Legacy of Kain Lore (Part 4 – Soul Reaver)
A Change of Plan
In my previous instalments I claimed that I would be exploring the story of Blood Omen 2 in the fourth part of my series, however, in my ignorance I did not recognize that though Blood Omen 2 occurs chronologically between Blood Omen 1 and Soul Reaver 1, the events are only possible following the paradox that was created in Soul Reaver 2. Therefore, in order to fully understand the ramifications of Raziel’s choices, it would be better to follow the games in the order that they were released rather than what I had intended. I hope you understand why I’m changing the order and hope you’ll forgive my ineptitude.
Recap
In the previous instalments we covered the following:
The Vampire-Hylden War: A feud between the Ancient Vampires and the Hylden that ended in the Hylden’s banishment from the material plane and the cursing of the vampires. The Ancient Vampires were devout worshippers of the Elder God, the hub of the Wheel of Fate, responsible for the turning of the wheel and the cleansing cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
The Rise of the Sarafan: The Pillars were the Ancient Vampires’ weapon that they used to cast out the Hylden. The Pillars were tied to an oligarchy of nine sorcerers known as the Circle of Nine, each member of the Circle was attuned to the principle of the Pillar that they served. Because of the Hylden’s curse, the Ancient Vampires began to dwindle in number so that the Pillars chose human Guardians instead. The Vampires then forced their gift upon the humans who saw this as a threat to their race and so rebelled. The Circle, now consisting of human Guardians, created the Order of the Sarafan to purge the vampire plague from the world. They were led by the Conflict Guardian, Malek, who recruited powerful commanders to aid him. Most notable of them all was Raziel, his second in command.
The Slaughter of the Circle: As the Sarafan continued their purges of the vampires, they provoked the wrath of the vampire Vorador and of the wraith Raziel from the future. Vorador exacts his revenge by slaughtering six of the Circle and Raziel murders his former brethren, including his former self.
The Corruption of the Circle: With the Sarafan gone and the Circle broken, new Guardians were chosen. Mortanius is then possessed by a dark entity and murders the Balance Guardian, Ariel, sending her lover Nupraptor into a grief-filled madness. Nupraptor turns his anger onto the other members of the circle, corrupting their minds with his psychic powers. This also corrupts the Pillars which were tied both to their respective Guardians and to the lands of Nosgoth. Nupraptor’s psychic scream also corrupts the unborn Kain who was chosen as the new Balance Guardian following Ariel’s murder.
Kain’s Legacy: Mortanius recognizes what he has done and plans to restore the circle by purging them so that new Guardians can be chosen. He decides to use Kain, the newly appointed Balance Guardian to facilitate this. Mortanius hires assassins to murder Kain so that when Kain enters the underworld he was poised to promise him a chance at revenge. Mortanius grants him his wish, giving him a second life, but one as a vampire. Kain then exacts his revenge but must now live on as an undead creature. Mortanius advises him to seek the Pillars of Nosgoth, where he will find his salvation. Kain agrees and at the Pillars he finds the spectre of the murdered Balance Guardian, Ariel. She informs him that in the cleansing of the circle he would find solace and so he agrees and embarks on a journey to purge the circle.
The First Paradox: Kain is delayed in finishing his quest because of an approaching army known as the Legions of the Nemesis. He attempts to rally the Army of Hope against them but they are no match for the oncoming evil. In his desperation, Kain travels back in time and kills King William the Just who would later become the Nemesis. They each held an incarnation of the Soul Reaver and when both blades met, it created a paradox. Kain was able to kill William the Just and thereby change the otherwise immutable timeline.
The Second Vampire Purge: King William’s death at the hand of the vampire Kain allowed Moebius, the Time Streamer, to justify the revitalization of the vampire purges. No one knew that King William would later become the Nemesis and so they viewed the vampires as a scourge that killed their beloved King. When Kain returns to the future he finds the consequences of his actions in full effect. Vampires were being purged all across the country and there even came the death of the legendary vampire Vorador. All of this was part of Moebius’ design.
Kain refuses the Sacrifice: Kain continues to purge the Circle until at last it was revealed that he was the final Guardian. Only through his death will the Pillars be restored. Kain refuses the sacrifice, causing the collapse of the Pillars of Nosgoth. The Pillars were inextricably tied to the health of the land and so Nosgoth would begin to deteriorate in time. Kain however, fashions the fallen Balance Pillar as his throne from which to rule over his new empire.
Soul Reaver
The game begins 1500 years after Kain refused the sacrifice and condemned the Pillars to ruin. He sits upon the fallen Pillar of Balance, the seat of his new empire. With him are his lieutenants, and among them is his first born and favorite son, Raziel. (It is important to note here that Raziel and his brothers do not remember who they were in their previous life: that is to say that they do not remember that they were members of the Sarafan, devoted to the annihilation of the very creatures that they had now become). The others followed, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and finally Melchiah. They each served him for over a millennium and over time Kain and his descendants physically evolved, becoming more and more ‘divine’. Kain was always chief amongst them all until that fateful day.
Raziel would enter the Sanctuary of the Clans, the name Kain coined to be the center of his empire. He bows before Kain and his brethren and reveals his newest evolutionary development – newly-fledged wings – signifying that he had surpassed Kain. In a seemingly egotistical act, Kain tears the bones from Raziel’s shoulders and has Turel and Dumah cast him into the Lake of the Dead, a large whirlpool that is seemingly endless. The water of the Lake burns Raziel’s vampiric flesh like acid, destroying his body.
After enduring relentless agony for some 500 years, Raziel’s torment finally recedes and he awakens in the Abyss, now a creature of the Spectral Realm. A voice speaks to him, rumbling in the depths of that chamber, a forgotten God who had long since abandoned his followers. The Elder God claims that Raziel is worthy and states that his resurrection was to serve the Elder God as a reaver of souls, and to enact his revenge on Kain, thus restoring Nosgoth.
Though repulsed by the ‘pitiful form’ in which he now inhabits, Raziel listens to the Elder God and his ruminations on the Wheel of Fate, the imbalance within Nosgoth and the plague of the vampires. Tempted by the opportunity to avenge himself, he silently consents to pursuing this quest for vengeance. Raziel leaves the Underworld to embark on his new journey and see what has become of the world.
Raziel finds a way into the Material Realm and looks upon the world to find that Nosgoth has changed significantly for the worse since his execution. He encounters Dumah’s vampire clan descendants who are all hideously deformed beyond belief. Then he gazes upon the Sanctuary of the Clans crumbling into ruin. The way inside is barred to him and so he would have to find another means of entry. Returning to the Lake of the Dead, Raziel gathers his bearings and determines the direction of his own clan’s territory. He takes off in that direction but finds it utterly desolate when he arrives. His clan had ostensibly been eradicated by Kain, further fueling his rage against his former master. Raziel then infiltrates a Necropolis inhabited by Melchiah and his clan.
Within the depths of that forsaken place, he finds Melchiah himself, who has devolved into a horrible creature unable to sustain his own flesh.
After Raziel defeats Melchiah and absorbs his soul, he now has the means to enter the Sanctuary of the Clans. Within, he finds Kain at the ruined Pillars of Nosgoth. Kain is not surprised to see Raziel and in fact seemed to have been expecting him. Kain enrages Raziel further by admitting to annihilating his clan. Raziel begins to criticize him and Kain retorts, resulting in a clash between the two. Kain overpowers Raziel and attempts to strike him down with the indomitable Soul Reaver. The Reaver blade, a sword that thrives by devouring the souls of its enemies, strikes Raziel and shatters. With the legendary blade destroyed, Kain leaves with a strange glint of satisfaction reflected in his eyes.
Raziel enters the Spectral Realm to find that the soul-devouring entity trapped within the Reaver – the Wraith Blade – has been freed. As he touches it, something strange happens. The Wraith Blade binds itself to him, becoming his symbiotic weapon. Soon after this occurs, Raziel meets the spirit of the murdered Balance Guardian, Ariel, who offers him guidance on his quest. Heeding her and the Elder God’s advice Raziel travels to the Silenced Cathedral and finds that Zephon’s brood have nested themselves within. Zephon’s descendants have devolved into arachnid-like creatures and their master was no different.
Raziel ascends to the spires of the Cathedral and there finds a great insectoid monstrosity whose body has melded into the enclave in which he dwells. This creature is Zephon, another of Raziel’s former brethren.
Raziel purges the beast with fire and using his power can now continue his quest. Continuing onward on his quest for knowledge, truth and revenge he discovers the Tomb of the Sarafan. Infiltrating the crypt he makes a shocking discovery.
To Raziel’s horror, he finds that the crypt was designated for him and his brothers and now the cruel irony of Kain’s scheme becomes apparent. Kain revived the elite members of the Sarafan to serve him as his vampire sons. They were too long dead to remember their Sarafan roots when resurrected and remained completely ignorant of their heritage. Raziel begins now to doubt the claim that the vampires were noble and pure and that the Sarafan were murderers, thinking that Kain had flipped history on its head and skewed the truth. Moving on Raziel ventures through a secret passage under the crypt where he is accosted by the Tomb Guardian, a descendant of the vampire Turel. He overpowers this new enemy and gains the power of telekinesis.
He then moves onto a Drowned Abbey, inhabited by Rahab and his clan. According to the Elder God, Rahab and his children have mutated into amphibians, overcoming their vampiric vulnerability to water. At the heart of the Abbey is Rahab himself, evolved into a Merman-like creature. Raziel divulges what he has learnt about their past lives as Sarafan elites but Rahab is not fazed and is still entirely loyal to Kain and so attempts to kill Raziel.
The two do battle and Raziel uses his newfound telepathy to destroy the windows in Rahab’s lair, exposing the vampire to sunlight and destroying him. Devouring his soul grants him the same imperviousness to water.
With this newfound ability he crosses the Lake of the Dead whose waters can no longer burn him and enters the abandoned fortress of his brother, Dumah. The Ruined City is strewn with Dumah’s children and Raziel realizes that Dumah must have been killed. He suspects Kain at first but the Elder God corrects him, stating that this was the work of vampire hunters. Exploring the city, Raziel eventually finds Dumah shackled to his throne, his heart pierced by stakes. Raziel revives his fallen brother who thanks him, but Raziel refutes this gratitude, still aggrieved that Dumah was one of the two that unquestioningly threw him into the Abyss, he faced his brother in combat.
Dumah challenges Raziel who quickly finds that he cannot best him and so lures him into a giant furnace to burn Dumah alive and devour his soul. With four of his five brothers dead and no sign of the traitor, Turel, Raziel moves onto the final leg of his journey. He discovers the Oracle’s Cave where Kain first met Moebius, the Time Streamer. Here, Raziel discovers the hidden Chronoplast, greatest of Moebius’ time streaming chambers. Exploring the subterranean network he finds a series of portals which display scenes of the past and apparently, the future. As he passes each one, Raziel becomes increasingly incredulous, believing that they are deceptions laid there by Kain to trick or manipulate him. The events depicted imply that all of his experiences have been predestined and so too has his future.
In the Chronoplast’s control room Raziel finds Kain waiting for him.
Kain chides him at first for not arriving sooner but the infuriated Raziel bitterly condemns Kain for his crimes. Kain retorts that all of his actions have been justified, partially due to his being subject to destiny. He reveals that he is aware of the future and hints that the Sarafan were not as altruistic as Raziel believed. Raziel refuses to listen and repeatedly attacks his former master while Kain continues to work the Chronoplast’s controls. Although Raziel eventually gains an advantage, the Chronoplast activates and Kain escapes through a time portal. Raziel pursues his former master in anger, ignoring the warnings of the Elder God.
The game ends where Raziel comes face to face with the time-streamer Moebius, whose machinations were only just unfolding.
Commentary
Soul Reaver is a very interesting and unique game, following off the brilliance of its predecessor Blood Omen, the game’s story explores ideas such as the nature of free will, the Faustian Spirit, and the death and decay of civilizations. The main character of this game is Raziel, a fallen angel turned into a devourer of souls. His journey to exact revenge on his former brothers and Master, Kain, is unlike any other story that has ever been made in games since.
One thing that always stands out when playing or viewing these games is the excellent writing, exposed through impeccable dialogue, riveting storytelling, and incredible voice acting talent. I remember that Dr. Bruce Charlton once said that the testament to how well something is written is whether it can be read aloud and still be pleasing to the outer ear, and surely all of the writings in this game are reminiscent of a Shakespearean play.
Whilst writing this article I was also playing through the game Deus Ex which has been sitting in my library for quite some time. In that game, characters swear constantly within the dialogue, something that is meant to make the game appear more mature, but whenever I hear the dialogue in that game, I view it as rather childish and immature. And when compared to the eloquent language used in the Legacy of Kain series one can’t help but notice the stark contrast in skill and writing talent.
Raziel’s journey also has him face each of his former brothers and each are representative of the followers of the system that can be seen in the modern day. Recalling an article by Morgoth where he describes all of the archetypes of the system as various insect-like creatures, similarly one can find parallels to draw with each of Raziel’s brothers.
Melchiah, the weakest of Kain’s sons, is so frail that he could not sustain his body and soul with the power that he had inherited. He is representative of those who are not worthy to be in positions of power but are granted those positions nonetheless. My brother recalled the former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, and her transformation after her term in office or the likes of George Soros.
Zephon, the arachnoid has cocooned himself in an abandoned cathedral. The irony of this is that the humans built the holy site to use to eradicate the deformed vampires that were ravaging their world, and yet Zephon took it to be the nest for him and his brood. This could parallel the inversion of the church in modern day who, rather than protect us from evil, seek to deliver it to us under the guise of being pious. Furthermore, Zephon himself, ever the coward, holed up in the spires of the church and devouring anything that was caught in its web, is so much like the elite class of today. Like Zephon their appetites cannot be sated and they will continue to devour and destroy from the comforts of their own cocoons.
Rahab refused to denounce Kain, even after learning of his blasphemy and learning that they had once been Sarafan. He did not care for this revelation and instead followed power unquestioningly and willingly. As Raziel said, he would maladapt to whatever this new power was exemplified in his overcoming of the weakness of water. He represents those that are loyal servants to the system.
Finally, there is Dumah, whose arrogance, believing that he were completely untouchable led to his own demise and the demise of his clan. Turel would appear in Defiance much later in the series, but it would become apparent that the priests in the Avernus Cathedral worshipped him as a God, even though he was a hideous and deformed monster.
One thing I do enjoy is how Raziel is completely unfazed when faced against these monstrosities. They are Lovecraftian giants and yet he faces them and insults them without fear, knowing that he would best them in the end. Another point I would like to mention is how the game explains in the onset that Raziel must adapt to face these enemies, only wounds that impale or inflame are damaging to vampires, and sunlight and water are there other weaknesses. The game does nothing to remind you of these facts and when faced with each of the boss fights, there are no tutorials or hints, instead one must find the solution all their own. Nothing in this game is spoon-fed (save for some hints given by the Elder God), not even for puzzles do you get any explanation, there is only intuition. The game will not direct you in any way, something that isn’t present in most modern day games where it is significantly dumbed down.
Kain in this instalment represents much of the Faustian spirit, to overcome the impossible and to chase that dream of altering his destiny. It was remarked that Kain and Raziel were akin to Oedipus (not in the Freudian sense mind you) but in the sense that they both wished to challenge their destinies and change it for the better. In the next instalment, Soul Reaver 2, we’ll better learn Kain’s intentions, but essentially he wanted to abide by a difference outcome. Rather than have the outcome be heads or tails as dictated by the toss of a coin, he was looking for that singularly rare moment where the coin would land on its edge, producing an entirely unexpected but different outcome.
We also get a glimpse of the duplicitous time-streamer, Moebius, who would play a very large role in both Soul Reaver 2 and the final game, Defiance. Still I must impress how unique and interesting this game is. The creators clearly had a vision when making this game and it is evident in their storytelling and the world that they have built. There is clear passion and vision represented here and I have not seen anything of the like in all my years of gaming. Most games are akin to a good movie/film, but this game surpasses that and comes close to being as good as a well told book/novel. This and the incredible depth of the game’s lore are both good reasons for the production of these essays.
Bonus Content
The game also features a lot of cut content. Amy Hennig commented that the excised material was about one third of the game. You would note that only four of the five brothers are encountered within the story and that Turel’s ‘chapter’ within the game is missing.
Turel would make an appearance in later games however so that there aren’t many loose ends within the series. The original ending of the game was also very different to how it was in the final version:
Rather than escape through the time portal upon his defeat, Kain was to be wounded by Raziel, who would devour a small measure of Kain’s soul.
Directed by the Elder God, Raziel would have entered an Undercity and face a vampire-worshipping cult leader known as The Priestess.
After defeated her, Raziel would have then entered Turel’s clan territory and defeat him.
With the combined powers of all his brothers souls, the portion of Kain’s soul and the soul of The Priestess, Raziel still wasn’t powerful enough to defeat Kain. Ariel advises him that if he were to endow the Soul Reaver with her own soul that he would have the power necessary to defeat his former master. (Recall that this vision is shown within the Chronoplast).
Wielding the Spirit Reaver, Raziel would best Kain and eventually kill him, absorbing his soul and making the Soul Reaver all powerful. With this he would return to the Silenced Cathedral and fulfil its original purpose by sounding its dormant pipes, blasting a great hymn across Nosgoth and purging the world of its entire vampire population.
Both vengeance and destiny fulfilled, Raziel is congratulated by the Elder God as the cycle of birth and death is resumed. Only then will Raziel come to realize that he has been a pawn in the Elder God’s game this entire time and that purging the vampires had devastating consequences on the world and that the only way to set things right would be to use the Chronoplast to go back in time and alter history.
Although these events did not come to pass they were present within the Chronoplast visions that Raziel beheld. Whether as deceptions by the time-streamer Moebius in his cunning or as alternate futures that were possible but not set in stone. Recall that Raziel is the only unbound creature possessing free will, so it was possible that his destiny was malleable and so the events dictated in the Chronoplast did not come to pass as it is in the released version of the game.
Next in the series we will be looking at Soul Reaver 2 and continuing Raziel’s journey as he pursues Kain through time and learns more of the past and the future and also of his destiny.