Why Vecna?

[GeoffWatson]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

[Maelphistez]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

I hate the thought of Greyhawk (or any setting really) being plundered of its "big baddies" willy-nilly, but to be fair there are connections between Isle of Dread and Vecna. The first and most obvious of course is that both Isle of Dread and Vecna Lives were written by Zeb Cook. Isle of Dread pre-dated almost all of the campaign worlds and due to the timing of its publication was normally found in either Greyhawk or Blackmoor depending on the campaign you were running. It was not exclusively for any single campaign setting. The same is true with Vecna. While he appeared in the earliest D&D rules in the form of the artifacts created by Brian Blume (not Gygax who created Greyhawk), he also had no real connection to any given campaign setting. Since then however, he has been used in many campaign settings (Vecna Lives placed him in Greyhawk / Ravenloft / Planescape). In 3e, Vecna was listed as a god in the core supplements and thus became a cross-campaign figure. In 5e, Vecna has been included into the Forgotten Realms as part of the "Doomed Forgotten Realms" campaign setting as something more than just a Lich but something less than a real deity since he was "summoned" by Acererak. In short... there is a basis for including Vecna and his roots go all the way back to IoD.

Should he have been brought in when we have plenty of nasties in Eberron and FR lore that have never even been touched? That's a different question and I would vote no. Next thing you know Tharizdun will show up holding a Codex Page with a bad nasty plan to blow up the marketplace.

[Arkat]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

Because...Codex Pages!!!

:sigh:

[LightBear]

He must have gotten word of the accomplishments of The Black Abbot and thought "I can do that with one eye closed and one arm tight behind my back!"

[Arkat]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

Thinking about it some more, I seem to remember Vecna was banished to his own "Realm of Dread" similar to how Strahd was banished to Ravenloft which, if I'm not mistaken, is also a Realm of Dread.

If we can find our way into Strahd's Realm of Dread (and find our way back), I don't see why Vecna should not be able to interact with us from his Realm of Dread. Is it possible the Isle of Dread is some sort of Realm of Dread? If so, is it the one to where Vecna was banished? I don't know much about the current state of Greyhawk or Mystara lore so take that into account if you respond.

[LightBear]

Thinking about it some more, I seem to remember Vecna was banished to his own "Realm of Dread" similar to how Strahd was banished to Ravenloft which, if I'm not mistaken, is also a Realm of Dread.

If we can find our way into Strahd's Realm of Dread (and find our way back), I don't see why Vecna should not be able to interact with us from his Realm of Dread. Is it possible the Isle of Dread is some sort of Realm of Dread? If so, is it the one to where Vecna was banished? I don't know much about the current state of Greyhawk or Mystara lore so take that into account if you respond.

The isle must then be the vessel on which to banish Venca from plane to plane.
Eg, Vecna is now being banished from his current location while he can't return to his own realm and thus winding up in some random other place.
Only to be spotted there eventually and be banished once again to some random place.
Though this time he might get stuck in some eternal loop so we get to fight him over and over again?

[Annex]

In the past, when players made threads offering suggestions for the next new D&D Module to bring to DDO, The Tomb of Horrors came up very often over a period of many years. Among players here, that old Module is extremely popular. At some point around 2017, the developers began to act on a number of Player suggestions, slowly bringing them to DDO. Codex Pages are a hook used by the developers to keep all the disparate Modules wanted by Players strung together.

The arrival of Vecna is all building towards the eventual release of The Tomb of Horrors.

Please note, I am not taking a position on this fact, I am merely answering the question.

In my opinion, we are building toward the eventual arrival of Githwhatevertheyarecalled as the Level 40 antagonist, since they are another very popular Player request and Darth Severlin stated on many occasions he really likes them.

[Arkat]

The arrival of Vecna is all building towards the eventual release of The Tomb of Horrors.

I'm 99.99% sure WotC would not go for a Vecna - Tomb of Horrors connection.

The bad guy in ToH is Acererak, not Vecna.

[Oxarhamar]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

Not that I don’t have questions either but that’s all here

https://www.ddo.com/news/ddo-dread-page-to-game

[Annex]

I'm 99.99% sure WotC would not go for a Vecna - Tomb of Horrors connection.

The bad guy in ToH is Acererak, not Vecna.

Under the current version of the story, Acererak is one of Vecna's minions.

Much like The Tome of Horrors, players wanted The Isle of Dread for a long time. The developers stated, on many occasions, they wanted to create Dinosaurs. Around 2012, The Isle of Dread story was altered by Wizard's of the Coast to make it Vecna's personal pleasure barge. Earlier, the Lich in The Tomb of Horrors was retconned into a minion of Vecna. As things stand today, Vecna connects a number of old Modules Players want including The Isle of Dread and The Tomb of Horrors. Developer actions an comments make the trajectory rather clear.

[Arkat]

Under the current version of the story, Acererak is one of Vecna's minions.

Much like The Tome of Horrors, players wanted The Isle of Dread for a long time. The developers stated, on many occasions, they wanted to create Dinosaurs. Around 2012, The Isle of Dread story was altered by Wizard's of the Coast to make it Vecna's personal pleasure barge. Earlier, the Lich in The Tomb of Horrors was retconned into a minion of Vecna. As things stand today, Vecna connects a number of old Modules Players want including The Isle of Dread and The Tomb of Horrors. Developer actions an comments make the trajectory rather clear.

Ok, thanks. I didn't know about the retconning of Acererak and Vecna.

[Valerianus]

Why is Vecna here?

He has nothing to do with Eberron, and nothing to do with the Isle of Dread.
He's from a completely different setting (Greyhawk).

what if happens that the codex storyline comes to an end (finally, good but overused imho) and it is a link for future content\expansions, maybe greyhawk itself?

[Maelphistez]

Under the current version of the story, Acererak is one of Vecna's minions.

Much like The Tome of Horrors, players wanted The Isle of Dread for a long time. The developers stated, on many occasions, they wanted to create Dinosaurs. Around 2012, The Isle of Dread story was altered by Wizard's of the Coast to make it Vecna's personal pleasure barge. Earlier, the Lich in The Tomb of Horrors was retconned into a minion of Vecna. As things stand today, Vecna connects a number of old Modules Players want including The Isle of Dread and The Tomb of Horrors. Developer actions an comments make the trajectory rather clear.

Ok.. I hadn't seen the IoD retcon, I'll have to look that up.

Re: Acererak and Vecna is a bit more odd. In the Tomb of Annihilation, Acererak summons Vecna to the Forgotten Realms which to me implied that Acererak is roughly equal to Vecna in power at least. In my readings, I didn't get that Acererak was a minion of Vecna but that could easily be my own fault. Now, Vecna *is* often referred to as a god in Doomed FR and is in fact the equal of Tiamat. The two of them have apparently chased off all the major powers of FR including notables like Elmonster. This does suggest that Acererak isn't even in the same ballpark power-wise as Vecna. Just basing Acererak's relative power level from the Tomb of Horror source material, he's a bit of a push over compared to Vecna.

Here's an interesting "tie-in" loop that may be the link that SSG is pulling on here though:

1. Acererak did make his way to the Forgotten Realms after the ToH
2. While in the Forgotten Realms, Acererak created the Soulmonger that could capture dead souls (Tomb of Annihilation)
3. The soulmonger is very, VERY similar to the soul splitter devised by Doctor Vulcana to create the soul-split warforged
4. Acererak used the Soulmonger to bring Vecna to the Forgotten Realms (Tomb of Annihilation)
5. Both the soulmonger and the soul-splitter were later destroyed by adventurers
6. *IF* Doctor Vulcana used the soulmonger as the basis for the soul-splitter, it is entirely possible that it could have been used to bring Vecna into Eberron

[Driss]

Stranger Things tie-in

[Matuse]

I'll do you one better: What Vecna?

[Arkat]

I'll do you one better: What Vecna?

This Vecna!

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...=1#post6520412

[thwart]

Maybe we'll start to see more Greyhawk ... that would be awesome!!!

[Annex]

A few months back, when I brought up potential issues arising from Portent to Dread, I suggested that the Isle of Dread may serve as a sort of Planar Ark. At that time, I was not aware written material already existed placing the Isle of Dread in that role.

Ever since Mister Cordovan posted the very nice story synopsis of events leading up to the Isle of Dread, I have been looking for more information about the relationship between Vecna and The Isle of Dread. The aforementioned synopsis states that Vecna was connected to the Isle of Dread as of 2012, but I cannot find the original Article or Module on the matter. Have any of you found it?

[Arkat]

A few months back, when I brought up potential issues arising from Portent to Dread, I suggested that the Isle of Dread may serve as a sort of Planar Ark. At that time, I was not aware written material already existed placing the Isle of Dread in that role.

Ever since Mister Cordovan posted the very nice story synopsis of events leading up to the Isle of Dread, I have been looking for more information about the relationship between Vecna and The Isle of Dread. The aforementioned synopsis states that Vecna was connected to the Isle of Dread as of 2012, but I cannot find the original Article or Module on the matter. Have any of you found it?

This might be somewhat helpful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savage_Tide

It shows the Isle of Dread was introduced into Greyhawk in the 4th installment (January 2007) of the Savage Tide AP. If the Isle of Dread can make it into Greyhawk, I see no reason why Vecna couldn't make it to the Isle of Dread.

[Maelphistez]

The aforementioned synopsis states that Vecna was connected to the Isle of Dread as of 2012, but I cannot find the original Article or Module on the matter. Have any of you found it?

I'm looking as well because... well.. I'm a nerd. I have found some mentions and I've been working to track those down.

Most likely: The D&D Wiki lists the contents of a D&D Next playtest package dated 20130128 that includes the adventure Isle of Dread. So far, I've been unable to locate this pdf in its entirety. I did however stumble across (and I'm not direct linking to it because it was fairly well buried) a PDF of the Isle of Dread dated 2012 which appears to be an excerpt from that package and has the "do not distribute" tag across the top. Ok, here is why I think this is the most likely basis for the retcon mentioned above: In the section title "Alternative Hooks" which aims to give DMs a way to start their characters on the IoD adventure, one of the possible hooks is titled "Flee the Domain". In this alternative scenario, it is stated that the island has been detached from reality and set adrift in space and time as a form of cosmic punishment for the "bad race" (I say that because I have no idea if SSG means to introduce them to the game here) worshiping demons. It states:

"...the isolation is'a form of cosmic justice that punishes the *bad race* for their evil by trapping them in a so called 'Domain of Dread.'"

The phrase "Domain of Dread" refers specifically to the Demi-plane of Dread, commonly known by its most famous domain... Ravenloft. I found absolutely no mention of Vecna in this version however by either reading it or word searching the file.

Possible: There is a massive book put out in 2018 by Goodman Games on the Isle of Dread including multiple versions of the module. I watched a video review of this but I have not yet purchased this pricey little gem just yet and the only version I could find online was clearly a pirated version that I wasn't willing to download. There may be more information here, but I don't know.