Overview
Revenants are the oath-bound, unyielding dead of the vigil. They do not rest, they do not forget, and they consider the oath a promise the vigil keeps for them. They remember every oath, and they remember every name they have ever sworn.
Habitat
Revenants live in The Vigil Gate, a gate of pale stone where the oath is the only honest promise. They need three things: a gate high enough to hold the vigil, a soul-debt wide enough to feed the keeper, and a stranger who is worth the word. They are settled in gates around the vigil-rings, with oath-lines across the mapped current; a revenant who has not kept an oath in a season is called "the one who forgot the gate."
Appearance
The revenant silhouette is the tall, narrow, pale shape — heavy through the jaw and shoulder, with the head sitting a little too high on the body, like a word that is waiting for an oath. Males stand 1.68 m to 1.83 m, heavy through the jaw and shoulder, with a low, barked voice; they are the vigil-keepers, the first oath, and the ones who stand at the gate and do not move. Females stand 1.68 m, leaner and quicker, with a thinner hide and a longer memory; they are the brides, the ones whose oath is the vigil, and the ones whose nod is the gate. A revenant female does not avert her gaze. A revenant female does not need to — the vigil answers for her. The base hide is a pale grey, the color of old gate-stone seen through a dark glass, with a faint pattern of deeper, sea-black patches along the cheek and a clean, deliberate bone-white at the lip and the finger-tip that is the revenant line's most persistent claim. The eyes are a pale, washed-out gate-white, large for the head, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are reading the oath — and in most cases, they are, and the reading is the point. The head is the mark: a long, narrow skull with a jaw of teeth in bone-white, and the oath, which is the revenant line's most persistent claim — the vigil, always clean, and always pointed at something. Males carry the line in the jaw and the gate; females in the oath and the memory. They do not age, but they can be killed, and they do not like being reminded of it. They eat the vigil: the soul, the name, the oath, and the vigil that keeps the promise honest. Everyday wear: a wrap of woven gate-silk at the waist, a single bone bead at the throat, and no armor, because the vigil is the armor and the gate is the home.
Behavior
Disposition: feudal, clannish, territorial, honor-bound. In peace, revenants are watchful, deliberate, and absolutely certain of the gate — they have the oath, and they let the surface know it. In war they fight as the vigil fights: the gate first, the word second, the patient, precise holding of the soul third. Strangers on the surface are either a meal or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the vigil remembers. The social unit is the gate, 10–30 strong, around the vigil-rings — no gate follows a keeper, it follows the oath-keeper whose vigil is truest. Two signature quirks: a revenant who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply keep the oath for the lie and wait, because the keeping is the point. And they keep the soul for a lifetime: a soul the vigil has kept is a debt, and the debt is paid in word.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: the ambush of the vigil — the revenant line does not fight in the open current; it fights as the gate fights, with the gate, the word, and the long, deliberate patience of the one who has already kept the oath. Armor: none, by choice — the vigil is the armor, and a revenant who wears metal has already decided the gate is not enough. Weapons: the oath, the claw that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the soul that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Oath-Notch, a deliberate chip in the left jaw for every oath kept, worn as a record of the long gate; the Gate-Knot, a single knot in the hair for every gate oath kept, in sea-black; and the Soul-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first soul the wearer ever kept, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried to the gate, their names spoken over the oath, and their vigils laid across the threshold — a revenant buried without their oath is buried as a surface.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: necromancy — revenant magic is the will, the oath, the patient, precise shaping of the gate across the vigil-rings. Secondaries: enchantment and conjuration. Named inborns: Gate-Sense (a revenant can feel the oath's mood a day before it is broken, and the feeling is not a choice), Stone-Sight (a revenant sees in the dark the way a human sees in the light, and the seeing is not a choice), Oath-Carry (a revenant's oath carries across the gate, and the carrying is not a choice), Vigil-Carry (a revenant's vigil carries across the gate, and the carrying is not a choice). Signature power: the Keeper's Word — a revenant can speak a word in the gate tongue and let it land on an oath, and the oath will keep the word until the vigil is done. Limitation: revenant magic is spent on the gate; a revenant who has spent their keeper's word must sit in the dry dark for one day, and the day is the worst one of the gate.
Religion
Revenants keep Khorvane, the Endless Hunger as their primary god — the death, the hunger, the ripening that is the gate’s own law. The gate is Khorvane’s orchard, and the revenant is the orchard’s fruit — the one that remembers being ripe, and it hurts. Priestly class: the Cult-of-the-Vine, who keeps the gate-temple and offers the name at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a promise broken in the gate, and there is no rite for that one; the gate simply stops ripening with the breaker.
Society
Vigils of 10–30, led by the Oath-Keeper, rank decided by the oath — whose vigil is truest.
Home
They live in The Vigil Gate, a gate of pale stone where the oath is the only honest promise.
Relations
The "the oath is the only honest promise" faction — gate neighbors whose vigil is a price, and the ones whose nod is the soul. The Wraiths of the dark are the small kin the gate does not turn on — the wraith keeps the dark and the revenant keeps the oath, and the two are the same dead seen from two gates, so a soul that a wraith has kept is a soul the revenant will keep, and the keeping is the whole of the treaty. The Skeletons of the bone fields are the neighbors the vigil tests most often — the skeleton keeps the bone and the revenant keeps the soul, and the skeleton who has kept a vigil is the skeleton the gate has already decided is a soul, and the deciding is the whole of the law. The Vampires of the crypts are the ones the gate keeps at a distance — the vampire keeps the crypt and the revenant keeps the oath, and the two have learned that a soul that is not sworn is a soul that is not a promise, and the not-swearing is the whole of the peace. Above, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the ones the gate tests most often, and the testing is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the gate keeps the oath for, and the keeping is the whole of the promise. Uaellaen keeps a page of the gate in the wiki — the oath, the vigil, the nod that is the soul — and the keeping is the whole of the record, because the camp has learned that a revenant who has been written about is a revenant who has been sworn with, and the swearing-with is the whole of the welcome.
In the Story
In the current story, the revenants are the oath at the gate — the soul Uaellaen writes about when the vigil is the law. The Forgotten keep their distance at the gate line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a vigil came up at the gate that is not in the oath — a vigil the Oath-Keeper does not remember, and the not-remembering is the whole of the warning, because the gate keeps its oath, and the oath has started to keep itself. The keeping is the hand the camp has not been shown.
"You stand at our gate and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our oath's choice for us. The price is a soul. You have one to give, or you are already a vigil." — Oath-Keeper Kessa the Grey