Rayne (BloodRayne)
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Rayne |
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| Also known as: | Agent BloodRayne |
| Voiced by: | English: Laura Bailey (BloodRayne, BloodRayne 2) Jessie Seely (BloodRayne: Betrayal) Japanese: Romi Park (BloodRayne) |
| Played by: | Kristanna Loken (BloodRayne film) Natassia Malthe (BloodRayne 2: Deliverance, BloodRayne: The Third Reich) |
| Year of birth: | c.1915-1916 c.1700s (BloodRayne film) |
| Birth location: | United States of America Romania (BloodRayne film) |
| Measurements: | 36-22-36 in |
| Natural tits: | Yes |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Body type: | Slim |
| Hair color: | Red |
| Ethnicity: | Dhampir (Half-Human, Half-Vampire) |
| Nationality: | American Romanian (BloodRayne film) |
| Topless: | Yes |
Rayne, sometimes called Agent BloodRayne or simply the Dhampir, is a fictional character in the BloodRayne series of video games. Created by Majesco Entertainment, she is the series' titular protagonist, appearing in both games and later extended media, such as comic books and films related to the series. She is voiced by Laura Bailey in BloodRayne and BloodRayne 2, and by Jessie Seely in BloodRayne: Betrayal. In the Japanese dub of BloodRayne, she is voiced by Romi Park. She was portrayed by Kristanna Loken in the first live action film, and by Natassia Malthe for its sequels BloodRayne II: Deliverance, and BloodRayne: The Third Reich.
Concept and creation
It is implied that Rayne was originally going to be Svetlana Lupescu, a Dhampir from a previous game from Terminal Reality, Nocturne. [1] Svetlana is a dhampir that fights supernatural creatures, using twin blades similar to those used by Rayne and works for an organization called Spookhouse, whose concept is similar to the Brimstone Society. Early screen shots for BloodRayne showed the title character dressed almost identically to Svetlana, suggesting that the game was originally planned as a sequel to Nocturne.[2]
The final version of Rayne may have been partially inspired by the character of Durham Red from the comic book 2000 AD, although that has been denied multiple times by the TRI representatives.[1] In a posting on the then active BloodRayne.co.uk fan forums Joe Wampole, a developer for BloodRayne, had this to say,
"Durham Red looks like a cool character but we've never heard of her. It is coincidence that her and BloodRayne look so similar.
The symbol on the hair is similar but looks more like a target, while Rayne's looks a little like Prince's symbol. Also, it looks like Durham is set in some alternate super sci-fi future.
I think it is just natural to put a vamp chick in black leather and either color her hair black or red."[3]
Personality
Rayne is a very complex young woman. She is intelligent, witty, extremely confident in her abilities, and somewhat dispassionate, rarely showing any sign of emotion, though she is short tempered, and is prone to violent fits of rage. Due to her upbringing as an assassin, Rayne is also strong-willed, stubborn, and foul-mouthed. However, Rayne still has an ever-present dark side that is constantly shown throughout the series. Due to that fact that Rayne was raised to be a powerful vampiric assassin that isn't supposed to show any sign of weakness to her opponents, she can seem cold, aloof, brooding, and even callous at times. Rayne is also bloodthirsty, kills without much concern, often decapitating and dismembering her opponents, and is uncaring towards the victims even though she stated that she "doesn't approve of senseless killing" in the first game. She is also frequently converses, taunts, and belittles her opponents before killing them. She doesn't care for the human race (although she does prefer to be thought of as half human), though she has been shown to actually care about a few people (Sir Trumain and Rayne's mother are notable examples). This may stem from already losing her loved ones over the years and her dedication to her job.
Brimstone Society Contacts
During the two games, Rayne keeps in contact with the Brimstone Society through middle-men, or contacts, these individuals are able to relay information to her, either directly, through a communications relay, or through the use of earphones linked through a two-way radio system.
Mynce
Mynce is a Tibetan Dhampir that served as Rayne's trainer, and original contact with the Brimstone Society. After a mission in Louisiana, during which, Rayne thinks her dead, Mynce went undercover within the GGG as a GGG Staff Sergeant to discover what they were after, she relayed all of her information to the Brimstone Society, who, in turn, relayed it to Rayne. When it came time for Mynce to meet Rayne again after the mission in Louisiana, Rayne initially thought her to be a traitor, and the two fought each other, until Mynce finally revealed herself. She was killed by Col. Jurgen Wulf near the end of the game. Rayne and Mynce have a typical teacher/student relationship at first, but later on, it grows into a sisterly relationship, as Rayne takes Mynce's death very hard. Mynce dresses somewhat provocatively, in a one piece dark purple outfit that stops well above the thighs, and mid-thigh length black boots, her outfit has a built-in cap, which hides her hair. Initally, Mynce keeps in contact with Rayne directly, but, after the Louisania mission, she relays information through another, unseen person, known only as Dark-Man.
Severin
Severin is a British-born member of the Brimstone Society. Severin acts as Rayne's contact, and occasionally, her conscience throughout the entire length of the second game. Severin is considered compassionate, and caring, although he does lose his reserved demeanor at least once during the game. He is also somewhat of a joker, as he is known to spout off one-liners during the game, such as "I think Zerenski just blew his membership at the Country Club." He once had a romantic relationship with Rayne's half-sister, Ephemera, but somehow, he was able to leave her, and the two had not seen each other since. His relationship with Rayne can be described as tenious at best, as the two share a few words with each other on occasion, however, both care for each other, as is evidenced when Severin discusses Rayne's hatred for her father, and her half siblings. Although it is never seen, Severin hints that he is Dhampir himself, at the end of the second game when he states to Rayne that Brimstone has "declared war on anything even remotely vampiric, that means the both of us." He keeps in constant contact with Rayne through the use of two-way earphones. Severin's mode of dress is somewhat reserved, as he wears a green turtleneck sweater, brown pants, brown shoes, and a long black trenchcoat.
History
Rayne is a bloodthirsty American Dhampir, born c.1915-1916. Her mother was raped by her vampire father, Kagan.[4] Kagan later murdered her mother's entire family so that the only family member Rayne could turn to is him. This wasn't cruelty, but a policy for all of the Dhampir he "created", possibly so that humans wouldn't revolt and use the Vampire/Dhampir weakness of the sun, holy items and water against them.
Circa 1932, she spent her teenage years trying to hunt down and kill her father, to get revenge for her family. It was a search that led her to Europe, where she committed a series of murders of Vampires along the way before being apprehended.[4] Claiming that her victims had been vampires, she was disbelieved by the authorities, but quickly managed to escape from them and continue her hunt.
She was recruited into the mysterious Brimstone Society via an invitation. The Brimstone Society sent her on missions to eliminate supernatural threats to the world.[4] One of these missions required her to use her vampiric powers against the Nazis, who were on the verge of using magical artifacts to bring Hitler to power. Rayne also learned of a plan to use demonic parasites called Daemites against the enemies of the Nazis, after they had been tested on prisoners. The background to the story is influenced by the existence of various historically real Nazi occult groups such as the Thule society.
Benevolent half-sister?
Most of Rayne's family is evil, however it is hinted she may have had a half-sister who was also either a Dhampir or a Vampire, but was not under Kagan's control. In the opening cut-scene in the first game, Mynce mentions Rayne being just as impatient as her half-sister. In the second game, in the flashback that shows Kagan breaking into Brimstone's HQs looking for the Vesper Shard, he mentions Prof. Trumane having stolen yet another one of his offspring, and raising it as his own. However, this probably could be a reference to the previous Terminal Reality game Nocturne character Svetlana Lupescu, who is a dhampir and has a story similar to Rayne, except that Svetlana never learned the identity of her father. This is either an in-joke for the game designers or has relevance to the story. This can't be confirmed until there is a third game, which is unlikely due to Majesco's (Publisher) financial problems, evidenced by how there was going to be a PSP game, but was cancelled due to financial difficulties.[5]
Developer Note: This was a character we planned to introduce in BR2, however due to time pressure many levels were cut, including the ones involving this character. She was actually modeled, a luminous nude woman with very long hair covering up parts of her body appropriately. She had powerful psychic powers and was going to help Rayne.
Abilities and Weapons
BloodRayne
In the first game, Rayne is highly athletic and versatile, due to her Dhampir nature as well as a lifetime of training. In addition to her ability to jump more than 20 feet into the air and running unnaturally fast, she is also strong enough to fire assualt rifles in each hand at different targets and pull her foes towards her using a wrist-mounted harpoon in order to feed on their blood, though she is also able to jump on enemies close-range and then feed on them with her legs wrapped around the enemy. Her melee weapons are a pair of blades mounted on her forearms and pointed stilettos on her boots.
Rayne has four vampiric powers in BloodRayne:
- Aura Vision - Allows her to sense enemies through walls, as well as highlight mission objectives.
- Blood Rage - Rayne temporarily inflicts more damage, moves faster and can use different attacks with her blades.
- Dilated Perception - Rayne slows down time by processing information in her mind faster than normal.
- Extruded View - A first person view in which Rayne can zoom in on distant targets.
BloodRayne 2
In BloodRayne 2, Rayne's athletic abilities are severely cut. She can only jump moderately higher than her enemies and some generic foes can even out run her. This may be because motion capturing was used and the internal engine of the game was modified to make the game as a whole look more realistic.[6]
Rayne is no longer able to pick up weapons from her enemies. In the BloodRayne 2 story line, Rayne acquires two replacement ranged weapons, the Carpathian Dragons. The dual handguns fuse blood with chemicals in order to make lethal projectiles. They gain their blood-ammunition supply by draining it from Rayne's victims and storing the blood in their reservoirs or when empty, drawing it directly from Rayne herself. They can only be used by Dhampirs, though it is not explained how or why, and have numerous lethal upgrades from their base Blood Shot (single shot) firing mode, including Blood Stream (fully automatic fire), Blood Spray (shotgun fletchette like shot), Blood Bomb (a time-delayed explosive round), Blood Flame (bursts of fiery material) and Blood Hammer (high-explosive).
Rayne's Physical Appearance
Rayne's character design is highly sexual in nature. Her outfit in BloodRayne is a revealing, formfitting black and red leather corset-like top and skin-tight black, red striped leather-pants, with sewn in boots. Her primary costume in BloodRayne 2 is an updated variation of her original outfit, though shinier, similar to vinyl, but she also wears a variety of different attires, almost all of which are very revealing. In both of the games she is always seen in 6+ inch metal stiletto heels.
Rayne's physical appearance went through a serious renovation from Bloodrayne to Bloodrayne 2. Her face has changed, body is now more proportioned, and looks more realistic overall due to motion capturing and renovated engine.[6]
Reception
Rayne is the first video-game character that appeared in Playboy magazine, apparing topless in the October 2004 U.S. edition as part of an article entitled "Gaming Grows Up".[1] She has also made an appearance in MTV's "Video Mods", which a music video portrayed her performing Evanescence's song "Everybody's Fool".[7] "Having BloodRayne as one of the premiere 'performers' in MTV2's 'Video Mods' show is a testament to her popularity and appeal," said Ken Gold, vice president of Marketing, Majesco. "We are thrilled to see BloodRayne star in a music video and we applaud MTV2's creative blending of entertainment mediums and properties."[7] UGO.com listed her as one of their top eleven video game heroines, stating her to be "epitome of a video game hotttie."[8]
Trivia
- She is a frequent subject of erotic artist Julius Zimmerman[9].
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 AT's Top 10 Video Game Chicks Actiontrip. Retrieved on December 2, 2007
- ↑ BloodRayne (Multi-Platform) Gamespy previews. Retrieved on August 11, 2007
- ↑ Bloodrayne.co.uk (October, 2002). Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Welcome to BloodRayne.com
- ↑ BloodRayne PSP (PSP) Gamespy. Retrieved on December 1, 2007
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Bloodrayne 2 Game Features Retrieved on December 2, 2007
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 BloodRayne 2 Music Video Gameworld Network. Retrieved on December 2, 2007
- ↑ Top 11 Video Game Heroine Hotties. UGO.com. Retrieved on 2008-12-29
- ↑ Rayne (BloodRayne) by TheRealZimmerman
