revenants

Revenant is a term for a person who has returned from death, typically to pursue a course of action they could not complete in life. The word comes from the French revenant, meaning "returned." In folklore, revenants may be corporeal undead or restless spirits, often pressed into service by unfinished business, vengeance, or a curse. They are usually linked to violent or untimely deaths and are believed to bear a visible mark or the same physical form as in life. In many traditions, revenants terrorize the living until they are laid to rest by specific rites.

Regional variants assign different motivations: some stories portray fallen enemies or wronged relatives returning to take revenge; others describe revenants that spread disease or misfortune. Practices to prevent or cure revenance include proper burial, ensuring the soul can rest, or destroying the revenant's body or grave goods, and recitations or exorcisms; in some regions, offerings or religious rites are performed to appease the dead.

In modern usage, revenants appear in genres of fantasy and horror, often as beings with a singular purpose or oath that compels their return. They are sometimes equated with ghosts but are commonly distinguished by a more physical, purposeful return, and in some settings function as the undead with a drive similar to a vow. Scholars view revenants as a cultural construct illustrating fears of death, vengeance, and unfinished business.