ORIGIN: European folklore.
The urban legend of the vampiric revenant is an ancient tale that has gone throughout European folklore for centuries.
Unlike the more glamorous, seductive vampires popularised and painted by modern fiction, the vampiric revenant is a far more ugly and terrifying in figure and shape.
It is a corpse that returns from the grave to prey upon the living, feeding on their blood and draining their life force.
The legend describes the revenant as a bloated, rotting figure with pale or discolored skin.
Its eyes strange light, and its breath carries the thick stench of death and decay.
So unlike traditional vampires, which are elegant and cunning, the revenant is driven purely by hunger and malice.
It rises from its grave at night, stalking the villages it once called home, seeking out loved ones or enemies to torment and feed upon.
Villagers in medieval times used to live in constant fear of the revenant, hoping they didn't get fed upon next.
Strange deaths, disease outbreaks, or unexplained misfortunes were believed by them to be caused by these undead beings.
Bodies suspected of becoming revenants were exhumed and subjected to brutal rituals— staking through the heart with a wooden stick, beheading, or burning— to prevent their return.
One famous account comes from 12th-century England, where chronicler William of Newburgh documented cases of revenants terrorizing communities.
He described villagers who reported seeing deceased individuals wandering the streets at night, knocking on doors, and spreading death wherever they went.
Anyone who answered the door was said to fall ill and die shortly after.
The fear of the vampiric revenant eventually evolved and became the more familiar vampire myths we know today.
However, the revenant remains a darker and more primitive representation of mankind's ancient fear of death and the unknown.