Vecna

Stub-class article · First seen: s21 · Last seen: s24

Vecna is a god first named in session 21, when a Religion check identified an eye carved above the stair of a temple in the pine woods north of Greysmere, half of it hacked away, as “the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers” [1][2]. Session 22 gave the building his name, “the Temple of Vecna”, with a hooded, one-eyed “Vecna statue”, a door that opens for a whispered secret and The Book of Secrets with “Vecna’s sigil” [4][5][8][10][11]; in session 23 a cultist the party killed there carried “a holy symbol of Vecna” [15]. In session 24 a knight of smoke released from a statue in the temple turned its gaze from Caelumn, whom the DM had asked whether he abandoned Bahamut and accepted Vecna as his one true god, to his allies, and struck the one who said fuck Vecna [20][22][26]. The DM has described no clergy, doctrine or rites, and Vecna’s place among the gods of Eldurae is unconfirmed.

Overview

Vecna is the god of secrets and whispers, a name that entered the campaign in session 21 through a single carving: an open eye cut into the stone above the stair of the ridge temple, where the trail of Greysmere’s raiders ends [1]. The DM’s narration gave his portfolio:

“you look up at the eye at the entrance and you recognize this as the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers.” — Nick (DM), [2]

Since then the temple, its statue and its sigil have carried his name, and in session 23 the DM restated the portfolio to a new party member and tied it to the door the party had opened by whispering [16]. In session 24 a knight of smoke in the temple reacted to talk of him [22][26]. This page records only what the DM has said at the table. It draws on no published material about Vecna, and nothing from outside the campaign should be assumed to hold in Eldurae.

Known traits

  • Secrets and whispers. The DM has given the portfolio three times: with the carving [2]; in his aside that “he is the god of secrets and uh whispers so there might be secret entrances” [3], a hedge and not a statement that such entrances exist; and in session 23, “what you know is Vecna is the god of secrets and whispers”, with “a first hand impression” of it in the door that opened when a secret was whispered to the wall [16].
  • The symbol. An open eye carved in stone, half of it hacked away [1]. Who carved it, and who hacked half of it away, has not been said. The cultist killed in session 23 carried “a holy symbol” that “seems to be a holy symbol of Vecna” [14][15]; the DM did not describe it, so whether it shows the eye is not known. A stone token “showing an eye above a closed mouth” and a “silver eye slash hand amulet” turned up in the same temple, and the DM has not tied either to Vecna ([29][30]; see The eye-and-mouth token).
  • The statue. In the room beyond the mural door stands “a hooded stone figure” that rises “Almost to the ceiling”; “Its left hand ends to the wrist And one eye has been chiseled away” [6]. The DM calls it “the Vecna statue”, and cultists leave offerings before it [10].
  • The mural. In the hallway outside, Hugo’s Perception found a mural of a hooded figure with one eye and a missing left hand, worshippers leaning towards it with painted mouths joined by a thin silver line to its remaining ear, and a riddle beneath: “Kept, I am yours. Shared, I am less. Give me what no other knows and enter where no doorway shows.” [4]. The DM does not name the figure, but it has the statue’s features.
  • Secrets as the price. When Caelumn whispered a secret of his own, the silver lines darkened, a narrow section of stone swung inward and “another worshipper joins the mural that looks vaguely like you” [5]; asked whether he felt any different, he was told no [31]. The Book of Secrets bears “Vecna’s sigil” [8]; a secret whispered into it brought text that “seems foreign” to the reader, and it was still unreadable in session 23 [9][32][33].
  • The knight of smoke. A knight formed of smoke came out of a toppled statue in the temple [17]. The DM asked Caelumn whether he believed in his heart that he was “a follower of Vecna” and whether he abandoned Bahamut “and everything else in your former faith” to “accept Vecna as your one true god”; his player answered that Caelumn was “starting to see Vecna’s ways”, and the knight “seems to turn its gaze away from you and towards your allies” [19][20][21][22]. Asked whether it counted for anything that he had told it “me and my allies had done this”, the DM said “No.” [34][35]. It struck Father Thomas after he said fuck Vecna: “Because you just said fuck Vecna.” [26]; it “very much turned his attention to the one that said fuck Vecna” [27]. A pitch from Hugo, that a necromancer was desecrating the temple, left it “relatively unaffected” [36][28].
  • Not canon. Table talk is not the DM’s word: the jokes that the severed hand is “the hand of Vecna” ([37][38]; again at [39]), the out-of-character remark that the material comes from an earlier Vecna-focused campaign [40], the strings of published titles that a player recited at the mural and again to Kole [41][42][43], and the jokes that Caelumn is now a worshipper [44][45][46][47][48]. Caelumn’s “great knight of Vecna” and Hugo’s “Vecna’s return” were their own words in pitches to the knight [18][49][36], and the DM’s aside “I’m bringing back the Vecna team one by one.” says nothing about the fiction [23]. None is recorded as fact: the DM has said only that a figure like Caelumn joined the mural [5] and what the knight did in session 24 [22], not that Caelumn now worships Vecna.
  • Not known. Cultists leave “multiple offerings” and there has been “a decent amount of foot traffic” [10][50], but no priests, rites, doctrine, holy days or relics of Vecna have been described, and the worship met in the temple does not show how widespread the religion is. The one cultist met in person ordered a prisoner taken “to the executioner” to be “a sacrifice for God” and twice spoke of “the master” [13][51][52]; the DM has not said that “God” means Vecna, who the master is, or that sacrifice is a rite of his faith. Nor has he tied the ritual that Rime says is being completed to Vecna [53].

Relationships

  • The ridge temple (Session 21): the DM’s name for the building is “the Temple of Vecna” [11][12]; whether that is its proper name is unconfirmed, and in session 24 he said only “the temple” [54].
  • Rime: the silver dragon hid in the statue room, behind the door that opens for a whispered secret [16].
  • The knight of smoke: its reactions to talk of Vecna are set out under Known traits; the DM has not said whom it serves.
  • Bahamut: “very much a god” [55]; in session 24 the DM set him, and “everything else in your former faith”, against Vecna in his question to Caelumn [20]. How the two gods relate has not been said.
  • The pendant cultist (Session 23): the one cultist met in person, whose holy symbol is the only tie of any of the temple’s users to the god beyond the building they use [15]. Whether the raiders who robbed Greysmere, whose trail ends at the stair, are the same cultists has not been said [1].
  • Other gods: the world brief describes a shared pantheon whose gods each city worships in its own way (Eldurae - World Brief). Whether Vecna belongs to it, and how he relates to Pure Light, The All Hammer and Myrana, has not been said.

History in the campaign

Session 21: The Hand That Points North

Main article: Session 21

At the end of the tracks from Greysmere the party reached a root-covered ridge with a cleared stone stair, and above it “an open eye that has been carved into the stone. Half of it has been hacked away.” [1]. A Religion check let them recognise the carving “as the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers” [2]. When the sentries at the entrance saw the party and Terry asked why they had walked in by the front, the DM replied that, the god being of secrets and whispers, there might be secret entrances [56]. Inside, the party found an eye above a closed mouth on a stone token, and a silver eye-and-hand amulet [29][30].

Session 22: The Dragon in the Statue

Main article: Session 22

Inside the temple the DM described a mural of a hooded, one-eyed figure with a riddle asking for “what no other knows” [4]. Caelumn whispered a secret, a door opened, and another worshipper joined the mural [5]. In the room beyond stood the statue, one eye chiselled away, with something scraping inside it [6]. After the flameskull fight the party found a book in a hole, resting on a pile of gold [57]: the Book of Secrets, “a very beautiful silver inlaid book with Vecna’s sigil on it” [58][8]. A group Insight check showed “multiple offerings from cultists in front of the Vecna statue”, and the party left “the Temple of Vecna” to rest [10][11].

Session 23: The Changeling in Manacles

Main article: Session 23

The DM opened with the party “outside of the temple of Vecna” [12]. Inside, a cultist ordered a captive taken to the executioner and made “a sacrifice for God”, without naming the god [13], and held a pendant to a wall that slid aside [59]. After the fight the party searched her body and found “a holy symbol”, which the DM said “seems to be a holy symbol of Vecna” [14][15]. Kole, new to the party, asked what it knew of the god, and the DM answered that “Vecna is the god of secrets and whispers”, citing the door that opened for a whispered secret [60][16].

Session 24: The Knight of Smoke

Main article: Session 24

Terry pushed over a knight statue in the temple and a knight of smoke rose [17]. Caelumn knelt and called it “great knight of Vecna”; the DM asked whether he believed in his heart that he was a follower and whether he abandoned Bahamut and accepted Vecna as his one true god [18][19][20]. His player answered that Caelumn was “starting to see Vecna’s ways”, and the knight turned its gaze from him to his allies [21][22]. When Father Thomas spat at it and said fuck Vecna, it struck him, and the DM told him why [25][26]. A pitch from Hugo left it “relatively unaffected” [28].

Status

As of session 24. Canon: a god in the setting, known by his symbol, his portfolio of secrets and whispers, and the temple, statue and sigil the DM has put his name to [2][3][8][10][11][12][16]. Cultists make offerings at his statue in the ridge temple [10], and one of them carried his holy symbol [15]. In session 24 a knight of smoke in the temple reacted to talk of him: it turned its gaze from Caelumn, whom the DM had asked whether he abandoned Bahamut for Vecna, to his allies, and it struck the one who said fuck Vecna [20][22][26]. Nothing further about his faith is known: the DM has described no clergy, doctrine or rites, and what the dead cultist meant by “a sacrifice for God” and “the master” is not stated [13][52].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 21, line 708: The carved eye above the temple stair: "Half of it has been hacked away.".
  2. ^ Session 21, line 728: The DM identifies the carving as "the symbol of Vecna, the god of secrets and whispers".
  3. ^ Session 21, line 828: The DM: "he is the god of secrets and uh whispers so there might be secret entrances".
  4. ^ Session 22, line 728: A mural of "a hooded figure with one eye and a missing left hand", the worshippers' painted mouths joined "by a thin silver line to its remaining ear", and a riddle that asks for a secret.
  5. ^ Session 22, line 770: A whispered secret opens a door behind the mural; "another worshipper joins the mural that looks vaguely like you".
  6. ^ Session 22, line 799: The statue: "a hooded stone figure"; "Its left hand ends to the wrist And one eye has been chiseled away".
  7. ^ Session 22, line 939: The DM: "the temple of uh a secret god".
  8. ^ Session 22, line 1621: "a very beautiful silver inlaid book with Vecna's sigil on it".
  9. ^ Session 22, line 1832: A secret whispered into the book reveals text, but "it seems foreign to you".
  10. ^ Session 22, line 1883: "multiple offerings from cultists in front of the Vecna statue".
  11. ^ Session 22, line 1893: "you leave the Temple of Vecna".
  12. ^ Session 23, line 269: The DM names the building again: "outside of the temple of Vecna".
  13. ^ Session 23, line 310: A cultist's order in the temple: "take him to the executioner and make him a sacrifice for God"; which god is not said.
  14. ^ Session 23, line 1453: On the dead cultist, "a holy symbol and leather armor and a dagger".
  15. ^ Session 23, line 1457: "It seems to be a holy symbol of Vecna.".
  16. ^ Session 23, line 1477: The DM restates the portfolio and ties it to the mural door: "what you know is Vecna is the god of secrets and whispers"; "you whispered a secret to the wall that opened the door".
  17. ^ Session 24, line 1663: A knight statue in the temple is pushed over and smoke "forms in the form of a knight".
  18. ^ Session 24, line 1787: Caelumn kneels to the knight and calls it "great knight of Vecna", his own words.
  19. ^ Session 24, line 1789: The DM: "Do you believe in your heart that you're a follower of Vecna?".
  20. ^ Session 24, line 1791: The DM: "Do you abandon Bahamut and everything else in your former faith and accept Vecna as your one true god?".
  21. ^ Session 24, line 1805: Caelumn's player answers: "Caelumn is starting to see Vecna's ways.".
  22. ^ Session 24, line 1806: The DM: "the knight seems to turn its gaze away from you and towards your allies".
  23. ^ Session 24, line 1817: The DM's aside: "I'm bringing back the Vecna team one by one.".
  24. ^ Session 24, line 1818-1819: Asked whether it counts for anything that he told the knight "me and my allies had done this", the DM says "No.".
  25. ^ Session 24, line 1921: Father Thomas spits on the knight and says fuck Vecna.
  26. ^ Session 24, line 1924: The DM: "Because you just said fuck Vecna.".
  27. ^ Session 24, line 1931: The knight "very much turned his attention to the one that said fuck Vecna".
  28. ^ Session 24, line 1953: Hugo pitches the knight a necromancer in a Vecna temple; the DM: "It seems relatively unaffected.".
  29. ^ Session 21, line 1446: Inline citation.
  30. ^ Session 21, line 1610: Inline citation.
  31. ^ Session 22, line 797-799: Inline citation.
  32. ^ Session 23, line 1484: Inline citation.
  33. ^ Session 23, line 1514-1515: Inline citation.
  34. ^ Session 24, line 1818: Inline citation.
  35. ^ Session 24, line 1819: Inline citation.
  36. ^ Session 24, line 1952: Inline citation.
  37. ^ Session 21, line 743: Inline citation.
  38. ^ Session 21, line 746: Inline citation.
  39. ^ Session 22, line 100: Inline citation.
  40. ^ Session 21, line 738: Inline citation.
  41. ^ Session 22, line 739: Inline citation.
  42. ^ Session 23, line 1464-1465: Inline citation.
  43. ^ Session 23, line 1473: Inline citation.
  44. ^ Session 22, line 804: Inline citation.
  45. ^ Session 22, line 1664: Inline citation.
  46. ^ Session 23, line 1460: Inline citation.
  47. ^ Session 24, line 1779: Inline citation.
  48. ^ Session 24, line 1797: Inline citation.
  49. ^ Session 24, line 1947: Inline citation.
  50. ^ Session 22, line 1885: Inline citation.
  51. ^ Session 23, line 652: Inline citation.
  52. ^ Session 23, line 891: Inline citation.
  53. ^ Session 24, line 429: Inline citation.
  54. ^ Session 24, line 321: Inline citation.
  55. ^ Session 18, line 1757: Inline citation.
  56. ^ Session 21, line 826-828: Inline citation.
  57. ^ Session 22, line 1607: Inline citation.
  58. ^ Session 22, line 1616: Inline citation.
  59. ^ Session 23, line 347: Inline citation.
  60. ^ Session 23, line 1461: Inline citation.
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