Vecna, also known as the Whispered One, the Undying King, and the Lord of the Rotted Tower, is a powerful, mortal-born archlich who achieved godhood.
Characteristics
Physical features
When Vecna was first reborn, he appeared as a gaunt husk of a man wearing long tattered red, purple, and black robes. His skin was weathered and decayed, pulled taut against his skeletal frame; there was no hair on his spotted head. His cheeks were sunken around skeletal teeth in a terrible grin. His left hand was missing, and where his left eye would be was just an empty socket constantly streaming sickly green magical energy upwards.
When he later appeared in incorporeal form, he was wearing beautiful crushed velvet robes with gold trim, and had adorned himself with lavish gems, baubles, and other jewelry. His right eye was a sickly pale blue.
After he ascended, Vecna was physically transformed: he had become huge, with screaming souls entwined within his limbs. The left eye socket was almost blindingly bright. He had recovered his left hand, which pulsed with the same green energy as the eye socket, and his ribcage glowed from within with sickly green light. He wore red robes over golden armor.
Personality
Vecna was arrogant, egotistical, and ambitious. From the beginning of his attempted ascension he maintained a confident and condescending veneer, believing he had already won. Vecna treated those beneath him as insignificant mortals or pests too unimportant to worry about. Despite this, he proved he could be cold, calculating and ruthless when it suited him, able to manipulate people's greatest fears to his own benefit and enjoy it. He sought to "play with the toys" left by other gods and reshape Toriel to his liking.
Worship
Worshiper
Vecna's dark power draws many different creatures into servitude. Whether they intend to see Vecna rise again or to expand their own power, Vecna usually has good use for creatures that will not balk at the vile deeds he tasks them. Cultist of Vecna all miss either their left hand or left eye as they wish to find the eye and hand of vecna, and their missing limb is a show of their servitude to the undying lord.
History
Lichdom
In 1574 BD, the powerful archmage Vecna achieved lichdom, setting his sights on more than just eternal life. His ambitions included gathering followers and undead forces, leading him to the elven
Kingdom of Lórien. There, he corrupted its inhabitants and raised undead armies, even creating infamous undead unicorns. Slowly, Vecna's forces took over the country, with the ultimate goal of capturing Queen
Alleria Windrunner and redirecting her capital's gateway to the
Feywild towards the shadowfell.
With Queen Alleria shackled, Vecna marched on
Thar Amphala in the shadowfell and conquered it. He built a tower named
Entropis in the shadowfell city, granting him the ability to open portals with ease. With precise strikes and strategic retreats, Vecna's forces conquered the entire kingdom of Lorien, forcing other rivals to bend the knee or face destruction.
One such rival, Kas, was turned into a
Death Knight in exchange for fealty as Vecna's chief lieutenant, and Kas accepted. Vecna made forged for Kas a relic blade with a fraction of Ka's soul. In the months of terrorizing Vecna's enemies that followed, he became Kas the Bloody-Handed.
However, Vecna's lust for power knew no bounds. He attempted to ascend to godhood atop Entropis but was met with resistance from a holy army of the
Sisters of Selune led by Queen Alleria's daughter,
Lireesa Windrunner. In the ensuing battle, Vecna defeated Lireesa but was weakened in the process. Seizing the opportunity, his chief lieutenant Kas attacked Vecna. The fierce battle resulted in their mutual destruction, leaving only Vecna's left eye and left hand intact, and all that remained of Kas in the blade.
Despite his apparent demise, Vecna's worship and belief in dark secrets elevated him to a lesser
Deity or "patron saint," granting him new power from his followers' beliefs and devotion.
Echoes of the past
In 1076 BD, the cult of Vecna grew in strength and followers sought ways to bring back the god of dark secrets to the material plane. Corrupting temples of
Selune, and channeling dark
Magic to Entropis, the followers performed a ritual atop the tower in an attempt to summon Vecna. However, the ritual went awry, resulting in a burst of necromantic energy that killed most of the cultists present. Instead of bringing Vecna back, the ritual teleported the city of Thar Amphala to the north of the
Ice-peak Concord. The tower, Entropis, was brought down during the relocation, but miraculously remained aloft, magically levitating despite lacking a foundation. The failed ritual left the cultists shocked and in awe of the unpredictable and dangerous power they sought to harness.
Comments