fter the Magician has gained mastery over the Lower and Higher Rituals of Necromancy, he shall have sufficient understanding to create the Elixir of Death. This is not to say that the creation must be done immediately upon attaining the background needed to do so. If the Magician is not well-practiced in the Rituals, and a master of the Art, he may fail in attaining the balance of the Elixir, which will produce instead a most fatal mixture, from which no form of spiritual recovery is possible. It is because of this risk of destruction that many Magicians keep themselves from the Elixir until they are of old age and believe the risk of death by that means outweighs the risk of annihilation.

s no two Magicians are alike, no two Elixirs are alike. Each must be brewed by its consumer -- the reagents being researched to meet the needs of the specific Magician's corporeal self -- and thus each Magician that attempts the transformation (Becoming) is responsible for the outcome. Once created, the potency of the Elixir decays rapidly and must be consumed without delay. If the Magician has succeeded in the Ritual of Death, the Becoming shall be complete. If he should fail, however, the outcome may lead to dementia, corporeal collapse, memory loss, permanent disability or, most likely, death.

t the Becoming the Magician sheds his mortal shell and achieves Immortality. He will find no need for food or water or even sleep, for the existence of the Lich is that of Undeath coupled with Consciousness. Although the corporeal form of the Magician will deteriorate, sloughing off flesh and sinew, the skeletal structure of the Lich beneath shall remain intact. Where there was warmth and blood there shall be cold and bone. The Becoming is so complete a transformation that no extraneous aspect of the Magician's corporeal form remains. And though the mind remains intact, the burden of Immortality is great. The Magician who is not strong in his Will to continue will fall prey to depression, madness and eventually suicidal desires. Those that survive the "transformation sickness" shall exist to know the greatest of mortal power.

f the Becoming is a success, the Lich will find that its new form is more durable than the old and cannot be harmed by Negative energy nor can it be poisoned or suffocated. Mentally the Lich cannot be controlled by others nor can its sleepless mind be tamed. Electricity and cold are shrugged off by its new form much as physical assaults are diminished by assuming the form of a Wraith. This said, the Lich will find itself wishing to avoid the holy powers of priests for it is this thing that burns them with the greatest fury. For though the Lich has attained Immortality, its body can still be destroyed and at quite a cost. It is for this reason that the Rituals of Power were developed -- to feed the physical shell the Lich inhabits and keep it from destruction.