Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW
I mean, on the one hand lich. On the other hand, if you murder the lich you might well get a civil war.
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That's the effect I was going for - yes. The lich could be like a Hari Seldon, propagating its psychohistory on a much larger scale.
("Right, once you've done burying the corpses of the former parasitic aristocratic ruling class, report back to me and we'll get a quorum going. Let's get this anarchy organized.")
This is a rather philosophical dilemma, and one that PCs could very well just choose to ignore. "Yes, our government is dependent on the benevolence - or at least utilitarianism - of a horrific undead eternal overseer from beyond the pale. But you should see how the stagecoaches run on time!"
Another level of potential conflict may be in the lich's relationship to religion. In my campaign, the former religions were largely ineffectual by the time the lich arrived in the realm, making for comparatively easy pickings. The lich set up a nondenominational federation and thought no more about religions... until a creed that it set up started to grant priestly spells.
Now the lich is worried, because the creed was founded specifically to channel theist behavior into more secular tangible focuses. But if something on the divine level is generating spellcasting powers for its faithful, then that gives tantalizing clues to the nature of theogenesis.
The lich is intrigued by the possibility of becoming a divinity, and has begun this research with the same attitude in which it hopes to end its research - by believing in itself.