Did we know this? (Raven Queen...)

[Scribble]

Did we already know this?

"When Nerull was slain by the mortal sorcerer who claimed his power and became the Raven Queen, Pluton was abandoned and fell to ruin."

I don't remember having heard this before... Was it in that RQ article a while back?

 

[Camelot]

What part of that sentence are you surprised by?

Divine Power gave us a lot of insight into the core world's mythology, including the rise of the Raven Queen. It revealed that she was once mortal, and overthrew Nerull. It probably also mentioned that she left Pluton to go to the Shadowfell, though I can't remember the details.

I can't find any Raven Queen article, but I'm pretty sure everything in that sentance was already known, or at least implied.

 

[Scribble]

What part of that sentence are you surprised by?

Divine Power gave us a lot of insight into the core world's mythology, including the rise of the Raven Queen. It revealed that she was once mortal, and overthrew Nerull. It probably also mentioned that she left Pluton to go to the Shadowfell, though I can't remember the details.

I can't find any Raven Queen article, but I'm pretty sure everything in that sentance was already known, or at least implied.

I just didn't remember hearing anything about it. I'm not super up on the "core world" mythology, so it doesn't surprise me that I didn't know it.

 

[Kinneus]

Like Camelot said, this information was given in sidebars in Divine Power. Basically, Nerull used to enslave every soul that came into his dominion, and since he was God of Death, this presumably meant almost everybody. But when the mortal that was to become the Raven Queen showed up, he was smitten. And the Raven Queen naturally used this as an opportunity to overthrow him.

At first she tried enslaving souls, like him. But then she learned that by releasing them, she got a burst of energy. So she released almost all the souls in Pluton, and basically nova'ed Nerull into oblivion. What I find interesting about the story is that it makes it pretty explicit that the Raven Queen released the souls because it was a sound tactical decision, not because it was the right thing to do. It seems the Raven Queen is Unaligned simply because she found Evil inconvenient.

 

[Camelot]

It seems the Raven Queen is Unaligned simply because she found Evil inconvenient.

Which makes the Raven Queen one kickass character.

 

[doctorhook]

Didn't bits of this first appear in Manual of the Planes?

FWIW Scribble, I have these kinds of "canon-brain-farts" all the time. ...Probably because I'm not religious about keeping up with it, mind you.

 

[Scribble]

Didn't bits of this first appear in Manual of the Planes?

FWIW Scribble, I have these kinds of "canon-brain-farts" all the time. ...Probably because I'm not religious about keeping up with it, mind you.

Glad I'm not the only one.

 

[The Little Raven]

When she attempted to become a god-tyrant like Nerull, the other gods said "Oh, hell no." and made her the goddess "of death" (rather than "of the dead," like Nerull was). She hates the other gods for denying her the full power of Nerull, and forever works towards breaking those limitations.

 

[Klaus]

I'm not too fond of the official storyline for the Raven Queen, which makes her more Evil than Unaligned. I have my own version, which has a more mythological approach.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm not too fond of the official storyline for the Raven Queen, which makes her more Evil than Unaligned. I have my own version, which has a more mythological approach.

I'm kind of with you. I don't object to her alignment too much (though I do agree that I'd prefer a more "real" unaligned than "evil light"). My main objection to her story is that the pantheon has way too many gods who used to be mortals (or at least, not gods).

Vecna. The Raven Queen. If you ignore my article and go by Divine Power, Bane. (Divine Power is wrong, of course. ) Asmodeus wasn't a mortal, but he still wasn't a god. Frankly, I think having more than one--maybe two, if you allow for Asmodeus being a corner case--dilutes the concept. It makes the mortals-turned-gods less special, and it makes the gods look weak. (Sure, it's "only" four, but that's two too many, at 20% of the pantheon.)

I'd rather have either seen the Raven Queen with a different origin, or I'd like to have seen 4E return Vecna to his status as an ancient archlich/undead bogeyman, perhaps with the power of a demigod.