Board Thread:Lore Discussion/@comment-60.230.35.86-20140512044045/@comment-16047389-20140618135622

The Dragon Priests are not liches. A lich is created when a mage performs a ritual to remove his own soul from his body, seal it into a protective phylactery, then return the soul back into the body. More importantly, the secrets to becoming a true lich have never been recorded, and can only be passed on by Mannimarco himself. This can be seen in The Path of Transcendence, the notes by which Celedaen documented his transcendence into a lich.

Dragon Priests, on the other hand, had their powers and lives preserved by siphoning off the life forces of the cultists that were buried alive with them. These cultists would, over time, become the Draugr. In fact, it's arguable that the Dragon Priests never truly died at all, as their life force had been sustained through the ages via the constant rituals of their obedient servants. The one exception to this was Hevnoraak, who was closer to actually becoming a lich than the others. Hevnoraak, instead of feeding on the life force of his servants, drained his own blood from his body with the hopes of returning his power back into himself postmortem.