Powerful. Cold-hearted. Insane. Vendra Prog is without a doubt the most dangerous criminal the galaxy's ever seen. She's just so much more evil than your average space lunatic. Luckily she's currently deep in cryosleep on the high-security Nebulox Seven prison ship. All we have to do is deliver her safely to the Vartax Detention Centre. What could possibly go wrong?
Instruction Manual Character Summary, ItN
Vendra Prog, Prisoner 9971 or known by others as the Space Witch, is a primary antagonist in Into the Nexus. She, like her sibling, Neftin Prog, is a dangerous space criminal and a nether, who was sentenced to the Vartax Detention Facility before being freed by her brother Neftin.
Vendra is the most dangerous outlaw in the Polaris Galaxy, a mysterious criminal mastermind with strange esoteric dynamic traits. She strove to find her own species, the Nethers, at any and all costs. Contrasting herself with Ratchet, who long since abandoned his search for the Lombaxes. Her quest would lead to her to research Dimensionator science in order to release the nether leader, Mr. Eye, from the Netherverse from where she originates, her drive to find her own species eventually clouded her judgement and made her actions cruel and malignant.
History[]
Pre-Into the Nexus[]
Ms. Prog, along with her brother, originated from the Netherverse. When Vendra and Neftin were young, their parents sent them to Ratchet's dimension out of fear for their safety from the nether leader's cruelty, using Nether Rifts created by the great cataclysmic event caused by the fongoid misuse of time travel. As she was sent at a young age, she had no recollection of the events that occurred in the Netherverse. They were then found near a cave on planet Yerek, and since they were young enough, their bodies were able to adapt to the new reality, though they were unable to survive in the Netherverse without protective gear. The two were raised in the Meero Orphanage, a corrupt & decadent institution for wayward youths, where they led a miserable childhood and were constantly bullied by the other ragamuffins.
Vendra came across a new friend during her loathsome upbringing while exploring the caves below their room, whom she named Mr. Eye. Her newfound confidante then told her and Neftin of their heritage but also mentioned that, despite their desire to return home, they had been away too long for them to go back to the Netherverse. Vendra would decide, as they could not make it back to whence they came, then she would instead bring their place of origin to them instead. Allowing the Nethers into Ratchet's dimension. Her researching into transdimensional tunneling and quantum mechanics, conducting pan-reality experiments to find a way to release the Twins benefactor, the Nether Leader, from his own domain within the Netherverse. In the process, she turned the entire Zarkov Sector haunted with mermeous free forming lesser spawns of the Netherverse whose presence within their corner of existence caused transdimensional visions in those who remained within. Vendra also had Neftin fitted with cybernetic enhancements at some point, who served as her unstoppable body guard/enforcer.
Vendra's Prog's experimentation eventually led her to discover the Lombaxes and their greatest invention, Dimensionator, the duo having heard tale of Ratchet and Clank's exploits against Emperor Tachyon as well as many other criminal psychopaths. Culminating in they're stealing a tourbot named Docent 427 from the Intergalactic Museum of History in an attempt to steal the Dimensionator from it, though they opted instead to build their own when deducing that the museum was too heavily guarded.
Vendra imprisoned on the Nebulox Seven Prison Ship
In doing so, Vendra and Neftin Prog violently assaulted Pollyx Industries and kidnapped Pollyx, the CEO. This led to her arrest, and to her quintuple life sentence at the Vartax Detention Facility. She was then put into cryosleep and put on board the Nebulox Seven Prison Ship, and set to be escorted to the facility by Ratchet, Clank, Cronk and Zephyr.
Into the Nexus[]
Vendra spent six months in stasis aboard the penitentiary starship before being awoken by Ratchet and Clank to be taken to a designate penal facility. After being awoken, she first toyed with the two by exercising her telekinetic facilities to commandeer most of the vessels operations. Later, Neftin Prog hired the Thugs-4-Less mercenaries to strike the Nebulox, and board the shup, freeing her. Enraged at news of her overlong imprisonment, she used pyrocidic explosives that Neftin had planted on the ship to destroy it. Killing her captors, in spite of Neftin questioning the need to do so. Vendra successfully murdered Cronk and Zephyr, who were both tied up in the ship at the time it blew, though Ratchet and Clank survived and chased the two to their adopted homeworld of Yerek.
Ratchet and Clank eventually caught up with Vendra on planet Silox, where she had successfully created a knockoff Dimensionator with Pollyx's help. She then brought Mr. Eye into Ratchet's native reality, expecting a warm welcome. However, as Vendra had outlived her usefulness to him, Mr. Eye commented on how she was a pawn before ordering her tossed into the Netherverse before using his nether army to invade the universe.
Later, using the original Dimensionator, Neftin was able to open a portal into the Netherverse and free Vendra, whom had been left crying and destitute at the revelation that her longing for family and purpose in life had all been for nothing. With the help of Ratchet and Clank, the Zoni Son had entered the Netherverse and freed Vendra. Now back in the shared continua she grew up in, Prog used her own powers in combination with the original portal device she based her counterfeit on to re-imprison Mr. Eye and the rest of the Nethers back into the Netherverse. Afterwards, Neftin, having made a deal with Ratchet, turned himself and Vendra into authorities to be imprisoned, much to her protests.
Characteristics[]
Appearance[]
Vendra is a nether who has lived within Ratchet's dimension for an extended period, causing his physiology to adapt to it and give it a physical form. She has a humanoid shape, with a large, round head and a slim, slender body. Her hair is reddish pink in two ponytails that look like horns, she has pale and light green eyes, although she also wears purple clothes and a hat like Angela Cross's. Due to her telepathic powers, Vendra is almost always hovering above the ground. She has slit eyes with black irises that contract and expand like a feline in certain cases. When she is angrier, they narrow and focus on vertical linearity, when she is calm, however, they expand to her life size, being circular in shape and appearance.
Personality[]
Vendra and Neftin Prog
Vendra Prog isn't like the other criminals we've faced. She's cold and empty in a way I've never seen.
Talwyn Apogee, ItN
Vendra appears as a cold and dangerous ne'er-do-well, even more-so ruthless and willing to kill innocents to make a point than her brother. She was seen as cruel to almost everyone, even towards her own sibling, having already committed crimes before that which earned her a quintuple life sentence in a detention center in space.
However, as Neftin explains, her behavior is a result of her being driven by a longing to have a family. Her miserable childhood of persecution at the hands of heartless. apathetic caretakers as an orphan led her to longing to be reunited with her parent race, making the Nether easily manipulated by Mr. Eye who had promised it to her. In this, Vendra serves as a dark mirror of sorts for Ratchet. Who, unlike her, was not willing to take risks that would endanger the universe nor the countless lives presiding within it to be reunited with his own race, as he had rejected the opportunity to use the Dimensionator given the danger it posed and to use the Great Clock as a time machine as doing so could tear apart the fabrics of space and time. Vendra even stated to Ratchet that he should understand her desire to reunite with her kind and therefore, she couldn't understand Ratchet refusing Tachyon's offer to find the Lombaxes, even finding him to be a coward for it.
When Vendra was betrayed by Mr. Eye, she began to show a more vulnerable side to her personality, crying in sorrow when Clank found her imprisoned within the Netherverse, and acted more kindly to those around her. She also expressed regret to Neftin and apologized for her behavior towards him. Nonetheless, she objected to being thrown in jail, and joked about still being evil.
Abilities[]
Ratchet trapped by Vendra
Vendra Prog was capable of emitting psychic energy using psionic powers, a skill granted by her Monster Friend, as shown when she took over most of the Nebulox Seven Prison Ship despite being encased in a containment cell. She could also trap people inside psychic bubbles and levitate. She could also use her powers to energetically smack people; causing pain even to the likes of her technologically augmented twin brother. Once after Mr. Eye was forcibly returned to the Netherverse however, her powers appeared to have vanished. Or in the very least, shorted out to point of uselessness.
Vendra was also shown to be very intelligent. She constructed Neftin's cybernetic upgrades and was credited with the invention of the Netherblades as a kindergarten science project, and later created a rift beacon. She had done extensive research into quantum mechanics and transdimensional tunneling after reading books on the subjects. With the help of Pollyx and Neftin, she was able to build her own Dimensionator.
She was also skilled at piloting a M-class star cruiser.
Behind the scenes[]
Vendra's design was inspired by the evil queens of fairy tales.
Vendra speaking through com link
TJ Fixman compared Vendra to Courtney Gears, tweeting "If you thought Courtney Gears was evil, wait until you meet Vendra Prog".[1] Vendra Prog is the first major female villain to appear in the series since Courtney Gears, and the two both share the same voice actress in Nika Futterman, who voiced Gears in Deadlocked. Futterman also previously voiced Juanita Alvaro and Vernon.
References[]
- Fixman, TJ [@TJFixman] (2013, July 10). If you thought Courtney Gears was evil, wait until you meet Vendra Prog. #IntoTheNexus [Tweet]. Twitter.