While the season 3 finale of The Legend of Vox Machina ended on a perfect high note that reunited the Vox Machina team, the final scene showed that a threat even greater than the Chroma Conclave is on the horizon. Perhaps more importantly, it’s a threat that has been in the making ever since the end of season 1, when Sylas (Matthew Mercer) and Delilah Briarwood (Grey Griffin) died trying to summon it. While season 3 answered many burning questions left by The Legend of Vox Machina season 2, it also presented new mysteries and emotional gut punches.

In season 1, the villainous Sylas and Delilah take over the city of Whitestone, home of Vox Machina member Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III (Taliesin Jaffe). The Briarwoods’ goals were never fully explored; they seemed surprised to find Percy alive after they’d left him for dead years before and mostly interested in performing some kind of ritual atop an ancient ziggurat buried beneath the city – a ritual designed to unleash something called the Whispered One.

The Whispered One Was One Of The Legend Of Vox Machina’s Biggest Unanswered Questions

Delilah Briarwood Only Briefly Succeeds In Summoning The Whispered One In The Legend Of Vox Machina Season 1

Season 1 of The Legend of Vox Machina provides tantalizing glimpses of The Whispered One but leaves audiences with more questions than answers. He is implied to be the source of at least some of Delilah’s potent magical abilities and Sylas vampirism. Delilah’s grimoire, stolen by Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegel), only provides Vox Machina with enigmatic information about this cryptic being. The Briarwoods clearly made some kind of pact with him for power and were intending to bring him to the Material Plane in exchange.

All the violence surrounding the ritual seemed to be for naught. In season 1, episode 11, Vox Machina kills Sylas and wounds Delilah, and while the Whispered One’s image appears before Delilah for a few moments, the final result is the manifestation of a spinning orb of darkness that crackles with purple lightning and negates nearby magical effects. Investigation of the orb after Delilah’s death only results in the death of a holy man, who is torn apart and sucked inside it, and any further work screechs to a halt with the Chroma Conclave’s arrival.

The Legend Of Vox Machina Season 3 Finally Revealed What Happened

The Whispered One Has Recruited Followers Since His Season 1 Appearance

At the end of the season 3 finale, a whole cult worshiping the Whispered One is shown, clad in dark robes and chanting around a similar orb, surrounded by sand. A massive obelisk looms above them, and as the cultists’ bandaged eyes leak fresh blood, the orb begins to crackle with the same purple lightning as the one beneath Whitestone. One final flash of lightning shows a glimpse of the Whispered One’s skeletal face, two eye sockets empty and a third glowing sickly purple in the middle of its forehead, before cutting to black.

Therefore, it seems that the Briarwoods’ ritual was to some degree successful and that means that The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 will soon reveal this legendary evil in all his glory.

Clearly, while the members of Vox Machina believe that Exandria is safe now that the Chroma Conclave has been wiped out, the Whispered One has been able to find more followers to influence, perhaps on the desert continent of Marquet. Therefore, it seems that the Briarwoods’ ritual was to some degree successful and that means that The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 will soon reveal this legendary evil in all his glory.

Who The Whispered One/Vecna Is In Dungeons & Dragons Lore

The Whispered One Is One Of The Most Noteworthy D & D Villains

In Dungeons & Dragons lore, the Whispered One was once a mortal archmage with a lust for power. Centuries ago, he used necromancy to transform into a lich and traded his eye and hand for even more arcane power. Eventually, he ascended to godhood and served as Vox Machina’s final foe in the first Critical Role campaign, and is clearly set up to do so again in the show. The original stream gave the lich a full backstory, but with all the other differences between Critical Role’s Vox Machina campaign and Legend, anything could change.

When The Legend of Vox Machina returns for its fourth season, fans will see just what happens when this dark god of secrets comes up against their favorite foul-mouthed heroes.

The Whispered One is otherwise known as Vecna, and he first appeared in the 1976 sourcebook Eldritch Wizardry as a part of the Greyhawk campaign setting. Vecna has been a feared and popular villain ever since, ascending to godhood between the release of the second and third editions of Dungeons & Dragons. While the original Critical Role stream called him Vecna, The Legend of Vox Machina only uses the epithet The Whispered One, as the show is not a licensed product of Wizards of the Coast, who currently hold the archlich’s trademark.

Vecna is also the namesake and inspiration for the main villain of the fourth season of Stranger Things.

The mighty heroes of Vox Machina have scattered to the far corners of Exandria, some to rest on their laurels and others in search of answers to deeply personal questions, but in due time they will be inevitably called back together to face the threat of the Whispered One. When The Legend of Vox Machina returns for its fourth season, fans will see just what happens when this dark god of secrets comes up against their favorite foul-mouthed heroes.