The Reformation Church of the Raven Queen
The Raven queen and her followers are respected and sometimes a little feared by the common people. It is the fear of Death, the end of everything, that makes people a bit fearful. Nobody wants to die, but we all will eventually. People at times consider priests of the Raven Queen to be a bit cold and distant when it comes to the dead, since the Raven Queen teaches there is no pity for the fallen.
Temples of the Raven Queen are generally situated on or near graveyards or other sorts of burial sites. The centre of a temple is usually the place where the dead are washed and prepared for their final rites.
Dogma: Recognize that death is part of life. It is not an ending but a beginning, nor a punishment but a necessity. Death is an orderly process without deceit, concealment, and randomness. Help others die with dignity at their appointed time and no sooner. There is no pity for those who have fallen, but they should be treated with dignity. Graves and tombs are to be respected and are to be protected from looting and desecration. The path of fate is sacrosanct. Those who pridefully cast off their destiny should be punished.
Speak against those that would artificially prolong their life beyond natural limits, such as the undead. Undeath is an atrocity. Those who would pervert the transition of the soul must be brought down.
Do honour to the dead, for their strivings in life brought the world to where it is now. Forgetting them is to forget where we are now, and why.
Day to day activities: Priests of the Raven Queen comfort the dying and provide burials for those who die alone. They administer last rites to the dying and help the living left behind to better understand the natural and inevitable process of death and dying. When people die alone without a will, known heirs, or business partners, their goods are taken by the church to fund its ongoing ministry to the dying. This does not, by any means, mean that death clergy would ever take goods from a grave for their own benefit.
When plagues, hordes, or great monsters run amok, they must be fought by the death clergy, for it is not right that many die before their due time. When marauding dragons or other monstrous predators become problems, the death clergy should try to interest adventuring bands in slaying the problems— failing that, they must deal with the problems themselves. In cases of great pain, ravaging disease, or mutilation where death would be a mercy, it is the office of the priests of the Raven Queen to bring death, as swiftly and painlessly as possible.
Undeath is an affront to the Raven Queen. Undead creatures are to be destroyed or given true death whenever they are met with, and even sought out and hunted down for that holy purpose. Priests of the Raven Queen are free to hire or take as companions folk of other faiths to assist them in this purpose, for the great sin of undeath must he stamped out by whatever means possible. Though members of the clergy can command the undead, these commands usually can be boiled down to “Go back to your graves and sleep there forever” except in times of dire need. The Raven Queen has made no official statement to single out good-aligned undead creatures as an exception to her policy, though specific temples and individuals often take only lenient action against or ignore such creatures in the field, preferring to concentrate their efforts on those creatures of obvious malevolent intent or who are likely to quickly multiply.
All priests of the Raven Queen may be called to a holy mission by their god or their senior clergy and pursue a more active and adventurous life. Such priests defend death clergy members and holdings when need be and bring death to others when it is necessary. For example, a priestess of the Raven Queen, assigned a holy mission may be sent to lead an adventuring party to stop the spread of disease or kill beings seeking to disrupt natural cycles— such as mages who seek to create huge armies of undead or develop necromantic spells that can slay others and transform them inescapably into undead creatures under their control. Death clergy sent to slay predators or to go into dangerous country to comfort the dying are often issued scrolls of offensive spells or magical items of battle power gleaned from the goods of those who died alone.
Holy days/Important Ceremonies: The Raven Queen’s holy day is called the Night of Ascension, celebrating her apotheosis. The actual date of the her rise to divinity is unclear, but the Night of Ascension is celebrated on the thirteenth day of the tenth month. What was once a night of cheery celebration of the dead in the Dwendalian Empire has recently become an occasion to burn effigies and decry the Kryn Dynasty for their unnatural relationship with death.
Every burial is of course an important ceremony for the followers of the Raven Queen.
Major Centers of Worship: The Gatehouse, as it is called, in Rexxentrum is the major centre of worship in the Dwendalian empire. Once it was located outside the walls of the city, but the city grew to envelop it. Now it is the entrance to the massive catacombs of Rexxentrum, where the dead are laid to rest.
Affiliated Orders: All gravediggers, embalmers, and other cemetery workers and crafters who work for the church of the Raven Queen and are not themselves clergy belong to the Most Solemn Order of the Silent Shroud, a society whose rolls are kept by the church and whose members know each other as true members of the order by certain secret signs. They report any signs of undead activity or desecration in graveyards tended by them immediately to the church.
The Knights of the Last Rest are an order of paladins, ghostslayer blood hunters, clerics and others dedicated to the destruction of undead.
Priestly Vestments: Priests usually wear simple grey robes with a black raven or raven head embroidered on the left side of the chest. Adventuring clerics and members of the Knights of Last Rest wear grey tinted clothing as well, but are most easily recognized by the prominent display of the Raven on shields, armour or tabards.