Rytlock was not “buried alive” by taking a portal to the Mists. Yes, the portal was in the ground rather than on a wall or in a frame. So what? Yes, the portal was only open for a short time and then closed again. So what? A portal moves you to somewhere else. After Rytlock went through, he was in the Mists, not underground, so when the ground closed he was not in it and not buried.
Maybe the forum bug is actually a portal into the Mists! Because, like, the thread disappears… then comes back! Undead threads, man, undead threads!
Is the cat in ‘The Cat Came Back’ a revenant?
I’m not averse to Revenant, but what are some likely alternate names for the profession? Returnee? Prodigal? Penitent? Elvis ’68 Comeback Specialist? Mist Taken?
So by your logic a guardian must stand vigil over one thing/person for they’re entire career, or they wouldn’t be a guardian.
Also engineers need to make they’re own blue prints for everything, and have a mechanic make their stuff for them.
And thieves are defined solely by the fact they steal things, and nothing else.
What the hell is the OP talking about… Rytlock came back from the mists, you know where dead people go… It’s not a zombie it’s more like Hercules going to the underworld and coming back.
I must admit the word Revenant just rolls off the tongue so much more lyrically … and I also agree ArenaNet does have a limited ability utilizing vocabulary in the naming of classes …
The “Think Tank” that comes up with the terminology does the best they can …
An attempt however feeble should be viewed (I guess) as somewhat creative, and since there is finally some kind of progress in evolving GW2 I won’t complain about the semantics and loose interpretations the developers grasp at … at least they are trying. Kudos …
Maybe … Eight or Ten years from now players will get the Expansion into Cantha and Elona, and by using the vertical maps to be introduced in Heart of Thorns we might see even more of the world of Tyria. Eventually, maybe?
In all of my thorough, methodical, and exhaustive research on the history of Revenants I can state unequivocally that in no instance based in lore did a Revenant summon spirits or evoke Legends of Heros to support their ghoulish rampage, mind you that a Revenant in every story dating back to over ten centuries, the mythology continually alludes to their being undead. The Revenant returns after a long absence from the grave to seek revenge on transgressions.
You can chose to believe anything you wish about the mythos, you can say Revenants are Holy Warriors with spiritual attitude and attunements that allow them to summon Heroic Helpers, no matter how you attempt to justify the terminology loosely doesn’t belie the facts.
When we are given to actually play the Revenant I believe we all will find intense similarities between it and the Ritualist. Who knows it could even be an amalgamation of the Ritualist and the Dervish. We shall see …
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
Not really, I doubt that neanderthals dreamed about electricity. So at some point there are new ideas. If it comes to fictional characters this might be true though.
I’ll take “Context” for 600, Alex
“You’ll PAY to know what you really think.” ~ J. R. “Bob” Dobbs
If Rytlock wants to go to the mists and learn strange new powers there and come back, he can. After all he was able to leave Tyria and come to our world and return, as proven by this video.
“the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing”, usually translated as “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” … Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
jia li ng, you persist in demanding that ANet’s version must conform to your own vision of what the word “Revenant” means, even though ANet has persistently altered stereotypes and cliches. They have humans as the fading race, elves as the new curious race, large hulking furred brutes as the premier engineers. Greatswords are ranged lasers, thieves can’t stay stealthed forever (well, unless oddly spec’d), so forth, and so on.
They’ve picked the word “revenant” to use for someone who channels the powers of lost heroes of the past. Not for someone who is himself a lost hero.
Unless ANet provides lore to the contrary, I intend my revenant to be a living breathing person.
Please stop arguing against innovation in concepts just because you are hung up on a word.
A revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that was believed to return from the grave to terrorize the living. The word “revenant” is derived from the Latin word, reveniens, “returning” related to French verb “revenir”, meaning “to come back”.
I suppose if you have a Ghost pet rock that your pet Fido keeps retrieving you could call it a Revenant Rock …
“I’m feeling better, I think I’ll go for a walk” ..
Being encouraged to play a recently deceased character who may not have been quite dead yet just makes me happy I won’t have to smell their rotting corpse as I craft items in the Mystic Forge ..
Yes, we too know english words of french origin, thanks. But if you care to follow the announcements, they are very probably not undead. I have no idea why Anet chose that rather misleading name instead of, well, Mistwalker or something.
+1 if the title brought you here… “I’m not dead yet!!”
Came for the title
…leaving for the pointless whining. =P
Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632
So, the dead go to the Mists. You can also go to the Mists in WvW. Finally Revenant is one who returned after death or long absence. It all makes sense now. Rytlok went to the Mists to WvW (he does have anger managment issues, so seemed like a good place to vent). He spent so much time in the land of the dead, that he can now be called a revenant. The mad hammer train skills he has learned he will pass to the lowly PvErs and claim its a whole new class!
Well with 100 characters over 6 accounts and 10 years of playing Guild Wars and 2 years of Guild Wars 2 I will probably have numerous Revenants in my pantheon … I will continue to disregard the limitations of ArenaNet and its overall creative vocabulary as I have in the past and “Game On”
A character who summons spirits from the mists .. Not quite dead yet .. Sounds vaguely similar to the mechanics of a Ritualist but that “name is already taken” …
Shiny eh not so much
The devs have seemingly going to great lengths to not say spirits when describing the Rev’s skills, instead using “Legends”. So the revenants aren’t actually summoning spirits from the Mists, but I would probably describe it more like a manifestation of a legendary figure and his/her/its deeds in which the Rev draws strength from.
I kinda think of it as the Rev summoning the Mists’ copy of the cliff notes version of that person/legend, but like most Mists related thing in GW though, it a bit hard to describe.
This wins the award for best post due to the reference of doctor who!
The whole thing around the Revenenant remembers me basically being inspired/stolen from the Anime Fate Stay Night/ Fate Zero, where summoned manifestations of legendary heroes battle against each other.
the most famous known main role summon there is called Saber and is a manifestation of the legendary “King Arthur”.
Just to correct you on something there Orpheal. Saber is the class name that the legendary hero falls in, whilst “king arthur” is the person that was called up. Confused, welcome to Nasuverse.
Seriously, I am not bashing the Guild Wars Franchise …
I find the that the irreverent use of the term Revenant to be woefully wrong in this instance, we will obviously deal with it like we always have in the past by choosing to ignore it. We will play our Revenants as if the word doesn’t have any true meaning except for the one provided for us. We will blindfold our eyes and pretend, and we will dumb down ourselves to someone else’s level because that’s what we allow of ourselves.
I’m not whining about finally seeing new content … the graphics and splash appear to be intriguing, and I look forward to Heart of Thorns release … if for nothing else to see just exactly how much the mechanics change. It’s far to late to change the mistake now, far to many players have bought into the loose interpretation and are like me excited to play whatever the Developers can bring us.
I guess the complexity of Personality Traits was more than a little problematic and that’s why it was gutted …and that was something entirely fresh.
Seriously, I am not bashing the Guild Wars Franchise …
I find the that the irreverent use of the term Revenant to be woefully wrong in this instance, we will obviously deal with it like we always have in the past by choosing to ignore it. We will play our Revenants as if the word doesn’t have any true meaning except for the one provided for us. We will blindfold our eyes and pretend, and we will dumb down ourselves to someone else’s level because that’s what we allow of ourselves.
So, your complaint is that words can (and often do) have more than one meaning, and that Anet used a different meaning of “revenant” than the one you’re used to thinking of.
Based on what I have been reading about the meaning of the word Revenant I really don’t suppose I will ever create a playable character as such .. No matter how cool it may be to some .. Playing an undead just isn’t my cup of tea .. While a Zombie or a Vampire which needs to consume the living to satiate hunger and prolong an unnatural existence,
a Revenant is a soul or soulless creature that has come back from the dead to right a wrong or perceived wrong done to them or by their own hand. Still as an undead, the Revenant may have powers from the grave .. Does the mean Warmaster Forgal and Tybalt Leftpaw could also become Revenants, or Apatia? What kind or type of demonic evil exists that would reanimate a long since deceased to return and plague the world? You thought finding out that Sylvari were minions of Mordremoth was bad, the Revenant corpse of worms is a scourge on all that is Holy .. Dwayna save us …
I wonder if the demi-god Kormir had something to it? ..
“Undead,” was a term that meant, “alive,” or, “not dead,” until one particular writer of fiction (Bram Stoker) chose to use it as a reference to a vampire.
Why are you willing to accept a use of one word according to its modification by a writer of fiction but not another. Doesn’t this seem more than a bit like a double standard to you ?
Actually, Bram Stokers “Dracula” is only one of thousands of works depicting an undead, and yes, Dracula was just one of many accounts of cursed dead.
Depicting them, sure, but his work was a turning point for the word, “undead.” Prior to him it meant, “not dead,” or, “alive.”
You are using the word undead outside of its original meaning while complaining about the use of revenant outside of its original meaning.
Keep in mind that returning from the dead, even in fiction, does not make one, “undead.” One can, in fiction/mythology at least, return from the dead and be alive.
Unless you are an exceptional player beyond compare, your characters have returned from the dead at one point or another.
Actually, Bram Stokers “Dracula” is only one of thousands of works depicting an undead, and yes, Dracula was just one of many accounts of cursed dead.
Depicting them, sure, but his work was a turning point for the word, “undead.” Prior to him it meant, “not dead,” or, “alive.”
You are using the word undead outside of its original meaning while complaining about the use of revenant outside of its original meaning.
Keep in mind that returning from the dead, even in fiction, does not make one, “undead.” One can, in fiction/mythology at least, return from the dead and be alive.
Unless you are an exceptional player beyond compare, your characters have returned from the dead at one point or another.
^ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undead
“Bram Stoker considered using the title The Un-Dead for his novel Dracula (1897), and use of the term in the novel is mostly responsible for the modern sense of the word. The word does appear in English before Stoker but with the more literal sense of “alive” or “not dead”, for which citations can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary."
Learn something new every day. ^^
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
Holy crap, people not knowing how words (or any language for that matter) work is astonishing ._.
Words have any meaning we choose to give them if enough people agree or accept the definition, as well as being able to alter said definition to suit a purpose. Humankind has been doing this since the beginning of or existence and based on how many words have been modified/ created since the dawn of the internet it doesn’t seem like we’ll be stopping.
Obviously, anet has taken inspiration from the definition of the word. Though (unless I skipped someone here) am I really the only one that sees the name coming from the players bringing the dead (legends) back to life to use their powers?
Edit: apparently I did missed some people. Sorry people ._.
Personally .. calling the “New” class a Mistwalker would have been far more appropriate ..
and it sounds one heck of a lot more interesting.
Source: Revenant-Wikipedia
Many stories were documented by English historians in the Middle Ages. William of Newburgh wrote in the 1190s, “It would not be easy to believe that the corpses of the dead should sally (I know not by what agency) from their graves, and should wander about to the terror or destruction of the living, and again return to the tomb, which of its own accord spontaneously opened to receive them, did not frequent examples, occurring in our own times, suffice to establish this fact, to the truth of which there is abundant testimony”. Stories of revenants were very personal, always about a specific individual who had recently died (unlike the anonymous zombie depicted in modern popular culture), and had a number of common features. But like zombies, revenants were undead and typically malevolent creatures.
If you are Christian you may appreciate one of the very first references to undead ..
Ezekiel 37:1-14, may be the origin of the undead in literature.
“1. And the hand of YHVH was upon me, and YHVH brought me out by wind and set me down in the valley, and it was filled with bones… 7. …And there was a voice.. and behold, earthquake, and the bones joined, bone to its bone. 8. And I saw, and behold, sinew upon them, and flesh rose, and skin covered over them, but there was no wind in them… 10. … And the wind came into them and they lived, and they stood upon their legs, a very great horde.”
So, we go on accepting wildly loose interpretations of words and meanings to suit others whims .. It’s not like we have any choice in the matter. Stuck as we are, aware but made out to be unaware, uninformed, in a blissful state of ignorance … What a joy it is …
So, we go on accepting wildly loose interpretations of words and meanings to suit others whims .. It’s not like we have any choice in the matter. Stuck as we are, aware but made out to be unaware, uninformed, in a blissful state of ignorance … What a joy it is …
What are you talking about man… It’s not ignorance that leads people to have lose interpretations of a word’s meaning to fit their purpose… It’s the basic way language has evolved since mankind stated giving nonsensical sounds meanings. (though I’ll agree at times it feels like a devolution)
Hell, even the most formal way of speaking English isn’t the same as it was centuries ago. So I really don’t see what point you’re trying to make here when as a species we can literally give meaning to any sound as long as we want to.
Hell, if you really have a beef with anet’s use of the word you should have a word with Shakespeare. The man literally invented words for his own purpose and everyone praises him for it
Hell, if you really have a beef with anet’s use of the word you should have a word with Shakespeare. The man literally invented words for his own purpose and everyone praises him for it
Heh. I prefer Lewis Carroll, myself. OP should study the immortal wisdom of Humpty Dumpty:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
