Revoker

Trading Death for Life

"Every breath you take. Every beat your heart pumps. Every sunrise you watch and all the laughter of children that you hear. It will all be by the grace of Her Greatness, Armillaria," the minder told him when he awoke. "Your life is now hers. Rejoice at your new purpose, at the role you now play in the greater plan! Rejoice that you are now the right hand of God!"   Mark remembered the pain, the wounds. He remembered the scathole who sliced him open just to see him bleed. He will rejoice alright. He'll rejoice in dishing out cold, cold vengeance.
  Having been brought back from the brink of death to serve a greater purpose, Revokers are fanatical servants, soldiers and enforcers of Armillaria. One might liken them to paladins in the The Circle of Life.

Career

Qualifications

People whom have been brought back to life by the power of Armillaria are given the choice to live the rest of their lives in service to Her as a Revoker. If they refuse, their life is forfeit on the spot. If they agree, they are given immense power by Armillaria and given a purpose to balance out their gift of life with the deliverance of death.

Career Progression

Young Revokers are trained under the tutelage of experienced warriors. If an experienced Revoker is available that will be best. For this reason, The Circle of Life will ask its most experienced veteran Revokers to become trainers.
These Revokers never stop training and will often commune with Armillaria to review and learn new forms, powers and enemy portfolios. As a result, they are some of the best trained and educated warriors in North America.   Even late-onset Revokers are provided training and education in order to be the best they can be.

Payment & Reimbursement

Revokers are taken care of by The Circle of Life, but receive no pay, per se. When dispatched on missions far afield, they are permitted to ask for compensation as well as they can negotiate it from the people they meet.

Other Benefits

If the subject is young, they are indoctrinated into the The Circle of Life and become some of the most devout followers. These Revokers are eventually supplied with stronger and stronger weapons and armor as they advance in skill and experience.
If a subject is mature, it will most likely be offered a suicide mission instead, usually an act of vengeance upon those who killed them in the first place. They are rarely accepted into the ranks of the fully indoctrinated since the opportunity for full conversion and indoctrination is usually past, and their loyalty to The Circle of Life can not be taken for granted. The time and place of their mission is up to Armillaria, and the subject is permitted to live its life in freedom until then. At any time a Revoker refuses to follow Armillaria, she may terminate its life then and there if she feels it serves the greater purpose.

Perception

Purpose

Revokers serve as guards, soldiers, killers and enforcers for the The Circle of Life. They will take orders from minders, but only if they do not conflict with any orders they get from Armillaria Herself.   Many Revokers are given a mission only to wander the countryside, killing what needs to be killed in accordance with the tenets of their faith. While they may kill to preserve the lives of others, as is often the case, death is almost always the end result. It is rare for a Revoker to only injure or capture an opponent. For this reason they are given the moniker "Death Dealer" and everywhere they go, there is an aura of fear once their identity is known.

Social Status

Because they deal very heavy-handedly with their actions nearly always being fatal, Revokers are accepted uncomfortably in most civilized places. But since this is Rift's Earth, a brutal place in which survival can never be taken for granted, they are also seen as a reliable and secure presence; especially in the less civilized communities.   Revokers believe themselves to be the holy warriors of Armillaria Herself and will rarely miss an opportunity to extoll Her virtues and proselytize about their greater purpose in the circle of life.

Demographics

Revokers can be any species and any sex.

History

Revokers are a relatively new presence in North America, not appearing until recently when Armillaria achieved the capability of making deals with sapient beings. The idea occurred to it when one of her followers was dying and pleaded with Her that he would do anything she asked if only she would spare him.

Operations

Tools

Revokers are provided with a suit of living mycelial armor. The armor grows with the wearer and becomes an expression of how the Revoker sees him or herself. No two Revokers have the same appearance. Some look like shambling mounds, while others look like hulking humans with bulging fibrous muscles, and yet others look like they are wearing more traditional armor. The powers provided by these suits of armor also differ a great deal and are usually hand in hand with the appearance. (In game terms, the GM and player should work together to grant the armor one power from the powers list at novice rank and an additional power at each advancement)   The Revoker can remove the armor and set it aside as if it were a set of power armor. It can even be compacted into an unrecognizable package if so desired (at a penalty in the time it takes to put it back on, of course). A portion of the armor it is permanently attached to the wearer. This portion looks like a line of scales covering the spinal cord up to the base of the skull and forms the neural connection needed to control the living suit.
While the suit does provide the Revoker with some powers, they are limited and the Revoker will usually augment them with hand-held weapons of any sort, from primitive to high technology to technowizard.

Materials

The living armor has a limited power supply and must be recharged by coming into contact with Armillaria's mycelial network. Doing so recharges it at the rate other magic items would recharge on a ley line. If contact with Armillaria is not available, the armor can be charge on a ley line at half that rate, and at a nexus at the full normal rate.   Revoker with an arcane background may use their own power supply to power the suits' functions as if their suits were techno wizard inventions. This power would supplement the suit, not replace the suit's power supply. In practical terms, they would essentially add their own power reserves to the power supply available to the suit.

Provided Services

Most Revokers serve to protect the people and assets of The Circle of Life. Those Revokers who have been given missions elsewhere may offer their services for hire, but that is never a certain thing as they serve Armillaria's purposes first and will not fulfill a contract if it is at odds with his greater mission. As a result, few people request services from Revokers except out of desperation or ignorance.   Revokers can rely on support from Armillaria at any time (so long as they are following Her missions), and usually the rest of the The Circle of Life as well.   However, because of their fatal tendencies and "higher calling," they are not usually aided by lawmen or other governing bodies unless they can negotiate some sort of cooperation or assistance.

Dangers & Hazards

The most glaring hazard associated with being a Revoker is that Armillaria can ask one to perform a suicide mission at any time. This is most common in those who become Revokers later in life and do not have the training and growth of the more indoctrinated Revokers.   Another interesting aspect of being a Revoker is that when one dies, its armor will basically eat the body, leaving nothing identifiable behind but a mass of mycelial fibers and sprouting mushrooms. For this reason, many people do not even know that Revokers are anything but a mushroom monster.
The appearance and powers of each Revoker is unique and considered an outward expression of him or herself:



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Alternative Names
Mushroom Men, Revenants, Death Dealers
Type
Religious
Demand
Revoker are often sought as mercenaries by the ignorant. They will serve as mercenaries if their missions align with their employers'.
Legality
Revokers are viewed as corrupted abominations in Coalition Territory and the lands under the sway of The Church of Man. Even the 1st Apocalyptic Cavalry views Revokers as inhuman. As a result, Revokers will usually remove their very conspicuous armor if they must travel though these areas.   Since most people don't realize that Revokers are not the monsters their armor makes them appear to be, they would never even concieve a person without the armor could be a Revoker. So this tactic works very well as a disguise.
Other Associated professions


Cover image: Gorton by Vlad Marica

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