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The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T05:42:15Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] during the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to steal her power [[Grimdark|and she became a dark phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep herself from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

Shadar-kai

2021-01-19T02:13:58Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* In 5th Edition */

[[File:4e Shadar-kai.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Ow the edge.]]
[[File:4e Shadar-kai 2.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Even more edge.]]
Shadar-kai are a [[Dungeons & Dragons]] creature where you really have to specify what edition you're talking about. Both versions have a gothy sadomasochistic theme (imagine a whole race of Cenobites from Hellraiser), but the difference between 3e and 4e really couldn't be much greater.

==In 3rd Edition==
An obscure beastie, the 3.5 shadar-kai is a species of Fae that has been dwelling on the Plane of Shadow for generations. This has caused them to suffer a magical affliction where they steadily fade away into nothingness, unless they can stimulate themselves. The most easy way to do this is via torture and self-mutilation, to the point that their iconic gear are arm-bands with cold iron spikes on the inside, which they drive into their own flesh to keep them "anchored" into reality. They hate all mortals for not having to put up with the same effect, blaming them for their choice to live in the Plane of Shadow in the first place.

==In 4th Edition==
Debuting in [[Dragon Magazine]] #372, the shadar-kai of the [[World Axis]] became both a humanoid race and a playable species. Basically, they're the descendants of humans who migrated to the [[Shadowfell]] in pursuit of immortality. They got it... of a sort. If they can keep themselves active, amused and interested in life, they can live forever. If they succumb to ennui, they start fading out of existence. Their culture is thusly [[Dark Eldar|dedicated to stimulation of all sorts]]: [[Slaanesh|carnal experimentation and sadomasochism]], boasting contests, athletic contests... in essence, they're a race of "live for the moment" loudmouthed jocks, with a tendency to cut themselves when things get boring.

:: '''Ability Scores:''' +2 Dexterity; +2 Intelligence or +2 Wisdom (originally, they were a Dex/Int race, with Dragon #397 letting them trade the Int for a Wis bonus instead.
:: '''Size:''' Medium
:: '''Speed:''' 6 Squares
:: '''Vision:''' Low-light
:: '''Languages:''' Common, one language of choice
:: '''Skill Bonuses:''' +2 Acrobatics, +2 Stealth
:: '''Shadow Jaunt:''' Once per encounter, as a move action, teleport 3 squares and become Insubstantial until the start of your next turn.
:: '''Shadow Origin:''' Considered a shadow creature for the purpose of effects that relate to creature origin
:: '''Winterkin:''' +1 racial bonus to Fortitude defense, +2 racial bonus to death/unconscious saving throws

In [[Dragon Magazine]] #391, the article "A Legacy in Shadow" officially canonized/examined the presence of shadar-kai in the [[Forgotten Realms]], saying they began to spontaneously arise as a result of the [[Spellplague]] touching the shadowborn humans brought back to Toril by the Shadovar of Returned Netheril. This not only provided a number of new racial feats, but also included the subraces/alternative powers for shadar-kai descended from [[shade]]s and [[krinth]], represented as a pair of Heritage Feats:
* Krinth Heritage: +2 to Intimidate, become Insubstantial until the end of your next turn when you suffer a critical hit from an enemy, replace '''Shadow Jaunt''' with '''Demonic Aggression''' (1/encounter, as an immediate reaction to being damaged by an enemy within 3 squares, teleport to an unoccupied square adjacent to that enemy and gain combat advantage until the end of your next turn).
* Shade Heritage: Vision becomes Darkvision 5, +2 to Stealth checks (so +4 total), replace '''Shadow Jaunt''' with '''Shade Stride''' (1/encounter, teleport either to any square within 5 squares or to any dark or dimly lit square within 10 squares as a move action).

==In 5th Edition==
Shadar-kai made an appearance for 5e in the November 2017 issue of [[Unearthed Arcana]]; whilst the focus was purely on crunch, their fluff was essentially a clumsy amalgamation of their lore from before - in a nutshell, taking all of their 4e lore, but making their base race be [[elf]] rather than [[human]]. As such, they are mechanically a subrace for elves, although their entire statblock is repeated here because 1d4chan is awesome like that.
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Dexterity, +1 Charisma
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Keen Senses: Proficiency in Perception.
::Fey Ancestry: Advantage on saves against being charmed, and immune to magic that puts you to sleep.
::Trance: Trancing for 4 hours yields the same effect as an 8 hour sleep.
::Deathly Cantrip: You know a single cantrip chosen from a list of Chill Touch, Spare the Dying and Thaumaturgy. This cantrip can't be changed at a later date. Your spellcasting ability score for this cantrip is Charisma.
::Blessed By The [[Raven Queen]]: You can use a bonus action to teleport to an unoccupied space within 15 feet. After teleporting, you gain resistance to all damage until the end of your next turn, during which time you appear translucent and ghostly. After using this ability, you must complete a short rest or a long rest to use it again.

Shadar-kai later appeared in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes but with some edits. The most notable among these changes includes the Deathly Cantrip being removed but the range of their teleport is increased to 30 feet. A new interesting detail for them is that they look like actual wrinkly old people while they're in the Shadowfell for some reason. Also, they're no longer BDSM freaks, [[Awesome|instead they just treat their bodies as disposable since they know their Raven Queen will resurrect them anyway.]]
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Dexterity, +1 Constitution
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
::Keen Senses: Proficiency in Perception.
::Fey Ancestry: Advantage on saves against being charmed, and immune to magic that puts you to sleep.
::Trance: Trancing for 4 hours yields the same effect as an 8 hour sleep.
::Necrotic Resistance: You have resistance to necrotic damage.
::Blessing of the Raven Queen: You can use a bonus action to magically teleport to an unoccupied space you can see within 30 feet. Starting at the 3rd character level, you gain resistance to all damage after teleporting with this trait until the end of your next turn, during which time you appear translucent and ghostly. After using this ability, you must complete a long rest to use it again.

If you want something closer to the 4e version of the race, [[Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes]] has got you covered!
::Ability Score Increase: +2 Dexterity, +1 to an ability score of your choice
::Size: Medium
::Speed: 30 feet
::Darkvision 60 feet
Shadow Blend: While in dim light or darkness, you can use a bonus action to become invisible, along with anything you are wearing or carrying. The invisibility lasts for 1 minute, until you make an attack or cast a spell, are in bright light, become incapacitated, or until you use a bonus action to end it. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
::Shadow Jaunt: When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action you can teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. Once you use this trait, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
::Shadow Stealth: While in dim light or darkness, you can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
::Spiked Chain Proficiency: You are proficient with the spiked chain and the heavy spiked chain.
::Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common.
::Epic Racial: Ghostly Jaunt: When you reach 25th character level, after using your Shadow Jaunt, you gain resistance to all damage until the start of your next turn.

{{D&D4e-Races}}
{{D&D5e-Races}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:08:49Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] during the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a dark phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep herself from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:08:23Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] during the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a shadow of her former self with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep herself from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:08:07Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] during the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a shadow of her former self with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep her own form from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:07:05Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] during the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep her own form from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:06:49Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was a beloved [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] dring the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep her own form from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T02:05:50Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was an [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] dring the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep her own form from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories, presumably doing everything she can to slow her downward spiral into complete madness.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T01:53:19Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was an [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] dring the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power [[Grimdark|and she became a phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories to keep her own form from unraveling completely.]] The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}

The Raven Queen

2021-01-19T01:51:15Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:6C78:322E:3352:FC5C: /* Non-4e Presence */

{{dnd-stub}}

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = The Raven Queen
|Symbol = A ravens head facing left
|Alignment = '''4E:''' Unaligned '''5E:''' Lawful Neutral
|Divine Rank = God
|Pantheon = [[Dawn War]]
|Portfolio = Death, Fate, Winter, Ravens
|Domains = '''4E:''' Death, Fate, Winter '''5E:''' Life, Death
|Home Plane = ''Letherna'' ([[Shadowfell]])
|Worshippers = [[Shadar-Kai]], Undertakers, Morticians, Gravediggers, Professional Mourners, Oracles, Cryomancers, Slayers-of-Undead
|Favoured Weapon = Pick
}}
[[File:RavenQueen.jpg|400px|thumb|right|The Raven Queen, the Lady of Fates, the Mistress of Winter.]]
'''The Raven Queen''' is the unaligned deity of death, fate and winter of the [[Dawn War]] pantheon, which originated in the "base" setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition]], known as the [[Nentir Vale]].

While some believe that she killed a long standing fixture of D&D just so that the authors of 4e could replace him with their 'Mary Sue', it is quite probable that she was influenced by and/or based off the Celtic goddess of death, battle, strife and sovereignty, the Morrigan, also known by such monikers as "Phantom Queen" and "Raven Queen".

An alternate, non-[[Mary Sue]] explanation is that the 4e authors were thinking "We need a non-evil god of Death. How do we do that?", mixed with a desire to imitate Death from Neil Gaiman's ''Sandman'' (whether for purely mercantile or legitimately artistic reasons doesn't matter for [[Mary Sue]] analysis--the functional definition of a Sue centers around his or her role in the story).

The Raven Queen returns in 5e, but with a completely different backstory.

==Rise to Power==
A powerful [[sorcerer]]-queen in life, the woman who would one day become the Raven Queen was taken as the queen of the then-god of death, [[Nerull]] (not to be confused with the Nerull of [[Greyhawk]]; they're different gods with the same name). The arch-[[necromancer]], Nerull was an evil and bitter god who was trying to use the power he could obtain from the souls of the dead to rise to the position of the king of gods. He trained his queen, who he named Nera, in the use of the power gained from the souls of the dead. [[Abaddon|This of course proved to be a tactical mistake]], and in an uprising Nera destroyed Nerull. Though her body died as well, due to her power over souls she managed to hold onto existence, and claim the mantle of the slain god of the dead.

The other gods saw this as an opportunity, and presented the new goddess with a choice: either become the goddess of death instead of the dead (ie: be only the wayfarer for the deceased, instead of their ruler) and be accepted as a fully-fledged deity, or be destroyed. She begrudgingly accepted, and took the mantle of the Raven Queen. Abandoning her predecessor's realm of Pluton, she went to the Shadowfell to work on the unlocking of the powers of the soul, undisturbed by the meddling gods.

A variant story claims that some of the other gods, namely Nerull's enemies [[Corellon]], [[Sehanine]], [[Pelor]], and [[Moradin]], actually subtly aided Nera from afar, mostly by adding a divine glamour to her to help Nerull fall in love with her, as part of a gambit to take down Nerull.

==Domain==
The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, fate and winter. Starting with death as her first, she gathered the other two domains in various wars against other deities. She gained the domain of fate by taking [[Corellon|Corellon's]] side in his war against [[Lolth]], which cost the latter her domain. The second she gained in the war against Khala, the then-god of winter, who was cast down and stripped of her power, the Raven Queen there to take her mantle. Were another round of divine strife to begin, it would be certain that the Raven Queen would be there to gather the scraps.

==Dwelling==
Having forsaken Nerull's former dominion of Pluton, which now floats empty and silent in the [[Astral Sea]], the Raven Queen's citadel lies in the [[Shadowfell]]; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow. Here in Letherna the Raven Queen roosts, guiding the souls of the dead to their final resting place. The dominion of the goddess of death is a dangerous one: located in the middle of a frozen forest, combined with the proximity of the Raven Queen's abode and the deadliness of the Shadowfell in general. The city itself is far from safe: its streets are stalked by those souls who were rejected, didn't pass on, or other incorporeal undead who crave the warmth of the living.

==Servants==
Few serve the Raven Queen, but those who do are all the more dangerous for it. Amongst the settlements of the world, the servants of the lady of death take the task upon themselves to take care for the dead. This macabre place in society, combined with their hated mistress, makes these people unloved amongst the humanoid races.

In the [[Shadowfell]], however, there is a humanoid race called the [[Shadar-Kai]], a meritocratic and ruthless people in service to the Raven Queen, who differ from the [[Drow]] only in that they use less covert assassination to attain position of prestige, and they are '''slightly''' less likely to engage in treachery for its own sake.

==Good side==
While widely disliked (who likes dying?), the Raven Queen's followers are at least tolerated, in part because of their strong opposition to the Undead--if you have an Undead problem, you can usually call on them and expect at least to pay somewhat less than if you went with one of the other Undead Extermination Services.

==Non-4e Presence==
In 5th edition, she shows up as a possible [[Warlock]] Patron in a UA article. Later she returns in the [[splatbook]] ''Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes'', which heavily revises her backstory. In this new 5e lore, she was an [[elf]] [[wizard]]-queen who led her own faction of elves who chose to follow neither [[Lolth]] or [[Corellon]] dring the civil war that sundered the elves and the [[drow]]. She attempted to ascend to godhood so that she could convince Lolth and Corellon to stop fighting, but the ritual was sabotaged by some asshole wizards seeking to exploit her power and she became a phantom with a hunger for collecting knowledge and memories. The wizards who fucked things up for her were transformed into monsters called <s>skeksis</s> [[nagpa]]s. The Raven Queen now resides in the Fortress of Memories in the [[Shadowfell]] with her Shadar-kai servants and her collection of souls and memories.

Forget about all that if your campaign is set in the world of Exandria, though. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount pretty much resets the Raven Queen to her 4E lore.

==See Also==
* [[Pharasma]] - Pathfinder's analogue to the Raven Queen

{{D&D4e-Deities|}}
{{D&D-Exandria-Deities}}