Revenant (fiction)

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For other meanings, see Revenant.

In fantasy fiction, the term revenant usually means a sentient creature whose desire to complete a goal (usually to avenge its death) allows it to return from the grave as a creature vaguely resembling an intelligent zombie. Another possibility is that a powerful wizard returns a dead hero from the past to make him go on a quest that no living human would dare to undertake. Such a revenant may be just as intelligent as it was in life but its will is usually bound by the wizard who summons and controls it.

In Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, revenants are animalistic vampires who were violently killed by a group of vampires (rather than being turned in the traditional 3-day period).

Revenants exist primarily in role-playing games and horror fiction.

In the online game Ultima Online, the revenant is a creature that can be summoned by a necromancer character to attack a specified target. It is also a creature that spawns occasionally in the dungeon Khaldun.

In some earlier versions of the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons, the revenant is a powerful undead creature strongly resembling a zombie, a far less powerful undead creature at first glance.

The dictionary definition of revenant, from Merriam-Webster's Internet site (m-w.com) is "one that returns after death or a long absence," hence the long association of the term with the undead in fantasy and horror fiction. The way the word is most often used there is the implication that the person who has returned has done so to take revenge of some kind.

[edit] Examples

Al Simmons a.k.a. Spawn (Spawn)
Eric Draven a.k.a The Crow (The Crow)
Locke D'Averam (Revenant)
Cyrus (The Knight in Chrono Trigger)
Revenant (Soul Calibur III)
Revenant creeps in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
A revenant appears in one second season episode of the WB/CW show Supernatural.
"Fatal Revenant" by Stephen Donaldson, Volume 2 of 'The Last Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever'...Thomas is brought back to life!