Vecna of Greyhawk

### Aliases

Maimed LordThe Arch-LichMaster of the Spider ThroneThe Whispered OneThe Undying KingLord of the Rotted TowerThe Chained GodLord of the Hand and the Eye

## Physical description

### Eye color

Purple

**Vecna**, also known as **The Whispered One** or **The Maimed Lord**, is a deity in the Greyhawk pantheon as well as the Dawn War pantheon. He is the father of Rhaza-Dúg.

## Description

As a deity from the Greyhawk universe, Vecna appeared as a decrepit lich missing his left hand and left eye.

## Personality

According to some, 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 was at times prone to bouts of intense rage.

Vecna believed that every being in existence held a single secret that could be manipulated to bring about its destruction. Uncovering that secret and exploiting 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 hidden "black tower" within the plane of Pandemonium.

## Powers

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 10 miles (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.

## Possessions

Vecna carried with him a *+5 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 who sought these artifacts, accessing their power required vicious acts of self-mutilation, either by gouging out one's own eye or forcibly removing one's 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

According to Vecna's own accounts, his mortal mother was a wholly evil woman who sacrificed animals and consorted with monstrous beings. It was her cruelty that helped shape the man he was in life and undeath.

Vecna had something of a working relationship with Asmodeus, the powerful archdevil having offered the archlich use of his devil minions.Ironically, Asmodeus' servant Fierna stole a valuable secret from Vecna: that of how to directly travel between the Prime Material plane and the Nine Hells.

He had two known exarchs: Falazure the Night Dragon, and allegedly, Vocar the Disobedient, the latter of whom was rumored to possess a powerful secret regarding Vecna himself.

### Enemies

Vecna was obsessed with taking revenge on his vampire lieutenant Kas for the legendary betrayal he committed against his master on Oerth.

The Whispered One 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.

As a demigod, Vecna sought to attain dominion over time from the god Pelor, as it as a concept stood in opposition to the existence of lichdom, and was considered an enemy of the deity Hlal.

## Activities

Vecna sought to destroy other gods in order to garner more power for himself. 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.

Many academics believed Vecna was the original author of the *Book of Vile Darkness*, which later received additions from other evil scholars. He also authored other 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.

He was also believed to be the creator of the *pearl of secrets*, a sentient *pearl of power* that compelled its owner to seek out *Vecna's hand* and *eye*.