Evren is a women, but used to be a faceless imperial officer until the team finally realized that evil needs a “face” to identify with.
Or in this case a voice, at least. I noticed that Evren had no dialogue in some of the early demos for Episode 1, while the Imperials in the boss ship did; would that be because she hadn’t been fully “created” at that stage?
Yes, if I got everything right, Evrens character was included in a very late stage of developement.
I’d love to see more of her in a prequel. 
some of her lines still make me think question her gender… listen to the laugh and the scream before she selfdestructs. sure, it could be a girl, but it is not definite.
if evren is indeed a woman, that says a lot about imperial culture.
there is a certain middle eastern influence in the style and themes of the empire and it just seemed as though the oppression of women might also transcend. while the seekers are quite liberal with women’s place in the culture, the worm riders appear to practice polygamy, although that may be a survival requirement and/or it may also go both ways (with a woman having several husbands).
so ANYWAY… evren being the captain of the first squadron of the most deadly weaponry that the empire has ever created (i think the dragonmares could have probably destroyed zoah almost as quickly as grig orig did and they don’t need to recharge afterwards) while supposedly being a woman shows that either:
A) the empire had always treated women equally and we just never ran into them.
B) women seized their place in the restructuring of the empire after the great fall
C) the southern people’s culture may have brought in some progressive views.
but i think we can all agree that evren is a crazy biatch
gehn: don’t push your luck, little man!
[quote=“Megatherium”]A) the empire had always treated women equally and we just never ran into them.
B) women seized their place in the restructuring of the empire after the great fall
C) the southern people’s culture may have brought in some progressive views.[/quote]
I had similar thoughts, but it also struck me that Evren might just be a unique case; after all, the rest of the Imperial officers and commanders in the game are all male (once again). Evren came across as being very masculine and aggressive in her few lines, so she might have risen through the ranks of the Imperial army and been appointed as leader of the dragonmare squadron simply because the Imperial commanders found her suitably terrifying, and they decided to make exceptions in her case.
Abadd said so before the game was released. There was a preview video that had that name in the subtitles, and one user registered with that name in the Welt forums. Then our international drone of mystery commented something like “It’s a little funny, because that character is a woman”.
I think to have a woman as a high ranking officer is more a result of roleplaying tradition that always included a certain degreee of equality even in fantasy middle-age scenarios. Being a long-time roleplayer I don’t have problems with that.
Plus we never got to see much of the whole Panzer world, so maybe we really just never got to see female officers.
Yes, Evren is a woman. And she was intentionally made to be masculine because, well, in most cultures, woman aren’t allowed to rise to the top ranks in the military. While that’s obviously not the case here, it still would be a challenge for a woman to be in the position of power that she is, without having what modern society has labelled as “masculine traits.” (i.e. aggressiveness, violent tendencies, etc.)
Making Evren a woman was the whole point - to make it all the more interesting - because of the Empire… being an Empire (very military and patriarchical) with the Emperor of course being a man etc… As in films, not much was placed on character development of someone who eventually dies before halfway through the game. Although theres no reason why all 5 Dragonmare riders could’ve had some personality - Older wiser man, young ambitious man, hell, chuck in another woman maybe? Maybe not a good idea plotwise - since they’re the ‘bad guys’ after all and you don’t want to the audience to create empathy for the ‘bad guys’.
OT - the Empire in Orta is heavily referenced from Japanese culture. Right down to the large picture of the Emperor we see in Episode 8, very traditional Japanese outfit and the regalia.
Now now, some of us love to see what motivates the bad guys to commit vile acts of villainy. Personally, I have a fondness for misunderstood heroes, and/or noble villains. What the Empire needs is a few admirals with personalities that threaten to take on a life of their own like the admirals we see in Skies of Arcadia.
The Empire needs a dark hero to lead it to victory, hunt down Abadd, and mount his head on a pike. So far, the Empire has been relegated to a group of militaristic humans who always stand in the way of the bigger picture. I don’t necessarily want to see that change (I hate stories that revolve around a single person or thing), but I do want the Empire to have the power to forge its own destiny instead of placing it in the hands of a 13 year old girl who somehow has “the power to change the world”.
Craymen was a good human villain but even he became a pawn/victim of the ancients’ technology.
Hopefully the Empire attaches some beam cannons to its armada of assault hoverships.
orta was the best non rpg in the series