Emmrich’s choice

The Mourn Watch necromancer Emmrich is The Veilguard’s best marriage of character and faction culture. He is fascinated by death because he has an all-consuming fear of the end. Emmrich’s goal is to become a Lich, an immortal keeper of the dead, willing to watch life begin and end forevermore. But as his personal quests unfold, his assistant Manfred, a reanimated skeleton, is killed in a battle with a rival Lich. Using his powers, he could bring Manfred back, but doing so would disqualify him from achieving the immortality he desires, as it would show an inability to accept death. How can you be immortal and watch everything live and die in an endless cycle if one death of a loved one compels you to defy the natural order? I’ve heard people make cases for allowing Emmrich to become a Lich, but I chose to advise him to bring Manfred back and leave Lichdom behind. The Lich order may believe his inability to leave Manfred behind as a weakness, but I saw it as an asset. It’s proof that he loves too strongly to spend an eternity watching everyone he cares about disappear over and over again. Still, I see the argument for the other side. No other choice in The Veilguard so succinctly nails the companion-first format BioWare wanted while saying so much about the world in the process.