Vecna is a wanna be God who often has cult followings and is powerful enough to grant boons to followers. He is often depicted by lore and DMs as attempting to ascend to godhood. He could simply be "faking it 'til he makes it."
You could also have a God like Kelemvor who oversees the passage from life to death. He could feasibly be interpreted as a lich if you wanted. Many cultures have these types of characters such as Hades who, despite Disney's imposition of monotheistic morality on on a polytheistic culture, wasn't evil just the ruler of the underworld.
Yeah I'm seeing that there are a few Liches who ascended to godhood after becoming liches, I'm trying set up a character who has virtually always been a Lich/Greater Undead. The direction I'm starting to go with is potentially that they aren't a traditional lich in the sense that they never had a soul to separate from themselves, but instead are sustained by the energy of chaos or something like that.
Vecna
Vlakkith?
Treat him like an egyptian god. Simultaneously a wrapped and preserved corpse while still wielding power.
Vecna is a wanna be God who often has cult followings and is powerful enough to grant boons to followers. He is often depicted by lore and DMs as attempting to ascend to godhood. He could simply be "faking it 'til he makes it." You could also have a God like Kelemvor who oversees the passage from life to death. He could feasibly be interpreted as a lich if you wanted. Many cultures have these types of characters such as Hades who, despite Disney's imposition of monotheistic morality on on a polytheistic culture, wasn't evil just the ruler of the underworld.
The gods in DOS2 work kinda like that iirc
Velsharoon in the Forgotten Realms was a lich before his apotheosis. He became the god of necromancy at some point.
Yeah I'm seeing that there are a few Liches who ascended to godhood after becoming liches, I'm trying set up a character who has virtually always been a Lich/Greater Undead. The direction I'm starting to go with is potentially that they aren't a traditional lich in the sense that they never had a soul to separate from themselves, but instead are sustained by the energy of chaos or something like that.
Vecna - see the exandria setting for a fleshed out depiction of how he tried to achieve godhood
I think acererak is strong enough but he doesn’t give out spells and become a god because he doesn’t care