Holy Avenger

Holy Avenger is a Brazilian comic book series by writer Marcelo Cassaro and artist Erica Awano.

A post-teenage Brazilian comic, it is set in the medieval fantasy world of Arton, part of the RPG campaign setting Tormenta.

The series lasted for 42 issues (40 regular ones and a 2-issue "post-end" story). Spinoffs include special issues that portray each of the main characters individually, an audio CD with voice actors playing the characters, an RPG book based on events in the series, an artbook with original sketches, and a new edition.

The English name Holy Avenger was given to the series because it can both refer to a D&D magical item and one of the main characters, the Paladin. A Portuguese name would have been gender-specific to indicate either the sword or the fighter, and thus wouldn't work the same way. In this case, the title becomes "Vingador Sagrado" (male gender) or "Vingadora Sagrada" (female gender).

Originally, Holy Avenger was an adventure for a D&D game published in the RPG magazine Dragão Brasil, issues #44 to #46, in 1998. In 1999, author Marcelo Cassaro made up his own RPG setting, called "Tormenta" (Storm, referencing an extraplanar storm that afflicted the campaign setting's world). He included the Holy Avenger characters in this new RPG setting. In 1999 he teamed up with Erica Awano to start an ongoing monthly comic series.

Initially, sales were unsatisfactory, but after about 10 issues the magazines took off.

The series was sent back to the newsstands through the short-lived Holy Avenger VR, which lasted only seven editions, and through Holy Avenger Reloaded, which had more pages and extra material.

The plot revolves around a 19-year-old girl, Lisandra, a druid who was raised by animals on the island of Galrasia. She starts having dreams about the Paladin, a hero who mysteriously disappeared a few years ago. This Paladin had in his armour the Rubies of Virtue, twenty magical gems forged by each one of the twenty most powerful gods of the world of Arton. The gems were scattered all over the world after the Paladin's disappearance, and, according to Lisandra's dreams, it is up to her to find them and return them to the Paladin, in order to revive him.

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Wikipedia