Secrets of Vecna: D&D's Most Powerful Lich-God

This long awaited DnD Lore on the Arch-Lich Vecna spans the story of Vecnas rise from man to deity. There is a lot of material (most of it conflicting) on the deity Vecna, but his story is a classic tale of a rise to power despite the odds. One thing to note on this video for all of those lore guys in the comments are I did not get into the possible origins of his Lich powers, including topics like Mok'slyk the Serpent, Orcus, or other possible sources of power.
Related Lore Videos!
Orcus: • D&D's Greatest Demon L...
Karsus: • Karsus: The Story of D...
Asmodeus: • Asmodeus - D&Ds Greate...
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dndlore

[@YamishiMizuandDracus]

Fun fact: in Baldur's Gate 3 there's a scamming genie in the circus who needs to be fooled to obtain one of the best weapons and rings in the game. If you play his wheel of fortune game normally, he gives you joke items as prizes, one of which is called "The other hand of Vecna".

[@zeeburn]

Which I received, and it has not left my inventory since then 🤣 It was so funny to me

[@tyrant-den884]

"Acerack, was it? They day you were allowed into Vecna's tower was the most important day of your existence; for me, it was Tuesday."

[@leyrua]

The sword of Kas seems like a pretty archetypical evil artifact. Reminds me of an item I came up with that was a little more subtle. It was basically supposed to be a legendary sword of alarm, but it worked by allowing the wielder to telepathically hear antagonistic thoughts in a huge area around them. It wasn't that the sword was evil, it's just that the wielder was hearing all of the negative thoughts and "call to the void" moments of everyone around him (without hearing any of the positive thoughts), and eventually he went from being the loyal bodyguard of the king to gradually becoming more and more paranoid, until one day he snapped.

[@VikingMale]

Reverse it, all the can hear is good things. Even from the evil creatures and people’s that want him dead….

[@bskec2177]

This whole series is "You think you have a problem, let me tell you about me day" and I 'm totally here for that.

[@cameronpearce5943]

I like to think Vecna would honestly be proud of Acererak's betrayal, that lil cambion doing his old man proud

[@dallaspark9100]

While I know these stories of vecna by heart, your narration of the events are really engaging and well made, and I really hope you make a fallow up, these videos will help a lot of new DMs run Eve of ruin next month!

[@VikingMale]

His right hand…. His left hand is the hand of Vecna, but the right hand is secretly plotting against him and is on the side of good….

[@cameronpearce5943]

I'd love a follow-up on Vecna. I'm running a greatly expanded Eve of Ruin, and the more lore on him I have the more I can build him up once the party learns of his existence (Starting with Shattered Obelisk, they just hit Level 5)

[@robertcorr6971]

Good work man, keep up the good work. I'm always interested in the Dark Lords of the Dread Domains so I was amped to see you cover the Vecna Reborn stuff.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thanks! Me too

[@Elpha22]

I dont know man, i blatted him in face with a couple of pallets the other day. He didnt seem so godlike when i looped him for 5 gens either. He was big mad when we teabagged him at the exit gate

[@kingthunderstar3302]

I even escaped with both his eye and hand through the exit gates too and he was definitely big mad about that lol

[@cameronpearce5943]

I got theories and obscure lore to fill in some of the blanks. Vecna needed his soul on him, hence why he was truly destroyed when he and Kas fought However, as he was part way through a ritual to sacrifice his empire and become a god, the magic latched onto the only two targets it could, his severed hand and eye Invested with terrible power, warlord Halmadar would eventually don the Hand and Eye, and I like to think the corruption he suffered thereafter earned him the moniker 'The Cruel' Vecna was able to come back through manipulation on Halmadar

[@BeaglzRok1]

My personal twist for Vecna's story in my game is that Vecna orchestrated Kas' betrayal through the sword. He had faced enough enemies prior that he would recognize that any resistance against him, any defeat and destruction he might face, must be of his own design. Most modules that mention any Sword of Kas to use against Vecna, be it the real artifact or a replicated forgery, make mention that its abilities become impotent when brought into Vecna's presence, which is easily the biggest contradiction to the one part of his lore that literally everyone agrees on: the sword's power was greatly effective against Vecna. Vecna is THE Big Bad Evil Guy of D&D. His plans span centuries, but few people truly realize just how thorough one's knowledge and control needs to be in order to consider every potential variable across not just days or weeks of people having random impulses and all manner of extraplanar beings exerting their own influence, but hundreds of years. No DM can truly know the scope of the butterflies he has sown to reap fields of whirlwinds. A single false death sets a legend of false hope for millennia into the future that can be exploited again and again. More deviously, a man of secrets and falsehoods can turn even the truth into a weapon that, in regards to his capability, can inspire zealotry in his followers and despair in his enemies. All of this from merely one outcome of one fight during one day, let alone the actions he has taken both prior and since. The infamous Acererak of the Tomb of Horrors still feared him before his downfall, whose power is so great that his bids for godhood are known throughout the multiverse. None of this paints the picture of a villain that can be cut down and have his grip on the world released as with Sauron from Lord of the Rings, Vecna is far worse: an inevitability. Despite the loss of his empire and failed rituals, he has still made the jumps from mortal to undeath and from undeath to divinity. His is not a meteoric rise, spectacular as a bolt of lightning, but a slow, quiet, ceaseless, and often unnoticed march of death that can be stayed, but never stopped.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Damn this was beautiful. I love this theory, it does make TOTAL sense that the god of secrets has twists like this. I did not know that about the sword of kas being impotent near Vecna, that would put a hole in the climax of his story. You could also argue that that WAS his intended ritual, he wanted Kas to attack and planned it from the beginning, I mean it worked out for him, he did become a deity as a result of that fight

[@rosalinaj9717]

“Strike me down and I’ll become more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

[@KS-PNW]

First one of your videos I've seen, it was really well done! Def gonna check out your other stuff 👍👍

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thank you!

[@venkelos6996]

Personally, I like the idea that, even as a deity, in addition to all his self-interested goals, he has "responsibilities", too; secrets he's maybe discovered, or even been handed, but that are now his responsibility to ensure no one else also learns of them. Maybe the lore with Thurizdan is true, and it's critically important no one else ever learns that they are all fitments in the dreaming Mad God's mind, or that if he ever wakes up, everything will blink out, like a dream, or be destroyed, and replaced with something "better". Maybe people who get too close to this become Nothics, to keep them from learning more. I like the bit where you explain how Vecna and Kas didn't actually die, but were flung through the Abyss. Liches are my favorite undead; evil, immortal archmages who spend eternity unlocking ever more power, but they protect themselves against final death with their phylactery, so I was curious how Kas bypassed his "get out of death free in seven days" card, but that only works if they are destroyed, so if he got flung into Ravenloft, where even his soul can't escape, that makes sense, and then once he became a deity, the Dark Powers pushed him back out, as they won't abide other gods in their domain.

[@tyrant-den884]

I like the idea of his respocibilities as the god of secrets going both way. Yeah, some secrets he absolutely has to keep. but he also kind of HAS to share some of his secrets with his cultists; as a high level cultist of secrets jHAS to get some secrets.

[@leohawk776]

@@tyrant-den884 They have to prove their loyalty, and failure is considered a betrayal. As long as you meet the standards, Vecna is actually pretty good to work for.

[@tyrant-den884]

@@leohawk776 unfortunately he is evil, so his standards do become rapidly unrealistic.

[@leohawk776]

@@tyrant-den884 In fairness, most of his orders have to do with getting and keeping secrets. Most of his people don't die doing something on a big scale, but in the shadows because they weren't skilled or lucky enough.

[@tyrant-den884]

@@leohawk776 you listen to a lot of podcasts, don't you?

[@timothywootton5331]

More Vecna is always wanted.

[@IEatSand22890]

Just wanted to say I enjoy your lore videos. Keep it up!

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thank you!

[@autisticallyaccurate]

Follow Up, Please, What Happens After 'Die, Vecna, Die!'!

[@CarmenMultz]

10/10 man, keep up the awesome work! This channel is awesome

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thank you!

[@AvromCrovax]

The question is did Cass become a vampire or was he the first dhampir?

[@mammonclarke]

Another great video! Thanks for all your hard work puttiing these together.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thanks you!

[@LeanneKnoll]

You know I started learning about dnd to figure out the plots of stranger things by watching these types of videos. Now I’m in too deep lol

[@VikingMale]

Read Gygax’s: Gord of Greyhawk series.

[@thelibrary2]

well written serious & firm narrating feels like The stupendous wave, some dark souls aesthetic.

[@limolnar]

I'd love to see your take on the Dead By Daylight introduction of 5e Vecna.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

I had no idea about it until someone commented about it, not a game I play regularly but it looked awesome, I’ll check it out!

[@LikeButton7]

A video on Orcus would be amazing.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

You’ll never believe this

[@LikeButton7]

@@The_NaturalOnesfound it!

[@Satori2046]

Fantastic video, we need a follow up, plz.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thanks!

[@robertross5201]

Acerack came from the Workd of Greyhawk and 1st Edition where he was introduced as a semi-li h in the module S1, Tomb of Horrors.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Ya I kinda flubbed that line about his intro into dnd, currently doing work for Acererak video.

[@antonile4521]

Awesome video! 🔥

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thanks!

[@andyh2783]

The First Lich I guess ??Wonder if Vecna got his undeath before Larloch of Warlocks Keep??

[@genghiskhan7041]

I enjoyed it, nice work!

[@rogerbrownreacts8528]

First Edition he is nothing but a Hand And A Eye.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Pretty much, but having a hand and eye of Vecna imply that he was once more

[@GinamosWithCherryOnTop]

Basically he is just there amazing secrets and not caring about other people.

[@El-Rico]

Acererak first appeared in D&D 1st edition of the Tomb of Horrors.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

True, but he wasn’t part of Vecnas story until later and he’s a bigger character in 4e and 5e. Or I should say more expanded on

[@NaR00W]

Absolutely one of the most concise and coherent lore videos out there. Bravo! But please filter out your sniffs / sharp inhales :P 8:36

[@zeeburn]

God I love Vecna. I wanna make him my ultimate BBEG in my campaign complete with custom, borderline broken OP statblock 🤣💀

[@tyrant-den884]

if I had a nickel for everytime a murderous psychopath became an epic leveled vampire putting on a mask...

[@mgakidd]

Great video. I couldn’t understand you. Did Kaz become Strahd?

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Nope, different vampire lord. They just happen to have some similarities like being in the domains of dread for a while

[@mgakidd]

@@The_NaturalOnes Ok. That was my understanding but I’m not familiar with 5E. I was like….”that’s a hell of a retcon!”

[@iamthephantomlord]

You can say he ruled over a FORGOTTEN REALM

[@patrickempson7366]

Was hoping in the BG3 we would be able to find his eye and hand.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Ya me too, or the sword of kas

[@jamert8820]

That would be amazing for Durge

[@AvromCrovax]

Not sure how much of the map bg3 gives you but there not in BG. Maybe one or a clue could be found in Waterdeep or Candlekeep but the chances of either being hold in a populated place for very long is very unlikely.

[@Adam_First]

Great video

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Thanks!

[@dominiricanish]

On top of moving your monsters, I make sure to give my big brutes the crusher feat. So you can knock back some of the players give them the chance to charge towards people hiding in the back.

[@Lanse1984]

I am waiting for someone to do a video 9n Vhostym (The Sorjouner). In novels it is said he is nearly 10000 years old and is godlike in power.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

I’ve never heard of him, just looked it up, definitely a good topic for a vid

[@SoulofMusic666]

Shout out to the Drukhari pic in the vid #IYKYK

[@Shakkarz]

I think the sword was made in a volcano just like that ring that rules all other rings.

[@Nyrufa]

13:58 - IS THIS A JOJO REFERENCE!?

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Someone else commented this haha please explain

[@Nyrufa]

@@The_NaturalOnes In Part 1 of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, they introduce the existence of these ancient stone masks. If somebody wearing one of the masks smears it with fresh blood, the mask activates and transforms the wearer into a vampire.

[@levismith8444]

Very good video

[@liquidator2246]

I wonder if it is possible for some super-uber-heroes to somehow contain and destroy his soul. We do know that some gods have been killed before.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

A higher level party definitely I think could defeat him, he’s technically just a lesser deity. That being said I think actually destroying his soul to make sure he never comes back would be difficult, definitely a situation that depends on the writer of the story, but in dnd lore souls are notoriously hard to pin down completely and destroy. Liches and gods in particular

[@TotalTech2.]

I would very much like to see you do a video on an Atropal

[@The_NaturalOnes]

I actually did! It’s on one of my horror dnd videos, there are ten of them I think

[@TotalTech2.]

@@The_NaturalOnes Okay thanks. I will check it out

[@KuLaydMahn]

I like the snark in this one😂

[@thomazeblen]

What about the black obeliscs ? one in icewind dale even sends you back in time to the netherise empire

[@The_NaturalOnes]

I do think there is some business with Vecna and a black Obelisk at some point, I think thats in 5e RotFM stuff, which admittedly I have intentionally not peeked at as I am a player in a current campaign of that module.

[@dovakiin4257]

Real homies are here from the Eve of Ruin

[@RudKip]

Please do the Vaati, the wind dukes! Ty!

[@brettwoolman4691]

Cyric did pretty good

[@alexcruz3043]

Are vampire masks just a thing in history or is this a jojos reference?

[@leavlas]

Where can i find the art of the ship going trough space/dimensions? At 17:51.

[@LikeButton7]

Orcus gave him the ability to become a lich.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Ya I think in 5e it mentions that, no edition truly agrees though on the origin. And 5e kinda just throws it out there honestly

[@AvromCrovax]

@The_NaturalOnes well to be honest everything at one time or another was just thrown out there. I like to pick and choose what I use at my table n what I throw back

[@ICountFrom0]

Wait.. Asserak? Isn't that the lich in tomb of horrors?

[@Jayco2855]

All i understand is this guy is now running around in Dead by Daylight and i'm trying to get behind why and who he is 😅

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Oh damn just saw that, guess they’re promoting the new adventure. Well spread some lore in the lobbies

[@mssj4gokou]

Is this Cass the same Cassador from BG3?

[@The_NaturalOnes]

No this is “Kas” I don’t believe there is any relation

[@jeniskindof]

Man vecna really needs to stop making swords.

[@VikingMale]

Using Claus Schwab as the gif for Vecna…

[@supercompooper]

I played in a high fantasy campaign and I'll tell you a vecna is so underpowered. Some magnificent lander powered it's laughable.

[@supercompooper]

I created a time loop for instance and sort of cloned a bunch of vecnas and set them against each other as entertainment...

[@Pepsi_Addicted]

I'm doing my part to please Algo

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Hero

[@IShallCallHimTaders]

"afraid to say his name." Oh lord here we go. More voldemort nonsense.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

That trope isn’t really unique to Harry Potter haha. Lots of fiction have big evil guys where even the name is feared, in DnD names can also give power

[@albanmahoudeau1779]

FOR STRANGER THINGS. STUFF.

[@tazkol]

"absolute villain' "most iconic lich' have you never heard of acererak? the guys does more evil before he eats his morning soul then vecna has done in his entire existence.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Well I mention him in the video… for quite a while…

[@The_NaturalOnes]

But true! Acererak may be more evil, I do think Vecna is more widely known, possibly because of stranger things and critical role

[@josephford4088]

Vecna is far more infamous

[@tazkol]

@@josephford4088 maybe in the real world, lore wise, no no he defiantly is not.

[@KS-PNW]

​@@tazkol I gotta disagree with you. Vecna has been a big deal since 1e. He was kind of the primary evil deity for the Greyhawk setting back then. Acererak was just the bad guy at the end of a fairly obscure adventure back then. He didn't really get fleshed out until later.

[@davedeboy5726]

I have one better. The suit of immortality. 7 items must be collected and you become the most fearsome dark lord the world has ever seen. You see things in only red and green. Green colors are your allies, and the red, is what must be destroyed. The suit commands the largest dead army ever in existence of the planet. The resurrection begins when the suit is completed upon the wielder. Friend beware, for your alignment forever becomes chaotic evil and you must follow that alignment or sacrifice your entire army and realm to no existence. You must prevail for the suit invades your mind telling you what must be done. You can only overcome it's evil with a throw over 33 (half of the devil) perception check and you only will get once chance as trying to overpower the brainwashing it will make your mind weaker and your perception will fall to zero bonus at the best. Beware the Jabberwocky my DND players. And everyone things MM is the best DM. Think again. MM just wants $$$ and fame but his creativity is lacking in comparison to many of us out there. Should you sacrifice yourself-the Sun's power burns everything on the planet and all are dead from heat/radiation/smoke/no food or water.

[@nickg5341]

Wouldn’t it be lawful evil since you have to obey the laws of the suit, as chaotic as they are?

[@rev.jonathanwint6038]

He is not realy a Villain.

[@The_NaturalOnes]

Why do you say that?

[@tbohn10]

Hes a lich

[@daltonbuchholz5061]

Dude murdered a bunch of innocent people To experiment on them……. Bet you’re a hitler apologist

[@jboogie7944]

Bro drops a hot take and doesn't elaborate