Sealed doors



Sealed Doors, also known as Sealed Barriers, Reaver Doors, Emblem Doors or Artifact Doors, were special doors featured throughout Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance that were marked with a particular symbol and prevented entry until the correct object or elemental Reaver was acquired.

Role
Sealed doors broadly consisted of any door which was initially encountered as locked wih the method of unlocking the door marked upon them by a symbol, silhouette or emblem representing the correct object or empowerment required to unlock them.

Two distinct version of sealed barriers were seen in the series depending upon the method used to unlock them. Reaver doors were the most obvious requriing the use of the Wraith Blade or a symbolised element to open. Another set of sealed doors required special artifacts to open and were symboised by the shape of the artifact required.

Reaver Doors
Reaver doors were the first and perhaps most frequently encountered sealed door variant in the series. They could first be seen in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver where four such obstacles could be encountered. In his first confrontation with Kain at the Sanctuary of the Clans and the Pillars Raziel's exit was blocked by a sealed door marked with the Soul Reaver - only when Raziel defeated Kain and gained the Wraith Blade could he escape the room y unsealing the door. Shortly after, he would use the wraith blade again on the similarly decorated outer door of the Silenced Cathedral to enter th building. Two optional door were also present, with Raziel able to move aside a specially marked "coffin" in the Necropolis with the wraith blade and reach another door marked with the blade which could be unsealed in the same manner - this led to a small chamber cotaining an Eldritch energy power up.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, any material Reaver could open the sealed Reaver doors. In Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, however, the door variants have been expanded and each of them responds only to the correct elemental Reaver Raziel wielded. In Soul Reaver 2, regular Reaver doors could be open with any Reaver, as long as it is in the material realm.

Artifact/Emblem Doors
The other variant of sealed doors seen within the series were Articfact or Emblem doors, which were particularly associated with Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

The first of these were the "Emblem Doors" encountered in Soul Reaver 2 which required special Emblem keys to unlock. The first emblem doors could be found in Through the Swamp as Raziel explored the Dark Forge and it was necessary for him to defeat a swordsman thrall which bore the keys as shield to recover the key, and by placing the key in the circular slot on the door Raziel would be able to open the emblem door. Later emblem doors would be encountered in the Air Forge chapter and Janos Audron's Retreat - in both cases the keys would be protected by more powerful Greater thralls.

In Defiance there were more barriers and doors related to artifacts and these would first be encountered as Kain breached the Sarafan Stronghold in Infiltrate the Stronghold where he would first encounter an unusually marked door in the Chapter House, subsequently discovering the Falcon Insignia in Moebius's chambers beneath the stronghold and using it to unlock the door in Pursue Moebius, thereafter both protagonists would encounter several varieties of doorway which required the proper placement of an item or articfact (often indicated by a symbol or drawing on or near the barrier itself) to open them.

One particularly noteworthy sub-division was the Balance Emblem doors utilised by Kain which were activated with particular fragments from the balance emblem and were decorated with an image of the emblem but missing the necessary fragment. The last one of these in the inner sanctum of the Vampire Citadel actually featured a silhouette of the whole emblem backed by an image of the dais Pillars of Nosgoth - indicating that the emblem needed to be fully completed before entry could be gained.

Appearances

 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
 * Soul Reaver 2
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance