Vecna

Vecna was a once-human king and lich from Oerth who ascended to godhood. While he was once considered the most powerful lich to dwell on that world, over the ages he became maligned across the multiverse, and was considered the scourge of all civilization.

"The cult of Vecna teaches that Vecna was cursed by the gods who were jealous of his power...Vecna confronted his own death and imprisoned it in a castle on the gray sands of an alien world, where it wails in eternal torment."

- A member of the Zarovan tribe of Vistani.

Description
As a deity, Vecna appeared as a decrepit lich that was without his left hand or eye.

Personality
According to some observers, Vecna had an obsession with acquiring and maintaining secrets, believing them to be the source of true power. He was precise and calculating in his actions, but at times, prone to bouts of intense rage.

He believed that every being in existence held a single secret that could be linked to its destruction. Uncovering that secret and manipulating its truth were the key to gaining dominion over others.

Divine Realm
As a deity, Vecna did not claim a domain, but instead wandered the entire multiverse. He maintained the Citadel of Cavitius, originally on the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Ash near the border to the Negative Energy plane, which he had wrested away from the Doomguard long before. The Citadel was used by Vecna as his fortress, which he visited regularly, to gloat on the despair of his defeated enemies. Later, it became his prison as it was drawn into the Domains of Dread by the Dark Powers.

He also kept a "black tower" within the plane of Pandemonium.



Possessions
While not among his possessions per se, there existed two powerful artifacts in the multiverse that drew their power from his undead body: his eye and his left hand. Since their "creation" these items have been highly coveted by those who sought more power. Utilizing them as such required vicious acts of self-mutilation, either by gouging out one's own eye or forcibly removing a left hand.

Over the years Vecna's hand came into the possession of Arkhan the Cruel, lieutenant of Tiamat, while his eye was rumored to belong to Emirikol the planewalker, both of whom spent significant time on Avernus.

Even items Vecna wore as a mortal, such as a set of his robes absorbed tremendous magical power from the undead lord and bestowed a fraction of it upon future wearers.

Relationships
Vecna was a sworn enemy of the Raven Queen, whom he envied for her unique abilities to tap into the flow of souls and to harvest knowledge. One of his goals was to overthrow the Queen and rule the entire Shadowfell from her Fortress of Memories. His servants constantly battled with the Raven Queen's shadar-kai followers.

Vecna was also obsessed with taking revenge on the vampire Kas for his betrayal. At one point Vecna sought to attain dominion over time from the god Pelor, as it as a concept stood in opposition to the existence of lichdom.

Activities
As a god, Vecna sought to destroy other gods in order to garner more powerful for himself.

Vecna was the original author of the Book of Vile Darkness, which later received additions from other evil scholars, along with lesser-known works such as Ordinary Necromancy. and Vecna's Ineffuble Variorum. He crafted a number of spells including Vecna's conflagration and Vecna's Ultimate Abjuration, the latter of which could theoretically protect liches from the powers of gods.

In addition to his prerogatives as a deity, Vecna also sponsored pacts with warlocks as an undying patron, owing to his perspective as a once mortal being who had become knowledgeable of the secrets of life and death over many lifetimes.

Some sages also claimed that Vecna had laid out traps for wizards seeking forbidden secrets in their quest for power. Those wizards that stumbled upon those traps were transformed into nothics. It was common to find nothics in cults to Vecna serving as guardians or jesters, as well as spies to Vecna himself, who could always see through their single eyes.

Worshipers
The cult of Vecna acted in secret for much of the Arch-Lich's existence and were emboldened when he ascended to godhood. They were a wholly evil group, that brought in new members via blackmail and coercion. Like their god, these malevolent clerics sought to uncover lost arcana and exploit secret information to accumulate power and control over others.

Among Venca's worshipers was a secret society referred to as the Halls of Secrets. They believed that knowledge was the most pure form of power, and only those that made the effort to fully understand the nature of that knowledge were worthy of the power that accompanied it. They maintained anonymity while parsing through all the accumulated knowledge in their possessions, in order to fully assess and judge its value. It only attracted members that were unconcerned with morality or ethics.

6He attracted may worshipers among some morally-corrupt practitioners of psionics.

Mortal Life
Vecna's early life was clouded in legend and contradiction. Most accounts stated that he was originally a human wizard from Oerth, although some reports claimed that he was a half-elf. After having become an extremely powerful wizard, Vecna began to fear for his own mortality. Some say obsession was trigged by the death of his own mother.

One theory stated that Vecna was taught by Orcus how to achieve undeath, which eventually led to him becoming of the most powerful liches ever in existence. There was also the tale that spoke of Vecna experimenting upon hundreds of innocent mortals to formulate a ritual that absorbed power from the various planes of existence and channeled it into his own decrepit body. A third theory put forth the tale that the mortal Vecna learned the secrets of lichdom from a being known only as "the Serpent". Regardless of how it began, Vecna's path to becoming a lich was said to be the first instance of a mortal possessing the willpower to sacrifice their own body for such a feat.

Rise to Power
In one of his earliest battles, Vecna was nearly destroyed by clerics of the Oerthian god Pelor. He was spared annihilation by one of his most trusted lieutenants, a half-demon by the name of Acererak. In truth, Acererak arranged for Vecna to be ambushed in order gain favor with his master and position himself closer to Vecna's most treasured secrets.

After Vecna became aware of Acererak's treachery, he vowed to never let his esoteric knowledge be compromised again. His zeal for secrecy and ever-growing power led to Vecna being worshipped as something of a god. From among his most-fervent devotees arose the heartless paladin named Kas.

Over time Vecna conquered a vast expanse northwest of the Azure Sea on Oerth, forming the Occluded Empire. During his reign, Vecna trusted his lieutenant Kas with most administrative tasks. He used necromantic magic to grant him unnatural longevity as a vampire and forged the powerful Sword of Kas as an instrument of his lieutenant's authority.

However, Vecna's evil manifested in the sword and seduced Kas into usurping and killing his master. According to one storyteller, Vecna had accumulated enough collective power and magic to achieve apotheosis by means of a ritual in his Rotted Tower. He was interrupted however when Kas interrupted the ritual and attacked his master. They two fought a in a tremendous battle and in the end Vecna gained the upper hand. Just as the lich moved to slay his former servant, Kas cut off Vecna's hand and plunged his sword into Vecna's left eye. Finally, a massive explosion destroyed the tower and shook the surrounding lands. According to others, Vecna banished Kas to realm of Cavitius, but not in time to avoid his own destruction.

Regardless of the exact specifics, the only traces left of Vecna's physical body were his left hand and eye, which still carried a fragment of the lich's will. Their latent power turned them into the artifacts known as the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna.

Death and Ascension
Vecna's spirit however endured. It languished across the planes, slowly gathering power from the surviving members of his cult. Vecna's name continued to instill fear in mortals, and it was said that his evil continued to corrupt others by means of the artifacts that bore his name. Small pieces of his withered remains scattered across existence, corrupting anyone with whom they came into contact.

After several centuries, he amassed sufficient followers and worshipers among ambitious wizards to reach the status of demigod, and was accepted among the most corrupt powers of the Astral Sea. At this point, the threat of Vecna's ascension was known to many, including Elminster.

After a failed attempt to ascend to full deity status, Vecna himself was banished to Cavitius, which was drawn into the Domains of Dread by the Dark Powers. Vecna's failure freed Kas, who had been turned into a vampire after a long period of exposure to the negative energy prevalent in Cavitius. Kas became the lord of Tovag, a realm originally from Oerth that was drawn into the Domains of Dread bordering Cavitius. The two realms formed the Domain of Dread known as the Burning Peaks.

Vecna Dies, Again
Some time later, Vecna once again attempted to ascend to the status of greater deity by organizing a centuries-long plot that culminated with absorbing the essence of the demigod Iuz. His plans also involved an invasion of Sigil, from where Vecna then aimed at controlling the entire multiverse. Having his plans once again thwarted by adventurers, Vecna was expelled from Sigil with the help of the Lady of Pain and had his essence separated from Iuz, but the power he acquired through the process still allowed him to retain lesser deity power.

Vecna's invasion of Sigil caused a great disturbance in the multiverse. Following his defeat, the Lady of Pain strengthened Sigil's defenses and reorganized the planar structure in order to repair the damage caused and to prevent such an event from ever happening again.

Travels Through Time
Although the exact timing of the event was unknown, at some point in his existence Vecna managed to steal one of the original black obelisks created by the enigmatic group known as the Weavers. He used the powerful artifact to travel to essentially remove all trace of the Weavers from known history and stole all knowledge regarding the obelisk's creation. By some means, that information came into the hands of the arcanists of ancient Netheril.

Rumors & Legends
Some scholars speculated whether or not Vecna actually authored his namesake Valiorum. The inclusion of the spell depth perception within the spellbook led to the theory that the Vecna foresaw the loss of his eye—but not his death—and thus created a spell that would grant him improved vision.

The origins of Vecna's ascension to divinity was considered a great secret, fitting for the god that obsessed over them. One of the most outlandish, though widely-believed, theories stated that Vecna's assault on Sigil granted him the will to restructure the multiverse as he saw fit.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * The Throne of Bloodstone • Tomb of Annihilation • Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus • Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
 * Video games
 * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn • Planescape: Torment • Neverwinter Nights
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * Avernus Rising (Hellfire Requiem) • Tomb of Annihilation (Streams of Crimson)
 * Card Games
 * Adventures in the Forgotten Realms • Spellfire: Master the Magic
 * Card Games
 * Adventures in the Forgotten Realms • Spellfire: Master the Magic