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What is canon about older-edition settings in 5E?
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<blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 8357380" data-attributes="member: 79428"><p>Concerning Vecna and Critical Role, the short version is that he was featured as the final antagonist of Campaign One. He became a god but was banished. </p><p></p><p>The longer version is that in Critical Role, the Raven Queen was a mage during the Age of Arcanum that created the Rites of Ascension to kill the god of the dead and take his place as goddess of death. The other gods agreed to not take action against her so long as the Rites of Ascension were hidden away.</p><p></p><p>Vecna, another magic-user during this Age, sought the Rites and became a lich to prolong his quest for godhood while opposing the Raven Queen, though he was betrayed by his ally Kas shortly after defeating a hero named Yos Varda (this Kas was destroyed, his soul trapped by Vecna within the Sword of Kas).</p><p></p><p>Years later, another mage inspired by the Raven Queen's rise to godhood attempted his own ritual...which unleashed the imprisoned evil gods upon the world and brought about the Calamity, a divine war waged across Exandria. At its end, the Prime Deities established the Divine Gate to banish all fully-manifested gods from the world and keep them out. Though the Prime Deities could break the Divine Gate, it would allow for the Calamity to repeat.</p><p></p><p>Finally, during the last stretch of Campaign One of Critical Role Vecna learned how to ascend to godhood, succeeded, and attempted his first "miracle": the destruction of the city from which the Prime Deities operated upon Exandria during the Calamity. The adventuring party Vox Machina was aided by several allies (including Arkhan the Cruel) to weaken Vecna enough so that the Rites of Prime Banishment could be performed, sending the new god beyond the Divine Gate and barring his return to Exandria.</p><p></p><p>IIRC, Matt Mercer later commented future villains would be original creations of his rather than being established D&D characters (though Tharizdun was featured in Campaign 2 under the title The Chained Oblivion, and the ending of Campaign 2 implies that The Chained Oblivion is subtly connected to multiple apocalyptic threats via a vision of black chains shattering when the campaign's villain was defeated).</p><p></p><p></p><p>So...yeah, Arkhan is effectively a canon anomaly in 5E. Descent into Avernus explicitly states that he got the Hand of Vecna from Exandria. You can easily watch the episode of Critical Role where this happened and skip to the moment when Arkhan cut his own hand off and stuck the Hand of Vecna to the stump. This was very soon after Vecna became a god.</p><p></p><p>Now I'm curious if the upcoming Critical Role Amazon Prime show will cover the end of Campaign One and, if so, whether it will feature Arkhan the Cruel or omit him.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hexmage-EN, post: 8357380, member: 79428"] Concerning Vecna and Critical Role, the short version is that he was featured as the final antagonist of Campaign One. He became a god but was banished. The longer version is that in Critical Role, the Raven Queen was a mage during the Age of Arcanum that created the Rites of Ascension to kill the god of the dead and take his place as goddess of death. The other gods agreed to not take action against her so long as the Rites of Ascension were hidden away. Vecna, another magic-user during this Age, sought the Rites and became a lich to prolong his quest for godhood while opposing the Raven Queen, though he was betrayed by his ally Kas shortly after defeating a hero named Yos Varda (this Kas was destroyed, his soul trapped by Vecna within the Sword of Kas). Years later, another mage inspired by the Raven Queen's rise to godhood attempted his own ritual...which unleashed the imprisoned evil gods upon the world and brought about the Calamity, a divine war waged across Exandria. At its end, the Prime Deities established the Divine Gate to banish all fully-manifested gods from the world and keep them out. Though the Prime Deities could break the Divine Gate, it would allow for the Calamity to repeat. Finally, during the last stretch of Campaign One of Critical Role Vecna learned how to ascend to godhood, succeeded, and attempted his first "miracle": the destruction of the city from which the Prime Deities operated upon Exandria during the Calamity. The adventuring party Vox Machina was aided by several allies (including Arkhan the Cruel) to weaken Vecna enough so that the Rites of Prime Banishment could be performed, sending the new god beyond the Divine Gate and barring his return to Exandria. IIRC, Matt Mercer later commented future villains would be original creations of his rather than being established D&D characters (though Tharizdun was featured in Campaign 2 under the title The Chained Oblivion, and the ending of Campaign 2 implies that The Chained Oblivion is subtly connected to multiple apocalyptic threats via a vision of black chains shattering when the campaign's villain was defeated). So...yeah, Arkhan is effectively a canon anomaly in 5E. Descent into Avernus explicitly states that he got the Hand of Vecna from Exandria. You can easily watch the episode of Critical Role where this happened and skip to the moment when Arkhan cut his own hand off and stuck the Hand of Vecna to the stump. This was very soon after Vecna became a god. Now I'm curious if the upcoming Critical Role Amazon Prime show will cover the end of Campaign One and, if so, whether it will feature Arkhan the Cruel or omit him. [/QUOTE]
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