alright well obviously his army is at least made up of his original villagers (assuming they are), however on page 256 in the middle panel the ghouls also included the shorter cleric as well as the same number of legionnaires he killed in the last page...

so my theory is that whenever Richard kills ANYONE personally they become apart of his army, i think this is part of the curse/spell that turned him into a undead.

also i imagine that before he became Evil his father turned him into an Undead and arranged it so that something terrible would also happen to the Villagers either they became the ghouls or Richard was forced to kill them and make them ghouls to save them from something worse.

after this he killed his father and bound his corpse in the sarcophagus to prevent him from escaping with Richard being forced to return every now and then to strengthen the binding/ replace his strength.

also i imagine that Richard is Weaker then his father and so he is forced to continuously kill people the build up an army strong enough to fight against his father when he does finally break free thus his homicidal tendencies: he kills people, army gets bigger, world is in turn kept safe from his father.

now onto the graves i would imagine they are Richards "fresh" kills magically being transformed into ghouls and he became angry at the clerics because thanks to their blessing the graves the bodys would no longer become ghouls and thus worthless to him.

also the thing with Kethenecia and the word of truth is that Richard might see both as a way to be able to destroy his father/ save the world.

at the same time Richards Father is mentally calling out to Aelloon trying to get him to bring him the sword of truth in exchange for power hence why his rather surprising rise in rank so fast and his abnormal control over forces a commander wouldn’t be expected to have, and this is also the same reason why Richard or the others haven’t been able to kill Aelloon, specifically in the bar there was no reason for Richard not to pull out his skeleton other then the fact that he couldn’t as we all know Richard loves to kill things leaving him alive makes little sense.

Also I think Richards Father has slowly been whipping Richards memory away until recently which is what was making him evil and the selfless act is what broke his control over Richards mind and now the count down to his release is coming

In the End I think the Archmage also knows all of this and all the events in the story will lead up to this point with Richard fighting his father and trying to gain redemption or perhaps peace (in the form of Final Death?).

Fwoo lots of typing sorry if there is already a link for this looked for one didn’t find it there we go.

The big problem with this theory is that his father would not have turned him into an undead. His father apparently did not like his choice of profession as a warlock, so his father would not have used unholy magic.

A few other issues besides the first.

1. Richard is more powerful than anything ever.

2. Under that Reasoning Richards Army would be Much larger.

3. Aellon has no expressed intrest in the tomb, and doesn't seem to have that type of direct power.

4. Then why the hell would he try to protect his fathers tomb by moving it?

5. If his father is stronger, how did he kill him?

nice theory, but has dozens og holes as already pointed out,

my guess is the whole village was cursed by richard after eg. a row with his father, the graves are those of the villagers the curse means that anyone in the village at the time the curse was made con never truely die, the preists blessing the graves would break the curse, thus richard more than normal use of wholesale destruction in defending it, also, anyone killed and left intact enough(this is richard we're talking about) can probably be reanimated as pre normal necromancy, if the preists had managed to consicrate the tomb, that could have destoryed the curse once and for all, returning richard to the moral coil and loosing his powers?

Gosh did you make a rough draft of this XD

I kind of understand where you're coming from (which is a new thing for me)
Like, when Richard visited his father's tomb, he got electrocuted or something.
That could just be a standard greeting for them but...

well first off we dont know what Richard's profession was supposed to be for all we know he wanted to be a musician and his father was the warlock, two the murder for his army idea still could work, i dont think that by blessing them the ghouls became mortal i think they would have noticed and killed the clerics long before that if that was an issue but i could swing to another view ways, two richard might have killed his father AFTER the curse was placed after all Richard gets tired so no reason his father couldn't, 3 the army's numbers could be large indeed due to the fact the line of ghouls going into the sea extended into the distance and at the same time ghouls that are finished being transformed but are being unused could remain dormant in the graves, the fact he wants to move the castle and tomb are two fold: A, he dousnt want someone to find them who could also possibly release his father early, B: one or the other are the source of his power and he fears that someone will again find and destroy it. also i begin to think that the crystal is Richards actual body and that he uses it to posses corpses or rather his actual body is either in the tomb as well or resides in the castle and he uses the crystal to manifest a corporal form to others that can do battle and hypothetically take damage and the real danger is that if the crystal is destroyed he can die but so far the only creatures that have seemed the closest to killing him were the shamans.

also sorry if my writing is...bad english is not my strongest point

meh, i don't know... i personally don't like this theory... sorry m8

thats ok, thats why forums exist to extapolate different ideas right? some ideas are just not for everyone

No, Forums exist to give nerds places where they can talk without embarasing themselves

...yes that is a better answer lol, just like how conventions are the one time we can really dress the way we want to without being considered...well not weird AT the convention on the way sure lol

at any rate i also just thought of something else that makes sense to me i wonder if the tomb has been moved before now for different reasons, also what does anyone think those guardian things outside the tomb were? perhaps other manifestations of Richards power? or perhaps...other family members? Brothers? also we know what happened to his father but what about his mother?