Rayne (BloodRayne)
Encyclopedia
Rayne, sometimes called Agent BloodRayne, 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 has also appeared in other formats, such as an MTV
music video and the first entry in Playboy
s "Gaming Grows Up" series of articles. In video games she is voiced by Laura Bailey
in English, Jessie Seely in BloodRayne Betrayal, and Romi Park in Japanese. She was portrayed by Kristanna Loken
in the first live action film, and by Natassia Malthe
for its sequels.
Rayne's character was inspired by an existing Terminal Reality-created character, the dhampir
Svetlana Lupescu, who appeared in their 1999 game Nocturne. Described as initially having a "militant, dark gothic look [...] a brunette with tight buns in her hair and a very severe body line", the character went through several design changes, with an active goal to make her as appealing and distinctive as possible in order to create a franchise with lasting appeal. To this end they worked to give her a unique look, relying not only on making the character sexually appealing but also make her stand out in people's eyes, which producer Raymond Holmes her arm blades achieved. Her design was additionally intended to have a presence "both menacing and sexy at the same time", which he felt made her "a particularly strong female lead character with lots of attitude".
Majesco manager Liz Buckley in interviews said her designers had learned from focus groups that boys and young men not only liked female lead characters, but that they paid more attention to them. She added that "injecting sensuality" into Rayne's character design, describing her appearance as "lethal erotica" and adding that she felt no problem using the fact Rayne was "inherently sexy" to promote the character. Additional care for detail was done for her face, after noting focus groups wished to see it as compared to solely seeing the character from behind. Buckley went on to state "T&A
will only get you so far", adding that while the character was aimed at a target audience of males ages seventeen to thirty-four, she felt the character had a female fan following as well due to being "empowering to play".
The character's in-game movements were animated by hand for the first title, and in the sequel were augmented by motion capture
to "allow for more realist-looking movement". She added that with BloodRayne 2 the character model had also been heavily altered, adding "about one thousand" more polygons
and using less on her hair in order to use more on her "curves and body line", as well as give her a more mature appearance. When questioned about the similarities between Rayne and another female vampire character Durham Red
from the comic book
series 2000 AD
, game designer Joe Wampole stated that while similar they had not previously heard of the character, and added regarding their similar appearance "I think it is just natural to put a vamp chick in black leather and either color her hair black or red."
Laura Bailey described providing voice acting for the character as "a blast", though added she couldn't say she identified with the character. Bailey stated that during voice acting sessions, the director would occasionally approach her with changes to the game's script; if the dialogue was nasty enough to cause her to blush while saying the lines, he felt the change was good. Romi Park stated Rayne's appearance had a large impact upon her, citing Rayne's red hair and her desire to further understand the character. She went further to describe her portrayal of the character as exhibiting "lots of sadness" as well as "strong sense of justice".
Dhampir
, born c.1915-1916. Her mother was raped by her vampire
father, Kagan. 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 avenge her family. Her search led her to Europe
, where she murdered Vampires before being apprehended. She claimed that her victims had been vampires, but 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. 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 the demon Beliar back to life. Rayne also learned of a plan to use demon
ic 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
.
In 2005, Rayne appeared in Majesco's Infected
as an unlockable character. When asked if she had a storyline of her own for the title, Majesco producer Dean Martinetti stated no, adding that the game's protagonist "just happens" to resemble the character.
, in the October 2004 U.S.
edition as part of an article entitled "Gaming Grows Up". She has also made appearance in MTV
's "Video Mods
", which a music video portrayed her performing Evanescence
's song "Everybody's Fool
". "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." In 2009, she was one of several characters featured in cosplay
ed as part of a "Video Game Girls" burlesque
show at bar The Bordello in Los Angeles, as a tie-in to the year's E3 event.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
featured Rayne in their "Art of Gaming" special, noting her popularity and attractiveness; however, in a later article they decried her appearance in Playboy, stating that further similar exhibitions would damage how the public perceived the character. UGO.com described her as "epitome of a video game hotttie," placing her fourth on their list of the "Top 11 Video Game Heroine Hotties" and praising both her appearance and abilities, later listed as one of the "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" at number twenty with similar sentiments. She placed eleventh on their list of the "Top 50 Sexiest Vampires", which noted that while she represented a negative aspect of video games in 2002, a "scantily-clad heroine in a graphically violent third-person adventure", her feature in Playboy despite not being real meant "they did something right". GameDaily
ranked her twelfth on their list of the "Top 50 Hottest Game Babes", stating "[T]he only thing sexier than a female vampire is [one] that kills Nazis", also listing her as one of their favorite red-haired females related to video games. Several other lists have featured her in a similar context, such as those by Team Xbox and Spike TV, and was also named one of the "50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History" by Tom's Games. GameDaily
included her in their "Babe of the Week: Redheads".
In contrast, the character has been cited as exemplifying a recurring negative portrayal of female characters in video games. The book Fundamentals of Game Design criticized her as "so extreme" that it made identification with the character difficult for female players, citing her as an example of "male-fantasy characters" in video games.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the BloodRayne
BloodRayne
BloodRayne has received mostly mixed to positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Xbox version 73.53% and 76/100, the GameCube version 68.88% and 73/100, the PlayStation 2 version 68.87% and 75/100 and the PC version 65.78% and 65/100.-External links:*...
series of video games. Created by Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment
Majesco Entertainment is a video game publisher founded in 1986.-History:Majesco first made a name as a reissuer of old titles that had been abandoned by their original publisher. By cutting the prices dramatically and, eventually, arranging the rights to self-manufacture games for both Nintendo...
, 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 has also appeared in other formats, such as an MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
music video and the first entry in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
s "Gaming Grows Up" series of articles. In video games she is voiced by Laura Bailey
Laura Bailey (voice actress)
Laura Dawn Bailey is an American actress, voice actress, Singer, Line Producer and ADR Director. She has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films, television series, as well as video games...
in English, Jessie Seely in BloodRayne Betrayal, and Romi Park in Japanese. She was portrayed by Kristanna Loken
Kristanna Loken
Kristanna Sommer Loken is an American actress known for her work in both film and television, and as a fashion model.-Early life:Loken was born in Ghent, New York, the daughter of Rande , a model, and Merlin "Chris" Loken, a writer and apple farmer. All four of her grandparents were born in Norway...
in the first live action film, and by Natassia Malthe
Natassia Malthe
Natassia Malthe is a Norwegian model and actress.-Biography:Natassia is the younger of two daughters. She was born in Oslo, Norway. She is half Filipino. She is usually credited by her birth name however is sometime credited as 'Lina Teal'...
for its sequels.
Conception and design
Dhampir
A Dhampir in Balkan folklore is the child of a vampire father and a human mother. The term is sometimes spelled dhampyre, dhamphir, or dhampyr. Dhampir powers are similar to those of vampires, but without the usual weaknesses...
Svetlana Lupescu, who appeared in their 1999 game Nocturne. Described as initially having a "militant, dark gothic look [...] a brunette with tight buns in her hair and a very severe body line", the character went through several design changes, with an active goal to make her as appealing and distinctive as possible in order to create a franchise with lasting appeal. To this end they worked to give her a unique look, relying not only on making the character sexually appealing but also make her stand out in people's eyes, which producer Raymond Holmes her arm blades achieved. Her design was additionally intended to have a presence "both menacing and sexy at the same time", which he felt made her "a particularly strong female lead character with lots of attitude".
Majesco manager Liz Buckley in interviews said her designers had learned from focus groups that boys and young men not only liked female lead characters, but that they paid more attention to them. She added that "injecting sensuality" into Rayne's character design, describing her appearance as "lethal erotica" and adding that she felt no problem using the fact Rayne was "inherently sexy" to promote the character. Additional care for detail was done for her face, after noting focus groups wished to see it as compared to solely seeing the character from behind. Buckley went on to state "T&A
Gluteus maximus muscle
The gluteus maximus is the largest and most superficial of the three gluteal muscles...
will only get you so far", adding that while the character was aimed at a target audience of males ages seventeen to thirty-four, she felt the character had a female fan following as well due to being "empowering to play".
The character's in-game movements were animated by hand for the first title, and in the sequel were augmented by motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...
to "allow for more realist-looking movement". She added that with BloodRayne 2 the character model had also been heavily altered, adding "about one thousand" more polygons
Polygon (computer graphics)
Polygons are used in computer graphics to compose images that are three-dimensional in appearance. Usually triangular, polygons arise when an object's surface is modeled, vertices are selected, and the object is rendered in a wire frame model. This is quicker to display than a shaded model; thus...
and using less on her hair in order to use more on her "curves and body line", as well as give her a more mature appearance. When questioned about the similarities between Rayne and another female vampire character Durham Red
Durham Red
Durham Red was originally created in 1987 as a female sidekick and lover for Johnny Alpha in the long-running British comicbook series Strontium Dog. She was a sexy bounty hunter with a mutation that gave her a vampiric lust for blood.-Publication history:...
from the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series 2000 AD
2000 AD (comic)
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...
, game designer Joe Wampole stated that while similar they had not previously heard of the character, and added regarding their similar appearance "I think it is just natural to put a vamp chick in black leather and either color her hair black or red."
Laura Bailey described providing voice acting for the character as "a blast", though added she couldn't say she identified with the character. Bailey stated that during voice acting sessions, the director would occasionally approach her with changes to the game's script; if the dialogue was nasty enough to cause her to blush while saying the lines, he felt the change was good. Romi Park stated Rayne's appearance had a large impact upon her, citing Rayne's red hair and her desire to further understand the character. She went further to describe her portrayal of the character as exhibiting "lots of sadness" as well as "strong sense of justice".
Appearances
Rayne is a bloodthirsty AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Dhampir
Dhampir
A Dhampir in Balkan folklore is the child of a vampire father and a human mother. The term is sometimes spelled dhampyre, dhamphir, or dhampyr. Dhampir powers are similar to those of vampires, but without the usual weaknesses...
, born c.1915-1916. Her mother was raped by her vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
father, Kagan. 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
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
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 avenge her family. Her search led her to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, where she murdered Vampires before being apprehended. She claimed that her victims had been vampires, but 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. One of these missions required her to use her vampiric powers against the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, who were on the verge of using magical artifacts to bring the demon Beliar back to life. Rayne also learned of a plan to use demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
ic 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
Thule Society
The Thule Society , originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum , was a German occultist and völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend...
.
In 2005, Rayne appeared in Majesco's Infected
Infected (video game)
Infected is a third person shooter for the PlayStation Portable, developed by Planet Moon Studios.-Plot:Infected puts players in the role of a police officer in New York City, 3 weeks before Christmas while the entire city is rapidly being infected with a virus that turns people into ravaging,...
as an unlockable character. When asked if she had a storyline of her own for the title, Majesco producer Dean Martinetti stated no, adding that the game's protagonist "just happens" to resemble the character.
Promotion and reception
Rayne is the first video-game character that appeared in Playboy MagazinePlayboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, in the October 2004 U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
edition as part of an article entitled "Gaming Grows Up". She has also made appearance in MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's "Video Mods
Video Mods
Video Mods was a television series that aired on MTV2. The show turned video games into music videos. It was created by Tony Shiff of Big Bear Entertainment in 2003. A pilot aired in Dec 2003, having been underwritten by Electronic Arts...
", which a music video portrayed her performing Evanescence
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide...
's song "Everybody's Fool
Everybody's Fool
"Everybody's Fool" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. Wind-up Records released the song on June 7, 2004, as the fourth single from their debut studio album, Fallen. It was written by Amy Lee and Ben Moody and it was produced by Dave Fortman. According to Lee the song talks about...
". "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." In 2009, she was one of several characters featured in cosplay
Cosplay
, short for "costume play", is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and science fiction...
ed as part of a "Video Game Girls" burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
show at bar The Bordello in Los Angeles, as a tie-in to the year's E3 event.
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
featured Rayne in their "Art of Gaming" special, noting her popularity and attractiveness; however, in a later article they decried her appearance in Playboy, stating that further similar exhibitions would damage how the public perceived the character. UGO.com described her as "epitome of a video game hotttie," placing her fourth on their list of the "Top 11 Video Game Heroine Hotties" and praising both her appearance and abilities, later listed as one of the "Top 50 Videogame Hotties" at number twenty with similar sentiments. She placed eleventh on their list of the "Top 50 Sexiest Vampires", which noted that while she represented a negative aspect of video games in 2002, a "scantily-clad heroine in a graphically violent third-person adventure", her feature in Playboy despite not being real meant "they did something right". GameDaily
GameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
ranked her twelfth on their list of the "Top 50 Hottest Game Babes", stating "[T]he only thing sexier than a female vampire is [one] that kills Nazis", also listing her as one of their favorite red-haired females related to video games. Several other lists have featured her in a similar context, such as those by Team Xbox and Spike TV, and was also named one of the "50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History" by Tom's Games. GameDaily
GameDaily
GameDaily was a video game journalism website based in the United States. Launched in 1995 by entrepreneur Mark Friedler under the name Gigex and focused on free game demo downloads, The site changed its business model from a flat fee per download CDN distributed service network to an...
included her in their "Babe of the Week: Redheads".
In contrast, the character has been cited as exemplifying a recurring negative portrayal of female characters in video games. The book Fundamentals of Game Design criticized her as "so extreme" that it made identification with the character difficult for female players, citing her as an example of "male-fantasy characters" in video games.