantrips every turn so the next instance of lightning damage, cold damage, or forced movement, on them from any of your spells is enhanced.
This is so cool. I had a character kind of like this where his grandfather was supposed to be like the super powerful leader of a criminal gang, I originally had said that he made pacts so people in the gang were like his warlocks, but my friend showed me this and this fits so much better. My character is supposed to be heir and though he doesn't know about this, he ran from his criminal family, with the help of a pact with a genie, but his(now) great-great grandfather wants that immortality life too bad to let him slip away. So I think my friend might make us fight this when we're higher level which will be super cool, probably with the ruling that, being centuries old already he will not be able to re-create his body unless he can take my character as his heir.
A neat idea would be for the hierarch to seek to travel through time, possibly back to the earliest origin of life on that world, seeking to become the literal ancestor of millions of descendants, picking an heir every few century or so. Of course that would only happen if the PCs failed in stopping him or her.
I have a “lich” for Paladin. Well, closer to mummy. It’s called a Pillar, and often referred to as “The Pillar of (insert term)”. It’s a method of tying one’s life to selfless protection of a thing. Or, the start has to be selfless. For instance, a Paladin might devote themself to the defense of a city, like Vella, Pillar of Jelofan. And as long as Jelofan stands as a city, Vella will live on. It’s often seen by members of an order as a sacrifice for the greater good, but if a Pillar lives long enough, they can start to get a little questionable in what actions they’ll take to defend their Charge.
I like how this basically make Sorcerers into pseudo-vampires. One change I would make is to not have the Hierarch simply overtake the Heir, but rather goad them into becoming a new Hierarch. As long as the new Hierarch un-lives, the Demi-Hierarch will gain a powerful servant and have another buffer of immortality, and so the cycle repeats. Of course, much like in vampire stories, the biggest threat to a Demi-Hierarch would be an upstart Hierarch. What keeps these bloodlines in check is not external threats, but simple internal strife. And the strongest of Hierarchs are not measured by their power necessarily, but by their will and ability to control their own family.
I liked the Entoner but this.... This video made me a subscriber and has me sharing your channel with everyone. I definitely want to find a way to work a hierarch into my next campaign. Not only have you created one of the coolest villain archetypes I've seen in years, you have inspired me to start crafting my own legendary villains again. Please make more videos like this.
small detail, but i love that you folded the grandmother's kimono in the opposite direction, indicating her undead nature; playing with eastern culture in dnd has always been an interest of mine! you also drew the kimono very wonderfully! i see many western artists miss on the achieving the characteristic kimono silhouette, which is much more column shaped rather than a-line, and props for getting the furisode sleeves right as well ^^
i don't intend this to be patronizing, by the way-i have a special interest in east asian garmenting, so seeing people understand the differences between hanfu, hanbok, wafuku, and việt phục is very heartwarming ❤ i greatly enjoy your content, and i am excited to see what comes next!
I'm so glad somebody noticed! One of my areas of interest is historical costuming, so I like to pay attention to that sort of stuff. It's not a 1 to 1 perfect recreation, but Olalla's kimono (once grown up) is supposed to be particularly inspired by 1950s-1960s style of kitsuke. I chose this period because it's also a big point in history for the yakuza, and in my mind hierarch's are sort of noble family meets mafia family.
@@pointyhatstudios as a fellow artist, having someone notice your meticulousness is really a joy to experience ^^ i think i'm quite the opposite where i try to incorporate modern/western fantasy elements with traditional (hanyuansu and wayo-setchu) the point about the yakuza is also an interesting insight and also gives me an interesting perspective to view the general hierarch's narrative themes, considering east asian cultural values of family and community/collectivism over the self; i was considering running an east asian campaign setting, so this (and your other videos!) provide a lot of inspiration to work off of
@@pointyhatstudios The point about the relevance to Yakuza makes a lot of sense, because elders run everything in Japan and enforce their positions on the younger generations, it makes TOO much sense.
Omg this came at the perfect time, im starting to run a a FMA:B inspired campain and The BBEG has a bunch of powerful grandchildreen who are all working for him and his plan. This fits soo perfectly with the whole "head of the family as main villain and his descendands as minor villains".
I like this idea very much. And it reminds me of the Vampire Clans from Vampire the Masquerade. There you have the "Antedeluvians" as the founders of these Clans. They are basicly Vampire - Gods and can pretty much not be destroyed, as they can take over the bodies of those who try or sometimes (if I remember correct) younger vampires of their lineage.
This is by far the coolest idea you have had yet. The amount of inspiration this gave me as I watched it just proves how amazing of a channel you've become. It's people like you that truly make this hobby for me.
Oh lord, I love this concept. The idea of using your own progeny to perpetuate your power and your livelihood. I'm definitely using this in my campaign. And I can't wait till we see the other Lich types you make. I hope this includes not only the casters, but even stuff for the non-casters. Weird, I know, since they're not magically inclined, but can anyone say they don't want some sort of Lich Barbarian? "Man literally too angry to die". I don't know how, but that's not my job, it's yours! Love you, mwah!
Lich Barbarian: Trained his entire life for combat only to die via an arrow to the eye during the beginning of his very first battle, and wanted to die in glorious melee combat so much that he revived into an undead lich out of sheer willpower. His personality is "any episode of Metalocalypse".
This reminds me of Bhaalspawn. I like the idea of a powerful entity having the ability to use their progeny to perpetuate there will beyond their death.
I love the blood line idea of the sorcerer lich. It's so interesting to see what desperate ways these liches go to in order to preserve their legacies and escape death. It feels anathema to the idea of druid, but I wonder if there's a way to lichify a druid? Can't wait to see more from you!
This is SO COOL, I loved the Entoner and the ideas you gave for Litches and Mummy Lords. I can't wait to see what you can do with this series, Druid Litches? Warlock Litches? LITCH ARTIFICER!?
I love this series, and would like to submit some ideas for other spellcasters: Druid - the cycle - binds its soul to the land, must continually renew the land of nutrients (usually in corpses) as the soul steals the life that naturally cycles in an environment. Warlock - the breach - a warlock who has breached a contract that promised their soul as payment. Their soul is slowly siphoned away as the pact catches up to them, and they must make tribute by binding new creatures to pacts for their souls. Artificer - the composite - an artificer that binds their soul to their own brain, leaving the rest of the body to rot with time. The caster must replace their failing body by stealing parts from the living. Paladin - the creed - a paladin who is duty bound beyond death. They must continually fulfill their oaths to maintain undeath. Any break in belief wears away at the soul they bound to the words that guide them. Ranger - the apex - a ranger bound by predatory desire. Their soul continues on as long as they remain the strongest creature, consuming the flesh of their kills to absorb their strength as their own.
GOD Thank you pointy hat, the Lich has been my favorite monster in all fantasy and the fact that there's a whole new series only about them, it actually feels like a gift. Please keep up the amazing content, also love you editor keep up the awesome stuff you do
Dude I made a soercer lich with my buddt a couple days ago and this just made me go "You gotta be kidding me." Can't wait to see this type tho, hopefully the ideas are different!
@@SenorVilla I concocted it with a friend with the same idea on blood. Just know I havent made stats and the dude I made this with is working on that. This is all flavour. Essencially, their plylactry is based on Yr Pair Dadeni; a cauldron from Welsh Mythos which you put bodies in which can then be revived. They merge their soul with their blood, but also put a ritual on the "cauldron" (or any large basin). Then, after the struggle is completed, you drain ALL your blood into the cauldron and fall into it. The blood will then rise, and you are reborn within it. All of your body, minus the circulatory and nervous system and bones, are gone. You are now horrifically skinwrapped with sunken eyes. As for your blood, it has been replaced in your veins with raw magic and said veins have grown to pencil thickness which pertrudes around the body. But after 10 years, the soul in your cauldron starts to lose its grip with the blood (and if it leaves, boneclaw time.) So every 10 years they take the vulnerable trek to the cauldron and spend an extended period within the cauldron. Then the permenant blood quantity in the cauldren increases slightly and the bond is put back in control. They now gain much more magic capabilities, from the ability to take control of "wild magic" and who to inflict it on, to power-hungry ones who gain many more spells that were once unable to be obtained through slot limits or just being a sorcerer. Behold: The Skinwrapped.
Vampire, drinks Hierarch's blood, The hierarch's voice echo's in the vampires head: "Oh you poor, poor creature, you have No Idea what you have just done."
This concept is genius! I think this the hierarch is an incredible idea for a villain and for a whole campaign! One idea that I would like to suggest is that if the concept of a Blood magic (hemocraft) Sorcerer. Using blood magic to cause damage, infect enemies with curses or diseases, and drain life (HP) from enemies. The class can be used for vampires or Dhampir, and I think it would go great with the hierarch idea. Feel free make a blood sorcerer class. Thanks for making a great video and D&D concept! I am now subscribed. 😊
Seconding this! It would be really cool to play a sorcerer like that. Unfortunately, I'm already committed to playing a standard fighter. However, I am working on a homebrew setting with my friends. Maybe I can work this in. It would also make a pretty good story.
Oh gods this is SUCH a cool concept, and it gives a whole other layer/reason for why sorrcerers exist in the first place (al least those of blood origin , not so much the magical accident ones) if some magical beings conceive children with mortals for this exact purpose! And even sorcerers of other kinds can fit in that model with just slight modifications. This was always the caster class I had a greater difficulty in conceiving their version of lichdom and you did an incredible job, yet again. My only change would be to make the FigureHead (love the name) less akin to a bloodied Demilich and more like the Necrichor, a sentient blood-ooze from Van Richten´s Guide. Anygays, muerto de ganas de ver lo que nos traigas en el futuro y muy contento de ver que te va bien y el canal crece ^ ^
@@meeponinthbit3466 Yes! I don't think (or don't remember) the original statblock going in that direction, but that's the way I like to use it; a parasitic remnant of blood magic searching to crawl into a new body
I am in the middle of writing a campaign and I had a couple story beads I didn't know how to string together...You have given me so many ideas and basically wrote my campaign for me. I have watched all of your videos and each one instantly spawns an adventure at least in my head. Thank you so much for all your hard work and creativity...Now I just hope my players don't see this...
An additional idea. Since the hierarchy is dead, it would be cool if their blood is finite. Like every time they have a new descendent they loos a little bit of it becoming weaker slowly. But when they have an heir, I order to gain back their power, they have to, you know, get their blood back, by force from all their family. So every few generations a “sudden tragedy” will befall a family, and only one member wil survive to pass on the legacy. Who is obviously the hierarch.
Listen, there are other channels on TH-cam, but your channel is something else, it’s like every one of your videos are just on a different level than everyone else on TH-cam. Love you man
I immediately thought of a story where the Hierarch's heir comes to the party for help, and while some family members are likely too corrupted and will need to die, others can be freed from the Hierarch's iron grip. This is so cool!
Bro, why are your videos such bangers. Now i need a Mistborn inspired campaign with the Lord Ruler being a Hierarch, the nobles his offspring and the Mistborn just really distant relatives product of nobles' affairs 😭
I also imagine this Heroic Sorcerer King becoming a Hierarch to keep protecting the realm leading to massive noble families under the influence of a Hero King. Except perhaps the blood soul gets corrupted with time (ya know undead stuff) or the objectives of the Hierarch become too outdated or something leading to the family to try to break their shackles, the people of the kingdom living under an iron fist, perhaps it leads to the Hero King to commit some atrocities in the name of what they think is right and necessary to protect, etc. A lot of interesting stuff could come out of a Hierarch antagonist/character.
I suppose a heroic varient of this could be a hierarch who creates a varient of the ritual so that their heir actually gains the hierarch's powers and status as the new head of the bloodline while the hierarch finally gets to pass on to the afterlife. The difference being that the heir has to be particularly powerful to survive the ritual (much like how the original hierarch had to repeatedly die and get revived to start the process). It could work for a PC with a hierarch family trying to become a proper heir for their heroic ancestor so they can continue the bloodline. Or perhaps their can be a way for a family member to 'usurp' the hierarch and take the family power for themself.
I love the idea of hierachs since I always loved villains who are part or the head of a big, powerful and very old family (think mafia, vampires or even like cults or whatever), and I also really love imortals who don't act like outsiders to the world they live in, but as central firgures that maybe pull strings in the shadows. (Also both the names "hierarch" and "figurehead" are very well thought imo). I kind of thought you were going to take the route of blood transfusion to keep the philacteries potent, but I think the possession/sacrifice of an heir might be a lot more interesting storywise.
This was the missing piece I needed for the campaign I'm writing right now. Just discovered this channel thanks to this video and I feel like I just found a hidden treasure. Amazing work!!
Both the entoner and the heirarch are very cool ideas! Here are a few of my own, feel free to use them or modify them or ignore them entirely! Warlock - Pretty easy, we already have the deathlocks; undead warlocks who defied a more malevolent patron. But instead of becoming a deathlock for defying a patron, maybe the Lich warlock could be one who performed a ritual involving a sentient sacrifice in honour of their patron, with continued allegiance to their patron and continual sacrifices needed to sustain the undeath. This would work best with a patron like Orcus, the literal lord of undeath and all that. Druid (and maybe Ranger I guess) - a Druid who sacrifices their living body in order continue protecting nature. The process could involve burying their body in sacred soil and allowing it to decompose, preserving their consciousness in nature itself. Their new form would manifest as a humanoid body composed of soil, rocks, plants, and other naturey stuff. They cannot leave their site of burial, as their soul would s now tied to that place, and because of this, their power directly corresponds to the state of the local environment, becoming stronger with a thriving ecosystem and withering entirely of it were to be desecrated severely enough. Paladin - Hear me out, they perform a mummy-like ritual but rise as a suit of Armor animated by their soul, entirely bent on carrying out their god’s will through battle. Their power waxes and wanes with the amount of worship their god receives, pushing them to increase their influence…by any means necessary. I hope these are inspiring to everyone! Keep up the good work Pointy!!!! We love you!
@@sithstormd2703 That's interesting, I know Monkey DM made his own one called the siabrae which I found pretty cool but not in line with the "lich recipe" that Pointy Hat described in this video.
In the past, noble families married relatives to keep their possessions within, a hierarch could do the same, marrying his descendants among themselves, or the family itself could do it alone since they have to gain from it, so he wouldn't need heirs
What if Mob Boss meets Noble Family meets Arthas
is the blood supposed to be interpreted in a magical way, or like literally, i mean does the an heir inherit the blood itself or do they mainting their own bloodline? like does the higharc, once they pass on the body of the great great great grandson, lose a bit of their grip on like their own child, because the generation has advanced but on the opposite way?
Alternatively you could just play Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Yes
What would a Fighter Lich be like a champion that won't die because of the crowds cheers.
Thanks... you made Habsburgs... cuz they will just force theire familly into incest...
Or here's a twist on your twist. The Hierarch doesn't tell his family that he inhabits the new body but instead tells them that he IS going to die and that he can pass down the strength of the lineage to an heir. They have done this several times and they don't understand the heir is the old Hierarch in a new body. Throughout the campaign you meet the family and they all want to become the heir not realizing it means having your body taken over.
That is utterly devious, and I love it. I can also some Hierarchs legitimately doing this, tuning the Heir into the new Hierarch, at the cost of their life. I'd also imagine ritual to do this would be far easier
Neat
Basically founding titan in Attack on Titan:D
Twist on a twist on a twist. An heir is chosen but a non-heir family member succeeds in killing the heirarch mucking the whole thing up and forcing the heir to start over!
have you ever watched ‘The 100’? there was an arc where some family was doing just that. they would choose certain people to ‘ascend’ to a higher station or elite position. but what they were doing in the ritual was uploading their minds to the new, younger body. the new person had no idea and their personality was wiped, so no one ever knew (except for the elite).
A few days ago, I was actually thinking, "What if we had 2 liches each make the other lich their phylactery?" And then this comes out. Imagine if 2 Hierarch families got married...
The child of one of these families would be incredibly powerful, I imagine. They would be the perfect Heir for one of the Hierarchs. Which one, tho? >:3c
The Hierarchs fuse into a single being who is now strong enough to win a knife fight with a god.
@@philiphunt-bull5817 Holy moly. O_O
The half-blooded double-heir might have the competing wills of both Hierarchs rend their mind or perhaps even give them autonomy because the influences neutralize each other. This is such a cool idea
Well here's the thing
When a lich dies, their body gets destroyed, which kills the second lich, which destroys that liches body, which kills the first lich
Basically it's a bad idea
Having a Talking skull being the comedic relief in every story, trying to make one character powerful and having its own arc of letting lichens go…Amazing
I've done that sort of, although said skull was just haunting one of the characters and nobody else could see it.
don't you open that trapdoor!
@@Koalla-fo7dr MURRAY!!!
Harry Dresden wants part of its plotline back
Murray?
Figurehead is an absolutely golden name for the 'Demilich' equivalent for a Hierarch. 10/10
should each lich equivalent have a demilich variant or nah
I think so, maybe we call that show "Which demilich?" any other name suggestions? @@pandoratheclay
@@pandoratheclayHmmm...how about "Scavenger" for the Carrion Hunter?
@@GarlicPuddingwould that make both the ranger and the companion skulls?
@@WishBone-ht2mx Maybe....or the Ranger's skull/upper body riding atop their companion. A humanoid torso jutting out from a skeletal bear's spine would look sick.
This is such a freaky villain!!! I love the idea of family bloodlines as intergenerational trauma is part of my interests. Echoing reality through fiction makes a story so compelling.
Great, now I’m waiting for half caster liches. ARTIFICER LICHES HERE WE COME
That's just uploading your mind to a computer
Paladin Lich....wait, that's just Arthas again. FUCK!
Robert House lookin ass, I'm sure
AI lich
The artificer could make a magical suit of armor which keeps them alive, but the suit is powered by a rare element.... wait, this is just iron man. DAMN!
The fact that most sorcery origins are basically "my grandparents got it down with something that wasn't normally compatible" is hilarious
human bards are the leading cause of sorcerers
@@pandoratheclayhuman bards are the leading cause of every half-something option being half human
Just imagine all the new fetishes you can explore with a regular polymorph spell :D Let's be honest here, it's in our blood!
@@lori3282 Music connects, what else can I say :)
@@pandoratheclayand the occasional very passionate cleric
Something I realized on my... fourth(?) watch of the proposed Hierarch arcs; at 13:22, the child dead center has a gleam in their eye that outstrips everyone else's by FAR. Since the gleam and eyes seem to crop up during that segment as Hierarch bloodline markers, I believe that this child specifically is their bloodline's Heir.
He doesn't even look like he's hit his teens yet, but his expression implies he already knows what's waiting for him.
You and your party have fought through countless members of the royal bloodline. From what you have seen, it has already become clear that the Undying Lord must be stopped before massive war can break out across entire nations. And you are now at the door of the final phylactery. The final heir to the throne. You all had come this far, and at this point, there was no turning back
You bust down the door expecting a fight. There is none. You and the party find themselves in a child's bedroom outfitted with a fancy bed and a bookshelf full of literature. A single young boy, not even in his teens, stares out the window, watching the carnival that is playing in the streets a few blocks from here. A minute passes and he turns around to see you but is not surprised by your presence. He asks if you had come to kill him like the others?
He had been raised from birth sheltered, as the Undying Lord's heir and had been forced to train for the day when he would house his grandfather, the hierarch himself. He was never given a chance at a proper childhood. He tells that he is aware of what you have been doing. He is aware of the damage his grandfather poses to the world. And he is very aware of the fate that's been prepared for him. With a smile on his face and a crushed look in his eye devoid of hope, he tells you that ever since he heard about the recent death of his relatives at the hand of a band of adventurers, he knew at some point, he would be next. Yet despite it all, he does not hate you. He does not blame you for trying to stop people from getting hurt. He just wished that he had been born under better circumstances. Perhaps if he was not born into royalty. If he was like one of the commoners below....
He bows his head, closes his eyes, his hands tremble slightly with fear and tells you to please make it swift. The faint sounds of the carnival and youthful laughter play from the outside in twisted irony
That is genius!
Damn that's cool.
Imagine having to hunt down the last phylactery and its a baby. This is such an incredible piece of writing. Brilliant crafting. I look forward to the rest of the series
@@matthewbibby8921 you wouldnt have to end it. But thats the challenge
DM: You are not going to shoot the kid, aren't you?
Chaotic and Evil alignment characters: Yeah, in the face, why?
Ya realize that’s just the entire plot of Harry Potter? 😂
Funnily enough, that was the plan for a lich villain in a campaign...the twist being the baby grew up and is now hunting down the lich
Oh and for extra "fucked up" points, the lich and baby were father and son, that's right, the lich turned their own child into a phylactery
For anyone replying along the lines of "evil/chaotics rejoice" this idea doesnt sound very fun or deep to throw against in an evil campaign
I love the idea of a character that is a member of the family during the time of the selection for an heir, but they aren’t seen as strong enough to take the mantle. Their sibling who they were close to in childhood gets picked, and the pc runs away in shame. Now, years later, they learn of the ritual and return to confront their family and save their sibling, who’s been manipulated by the Hierarch’s influence and are close to achieving their full power. The drama potential is insane
Ooo and the potential for the hierarch to see how the sibling grew powerful and try to shove them into the heir role instead, the drama!
That sounds interesting. The chosen sibling could become super devoted to the family over the years, maby even being willing to let themselfs get sacraficed for the good of the family, whily the pc is desperatly traing to save them and get it through there scull that its not worth throwing there life away for that.
They see the pc as a weakling and a descrace to there family, but after the pc proves there worth and beats there sibling, the head of the family goes
"You are now my hair", and doesnt give a shit about the sibling despite them giving there life and soul for the family
Kinda help prove the point that they are all just powns for the higharch to use
They could also need to confront the Hierarch after its too late to save anyone. Facing down someone wearing your mothers face for instance.
I love how this and the Entoner both play with real concepts of legacy and 'immortality' and bring them to their extreme.
I'm enjoying how they also play with the concept of living phylacteries. Both require living people to maintain their immortality, which feels like a very natural integration of the "you must actively maintain your undeath" rule.
I wonder what would happen if for some reason two families with Hierarchs would intertwine and someone bearing the blood of the two was born (and was close enough to be "pupeteered" by them). Like they don't know about it, but the poor character that was born like this was made full aware pretty early on and has to wrestle with his concious and two different orders.
Or maybe two Hierarchs decide to posses their body at the same time.
Or they fall in love...
Romeo and Juliette in Lichland. Love it!
Just thought of a story about a Hierarch not wanting to get an heir, but the entire family trying to force it on them out of fear their bloodline sorcerer powers will get taken away if the heir dies... Can be quite an interesting story, and even a PC with some tweeks
This sounds like a great alternate version where the hierarch is sort of the victim. If each hier becomes a new unwilling hierarch functioning as the source of power for their family (whom they do not control), and isn't the same soul possessing each hier... Cool alternate hierarch imo.
Yeah I thought of the same type of thing but I didn’t think about the hierarch being forced to take on an heir nice!
Imagine if there was a side quest in a campaign to help a benevolent sorcerer become a heirarch for an overall good reason, and then after that campaign ends they live long enough to see themselves become the villain of a future campaign.
Reminds me of in Order of the Stick when Vaarsuvius cast a spell meant to kill a dragon and all of its offspring...not realizing that the dragon was very, very ancient and had had many, many generations of disguising itself as a human and having hookups. Ended up killing something like a 3rd of the entire plane's population with the one spell.
Cool story bro 👍
Ahhh, another OotS fan! Nice to see that it still gets love!
@@Falkenhorst2000 There's literally dozens of us!
A twist I’m thinking for the Heir is that they become a trimming, like some trees, and therefore only the descendants of the heir continue to be considered the “bloodline.” It could lead to stories with branches of the family regaining their free will and swearing vengeance for what the Hierarch did to them, maybe forming a group solely to take the Hierarch down
Game of thrones plot with super powers. This is a genius
I was thinking having their blood extracted to be replaced in order to free themselves would be cool!
@@Aaa-vp6ugthat is very metal
@@thomasfrye6335 imagine the donor being another hierarch.
*Antoni gives a run down of sorcerers*
Me: *side eyes Henry's 15+ bio kids in 12 years* "What do you have to say for yourself?"
I can't wait for the future ideas. The Sorcerer Lich is such a good idea especially tying it to the literal bloodline itself.
the Lich barbarian can be sick if yougo wild enough
The first half of the description was basically a vampire, but it got interesting in the second half.
i really like the bloodline idea, although it would also work for a bard litch
Maybe the druid ties his lichdom to something like the fey realm, that could be fun.
I like the idea of a Divine Soul Sorcerer Hierarch. Seen at their peak as a direct envoy to the gods, they convinced an entire church to keep them alive, creating a band of fanatics focused on their needs. Having the "divine blood" in your veins is seen within their ranks as an honor, and the greatest end you can have is to become the new vessel of the Hierarch!
Sounds very drow-like.
Yharnam is home to blood ministration, you need only unravel their secrets, but first you'll need a contract....
This is Just fire emblem 3 houses's crest system with extra steps
I can think of one villainous twist for these Hierarchs that would make them seem that bit more malevolent, and that'd be for the Hierarchs to get their descendants to practice incest in the Hierarch's attempt at keeping their bloodline pure, thus keeping the Hierarch's ability to control their descendants all the more absolute. However, I could also see how generations of incest could cause the Hierarch's plan to backfire in the long run, as the Hierarch's bloodline would eventually be fated to die out from all this inbreeding.
maybe a little bit of a wierd idea but imagine a non-magical lich type charater like a lich barbarian with a rage so intense it keeps them alive or a monk so tranquil that he lives longer
I got you boss.
Odr, the incarnation of madness: an Odr or òōr is Great barbarian warrior a true berserker of unbelievable strength struck down in the middle of an incomparable rage while covered in the blood and guts of at least 500 enemies, his bloody rampage lead to an otherwise impossible victory, and as such his soul was blessed and chosen for the high tables of Valhalla yet his rage was so unyielding that his soul alone struck down to Valkyries sent to take him to his just reward.
blinded by rage and incomparable bloodlust he bathed in the blood of the divine and with it gained the ability to stay in the world of the mortal, The spilling of blood calls for him, The clashing of blade and the cutting of flesh are his hollowed bells, For when war rages and The blood floods the land, The Odr Shall again walk the fields of combat, from the blood of thousands a body will be born, a monstrous humanoid form standing many meters tall made of not but the life liquid of those who have fallen, from shattered weapons it's great battle Axes shall are formed, from blood it is born and in blood it will bathe, rage blood war madness.
How to destroy? You must destroy The Divine blood that covers it's soul.
Buddha: The last breath of the monk came as all others before it, in tranquility and in peace, 100 years had the monk meditated for, in 100 years it had not had a drop of water or an ounce of food, in 100 years it had not sleept for a second, in 100 years the monk had not stopped meditating, In this 100 years he had ignored hunger thirst pain and all other emotions in his pursuit of true enlightenment, And now as his last breath left him as his life came to an end .....he found it.
Divine robes made of light, An old face of absolute tranquility and transcendent flesh ethereal and yet real, where the Monk's skeletal corpse once sat an immortal Buddha now stands, an incarnation of peace tranquility and prowess, be it Marshall or philosophical, his words the teachings of a true sage, his hands The devastating weapons of a marshal Lord.
How to destroy? The Buddhas phylactery is the Bones inside it's body, beware a Buddha's Divine body can rapidly regenerate itself and the skills the Buddha developed and learned while being alive have not only been retained but have improved explosively, a Buddha is also usually The teacher and guide for entire monk sects, every single monk in the sect will gladly sacrifice themselves to protect the Buddha not because of some underhanded means by the Buddha but because the Buddha is so highly respected that to attack one is considered The single most evil action anyone can carry out, Even enemy sects will never under any circumstance attack a Buddha.
isnt that barbarian lich idea just the zealot barbarian at 20th level? they can never die cause they can always rage
So a Drauger then?
So literally, a character that embodies the concept of being too angry to die.
Lol, the first one reminds me of that Sith Lord in Knights of the Old Republic that was just too pissed off to die XD
The SYMBOLISM in this one is so potent! This is brilliant, you've outdone yourself!
What's the symbology of it /j
Another cool thing to think about is how you’d go about freeing the Hierarch’s descendants without just genociding the whole family - that would be a really interesting application of the spell “reincarnate!” Since a sorcerer’s power is bound to their blood and not their soul, maybe the souls of their descendants can be freed and given new bodies before their original ones are destroyed.
Divine Soul Sorcerer enters the chat
Blood transfusion? They would lose their powers but be free from the Liches control. Interesting character building right there.
@@nuklearkhaos115 Medicine check coming in clutch
leeches exist, that's why, maybe?
@@christopherkecun8349 but then the leeches would fall under the hierarch’s control! You might call them…Lich’s leeches!
Imagine if a Draconic bloodline sorcerer became one of these against the wishes of the dragon that started the line. Eventually our bbeg would defeat its ancestor, enslaving the dragon with the intent to siphon its power for the line and maybe find a way to take over the dragon's body at some point. Have the dragon be a truly good dragon (bonus points if its a chromatic that turned good) and one could pull the heartstrings by having the final task being to kill this dragon, one time where there is no glory in killing a dragon,just a necessary evil to kill the wayward sorcerer it spawned. The dragon could be just laying down for a mercy kill or it could be forced to fight the party,begging them to end its suffering the whole time. If the dragon already has some connections with the party this could be quite the emotional moment.
This was awesome!!! Can't help but think of future possibilities!
- Barbarian; A warrior of fierce ancestral experience who, when they rage, erupt into a flaming, skeletal beast (Essentially Ghost rider)
- Druid; A sprig born from an elder tree as natures bastion against mankind for its wrong doings!
- Paladin; A hero burdened with an endless duty to protect, serve, and slay those who defy its Deities/Masters will!
I think it is a bit weird for non spellcasters to become liches. It's not impossible but it's not something they should be able to do on their own. You can make it happen by getting help from others, ancient rituals, magic items but from that point it's similar, they need to keep fueling the undeath. They may be even more desperate in their methods because they have no control over this magic and no understanding of the process.
The druid sounds really good though. Druids get extremely long lifespans anyway, it is easy to see one go even further in the name of their sacred duty, infusing themselves with elder trees, spirits, fey magic or even learning how to control their body like immortal jellyfish.
The external sources of power classes all have basically the same answer with different flavors. Its all the god or forces of nature they serve or draw on keeping them around or incorporating them in a way that grants them Lich-like qualities.
Now my creative juices are flowing but I got an issue: one thing you shouldn't forget is that becoming a lich is a perversion of nature or order, going against the way of things. So:
- Honestly that just sounds like a cool barbarian path rather than a lich... Lich barbarian is more like a warrior constantly craving war to the point that even death couldn't keep it down, a legendary figure on battlefields. That might as well be their phylactery, their legend keeping them alive. Of course this needs them to have a legendary feat on the battlefield and the usual prep to become a lich and then being slain in combat.
- Druid lich shouldn't be born with power, rather a druid that decided to steal power from nature, even if it's in order to protect it. It could be that the source of power is blood, and the druid do not need to harm nature and a great tree or even the forest itself is the phylactery. But the point is a lich isn't born with their power. They take it.
- A paladin bound by their god is a weird case honestly, and that basically just feels like a more religious version of the normal lich, instead of a warlock patron giving you the secretes it's your god. And they have to be okay with you being undead, or at least tolerate it.
Now my own ideas:
- How about an Artificer who bound their soul to the machine. Que Warhammer Mechanicus speech. Can range from basically just an android to full on body horror abandoning the "inefficient" human form. Especially fun if the players have a warforge, since they are already a constant source of angst about whether they have a soul or not. Now imagine a machine with a genuine soul thrust in front of them.
- A Monk who self embalms as the ritual. (Yeah, there are real monks IRL who did this btw, check Buddhist mummies) Not sure how to put a "lichy" spin on the rest of the points, maybe they become basically a ki vampire targeting martial artists, possibly permanently (or until killed) stealing their power.
I good name for a Lich Paladin could be Crusader. A eternal knight, that, non stop, fight evil.
The paladin one is kinda like being galactus's herald from marvel
I’m all for this. Maybe after this series covering all spell casters you could do a twist on death knights for all martial classes?
The Barbarian Lich - achieves lichdom through raging, and so must always be in the heat of battle.
@@andrewdowns3673 Basically an undead natural disaster, trailing destruction behind them like a storm not out of intent but just as a byproduct of their very existence. I like it!
@@andrewdowns3673 That's actually a pretty cool idea! Something like a split-identity character comes to mind for me. Someone who manipulates their kingdom into constant wars, either from behind the scenes or directly as someone in a place of political power perhaps? But the real reason for all their machinations is to constantly force a fight that they can, inherently, be in the center of.
I really like this idea
Like jackel and Heidi?
"You heard those stories of bards sleeping with dragons? Yeah my grandpa decided to sleep with a lich and now i look like i was born in hot topic"
-my new sorcerer
oh my god, this is an incredible idea! I love the idea of the ancient lich being protected by their massive league of descendants, born into powerful sorcery, and having to go through their entire bloodline to do so. I would say that it's even cooler than just a wizard with a special soul box, the power of the super-grandpa and their children is way more terrifying
I love how you'd have to fight through the entire family of different sorcerer's to get to the head
It feels like Casita from Encanto would be a decent example of a Hierarch, if not for its phylactery being just a candle instead of a bloodline
Now this is an excellent lich, I can see one being born from a mighty blue dragon who left the desire to create the most extraordinary spell in all existence within their favourite descendant and so the Hierarch built this magic school where most of the teachers are of this family and groom the students that show promise to marry one of the teachers and thus create strong successors for the Hierarch to inhabit while the lich himself mostly stays in his study working on this spell.
Damn, at first I thought the students were also apart of the bloodline until I read it again. That is a very dark idea
@@masked_undead539 Sometimes I be heaven DM, other times I be hell DM.
@@masked_undead539 in this case inbreeding does have a benefit for the lich, the blodline will thin slower
I can just see a Hierarch using their youngest descendants as meat shields when they get attacked, so the adventurers have to choose not to kill any kids and face a stronger hierarch, or kill the kids and face a weaker hierarch, but with the weight of the young blood on their hands.
Using that now
party will still have to kill the kids as they are phylacteries so the lich will just respawn
I actually played with this concept early in my campaign. There's a divine vestige who goes my *too many names*, but his Voldemort Name is Adonai. (Because he knows when you say his name tho, the party calls him the DA, short for "Divine Arsehole"). The party first found him trying to "make an heir" out of a young Elvish shrine maiden, after attacking and defiling the temple. The party weakened him to the point the eldritch patron of the temple could intervene, but that meant that somewhere out there, a baby died just to bring him back.
However, the DA also has a few servants called the Kelet-hyele, who are angelic succubi golems, that seek out noblemen of various races to seduce and take the seed of. Any child born to a Kelet matches the race of the father, but becomes a Phylactery-Horcrux of Adonai. If he dies, he replaces one of his heirs, even if they haven't been born yet.
One such heir was sired by the High Elvish Prince-Regent. The DA killed the High King and placed the prince under a Geas so that the fallen god could go after the princess, taking control of the entire kingdom and getting two backup plans out of the deal, should things go south. Luckily, the party got in the way after finding the escaped princess, captured and being returned to the castle.
The fight was quite epic, the dragonborn Cleric-Barbarian used a Cape of the Mountbank to teleport him and the Bard-lock to the DA's face, so he could use the Kenku as a boxing glove with a prepared 5th-level Thunderwave, and the DA failed his save and went flying. Dragonborn was actually lucky, coz I gave the DA a custom spell that temporarily breaks the target's connections to any divines, which would have nulled his Cleric spells and abilities, and he succeeded the high DC Saving Throw.
Nobody knows where the DA is now, but the party is on high alert for his next move. We found the Kelet who seduced the king and got some information out of her before her lifespan gave out, the last we heard of him, he launched an assault on the Goddess of Magic herself, but was defeated by her champions.
And he's not even the ultimate BBEG in this campaign.
I love the thought of this and how you added sorta a Japanese twist on the last version of it. I really think that having family drama is my favorite. Like the tension between the pc and a sibling who doesn't understand how cursed being the golden child is. Or is a protective older brother who has been sent to find her not knowing he's going to turn her in to basically die. I love it
I want to make a sorcerer based off this now. The little sibling of a hierarch heir, someone ostracized for their weak magical powers but that same weakness is what allows them to fight against his ancestor.
❤❤
Late to the conversation, but I love this
A warlock Lich would be interesting i think, cause they would be like half possessed by their patron i beleive
Undead patron from Van Richten's
Or maybe they turn their patron into the phylactery
what if he is the last follower of some forgotten deity or demon and is patron dont let him die or else him die too
@@gexianhen That's good except the rule is he has to be the active role. Lichedom not being done to him.
Could be a sort of reversal of the power dynamic.
Like the warlock has to deceive (such tricking the patron into possessing them only to find out it's a one way trip) or force the patron into being "swallowed" by the warlock.
The warlock needs to work the ensure it's patron cannot escape.
Another thing that could easily be done is make one of the players be a descendant of the hierarch or something. It can go multiple ways, the crew member sacrifices himself to end the hierarchs life because he is the only descendant left or something. You could also make him the only family member that didnt get sorcerer powers and make him kill the hierarch, you could also make up a ritual to cleanse his blood of magic. There are many possibilities that could develop from this type of leech. I really like it.
Please get this video more views everyone, I NEED more DND classes as their Lich counterparts, this series can be so amazing don't sleep on it for the love of life, I will put all your souls in a magic Tupperware if this fails
Lich Paladins could be Death Knights.
I love this series! This is so creative and quite frankly needed in the D&D lore. Liches are one of the OG BBEGs (BBOG) and they always make for epic final bosses.
So far, we have:
Wizards - Liches
Clerics - Mummy Lords
Bards - Intoners
Sorcerers - Hierarchs
Now we're just missing Druid, Paladins, Rangers, Warlocks and Artificers
I can even see martial subclasses that gain magic having the ability to become a lich. Imagine an Eldricht Knight that binds his soul to his weapon becoming a cursed blade that possesses those who wields it. Or an Arcane Trickster becoming a mischievous ghost-like being.
I can even see the Barbarian with the Path of Wild Magic becoming a lich: A being fueled by the rage of their ancestors and their inherent chaotic magic, having to consume magic items and hunt down magic users for their magic for sustenance.
Personally, I'm most excited for Druids. I'm extremely curious how they would turn out in lichdom considering undeath is an anathema to the natural order.
There's a GLoG class called the "demon blade" that's similar to the Eldritch Knight concept in your comment. One origin for it is a Fighter that essentially bound their soul to their favoured weapon, and they live on as long as the weapon does.
They don't need sustenance, but lying unused on an empty battlefield is boring, and they can consume the souls of creatures they kill for power. They can possess unwilling hosts but they're stronger with a willing "chariot."
5e Eldritch Knights already have their "weapon bond" feature, so they're set up perfectly for an ability like this!
What about Rogues?
@@Ninjat126 Or they do need to kill someone but it has to be a fair fight & it needs to occur every 100 years or so.
I can't wait to see your Druidic Lich. There's so many incredible ways to take that. Like an incredibly ancient sage that is feeding off of the cycle of death and rebirth, and has like packs of undead elk and forest creatures just living in deathly harmony in their ancient forest, completely overgrown and untouched for centuries.
Totally agree, though wondering how a druid (who is completely opposed to unnatural creatures such as undead ones) will justify becoming a lich. I feel their phylactery will almost definitely be an area of nature like a forest.
@@peterjones6810 mushrooms… you cannot kill me in a way that matters…
High-level druids already gain elongated lives. Maybe it can be a corruption of that. I imagine the long lives of druids involve binding their soul to something long lived, like a tree or fungal colony. What if a younger druid who hasn't quite learned things like 'scale' or 'patience' happens to get their hands on this ritual, let's say from a suspiciously knowledgeable old lady. They get the longevity, but the tree doesn't come out as healthy as it should; it starts to prematurely wither. The druid tries to keep it alive, but their own power is never enough. Soon enough, you have a paranoid nutcase driving an army of blights across the land, draining all life in order to feed his own.
@@aaroncunningham8307 This is amazing. Definitely hope Pointy Hat sees this.
Boom! Real world records show monks mummifying themselves to reach nirvana through meditation. Druids already lengthening life through natire/purity, but trade off from no phylactraphy is weaker physical states ie no resurrection after physical destruction
Was thinking he would just have a harem to keep “refreshing” his bloodlines.
Could see a party having to save a woman chosen as sacrificial maiden to him
I love this concept so much! Wizard turns to regular Lich, Bard turns into Intoner, Sorcerer turns into the Heriarch! Can’t wait for the Druid variant of a lich and have them be the generals for a Vecna campaign and it be perfect!
Love the idea.
I also can't stop thinking of a pair of good Sorcerers from different bloodlines who happen to be lovers going for this together and regularly reconnecting their bloodlines to keep them both strong enough to not have to possess any of their descendants.
Maybe they are even somewhat open about what they are, but either way, the adventure is riddled with red herrings that make it look like these two are the overarching villains, while they are actually the biggest supporters of the party.
Maybe one of them is even the descendant of the actual big bad, another Hierarch, and actively trying to capture and imprison that one in a way that they don't have to sacrifice themselves.
It's a nice idea but it's basically inbreeding and I can see many players not feeling comfortable with it or not seeing them as good guys. Definitely ask your players first before introducing something like this.
@@_Ve_98 I was thinking every five to ten generations at the minimum, or as close to the point where they turn into Figure Heads as possible. And with an expansive, branching and ever-expanding family, so there's always new blood added to the lineage as well.
Not one family with two branches constantly intermarrying with their first cousins.
But yes, probably something the GM should make sure the players are comfortable with.
Though, retooling them from big goods to yes, actually big bads posing as big goods shouldn't be too hard for an experienced GM. That certainly wouldn't be the first campaign that was derailed by the players in the history of D&D.
I also tried to make Lich equivalent of other classes but the sorcerer has always eluded me and I love how you created it!
I'm just gonna spitball the other ideas I had on the subject here, maybe they can give you inspiration. I'd love to see someone more competent than me create them properly.
Artificier: Soul Receptacle. Basically a giant robot made to house the soul of the dead artificier or someone close to them. The robot itself would be the philactery and the maintenance cost is that the robot's fuel is... people's souls. I also thought that it would be fun if the "soul fuel tank" sometimes leaked into the receptacle itself giving un-life to an amalgamation of confused souls in a giant killer robot.
Bard: Socialich. Enough said.
Cleric: technically the Mummy Lord is a cleric Lich, we just have to make it less connected to ancient Egypt.
Druid: a being that keeps un-living by leeching the life from the nature around them.
Monk: Ki Scourge. This monk has to hunt down and kill other powerful monks to cling to their un-life. They use all of their ki to stay alive and as such they actually block ki from being used around them.
Paladin: Death Knights are already Lich Paladins, just make them more powerful
I thought of a Hexbalde Warlock Patron once and it's bassicaly the artificer lich. He was this inventor who turned their mind into energy and became a giant flying robo-squid with flashligth eyes who'd send drones from it's mouth and could turn their arms into deadly weapons, or turning them into wires to transport his energy to whatever their wires were connected to (this makes them able to take over entire factories in the blink of an eye)
I always thought since Circle of Spore was the Necromancer subclass for Druids that a liche for Druids would involve giving up their body to their fungus, though this can involve many trial and error rituals of feeding body parts to some fungus to see if an appropriate reaction occurs. A circle of spores druid that’s suddenly missing a hand draws suspicion to their plans.
When a positive reaction occurs, the druid will then give its full body and soul over to the fungus, making their body the first bit of fuel to power the fungus as a phylactery. This fungus colony can then even be split and spread to other locations to act as secondary phylacteries. The setback is that now that the fungus is acting as a phylactery, normal rot can only sustain it for so long and the body of a dying but still living (maybe) intelligent being is needed to keep each colony alive (hence, the more you spread them, the more sacrifices you will need as well). Due to the wicked nature of these fungi, even average circle of spore Druids look down on this extent of necromancy and will be wary of locations known for their extravagant fungi, knowing what wickedness may have led to such.
The Artificer Lich is basically just "mind-uploading." Seeing a mind-uploaded character in DnD would be interesting change of pace from the sci-fi settings that you'd expect to see them. The lack of an internet would severely limit what they'd gain from doing this, but they could probably make up for that with actual magic.
Bro the Hierarch is so cool, it honestly kind of feels like A Bhaalspawn situation (Although very different) Bhaal is obviously the Hierarch and in baldurs gate 3 especially The dark urge is similarly on the path of an Heir to a Hierarch,
Bhaal pampers you with gifts, powers and praise for acting as his vessel and if you choose to accept him even your butler says that your Urges are wedded/bonded to your very being, you have become Bhaals living vessel to destroy the world, and if you fail him after you had the chance to break free but chose not too; he’ll just take over your mind and body to kill & rape across the sword cost to spread your Hierachs blood further.
In Bhaals specific case one could see the potential danger that a hierarch could pose with divine power; little to no vulnerabilities that a mundane hierach would possess
The Hierarch has soooo much storytelling potential! I'm really glad you're tackling on this serie!
This is BLOODY perfect. Such DRAMA. Aaaand it perfectly fits into my sorcerous noble house lore
Amazing vid as always, Figurehead is such a clever name for the Hierarch demi lich smdh
My only question is after the Hierarch possesses the heir, do they still receive power from and control over their other living descendants or is it a total reset? The latter would make them vulnerable for a time until they can rebuild their dynasty, and I could see a great campaign unfolding where players need to decide whether or not to strike before or after the ritual! Especially if you have an heir player character who wishes to free their family. There's so much you can do with this!
A semi-connected question - What if the Hierarch picks an Heir that turns out to be infertile?
@@nomousecat well they are screwed or will have to try and desperately transfer agian.
What can a hierarch do once there is a large family tree? Can they strengthen their bloodline by sacrificing someone with the blood in order to strengthen the bloodline to others? Can they cast spells through/from blood relatives?
I wont lie I was totally kind of expecting an Ego from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 type vibe where the "Lich" feeds off the magic that its heirs produce. Producing long lines of heirs of their magic just to reignite their dying power.
@@nomousecat Likely magic a up a solution. This also may be why some become warlock patrons. Heirarchs have something to gain from the clone spell, they may even awaken dormant clones as more loyal bloodline.
an interesting idea for that pc descended from a heirarch, as their blood is pulling them to get caught, perhaps the party encounters a large group of the family or just one powerful member of the family, someone that even the whole party can't fight, so they run, but the pc tries to slow the family down
could be an incredibly nuanced moment cause it looks like the end of their character arc, standing up to their family, fighting to protect the people they care about, but its really just her blood, messing with her head, telling her to "save your friends, fight this unwinnable battle" so she gets caught
The "he found this cool talking skull" thing near the end kind of reminds me of the Skull Sorcerer from Ninjago. He is a powerful necromancer who gained his powers from a mysterious talking skull he carries around. The skull is also green like how demi-liches are always shown.
Anyway, I really want to make a character who gets their powers from a demi-lich now
Man your ideas are so good that it really inspires me to work harder on my own creations because never in a million years would I have ever thought about this or any of your other ideas
This is not only going to be my favorite series you do, but genuinely this is my favorite video of yours BY FAR out of everything you have ever made.
You genuinely have a great sense of writing and homebrew creation and I genuinely hope to see more of these Lich video's, especially for Warlock's. Genuinely good job Pointy Hat, keep up the amazing work.
Imagine if one of the PCs significan-other and/or love-interest is a part of a Hierarc’s bloodline. Oh the drama.
This is such an awesome idea it actually reminds me of how in Naruto Orochimaru tried to take Sasuke’s body and gives the idea of the hierarch potentially being able to be overtaken by whoever they’re transferring into which would give the character all the power the hierarch had and it persisting within them still trying to take their body from them
You continue to outdo yourself Antonio, this is some seriously inspired and inspiring stuff! The story potential with a Hierarch villain could be limitless, you've once again filled my head with wild ideas you piece of magnificent millinery!
I’d like to see what you could do with a Druid lich
Circle of the Blighted
Immortality through the corruption of nature. And maybe undead wildshapes?
That already exists in dnd, it's called a lichen lich it's in candlekeep mysterys
in old editions was a undead druid that keep himself alive stealing life from plants and animals and only can summon zombie animals as companions and wild shapes. it was caused by the darkfey magic or something like that that revert is conection with nature
There’s a game series called Dominions, and one of the nations is called Asphodel, Carrion Woods. The followers of this dominion represent the vengeful wild, seeking to strike back against an increasingly “civilized” world. I love that idea for a druid lich - who casts aside their focus on preservation of nature, and instead weaponizes it in vengeance against nature’s enemies. That turns a lich from a selfish/evil antagonist (who just wants to live forever) to a principled one - who your players might even sympathize with.
So in the game Asphodel automatically kills its population in order to reanimate them with vines, which is pretty cool/horrifying too.
I believe the elf's already have a ritual for that.
That is a really cool idea. Basically you have an entire campaign just off that single idea. Especially if you combine the NOC and PC aspect.
When you meet your sorcerer friend they tell you their family is trying to catch and kill them. Then explains The Hierarch to the rest of the party. They go off first to hide from this powerful family and gather levels, items, abilities, etc to be able to challenge them. Very cool.
Holy hell, Antonio, you're unknowingly saving one of my campaign ideas ! I've had in a box somewhere the idea to make a "heroes come back from the dead after being betrayed by the world they saved" for a while and all of this will make for *amazing* material for this !
It's possible that some ancient descendants found a way to activate this ritual in reverse! Perhaps the descendants of the betrayed heroes found a way to trigger a resonance in their bloodline and draw the souls of their ancestors into their own bodies, allowing the heroes to be reborn and take their revenge, thus clearing their tarnished family name!
This is such a badass concept. There is so much you can do with this. I can see Game of Thrones style in fighting within the family to make sure their kid is the Heir. Alliances, betrayals, violence, intrigue, & espionage. Because closer blood ties to the Hiarch means more magic power & influence, descendants with weaker ties try to move up; while those with stronger ties try to maintain power. What is your pedigree & station within the family? Kids become adventures to escape, & kids become adventures to prove themselves worthy. What if they meet in the wilds? Do you know the truth? Do they? How will you react to such knowledge?
Then there is the blood magic angle. Is it socially acceptable, ethical, or legal? Is it a secret shame or a source of honor? How will people outside of your family react?
Finally, if you or someone dear to you is selected as Heir can you turn the ritual on the Hiarch. Hijack the ceremony to destroy the Hiarch & free your family, or bind your soul to the magic & install yourself as Hiarch. If so at what cost, & is it worth it to you?
Yes, I can have fun with this concept😍🤩😋
This….this is so beautiful. I love playing Sorcerers so I’m ECSTATIC to see this new idea. Your art is always so engaging and I love your presentation. Please keep this up, your imagination is amazing.
I have a potential workaround for the Hierarch’s dwindling bloodline: feeding them his own blood vampirically to temporarily have full control over them, even blood-based puppetry. However, this would require the hierarch to remember to keep feeding them his own blood, which could weaken his physical body. And if he forgets, then they could break from his control, potentially completely.
Something of note for the eventual "with a twist" is that while bloodline is the most well known, it's not the only way a sorcerer can happen. Sometimes a god has a prophecy child for divine soul. sometimes you wandered too close to a feywild border and drank from a stream, and now you have wild magic or early psionics. Drank a drop of dragon's blood? A powerful artifact blasted you? You literally died? All of these are viable sorcerer awakenings, and I love the versatility that still keeps it in "its innate, but something had touched your soul through some means that awakened it"
Edit: plus, all of these can still be passed down like the typical sorcerers, and can be adapted to this hierarch, which btw is great!
Thank you for bringing up Sea Sorcerer. I'm still upset they dropped that and never mentioned it again.
For whatever reason, Sea Sorcerer just struck me and drew my full attention. Something about being a caster but having such massive defensive and control abilities appealed to me. (not to mention I also like the whole stormy watery cold aesthetic)
Being resistant to all physical damage _(even magical),_ resistant to fire damage, taking half damage from any opportunity attack against you, being able to move through enemy spaces, unable to take crits, not needing to eat/drink/sleep, being able to breathe underwater, having a swim speed equal to your normal movement speed,
and being able to curse enemies with your cantrips every turn so the next instance of lightning damage, cold damage, or forced movement, on them from any of your spells is enhanced.
This is so cool. I had a character kind of like this where his grandfather was supposed to be like the super powerful leader of a criminal gang, I originally had said that he made pacts so people in the gang were like his warlocks, but my friend showed me this and this fits so much better. My character is supposed to be heir and though he doesn't know about this, he ran from his criminal family, with the help of a pact with a genie, but his(now) great-great grandfather wants that immortality life too bad to let him slip away. So I think my friend might make us fight this when we're higher level which will be super cool, probably with the ruling that, being centuries old already he will not be able to re-create his body unless he can take my character as his heir.
A neat idea would be for the hierarch to seek to travel through time, possibly back to the earliest origin of life on that world, seeking to become the literal ancestor of millions of descendants, picking an heir every few century or so. Of course that would only happen if the PCs failed in stopping him or her.
Pretty sure all that Mummy lord love will turn into the Cleric lich. This is an amazing series, have fun homebrewing!
I have a “lich” for Paladin. Well, closer to mummy. It’s called a Pillar, and often referred to as “The Pillar of (insert term)”. It’s a method of tying one’s life to selfless protection of a thing. Or, the start has to be selfless. For instance, a Paladin might devote themself to the defense of a city, like Vella, Pillar of Jelofan. And as long as Jelofan stands as a city, Vella will live on. It’s often seen by members of an order as a sacrifice for the greater good, but if a Pillar lives long enough, they can start to get a little questionable in what actions they’ll take to defend their Charge.
the Skull Knight comes to mind
Every single one of your videos are mind blowingly interesting. The story they tell are natural chill-giver.
I like how this basically make Sorcerers into pseudo-vampires.
One change I would make is to not have the Hierarch simply overtake the Heir, but rather goad them into becoming a new Hierarch. As long as the new Hierarch un-lives, the Demi-Hierarch will gain a powerful servant and have another buffer of immortality, and so the cycle repeats. Of course, much like in vampire stories, the biggest threat to a Demi-Hierarch would be an upstart Hierarch. What keeps these bloodlines in check is not external threats, but simple internal strife. And the strongest of Hierarchs are not measured by their power necessarily, but by their will and ability to control their own family.
I liked the Entoner but this.... This video made me a subscriber and has me sharing your channel with everyone. I definitely want to find a way to work a hierarch into my next campaign.
Not only have you created one of the coolest villain archetypes I've seen in years, you have inspired me to start crafting my own legendary villains again.
Please make more videos like this.
Exactly same
small detail, but i love that you folded the grandmother's kimono in the opposite direction, indicating her undead nature; playing with eastern culture in dnd has always been an interest of mine! you also drew the kimono very wonderfully! i see many western artists miss on the achieving the characteristic kimono silhouette, which is much more column shaped rather than a-line, and props for getting the furisode sleeves right as well ^^
i don't intend this to be patronizing, by the way-i have a special interest in east asian garmenting, so seeing people understand the differences between hanfu, hanbok, wafuku, and việt phục is very heartwarming ❤ i greatly enjoy your content, and i am excited to see what comes next!
I'm so glad somebody noticed! One of my areas of interest is historical costuming, so I like to pay attention to that sort of stuff. It's not a 1 to 1 perfect recreation, but Olalla's kimono (once grown up) is supposed to be particularly inspired by 1950s-1960s style of kitsuke. I chose this period because it's also a big point in history for the yakuza, and in my mind hierarch's are sort of noble family meets mafia family.
@@pointyhatstudios as a fellow artist, having someone notice your meticulousness is really a joy to experience ^^ i think i'm quite the opposite where i try to incorporate modern/western fantasy elements with traditional (hanyuansu and wayo-setchu)
the point about the yakuza is also an interesting insight and also gives me an interesting perspective to view the general hierarch's narrative themes, considering east asian cultural values of family and community/collectivism over the self; i was considering running an east asian campaign setting, so this (and your other videos!) provide a lot of inspiration to work off of
@@pointyhatstudios The point about the relevance to Yakuza makes a lot of sense, because elders run everything in Japan and enforce their positions on the younger generations, it makes TOO much sense.
*Note- Under the actions section, the first action refers to the Intoner instead of the Hierarch
Omg this came at the perfect time, im starting to run a a FMA:B inspired campain and The BBEG has a bunch of powerful grandchildreen who are all working for him and his plan.
This fits soo perfectly with the whole "head of the family as main villain and his descendands as minor villains".
I like this idea very much.
And it reminds me of the Vampire Clans from Vampire the Masquerade. There you have the "Antedeluvians" as the founders of these Clans. They are basicly Vampire - Gods and can pretty much not be destroyed, as they can take over the bodies of those who try or sometimes (if I remember correct) younger vampires of their lineage.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who went, "Wait a second, this sounds like a WoD Vampire. Specifically a Tremere..."
This is by far the coolest idea you have had yet. The amount of inspiration this gave me as I watched it just proves how amazing of a channel you've become. It's people like you that truly make this hobby for me.
Oh lord, I love this concept. The idea of using your own progeny to perpetuate your power and your livelihood. I'm definitely using this in my campaign. And I can't wait till we see the other Lich types you make. I hope this includes not only the casters, but even stuff for the non-casters. Weird, I know, since they're not magically inclined, but can anyone say they don't want some sort of Lich Barbarian? "Man literally too angry to die". I don't know how, but that's not my job, it's yours! Love you, mwah!
Lich Barbarian: Trained his entire life for combat only to die via an arrow to the eye during the beginning of his very first battle, and wanted to die in glorious melee combat so much that he revived into an undead lich out of sheer willpower. His personality is "any episode of Metalocalypse".
For the Lich Barbarian I would imagine something like Darth Scion from Knights of the Old Republic 2.
Soul Edge for fighter... yes, the weapon is a lich that possesses people over time.
As an American, I'm so glad that the ruler at 0:43 only has meteric.
This reminds me of Bhaalspawn. I like the idea of a powerful entity having the ability to use their progeny to perpetuate there will beyond their death.
I love the blood line idea of the sorcerer lich. It's so interesting to see what desperate ways these liches go to in order to preserve their legacies and escape death. It feels anathema to the idea of druid, but I wonder if there's a way to lichify a druid? Can't wait to see more from you!
This is SO COOL, I loved the Entoner and the ideas you gave for Litches and Mummy Lords. I can't wait to see what you can do with this series, Druid Litches? Warlock Litches? LITCH ARTIFICER!?
I'm pretty sure that a warlock lich and a druid lich already exist. I believe they are called a deathlock and lichen lich respectively.
I love this series, and would like to submit some ideas for other spellcasters:
Druid - the cycle - binds its soul to the land, must continually renew the land of nutrients (usually in corpses) as the soul steals the life that naturally cycles in an environment.
Warlock - the breach - a warlock who has breached a contract that promised their soul as payment. Their soul is slowly siphoned away as the pact catches up to them, and they must make tribute by binding new creatures to pacts for their souls.
Artificer - the composite - an artificer that binds their soul to their own brain, leaving the rest of the body to rot with time. The caster must replace their failing body by stealing parts from the living.
Paladin - the creed - a paladin who is duty bound beyond death. They must continually fulfill their oaths to maintain undeath. Any break in belief wears away at the soul they bound to the words that guide them.
Ranger - the apex - a ranger bound by predatory desire. Their soul continues on as long as they remain the strongest creature, consuming the flesh of their kills to absorb their strength as their own.
As a lover of necromancy themes I can already tell I am gonna love this series
GOD Thank you pointy hat, the Lich has been my favorite monster in all fantasy and the fact that there's a whole new series only about them, it actually feels like a gift. Please keep up the amazing content, also love you editor keep up the awesome stuff you do
Dude I made a soercer lich with my buddt a couple days ago and this just made me go "You gotta be kidding me."
Can't wait to see this type tho, hopefully the ideas are different!
Cool! How was your take on the sorcerer lich?
@@SenorVilla I concocted it with a friend with the same idea on blood. Just know I havent made stats and the dude I made this with is working on that. This is all flavour.
Essencially, their plylactry is based on Yr Pair Dadeni; a cauldron from Welsh Mythos which you put bodies in which can then be revived. They merge their soul with their blood, but also put a ritual on the "cauldron" (or any large basin). Then, after the struggle is completed, you drain ALL your blood into the cauldron and fall into it. The blood will then rise, and you are reborn within it. All of your body, minus the circulatory and nervous system and bones, are gone. You are now horrifically skinwrapped with sunken eyes. As for your blood, it has been replaced in your veins with raw magic and said veins have grown to pencil thickness which pertrudes around the body.
But after 10 years, the soul in your cauldron starts to lose its grip with the blood (and if it leaves, boneclaw time.) So every 10 years they take the vulnerable trek to the cauldron and spend an extended period within the cauldron. Then the permenant blood quantity in the cauldren increases slightly and the bond is put back in control. They now gain much more magic capabilities, from the ability to take control of "wild magic" and who to inflict it on, to power-hungry ones who gain many more spells that were once unable to be obtained through slot limits or just being a sorcerer.
Behold: The Skinwrapped.
Vampire, drinks Hierarch's blood, The hierarch's voice echo's in the vampires head: "Oh you poor, poor creature, you have No Idea what you have just done."
This is going to become a liquid ocelot scenario
This concept is genius! I think this the hierarch is an incredible idea for a villain and for a whole campaign! One idea that I would like to suggest is that if the concept of a Blood magic (hemocraft) Sorcerer. Using blood magic to cause damage, infect enemies with curses or diseases, and drain life (HP) from enemies. The class can be used for vampires or Dhampir, and I think it would go great with the hierarch idea. Feel free make a blood sorcerer class. Thanks for making a great video and D&D concept! I am now subscribed. 😊
Seconding this! It would be really cool to play a sorcerer like that. Unfortunately, I'm already committed to playing a standard fighter. However, I am working on a homebrew setting with my friends. Maybe I can work this in. It would also make a pretty good story.
Oh gods this is SUCH a cool concept, and it gives a whole other layer/reason for why sorrcerers exist in the first place (al least those of blood origin , not so much the magical accident ones) if some magical beings conceive children with mortals for this exact purpose! And even sorcerers of other kinds can fit in that model with just slight modifications. This was always the caster class I had a greater difficulty in conceiving their version of lichdom and you did an incredible job, yet again.
My only change would be to make the FigureHead (love the name) less akin to a bloodied Demilich and more like the Necrichor, a sentient blood-ooze from Van Richten´s Guide.
Anygays, muerto de ganas de ver lo que nos traigas en el futuro y muy contento de ver que te va bien y el canal crece ^ ^
Oh, that's perfect. Basically a version of Venom. A parasitic ooze that needs a new host.
@@meeponinthbit3466 Yes! I don't think (or don't remember) the original statblock going in that direction, but that's the way I like to use it; a parasitic remnant of blood magic searching to crawl into a new body
STOP. stop. These ideas are too good. Ahh. My brain is on fire with creativity for the first time in a long time.
I am in the middle of writing a campaign and I had a couple story beads I didn't know how to string together...You have given me so many ideas and basically wrote my campaign for me. I have watched all of your videos and each one instantly spawns an adventure at least in my head. Thank you so much for all your hard work and creativity...Now I just hope my players don't see this...
An additional idea. Since the hierarchy is dead, it would be cool if their blood is finite. Like every time they have a new descendent they loos a little bit of it becoming weaker slowly. But when they have an heir, I order to gain back their power, they have to, you know, get their blood back, by force from all their family. So every few generations a “sudden tragedy” will befall a family, and only one member wil survive to pass on the legacy. Who is obviously the hierarch.
Absolutely love this. It turns the classic trope of the Progenitor Vampire on its head.
Dude you need to eventually turn this lichdom series into a book, I love it and the story potential is endless.
Listen, there are other channels on TH-cam, but your channel is something else, it’s like every one of your videos are just on a different level than everyone else on TH-cam. Love you man
I immediately thought of a story where the Hierarch's heir comes to the party for help, and while some family members are likely too corrupted and will need to die, others can be freed from the Hierarch's iron grip. This is so cool!
Bro, why are your videos such bangers. Now i need a Mistborn inspired campaign with the Lord Ruler being a Hierarch, the nobles his offspring and the Mistborn just really distant relatives product of nobles' affairs 😭
I’ve just finished the mistborn series and this is exactly the sort of set up I pictured. Easily translated into a D&D setting too
I also imagine this Heroic Sorcerer King becoming a Hierarch to keep protecting the realm leading to massive noble families under the influence of a Hero King. Except perhaps the blood soul gets corrupted with time (ya know undead stuff) or the objectives of the Hierarch become too outdated or something leading to the family to try to break their shackles, the people of the kingdom living under an iron fist, perhaps it leads to the Hero King to commit some atrocities in the name of what they think is right and necessary to protect, etc. A lot of interesting stuff could come out of a Hierarch antagonist/character.
I suppose a heroic varient of this could be a hierarch who creates a varient of the ritual so that their heir actually gains the hierarch's powers and status as the new head of the bloodline while the hierarch finally gets to pass on to the afterlife. The difference being that the heir has to be particularly powerful to survive the ritual (much like how the original hierarch had to repeatedly die and get revived to start the process). It could work for a PC with a hierarch family trying to become a proper heir for their heroic ancestor so they can continue the bloodline.
Or perhaps their can be a way for a family member to 'usurp' the hierarch and take the family power for themself.
Imagine being a powerful sorcerer wanting to become a Hierarch SO BAD... But you're sterile.
Blood transfusions.
Or your wife cheated and you dont have real decendents
I love the idea of hierachs since I always loved villains who are part or the head of a big, powerful and very old family (think mafia, vampires or even like cults or whatever), and I also really love imortals who don't act like outsiders to the world they live in, but as central firgures that maybe pull strings in the shadows. (Also both the names "hierarch" and "figurehead" are very well thought imo). I kind of thought you were going to take the route of blood transfusion to keep the philacteries potent, but I think the possession/sacrifice of an heir might be a lot more interesting storywise.
This is going to be a fun plan for the Dhampir Undead Bloodline Sorcerer if they want to embrace undeath fully
This was the missing piece I needed for the campaign I'm writing right now. Just discovered this channel thanks to this video and I feel like I just found a hidden treasure. Amazing work!!
Both the entoner and the heirarch are very cool ideas! Here are a few of my own, feel free to use them or modify them or ignore them entirely!
Warlock - Pretty easy, we already have the deathlocks; undead warlocks who defied a more malevolent patron. But instead of becoming a deathlock for defying a patron, maybe the Lich warlock could be one who performed a ritual involving a sentient sacrifice in honour of their patron, with continued allegiance to their patron and continual sacrifices needed to sustain the undeath.
This would work best with a patron like Orcus, the literal lord of undeath and all that.
Druid (and maybe Ranger I guess) - a Druid who sacrifices their living body in order continue protecting nature. The process could involve burying their body in sacred soil and allowing it to decompose, preserving their consciousness in nature itself. Their new form would manifest as a humanoid body composed of soil, rocks, plants, and other naturey stuff. They cannot leave their site of burial, as their soul would s now tied to that place, and because of this, their power directly corresponds to the state of the local environment, becoming stronger with a thriving ecosystem and withering entirely of it were to be desecrated severely enough.
Paladin - Hear me out, they perform a mummy-like ritual but rise as a suit of Armor animated by their soul, entirely bent on carrying out their god’s will through battle. Their power waxes and wanes with the amount of worship their god receives, pushing them to increase their influence…by any means necessary.
I hope these are inspiring to everyone! Keep up the good work Pointy!!!! We love you!
Like with the warlock, there is already a version of the lich for a druid. It is called a lichen lich if I am not mistaken.
@@sithstormd2703 That's interesting, I know Monkey DM made his own one called the siabrae which I found pretty cool but not in line with the "lich recipe" that Pointy Hat described in this video.
In the past, noble families married relatives to keep their possessions within, a hierarch could do the same, marrying his descendants among themselves, or the family itself could do it alone since they have to gain from it, so he wouldn't need heirs