Dracolich

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.
==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. Like other types of lich, a dracolich was only truly annihilated when its phylactery was destroyed.
==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 . Since then, Sammaster and his followers, the Cult of the Dragon, created many more, preparing for the apocalypse they "knew" would come."
After his destruction in the , 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.
==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==
===Gallery===
Dracolich - comics.jpg|An illusion of a dracolich in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comic.
Dracolich - Matt Wilson.jpg|By Matt Wilson
Dracolich - Clyde Caldwell.jpg|By Clyde Caldwell
Daurgothoth - E. M. Gist.jpg|By E. M. Gist
Dracolich mmo.png|A red dragon dracolich from Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Red dracolich.jpg|A dracolich created from a red dragon.
NwN Dracolich.jpg|A dracolich as it appears in the game editor of Neverwinter Nights
Advance_Draco.png|A dracolich from 3DO's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Slayer (1995).
===Appearances===
===Further Reading===
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===References===
===Connections===
de:Drachenleichname
Category:Creature templates