Editing Revenant

'''Revenants''' are [[Undead]] who've returned with a purpose.

==Nature==
<!--
, individuals who’ve suffered grievous and fatal wounds, but they refuse to stay dead.--> 
Can be 'sponsored' in their 'creation' at least one revenant claimed to have dragged themselves back to life by himself. Most only return to life long enough to accomplish a goal, such as a mother returning long enough to save their kidnapped child and bury the kidnapper, or a businessman returning to life a day or two in order to get his affairs in order to leave a legacy behind. Once they've accomplished this they normally cease to be.<ref>If my brain was a book, I would have spent the next several seconds flipping pages, trying to find that section where the bit on revenants pointed to subtypes.  ''Varieties.''<br><br>Most had a mission.  When the mission was done, the revenant ceased to be.  He hadn’t.  A mother might return from the dead to rescue her daughter and trap the kidnapper in her stead.  A murder victim would murder the murderers, a man might return to maintain his business for one or two more nights, so his legacy would be sure to keep running.<br><br>[[Pizza Man|He]] ''didn’t'' have a mission.  There was a bug in the system that had brought him back. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/08/19 Excerpt] from [[Mala Fide 10.2]]</ref>

However, when there is so much hatred driving the soul that it clings to the body and forces it to move they can become revenge-driven killing machines, described as serial killing zombies with a theme by [[Blake]]. Should they not be able to accomplish this goal, due to the death of the one who they sought revenge against, they might linger around and calm down.

They usually have the ability to return after being 'killed' or destroyed,<ref name ="6.7"/> able to revive themselves thanks to their connection to the Incarnation of [[Death]].<ref name="11.1">Revenants were, I knew, something between a zombie and a bogeyman.  They came back from the dead, usually with a mission in mind, and a specific timeframe or pattern they needed to follow.  Most didn’t know enough to keep themselves going after they achieved their success or failure.<br><br>The revenant, I knew, could sometimes get away with being a hero, insofar as a vigilante was a hero.  They weren’t the types to turn a criminal in for the cops to prosecute, after all, but when a gang killed enough people in horrible ways, the revenant could rise and eliminate them.  Another example I’d read had been a soldier that had surrendered, along with his comrades, only to watch each be tortured to near-death and then brutally executed, with him last.  He’d returned a year to the day to hunt down the enemy soldiers and deliver punishments that were ''worse''.  In certain circles, he’d been seen as a hero.  A benevolent spirit.<br><br>Not so common for bogeymen.  If I even was a bogeyman. - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/09/06 Excerpt] from [[Malfeasance 11.1]]</ref> They could be considered a related species to [[Dogs of War]] as they both derive from incarnations, Dogs are formed from a collective of people however and deal with the Incarnation of War not Death.<ref>“<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[John Stiles|John]]]’s a Dog of War, known in some circles as Dog Tags. I think his name is an older equivalent to John Doe, but for soldiers. When warzones are at their ugliest and most chaotic, and people start losing track of who is where, who is alive and who is dead, certain Others may crop up on the battlefields. Ones that fight, so long as there is conflict around them. If the soldiers in that war are killing innocents, so will the Dogs of War. If they commit other atrocities, so will the Dogs. They don’t sleep, they keep the battle going, and as long as the battle continues, they don’t stay down. Related to Revenants, but Revenants are the province of Death, not War.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/05/19 Excerpt] from [[Lost for Words 1.4]]</ref>
===Anchors===
While their anchors, also known as death tokens or touchstones;<ref name="R1"/><ref name="Ver">“She’s a revenant, I think!” Verona called out.  “Won’t stop!  There might be a token she’s tied to.  Sometimes an animal, sometimes a trinket, or weapon!” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2023/08/19 Excerpt] from [[Finish Off 24.16]]</ref> are commonly objects (including weapons) they can also be living things like people<ref>Bullet casing.  Tattoo gun.  The bandanna her daughter had worn.  The lawyer who had helped her pro-bono and suffered for crossing Jo’s father.  Two photographs that her father had kept as mementos; one photograph of her daughter that Jo had taken, the very last before she lost custody of her, and one her father had taken, after the tattoos and degradation.  These are her anchors. - [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O7zIP49SfHf41c7G3HL5LLWYw8VWQY3t5tmC-YCapE4 Example Revenant] by Wildbow</ref> and animals<ref name="Ver"/> or simple 'rituals' that keep them grounded in life i.e. hobbies or continuing erasing traces.<ref name="R1"/>
==Uses==
<!--Because Revenants are undead, they do not feel the elements. However, they do not suffer the same drawbacks as a [[Ghoul]] because they weren't unbalanced when they died, allowing them to retain their sense of sanity, although they are driven by rage that urged them rise from the dead.
Once they calm down they can be used for whatever ability and talents they had in life that carried over in death, such as [[Tallowman]] being able to use his wax in a variety of ways. However, they also have weaknesses based on this.
-->
Settling into their mission requires finding grounding in their previous life from which they derive their skills, abilities and weaknesses,<ref>In the dark mortician's office, she finds her jewelry that was removed before she went in the oven.  Touching it, she has flashbacks.[...] The house is her next destination.  Everything she touches gives her her old memories and new momentum.[...]Touching things in her old room, her backpack, her shoes, she remembers running away, having her daughter alone, living in a one-bedroom apartment on minimum wage in a shitty town, and being happier than ever, because she was free.  She remembers raising her daughter, teaching her to be strong, teaching self defense (and with these memories, Jo finds strength, capability, skill).<br><br>She finds her father’s computer.  Touching it, she gets memories of his connections, his illicit business, the bribes, the people he hired.<br>[...]<br>The trail leads her to the basement.  It fills in the rest of the blanks - 
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O7zIP49SfHf41c7G3HL5LLWYw8VWQY3t5tmC-YCapE4 Example Revenant] by Wildbow</ref> such as [[Tallowman]] being able to manipulation of wax and his tie to that substances weaknesses.<ref name="6.7"/> Presumably setting a revenant on a task that aligns with their original goal means that they'll be a dedicated and unswerving minion or soldier.

It is not advised to take a Revenants anchor<ref name="Imp">In another example, a practitioner named Sadie Coy took a canopy jar holding a Revenant’s ashes, thinking the Revenant done and the jar simply empowered but unoccupied.  The revenant stirred in residual ashes, and she was bound to the Revenant’s revenge. - excerpt from [[Implementum]], quoted in [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/11/05 Bonus Material: Implementum Text]</ref> as an [[implement]].

==Variants==
As with almost any species of Other Revenants come in innumerable variants, including cultural variants. 
===Ephemeral===
Those that depart after they achieve their purpose, this doesn't mean they can't be reignited.<ref name="Imp"/>
===Persistent===
Those that stick around due to some bug or some other means, such as going after those who resemble their original target.<ref name="R1"/>

This of course discounts those bound under the [[Seal of Solomon]].
===Notable examples===
*Soldier boy<ref name="11.1"/>
*[[Tallowman|Betrayed candlemaker]]<ref name="6.7">“Tallowman. Originally thought to be possessed, modern thought points to him being a revenant. Died, or suffered some gruesome injury, but didn’t go down. Soul couldn’t rest, too hungry for revenge, basically a serial killer zombie. The spirit didn’t leave the body, and the body came back for unfinished business.”<br><br>“How’d he die?”<br><br>“Loner, as the story goes, a talented candlemaker who scrimped and saved to buy a woman’s love. He was betrayed by greedy brothers and their families who wanted the savings. Multiple stab wounds, left to die, he filled them all with candle wax, then lurched to his feet and kept going. He got a few of the peripheral family members, others severed his head, then left it be. His body kept going, as the story says, driven by hate, it separated the body fat of the ones he’d killed to make more wax, stuck his head back in place and patched the other wounds.”<br><br>“Resourceful fellow,” I commented. “Would have helped if the family didn’t keep leaving the body behind.”<br><br>“Yeah, well, that was the pattern. Multiple attempts at stopping him, bludgeoning, trapping him, severing limbs, and each time, he got a few of them, used the fat to fix himself, patching up the wounds and replacing the missing parts, and he kept going, until it came to the brothers. He was stopped when the brothers took refuge in a church, repenting. Coincidence or no, the church candles melted some of the wax holding him together, and he burned up. The priest had heard them repenting the murder and theft, they went to jail, yadda yadda.”<br><br>“Weak to fire as the big con?”<br><br>“Something like that.”<br><br>I nodded. “That’s a problem, when we’re talking about the Eye. Pros?”<br><br>“He’s described as diligent, before he went all monster. The book that records his history suggests he’s been summoned with some regularity, and not just by diabolists. Maybe he’s the kind of guy we can keep on hand to do some of the mundane stuff for my sake, and if trouble comes up, we light his wick and point him in their direction.” - [https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/05/13 Excerpt] from [[Subordination 6.7]]</ref>
*[[Pizza Man|Delayed Delivery Dude]]<ref name="R1">The Revenant ('the pizza man') is a force of revenge. He doesn't need to sleep and doesn't need to eat. He gets nourishment from revenant touchstones - tokens, charms, or rituals of his former life. So his 'three meals a day' would be something akin to visiting a child's grave, checking on the granddaughter of his onetime family member, and taking steps to ensure that his onetime focus of revenge is forever erased from history (gravestone defaced, library records tracked down and scrubbed, house burned down and the remains sorted through for every last trace). The same kinds of things used as touchstones are the things that are used in the summoning of a given revenant. Words, phrases, ideas, or items relevant to what the revenant would 'eat' if they were active and free, etc. Eventually the connections will be too tenuous, he'll start to go. There's a chance something would turn up (a long lost relation of his former revenge target) and he'd go after that with all the fury and power he had earlier on when he was new to the world, and there's also the possibility of reigniting the flame with murder (again, there might be an objective here: people similar by some demographic or distantly tied to the original revenge target, etc), potentially setting up new revenge targets if conditions can be met, perpetuating himself (the violence he commits stirs more violence and his target does something sufficient to create another revenant, but instead that energy renews/spurs this revenant on). There's actually a few other paths, while I'm talking the revenant life cycle, including passing on the mantle and the power.<br><br>If he's not able to do any of the above (and it's semi-unlikely), he'd gradually lose strength and power over time. He'll be liable to flame out in a final burst of violence, spending all of his personal power at once (at which point he might be well stronger than usual, but reckless and short lived), but local practitioners know to keep an eye out for this. - [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/8r4hha/_/e0qz9pn/ What others do all day]</ref>
*Jo Steck, Tattooed Survivor<ref>
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O7zIP49SfHf41c7G3HL5LLWYw8VWQY3t5tmC-YCapE4 Example Revenant] by Wildbow</ref>
*[[Charles Abrams|Charles']] Unknown Suspect<ref>“I was scarier then, even if I didn’t realize it. Revenant came tearing through. Horror movie stuff, custom endings for each of us, starting with the lowest rank guys, then moving up. Attacked our business, our alliances, stock, money, revealed secrets. Crucified one guy with rebar she’d hooked up to a heat source, took the bones out of a woman’s arms and legs and left her in a shallow hole in the rain, to drown. She had a vendetta in the way only the vengeful undead can. And the thing that got me was… we had ''no idea'' who it was.”<br><br>“Each death is a hint,” Alexander said. “But you know that.”<br><br>“Yeah. The revenants need to stay anchored in this world. They do it with keepsakes, which means you’ve got to look for the places they hit before they start coming after people. Reach the start of the trail before they get to the last of you. And we couldn’t. The guys I was working with cooperated, I told them to investigate and they did. We contacted police, we were everywhere. We narrowed it down to a certain neighborhood, a select few people, and couldn’t get any further than that.”<br><br>“How’d you get out of it?” Raymond asked.<br><br>“I didn’t. She got the third, second, and the top guy. I pulled out all of my tricks. A few of my monsters, and she still got me. Decided I wasn’t directly involved enough to die, so she’d leave it up to fate. Handcuffed me in the electrical room of an abandoned warehouse with a lot of the evidence. Cops eventually came, and I got my first stint in prison.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2021/01/05 Excerpt] from [[Interlude 7.x]]</ref>
==Trivia==
*The unjustly killed victim returning to "life" too seek redress or vengeance for their death is a story easy found in many world cultures.
**The word Revenant simply means someone who has returned, 'Returner' in Old French, mundanely in the sense of someone who returns unexpectedly, it acquired the meaning of those who've returned from death.
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Natural Others]]
[[Category:Type]]
[[Category:Undead]]