Raven Queen

What Do We Know?

The Raven Queen is the goddess of death, well known for hating necromancy and ultimately being the final judge as you pass on to the afterlife. We, as the Menagerie, have probably had more interactions collectively with the Raven Queen and her followers than any other god in the Meloran pantheon so far.
Our first encounter with the Raven Queen and her followers directly took place in Thallvestr. There we met a man by the name of Reverend Daren who helped us with further investigation into a mining gem we had found in Blackburn. It was in Blackburn that we interacted with no followers of the Raven Queen, but ultimately had our first exposure to her. Beneath the town, we found a long-abandoned temple or other religious building that looks as though it was lost to time. Outside of that, Cain, also had a very close connection to the Raven Queen. When he, early on in our adventure as a party, broke his oath to Vecna, he went to the Raven Queen seeking refuge from Vecna's wrath as he helped to slay a vampire in Andron.
From that moment forward, Cain was a devout follower and the champion of the Raven Queen, which kept her happy for quite a while as the party began to combat the Moons of Order and their necromantic practices. With that said, it wasn't until much later that we learned that the deal Cain had made with the Raven Queen was basically a contract of death swearing his death would in fact be permanent were he ever to truly die. On top of that he also made a promise to her to never be involved with any necomancy himself.
When the party later entered The Void is when we ended up unveiling that information about the contract as Valkyrie Spiritshine forcefully took Loxia and Cain to experiment on them. Since Cain was, in this instance, subjected to some minor forms of necromantic magic, the contract took effect and Cain was given 30 days left to live with certain actions decreasing his time faster than normal. There were some efforts to try and solve this problem once the party learned of this; but all attempts and research proved futile when Cain tragically died at the hands of Shiro while the Menagerie fought some demonic moss in a cave in Llurth Drier.
When Cain died, his body instantly turned to a pile of ash making it, as far as we know, irreversible, no matter how desperate the party was. Cain has not completely disappeared from our lives however, as we have already seen his spirit as he took the life of Falwin Highsurge, before we could, in the battle we fought against him in Llurth Drier, as the Shadow's Edge attempted to use the Beads of Corruption to activate a portal, to what we have been told, is the Astral Plane.
On top of all of this, we also know a great deal about historical events involving the Raven Queen. When down in the long abandoned temple to the goddess at the beginning of the campaign, we found a mural that depicted a man who clearly had discovered necromancy for the first time and used it to bring back people from the dead as he continued to train in it. He appeared to do all of this in response to the death of some elvish woman who we do not know the identity of. With that said it does appear he was saddened by her death and so it was likely a relative or other loved one of his. The final scene of that mural depicted the man being buried in a tomb in which the lid had the symbol of a raven's head pointing to the left, which we now know to be the symbol of the Raven Queen. All evidence from this mural would suggest that the man depicted in it is Mordin, the father of necromancy if you will, as he was the first to find a way to truly play with life and death using magic.
It is still kind of unclear to us what the exact significance of this man was to the goddess seeing as him being, what appeared to be, the very first necromancer, one would think this man would be her greatest enemy. Yet he was later found to be buried in that very temple by the party.
Outside of that, we also know the Raven Queen is the newest god in the pantheon of Melora ascending to godhood in 1615 AD near the end of the Age of Discovery. The exact details of her ascension are mainly unknown to us except a few smaller details. We do know at the time of her ascension a man, now perceived in the academic community as crazy, named Hagmer Elwynn was likely present for the ascension itself. He also seems to have known something about her prior to her ascension as well. In a book entitled "What Do You Call It When A Shadow Trips You?" he details a lot of this information, mentioning that he was a cultist during her ascension and knew her prior, referring to her as the "Lady of the Carrions."
Unfortunately, the book then goes on with him entering a panicked state as he seems to suddenly be forgetting details about her and eventually he even seems to forget her name altogether. This also appears to be true of all other people as at the time of her ascension, the Raven Queen's mortal life seems to have been, for all intents and purposes, removed from the memories of everyone. Mr. Elwynn then proceeds to also detail that physical objects he has that remind him of her also seemingly disappear or turn to ash, in fact he spent about a chapter bitching about it.
He also seems to go back and forth on whether or not the ascension was a success saying that the ascension both was exactly what they had hoped for and as a complete disaster. At the end of his book he writes what is essentially a suicide note which details that he will soon be where he belongs in one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in all of creation before saying he will:

"Ensure that he returns to the Shadowfell as soon as he possibly can".

Outside of this Hagmer also details some information on the plane known as the Shadowfell. For most historians and scholars this plane of existence is said to be nothing more than a rumor. It is unclear whether it even exists at all to be honest. What he does mention though, in between incomprehensible ramblings is that the plane is essentially one of neverending darkness. Supposedly the Raven Queen there, can shape this darkness to whatever she wants and that this plane actually lies grasped around the Material Plane itself.
Alongside what we do know there are also theories surrounding the nature of her ascension that we also know about. These theories, however, come with the follwoing quoted warning:

"It should be noted that the following is considered actively sacrilegious towards the Raven Queen. As it is suggested that all of us will meet her at our ends and that she guards some aspect of our future, please read at your own risk, and if you do and I am wrong, I am so very sorry".

The theory, often referred to as "The Chained Queen" theory is the most popular one which essentially states that at some point during the process of her ascension she began to regret what she was doing, or had some form of a change of heart which led to her being stuck in a sort of in between state, forever judging those passing on to the next chapter of their life.
With that said, those who study cosmology also have a continuation of that theory. The theory goes on to say that at the time of the Raven Queen's ascension, the gods of the main pantheon grew so angry with her that they shackled her to the domain of death which is why she is there. Furthermore, some even believe that the gods went further to also control her mind by erasing her mortal life from living memory intentionally.
All of this ties together nicely, as it is also believed that in more recent years the Raven Queen has begun the process of tugging on those chains that shackle her to the domain of death and they have more or less been the cause for the increased sightings of a creature known as a voidwalker (a creature known to be shackled or stuck in the domain of death similar to the way the Raven Queen is; they are usually known to be present on the Material Plane during the events of disasters). They are also correlated with increased reports of people actually speaking to the Raven Queen.
The actual effort or methods required to free her of her chains are unknown, but it is theorized that given she was free, she may be able to grant powers similar to those the gods of the main pantheon give their followers (paladins and clerics). It is believed anyone under the effect of these powers would likely have an interest in doing good and being good and ultimately dying good and returning to her in the domain of death. This theory is incredibly interesting as the description fits Cain closely. Has the Raven Queen already freed herself of her chains or at least weakened them enough to be able to pull this off? That part remains unclear.
Those that follow the Raven Queen as was previously mentioned usually can be seen with the symbol of the head of a raven pointing to the left.

Potential Aliases

"Matron of Death"

"Lady of the Carrions"

"The Chained Queen"

Characteristics

Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Known Followers

Cain Azor
Reverend Daren
Haradin Fenheg

Known Places of Worship

Temple of the Raven Queen in Thaneas
Temple of the Raven Queen in Thallvestr
Abandoned Ruins of Temple to the Raven Queen beneath Blackburn