Vecna

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In in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign settings of Ravenloft and Greyhawk, Vecna, is a lich raised to godhood as the deity of secrets and magic. Vecna is also known variously as the Maimed Lord, the Chained God, the Whispered One, Master of the Spider Throne, the God of Secrets,[1] and the Master of All That is Secret and Hidden.[2][3]

Vecna was formerly the darklord of Cavitius, until his escape in Die Vecna Die. He was served by the The Church of Vecna. He is the eternal enemy of Kas.[4] and Iuz.[1] Since Vecna's failure to take over the multiverse through seizing Sigil, Vecna is also an enemy of the Lady of Pain.[1] Two powerful artifacts, the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna, were body parts cut from his mortal body by Kas prior to his rise to godhood. He created the Sword of Kas for his former lieutenant Kas.[5]

History

Born in the far ancient past of the Flaeness region of Oerth, Vecna became a wizard likely unparalleled in power within his own time.[6] His evil was infinite too, for he mastered the vilest sorts of magical arts. He built a mighty empire and ruled with fear and oppression, purportedly laying waste to entire lands and breeding entire communities as stock for his magical research and necromancy. Although the exact extent may never be known, the havoc and tyranny wrought by Vecna and his forces extended to entire continents.[7] To forestall death of old age, Vecna transformed himself not just into a lich but one of the most potent of all time. In undeath, he continued to rule.

Vecna's Lieutenants

According to Menadora Zarovan, Vecna's obsession with secrets came from a betrayal of one of his trusted underlings, the lich Acerak, the creator of thee Tomb of Horrors. Acererak wrested the secret to lichdom from Vecna and, after gathering power behind Vecna's back, broke away. Vecna became determined never to let those in his command steal away his secrets again.[8]

Yet for all his power and paranoia, Vecna's reach eventually proved too far for him to reign unassisted. Another figure, a ruthless soldier by the name of Kas, rose to prominence among Vecna's followers, and Vecna rewarded the dread knight's service with the Sword of Kas, an artifact Vecna personally created.[9] The blade equaled its creator's evil[9] for Vecna infused it with a sliver of his own mind and soul[10][11] Although an apparent gift to Kas, the Sword of Kas served a second, secret function: to alert Vecna of Kas' thoughts. Vecna would not suffer another betrayer like Acererak.[11]

Vecna believed the Sword of Kas rendered Vecna immune to unseen betrayal by his right-hand man. However, Vecna may have outdone himself in placing his ambition into the blade, for it began to sublely place thoughts of betrayal and rebellion into Kas' mind while masking Kas' thoughts to Vecna.[11] Kas eventually acted on the Sword's manipulation, violently attacking Vecna[9][10][11] at the worst possible time: when Vecna was in the middle of arcane rituals intended to render him a god.[11] In the ensuing conflict, Kas cut out Vecna's eye and hand, which were, along with the Sword, the only things seemingly spared in the ensuing cataclysm that claimed not only Kas and Vecna but also all of Vecna's tower.[12]

Rise as a God

It has been said alternatively that the blast killed Vecna[12] or that it merely tossed him into a nebulous void outside of space and time.[13] Either way, the legend of Vecna did not follow him peacefully to the grave, but rather festered over hundreds of years, to where he became venerated and prayed to as a god. Vecna eventually received enough worship to come back as a true god.[12][13]

Yet Vecna's thirst for power stopped not at being a demigod, for he schemed for he hatched a scheme to remake all of Oerth in his image. The attempt was foiled by the intervention of adventurers and Vecna's old enemy Iuz the Old. In the ensuing struggle between Vecna and Iuz, both demigods were driven through a portal to places elsewhere[14]

In Ravenloft

The manifestation of Vecna's avatar upon Oerth allowed the connection to the Material Plane the Dark Powers needed to capture Vecna and bind him to the domain of Cavitius, with Kas trapped in the neighboring domain of Tovag. For a time, the two domains fought an endless war as proxies for the mutual hatred their darklords shared. Although Vecna raged against his apparent captors for a time ignorant of them[12], he was quick to learn the secrets of the Demiplane of Dread. Fed secrets of the Three Words of Creation through his connection with the Serpent, Vecna planned an escape attempt by being reborn into a new [[body] in Tovag.[15] Vocar the Obedient, the leader of Vecna's cult in Tovag, was to perform the needed rituals. However, the plan ultimately failed thanks again to the intervention of adventurers.[16]

Despite his first failure, Vecna's dreams of escape were not to end, thanks to the coming of Iuz to Cavitius. In one of his plans to become a god during his time on Oerth, Vecna had imagined the sacrifice of an existing demipower. Vecna left behind a lure of a power-stealing ritual to bring such a being to him. While Vecna was in the Demiplane of Dread, Iuz came about the lure and, convinced he could use the ritual to steal Vecna's power, invaded Cavitius through a portal from Oerth. However, Vecna instead devoured Iuz and his power, becoming a fully divine being and breaking free of the Demiplane of Dread.[17]

Rewriting Reality

Using his sudden upsurge in power and esoteric knowledge from the Serpent, Vecna not only unshackled himself from Ravenloft but also used its planar makeup to burrow into the heart of Sigil, the City of Doors. His avatar ensconced there, Vecna prepared to reshape all of reality to his will using the dimensional hole he tore through the planes. Vecna's plans came to an end when adventurers, wielding lesser body parts taken from his mortal frame, destroyed his avatar in Sigil.Following Vecna's defeat, he was ejected back onto the Material Plane, defeated though still with a great deal of divine power. Iuz, though absorbed but not obliterated, escaped his captivity.[18]

Alignment

2nd Edition sources, which include Ravenloft sources detailing him, list Vecna as Lawful Evil. 3rd Edition sources list him as Neutral Evil.[2][3]

Holy Symbol

2nd Edition sources described Vecna's holy symbol as an eye held in the palm of an open skeletal hand.[19][1] 3rd Edition sources, though not Ravenloft specific, visually show his holy symbol as a fully intact hand with flesh and all, with the eye in the palm as before[2][3]

Favored Weapon

Spell Domains

NPC Game Statistics

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Die Vecna Die! p. 149
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Player's Handbook (3.5) p.89
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Deities and Demigods (3.5) p.95
  4. History Check: Kas and Vecna
  5. The Hand and Eye of Vecna, as well as the Sword of Kas, receive detailed 2nd Edition entries in the Book of Artifacts but also appear in Die Vecna Die! and in many Dungeon Master's Guides for various editions of D&D.
  6. Book of Artifacts p. 35
  7. Domains of Dread p.112-113
  8. History Check: Kas and Vecna p. 2
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Book of Artifacts p.100
  10. 10.0 10.1 Die Vecna Die! p.160
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 History Check: Kas and Vecna p. 4
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Domains of Dread p.113
  13. 13.0 13.1 History Check: Kas and Vecna p. 5
  14. These events are played out in the 2nd Edition module Vecna Lives!]
  15. Vecna Reborn p.4
  16. These events are played out in the 2nd Edition module, Vecna Reborn.
  17. Die Vecna Die! p. 2-3
  18. The events of Vecna's escape from Ravenloft and ensuing defeat in Sigil are played out in the 2nd Edition module Die Vecna Die!
  19. Vecna Reborn p. 9
  20. Complete Divine p. 109
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Complete Divine p. 118
  22. Domains of Dread p. 112-114

Data from the Ravenloft Catalogue

Domains of Dread
Die Vecna Die

Domains of Dread - p112
Vecna Reborn - cover, p55
Die Vecna Die - cover, p119, p148

Domains of Dread - pp112-114
Die Vecna Die - p149, p158

Domains of Dread - pp112-114
Die Vecna Die - p119

The Maimed Lord