Revenant Plague
A revenant plague is an epidemic of parasitic nanites affecting deceased organic lifeforms. The responsible technology is of Abyssan design, an has been widely used over the course of the Exile, more often than not as a means of intimidation or punishment.
The most recent known revenant plague occurred in Razduna. Parts of several cities, including Winterbourne, have been evacuated due to the aggressive nature of the revenants. This is not the first such plague in the area, but what awoke it this time is not known.
Revenants
Revenants are cadavers reanimated with neural dust, a type of nanites designed to temporarily connect severed nerves or replace damaged nervous tissue. Parasitic neural dust also sends its own signals, thus controlling body parts or entire bodies. This is the primary variant used to create revenants. A revenant can be controlled directly by a necromancer, or programmed to perform simple tasks without supervision. It's not sentient, let alone sapient, though more advanced variants of neural dust allow for speech, either programmed or via radio link. When under direct control, a revenant can be used as the necromancer's effigy.The Process
The basic variant of the dust takes control of a cadaver's remaining nervous system and muscles, allowing the reanimated creature to move around and perfom simple tasks. They can be programmed to attack other beings. These revenants are easy enough to recognize by their slow movements and poor coordination. They're fairly easy to destroy, as they're already decaying. The parasitic dust itself is much harder to get rid off, and might go in search of another dead body soon after its host ceased to be useful.Biomechanical Revenants
A more advanced variant contains utility fog along with the neural dust. The fog consists of micromachines rather than nanites, and is programmed to rebuild damaged muscles, ligaments and bones to hold the decaying body parts together. These revenants often look visibly biomechanical and tend to be harder to destroy as a result, but the underlying condition remains the same.Plagues
Parasitic dust can be programmed to autonomously infect any suitable cadaver in range, rather than solely on command. It's very hardy and will hibernate until it senses a corpse nearby. Thus a revenant plague can only be considered defeated if all batches of parasitic dust in the affected area have been destroyed.Failsafe
Fortunately, this type of neural dust has a built-in failsafe that makes it susceptible to ionizing radiation. An intense flash of short-wave ultraviolet is enough to erase its memory and render it inert. The biomech variant tends to fail more spectacularly when rendered inert, as the utility fog contained within will suddenly separate back into its dust form, causing the revenant to fall apart with it. Flashbang grenades with a high amount of ultraviolet in their light output are very effective against revenants, as is the Lesser Cleansing Light. Germicidal lamps are among the best tool for dealing with leftover parasitic dust.Super-Plagues
At least one variant of self-replicating parasitic biomech dust without the failsafe is known. It was designed to not only infect cadavers, but also living organic beings. Outlawed by the Exile Fleet, all known batches have been seized and destroyed, though the instructions for its creation are still kept under lock and key in the Fleet Archives.
Type
Nanite / Mechanical
Origin
Engineered
Cycle
Chronic, Acquired
Rarity
Rare
Affected Species