Wait, I don't understand. More people voted for the interesting woman, but the Four Horsemen didn't just give us an orange goblin instead? Since when is that how voting works?
The only survivor of an attack on her small village
by Vorgus Vermillius the vampiric wearer of the Blood Armor, Ravaena was taken in as a young child by a sect loyal to the Order of Eathyron and trained as a cleric. Vowing vengeance against the Blood Armor and willing to use controversial means to obtain the relics she believes she needs to defeat it, she was ultimately exiled from the Order. She later became a member of the Convocation of Bassylia, where she continues her quest undeterred.
At least she's still a good guy, huh? The Order of Eathyron are the religious fundies, the Convocation of Bassylia are the spooky wizards, but they both want to protect the people of Mythoss, not conquer them. So for now, it remains only Jjuno the Crusher who's switched alignments, while Ravaena, like Attlus, has merely switched allegiences.
Ravaena is the FANtastic Exclusive winner for the Advent of Decay series; In February of 2017, members of the Four Horsemen's
message board could vote for every facet of the figure's creation, starting with the torso and working out from there. Well, the first question was whether to use Mythic Legions 1.0 or Mythic Legions 2.0 parts, but once that was decided, it was off to the races: bikini chest and armored abs; bare right upper arm; bare left upper arm; leather armor right forearm; leather armor left forearm; leather right hand; leather left hand; plate armor pauldrons; "legendary" style belt and faulds; scaled loin armor; bare thighs; leather lower legs; leather feet; hooded head; cape... and that's just the rounds based on construction, which all happened before the many many roundes regarding paint and accessories! The point is, literally everything was chosen by the fans. We done good, y'all!
As mentioned, Ravaena (whose name sounds like a reference
to those other FanEx stalwarts, the ravens) uses the hooded head, meaning she's the reason I didn't get Azza Spiritbender, the only other figure so far to use it; I liked Azza's purple better than Ravaena's blue, but picking just one of them let me save money. By the time the Kickstarter closed, Rav's face was still unpainted, leaving her looking like she was wearing a solid mask. Honestly, I'm a bit bummed she ended up getting a skintone at all, because the white looked cool!
The black bodysuit was a great addition - it helps her look dark and stealthy, and skintight clothing is sexy. You've also got to appreciate the fact that this is what was chosen by the fans - we're old enough to remember when Lotus the Angel Warrior wearing pants caused a fanboy uproar, and here's Ravaena, way more covered up than Lotus ever was! So either the creeps who were mad at McFarlane Toys have mellowed with time, have drifted out of the hobby, or have just stopped beating around the bush and moved on to buying big-tiddied anime statues. Anyway, let's pretend the "controversial means" she uses to get her artifacts involve breaking and entering, which is why she dresses so darkly.
She really impresses when it comes to the accessories, though. Three were voted on - crossbow and quiver set, the Magic User's Staff (with interchangeable heads), and the Bone Sword - but she also comes with the usual leather strap, the three wing adapters, and the biggest surprise of all, one of the battle standards from the Mythic Legions 1.0 Kickstarter! How about that! I didn't get those back then, so this is entirely new to me.
The flag itself isn't that big, but the pole it's on is tall enough (a massive 13" all told) to tower over the figure. Or not, since it's modular: you can take the middle section out and make it the right size for a character to hold. A human character at least; Thistlethorn would still have some problems. Since all 10 factions already got their symbols printed on one of these, Ravaena's uses a new fantasy version of the Four Horsemen skull logo. Too cool!
The other accessories are nice as well.
The magical staff has your choice of tips, one pointy and metallic, the other gnarled wood. The black-and-gold sword is a fierce looking weapon, with a hilt that looks like a spine and short spikes below the blade. And the blue-and-gold crossbow has a real string and small clip to hold the single loose arrow. All the pieces work with Rae's colorscheme, and add personality to her design. There are also the golden pauldrons and the navy blue cape, which you'll probably want to have on the figure all the time - the hood looks odd without it.
Through all the rounds of voting and the millions of potential permutations that could have been, the FANtastic Exclusive Ravaena Nightshade is a wonderful result. And tying her backstory in with last year's winner makes clever sense, too.
-- 08/03/19
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