Cult of Vecna

Structure

Every cell has two leaders. Both serve a specific purpose in the sustainability of cell of the cult. Most areas have only one cell, with its membership between 5-20 people. Larger cities or kingdoms possess multiple cells, each one ignorant of the location, if not the mere existence, of the other. Most members of the cult join willingly, seeking power or knowledge, or to fulfill something missing from their lives. Other members are recruited-typically through blackmail or coercion. The desire to bring a person into the cult is based on what the acolyte can bring to the cell to improve their powerbase. These desirable traits can be the wealth the potential cultist has access to, and if not their wealth then their political standing and influence are also considered.

The titles of the 2 leaders are the Eye and the Hand. The Eye is typically a rogue or spy. A master of subterfug. Someone that can infiltrate anything from a consortium of wealthy merchants or a royal court. They are also typically skilled in the art of disguise, espionage, and assassination.

The Hand is the active enforcer or person of might and power in the cell. This can be a powerful necromancer or a priest/cleric of Vecna himself. The Hand is the one that organizes the cultists of the cell, leads the worship and rituals of the Whispered One according to the religion’s dogma, and embarks on quests or missions too dangerous to be entrusted to mere mortal cultists.. The Hand will give the order to attack devotees (including clerics) of Revanna and St. Cuthbert, but typically with the aid of the Eye, to do it in a way to not draw attention to the cell or the cult at large.

Culture

Each cultist, including the Eye and the Hand, are typically fanatics. They will commit suicide rather than be captured and reveal any secrets of the cult, and Vecna’s plans, under imprisonment, interrogation, or torture

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Secrecy is sacred and practiced at all times under threat of death, or an eternity of torture in one of the lower planes, is the culture of the cult. Once joining the cult, the only way out is death, either by suicide, being killed at the hand of the cult's enemies, or murder by the cult itself if the Hand or Eye of that cell suspect a person of treason, heresy, or just for some sort of material or poltical gain.

Almost all cultists live a double life, but the one that is that person's public persona and day to day responsibilities; a mask. While the true face of the person is as a servant of Vecna. Only the Eye and the Hand of the cult are aware of the identities of the cultists in their particular cell. Their own identities hidden by masks they wear, as the cultists do the same.

There are a few things that cult members do to subtlely reveal their identities to one another; one is there are hidden handshakes and code words established when two cultists are interacting with each other in public. And just in case a crafty spy discerns what the gestures and phrases are; each member of the cult of Vecna does have a small tattoo above their right breast. The tattoo is a black hand with an eyeball in its center.

Public Agenda

There is nothing particularly "public" about theThe Cult of Vecna. But through the efforts of the Lord Regent and other powerful nobles and political leaders they have been able to ascertain the cult's three main goals in their agenda:

1. To be Vecna's agents in the Natural World while he is imprisoned. To carry out his will and enact his plan to escape the hellish plane in The Divine Isles on which he is trapped. He would then be free to wreak havoc on the world and begin his war to achieve comeplete domination of the Natural World, and the Upper and Lower Planes.
2. To master the all the knowledge and secrets of necromany and other dark, forbidden magicks. Much of this dark magic's power is locked away, or hidden all over the world by the current goddess of death, Revanna and her priests. Once this magic is mastered, they seek to build an army of the undead for Vecna to command upon his return, so that he may lay siege to the Silver Shores and The Divine Isles. The ritual of becoming a lich has been forbidden for centuries, by studying the dark art of necromancy, many cultists seek the secret to becoming a sentient undead.
3. With their master imprisoned in Nethermire, they are to gain wealth, control, and power of The Silver Shores through secrecy and subterfuge. Using tactics like blackmail, bribing, and assassination to become the source of true political power from behind the scenes. This would be the first step in the fall of the major kingdoms of the Silver Shores. All will be claimed in the name of their dark lord, and ready for his rule upon his return.

Assets

The cult has no reaal physical assets to speak of. No silver, no land or holdings, etc. Their true asset is the knowledge the cult has accumilated, particularly secrets amd hidden knowledge of nobles, wealthy merchants, and religious leaders. They use this knowledge as a tool to manipulate their victims through blackmail, getting the cult what they need to thrive and maintain their own secrecy. One type of assets is the possession of forbidden necromantic spells and books. Some powerful, evil magical artifacts thought lost to time are in the posession of more than a few cells of the cult.

Divine Origins

The cult is said to have began while Vecna was still a living mortal- the advisor and wizard in the service of Neko, Duke of Vaszkysa, when the kingdom was still a province of Celinad. The exact date has been lost to time, but scholars and historians estimate sometime around the year 1900 C.Y. The cultists were agents of the wizard, sent to seek out dark necromantic magicks and artifacts, particularly the secrets to cheating death.

When Vecn a returned to Vaszkysa as a lich, used his terrible power, and usurped the province around 2750 C.Y., he broke Vaszkysa away from the now shattered Celnadian Empire, and formed the country into an empire of it's own, with Vecna as its emperor. It was then that his former shadowy cult became a dark, evil, sadistic secret police.

Circa 2865 C.Y. after the Twenty Year War, Vecna's plan to attain ultimate godhood and destroy the Upper and Lower Planes was thwarted, and the followers of Vecna were driven underground, becoming a shadowy cult once aagin in the service of the now god of secrets. Over the next 300 years the cult has infiltrated likely every kindom in the Silver Shores, spreading its evil like dark tentacles over the continent.

Tenets of Faith

According to Vecna, there exists a secret that can bring suffering to any being, no matter how powerful that being is. In the middle of every heart hides a seed of darkness kept hidden from all but the self. Finding that secret evil and exploiting it is the key to undoing one’s enemies. Strength and power, says Vecna, come from knowing and controlling what others do not. He also admonishes his followers never to reveal all that they know.

Ethics

Vecna's worshipers believe that knowledge was the most pure form of power, and only those that made the effort to fully understand the nature of that knowledge were worthy of the power that accompanied it. They maintained anonymity while parsing through all the accumulated knowledge in their possessions, in order to fully assess and judge its value. It only attracted members that were unconcerned with morality or ethics.

The cult regularly practices the arts of deception, the invoking of dark, forbidden magic, murder and assassination, thievery, and all kinds of unsavory illegal actions on their quest to free their undead lord.

Worship

Most of the members of this cult seek to be awarded the boon of ever-lasting life as a lich, as Vecna himself has done. The cult participates in vile rituals such as human sacrifice and other necromantic rituals and rites involving forbidden magic. to gain their evil god's notice and favor, and in hopes of uncovering the secrets of achieving lichdom. These rituals, as well as their more mundane gatherings, often take place in abandoned temples, previously undiscovered caves, deep forests or other secluded natural locations.

Granted Divine Powers

Vecna bestows on his priests the power of the divine domain of necormany (death).

Political Influence & Intrigue

In Galador, the cult does its best to infiltrate every facet of the kingdom's society; from the lowliest of underworld slums to the grandest of noble courts. If it proves to be unlikely that a member of the sect cannot gain entry to a particular assembly, they will use their gifts of bribery, extortion, blackmail, and intimidation to sway the most vulnerable member of that circle and use them as a proxy for their cult's own needs. In fact, it is suspected that a cell might have up to dozens of citizens from all walks of life in their pocket. Cutpurses, royal guardsman, servants, even personal dignitaries have been rumored to be a spy for the Cult of Vecna. Whether it be a cultist infiltrator, or someone under the sway of the cult, this influence is plied in gaining restricted knowledge and secrets of all manners. Sometimes even public decrees and policy have the stench of the cult's influence upon them.

Every whispered secret is a weapon.

Type

Religious, Cult

Alternative Names

Cult of the Lich-King

Deities

• Vecna

Divines

• Vecna

Notable Members

• Vecna