4.15.9 Roleplaying a Revenant

Revenants are warriors trained in the manipulation of ambient shadow, marrying martial discipline with magical acuity to enact their arts.

What is shadow?
Czjetija, the Plane of Shadow, is the source of the elemental shadow that naturally weaves part of the Prime Material Plane. A dangerous and treacherous element, its nature is consumption and corrosion, entropy, and insatiable hunger. Its imbalance in mortals is what allows for Undeath. 
Access to Czjetija is gated through Severn, the Manipulator, who wards off the Shadow Mother, Ohlsana, imprisoned within.

How the elements of the class are accessed:
- Ambient shadow manipulation is used in all three Revenant skills, independent of Czjetija and Severn.
- Raw, physical might and martial training are represented by Riving.
- Writing words of power in Kalsu, the language of creation, to evoke magical effects via Chirography.
- Imbuing your thoughts and impulses into shadowy forms to serve you, through the art of Manifestation.

Revenants guard the border between Prime and Czjetija, physical and immaterial, and their arts are a mixture of disciplines which, together, reflect a deeper understanding of reality and the element of shadow.

Visual style of the class:
The Revenant's continual use of shadow induces an unnatural darkening of the skin, and a slow blackening of the eyes. These effects may be especially pronounced while actively manipulating ambient shadow or actuating a word of power. Their martial training conditions them to a brutal, uncompromising, style of fighting, one in which ending a fight as quickly and decisively as possible is the desired outcome.

Side effects of the class skills:
Shadow is by far the most temperamental and dangerous element to directly manipulate. Repeat use and exposure can both grow beyond the wielder's control to devastating effect, as well as risk corrupting the user to Ohlsana's influence. Those who become inflicted with the shadowplague will slowly become one of the Shadowbound, a facsimile of who they were, grown monstrous and under Her control. It is for this reason that Revenants do not rely on channels to Czjetija, preferring to minimize the risk of the shadowplague's occurrence.
** Note: This is a mechanical disease!

Repeated use of shadow, nevertheless, results in physical changes that cannot be easily hidden. The eyes will become black and nearly solid, and the corruption will be visible in the veins sprawling outwards from them. Fingertips will also darken, and skin texture may change from something porous and organic to something strange and irregular. There are chances of whispering voices becoming more present in the back of the head in a language you don't understand, and the world slowly losing its sense of color. Across decades of use, color blindness of varying severity can set in.

Roleplaying the class:
The first Revenants were trained by Lord Severn, the Manipulator, to protect the Prime Material Plane from Czjetija. Although their long reign of secrecy has come to an end, and their arts are now more commonly taught, there is an archaic quality - particularly to Chirography - which often creates a sense of distance between them and the plane they're bound to protect.

Phantasm lore:
Phantasms are ethereal creatures of shadow, thought, and instinct, formed from the externalized mental impulses of the Revenant to serve them by various means. These creatures aren't usually any smarter than they need to be, lacking advanced capacity for expression and speech - they tend to mirror the sentiments and intentions that created them, taking on a shadowy, miasmic appearance which veils the Revenant's frame. Although they can take on a semi-independent, symbiotic dynamic with the Revenant who originates them, they are almost never outside of the Revenant's control except under circumstances of extreme emotional duress.