#and his reasons for choosing lichdom

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

Leaping across my walls and chewing on the bars of my cage about a romanced lich!emmrich timeline where rook dies and he becomes a super powerful tough boss fight for the next dragon age protagonist. And there's journal pages scattered around the area he's found in, detailing the months leading up to rook's death as well as the excruciating decline in his mental well-being and overall emotional stability following the loss. Maybe it was slow, something that couldn't be stopped but they both saw coming. Some sickness. He obsessed over finding a cure but he couldn't. No one could. And during the fight he has lines where he's just so emotionally fixated on rooks death and he's like "what was the point of it all, without you...." and "if I had just searched harder... longer..." and by the end of the boss fight the fifth protag is like "damn. I dunno if this guy deserved to die... he was pretty fucked up." And then they just move on and never speak of it again. It would be a minor side quest btw. Something that doesn't get much to reminisce about.

Or or or!!!! During the boss fight you get to meet rook. And it's horrible. It's awful. They've become twisted and vengeful and mindless. They're just bones but emmrich has made them glitter and shine with gems and gold and whatnot. But emmrich still just sees them like nothing's changed. He has lines about fixing them and "working out the kinks" or something. They're really annoying because their attacks are fast and hard to dodge. And they leap all over. Like an attack dog. Like a beast.

[crow-of-paradise]

THIRD WEEKEND (what day is it) ROOK PIC DUMP!!

I had a long weekend lol with not as much DATV as I would have preferred!

I am loving all the Assan parenting outings, I only expected one!! and since he is now the Only Son due to Reasons 🥲 I have grown ever fonder.

ALSO THE HARDING QUEEEEST!!! I think it hits extra hard when your Rook is an elf. I actually felt the choice where she prioritizes her connection with others and her loved ones to be more compelling than taking on the Titans’ anger so that’s what I chose! I do wanna see how both play out. But also her embroidered inquisition armor WAS SO STINKIN’ CUTE.

As a side note, Harding is Rook’s BESTIE. There are some absolutely beautiful portrayals of platonic intimacy between them that I don’t see as much from the others and I live and die for that shit. So happy BioWare didn’t skimp on the nonromantic affection. I’ve got some gifsets I’m hankering to make!

PEOPLE ARE HOOKING UP ALL AROUND ME AND I LOVE IT. And the way that flirty rook just fits in so perfectly (having nearly kissed them BOTH prior to this!!!) with their dynamic, I will be PISSED if I don’t see some OT3 fic!!!

Solas dynamics my beloved 🫶🏻

[persephonescabin]

So my reason for feeling in the wrong by making Emmrich a Lich is simply this. It's not about death or his fear of it or needing to overcome it. It's about his loneliness.

When you are at the point of solidifying your relationship, Emmrich "introduces you" to his parents. Of all the options for responses to his "I wonder what they would have wanted for me" the option you choose to commit to a romance with him is "for you to never be lonely"

And that's true. No parent would wish an eternity of being alone on their child. I felt that I had made them a promise. This man would always have someone in their corner from that moment on.

When you make him a lich, you guarantee that he will live an eternity...alone. Mortal Emmrich could never comprehend the consequences.

It's not about Manfred. It's not about his fear of death. Reframe it to the perspective of a parent. You are literally abandoning him by choosing Lichdom.

[feyunir]

Continuing on from my previous post about which path you would choose for Emmrich. I would like to talk about something about Lich Emmrich that I think is extremely cute, and I haven't seen anyone else talk about.

Right out of the gate of the Lichdom ceremony, Emmrich will immediately start referring to Rook as "My love". He will occasionally still say Rook/dearest/darling, but for the most part he will say My love.

The only time I know human Emmrich say My love, it in the pre-coffin moment where human and glamour lich Emmrich share the same cutscene. I'm going to stomp my feet and say this cutscene was at one time during development intended to be for Lich Emmrich only. (I'm not talking about the kissing part. Only the choise where he sais my love. If human Emmy wants to tumble in the coffin I'm 100% on board.)

Human Emmrich is still very cute, don't get me wrong. I love him dearly too. Like he will say he is the luckiest man alive while Lich Emmrich say he will cherish the memory into eternity. They're sweet in different ways.

As for why this change in his affection? I have made up my own canon for it. It's based on his confession to being able to see Rook's life "like a thread of diamond flame". In my canon he can see more - namely Rooks emotional state. He can see Rooks affection for him, and as a result his love skyrockets. He is safe in the knowledge that he is loved.

I'd love to hear what you think is the reason for this change. Could it be his lack of flesh that makes him compensate with words? Or maybe it wasn't the real Emmrich that came back after all? What is your theory?

[jaal-ama-daravv]

You’ve done the deep dives, and considered a good number of elements in your study of Emmrich’s romance… so my question is… for a romanced Emmrich, of course…

At the point of making the decision, if Emmrich was making it autonomously, would he choose to remain mortal or become a Lichlord?

And why?

When I read this at 6:00am yesterday I sat like this for a good 20 minutes before passing out, contemplating -

And I think I have an answer for you.

Romanced Rook

With a romanced Rook, I think (and yes of course a developer, and RPG decision, but outside of that -) a romanced Rook x Emmrich and this decision is actually an important part of their dynamic. We think back to the graveyard scene, the one where you can discuss lichdom and commit to his romance. He specifically states that he will inform Rook before making any decision and gather their input, as Emmrich will consider a romanced Rook a 'close family member'.

I believe Emmrich is also looking for that validation. We know how 'fast' a romanced Emmrich and Rook can progress in their relationship because they are perceived outside of their relationship to be two fools in love. I think Emmrich is asking Rook as a form of, what do I do? What are you okay with? I think Emmrich may believe that Rook knows him better than he knows himself at that point in time. Rook mirrors his fears too. Emmrich has a fear of death, Rook a fear of failure.

All in all i think Emmrich seeks out Rook's advice because he loves them and I think that's important.

The Decision

This is quite a difficult decision, but if we look at the dialogue during each choice in that scene, I believe if Emmrich was making the decisons autonomously, he would choose mortality. I say this because when you choose lichdom as Emmrich's decision path, the reasoning for choosing it is "you are well equipped to deal with lichdom emmrich". I beg your finest pardon but in what universe is he well equipped. He did not in a mere FEW HOURS, get over the fear death. He could barely hold up the lantern untill Rook encouraged him and manfred showed him what courage is. I think pure love and courage that was shown to him would factor into his own decision. Additionally, if you choose the mortal decision of resurrecting manfred, he requires far less 'convinving' and Rook offers simple guidance, "oh ya know things maight be easier: compared to "youre well equipped do it".

All in all, I think he would, in his decision, choose mortality. Simply because Emmrich has his life now, his family, and he can see that. You can see that in the final boss fight with Hezenkoss. He chose to be courageous. Lichdom was his way to escape his fears, not transcend them in the name of love.

[msunitedstatesjames]

I just finished up most of Emmrich's companion quests and oh my god that was amazing. I chose the human ending, and I loved it. Once again, my favorite string of scenes yet in the game.

First of all, Emmrich's voice actor did amazing. Like, wow. We've heard Emmrich be the self assured academic, we've heard him be anxious, we've even heard him be angry, but we got whole new shades of Emmrich in the final Hezenkoss confrontation and Lich choice scenes. We got outrage, we got desperation, we got grief and pain. When Emmrich first tries to stop the lantern and realizes it could kill him, when he begs Manfred to come back as he goes after the lantern, when he begs him to come back again when he searches for his spirit, when he admits that he wouldn't trade Lichdom for having Manfred back, it's all so movingly acted. And you can't forget the "Magic, like you" joy. It can be easy for video games to make you feel excited or interested or generally just content, but feeling joy and grief are harder, and this string of quests pulled it off beautifully, largely because of the voice acting and also the character writing.

I found Emmrich's animation to be really good in these scenes as well. He does a lot of dramatic gesturing, and for whatever reason it just really worked for me. The way he gestures when pleading with Hezenkoss and admitting she was right was great. The hug when Manfred was back was adorable. The look on his face when he realizes he's talking about Manfred like a child was precious. But the one that really got me was when Manfred "dies," and Emmrich puts his hands over his face with that look of utter disbelief and horror. Seeing Emmrich look like that, when he's always so put together, really hits hard.

The little romance moments were great, too. Having Hezenkoss be so pissed off that Emmrich has a lover is gratifying. Rook getting called his "paramour" was amusing. Also, I have to give Hezenkoss some props for at least admitting she would have entombed Rook and Emmrich together when she killed them. That's really a pretty decent thing for a villain to promise, like, she didn't have to do that. It was nice to be able to stand up for Emmrich, too. And that you got to help him make his big decision. But of course the sprinkle on top of this delightful cake was getting to surprise Emmrich into realizing that you're parenting together. How many other Dragon Age couples get to parent together? Only a few that I can think of.

Emmrich's character growth was stunning too. He has to acknowledge that, at least in one way, Hezenkoss was better than him. He admits that he misses her friendship. He has to face down his greatest fear, death, more than once, and while doing so choose the lives of others above his own in a very real way. First he chooses to risk himself to save Hezenkoss's enemies, and Rook, and Nevarra City. Then, he literally chooses eventual death in order to save Manfred. He also realizes that he was stronger than he believed himself to be, both in magic and in courage. And in the end he can admit that though he has regrets, he knows he made the right choice. I haven't played or watched the other ending, but it feels right somehow for Emmrich to embrace his deep compassion this way.

As for Hezenkoss, there's a certain poetic justice to her being ended by a ragtag team of Emmrich's "ridiculous skeleton," Emmrich's lover, spirits she personally tormented, and her former friend turned foil, Emmrich the death fearing necromancer. I still love her as a whacky villain. Who knows what evils her escaped undead hand is getting up to now?

If I haven't blabbed enough about how amazing these quests were, they were also just the most exhilarating in the game for me so far. I think all of the reasons listed above just combined really well together to make this quest super suspenseful. I really cared about Emmrich as a character, so I really cared about his fate. Even though you logically knew he wouldn't die in this quest, it still felt very high stakes. There was exciting music, dozens of lives at stake including Emmrich and Manfred, and as I've mentioned before, top tier voice acting. I was gasping and kicking my feet in excitement at all the right moments. It strings you right along from suspense, to excitement, to dread, to shock, to triumph, to grief, to joy, to a pleasant contentment.

I couldn't stop playing this string of quests, which was extremely unfortunate for Bellara because right before this she told Rook they needed to go after her brother immediately, and then I instead forced her to tag along and help Rook defeat her boyfriend's rival.

Anyway, I'm still reeling from the excitement of it all. I hope the end of this game is really good because it's gonna be hard to live up to this bunch of quests.

(Sidenote: How horrified would the Southern Templars be to find out an extremely powerful death mage, his Spelblade Tevinter mage girlfriend, and their reanimated skeleton son (inhabited by a spirit of curiosity and gifted with death magic) are running around Thedas fighting gods?)

[mocksfate]

choices, choices ... these are not definitive, as i do need to play the game with abrielle a second time to be sure, but here's what i have so far ! (spoilers under the cut)

she talked down the barkeeper. ( she's charming and often uses her charm. if there's a chance to talk rather than choosing violence, she will. )

agreed to let varric try to talk solas down.

asked harding to come & help her disrupt the ritual.

sassy -> sympathetic attitude given to solas almost until the end.

left the mayor to his fate. ( believer of karmic justice )

saved treviso ( no brainer. despite being born in orlais, antiva is her home )

reasoned with the first warden ( talking over violence as mentioned above )

helped with everyone's problems: - harding: stayed true to herself. - bellara: buried the secrets of the ancient elves ( after character development, abrie believes one's past shouldn't dictate one's future ) - lucanis: saved illario (?) ( i'm. so torn on this one bc luc and abrie both had/have a caterina, except the caterina is the one who betrayed abrie. yet she still loves her!! like she loves emil, right? so idk. idk im v torn ) - neve: became the hero minrathous/dock town needed ( highly suggested not to make her same mistakes ) - emmrich: unromanced - pursued lichdom ( it's her high risk & high reward mentality ) romanced - brought manfred back ( because she became mushy :\ ) - davrin: the griffons became arlathan's new guardians ( again, promoting new beginnings and second routes ) - taash: embraced their rivaini side.

bellara got caught by elgar'nan but survived in the end.

davrin lead the other team since she believed his expertise against darkspawn could have given them the upper hand. his death devastated her. davrin was the member of the veilguard whom got the 'fils/son' nickname. if abrie ever had a child, she'd want them to be like davrin. SO YOU CAN IMAGINE.

whilist devoided of hope at first, the fade prison is what gave abrie the push she needed to move forward. facing her regrets and coming to terms with herself, who she is, what she did and what she will do got her outta there.

had a feeling about varric in the back of her head, but always pushed that thought away because she didn't want to face the truth.

all factions helped & everyone else survived till the end.

okay. nora is a s0lavellan and nora wanted to see solas & lavellan be happy.............. but abrielle would choose the tricking him ending lmfaooooooo no regrets whatsoever. karma, baby!

[teiasviago]

“choosing whether to make emmrich a lich is so hard 😫” not for me! ☝️ nobody needs to live forever! don’t care that he “really wants it” and has spent years studying for it, it’s never too late to change the course of your life and recalibrate your priorities. i don’t think he really wanted lichdom bc his big reason is avoiding death—assisting future watchers and safeguarding the necropolis are secondary for emmrich. letting him become a lich is delicious but also means he succumbs to his fear of dying instead of learn to accept it and live fearlessly anyways.

[supoctosss]

Emmerich personal quest spoilers :)

Just wanted to share my thoughts on choosing Emmrich Lich vs Manfred ending; I chose Manfred for multiple reasons, one being bc I LOVE Manfred, two being my Rook does not trust necromancy at all, but the biggest reason is bc I don’t think it’s what Emmrich truly wants

Very early on we are introduced that Emmrich has a deep fear of dying, it haunts him and he finds himself freaking out over it during random times. We are then introduced to Lichdom, it keeps mages immortal. This is Emmrichs dream, he has strived for this since he first found out about it. He even talks about how it would make him feel better with his fear of dying.

This is not a healthy way of thinking, not only is this completely avoiding something that is totally natural so he doesn’t have to think about his worries anymore, he is all sacrificing something he deeply cares for about it (Manfred). I think Emmrich becoming a Lich would only cause Emmrich to further retreat into his fear, instead of embracing the life he has left.

I am obviously not saying it’s a BAD choice, I think you can very easily love Lichdom Emmrich, I just think it’s not necessarily “pushing Emmrich to do what he wants” and more “letting Emmrich give into his fears”

Anyways, that’s my ramble of the day:) and I DID do both endings, (I made him a Lich then ran around with him for several hours before changing it) and I just found Emmrich having Manfred gave him the closure that I was looking for in his character

[darklordazalin]

Been following you on Twitter for a while and now here and I was wondering what drew you to Azalin?

I know I’m not as active as I once so, so thank you for the continual support! Well, the reason I started the Azalin account was because I’m friends with the person behind the StrahdVonZ account on Twitter and he was, quite often, making fun of my favorite lich as Strahd, so I thought it would be fun to join in on the nonsense. In general, Azalin was one of the first characters I read a novel about that I identified with on many levels. His introverted nature, love of learning, and mostly asexual nature are very similar to my own. I also recognized my own faults within him - my tendency to judge others for their ignorance, need to have detailed plans and control of all aspects of my life, and my antisocial tendencies. I find him very interesting as a character. Imagine knowing you’re cursed to never be able to learn a new spell, yet you take the time every single day to test it. Every single day for centuries. That just speaks volumes about Azalin’s nature to never give up (and frankly a bit on the crazy side). Also, he’s a rather unique sort of lich. For one, he’s clearly guided by emotions more often than he would ever admit and for another, he did not choose lichdom. He became a lich because the Dark Powers tricked him into following their instructions to become one in order to return his son from the dead. The majority of liches become so because they sought it out specifically and wanted to for the power alone. 

[honored-worm-king]

You're able to get drunk? Does being a lich not affect your ability to consume things like that? Does it cause any other regular inconveniences?

Judging by the horrendous hangover I suffered not so very long ago, yes, I am very able to get drunk.

As I have recently remarked, my own state is... complicated. Simple lichdom is perhaps not the most accurate term, though I am not exactly an ordinary mer any longer either. But, since you have asked: I have not yet discovered any great shortcomings to my new vessel. I am capable of eating and drinking as normal, and my body will process it. I also still require some amount of sleep. In fact, the periodic deprivation of each of these things were all torture methods utilized by Bal and his Dremora at some point.

But I digress. My new form appears to have been constructed specifically to mimic my mortal one as closely as possible, so no, I have not yet determined any daily inconveniences. Though, were I to ascend as a fully-fledged lich, I would no longer require food, drink, or sleep; your guess is quite correct in that manner. Indulging in such things would be for my own enjoyment at that point, rather than for sustenance, assuming I would retain my capabilities to process them. And, should I choose to make that ascension in the near future, the process will likely be made all the simpler, considering that my soul has already been pulled from its shell and forced into a new one once.

In fact, I see little reason not to fully complete the process, once I can make proper arrangements. But I am in no great hurry.

[edward-little]

billy gibson

stewards are funny ones because they’re clearly support builds by necessity, but we don’t really ever see them in a situation comparable to combat. with gibson, though, at least we know he has no AC to speak of, seeing as he’s got nothing but his shirtsleeves between his back and hickey’s knife.

i’d like to start with stats for him. for physical stats, he doesn’t have much-- supposing we’re going with point buy for stat allocation, i would say strength is his dump stat and dexterity is only barely there. being a steward, he would have fair/good charisma-- not necessarily for being a people person, but more for navigating the social waters. he does not fool irving at all when he walks in on him and hickey in the orlop, but manages to salvage it by pinning the blame mostly on hickey, so i wouldn’t say that it points to proficiency in deception, but to reasonable enough charisma to let his lie pass. hickey also tells him to unbutton his ears, so that points either to particularly high wisdom with proficiency in perception or to particularly high intelligence with proficiency in investigation, and i would rule that eavesdropping without actively rooting around for answers would fall under the jurisdiction of perception. that’s not to say his intelligence is low, though. here’s the starting stat array i’ve got for him:

STR 8; DEX 10; CON 12; INT 15; WIS 15; CHA 16

his highest stat is charisma, followed by intelligence and wisdom, but i already had him as some kind of spellcaster. i’m loathe to give this cooked spaghetti noodle of a man any armor proficiency, which narrows the class selection down to either sorcerer or wizard. the question then is which stat would we expect to raise over time? i doubt he would get more charismatic, and being part of the mutiny, hickey already has charisma covered. intelligence is the hole that needs caulking; gibson’s a wizard. he gets proficiency in insight and investigation, and we move on to the subclass.

with wizards, we have many different schools to choose from: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, transmutation, and war magic. the man already looks like he’s got a foot in death’s door even in the first few episodes. necromancy (with the possibility of lichdom?) wouldn’t be a stretch. he also gets eaten, which points to letting the dead stay dead, even if they wouldn’t necessarily become another mouth to feed. war magic gives him what is, in my opinion, too much of a defensive bonus, with the possibility of retaliation, and so does abjuration.

this is the dumbass stretch of the century, but he starts off as a person and becomes food. the fading boundary between person(/living thing) and resource in a survival situation stands out to me. not to mention the role of a steward is basically the ship’s resident turd-polisher. for those reasons, i would make gibson a Transmutation Wizard, provided he never reaches past 10th level.

(also, the idea of gibson being able to polymorph himself into a rat is very amusing to me.)

[andsotheuniverseended]

For the OC asks: #50 for all of them >:)

you looked at my tags and went “screw choosing, imma make u answer the saddest question about each of your beloved dnd characters” and, honestly? i respect you for it. lets do this.

50. If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count? 

Scalia, my necromancer/warlock tiefling: she has... kind of faced this situation before? In that she once sold her soul to a demon and assumed it would be devoured when she died (he actually already took it from her, she ended up getting it back, long story). As she was unknowingly soulless at the time, she ‘coped’ with drugs and drinking and partying. Hard. All the time. So I think that would be her answer if faced with inevitable death while soulless. With her soul, I think her first thought would be to hide any and all evidence of it from the people around her, while also making preparations for after she’s gone. Writing letters for them to find, deciding who gets what, and who’s gonna look after Coaguilini (her lil blood goblin familiar, he’s adorable). And then she’d drink, make a last-ditch effort to make a deal with some kind of higher power, before slipping away in the night to go to her sister’s grave. Yeah, she’s the most depressing of my characters.

Cephas the golem witch: they are a kind of special situation, as they’re a living spirit tied to a stone body. They don’t remember their first life, only the one they’ve lived while a golem. So for them, death isn’t really a scary thing or something to be dreaded. They’re already on borrowed time, and they’ve had a whole ton of it, and made some great friends and even found a family. So they would make their last days count by going home to their best friend, and praying to their god. Of course if their god, Ska’al, gave them an idea of how to stick around, or their best friend had an idea, they would pursue it. But with no alternatives, they would accept that death is coming and make sure to tell everyone around them how much they love them. Plus, after all this time, they’re kind of excited to see what the afterlife (or lack thereof) is like. During their first years as a golem they were brainwashed to obey a man who made them kill a lot of people, so they’ve always wondered if those souls ended up somewhere peaceful afterward.

Jorie Jackson-Eventide, aka JJ, a half-orc druid: she would definitely be one to try and find a way around it. She’s only 19, verging on 20, and her parents went through a lot to have her, including the fact that their first daughter died when she was only a couple months old. When JJ told them she wanted to travel and adventure they were very against it, but she managed to convince them. So if there was imminent death, there’s no way she would just accept it, especially for her parent’s sake. She also believes that life is precious and worth defending, and that includes her own. So she would drag her party members all over trying to find a way out. If the moment came, however, and there was no way... She would tell Eali and Lasaer (the other party members as of right now, who she considers to be family) how much she loves them, and she would ask them to take her body (if there is one) back home to her parents. Actually, JJ would have a few people she’d want them to talk to, and tell about her death. And I firmly believe that she would be scared to die, she wouldn’t want to, but she’d do her best to smile while it happened anyway.

Cledwyn, goblin paladin: my darling Wyn is already a cranky little ball of adorable. The idea of a death that she couldn’t avoid no matter what would just make her angry, especially with the lessons she’s learned recently. In fact, there was a whole vision from her god, Savros, that told her not to confine herself to just one path. There are always options, always places to go. He looks over the big picture and can see the future, but it is something that she is also making in the moment depending on her situations. The idea that this death is unavoidable would make her angry, and she would refuse to believe it. No matter how dire the stakes, there’s always a chance. So she wouldn’t say goodbye to anyone, wouldn’t prepare for the end. She would face it stubbornly and say “no. not today, not ever”. 

Nobody, a tortle fighter/barbarian/paladin-to-be: my DM just had a god offer him a job as an in-universe reason for me to add a level of paladin, but i havent gotten to the actual leveling up part yet, so for now he’s a servant of Bahamut in name only. And he is the dumbest of all my characters. That’s not a bad thing, and he’s well aware that he isn’t smart and doesnt understand a lot of things, but he’s also the sweetest and kindest member of the party. Due to a curse when he was young, he accidentally wandered away from his family and never found them again, so he lived alone in a swamp for nearly 200 years before deciding to go out into the world and make some new memories before his time was up. Recently he’s been given the location of his family, and the whole party has been on a journey to the place where they live. so i think if, right now, he had to face death, he would spend his last days pushing as hard as he could to get home first. and if that was impossible, he’d tell the party to go there in his stead and tell his family what happened to him. i dont think he’d have any ideas for how to put it off or avoid it, though the other party members would probably come up with some things. if they didnt get in the way of getting to his family, he’d be game to try anything with what time he had left. if this happened after he finally had closure with his family, i honestly think he’d accept it calmly. he’s already very old, and part of the reason he left his isolation was because his natural life span was coming to a close anyway. knowing exactly when and how its going to happen wouldnt change much for him, other than giving him a chance to spend quality time with all the people that are important to him to say goodbye. and then he’d walk to death and give it a hug, and introduce himself as a new friend.

Cinaed, dwarven cleric/ranger: oh my darling... the only evil-aligned character i play. for him, it would depend heavily on why he was dying. if it was in service of his goddess in any way, he would be honored. he would think of it as the only right thing to do and would be ecstatic that he was chosen for something so important. and he would expect the others around him to see it the same way as well, and to celebrate with him. if it weren’t in service to his goddess, however, he would definitely try to find a way out of it through any means possible. any means. including turning to all kinds of dark magic, lichdom, or anything similar. he cannot die with his mission unfulfilled, not unless the goddess herself wishes it. serving her is much more important than his own life force or soul. his last days would be spent praying and fighting.

send me an oc ask or anything really

[profoundlyfaded]

Thank you for answering!

I came to the same conclusion, with similar reasoning - yes, the fear of dying is probably the biggest aspect, but I had other factors both influenced by the romance and out of it but linked.

What I love about the idea of Lichdom in this game is that it’s not something evil. You have to have a moral conscience to survive the sifting of the soul, and I think deep down that Emmrich doesn’t think he’s good enough for it - I’ve mentioned it before when I added those thoughts to your post about the Harding dialogue - he’s been ridiculed and received scorn for coming from poorer means. That sort of thing leaves a mark on the mind no matter how much you rise. Simply, he fears death and fears he is not good enough through deep buried shame.

At this point in his life, I don’t think a non-romanced Emmrich would choose Lichdom either. The implication I get is that he already has the right to undergo the final rites and has been putting it off. It feels to me that he if he hadn’t left with Rook, he’d have waited to attempt the final rites until he was on his death bed - the last chance to avoid eternal death, and more time to stock up on being mentally worthy.

Within the romanced storyline, I think another reason that Emmrich would chose mortality is because even if you say you’re okay with Lichdom (that said, I don’t know how this conversation looks for a non-Mourn Watch Rook), I don’t think he would actually take that at face value. I actually think he would be held back by the consideration that loving an entity of dead flesh and bone, would be a step too far. He’s at great pains to tell Rook that the usual rules don’t apply - which basically translated as ‘it’s not classed as necrophilia, darling, I’ll have a soul’. So clearly, there is a rule that you don’t engage in romantic relationships with the undead - probably why he’s so pissed off with Taash for calling him a skull fucker; it’s abhorrent.

That fear of Lichdom being a step too far is represented in the crypt scene after The Fade in the Lich Path; they’re in private but he’s in mortal form. My initial, raw analysis of that was he was giving Rook comfort with the familiarity of the face they fell in love with but no, the decision to appear mortal is about him and his feelings. He thinks Rook’s feelings have diminished and there is the gentle push away when he tells them they need to rest because he’s bracing himself for the end. I suspect there is a part of romanced Lich-Emmrich who might consider the relationship close to the moral line of the aforementioned abhorrence.

As an over thinker, romanced Emmrich would have probably considered this in the abstract and would have been another barrier for him in choosing Lichdom. He will do anything to keep Rook, even face his greatest fear and put aside his life’s work to keep them.

As an aside, it’s quiet funny really that if you go down the Lichdom route, you are quiet possibly unleashing pure, unbridled chaos if Emmrich is romanced. He’s so polished and comes across as beyond reproach - you think to yourself, he’s a guy who can handle the responsibility of watching over the world for eternity…. Nothing could possibly go wrong here…

You’ve done the deep dives, and considered a good number of elements in your study of Emmrich’s romance… so my question is… for a romanced Emmrich, of course…

At the point of making the decision, if Emmrich was making it autonomously, would he choose to remain mortal or become a Lichlord?

And why?

When I read this at 6:00am yesterday I sat like this for a good 20 minutes before passing out, contemplating -

And I think I have an answer for you.

Romanced Rook

With a romanced Rook, I think (and yes of course a developer, and RPG decision, but outside of that -) a romanced Rook x Emmrich and this decision is actually an important part of their dynamic. We think back to the graveyard scene, the one where you can discuss lichdom and commit to his romance. He specifically states that he will inform Rook before making any decision and gather their input, as Emmrich will consider a romanced Rook a 'close family member'.

I believe Emmrich is also looking for that validation. We know how 'fast' a romanced Emmrich and Rook can progress in their relationship because they are perceived outside of their relationship to be two fools in love. I think Emmrich is asking Rook as a form of, what do I do? What are you okay with? I think Emmrich may believe that Rook knows him better than he knows himself at that point in time. Rook mirrors his fears too. Emmrich has a fear of death, Rook a fear of failure.

All in all i think Emmrich seeks out Rook's advice because he loves them and I think that's important.

The Decision

This is quite a difficult decision, but if we look at the dialogue during each choice in that scene, I believe if Emmrich was making the decisons autonomously, he would choose mortality. I say this because when you choose lichdom as Emmrich's decision path, the reasoning for choosing it is "you are well equipped to deal with lichdom emmrich". I beg your finest pardon but in what universe is he well equipped. He did not in a mere FEW HOURS, get over the fear death. He could barely hold up the lantern untill Rook encouraged him and manfred showed him what courage is. I think pure love and courage that was shown to him would factor into his own decision. Additionally, if you choose the mortal decision of resurrecting manfred, he requires far less 'convinving' and Rook offers simple guidance, "oh ya know things maight be easier: compared to "youre well equipped do it".

All in all, I think he would, in his decision, choose mortality. Simply because Emmrich has his life now, his family, and he can see that. You can see that in the final boss fight with Hezenkoss. He chose to be courageous. Lichdom was his way to escape his fears, not transcend them in the name of love.