Vecna (Dungeons & Dragons)

Vecna is a major antagonist featured in the fantasy role-playing game .
The lich lord Vecna presides over villainous mages, conspiring politicians, and envious servants as the dark god of necromancy, undeath, and secrets. Once a dangerously clever and powerful archmage-turned-lich, his hunger for dominion over all mysteries and obsession with conquering the pantheon led to his own dissolution, leaving behind only his left hand and eye. Vecna calls no place among the planes his home, instead wandering in search of powerful artifacts and secrets to further his unknowable plots.
One of the most prominent villains in all of Dungeons & Dragons, Vecna is an antagonist in many official game modules and official media, most commonly associated with the campaign setting . He is also the final antagonist of the first campaign of the Dungeons & Dragons web series, and the unseen overarching antagonist of the first season of its animated adaptation .
==Personality==
Vecna has an obsession with acquiring and maintaining secrets, believing them to be the true source of power. He is cold and calculating in his actions, with occasional bouts of intense rage.
Vecna usually has a faux affable demeanor when talking to others, believing that every being held a secret that could be exploited. Obtaining that secret through manipulation is his key to gain dominion over people.
==Biography==
Vecna was born as a human, centuries ago as a member of the untouchable caste in the Flan city of Fleeth on Oerth. He was initially trained by his mother, Mazzel, in the art of magic, before she was executed by the government of Fleeth for practicing witchcraft. Vowing revenge, Vecna eventually assumed a mastery of the dark arts achieved by no mortal before or since. Some say this achievement was due to direct tutelage by Mok'slyk the Serpent, believed to be the personification of arcane magic itself.
Nearly one thousand years after his birth, Vecna, now a lich and ruler of a great and terrible empire (in the Sheldomar Valley, centered near the modern-day Rushmoors), laid siege to the city of Fleeth with an army of arcane spellcasters and undead. Legend has it that Vecna was nearly slain in this battle by clerics channeling the power of Pholtus, the god of light. The clerics unleashed a great burst of light, which hit Vecna primarily on his left side. Vecna was rescued and brought to safety by one of his wizard generals, a cambion named Acererak (who would one day himself become a mighty demilich).
Vecna eventually recovered. On the verge of conquering Fleeth, the officials of the city came before him to beg for mercy. They offered up the entire city and her wealth if only Vecna would spare the lives of her citizens. When Vecna was not satisfied, the officials offered their own lives. Vecna gave one of their number, Artau, and his family, over to his lieutenant, Kas, who spent the entire day torturing and murdering them before the other officials. Still unsatisfied, Vecna slaughtered all within the city, and had their heads stacked before the officials, with those of their family members prominent. Vecna then granted his mercy, granting the officials leave to depart and promising them his protection for the rest of their lives.
At his empire's height, Vecna was betrayed and destroyed by his most trusted lieutenant, a vampire called Kas the Bloody-Handed, using a magical sword that Vecna himself had crafted for him, now known as the Sword of Kas. Only his left hand and his eye survived the battle, perhaps because of the previous events in Fleeth.
Vecna did not stay gone forever, and rose as a demigod of magic and secrets in the world of Greyhawk. In 581 CY, his cult helped set events in motion that would have granted him the power of a greater god, but the plan was ultimately foiled. After these events, Vecna ended up imprisoned in the demiplane of Ravenloft, but broke free again later, emerging with the power of a greater god, after absorbing the power of Iuz. He then broke free into the city of Sigil in the Planescape setting, where he came perilously close to rearranging all existence to his whims. (Vecna's multiverse-shattering campaign in Sigil is used as an in-universe way to explain the differences between the 2nd and 3rd editions of Dungeons & Dragons.) When Vecna was ejected from Sigil by a party of adventurers and the Lady of Pain, Iuz was freed and Vecna returned to Oerth greatly reduced in power, though still a lesser god.
In the events of the Living Greyhawk campaign setting, Vecna's machinations allowed him to reappear on the prime material plane and retake his place in the Oerth pantheon.
==Powers and Abilities==
Vecna possessed a number of tremendous powers, including the ability to paralyze others with his touch, inherently cast a variety of powerful spells, and alter reality at will. He was immune to disease, disintegration, mind-controlling powers, and a variety of other debilitating effects. His sensory perception extended far beyond that of mortal beings, up to a range of 16 kilometers, and could similarly perceive anything within the same range as any of his worshipers. He could also feel whenever someone uncovered, disclosed, or otherwise wrote down any secret that contained information that could affect the lives of five hundred people or more.
At any time Vecna could craft any variety of magic, so long as it was valued at 30,000 gp or less.
In the adventure Die Vecna Die after absorbing Iuz, he became so powerful that the usually omnipotent Lady of Pain had to request the aid of the player characters to get rid of him.
===Possessions===
Vecna carried with him an unholy dagger named Afterthought and protected himself with bracers of armor and a powerful cloak of resistance.
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. For those that sought these artifacts, accessing their power 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.
==Trivia==
*A character of the same name appears as the main antagonist of the popular TV show , making his debut in the fourth season. He is not an adaptation of the character, however, but is named as such by the main characters based on certain similarities; notably, the two characters are master spell-casters who are given a chance to achieve great power after a betrayal by an underling.
*Vecna was created by the late Gary Gygax.
*Vecna's name is an homage to fantasy writer Jack Vance, who inspired the magic system in D&D.
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