The Altar of the Raven is a small temple dedicated to the worship of the Raven Queen and her celestial champion. It is located in the Greyfield of Whitestone. It was once the mausoleum of one of the noble houses of the city-state, the Anders family.
Description[]
Exterior[]
The temple has a modest appearance, and it is smaller than the temple of the Dawnfather nearby.[1]
Interior[]
The Altar of the Raven has a small chamber of worship with offerings (mostly money, flowers, and food), and artistic interpretations of the imagery of the Matron of Ravens. Moreover, there is another cloaked figure represented with a smaller statue, wearing a raven-like mask: the Champion of the Raven; it has an inscription: "The Champion of the Raven. In memory of friendship, sacrifice, and the day that he carries us all upon the threshold and beyond."[2]
Behind a door within an attached smaller stone structure are stairs that descend to a basement illuminated with red light. Inside, there are five empty, nameless, and theoretically purposeless, stone sarcophagi with vaguely defined humanoid features.[3] If someone spends some time in darkness inside a sarcophagus, they might receive visions of the Raven Queen.[4]
Notable People[]
- Othinon, the caretaker
History[]
A few months after the Whitestone Rebellion of 810 PD, Percy decided to gift Zahra Hydris the crypt formerly owned by House Anders,[5] since one of the family members, Byron Anders, had actively conspired against the de Rolos, and now the minor noble house was "forfeit".
Zahra completed her work, and by 812 PD the Altar of the Raven was already an active temple.[6] After Vox Machina defeated Vecna, Vax'ildan became the Champion of Ravens, a celestial warrior under the Matron of Death, and her temple in the Greyfield added a statue to honor the former adventurer as well. By 836 PD, the temple of the goddess of fate had its own dark-robed clerics,[7] and a tombkeeper that helped cleaning it, Othinon.
In 843 PD, Ashton Greymoore, Orym, and Chetney Pock O'Pea visited the basement of the Altar of the Raven and met Othinon, who joked with them and, when he was asked, allowed them to use two sarcophagi to try to commune with the Matron of Death. The adventurers did so and when they left, gave some silver to the tombkeeper which caused him to dedicate blessings to them in the name of the Matron.[8]
Trivia[]
- Some aspects of its design are similar to the temple of the same goddess in Jrusar.
- The floral offerings of the altar are mostly snowdrops that grow in the edges of the Snowdrop Memorial Trail. Those flowers have a symbolic and sentimental meaning for the Champion of Ravens honored in the temple.
References[]
- ↑ See "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76) at 3:05:57.
- ↑ See "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76) from 3:06:41 through 3:09:17.
- ↑ See "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76) at 3:13:28.
- ↑ See "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76) at 3:20:39.
- ↑ See "Duskmeadow" (1x57) at 3:29:34.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 49.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 78.
- ↑ See "A Gathering of Heroes" (3x76) from 3:06:15 through 3:33:22.
| |||||