- "The Construct. I always hated that thing. It sits outside the Natural Order, its motives unknowable to any of us. I cannot be certain, but it always seems like the Construct is trying to decide if Life itself is worthy of existence."
- — Vercanna
Vercanna, also known as Vercanna the Last, is a character mentioned in Call of Duty: Vanguard Zombies mode. She is a deity of the Dark Aether and the last survivor of the Wilds of the Dark Aether.
Biography[]
Life in the Dark Aether[]
For most of humanity's existence, Vercanna and her clan dwelled in the Wilds of the Dark Aether where they lived as hermits unlike the other clans. They often communed with the Web of Life connecting their life-energy with one another. However, as Kortifex the Deathless waged his Netherwars for supremacy, his armies left a wasteland wherever they went, diminishing the Web of Life.
After Vercanna's clan pleaded to Lord Kortifex to spare their land, he sent the Night Legions to slaughter them and burnt their sacred forests - a task overseen by Norticus the Conqueror. However, Kortifex didn't comprehend how the Web of Life worked. With each member of the clan killed, their energy passed down to the next. This led to Vercanna inheriting the power of her all but extinct clan, leading her to become an all powerful and potentially invincible entity. From this point, she was known as Vercanna The Last.
When the clans began revolting against Kortifex, Vercanna met with Bellekar the Warlock in front of her birth mark in what was now the Corrupted Lands of the Dark Aether. The two began forming a plan to defeat Kortifex which marked the start to a mighty resistance against Kortifex, ultimately leading to his banishment inside his artifact on Earth. However, Bellekar, Saraxis the Shadow, Inviktor the Destroyer and recently defected Norticus became trapped in their artifacts as well. Vercanna would remain in the Dark Aether, seemingly roaming the remains of her old home.
Joining the resistance[]
After the artifacts were reactivated following the Endstation incident, in early March 1944, and the subsequent bonding of Kortifex with the Die Wahrheit commander, Wolfram Von List, the entities trapped in the artifacts started helping the Allied forces at the Soviet city of Stalingrad.
Among them was Bellekar who, with the help of Gabriel Krafft, sent messages to the Dark Aether in order to find help for their cause. One of the messages was intercepted by Vercanna. Learning about the possible return of Kortifex, she created an artifact for herself, the Wand of the Wilds (which utilized the power of Healing Aura), and opened a portal from Stalingrad to Egypt's eastern desert near the Temple of "Osiris" where Kortifex's artifact was first discovered by Die Wahrheit, allowing the Allied soldiers to cross through. Vercanna also sent the Decimator Shield, after she found it discarded in the Wilds of the Dark Aether, to help but it became trapped inside yellow glowing crystals that formed around the temple. Saraxis would try to talk to her to tell her she had no involvement in her clan's extermination - a fact Vercanna already knew. As the conversation went forward, Vercanna admitted that while she mostly kept to herself, she was always watching and listening, implying she knew far more than she would ever let on. Saraxis would then ask about her life prior to joining the Sisters of Agony, which Vercanna dismissed as a "story for another time", but not before warning Saraxis there was a reason Kortifex named her "The Shadow".
Watching the Allied soldiers' actions, she deemed them worthy of carrying the shield. With the help of the other entities, they were able to free the shield which remained dormant. Vercanna used her powers to hijack one of Kortifex's Syphoncore blood rite, using Revenants life-energy to awake the shield. Zaballa, the Deceiver, an assassin belonging to Kortifex's Sisters of Agony and who participated in the slaughter of Vercanna's clan, tried to stop them to no avail.
With the shield awakened, Vercanna opened a portal to the Corrupted Lands of the Dark Aether where the High Construct was located. Using the shield, the Allied soldiers broke the Void spell protecting one of the pages from the Tome of Rituals which contained information on how to seperate Kortifex from Von List. Vercanna then joined the resistance against Kortifex, stating that she found her new clan.
Restoring Saraxis' Memories[]
Vercanna would accompany the Special Forces on their journey to Shi No Numa, a recently abandoned Die Wahrheit dig site which just so happened to be where Saraxis was once separated from her human host centuries ago in feudal Japan. Vercanna personally already knew of the circumstances behind Saraxis' past, but kept it to herself as she believed if Saraxis didn't remember by herself, she would always be the broken thing Kortifex turned her into. Bellekar, realizing this, would briefly confront Vercanna about it which led Vercanna to explain herself in secret to the Warlock. Afterwards, Vercanna tasked Special Forces with rebuilding the Relic Mirror that was used against Saraxis, and restoring Saraxis' memories. After they battled an enraged Echo of Saraxis' memories, the Special Forces would succeed in restoring both the mirror and Saraxis' memories - both of which would be key to their final battle against Kortifex.
Gallery[]
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