Vecna: demigod, god, or lich?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I like the idea that Vecna is simply a very very powerful wraith that while he can temporarily be destroyed if encountered in wraith form, when someone uses the hand and eye, he begins to possess them. The people useing the artifacts start to think they are vecna because vecna is slowly taking them over. When the hand and eye are not in use the wraith wanders. If they are in use the wraith is nowhere to be found.

This is based on the original entry in eldritch wizardry and the 1e DMG.

I like this suggestion.

 

[Nyeshet]

powerful lich

I know that he is supposed to be some type of lesser / demi deity, but really, to the typical 1 - 5 level NPCs, once you reach the higher levels of lich (or even demi lich), the being is just as lethal as if it were a demideity. Dead is dead, after all, and a demilich (or even a lich, I think) can do worse than mere death - sealing the soul within some item (usually a gem, at least for demiliches) for slow torturous consumption. Really, if Vecna insisted on being called a deity, I can't see those under his terrible rule arguing - or even believing - otherwise. Dead is dead. Sealed in a torturous afterlife is sealed in a torturous afterlife - whether that be in another plane or in a gem.

So I suppose I side with a variant of Demilich rather that true demideity - even if Vecna insists that he is a demideity. In Ravenloft its not as if there are other deities around to argue with him - at least not in his domain. Others may exist of course, but as with all dark lords, they will be sealed each within their own domain, having little or no direct contact with each other.

 

[was]

other...as in doesn't exist

 

[haakon1]

If you can bring yourself to do the required self mutilation for that more power to you.

I believe it's Gygax who had the story about the HEAD of Vecna. If it was someone else, they were doing old skool D&D proud!

 

[haakon1]

Also, does Die Vecna Die really mean The Vecna, The?

Yes, and he lives in a pee-soaked heckhole, not a . . . well, you saw the episode.

 

[Ripzerai]

If gods -- the embodiment of a concept receiving power from those who worship that idealization --

That's what some gods are, but other gods are ascended mortals striving toward becoming the apotheosis of a concept, having touched the divine, able to draw power from it but not yet fully assimilated into it. It's not "stupid" for a god not to meet your narrow definition of what a god should be.

Vecna's interesting because he cheats and schemes, because he knows the loopholes in the multiverse and exploits them. He's interesting because he's personified and still somewhat human.

A being that was only a reified concept wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

Besides which, you're still not being clever enough. There are many things a secret can be, and many ways to hide a secret. You can hide a secret in complete ignorance, sure, but that's far from the only or most appropriate place to do so. It's not so much an issue of being literal as being tricky, which a formidable god of secrets should be. A god of secrets who thought the only way to hide a secret was to ensure that no one knew anything about any part of it would be a stupid, stupid god of secrets.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's not "stupid" for a god not to meet your narrow definition of what a god should be.

Since stupid is pretty clearly an opinion in this discussion, and Vecna himself is unlikely to get offended by it, I'm sticking by it.

Besides which, you're still not being clever enough. There are many things a secret can be, and many ways to hide a secret. You can hide a secret in complete ignorance, sure, but that's far from the only or most appropriate place to do so. It's not so much an issue of being literal as being tricky, which a formidable god of secrets should be.

In what ways is Vecna tricky? He brute-forced his way into power.

Your version of Vecna seems a lot more interesting than the canonical version.

 

[BlackMoria]

In my campaign....

A foot note in history (he got permanently kacked by our group in a near epic campaign).

 

[Nebulous]

I thought Vecna lived on in the Tome of Magic as a Vestige...sorta dead but not quite

 

[WD40]

I thought Vecna lived on in the Tome of Magic as a Vestige...sorta dead but not quite

Thats Aacerakk.

He was Lich #1, a sort of prototype-vecna.