D&D: Five Ways to Kill* Vecna
For someone so immensely powerful, Vecna sure is good at dying. And getting better. But here’s five ways the big guy has died.
For an Archlich who has designs on dominating the whole of reality, and with a fearsome reputation, Vecna sure gets bodied a lot. He’s 4 for 4 across multiple editions. But, as they say, it’s not about whether you fall off the horse, but whether you keep getting back on.
Vecna has “died” a few times. But, he’s always managed to come crawling back. Death here is a little abstract. Because getting your body destroyed and having your essence scattered into the nothingness that spans the planes still counts, as does being “eternally imprisoned within the tortuous Mists of Ravenloft” even if you get better. Which Vecna has a knack for.
With all that in mind, here are five ways that Vecna has been killed*. You know. For a little while, at least. Maybe some of it can be helpful when facing down Vecna later this year in Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
The Sword of Kas
Let’s start with the first time it happened. The Sword of Kas is an ancient artifact that was created by Vecna himself for his evil, ruthless lieutenant, Kas the Bloody Handed. Although really, it should be more like Kas the Aptly Nicknamed.
Kas faithfully served the Whispering One, but as he grew in power, the very sword that Vecna created urged Kas to supplant his master, so that Kas and his sword could lord over Vecna’s dominion.
In the clash that followed, both Vecna and Kas were destroyed, with Kas’ strikes slicing off Vecna’s hand and eye before both were destroyed. Vecna got better much faster than Kas ever did (because Kas is still dead).
The Hand and Eye of Vecna
Of course, speaking of the Hand and Eye of Vecna, these powerful artifacts contain fragments of the Archlich’s power. And one way of weakening him, if not killing him outright, is to destroy both of these powerfully evil, corrupting artifacts through which Vecna wields considerable influence on the Material Plane.
Although, one could take another route, and potentially wield the artifacts against their master, banishing him out of existence… of course to do that, you’d need the help of a Demiplane of Dread.
The Mists of Ravenloft
No one knows the true extent of the Powers that Be that guide the Mists of Ravenloft and that determine when a soul is so evil, so corrupt, that it warrants imprisoning them forever within a demiplane of endless misery and torment. Kinda like sending someone to the Phantom Zone and also a Groundhog Day where you’re unable to change, because of how evil and unreflective you are.
At the end of Vecna Lives, the legendary archmage Mordenkainen and a party of adventurers banish the archlich to the Domains of Dread. But sometimes sealing away the ancient evil works.
Morgoth Bauglir, the ultimate darkness in Middle-earth was never slain but banished from creation until the end of time. Vecna has a little bit more plot armor going for him, though.
The Lady of Pain
Of course, even plot armor can’t protect you from the Lady of Pain. The mysterious ruler of Sigil who forbids all gods from entering doesn’t mess around. And when Vecna concocted a multiverse-shattering plan to become the first god to walk in Sigil, he did so only by subjecting most of his powers as a divinity to battling the Lady of Pain. And even that was not enough to defeat her, merely to keep her from unmaking him with a word.
And while it was a band of heroes that would ultimately defeat his avatar and see Vecna slain, ejected from Sigil, and all his works undone, it was only because of the efforts of the Lady of Pain.
An As-Yet-Unnamed Plot Device, Probably to do with the Black Obelisks
If you’re seeing a pattern here, it’s, get someone or something powerful to weaken the archlich juuuuust enough that an adventuring party can get in there and slay a god. It’s a tale older than D&D. But one that flows pretty well.
And in the background of pretty much every major adventure WotC has been putting out for the last few years, are these mysterious Black Obelisks from the time of Netheril. And while we know a little bit about them (they can send you back in time, for instance), I’d be shocked if they don’t play a role in Vecna’s “demise” in the upcoming adventure.
How would YOU kill* Vecna?
