Elder God

The Elder God is a major character in the Legacy of Kain series, first introduced in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and returning in Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Though initially a mysterious benefactor and ally to Raziel, the Elder God's portrayal becomes increasingly malicious as the series progresses. By the conclusion of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, he is regarded as the cause of "all of the conflict and strife throughout history", and as the central antagonist of the series as a whole.

Depicted as a sentient, writhing mass of tentacles and eyes dwelling deep below the land of Nosgoth, the Elder God claimed to be the hub of the Wheel of Fate, the preternatural cycle of birth, death and rebirth to which all souls were drawn. However, Raziel later accused the Elder God of merely being a parasite on the Wheel, not its hub. Although this was not confirmed or denied, a consistent fact was that the Elder God was sustained by the Wheel's turning. Thus, as vampires were immortal and their souls did not flow with the Wheel, they, and especially Kain, served as his greatest enemies.

The Echoes of a Tortured Mind


Dwelling simultaneously within the Spectral Realm, where time was described as irrelevant, and the Material Realm, where time flowed linearly, the Elder God was capable of interacting with other entities in a chronologically-inconsistent manner. His enormous, cephalopodan form, typically shown submerged in subterranean water, appeared to thrive and expand in correlation with the decline of Nosgoth, and in the Soul Reaver era, his expanse occupied the Lake of the Dead. When the vampire Raziel was condemned for pupating beyond his master Kain, Kain ordered Turel and Dumah to cast his "prodigal son" into the Abyss at the heart of the lake.

Though "an eternity passed" and the descent had effectively "destroyed" Raziel's body, he still "lived"; he awoke at the bottom of the lake, now a wraith inhabiting the Spectral Realm. The Elder God addressed him with familiarity: "I know you, Raziel. You are worthy". Raziel expressed petulant horror at his own "pitiful form", but the Elder chastized him, claiming he had "only spared [Raziel] from total dissolution". As Raziel listened, the Elder didactically explained the concept of the Wheel of Fate, and stated that the existence of immortal vampires imbalanced the world, preventing Nosgoth's souls from completing their destinies.

"For eons the Elder fed upon the souls of Nosgoth. Then Kain's vampire dynasty deprived the Elder of sustenance." The so-called God offered Raziel a "solution to [his] sorry existence"; if Raziel returned to the Material Realm and destroyed his former brethren, reaving their souls, he could exact revenge upon Kain. Intrigued, and lusting for vengeance against his former master, Raziel silently consented to this bargain, becoming the Elder's so-called "angel of death"; his "soul reaver". Hereafter, the Elder and Raziel shared a symbiotic connection: whenever Raziel consumed a soul, the Elder would be satiated as well.

There is Only the Now


By communicating symbiotically with Raziel, the Elder God introduced his new servant to existence as a devourer of souls. He mentored Raziel on the subjects of warp gates, soul devouring, Sluagh, planar portals and water, shepherding the wraith beyond the Underworld and into Nosgoth's barren wilderness. Raziel encountered unfamiliar, monstrous creatures; the Elder explained that these were devolved Dumahim, and, bemused by Raziel's disbelief, asked "do you suppose that time stood still for you, Raziel? Much has changed since you passed from the world of men".

Five centuries had passed since Raziel's execution. At the Sanctuary of the Clans, violent tremors in the earth unsteadied him, prompting the Elder to explain that "this world is wracked with cataclysms – the earth strains to shrug off the pestilence of Kain's parasitic empire". He explained how Kain had refused to martyr himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, and asserted that the world's "unraveling", invited by Kain's empire, had nearly played out. From that point onward, he usually only dispensed advice to Raziel following significant events, but would provide guidance if his counsel was solicited in the Underworld.

When Raziel battled and slaughtered Melchiah, the Elder congratulated him and dismissed his misgivings of fratricide, expressing that Raziel was "elevated" by consuming his brothers' souls. After Raziel fatefully claimed the Wraith Blade following his battle with Kain and the destruction of the Soul Reaver, he outlined the incorporeal weapon's uses, stating that Raziel had "liberated it from its corporeal prison, and restored it to its true form". At the Tomb of the Sarafan, he confirmed the revelation that Raziel was "born of the same force that all but destroyed [his] race", and freely volunteered the histories of the Drowned Abbey and the Ruined City. All the while, however, Raziel was left unwitting and ignorant of his true, inevitable destiny.

Deep in the Heart of this World


Raziel battled Kain in the Chronoplast below the Oracle's Cave, and pursued his destroyer through one of Moebius the Time Streamer's portals, believing that, by crossing the threshold, he would pass beyond the Elder's influence. He emerged in the Sarafan Stronghold of the much earlier pre-Blood Omen era, and, at first, encountered no evidence of the God's presence in this distant time period. However, while threatening Moebius in William the Just's chapel - when he uttered that "death comes for us all" - the cowering Moebius said to him that "the Wheel of Fate demands it".

Taken by surprise, Raziel stayed his hand as Moebius confirmed that he, too, served the Elder God. The Time Guardian warned Raziel that "to strike me down would be striking God's own attendant, and I don't believe even you would take that risk". Disgusted by this new revelation, Raziel stalked away, spurning Moebius's pronouncements that he was "now most powerfully equipped to be [the Elder God's] agent - His instrument of restoration and retribution". He had already held a low opinion of Moebius from listening to Kain's tales, and this new information - that the infamous Guardian was allied to the Elder - instilled him with an intense distrust of both his co-conspirators.

In the Subterranean Ruins, the Elder God, his mass lodged in the waters deep below the Subterranean Pillars Chamber's surface and coiled around the Pillars, interrupted Raziel's study of the ancient vampire murals contained therein. The Elder condemned Raziel, who had just allowed Kain to escape him, and they bickered. Raziel questioned the Elder's candor and supposed omnipotence, unwilling to become his pawn. The Elder encouraged Raziel to kill Kain, reiterating his opinion of the vampires, and stated that "to embrace a serpent is to invite poison into your heart", but Raziel insisted that "if and when I kill him, it will be for me, alone, to decide".

In a Shroud of Righteousness
"Merely the deceits of a failed civilization. You are being misled, Raziel. This Ancient race hoped to manipulate the future with these scrawled misdirections. You must tread carefully. There are dark forces at work in this world, bent on subverting your true destiny."

- The Elder God



As he embarked on a journey to find Janos Audron, Raziel returned to the Elder God in the Pillars' grotto multiple times. Upon his return trip to the Sarafan Stronghold after solving the Dark Forge, the Elder acerbically acknowledged him as "my wayward child"; Raziel responded that he had "unearthed more than you'd like". He queried the Elder on the ancient vampires' ruins and murals, but the Elder dismissed them as "the deceits of a failed civilization", one which "hoped to manipulate the future with these scrawled misdirections". He warned that dark forces were at work in Nosgoth, bent on subverting Raziel's destiny, but Raziel vocally wondered, "am I in their presence right now?" Bristling, the Elder assured his former servant that his reach was longer than Raziel realized.

The Elder God was next seen in the third timeline's post-Blood Omen era, following Raziel's refusal to murder Kain at the Sarafan Stronghold, which resulted in the second paradox. Over a century after their previous encounter, Raziel was shocked to discover that the Elder's amorphous body seemed to be thriving, despite the chaos in Nosgoth following the collapse of the Pillars. The Elder greeted Raziel with disdain, branding him "the failed assassin" and condemning Kain's actions. His tentacles had wound up and around the Pillars' shattered stumps, in a "guilty scene" which prompted Raziel to wonder that "one would think [he'd] torn down the Pillars single-handedly".

Raziel commented on the Elder's possible motives, and its hunger for souls, disdainfully arguing that "the great adversary of the vampires turns out to be the biggest parasite of them all". Though the Elder threatened to "unmake" Raziel if he were so inclined, warning of "fates worse than death", Raziel mocked him, calling him a cancer; "a spooling parasite burrowed deep in the heart of this world". When they next conversed, while Raziel pursued the Sarafan warrior inquisitors in Nosgoth's early history following Janos Audron's death, the Elder merely remarked with "ominous finality" that Raziel had failed him.

Embittered at having been "used by others time and again", Raziel speculated as to whether the Elder had been responsible for his revival at all; whether, perhaps, he had simply been "dropped in [the Elder's] lair by Kain, indestructible for some reason. A durable and gullible tool for [him] to manipulate". He suspected by now that there was much more to his own history and destiny than either of them knew, but, whether disgrunted by Raziel's transgressions or for other reasons, the Elder God seemed neither prepared nor willing to divulge any insight he may have had.

Here in Eternity with Me


Raziel eventually realized the destiny the Elder God and others had apparently hidden from him; that he himself was the soul-devouring entity fated to become trapped within the Soul Reaver. Though Kain managed to postpone Raziel's fate by preventing Raziel from entering the blade - causing the third paradox, and spawning the fourth timeline - the ordeal weakened Raziel to the point of catastrophe, forcing him back into the Spectral Realm. He was next seen five centuries later in the Elder God's custody, trapped within the Underworld in the Blood Omen era.

When Kain attempted to interrogate Moebius in the caverns below the Stronghold, a few years after the slaughter of the Circle, he came upon the Time Streamer viewing this scene, and apparently conversing to the Elder via a shimmering pool. However, neither of them truly understood the Elder's nature, as Raziel did. He starved Raziel of souls in an attempt to force him to relinquish his will, but - convinced that the Elder was a "voracious parasite" - Raziel refused to submit to his entreaties, preferring to suffer.

The Elder accused Raziel of "cowardice", understanding that his rebellion was partially motivated by fear of the Reaver; lingering in the Underworld, the wraith was able to indefinitely postpone his "inevitable doom". Unable to deny this truth, Raziel feigned submission to his master, and was rewarded with a soul. Progressing through the Underworld under the Elder's domineering auspices, he eventually made an attempt to flee the place in one of the area's tall caverns. Though the "displeased" Elder raised blankets of lethal mist and sundered the chamber's masonry with its limbs, he was unable to prevent Raziel's narrow escape.

In the Pointless Round of Existence
"Surrender, Raziel. Abandon this petty rebellion. It was I who made you. Your life had played out, and in my grace, I spared you. You are my reaper of souls. You have no other purpose, no higher destiny - just this. Accept your calling, Raziel. Let go of these vain hopes. Relinquish your will, and feed."

- The Elder God



Emerging in the Cemetery, Raziel came upon a planar portal allowing him to enter the Material Realm, but the Elder intervened; it used its powers to withdraw all such portals in Nosgoth, forcing Raziel to possess corpses to leave the spirit world. His restraints "had not been removed, only loosened". As he entered the Cemetery's courtyard, he was assailed by Reaper Archons - fellow agents of the Elder, "mindless hunters" which granted him a nightmarish vision of his master's ultimate plans for him. The Elder did not speak to him again for a considerable length of time, but its influence on Raziel's destiny did not end there.

When Kain succeeded in assembling the full Balance Emblem, he was able to enter a sealed chamber at the heart of the Vampire Citadel. A mural within depicted the ancient vampires' fall from grace, but before he could examine it thoroughly, Kain was addressed in a benevolent tone by the Elder God's voice, emanating from a pool within the room. Unaware of the Elder and its connection to Raziel, Kain suspiciously heeded its claim; that it was the "Oracle of [his] ancestors", and that it could offer knowledge of Raziel. Knowing that he could not trust this so-called oracle, Kain nevertheless felt it was imperative to prevent Raziel from resurrecting Janos Audron, and agreeably passed through the portal it generated, emerging in the Blood Omen era.

Before turning silent, the Elder spurred Kain to stop Raziel from obtaining the Heart of Darkness. Meanwhile, Raziel - also exploring the Citadel's chambers, and confronting the specters of the original Circle of Nine - began to unearth the mystery behind the ancient vampires' extinction. In the distant past, the ancients had righteously worshipped the Wheel of Fate and the unseen Elder God; the sterility and immortality imposed upon them by the Hylden blood curse led the Elder to abandon them, which drove them to madness, and mass suicide. Raziel felt they, "the wisest, strongest, most noble race", had been "gulled by the voice of that old parasite".

With Ominous Finality
"Despair, Raziel. There is no escape."

- The Elder God



The Avernus Catacombs proffered the Hylden side of the story; the "god-ridden and righteous" ancient vampires had themselves started the vampire-Hylden war, attempting to force the Hylden - who opposed the Elder God and the Wheel of Fate - into submission to its doctrine. As Raziel studied murals depicting the Hylden champion, he was contacted by the Elder, who affirmed his suspicion: that Raziel was this messianic figure. Kain believed that he himself was both the Scion of Balance and the prophecied vampire champion, and both he and Raziel understood that the champions were destined to fatefully destroy one another.

Raziel and Kain confronted each other in Avernus Cathedral, with Raziel the victor, tearing the Heart of Darkness from Kain's chest. When he returned to Vorador's Mansion to resurrect Janos, ambivalently certain that he had "once again walked blindly" into his enemies' trap, Moebius awaited. The Time Streamer gloated that "for a true servant of the one God, death is never bitter", revealing that neither he nor the Elder had ever once been concerned over which of the champions either of them thought they were. All that had mattered to them from the beginning was Kain's demise.

Upon his resurrection, Janos ratified much of the ancient vampires' history. Raziel reacted with disgust when Janos reverently spoke of the Elder as their God, and in the Spirit Forge, he was dismayed to see that the Elder's body infested the entire chamber. The Elder unveiled that "it was Kain's destiny that mattered all along", and tried to extinguish the Spirit Forge's flame. Though Raziel solved the Forge and obtained the Spirit Reaver, he was soon returned to his former captivity with the Elder when the Hylden Lord destroyed his body in combat, shortly after the Pillars' collapse. The Elder had, at last, abandoned all pretense, taunting that "there is nothing more for you to do".

The Prime Mover Exposed
"You cannot destroy me, Kain - I am the Engine of Life itself. The Wheel will turn... The plague of your kind will be purged from this world... And on that inevitable day, your wretched, stagnant soul will finally be mine."

- The Elder God



The Elder God resurrected Moebius, who had recently perished at the hands of the younger Kain, and recalled its servant to the Forge. They discussed the Hylden, whom Moebius referred to as "merely an inconvenient consequence" - "a small price to pay for Kain's death" - unaware that Kain had survived his ordeal in Avernus, and was about to slay him. As Moebius choked in pain and died, he revealed to Kain that he served "One who has power over life and death", sure that "all pain will fade, and my master will bring me life once more".

As Moebius's spirit emerged in the Spectral Realm, beseeching his God but unable to see it, Raziel suddenly impaled him with the Spirit Reaver. The room changed around them, purifying Moebius's sight, and enabling him to see the Elder's form. Before Raziel devoured his soul, Moebius recoiled in profound horror at "the monster that [he] served". While the Elder dismissed his actions and Kain's return, Raziel reflected on his newfound knowledge. "All the conflict and strife throughout history, all the fear and hatred, served but one purpose - to keep [his] master's Wheel turning. All souls were prisoners, trapped in the pointless round of existence, leading distracted, blunted lives until death returned them - always in ignorance - to the Wheel." He knew now that due to the Elder God's nature, "Moebius had never seen his master until the Soul Reaver purified his sight. Even the ancient Vampires had no idea what it was they so righteously worshiped."

While the Elder God pulled violently at the Vampire Citadel's foundations, Raziel attempted to "end this". Using Moebius's corpse as a vessel, he entered the Material Realm, and was impaled by an unwitting Kain on the Reaver. When Kain learned the truth, he attempted to resist Raziel's sacrifice, but the wraith - dispersing the wraith blade into Kain's body - purified Kain's sight, finally enabling him to see "the true enemy" before being consumed to create the Soul Reaver. Staggered by the sight of the monstrosity that was revealed to him, Kain agonized, "had I condemned Raziel to this nightmare when I cast him into the abyss?"

As the Forge tumbled, Kain challenged the Elder God with the newly-empowered Soul Reaver, dealing it spectacular damage for the first time in its existence; he cried to it that "you would not fear us unless we could truly do you harm". Flailing in fury and agony as Kain proceeded to escape the collapsing chamber, it impotently assured him that it could not be destroyed, and that Kain's death was inevitable. Despite its threats and the menace it still posed, Kain was unfazed. Looking out upon Nosgoth in silence, he knew now that "the strings of the puppets had become visible, and the hands of the prime mover exposed".

"In the meantime, you'd best burrow deep."

- Kain

Powers
The Elder God is an incredibly powerful entity. As it exists in both the Material and Spectral Realms simultaneously, it is nearly invincible and can only be harmed by the Soul Reaver. It is also "eternally present, here and everywhere, now and always," allowing it to communicate with and recognize Raziel throughout history.

The Elder also possesses incredible strength, able to use its tentacles to smash through walls and floors, even being able to drag the Spirit Forge underground. Furthermore, the Elder is telepathic, allowing it to mentally communicate with and read the minds of both Kain and Raziel.

Etymology
No given name has ever been attributed to the character, and the Elder God is never even formally referred to under this title in the characters' dialogue exchanges; the honorific is derived from a variety of other direct and supplementary official sources, including the games' bonus materials, dialogue scripts, casting credits and Prima guides. Within Legacy of Kain's universe, a Lovecraft's Diary floor texture in the Underworld from Legacy of Kain: Defiance also utilizes this moniker for the character.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver's manual, Raziel simply refers to it as "the Elder", while at one point in Soul Reaver 2, he names the creature "Old One", in apparent reference to the Cthulhu Mythos. Moebius regards it only as his master, and as "the One God". Legacy of Kain: Defiance introduces two alternate titles for the character; the ancient god, and the Oracle of the Ancient Vampires. In the same game, Kain scorns it as a "false god" and "the prime mover", metaphorically controlling Nosgoth's inhabitants like puppets.

The Elder God itself makes use of more bombastic titles when asserting its own role, naming itself "the Engine of Life", "the Origin of all Life", "the Devourer of Death", "the Circle of Life and Death" and "the Hub of the Wheel". However, both Raziel and Kain express their rejection of these appellations in the course of the story.

Appearances

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