More than a powerful form of undead, a dracolich was a dragon who had voluntarily tied its soul to a phylactery, freeing itself from death. A type of lich, the creature's spirit could possess any dead reptilian body, usually their original form, and retained all the powers and abilities of the former body. That meant a dracolich had the supernatural fear aura, spells, and breath weapon it had in life, plus the terrible might of the undead.[4]
Powers[]
A dracolich had the strange ability to inhabit the body of any reptilian corpse upon death, though they were at their most powerful when inhabiting the corpse of a dragon. When killed in its corporeal body, the dracolich didn't "die". Instead, its spirit fled and hid in the phylactery, awaiting another suitable body to animate and inhabit.[8] Like other types of lich, a dracolich was only truly annihilated when its phylactery was destroyed.[4]
History[]
The process of becoming a dracolich was discovered by Sammaster the Mad, a fallen Chosen of Mystra, who was inspired after re-translating The Chronicle of Years to Come by the prophet Maglas. He was convinced that Toril would suffer a great apocalypse and "naught will be left save shattered thrones with no rulers. But the dead dragons shall rule the world entire…" Sammaster's first success was with the great red wyrm Shargrailar the Dark in the Year of the Queen's Tears, 902 DR. Since then, Sammaster and his followers, the Cult of the Dragon, created many more, preparing for the apocalypse they "knew" would come."[9]
After his destruction in the Year of the Sinhala, 916 DR, Sammaster somehow resurrected himself on the far-off world of Adenthia, where he hoped to use necromancy and chaos power, a local form of magic, to achieve a chaotic state between life and death without the need for a phylactery for himself and his newly created dracoliches. Sammaster acquired the assistance of a local cult, Penultima, which he turned into a kind of Cult of the Dragon cell. However, their new dracoliches were weakened and prone to madness, rage, and spontaneous disintegration. Mystra sent Elminster to Adenthia to investigate the "diminished" dracoliches terrorizing its southern lands; Elminster suspected that world's chaos power was infecting her own magic. Elminster enlisted the aid of a local adventurer, Gerana, and they tracked the dracoliches to the cult's fortress, where they destroyed Sammaster again and ended the threat of dracoliches on Adenthia.[10]
Notable Dracoliches[]
- Aghazstamn
- Alasklerbanbastos
- Alglaudyx
- Aurgloroasa
- Calathanorgoth
- Cypress
- Daurgothoth
- Dretchroyaster
- Ebondeath
- Hephaestus
- Kistarianth
- Kryonar
- Malygris
- Melauthaur
- Pelendralaar
- Rauglothgor
- Sapphiraktar the Blue
- Saurglyce
- Shargrailar
- Shhuusshuru
- Urshula
- Vix'thra
- Xavarathimius
Appendix[]
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Further Reading[]
- Eric L. Boyd, Eytan Bernstein (August 2006). Dragons of Faerûn. Edited by Beth Griese, Cindi Rice, Kim Mohan. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-3923-0.
- Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 310–312. ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
- Dale Donovan (January 1998). Cult of the Dragon. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
- Richard Pett and Greg A. Vaughan (June 2006). “The Ecology of the Dracolich”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #344 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 84–90.
References[]
- ↑ Ed Greenwood (June 1986). “The Cult of the Dragon”. In Kim Mohan ed. Dragon #110 (TSR, Inc.), p. 110.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins (2014-09-30). Monster Manual 5th edition. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Gray. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0786965614.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert, James Wyatt (June 2008). Monster Manual 4th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-0-7869-4852-9.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Ed Greenwood, Sean K. Reynolds, Skip Williams, Rob Heinsoo (June 2001). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 3rd edition. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 310–312. ISBN 0-7869-1836-5.
- ↑ Andy Collins, James Wyatt, and Skip Williams (November 2003). Draconomicon: The Book of Dragons. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 148–149. ISBN 0-7869-2884-0.
- ↑ Doug Stewart (June 1993). Monstrous Manual. (TSR, Inc), p. 61. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
- ↑ Rodney Thompson, Logan Bonner, Matthew Sernett (November 2010). Monster Vault. Edited by Greg Bilsland et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 66. ISBN 978-0-7869-5631-9.
- ↑ R.A. Salvatore (September 2006). Promise of the Witch-King. (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 22, p. 353. ISBN 0-7869-4073-5.
- ↑ Dale Donovan (January 1998). Cult of the Dragon. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 5. ISBN 0-7869-0709-6.
- ↑ SGRA Studio (2023). Dragonheir: Silent Gods. Nuverse.
Connections[]
Chromatic dragons: Black • Blue • Brown • Gray • Green • Orange • Pink • Purple • Red • Salt • White • Yellow
Gem dragons: Amethyst • Beljuril • Crystal • Emerald • Obsidian • Sapphire • Topaz • Ruby
Neutral dragons: Amber • Jacinth • Moonstone • Pearl
Lung dragons: Chiang lung • Li lung • Lung wang • Pan lung • Shen lung • T'ien lung • Tun mi lung • Yu lung
Ferrous dragons: • Cobalt • Iron
Planar dragons: Adamantine • Astral • Battle • Blight • Chaos • Ethereal • Hellfire wyrm • Howling • Mirage • Oceanus • Pyroclastic • Radiant • Rust • Shadow • Styx • Tarterian
Spelljamming dragons: Moon/lunar • Radiant • Sun/solar
Epic dragons: Force • Prismatic • Time
Catastrophic dragons: Blizzard • Earthquake • Volcanic
Miscellaneous dragons: Cobra • Dzalmus • Mist • Rattelyr • Song • Vishap
Linnorms: Corpse tearer • Dread • Stygian
Drakes: Ambush • Black firedrake • Dragonne • Elemental (Earth • Fire • Ice • Magma • Ooze • Smoke • Water) • Felldrake (Crested • Spitting) • Greater • Guard • Mind • Portal • Rage • Space • Storm • Vulture
Dragonbloods: Draconic creature • Dragonborn of Bahamut • Dragonspawn
Drow-dragon (shadow) • Drow-dragon (deep) • Half-dragon • Kobold (Dragonwrought • Urd) • Weredragon • Zar'ithra • Zekyl
Hybrid monsters: Dracimera • Dracolisk • Mantidrake • Wyvern drake