The Revenant

[Zulk RS]

What exactly is a Revenant? The Doom manual says " Apparently when a demon dies, they pick him up, dust him off, wire him some combat gear, and send him back into battle. No rest for the wicked, eh? You wish your missiles did what his can do." But for that to be true, it had to be alive at some point right? When it was alive, what exactly was it like? It's too tall to be a human or an imp. Its structure doesn't really match any of the other monsters. In Doom 3 it has a transparent skin. If it's an alien, where are it's organs?

The only monster it can be is an Arch-vile. But if it was actually an undead Arch-vile, shouldn't it have the same powers as the Arch-vile?

On that note, when Arch-viles resurrect dead demons, shouldn't they come back as undead.

I know I'm over-thinking this but that's the fun thing of speculation.

[joe-ilya]

Revs and AV's are basketball demon players.

[Phml]

I love basketball and I love revenants. Suddenly, it all makes sense.

[scifista42]

Zulk-RS said:

But for that to be true, it had to be alive at some point right? When it was alive, what exactly was it like? It's too tall to be a human or an imp. [...]

The only monster it can be is an Arch-vile. But if it was actually an undead Arch-vile, shouldn't it have the same powers as the Arch-vile?

Living Revenant probably used to be a giant imp-like demon or a "minion-vile". These monsters (which I just thought off) are never seen in the game in their original living form, because they're not true fighters or dangerous at all - their only attack is a punch. They're just scavenging, common Hell's inhabitants, who peacefully live in distant regions of Hell, but avoid battlefields and "dangerous places" where UAC marines might appear. Until they die and are turned into Revenants - only then their mentality changes.

[purist]

scifista that theory doesn't quite make sense because

The Doom manual said:

Apparently when a demon dies, they pick him up, dust him off, wire him some combat gear, and send him back into battle. No rest for the wicked, eh? You wish your missiles did what his can do.

[Nomad]

http://doom2.net/single/revenant.html

[Vermil]

The Revenant's sprite is probably a skeleton (albeit a tall one), simply so ID's artist's didn't have to create sprites for an undead version of every bad guy in the game, but still fit's the idea of it being 'undead'.

Hopefully you get what I'm trying to say there; I had a little difficulty putting it into words.

[scifista42]

purist said:

scifista that theory doesn't quite make sense because

Okay, you win. I'll modify it, then: By a strange coincidence, these demons haven't ever been confronted with Doomguy himself, though they took place in the invasion. Yeah, odd.

[Hoodie]

Vermil said:

The Revenant's sprite is probably a skeleton (albeit a tall one), simply so ID's artist's didn't have to create sprites for an undead version of every bad guy in the game, but still fit's the idea of it being 'undead'.

Hopefully you get what I'm trying to say there; I had a little difficulty putting it into words.

I get ya, don't worry.

[Xegethra]

I always imagined they were just the normal enemies you already killed like it suggests, and the reason they are so tall is because hell's scientists weren't very impressed with you killing them, so they took their corpses and stretched them out a bit to make them more fierce looking.....simply a cosmetic scare.

Then they gave them weapons on their shoulders and sent them back out to fight.

So I imagined that they die, then their demonic souls regenerate in hell again, and instead of being sent right back into the fight, they get stripped of their bodies pretty much and live out eternity as the Revies....a punishment for failing the first few times.

That's just for demons....not really former humans, as they aren't really the bad guys, they are just being controlled by a Lost Soul...so I think when they die, they just get trapped in hell like you'd expect and the Lost Soul goes back with them, then comes back to possess again.

[VGA]

Vermil said:

The Revenant's sprite is probably a skeleton (albeit a tall one), simply so ID's artist's didn't have to create sprites for an undead version of every bad guy in the game, but still fit's the idea of it being 'undead'.

Hopefully you get what I'm trying to say there; I had a little difficulty putting it into words.

You mean that if they made an undead version of a demon, they'd have to create more for the others.

[Suitepee]

What is the Revenant?

An agitating skeleton designed to annoy circle strafers.

[NoneeLlama]

joe-ilya said:

Revs and AV's are basketball demon players.

Phml said:

I love basketball and I love revenants. Suddenly, it all makes sense.

Heh, in the unauthorized hungarian Doom novels, the revenants are actually descriped as wearing basketball jerseys.

[Zulk RS]

scifista42 said:
Living Revenant probably used to be a giant imp-like demon or a "minion-vile".
________________________________________________________________________

Does anyone else think that this is a cool idea for a custom monster?

[Stupid Bunny]

Hah I was just speculating about this exact thing yesterday. I guess my theory more or less mirrors Xegethra's. Wikipedia says that revenants are undead who have risen (or been risen) for a particular purpose or redemption or whatever. Maybe they're the demons who were killed by Doomguy in Doom I? Then their augmentation as towering monsters has that element not only as punishment, but as some kind of scary revenge weapon as well. Then Plutonia has even more revvies because it includes the demons from Doom II and maybe TNT, and the slaughter maps etc etc

[BlueFeena]

The skeletal anatomy of them is human. Chances are, they were made extremely tall to look imposing to the player with Puchantz and son assuming no one would compare the monster's height to the player.

[scifista42]

Zulk-RS said:

Does anyone else think that this is a cool idea for a custom monster?

It is. They can be like wraiths (or vulgars?) in Doom 3, with a punch-only attack, and maybe some additional gimmick like leaping forward or teleporting.

[Technician]

I assume they came up with the creatures back story after it was made. Maybe some guy at GT thought up some bullshit to put in the manual.

[Stupid Bunny]

scifista42 said:

It is. They can be like wraiths (or vulgars?) in Doom 3, with a punch-only attack, and maybe some additional gimmick like leaping forward or teleporting.

I was surprised yesterday that at the very least there doesn't exist (that I could find anyway) a sprite of the revenant with armor removed. Given that there are sprites of the mancubus and cyberdemon without the artificial elements anyway.

(Also how do we pronounce the name? I always say /ˈɹɛvənənt/ with the stress on the first syllable, though sometimes say "ravine ant" because that seems funnier to me.)

[Fuzzball]

"Rev (like revving a car) -en - nant" :P

[scifista42]

StupidBunny said:

Also how do we pronounce the name?

Perhaps like "Remnant" is pronounced, just with "v" instead of "m". I'm not English, though.

Spoiler

We, Czech, have it easy. Each letter has a definite pronunciation, and each word is pronounced as the letters are (with minimum exceptions, that can still be explained through grammar alone). "Revenant". "Scifista". As plain as day. :P

[TMD]

It is an spooky scary skeleton.

[Xegethra]

FuzzballFox says it more or less the way I do too, although after then en I say ant rather than nant, I only say that n once.

An ant that is a Reven...a Reven Ant, Revenant >_>

Not to be mistaken for homeless ants though!

[Yuki Senmatsu]

Lol.

When I first seen him on The DOOM 2 Boxart when I was 9, I thought he was a monkey.

At age of 18, boy, was I wrong.

[Zulk RS]

I pronounce the Revenant the same way as Xegethra.
Reven-ant.
P.S: I'm not English either.

[Jaxxoon R]

I say it as "Rev-eh-nehnt."

[Gez]

It's a real word, so you can try http://demo.acapela-group.com/ :p


And they're video game demons, so why should their corpse look anything like what they were supposed to look like when they were supposedly alive? It makes as much sense to have them be made indiscriminately of dead imps and dead cacodemon as anything else. We're talking about paranormal magical creatures that warp reality around by their mere presence.