Revenant

You died, but an overwhelming thirst for vengeance brought you back to life. Now you live in a state between life and death, your desire for revenge being the only thing keeping you functioning.

Revenants can be from any other ancestry, but the process of coming back from the dead changes them. While they don’t count as undead creatures, they still bear the marks of how they died. For example, a person killed by fire might come back as a revenant with burn marks on their body.

Contents

Entwined Desire and Energy

A revenant is created when a person dies filled with an overwhelming sense of anger toward someone. This rage grows with such an intensity that their dying thoughts are filled with nothing but anger. No happy memories. No flashbacks of their life.

Just an all-consuming desire for revenge. This exceptional amount of hatred and anger twists and corrupts the deceased person’s soul as it leaves their body, turning into a mass of pure necrotic energy. This energy then possesses their old body, giving rise to a revenant.

Revenge

Your strongest motivation is revenge, typically against the person that killed you. How did you die, and whose fault was it? What did they do to deserve your wrath? You may not know the exact identity of the person that you desire revenge against, but you might know some of their associates, allies, or friends. You’ll work your way through an entire criminal organization if you need to.

Driven

Revenge is your primary goal. Once you have achieved your revenge, the energy animating you will leave, finally allowing you to die.

Revenants are doomed to death, one way or another. A revenant that kills their final target finds that they have nothing keeping their soul tied to their body, and pass on shortly after. Conversely, a revenant that somehow finds they no longer care about revenge or are no longer able to obtain it find themselves grow ill and die shortly after.

A revenant’s existence is based around vengeance. Without it, they are nothing.

Revenants can use their Find Prey ability on different people, but they only pass on when they exact their revenge on the one person they came back from the dead to kill.

Revenant Names

Revenants can be from any ancestry, so their names typically align with local or familial customs.

Example Names: Barbaros, Pierre the Woodcarver.

Revenant Traits

Revenants can come from any other living ancestry, such as a human or dwarf. You gain the following traits as a revenant, which replace any other ancestry traits you had.

  • Ability Score Increase. You gain a +2 and +1 bonus to two different ability scores of your choice, or +1 to three different ones.
  • Age. You are the same age you were when you died. You no longer age.
  • Size. Your size is unchanged from what it was before you die. Your size is Small or Medium.
  • Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet if you are Small, or 30 feet if you are Medium.
  • Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Major Features

Choose two of the following major features. You can exchange one major feature for two additional minor features.

  • Dreadful Glare. As an action, you target one creature you can see within 60 feet. If the target can see you, they must make a Wisdom saving throw. The DC for this saving throw equals 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, they are frightened of you until the end of your next turn. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, they are paralyzed for the same duration. This ability can’t be used again until you finish a short or long rest.
  • Find Prey. During a long rest, you can dedicate yourself to finding a creature you want revenge against. You know the distance and direction to this creature as long as they are on the same plane of existence as you, and you know if the creature dies. You can dedicate yourself to finding a new creature during another long rest, but this trait only works on one creature at a time.
  • Undead Nature. You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe.
  • Undead Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
  • Won’t Stop. When your body is destroyed, your vengeance seeking soul remains. 24 hours after your death, you inhabit another humanoid corpse on the same plane of existence. You regain 1 hit point, and take a -4 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. Every time you finish a long rest, the penalty is reduced by 1 until it disappears. You have no control over what body you inhabit, and you don’t gain any additional memories or abilities from the new body. The only equipment you have is whatever equipment the new body has access to. The GM decides which body you inhabit, and we recommend they choose a body that provides you with an interesting story, or places you in an interesting location where you can soon join back up with your party. Placing a player in the middle of nowhere with no way to get back to the story is not interesting.

Minor Features

Choose two of the following minor features, or four if you only chose one major feature.

  • Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
  • Find Them. You have proficiency in the Survival skill.
  • Fluent. You can speak, read, and write two additional languages of your choice.
  • Focused Mind. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and can’t be magically put to sleep.
  • Necrotic Animation. You have resistance to necrotic damage.
  • Psychic Resistance. You have resistance to psychic damage.
  • Trained Tools. You have proficiency in two tools of your choice.
Section 15: Copyright Notice

Ancestry Awakened: Copyright 2021, Pirate Gonzalez Games: Author Timothy Gonzalez

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