Vecna Explained | D&D Lore
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2020
- The first in a miniseries on Vecna. Diety, Lich, BBEG.
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first reply!
Have you seen the Dead By Daylight Vecna killer? They did a great job!
Here for dbds new killer reveal
same💀
Vecna is one of those villains I find fascinating because he's a good example of a villains name alone carrying so much weight. It's like Sauron in that way; someone so feared and powerful that his name is enough to make people go "Oh god."
I thought you were talking about Stranger Things until i saw (1 year ago)
I always brought in Vecna. He's so cool.
"Encasing the eye in volcanic glass from hell and shattering it against the sphere via a spell jammer ship".
Stuff like this is why I love DnD.
*Vecna and Azerack to Azerack's dad*
He may have been your father, but he was never your daddy
Andrew Halderman lmao
Azerack? Don't you mean Acererak?
Jorphdan was ahead of his time. I remember when this video came out. Now everyone and their mom is making videos on Vecna
I am making videos with your mom and Vecna
Jorphdans first video came 25 years after I first claimed the hand of vecna' in a campaign.
Also fun fact, the Hand and Eye of Vecna, although they were named after Jack Vance, were inspired by the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhyn. Items from the Books of Corum, by Michael Moorcock.
I love Michael Moorcock
@@dilkertoquendo8219 I am currently reading through the books we have. I have all the Corum, Erekose and about 8 Elric books. All because I stumbled on to Colville's videos. XD
Jack Vance is the best
I've been running a campaign where I used Vecna as inspiration and a template for a mummy lord (instead of him being a lich) and took inspiration for his items and changed them a bit. Making him ann ancient pharaoh that wants too raise everyone as undead for his God's (Orcus') army.
I absolutely love how versatile this character is and the idea of having pieces of them as evil artifacts.
@Amber Hoke that's a good question. I'm not sure. I don't know a lot about the Egyptian pantheon and maybe creating stats would be uniquely difficult and since orcus and the hand and eye of vecna already have stats it was easier to just alter the lore? I should take more inspiration from existing mythology though, so thank you.
Michael Moorcock's character Corum Jhaelen Irsei also comes to mind when considering inspiration behind divine-powered body parts, specifically an eye and a hand.
This video aged properly.
A perfect lich? He must’ve found the stone mask and the red stone of aja
A cultured one, I see.
ata berk dedemen yes, yes I am!
@Antimatterstudios , which part are you on?
ata berk dedemen I just watch the anime I finished part 5
@Antimatterstudios , I am at part 7. You will probably fall in love with part 7 especially you like concepts like eye and hand of Vecna. (This is the most i could say without any spoilers)
Vecna also means "eternal" in several slavic languages. Did Gygax and the other writers at TSR know that? Well, in developing the lich, he likely drew heavily from a slavic folk-tale about Koschei the Deathless. And in DVD! "Vecna is eternal" is a phrase that comes up...
Fun fact: in Doctor Who Gallifreyan lore, The Master's true name at the Pyrdonian Academy used to be Koschei. In some novels and audio stories of DW, it has been strongly implied that The Master has been at an young age forcibly taken by D*ath Herself - a Transcendental Being older than Creation itself (but somehow begotten out of the Galligreyan collective psyche and worshipped as their gods before "leaking out" across the Universe, much in the vein of Zagreus and the Doctor's own darker alter personaes the Valeyard and the DreamLord) and sister to the Celestial Toymaker and other Eternals - to become Her Champion after the young First Doctor refused to become Hers, following the m*rder of a fellow academician who used to frequently bully them.
In some Eighth Doctor audio and novels stories, the Doctor fell on several instances unto an enigmatic alternate-future incarnation of the Master resembling his Robert Delgado incarnation and naming himself Koschei, prior being revealed he was indeed the future Master.
@@ptolemeeselenion1542 Huh, I did not know that about the Master's true name. I've watched a bunch of that era, but stopped short of reading the novels or listening to the audioplays. Neat connection!
And the Master / D*ath dynamic seems to parallel the Vecna / Serpent dynamic fairly closely, too. If only Vecna had a Doctor-like nemesis on the side of good... That's been one of the weaker bits of the Vecna storyline - it's all evil people doing on a number on each other, but no real heroes, so there's not many good NPCs that PCs could consult for help...
@@oasntet Very indeed!
2:44 yup. That's some salt I'm tasting. And I can't blame you.
Somehow.....Vecna has returned.
This video was very ahead of its time.
I wasn’t looking for this. It just popped up shortly after i watched ST4…
Great vid though, really wanting to try out DnD now.
I KNEW VECNA WAS GOING TO BE THE MAIN ANTAGONIST FOR STRANGER THINGS!
Yay go jared ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love how original Dnd had this "Dark Fantasy" fell, would love to play in that
Greyhawk was more Dungeons & Demons, than Dungeons & Dragons... ;-)
Also, it (Oerth) was the site of one of the greatest battles in the multiverse, eons ago, between the forces of Law (the Wind Dukes of Aaqa) and Chaos (the Queen of Chaos and Miska the Wolf-Spider), even before Good and Evil had clashed for the first time.
So, it's tainted by demonic forces from ages gone by...
@@Arvaniz You mean more then Forgotten Realms. I love the Forgotten Realms for it being basically always sunny in DnD, but other settings really need to get some love in 5e like a lot. Gimme Dragonlance and Greyhawk
@@DerpyLaron Yes i was researching about it and i noticed that....
I don't have a problems with "sunny" settings myself as a player... I'm a very chill guy about it, i just want to only i good campaign... But when I'm DMing, i like to create more dark fantasy/sword and sorcery kind of felling, i think thats my way to have fun in dm position, doing wordbuilding and stuff.
@@070419958239 yeah, when i g m, there's pretty much nothing that can't happen in my worlds. I got bored with all the happy rainbow sunshine friends settings that a lot of DM played. So while I don't go out of my way to create those scenarios, one time I had a new group that didn't believe I was going to have a truly morally gray setting. They found out that by leaving the prisoners there for 3 weeks before actually going to help them as they dicked around waiting for armor upgrades and such in town, that by the time they got in there, all the men had been killed oh, the children have been sold off as slaves, half the women were used for sex, and the other half have been sacrificed
It was more brutal. No rerolls. No short rests. The DM tore up your character sheet if you died.
Some sort of Vecna-like being should be the final boss in Stranger Things.
Well he is
This aged well
Damn.... The Duffer Bros owe you a check!
Whats the lotto numbers…quick
Definitely aged well
The New STRANGER THINGS monster.
I believe that Will is going to turn into vecna, it’s the only logical answer for the name of the episode, when will played dnd with the boys he was always a wizard, it would only make sense for the mindflayer to posses him once again and turn him Into a evil being.
@@miguelito0821 turns out it is max being possessed
@@miguelito0821 what
I was actually waiting for the rise of Skywalker to go on sale before watching it. I did so good avoiding spoilers. But alas it turns out rey is Vecna's great great grandmother.
Great video as always! :)
You got saved if anything XD
My campaign has a city where a wizard named Jack Vance is the burgomeister. He had a stroke which gave him a wild left eye and a paralyzed left hand. I wonder how long it will take them to catch on.
Have they caught on yet?
Great video, and great graphics. I ran a Vecna campaign and you seemed to have found all the important info about him for your video.
Another great episode, as always. And since the next video is related to Ravenloft, that begs the question... How about some Ravenloft videos sometime? Perhaps about the different Domains and/or Darklords? 😅
Mostly I remember Vecna from Robes of Vecna in BG2, where it would take a mage and make him/her a monstrosity when combined with Time Stop and Improved Alacrity.
😵
This.
Ah, thanks, Jorphdan, for that concise deep dive into Vecna! It brought me back into DnD5e vibes!
If I only could make a deal with God
And I'd get him to swap our places
Be running up that road
Be running up that hill
Be running up that building
a beautiful summary of a wicked character. thank you!
Never try to use the head of Vecna, so many have learned the hard way.
Yes, lich. More big bad videos. Love all you do. I've been binge watching all your vids through once again.
I've long waited for this video. Thanks man!
Just discovered, now subscribed! Enjoyed this video A LOT man. Thank you!
Welcome! :)
"He was the son of obi wan or you could mess it up and make him Palpatine Granddaughter." Yeah they really screwed the movies, but is everyone excited for season 2 of the Mandalorian
Hopefully they don’t screw it up also.
So basically Vecna lives in a trailer park in West Virginia. Mystery solved.
@Freeze Peach no, no, TLJ was not. Like it actively destorys much of the setting
Mandolin is the best star wars since the original series. Change my mind
I like how you randomly threw Frostmourne in there at 5:33 when talking about the Sword of Kas.
Minor addendum: Kas was actually held prisoner by Vecna in the quasi-elemental plane of ash which has a negative energy trait and transformed him into a vampire over the centuries.
That's the most Gygaxian thing ever
He then became a like death knight lieutenant of vecna, but eventually betrays him.
Vecna Lives module
@@Aenarion28 VERY good catch.
@@bjhale nah... gygax would somehow turn him into an ooze or slime pretending to be curtains or something.
it's so nice to stumble back onto some videos from jorphdan :)
By any chance, are you doing a video on Ghost Elves? Nerd Immersion introduced me to them and they look cool.
@NerdImmersion told me about them, I'll have to do some research but perhaps! :D
I love your videos and i beg you, PLEASE, take a look at the campaign box "Night Below" from 2th edition. This was for my years as a DM, the most insane and hard adventure i have ever tried with my players. The aboleths are involved, this is SO GOOD!
I'll check it out!
YeAh BuT wHy DoEsNt He HaVe A cLoCk?!?!!
I had been told that Vecna was a person first, and a PC back in the day chopped off his hand and used it as an improvised weapon, and cool new story element, and the DM allowed it.
Jorphdan You have just made a subscriber for Life! LOL Or HE could Be the Grand Daughter of Palpatine! Love Your content, I have been DMing D&D since 1983 and You are one of the Best Creators on TH-cam. Please Keep going with this content it makes Me smile seeing such Awesome Background Info done. Can You Please do more GreyHawk that was always and is My Favorite Setting.
Thanks for subbing! Glad you like the content. Hoping to dive into the Greyhawk adventures at some point! Always reading :)
here after finding out vecna will be in stranger things season 4
I thought vecna was a girl😂😅
@@jordan4835 bahaha makes sense tho
Me too
Just started watching ST s4. Was so excited when they said vecna. Old school DM I am. Lol
Long con
I've always wondered about Vecna, thanks for this.
Happy to help!
Probably a lot of people will come here because of Stranger Things, im one of them
Welcome!
Same! Then you realize lore like this is more interesting than what's on tv, or creepy tales on the interwebs.
@@SeanWMODonnell totally agree with you!
Yup I wanted to find out what his character was abt t try and link them to a character from St or smthn 🗿 tryna b clever basically
now vecna is in stranger things 🤯
Never mind the hand and eye, a real DM gets the party to go after the Head of Vecna!
Don't even get me started on the penis of vecna
Ah yes, the classic tale of "F*** Around and Find Out"
There are a few bits about Vecna's history on the 4e Book Of Vile Darkness, bringing some interesting stuff about him. For example, he started his magical training with his mother, a witch who got captured and burned alived while Vecna watched it from aphar
The hand and eye of Vecna is a reference to one of Gary Gygax's favourite authors, Micheal Moorcock. In Moorcocks Corum books the mane character looses his hand and eye to torture but replaces them with the Hand of Kwll and the Eye of Rhynn, body parts two forgotten gods that give him great power. The Hand ow Kwll has six fingers just like the hand of Vecna.
I loved that Star Wars reference! 😍
Voldermort? Did I hear a niner in there? Lol great video!
This was such an excellent video!
Thanks!
Joe Manganiello’s character Arkhan who stole and wore the hand of vecna was actually made canon recently in Baldur’s Gate.
Which is kind of sad considering many players have claimed this artifact decades before him.
Vecna was one of the first villains I ever used I had a archmage find the eye it did give him great power but Vecna eventually took over his body and wanting to expand his power to a new realm began to plan find his hand and now I want use him again using his plan in "Vecna lives".
Love your videos keep it up!
Imagine if Vecna had the pre-battle quote, "do you wanna have a bad time?"
I watch D&D content frequently, but this video ending up at the top of my queue shows the YT algorithm is working. Ah... Stranger Things: the actual place these characters gained real wide-spread fame. ST-S4 is the first place 99% of the world heard of Vecna. Thanks for pulling D&D out into the light of the mainstream.
Love it :D i am actually thinking in using a evil demigod, and now you just got me one ty :D
Not to self: do not make talking swords and always apply lotion.
5:02 I can only imagine the interview process.
love your content and i have a question, i have a group who have went through undermountain and part of the underdark. should i use the tomb of horrors in my campaign.i feel like a piece of the rod of seven parts should be there
Nothing will ever beat the story of the "Head of Vecna".
This is the first useful ad I've ever seen. Thanks, I think? *Checks bank account*
This aged well.
My last 3rd Ed game, I had the eye and hand of Veccna grafted onto me, and we had to find a way to stop him from taking over my body. My party accidentally burned down an elven continent the size of Brazil, failing to stop Veccna, and almost tpk
A thumbs up for the Jack Vance fact
I remember the eye, a bunch of teeth and the hand of Vecna. Doesn’t anybody remember the teeth?
Actually, I heard in another video that Acererak wanted to become a lich within a short time of meeting Vecna, since he viewed life to be so boring. Which basically made his apprenticeship go something like this:
A: Can I be a lich yet?
V: No.
A: Can I be a lich yet?
V: No.
A: Can I be a lich yet?
V: NO.
A: Can I be a lich yet?
V: NO! YOU SAY THAT ONE MORE TIME AND I'LL TURN YOU INTO A ZOMBIE INSTEAD!
Greatest of all Liches -you just come a new hashtag #GOAL
Cool. I wondered who's robes I kept picking up in Neverwinter Nights. So I'm currently wearing your robes, dead dude. I make it look good~!
The greatest magic item ever conceived of is the Head of Vecna. I have seen parties fight over the right to cut off their own head to be able to equip the Head of Vecna!
Planescape: Torment NPC dialogue..
Grace: "What exactly are you Mort?"
Mort (a floating skull): "Me? I'm the head of Vecna!"
I have heard such tales from friends, recounted at gaming conventions.
I suspect that Vecna is based on a Character of the Corum Saga, written by Michael Moorcock, where Corum Jhaelen Irsei wield two powerful artifacts: the Eye of Rhynn and the Hand of Kwll, two powerful god
Vecna is always a perfect fall-back villain.
That’s an awesome Greyhawk map! But I’m curious. . . Did Gygax et al actuall have a north with a House Stark in The North and a Vale with a House Arryn and a house Martel in a Caliphate? If so, perhaps GRR Martin had known of or played games set in Greyhawk!
Doesn't the Hand of Vecna currently reside with a certain Dragonborn Barbaradin in Descent into Avernus??
I think he is a oathbreaker paladin.
@@beetehotraroy3468 yeah he's an Oatbreaker/Berserker.
Oh my bad.. I didn't know he multiclassed into barbarian.. I am not caught up with CR Campaign 1 yet
That jerkass hand-stealer.
Vecna is an old villain from early ttrpg modules? :D So cool. More powerful than Szas Tam, I take it?
There's a long-standing debate as to who is the most powerful lich....Vecna, Acererak, or Larloch.
Most would agree Vecna (the master) would be stronger than Acererak (room for surprise, however).
But personally...I feel like Larloch would beat Vecna.
Vecna has this power-hungry, self-glorification thing going on.
Larloch is much more subdued...he doesn't have an ego; he's is all about the study of magic (which, liberated of moral restriction, can still be pretty nasty...there was this whole thing where an army of clones assaulted Faerun, just so Larloch could see what happens and...well, he apologized afterwards, at least).
As such, if something opposes him...he carefully, precisely, and systematically dismantles them...sometimes over the course of centuries.
To me, that's what makes a lich...more Moriarity, less Palpatine.
I've never heard of "Larloch" before. Can't be that powerful. :D
Larloch almost became the God of Magic. The only reason he lost is because one of the two strongest casters in the FR was there to help stop him, and she didn't even kill him. They just stopped him from finishing.
If Larloch showed up again? Mystra herself would intervene. That is a level of power Vecna will never be able to make a claim about.
Plus, I never really liked Vecna. Dude is just a fucking failure. I cant wait for the day he is permanently destroyed in canon. He's not particularly interesting, and he's just annoying at this point; nothing more than a Saturday morning serial villain at this point.
Vecna would be disqualified on the grounds of being a deity. The most powerful lich would probably be Larloch, but the most infamous after Vecna would be Acererak.
Azalin
@@canceledpublicaccessproduc1167 Azalin is a big deal in the Demiplane of Dread, but there are simply too many spellcasters outside that outclass him.
i used vecna for my apocalyptic campaign as one of main actors. he inspired his champions to be resourceful. thus appeared armies of necro constructs and necropunks.
Hey Jorphdan, how about some content on The Dark Sun setting? There's even some speculation that they'll adapt Borys the Dragon as the final antagonist for Stranger Things
Here come the Strange Things crowd.
this video's probably going to be looked at alot now thanks to Stranger Things lol
HECKYA IT'S VECNA!
Oh my in time for a new Jorphdan video.
I haven't personally confirmed it, but I have heard that Vance also designed the "fire and forget" magic system; spells levels and a certain number of spells per level. This is a profoundly influential design underpinning countless RPG and CRPG systems. We have to keep in mind that DnD was originally inspired by Lord of the Rings, but how magic works in LotR is never defined in any real sense- there are no limits to how often or how much magic Gandalf, Saruman, and the like could use at a given time. So basically, before Vance, there was nothing when it came to magic systems.
Yep! Vance's system involved putting living spells into your brain and holding them there until cast. You had a finite amount of magic you can hold in your head and once you cast the spell it's gone. D&D adapted this and it became known as "Vancian Magic"
th-cam.com/video/YclbUBsC7XU/w-d-xo.html
i made a sword out of a dead star once; it was so heavy it could not be held or lifted but needed to be levitated with magic, the mass of the sward was so dense that it warped gravity and the entire plant revolved around the sword effecting weather making it always calm where the sword was like an eye of a hurricane, because of gravity manipulation the wielder of the sword perceived time first granting foresight. anything with less density then the sword was instantly crushed if it touched the blade and the blade had its own immense gravity that pulls towards the nearest object with great speed without a levitating spell.
I was wondering if you could cover something on Spelljammer. I know very little about it outside of "dnd, magic, space(?)".
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Thank you for promoting artistry in particular. It has been a rough ride.....
instablaster.
Is your name ACTUALLY Jorphdan?
No images of the Critical Role version?
Stranger Things season 4, brought me here, where the main attagonist is compared to Vecna by the kids.
I play d&d since à loooong time and I came here because of stranger thing 😍 thanks for your video
Here's an overarching, undead-heavy campaign idea I've had for some time, which I'm putting out here because I almost never, ever finish anything.
Orcus wants to be a god again. It only makes sense for him to become the god of the undead, so he decides to kill the current one, Vecna. To this end, he seeks out the Eye and Hand of Vecna, along with the Sword of Kas; combined with his Wand, he believes they will be sufficient for his task.
(A few side notes: I'm going with the lore that Vecna was once a worshipper of Orcus, who is now miffed that his former cultist has overtaken him in power. Also, the Sword is a bit like Tick-Tock from Peter Pan; having once tasted Vecna, it hungers for the remainder.)
Obvious question: which bad guy should the party help? Personally, I'd lean toward keeping the status quo, although it might be a good opportunity to destroy some evil artifacts. Again, I know I'll never flesh out this idea more than what I've just written, so if anyone can use it, please do.
Like @Amber Hoke said, let the party choose. Get the worldbuilding u need written, but don't worry about prepping too much content in advance, just have a few major points of the story in mind where they choose which on to side with and what milestones will show that the other one is weakening
Vecna was so strong he became sans the skeleton.
Ok you saying that you believe in me I’m sure was a small thing for you but I just want you to know that I really needed that. Thank you
love how he showed Panel from sandman when he said Vecna imprisoned death
Good to see our dear Greyhawk getting some love
I’m here from stranger things, should I stay or should I go???😉
Came here to find the most powerful items that can make my wizard/sorcerer a god.
Is startyplaying a good place to look for someone who is interesting in getting into d&d. My GF and I regularly talk about it but we don’t know anyone in our area to introduce us to it.
it mostly requires money, and for "some reason" doesn't even have an option to look for free to play games, but it's a pretty clean website...though, i don't see why use that instead of Roll20..
Some people setup games for intro players only, so thats worth checking out
Ancient tales speak of the illusive, powerful, artifact known as the Head of Vecna...
Finding "The Other Hand of Vecna" in BG3 brought me here.
7:58 to 8:03 What list or article is this that has Vecna rated as the #17 all-time D&D villain?
Anyone have a link to this list?
I do love a good Jack Vance reference
I'm devouring the dying earth. So good
Jorphdan I recommend reading after the original series to read the tale of the dying earth anthology. It’s a bunch of short stories in that world by several different writers like Gaiman and R.R Martin.
I’m currently running a campaign where my players are currently figuring out the goal of this cult that have been killing and resurrecting civilians and searching for something, and recently they’ve discovered that this cult follows someone they called “The Whispered One”. One of my players looked up at me with this face that screamed “Oh No”.
While watching this I didn't expect Acererak to have tied in Lore with Vecna.