Letherna
Type: Planar Region — the Raven Queen's domain within the Shadowfell Also called: The Shadowfell (used interchangeably in many references; technically Letherna is the Raven Queen's specific realm within the broader Shadowfell plane) Ruler: The Raven Queen, from the Fortress of Memories Status: Active / ongoing — the party has been in or adjacent to Letherna since Session 038
Overview
Letherna is the Shadowfell realm ruled by the Raven Queen — the "upside-down" mirror of the Sword Coast and its surrounds, rendered in ash, grey stone, perpetual twilight, and quiet. It is where the dead go: souls pass through Letherna as a matter of cosmic order, and it is the Raven Queen's function to receive, witness, and release them.
The Shadar-Kai are shaped by it. Their pallid skin, their communal memory through reincarnation, their ease with death — all of it is Letherna's mark. To live in Letherna across multiple lifetimes is to become something not-quite-mortal; Ubys is this.
Geography (Known)
Neftis — A Shadar-Kai city of obsidian stone and silver veins, built at the base of the mountain on which the Fortress of Memories sits. The Nine hold spiritual authority here from the Temple of Nine Feathers. The party spent sessions 039–040 here.
The Fortress of Memories — The Raven Queen's seat. Sits above Neftis at the crown of the mountain. The party has not yet gone up. The Bedegar Keep stub documents what is known of it (primarily: "a whole world destroyed, and not one of its souls passed through Letherna" — Greyden's riddle).
Evernight — The Shadowfell-mirror of Neverwinter, located somewhere to the north. A city of undead and ash. The soul-siphoning laboratory the party glimpsed via the soul-trace ceremony is beneath Evernight.
Church of Sorrow — A Gothic cathedral on a Shadowfell mountaintop, reached from the Temple of Shar beneath the Dread Ring. The Chorus of Sorrow — grief-trapped souls bound to its choir — fills the nave.
The Inky Lake — An unnamed body of still, black water the party passed during travel northeast from the Church of Sorrow. Audrey warned them off it. Something large moved beneath the surface. Unstubbed; Greg to name.
Cosmological Function
Letherna is not merely a place — it is a process. When mortals die, their souls are meant to pass through Letherna: received by the Raven Queen, witnessed, released into whatever lies beyond. The Raven Queen does not keep souls; she observes them and lets them go.
This makes any soul that does not pass through Letherna a profound anomaly — and a grievance. Two known instances:
- The Bedegar Keep world-destruction — an entire realm's worth of souls bypassed Letherna entirely. Greyden named this at the auction. The Raven Queen would regard this as a catastrophic breach of the cosmic order.
- The Evernight soul-lab — the party's soul-trace ceremony (Session 039) showed souls from across twelve destroyed worlds being siphoned into glass vats in a laboratory beneath Evernight. The Nagpa-run operation is actively rerouting the dead away from Letherna and into the machine.
Both threads are, at their root, attacks on the Raven Queen's function — and likely why she is interested in the party's work.
What the Party Knows
- Letherna is the Raven Queen's realm — Ubys's home across multiple lifetimes; he has grown up here.
- The Shadar-Kai city of Neftis is here. The Nine govern it from the Temple of Nine Feathers.
- The Fortress of Memories is above Neftis; the party has not entered it.
- Souls are supposed to pass through here. Some are not. This is load-bearing.
- Evernight is somewhere in Letherna — a city of undead, home to the soul-siphoning laboratory.
- The Church of Sorrow and the route through the Temple of Shar / Dread Ring are one way in.
- There is a Netherese portal under the Toke Inn that connects to a passage near Neftis (the route the party used to arrive).