Legacy of Kain
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.
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 series is mainly dedicated to chronicling 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, who 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 favour, 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. 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 insubstantial 'stuff' which animates and makes everything else 'go'.
Time, being the cyclical flow of time and the fated events to take place in order of their happening. (note that in LoK, 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. Balance governs all of existence through its governship 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.
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, have both aspects of heroism and villainy, even when some aspects seem to shine through more often than others.
Kain himself, for instances, is a notorious anti-hero in that he is, in fact, not very like-able: he is an unashamedly selfish and brutal megalomaniac, with an obvious relish for bloodshed; 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 learnedness, cultured palate and his extremely aristocratic tastes, he could best be described as a cross-over between Hannibal Lecter and Vlad the Impaler; however, his justification is often thrust upon him in that he usually finds himself by either accident or his own designs, in such a position that he becomes the lesser of two evils, and one becomes almost proud to see the true enemy get what they so richly deserve by falling to the mercy of his better graces.
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.
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 sometimes, 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 Time-Streamer, 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], and these paradoxes further add to the confusion.
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. Even though each game is ultimately an action game, some do share properties of role playing and adventure games.
| Name | Year Released | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | 1996 | PlayStation / PC / Saturn |
| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | 1999 | PlayStation / PC / Dreamcast |
| Soul Reaver 2: Legacy of Kain | 2001 | PC / PlayStation 2 |
| Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain | 2002 | PC / PlayStation 2 / Xbox / GameCube |
| Legacy of Kain: Defiance | 2003 | PC / PlayStation 2 / Xbox |
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- Main article: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
- For the PlayStation, PC and Sega Saturn.
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.
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 faster than his master. No longer a vampire, Raziel hungers for souls and must seek out his old brethren and master to exact his revenge for condemnation.
Soul Reaver 2: Legacy of Kain
- Main article: Soul Reaver 2: Legacy of Kain
- 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.
Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
- Main article: 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. The game's story takes place 400 years after the ending of the first Blood Omen game, in the alternate timeline crated 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. Thus, 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 (yet), and this is often seen as a consequence arising from the development team being different. All the inconsistencies can be explaned 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, Moebius was killed by Kain before he actually had a chance to kill Vorador and Janos was Resurected; the Hylden escape their demon dimension and reenact the Order of The Sarafan, The Unspoken posing as the Sarafan Lord.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
- Main article: 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 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 Henning, who led the Crystal Dynamics team responsible for Soul Reaver 1+2 and Defiance left Crystal Dynamics not long after Defiance was released).
See also
External links
- Nosgothic Realm – Contains lots of artwork and pictures.
- The Lost Worlds – Site archiving deleted and lost information about the Legacy of Kain series.
- Dark Chronicle – Extensive encyclopaedia about anything to do with Legacy of Kain.