So, I was wondering what people are doing with this. The Raven Queen plays an important role in the Revenants story, how do you translate this into the Realms? Kelemvor seems to be the almost equivilent, but the alignment and the difference between judgement and winter as domains is nothing alike. Any sugestions?
Several options remain:
- remove the divine ties of revenants and have them occur as a result of the force of will of the individual itself
- introduce the Raven Queen as an exarch on the Fugue who controls revenants and a cadre of dark angels to enact Kelemvors will
- give all gods the means to have revenants; the revenants reason to stay (un)alive would broaden to coincide more with the goals of the multitude of FR's gods
I like the last option best.
Also consider Jergal as the creator of revenants. He's got tons of undead priests working as scribes from what I read. He may create a revenant for his own purpose, or as a favour to another deity.
The god Hoar has brought many, many souls seeking vegence back as Revenants.
Thanks for the suggestions. I think my DM and I got something worked out....
Don't be shy to let us know what you do decide on; I at least am curious. :D
Side question: In LFR you can only use specific "legal" races. If you choose a revenant could your origin race be one that is not legal for LFR play?
Side question: In LFR you can only use specific "legal" races. If you choose a revenant could your origin race be one that is not legal for LFR play?
I'm not overly familiar with it but I don't believe you could since there are feats/backgrounds associated with that race.
Side question: In LFR you can only use specific "legal" races. If you choose a revenant could your origin race be one that is not legal for LFR play?
I'm almost positive the answer is no. Anything that comes up as "illegal", probably even in the case of the Revenant, gets tossed from the get-go. So I imagine that to get from Point A to Point B, you have to go from "Legal" to "Also Legal". But I'm not 100% sure about this.
In my campaigns, I've house-flavored that revenancy is an incredibly rare and random occurrence. There are a handful of revenants in Toril, and neither Kelemvor nor Jergal can explain it. Kelemvor finds it a curiosity, almost amusing, whereas Jergal feels more threatened by it. There is no pattern to who becomes a revenant; some have been notable, a rare one may be a great hero or villain, but just as have many have done nothing notable with their time except dying again.
Maybe it's purely random, maybe one of the known gods is making a play against Kelemvor/Jergal, or maybe revenants are orchestrated by some sentient chaos, the point is that for the moment, no one knows what to expect from and with revenants.
In my mind, revenants are created by Kiaransalee. Pre-Lady Penitent, she would do so actively (and with glee), not caring for the revenant's true cause (or whether they are good or evil), but merely for inciting more undead and thirst for revenge.
After her defeat, revenants are created by a lingering divine force, an 'echo' of Kiaransalee's power. In a way, revevants are one of the few remaining ties through which Kiaransalee still exists in the Realms. Not as an active deity, but as a force, which sometimes reacts to a dying person's thirst for vengenace and creates a revenant.
In my mind, revenants are created by Kiaransalee. Pre-Lady Penitent, she would do so actively (and with glee), not caring for the revenant's true cause (or whether they are good or evil), but merely for inciting more undead and thirst for revenge.
After her defeat, revenants are created by a lingering divine force, an 'echo' of Kiaransalee's power. In a way, revevants are one of the few remaining ties through which Kiaransalee still exists in the Realms. Not as an active deity, but as a force, which sometimes reacts to a dying person's thirst for vengenace and creates a revenant.
I could see that working as well. I still say Hoar is the god of Revenants. He has many, many Revenants and Cursts in his service. In fact there was a 6th level spell that allowed a priest of Hoar to bring back people as Reveants, and specialty priests of Hoar who were slain unjustly always came back as revenants, but realy i guess any god could bring back some one as a Revenant. Im sure the goody goody type gods would find that distasteful, and just resurect the person instead of raising them as a Revenant.
Hoar makes good second choice, but Kiaransalee was known as the Revenancer for a reason...
I haven't really thought about what I'll do with Revenants in my game. I suppose I would make their creation primarily the doing of my homebrew grim-reaper goddess, who's similar in function to the Raven Queen, with the noted differences being my creation is a) only a Lesser Power, b) in service to the Greater Power Kelemvor, and most importantly, c) not a poor Morrigan rip-off. 
It might be a punishment for those who attempt to cheat death. They get their just desserts: Being scorned by Kelemvor and Asartha (my homebrew goddess), and turned into an undead agent with little to no true free will. Asartha would then use these elite agents to hunt down and destroy other undead and help her reap the souls of the living. Most of them would only do so grudgingly, but a couple might take to their work with relish.
Kiaransalee still exists in my game, so I imagine she would create them to bolster her undead host. They'd make fine soldiers in her battle with Lolth and Vhaeraun. Myrkul, who in my game returned as the human god of undeath after absorbing Velsharoon, might also form Revenants to combat the strength of Kelemvor and Jergal.
Other than that, I'm not too sure what I'll do with them specifically.
Kiaransalee was known as the Revenancer for a reason...
Good point. I might use that. I have a player who is a Drow Revenant. So far im just leaving it a mystery to him as to why he was reincarnated, or what god or other power transformed him into a Revenant, in other words i havnt decided yet. He wasnt specificaly wronged, so Hoar doesnt really make sense, so i just might go with the Revenancer.
Completly unbiased opinion here, I say go with Hoar.
Hoar would only use them in the poetic since that they track down their killers fist.
which works
I understand why Hoar would be popular for those souls bent on revenge. However if you had a revenant that wasn't, what options would you guys consider?
I understand why Hoar would be popular for those souls bent on revenge. However if you had a revenant that wasn't, what options would you guys consider?
Well i personally see revenge as the best reason for coming back from the dead (like The Crow), but I guess it depends on the reason the character came back from the dead. Gomez had an very interesting and plausible idea. I could see Kelemvor bringing some one back as a Revenant to battle the undead (fighting fire with fire). I think really any god would have the power to bring back someone as a Revenant, although that wouldnt quite fit in with some of deities. I have a Drow Revenent in the group who worships Silvanus, I couldnt see Silvanus raising Revenants. Im not sure what im going to do there, I might tie Lolth in there somehow.
I understand why Hoar would be popular for those souls bent on revenge. However if you had a revenant that wasn't, what options would you guys consider?
I'm not sure whether to list this by deity or desire, so I'll use the former:
- Shar: Yes, I know. Why must Shar fit into everything? However, if she found souls so full of despair and outrage at their deaths that they became bitter and distraught, she could use them to her advantage and create harbingers of nihilism, who return to the realm of the living to snuff out the false joy and hope in which they themselves had once foolishly believed.
- Bane: While not necessarily the evil deity one would associate with undeath, Bane actually works as a patron of those souls who crave power and resent the fact that their quest for might in life was fruitless or cut short. These souls are given a second chance at obtaining the power they crave by spreading the will of Bane. By subjugating the weak and carrying out the Black Lord's will, these revenants are able to obtain the sense of self-satisfaction for which any aspiring megalomaniac aims.
- Ilmater: Those souls who embody endurance and compassion might find their time in the realm of the living is not yet complete. Ilmater may task certain souls with embodying his will even in undeath, to represent to his followers that fortitude does not yield even in death. Though some might fear these revenants, they would be working for the good of the people, to inspire those who fear they may falter and to combat the evils which torment them.
Shar makes perfect sense. I didnt even think of that. Being the goddess of Vegence and Undeth, Revenants would make perfect sense.
you know with that reasoning, Selune would fit too, to battle the revenants of Shar and her followers
Nah Selune has those Baelnorns
baelnorns worship the seldarine and are non evil liches
Selune/Sehanine is part of the Seldarine. And Baelnorns are a little different than liches in my opinion, otherwise they would just be elven archliches.
SELUNE AND SEHANINE ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON, NO MATTER WHAT THOSE IDIOTS AT WOTC SAY DLKFHSDLKFHNLSD:KFNLSDK:FMNSDLK:FN:KE
Neither are Hanali and Sune or Aerdrie and Akadi. 
SELUNE AND SEHANINE ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON, NO MATTER WHAT THOSE IDIOTS AT WOTC SAY DLKFHSDLKFHNLSD:KFNLSDK:FMNSDLK:FN:KE
Neither are Hanali and Sune or Aerdrie and Akadi.
OK! OK! jeeze man. I agree there are some major difference there. I was just going by the book.
And any way i thought they was all just lesser aspects of Corellon?
excuse him... he just goes off his rocker from time to time.
even more so if you consider the irony in what he thinks of sehanine, fenya, hand hanali and what he said.
anyway regardless, baelnorn are not to be considered on par with revanants.
their better, ask anyone and a Baelnorn stay in one spot guarding an area, a revhead onet, they will go out into the world with sharingan and gambit eyes of death.
I like Hanali. Aerdrie never did anything for me but I don't hate her.
I do, in fact, hate Sehanine, but mostly because of the incredibly stupid 'lawl gaiz this god who's both male and female might offend some prude somewhere lets conveniently forget that part and give him a pointless wife' stuff with her.
so you like hanali okay... on the fence with whats her name aedrie, and dis likemoonbow.
each their own.
I never cared to much for angaradh ...
Angaradh is the one. the others are merly lesser aspects of her. Thats my story and im stickin to it.
They are all full of suck...now Corellon on the other hand is full of win.
Manshoon and sfdragon, I like your arguments for Ilmater and Selune. I'm trying to figure out good gods (or at least unaligned ones). Selune makes a lot of sense as someone who offers lycanthropes a chance to redeem themselves; why not the same for undead?
anyway regardless, baelnorn are not to be considered on par with revanants.their better, ask anyone and a Baelnorn stay in one spot guarding an area, a revhead onet, they will go out into the world with sharingan and gambit eyes of death.
Amen, brother! 
DLKFHSDLKFHNLSD:KFNLSDK:FMNSDLK:FN:KE
Do elves and eladrin drop their vowels when they swear?
SELUNE AND SEHANINE ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON
It merely depends on how you see deities. If you see them as really powerful people with an ego problem, then it may not make much sense. If you see them as representations of power, then it is not really that odd.
I mean, Selune is one of the first deities. She is most likely more than just a personification of the moon: she is a power, a force, conveniently anthropomorphed in a female form so she can be easily worshipped.
It is not so strange to believe that the same force thet gave the humans Selune, gave the elves Sehanine. It is not even so strange to believe that that same force would create two 'distinct' deities, in their essence the same, but to all appearances - down to their behavior and the history the build around themselves - separate.
Just because the Spellplague - for whatever reason - revealed that the two are the same force does not actually make much difference. Sehanibe is still Corellon's wife, and part of the Seldarine. Selune is not. They are 'the same', but also they are different aspects.
Personally, I would have preferered if WotC would not have added a whole lot of confusion here, but since we are dealing with deities, it is not that inconceivable - just not something the mortal mind can easily understand or appreciate.
Or, to put it another way: a really interesting case for a philosophy class, not a really great idea for a roleplaying game where keeping things simple is generally better.
Gomez,
who, by the way, does not think Selune would create revenants, but would more likely seek for people to be reincarnated should they need a second chance