Rolling up a Shadar-Kai soulknife rogue for a new campaign and am thinking for her background she was shunned from the shadow realm when young for some sort of sacrilege either to the Raven Queen or the Shada-Kai themselves. I'm not that familiar with that lore, if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate hearing them.

A bit late to this one but you could just be extra-ordinarily happy. Shadar Kai are said to be quite mournful and morose individuals due to their connection with the Shadowfell, but they were once more fey like. So maybe your character was shunned for being too wild, happy and fey in nature with a strong connection to the feywild.

One of the reasons the Raven Queen is so interesting is because her motivations are unclear; she is never seen as any kind of avatar, and seems to operate mainly through her ravens and shadar-kai, while she herself remains in her fortress in the Shadowfell amongst her collection of memories.

It's unclear why she collects memories exactly, and seems like she particularly favours memories of loss. Some memories she collects through mementos obtained by the shadar-kai from tragic events, and others she takes from the souls of the dead as they pass through the Shadowfell on their way towards the Fugue plane (and from there on to their afterlife).

In a way, this makes her a good presence in the cycle of life and death, as she gives the souls of the dead a chance to unburden themselves as they move on. It also gives her a vested interest in ensuring that life and death play out as they're supposed to, because anything that would interrupt the flow of souls through the Shadowfell would affect her access to memories to add to her collection.

One of the greatest crimes for a shadar-kai would be to deny the Raven Queen a memory for her collection – perhaps a soul was going to be unburdened of something your character believed it should be forced to remember, or perhaps a memento the Raven Queen wanted from a tragedy was one of deep sentimental value to one of the victims, and your character couldn't bear to part them with it?

Doing this just the once could be grounds enough for punishment, but it could also be done in such a way that redemption is a possibility, for example if your character was exiled with the intention being that it would force them to see for themselves what the world is really like, and what living with loss can do to people? This could mean your character may either see that they were wrong to defy the Raven Queen, or see that actually there is more to life and that the Raven Queen is the one in the wrong. Gives you a conflict to work with?

Another area that's interesting is the Raven Queen's origin; I think it's undisputed that the shadar-kai were originally ordinary elves of the feywild, and followed the Raven Queen into the Shadowfell and were corrupted by it over time. But how the Raven Queen became a deity is a bit less clear; she may have originally been a feywild elf as well, who conducted a ritual to become a deity in the hopes of preventing the war brewing between the gods Corellon and Llolth, who at the time were both members of the Seldarine (elven pantheon), but something went wrong. According to the Forgotten Realms fandom page, Wizards tried to subvert the ritual (it's always bloody wizards ruining things in D&D 😝) and that's what caused her to end up in the Shadowfell in her deified form, but twisted from her original intentions.

If your character had learned about this history it's possible they might see their goal in life as restoring the Raven Queen to her old self and purpose, which could be seen as sacrilegious by the other shadar-kai, and grounds for exile. It would be up to you if the Raven Queen herself would condemn them for it or not, as she may be aware deep down that this is not who she was meant to be, and that could be why she's lost herself in a collection of tragic memories? That again gives you a possible opening for your character to be both excommunicated, yet still connected to the Raven Queen.

Apologies for the word wall – D&D lore is complicated and I get way to into it sometimes, also the Raven Queen is a favourite deity of mine for that dark yet neutral complexity. 😂

Wow, thanks! That's some awesome stuff, it gives me a bunch of ideas.

Quote from Haravikk >>

One of the reasons the Raven Queen is so interesting is because her motivations are unclear; she is never seen as any kind of avatar, and seems to operate mainly through her ravens and shadar-kai, while she herself remains in her fortress in the Shadowfell amongst her collection of memories.

It's unclear why she collects memories exactly, and seems like she particularly favours memories of loss. Some memories she collects through mementos obtained by the shadar-kai from tragic events, and others she takes from the souls of the dead as they pass through the Shadowfell on their way towards the Fugue plane (and from there on to their afterlife).

In a way, this makes her a good presence in the cycle of life and death, as she gives the souls of the dead a chance to unburden themselves as they move on. It also gives her a vested interest in ensuring that life and death play out as they're supposed to, because anything that would interrupt the flow of souls through the Shadowfell would affect her access to memories to add to her collection.

One of the greatest crimes for a shadar-kai would be to deny the Raven Queen a memory for her collection – perhaps a soul was going to be unburdened of something your character believed it should be forced to remember, or perhaps a memento the Raven Queen wanted from a tragedy was one of deep sentimental value to one of the victims, and your character couldn't bear to part them with it?

Doing this just the once could be grounds enough for punishment, but it could also be done in such a way that redemption is a possibility, for example if your character was exiled with the intention being that it would force them to see for themselves what the world is really like, and what living with loss can do to people? This could mean your character may either see that they were wrong to defy the Raven Queen, or see that actually there is more to life and that the Raven Queen is the one in the wrong. Gives you a conflict to work with?

Another area that's interesting is the Raven Queen's origin; I think it's undisputed that the shadar-kai were originally ordinary elves of the feywild, and followed the Raven Queen into the Shadowfell and were corrupted by it over time. But how the Raven Queen became a deity is a bit less clear; she may have originally been a feywild elf as well, who conducted a ritual to become a deity in the hopes of preventing the war brewing between the gods Corellon and Llolth, who at the time were both members of the Seldarine (elven pantheon), but something went wrong. According to the Forgotten Realms fandom page, Wizards tried to subvert the ritual (it's always bloody wizards ruining things in D&D 😝) and that's what caused her to end up in the Shadowfell in her deified form, but twisted from her original intentions.

If your character had learned about this history it's possible they might see their goal in life as restoring the Raven Queen to her old self and purpose, which could be seen as sacrilegious by the other shadar-kai, and grounds for exile. It would be up to you if the Raven Queen herself would condemn them for it or not, as she may be aware deep down that this is not who she was meant to be, and that could be why she's lost herself in a collection of tragic memories? That again gives you a possible opening for your character to be both excommunicated, yet still connected to the Raven Queen.

Apologies for the word wall – D&D lore is complicated and I get way to into it sometimes, also the Raven Queen is a favourite deity of mine for that dark yet neutral complexity. 😂

 Beautiful read. I also love the Raven Queen, though my introduction to her was via Critical Role. It is worth noting that CR's Raven Queen is slightly different for those who share my background, but both versions are very interesting.

Similar to what Rob76 said, what if a death elf loved life? Maybe you have an unshakable love for music and color and life in general and that is why you were banished. Maybe your character is really into Romanticism.