Revendreth, my home away from home

I’m just going to take a minute to gush about Revendreth and the Venthyr in particular as both a race and a covenant. It’s absolutely my favorite aspect of the game right now - favorite zone to spend my time in, favorite NPC’s to interact with, and favorite part of the Shadowlands all around.

I love the fact that each and every Venthyr that you meet is a former villain, sometimes on a massive cosmic scale that should leave you horrified, but most of them are content to make catty remarks about each other’s parties over tea. The high handed, formal nature of their every interaction is a treat, and I love the cloak and dagger skull duggery as the different noble houses plot against one another between decadent soirées.

The dredgers are also fantastic. They could have just gone with a basic Igor ‘yes master’ aesthetic here but instead they made them out to be a bunch of rowdy cockney accented lads that are a lot smarter (and more observant) than they look. I love how they refer to their masters as ‘fangs’ behind their backs, and don’t seem to really want to fight you even when commanded to. It gives a real sense that the Dredgers are the ones actually keeping Revendreth from falling apart and just let the Venthyr carry on thinking they’re running things.

The Stoneborn are pretty fascinating too, especially how they range in size and shape. I’m curious if their demonic features are a side effect of the anima that animates them or, if not, who it was exactly who decided to carve them in such intimidating forms? I know they’re more based off the concept of Gargoyles and what not, but I’m genuinely curious about their origins and hope we find out more about them when we go to get the Medallion of Wrath in the future.

Getting back to the Venthyr as a covenant, I really enjoy how blunt Prince Renathal is about your role in his plot to seize power from Denathrius.

My favorite member of the covenant however is probably Theota, the Mad Duke. I absolutely adore his entire aesthetic and how he comes off as the stereotypical goofy/harmless vampire but he’s actually a major player and extremely powerful and well connected on the quiet. (I thought it was magnificent that he had a house with private access to the Harvester of Lust’s boudoir!) His optimism and kindness are truly inspiring, even in the face of his enemies (My interaction of his is probably when one of the toughs who stole his parasol tries to insult his ‘fancy’ hideout in the Ember Ward and Theotar just delightedly replies ‘it is fancy, isn’t it?’ Good times.)

More than anything though, I think it’s nice to see that it’s not just the good and heroic souls that have a vested interest in not having their world turned upside down by the Jailer and his minions. The Venthyr may have fallen back into some of the sin they are meant to expunge, but they aren’t all that bad, and are quite charming.

I kind of hope Revendreth serves as something of a loose blueprint for a future Worgen or Forsaken zone (or both would be fine too). I really enjoy that Revendreth is just one huge castle with sprawls of untamed woodlands, bogs, and badlands in between. I think something like that could really work for a Worgen focused zone with lots of portcullises and moonlit towers. Likewise I think the Halls of Atonement, particularly the Crypts of the Forgotten, could serve as an interesting starting point for a new underground Forsaken society. But I probably won’t be holding my breath, as cool as I think that would be.

Revendreth has just knocked my socks off and it’s the first aspect of the game in a long time that I have no complaints about. (It probably doesn’t hurt that I’m an old Legacy of Kain fan and stumbling across Simon Templman voicing the occasional NPC has been a steady source of delight!)

What do you think of Revendreth and the Venthyr?

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Well the stonewright was the one to carve her stone born children into shape, so we can assume she also came up with their design.

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Theotar is magnificent and delightful. I love that he brought in decorations to Sinfall and the Ember Court during Winter Veil, that was a lovely touch. Really, there isn’t a single character in Revendreth that I don’t enjoy, because even the villains are great in the “villain you love to hate” sort of way. I love the aesthetic of the entire zone, and I love the dramatic changes in height between the different towers and surrounding terrain, it makes the zone feel very different from most others in the game.

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Ah Theotar you nutty loon, he really is great

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