This will always be my favorite game of all time, it was my first "big game" as a kid. How Ocarina of time or Mario 64 is most people's childhood game, this was mine.
Kain: "Fear... the tube!" But on all seriousness. You guys did a great job. You've done it miles better than I ever could. Also, Merry LoKmas. You guys deserve a long break.
Thank you, sometimes I feel I am repeating too many things but that is the nature of the encyclopedic knowledge of Baz :D Glad that is enjoyable nonetheless!
My tinfoil is that Kain possesses Raziel's free will as of his purification. He bears the Soul Reaver which houses Raziel proper, but he also bears Raziel's soul in himself due to the wraith blade being passed onto him. The paradox which enabled Raziel to enact true choice is seemingly passed onto Elder Kain as long as he is in proximity to the sword.
There is no paradox. Raziels free will came about since he couldn't be killed despite his interference in history through time paradoxes, like havin the soul reaver and raziel in the same place and time. All other would be killed one way or another through history resisting to be changed. Meaning Kain got no free will, since there is no paradox!
Funny, a month ago I was looking for reference to create a replica of the Soul Reaver and somehow ended up on your channel, and now you're doing a video one it, starting with the very image I choose to scale the whole thing up :]
Great stuff bud. Ill never get tired of this lore. On one hand id truly love to see this store finally concluded but i Don’t want them to ruin it like so many other Stories have been in recent times. So maybe better to leave it alone....unblemished as the pillars before its corruption.
@@bdawgschnarr6623 no I mean literally people were dying, the publisher went under, and then finally Silicone Knights went down. Not a cash grab because they lead developer left.
Would be really cool if in the next Arcane Tomes video you could explore the Nosgoth map across the games and find the similarities and resemblance to apparently different locations, such as Melchiah's territory and Nupraptor's retreat, The Darrk Eden and Turel's Smokestack, Avernus Cathedral and Zephon's Silenced Cathedral, Malek's Bastion and Kain's mountain retreat, and so on...
The Soulreaver had also a 4th stage in its "life", i mean the purified Soulreaver created at the end of Defiance by Raziel accepting to be absorbed by the sword. This version was different from the Soulreaver created at the end of SR2, in that version the wraith blade only had the 4 temporary elemental enhancements obtained by Raziel using the forges, and the blood reaver was in its basic state without any of the Balance Emblem enhancements. The Soulreaver created at tye end of Defiance on the other hand had all the balance emblem enhancements, all six permanent elemental enhancements, and most importantly it had the spirit enhancement that purified both the Soulreaver and Kain.
Let's keep in mind that the wraith blade is just Raziel himself, who after century of imprisonment in the Reaver lost his sanity and any sense of self, assuming the shape of the sword that imprisoned him, and retaining that shape even after his physical prison was destroyed. It is also obvious that he absorbed the powers of the blood reaver allowing the wraith blade to be attuned to elemental powers by tye forges built by the ancient vampire and by absorbing the souls of the first guardians. Let's always keep in mind that Raziel is a walking paradox.
I want to bring attention to a certain detail that may or may not actually be important but... I noticed this and I just thought it was cool. Whatever ends up happening to the original physical Reaver blade? The sword itself? Well, we know that it ends up being broken in two when William the Just fights young vampire Kain in Blood Omen, but that was the first "shatter". The second time the blade is broken is when Kain breaks it over the head of Raziel, smashing the sword into a million pieces. As far as we know, chronologically, this is the physical blade's last moment. Kain kept the Soul Reaver from when he found it back in Blood Omen all the way to Soul Reaver, where he shatters it over Raziel. Then at the finale of Soul Reaver 2, he postpones Raziel being absorbed into the blade before taking and using this empty Reaver for the rest of Defiance. I just noticed that, while the Reaver's existence is a loop, it's incredible how the blade itself has an actual end. Kain never recovers his original Soul Reaver, which becomes Raziel's Wraith Reaver. He never fixes it, it simply gets annhilated into a bunch of tiny PS1 particles. I just thought that was worth pointing out.
So the final timeline is, I believe, as close as the "original" timeline we will get. I believe Kain was destined to become the first returning Vampiric scion of Balance, and Mortanius betrayed his and Moebius' original plan in betraying their vampire masters. The altered timelines have Kain being killed by Raziel in the Sarafan fortress and then Raziel being consumed by the Reaver, leaving a Reaver for Moebius to place for Kain in Avernus during the event of BO1. But through their, mostly Kains, efforts they create enough paradoxes and shifts of timelines back so that the original result can be obtained - Kain purified as the scion of balance allows new guardians to be born untainted by the curse from Nupraptor and with Kain being a vampire he can ensure the pillars won't fall over time once, somehow, restored.
Ah yes the zero point. Actualy a was wandering were the hell they get first soul reaver ath the first plase with Raziel soul. Bekouse in first or zerotimine he dosent get the raithblade at first place.
The hylden need to get a better ending than being locked away again, though. History prooves that isn't a fix. And just killing them is.... what you'd expect. So i was hoping for something new. Like teaming up with them against the true enemy who started the war to begin with-- Eldergod. Are necrovamps going to survive into the new pillars era??? Or should kain become a real boy at last and join the living as the new Ancients' daddy? Then you've got original timeline -ish-ness!
@@larrymcmacarroon9529 I would argue it only failed because of the vampires being cursed and their religion. They were immortal guardians of the pillars, it's a fine way to keep your enemies trapped. They only got out because humans were chosen as pillar guardians as they were weak and easily corrupted.
@@filipniklas part of the reason there can be no new pillar guardians is because Kain is tainted by nupraptors curse, being purified allows more guardian to be born again
That's awesome! Soul reaver was a big part of my life and your doing this legendary series incomparable justice, so I feel morally obligated to help in any way I can. Love your work
1:06:37 I... don't know why I never tried using the Soul Reaver. I did _both_ of those fights the hard way. I thought they were just hard boss battles.
Thank you so much for the great work behind the very complicated video, Raina and Baz and everyone else! You did a splendid kob, congrats! Now I understand so many things that were confused in my mind about the Soul Reaver, thanks for the explanation! Hope to see you guys continue with this series of special videos about LoK... May I ask if there is a chance for you to dedicate some videos to the stories of the characters? Not only the main ones, but also the characters which have appeared in one or two LoK series, like Raziel's brethren, the Pillar Guardians in Blood Omen etc.?
It's like when you wake up with a back ache and the muscles all seize up and then you start walking around kind of stuck in that pain pose. Only now you're a sword.
@@larrymcmacarroon9529 that or there is some spell on the sword that imprison him in that shape like layers, a prison within a prison guess at the end of the day the soul is just a form of energy
I noticed something that I have never heard anyone talking bout.When Kain struck Raziel with the Soul Reaver and the blade shattered,Raziel's entity,so to speak,was freed from the blade and bound to Raziel arm as his symbiotic weapon.SO...when Kain and William fought and Williams blade was broken,what happened to Raziel entity of that version of the blade?It must have also been freed.What happened to it!? I feel my head just exploded lol.!Could there be another version of Raziel lingering somewhere or better yet...somewhen?? Lol
Williams blade broke due to combat(the strength of the blades being even but obviously Kane being stronger than William) Not the paradox (there would have been distortions due to 2 reavers, but this isn't the reason it broke) meaning his soul remained inside. in sr1 the blade shattered due to the paradox of attempting to devour its own soul which in turn freed said soul.
This was a time when real time 3D lighting was just a fancy effect and not a tool to create atmosphere. A lot of the dark, depressing feel of Soul Reaver comes from the textures. Everything was colored to be darker and less saturated than they're suppose to be. So the in-game model of Soul Reaver being dark gray doesn't seem to be as a design inconsistency but rather, it's just suppose to look dimly lit.
@@RainaAudron That does look better. I wasn't trying to say it would've looked bad with proper colors, I was just trying to explain what the devs could've been thinking while making it darker.
@@123darkelf Yes, 2 English and 1 German. legacyofkain.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain:_Soul_Reaver_comic legacyofkain.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain:_Defiance_comic
@@123darkelf Well 3 official comic's I believe all were just promotional produces. Two for soul reaver 1 one taking place shortly before the intro of soul reaver 1. where Raziel meets this priestess that prophesied what would happen in the future. telling him he can't trust kain he will betray you then going over the events that would happen in soul reaver 1. raziel doesn't believe her kills her then heads off to meet kain at the pillars. the second soul reaver comic I was only able to find in german so it was hard for me to figure out how to read it. but it basically is about a newly wraith raziel contemplating his life thus far before accepting the elder god's offer for vengeance. and the final comic is for defiance and in short, is about kain shortly before the start of defiance heading back to the sarafan stronghold contemplating his life till this point. going over the event of the past games from kain's point of view. and as far as fan comics goes I only know of two. 1 is a complete retelling of blood omen 1 in comic form it's a good read. the other is about this young razielim girl escaping the slaughter of her clan before turning into a wraith much like Raziel. it was probably meant to be a series but it only ended up getting 1 chapter.
One thing always puzzled me about Janos Audron's first meeting with Raziel, WHY is it that Janos recognised Raziel and knew his name?, WHY does he seem so shocked and ask Raziel what happened to him?, referring to his decayed and disturbing form.. this always made me wonder if Janos Audron had met a fully restored Raziel, wings and all.. ⁉️
Because they thought their prophesized champion would look like them and was shocked he was ragged looking (they couldn't see him clearly). Both Hylden and Ancients knew his name but not what he looked like, as both could see into the time stream.
Im pretty sure prophecies were miss read and raziel wasnt champion of either race he was in my opinion supposed to enhance reaver by using his wings to reach all the forges (all permament reaver upgrades uses souls of vampire guardians ) but bc of hylden his and kains future was changed (raziel was supposed to be reaver guardian like janos was)
Awesome video dude it really helped me to clear things but there's one thing that I can't understand. So the first 2 reavers which created the reaver convergence was put in their places by Moebius, and we think Moebius get the Reavers from future by time travelling. The thing that I can't understand is, if Moebius get to the future to take "Soul" Reavers, how the Soul Reavers he get, became the Soul Reaver ? Because as we know from the story, Kain needs to get the SR from mobius and create his empire then resurrect Raziel as vampire and then cast him into abyss, then the EG needs to resurrect him as his Soul Reaver, then Raziel needs to get stabbed by blade and imprisoned inside it so it can become the Soul Reaver. But as I mentioned it, Kain needs the SOUL reaver to create Raziel and also to create Soul reaver. How can this is possible, because in the first timeline before the paradoxes and the convergence, there was no Raziel to get imprisoned in the blade and for Moebius to take the soul reaver from future. How did Moebius get the first Soul Reaver because in that timeline, there was no Raziel and therefore no Soul reavers, there need to be only blood reavers.
I was always wondering, if Reaver's design was to make it seem different from normal, "cross like"(hence more about side of mortals, who worship gods, angels etc.), to make it more "demonic" as it was... Or Was is because of it having soul, and being closest related to land of the dead- so the desing got more "wavy"- as we think of spirits, as beings, who are transparent, imaterial and transient in our world... Just a thought...
Soul reaver consumed all guardians spirits all raziel brethren raziel himself human sarafan human raziel Few emblembs by kain and few enchancements by raziel in spirit and material and at last thous enchanced ariel purrified it making it ultimate soul reaver able to brake shackles of dilema that got kain (by returning it to proper timeline it allows younger kain to be able to see elder god and probably most spirit creatures) edit. forgot about old guardians of vampires as well in defiance Thats my opinion
Thanks a lot! My guess it disables vampiric energy besides their hearts and that is what the wraith blade is and it has no shell. Raziel is not affected as he is not alive and his soul is inside his current physical body.
@@RainaAudron Thanks, It has been bugging me for a long time since it does not have a clear explanation in SR2. You made a lot of confusing things clear about the story, so for that you have my thanks. :)
I'm not totally certain, but I think that the Reaver recognized Raziel as the spirit who would eventually inhabit and power it, and as such, attempted to "Solve" this paradox.
The wraith blade, which is Raziel from a future point in time, tries to force Raziel into the sword. Were Raziel to choose not to enter the sword, the wraith blade ceases to exist.
Sometimes I wonder what was the original plan for the games as it was mentioned that Soul Reaver 1 had very little to the original idea for the sequel of Legacy of Kain
so, if i understood correctly, after Raziel sacrifice and the purification of Kain, the pillars have been restored? Meaning Kain hadn't to choose sacrifycing himself or not anymore as he's purified?
No, pillars are most certainly not restored. Raziel cured kains corruption, but that was future kain in the blood omen era. Young Kain is still corrupt as he has not been healed. So old kain has to help young kain raise new guardians and purify each of them with the new spirit reaver.
Kain returns reaver to the cathedral where he finds it for the first time and purifies his younger self in the process just a stab from wraith reaver was enough to purify moebius vision
Im confused, why would the Reaver after killing Sarafan Raziel try to absorb Wraith Raziel if that particular Reaver was the Blood Reaver? When did Raziel originaly end up in the Reaver?
I think it's because the sword detected its twin (the wraith blade, raziel's soul). In the game Mobeius disabled Raziel's wraith blade forcing him to take the sword. After killing all of the Sarafan, I assume the magic Mobeius used wore off and the wraith blade could manifest again. This meant it could be detected by the sword and merge together again, allowing it to become a soul eater due to the wraith blade being bound to raziel
After centuries of being imprisoned in the Reaver Raziel's soul loses consciousness and assumes the sword's "shape",like water in a cup. When Raziel kills his Sarafan self Moebius's staff influence ceases, allowing the wraith blade to manifest itself again, at this point the wraith is compelled to go into the blood reaver, since they have the same shape, and in doing so it drags Raziel along, since they are the same being and indivisible. Raziel's existence is a loop, as it is also hinted by the Ouroboros on the room's floor.
If you watch during Raziels final Rampage, as he kills the main priests, he can't draw their souls including his own. Only after he kills his past self does HIS reaver reactivates. Having nothing else to "leech" the blood reaver started to reave the only being left Raziel, himself.
Love for one more game with kain hunting the elder god through time and back before the ancients and becoming the origin of the prophesied saviour before going forward to lead the world anew, hylden banished forever due to kain becoming the immortal lock and key, restoring nosgoth and vampires cured of bloodlust to become leaders once again in the eternal golden age
Can someone explain to me when Raziel soul gets trapped in the reaver in the first place? And how Raziel got it in soul reaver 2 which I guessing it is a reaver from the future that already has his soul it it. And the reaver that Raziel has is it actually just his soul? So Raziel has 2 souls whenever he has it? What is happening.
Raziel's history is a bit of a loop. He's destined to become a soul devouring entity and destined to go back in time to meet the vacant reaver blade, be trapped inside due to the magic placed on it by the ancients and to become the spirit within the Soul Reaver. The Soul Reaver (with Raziels soul inside) is a legendary blade. In SR2 Raziel goes back in time and meets the native versions of the blade with his soul inside. The only one that doesn't is the one in the Sarafan era. That is vacant but was due to absord raziel's soul... Hence why the other ones later in history were already the Soul Reaver. Defiance postpones that but it was planned to have kain taking the blade back in time to fix continuity Yes because he has the wraith blade - his own soul devouring soul - Raziel is something of a walking paradox. And this might go some way to the explaining his free will
I have allways wondered why it is that after raziel kills his sarafen self , that the bloodreaver wants to devour him...and not before? Is it because after it has drained him of his blood , it has a claim on his life or was it just a good moment drama/plot wise...He isn't able to release the blade before he kills his earlier living self, so is it pure fate or was the draining of his blood by the bloodreaver necessary for it to become the soulreaver?
Blood Reaver has no will, it's just an empty shell which heals him when not holding the wraith blade. It's the wraith blade which turned on Raziel and impaled him.
@@RainaAudron Ok, thanks for the answer. So that it happens after raziel kills his "living" self is just fate then. That makes it even crueler in my opinion. I do hope they make a game series like this one.
I think it's because of the time flow, if the SoulReaver devoured Raziel before he killed his past self then it would have created a time paradox, and as we all know history abhors a paradox!
@@RainaAudron the real question is why the elemental forges, designed by the ancient vampires to enhance the BloodReaver, worked so well with the wraith blade, wich was none other than Raziel's soul itself. The only explanation i can think of is that after centuries of prisony inside the Reaver Raziel's gradually lost consciousness and shaped itself after its vessel, like water in a cup, and ended up mimicking the Blood Reaver's characteristics. Another question i have is about a this theory of mine: I think that since Raziel has now been purified from all corruption he can retain his consciousness while trapped in the sword, and if this SoulReaver happened to be destroyed Raziel would emerge from it, instead of just the wraith blade like in the previous timeline. Am i right?
@@arx3516 that's what i mean by fate; the flow of time, cause and effect, etc. non native english speaker here so prob a poor choice of words on my part.
Thanks for the video mate. One thing: are you sure the character in 12:55 is a seraphan lord and not one of the ancient races of Nosgoth? I don't remember, the ones who fought nephilim? Jesus my memory.
Did kain really kill raziel because he grew wings? Or did he see it as an opportunity to make things right? By the dialog in SR1, it’s almost like Kain knew he was coming back. I feel like Kain was in control the entire time.
Most likely? You can't kill vampires in soul reaver 1 without either fire, impaling, or water and then devouring their soul. Its implied the ones that aren't devoured becomes wraith, the ones you pull the weapons out of become vampires with soul sucking abilities. Likely since his soul wasn't devoured, he too cannot die.
Kain entered a realm similar to the spectral realm when raziel tore janos' heart away. He combatted demons and was able to forge a portal to the material world when he defeats a greater demon. Makes you wonder if raziels abilities somehow began to rub off onto kain
Mmm... I've always thought that Kain could easily recover and not die even after having his heart ripped out because only the Soul reaver could destroy him... I mean, did Kain not tell Raziel in Avernus Cathedral (just before battling each other) that he (Raziel) has the only weapon that could kill him?
Yeah Raziel the "hylden champion" didn't do what the hylden wanted when he tore kain's heart out. They would have preferred Kain's soul sucked into the reaver and truly dead and gone. So he just got knocked out....until he was woke by the bell (the summoning of all balance guardians to the forge).
I want to say thank you for all of your hard work and research but I want to know when yanash was possessed by the hilden he also said that there's still one more other way there's another champion or another guardian what did he meant by that who is this other champion or other guardian or elder
@@RainaAudron That is true but they never said that it kain was the Scion of balance. Since I have all the games I hope they'll finish this story yeash was possessed by the hilden What is Kane really the last vampire Nosgoth can't be the only place with vampires
It doesn't make any sense to me... An empty blade conjoined with wraith blade(which is Raziel) tries to consume Raziel... How is that supposed to work? It is already occupied by future Raziels soul that was bound to Raziels arm. Both Blood Reaver and Wraith Blade are in the same spot at the same time in Raziels hand, which technically is the complete Soul Reaver. I get the fact that the Reaver can't consume its past self, hence it breaks on Raziel when Kain hits him, but the very next time it decides it is just hungry and doesn't mind that Raziel is basically consuming himself. Even if only Raziel is consumed in that moment and the Wraith Blade is not, what happens to the Wraith Blade? Also what happened to Wraith blade in Kings William Reaver? Did it just patiently wait split in two for Raziel to come and mend them together? And how does that make sense when the outside force repairing it is the same soul that is occupying the blade? Also: How can the Wraith blade, which is Raziels SOUL itself(!) disperse into Kain at the end? I get it was purified, but I fail to see how that does stop mad soul within to decide to stop devouring souls and instead of that healing the corrupted. Another question: Why did Ancient vampires construct a machinery that purifies the Reaver they themselves created? How they pull out Ariel from being bound to the pillars? If she gets consumed by Raziel into the Wraith blade she can't appear at the Pillars later.
Ok so first off, just to be clear the video isn't really about speculating on things so much as it is about relaying the official information that has been provided by developers - some of which is in lesser known sources. But to answer your questions: As relayed by Defiance the empty blade has had various magics placed upon it by the ancient vampires, apparently as part of some ploy to contain the Hylden champion. But it's not necessarily the empty blade that's in control but the wraith blade surrounding it - Raziel's future self it may be but he's already described it as wilful ravenous and deranged, desperately seeking a way out of its torture - and it knows that moment was the end last time. It's seeking something - anything - to end it. There aren't really any concrete sources to say what happens to the blade in that scenario. All that matters is a deranged half mad half sentient entity that knows its younger self can't change its destiny, thinks its can get out by doing so. As for William's blade, it's unclear exactly what happened to the wraith blade within at this time, whether it too was split or resided in one half or whatever. But we do know that it was the Soul Reaver (so containing Raziel's soul) that was split and the Soul Reaver that was put back together. Unless the whole thing is completely irreparably shattered (like in SR1) then it's still in there somewhere. Remember Raziel is surprised by the split and senses the WB within. As for restoring, again we've got a half sentient deranged entity seeing itself and knowing something is wrong that needs to be fixed. The dispersal of the Spirit Reaver Wraith Blade is a direct quote from the developer explanation. The ancients had the power of foresight and prophecy and they saw that a scenario in could arise where the pillars could become corrupted necessitating the removal of all guardians, and recognised the danger that could cause - so they inserted a failsafe to purify a corrupted guardian by imbuing their holy weapon to purify the corruption. They perhaps didn't anticipate that the weapon would end up being a ghostly future version of their champion that had taken on the role of the blade after being trapped with it for so long, but that's what happened. And so as foretold the blades final form (Raziel) was purified and dispersed into Kain to purify him of corruption and that meant the end of the blade and the entity trapped within it: simultaneously fulfilling their prophecies. Ariel's dev explanation is a little ambiguous and not definitively laid out, but it says that the Soul Reaver era does not change for what Kain and Raziel do in the past. That means she's still there - and given the story that probably means her SR2 incarnation is still there as that's a pretty important part of Raziel's quest. The generally accepted fanon (and this isn't concrete lore) is that the Spirit Forge summoned a representative of balance that coincided with Raziel to meet him - ie it was the Ariel from his time period in the far future of SR1 that was summoned back in time, not the BO1one. She does hint she knows him more than the Ariel that had spoken to him just prior - and the devs explanation carries with it a caveat that it would make sense in the end. The series was cancelled before that made it to screen, but they were planning a return to the Soul Reaver era for a climax that would look well suited to clearing loose ends like showing Ariel and Turel going back in time to meet their respective dates with destiny..
Try tracing the timeline of the blade. Vorador constructed it in an indeterminate time and was awarded with vampirism(first human turned vampire so before Vampires as a race had to deal with hunan guardians). The Reaver remained soulless for a very long period of time, until a future wraith Raziel killed his own human self in the Sarafan stronghold(coinciding with the death of the last true vampire). That Soul Reaver was at the hands of the Sarafan and was passed on to William(youngest whole Soul Reaver). Kain came from the future(Blood Omen 1 events) with a Soul Reaver and that blade could realistically only be older. He defeated William and in the clash, the younger blade got destroyed, creating a paradox. Timeline bent over backwards to rectify Kain's actions to the point of forcing Raziel to appear in pre-Blood Omen era to repair the younger Soul Reaver by an even younger Raziel(pre entrance into the blade, when he still had agency and could mess things around). The younger blade absolutely *had* to be repaired, in order for the timeline to be cohesive. Second timeline was essentially not that different, save for Raziel making a stop by William and killing future Kain there on the way. Kain doesn't get killed-> Third timeline. Second and third timeline are basically identical, but a future Kain has the potential to create another paradox and holy hell that's a massive one. Kain stops Raziel from entering the blade in the Sarafan era. Not only that, the youngest whole Soul Reaver occurs at the end of the Blood Omen 1 era. Also, the soulless blade itself jumps forward in time by 500 years, but William was still killed in the same circumstances to cause Mobius' purge of the vampires(Defiance events) The events in defiance don't explain, how William was in possession of the Reaver, and whether or not it was the younger or older version in comparison to Kain's Reaver. Given that we haven't got another game after defiance, we can no longer be sure about Soul Reaver's age in the 4th timeline. As for purification of the Reaver. The Reaver is considered for all intents and purposes a pillar itself. It's made from the same material and has its own guardian(Janos). The vampires created a device to purify the pillars and nit necessarily the Reaver itself. Speculation on my part, but the Reaver was to be the medium through which the vampire guardians could purify any potential corruption in the pillars. That was to be the main role of the Reaver as the vampires envisioned it. The Reaver was powerful enough to strike down any foes and then it could be imbued with vampire magic to fix or purify damage done to the pillars. That would make eminent good sense, since the vampire's adversaries, the Hylden, had also constructed similarly dangerous and potent devices, which made able to pose a threat to the pillars even from a different realm.
That was meant to be the Amplified Reaver which he would get by striking down Ariel, then it would change colour from yellow to that after Kain would be devoured by it.
@@RainaAudron could they have had his jaw ripped off in the abyss just to match up with the sword? definitely seems like it has significance. He’s the champion… makes sense that it’s his face… I just thought of that like a month ago… literally never seen it anywhere before… as far as I know I’m the only person to ever come to that conclusion. but it fits so nicely haha he was always the spirit in the sword… it was always his face on the sword… everyone missed it haha I could be wrong… but I hope I’m right
@@dustinsmith9531 it is a cool coincidence but the Ancients didn't know what Raziel looked like as they thought he's gonna be one of them. In SR1, one of the main reasons to remove the jaw and having a cowl to cover it up was not having to worry about lips not moving when talking.
@@RainaAudron I just rewatched your section on the appearance of the different reavers in the games… and it’s changes… after blood omen it looks way more like raziel it has an expression to it… which wouldn’t happen to a skull with the meat taken off… like an angry sort of squint… reminds me of when raziel is standing over top of janos after he says his last words. I don’t mean this to argue at all… and I’ve learned so much from you and the strictly fantasy guy, totally brought these games back to life for me. But I can’t see that sword without seeing raziels head now haha. If it was a coincidence at first… there had to have been someone, during the development, that noticed it and brought it up to everyone… I think that’s why they made the skull have that expression… looks like an effort to make them more similar to each other… without giving it away totally.
If any series deserves a reboot it's LoK. I don't think it would happen without many of the original people behind it though as it would become political and shit on the "legacy" of the series these days. Shame.
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff I get but something that *always* confused me was... if the Wraith Blade turned on Raziel and therefore caused him to inhabit the *physical* Reaver blade... what happened to the Wraith Blade? Does it *also* join the other Raziel in the physical Reaver, in which case... there are two Raziels in there?! Later in Defiance Raziel makes the point of dispersing the Wraith Blade into Kain so he himself can go in the Reaver, but it's not really explained what happens to the soul that Raziel replaces *before* that in previous timelines. Also the idea of multiple Raziels having a good ole pontificating time in the Reaver for thousands of years just seems funny to me, I dunno. I imagine it being like Nail and Kami invading Piccolo's consciousness in DBZ Abridged xD
We don't have an absolute answer but it's likely it disperses in that case too. It certainly can't go into the physical blade with Raziel in third timeline (there can only be 1 soul in there).
I think that in previous timelines the Wraith Blade turning on Raziel is the future soul of Raziel trying to escape the torment of being trapped in Soul Reaver, and in the final timeline the blade turning on Raziel is just future soul of Raziel "following the script" so to say, ensuring it's freedom and the fall of Elder god.
I still don't understand why Raziel picked up the blood reaver when confronted by Malek and Moebius, the reaver was far from his only option, he didn't need any weapon to kill a still human Malek and Moebius. The only explanation is that at that moment Raziel was so overwhelmed by anger that he couldn't resist the reaver's attraction, like he did when Janos first presented the sword to him.
Normally, no but Mobius' staff would disable the wraith blade and Malek was the strongest of the Sarafan so while Raziel could fight him, it is much better odds to take up the Soul Reaver against Malek. Also Raziel didn't do it out of conscious choice but he did so because he is the weapon and the weapon is he so it was out of instinct.
@@commanderbastard1993 Malek was defeated twice by Vorador, and a fledgling Kain managed to survive a fight against a ghost Malek. I'm pretty sure Raziel would have no problem against a human Malek, even unarmed. But i agree on the fact that Raziel was "called" by the Reaver, and while overwhelmed by anger he couldn't resist it.
Everyone says that Raziel is both champions, I disagree. The mural on the left shows the hilden champion stabbing into the chest with its hand, reaching for something, like say a heart. The Mural on the right shows the Vampire champion stabbing the hilden champion in the chest as their body disolved, the mural in the middle depicts a fusion of the two champions holding the Soul Reaver empowered with the ability to devour souls. All three events happened in Defiance. Raziel stabbed Kain in the chest to retrieve Janos Audrons Heart which was the left mural, Kain having survived by being pushed into the hilden dimension where death was impossible until he recovered returned and stabbed Raziel in the chest and absorbed him into the physical blade which was the right mural. Kain himself then became enlightened and gained some of Raziels power to become more than just another Vampire or Hilden which was the central mural. Kain was the Vampire champion, Raziel the Hilden champion, and together they both became something more important than either.
Unfortunately, you're incorrect. We're not just saying this. The game (it's the big revelation at the end) and the creators (interview on TLW) themselves confirmed that Kain was never the vampire champion, Moebius and EG misled Raziel into believing this so they would fight. The murals do not refer to Raziel's/Kain battle in Avenue but Raziel simultaneously destroying vamp/Hylden champion when he sacrifices to the Reaver. Kain is Scion of Balance and depicted differently.
@@RainaAudron Just goes to show that the players of the games were just as confused and misled as the games protagonists. Took me like 10 years of my life to start getting the plot right by grinding the script over and over again obsessively because I was so fascinated with all the twists and turns of the story that leave you to speculate just how the heck it all fits together. Honestly I just want more bloopers so I can hear more iterations of my guy doing flawless impressions of the Reaver sound effects, that had me in stitches at the end, those bloopers at the end had the energy of the original cast behind the scenes, truly funny! xD
It makes me happy that there are still others out there who cherish this franchise.
I just finished watching a six hour video of the whole series
@@cesar72093 lol Yeah that's my video :)
This will always be my favorite game of all time, it was my first "big game" as a kid. How Ocarina of time or Mario 64 is most people's childhood game, this was mine.
@@ThrillHouse666 Mine as well.
VAE VICTUS!
Kain: "Fear... the tube!"
But on all seriousness. You guys did a great job. You've done it miles better than I ever could. Also, Merry LoKmas. You guys deserve a long break.
Thank you, sometimes I feel I am repeating too many things but that is the nature of the encyclopedic knowledge of Baz :D Glad that is enjoyable nonetheless!
I love your videos, reminds me LOK isn't dead in the Fandom and learning more about it makes me fall in love over and over again!
I must say, you Truly are one of those that Mantled the spirit and knowledge of this lovely game series! Here's to more awesome videos, cheers!
Oh, such a sweet christmas gift!!
Ohh nothing says a x-mas gift like a new Arcane Tome! haha, and the legendary Soul Reaver as a topic nonetheless! superb presentation as always!
Oh Merry Christmas to us 😃
My tinfoil is that Kain possesses Raziel's free will as of his purification. He bears the Soul Reaver which houses Raziel proper, but he also bears Raziel's soul in himself due to the wraith blade being passed onto him. The paradox which enabled Raziel to enact true choice is seemingly passed onto Elder Kain as long as he is in proximity to the sword.
There is no paradox. Raziels free will came about since he couldn't be killed despite his interference in history through time paradoxes, like havin the soul reaver and raziel in the same place and time. All other would be killed one way or another through history resisting to be changed. Meaning Kain got no free will, since there is no paradox!
What an absolute legend you are for doing this. Brilliantly organized and brilliantly said. Legend.
Thank you and merry slaneshmas to all.
1:12:43 Amy is that you?
This franchise is the 'What came first, the chicken or the egg" of gaming
And its as mysterious as the egg or chicken can get in games
Funny, a month ago I was looking for reference to create a replica of the Soul Reaver and somehow ended up on your channel, and now you're doing a video one it, starting with the very image I choose to scale the whole thing up :]
Excellent content. Can't believe 1 hour passed lol
Great stuff bud. Ill never get tired of this lore. On one hand id truly love to see this store finally concluded but i Don’t want them to ruin it like so many other Stories have been in recent times. So maybe better to leave it alone....unblemished as the pillars before its corruption.
You guys absolutely slayed it with this one. Bravo!
Thanks a lot! :)
I MISS these games so much, and hope to see something after defiance (and not like Nosgoth or Dark Sun)
There was going to be legacy of kain the dark prophecy but sadly it was cancelled.
Dark sun god tht horrible peice of toilet paper
The development for Defiance 2 turned the franchise into a cursed property. :(
@@Grinnar like the metal gear survive of the lok series
@@bdawgschnarr6623 no I mean literally people were dying, the publisher went under, and then finally Silicone Knights went down. Not a cash grab because they lead developer left.
Would be really cool if in the next Arcane Tomes video you could explore the Nosgoth map across the games and find the similarities and resemblance to apparently different locations, such as Melchiah's territory and Nupraptor's retreat, The Darrk Eden and Turel's Smokestack, Avernus Cathedral and Zephon's Silenced Cathedral, Malek's Bastion and Kain's mountain retreat, and so on...
This please
The Soulreaver had also a 4th stage in its "life", i mean the purified Soulreaver created at the end of Defiance by Raziel accepting to be absorbed by the sword. This version was different from the Soulreaver created at the end of SR2, in that version the wraith blade only had the 4 temporary elemental enhancements obtained by Raziel using the forges, and the blood reaver was in its basic state without any of the Balance Emblem enhancements. The Soulreaver created at tye end of Defiance on the other hand had all the balance emblem enhancements, all six permanent elemental enhancements, and most importantly it had the spirit enhancement that purified both the Soulreaver and Kain.
there's no better explanation, simply amazing, thank you!
I've been waiting for this one! Thank you!
This is the best thing ever! Thank you for all the hard work that you guys put into this!
Let's keep in mind that the wraith blade is just Raziel himself, who after century of imprisonment in the Reaver lost his sanity and any sense of self, assuming the shape of the sword that imprisoned him, and retaining that shape even after his physical prison was destroyed. It is also obvious that he absorbed the powers of the blood reaver allowing the wraith blade to be attuned to elemental powers by tye forges built by the ancient vampire and by absorbing the souls of the first guardians. Let's always keep in mind that Raziel is a walking paradox.
I am constantly coming back to these. Love em ❤
Great work with the video! I am very happy to find out, to be honest i have no idea how youtube send me here, but I am GRATEFUL
My favorite game ever
Wonderful information🙂👍🌸...but I miss Raziel...😔💙
Same here!😳
Loved this so much. Still love soul reaver all these years later. ❤ Excellent stuff!!!!!
your work and your respect for the series got me... wonderful video, very good explanation! thank you so much!
It's always great to see new video's about legacy of kain.
Awesome video dude hope you are keeping well and having an excellent Christmas!🎅🎄☃️👍
And as always - great work! I'm following Your videos with much interest. Btw, love the idea of bloopers, keep it up :)
Thank you for this amazing video.
I want to bring attention to a certain detail that may or may not actually be important but... I noticed this and I just thought it was cool.
Whatever ends up happening to the original physical Reaver blade? The sword itself? Well, we know that it ends up being broken in two when William the Just fights young vampire Kain in Blood Omen, but that was the first "shatter". The second time the blade is broken is when Kain breaks it over the head of Raziel, smashing the sword into a million pieces.
As far as we know, chronologically, this is the physical blade's last moment. Kain kept the Soul Reaver from when he found it back in Blood Omen all the way to Soul Reaver, where he shatters it over Raziel. Then at the finale of Soul Reaver 2, he postpones Raziel being absorbed into the blade before taking and using this empty Reaver for the rest of Defiance.
I just noticed that, while the Reaver's existence is a loop, it's incredible how the blade itself has an actual end. Kain never recovers his original Soul Reaver, which becomes Raziel's Wraith Reaver. He never fixes it, it simply gets annhilated into a bunch of tiny PS1 particles. I just thought that was worth pointing out.
Thank you kindly! This is a wonderful Christmas present! :D
Liked and subscribed, keep up the good work!
Amazing! I love these videos
So the final timeline is, I believe, as close as the "original" timeline we will get. I believe Kain was destined to become the first returning Vampiric scion of Balance, and Mortanius betrayed his and Moebius' original plan in betraying their vampire masters.
The altered timelines have Kain being killed by Raziel in the Sarafan fortress and then Raziel being consumed by the Reaver, leaving a Reaver for Moebius to place for Kain in Avernus during the event of BO1.
But through their, mostly Kains, efforts they create enough paradoxes and shifts of timelines back so that the original result can be obtained - Kain purified as the scion of balance allows new guardians to be born untainted by the curse from Nupraptor and with Kain being a vampire he can ensure the pillars won't fall over time once, somehow, restored.
Ah yes the zero point. Actualy a was wandering were the hell they get first soul reaver ath the first plase with Raziel soul. Bekouse in first or zerotimine he dosent get the raithblade at first place.
The hylden need to get a better ending than being locked away again, though. History prooves that isn't a fix. And just killing them is.... what you'd expect. So i was hoping for something new. Like teaming up with them against the true enemy who started the war to begin with-- Eldergod. Are necrovamps going to survive into the new pillars era??? Or should kain become a real boy at last and join the living as the new Ancients' daddy? Then you've got original timeline -ish-ness!
@@larrymcmacarroon9529 I would argue it only failed because of the vampires being cursed and their religion. They were immortal guardians of the pillars, it's a fine way to keep your enemies trapped. They only got out because humans were chosen as pillar guardians as they were weak and easily corrupted.
@@filipniklas part of the reason there can be no new pillar guardians is because Kain is tainted by nupraptors curse, being purified allows more guardian to be born again
@@filipniklas I see your points, yes the EG is the grand manipulator in all things. The original source of strife
Exceptional Christmas gift!
I would donate were it an option good sir.
Here Here!
Hey Reawer, if you are still considering supporting the channel, I have recently added an option. It´s voluntary of course, but appreciated! :)
That's awesome! Soul reaver was a big part of my life and your doing this legendary series incomparable justice, so I feel morally obligated to help in any way I can.
Love your work
@@Reawer Thank you do much for all the support! It means a lot. New TAT video will be up within a few weeks ;)
huh... the central mural at 15:54... that's where Kain got his Clan Sigil...i allways wondered where he got it from.
He never seen this mural before, though. It's more like the Ancients looked into the future and saw it.
Great Video and a massive load of Work, thanks for the Passion!
5 min... already a fan! thanks!
i just noticed theres 3 more vids besides this one tha i need to watch now 0.0
Yep ;)
These videos need more likes.
1:06:37
I... don't know why I never tried using the Soul Reaver. I did _both_ of those fights the hard way. I thought they were just hard boss battles.
Thank you so much for the great work behind the very complicated video, Raina and Baz and everyone else! You did a splendid kob, congrats! Now I understand so many things that were confused in my mind about the Soul Reaver, thanks for the explanation! Hope to see you guys continue with this series of special videos about LoK...
May I ask if there is a chance for you to dedicate some videos to the stories of the characters? Not only the main ones, but also the characters which have appeared in one or two LoK series, like Raziel's brethren, the Pillar Guardians in Blood Omen etc.?
Great work
Hands down the greatest weapon in all of gaming, nothing else comes close though many have tried.
Thank u! Good work
I never understood why when the Physical Soul Reaver breaks why Raziel Soul wasn't free why did it stay in the shape of the Soul Reaver blade?
It's like when you wake up with a back ache and the muscles all seize up and then you start walking around kind of stuck in that pain pose. Only now you're a sword.
@@larrymcmacarroon9529 that or there is some spell on the sword that imprison him in that shape like layers, a prison within a prison guess at the end of the day the soul is just a form of energy
Reaver video.
ua-cam.com/video/sc7XpX5QTpk/v-deo.html
I respect no ads and all I rly do but hey man the quality here deserves monetization good series so far man 🔥🔥🔥🤍
I noticed something that I have never heard anyone talking bout.When Kain struck Raziel with the Soul Reaver and the blade shattered,Raziel's entity,so to speak,was freed from the blade and bound to Raziel arm as his symbiotic weapon.SO...when Kain and William fought and Williams blade was broken,what happened to Raziel entity of that version of the blade?It must have also been freed.What happened to it!?
I feel my head just exploded lol.!Could there be another version of Raziel lingering somewhere or better yet...somewhen?? Lol
Williams blade broke due to combat(the strength of the blades being even but obviously Kane being stronger than William) Not the paradox (there would have been distortions due to 2 reavers, but this isn't the reason it broke) meaning his soul remained inside. in sr1 the blade shattered due to the paradox of attempting to devour its own soul which in turn freed said soul.
I am intrest with other thing. Di Raziel need his thwin soul to be dewoured by sword or not.
@Dawn Stalker shouldnt Raziel be able to get out if the physical sword is broken?
This was a time when real time 3D lighting was just a fancy effect and not a tool to create atmosphere. A lot of the dark, depressing feel of Soul Reaver comes from the textures. Everything was colored to be darker and less saturated than they're suppose to be. So the in-game model of Soul Reaver being dark gray doesn't seem to be as a design inconsistency but rather, it's just suppose to look dimly lit.
I disagree. It looks way better with textures from the high res model from the intro. The original looks more like the one from BO1.
@@RainaAudron That does look better. I wasn't trying to say it would've looked bad with proper colors, I was just trying to explain what the devs could've been thinking while making it darker.
@@davymachinegun5130 Ah, I see!
you know i was thinking you guess should probably do a reading of the legacy of kain comics
Hmm, that is an interesting idea! We might consider it.
Wait...there are lok comics!?
@@123darkelf Yes, 2 English and 1 German. legacyofkain.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain:_Soul_Reaver_comic
legacyofkain.fandom.com/wiki/Legacy_of_Kain:_Defiance_comic
@@123darkelf Well 3 official comic's I believe all were just promotional produces. Two for soul reaver 1 one taking place shortly before the intro of soul reaver 1. where Raziel meets this priestess that prophesied what would happen in the future. telling him he can't trust kain he will betray you then going over the events that would happen in soul reaver 1. raziel doesn't believe her kills her then heads off to meet kain at the pillars. the second soul reaver comic I was only able to find in german so it was hard for me to figure out how to read it. but it basically is about a newly wraith raziel contemplating his life thus far before accepting the elder god's offer for vengeance. and the final comic is for defiance and in short, is about kain shortly before the start of defiance heading back to the sarafan stronghold contemplating his life till this point. going over the event of the past games from kain's point of view. and as far as fan comics goes I only know of two. 1 is a complete retelling of blood omen 1 in comic form it's a good read. the other is about this young razielim girl escaping the slaughter of her clan before turning into a wraith much like Raziel. it was probably meant to be a series but it only ended up getting 1 chapter.
Here's a question I was thinking about just a few days ago. Would Raziels soul be released when Williams blade was shattered when he fought Kane?
No, as it was only broken, not destroyed as when Kain hit Raziel with it.
One thing always puzzled me about Janos Audron's first meeting with Raziel, WHY is it that Janos recognised Raziel and knew his name?, WHY does he seem so shocked and ask Raziel what happened to him?, referring to his decayed and disturbing form.. this always made me wonder if Janos Audron had met a fully restored Raziel, wings and all.. ⁉️
Because they thought their prophesized champion would look like them and was shocked he was ragged looking (they couldn't see him clearly). Both Hylden and Ancients knew his name but not what he looked like, as both could see into the time stream.
Im pretty sure prophecies were miss read and raziel wasnt champion of either race he was in my opinion supposed to enhance reaver by using his wings to reach all the forges (all permament reaver upgrades uses souls of vampire guardians ) but bc of hylden his and kains future was changed (raziel was supposed to be reaver guardian like janos was)
Awesome video dude it really helped me to clear things but there's one thing that I can't understand. So the first 2 reavers which created the reaver convergence was put in their places by Moebius, and we think Moebius get the Reavers from future by time travelling. The thing that I can't understand is, if Moebius get to the future to take "Soul" Reavers, how the Soul Reavers he get, became the Soul Reaver ? Because as we know from the story, Kain needs to get the SR from mobius and create his empire then resurrect Raziel as vampire and then cast him into abyss, then the EG needs to resurrect him as his Soul Reaver, then Raziel needs to get stabbed by blade and imprisoned inside it so it can become the Soul Reaver. But as I mentioned it, Kain needs the SOUL reaver to create Raziel and also to create Soul reaver. How can this is possible, because in the first timeline before the paradoxes and the convergence, there was no Raziel to get imprisoned in the blade and for Moebius to take the soul reaver from future. How did Moebius get the first Soul Reaver because in that timeline, there was no Raziel and therefore no Soul reavers, there need to be only blood reavers.
I was always wondering, if Reaver's design was to make it seem different from normal, "cross like"(hence more about side of mortals, who worship gods, angels etc.), to make it more "demonic" as it was...
Or
Was is because of it having soul, and being closest related to land of the dead- so the desing got more "wavy"- as we think of spirits, as beings, who are transparent, imaterial and transient in our world...
Just a thought...
I think it is just due to it being a flamberge type of sword, but that is an interesting theory.
Soul reaver consumed all guardians spirits all raziel brethren raziel himself human sarafan human raziel Few emblembs by kain and few enchancements by raziel in spirit and material and at last thous enchanced ariel purrified it making it ultimate soul reaver able to brake shackles of dilema that got kain (by returning it to proper timeline it allows younger kain to be able to see elder god and probably most spirit creatures)
edit. forgot about old guardians of vampires as well in defiance
Thats my opinion
1:13:21 *Ass Village?* 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 *Grrreater even than Kain!* 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 That's pretty hilarious man. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Keep it up.
Does somebody know why Moebius's staff was able to disperse the wraithblade?
BTW awesome job and keep the videos coming. :)
Thanks a lot! My guess it disables vampiric energy besides their hearts and that is what the wraith blade is and it has no shell. Raziel is not affected as he is not alive and his soul is inside his current physical body.
@@RainaAudron Thanks, It has been bugging me for a long time since it does not have a clear explanation in SR2.
You made a lot of confusing things clear about the story, so for that you have my thanks. :)
Great vid! Really enjoying the series.
I have one question that I could never figure out an answer for: why did the reaver turn on Raziel in SR2?
I'm not totally certain, but I think that the Reaver recognized Raziel as the spirit who would eventually inhabit and power it, and as such, attempted to "Solve" this paradox.
The wraith blade, which is Raziel from a future point in time, tries to force Raziel into the sword. Were Raziel to choose not to enter the sword, the wraith blade ceases to exist.
Sometimes I wonder what was the original plan for the games as it was mentioned that Soul Reaver 1 had very little to the original idea for the sequel of Legacy of Kain
so, if i understood correctly, after Raziel sacrifice and the purification of Kain, the pillars have been restored?
Meaning Kain hadn't to choose sacrifycing himself or not anymore as he's purified?
Developers have suggested this could be the the case, yes.
No, pillars are most certainly not restored. Raziel cured kains corruption, but that was future kain in the blood omen era. Young Kain is still corrupt as he has not been healed. So old kain has to help young kain raise new guardians and purify each of them with the new spirit reaver.
@@NA1c158 Kain cannot interfere with the younger Kain much. DCab confirmed there are new guardians in the future after Kain was purified.
Kain returns reaver to the cathedral where he finds it for the first time and purifies his younger self in the process just a stab from wraith reaver was enough to purify moebius vision
Was i the only one who thought it was neat that both the Sword and Raziel are lacking a lower jaw?
Im confused, why would the Reaver after killing Sarafan Raziel try to absorb Wraith Raziel if that particular Reaver was the Blood Reaver? When did Raziel originaly end up in the Reaver?
I think it's because the sword detected its twin (the wraith blade, raziel's soul). In the game Mobeius disabled Raziel's wraith blade forcing him to take the sword. After killing all of the Sarafan, I assume the magic Mobeius used wore off and the wraith blade could manifest again. This meant it could be detected by the sword and merge together again, allowing it to become a soul eater due to the wraith blade being bound to raziel
@@tomworsley3745 Your understanding is correct.
After centuries of being imprisoned in the Reaver Raziel's soul loses consciousness and assumes the sword's "shape",like water in a cup. When Raziel kills his Sarafan self Moebius's staff influence ceases, allowing the wraith blade to manifest itself again, at this point the wraith is compelled to go into the blood reaver, since they have the same shape, and in doing so it drags Raziel along, since they are the same being and indivisible. Raziel's existence is a loop, as it is also hinted by the Ouroboros on the room's floor.
If you watch during Raziels final Rampage, as he kills the main priests, he can't draw their souls including his own. Only after he kills his past self does HIS reaver reactivates. Having nothing else to "leech" the blood reaver started to reave the only being left Raziel, himself.
Holy shit! Legacy of Kain: Defiance looks Remastered.
I've used footage using Hylden's texture pack :)
@@RainaAudron So is not a Remastered?
@@johnsantos507 it's a fan mod. There isn't any official remastered version.
@@RainaAudron Aww, man.😭
Love for one more game with kain hunting the elder god through time and back before the ancients and becoming the origin of the prophesied saviour before going forward to lead the world anew, hylden banished forever due to kain becoming the immortal lock and key, restoring nosgoth and vampires cured of bloodlust to become leaders once again in the eternal golden age
Can someone explain to me when Raziel soul gets trapped in the reaver in the first place? And how Raziel got it in soul reaver 2 which I guessing it is a reaver from the future that already has his soul it it. And the reaver that Raziel has is it actually just his soul? So Raziel has 2 souls whenever he has it? What is happening.
Raziel's history is a bit of a loop. He's destined to become a soul devouring entity and destined to go back in time to meet the vacant reaver blade, be trapped inside due to the magic placed on it by the ancients and to become the spirit within the Soul Reaver.
The Soul Reaver (with Raziels soul inside) is a legendary blade. In SR2 Raziel goes back in time and meets the native versions of the blade with his soul inside. The only one that doesn't is the one in the Sarafan era. That is vacant but was due to absord raziel's soul... Hence why the other ones later in history were already the Soul Reaver.
Defiance postpones that but it was planned to have kain taking the blade back in time to fix continuity
Yes because he has the wraith blade - his own soul devouring soul - Raziel is something of a walking paradox. And this might go some way to the explaining his free will
@@bazlmoon Thanks so much for commenting. This video of yours helped me understand things a lot better. You also make great content
I have allways wondered why it is that after raziel kills his sarafen self , that the bloodreaver wants to devour him...and not before? Is it because after it has drained him of his blood , it has a claim on his life or was it just a good moment drama/plot wise...He isn't able to release the blade before he kills his earlier living self, so is it pure fate or was the draining of his blood by the bloodreaver necessary for it to become the soulreaver?
Blood Reaver has no will, it's just an empty shell which heals him when not holding the wraith blade. It's the wraith blade which turned on Raziel and impaled him.
@@RainaAudron Ok, thanks for the answer. So that it happens after raziel kills his "living" self is just fate then. That makes it even crueler in my opinion. I do hope they make a game series like this one.
I think it's because of the time flow, if the SoulReaver devoured Raziel before he killed his past self then it would have created a time paradox, and as we all know history abhors a paradox!
@@RainaAudron the real question is why the elemental forges, designed by the ancient vampires to enhance the BloodReaver, worked so well with the wraith blade, wich was none other than Raziel's soul itself. The only explanation i can think of is that after centuries of prisony inside the Reaver Raziel's gradually lost consciousness and shaped itself after its vessel, like water in a cup, and ended up mimicking the Blood Reaver's characteristics. Another question i have is about a this theory of mine: I think that since Raziel has now been purified from all corruption he can retain his consciousness while trapped in the sword, and if this SoulReaver happened to be destroyed Raziel would emerge from it, instead of just the wraith blade like in the previous timeline. Am i right?
@@arx3516 that's what i mean by fate; the flow of time, cause and effect, etc. non native english speaker here so prob a poor choice of words on my part.
Sour reaver was such a rich game
well done mate
Thanks for the video mate. One thing: are you sure the character in 12:55 is a seraphan lord and not one of the ancient races of Nosgoth? I don't remember, the ones who fought nephilim? Jesus my memory.
Did kain really kill raziel because he grew wings? Or did he see it as an opportunity to make things right? By the dialog in SR1, it’s almost like Kain knew he was coming back.
I feel like Kain was in control the entire time.
obviously, thats the takeaway of SR2
How does Kain "recover" after Raziel rips the Heart out?
Most likely? You can't kill vampires in soul reaver 1 without either fire, impaling, or water and then devouring their soul. Its implied the ones that aren't devoured becomes wraith, the ones you pull the weapons out of become vampires with soul sucking abilities. Likely since his soul wasn't devoured, he too cannot die.
Kain entered a realm similar to the spectral realm when raziel tore janos' heart away. He combatted demons and was able to forge a portal to the material world when he defeats a greater demon. Makes you wonder if raziels abilities somehow began to rub off onto kain
Mmm... I've always thought that Kain could easily recover and not die even after having his heart ripped out because only the Soul reaver could destroy him... I mean, did Kain not tell Raziel in Avernus Cathedral (just before battling each other) that he (Raziel) has the only weapon that could kill him?
Yeah Raziel the "hylden champion" didn't do what the hylden wanted when he tore kain's heart out. They would have preferred Kain's soul sucked into the reaver and truly dead and gone. So he just got knocked out....until he was woke by the bell (the summoning of all balance guardians to the forge).
I kind of remember Amy Henning explained this was posible due to kain being balance guardian
I want to say thank you for all of your hard work and research but I want to know when yanash was possessed by the hilden he also said that there's still one more other way there's another champion or another guardian what did he meant by that
who is this other champion or other guardian or elder
Thanks a lot! He said "You must seek Scion of Balance." = Kain.
@@RainaAudron
That is true but they never said that it kain was the Scion of balance.
Since I have all the games I hope they'll finish this story yeash was possessed by the hilden
What is Kane really the last vampire Nosgoth can't be the only place with vampires
@@vega1356 Yes, they did. Read also the dev interviews.
@@RainaAudron
I will then
@@vega1356 It is also directly mentioned in the cutscene with Ariel.
I wish you could tell how many times you've watched a given video.
It doesn't make any sense to me...
An empty blade conjoined with wraith blade(which is Raziel) tries to consume Raziel... How is that supposed to work? It is already occupied by future Raziels soul that was bound to Raziels arm. Both Blood Reaver and Wraith Blade are in the same spot at the same time in Raziels hand, which technically is the complete Soul Reaver. I get the fact that the Reaver can't consume its past self, hence it breaks on Raziel when Kain hits him, but the very next time it decides it is just hungry and doesn't mind that Raziel is basically consuming himself. Even if only Raziel is consumed in that moment and the Wraith Blade is not, what happens to the Wraith Blade?
Also what happened to Wraith blade in Kings William Reaver? Did it just patiently wait split in two for Raziel to come and mend them together? And how does that make sense when the outside force repairing it is the same soul that is occupying the blade?
Also: How can the Wraith blade, which is Raziels SOUL itself(!) disperse into Kain at the end? I get it was purified, but I fail to see how that does stop mad soul within to decide to stop devouring souls and instead of that healing the corrupted.
Another question: Why did Ancient vampires construct a machinery that purifies the Reaver they themselves created? How they pull out Ariel from being bound to the pillars? If she gets consumed by Raziel into the Wraith blade she can't appear at the Pillars later.
Ok so first off, just to be clear the video isn't really about speculating on things so much as it is about relaying the official information that has been provided by developers - some of which is in lesser known sources. But to answer your questions:
As relayed by Defiance the empty blade has had various magics placed upon it by the ancient vampires, apparently as part of some ploy to contain the Hylden champion. But it's not necessarily the empty blade that's in control but the wraith blade surrounding it - Raziel's future self it may be but he's already described it as wilful ravenous and deranged, desperately seeking a way out of its torture - and it knows that moment was the end last time. It's seeking something - anything - to end it. There aren't really any concrete sources to say what happens to the blade in that scenario. All that matters is a deranged half mad half sentient entity that knows its younger self can't change its destiny, thinks its can get out by doing so.
As for William's blade, it's unclear exactly what happened to the wraith blade within at this time, whether it too was split or resided in one half or whatever. But we do know that it was the Soul Reaver (so containing Raziel's soul) that was split and the Soul Reaver that was put back together. Unless the whole thing is completely irreparably shattered (like in SR1) then it's still in there somewhere. Remember Raziel is surprised by the split and senses the WB within. As for restoring, again we've got a half sentient deranged entity seeing itself and knowing something is wrong that needs to be fixed.
The dispersal of the Spirit Reaver Wraith Blade is a direct quote from the developer explanation. The ancients had the power of foresight and prophecy and they saw that a scenario in could arise where the pillars could become corrupted necessitating the removal of all guardians, and recognised the danger that could cause - so they inserted a failsafe to purify a corrupted guardian by imbuing their holy weapon to purify the corruption. They perhaps didn't anticipate that the weapon would end up being a ghostly future version of their champion that had taken on the role of the blade after being trapped with it for so long, but that's what happened. And so as foretold the blades final form (Raziel) was purified and dispersed into Kain to purify him of corruption and that meant the end of the blade and the entity trapped within it: simultaneously fulfilling their prophecies.
Ariel's dev explanation is a little ambiguous and not definitively laid out, but it says that the Soul Reaver era does not change for what Kain and Raziel do in the past. That means she's still there - and given the story that probably means her SR2 incarnation is still there as that's a pretty important part of Raziel's quest. The generally accepted fanon (and this isn't concrete lore) is that the Spirit Forge summoned a representative of balance that coincided with Raziel to meet him - ie it was the Ariel from his time period in the far future of SR1 that was summoned back in time, not the BO1one. She does hint she knows him more than the Ariel that had spoken to him just prior - and the devs explanation carries with it a caveat that it would make sense in the end. The series was cancelled before that made it to screen, but they were planning a return to the Soul Reaver era for a climax that would look well suited to clearing loose ends like showing Ariel and Turel going back in time to meet their respective dates with destiny..
Try tracing the timeline of the blade.
Vorador constructed it in an indeterminate time and was awarded with vampirism(first human turned vampire so before Vampires as a race had to deal with hunan guardians).
The Reaver remained soulless for a very long period of time, until a future wraith Raziel killed his own human self in the Sarafan stronghold(coinciding with the death of the last true vampire). That Soul Reaver was at the hands of the Sarafan and was passed on to William(youngest whole Soul Reaver).
Kain came from the future(Blood Omen 1 events) with a Soul Reaver and that blade could realistically only be older. He defeated William and in the clash, the younger blade got destroyed, creating a paradox.
Timeline bent over backwards to rectify Kain's actions to the point of forcing Raziel to appear in pre-Blood Omen era to repair the younger Soul Reaver by an even younger Raziel(pre entrance into the blade, when he still had agency and could mess things around).
The younger blade absolutely *had* to be repaired, in order for the timeline to be cohesive.
Second timeline was essentially not that different, save for Raziel making a stop by William and killing future Kain there on the way.
Kain doesn't get killed-> Third timeline. Second and third timeline are basically identical, but a future Kain has the potential to create another paradox and holy hell that's a massive one.
Kain stops Raziel from entering the blade in the Sarafan era. Not only that, the youngest whole Soul Reaver occurs at the end of the Blood Omen 1 era.
Also, the soulless blade itself jumps forward in time by 500 years, but William was still killed in the same circumstances to cause Mobius' purge of the vampires(Defiance events)
The events in defiance don't explain, how William was in possession of the Reaver, and whether or not it was the younger or older version in comparison to Kain's Reaver.
Given that we haven't got another game after defiance, we can no longer be sure about Soul Reaver's age in the 4th timeline.
As for purification of the Reaver. The Reaver is considered for all intents and purposes a pillar itself. It's made from the same material and has its own guardian(Janos). The vampires created a device to purify the pillars and nit necessarily the Reaver itself. Speculation on my part, but the Reaver was to be the medium through which the vampire guardians could purify any potential corruption in the pillars. That was to be the main role of the Reaver as the vampires envisioned it. The Reaver was powerful enough to strike down any foes and then it could be imbued with vampire magic to fix or purify damage done to the pillars.
That would make eminent good sense, since the vampire's adversaries, the Hylden, had also constructed similarly dangerous and potent devices, which made able to pose a threat to the pillars even from a different realm.
What was the black and red reaver pictured in the chronoplasts?
That was meant to be the Amplified Reaver which he would get by striking down Ariel, then it would change colour from yellow to that after Kain would be devoured by it.
Wait What? The arcane tomes isn’t on iTunes. Wtffffff
I still don’t understand how Raziel both trapped and freed himself. Can anyone break it down a bit more for me?
He freed the wraith blade (his future self) by dispersing it into Kain while trapping his present soul into the Blood Reaver.
@@RainaAudron I just realised this, after watching the rest of your video 😅 I had never got it before.
Who's skull is on the reaver? Does anyone think it's raziels skull since it's missing it jaw.
The similarity is definitely there, but it is not his skull.
Just a regular vampire skull design.
What Raziel did after he spair Kain?
Legacy of Kain Defiance is the game that picks up on that story :)
the reaver is a key
yeeeeeeeeeeees
1:06:02 Can confirm, the Soul Reaver was meant to be wielded by Squall.
The skull on the sword is supposed to be raziel’s head… missing bottom jaw and all.
Actually, no, as it appeared in Blood Omen first.
@@RainaAudron could they have had his jaw ripped off in the abyss just to match up with the sword? definitely seems like it has significance. He’s the champion… makes sense that it’s his face… I just thought of that like a month ago… literally never seen it anywhere before… as far as I know I’m the only person to ever come to that conclusion. but it fits so nicely haha he was always the spirit in the sword… it was always his face on the sword… everyone missed it haha I could be wrong… but I hope I’m right
@@dustinsmith9531 it is a cool coincidence but the Ancients didn't know what Raziel looked like as they thought he's gonna be one of them. In SR1, one of the main reasons to remove the jaw and having a cowl to cover it up was not having to worry about lips not moving when talking.
@@RainaAudron I just rewatched your section on the appearance of the different reavers in the games… and it’s changes… after blood omen it looks way more like raziel it has an expression to it… which wouldn’t happen to a skull with the meat taken off… like an angry sort of squint… reminds me of when raziel is standing over top of janos after he says his last words. I don’t mean this to argue at all… and I’ve learned so much from you and the strictly fantasy guy, totally brought these games back to life for me. But I can’t see that sword without seeing raziels head now haha. If it was a coincidence at first… there had to have been someone, during the development, that noticed it and brought it up to everyone… I think that’s why they made the skull have that expression… looks like an effort to make them more similar to each other… without giving it away totally.
Strictly coincidence
If any series deserves a reboot it's LoK. I don't think it would happen without many of the original people behind it though as it would become political and shit on the "legacy" of the series these days. Shame.
Como me gustaría una traducción al español
How I would like a Spanish translation
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff I get but something that *always* confused me was... if the Wraith Blade turned on Raziel and therefore caused him to inhabit the *physical* Reaver blade... what happened to the Wraith Blade? Does it *also* join the other Raziel in the physical Reaver, in which case... there are two Raziels in there?! Later in Defiance Raziel makes the point of dispersing the Wraith Blade into Kain so he himself can go in the Reaver, but it's not really explained what happens to the soul that Raziel replaces *before* that in previous timelines.
Also the idea of multiple Raziels having a good ole pontificating time in the Reaver for thousands of years just seems funny to me, I dunno. I imagine it being like Nail and Kami invading Piccolo's consciousness in DBZ Abridged xD
We don't have an absolute answer but it's likely it disperses in that case too. It certainly can't go into the physical blade with Raziel in third timeline (there can only be 1 soul in there).
I think that in previous timelines the Wraith Blade turning on Raziel is the future soul of Raziel trying to escape the torment of being trapped in Soul Reaver, and in the final timeline the blade turning on Raziel is just future soul of Raziel "following the script" so to say, ensuring it's freedom and the fall of Elder god.
I still don't understand why Raziel picked up the blood reaver when confronted by Malek and Moebius, the reaver was far from his only option, he didn't need any weapon to kill a still human Malek and Moebius. The only explanation is that at that moment Raziel was so overwhelmed by anger that he couldn't resist the reaver's attraction, like he did when Janos first presented the sword to him.
That is exactly the thing that Ariel warned him about: "Those blind with rage are by destiny ensnared."
@@RainaAudron Nice... Gamer Scolar Poet hybrid class.
Normally, no but Mobius' staff would disable the wraith blade and Malek was the strongest of the Sarafan so while Raziel could fight him, it is much better odds to take up the Soul Reaver against Malek. Also Raziel didn't do it out of conscious choice but he did so because he is the weapon and the weapon is he so it was out of instinct.
@@commanderbastard1993 Malek was defeated twice by Vorador, and a fledgling Kain managed to survive a fight against a ghost Malek. I'm pretty sure Raziel would have no problem against a human Malek, even unarmed. But i agree on the fact that Raziel was "called" by the Reaver, and while overwhelmed by anger he couldn't resist it.
Everyone says that Raziel is both champions, I disagree. The mural on the left shows the hilden champion stabbing into the chest with its hand, reaching for something, like say a heart. The Mural on the right shows the Vampire champion stabbing the hilden champion in the chest as their body disolved, the mural in the middle depicts a fusion of the two champions holding the Soul Reaver empowered with the ability to devour souls. All three events happened in Defiance. Raziel stabbed Kain in the chest to retrieve Janos Audrons Heart which was the left mural, Kain having survived by being pushed into the hilden dimension where death was impossible until he recovered returned and stabbed Raziel in the chest and absorbed him into the physical blade which was the right mural. Kain himself then became enlightened and gained some of Raziels power to become more than just another Vampire or Hilden which was the central mural. Kain was the Vampire champion, Raziel the Hilden champion, and together they both became something more important than either.
Unfortunately, you're incorrect. We're not just saying this. The game (it's the big revelation at the end) and the creators (interview on TLW) themselves confirmed that Kain was never the vampire champion, Moebius and EG misled Raziel into believing this so they would fight. The murals do not refer to Raziel's/Kain battle in Avenue but Raziel simultaneously destroying vamp/Hylden champion when he sacrifices to the Reaver. Kain is Scion of Balance and depicted differently.
@@RainaAudron Just goes to show that the players of the games were just as confused and misled as the games protagonists. Took me like 10 years of my life to start getting the plot right by grinding the script over and over again obsessively because I was so fascinated with all the twists and turns of the story that leave you to speculate just how the heck it all fits together.
Honestly I just want more bloopers so I can hear more iterations of my guy doing flawless impressions of the Reaver sound effects, that had me in stitches at the end, those bloopers at the end had the energy of the original cast behind the scenes, truly funny! xD
it's ''beta'' not ''bita''
Both pronunciations are correct.
Laura croft x Raziel any one.
What is this "a$s village" ? and where i can find it?
An amazing video! Thank you!