That was an interesting story, but Vecna's background is well known. Last time I checked in on him he had escaped Ravenloft, came close to making the whole of existence explode, and is currently doing very nicely as a member of the Greyhawk pantheon over on Oerth.
During the period Baldur's Gate takes place, Vecna, who with the help of his patron, The Serpent, had scratched his way up to demigod status, has been imprisoned (along with Kas) within Ravenloft due to the events described in the adventure "Vecna Lives". He has a very thorough write-up in the Ravenloft sourcebook of that period. Later, his antics in Sigil (described in "Die Vecna Die!") where he tried his level best to become ruler of the multiverse, are often used to explain the rule changes between 2nd and 3rd ed.
Elminster would certainly not consider Vecna to be fictional. The guy is a menace of the highest order. And his life and empire are a matter of historical record on Oerth.
I can't find any record of Rhin or Qwill so I'm assuming you wrote that. It's very nice, but I don't understand why you need to bring Vecna into it at all. You're basically retconning Vecna, one of the most important and influential D&D characters of all time, into non-existance. If Vecna is a myth, and these items were born on some unknown world, then how are these even Greyhawk Artifacts in the first place?
Would it not be easier just to have your artifacts be their own thing, the Hand of Rhin and the eye of Qwill, and nothing to do with Vecna?
This post has been funded in part by the Please Don't Annoy Vecna Foundation.
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Did not for one instance try to contend that Vecna does not exist !!!!!!!! Like you said he is alive and well doing great things in Oerth.
BUT
2nd Ed rules have "the eye and hand of Vecna" as playable artifacts, in fact its in the back of 2nd ed DM,s guide along with the story of vecnas downfall and the descriptions of the other artifacts.
So 2nd ed DMs guide says he is dead with his hand and eye doing the rounds in greyhawk: and a host of other info shows him alive and well, how can this be ?
( have included the grayhawk campaign book for others that want to do the background )
My story attempts to square the circle and explain the contradictions.
The " Hand and Eye of Vecna " as stated in the DMs guide were never native to Vecna in the first place, they were powerful artifacts he found, owned and called his own, and indeed deliberately propagated that lie. thus when he was stripped of them , although an inconvenience, he still survived.
The history of the hand and eye i created was the history BEFORE Vecna found them, indeed the effect of accelerated aging is the reason Vecna became a lich, why else would any right minded arch mage become a undead other than to gain immortality?
With your knowledge of Vecnas history would this proposed idea work (
ie finding items and calling his own etc,,, )
And as background i propose Greyhawk and Forgotten realms are on alternate Prime material planes, accessed through the astral, other alternates i propose could and do include many other genres. In my history i have made reference to DBZ, Many colored land ( by julian may ),Books of Corum ( Michael moorcock ),and the original Traveler Game. ( all of which made excellent P+P AD+D campaign settings! )
But the fact that there is this confusion means an urgent rewrite of the story to make Vecnas part in all this a LOT clearer
Edited by vilkacis, 14 December 2009 - 11:19 AM.