Legacy of Kain
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Legacy of Kain is a series of video games developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. Although the first game in the series was developed by Silicon Knights, Crystal Dynamics later won a legal battle over the rights to Legacy of Kain and continued the series without Silicon Knights. The idea behind Legacy of Kain was first conceived in 1993, but it took another three years before the first game appeared on the Sony PlayStation console.
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[edit] Overview
The series features an extensive storyline and history that is told and expanded upon during each game. One of the most compelling aspects of the games is the dialogue and the length to which the story is told within each game. Most of the individual games primarily deal with a subset of the storyline; although since the general timeline is non-linear, some of the later games include pieces of the story from the past, present and future. (See time travel.) The exact history and timeline of the series is still under much debate but there is a general timeline that is accepted by most fans.
The primary focus of the series is to chronicle the afterlife of the vampire Kain, but during the story the player is introduced to many other characters and sub-plots.
The series is set in the fictitious realm of Nosgoth. The realm of Nosgoth is an ancient battleground for which two god-like species have been at war since before history. Firstly the Vampires (not to be confused with their blood-sucking descendants), and secondly the Hylden, with a third faction in the form of the Elder God. The Hylden in earlier times waged an all out war, but in modern times, fight through surrogates and pawns. The level of sophistication their warfare has developed is staggering, and much more realistic for such a protracted battle than the wasteful, exhaustive and ultimately short-term warfare style originally endorsed by both species. Each species moves in some way from behind the scenes, manipulating events slowly and deliberately, molding and preparing the lesser peoples of the world (humanity) to act eventually in their favor, with individual moves often taking centuries or millennia to completely unfold.
In ancient times, the Hylden had attempted to put a decisive end to the war by developing a super-weapon which would extinguish the life of the world. This weapon, apparently, violated a number of the fundamental laws governing the nature of the world and reality, severely upsetting the balance of life and death, which the Ancient Vampires held to be sacred. The Pillars of Nosgoth were erected in order to restore balance and order to the land, and ensure that these governing dynamics (which the Ancients accordingly divided into nine spheres) were never bent or broken again. Furthermore, the Vampires enacted a massive exile, banishing the Hylden race from the world of Nosgoth. Each pillar of the nine pillars represents one of the nine orders which the Ancient Vampires divined were the governing forces of the world, and each pillar had a Guardian whose task was to protect and uphold his respective laws. The nine spheres of law were:
Death, being the cycle of life, death and rebirth which the Ancients held sacred.
Conflict, being the interactions of things with other things and the new things arising thereof.
States, being the nature of the physical world and the ordering of the concrete, including chemicals and all the laws governing the physical world, such as electromagnetism and gravity.
Energy, being the vital force which animates creation and allows for the changing of all things.
Time, being the cyclical flow of time and the fated events to take place in order of their happening. (note that in "Legacy of Kain", time is neither dimensional nor directional, but it can be altered, with great difficulty, by one possessing sufficient comprehension of the nature of such a thing)
Dimension, being the dual directionality of the fabric of existence, allowing things which exist to exist and preventing things which do not exist from existing.
Nature, being the growth and evolution of living things, and everything which is animated or can be said to have a soul.
The Mind, being the soul itself, or the soul as it perceives itself, including all psychology, the study of the mind in relation to itself. (note that, logically, neurology would be a combination of the Mind and of States, dealing with the functions of physical cellular structures in relation to the soul; furthermore, sociology and politics would be a combination of the Mind and Conflict, dealing with the interactions between living souls)
And finally: Balance, being the interactions of all the spheres of law, and all things which fall under the auspices of more than one set of laws. It allows for the existence of things such as the aforementioned neurology, sociology, and politics. Balance governs all of existence through its governing of the laws themselves.
However, by the time of the games, their power is waning and some (most notably the Hylden) seek to destroy the pillars entirely. It is unknown whether there was ever a time of peace in Nosgoth or whether one will ever come to pass. It is also revealed later on that the Pillars served a dual purpose: along with preserving the balance of the land, the Pillars acted as a gateway, banishing the Hylden into a desolate dimension, inhabited by numerous monsters which are known as "Demons" in the games. The Pillars also act as the lock to this gate, and as long as they stand the Hylden are trapped; this is the reason behind the Hylden's use of numerous pawns and surrogates during the games (for as the Pillars weaken they are able to manifest using the bodies of the dead).
Another interesting game mechanic in this series is that the player takes the role of two different characters during the course of the games. For example in the Blood Omen games the player controls Kain, but during the Soul Reaver games Raziel is controllable and the story is resumed from his point of view. Finally in Legacy of Kain: Defiance the player assumes the roles of both Kain and Raziel at regular intervals.
One of the true innovations of the Legacy of Kain series is the greatly involved storyline, with believable characters, and shifting alliances and betrayals. Nosgoth is a dark fantasy land with an elaborate and involved history, and that history is often revealed in reverse; new information often shows that what is believed to be true is a lie. Furthermore, nearly every major character, or groups of characters, has both aspects of heroism and villainy, even when some aspects seem to shine through more often than others.
[edit] Kain
Kain, for instance, is a notorious anti-hero (or so it may seem until the last game) in that he is, in fact, not entirely likeable: he has a large apparent lust for power, and seeks to take all of Nosgoth for his kingdom, a quest that he largely prevails in, as evident in the game "Soul Reaver". with an obvious relish for bloodshed and brutality; though he is not stupid, and while his quite undiplomatic actions might often seem to be the rash products of his rather short and violent temper, it more often turns out that his rage is merely a tool carefully cultivated, revealing his true cunning and subtlety only to those perceptive enough to be his intellectual equals. With his vampirism, coupled with his intellect, cultured palate and his extremely aristocratic tastes, he could best be described as a cross-over between Hannibal Lecter and Vlad the Impaler, but with a compassionate side that becomes evident in the last game; however, his justification is often thrust upon him in that he finds himself, sometimes by his own designs, in such a position that he becomes the lesser of two evils, and one often feels a sense of justice to see the true enemy get what they so richly deserve by falling to the mercy of his better graces. In fact, he invites comparison with sound-alike character Caine from another and unrelated series Vampire: The Masquerade, though the comparisons are only passing as Caine (WoD) is the progenitor of all vampires while Kain (LoK) is the latter architect of the vampire scourge dominating and destroying the world.
[edit] Raziel
Raziel, on the other hand, is an anti-hero only in the opposite sense. He is a very upstanding and moral man, with a strong inherent sense of noblesse oblige; however, the conditions and situations he finds himself in (almost never of his own making, unlike Kain) rarely lend themselves to unambiguous ethical judgments and he often ends up doing the wrong thing for the right reason (unlike Kain who generally does the right thing for diabolic and narcissistic reasons). As a mortal man, he engaged in the systematic extermination of countless Vampires in his fanatical quest to rid the world of his perception of evil. As a Vampire he helped Kain establish his empire, under the controversial belief that Vampires deserved (as a higher form of life, and thusly "knowing better") to rule the world. As The Soul Reaver (the state he found himself in after being "betrayed" by Kain and his brethren, and being thrown into the Abyss, a swirling vortex of water. Its depth is such that it could almost be described as endless although its exact depth is not known for sure,) he stalked Kain and massacred his former brethren, under the belief that he was not only exacting vengeance, but also settling the balance of existence. Ultimately, most of his actions turn out to be in some way flawed and generally immoral in the logic or lack thereof in their formulation, as he often finds himself the willing or unwilling pawn of those around him, for good or evil. His systemic redemption is found only in his final act, one of self-sacrifice, his only action dually motivated by good intentions and with arguably good consequences. This puts him in harmonic opposition to the character of Kain, whose behavior is characterised by viciousness, manipulation and the belief that every person and thing is utterly expendable, but whose actions generally turn out to be right, because he betrays and defies those around him, most of whom turn out to be directly or indirectly in league with evil.
[edit] Destiny and fate
An underlying element of the story is heavily concerned with destiny and throughout the series fatalism is a strong theme. The idea that a person's destiny can be foreseen and thus altered is presented to the player. Much of the final game Defiance is devoted to discovering whether this hypothesis is true. Some characters try to use this facet to their advantage by attempting to manipulate other characters' (notably Raziel's) destiny.
Free will is also challenged during the story and a great number of the in-game characters believe that no one truly possesses free will, except maybe Raziel. Therefore these characters believe that Raziel is the key to altering destiny. Manipulation also plays a major point in the progression of the story since nearly every character, at some point in the story, is manipulated by another.
[edit] Time travel
Much of the story behind Legacy of Kain contains time travel. It is used as a method for creating a diverse and very non-linear timeline that can, at times, be very confusing. This time traveling ability is obtained through time streaming chambers and the Chronoplast, as well as time streaming devices, all of which are credited to Moebius the Timestreamer, and Guardian of Time (one of the nine guardians of the Pillars).
Although much of the story that involves time travel does make sense, it usually requires background reading and replaying of earlier games before a full understanding of the story is acquired. Many paradoxes are introduced during the story, as is commonly the case among stories containing time travel [1]. These paradoxes further add to the confusion, as each paradox that comes up throughout the games tends to actively re-write history and the course of past, present, and future events (the most notable and consistently mentioned of these time changing paradoxes is the one in the original Blood Omen, where Kain travels back in time and kills a past king (and future tyrant). In the series, the only consistent cause of these paradoxes is the meeting of a past version of the Soul Reaver weapon with a future one. It is interesting to note that the events of Blood Omen 2 (see below) are actually the product of a paradox created in Soul Reaver 2, a fact which initially confused many long-time fans before enough time had passed for notes to be compared between games.
[edit] The games
So far there have been five Legacy of Kain games in the series, each one continuing the story and answering questions that previous games had left unanswered. The games have appeared on a number of different platforms, but the PC is the only platform to contain all the games, though it is possible to play all of them with just a PS2. Even though each game is ultimately an action game, they contain many platformer elements and some do share properties of role playing and adventure games.
| Name | Year Released | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | 1996 | PlayStation / PC |
| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | 1999 | PlayStation / PC / Dreamcast |
| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 | 2001 | PC / PS2 |
| Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain | 2002 | PC / PS2 / Xbox / GameCube |
| Legacy of Kain: Defiance | 2003 | PC / PS2 / Xbox |
[edit] Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- Main article: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- For the PlayStation and PC (announced for the Sega Saturn but cancelled before release).
This game is the first in the series and sets the scene for this series quite well. A lot of story is presented to the player in addition to much lore and history that will not be fully explained until later games in the series. This game is a top down hybrid of action, adventure, and role playing games, where the player controls Kain, a newly born vampire seeking to fulfill his desires for revenge, and rid himself of his vampiric curse. But things are not always as they seem.....
[edit] Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
- Main article: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
- For the PlayStation, PC and Sega Dreamcast.
The second game in the series puts the player in control of Raziel, one of Kain's former lieutenants who was damned for evolving before his master. Raziel awakens centuries after his damnation at the hands of his former "father" and brothers. Eager for revenge at his old brethren and master, Raziel is informed by The Elder God that he is no longer a vampire, and is now a wraith who feeds on souls as a replacement of blood. He is set upon his betrayers at the behest of the Elder God and proceeds to search out his brothers one by one. Each brother is encountered within a boss battle that is more of a puzzle than a straight up battle. After defeating each brother and consuming their souls, Raziel gains a unique ability that the brother possessed (for example, telekinesis or resistance to the acid-like effects of water).
These abilities are used to access other areas in the world of Nosgoth that were previously unreachable to Raziel so that he may continue his search for Kain and revenge.
Raziel also does battle with his former master near the beginning of his adventure. As Kain attempts to finish Raziel, his sword, the Soul Reaver, breaks and energy from within attaches itself to Raziel's right arm. Kain then takes his leave and Raziel learns to master his new weapon.
[edit] Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
- Main article: Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
- For the PlayStation 2, PC (also planned for the Sega Dreamcast, but later cancelled).
This direct sequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver picks up the story where the previous game left off. Raziel is still in pursuit of Kain, but now he has to uncover the mysteries surrounding his own destiny.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver left Raziel as he enters Moebius's time machine in pursuit of Kain. We rejoin him here as he searches through the past, before the events of the other games. Raziel learns of his true origins and also more of his ultimate and cruel fate.
[edit] Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
- For the PlayStation 2, PC, Xbox, and Nintendo GameCube
In this game, players again take the sword of Kain and continue his quest to rid the world of humanity and claim Nosgoth as his own.
Developed by a different team at Crystal Dynamics, this sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain lacks many of the qualities that make the other games popular, focusing much more on gore and combat than the traditional puzzle oriented LOK gameplay. Even the setting, that of one enormous industrial city (the yet-unheard-of capital of Nosgoth; Meridian) is usual. The game's story takes place 400 years after the ending of the first Blood Omen game, in the alternate timeline created by the Soul Reaver 2 paradox. Having refused to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, Kain instead attempted to build a vampire army and conquer the world. As the game begins, Kain awakens from a deep sleep and learns that he was defeated by an army of vampire hunters called the Sarafan. Kain sets out to get his revenge and rebuild his empire. Many fans consider this game to be an unrelated spin-off that doesn't really advance the story beyond anything that is already known. There are some minor inconsistencies in this game that are not fully explained, and this is often seen as a consequence arising from the development team being different.
Almost all of the inconsistencies can be explained by the alternate timeline created in Defiance, as history was changed by the paradox at the end of Soul Reaver 2. Raziel postponed his fate, and resurrected Janos; the Hylden escape their demon dimension and recreate the Order of the Sarafan, the Unspoken (later called Hash'ak'gik in Defiance, whose name and cult are mentioned in passing in the original Blood Omen) posing as the Sarafan Lord. Basically, Blood Omen 2 continues the story not taking into account the events of Defiance. It is a look ahead into the direct result from the Soul Reaver 2 paradox.
Soul Reaver 2 actually shows this alternate world- albeit at a far-future date- after Raziel travels to the future after failing to kill Kain in that game.
(Note: Vorador's appearance in Blood Omen 2 after his apparent execution in Blood Omen 1 events was originally explained to a partial extent at the very least also in Defiance's events. But these scenes were cut out in the final product.)
[edit] Legacy of Kain: Defiance
- For the PlayStation 2, PC and Xbox.
The fifth Legacy of Kain game is quite different from the others since the player takes control of both Kain and Raziel throughout the game to discover how their destinies are intertwined.
Many fans believe that Legacy of Kain: Defiance was created as a finale or conclusion to the series, but (apart from a comment from Crystal Dynamics' Test Manager Chris Bruno back in 2003 that a sequel was 'in the works') there has been no official word yet as to whether there will or won't be any further games in the series. The end of Legacy of Kain: Defiance however left some vague openings and a few unanswered questions (How do the pillars get restored?) which could hint at a possible sequel (though this is made more unclear by the fact that Amy Hennig, who led the Crystal Dynamics team responsible for Soul Reaver 1 & 2 and Defiance left Crystal Dynamics for Naughty Dog not long before Defiance was released).
Note: Moebius' appearance towards the end of Defiance is a mistake, as admitted by the developers – The mistake is the scene where Raziel returns from Avernus to Vorador's mansion finding Moebius and his vampire hunters to greet him. In the scene Moebius gloats about Raziel finally killing Kain and how he and his vampire hunters had subdued Vorador, tossing down his bone sword as proof. As he is leaving he mentions he has Vorador's execution to attend to. This directly conflicts with the events just before in which Mortanius was summoning Kain to go to the pillars for the Blood Omen 1's ending scenes just after he killed Moebius claiming his binding item (it is possible that he was projecting himself into the future through some inknown means). This is taken straight from Blood Omen 1 which overlaps into Mortanius' dialogue in defiance:
Kain - "I knew that Moebius' Hourglass was the focus of his time streaming magic. Farewell, sorcerer. The sands of time have ceased to flow for you!"
Mortanius - (Using telepathy) "Well done, Kain. Ah, Moebius did so love playing the trickster's part. His guise as the Oracle served his schemes well. Pity with all his plots he failed to plan for you. Come to me, my undead son. Make haste to the Pillars. The stage is set for the grand finale. You will have your vengeance."
(It is important to note also, when Moebius appears at the very end of Defiance, he has been resurrected after his death at the hands of Kain's younger self during the events of Blood Omen 1).
This mistake, however, is one that may be easily explained away in-game; as the Guardian of the Pillar of Time and in his capacity as the chief trickster of Nosgoth, Moebius often travels back and forth from one point in history to another. It is feasible the Time-Streamer had one last bit of traveling to do before meeting his final appointment with Kain: to go slightly forward in time so he could gloat over the deaths of Vorador and the future Kain, and then travel back so he could die at the hand of the younger Kain (convoluted, but still a good explanation). In this fashion Moebius can get in what he thinks will be the last word against Raziel, and still keep the 'necessary' events of Nosgoth's history intact. Other possible explanations include Mortanius' message having a time-delay, or Moebius' presence being an illusion.
A clever explanation which explains just about everything is as follows: Time Travel, being a fictional concept, does not necessarily have to work in a linear fashion. As such, Moebius does not have to be present in locations in a set order, but could in fact continue to exist after his own death simply because he was there at that time. If Moebius was there to gloat over Vorador's death to Raziel, and there to be killed by Kain, it was because he HAD travelled to those points and still existed there. His death at Kain's hand does not mean the points in history where he had existed suddenly did not occur.
[edit] Trivia
- Amy Hennig, a very important member of the Legacy of Kain team, left Crystal Dynamics shortly after Defiance was released.
- Though it isn't official, Defiance is considered by many to be the last Legacy of Kain game, considering Amy Hennig is no longer part of the team (if they still exist), and that it has been more than three years, and yet, no information has been released on plans to continue series. But in 2006 the Crystal Dynamics has finished development of Tomb Raider: Legend and it is now believed that Crystal Dynamics will make a new game for the series that may be coming to some or all of the next-generation video game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii).
- The music of all except the first game was composed by Kurt Harland, of synthpop band Information Society. The theme song of Soul Reaver, "Ozar Midrashim", can be found in Information Society's 1997 album Don't Be Afraid.
- Much of the art and plot of Blood Omen 2 was taken from the cancelled Dreamcast sequel to Chakan: The Forever Man.[2] [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- www.legacyofkain.com – The primary official Legacy of Kain website.
- Nosgothic Realm – Contains lots of artwork and pictures.
- GLok interviews with Amy Hennig A collection of interviews with the creators of the series, which answers many of the questions that people may have.
- Legacy of Kain: The Lost Worlds – Site archiving deleted and lost information about the Legacy of Kain series.
- Legacy of Kain: Dark Chronicle – Extensive encyclopaedia about anything to do with Legacy of Kain.
- Legacy of Kain.de – A German fan site about Legacy of Kain.
- Le Royaume de Nosgoth – The first French fan site about Legacy of Kain.
- www.legadodekain.net A complete Spanish website about Legacy of Kain.
- Legacy of Kain series at MobyGames
- Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2, Soul Reaver 2 & Defiance Fanlisting
| 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 |
