I really like bees, okay?!

OK, that settles it. This is some kind of scam. Maybe it's trying to hack people's accounts, I don't know.

Like. In a story with only one lich they can look however they like. Typically they make sure to highlight the fact they're undead because self idolisation, god complex, ease of antagonist identification Yadda Yadda. As long as they look kinda skeletal and wizardy it's a win.

But maybe there's a setting with multiple liches. Tens, possibly a society approaching 100+ members. Liches are still people. And people create hierarchy. And how do people subtly indicate position within hierarchy?

Appearance.

On a scale of 'died yesterday, 1000% dedicated to preserving the flesh vessel, #irefusetorot' to 'Pure bones, the sins of the flesh will never touch my form again, channels magic constantly to float instead of break my withered ankles walking everywhere' - where does lich attractiveness lie? Where does power coincide with physical display?

Some that maintain the ability to pass for living human (very skilled and ongoing magic expenditure required, LOUD power display to those who Know and subtle AF to everyone else).

Some that go ALMOST pass-for-living-human but they're not really trying, riding the hell out of that uncanny valley, deliberately terrifying.

Some delighting in the rot, some displaying that they can't be arsed to care what they look like. (These ones disdain each other heavily, despite looking EXACTLY alike to everyone else.)

Some doing the skeleton thing. Some with tendons and a certain amount of preserved muscle, nerve, etc to access movement and feeling the "natural" way, others with spellwork to accomplish the same thing.

Some getting really artsy with it. Gold-plated, jewel-encrusted, carved with runes. Or just painted. Or bedazzled with a literal Amazon bedazzling kit, fuck you, they're Whimsical.

Some going beyond corpse-decoration into magical enhancements. They're a glowing purple cloud obscuring most of their bones. Or they're a glowing purple cloud of bones. Which they pulverized. For the aesthetic. Yes it takes a shitload of magic to make themselves ambulatory this way, what like it's hard?

Some that go back and forth, Mummy (1999) style, from pulverized bone into skeletal fiend into functionally alive-looking human. Either at whim or as their power waxes and wanes.