Thread by @ghirapurigears

So, who the hell is Vecna, and why do we have his random body parts? Time for a significantly shorter lore dive!

https://twitter.com/ghirapurigears/status/1412096396950315024

Our story starts back in 1976, with the 3rd supplement to the original D&D rules, Eldritch Wizardry by Brian Blume. (the first three books were men & magic, monsters and treasure, and underworld & wilderness adventures, followed by greyhawk and blackmoor)

(Eldritch wizardry also introduced psionics to D&D but called it Yoga, lol)

anyway, in eldritch wizardry there was a section on Treasures, which included magical artifacts that would become legendary for all of D&D- the wand of orcus, the rod of seven parts, and of course, the hand and the eye of vecna.

(we also got the stats for Orcus and Demogorgon!

The point of these items was that they were items of unbelievable power, but they required a great sacrifice from the wielder of their own body.

They appeared again in the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons DMG

A note of nomenclature- there was Original D&D in 1974 followed by Advanced D&D in 1976. The difference was significant. the rules were more complicated and detailed, and there was just a whole ton more content and depth. OD&D and AD&D existed side by side for many years

Also, the first AD&D book to come out wasn't the players handbook or dungeon masters guide, which would have been logical and sensible, but rather the monster manual, so that folks playing OD&D could upgrade their existing campaigns into the new ruleset, or something

in 1977 we got the Basic Edition box set of D&D which was the first update of original D&D, written by John Holmes (a fan who came to TSR with the offer to write a new version of the original set to clear things up and make it usable), followed by the Moldvay revision in 1980

So we had AD&D 1st edition, and next to it the Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters/Immortals rules for the revised OD&D (now called Basic or BECMI, or more affectionately the red box/blue box etc).

and these were completely separate games! aside from lore, they had very little crossover in rules compatibility, and played hella different. AD&D eventually got a 2nd edition, and then in 1991, we got the Rules Cyclopedia, which was basically the ultimate compilation of OD&D

and when 3rd ed finally came around, TSR/WotC had realized that a- no one but some old grognards really gave a crap about the differences between D&D and AD&D, and b- it's hard to be 'advanced' when there is nothing to be 'advanced' of, as basic had been discontinued for decades

so 3rd ed, with no shortage of controversy (i'm sure you can even find angry letters i wrote to newsgroups and mailing lists back then!) dropped advanced and ever since it's just been D&D, which to be fair is all anyone was calling it anyway.

except for old timers like me who just like the sound and rhythm of AD&D

ANYWAY! back to vecna.
The vecna artifacts gained a ton of fame and legend status among gamers, as they were insanely powerful, and usually the end result of lengthy and difficult campaigns to discover. I mean, you had to pull out your eyeball to use it!

the 2nd edition DMG expanded upon the lore of Vecna in the 'sample artifacts' section, where it encouraged folks to make their own epic items

this item was totally bonkers and incredibly cool. they left out the eye of vecna, leaving that for DMs to make for themselves.

Vecna finally appeared as an Arch-lich in 1990's greyhawk box set Vecna Lives!, which was a huge and epic adventure surrounding the cult of Vecna, and of course his hand and eye. In one of the coolest parts, the players get to actually play as the Circle of Eight!

The wild part here is that if the PCs destroy Vecna, he's transported into Ravenloft, which was an awesome way to introduce the setting to a campaign, and give the players an incentive to planehop, and then take on the new demigod in Vecna Reborn

and then the final adventure released for 2nd edition D&D was Die, Vecna Die!, which linked together Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Planescape, and was just fucking cool. This multiverse shattering adventure was also used as sort of a way to transition from 2e to 3e

Vecna in Sigil fucked with things so badly that the fundamental rules of the multiverse changed forever, mirroring the rules shift of 2nd and 3rd. (1st to 2nd had a similar thing too in forgotten realms, in the time of troubles)

Eventually 3rd and subsequent editions of D&D made Vecna into a god unto himself, which is wild, and imo took away from the coolness of the character. that he was an old lich who had decayed into just these two parts was super cool to me and having him around was needless

But what about the book of vile darkness? (and no i'm not talking about the hilariously goofy and bad 3e supplement by Monte Cook which caused a shit ton of controversy and added a lot of edgelord bullshit to the game)

In world, the BoVD was a book penned by Vecna and made out of the flesh of a human face and the bones of a demon, and it basically gave untold strength and powers to evil clerics and divine casters. any Good character even looking at it has a chance to just drop dead.

The idea, of course, is that by using the Hand and the Eye of Vecna and then reading from the BoVD, you become a shell for Vecna himself to inhabit

By and large, that is the core essence of Vecna through the eons. But for many many years, rumors persisted of a strange and hitherto undiscovered artifact, one that bestowed the powers of a god upon the wielder, one that required the ultimate sacrifice

Yes, the mythical Head of Vecna, an object so powerful that it required you to decapitate yourself and place the head on your neck in order to BECOME VECNA HIMSELF
*thunder crash*

in 1996, a gamemaster named Mark Steuer was running a split campaign, where two adversarial groups were trying to beat each other to a quest. Group 1 plotted a secret trap for the second.

They seeded rumors of the mythical Head of Vecna, and found the head of a recently deceased enemy and set it up behind some magical traps. The first victim, sadly, was a druid of their own party who hadn't been informed of the trap, and summoned apes to tear off his head. oops!

The rumors reached group 2, and they found the head, and decapitated the party wizard to try to attain the power, and when it didn't work, they reasoned that they had made a mistake, and killed a *second* party member to try again!

The GM wrote a letter that showed up on the Steve Jackson Games newsletter "Daily Illuminator" and then immediately became one of the most famous bits of ridiculous D&D lore out there, alongside the famed Gazebo

What Gazebo, you didn't ask? Well! I'm glad you asked! Read this. It is one of the great classic jokes of gaming. netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/J…

(at least the Gazebo wasn't on a grassy gnoll!)

and thus ends the saga of the Hand and the Eye of Vecna. The cards do a phenomenal job of forcing you to decide how much you are willing to sacrifice for untold power, and are frankly a home run for flavor.

Coda- The Book Of Exalted Deeds is the Good version of the BoVD. it's also not nearly as cool or linked to any stories, because edgy is cool and good is boring per the rules of D&D

I only play good PCs. no, i'm not bitter, why do you ask