Air Forge (Soul Reaver 2)

The Air Forge was an elemental Reaver forge encountered by Raziel in Soul Reaver 2. Created by the Ancient vampires, the forge was located to the west of Janos Audron's Retreat in Nosgoth's northern mountains and was the third forge encountered by Raziel in the game, discovered after meeting with Kain outside the ruined aerie in the Post-Blood Omen era. Completing the puzzle of the forge, Raziel was able to imbue the Wraith Blade with elemental Air, creating the Air Reaver.

Role
As Raziel left the forge he discovered that Reaver bolts from the Air Reaver could destroy cracked barriers and he was ultimately able to use this ability to breach the cracked door of the time streaming chamber in the Swamp and use it to reach Nosgoth's early history.

Design and Layout
The Air forge was located to the west of Janos Audron's Retreat and was accessed from an opening in the west wall of the lake area outside the retreat in the Post-Blood Omen era. The opening led through rocky passage curving northward up two sets of Scalable walls to a heavily eroded 'mini aerie' platform containing a Dark Reaver font, from here the passage turned west and widened to reveal the facade on the air forge - a large red patterned step-pyramid-like construction bricked terraced structure at the end of the canyon. The two brick terraced platforms each contained two metal standing torches and could be ascended using a small central staircase leading up to a checkpoint and the main forge entrance; flanked by images of the Reaver and topped with and Air symbol, but protected by a sealed door and a Sentry eye above the top of the arched doorway.

Heading through the doorway into the forge led up a small staircase to the west and opened out into a large double-tiered square shaped chamber with 'stepped' walls and decorated with several Air symbols, which acted as the lobby of the building. At the far (west) end of the room another section of the forge was present, with several Ancient runes and murals describing the events Before Nosgoth's recorded history (specifically the infliction of the Blood curse on the Ancient vampires) positioned on slightly raised platforms in the northwest and southwest corners of the room. At the east of the room where Raziel entered, several pillar constructions held up the mezzanine-like second level and at the northeast and southeast corners staircases led up to where the second level platform led across the center of the room east-west. Along the east wall of the second level of the chamber, a straight balcony connected two Light Reaver fonts in the northeast and southeast corners. Across the mezzanine level to the west, the platform contained several Light related symbols - including a traditional light symbol, a ray of light and a small sundial-like construction at the west of the platform - beyond this the platform finished, but an isolated balcony was reachable on the west wall of the chamber, where a Light marked arched doorway was sealed shut. Standing upon the light symbol and firing a Light Reaver bolt along the 'ray' to the 'sundial' projected light rays in the shape of the symbol onto the sealed door behind, causing it to break down into gated barrier which could be phased through.

Beyond the doorway, the passage headed west for a small distance down a modest staircase flanked by Reaver murals, crystals and two low dragon-like animal depictions; and stopped at a another mural depicting a winged ancient vampire apparently armed with the Reaver blade, flanked by depictions of the Reaver and two (inactive) Air Reaver fonts. From here the passage turned into a straight wide corridor heading north for a distance (with two Air Forge axes positioned at the south end of the corridor) and reaching a checkpoint at the point where the corridor again turned west. The passage then led through a small arched doorway to an enclosed square chamber with an open roof and a much larger (closed) arched doorway decorated with several wind-like symbols, an Air symbol and a large hole above it, and an air emblem symbol at the bottom of the doorway. Completing a battle with two Swordsmen thralls and a Greater thrall in this chamber, Raziel was able to gain the emblem key and unlock the large arched doorway, causing the blocks covering the doorway to slide apart, allowing Raziel access to the main forge chamber.

The main chamber was a vast circular courtyard-like space with an open roof, through which a cloudy and windy night sky could be seen. The walls around the room were decorated with murals depicting a two-faced vampire and several patterned symbols, and were topped with various step and spike arrangements, containing several face-like designs. Atop the walls in northwest and southwest were two large sculptures depicting feline heads with Dark and Light symbols respectively within their mouths. The large arched doorway and hole entrance was in the east of the room along with an (inactive) Air plinth and a checkpoint. At the middle of the chamber was a deep circular 'core', which descended further down into the forge and at its center was a large pillar decorated with Ancient runes with a large snake coiled around it, rising to an open mouth at the top of the pillar with the forge altar inside. The walls of the core were decorated with various pattern, rune, face and Shifting symbols, with the shift symbols extending to form 'steps' back up to the top of the forge in the Spectral Realm. At the bottom of the core it was divided into nine sections. The openings in the south, northwest and east-northeast contained modest alcoves backed by rune symbols and flanked by Reaver depictions, with those in the northwest and east-northeast containing a dark and light reaver font respectively. The openings in the north, east-southeast and southwest contained passages leading down to the green, red and blue heart altars respectively and each opening was flanked by crystals of the appropriate color. Each of these passages had pipe-like features on the walls and led down in a wide curving arc clockwise to the rounded heart altar rooms back beneath the center of the forge - each heart altar chamber had piping and step formations along the walls, decorated with runes and other patterns symbols, and a stepped altar decorated with an air symbol and two braziers was placed at the far end of the chamber, complete with a writhing and heartless mummy tied atop it before a large stone head on the far wall, which had fanged teeth, a looped headdress, and eyes and a crystal on its forehead glowing the color of the respective altar. The final three sections of the core in the north-northeast, south-southeast and west, contained Scalable walls decorated with symbols of the Reaver, Light and Dark respectively. Each led up to arched Sealed doors mid-way down the core which were locked with the respective element (the Material Reaver is used in the case of the Reaver symbol) which led onto 'puzzle wings' where the colored hearts could be recovered.

Each sealed doorway led into rectangular chamber extending to the left of the sealed door, with several Air Forge axes and runes decorating the walls along with small steps in places (and an inaccessible apparently ruined wing of the air forge in the dark path chamber). At the opposite corner of the chamber another arched sealed door was locked with an emblem key gained from a Greater thrall (and its swordsmen allies) driectly in front of the door.

Connections
From the main core forge chamber ("Air20")
 * The top eastern door (and hole above it) leads through a Z-shaped corridor ("Air2") and entrance mural room ("Air1") to the exterior facade of the forge ("Janos9") and a passage ("Janos8") leading to the lake beneath Janos Audron's Retreat ("Janos7").
 * the bottom northern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air13") to the green stone head chamber ("Air 14")
 * The bottom north-northeastern scaling wall leads up to a Reaver sealed door and a small chamber ("Air21") leading to the Blue heart puzzle room ("Air11")
 * the bottom east-southeastern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air15") to the red stone head chamber ("Air 16")
 * The bottom south-southeastern scaling wall leads up to a Light sealed door and a small chamber ("Air22") leading to the Green heart puzzle room ("Air6")
 * the bottom southwestern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air17") to the blue stone head chamber ("Air 18")
 * The bottom western scaling wall leads up to a Dark sealed door and a small chamber ("Air4") leading to the Red heart puzzle room ("Air8")

Background

 * The Air Forge was one of the first playable sections of Soul Reaver 2 released to the public as it was made available through a playable playstation 2 demo. Several features were changed between this and the retail version, with different enemies, combat HUD, Reaver effects and a strikingly different night sky above the forge.
 * Like the other Reaver forges of Soul Reaver 2, the air forge was based upon distinct architectural elements from real-world ancient temples The Air Forge is inspired by the real-world architectural design of temples in pre-Columbian south and central America. Mayan, Inca and Aztec influences are often noted by fans and design documents specifically mention "Pre-Colombian Central-American iconography" and "Mayan motifs" (though some doorways were intended to have Hindu architectural features).
 * Detailed documents relating to the design and implementation of the Air Forge were uncovered in Casto Vocal's portfolio by Divine Shadow in 2010, revealing that though the forge itself had maintained a largely consistent layout through development, several features had been changed drastically. Original plans include the main snake core having stained-glass and feathered wings and the items collected being weapons used to execute imprisoned vampires through different color-coded methods (incineration, decapitation and impalement). A similar puzzle would later feature in Vorador's Mansion in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, with Raziel collecting three weapons (the Heart Seeker, Blood Drinker and Soul Stealer) and using them to impale Hylden gargoyles to allow passage to the Water Forge.
 * The Air Forge was conceived as a place where the Ancient vampires sacrificed their enemies (and later the vampires themselves) by feeding their souls to the Elder God, with the heads presumably representing the Elder and the three hearts representing the lifeforms of Nosgoth. The Red heart (in the Dark chamber) represents flesh and the Material Realm, the Blue heart (in the neutral/material soul reaver chamber) represents Spectral entities and the Spectral Realm, and the Green heart (in the Light chamber) represents the Hylden and Demon Realm . Design documents suggest that this aspect was changed during development and in early designs the three items were weapons representative of execution methods.
 * Similar to Moebius's Staff, the large snake sculpture in the Air Forge disabled the hearts of Vampires, enabling them to be extracted.

Appearances

 * Soul Reaver 2