Vecna (Vehk-nah)

Vecna is one of the few gods to originate from a mortal creature; legends suggest the Raven Queen was the only other mortal to accomplish this impossible task. Like most stories surrounding the gods and their history, the truth shall forever remain hidden from mortal understanding. Efforts to document Vecna’s mortal life and apotheosis have been consistently vexed by Vecna’s priests and minions; it would seem the Undying King guards the secrets to his past with intense jealousy. Despite this and the swirl of conflicting stories, scholars have produced a relatively consistent history of Vecna and his ascension to godhood.
Vecna had mastered the arcane arts and proven especially adept at necromancy. He animated vast armies of undead and used his dark magic to drain the life from his enemies. Given his brilliance and cunning, Vecna depended on the gods to keep to their Covenant while he expanded his empire. With the gods became bound to this agreement, Vecna felt immune from divine interference. With limitless armies at his side, Vecna sought to conquer the mortal worlds. He took the lofty title of God-King, no doubt as an insult to the true gods.
Several of the other Immortals formed an alliance in opposition to the God-King. They launched their armies and powers against Vecna in a desperate bid to destroy their enemy. Vecna persevered and defeated the Immortal alliance. Rather than achieving victory through brute force, Vecna opted to corrupt and manipulate the other Immortals. In the end, he succeeded by playing his former peers against one another, throwing the erstwhile alliance into turmoil.
The gods, forbidden by the Covenant to intervene directly, instead sent powerful allies, artifacts, and spells to Vecna’s one trusted lieutenant – the infamous, bloody-handed Kas the Destroyer. Amongst all mortal creatures, Vecna only truly trusted Kas. This time, the master manipulator fell to his own tactics. Unaware of Kas’s impending betrayal, Vecna fashioned a powerful sword for his lieutenant, a weapon capable of piercing the flesh of even a god. Kas accepted the weapon and proceeded to attack his master with it.
In the ensuing battle, Kas severed Vecna’s left hand. Another blow sheared Vecna’s right eye from its socket. Wounded but alive, Vecna fled to heal and scheme. The forces of Vecna fought the legions of Kas to a standstill. In the end, Kas and Vecna mortally wounded one another. No one is certain what became of Kas, although there are rumors his mighty blade survives to this day.
Vecna’s body died that day, but his malign spirit clung to existence. From that point, only the gods know how Vecna ascended to godhood, or why. Did he bribe or blackmail the gods into granting him true immortality? What secrets or powers allowed him to cheat death forever? Regardless of his methods, Vecna went from being a spiritual vestige to becoming a full-fledged deity. Other gods in the pantheon do not offer any information about these events, and Vecna likewise seems reticent to reveal any facts. Vecna became a god, and remains a perpetual thorn in the side of the pantheon. Far more serious, he remains a dark blight on all mortal kind, his plots and schemes forever threatening to spread destruction and death.

Tenets of Faith

Never reveal all you know. Information is power. The more information you possess, the more powerful you become, and the greater hold you have over others. You should treat knowledge like currency, spending as little and as seldom as possible, always trading for a better bargain. If you surrender too much information, or the wrong kind of knowledge, you surrender some of your power, and perhaps grant power to another. Within Vecna’s faith, a lie of omission is not only appropriate, but also expected.
Find the seed of darkness in your heart and nourish it; find it in others and exploit it to your advantage. The use of dark knowledge and the collection of dark secrets together offer the only true path to power and influence in this world or any other. At heart, all mortal creatures possess a sinister nature, even those appearing good and noble on the surface. The follower of Vecna first seeks out that darkness in his own heart to cultivate it, nurture it, and allow it to flourish. By doing so, he turns a weakness into strength.
Oppose the followers of all other deities so that Vecna alone can rule creation. For the most part, the Deities do not seek total dominion over each other or the whole of creation. Even the gods viewed as evil, such as Tharizdun, do not pursue such a goal. Vecna, however, would relish the death of all other gods in the universe. He seeks total domination over this world and all others, and he wishes to rule alone, independent of any outside being. Based on this tenet, it appears obvious that Vecna’s megalomania as a mortal only grew in size and scope upon his ascension to godhood.

Worship

Vecna’s clerics seek out and collect information in all its forms, ranging from whispered secrets to ancient tomes and everything in between. They plunder libraries, kidnap sages, and do everything necessary in their pursuit of dark knowledge. Vecna’s clerics also track down and retrieve magic items, relics, and artifacts, especially those related to necromancy and blood magic.
There are numerous occasions where Vecna’s priests not only collect information, but also go to great lengths to deny that knowledge to anyone else. If they kidnap a sage to interrogate him, they eliminate him after they glean the answers. If they steal books from a private owner, they burn down that person’s house afterwards. If more than one copy of a book exists, they steal both copies or destroy the one they cannot steal.

Symbol: Hand clutching a human eye
Divine Classification: God
Portfolio: Evil Secrets
Domains: Arcana, Death, Knowledge
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Home Plane: Cavitus
Worshipers: Evil Spellcasters, Oathbreaker Paladins, Conspirators
Cleric Alignments: Any evil