Arkhan the Cruel

The last time we reviewed a Mythic Legions figure, we said it would have been great if the Four Horsemen had done Critical Role figures. And now they sort of have! Arkhan the Cruel, oathbreaker paladin and Highlord of the dragon queen. The lone survivor of a failed tomb raiding expedition into the lair of a powerful undead pharaoh, Arkhan escaped only to be arrested by local authorities who sentenced him to death. The dragon queen then appeared to him in a dream offering her help on one condition, his life would belong to her. Rather than be executed, he took her offer, and upon his escapefrom his captors, she transformed him into the bestial appearance of a half-dragon. Since then he has risen in the ranks of her followers and commands the majority of her army. All the while he has searched not only for a way to fulfill his purpose in freeing her from her chains in Hell, but he also secretly scours the planes of existence for a way to break his bond from her. His latest plan involved replacing his left hand with that of the cursed hand of a demi-lich in the hopes that mastering its power could bring him closer to achieving his goals. But, the power it wields comes at a price. The cursed hand is slowly overtaking Arkhan and corrupting his body with the Lich's necrotic influence. Arkhan the Cruel is not just some random original fantasy creation, the way, say, Jon Snow or Geralt of Rivia are - he's Joe Manganiello's own D&D character, rolled up with dice and played for real in his tabletop game. If you don't recognize the name, Manganiello was Tobey Maguire's Flash Thompson, Zack Snyder's Deathstroke, and was clowing on MJF before MJF was a thing. And because Joe's kind of famous, and also famous for playing D&D, he was first invited to help playtest Fifth Edition, then appeared on Critical Role a few times (both in a one-shot and as part of the main campaign), then a special streamed event on what would have been Gary Gygax's 80th birthday, and eventually his character became an official part of the lore as an NPC in the Baldur's Gate 3 prequel adventure, Descent into Avernus. Arkhan has evolved through his various cameos, and we don't just mean going from Level 6 in his first on-screen appearance to Level 17 by his next. Like, there are a few beats that are generally the same, but there are major discrepencies, too. You can kind of weave them together into one background, but this toy's bio is the first time we've ever heard that he wasn't naturally a dragonborn, but only changed to look like one. And the thing about the pharaoh? Since this is made entirely with Joe's input, there's no question that's canon information. The figure includes two heads, both with large horns acting as eyebrows, a long snout with a rhino-style horn on top of the nose, spikes on the cheeks and chin, and webbed flaps thatemerge in place of ears. The first head is snarling angrily, while the second has the mouth open and his forked tongue sticking out. Both look great and suit the character, and they swap easily (just be sure not to lose his necklace when you take them off). Arkhan is taller than the average Mythic Legion, 8#&189;" tall even when you have his legs bent in a natural squat. His armor is slightly less ornate, but no less detailed in its sculpt. LIke, he's not covered in a bunch of Final Fantasy belts or anything, but the armor is layered and textured, and his exposed skin is covered with thick scales. The construction remains MyLe standard, with modular construction and removable pieces, but the chain on his cape is real metal, and so is the one around his waist like a belt. There are a feew decorative elements shaped like human skulls, reminding us that he is Neutral Evil, after all. He's got large nails or claws on his fingers and toes,and a 7¾" long ridged tail trailing behind him. His colors are very dark. The armor is a very strong grey, with tarnished golden trim, and his skin is a very nice brick red, fading to a somewhat brighter color on the insides of the arms and the underside of the tail. His cape and loincloth, softgoods by CJESIM, provide a navy blue background that really allows to gold to pop. In addition to being bigger, the figure gets more articulation than the average Mythic Legion as well: swivel/hinge/swivel toes, swivel/hinge heels, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge hips, swivels for the bendy tail, balljointed waist and chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, perctoral hinges, and a barbell head, plus the softgoods have posing wires. For the life of me, I cannot get the upper hinge on the left elbow moving, not matter what I try; but that's also why we can tell you the scaly skin on his elbows is a separate mold that's attached to the mechanism of the joint, rather than just being part of it. Unusual! One thing about that bio up above, it definitely goes out of its way to remove any overt references to Dungeons & Dragons. Like, Arkhan's a dragonborn, but Wizards of the Coast owns that term, so this just calls him a half-dragon; the "dragon queen" he serves is unnamed, rather than being specifically identified as Tiamat; his page on the Horsemen's site says he teamed with "a band of heroes" instead of worrying about the legality of naming Vox Machina; and it just talks about him fighting a lich without telling us that that was literally Vecna, one of D&D's biggest big-bads, introduced in the early days of the game and appearing in every edition since. The Hand of Vecna is a pre-existing artifact (pre-existing even the first appearance of Vecna himself, amusingly, the same way Doctor Strange's Crimson Bands of Cyttorak were in the comics before Cyttorak himself), one of the last two remnants of his original mortal form. To use it you have to cut off your own hand and jam Vecna's on there, and while this figure could have just done that with an alternate left hand, the Horsemen have instead given us an entire extra arm! The shoulder and bicep (and elbow) are the same, but the forearm morphs from big burly dragon to scrawny human corpse halfway down, and the hand is skinny with long, sharp nails. It's grey, blending into Arkhan's normal red and obviously being more than "just" a weird hand. The set also includes a ball of magical green energy, designed to fit specifically on this hand. When talking about the swappable heads, we mentioned he was wearing a necklace. It appears to be teeth or claws - bony spikes of some sort - with black, green, white, blue, and red beads in between them, representing the five colors of Tiamat. That's presumably meant to be the Wreath of the Prism, a mystical artifact he picked up in his first Critical Role adventure, though it doesn't match the official art. Because of the "no directly referencing DnD" thing we said above. It's supposed to be a loop of golden thorns that stab into the wearer, giving them darkvision and the ability to control monsters. Even if this looks different, it's cool they included it, especially as a separate piece you could give to other characters if you wanted. Arkhan's weapon is Fane-Eater, an axe that used to belong to a general of Hell. (Tiamat sent him on a lot of quests to get useful things over the decade he spent in her service.) Its handle seems to be formed from some long bone wrapped in leather, and the axe head has a design reminiscent of a spine and ribs on its sides. When using it in Critical Role, he managed to do 135 damage in one round, the highest amount ever done on the show. But still way below his own personal best (and official D&D record) of 323 points. The figure includes extra hands designed for holding the axe. The Four Horsemen's site calls it the Bonecleaver axe, but that was a different weapon ith And since he's a dragonborn, Arkhan gets a breath weapon: just like Tiamat, red means fire, so he gets a translucent flame effect that can plug into his open mouth. The togue is removable, revealing a big square slot where the flame can be securely plugged in. If you didn't already know that was doable, you wouldn't be able to guess it: the tongue is in there tightly, pretty much forcing you to push it out from behind in order the remove it. He does look very cool breathing the fire, though, and that's a clever way of doing it. Finally, he also includes a... thing. It's a black rectangle on a round post. The site neither pictures nor even mentions it, so [citation needed]? Arkhan the Cruel is expensive, even by Mythic Legions standards, but he's also larger than usual and his parts probably can't be reused for anything else in the future. That meant I couldn't afford to get the other figure released at the same time, but she didn't appear on Cirtical Role, so I wasn't too pressed about it. Arkhan will look good with any D&D figures you might have, or even just as a cool dragon knight on his own. -- 10/21/26 What's your favorite "numbers filed off" DnD reference? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.