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Somebody call Anne Rice, because we've got the queen of the damned!
Cold and calculating in nature, Illythia is the gracefully lethal personification of the eternal famine which curses her vampiric children. Whereas Arethyr's rage is full of fire and fury, Illythia's touch is decidedly icy and silent. After waiting in the shadows, her reunion with her long lost weapon The Soul Spiller has brought the apocalypse closer than ever. And just as Soul Spiller possesses the power to rob its victims of their life force, Illythia stands ready to drain the blood from Mythoss itself.
That's right, Illythia is the "Famine" of
the Four Horsemen's four horsemen (something that may have been apparent by the way her faction is described as "a legion fueled by a constant hunger"). She definitely sticks with her family's colorscheme, with gray skin and black and purple clothes. Instead of armor or a shirt, she appears to just have her torso wrapped in thick bands of cloth. Her belt looks like hanging bones leading into her skirt, and there's a tiny face right in the center - returning the favor from her son? The skirt is already attached, so you don't have to try to puzzle out how the Horsemen intended her to wear it, and she has a separate sash dealie that can hang around her hips.
Denoting her status as one of the gods of Mythoss, Illythia has a large hat. It's the biggest we've seen since Morgolyth! A lot more ornate, though. Her ears are even larger than the regular vampires', helping provide visual balance against that giant black crown of hers. It's a curling pinnacle of bones and spikes, with something resembling a purple spinal column running up the front, and a tiny topper that's shaped like a human skeleton holding a pair of scales out to the side. It's comical and ridiculous, and suits the toy perfectly. Love it! The Horsemen, knowing that topper would be thin and delicate, wrapped an extra little piece of shaped plastic around it in the tray, to keep it from getting bent. Appreciate that effort! There are a lot of companies who could do the same.
In Mythic Legions's "Soul Spiller" series, the story was all about the forces of evil trying to retrieve the titular weapon, which would allow them to resurrect Illythia, but it never revealed exactly what that weapon was. At last, we get to find out, and it's way different
from what anyone was expecting. A special sword? A fancy guisarme? Nothing so pedestrian! She's mystical, so why would she need a straightforward, prosaic weapon like that? The Soul Spiller is a pair of spiked scales hanging by chains from each end of a handle that looks like exaggerated snake skeletons. Wicked! While it does look like she could physically beat you with it, like a cross between a morning star and nunchucks, it presumably operates on a more metaphysical level.
Really setting Illythia apart from the average Mythossian is the backpack that gives her four extra arms. They're fully skeletal
and solid black, suggesting they're just sculpted items she's wearing, not something organic. Unlike the skeleton arms we've seen before, thse have bare forearms. Neat! Her hair is pulled into three sections to fit around the arms; your best bet for getting the backpack into place is just to remove the head and put it on that way, but be careful you don't lose her ornate necklace when you do.
To keep her Kali arms from just hanging there empty-handed,
the figure has four accessories: the two-part curved sword staff thing we've seen before, and a pair of loose scale plates on chains. Put the sword in the top hands, turn the lower hands up and hang the plates from those. She looks freaky and impressive all done up! The skeleton arms have all the usual MyLe articulation; no reason a magical being would need an immobile backpack, I guess. Her skirt and sash get posing wires, so they don't have to hang weirdly when you move her.
Like Arethyr, Illythia was available either alone
or in a set with her horse, Phobus. It's a decent release, a black horse with purple hair, a skeletal face, and bone and bat-wing decorations on its bridle, but as the preorder deadline approached, I realized I was just trying to talk myself into wanting it, and decided to pass. I may regret that when my collection becomes "the Three Horsemen and One Lady Standing Around," but for now saving the money was worth it. Illythia is a freaky figure, which suits her character, and she'll look great next to Arethyr. The preorders for Poxxus, the next dark god, were earlier this year, so now we just wait for Necronominus.
-- 10/22/22
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