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.

[edit] Examples

• Al Simmons a.k.a. Spawn (Spawn)
• Eric Draven a.k.a The Crow (The Crow)
• Locke D'Averam (Revenant)
• 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.