D&D Beyond: Raven Queen
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I generally haven’t been a huge fan of these videos, but I really liked this one. As a big fan of Nentir Vale and the Raven Queen, I had been pretty concerned about how they were planning to handle her in 5e, and I’m pleasantly surprised. They acknowledged her origins as a Goddess from 4e’s core setting, which I kind of expected them to try to brush under the rug. They addressed why her origin in that world can’t really work in other settings, which helped to justify the changes to her presentation. They hinted that she may have been a Shadar-Kai before ascending to whatever she is now, which has long been a head canon of mine. The change of Shadar-Kai from humans to elves, and of the Raven Queen from shepherd of dead souls to guardian of the threshold between life and death are minor, perfectly acceptable changes. The idea that she occasionally holds onto souls and for instead of allowing them to pass on adds an element of intrigue, and actually fits in nicely with how I use her in my own games. I didn’t love the implication that she might be trapped in the shadowfell and/or her position as Raven Queen, but I didn’t hate it, especially since they went into her original backstory a bit and pointed out that her origins are very mysterious and might even be different in different D&D worlds. Overall it really put my mind at ease in regards to how they’re going to reinterpret her for 5e. That said, it did seem almost as if it was made specifically to reassure folks like me. I imagine if I was new to D&D and had no idea what the Raven Queen was, that video would not have helped me understand her at all. Really more of a “don’t worry, we get the Raven Queen and we’re not going to ruin her” to the 4e fans than an explanation for new fans.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I had exactly the opposite reaction. I felt that this was a complete reinvention of the character. He talks about her being a meddler, not a guardian, even correcting himself when he says something about her guarding the threshold.
There is no reason to not just let her be a goddess. Worlds can have major and minor deities of death, and she could have been much less powerful in some worlds than in others. Simple enough, no wild reinvention required.
As a 4e fan, who still uses the 4e cosmology and pantheon, this May well be completely unusable for me.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. It’s possible I misinterpreted what he was saying at that point, as I didn’t catch on that he was correcting himself about calling her a guardian, so much as clarifying. I definitely did see the meddler reinterpretation they were trying to push and very much felt “not MY Raven Queen” about it. But in the end I was fine with it because to me it looked like they were presenting it alongside the more traditional take and explicitly saying that she’s viewed differently in different worlds, and her true nature is mysterious. Which to me was a satisfying enough concession. I knew they were going to change her, so to me it was just a relief to hear them come right out and say, “in the world of Nentir Vale, she’s a Goddess and she got her power by killing Nerull.” I don’t really care what they do with what amounts to a different character with the same name in other settings as long as they leave the Nentir Vale version alone, which seems to me to be what they’re doing. Not only that, they’re explicitly saying that she’s different in that setting, instead of trying to pretend it never existed.
Well, they do compare her to a Goddess. I got the impression that she is comparable to a minor god in terms of power and influence but might be a separate category of thing - like how Asmodeus isn’t a god outside of Nentir Vale either because he’s a Devil and Devils are just a different type of cosmic entity, but he still has godlike power and the worship of cults. What they did have to rethink for non-Nentir settings though is her status as arbiter of the threshold between life and death, since that job is already filled in other settings. As well as her backstory, since Nerull is still alive in Greyhawk.
Makes sense. For me, as a 4e fan who still uses the 4e cosmology, I never really intended to use any fluff they write for her in other settings, and I’m glad that they’re acknowledging her 4e fluff and leaving it intact within 4e’s cosmology, rather than trying to retcon it.
Last edited:
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Those are all very fair points, to be sure.
We will see what it looks like in the book. I’m already using the Shasta-kai UA as a baseline for building them as a full race, so hopefully the book will be full of stuff I can use to make tinkering easier, even if I don’t want the fluff from it. And maybe the gods will be kind and I’ll like what I read much more than what I’m hearing now.
Because I also had big problems with the halfling video, the dwarf video, and even the Tiamat video didn’t excite me much. So far, only the gith and mindflayer videos have been really cool ideas IMO, with the Eladrin video being fairly cool but unnecessarily “lets reinvent this just because we can!”
We will see what it looks like in the book. I’m already using the Shasta-kai UA as a baseline for building them as a full race, so hopefully the book will be full of stuff I can use to make tinkering easier, even if I don’t want the fluff from it. And maybe the gods will be kind and I’ll like what I read much more than what I’m hearing now.
Because I also had big problems with the halfling video, the dwarf video, and even the Tiamat video didn’t excite me much. So far, only the gith and mindflayer videos have been really cool ideas IMO, with the Eladrin video being fairly cool but unnecessarily “lets reinvent this just because we can!”
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Yeah, I was not a fan of the Halfling video at all, and the dwarf one was fine, but pretty boring. Gith one was actually pretty good, but the Mind Flayer one... really left me scratching my head. “Not to go into detail about Spelljammer, but... [proceeds to go into detail about spelljammer].” That one really felt like they didn’t know what to do with it, but felt like they had to briefly touch on Illithids to contextualize the Gith video.
I get the impression that most of this book isn’t really going to be for me. Hopefully there are a few kernels I can steal, but I’ll probably mostly get this book for the monster stat blocks and maybe some of the races.
On the subject of reinventing things just because they can... I try not to be too critical of such things, as it’s one of the common criticisms of a lot of what I love about 4e. If they’ve got cool new ideas, may as well throw them out there. Worst case scenario, I don’t like them and I stick with the old version. Best case, they actually stumble upon something awesome and I find a way to incorporate it into my own take on NV.
Last edited:
Herosmith14
First Post
I'll be honest, this is my first edition of DND, so I am only familiar with Matthew Mercer's rendition of RQ, which is prob what I'll be using should I use her in any sort of cosmology. Video was interesting, and I felt the soul plucking thing was a nod to CR and Vax.
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
Matt’s rendition is pretty faithful to the original.
Similar Threads
