Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Velsharoon
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Velsharoon, the god of necromancy for the Forgotten Realms. His rise to power is not entirely unlike that of Vecna, but, while Vecna rose to power on Oerth, Velsharoon rose out of the nation of Thay on a mission to find a pathway to immortality for all mortal beings. Certainly a compelling evil power, an interesting cult-like faith for your world building within the continent of Faerun in the most detailed setting for the Dungeons and dragons roleplaying game.
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How many gods of dead stuff are there
Damian Struiken
More that are alive than dead....
More than the market of necromancy can support.
Kelemvor - Current God of the Dead
Myrkul - Previous God of the Dead (died, is back now in 5e?)
Jergal - Original God of the Dead in the Netherese Pantheon
Bhaal - God of Death and Murder (also died and is now back in 5e)
Orcus - Not a god, but a demon lord of the undead. (AJ has a video on him)
Velsharoon
Kiaransalee - Drow goddess of undeath
Vecna (AJ has a video on him)
The Raven Queen (AJ has a video on her)
Urogalan - Halfling God of Death
Dumathoin - no death in his portfolio but he looks over the Dwarven dead
Labelas Enoreth - again no death in his portfolio but he looks after the Elven dead
Bane - at one point, not anymore
Cyric - at one point, not anymore
Osiris - Mulhorandi god of death and the dead
Set - Also a Mulhorand god of death
Shargaas - Orc god of undeath
Yurtrus - Orc god of disease and death
Moander - Netherese god of death, rot and decay
Shar - has death as part of her portfolio as well
Talona - Goddess of poison, disease and, apparently, a little bit of death
Null - Dragon God of Death who is himself split into two entities; The Reaver and The Guardian of the Lost
Then there are several deities whose clerics get Death Domain even if their portfolios don't include it:
Loviatar - Goddess of Pain
The Great Mother - Goddess of Beholders
Grolantor - God of Hill Giants
Laduguer - Duergar God of Crafts
Laogzed - Troglodyte God of Destruction
Memnor - Giant God of Pride and Control
Urdlen - Evil Gnome God of Destruction and Depravity
Probably more in other settings; I'm mostly familiar with Forgotten Realms and that's about it.
So... it is a BUSY portfolio because there is a lot of power in it. The old saying "There are no atheists in a foxhole" is about the tendency for those who are facing extreme danger, uncertainty, and death to turn to beg or bargain with whatever they believe is out there, watching over them, to help them. These prayers are some of the most heartfelt and emotional, fervent and thus, the gods who receive this kind of emotionally charged worship have a lot of power as a result. If that makes any sense.
Aj is right also the dead include everything "mostly" that has ever lived which means there is a lot of souls, bodys and thus materals to use in fact you could make the argument that dead is more powerful then the basic four elements
"I did a video on that" is something that must go through AJ's mind alot when gaming.
This is correct
It's not that death itself is evil.
It's that death is intrinsically *very* powerful, so evil pursues control of it.
Evil is chaotic destruction and corruption.
Death is the absence of life, but what is life without death?
All things exist in polar opposities
That there are opposites is an illusion. All things are connected. One isn't on and the other off. It is all the same thing in a different phase of the transition all things go through. Life and death included.
It seems he really won his feud with Szass Tam, because he ended up a god in the end.
Big Red Button: “Do *Not* Press.”
Velsharoon: “And I took that personally.”
One of my favorite necromantic Gods and an example of what can be done with Necromancy. Thank you so
Something to note: Velsharoon seems to be a lot older than Szass. He's mentioned to have fought a Halruaan wizard some five centuries before he ascended to godhood.
It's worth noting that while Vecna is a god that happens to be undead, he's not a god of undeath. The deity of liches is Mellifleur, the deity of vampires Kanchelsis. Velsharoon is specifically the Faerunian deity of lichdom, and shares Death's Embrace with Mellifleur on Gehenna.
I guess the technical deity of undeath in core would be Kyuss, but Kyuss no longer has Nerull support, with implication that the reason he was stuck in his obelisk was because Mellifleur siphoned the divine energy Nerull was expending to elevate Kyuss to himself.
Great info! Thanks.
Since I always play a Necro, Velsharoon is my patron of choice.
If they ever combine worlds, I want to see Velsharoon, Vecna, and Orcus fight over control over the undeath domain.
Vecna isn't a god of undeath. He's a god who happens to be undead.
Orcus is a tanar'ri prince.
There are already multiple deities of undeath. Velsharoon shares his domain with Mellifleur, the god of liches; Kanchelsis is the god of vampires; Doresain the god of ghouls; Kyuss the god of icky wormy undead; Evening Glory, goddess of love in undeath (yes, you read that correctly); Kiaransalee, drow goddess of undeath; Chemosh is Krynn's god of undeath; Falazure the Night Dragon is the dragon god of undeath; Shargaas is the orc god of undeath.
Vecna, despite being undead, is not a god of undeath. 4e and 5e may have played hell with his lore, but in previous editions he was a lich that happened to be a god, but otherwise not associated with necromancy and the undead.
Non-gods associated with undeath include Yeenoghu, Orcus (duh), Thralhavoc and Zuregurex.
And then demogorgon and some phoenixes, a few titans? The dragon dieties? Armies? Errbodeh?
@@LordMortanius isn't Yeenoghu basically a god now? Or still a Demon prince? ( Which is almost a god but not quite)
@@LordMortanius Orcus has been a demi-god once , even if he isn't anymore he still has a crapton of followers. You could easily make him a demi-god of undeath in a campaign.
@@Eisenwulf666 Orcus was a lesser power, not a demi power.
I have a suspicion that if I lived in a world where magic was readily available, I would walk some very dark roads.
I already know i'd be a warlock/cleric of some Outer God
@The Infinity Sock Just make a really sweet deal with a fire genie to get a Wish and grant you an elf's life span.
Then there are .. other .. paths in evolution ...
Flirting with Shar..yeah that is gonna end well.
The guy literally became insane over his necromancy soap opera called "Long Live The Mortician".
Setting up Velsharoon's recovery after being presumed dead and desire for more power as supporting plot point in my homebrew. Basically the characters wind up involved in the machinations of a powerful vampire-lich of my own creation who desires Velsharoon's portfolio as a stepping stone to greater divinity. Great stuff here!
I always chuckle that Jergal doesn't like undead, but then he certainly had liches on hand to get finger bones from, so Bane, Bhasl, and Myrkul could play their game when they reached His bone throne. Still, Velsharoon is a neat, if sometimes painfully minor deity.
Your library of D&D stuff is awesome thank you so much
When you worship Velsharoon as a red wizard but that Zass Tam is looking at you funny for that
You just gave me a time-warp. A lovely one, I assure you. The gods of the world were gods of a low-magic world. The only priests were paladins and herbal healer priests with about the same healing magic albeit enhanced by their herbalism. Top-tier magic was mostly controlled by the evilest of people. I did not restrict my players in creating their characters nor their history. I just wrote them in based on their perception of the world. They were all from the same town, I gave a description and all the town's worldviews. They considered their town awesome and the best place to trade anything and recover. The paladin of the group, on a lark, did his Detect Evil on the town's easy access magical healers. They were all evil. He only knew them as no-questions-asked healer mercenary but was shocked that they were evil.
The party was a good-aligned party. After finding that fact out, they drugged the PC paladin and snuck away to do any major healing of a party member with the bad guys. Eventually, the paladin found out and he lost his paladin status by siding with the party. The Goddess of Mischief seduced him, restored his powers, but altered his ethos he needed to follow. She guided him in voice each step of the way. The top enemy of the party in one mission was this, a party led by a paladin of his former caliber and the goody-2-shoe version of his party. I expected the PC party to lose, they were supposed to refuse to fight based upon the story I made. They fought and won... barely. I was obligated to re-script the world based upon that victory. It was well earned.
So the Hyperborean Age?
Hey AJ, Huge fan of your videos. you're always on point.
You mentioned Hextor and Heironeos in one of your videos concerning Acheron. I know you've got a long list of videos to make, I just thought I'd mention it.
Keep doing what you're doing! 👍
Velsharoon seems to be the more chill out of the two necromancers turned god of undeath. Save for the release of undead that no longer have a use (because that's just a poor practice for when that "unbound" undead comes into contact with other living beings) having once been a wizard of Thay means that he'd probably essentially be a sort of God of Kjowledge/Discovery too, right?
Very much so, with the express purpose of discovering a pathway to great personal power for all mortals who are willing to follow it, no matter what it takes.
This guy needs to meet Vecna...
Włodzimierz Szyc That would be an intresting plot. Imagine if most powerful and infamous non-deity liches from various settings - Acererak, Erandis Vol, Dregoth, Szass Tam, for example - tried to form sort of an alliance to attain godhood so they can divide the multiverse between themselves latter.
Sounds like the begging of some Grand Event ;]
Tenosit Sergeich Don't forget Samaster. Never forget Samaster.
Exomancer Well, I'm not strong on Forgotten Realms, and even bit annoyed by it, though I get why people love it. Sammaster would be a weird one, and I did not mention him because I do not remember him seeking godhood personally in any way. However, if Dregoth is on the team, that could be a possible answer for "dead dragons" thing.
Thank you 😊 very interesting and have a good day excellent video.
I gotta say that out of the two undeath gods, its gotta be Velsaroon over Vecna. He just seems to be a more complex villain while Vecna is more your stereotypical villain. Velsaroon is still an evil dude but he has a more ends justify the means, i just really enjoy villains whos goals which could considered noble but how they try to achieve this goal is which ultimately makes them a villain.
Well, evil is selfish. It is about pursuing your goals over the common good. That your goal may help make things better is immaterial. Your intentions are you prioritize the completion of your goals. You won't compromise to spare the community the cost. Good would compromise, reasoning that even if their personal goals are not served their ultimate goal is helping people so they can put personal fulfillment of goals on hold because it all leads to the same place. Good is thus fairly forgiving, while evil is rather vindictive.
I read this as "Veilshroom" for some reason. Now I can only imagine recreational plants from the Feywild/Astral Plane.
LOL, yuss.
-Velsharoon- Veilshroom: “Hey man, they’re ‘Medicinal Herbs’, and it’s like, totally legit... you know... scientific research...”
For real tho, it do be like that in the Feywild. That is canon. Pixies, Myconids, Fairy Dragons- I mean, it doesn’t say “they’re on drugs”. But they’re on drugs. Like, *all* of the drugs. That is how many of the drugs they’re on. Honestly, I don’t know how Zuggtmoy isn’t at least a greater deity. Over here talking about “ain’t nobody interested in worshipping fungus”. Bruh. Are you sure about that? Smh. Girl thick AF in more ways than one. I’m just saying.
Kind of disappointed that your store dose not sale glue sticks Mighty or otherwise. =P
LOL
lol
Hey AJ I wanted to thank you for checking out my friend and I channel the other day. I know what we have right now isn't the greatest and we don't have access to what we need to make videos the way we want yet but I hope when we do you would stop by again. Great videos as always AJ.
No problemo, I look forward to watching your progress.
Amazing video aj!! This Gives me an idea for a new video dealing with necromancy
I wonder if it is a strange coincidence that is origin his so similar to Mellifleur (different, but similar)....
On the topic of liches. You should do a topic from 2E. The archlich, Namely Alathene Moonstar of Waterdeep.
Hmm, Strange, I looked more up on her and says she is 3.5 But I only recall archlich being stated in 2E.
Loved the vid A.J.
Undeath is a very intresting thing since it bridges the gap between death and life two of our most thought about and percived concepts this makes necromancy a concept thats bound to occure no matter what would as their will always be those who cross the line
Could some play a "white" necromancer that only raises unintelligent creature or evil creatures? the "white" necromancer would never raise a human,dwarf, elf, gnome or Halfling but would raise a orc(including half orcs), goblin, gnoll, wild animal and may go so far as raising a family's pet see it as a waste to just bury the dog or horse. what would a village think of an adventurer like that?
Chris Calvin i think the villagers woud be confused and disgusted there woud be a split some woud be ok and some woud get angery.
I think most villages woud just ban that aventurer just in case
That wouldnt be necromancy if it is "good" it is resurrection. Whole in mind, body and soul.
thanks I think village would understand the character if they just use wild beasts and evil creatures but the creature see even the family pet as just an unintelligent creature and a half orc that may have had human friends for year as just an evil creature would rub someone the wrong way but that how they look at the world
There are good liches. Google Archlich, I don’t know if it’s a thing in 5e, but it exists in previous editions.
thanks I'll check to see if that fits
I'm honestly super hyped to hear he's technically still active because I found this guy and he was instantly a perfect fit for a pair of characters I cooked up coming from the same sort of religious background. Obvs death domain gods and undying patrons usually don't meld super well since most death domain gods hate undeath. He's a super interesting dude.
Good Video AJ
Really like your videos I'm not even close to watching all of them because you make a ton which is sweet. If you ever get some free time and you're looking for a video to make or whatever I'd be super interested in hearing about the tritons. They are a race from volos that I think is really cool and pretty interesting but I don't really know anything about him and I've never read a book that included them so be cool if you could dig anything up
Tritons are on my To-Do list :)
Love this one! Great job AJ!
Great intro graphic too!
I'm doing a homebrew FR campaign set in the second sundering ( so tyranny/SKT/POTA/rage of demons are all happening sort of all at once all over the place in the sword coast). The BBG at the very end is gonna be Velsharoon as a BA lich. The whole thing starts with finding the Ring of Winter from a little boy who is a cursed weakened form of Artus Cimber. How I'm doing it, Auril is the Queen of Night & Magic (ruler of the unseelie fey) and is doing anything in her power to get the ring back who was gifted to her as a token of love by Azuth. However, when Azuth broke Auril's heart and turned to Mystra, the ring became cursed and made Auril hate everything so she cast it out from her realm where it was later found. Velsharoon, equally recovering from his demise and Azuth recovering from his fall into Hell are both racing to find the Ring of Winter to absorb the vestiges of its divine power. Velsharoon's followers within the OG Cult of the Dragon seek it, alongside an alliance with Bane & Shar's followers, and Azuth with Mystra's followers alongside Talos' who is slighted by Velsharoon (so they just want him to fail, mostly, Talos is also the stand-in for the Cult of Elemental Evil's machinations in my version of POTA), and finally Auril, and the Giant Pantheon along with the unseelie fey and the shadow fey. All of them after "some cold adventurer" only protected by the fact the ring prevents his detection... however, the party quickly causes the ring to not be on his hand for a brief amount of time, setting the events of everything in motion. The party having to get it into the feywild to be worn by Titania to destroy it...or risk returning it to The Queen of Night & Magic (Auril) to restore her to her former self and warm the ice queen's heart. :D
Party we have is a Paladin of Torm seeking to stop Bane's followers in the region who have stolen away his blood-brother and corrupted the famed blade of his Ancestors Carsomyr, an Eladrin come out of the feywild seeking allies after some sort of catastrophe happened there, a purple dragon knight seeking to stop the cult of the dragon's plans, and a guild bard who has to get in the feywild to save a shipment or cause the ire of the Zhentarim!
Sort of Lord of the Rings but much more convoluted, and none of them are using the ring. XD
Wow, that sounds great! Love the mix of characters, a truly diverse team.
I've not played TT since 2E (the nerd population died off around these parts) but in videogames I always picked him for my wizards chosen deity if available.
Now the dead three are back (kind of), I'll likely headcannon a wizard/cleric trying to get Myrkul his old job back
I'll never forget talking to Myrkul in Neverwinter Nights 2, quite the set piece.
Also, loving the new intro animation
Yeah, I quite like that one.
AJ: Have you ever done a video on the baelnorn?
Not yet
He's like a combination of Nerull, Boccob and Vecna. God of the undead(Nerull), obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge(Boccob) and looks like/is a Lich (Vecna)
Greenscyth22 Vecna though is better by far.
Nerull isn't a god of the undead. Nerull hates everyone and everything, including undead. Velsharoon's closest analogue would be Mellifleur.
Also . This is ne'er suicidal but what route would you take it killing him. Make a deal with other deities that hate him, destroy his church's to make him weaker or say fuck it and mess with the primordials.
Another awesome video and lich who obtained supreme power could you talk about asearack
for now here's a vid on that:
th-cam.com/video/_tsycq3oqbc/w-d-xo.html
Yeah I would love a video on him as well. But not like the one that Jorphdan did (it’s still a great video don’t get me wrong!) where he barely went over the character himself and mostly just what a Lich was. Acererak does have an interesting history that I believe is best described in the 4e campaign module called “Tomb of Horrors” (not the remake for 4e but a separate campaign with the same name that is the sequel to “Return To The Tomb of Horrors”) although there is more info in other books as well that can tie together well if you sweep out the inconsistencies.
Spoiler: i spoke to Orcus this morning and he said this guy actually works for him.
Proof?
Do one on Frxchulucnvimalu the Unpronounceable.
It's really interesting how Talos seems to be more intelligent and cunning than Gruumsch One Eye....
Gruumsh is one of the more formidable gods, there certainly is a sense that most other gods of Faerun would rather not contend with his wrath.
Okay, I was operating on bad info. I had never heard of the second sundering, which must be relatively new in the lore. Before that, Talos was actually Gruumsh in disguise....
@@H3xx99 That was in 4e. Talos and Gruumsh were separate deities in all prior editions.
Thanks for the vid.
Who would be considered the most selfish and ambitious god of death?
Jergal
@@AJPickettVelsharoon: “So I started casting...”
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey
nwn2 palemaster ftw
Huh, the cultists don't actually seem all that bad, they seem more neutral to me. They aren't the typical murder hobo style cult, they are actually helpful sometimes. Velsharoon himself is a different story though.
@The Infinity Sock remeber he is a servant of good and neutral dieties and he is a smart god of genius intellect he knows that the standard evil god behaviour isn't a luxary for him at this point.
I just read about a Baelnorn in this novel I'm reading and I thought well let's see if AJ has a video about them.
Love me some undead, especially undead gods.
I'm making a cleric of Velsharoon now
So will he and yawmoth get along, and if yawmoth did come to toril how will the god react?
Violently.
AJ Pickett be a fight to see
Is their a module devoted mainly to this Velsharoon or just loosely mentioned in a few?
mentioned in a few.
As a mortal, Velsharoon was a renegade Red Wizard and was mentioned in Halls of the High King as an archmage seeking godhood. He later pops up in Powers and Pantheons, where he's fully ascended as the demipower of liches and necromancy.
Poor bugger, like every other god that isn't named Bahamut, Tiamat, Mystra or Shar, barely gets a mention afterwards.
Cool man
8:03 Is that Mumm-Ra?
More please.
how does Orcus relate to Velsharoon?
If Velsharoon has anything to say about it, as little as possible! Orcus is like the bullet with a liches name on it, that the lich is always trying to dodge and avoid.
@@AJPickett Orcus probably doesn't care much either way. The Prince of the Undead is more interested in peeling Kiaransalee's skin from her bones than in a single-sphere demipower of lichdom. If he's not picking fights with Kanchelsis, who does live in the Abyss, and with Mellifleur or Doresain, he's probably not interested in a pissing match against Velsharoon.
@@LordMortanius But he wants godhood. And he can get that by killing Velsharoon and taking his power and domain. So no...he does have an interest in the death god.
@@dubuyajay9964 Orcus gained godhood before, but picking a fight with a demigod generally isn't worth it. He'd be better off trying to wrench godhood off Kyuss.
The thing is that there are already gods of undeath in reach (Doresain, Kiaransalee), so going all the way to Gehenna where Velsharoon has the home advantage strikes me as a dumb thing to do.
There's also the small problem of Mellifleur living in the same realm, so Orcus will have to contend with two lich gods, not to mention Azuth and Mystra might step in to throw support behind their subordinate demipower instead of letting that portfolio be subsumed by a tanar'ri prince.
In canon, Orcus just wants to get his claws into Kiaransalee. He generally seems to ignore the other powers of undeath, even those who share the Abyss with him (Doresain, Kanchelsis, Chemosh, Thralhavoc, Zuregurex). He even ignores the baatezu lord Thasmudyan, another power of undeath. As a whole, Orcus generally doesn't seem interested in picking fights with fellow undead powers, so going out of his way to antagonize Velsharoon seems way out of character for him, especially since even in the Realms their centers of worship are completely separate (Orcus was worshipped in Damara/Vassa, Velsharoon's old stomping grounds were in Raurin and Soorenar, and his worship is situated in the Western Heartlands).
i get that your trying to experiment with new intros........but when your new intros have to compare with the old one......gonna have to try a little harder. no insult intended.
This intro is way better than his others.
Seems you’re getting some of your pictures from conan exiles if you don’t play the game it’s a pretty good one
I'll add that to the towering monument for all the great games I have no time to play. :)
Have you done a video on Finder Wyvernspur?
Negative.
@@AJPickett he was the nameless bard from the wyvern spur trilogy who later became a minor God.
Is Velsharoon the red wizard of necromancy? Or am i thinking of zasz tam?
Yeah, you are.
In FR lore Velsharoon was one of the founders of the Red Wizards.
Zulkir of Necromancy. There's hundreds of Red Wizards of Necromancy, maybe thousands.
@@erikseidler793 Yeah. But the zulkir has freaking vampire generals and an undead army. Hella rad.
@@777wrath Not to mention a demon lord bound to his will by the Death Moon Orb.
This is great imma make my shitty necromancer villan join them
Thanks aj
R.i.p
Do Nerull and/or Incabulos
Completely off topic, but I recommend you check out a channel called TierZoo. It's a channel that talks about wildlife as if it were a video game, and it's brilliant.
oh, im subbed to them. cool to see another tierzoo fan
I love his vids :) On point and really funny
Ghost mop
Awesome video. Please don’t use that background bell chime music again though. Sound too much like an iPhone message alert and it’s distracting af
Noted. Also, switch to Android.
FIRST!
*Talos approves of your ambition, please step into the crucible of everlasting torments... oh don't worry about the name, I'm sure it is just marketing babble*
omg AJ thats amazing.
12:20 OH! OOOH! Why's it gotta be BLACK necromancy?! >:(
Joke^
I blame goths.