Back when the dead god Nerull was still in power he was perplexed by the idea of mortals when they first appeared. He even fell in love with a truly pure spirit, which he named Nera. Eventually Nerull became disappointed in the actions of the mortals. He came up with his “ideal” world. In his world there would be no war, pestilence, famine, or wealth; instead, there would only be death. In order to make his ideal world reality, Nerull tried to corrupt the pure spirit of his wife in such a way that she would suck the life essence out of anything that would cross her path. To do this he tortured her for hundreds of thousands of years in order to break her spirit.

Eventually Nera became so powerful that she was able to overthrow her husband, take his mantle and save the natural world. However, she is still undergoing her transformation into a weapon of death.

It is said that the Raven Queen is obsessed with collecting the essences and memories of the all spirits she guides. The reason for this is two-fold. One, she helps the souls of the recently deceased come to terms with their death and purify their souls. The second is that the positive memories that she relives with the spirits help prevent her from turning into the weapon of death. The Raven Queen now creates weapons and forms pacts with warlocks in order to collect the souls that have been tainted by undeath and also, if need be, destroy her if she were to become the weapon of death.

Nerull promises his cultists immortality, peace, and equality. This, of course, is only half of the picture as if he were to take back his mantle, the spirits of the natural world would be unable to pass on and instead become undead.