The Raven Queen

The mysterious figure known as the Raven Queen is a subject as enigmatic as the goddess of death herself. With no concrete history or confirmed evidence beyond the faith of her followers, it is hard for most to believe in such an entity, be she a god, a demigod, or concept. With the presence of other divines such as Kelemvor, a god of death who has established his presence clearly regarding the activities of the material plane and realms beyond, her existence has been cast in question.
Some view her as a myth while others, such as the elves, see her as an aspect of their history. The presence of the Shadar-Kai lend credence to her presence within the Shadowfell, yet since only few have ever ventured there and returned, it still remains a mystery as to exactly who and what she is.
What follows are the many accounts gathered from across AbeIr-Toril from a multitude of cultures perspectives including folklore, myths and legends, and subjective historical interpretations, all collected from the most commonly occurring instances regarding the enigma that is the Raven Queen.

Description
The Raven Queen appears most often in the form of a human woman. She is most often depicted as a tall woman with skin as white as bleached bone and midnight-black hair, wearing either dark courtly dress or a long cowled black robe. Her eyes reveal her true nature: they lack whites, pupils, or irises, being instead a blackness filled with pinpoints of light, a reflection of the stars in the night sky.
She has other appearances, as well. Among the barbarians of the far north, where she bears the title Old Mother Winter, she is depicted as a crone, bent with age, dressed in white save her cloak of raven’s feathers. Despite her seeming frailty, she has an unbreakable grip, and she has been known to choke the life out of even the bravest and strongest of warriors who gets lost among the snow and howling winds of the storms she brings. She is said to spin each snowflake on her loom of fate, encoding a small portion of destiny within its unique pattern, and many barbarian shamans practice the art of divination by reading snowflakes. The fiercest storms, they claim, reveal the most of the future, for those who can withstand them.
When the Raven Queen takes animal form, she usually chooses to be embodied either as a large raven, or as a white wolf. These two animals are considered the Queen’s chosen and are thus considered sacred to her followers. One never knows when they stand in the presence of the goddess if indeed a white wolf or raven crosses their path. However, there are many mortals that see them as omens of death, giving way to other superstitions regarding the Queen and her totemic symbolism. The nomadic tribes of the Calimshan revere bats as vessels and observers of the Queen manifest upon the material plane, while certain thieve’s guilds within the Bloodstone lands hold cats and feline figures as aspects of the Queen for their grace and stealth, almost as quiet as death itself. Birds, especially birds of the night, are often associated with departed souls called by the Queen. Prominent among said predators is the owl, and the elves of the Moonwood believe an owl’s presence signifies the death of a relative or friend. Certain barbarian tribes within the Spine of the World even hold to the belief that an owl hooting from the top of a longhouse announces the death of an important figure. However, certain members among the aforementioned peoples also believe the presence of an owl as an aspect of the Queen could also represent the spirit of a deceased family member or close friend returned to them, bearing news from beyond at the Raven Queen’s behest. Owls were also viewed as the spirit animal that would carry the souls of the departed to the Shadowfell.
The Raven Queen’s weapons are the spear and the scythe, and she is fearsome in battle; one myth tells of a duel fought between the Raven Queen and Bane that went on for a full century without respite or victor—the pair chose to call a draw in order to return to their other duties.
The Raven Queen is a mercurial being. Sometimes she is as callous as Asmodeus himself; other times she is kind, even loving. She is as implacable as death itself, yet she has been known to show mercy, or even, on occasion, to be swayed by a mortal’s plea. At times, too, she will bargain over mortal lives; there are several tales of the Raven Queen accepting a woman’s life in place of her lover’s. At least one tale in this vein has a twist: in exchange for a woman’s life, the Queen takes not the man’s life, but his memories of the woman. Then, too, there are those who try bargaining with the Raven Queen to extend their own lives. But no matter what they offer, the Queen eventually refuses the bargain—for she allows none to escape fate.
Because of her knowledge of destiny, the Raven Queen is sometimes petitioned for information. While she will bargain for this as well, there is often a trap for the unwary in what she reveals. She might omit some important detail that was not directly asked about, or provide detailed information about an extraneous point. She will not lie, but she might mislead. She takes a dim view of those who attempt to circumvent fate, but she does delight in watching the “foreknowledge” they gain from their bargain with her ultimately lead them to the fate they had been trying to avoid.
History
Once the mortal consort of the original god of the dead, the Raven Queen overthrew the tyrannical Nerull and claimed his portfolio by absorbing the powers of every tormented soul in his dominion. This lead the other deities to revoke her power over deceased souls; hence, she can only claim dominion over death itself, and not over those who have died.
The Raven Queen would later solidify her power base during the War of Winter, when she demanded the portfolio of winter in exchange for slaying the rebel goddess Khala. The Raven Queen thus joined the ranks of those gods who control the seasons, the others being Corellon (spring), Pelor (summer) and Sehanine (autumn). At some point, the Raven Queen assisted Corellon in his war against Lolth; as a reward, she demanded power over fate, which had previously been in Lolth’s portfolio.
Her true name is lost to history. Refrences to her mortal life refer to her only as “the Sorceress-Queen”. Orcus believes that the key to defeating her may be uncovering her true name.
Relationships
The Raven Queen counts few personal enemies (or friends) among the gods. She is the only god on “friendly” terms with Torog, but even she keeps the King That Crawls at arm’s length. Her most hated foe is Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead, who constantly schemes to slay her and take her portfolio. She may be romantically engaged with the coldhearted Archfey known as the Prince of Frost.
Pelor, God of Summer, is Her antitheses; however, the two are not enemies. He aided her in the War of Winter, and their exarchs have worked together in the past to rid the world of powerful undead.
Realm
The Raven Queen’s domain of Letherna is a glittering palace of obsidian and silver, located at the very center of the Shadowfell. Letherna is the place to which all of the spirits of the dead come before ultimately proceeding on to their final fate. Within its confines, they regain some semblance of form, and they pass their days in the court of the Raven Queen until they receive their final judgment. Letherna is in a constant state of winter, though the spirits who dwell there feel no discomfort because of the fact; to them, it may as well be midsummer.
To some spirits, Letherna is a place of revelry, and its inhabitants dance and feast for eternity. Other spirits find it a daunting fortress in a frozen wasteland where they will be imprisoned for eons before being released into the great beyond. The spirits swiftly lose track of how long they’ve spent there; time passes strangely in the Shadowfell. A hero a thousand years dead might be encountered there, swearing he had just recently arrived, while another, dead for only a day or two, might feel a century had passed. In this way, Letherna is very similar to the courts of the fey.
The Raven Queen is empowered to both escort the newly dead to Letherna and to sit in judgment of them. Once they are judged worthy, she gives up spirits of the agents of other gods. These spirits then go on to dwell in their gods’ dominions. She is considered by the other gods as a necessity, though she is somewhat separate and a more primal being then themselves. Most do not begrudge their faithful turning to the Raven Queen occasionally, for information on the future or to beg reprieve from death. Even the other Gods do not know what the Weave of Fate holds unless they ask The Queen.
Dogma
The Raven Queen commands her followers to destroy the servants of Orcus, Vecna and all those who prolong life with unnatural magic.
Hold no pity for those who suffer and die, for death is the natural end of life.
Bring down the proud who try to cast off the chains of fate. As the instrument of the Raven Queen, you must punish hubris where you find it.
It is a tradition throughout the lands to make an offering or say a prayer to the Goddess on the eve of the New Year, asking for her to weave prosperity on her loom of fate and to hold off death for another year. Other than this, there are no holidays or major days of worship for the Nameless Lady, for fate and death are constant forces that apply to each of us, every day.
Worshipers
Priests and Priestesses of The Raven Queen are usually older, and this has led to many inaccurate assumptions by outsiders. Many claim that the Goddess sucks the life from her followers to speed their arrival to her kingdom. This is not the case. Younger, able bodied followers are required to serve the Goddess as Paladins. It is only in their old age or after injury that these warriors retire to the life of the priesthood. The tradition of the Paladins honors the Raven Queen’s war and victory against Nerull, which liberated the souls of mortals. The followers of the Goddess often turn to her after suffering a great loss or a brush with their own mortality. Dark colors are preferred by Her worshipers, and they usually have raven feathers somewhere on their person so show their loyalty. The rites and rituals they perform are shrouded in secrecy.
The Raven Queen is the patron of the shadar-kai, a race native to the Shadowfell, who serve her fiercely. She commands legions of Sorrowsworn against her enemies in lieu of angels.
Greyhawk account of the Raven Queen:
History of the Raven Queen
When the gods first gained power, it was the evil god Nerull (The Reaper, the Foe of All Good, the Hater of Life, and the Bringer of Darkness) who took the domains of Slaughter and Death. He manifest the divine domain of Pluton (The Grey Waste) in the Astral Sea where he trapped the spirits of the dead if they were not claimed by their gods, and some that were. Here he served as his own form of judge over them, punishing them with terrible torment and using them for his legions. He found power in the armies of the dead and sought to reign over the other gods, in doing so he sent curses and plagues against the world, swelling the number of dead and the number of his legions. During this dark period the Fates found a mortal woman, a Sorceress-Queen of her people, and brought her into Nerull’s grasp. He attempted to bind her and to make her his consort, but she spurned him. In time she found how Nerull kept the souls in his thrall and released them all, gaining power with each released soul while Nerull suffered. This gave her the power to conquer Nerull, take his divinity into herself, and become the Goddess of Death. The other gods were still rattled by Nerull’s power and invoked the sorceress’ True Name to bind her magical power, in a bid to protect themselves from anyone regaining the strength of the dead god.
The sorceress-queen used what magic she had remaining and hid her True Name from the cosmos later took the name The Raven Queen (The Reaper, Death, The Black Eyed Lady, Mistress of Darkness), gained power over the season of winter (The Ice Queen, She who Slumbers), and eventually joined the Fates (The Guide, the Hand that Weaves, The Cutter of Life’s Thread). With her powers she established the city of Letherna as her kingdom in the Shadowfell, the new land of the dead and destroyed Pluton. She walked the mortal world for a while, guiding spirits to the Shadowfell and leaving waystones for the spirits to follow so they do not lose their way. She left the world on the Day of Passing and resides in the Shadowfell, guiding spirits on their journey from the mortal world through The Veil and into the Great Beyond.
After Nerull’s death his angels found new gods to serve, most chose Grummsh (The One Eye’d Orc) or Torog (The King Who Crawls) to continue their slaughter while others joined with the Raven Queen, Asmodeus (The Ruby Tyrant), Orcus (the Demon Prince of Undeath) or Lolth (the Demon Spider Queen).
The Nine Seals of the Apocalypse
Legend speaks of the world’s last days, foretelling a time of violence and destruction that will consume everything. Nine catastrophes were recorded in scrolls at the dawn of the world, these scrolls were sealed away and hidden. If opened, even one scroll could spell the end to a kingdom or a people. None of these scrolls have been found on the Eastern continent (as far as Orion knows) so he is keeping an eye out for them in the Western Continent. The end of the world is fated to occur, but only as scheduled and tasked.
The Arcane Well
After the Raven Queen warded away her True Name she found that the gods still did not trust her. As a powerful sorceress with deific power, power over death and a member of the Court of Seasons no less, she was feared and plotted against. Seeking to quell the tension the new goddess agreed to give up her sorcering ways, but unbeknownst to the gods she didn’t forfeit her powers, merely hid them in the Arcane Well. The gods of magic would know if she were to use her power and so the Raven Queen waits for a day when her power may be needed, when the other gods will become more trusting, or when they become less observant. Worshippers of the Raven Queen have scoured the East Continent but have found nothing. Many believe it must exist in the Western Continent.
True Naming
Each creature in the universe is tied together in the strands of fate and the pool of life from which all creatures spring. Just as humans have a name, each creature also bears a True Name, or a Fate-Name. These names reference the being at a cosmic scale and offer control over them when invoked. A True name is a powerful thing, but also fragile. Each True name is rendered as a compilation of events in the creature’s life, from the tree it passes while walking to the food it eats or who it takes as a mate. Invoking a True name may grant you control over the creature for a short term, but it will also change the True name rendering the original worthless. The Raven Queen does not reveal True names to mortals unless they have received her blessing. Those who seek the Raven Queen’s own true name are stonewalled or killed in strange and horrible ways.
Elven Account of the Raven Queen
(Excerpt from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes)
The Raven Queen and the Shadar-Kai
“The Raven Queen is trapped by her fascination with the past. She sits in her fortress, amidst all the memories of the world, looking at the ones that please her most as though they were glittering jewels. Many great wizards have attempted to understand her motives, but like a raven she has always remained cryptic, keeping her cache of secrets just out of their reach.” -High Lady Alustriel Silverhand
The Raven Queen is a being of dark mystery. Accomplished wizards talk about her in hushed tones, and with no small amount of fear, for even they can’t say what power she wields in her realms, too subtle for mortal minds to sense. Rumors abound as to her current form, most coming from claims made by lunatics who have described an array of disturbing images: a terrible shadow that clawed at their innermost thoughts, a pale and regal elf who exploded into an untold number of ravens, a shambling tangle of slick roots and sticks that overwhelmed them with dread, or an unknown presence that pulled them screaming blindly into the gloom. Despite all attempts to demystify her, the Raven Queen has remained enigmatic and aloof, immersed in a sea of questions. She rules from her Raven Throne within the Fortress of Memories, a mazelike castle deep within the bleakness of the Shadowfell. From there she sends out her ravens to find interesting souls she can pluck from various planes of existence. Once they are in the Shadowfell, she watches as these souls attempt to unravel the mystery of their being-and ultimately go mad in the process.
Origin
For those who seek to unravel the enigma of the Raven Queen, the story of her origin comes from the ancient history of the elves. It is said that she was once an elf queen, whose people loved her more than they loved the gods. Her true name has been lost to time. But from the fragments that have been found of her history, it was she who, when Corellon and Lolth were locked in conflict, tried to use the souls and magic of her people to elevate herself to godly status, thus salvaging the fractured pantheon of the elves. Afterward, the legends suggest, she would attempt to implore Corellon and Lolth to come to their senses. But the information in these fragments was woefully incomplete, and the queen’s true motives were never fully understood.
Descent into Shadow
As the queen rose in power, many elves became inspired by her, freely offering their souls and their magical abilities to help her achieve her goal. This group of devoted followers called themselves the shadar-kai, and they gathered others like themselves around their queen in hopes that, once she achieved divinity, she would unify all the elves. The queen’s plan was to use the souls of the shadar-kai to forge a pathway through the Feywild to Arvandor, all the while increasing her influence. As the numbers of shadar-kai grew, a consortium of evil wizards among her followers saw an opportunity to siphon off the energy of the shadar-kai for themselves by performing their own self-serving ritual, which would impart to them magical powers beyond those of the greatest elven wizards of legend. But as the queen approached the entrance to Arvandor, she realized what the wizards were doing and brought all her wrath down upon them as the ritual was under way. Because she was by now a quasi-divine entity, her supernatural rage corrupted the ritual into a phenomenon that took on a terrible strength of its own. By the time the queen realized her error, she could feel the now-twisted magical energy grabbing hold of her, and she was powerless to stop it. In a panic, she reached out to the souls of the shadar-kai for more power, hoping to save herself, but the gravity of the spell had become irresistible. It pulled the queen, and all who were under her sway, into the Shadowfell, where she was instantly killed. From her ruined mind and body, the Raven Queen was born.
The Creation of Nagpas
When their ritual failed with catastrophic results, the wizards in the consortium were pulled into the Shadowfell along with the queen and the shadar-kai, but their misfortune didn’t end there. Their former queen arose from the center of a maze of ash and let loose a scream of ebon smoke that penetrated the flesh and minds of the wizards, turning their bones black and lacerating their souls. Their cries of agony merged with her own, and when her scream faded, the wizards had been mutated and warped into the scabrous, vulturish creatures known as nagpas. Now they wander the planes as wretched monsters, marked forever by the Raven Queen’s curse and banished from her presence.
After the Fall
After the nagpas were created and then banished by the Raven Queen, the shadar-kai watched as she fell deeper and deeper into a divine madness. Her pain and turmoil over the betrayal of her wizards, the destruction of her kingdom, and her failure at attaining godhood all contributed to her descent into an unquenchable sorrow. At the same time, the energy of the corrupted ritual was still transforming her, breaking down her form from a physical one into an entity composed of symbols, images, and perceptions. To keep herself from dissipating entirely into nothingness, the queen used the last vestiges of her personal power to pull dead memories from the Shadowfell about her, creating a cloak of identities that sustained her. Over centuries, those dark memories accumulated and coalesced to give shape to the entity now known as the Raven Queen.
The Fortress of Memories
Since achieving divinity, the Raven Queen has filled her realm with shadows and memories, obsessively collecting such essences from remnants of dead gods and mortals that were strewn throughout the Shadowfell. From these metaphysical fragments she formed her new home, a twisted castle that the shadar-kai call the Fortress of Memories. The fortress is a mournful place, filled with incessant echoes of the past. Flocks of ravens that act as her eyes and ears darken the skies around it when they emerge from within, bearing her cryptic messages and omens far and wide across the multiverse. Bizarre Menagerie. Within the Fortress of Memories are trinkets and items that the Raven Queen finds irresistible, memories plucked from people’s pasts that have been invested with deep feelings of pain, sorrow, longing, guilt, or remorse. These items are brought to her as gifts from the shadar-kai. These trinkets can include furniture, clocks, mirrors, jewels, and toys. Also appearing in the fortress are ghostly visions of people, places, and pets. Any of these things can spontaneously appear about her lair, every object and apparition being a metaphoric representation of some story- great or small- that was saturated with raw emotion.
Encounters with the Raven Queen
Mortals that enter the Raven Queen’s realm are almost instantly confronted with a glimpse into their own internal landscape. Because she is fascinated with emotions, the Raven Queen worms into the unconscious minds and memories of her visitors, bringing forth visions from the deepest reaches of their psyches. Some of these visitors are the unwitting souls of departed people who have been pulled into the Raven Queen’s clutches, others are astral travelers who are caught and trapped within the Shadowfell by her magic- but a rare few come of their own volition, seeking knowledge or freedom from a dark past.
Many of these daring individuals are adventurers who know of the Raven Queen’s terrifying power yet nevertheless travel to the Shadowfell to undergo her trial, letting the secrets of their souls be unfolded and revealed. The reasons why folk would subject themselves to this dangerous experience are numerous, including:
• To free themselves from a dark and terrible past. It is said that the Raven Queen can make you confront your fears; some find a way to move beyond them, but others can be driven mad.
• To discover a secret of someone who is dead. Adventurers might need to go to the Shadowfell to find a soul that has been claimed by the Raven Queen, hoping to unlock its memories.
• To seek answers that only the Raven Queen might know. The Raven Queen’s realm contains innumerable memories from all over the multiverse. Desperate adventurers might seek her out as a last resort or be led to her realm by a series of tempting clues.
Method or Madness?
Some wizards and other scholars have speculated that the Raven Queen is simply insane, that there is no method to her madness other than a nervous pecking apart of a psyche with no more motive than a curious child pulling the legs off an ant. Others have speculated that the Raven Queen needs the gravity of emotions to hold her eternally decaying identity together. But a few sages have postulated that the Raven Queen’s purpose is of greater importance, that she serves as a filter of sorts, cleansing souls that cling to fear and pain, forcing them to confront their unfinished business so that they are freed of their mortal baggage and can rise to explore higher planes of existence.
The Raven Queen’s Influence
The Raven Queen’s desire to interfere with the affairs of the gods and her subsequent failure was taken as nothing less than treason by both Corellon and Lolth. As a result, the physical reality of her kingdom was shifted to the Shadowfell, and the memory of her existence was wiped from the minds of elves. Initially, no mortals knew of her, but over the centuries, those who have journeyed to the Shadowfell and those who have encountered shadar-kai in the world have seen, or heard tales of, a dark fortress, a mysterious figure surrounded by gaunt servants, and scores of seemingly sentient ravens. Most folk who have heard of the Raven Queen view her through a lens of superstitious fear, attributing to her all kinds of strange occurrences, mishaps, and coincidences. But those who seriously study the arcane- warlocks, wizards, sorcerers, and the like- know that her effect on the world is farther-reaching than that.
Audience after Death
Some adventurers claim to have been visited by the Raven Queen after their deaths- before their stalwart friends paid to have them resurrected. While they were in the afterlife, the Raven Queen enlisted them for a quest to complete a task, acquire a particular item, or perhaps to travel to a location and simply wait. Most of those who have talked about these visitations say they felt compelled to do her bidding, because the visions imparted by the Raven Queen made it apparent that the quest was in some way part of their greater purpose. The Raven Queen’s reason for communing in this way is a matter of some dispute. Some sages posit that she is using people as pawns in an inscrutable game, the rules of which are known only to her and the Lady of Pain. Others suggest that she is balancing the multiverse by having mortals complete various tasks, and some say that it is in these moments of obeisance to her that the Raven Queen recalls a fragment of her former self.
Servants of the Queen
The shadar-kai are bound to the Raven Queen, cursed to forever serve her in the Shadowfell. They dwell in places outside the Fortress of Memories, usually too terrified of the place to enter it willingly. In their communities they reenact their old rituals and ceremonies, in a pale imitation of the days when they dwelled in the life and light of their now-lost kingdom. When shadar-kai are in the Shadowfell, their bodies and faces are old and withered, displaying the full effects of the terrible magic that stripped them of their former elven beauty. To hide their visages, they often wear masks made of metal or wood, but even these coverings are melancholic in appearance. When shadar-kai are sent away from the Shadowfell to do the Raven Queen’s bidding, they take on youthful features similar to those of other elves, although their skin remains deathly pale.
Immortal Servants
The shadar-kai know that when they die, the Raven Queen captures their souls and returns them to the Shadowfell, where they are resurrected to serve her yet again. Thus, they consider death to be a temporary condition, and many shadar-kai care little for the physical shell they currently inhabit. Shadar-kai know that those who come willingly to the Raven Queen’s tower are there to beseech her for something, and thus they try to prepare such visitors for what they will face. The queen’s servants talk to any inquiring adventurer about the gravity of emotion, how sorrow weighs on the soul as it travels through the Shadowfell, and how best to persevere in the Raven Queen’s test.
Follow the Ravens
When the Raven Queen sees a soul or a piece of information she wants, she sends her ravens to alert the shadar-kai. Her minions then put their trust in these cryptic, cawing guides to lead them to where the barriers are weakest so they can then slip across planes to their destination. Once at their destination, the shadar-kai watch and wait, looking for the tragedies their queen wishes them to collect. Sometimes they are small: a spurned lover, a lost item, a betrayal. But some tragedies are much graver: a murder, a war, a diabolical bargain. To bring back a trinket for their queen, the shadar-kai use their shadow magic. If a target is living, they magically infiltrate the person’s mind and excise the desired bits of emotion, or if the target is close to death, the shadar-kai capture the whole soul to bring back to the Raven Queen.
Sediment of Memory
Shadar-kai are very interested in the magical silt at the bottom of the River Styx that holds the memories and identities of lost souls. Any adventurers who travel to the Nine Hells to procure a vial of this powder will likely draw the attention of the shadar-kai, who will attempt to steal or barter for it. Adventurers might also bring a bit of the sediment as a gift to the Raven Queen. What she would give in return is never known ahead of time, but her boons come in many wondrous forms: the restoration of a lost soul, the rediscovery of a missing memory, or a glimpse into the forgotten knowledge of the ancients.
(Note: All accounts listed herein have been blended together numerous times throughout history, adding to immense ambiguity of what truly happened to create and establish the Raven Queen. Humans, elves, shadar-kai, and all other races of Abeir-Toril have been known to believe some or all of the accounts and information listed here. It remains to be proven which is fact, and which is fantasy. But one thing is certain: myth or god, the influence of Raven Queen is most certainly real.)