The Raven Queen
Mistress of Death The Raven Queen
Master of the skein of fate and the mistress of winter, the Raven Queen is the god of death. Her gaze follows and marks the end of each mortal life, watching over the border between life and death and ensuring the natural transition is undefiled. Many funerals ask her blessing to protect the deceased from the terrible curse of undeath. Those who study ancient lore believe that the Matron of Death was once mortal herself and is the only known mortal to have ascended to godhood. Her rise instantly obliterated the previous, now-forgotten god of death, and the other gods quickly and fearfully destroyed the secrets to the rites of ascension.
The Raven Queen tugs at the threads of fate from her stronghold of black ice within the frozen realm of Letherna, nestled in a frigid corner of the Shadowfell.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.
Divine Domains
Death
Twilight
Artifacts
Blackrazor
Divine Symbols & Sigils
A raven's head, in profile, facing left.
Tenets of Faith
- Death is the natural end of life. There is no pity for those who have fallen.
- The path of Fate is sacrosanct. Those who pridefully attempt to cast off their destiny must be punished.
- A life lived full is the best entrance to death.
- Undeath is an atrocity. Those who would pervert the transition of the soul must be brought down.
Holidays
The Raven Queen’s holy day is called the Night of Ascension, celebrating her apotheosis. The actual date of the her rise to divinity is unclear, but the Night of Ascension is celebrated on the thirteenth day of the tenth month.
Divine Goals & Aspirations
The Raven Queen's goals and desires are entirely unknown, but some actions of hers have been uncovered. It appears she collects information, secrets, memories and emotions.
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.
Physical Description
Facial Features
None have seen the true face of the Raven Queen. Often she appears as a shadow, a collection of symbols, or as a masked, dark robed figure, looming and brooding.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
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. 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.
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. Some say 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.
Others say that she was a powerful sorcereress that raged against death for taking her lover too soon, and so amassed power and slew the primodial god of death and took his place. Now, in the position of power she once railed against, she has used her divine power to balance life and death, bring order to death as a natural part of life and the cycle it brings.
Other's say differently. Who knows what is the truth of The Raven Queen. She does not say, and to attempt to find out can spell woe.
Mental Trauma
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.
Morality & Philosophy
Mortals that enter the Raven Queen’s realm are almost instantly confronted with a glimpse into their own internal landscape. 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.
Taboos
The Raven Queen cannot abide undeath of any form and commands her followers to destroy any undead creature they encounter.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
The Raven Queen's motivations are unknown to all, even to gods of Secrets and Truth.
Likes & Dislikes
One of the Raven Queen's greatest enemies is the demon lord Orcus, who constantly seeks control of the Shadowfell. He hopes to find a weakness in her domain by discovering her true name.
One evil mind is fixated on wresting away the Raven Queen’s power: the archlich Vecna. Vecna has long coveted her ability over knowledge and souls; to steal souls would give him the ability to amass an army of the dead large enough to conquer the Shadowfell and turn it into his own kingdom of death. There he would rule from the Fortress of Memories, and through the Raven Queen’s power have access to all the lost knowledge stored within the souls she has trapped over the millennia. But to this day, all his attempts to gain a foothold there have been thwarted.
Because of his obsession with usurping the Raven Queen, and claiming the Fortress of Memories, Vecna has embroiled himself in a terrible conflict, leading his armies into relentless battles against the Raven Queen and her shadar-kai fanatics and against the vampire lord Kas, Vecna’s former lieutenant, whom Vecna wants to see destroyed over all other enemies. Some say this war is just another of the Raven Queen’s beloved tragedies playing out for her amusement..
Other wizards and necromancers crave the Raven Queen's knowledge and domain over souls. Attempts at conquering the Fortress of Memories are constant, but are always thwarted by her more fanatical shadar-kai defenders.
Social
Hobbies & Pets
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.
Divine Classification
Greater Deity
Religions
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Current Location
Realm
Church/Cult
Children
Current Residence
Fortress of Memories
Gender
Female
Hair
Raven Black down to the floor
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale White Porcelain Face Mask
Aligned Organization
Ruled Locations
Comments