Elder God (Legacy of Kain)
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The Elder God is a video game character in the Legacy of Kain series. He has been voiced throughout the series by the late Tony Jay.
The Elder God is an immortal, nearly omniscient deity that lives beneath the surface of Nosgoth. The Elder God appears as a vile, tentacled mass abound with numerous, unblinking eyes which allows the Elder God to see all things at all times. The Elder God exists in both the Spectral and Material Realms simultaneously and also seems to exist outside the normal flow of time, as he knew who Raziel was centuries before he met him the first time in the future
The Elder God professes to be the "Engine of Life" and the still center of the "Wheel of Fate." He claims that he creates all life and devours all death but as the story progresses, it seems as though the Elder God seems to exist solely to devour all of the essence that a soul obtains during its life, more a parasite beset against the "Wheel," not the axle upon which it turns.
The Ancients once worshipped the Elder God, though they had no idea what the Elder God was. When the Hylden obtained immortality, refusing to submit to death, the Elder God set the Ancients against them, to convert them to the Elder God-based religion. The result was a war that lasted for a thousand years. The war ended with the Ancients building the Pillars of Nosgoth, which sealed the Hylden in a dimension inhabited by "Demons." Before they were fully sent through the gate, the Hylden cursed the Ancients, giving them sterility, bloodlust, and most importantly, immortality. They were thus removed from the "Wheel of Fate," forced to disobey the very religion they so zealously followed. The Elder God became silent and turned away from the Ancients, presumably viewing their unwanted immortality as an affront to him. Without the guidance of their god, many of the Ancients committed suicide in order to re-join the Wheel.
Centuries later, the Elder God started speaking to Moebius and convinced him that the Ancient vampires were a plague and must be destroyed (this plot was assisted by the fact that, as the Ancient Pillar Guardians died/were killed off, Human Guardians were born; the Ancients subsequently began to convert the Human Guardians into Vampires). Moebius and Mortanius, the Human Guardians of Time and Death, respectively, rebelled against the vampires on the Elder God's orders and claimed the Pillars of Nosgoth for mankind.
Several millennia later, the Elder God was present at Raziel's rebirth as a wraith (and claims to have caused it) and tried to coerce him to kill Kain. Eventually, he lost his hold over Raziel and the wraith devoted himself to defying the Elder God, though he still held a berth of hatred for his vampiric creator. Raziel was the first one to see the true "face" of the Elder God, a mass of eyes and tentacles stretching out from the Pillars and throughout the world, but before he joined with the Reaver, he allowed Moebius and Kain to see the twisted manipulator (by purifying them with the also purified Spirit Reaver). Once he could see the Elder God, Kain was able to fight and defeat, but not kill him (however with Tony Jay's death, it is unlikely he will return if the series continues. They may have to find a suitable replacement despite this because he is integral to the plot.)
[edit] Trivia
- Much of the Legacy of Kain cosmology, particularly what is revealed about The Elder God in Defiance, is inspired by Gnosticism.
- The Elder God bears a great resemblance to Cyäegha of the Cthulhu Mythos.
| 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 |
