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In 1983,Dungeons & Dragonsmade its television debut under the Japanese Toei Animation company. The series ran on CBS until 1985 for three seasons, releasing a total of twenty-seven episodes. Intended as programming for children, the series quickly met controversy when the level of violence became a heavy subject of debate for American viewers.
After all, in one of the early episodes, the children contemplated killing their enemy, Venger, the evil archmagi who intended to destroy the Dungeon Master and take over the realm. Who is this evil archmagi, though? We take a look at his history and current iteration in D&D below.
Who Is Venger?
Venger is your stereotypical evil sorcerer. He antagonizes children, bullies his subordinates, and fixates on world domination. The result of a pact made with an entity known asThe Nameless One, Venger intends tokill the Dungeon Master, a mysterious, magical figure that guides and watches over the heroes.
As such, the TV show revolves around a group of kids that have been transported into the magical world and their inevitable clashes with the sorcerer,leaving his attempts to defeat the Dungeon Mastercontinually frustrated.
While this attempt to get the show off the air would eventually be seen as little more than a panicked response, the show would end on its own before the season finale was released.
Though the main characters would see nods in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves as the opposing party in the labyrinth, the villain, Venger, would make his surprising reappearance on the cover of the 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide.
In the show, it was stated he had been around for thousands of years and had killed countless adventurers, a particularly bleak reality considering the main characters are children and pre-teens.
He sports one horn, perhaps due to hishalf-fiendish nature,and has long, bat-like wings down his back that he occasionally uses to fly. He also rides aNightmare,like another villain within Dungeons & Dragons.
Venger was later revealed tobe the Dungeon Master’s son.Once heroic and kind,he would eventually become a victim of The Nameless One’s corrupting influence.Venger took on monstrous abilities and became a shadow of his former self, bent on total domination. His twin sister, Karina, would also fall victim to this corruption but would be broken from it by the heroes.
The Nameless One is a frightening, unknown being that exists purely to destroy. It is known as the source of all evil. Many fan theories point to the Nameless One beingTharizdun, the Chained God.
Is Venger In The D&D Canon?
His presence on the cover suggests thatVenger, in fact, is now officially part of the D&D universe, which has interesting implications for the status of the characters throughout the show.His new life, it seems, is under the title of a Red Wizard, a notorious evildoer typically originating from Thay.
D&D’s actual canon is entirely dependent on the Dungeon Master; the settings that Wizards of the Coast presents to players and DMs are more like guidelines to follow. Still, there’s a ‘widely accepted canon’ that you may find more frequently in games.
Because Wizards of the Coast is constantly shuffling around lore to make it more compliant with their future editions, the addition of Venger and the return toGreyhawkmay allow fans to see the return of all their favorite characters from older publications.
