Of Revenants
The creation of a revenant is a vile and unforgivable act, but thankfully, an art beyond all but the most talented of Invocation specialists. The first step is the forging of a specialized sprite, known in the art as an excrucion sprite, rich in Shadow and Void and aspected minorly to Ice. Generally, the process is done first by the conjuring of multiple disparate sprites: of Firn, to bring Ice tinged with Shadow; of Decay to bring Shadow tinged with Void and negated Life; and of Fugue, to bring Void tinged with Ice. Then, once these sprites are called and bound, they are subjected to a forcible admixture to produce a single unified sprite, rife with Void, in oblivion and cessation, and Shadow, in fear and malice, and tinged with Ice, in death and caducity. When complete, the final excrucion sprite is left rampant, and made to inhabit a freshly killed corpse. The resulting conjoined entity is what we have dubbed a Revenant.
A revenant is a creature of destructive torment. Animate death, twisted and cruel, it is too massive and swollen in its corruption to be mistaken for a living person. Revenants delight in the death of the living, but none so much as a death in pain, physical and psychological. They twist the very aether around them, causing magic to falter and fail. They whisper in the thoughts, turning joy to misery. A revenant knows exactly how to bring pain to its victims, and thrills in the process, weaving the elements to work upon the mind in illusion and mockery before bringing down the final blow. They are fast, and strong, and incredibly difficult to bring to an end - and until stopped, a revenant is a walking atrocity, wreaking havoc and leaving devastation in its wake.
Should one encounter a revenant in one’s daily life, the only appropriate course of action is to flee. No solitary mage, no matter their skill, can hope to down a revenant on their own. Even veteran Rangers with the Ministry of Security, trained in the detection and elimination of revenants, operate in squads and expecting losses. Escape the beast’s immediate range, raise the alarum, and try to call the Rangers down upon the menace, should you wish any hope of survival. The creation of a revenant is typically conducted as an act of targeted revenge, but greater than voct four percect of revenants kill their creators first, more than half taking a full sict hours to do it before they venture out in search of more prey. Needless to say, should a revenant’s creator survive the infusing, this is among the highest crimes we care to mark, tantamount to treason, regicide, or the purposeful destruction of lore.
The more exceptional of crestwork-bearing mages, extraordinarily perceptive even among their peers at the post-graduate level, may find themselves able to sense the presence of a nearby revenant simply by the disturbance a revenant creates in the local aether; a revenant’s existing is a twisting, corrupting force. Should one wish to confirm the possible promixity of a revenant, one must simply look for magics that are twisted in the direction of Shadow, Void, and Ice. The simplest method to do this, albeit highly precise in its analysis, is through repeated castings of Alisander’s Astatic Auspex. By measuring the levels and balances of local aether in the first casting, one may filter a second casting according to the recorded findings of the first; should no finger be on the scale, the result of the second casting will show perfect elemental harmony, while a nearby revenant will turn even that second Auspex to Shadow, Void, and slightly to Ice.
Should circumstances ever leave a mage with no choice but to combat a revenant directly, whether in support of a Range unit or simply to buy oneself time to escape, the standard method undertaken is through bindings and evocations in Radiance primary; the awakening of Radiance will counteract both the unknowing of Shadow and the negation of Void, and its inherent activity will stir the sloth of Ice. Some suggest that a revenant is best approached with Fire, first, to cut away the Ice, or even that as a creature of death, the appropriate response is of Life, but both basic elemental theory and reported practice are quite clear: Radiance, artfully applied, will do the most to win the day. Bind the creature first in Complex Radiance, and only then bind it supplementarily in Complex Fire, before purging the sprite from its flesh with the targeted evocation of Radiance. If quick, bold, and more than a little lucky, you and your allies may fell the beast with minimal loss of life. However, should any of you falter, the revenant will slip its bonds and center its reign of destruction upon your best casters, and then there is no helping you. Only the best, most driven within the Ministry of Security seek to become Rangers, and should you be lucky in your life, you will never learn first-hand why that is.
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