The Tale of the Raven Queen

There are gods beyond those of Faerûn, and though they may be of lesser renown in these lands, their stories still carry wisdom and power.

When the world was newly made, the gods laid claim to mortal souls at will. Those souls none claimed would fade from the astral plane, into a world beyond even the gods. The god of the dead, Nerull, began seizing these unclaimed souls and trapped them in his dark domain, using them to gain strength in a bid to claim rulership of all the gods. In his lust for power, Nerull began delivering plagues and famine to the mortal realm, sending even more souls his way.

One victim of this onslaught was a powerful sorcerer queen, whose name has been lost to time. Smitten with this mighty woman, Nerull raised her up and forced her to become his queen, and called her Nera. In her recently deceased state, the queen was powerless to resist him. She did not, however, meekly accept her fate, and pursued revenge.

Rumoured to have been tutored in magic by Corellon himself, Nera began learning the secrets of Nerull's power over the dead. First, she mastered the means by which he empowered himself with souls and began empowering herself. Her "treachery" did not go unnoticed. Nerull attacked Nera to bring his "beloved" queen to heel. To defeat her captor, Nera freed all the souls that Nerull had seized, weakening Nerull with each soul that escaped. Still she was unable to overcome him, and she turned to destroying and consuming the freed souls until she had enough power to defeat the god of the dead.

Before Nera could claim Nerull's title, the other gods descended upon the exhausted queen. Fearful of having to contend with another soul-stealing deity like Nerull, they offered her a choice. They would let her become a deity, but only as a goddess of death responsible for guiding souls into the afterlife, and not a true god the dead with mastery over dead souls. If she refused, they would use their collective might to destroy her. Seeing no way out, she accepted this new role. Casting aside the identity of Nera, she proclaimed herself the Raven Queen and created a realm for herself in the Shadowfell. Through wit and guile, she garnered dominion over fate and winter from other lost and fallen gods. She established Fate's Palace in her realm of Letherna, the gates of which all souls must pass on their way to the afterlife. As they do, the Raven Queen searches their souls and destinies for greater knowledge and power, that some day she may escape the chains placed on her by fearful gods.