Vesh

Vesh
Fan art of Vesh, by Mikael.
Deity information
Type	Lesser Idol
Title	The Bloody Siren Lady Vesh
Common symbol	Crimson ring hanging from a chain
Gender	Female
Pronouns	She/her/hers
Alignment	Neutral Evil
Worship
Associated domains	Death Life
Associated patron archetypes	The Archfey The Undying

Vesh the Bloody Siren is a dark entity who claimed godhood to Kashaw, though she is not in fact a goddess.

Description

Appearance

Vesh appears to be a human woman with long purple or violet hair, solidly white eyes, and unnaturally long arms and fingers with claw-like nails. Her skin is faintly glowing gray.

Personality

Vesh has a dual nature, sometimes asking for mercy and kindness and sometimes demanding pain and sacrifice; her expression varies dramatically with these moods. She draws potential suitors from among those who delve into forbidden magics, and instructs them to cultivate sects of worshipers. These sects then practice hedonistic, masochistic rites that (unbeknownst to the attendees of the secretive retreat) culminate with Vesh massacring and eating all but one selected survivor and laying with that mate. She demands the true heart of her chosen, and is a jealous patron, but she lends strength to her chosen partners (of which there are many) and watches over them for life.

Symbol

Vesh's symbol is a crimson ring hanging from a chain.

Known worshippers

• Kashaw Vesh (reluctantly)
• Parson Pellinost

History

Fan art of Kashaw and Vesh, by Linda Lithén.

As of 836 PD, Vesh has walked Exandria (apparently long focused on Issylra) for centuries, occasionally selecting a mate and then disappearing to her own realm. It is unknown whether she is a demigod or a witch, but gods cannot go past the Divine Gate, which revealed her as something else entirely.

Vesh married a human named Kashaw when he was born. She slaughtered everyone else in the village, and came back to consummate the marriage on his fifteenth name-day. As part of a ritual called "The Sting of the Hundred", Kashaw inflicted fifty cuts upon his own right arm, and Vesh made the next fifty. When Kashaw's blood mixed with Vesh's sweat, he gained all of her memories, which is when he discovered she was evil. In order to balance Vesh's dark powers, Kashaw was raised as a healer, and he tried to kill her when he was fifteen. He hasn't seen her since.

"The Sunken Tomb" (1x44)

During the ritual to revive Vex'ahlia, Kashaw was uncomfortable with the idea of calling that much attention from Vesh. When asked why he was hesitating, he said, "She could destroy everything" and that she was more dangerous than the Chroma Conclave. In fact, she is a dangerous entity who would have taken an interest in Vox Machina, but Vax'ildan offering himself to the Raven Queen in the tomb of her champion circumvented Vesh's closer involvement.

Appearances and mentions

Fan art of Vesh, by Kileigh Gallagher.

• Campaign One
  • "Trial of the Take: Part 4" (1x21), mentioned only
  • "Aramente to Pyrah" (1x22), mentioned only
  • "The Sunken Tomb" (1x44), mentioned only
  • "Those Who Walk Away" (1x45), mentioned only
  • "The Chapter Closes" (1x115), mentioned only
• Specials
  • "Guest Battle Royale" (Sx64), mentioned only

Trivia

• The character of Vesh was created by Will Friedle.
• Vesh is not included in the Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, though she is included in the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount as a Lesser Idol. The Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn reveals that she haunts Issylra and is little-known in Tal'Dorei.
• One of the characters Emily Axford considered playing for her guest appearance in Campaign Three would have been a paladin of Vesh, whom she described as a "stupid" Betrayer God "who has annual orgies and then kills everyone but one person and mates with them."

References

Art: