I'm new-ish to DND, and I didn't know about The Raven Queen. In the campaign I am currently DMing, I nicknamed the queen of the town they're in now "The Raven Queen" and they're all panicking and I can't stop laughing. My explanation is that she has black hair and an enemy in her history was nicknamed the worm, and after she defeated the enemy, they named her "The Raven Queen" to match her hair and that she "killed the worm" Completely unintentional mistake. I couldn't stop laughing when they told me, but they don't believe that I actually made this mistake so now they're paranoid.

@ryansullivan7349

4 жыл бұрын

Use this... Make someone else close to them the true raven queen

@Z1gguratVert1go

3 жыл бұрын

I like your version better. The Raven Queen presented here isn't really very Forgotten Realmsy if you ask me, and I've been playing the Realms since the original 1st edition gray boxed set. Not everything belongs in the Realms, in order to define a setting you have to be able to say what's in it and what isn't. I like your version better, frankly. Totally mean that. In fact the Animal Lords presented in Planescape make for a better idea behind this as well, and one that is compatible with your idea to boot.

@ethannawrot2793

3 жыл бұрын

That’s amazing 😂

@darktimesatrockymountainhi4046

6 ай бұрын

@@Z1gguratVert1goAbsolutely agree about the Realms or any world - choose what is & isn’t in it! While I understand the idea of there being a queen in the Shadowfell, there’s also room for delusional minor powers in local hamlets. I like this Raven Queen, too, but maybe she wrongly believes she is “the Raven Queen” & arranges her entire life & schedule accordingly. She works hard to try & talk, act, walk, and even think like the original. There should be competing rumors around town. About half the population believes she is who she claims to be, and the rest believe she is completely delusional, though otherwise competent to manage the town business. Sounds like fun!

Also, wanted to clear up: shadar-kai first appeared in 3rd edition as an evil race of elf-like Fey beings who tried to migrate to the Plane of Shadow to avoid having to deal with mortals, then chose to lash out against mortals when this backfired horribly. In 4th edition, in the World Axis, shadar-kai are a human offshoot who have mutated into what they are through a combination of a divine pact with the Raven Queen and natural evolution to fit the Shadowfell, which as the Plane of Death is not a hospitable place for living souls. In 5e, we got this "corrupted elves" fluff as an attempt to merge the original lore with the PC-friendly portrayal of the shadar-kai from 4e and, as Jorphdan said, as a balance to the Eladrin, given the Feywild and Shadowfell are mirrors of each other in both 4e's World Axis and 5e's Neo-Great Wheel.

One could say: "lolth + the raven queen: nevermore."

@TommyP365

4 жыл бұрын

That's what I named my pact weapon!

Love this video. My favorite D&D character I've ever played ended up as a servant to the Raven Queen over the course of the campaign. it was in fourth edition and he ended up becoming a sword Mage warlock hybrid

@akshatsinghal5293

5 жыл бұрын

Hey. One of my players is a raven queen warlock. Can you tell me what story related elements the DM have your character?

Xanithar's guide to everything makes mention of her early in the info for the Hexblade subclass of warlocks

@morrigankasa570

Жыл бұрын

I currently have for 5e a Drow Feylost Death Domain Cleric sworn to the Raven Queen:) My Drow is Chaotic Neutral & met her on the edges of the Feywilds and became her Cleric.

I'm guessing she's a likely patron for the Hexblade Warlock?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Could be yeah!

@dawsonhelf7922

5 жыл бұрын

Jorphdan, if The Raven Queen is an elf panthian of the Shadowfell, then who's her counterpart (or elf panthian of the Feywild)? NOTE: Panthian - a god/goddess and/or a power that coexists with other gods/goddesses and/or powers -Double D

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

I don't think there is an equivalent to the Raven Queen in the Feywild. I know the Feywild has the Summer Court which are deity like powers, such as Titania. Both for summer and winter, and possibly the other seasons too. Perhaps one or all of those minor powers could be what you're searching for.

@dawsonhelf7922

5 жыл бұрын

Jorphdan, Oh, Ok, Thanks anyways -Double D

@DotRD12

5 жыл бұрын

Shit Nukes in fact, parts of the Hexblade Patron subclass were originally part of a scrapped Raven Queen Patron subclass.

This makes me wonder about the interactions between Strahd and his dark powers and the Raven Queen. What potential conflicts, or even deals between these entities would be. There's actually an adventurers League series that does feature The Raven Queen and I think it helps build her into the story of The Shadow Realm. I intend to run it myself at some point, but between taking a job and getting sick, I haven't been able to.

@nietzopaniquen

5 жыл бұрын

Do you happen to have the name of that Adventurer's League series??

@vision_walker

Жыл бұрын

I know that the Raven Queen has wereravens that she sends out to thwart undead, so I feel that wereravens being around Strahd would be a cool addition.

Thanks for telling me more of the raven queen I didn't understand when I read it so thanks!

omg I just decided to start researching the raven queen for a homebrew plot of mine. Thanks! Such information, much enjoy. 10/10 Dear gods this all works so perfectly, so much gratitude for your vids, keep up the great work!

@marcospatricio7455

4 жыл бұрын

Oi, mate, I wanna know... How's your campaing? Cos I love the character and I'm up to steal some ideas. Also I mixed her with Gaiman's death but didn't use It yet and want an opinion on the matter.

Another huge thank you, with the help of your videos I have managed to cement my campaign world into the history of the Forgotten Realms. I can't wait till my players start to discover the Easter eggs that I'll be putting in and through their adventures really contribute to the existing lore. Oh and I'm definitely going to put in a fallen, "sideways" Nethersee style city, that idea is awesome !

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

That's super great! :D

Ooooh! I think I know what diety my Druid of Spores will follow.

Hey Jorphdan, nice video as always! By the way I love that you uses magic the gathering arts in your videos, since I am a fan of both MTG and D&D. Looking forward to the next vid!

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks I like the art too, not everybody likes it but it's nice to hear that someone does :D

Just to lay it out for anyone who wasn't aware: the stuff about the Raven Queen from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is a complete and utter retcon. Originally, she was a deity exclusive to the Nentir Vale setting, also known as "Nerath", "Points of Light" and "Dawn War" - the nameless "core" setting of D&D 4th edition. This is an entirely separate cosmology to the Great Wheel and has absolutely no connection to the Forgotten Realms - indeed, the Raven Queen was not a part of the 4e Realms at all, as the Gods of Death there consist of deities like Kelemvor and Bhaal. In addition to the 4e references that Jorphdan lists, she had a "Channel Divinity" article examining her religion in the mortal world in Dragon #381, which also had an article dedicated to fleshing out Paladin PCs sworn to her, and was covered briefly in the 4e Manual of the Planes splatbook and in Nerull's Deities & Demigods article in Dragon #427.

@shawnzimmer8947

4 жыл бұрын

Shame on 5e for what they did to her...imo

@avarielblackwing6613

3 жыл бұрын

If I were a portfolio-usurping deity, stealing pieces of Nerull's and Lolth's and Khala's pies, I might want to obfuscate my legacy by essentially rewriting all history & lore about my nefarious deeds. Yes, yes, I was an elf, that's it, of course! I didn't betray anyone... I was, myself, betrayed... yes, yes, that's it! I wonder what Twilight druids & even Sehanine Moonbow think of her "afterlife" role of safeguarding the passage of souls to their proper destinations... without robbing anyone of all their memories in the process in order to sustain herself (remember, she pays top dollar for silt from under the River Styx for its memory content). What do Petitioners need with memories anyway? They won't miss'em... well, except for that Elysium sort that cling to a few levels' worth...

Thanks for the vid sir 👍🏼👍🏼

Another great video I have a request though, could you possibly do famous D&D characters "CURRENT Stats" and character bios like Drizzt or Szass Tam? Or possibly even cooler than that, top five characters good, and bad from famous authors like R A Salvatore, Or Richard Lee Byers ect. Anyway just something to think about. Your videos are great, and I'm sure if you did these they be just as awesome!

I'm setting up a plotline where cultists of someone withing Null's Domain is trying to restore them to full power so they can slay the Raven Queen they can retake her portfolios over Afterlife and Fate.

Currently stitching together a 5th ed, "forgotten realms compliant" version of the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure from 4th ed, so this as well as your Shadowfell and Orcus videos have been handy jumping off points. Tbh, I prefer the updated "Elf" Raven Queen backstory to the old one, and I kind of hope they run with it and expand it. I've been visualizing her as the head of a sort of "Grey Seldarine" and as a counterpart to Jergal.

So directly speaking with the Raven Queen is serious business, I spoke with her and came out unscathed.

I am running a one shot using a warlock of the raven themed on the main character in the Edgar Alan Poe the raven.

Great content as always. I'm a child of 5E, so it's all new, but I've become enamored with the Raven Queen since MToF. I plan on her becoming a real force in my campaign, which will be interesting considering I have a Cleric of Kelemvor as one of my PCs. I'm still working on the how 😉 Quick question, where did the piece of art at 0:53 come from?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

It's floating around on the web. I found it here ingewallage.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/bird-woman.jpg

Not sure if he made it into 5e, but Shaundakul has always been my favorite. He always felt like the quintessential god of adventurers. Will The Helping Hand be getting an episode?

Hey im a newbie to dnd and forgotten realms lore but over past while have been watching your videos and theyve been really enjoyable and useful for getting a better idea of how the lore fits together, one big question that I have tho thats been a headache to try and figure out is whats the deal with Kara-Tur there seems to be information on it but it dosent seem to fit in with the rest of the forgotten realms lore at all, would this be a topic youd maybe make a video on in the future or is it not really something youd wanna do Sorry for long comment and thanks for making awesome useful videos!

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

I might cover Kara-Tur in a future video. I haven't researched it much. Essentially it's another continent in the world of the Forgotten Realms. Like how Zakhara and Faerun are continents.

Kelemvor when watching this video: "What am I, chopped liver?"

both types of shadar-kai exist in 5e dnd lore

i have read the realms book since i was 15, turning 40 now.. never heard of the raven queen??????

Please make a video about your top-10 FR novels! thanks

Good video on an interesting deity, even though somewhat redundant in the Realms. Elves (with whom the RQ has been associated in 5e) already have Sehanine, and the main Faerunian pantheon includes Kelemvor, Myrkul, and Jergal.

@washada

5 жыл бұрын

The last two are no longer acting as god of the dead/death. Myrkul took the place of Jergal, then Cyric took his place, then Kelemvor took Cyric's place.

@transient_moonlight

5 жыл бұрын

@@washada That's the old lore. Jergal's still around, even if not a god of death, he's still associated with it and with Kelemvor. Post Sundering Myrkul has returned and taken the portfolio of death, while Kemelvor is stuck with the portfolio of the dead. The Sundering (5e) changed a lot of things.

i love how you use DooblyDoo when referencing 4e :sunglasses:

Hmm… In many different settings, I’ve noticed a pattern of gods of death being usurped. That combined with some other recurring themes, I’ve been inspired for a very (in my eyes) interesting homebrew pair of deities…

I accidentally called the local cult the "raven cult" so i kinda love that there is all this lore out there. And the shadar kai are Cool

There is some tenuous connection or at least inspiration drawn from the Greyhawk Deity Wee Jas. If you Google-search you will find more than a few theories on it. If nothing else, something to weave into a DM's version of the FR or GH.

I’m defiantly going to use this lore in AL for a character💯

No God or goddess will ever compare to Death of the endless

Playing as a Shaddar-kai Grave domain cleric whose god is the Raven queen. (talked to the dm about it and we decide to make her that as the grave domain mainly make sure the dead stay dead and keep the living, living.) It's actually fun because my character is pretty much a outsider in faith and race as I am the only one who is from a different plane completely and I play her as she doesn't care about death, but doesn't like Murder as unlike hunting for food you're forcing death upon someone or something. She's also not scared of death as she would actually welcome death like a old friend because of her god.

Random fact: I played in a campaign where I played an eladrin and a another played the shadarkai.

I'm in the hospital as I'm watching this how funny is that

@rocarter5059

5 жыл бұрын

Feel better.

All hail Mother Winter. Grandmother of the unseelie court. (Seriously read Dresden files for more Details)

All hail the raven queen

The PH is SILENT!

So what would happen if she and Pale Night had a starring contest?

She just like all the other power hunger elves always trying to skate up hill on slippery surface

How do we know this lore of the raven queen is real, if she takes on many guises and memories?

@marcospatricio7455

4 жыл бұрын

You don't. Homebrew a little, It ain't that bad. Either that or simply rip off Gaiman's death. I did that.

Hey pretty big question I haven't found an answer to yet. Does the raven queen have any relationship or interaction with Shar or do they just both chill in the shadowfell independently?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Good question and I wish I had a solid answer for you. Could take this as the Raven Queen stays in her own section of the Shadowfell around her Fortress of Memories. Or they co-exist fine. It's up to how you want to run it for your game. Could even go so far and rewrite lore to make the Raven Queen an aspect of Shar. The Raven Queen is now part of the Forgotten Realms but she doesn't have a solid place in the realms just yet. Not enough has been written for her in the Realms.

I heard the shadar Kai were very upbeat and had a wide range of emotions to make up for the dark place they lived in... is this not true? I wanted to make a very happy shadar kai :)

Watched a video from AJ Pickett on the Lady of pain and now Jorffy-Dan on the Taven Queen in the same day! Life is good.

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Life is great!

Things have changed in four years (2022). The Raven Queen is good for multiclassing an undead hunting Paladin of Vengeance with a Hexblade Warlock. Other than that, pffft.

The raven queen sounds like a total mary sue in both 4e and 5e

Just to note, Nerull is still alive and well in 5e. A lot of the Raven Queen's lore relies on a being named Nerull, except that the Nerull described is as far from the Nerull most players know. In the Forgotten Realms, she's even worse off and trods on the shoes of several deities, including Myrkul, Kelemvor, Auril and Savras. It's also likely that the devs totally forgot that Wee Jas existed as a neutral death deity.

@LordMortanius

3 жыл бұрын

@@marcialhd The Bane thing is even worse, as apparently the devs forgot that the core pantheon already had a LE god of tyranny, strength, conquest and athletics - Hextor.

It's wednesday and i didnt get my notification. You ok?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

I've been super sick the past week, I have no voice to record a video. But I'm on the mend, I should be better by next week with another video. Sorry! twitter.com/jorphdan/status/1060189093710176256

She’s kind of the Morrigan

Random neil gamiman's death

I made a protector aasimar who made a warlock pact with the Raven Queen cause i figured, 'hey she ain't evil and neither is darkness, so why not?'

So the Raven Queen doesn’t really hate undead only that which that does not to worship her that is undead. So those that use undead that worship her or warlocks are ok I believe🤷🏼‍♂️💯

Godess of edgyness (Amazing job puting together the video considering the clusterfuck that is RQ's origin)

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks :D

This is why i started using Pathfinder lore when DMing 5e. WotC just really screwed over the lore by changing so much of it from 4e to 5e.

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

I'll have to dig into pathfinder lore but yeah if they have a more consistent world and kept with that world.... well there ya go :)

@gordanwolfheart9365

5 жыл бұрын

This is because 4e was a big mistake

@user-qd8yy9lc4g

5 жыл бұрын

Honestly, Pathfinder's Pharasma has little lore to her, apropriate to the equivalent of Lady of Pain that allows herself to be worshiped as a deity of death. The one intresting tidbit is that she was originally worshiped not only as a deity of death and grave, but also prophecy, but since Golarion's setting events are kickstarted by a prophecy on scale with Second Coming flat out failing spectaculary, she is mostly a death goddess now.

@Lunaras

5 жыл бұрын

@@Jorphdan the pathfinder community would no doubt welcome it. The main deity vids these days are years old from Dwanforgecast and have godawful audio. Also the CRPG pathfinder: kingmaker came out relatively recently so the system is getting a bit more attention.

Is her enemy still Orcus in 5e? Or who is her enemy now?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

The Orcus Raven Queen lore was more general D&D and not specifically Forgotten Realms. But I can't find anything to the contrary so I assume Orcus is still interested in subverting the Raven Queen. :)

ok i have to ask... did you parents spell your name that way or did you pick it?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

It was kind of an inside joke with my friends back in 2011. The joke stuck when I was deciding on KZread names 😂

Huh. Goth elves. Alrighty then.

1:07 spent ten minutes looking at this picture, I pissed myself off trying to figure out how many legs it has.

This is partly why I don’t like MToF. It tried to make everything from different settings fit into a single multiverse and it didn’t really work.

@sesserdrix8007

5 жыл бұрын

I am confused in this video how her being brought up in MToF makes her a Forgotten Realms deity. The SCAG doesn't list her... She isn't a FR deity. MToF really isn't a FR book, it's general, it's independent of setting. Heck, Mordenkainen isn't even a FR native, he's from Greyspace, though he travels to Realmspace. Her section in MToF is littered with non-FR characters like the Lady of Pain and Vecna which only further emphasizes that she isn't a FR deity. Both portfolios of death and the dead are currently claimed, and there isn't any god that's going to get by Ao's law.

@washada

5 жыл бұрын

Adventurer's League treats MToF as cannon (something I don't like), so I guess there's that. There are adventures based on it, including one about Shadar-Kai and the Raven Queen. I say it's just marketing, but it's as close to "official" DnD as there is, so I don't know what to think of it.

@sesserdrix8007

5 жыл бұрын

Oh, it's definitely there, it just isn't necessarily Forgotten Realms. D&D is a big universe, and Forgotten Realms is just one single solar system enclosed by a crystal sphere. Mordenkainen isn't from Forgotten Realms, but he travels there. Mind Flayers weren't native to Realmspace, but they traveled there. So I guess my view of it is that the Raven Queen exists, for sure, but she doesn't necessarily have a portfolio in the Realmspace due to Ao's hegemony and rules banning multiple gods with the same portfolio. Her followers simply periodically show up and so she is known. At this point, WOTC has been incredibly poor at curating the lore in 5e, so I kind of treat their stuff as the lowest level of canon. I'll go with previous established works or the word of Ed Greenwood over what they are doing these days first. If there is nothing in the old lore about something, I'll integrate WOTC's 5e lore. Otherwise, I'm not retconning the world by using MTOF.

@shawnzimmer8947

4 жыл бұрын

I agree they ruined her a terrible nerf.

There is no information on the Raven queen on the FR wiki

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

There's information in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. That's where she was introduced and tied in with the Elves and Shadar-Kai for 5th edition D&D.

@arte0021

5 жыл бұрын

@@Jorphdan dont know what that is. I get all my information on the web

THE PH IS NOT SILENT HIS NAME IS JORFDAN

Doobly Doo. Have you been watching Matt Colville?

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Yep but I've also been watching Wheezy Waiter, who Matt took it from :) knowyourmeme.com/memes/doobly-doo

@CauseItsNotMidnight

5 жыл бұрын

I loathe the saying.

Wonderful video like awayls but..Wait a sec... Is Kelemvor female

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

:P

It cheeses me off that they had to taint the raven queen with Elf-ness, and re-did her cool backstory to fit with the realms when Mordenkainen's was a chance to ignore the realms.

@BlackLotus30

5 жыл бұрын

Same here, they shoe horned gods into the FR that has no business being in the FR after killing whole pantheons in 4e.

@gabrielrussell5531

5 жыл бұрын

@@BlackLotus30 And then 5E had to undo everything 4E did to make the realms less terrible.

@transient_moonlight

5 жыл бұрын

@@gabrielrussell5531 5e undid what 4e (and the end of 3e, which was part of the transition to 4e) did to make the Realms less realmsian, you mean. Even WotC themselves realized how nonsensical was to do things like removing unique deities, and proceeded to restore them all. FR is FR, if you don't like it, there are different settings. The Raven Queen was made up for Nentir Vale, no need to shoehorn her everywhere (and she wasn't part of the Realms in 4e, to begin with).

@BlackLotus30

5 жыл бұрын

@@transient_moonlight That what I meant I don't actually hate the Raven Queen but just like Asmodeus she look like she is out of place.

@user-qd8yy9lc4g

5 жыл бұрын

Raven Queen has zero to do with FR, so she could not fit in as a deity anyway. In this way, remaking her backstory for at least the Realms was almost required. Also, speaking of elfishness - back when they were introduced in 3e, shadar-kai were fey. Given that 5e pumps up elves' fey ancestry, making Raven Queen, who in 4e was the patron of shadar-kai, a powerful elven... power, with shadar-kai being her elf people, is not so out there.

Recently started an evil campaign, by session 2 our murderous hijinks are so over the top that the lich we work for broadcasts us as reality tv in the lower planes.

Honestly I'm not a fan of the Raven Queen, pre or post Mordenkainen, in fact she was probably my least favorite character from Critical Role too, I'm not a huge fan of appeals to nature, "Oh death is part of nature." Well so was fucking polio and small pox bitch. That didn't stop us from trying to wipe it out. Also it's made even worse if you assume the Raven Queen is an Elf, "oh I have a 700 hundred year natural lifespan, and I became immortal, but you human that lives roughly 80 years, you need to respect the natural order and stuff."

I read the stuff from Dragon Magazine 171 and makes the Raven Queen and her priests both sound evil. Like for one it says her priests have bad hygeine? Like what? Why does being a priest of the Raven Queen mean you neglect bathing? I'm not a huge fan of the Elfy retcons for MToF but honestly some of the expanded 4E lore was dumb too.

I have been a fan forever and was so disappointed at the 5e changes. It is a shame that 5e disgustingly nerfed her.

the Raven Queen is so popular that I never heard of Her...very popular folks...popular indeed

@rightwingersexposed8800

5 жыл бұрын

You must be new to DnD

@Simi822

5 жыл бұрын

@@rightwingersexposed8800 I read my first book in 1995 (Dragonlance Dragons of Autumn, and then later the first RAS novel), played the first game EoB2 in 1993, have played all games (even shit like Deathkeep) finished 70 percent of them, read 100+ books (mostly FR, but also dark sun, Dragonlance, Ravenloft), have like 400-500+ spellfire cards (started collecting in 1994), and actively play since 1994...read all comics (OK most online)...yep I must be new (but I focus on FR and Dark Sun mostly) because I never heard or cared 4th edition created crap...I have no problem with the fifth I think RAS and the gang saved FR with the second sundering

@rightwingersexposed8800

5 жыл бұрын

@@Simi822 So its not that she is not popular you simply skipped 4th edition and didn't read the lore for 5th, okay thanks for making it clear!

@Simi822

5 жыл бұрын

​@@rightwingersexposed8800 4th edition is shit..deleting Lurien, Lantarn, Evermeet, and Maztica (the demihuman homelands + the mezoamerica of the FR) was like WTF for me and I am not a LIB...and bringing Draconians instead to the FR...no thank you

@rightwingersexposed8800

5 жыл бұрын

@@Simi822 Irrelevant if the edition is good or not, you just didn't read it and you did not keep up with it. She was popular end of story.

Good thing she'll never set foot in Ohio again. Not after last time.

*sob* Vax *sob*😔

I really wish they kept the Raven Queen out of FR. She is unnecessary and serves no purpose beyond nibbling at the portfolios of deities like Kelemov and Auril.

The Raven queen? the Lawful neutral god of death. Thats not scary. still trying too use the 4e lore? not looking into Xanathars guide too get the rest of the Lore? Boo this man.

@Jorphdan

5 жыл бұрын

Boo I tell you Boo! There is literally one page that mentions the Raven Queen in Xanathars (pg 55) associated with the Hexblade Warlock. Yes I left out Xanathars from my research, but I did that because there wasn't anything there :P And 4e doesn't go away just because you don't like it :P

@son0fgrim

5 жыл бұрын

@@Jorphdan I might be salty because i'm playing a Hexblade warlock who's got a pact with the woman.

@transient_moonlight

5 жыл бұрын

@@Jorphdan The 4e Raven Queen wasn't part of the Realms, though. They only added her to the setting in 5e.

@user-qd8yy9lc4g

5 жыл бұрын

Honestly, I think that Raven Queen being not a deity but a weird powerful elf fey lady thing works perfectly with the Realms: the setting is rife with gods already, so another death god is unnecessary. She can be just "out there" if you do not want to do anything with her, and she does not have to engage in divine politics unless you want her.