Mellifleur

The Lichlord

Mellifleur
Mellifleur, as depicted in Monster Mythology (1992).
General information
Portfolio:	Lichdom, Magic
Home:	Gehenna/Krangath/Hopelorn or Gehenna/Mungoth/Death's Embrace
Alignment:	Neutral evil
Gender:	Male
Class:	Wizard 25 (avatar)
Superior:	None
Rules items
Domains:	Death, Evil, Luck, Magic

Mellifleur is the god of Lichdom and Magic. His symbol is a crystal vial in a skeletal hand with a ring on its fourth finger.

Description

Mellifleur's features are fairly typical as liches go, though his clean, untorn clothing marks him as more concerned with his personal appearance than most. Green gemstones glow in his eye sockets.

Relationships

Mellifleur is opposed by Nerull, who seeks to recapture and absorb Mellifleur's power. For this reason some neutral good deities will aid Mellifleur on occasion, in the hopes of keeping the forces of Evil divided.

The yugoloth known as Typhus was empowered by a cabal of night hags to defeat Mellifleur's armies back when the lich-god was attempting to seize control of the larva trade.

Realm

Mellifleur's realm of Death's Embrace can be found on the plane of Gehenna. There, he hides many magical phylacteries which can sustain him should he be overcome or magically trapped.

In the 3rd edition Manual of the Planes, Mellifleur is called Mellif and his realm, rising from Gehenna's deepest and darkest furnace, is called Hopelorn. Hopelorn is a mortuary city carved from obsidian where sarcophagi light the streets with a hellish red hue. The tiny slits of windows look out into the dead black landscape. Liches and other undead gather to research the arcane arts and the nature of life and death, dissecting captured fiends in fell experiments. Only yugoloths are avoided, for fear of bringing the wrath of that race down on them in a plane where they are at their strongest.

Dogma

Mellifleur encourages mortals to explore the secrets of life and death, and to ultimately become undead themselves.

Worshippers

Mellifleur is worshipped by some liches. Mellifleur delights in guiding mortal arcanists on the path to undeath, as his own power is increased by each such act.

Myths and legends

Mellifleur was once a mortal wizard (or, as some rumors have it, a yugoloth wizard) who performed the rites to make himself a lich. Due to an unforeseen conjunction of the spheres, however, his ritual tapped into divine forces sent by Nerull, who wished to elevate one of his servants to divinity. Somehow, Mellifleur's magic diverted the power to himself, and so Mellfleur became both a lich and a god in Nerull's minion's stead.

The illithids, who know much that is hidden, tell a somewhat different story, claiming that Mellifleur interrupted not just one such apotheosis but many, usurping the ascension of many gods on many different worlds. Thus, Mellifleur became not just a demigod but a lesser god in one unexpected surge of power. He must therefore oppose the machinations of many outraged gods of evil, not just one.

Bibliography

• Bonny, Edward. "Pox of the Planes." Dragon Annual #2. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1997.

• Boyd, Eric L. Powers & Pantheons. Renton, WA: TSR, 1997.

• Grubb, Jeff, David Noonan, and Bruce Cordell. Manual of the Planes. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001.

• Sargent, Carl. Monster Mythology. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.

• Schneider, F. Wesley. "Forgotten Faiths." Dragon #359. Bellevue, WA: Paizo Publishing, 2007.