We apologize for the lack of our handsome faces! Due to some technical difficulties and the hectic-ness of the holidays we somehow lost the video footage for this episode.
I am 6'7 feet tall and I can confirm that any time I get the chance to see someone taller than me (which is very rare) "Oh, so this is what i look like to everyone else!" is EXACTLY what i am thinking to myself! Its so awesome...
@@lordgeneralmilitantdeezy7550 It does. But only to the extremely tall. It's the internet, take it with a grain of salt, I guess. But I actually am 6 feet, 7 inches tall (to be more precise, about 6'7.5 inches). I looked through some of my old photos on my phone earlier this week and realized that I have only met 2 people taller than me since 2015. YES, I absolutely do ask them to take a picture with me whenever this happens. 3 if you count me standing next to a statue of the tallest man who ever lived which is in the Rippliey's Believe It Or Not Museum in Atlantic City, NJ)... I really am amazed whenever this happens. It's bizzarre.
This video came out before Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes was published. If anyone's curious, they completely rewrote the story of the Raven Queen's origin for 5E. Now she was originally an elven ruler who tried to get the elves back to Corellon. She and her followers were conducting a ritual that would ascend her to godhood so she could bring them with her, but some greedy and ambitious wizards tried to siphon some of her power for themselves, causing the ritual to go crazy and suck every one of them into the Shadowfell. The elven ruler was reformed as the Raven Queen, her followers became the shadar'kai, and she transformed the traitorous wizards into nagpa (vulture people). Of course, they left it vague enough that it was one of many theories so you could use this origin, or 4E's origin, or your own.
Honestly you could totally have it be the whole death, rebirth, and taking over the death domain, helping Lolth, and then follow that up with her taking some of the elves that fought alongside her, they become her followers, and then you use the rest of the 5e lore
I love this type of lore I hope dnd would have the complete lore for all the dieties and their interconnections and how they came to power flushed out. I would buy that book.
From what i read it's not undead she's against, it's intelligent undead. Those who still have their souls, if tainted. Liches, vampires, wights, etc. Those who have used necromancy in order to cheat death. Ie her. Zombies, skeletons, etc. Those are irrelevant. A reanimated body is nothing to her.
My idea of the overarching motivations behind The Raven Queen, is that she is Entropy: Nor good nor evil, and some souls will be recycled back to mortality perhaps many times over because it's a long and (mathematically) chaotic process. But ultimately she represents the final end of absolutely everything and will take it ALL in the end.
One of my players is a Warlock and his patron is the Raven Queen. This video has helped me a lot and given me a lot of ideas on how to construct his personal arc. So thanks guys!
She seems to have traits of both Nocturnal and the Night Mother from the Elder Scrolls lore, as if she's a synthesis of the two, renamed and skinned for D&D.
My homebrew involves the party having to seek an audience with the Raven Queen in order to defeat a necromancer who has started working with Orcus, so this video has been very helpful with building the lore.
In my own understanding, the Raven Queen was an elf leader who was opposed all the war that was happening with elves and needless death got to her. She gathered her followers and they started worshiping her because she became a symbol of hope for them and the idea of peace became her banner in their minds while respecting her power she commanded. They started gathering magic for her in a huge ritual that was very elaborate (which fits because she is known for having vast knowledge) to give her the poeer to become a goddess. The ritual was tainted by greedy followers whom tried siphoning power for themselves. Raven Quenn found out about this herecy and went full wrath on their butts. The disruption caused the ritual to go haywire (after watching this video though ill probably blame Nerull) and she and her followers were snuffed out by the insane eldrich burst. She had attained the power she sought from the ritual but after reforming herself through willpower, she was a shadow of the person she once was, a cruel reflection. She then went to the shadowfell and reformed her followers into bodies substained from the magic that still clung to their souls. The greedy heretics were turned into cursed bird people whom could not talk and acted upon their greed while also looking as dirty as their intentions. The Raven Queen now rules in her part of the Shadowfell and has her castle gaurded by those who will always follow her and is said to still be collecting power for her means. In my world she's trying to get a grip on whi she used to be while also essentially running a demiplane of death.
When you say "your understanding" do you mean "your imagination", or are there official sources for this? I'm constructing a bit of back-story for my character and want to draw from official lore.
TheBaconWizard it’s official information, aside from the ‘in my world’ segment at the end. This info was released around the same time as the Pact of the Raven Queen for the Warlock Class, I think (don’t quote me on that) and as she was becoming more important to warlock players and their DMs, they released update (read: retconned) information about her. The two origin stories are still highly compatible, though, so that’s fun.
In real life mythology, there is a goddess called Morrighan, popular among many Wiccans and pagans... Sometimes called the Raven Woman or Raven Goddess - makes me think of Raven Queen.
She's also known as the phantom queen. I'm DMing a game using the celtic pantheon. The half-orc warlock has An Morrigan as his patron. While main plot seemingly revolves around the fall of Lolth, what the players haven't yet figured out that the Morrigan is responsible for a lot of the turmoil. Her quest for the warlock is to get her three aspects to "face the same way," which is basically code for when she subsumes the Arawn, the god of death, and becomes the Raven Queen.
my Character Tiefling Hexblade Warlock who worships the raven queen, just got turned into a vampire, from a magic item. she takes it as a gift from her patreon to help her combat other undead :D so from next game season she is a vampire, in a land with vampires and corrupt monster hunters.
I like depicting the raven queen asa humanoid form with a white porcelain mask that covers her face.She also has eyes on her wings intead of observing you with the eyes of his face. Kinda like the angel of death in hellboy
since she guides people to the afterlifes she's a psychopomp, aka a Greek word for a guider of souls ie. ires and Hermes or the ferryman they where talking about
I'm wondering if 5E is beginning to re-acknowledge The Raven Queen in the light of Critical Role using her. When Matt Mercer was moving across his campaign from Pathfinder to D&D for the online version of their home game 5E had little released about the deities and his campaign needed a vaguely D&D related Pantheon, though Serenrae also came along for the ride, 4E had a lot of material about and the 4E Pantheon was a lot tighter than previous D&D editions so was far easier to slot into his campaign. With Critical Role having such a powerful influence in the D&D community and Raven Queen making a powerful presence via Vax's storyline I suspect that the WotC D&D devs felt that she should be preserved from the 4E era.
I'm working on a strictly Norse themed campaign where an evil necromancer pulls a Thanos ( comic version) and attempts to propose to Hel, the goddess of death. Using the Queen of Ravens and Vecna combined to develop the stats and powers of Hel
The Raven Queen made the Shadar-kai and gives the race blessing of the Raven Queen so I made her my deity for paladin then I find out the Raven Queen is the first one to ever make a weapon out of shadows to become hexblade warlock. Currently I am lvl.5 paladin, lvl.1 hexblade warlock
Thank you for the video. It helped a little bit towards research for my lizardfolk grave cleric. Now realizing I have chosen another mysterious god for a character to follow, the first one was the Traveller. When will I learn?
There are actually a LOT of deities in D&D that were once mortal, not just the Raven Queen and Vecna, especially since Vecna isn't always a deity depending on the campaign.
+Vasilie Crisan that is all lore from the Forgotten Realms setting. The Raven Queen is from tge Nentir Vale setting. FR has all kinds of mortals turned god.
Isn't there a 3rd mortal that ascended to Godhood? I could've swore that I read somewhere that the current iteration of Mishra was once mortal and she replaced Mishra after the spellplague or something like that. Or is that version of Mishra specific to the Forgotten Realms?
+Justin Timm Mystra the mother of Magic has dued and been replaced by mortals multiple times in FR. Forgotten Realms has all kinds of mortals turned god. The resource i am quoting when talking about vecna/raven queen being mortals is talking about classic dnd or Greyhawk and/or Nentir Vale lore.
Hold on guys Cyric and Kelemvor in the Forgotten Realms are both Mortals who ascended to God Hood, in fact they were part of the same adventuring group together.
What oath would make sense? All of them are in someway emotional, so it would be tricky to pick. Vengeance springs to mind with "dark knight" moniker but the Raven Queen is usually pretty stoic so it might not be a perfect fit
Sorry our mistake! No we haven't done a Selune specific episode. Although she and her alter ego Sehanine have been discussed on the show many times. She will get her own episode, but I can't tell you how soon it will be. I will keep it in mind for the schedule though.
The Raven Queen isn't even the first to do that you're forgetting about the worm that walks kyuss you're completely forgetting about the dread 3 Bane baal Merkel
I answered this question multiple times in the comments on this already. Those deities are all specifically FR deities. FR has a cornucopia of deities that originated as mortals, including all the ones you mentioned. . The Raven Queen does not exist in FR. She is a 4e/Nentir Vale deity.
Okay cuz the time of troubles wasn't a thing that Dragon magazine was obviously wrong and its assertion that no Mortals have overthrown a God or become a God the dread 3 the overthrew the original god of death kicked off the entire thing of the time of troubles and then you have the worm that walks kyuss he also was able to turn himself into a God but in a completely different way his way of becoming a God was very similar to vecna
This depends on which setting lore one is using, but both Forgotten Realms and 4E lore agree that the shadar kai were originally humans. "After the Spellplague of 1385 DR, some shadovar humans and the children they gave birth to, as well as other humans across Toril that were somehow tied to the Shadowfell, were affected by the Spellplague and transformed into shade-like creatures. Some people associated the birth of this new race with the decline of the krinth, as the numbers of the latter dwindled while those of the "newborn" race thrived. Some scholars among the Netherese speculated that those events where related, and that somehow the shadar-kai were evolved forms of the failed krinth."
Kinda felt that the lore was from a negative standpoint winter was or is hard for the settings, to consider winter, death might go a little to far. To lead you from life to death yes considering she has probably the most costomers during winter, sickness, and war but the goddess of death is questionable can't help to think there is a supreme death God and a supreme life god. All others are Demi gods
She stole the souls which were imprisoned by Nerull god of death, hater of life.so she became raven queen.pretty lame actually Nerull could be kick ass bad guy to the series as Vecna.
I get that presenting it as a discussion makes it a little more engaging for some, but I found the constant interruptions and random comments from the co-host to be extremely distracting. Otherwise, I enjoyed the lore and presentation.
We apologize for the lack of our handsome faces! Due to some technical difficulties and the hectic-ness of the holidays we somehow lost the video footage for this episode.
The Dungeoncast I was just going to whine about how we can't see you
I am 6'7 feet tall and I can confirm that any time I get the chance to see someone taller than me (which is very rare) "Oh, so this is what i look like to everyone else!" is EXACTLY what i am thinking to myself! Its so awesome...
I feel you on that one, from one tall mother trucker to the other.
I always wondered if this happens to tall peeps
@@lordgeneralmilitantdeezy7550 It does. But only to the extremely tall. It's the internet, take it with a grain of salt, I guess. But I actually am 6 feet, 7 inches tall (to be more precise, about 6'7.5 inches). I looked through some of my old photos on my phone earlier this week and realized that I have only met 2 people taller than me since 2015. YES, I absolutely do ask them to take a picture with me whenever this happens. 3 if you count me standing next to a statue of the tallest man who ever lived which is in the Rippliey's Believe It Or Not Museum in Atlantic City, NJ)... I really am amazed whenever this happens. It's bizzarre.
My tiefling rogue got affectionately booped by a raven for defending the Raven Queen in an argument. Good times
BB!! AXEL GREW UP TO BE THE RAVEN QUEEN'S CLERIC!!
@Plushie awesome! Thanks for the chuckle on a dreary morning.
21:55 Vax got his wings from an artifact dedicated to the Raven Queen. He was a Half-elf Rogue for a long time, but later multiclassed into Paladin.
This video came out before Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes was published. If anyone's curious, they completely rewrote the story of the Raven Queen's origin for 5E.
Now she was originally an elven ruler who tried to get the elves back to Corellon. She and her followers were conducting a ritual that would ascend her to godhood so she could bring them with her, but some greedy and ambitious wizards tried to siphon some of her power for themselves, causing the ritual to go crazy and suck every one of them into the Shadowfell. The elven ruler was reformed as the Raven Queen, her followers became the shadar'kai, and she transformed the traitorous wizards into nagpa (vulture people).
Of course, they left it vague enough that it was one of many theories so you could use this origin, or 4E's origin, or your own.
Honestly you could totally have it be the whole death, rebirth, and taking over the death domain, helping Lolth, and then follow that up with her taking some of the elves that fought alongside her, they become her followers, and then you use the rest of the 5e lore
I don’t know why, but I always pictured the Raven Queen as Morticia Addams without the kooky.
I've listened to a handful of videos from you two, but you're charismas are on fire in this one
I love this type of lore I hope dnd would have the complete lore for all the dieties and their interconnections and how they came to power flushed out. I would buy that book.
From what i read it's not undead she's against, it's intelligent undead. Those who still have their souls, if tainted.
Liches, vampires, wights, etc.
Those who have used necromancy in order to cheat death. Ie her.
Zombies, skeletons, etc. Those are irrelevant. A reanimated body is nothing to her.
My idea of the overarching motivations behind The Raven Queen, is that she is Entropy: Nor good nor evil, and some souls will be recycled back to mortality perhaps many times over because it's a long and (mathematically) chaotic process. But ultimately she represents the final end of absolutely everything and will take it ALL in the end.
Thank you for this explanation. I'm making a Hexblade Warlock and wanted to know more about potential patrons. The Raven Queen is his patron now.
25:12 It me! Cool to see this callback to my character from so long ago.
You guys are amazing. I've learned so much from listening to your podcast. Please keep it up.
One of my players is a Warlock and his patron is the Raven Queen. This video has helped me a lot and given me a lot of ideas on how to construct his personal arc. So thanks guys!
Love what you guys are doing, especially the more lore heavy episodes! Many many thanks :D
She seems to have traits of both Nocturnal and the Night Mother from the Elder Scrolls lore, as if she's a synthesis of the two, renamed and skinned for D&D.
My homebrew involves the party having to seek an audience with the Raven Queen in order to defeat a necromancer who has started working with Orcus, so this video has been very helpful with building the lore.
thanks for the video! Can't wait to use the Raven Queen in my campaign.
In my own understanding, the Raven Queen was an elf leader who was opposed all the war that was happening with elves and needless death got to her. She gathered her followers and they started worshiping her because she became a symbol of hope for them and the idea of peace became her banner in their minds while respecting her power she commanded. They started gathering magic for her in a huge ritual that was very elaborate (which fits because she is known for having vast knowledge) to give her the poeer to become a goddess. The ritual was tainted by greedy followers whom tried siphoning power for themselves. Raven Quenn found out about this herecy and went full wrath on their butts. The disruption caused the ritual to go haywire (after watching this video though ill probably blame Nerull) and she and her followers were snuffed out by the insane eldrich burst. She had attained the power she sought from the ritual but after reforming herself through willpower, she was a shadow of the person she once was, a cruel reflection. She then went to the shadowfell and reformed her followers into bodies substained from the magic that still clung to their souls. The greedy heretics were turned into cursed bird people whom could not talk and acted upon their greed while also looking as dirty as their intentions. The Raven Queen now rules in her part of the Shadowfell and has her castle gaurded by those who will always follow her and is said to still be collecting power for her means.
In my world she's trying to get a grip on whi she used to be while also essentially running a demiplane of death.
When you say "your understanding" do you mean "your imagination", or are there official sources for this? I'm constructing a bit of back-story for my character and want to draw from official lore.
TheBaconWizard it’s official information, aside from the ‘in my world’ segment at the end. This info was released around the same time as the Pact of the Raven Queen for the Warlock Class, I think (don’t quote me on that) and as she was becoming more important to warlock players and their DMs, they released update (read: retconned) information about her. The two origin stories are still highly compatible, though, so that’s fun.
In real life mythology, there is a goddess called Morrighan, popular among many Wiccans and pagans... Sometimes called the Raven Woman or Raven Goddess - makes me think of Raven Queen.
She's also known as the phantom queen. I'm DMing a game using the celtic pantheon. The half-orc warlock has An Morrigan as his patron. While main plot seemingly revolves around the fall of Lolth, what the players haven't yet figured out that the Morrigan is responsible for a lot of the turmoil. Her quest for the warlock is to get her three aspects to "face the same way," which is basically code for when she subsumes the Arawn, the god of death, and becomes the Raven Queen.
Soldier of Elyon that’s because the Raven Queen basically is The Morrighan 😉
She's goth not emo
my Character Tiefling Hexblade Warlock who worships the raven queen, just got turned into a vampire, from a magic item.
she takes it as a gift from her patreon to help her combat other undead :D
so from next game season she is a vampire, in a land with vampires and corrupt monster hunters.
I like depicting the raven queen asa humanoid form with a white porcelain mask that covers her face.She also has eyes on her wings intead of observing you with the eyes of his face. Kinda like the angel of death in hellboy
since she guides people to the afterlifes she's a psychopomp, aka a Greek word for a guider of souls ie. ires and Hermes or the ferryman they where talking about
Ah, Vax'ildan. Rogue-Paladin, the wings did in fact come after his... transformation.
His wings came after multi classing Paladin but before he became a revenant. However the wings had nothing to do with either.
Loved Vax
Maybe the next deities you go over is ion goddess of knowledge and Mystra goddess of magic
I'm wondering if 5E is beginning to re-acknowledge The Raven Queen in the light of Critical Role using her. When Matt Mercer was moving across his campaign from Pathfinder to D&D for the online version of their home game 5E had little released about the deities and his campaign needed a vaguely D&D related Pantheon, though Serenrae also came along for the ride, 4E had a lot of material about and the 4E Pantheon was a lot tighter than previous D&D editions so was far easier to slot into his campaign. With Critical Role having such a powerful influence in the D&D community and Raven Queen making a powerful presence via Vax's storyline I suspect that the WotC D&D devs felt that she should be preserved from the 4E era.
08:00 1/3, you forgot Orcus. He also became a deity
I am new to your channel and I am really enjoying it.
Zagyg was actually the 3rd human to become a god. Founded City of Greyhawk and eventually became a demigod. Built a godtrap and trapped Iuz.
What about St Cuthbert, Raistlin, multiple FR deities after the time of troubles?
She is far from one of the only mortals to become a deity.
oh boy, was waiting for this.
kinda waiting a monnter mythos celestials tho
ps. thanks for presenting me the kingkiller chronicles already my favorite
I'm excited to talk about celestials too.
I'm working on a strictly Norse themed campaign where an evil necromancer pulls a Thanos ( comic version) and attempts to propose to Hel, the goddess of death. Using the Queen of Ravens and Vecna combined to develop the stats and powers of Hel
Hi, will you do 'The Lady of pain'? Because I am fascinated by her xD
The Raven Queen made the Shadar-kai and gives the race blessing of the Raven Queen so I made her my deity for paladin then I find out the Raven Queen is the first one to ever make a weapon out of shadows to become hexblade warlock. Currently I am lvl.5 paladin, lvl.1 hexblade warlock
Orcus was once a man who became a demon prince who achieved apotheosis and was temporarily a god.
Thank you for the video. It helped a little bit towards research for my lizardfolk grave cleric. Now realizing I have chosen another mysterious god for a character to follow, the first one was the Traveller. When will I learn?
There are actually a LOT of deities in D&D that were once mortal, not just the Raven Queen and Vecna, especially since Vecna isn't always a deity depending on the campaign.
I believe they mean that those two specifically became gods by killing existing gods and taking their power.
Please never pass on pointing out and laughing that Will said "They have weird *Horny Protrusions* " ever again 😆
The Raven Queen is basically The Morrigan from Celtic Mythology.
Not really.
@@joewhite6844 Wee Jah from 3.5 is quite simillar
@@vornamenachname884 sure.
From my understanding the "Dead 3" also were mortals before becoming gods. Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul all were mortals.
+Vasilie Crisan that is all lore from the Forgotten Realms setting. The Raven Queen is from tge Nentir Vale setting. FR has all kinds of mortals turned god.
The Dungeoncast ah. Makes sense
Isn't there a 3rd mortal that ascended to Godhood? I could've swore that I read somewhere that the current iteration of Mishra was once mortal and she replaced Mishra after the spellplague or something like that. Or is that version of Mishra specific to the Forgotten Realms?
+Justin Timm Mystra the mother of Magic has dued and been replaced by mortals multiple times in FR. Forgotten Realms has all kinds of mortals turned god. The resource i am quoting when talking about vecna/raven queen being mortals is talking about classic dnd or Greyhawk and/or Nentir Vale lore.
No he didn't have wings until he got the deathwalkers ward armor.
I am currently playing a kenku raven queen grave cleric
Hold on guys Cyric and Kelemvor in the Forgotten Realms are both Mortals who ascended to God Hood, in fact they were part of the same adventuring group together.
This isn't Forgotten Realms.
Of what relation does she have with Kelemvor, the greater god of death, given that no two greater gods can be of the same domain?
i havent had any reason to disagree or object to your work, but i can try to find something :) keep up the great work, i always enjoy your episodes.
So does RQ get the souls to Kelemvor for judgement?
Would a Paladin of the Raven Queen be possible?
Yes it is very possible.
What oath would make sense? All of them are in someway emotional, so it would be tricky to pick. Vengeance springs to mind with "dark knight" moniker but the Raven Queen is usually pretty stoic so it might not be a perfect fit
Wasn't Kelemvor also mortal?
+Bryce Grant Kelemvor is specifically forgotten realms. Forgotten Realms has all kinds of mortals turned diety.
jep a human fighter :)
Can you guys do Pallid Elves and what they are
The critrole cherector you talked about is a half elf rouge, paleden named vax.
Can you do a video on Selune? I just started a campaign as a Half-Orc Twlight Domain Cleric for her. Wanting some insight to me goddess.
We have done Selune
@@Thedungeoncast I saw the video on Shar and sune but not selune. Was she covered under the twilight domain clerics?
Sorry our mistake! No we haven't done a Selune specific episode. Although she and her alter ego Sehanine have been discussed on the show many times. She will get her own episode, but I can't tell you how soon it will be. I will keep it in mind for the schedule though.
The Raven Queen isn't even the first to do that you're forgetting about the worm that walks kyuss you're completely forgetting about the dread 3 Bane baal Merkel
What about 3.5 raven queen/shadar kai?
Wait…I’ve got the Nintendo WWF cartridge. That worth
something?
Do you think you will redo this if there's more info on the Raven queen?
Yeah what about kelemvor? The dead 3, and mistra? They were mortals that ascended.
I answered this question multiple times in the comments on this already. Those deities are all specifically FR deities. FR has a cornucopia of deities that originated as mortals, including all the ones you mentioned. . The Raven Queen does not exist in FR. She is a 4e/Nentir Vale deity.
The shadar Kia were elves, not humans.
Raistlin Majere did it also.
8:30 Zagyg gets no love
Okay cuz the time of troubles wasn't a thing that Dragon magazine was obviously wrong and its assertion that no Mortals have overthrown a God or become a God the dread 3 the overthrew the original god of death kicked off the entire thing of the time of troubles and then you have the worm that walks kyuss he also was able to turn himself into a God but in a completely different way his way of becoming a God was very similar to vecna
I think they're talking about Greyhawk and 4E lore, not Forgotten Realms.
They were Elves no humans.
This depends on which setting lore one is using, but both Forgotten Realms and 4E lore agree that the shadar kai were originally humans.
"After the Spellplague of 1385 DR, some shadovar humans and the children they gave birth to, as well as other humans across Toril that were somehow tied to the Shadowfell, were affected by the Spellplague and transformed into shade-like creatures. Some people associated the birth of this new race with the decline of the krinth, as the numbers of the latter dwindled while those of the "newborn" race thrived. Some scholars among the Netherese speculated that those events where related, and that somehow the shadar-kai were evolved forms of the failed krinth."
Gods are like the Highlander?
There can be only one.
Thought bane achieved godhood by killing a god? Actually I thought 2 other mortals helped him then they split his portfolio
The Raven Queen is Lawful Neutral and her domains are life and death...
1 of 5 dont forget about the dead three bane,bhaal and Myrkul forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Dead_Three
Kinda felt that the lore was from a negative standpoint winter was or is hard for the settings, to consider winter, death might go a little to far. To lead you from life to death yes considering she has probably the most costomers during winter, sickness, and war but the goddess of death is questionable can't help to think there is a supreme death God and a supreme life god. All others are Demi gods
I wish the one guy would stop interrupting. This is so hard to listen to 😢
Do *HELM*
She stole the souls which were imprisoned by Nerull god of death, hater of life.so she became raven queen.pretty lame actually Nerull could be kick ass bad guy to the series as Vecna.
I get that presenting it as a discussion makes it a little more engaging for some, but I found the constant interruptions and random comments from the co-host to be extremely distracting. Otherwise, I enjoyed the lore and presentation.