“I will be the last creature when I am done.
The cosmos will then be perfect, free of the braying abominations that are all other living
things.”
Orcus
Hello everybody Jorphdan here the PH is silent and with this video I’ll be discussing Orcus
the Lord of the Undead, the Prince of Undeath, the Blood Lord, Master of Vampires, and the
Shadow that was.
Orcus has gone through slight variations as he evolved in Dungeons and Dragons.
Like many items from D and D Orcus was taken from real world mythology and religion.
Orcus was known as the god of the underworld and the punisher of broken oaths in Roman
Mythology.
The word Orcus was synonymous with the deity his underworld location.
Much like how Hades is a person and a place.
Hades, Pluto, or Hel could all be the same as Orcus except where he was worshiped Orcus
was depicted as only evil.
The one who torments and punishes evildoers in the afterlife.
Because of his association with death and the underworld later on he became associated
with demons and monsters.
Orcus was probably the basis for the word Orco or Orcs in mythology, and Ogre too.
For Dungeons and Dragons he seems like an amalgamation of all of these.
His body is large like a fantasy orc, bloated like an Ogre, but with goat legs and horns
like that of a demon, also bat wings!
Before you have heard about Orcus you most likely have heard about the Wand of Orcus,
a magical artifact that’s been with Dungeons and Dragons since the 70s.
Although called the ‘wand’ of Orcus it functioned as a mace and the skull on top
was from an enemy Orcus killed many centuries ago.
Orcus’s realm is the 113th layer of the Abyss known as Thanatos, although in earlier
adventures it was the 333rd.
Full of undead, it’s a frozen place with various cities or necropolises throughout.
The air is so thin here it really can’t support life.
A blood moon shines over the barren land except for a few hours of “daylight” where a
heatless light shines dimly.
Ocrus was a mortal creature at one point.
He was a strong spellcaster on the Prime Material Plane somewhere in the multiverse.
When he died his soul went to the Abyss because of his wicked deeds and he came back as a
lowly larva.
From here Orcus climbed the ranks by killing those stronger than him and evolving into
higher forms of demons.
From Larva to mane, to dretch.
Eventually a glabrezu to nalfeshnee and a balor.
After that he ascended to the rank of Demon Lord becoming the Prince of Undeath.
Orcus is often worshiped or bargained with by Liches; or those wizards who wish to unlock
lichdom.
By the 900s DR Orcus was considered a minor deity because of worshipers within the multiverse.
However Orcus is not all powerful and was killed by a drow goddess of necromancy, Kiaransalee.
Kiaransalee was also mortal once, a lich drow wizard who became a demigod that enjoyed rebelling
against Lolth and disrupting her followers.
I can’t find an adventure or a novel that explains how Kiaransalee took out Orcus; but
afterwards she ruled his domain in the Abyss.
Kiaransalee was fearful Orcus might return, and that the Wand of Orcus could facilitate
that.
She had her followers bury it someone within the multiverse.
We know from the adventure Dead Gods that it was buried or hidden deep within the Howling
Winds of Pandemonium.
It is rather fitting that the Prince of Undeath die and return as an undead entity, and some
believe this was the plan all along for Orcus.
Once killed by Kiaransalee an aspect of him remained, a divine aspect, and took the form
of a shadowy demon.
This entity needed to regain the Wand of Orcus to reignite his divinity and return to power,
good thing Kiaransalee’s followers hid it.
Two planescape adventures “The Great Modron March” and “Dead Gods” are about Orcus’
return to power so spoilers if you don’t want to know the secrets of these adventures.
To not raise suspicion Orcus renamed himself Tenebrous and discovered a divine spell called
the Last Word, which once spoken would kill any non-divine being.
He killed Primus the god of the modrons (not with the before mentioned spell) and took
control of the remaining Modrons before another could rise up to take the spot of Primus.
He then sent them out searching for the wand of orcus.
Along the way he also killed an illithid god known as Maanzecorian who he believed knew
the location of the magical artifact.
Ultimately Tenebrous was stopped by adventurers who thwarted him obtaining his divinity.
Wizards of the Coast wouldn’t let Orcus die just yet so in later editions he was brought
back.
A high priest of Orcus resurrected him in a ritual that took place on the Astral Plane.
Not tied to an adventure that I could find, this was some canon that was created to explain
why Orcus had returned.
The Prince of Undeath reclaimed his throne and kingdom from Kiranasalee but not his divinity.
From this point forward Orcus would be a Demon Lord but his divine aspect was separate from
him and still exists somewhere in the multiverse.
A powerless vestige called Tenebrous.
Orcus was brought into 5th edition with the adventure Out of the Abyss (as were all the
demon lords).
In that adventure he killed and resurrected an illithid elder brain controlling the entire
hive.
He hates Demogorgon and Graz’zt the most, fearing their power.
He is constantly attempting to siege Graz’zt’s Abyssal territories by sending wave after
wave of undead.
Orcus has not been successful, yet.
He is 15 feet tall with a long tail that can inject poison in his enemies.
Mostly seen with just the Wand of Orcus in earlier editions there was a greatsword called
Orcusword which he used when he was still a balor.
This magical artifact is kept on the Negative Energy Plane, and was an unholy +6 Greatsword
with various evil magical abilities.
After some updated states perhaps it could make its way into your game.
Cultists of Orcus are many and widespread, I think because of his divine aspect earlier
in D&D history he has the most cultists.
Always seems to be Orcus cultists running around, but that’s just my opinion.
Orcus demands living sacrifices from his followers, and doesn’t care that he has worshipers.
So the most vile humans often get his attention by doing terrible sacrifices to simply be
noticed.
Creatures that do worship Orcus are mostly vampires, liches, and evil clerics.
In 4th edition Orcus wanted to control the Shadowfell and planned to overthrow the Raven
Queen, taking her place.
The amount of undead he would have at his disposal would be vast.
So powerful would Orcus become with the Shadowfell at his disposal that even Vecna opposes Orcus’
ambition and sided with the Raven Queen.
The Wand of Orcus is really fun and super evil.
You have to make a constitution saving throw to attune to the wand and if you succeed you
take 10d6 necrotic damage.
If you fail… you die and come back as a zombie.
The wand gives you a bunch of spells and a +3 to your Armor Class.
I made a death cleric for fun giving him the Wand of Orcus, it would be an epic character
to play.
Destroying the wand is a complicated process but it has been done in D&D history.
In this video about the level 100 adventure in D&D I talk about the path to destroying
the Wand of Orcus.
You have to travel to the Abyss, steal the wand of Orcus, return it to Bahamut who then
takes you to Avernus to Fight Tiamat to use her blood as an ingredient in the wand's destruction.
Of course the path to the wand's destruction is different in different editions.
If you’re curious about that check out the video link here or in the description.
That could be fun though a Lord of the Rings trek to destroy the wand of orcus with orcus
on your tail.
Thanks for watching everyone, and I’ll see you all in the next video.