According to the original author, the Raven Queen was conceived as the result Wee Jas slaying Nerull and obtaining his portfolio (and darkening her nature). Thus the description of the Raven Queens castle (and many other details) are very similar to Wee Jas's.
Shar is the Deity in Forgotten Realms that rules over the Shadowfell. Shar created the Shadowfell by merging the Plane of Shadow and the Negative Energy Plane.
As many have posted already, The Raven Queen is from another setting, and she is not cannon from Forgotten Realms.
Basically those warlocks that are from Forgotten Realms and accede to those pacts (Hexblade, The Raven Queen) either receive their strenght from Shar (directly or indirectly), or you home brew that some of The Raven Queen's followers have infiltrated the realms through the Shadowfell. As usual, the second option might cause some struggle over power between Shar and The Raven Queen, as those two are certainly not aligned in goals and ideology.
Well to be fair the queen only rules out of the shadowfell. She doesn' rule the fell itself
According to the original author, the Raven Queen was conceived as the result Wee Jas slaying Nerull and obtaining his portfolio (and darkening her nature). Thus the description of the Raven Queens castle (and many other details) are very similar to Wee Jas's.
According to the original author, the Raven Queen was conceived as the result Wee Jas slaying Nerull and obtaining his portfolio (and darkening her nature). Thus the description of the Raven Queens castle (and many other details) are very similar to Wee Jas's.
Source?
I had this (and many others) soundly documented in the WotC forums... which were deleted. The original sources might be deleted by now too. I too certainly wish I could access all of it again (as it represented a lot of research and data).
However, here are a few posts from Erik Scott de Bie (co-author of 4e's "The Plane Above" and such).
Also, compare Wee Jas"Her domain takes the form of a huge and intricately carved ice castle, that glows with a pale light... located on a huge, possibly infinite shard of black ice" to "Raven Queen's citadel lies in the Shadowfell; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow"
According to the original author, the Raven Queen was conceived as the result Wee Jas slaying Nerull and obtaining his portfolio (and darkening her nature). Thus the description of the Raven Queens castle (and many other details) are very similar to Wee Jas's.
Source?
I had this (and many others) soundly documented in the WotC forums... which were deleted. The original sources might be deleted by now too. I too certainly wish I could access all of it again (as it represented a lot of research and data).
However, here are a few posts from Erik Scott de Bie (co-author of 4e's "The Plane Above" and such).
Also, compare Wee Jas"Her domain takes the form of a huge and intricately carved ice castle, that glows with a pale light... located on a huge, possibly infinite shard of black ice" to "Raven Queen's citadel lies in the Shadowfell; a massive castle cut from black ice and covered in fresh snow"
That discussion is about translating the Raven Queen to FR, not about the origins of the character.
The fact that they are both related to winter and death is...perhaps too broad a connection from which to draw any conclusions whatsoever?
Per Erik Scott de Bie, (co-author of The Shadowfell) "most of the Raven Queen-related lore is my baby" and "I interpret the Raven Queen as basically *being* Wee Jas, albeit having absorbed Nerull's power and become a blacker deity".
The fact that Letherna was described identically to Cabal Macabre was no coincidence.
Per Erik Scott de Bie, co-author of The Shadowfell) "most of the Raven Queen-related lore is my baby" and "I interpret the Raven Queen as basically *being* Wee Jas, albeit having absorbed Nerull's power and become a blacker deity".
The fact that Letherna was described identically to Cabal Macabre was no coincidence.
Perhaps I misunderstood your initial statement. Were you trying to claim that the Raven Queen is similar to Wee Jas, with some inspiration taken from her to build out the Raven Queen, or to claim that there is some canonical connection between the two?
Per Erik Scott de Bie, (co-author of The Shadowfell) "most of the Raven Queen-related lore is my baby" and "I interpret the Raven Queen as basically *being* Wee Jas, albeit having absorbed Nerull's power and become a blacker deity".
The fact that Letherna was described identically to Cabal Macabre was no coincidence.
Perhaps I misunderstood your initial statement. Were you trying to claim that the Raven Queen is similar to Wee Jas, with some inspiration taken from her to build out the Raven Queen, or to claim that there is some canonical connection between the two?
I'm merely trying to provide information and research. How one interprets the author's statements and such is up to them (I don't have a stake in that).
Short answer, the Raven Queen was from no specific d&d setting. She originally came from 4e lore from the example pantheon that included several other original gods such as Erathis and Melora. The purpose of this was for DMs to use for your homebrew worlds if they didn't have the energy to make an entire unique pantheon from scratch. This was because 4e had its own mythos compared to other editions to help fill in any world-building gaps and plotholes because worldbuilding is energy-draining since you have to make everything up. So, mostly everything in 4e was grab-and-go including the Raven Queen, herself, if you wanted a god of death you could just use it instead of putting in endless hours of energy creating one, and it was helpful for DMs and worldbuilders alike.
In that version, she was (as I said) the god of death, among other things such as fate and winter. However, when 5e came around, she was demoted to an Archfey who wanted to become a god but failed causing her to be torn apart. The reason why wotc might have demoted the Raven Queen from god to supposed god is that her current story did not fit anywhere in the lore of the Forgotten Realms, the current default setting for the game. Technically, there was no room for her in the main Faerûnian Pantheon because it already had a very awesome death god named Kelemvor, who was a mortal who ascended to godhood after the previous death gods either abdicated the position or were overthrown by a usurper. Allegedly, Kelemvor was beloved by the Faerûnians because of his fairness and sense of justice, being more of a ruler and deity of the afterlife and a judge of the dead rather than actual death such as the Raven Queen, or the dead such as entities like Nerull and Myrkul. Of course, not a lot of people were happy about this change as a mortal defeating a death god and taking his place is a much cooler origin story than an Archfey failing to become a god and refusing their defeat.
Despite this, if you are not a fan of the 5e reboot of the Raven Queen, you can also use the 4e version or homebrew your own original version of the Raven Queen (which is what I might do for my own games) as allegedly all of the official content for 5e is somewhat semi-canonical in my opinion. Why I say this is because Homebrew has been around since the beginning with Gary Gyax's own Greyhawk since he would leave entire lore sections of Greyhawk empty allowing whoever is DMing to fill in the blanks with their own story for their games. Therefore, if you don't like something in a D&D adventure or feel like it doesn't work for the game you wished to run, you can always change it to make it either more fun and/or sensible for your table. And best of all, no one will judge overall. I hope this helps you out with whatever's troubling you and gives you a deeper understanding of the game.
According to the original author, the Raven Queen was conceived as the result Wee Jas slaying Nerull and obtaining his portfolio (and darkening her nature). Thus the description of the Raven Queens castle (and many other details) are very similar to Wee Jas's.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
We do bones, motherf***ker!
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Short answer, the Raven Queen was from no specific d&d setting. She originally came from 4e lore from the example pantheon that included several other original gods such as Erathis and Melora. The purpose of this was for DMs to use for your homebrew worlds if they didn't have the energy to make an entire unique pantheon from scratch. This was because 4e had its own mythos compared to other editions to help fill in any world-building gaps and plotholes because worldbuilding is energy-draining since you have to make everything up. So, mostly everything in 4e was grab-and-go including the Raven Queen, herself, if you wanted a god of death you could just use it instead of putting in endless hours of energy creating one, and it was helpful for DMs and worldbuilders alike.
In that version, she was (as I said) the god of death, among other things such as fate and winter. However, when 5e came around, she was demoted to an Archfey who wanted to become a god but failed causing her to be torn apart. The reason why wotc might have demoted the Raven Queen from god to supposed god is that her current story did not fit anywhere in the lore of the Forgotten Realms, the current default setting for the game. Technically, there was no room for her in the main Faerûnian Pantheon because it already had a very awesome death god named Kelemvor, who was a mortal who ascended to godhood after the previous death gods either abdicated the position or were overthrown by a usurper. Allegedly, Kelemvor was beloved by the Faerûnians because of his fairness and sense of justice, being more of a ruler and deity of the afterlife and a judge of the dead rather than actual death such as the Raven Queen, or the dead such as entities like Nerull and Myrkul. Of course, not a lot of people were happy about this change as a mortal defeating a death god and taking his place is a much cooler origin story than an Archfey failing to become a god and refusing their defeat.
Despite this, if you are not a fan of the 5e reboot of the Raven Queen, you can also use the 4e version or homebrew your own original version of the Raven Queen (which is what I might do for my own games) as allegedly all of the official content for 5e is somewhat semi-canonical in my opinion. Why I say this is because Homebrew has been around since the beginning with Gary Gyax's own Greyhawk since he would leave entire lore sections of Greyhawk empty allowing whoever is DMing to fill in the blanks with their own story for their games. Therefore, if you don't like something in a D&D adventure or feel like it doesn't work for the game you wished to run, you can always change it to make it either more fun and/or sensible for your table. And best of all, no one will judge overall. I hope this helps you out with whatever's troubling you and gives you a deeper understanding of the game.