Xia: Revenant Stripling

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Xia: Main Page -> Xia: Foes and Allies -> Xia: Revenant Stripling

Description[edit]

When someone dies particularly brutally or painfully, it is possible that they will become a ghost. When that someone is a child, the ghost's sense of self is often so entangled with his or her physical form, that the spirit stays within the corpse, animating it and filling it with a gruesome half-life.

The revenant appears as an ordinary child, albeit one in the moments just after death. Its movements are stilted, unnatural and disturbing.

A revenant has the mind of a child, but the perceptions of one taken by hell. It views its surroundings as a terrifying nightmare of strange and hostile figures - it will lash out instinctively with its claws, more out of fear than malice, and will not respond to speech or attempts to communicate with it.

The only exception to this is when dealing with close members of its own family. Somehow the revenant will be reminded of the link shared in life, and will be almost protective of its relatives, and can even be comforted and directed by them.

Of course, being faced with the reanimated corpse of a beloved child is a horrifying experience, and many relatives will have their sanity broken by this unnatural and disharmonious relationship. The relatives will believe that the child is not dead at all, and try to act normally. This madness is what sustains the Revenant over time - if someone can successfully cure the relatives of their madness, and convince him to accept the child's death, then the very act of the relatives saying goodbye can lay the ghost to rest, and return the revenant to being nothing more than the body of a dead child.

Traits[edit]

  • Physical 1
  • Mental 1
  • Social 1



Demon Trigrams[edit]

  • Hell 4 (equivalent to Heaven)
  • Chaos 3 (equivalent to Fire)
  • Storm 4 (equivalent to Wind)
  • Lightning 2 (equivalent to Thunder)
  • Mud 1 (equivalent to Earth)
  • Blood 1 (equivalent to Water)
  • Smoke 1 (equivalent to Mist)
  • Bone 1 (equivalent to Mountain)

Demon Trigrams can be channelled in the same way normal "natural" trigrams can (i.e. Hell for Accuracy, Chaos for Power, etc.)

However, they provide none of the other benefits that the natural trigrams normally do. For example, having a high Blood Trigram doesn't give protection against Fire-based Trigrams in the same way that a high Water Trigram would. Also, significantly. Demon Trigrams don't provide Yang Chi or Yin Chi.

Chi Pools[edit]

  • Demon Chi 10

Demon Chi is spent to activate monster powers and to channel Demon Trigrams. It is not interchangeable with Yang Chi or Yin Chi.

Resilience Pools[edit]

  • Physical Resilience 11
  • Mental Resilience 11
  • Social Resilience 11



Kung Fu Secrets[edit]

  • Panicked Claw Strikes

A revenant can make additional claw attacks at no Demon Chi cost, with a maximum number of attacks per round equal to its Lightning Trigram.

  • Flesh Knits Together

At the end of its turn, the Revenant regenerates 1 Physical Resilience. This functions even if it is reduced to 0 Physical Resilience. However, if it is forcible dismembered or burnt while defeated, it will be unable to regenerate.

  • Illusion of Life

Any who loved the child dearly before it died will be struck with a mental delusion that the child is alive and well, and will treat the revenant as if it is the living child, despite and evidence to the contrary.

  • Chains of Grief

If all the living relatives of a revenant deliberately confront the death of the child, and earnestly pray for the child to be released into death, then the revenant's corpse will de-animate, and the child's soul will be freed to pass on. Treating the relatives' delusions normally requires a successful mental conflict, with a lost conflict by the would be redeemer resulting in "contamination" with the delusions.

  • Redemption's Reward

If the child's soul is released, as noted above, then the Xia responsible for making this happen is considered to have performed a weakly righteous action. Destroying the revenant does not count as a righteous action. Also, all persons infected with the delusion that the child lives see the Revenant Stripling for who it is, and are restored to mental health.

  • Infective Delusion

If any person is infected with the delusion that the revenant stripling is alive (as noted above with Chains of Grief), then all deluded individuals regain all lost Yang Chi and Mental Resilience.

  • Abundant Chi

At the start of its turn, the Revenant Stripling regains 1 point of Demon Chi.

Credits[edit]

Asklepios 03:58, 13 January 2009 (PST)