Ravens are birds of Antiterra that serve as carrion-eaters, messengers and carriers of souls; the name also covers a mage’s transformed shape, a forged device and a named power, El Cuervo. Their single competence is going back and forth between two sides.
| Type | Creature |
| World | Antiterra |
| Named ravens | Edgar, Merle Bartok (transformed), El Cuervo |
| Spanish entry | Cuervo |
Description
The common raven is black and medium-sized. All ravens have burned feet and bodies full of soot-black feathers: the marks of a primordial time when the raven tried to capture fire, going where no one could go. Ravens caw, attack by dropping on a target and pecking its head, and are good at escaping.
Roles
- Carrion. Ravens follow those about to die and wait for the corpse. Ravens circling a company are a sign of mortal danger.
- Messages. They bring news, deal with small messenger birds and link parties no other means can join. Those who depend on them hold that «los cuervos siempre traen buenas noticias» (“ravens always bring good news”).
- Souls. A raven declared: «los cuervos somos los que nos encargamos que las almas viajen hacia su destino» (“we ravens are the ones who see that souls travel to their destination”). Carrying souls to their final destination is raven work.
Ravens move between the living and the corpse, sender and recipient, body and soul’s destination, man and animal, surface and Moon. Whoever controls ravens controls information.
The iron raven
An “iron raven” exists: a calling device for contacting specific beings at a distance. It was handed to a member of the company to study.
Named ravens
- Magda’s raven accompanies her and caws at outside noises; written records name it Edgar, though no voice spoke that name.
- Merle Bartok, a chronomancer mage with a raven affinity, turns into a huge raven. The speech about souls is presumably his.
- El Cuervo (“The Raven”) is a power with whom pacts are made. From the Moon it gives a location and sends a signal to the Flying Dutchman.
Conflicting accounts
- One account describes the raven as “like a tengu”; another holds it is just a large raven.
Open questions
- The iron raven’s size, mechanism and maker, and which beings it calls.
- Whether El Cuervo is the species’ patron, its archetype or a separate entity sharing the word, and what a pact with it costs.
- Whether all ravens are psychopomps or only some, and to which destination they carry souls.
- Whose fire the raven tried to steal, and for whom.
- What “terra triful”, mentioned with a raven’s escape, is, and who escaped; whether Pocahontas, named among the messengers, is a raven.
- Where in Antiterra ravens abound, and whether the good news they bring is a law of the world or a consolation.