Vecna the Archlich

On countless worlds, his name evokes tales of terror and cruelty: Vecna, the Undying King. Vecna, the Whispered One. Vecna, the Lord of the Rotted Tower. But Vecna had humble beginnings on the world of Oerth, where an order of wizards used him as a bootblack and scribe. He spent the better part of his childhood secretly educating himself in his masters' arts. Once Vecna learned all he could, he massacred the wizards. He then recorded his every foul thought and dream as he started to write his Book of Vile Darkness.

Vecna forged a kingdom on Oerth, but he grew bored with it after several centuries. He started inflicting suffering on other worlds. In this adventure, Vecna has risen to godhood on Oerth, but he seeks to become the most powerful god in existence and bend the multiverse to his will. By the time the characters are involved, Vecna's master plan is almost complete. He has funneled a significant amount of his energy into weaving his ritual. Therefore, when the characters finally confront Vecna and try to save the multiverse, he is in his archlich form and not his divine form.

On countless worlds, his name evokes tales of terror and cruelty. Vecna the Undying King. Vecna the Whispered One. Vecna the Lord of the Rotted Tower. Over more than a hundred thousand years, incandescent hatred carried him from the humblest of origins to a conqueror's throne, then to the realms that lie beyond life and death, and finally to godhood. Many have suffered his terrible wrath, but few can recount how a lowly scribe left an aeon-deep scar on the multiverse before ascending beyond the material altogether. Only a few fragments of Vecna's story have ever been unearthed.

It is said that Vecna was born into a lowly caste on the world of Oerth, son of a hedge witch and a father he never knew. An order of wizards exiled Vecna's mother into the wastes for practicing the forbidden art of necromancy. The order bound her orphaned son into servitude and employed him as first a bootblack, then a scribe. Vecna spent the better part of his childhood secretly educating himself in his masters' arts, stealing into their library of magical treatises each night after midnight. It was during these intense study sessions that he first heard a soothing voice in his head, a whisper from another world that promised him revenge if he would only yield to the hatred that was festering in his heart. Once Vecna learned all he could from his masters and their books, he massacred them. On that very night, the voice urged him to record his every foul thought and dream, and he started to pen his Book of Vile Darkness.

According to legend, Vecna went on to forge a kingdom in the world of Greyhawk. He ruled for several centuries from an obsidian tower that rose from the bottom of the black waters of the Nyr Dyv to stretch far above its surface. During this era, at the urging of the voice, Vecna conquered vast realms and swept great cities beneath earth and rock. Generations later, when his physical form finally started to succumb to the ravages of time, Vecna's festering hatred would not permit him to perish. He called upon the forbidden arts of necromancy to transform himself into a lich, a frightful being beyond the reach of death.

At some point, Vecna grew bored with his kingdom on Oerth and started visiting his evil on other worlds, still driven by the mysterious voice and his unquenchable hatred for all things true and pure. For a time, he is said to have inhabited a palace known as the Citadel of Cavitius, located in a vast field of ash somewhere near the border between the Planes of Earth and Fire.

Eventually, a fallen paladin known as Kas the Bloody-Handed rose through the ranks of Vecna's vile minions to become the archlich's personal guard and regent over many of the kingdoms and cults Vecna established across the multiverse. As a symbol of Kas's authority, Vecna forged him a terrifying weapon, the blade now known as the Sword of Kas. Later, Kas turned on Vecna and used the sword to sever the archlich's hand and put out his eye. No one knows why Kas betrayed Vecna. Some believe the mysterious voice that spoke to Vecna for eons grew to fear the archlich and began whispering to Kas instead.

After their clash, Kas and Vecna disappeared for ages. The former later emerged as the ruler of the wasteland domain of Tovag in the Shadowfell. The latter spent several centuries hopping from world to world, questing for his severed hand and eye. More recently, Vecna decamped to the Outer Planes, where he grew so powerful that he became a god. He has many ardent worshipers, all hungry for a taste of his immense power.

The accompanying stat block depicts Vecna in his archlich form prior to Kas's betrayal. Because Vecna is said to have mastered magic allowing him to travel through time, he can appear in this form even on worlds where his severed hand and eye are already known artifacts.

The Book of Vile Darkness

While Vecna always carries the Book of Vile Darkness on his person—in fact, he fashioned his lich form to encompass the Book—he typically has no need to call upon its foul magic in battle. If the DM wishes to run a more challenging (and more complex) encounter, Vecna may call upon any of the book's abilities as appropriate.