Thu Mar 19, 2015 6:12 am
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Well, the WotC website still has this ecology of the Death Knight article on it. This article says that a death knight's phylactery is known as a "soul weapon."
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The ritual to become a death knight tears the ritual caster’s soul from his body and binds it to the weapon used in the ritual. The ritual caster dies as the living parts of the body are consumed in unholy green fire. From that conflagration rise the soulless bones of the living person, guided by an evil intelligence that no longer needs a brain for its vile thoughts and an endless hatred that no longer requires a heart to drive its dark passion.
A soul weapon is similar to a lich’s phylactery in that the death knight’s soul resides there instead of in its body. But in most other ways, the soul weapon is the opposite of a phylactery. For a lich its phylactery is a weakness that allows its permanent destruction, but the soul weapon is the death knight’s greatest strength. A death knight literally wields its soul as a weapon. The soul weapon's strikes burn with death, and at the death knight's command it can become immaterial, passing through armor and shields to strike at its foes' unprotected flesh.
A death knight need never fear its soul weapon’s destruction, for with a thought the knight can restore the weapon to wholeness and unwholesome power. If the weapon is taken, a death knight becomes weakened and distracted, distraught by the loss of its soul and consumed by the need to recover it. However, no other creature can wield a death knight’s soul weapon without feeling despair, so few can withhold a soul weapon from a death knight indefinitely. |
That said, this doesn't seem to be the case for all death knights. Lord Soth of Krynn's phylactery is the adamantine coffer from which he stole the rod of omniscient wisdom.
From DL16 World of Krynn:
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The adamantite coffer that held the rod bore the inscription “He who removes this artifact from its resting place shall replace it with his soul.” Believing himself on a holy quest, Soth cracked open the coffer lid and peeked inside. He was the only one to see the purple drawstring bag, bearing the five segments of the rod, and 13 gold circlets. He reached in and removed the purple bag. Suddenly, the room became unbearably hot. Soth and his thirteen Knights passed out in a delirium. When they regained consciousness, Soth could not help but wonder if he had just lost his soul. |
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