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An easier way to phrase that, Ravenharm?


The Raven Queen is associated with fate as well as death. And sometimes, it just isn't someone's time to die. So the cleric that heals or resurrects is trying to set things back on track, as Her Will demands.

After all, if one of them nasty Orcus zealots kills the rogue, and the rogue was needed to break into the high priest of Orcus's chamber in order to deliver unto him a swift smiting unto the crotch, then we need the rogue back. He'll return to the Raven Queen's grasp in good time. She's patient.

RQ popularity is due to...

a) The 4e project was named Orcus Project (or project orcus, I don't remember). Orcus' greatest enemy is RQ. The RQ is some sort of default deity of 4e. She has the most complete (best if you want) background of all deities. It's evident: WotC give much more attention to RQ than the other deities. Why? 1) As I already said, she is the default deity/enemy of Orcus; 2) her symbol appears the most, see the standard cleric artwork at PHB p.60 for example (this is subliminal).

b) There is a lot of people with low self esteem in the world right now (more than 50% of them are geeks, and more of 50% of the geeks play DnD). Another evidence is that more than 50% of the characters reflect the psyche of the dnd players that made them roleplay in some way (like a form of letting your subconscious free). We all know that confidant, happy, and fulfilled person would never worship the RQ. If everyone that plays DnD where like this than the RQ would be the less worshiped deity. If you have a hot girlfriend, have a good cause to fight, are powerful and confident that you will succeed, have a lot of friends that really loves you, its is more likely that you worship a good deity. All other deities would appear selfish to you, as if they don't need your help.

Imagine a fulfilled and confident guy running to the battlefield and than someone beside him mentions the RQ. The confident guy simply says: "Forget her! Right now she is in a sinister castle only waiting for me, you, and everyone else to die. Someday you will make her happy dying the way you must die, this is just enough for her. Let us fight for the ones that really need our help. Let us fight as immortals that will live forever in happiness for what we believe."
The happy and good person never wants to see the RQ. She's not evil, so he just respects her. But he gains nothing from her. When you want to be happy you want to live forever, and the death is the last thing you think about.

Kill undead because they want to kill you and the people you love. This is enough. If Orcus wants to take her down (and everyone else), TAKE ORCUS DOWN. This is enough.

Death? Forget it. You will die and death will forget you.

If another PC doesn’t like you for being a zealous good aligned PC, forget them and pray for them to forget you.

Praise to all the good gods. They offer to you what you need to have... an interesting existence to be remembered for eternity (not only in real life but in dnd as well).
Adventure -> Avandra,
Self-purpose -> Bahamut,
Strong Will/Heart -> Moradin,
Be a source of happiness -> Pelor,
Fight Evil (all dnd monsters) and be a hero -> all good deities.

They will never forget you.
Be happy and have fun.

In my case, it was simple:

Raven Queen's Blessing, the Divinity Feat linked to worship of the Raven Queen, is simple to use and powerful since it is another way to heal. Since my cleric was my first 4th Edition character, it seemed logical to go with more healing ability since nobody in the group really knew what we were doing with the new edition yet.

The_Storyteller wrote:

b) There is a lot of people with low self esteem in the world right now (more than 50% of them are geeks, and more of 50% of the geeks play DnD). Another evidence is that more than 50% of the characters reflect the psyche of the dnd players that made them roleplay in some way (like a form of letting your subconscious free). We all know that confidant, happy, and fulfilled person would never worship the RQ. If everyone that plays DnD where like this than the RQ would be the less worshiped deity. If you have a hot girlfriend, have a good cause to fight, are powerful and confident that you will succeed, have a lot of friends that really loves you, its is more likely that you worship a good deity. All other deities would appear selfish to you, as if they don't need your help.

That is a really strong claim to make. You're making some major assumptions on people's motivations and the motivations of their characters.

Imagine a fulfilled and confident guy running to the battlefield and than someone beside him mentions the RQ. The confident guy simply says: "Forget her! Right now she is in a sinister castle only waiting for me, you, and everyone else to die. Someday you will make her happy dying the way you must die, this is just enough for her. Let us fight for the ones that really need our help. Let us fight as immortals that will live forever in happiness for what we believe."
The happy and good person never wants to see the RQ. She's not evil, so he just respects her. But he gains nothing from her. When you want to be happy you want to live forever, and the death is the last thing you think about.

Kill undead because they want to kill you and the people you love. This is enough. If Orcus wants to take her down (and everyone else), TAKE ORCUS DOWN. This is enough.

Death? Forget it. You will die and death will forget you.

If another PC doesn’t like you for being a zealous good aligned PC, forget them and pray for them to forget you.

You're saying a holier-than-thou character who blatantly goes against the other characters is preferable to one who say accepts the inevitability of death and seeks to do great things in the short time given to them? If we all fought like we were immortal then there wouldn't be many heroes left. :P

That's how I justify my character following the Raven Queen. He understands that he is mortal and subject to a final death at some point. He's the grim hero who accepts the inevitability of death, and becomes all the stronger for it. Also, the symbol of his house is the raven and his last name was raven translated into Latin (a coincidence since he predates 4e by two years). Her hatred of the undead fit in with my ideas for his backstory.

Praise to all the good gods. They offer to you what you need to have... an interesting existence to be remembered for eternity (not only in real life but in dnd as well).

What?

Adventure -> Avandra,
Self-purpose -> Bahamut,
Strong Will/Heart -> Moradin,
Be a source of happiness -> Pelor,
Fight Evil (all dnd monsters) and be a hero -> all good deities.

They will never forget you.
Be happy and have fun.

Not everyone wants to follow a good god. There is a refreshing moral complexity that can be reached within the Unaligned shade of the Alignment spectrum beyond angsty death-cultist or emo. Plus we can get away with playing multiple sides of a conflict against each other and reaping the benefits.

Shades of gray exist in the world. A hero doesn't have to conform to any of the Good gods to be a real hero. In other words, a follower of the Raven Queen is just as much a hero as the follower of a Good god.

I'll look into it if I can find the time. I don't watch a lot of TV, and I've rarely, if at all, followed a show through to its completion. I mostly watch movies, and those are relatively rare these days.