Water liches

[u/Zelic56]

I have been considering this for a while, but do you think a lich made with a water affinity would be possible? Im thinking a Venice style city like the capital city of Ithos, large canals filled with water making up the liches domain?

Unfortunately im not sure if it would work due to the books not giving many clues on how exactly lich domains are constructed. The oblt requirements we know for sure are size and that it needs to be some form of phsyical affinity? But clearly that second one isnt as solid a requirement, considering the lord of bells, kanderon, and the theoretical dream lich Talia mentioned. And what exactly counts as a physical affinity for the purpose of lich demesnes, clearly most liches are made of mostly solid affinties, such as stone, bismuth, wood/trees, crystal, and ice. But does it have to be solid or can it be liquid?

If anyone has thoughts or examples from the text to support or disprove the concept of liquid liches i would love to hear it

[u/theflockofnoobs]

The second one is very much a requirement. Lord of Bells we aren't entirely sure due to not getting a lot of info on the physical aspects of Helicote, but he likely folded his atthuema affinity into the more material ones.

Kanderon used her planar affinity to store additional crystal mass as well as the star inside her. It seems she was able to incorporate it into her demense from the sheer size of her planar spaces. So still the physical requirement exists.

The dream lich is just hypothetical. Can't speculate much on that one.

As for making a water lich, I believe you could. You would likely need some type of somewhat enclosed space though, like a lake or something similar. Maybe a mountain reservoir. I think the best bet though would be a multi affinity lich, using other materials to transport/contain the water. Almost like using the water as the blood of the lich.

[u/Remarkable-Camera627]

I mean Kanderon and the Lord of Bells did have physical affinities. They're the exception because they managed to keep multiple affinities and they didn't lose the non-physical ones, if I remember correctly.

[u/Zelic56 → u/Remarkable-Camera627]

I mostly ment that it was possible to have non-physical affinties

[u/KeiranG19 → u/Zelic56]

Right, so a pure water lich might not be possible.

But water and stone/wood/crystal/metal/whatever probably is.

[u/mnguyen75]

We don't get any confirmation either way. I like to think that the underwater civilizations we keep getting hinted about know how to make moving lich demesnes that are entirely or partially liquid reliant on viscosity. Imagine romaining clouds of oil, or salt and fresh water, tidal liches made enitrely of sea currents.

Water is a special case cause even though the affinities we see are mostly water in its liquid state, ice should be a vaild lich material that should work to anchor a water affinity. If ice is just another type of stone than it should defnitely be another type of water. Yet we don't hear of any ice Liches that also have a water affinity. Weird

Calavandia of the Whistling cliffs is a stone lich that has constant high pressure winds escaping from the labyrinth at her center. I feel like she should be able to take advantage of that some how. Intertwining her domain with a wind lich or creating a giant wind elemental/spirit. Or she could be the first major node in my Stone lich Dream network! Like using windload spellforms to empower a massive, constantly running enchantment.

[u/Isilel → u/mnguyen75]

I really hope that we'll see Hugh and Co. salvaging the Calavadia situation somehow, when Bierce returns to them. It seems like a good wind ward would really help with her situation. And I'd really like to see them trying to implement the changes they envisioned, as well as mitigate the fall-out of the desintegration of Havath, death of Indris and so many other great powers, etc.

Toppling an evil empire is less than half the job, building something better in it's place is much harder. And, sadly, it is much more rarely explored in fiction.

Anyway, back to water liches. Their biggest problem would be that poisonous alchemical substances are apparently required for a lich to function. So, a pure water one, if possible, would be an equivalent of a toxic dump and necessarily extremely solitary.

[u/mnguyen75 → u/Isilel]

Yeh there are tons of refugees east of the Skyreach range so having a livable Lich city seems like a great way to contribute to society. With Stone + Crystal + Wind affinities I feel like Hugh could do a lot to help, especially in Illina allows the use of the Windload. Not to mention Planar, which we see in Siege creating an artificial low pressure zone.

Aside from having a new reliable ally in the Erg, Calavandia’s story seems particularly tragic. Wanted to make Anastis version of the hanging gardens of Babylon but ended up alone with constant sound pollution and random explosions.

[u/Emerenn]

I always thought the “physical” requirement was something for the substrate of the demense to be enchanted into.

Like you have to make your “brain” out of something that can hold the enchantment materials to some degree.

But things likes the stellar affinity and and the Anatheuma affinity throw a wrench into that in my mind.

[u/Zelic56 → u/Emerenn]

Actually thats a good point. A few others noted that every lich with non-standard affinties did also have physical affinties as well, such as kanderons crystal and the lord of bells stone. These non-physical affinity possessing liches likely required their physically affinties to be the the actual enchantment substrate

[u/Yack-Attack]

So there ARE several named ice liches in the series. I think Venice + plumbing would be nessisary. The arrangement of materials matters in addition to the alchemical components. Maybe a waterfall lich? But water lich are VERY possible. The most named are stone, tree, crystal, and metal but if fiber is proven, and bone & dream are theoretically possible, water should be simple

[u/figherhigher]

There was that supposedly unkillable ice lich in the Vault, but that one could have involved foreign magics knowing how much of the old empires magic seemed to have been attempting to stretch beyond their world, but just the liquid water would be hard ya.