Raven Queen

(a.k.a. The Matron of Ravens)

The Raven Queen is the goddess of death. She controls the flow of souls after they've passed through the veil. She's a collector of knowledge, that she might pass on peacefully and another might take her place, taking up the mantle of cosmic ferryman.

The Title of Goddess

The title of 'Raven Queen' is one that has existed for thousands of years passed. Many have inherited the role over the course of history. It is said the very first was once mortal, like all others thereafter. Her motivations and goals were unknown except to that of the Lady of Pain, yet over time even the first Matron seemed to forget her mortal pursuits. She would collect mementos and fragments of memories from souls that would pass on, until one day she did too. Leaving to her successor a divine realm tied to the Shadowfell, a fortress where no mortal might walk and the new vessels might partake in there ascension. This Fortress of Memories is a place of overwhelming sorrow, overflowing with the memories of those who've taken up the mantle of Matron in the past. Though all Queens lose their physicality over the course of their vessel's life span, they are forever tied to the realm, seeing throw the eyes of ravens across the multiverse and ferrying the dead to their afterlives thereafter, until the cycle declares the return to the material, at which point their souls are purified as mortals are faced with their greatest fears and pains throughout their many lives, and born anew. This cycle of rebirth continues until there is naught left to purify.

Wings of Death

Once the world of eld fell, and the realm of Aio was born, The Raven Queen forfeited her power to save the doomed multiverse alongside all other gods of the greater pantheon. This process sealed away all control the gods carried over the Prime Material, and so it became nigh impossible for them to directly sway the lives of mortals, save cryptic hints of guidance. And so The Matron became a force of nature, worshiped not as a diety, but as a law of reality. And so the Cycle of Rebirth continues, yet the whims of fate are left in the hands of mortality.

Those Who Wished to Kill Death

One of the Raven Queen's greatest enemies was the demon lord Orcus, who constantly sought control of the Shadowfell. He hoped to find a weakness in her domain by discovering her true name, alas he did not succeed.
Another devout enemy of the Raven Queen was the lesser deity Vecna, who envied her for her unique abilities to tap into the flow of souls to harvest knowledge. One of his goals was to overthrow the Queen and rule the entire Shadowfell from her Fortress of Memories. Vecna's servants constantly battled with the Raven Queen's Royal Guard, until their lord was vanquished in one of his many attempts of resurrection and sealed away in the depths of the land.
Other wizards, necromancers and the like greatly craved the Raven Queen's knowledge and domain over the flow of souls. Attempts at conquering the Fortress of Memories were constant, but were always thwarted by a sect of her religion, later taking up the title of The Raven Queen's Royal Guard. Greatly in the debt of her servants, The Matron gifted them with Sin's Grace, the great city where they would come to reside.

Divine Domains

Life, Death, Blood

Artifacts

Hope
Deathwalker's Ward

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Raven's head, in profile, facing left.

Tenets of Faith

"Death is the course of all life. A finite point. Pity not those who have fallen, for their souls will find their way into The Matron's wings."
"The fate of death is inescapable. Those who cheat their destiny are to be punished. Be it by the whims of destiny, or the wrath of divine retribution, such foolishness is to be corrected."
"A soul is not defined by it's vessel, for it is but a refraction of the spirit's boundless experience. When the vessel's time comes to it's end, the soul falls into the cycle, beginning anew. This cycle is not to be feared, nor revered."
"Every soul hides endless darkness often perceived as evil. Choosing to understand the unknowable nature of such blemishes to one's soul is the pursuit of all who partake in the cycle."

Holidays

The Raven Queen's holy day is dubbed The Cycle's Rebirth, which celebrates the passing of the Goddess' title to another. The date itself is a secret lost to time, but it is celebrated on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

The Raven Queen is more the title than the caretaker. All life is fated to die, even those of the gods thought immortal by mortality. However, unlike the lesser gods, those dubbed 'greater' have sacrificed themselves to give shape to the very realm of Aio, and as such do not require prayer or the belief of mortals to maintain their strength, for belief in the very land that shapes them is enough to sustain their presence beyond even death. The Raven Queen's goals are to carry out the cycle, and this cycle of passing is one not even she is exempt from. Though an eternity may pass, it is The Matron's fate to pass on her duties to a vessel that shall carry them out for untold years to come, until another might take up the mantle. 
The Matron is a collector of experiences. When a soul passes through the veil of death, all of the soul's memories, of lives past or new, breath a modicum of life into The Raven Queen's scattered soul. Her own taking shape of ravens, an endless number of them serving as harbingers of death, be they material or otherwise. These memories allow The Matron the ability to transcend, when she's made peace with all that once scarred her soul. Once she's chosen her successor, her time comes, as death itself meets it's finite end only when there is naught but acceptance left.
The Raven Queen wishes to banish The Age of Shadow, for it's titular corruption plunged the realm into an ever growing dark, a cosmic cancer began to eat away at souls who've died, forever banishing them from the cycle of rebirth. These desperate times called for desperate attempts to reach mortality, through visions and omens alike. Though her physical form was forever destroyed, she grants boons to her chosen, that they might banish the growing darkness.
During The Age of Shadow, The Raven Queen chose take an act outside her moral tenets by saving a soul from the cycle. She spared a creature the pain of carrying on in a twisted perversion of undeath, the consequences of which caused her to vow never to take such action again. The soul was split and a hollow shell of a body was birthed. The Matron refused to shun the broken shell, granting it life as a new soul. The peculiar circumstances of the new soul's creation caused it to be trapped in it's own cycle of rebirth. The Raven Queen plucked the soul once attached to the shell, tying it to an object, a sentient artifact to serve as guide to the new soul, to protect it from evils that might wish it harm. This new soul becoming a chosen champion of The Raven Queen's, that it's own actions and deeds might seal the spreading blight away, that The Age of Shadow might be no more.

Divine Classification

Greater Goddess

Religions

• The Raven Queen's Royal Guard

Alignment

True Neutral

Realm

The Fortess of Memories

Church/Cult

Children of the Matron

Circumstances of Death

Sacrifice

Current Residence

Scattered across the realms

Pronouns

She/It

Aligned Organization

The Raven Queen's Royal Guard