Pillar of Balance

The Pillar of Balance is one of the nine Pillars of Nosgoth, and the central pillar on the dais. Attuned to the property of Balance, it was preserved by various guardians before coming under the protection of the Human Guardian Ariel, and was eventually sundered in the Collapse of the Pillars following the refusal of her successor - Kain - to sacrifice himself. Its pillar token was the soul of the Balance Guardian. The Pillar appears throughout the entirety of the Legacy of Kain series.

Role
As one of the Pillars of Nosgoth, the Pillar of Balance appeared throughout the Legacy of Kain series, debuting in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The Pillar was present along with its peers in the Pillars of Nosgoth areas of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance and could be revisited in all titles after its initial appearance. The Pillar could also briefly be seen in the Blood Omen 2 introduction and was featured in illustrations in comics.

Constructed in the period Before Nosgoth's recorded history, the Pillar of Balance was the hub of the pillars and was known to have been served by an unnamed Balance Guardian in Nosgoth's early history before her death at the hands of Vorador at the Slaughter of the Circle. By the pre-Blood Omen era the mantle of Balance Guardian had been inherited by Ariel, but the Pillar was corrupted along with its peers when she was murdered by the Dark Entity. Upon finding her corpse, her lover - the Guardian of the Pillar of the Mind, Nupraptor - was driven mad by grief and unleashed a frenzy of mental energy, which drove all of his fellow Guardians insane and simultaneously corrupted their Pillars.

The Pillar of Balance was the ninth and last the Pillars remaining corrupted during Kain's initial quest to restore them. Upon the restoration of the previous eight pillars, the appearance of the specter of Ariel prompted Kain to realize that he was the Balance Guardian - chosen from birth to replace Ariel - and only by his sacrifice could he restore it. Kain chose to refuse the sacrifice and triggered the Collapse of the Pillars. Now rotten to its core, the festering stump of the Pillar of Balance was all that remained, alongside its eight counterparts, and it would serve as Kain's throne in the centuries of his empire. Lasting in this state into the late Soul Reaver era the pillar would be visited by Raziel in pursuit of his vendetta against Kain and he too would return to gather advice from Ariel.

As Raziel and Kain traveled through time in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance they would encounter the pillar several more times in different states in different eras - pristine in Nosgoth's early history and the Pre-Blood Omen eras, corrupted in the Pre-Blood Omen and Blood Omen eras, and collapsed in the Blood Omen and Post-Blood Omen eras. Ultimately it was revealed that the Pillar of Balance - like its peers - was constructed by the Ancient Vampires to bind the banishment of their enemies, the Hylden race, into the Demon Realm. It was originally guarded by an Ancient Vampire - the unseen original Balance Guardian - and its creation marked the close of the Vampire-Hylden war.

Appearances

 * Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver comic
 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
 * Soul Reaver 2
 * Blood Omen 2
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance comic
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance