D&D's Obelisk Plotline Was Supposed to Be Resolved in Vecna: Eve of Ruin

Chris Perkins has revealed that the obelisks scattered throughout various 5E adventures published by Wizards of the Coast was originally supposed to play a central role in the Vecna: Eve of Ruin adventure capping off Fifth Edition. Many Dungeons & Dragons adventures published for Fifth Edition featured mysterious black obelisks. These obelisks were revealed to be capable of time-travel and were tied to a mysterious group called the Weavers as well as the Netherese Empire. In Rime of the Frostmaiden, it was revealed that Vecna had obtained one of these obelisks and it was hinted that Vecna would use the obelisks in his plot to rewrite all of reality.

Vecna's possession of an obelisk was never followed up on, but it was apparently supposed to be a plot point in Vecna: Eve of Ruin. In a recent interview with Polygon, Perkins provided his vision for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. "The original plan, in my mind, was that we would actually culminate the story by going back in time to fight the Netherese Empire,” Perkins said. “It was always on our radar to bring Netheril back in some way. And this was the way I envisioned it happening, because the only way you could really fight Netheril again is to travel back in time."

“I was excited about the idea of a time travel adventure,” Perkins said later in the interview, “simply because it would feel very different from the other campaigns we had done up to that point. And I thought given time and attention, we could do some really fun things with Netheril and explore a style of magic that felt different from contemporary magic. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks would be sort of like the vibe I'd go for, where the magic is so weird it almost feels technological.”

Unfortunately, plans changed when Perkins' role at Wizards of the Coast shifted in his latter years with the company. “The reason it was dropped was that different people were in charge of the adventure design,” Perkins said. “I had rolled off a lot of my hands-on product work to help out with other parts of the business. And so, when I creatively walked away from the day-to-day adventure creation, we sort of lost the plot.”

Polygon has been periodically publishing interviews with Perkins, including an introspective on Rime of the Frostmaiden, and some insight on 5E's adventure design.

 

[Not a Decepticon]

Does he? I've never read any of those adventures. What personality quirks and traits does he have? How does he speak? Why has no one ever said "well Vecna, he is like this:"? Skeletor is sardonic. Acerecrak is sadistic. Azlin is authoritarian and academic. Soth is gloomy and tragic. Strahd is a romantic, arrogant and sadistic. Vecna is ???

The most interesting thing about Vecna I've come across is the art in EoR that implies a romantic relationship with Kas. And you know what? The adventure doesn't do anything with it. Kas and Vecna don't have any scenes together! Neither character's agenda relates to the other in any way.

Vecna is so petty and cruel that when dignitaries of a city he besieged offered their own lives if he spares the citizens, he said to send him one volunteer from them with his family...then ordered Kas to spare the man and his family and force thrm to watch as he slaughters everyone else in the city, seemingly because he felt insulted by an idea he could be appeased. (Vecna Lives!)

Vecna is a troll, he literally heard the famous Head of Vecna story, found it so funny he made a copy of his own head, put it on material plane and had his cult spread rumors of magical Head of Vecna just because he wanted to see if anyone will be so stupid to behead themselves to put it on (Die, Vecna, Die!)

Vecna has imaginary snake friend he talks to, so he is not very sane.

Vecna loved his mother and he and Acererak initially bonded over very similiar backstory, before Vecna found out Acererak set up an ambush in which Vecna would be permamently destroyed, had Acererak not saved him, as a scheme to get in Vecna's good graces and learn secrets of Lichdom.

Vecna DOES keep his secrets close, he is kinda paranoid after both Kas and Acererak stabbed him in the back.

Vecna has standards and in fact plays key role in keeping Tharizdun imprisoned, by keeping away secrets that, if poked by curious wizards, could wake Tharizdun up. Whenever a wizard gets too close to doing that, Vecna turns them into a Nothic.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Vecna is so petty and cruel that when dignitaries of a city he besieged offered their own lives if he spares the citizens, he said to send him one volunteer from them with his family...then ordered Kas to spare the man and his family and force thrm to watch as he slaughters everyone else in the city, seemingly because he felt insulted by an idea he could be appeased. (Vecna Lives!)

Vecna is a troll, he literally heard the famous Head of Vecna story, found it so funny he made a copy of his own head, put it on material plane and had his cult spread rumors of magical Head of Vecna just because he wanted to see if anyone will be so stupid to behead themselves to put it on (Die, Vecna, Die!)

Vecna has imaginary snake friend he talks to, so he is not very sane.

Vecna loved his mother and he and Acererak initially bonded over very similiar backstory, before Vecna found out Acererak set up an ambush in which Vecna would be permamently destroyed, had Acererak not saved him, as a scheme to get in Vecna's good graces and learn secrets of Lichdom.

Vecna DOES keep his secrets close, he is kinda paranoid after both Kas and Acererak stabbed him in the back.

Vecna has standards and in fact plays key role in keeping Tharizdun imprisoned, by keeping away secrets that, if poked by curious wizards, could wake Tharizdun up. Whenever a wizard gets too close to doing that, Vecna turns them into a Nothic.

This is all useful material, the trouble with those adventures are pretty much forgotten, presumably by the people who work for WotC these days too. I assume none of them were of a quality to consider bringing back, but if you are going to do a Vecna adventure, you need to find a way to work this kind of thing in if it’s not well known by everyone.

 

[Azzy]

For me, those weren’t modules that I have very strong associations with. That’s why I feel Vecna has largely fallen flat. If I was going to pick an “uber” lich, it’d be Acererak, personally due to the popularity of Tomb of Horrors.

Acererak is a demi-lich, though, not a regular lich.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Acererak is a demi-lich, though, not a regular lich.

He is unalive and well in Tome of Annihilation.