wire him with some combat gear, and send him back into battle.
No rest for the wicked, eh?
You wish your missiles did what his can do.
- Revenant description,
Final DOOM Instruction Manual
While our nameless Space Marine hero was busy dealing with Hell's invasion of Mars' two moons, Phobos and Deimos, and then, later, taking the fight to the Underworld itself (as told in the storyline of the original DOOM video game), the denizens of Hades were themselves making preparations for another, much larger attack elsewhere. Returning home victorious (or so he thought), the weary Marine was horrified to see that Earth had been overrun by the very demons he thought he had eradicated, and, what little remained of the human population was desperately trying to escape to the stars--unfortunately, the demonic invaders had gotten wind of this plan and surrounded the spaceport with hellfire, preventing them from reaching their starships. Snarling, and pumping a fresh shell into his shotgun, the lone survivor of the Mars invasion prepared himself for another titanic struggle against the forces of Hell, this time with the fate of the entire human race at stake . . .
Revenants are one of several new monster species that were introduced in DOOM II: Hell on Earth. It seems that the head honchos in Hell like to get two uses out of every unfortunate human they add to their forces: Once as a zombie, and then a second time as a Revenant (recycling is alive and well in the Underworld, albeit in a twisted form). Whom, or what, actually performs the Revenant-creation process on a salvaged corpse is unknown. At first blush, one would think it'd be an Arch-Vile, but, as their power entails resurrection, not transformation, this seems unlikely upon further consideration (i.e., they can bring organisms back to life, but not as a new type of creature--in other words, if they used their power on a slain Former Sergeant, he'd still be a human zombie when he came back to life, or un-life as the case may be, not a Revenant or some other fiend). The Hell Mother, first introduced in DOOM 64, is a much more likely possibility as she can both create life and change the physical form of that which she brings forth (the sole survivor of the Marine's rampage, she repopulated Hell all on her own, and altered the physical form of many of the DOOM creatures in the process).
Every Revenant is equipped with two, shoulder-mounted, rocket launchers. These can be fired independently, or simultaneously, at the creature's discretion. No external triggering method has, to date, been observed; it is believed that the activation of these weapons is achieved through mental command--they simply "will" the launchers to fire. These walking skeletons carry no visible ammunition for their weapons and yet have never been observed to run out of shells. It's possible that a relatively small quantity of explosive rounds are stored inside the Revenant's chest cavity (being undead, it has no need for lungs, a heart, or any of the other organs usually found in said space, which makes using it as a storage area feasible) which are then automatically loaded into the launchers via some internal mechanism. Proponents of this hypothesis argue that the upper chest is the only area on a Revenant that is armored, which they contend is solely for the purpose of protecting said hypothetical shells from being detonated by hostile weapon fire. However, a more likely and disturbing explanation is that the shells are spontaneously created and/or teleported directly inside the launcher (presumably from some hidden stockpile) via demonic magic. The projectiles these weapons fire are explosive in nature and have roughly one third the destructive power of the rockets used by the Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC). Interestingly enough, these missiles exhibit no appreciable blast radius upon detonation, further evidence of their suspected magical nature (i.e., even if you were standing right next to someone, or something, hit by a Revenant's rockets, you would not be harmed in any way, this would very much not be the case if, on the other hand, a standard UAC rocket detonated near you, as there would be considerable collateral damage to the surrounding area). Regardless, the most dangerous aspect of the Revenant's projectiles is that some of them are of the homing variety and can actively track their intended target (these are easily recognized by their smoking trails). As no complete shells or fragments have ever been captured and analyzed, it is unknown if the missiles are guided to their targets by heat, on-the-fly computer directions, mental command from the Revenant itself, or some other phenomena.
A Revenant is little more than a human skeleton reanimated by the blackest of magic. They do not eat, sleep, drink, or breathe--it is assumed that the power that animates them also provides whatever sustenance they require. Their ghastly bodies are almost entirely devoid of tendon and muscle, and yet the naked bones can still move as effortlessly and effectively as they did in life. A Revenant has approximately double the physical strength of a normal, healthy, adult human and can deliver tremendous blows with its' fists when engaged in close combat. They can still see, hear, smell, taste, and touch despite lacking most of the relevant organic structures one would think necessary to sense such stimuli (i.e., no eyes, ears, tongue, skin, etc). Revenants no longer speak the human language, or, if they do, the inarticulate screeches and howls they produce cannot be understood as words by human ears. While a Revenant can be "killed" again, this is only by virtue of the attacker mutilating the skeleton to the point of it losing structural integrity or destroying it outright (via an explosion for example).
The very sight of a Revenant has been known to paralyze otherwise brave individuals with terror, making them easy prey. The demoralizing, psychological impact that an undead skeleton can have on the living was doubtlessly a strong contributing influence in the Revenant's demonic design.
Due to their homing nature, the special rockets that a Revenant occasionally uses travel at a relatively low velocity. It is possible for an athletic human to out-run/out-maneuver them, particularly if ample cover is present in the environment. The projectile's capacity to follow a target is also limited. While a rocket can negotiate several wide turns while following its' prey, it cannot manage repeated small, sharp turns through, say, a narrow corridor. Daring individuals have also been known to lure these rockets into other nearby demons, indirectly using the Revenant to injure or kill its comrades.
Much like a golem (from an AD&D perspective on monster classification, a DOOM Revenant would likely be considered a Bone Golem with technologically-advanced weaponry), creating a Revenant requires the proper ingredients, namely the corpse of a previously zombified human and the components used to build its metal vest and rocket launchers (no "naked" Revenant, without its gear, has ever been observed, which seems to imply that it is an essential item). If the proper goods are not readily available, these creatures cannot be produced. Realistically, raw material shortages are unlikely to be a problem for the demons during an invasion of our plane of existance, where humans and metal/mechanical parts are available in copious quantities. That said, one could imagine a situation where, handicapped with a limited amount of industrial materials to work with, the demons would elect to become more selective with their resources, producing a handful of larger and stronger cyborg creatures, like Spider Masterminds and Cyberdemons, instead of weaker Revenants.
If you're wondering why Omega Rugal has a larger width than the other humanoid figures, despite appearing to be roughly the same size, it's because of the red wire sticking out of the side of his mechanical right hand. Also: (1) Couch Mouse's tail is excluded from its' measurements and (2) any and all accessories, like Rolento's red beret/baton/grenades, don't factor into their dimensions here (Billy Kane's three-sectioned staff does count towards his articulation total, but not his height/width).
(In no particular order of importance.)
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