The Raven Queen's predecessor

The Raven Queen's predecessor
Fan art of the first god of death, by Kaitlyn L-NerdyNostalgia.
Deity information
Type	Prime Deity
Also known as	Nahal
Title	God of Death
Province	Death, Fate, and Winter
Gender	Male
Pronouns	He/him
Home plane	Tengar (originally)
Worship
Associated domains	Death
Appearances
First seen	"Downfall: Part One" (3x99) (as Nahal)

This deity was the God of Death preceding the Raven Queen, and one of the deities who founded the world of Exandria.

The Raven Queen sundered the name of her predecessor from reality, and as of 812 PD, the first God of Death was largely forgotten.

As a PC he was briefly played by Laura Bailey in the prologue of Downfall.

Biography

Background

In Tengar, this god was called Nahal, and looked like a purple fractal. He was the first to recognize the feeling of "dread" when it arose in that realm outside of reality (finding it exciting and horrible), just a few moments before the Eternal Palace started to crumble.

Fan art of one of the forms of the first god of death, by Kaitlyn L-NerdyNostalgia.

There are rumors or conjectures that before the gods arrived on Exandria, the souls of creatures that died there would be reborn into new forms. This god was the one who asked his brethren to create the system of an afterlife for the souls; once it got established, he did not regard the end of life as a natural transition and took a tyrannical stance over death and the afterlife, claiming dominion over all souls, regardless of background.

During the Age of Arcanum, a mortal woman interested in becoming a deity visited the god of death in his own domain. For years they "danced through words and conversations", and what had begun as a relationship of interest on both sides (since the god saw the woman as a fascinating abnormality) ended up becoming friendship, and over time, love. The mortal woman would go down in history as the follower and partner of the deity.

During the same period, the god of death punished his child, who came to be known as the Forgotten Empyrean, by banishing it to the plane of Pandemonium, from where he would never have the opportunity to retrieve him. At that time the god of death and his mortal partner had spent time collaborating in a ritual that would allow the latter to obtain the divine position of the former, fulfilling her ambition and his desire for peace. Using the newly created Rites of Ascension during an apogee solstice the woman felled or, by rising, instantly obliterated her divine partner and predecessor, and took his place in the pantheon, becoming the Raven Queen.

However, the other gods, whether out of mistrust or disrespect, did not permit her to claim his whole portfolio; instead, she only gained power over the moment of death, while different gods would provide an afterlife for souls based on which god they worshiped or whose tenets they followed most closely.

Vespin Chloras, who was inspired by the Raven Queen's example, implied that her predecessor was one of the Prime Deities as he suggested that a future attempt to replicate her ritual would not dethrone a Prime Deity.

Fan art of the Matron's feelings, by Kaitlyn L-NerdyNostalgia.

Many centuries later the Matron of Ravens still thought of the first god of death from time to time, and while she didn't know where gods went at the end of their existence, she still "felt" him when fulfilling the divine role that once belonged to him. She also believed that their love had allowed her to successfully complete the ritual that otherwise would have killed her.

Appearances and mentions

• Exandria Unlimited: Calamity
  • "Excelsior" (E3x01), mentioned only
  • "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02), mentioned only
  • "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04), mentioned only
• Critical Role: Downfall
  • "Downfall: Part One" (3x99), prologue (first appearance)
• Campaign Three: Bells Hells
  • "The Cradle's Convocation" (3x104), in a vision
  • "A Test of Fate" (3x109), mentioned only

Quotations

• Matron of Ravens: I feel a lot closer to him in my work. In the cold of winter, in the door beyond, his shadow, in the distant corners of this world.
  Orym: Do you still feel for him?
  Matron of Ravens: Maybe. But I feel for many. I feel for you [mortals] all.

Trivia

• In the Dawn War pantheon of the Nentir Vale setting, which the Critical Role pantheon is based on, the god of death that the Raven Queen replaced was Nerull.
• Matthew Mercer revealed that although he always had aspects of the story of this god in mind (such as the fact that he helped his successor create the ritual that killed him) other details were developed with Laura Bailey's help as she was preparing her character for Downfall.
• The Raven Queen described her predecessor's domain as a "frozen enclave". Matt compared it to the Fortress of Solitude. These descriptions resemble her own realm, Letherna.
• This god was the only member of the Prime Deities with an unknown alignment. He was described as tyrannical and without respect for the natural transition of souls to the afterlife, having designed a system that, if the mortal races survived, would ultimately benefit his domain, since more creatures would be born and he could claim more souls.
• During the Age of Arcanum the ritual to cast True Resurrection was forbidden, according to Patia Por'co, who remarked that one of the reasons she tried it was because death had a new owner. It is possible that, before the Raven Queen's ascension, her predecessor was against the kind of magic that would take souls away from his domain, even if it was through legitimate methods, since he benefited claiming the dead.
• The Raven Queen's predecessor was the third known destroyed deity in the history of Exandria, and the one that was (relatively) better remembered, since it was part of the history of the Matron of Death. The other two deities were Ethedok the Endless Shadow, god of darkness and winter, and Vordo the Fateshaper, god of fate and order. The god of death seemed to have claimed at least one aspect of each of those deities' portfolios, since the Raven Queen became the goddess of winter and fate after him.
  • Since it is known that other gods kept the Matron of Ravens from claiming all the functions of her predecessor, there is a possibility that the first god of death also claimed darkness and/or order as part of his portfolio, and those would eventually be claimed by Zehir (the current god of darkness) and other deities (Erathis, Bahamut, Asmodeus and Bane represent different interpretations of the Order domain, although none of them is known as a "God of Order").
  • Ironically, due to the nature of his destruction, the Raven Queen's predecessor is the only one of the three deities whose name is completely erased from history.
• The only element in the Matron's porfolio that doesn't seem to connect to her predecessor's is twilight. Although it could be associated to darkness, that is now the Cloaked Serpent's domain, so it could be possible that the Raven Queen claimed twilight by herself after becoming a goddess.
• During their last moments as Nahal, while he was entering reality, the first god of death showed some temptation about going "away" into nothingness. Moreover, Pelor personally believed that deep down Nahal wanted to experience death, and that it was that desire that truly allowed the Raven Queen to overthrow the former god.
  • While not public knowledge, the Matron of Death confirmed to Bells Hells that her predecessor did indeed allow his own destruction.
• In Tengar there was a spirit, Nahala, that was one of the victims while the gods fled; Nahal, the future god of death, had a very similar name to hers, and seemed notably affected when she disappeared, suggesting the two of them might have been closer to each other than the rest of the inhabitants of the Eternal Palace.

References

Art: