Revenants in fiction

In fantasy fiction, a revenant is a sentient creature whose desire to fulfill a special goal allows it to return from the grave as a creature vaguely resembling an intelligent zombie or jiangshi. 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.

Merriam-Webster's definition of revenant is "one that returns after death or a long absence." In that the subject returns from death, one can easily see an association of the term with the undead in fantasy and horror fiction. On the other hand, unlike zombies, the revenant's "long absence" does imply a certain anachronism in its eventual return.

The term often implies some underlying motive of revenge prompting the return.

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

Revenant (Dungeons & Dragons)

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, the revenant is a type of fictional monster.

Publication history

The revenant first appeared in first edition in the original Fiend Folio (1981).

The revenant appeared in second edition for the Forgotten Realms setting in the Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix (1989), and reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).

The revenant appeared in third edition for the Forgotten Realms setting as a template in Monsters of Faerûn (2001), and in the adventure City of the Spider Queen (2002).

The revenant was added as a fully playable character race for 4th edition in Dragon #376 (2009)

Description

In some earlier versions of the game, the revenant is a powerful undead creature that has a strong physical resemblance to a zombie, a far less powerful undead creature. Notably, more recent versions of the game have adapted the revenant to reflect the aforementioned role of one who returns from the grave to fulfill a set task, but is not necessarily bound by the will of the person or deity who resurrected it.

Revenant (Buffy novel)

Revenant is an original novel based on the U.S. television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Plot summary

A Chinese gang arrives in Sunnydale and suddenly they're committing criminal acts all over the town. Immediately racial tension begin to increase and one of Willow's friends, Jia Li, is feeling the effects more than anyone else. She's discovered that her brother Lok is delving into the occult in order to learn more about their great grandfather's death in Sunnydale many years ago. Coinciding with these events, a man named Zhiyong is trying to raise the men that died in a cave many years ago in order to raise Sharmma, a demon that would give him power in return. A beautiful warrior called Shing arrives on the scene at the same time and she's just as strong as Buffy. Xander feels an immediate attraction for her but there's something about her that he doesn't know.

Continuity

List of Soul characters

A comprehensive list of characters from the Soul series of fighting games produced by Namco.

Overall conception and development

The Soul series is a weapon-based fighting game franchise developed by Namco Bandai's Project Soul division and consists of eight games: Soul Edge, Soulcalibur, Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, Soulcalibur Legends, Soulcalibur IV, Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny and Soulcalibur V. Set in the 16th century, the plot of the games revolve around Soul Edge, a cursed sword able to possess its wielder and devour souls. Its sprit is called Inferno, and his avatar/host is called Nightmare. Soul Calibur, a holy sword and Soul Edge's antithesis, also has a spirit called Elysium.

Characters

With each character, their weapon was decided upon before other aspects were. The design was then built to revolve around it, starting with gender, then physical measurements, and lastly background details. Once established, appearance and movement were fleshed out by the team's concept artist and rendered as a 3D model by a design team that worked solely on the character. The completed model was then animated by a motion capture artist working directly with the team. During this phase the team additionally worked with the story creators, refining the character's own role in the plot as needed throughout development. In the course of the series, two characters have been an exception to the process: Johan Druer, a berserker exclusive to the Soulcalibur Japanese player's guide, and Necrid, a character co-produced with Todd McFarlane that appears in Soulcalibur II.

Fiction

Fiction is a term used to classify any story created by the imagination, rather than based strictly on history or fact. Fiction can be expressed in a variety of formats, including writings, live performances, films, television programs, video games, and role-playing games, though the term originally and most commonly refers to the major narrative forms of literature (see literary fiction), including the novel, novella, short story, and play. Fiction constitutes an act of creative invention, so that faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed; in other words, fiction is not expected to present only characters who are actual people or descriptions that are factually true. The context of fiction is generally open to interpretation, due to fiction's freedom from any necessary embedding in reality; however, some fictional works are claimed to be, or marketed as, historically or factually accurate, complicating the traditional distinction between fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is a classification or category, rather than a specific mode or genre, unless used in a narrower sense as a synonym for a particular literary fiction form.

Fiction Records

Fiction Records is a British major label record and music publishing company founded by Chris Parry in 1978 that is best known for being the home of The Cure for over 20 years. Fiction became a standalone label (still owned by Universal, but no longer affiliated to Polydor Ltd) in January 2014. Fiction repertoire is now released internationally through Caroline International (ex-North America).

History

Fiction (magazine)

Fiction is a literary magazine founded in 1972 by Mark Jay Mirsky, Donald Barthelme, and Max Frisch. It is published by the City College of New York. This is not the same as the French science fiction magazine Fiction, published from 1953-1990.

In its early years, Fiction was published in tabloid format and featured experimental work by such writers as John Barth, Jerome Charyn, Italo Calvino, Ronald Sukenick, Steve Katz, Russell Banks, Samuel Beckett, and J.G. Ballard. It later took the form of a more traditional paperback literary magazine, publishing short works by Reinaldo Arenas, Isaac Babel, Donald Barthelme, Mei Chin, Julio Cortázar, Marguerite Duras, Natalia Ginzburg, Clarice Lispector, Robie Macauley, Robert Musil, Joyce Carol Oates, Manuel Puig, and John Yau..

Though the magazine ostensibly focuses on publishing fiction, as its name implies, it has recently also featured excerpts from Robert Musil's diaries and letters, as well as various writings with an autobiographical slant.