Hylden
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The Hylden are a fictional race in the Legacy of Kain series. They are traditional enemies of the vampires in Nosgoth, the setting of the series.
They were first introduced in Soul Reaver 2, where the protagonist Raziel saw murals depicting them in the subterranean chamber under the Pillars of Nosgoth, as well as in the Reaver forges. Ancient history depicted them as the bitter enemies of the winged Ancients, the original vampires. They were similar to the Ancients in power, but "different in method and intention." Both wanted dominance of Nosgoth, and warred for a thousand years to claim it. The Ancients won the war, banished the Hylden to a demonic dimension, and created the nine magical Pillars of Nosgoth to keep them sealed in place. The Hylden did not go quietly. In a final act of vengeance, they managed to curse the Ancients with a thirst for blood, and eternal life turning them into Nosgoth's first vampires.
In their prison, the Hylden plotted a way to escape. Their opportunity came millennia after their banishment. The Circle of Nine, immortal sorcerers called to serve the pillars at birth when they were raised had by now been replaced on their death by human successors (since vampires were no longer born) these successors overthrew the ancient vampires and because humans were not 'competent to serve' fell to the corruption introduced by one of the Circle, Nupraptor, the Guardian of the Mind, when his beloved Ariel, the Balance Guardian, was murdered. His madness corrupted the Circle and thus the Pillars themselves. Another member of the Circle, Mortanius the Necromancer, realized what was happening and devised a plan to correct the disaster. He used the death and unlife of a nobleman named Kain to set prophecy in motion and restore the pillars to their rightful inheritors - the vampires, but at the final moment (in the first Blood Omen game), Kain's choice not to sacrifice himself upon discovering that he is the final member of the circle to die seals the fate of the Pillars "[causing] a rift throughout the world, sufficient to breach through the dimensions."
This was enough for a strong Hylden (specifically the Hylden who earlier possessed Mortanius and murdered Ariel in his body, and fought Kain at the end of Blood Omen) to re-enter Nosgoth and take the guise of the Sarafan Lord. He established the Hylden City as a home and base for his kind, and began to draw other Hylden back into Nosgoth. Two centuries later, the Sarafan Lord defeated Kain's vampire army outside Meridian. He seized control of Nosgoth, and used the reformed Sarafan Order as a tool to hunt down and destroy vampires. The human inhabitants of Nosgoth suffered high taxes, harsh laws and brutality under his rule, for the Sarafan Lord's agenda was to eventually purge Nosgoth of all non-Hylden races.
200 years after his defeat at the hands of the Sarafan Lord, Kain came back to challenge him again. This is where Blood Omen 2 begins. The Hylden are depicted as "the authors of the demons, and the Device, and all else that threatens the land", (though the flagrant disregard of the writers of Blood Omen 2 for the established canon of the series calls this into question, as it is known that the 'demons' are in fact native to the dimension the Hylden were banished to and only used as their tools. The Hylden favoured technology and machinery over sorcery.
The history of the Hylden in Nosgoth is affected by the plot of the games, which uses time travel a great deal to affect the course of recorded history. In the original timeline (post Blood Omen 1, which itself had history being changed), the Hylden were utterly defeated without Kain even truly learning of their existence. The events of Blood Omen 2 and Kain's memory of having experienced those events were only brought into existence at the end of Soul Reaver 2, when Kain saved Raziel's life, thus allowing him to resurrect the ancient Janos Audron, who was subsequently possessed by the Hylden/Sarafan Lord.
| Legacy of Kain series |
|---|
| Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 | Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain | Legacy of Kain: Defiance |
| Major Characters |
| Kain | Raziel | Moebius | Elder God | Mortanius | Hash'ak'gik | Ariel | Vorador | Janos Audron |
| The Circle of Nine |
| Nupraptor the Mentalist | Malek the Sarafan | Bane the Druid | Azimuth the Planer | Dejoule the Energist | Anacrothe the Alchemist | Moebius the Timestreamer | Mortanius the Necromancer | Ariel of the Balance |
| Kain's Lieutenants |
| Raziel | Turel | Dumah | Rahab | Zephon | Melchiah |
| The World of Nosgoth |
| Pillars of Nosgoth | Lake of the Dead | Nosgoth timeline | Soul Reaver | Ancients | Hylden | Material Realm | Spectral Realm |
