Dungeons & Dragons’ players have uncovered an uncomfortable truth about a beloved holiday icon.
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Yesterday, a post on the D&D subreddit caused quite a stir on the Internet, as user “KiddBlack” explained why Frosty the Snowman was actually a lich, an immortal undead necromancer bubbling with dark arcane energy.
Liches are one of the more powerful types of monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, while Frosty the Snowman is a beloved holiday icon created by the maker of Peter Cottontail and popularized by the band who turned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer into a Christmas sensation. So how was Frosty’s secret origin discovered? Well, the answers can actually be found in Frosty’s holiday anthem.
“The “old top hat” is a phylactery, when placed upon a suitable snow body allows the lich spirit Frosty to possess his frozen host,” KiddBlack explained on Reddit. The phylactery is the source of a lich’s immortality – an item that houses the lich’s soul so that it can live on even if its body is destroyed.
In order to retain a corporeal form, a lich needs to feed its phylactery a steady diet of souls. However, even that dark ritual is referenced in the “Frosty the Snowman” song. “‘Thumpty thump thump’ is the sounds of bodies hitting the ground as their life forces are drained into the aforementioned phylactery, fueling another chance at winter destruction before the seasons change anew,” KiddBlack explained.
The D&D subreddit seized on the idea of Frosty as a lich and quickly explained some of the creature’s other quirks. For instance, the community decided the coal eyes are merely for show, as liches have true sight and have no need for physical eyes. They also explained Frosty’s yearly movements as a self-preservation mechanism, as he uses a magical gust of wind to blow away his hat in order to continue his reign of terror after destroying his last village.
Someone even wrote up a monster stat block for Frosty, turning the lich into a CR 16 monster that’s perfect for a holiday-themed one-shot.
The whole thread is worth a read, and can serve as a great inspiration for some holiday or winter madness in your next D&D campaign.
