my spin on orcus

looking at the h-p-e adventure series, i very much like the orcus/raven queen conflict. however, i see the conflict and goals somewhat differently:

we know that the raven queen is quite powerful because, among other reasons, almost all creatures die and the raven queen is the god of death.

orcus is the master of undeath (as a side note, in my world, vecna is only an exarch of orcus). not surprisingly, orcus wants more power than he already has. he knows that the more undead that exist throughout the planes, the more power he acquires.

here is where the conflict arises: each additional undead creature means one less creature that dies; the consequence of which is (i) an incremental increase in orcus' power and (ii) an incremental erosion in the raven queen's power.

in other words, the mere existence of undead is a direct assault on the raven queen's principle basis of power--death. so, while orcus strives to increase his power base by populating the planes with undead, the raven queen strives to protect her own power base by eradicating all undead (as another side note, pelor, the god most closely associated with life, becomes an unlikely ally of the god of death because of his own, separate reasons for opposing undeath).

in the h-p-e series, orcus seeks to usurp the raven queen's power over death. in contrast, in my view, orcus does not seek power over death. rather, he seeks to supplant death entirely by making all living creatures into undead. thus, making death . . . extinct (and the raven queen with it).