fascinated every time i see vax meta that describes his death as the raven queen cashing in the deal he made to save vex
like this isn’t a post criticising those writers, don’t get me wrong, write whatever poetry works, but like, that’s not what happened
maybe enough people just haven’t seen the end of c1 or don’t remember it well enough that this is what circulates in the fandom consciousness? or maybe the opinions of vex and percy and keyleth that the raven queen is evil speaks louder than vax’s opinion that she only ever acted fairly
but like. vax’s first deal, to resurrect vex, the raven queen never demanded his life for that. or, she did, but not in the sense of “you will die”
i said a while ago i should do a meta about the raven queen and her perspective and maybe this is it but, the raven queen never demands death of mortals. why would she? she doesn’t need to. everyone will visit her eventually, and she’s a very patient woman
the only thing she hates is when people go against her. not with a resurrection, she has no problem with resurrection spells, especially if the death in question interferes with that person’s destiny (she’s the keeper of fate, as well). no, she despises the undead and the immortal, people who plan to never return to her, people who have warped their own destiny to survive long after their thread ended.
and vax called on her first. he invoked her name in a temple made to worship her, next to the body of her former champion, and said “take me instead”. that was his offer, to shift fate just enough for the resurrection spell to work, and in a place so full of her power she couldn’t ignore it (and this is, by word of matt, why there were no problems with kashaw calling on vesh to resurrect vex, or why vax’s soul deal with the hag never went anywhere - the raven queen has the power here, and part of her side of this deal was keeping them away). but killing vax would just be pointless. what she needed was a new champion on exandria, someone she could act through from behind the divine gate to rid the world of the undead and immortal, those who spited her deliberately
and then she called on vax to meet with her. the first time in the blood pool, they talked, and they hashed this deal out properly. she resurrected vex. he would be her champion. and together they would keep the web of fate in order
there were no additional clauses to that deal. vax may have worried often that he was going to die, for a variety of reasons (mostly dragons), but the raven queen never intended to “call it in”, because there was nothing to call in. both sides of the deal were fulfilled as soon as vax multiclassed into paladin
all the more clear when vax got killed by the kraken, and the raven queen had no problem letting him return. it was not his fate to die there, so he didn’t
but then came vecna, the raven queen’s arch nemesis, who had already flouted every rule she had
and disintegrate is a particularly evil form of murdering someone, because resurrection spells don’t work on disintegrate. there’s no body to give life into, no place for a soul to return. not even the raven queen can undo a disintegrate, not fully
vecna killed vax, not the raven queen
and yes, there is one solution in game for disintegrate. because 9th level spells can be power beyond even gods, there’s a reason scanlan was saving a wish. but true resurrection lets you simply speak the name of anyone who’s died in the past 200 years and they will appear before you, alive and whole again. the raven queen is okay with resurrection spells, but, in matt’s own words, that crosses the line. she doesn’t have that power, not like that, and if she allowed mortals to use it without punishment, there would be absolute anarchy, the web of fate would be destroyed
and vax also knew this. according to liam, he wouldn’t have gone along with a true res anyway, because it would go against everything the raven queen stands for, everything he’d spent the last year and a half protecting
but he couldn’t just leave his friends to die
so vax made a second deal. this man is enemy to both of us. let me help defeat him. and when it’s done, i’ll do what i promised, and keep you company here for as long as you need me.
(and this was something else vax saw, the raven queen isn’t like the other gods, she murdered her way into the pantheon and the other gods don’t trust her. there are no souls in her domain, she’s not allowed to keep them, she just collects them and moves them on to their final destination. and she’s been so lonely for so long)
so she did what she could. she couldn’t restore him, but she could give him an avatar made of her power, something that would help him defeat vecna, for everyone’s sake. but it couldn’t be sustained indefinitely. that would be an act against her own domain. and it’s a tragedy that vax couldn’t stay with his family for longer. it’s not an ending any party involved would have chosen, the raven queen included
but it’s a lot more complicated than “vax gave his life for his sister”. he gave it for all of his family, which by the end, the raven queen was part of
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