Third paradox

This event, identifiable as the third paradox witnessed in the Legacy of Kain series, was an extreme temporal distortion created by Raziel, Kain and the Reaver in the Sarafan Stronghold, during Nosgoth's early history. It postponed Raziel's destiny to become the soul-devouring entity trapped within the Reaver, and spawned a "monumental obstruction" which forced the course of Nosgoth's history to reshuffle. The paradox replaced the third timeline with the fourth timeline, directly altering the destinies of virtually every significant character in the Legacy of Kain series, and enabling the events of Legacy of Kain: Defiance and Blood Omen 2 to occur.

Role
The third paradox occured in the Epilogue chapter of Soul Reaver 2 and changed the Third timeline to the Fourth timeline - causing widespread alterations in the timeline that totally changed the Post-Blood Omen era in particular - many of which were not fully explained for the rest of the series. The paradox was caused by Kain's manipulaton of a brief Reaver-convergence in Nosgoth's early history at the creation of the Soul Reaver, to allow Raziel to temorarily postpone his fate to enter the blade.

After exploring Nosgoth's past and discovering his role within it, Raziel had been told by Kain of the First paradox and the significance of the Reaver-convergence and had used just such a convergence to trigger the Second paradox, sparing Kain from his fated death. Uncovering his human past as murderer of Janos Audron, Raziel had chased the Sarafan warrior inquisitors back to the Sarafan Stronghold in Blade of Vengeance, determined to avenge Janos' murder and recover both the Heart of Darkness and the Reaver.

Breaching the stronghold, Raziel was able to recover the Reaver blade after a brief confrontation with Moebius and Malek and although wary of the ease with which he was able to find it, Raziel was left with little choice but to wield the sword as his own Wraith Blade was disabled by Moebius's Staff. As he progressed through the building, Raziel was confronted by each of the warrior inquisitors in turn, finally appreciating that he had been their killer all along. Fittingly the last to confront him was his former human self, who met him in the Chapter House - where the deaths of the inquisitors had been memorialised years later in the Pre-Blood Omen era - and Raziel realised that he was his own murderer as well.

After the death of the Sarafan Raziel, the Wraith Blade was able to manifest again and doing so it turned the physical Reaver against the wraith Raziel, impaling him on the sword and pulling his soul into the it as Raziel reached the epiphany that he was and had always been the captive Soul devouring spirit within the Soul Reaver blade - the physical blade he held was vacant and destined to be his prison.

As Raziel despaired Kain showed himself. Raziel immediately blamed Kain for his predicament and Kain urged Raziel to simply let go. As Raziel's strength faded he felt a growing distortion and he realised that there was a brief paradoxical moment where he soul hovered both outside and within the blade - when two Soul Reavers were present. Taking advantage of this brief window of oppurtunity, Kain was able to wrench the blade free, supposedly sparing Raziel from his fate. But as the temporal distortions continued it became clear that as much more serious and threatening change had occured - the distortions ultimately subsided, but Kain was left with new memories and desperately tried to warn Raziel of the future - these ultimately went unheard as Raziel slipped into the Spectral Realm.

Both Blood Omen 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance took place on this new Fourth timeline, but it was initially unclear how the consequences of the Third paradox had caused such drastic changes in the timeline and the heavily altered Post-Blood Omen era. Ultimately Defiance revealed that Raziel's continued existance and Free will had contibuted greatly to the new changes: allowing him to revive Janos Audron and thus provide the Hylden with the vessel they sought to open the Hylden Gate and begin their return to the Material Realm. A further facet to this new timeline was Vorador's resurrection after his Blood Omen era death - leading to the creation of a new generation of Vampires - Vorador and his progeny were featured heavily in Blood Omen 2, but the resurrection went unexplained in Defiance, although it was intended to have been featured at that stage.

Outcomes

 * Third timeline (Unseen) - Kain arrives in the Chapter House in Nosgoth's early history as Raziel is being absorbed into the Reaver, but is unable to change history. Raziel is absorbed into the blade and the Soul Reaver is created.
 * Fourth timeline (Fulfilled) - Kain arrives in the Chapter House in Nosgoth's early history as Raziel is being absorbed into the Reaver and is able to use a brief Reaver-convergence to prevent Raziel entering the blade. Raziel's extended influence upon the timeline means that before the Soul Reaver is created in the Blood Omen era he is able to revive Janos Audron - uwittingly freeing the Hylden in the process - and purify Kain; thereby contributing to the rise of new factions that will battle for control of Nosgoth in a greatly altered Post-Blood Omen era.