The Dead Queen

The Dead Queen, also known as the Other Queen or the Good Mother, is a vengeful and destructive entity of terrifying power.

Local witches and haints form a pact to return the Dead Queen to her grave and keep her there, requiring a ritual to be performed at her gravesite every seven years. This works for two seven-year cycles, but when Old Green Eyes, Skinned Tom, Granny Sargent, and an unnamed second witch arrive at her grave in 1926, the grave is empty.

The Dead Queen destroys the settlement of Craw and kills all of the Gibsons except Caleb, whom she releases. Caleb loses memory of his earlier life and name. He appears to be protected by the Dead Queen, as seen when an enormous wolf-like creature appears on Death Island and attacks The Thing That Was Not Daddy. Caleb seemingly dies, but it is revealed that his bond to the Dead Queen has rendered him unable to die.

Good Mother Ministries is a community outreach organization and cult devoted to the Dead Queen. Their scriptures and hymns are derived from the Christian Bible, but altered to include passages about the Good Mother and the Dark Earth. Most members of Good Mother Ministries have been abused by men in some way, and they pray for the Good Mother's vengeance. The cult hails the Dead Queen's return as a sort of divine reckoning.

The Dead Queen's powers reflect a corruption of the Green. It is unclear whether she is affiliated with the Inner Dark, or with anyone at all.

One legend of her origin, which has been proven to be untrue, says that she was a young woman who became pregnant at the age of 12, but she and the infant both died in the birthing process. She and her baby were buried near the site of what eventually becomes Craw, TN, but in her grave she continued to grow into a corrupted and corpselike version of a young adult. They says that she emerged from her grave around her 20th birthday with her emaciated, undead baby, whereupon she began exacting vengeance on men who had harmed women and children, as well as anyone who happened to be in her way.