What Only Hardcore Dungeons & Dragons Fans Know About Vecna

Before he was just a couple of creepy artifacts, Vecna was a living human — or half-elf, depending who you ask — but, as nefarious wizards are wont to do, he desired immortality. There are a few ways to go about becoming immortal in D&D, but Vecna decided on the definitively evil one: With help from the demon Orcus (whose own wicked title is the Demon Prince of Undeath), he became a lich, a power-hungry undead wizard.

Once Vecna was settled in his full time job of being evil, he crafted a fancy blade for his lieutenant, Kas, which got the comparatively lame name, "the Sword of Kas." The weapon was sentient, though, and convinced Kas to go after Vecna and seize his power. They fought, and Vecna was seemingly destroyed; only his left hand and eye remained.

However, people were still into Vecna even after his supposed death, so as the centuries passed, he gained his own cult of followers. Through the power of their adoration (and probably an unhealthy dose of fear and thirst for power) he turned into a demigod. Of course that wasn't enough for ambitious, spunky Vecna. He wanted to be a full-on god — but he needed his hand and eye to do so. This is where Vecna became a true villain for adventurers: In a D&D second edition module — "Vecna Lives!" — players could try and stop him from ascending. Assuming they succeeded, his story picked up again in the misty land of Ravenloft.