Raziel

"Redeemer and destroyer. Pawn and messiah. Welcome, time-spanned soul. Welcome... to your destiny."

- Moebius

Raziel is one of the two lead characters of the Legacy of Kain series, who serves as protagonist of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Ordained by prophecy as messianic champion of both the Vampire and Hylden races, Raziel was originally born as a human in the Sarafan era and rose to become one of the elite Inquisitors of the Sarafan Brotherhood. After his death (at the hands of his future self) Raziel was entombed along with his brothers in the Tomb of the Sarafan for a millenium before Kain raised him as the first of his Vampire sons. In Kain's Empire Raziel was Kain's 'prodigal son' and second-in-command, but when Raziel evolved before his master, growing a pair of wings, Kain ordered his execution in the Abyss.

Like Kain before him, Raziel was spared 'total dissolution' by a mysterious benefactor, the Elder God, who 'remade' Raziel as a soul devouring wraith and native of the Spectral Realm. Spurred on by the Elder God and Ariel to re-enter the Material Realm and settle his dispute with Kain and his brothers, Raziel gained the Wraith Blade (in reality his own future soul) and was lured by Kain into Nosgoth's past. Travelling through time, Raziel gradually uncovered his own messianic destiny as Vampire Champion and abandoned his quest for Kain, seeking instead to restore Nosgoth itself and dicovered his own terrible fate to be imprisoned in the Reaver. Temporarily spared from this fate by Kain, Raziel investigated further and uncovered his role as Hylden Champion. At the conclusion of Defiance, Raziel realized he was Champion of both races and accepted his fate, sacrificing himself to create the Soul Reaver, (imprisoning himself but simultaneously releasing himself from centuries of imprisonment) and dispersing the Spirit Reaver Wraith Blade into Kain to purify him of his corruption. Raziel has been voiced in all his appearances by Michael Bell.

Sarafan era (Soul Reaver 2)
Raziel was born as a human at some point in the Sarafan era. He would go on to join the Sarafan Brotherhood, eventually reaching the highly respected rank of Sarafan Warrior Inquisitor, one of the order's elite. Raziel was one of the most skilled warriors of the Sarafan and this led to his seniority over fellow Inquisitors Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah and Turel. Following the trail blazed by a 'Demon' (actually a future Wraith version of Raziel himself) Raziel infiltrated Janos Audron's aerie along with his comrades (Human Sarafan Inquisitors Turel, Dumah, Zephon and Melchiah) and personally took part in Janos' murder; tearing out the Heart of Darkness from Janos' chest, whilst Turel restrained Janos with Moebius' Staff. Ordering Dumah to recover the Reaver blade, Raziel and the rest of the Sarafan retreated to their stronghold.

Janos' murder had dire consequences for Raziel and his 'brothers', as the 'demon' (future Wraith Raziel) from Janos' Aerie followed the Inquisitors back to the Sarafan Stronghold to avenge Janos' death and reclaim The Heart of Darkness, attacking the Stronghold at the same time as Vorador's legendary attack on the circle (at the same location and with the same motivation). In the chaos, the 'demon' recovered the Reaver blade and used it to dispatch several of the higher ranking Sarafan Inquisitors (see Melchiah and Zephon, Rahab and Dumah and Turel (SR2 boss)) and was diverted into the Chapter House of the Sarafan Stronghold to face the sterner test of (Human) Sarafan Inquisitor Raziel. The Human Raziel would taunt the 'demon' Wraith &nbsp Raziel about Janos' fate, eventually causing Raziel to lose his temper and lunge at the Inquisitor. After a hard fought battle, the virtually invulnerable 'demon' Wraith Raziel triumphed over his former Human self, impaling him on the Reaver and causing his lifeblood to be drained into the blade (see also Raziel (SR2 boss)). After his death, Raziel was entombed with the other 'martyr' Sarafan Inquisitors for a millennium in the Tomb of the Sarafan.

Post-Blood Omen 2 era
When Kain discovered a method of creating vampires for himself, he raised the six Sarafan martyrs to serve as his vampire sons; breathing part of his soul into them to 'snare their souls' and reanimate their corpses (but keeping them ignorant of their previous human lives); Raziel was the first of the six vampire lieutenants to be raised and Kain's "precious first born son"*. Presumably following Kain's method, each of his new lieutenants raised their own vampires, giving birth to the vampire clans (with Raziel raising the Razielim) providing Kain with an army with which to conquer Nosgoth. In Kain's New Empire, Raziel was one of the leading members of the council which ruled Nosgoth, with Raziel serving as Kain's "right hand"*.

Raziel served Kain and the council  for roughly a thousand years and over the centuries, he gained many new gifts along with his 'evolution'; in this process, Kain would always "enter the state of change and emerge with a new gift"* first; and the lieutenants would follow "some years after the master"*. Raziel was the first to surpass Kain, entering the 'state of change' before him and when Raziel emerged, he was summoned to a council meeting (one account suggests that a wraith agent of the Elder God visited Raziel at this stage to deliver a prophecy of his oncoming struggle - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Comic).

At the Council meeting Raziel revealed his new gift, a pair of bat-like wings, to the council. Kain, apparently jealous (though in reality probably seeing the signs of vampire prophecy), ripped the wings from Raziel's back and ordered his execution in the Lake of the Dead for his transgression. None of Raziel's 'brothers' questioned the order and Turel and Dumah actively participated in Raziel's execution, dragging Raziel to the Abyss and throwing him in. With the water of the Abyss burning vampires like acid, Raziel suffered a painful torment over many centuries and many parts of his body (including his jawbone) were dissolved away completely.

Soul Reaver era.
Raziel's first appearence was in Soul Reaver the second game in the legacy of kain series of videogames, during the time of Kain's empire. He was the first-born of Kain's lieutenants and his second-in-command. Raziel had served his master faithfully for a thousand years.

Under Kain's leadership Raziel led a crusade against all who opposed Kain's will, carrying out his orders with unflinching loyalty. All was within Kain's grasp: an empire, immortality and finally evolution. "Over time we became less human and more... divine" due to their evolving and with this ensured evolution came power- the thing Kain revered most. Kain being the first of his kind before Raziel and his lieutenants "would enter the state of change" (a form of stasis in which the Vampires physical body would undergo a sort of accelerated evolution) "and emerge with a new gift'. Years after his rise to the next step in their evolution, his sons would soon follow making them all stronger. "Until I had the honor of surpassing my lord" -Raziel. So it was made known in front of Kain and his lieutenants in his throne room the site of where The Pillers collasped, that Raziel, 1st of his undead sons had surpassed him in his own evolution. Evolving a pair of majestic bat like wings, similar to that of the Hylden. Although this new development in Raziel was stunning it was still obstructing a fundamental rule in Kain's empire. No one shall ever surpass the King in evolution. So while observing Raziel's wings Kain, in what appeared to be an act of jealousy (but later revealed to be an attempt to create a creature with free will capable of altering history), tore the bones from them and had his lieutenants Turel and Dumah cast him into a swirling torrential whirlpool called the Lake of The Dead to suffer for eternity. For water was like acid to any vampire it touched so for what seemed like a timeless eternity of pain Raziel plunged deep to the bottom of the Lake where his torment receded and soon after Raziel looked over what his body had become due to plunging through water his body lost much of it's muscle, organs, skin and his lower jaw also his external skin became a dark blue. The place in which he died was different as well for he was now in the afterlife (or possibly a pseudo afterlife created by the Elder God to stop any dead souls from passing on to the true afterworld, the purpose being to trap them in this purgatorial limbo in order for their souls to be hunted down by his ethereal agents to be captured to have their souls energy converted into sustenance to feed their "God") and in this strange place he was greeted by a deep ominous voice saying "Raziel, you are worthy." The entity greeting him was The Elder God.

Soul Reaver era
In this Spectral Realm cavern, under the swirling Abyss, the Elder claimed to be responsible for Raziel's continued existence. It encouraged Raziel's need to avenge the injustice he had suffered. Adjusting to the ruined body he detested, Raziel noticed changes in himself, beyond his physical appearance. He was stronger, but most important of all, his blood-thirst had been suppressed by a hunger for souls. He was no longer a vampire; now he was some kind of wraith, and the remnants of his tattered wings hung limply from his back. His natural place was now the Underworld - the Spectral Realm - and it required effort to return to the Material Realm inhabited by living things. He had to gather matter at planar portals, and will himself to manifest with a solid, physical body. Negotiating a course through both Realms, Raziel sought his brethren. Upon resurfacing, Raziel was astonished to discover that several centuries had passed since his execution. Nosgoth was now a wasteland, wracked with cataclysms and on the brink of complete ecological collapse, his own clan had seemingly been exterminated by Kain, and his brothers and their offspring had long since devolved into mutated, monstrous creatures. He killed Melchiah, then confronted Kain in the Sanctuary of the Clans; the very place he had fallen from grace. Kain and Raziel battled, but the fight drew to an abrupt end when Kain brought the Soul Reaver sword down on Raziel. The blade shattered inexplicably, and the captive spirit that possessed the Reaver was released. Raziel bonded with this soul, and it manifested itself as a wraith-blade, as dangerous a weapon as it ever was, but free of its corporeal prison.

Following the encounter with Kain, Raziel hunted and destroyed each of the other lieutenants, with Ariel and The Elder God present to offer him guidance. During the course of his travels he uncovered a great secret about his past that made him re-evaluate everything he knew about himself. As a human, Raziel had been a Sarafan warrior-priest, a vampire-hunting soldier whose ideals were completely opposed to everything he believed as Kain's favored son.

Only Turel was unaccounted for by the time Raziel caught Kain again, this time in Moebius' Chronoplast. Crucially in that meeting, Kain commented that "free will is an illusion"; in Nosgoth, each creature's future was predestined, and they simply played out the parts fate had written for them. Kain did not plan to satisfy Raziel's desire for vengeance yet - he had achieved his goal by leading him to this place. Kain activated the Chronoplast device and stepped through a portal, forcing his first-born to follow. Raziel was greeted by Moebius the Time Streamer on the other side.

Soul Reaver 2 era
"You have failed me Raziel!" "I wonder old one did you truly resurrect me or were you simply there when I awakened from my torment in the abyss? I suspect you found me merely convenient- dropped into your lair by Kain, indestructible for some reason, a durable and gullible tool for you to manipulate." -Elder God and Raziel. ^

In Soul Reaver 2, Raziel learned that he had been delivered into Nosgoth's history. The time period he now inhabited was thirty years prior to Kain's refusal at the Pillars. Moebius offered to rub Raziel and destroy Kain, their common foe. The wraith was aware of Moebius' reputation for deceit, and he was wisely reluctant to trust him. Raziel was in the headquarters of Moebius' mercenary army - the former Sarafan Stronghold. As he explored, Raziel uncovered "evidence of [his] former nobility, and [his] life as a Sarafan priest." He also found a previous incarnation of the physical Soul Reaver, now the Reaver blade as it was devoid of the wraith component. Laid out and broken upon the tomb of William the Just. When he moved close to it, a temporal distortion was caused. Time and space fluctuated when the physical Reaver and the wraith-blade came near each other. Raziel placed his hand on the hilt of the Reaver blade only to have the wraith counterpart leave his body for a short time, draining him of his energy to repair the then broken blade to a repaired state though unable to leave him entirely and rejoin the Reaver again.

Afterwards - away from Raziel - the Time Streamer admitted that for once, his life had actually been put at risk, and he could have been killed there, before his predestined time. Raziel, despite what Kain had said in the Chronoplast, could have done it. The full extent of Raziel's abnormal free will was explained gradually during Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, and it became his most important characteristic. Moebius watched Raziel with a gleam in his eye, something deep within Moebius rocked the very pillars themselves.

Raziel left the Stronghold, with the discovery of his life as a Sarafan priest, plus the sight of the green paradise that Nosgoth once was, only having strengthed his resolve to kill Kain, and confronted Kain at the Pillars. During the course of this meeting, he witnessed the Pillars' corruption, and listened impatiently to what Kain had to say. Kain disappeared and Raziel continued his journey, learning more and more about the forgotten history of the land. He began to reject the Elder God's authority as he uncovered ancient shrines depicting a winged vampire race, and Vorador piqued Raziel's interest by mentioning Janos Audron, hinting that Janos had something to do with Raziel's fate.

Exhausting his interest in the era, Raziel returned to the Stronghold, hoping to use Moebius' Time Streaming device. He encountered Kain again in the main chapel, near the Soul Reaver. Kain was expecting to die there; it was fated to happen. He actually handed Raziel the sword, but he also urged his first-born to reject the force - the pull of history - that was drawing Raziel to kill him. Raziel, he said, had "the power to reshape [their] inevitable futures". This statement (in conflict with Kain's previous assertions about immutable destinies) supported Moebius' belief that Raziel was somehow exempt from the rules. Now Raziel was armed with the twinned wraith-blade and physical Soul Reaver, the temporal distortion they caused reached a peak. The paradoxical meeting of the two Soul Reavers was enough to "derail history", just as it had when Kain fought William in Blood Omen. Though he nearly did so, Raziel managed to divert the aim of the blade and spare Kain's life, thus altering history. At this point, it was unclear how much power Raziel had personally to alter destiny, as he seemed to need the Soul Reaver(s) to initiate the change. As mentioned, Kain himself had used the Soul Reaver paradox in Blood Omen - although unwittingly - so this alone did not make Raziel special. Kain claimed that his first-born had an important destiny still to uncover, if he had "the heart for the truth, and the will to see it."

Raziel opened the Stronghold's unused Time Streaming chamber and saw Moebius arrive there, apparently unsettled. He used the wraith-blade to threaten the Time Guardian into operating the device for him. Raziel hoped that he might gain answers from the legendary vampire, Janos Audron, but Moebius sent him into the future instead of the past - one hundred years after Kain refused to sacrifice himself. Raziel emerged from the chamber to find the Sarafan Stronghold in ruins, and populated with demons and demon hunters. Shortly before leaving the Stronghold, he ran into Moebius' martyred spirit. Raziel expressed his doubts that this Moebius truly was a ghost, and offered to devour him to be sure. Predictably, Moebius promptly vanished. Crystal Dynamics have since confirmed Raziel's suspicions were correct - this 'ghost' was an illusion constructed to influence him.¹

Raziel needed to find his own way back into Nosgoth's history. He traveled northwards and found Ariel at the Pillars. She was reflecting on the differences between herself and Kain, and angry at Kain for her continued captivity. Raziel was beginning to doubt that killing Kain was really in his best interests, and the interests of Nosgoth. He argued this point for a while with Ariel, rather spitefully suggesting that her imprisonment at the Pillars could be eternal. She fled into the Spectral Realm to escape him, and eventually he tired of tormenting her. He left, and passed through the swamp, Uschtenheim and the Canyons. Deep in the Canyons, Raziel found the collapsed remains of Janos Audron's aerie. Kain appeared for another brief conversation, and warned Raziel of the forces mobilizing against them

Raziel imbued the wraith-blade with elemental Air, and activated the Time Streaming device in the Termogent Forest Swamp. He found himself in an era where Janos Audron still lived, and the Sarafan's 'Vampire Purge' was at its height - five centuries before the events of Blood Omen. Raziel entered Janos Audron's aerie (still intact at that time), and Janos helped Raziel to understand his role in Nosgoth a little. However, they did not have long to discuss things. Unwittingly Raziel had led the Sarafan Inquisitors right to Janos. He was murdered, and Raziel was helpless to intervene as they stole Janos' heart and the Reaver (this was the blood-drinking, physical incarnation of the sword it had originally been, before it ever became the Soul Reaver).

Raziel's guilt and grief was increased by observing the one who committed the crime. It was himself, his former Sarafan self. Enraged and filled with self-loathing, Raziel pursued the Inquisitors to the Sarafan Stronghold, intent on killing them all. He had one final meeting with the Elder God on his way back, where the Elder addressed Raziel with 'ominous finality'. Their 'partnership' had reached its end.

Raziel returned to the Sarafan Stronghold. He soon found the Reaver, conveniently left in his path. Raziel noted that he felt a nameless dread in the Reaver's presence (as he had at Janos' aerie), yet no temporal distortion. As he considered this, he was cornered in the room by Moebius and Malek, and Moebius' staff disabled his wraith-blade. Lacking another weapon, Raziel took up the Blood Reaver, and the two Pillar Guardians departed. Apparently Moebius had just been waiting for him to seize the sword, and once he had taken it up, Raziel could not put it down again. It made him temporarily invincible.

Raziel used the Reaver to kill the Inquisitors, those men who had also been his vampire brethren in Soul Reaver. He revelled in his newly-discovered role in their destinies. It was he who put them in the Tomb of the Sarafan, where Kain would find them and resurrect them a thousand years later. Raziel encountered his Sarafan self in the Stronghold's chapel house. Impaling the head Inquisitor on the Reaver, Raziel renounced his Sarafan heritage once and for all.

As Raziel stood over his own corpse, the wraith-blade reappeared, and coiled down the length of the physical Reaver. He finally realized why he had felt fearful of the Reaver - it was destined to be his eternal prison. The barely-sentient soul-devouring entity that inhabited the Soul Reaver was, and always had been him. He was the deranged, captive spirit that had turned the Reaver into a soul-stealing weapon. The twinned wraith-blade and blood-drinking, physical Reaver turned on Raziel, trying to devour and draw him into the blade.

Kain rescued Raziel from this fate, causing yet another change in the path of history as he used the space/time distortion caused by paradoxes in history. He pulled the twinned wraith-blade and Reaver from Raziel's body, believing that would allow Raziel to reclaim his true destiny. But Raziel was not so sure. Falling into the Spectral Realm, exhausted, Raziel saw that his wraith-blade was still attached to his arm - irrefutable evidence that imprisonment within the sword was still in his future. He did not hear Kain's warning that Janos Audron must remain dead.

Defiance era
"'Better to face one`s destiny, than cower from it.' - Raziel" In the depths of the Underworld, Raziel was on his knees before the Elder God, weak and apparently at the point of starvation. He was still defiant; resolute in his opinion that the Elder was a parasite, and refusing to do its will. The Elder offered another, equally accurate reason for Raziel's stubbornness: he was afraid of returning to the Material Realm, where he would surely encounter the Reaver again.

Raziel, realizing his current stalemate was "no worse" than being imprisoned in the Reaver submitted to the Elder God's will, and agreed to return to his role as the Elder's "harvester of souls", but as he said: "submission is not always what it seems." Raziel still hoped to understand and avoid his terrible fate, and he could not do that while stuck in the Underworld.

The Elder gave Raziel a soul to devour, and allowed him to start leaving the Underworld. The Elder blocked the exit of each new cavern, demanding a demonstration of Raziel's renewed loyalty before letting the wraith progress. As Raziel consumed souls, he fed the Elder and the Wheel of Fate. That was his "necessary and noble function". Finally, Raziel had to race up a tall cavern. It appeared to Raziel that the Elder may not have really wanted to let him go at all. The Elder God smashed walkways and vocally expressed its displeasure when Raziel escaped.

Raziel had won his freedom from the Elder God, but only to a point: The Elder would no longer provide planar portals for Raziel to use. He had to find some other way to exit the Spectral Realm. Raziel had emerged from the Underworld into a cemetery, and he found the means to physically manifest after a bit of exploration. He learned that he could project his soul into corpses, which would then reanimate. He could reshape these physical bodies to match his wraith appearance.

Raziel ran into some vampire hunters in the Cemetery. Their outfits (bearing Moebius' hourglass insignia) informed him that five hundred years had passed in the Material Realm since Kain saved him from the Reaver in Soul Reaver 2. They spoke of a ghost haunting the Pillars, prompting Raziel's decision to visit Ariel for guidance. However, he had to imbue the wraith-blade with elemental Light and Dark in order to depart from the graveyard.

Amongst the cemetery ruins, Raziel discovered Warp Gates that transported him to the Light and Dark forges of the Vampire Citadel. Using their elemental power, he enhanced the wraith-blade, and left for the Pillars, where he quickly added Fire to its list of imbuements. In the Fire Forge, Raziel learned that Vorador had forged the original, blood-drinking Reaver blade, so it was likely he would have knowledge that could save Raziel from it. Luckily, in this era - the Blood Omen era - Vorador was still alive. Raziel only had to find him before Moebius' vampire hunters did. Raziel found Ariel at the Pillars as he expected. She was in the process of guiding the fledgling vampire Kain to purge the Circle of Nine. She didn't recognize Raziel, and seemed to think he was a Hylden - the first, but not the last person in Defiance to make that assumption. Raziel told her that her faith in Kain was misplaced, but she refused to listen. She did, however, tell him where Vorador's Mansion could be found when he asked.

Raziel next visited the Air Forge. There he was introduced to the prophesy of the Hylden champion. Based on what Janos had told him in Soul Reaver 2, Raziel assumed he was the Vampire champion depicted there and in the Dark Forge, destined to be the adversary of the Hylden champion. Later he would find out the truth was more complicated than that.

Raziel reached Vorador's Mansion, and after solving the puzzle of the Hylden gargoyles, he forged the wraith-blade with elemental Water. In the Water Forge, Raziel was faced with the horrible revelation that he was likely the Hylden champion, and Kain was therefore his Vampire adversary: the Vampire champion.

Opening the garden crypt of Vorador's Mansion, Raziel finally got to speak with the vampire himself. Unfortunately, Vorador said he could not help him, even if he had been motivated to. Vorador had no knowledge of the sorcery Janos Audron and the other Ancient Vampires had laid upon the Reaver once he had made it. To Raziel's surprise he suggested that Raziel should ask Janos instead, and led the wraith into an antechamber where Janos' body was kept. Raziel saw the body was intact, even though Janos had been murdered five hundred years previously. There was a very real possibility that Janos could still be resurrected, if Raziel could find the Heart of Darkness. Vorador directed him to Avernus Cathedral.

In Avernus Cathedral, Raziel explored the Earth Forge and the Avernus catacombs. From the murals in both, he finally understood that the Ancient Vampires had worshipped the Elder God, but the Elder abandoned them once they were cursed by the Hylden. The Hylden were bitter adversaries of the Elder God. Suddenly, Raziel's "resemblance to the Vampires' enemy no longer seemed so accidental". The Elder God spoke to Raziel, and agreed he was indeed the Hylden champion.

In the catacombs, Raziel stumbled upon a ceremony being led by the Death Guardian, Mortanius. It involved the offering of a blood sacrifice to a 'god', Hash'ak'gik, who lived at the bottom of a deep pit. Curious, Raziel got too close to the pit's edge, and was knocked in by a telekinetic blast. Raziel soon discovered that Hash'ak'gik was actually Turel, the vampire lieutenant of Kain who had eluded his wrath in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Turel was being possessed by a number of Hylden, and was simply an impressive-looking vessel they used to command their worshippers. Turel demanded blood to strengthen himself against their control, and when none was given to him, he attacked Raziel.

Raziel killed Turel, and devoured his soul. He then emerged from the pit and found Mortanius. If Raziel needed any further convincing that he was the Hylden champion, Mortanius was happy to oblige; apparently he also believed it. From their conversation - during which Mortanius struggled against the possession of the Hylden Lord - Raziel learned that Mortanius had resurrected Kain using the Heart of Darkness, hoping to create the Vampire champion: the Scion of Balance. The Necromancer believed Kain was destined to be Raziel's destroyer.

Raziel left the catacombs, and ran into Kain, who was just arriving at Avernus Cathedral. Raziel now knew that Kain would have to die for Janos to live. Also, when Raziel absorbed Turel's soul, a green tendril had been mixed in with it. It seemed, as a result of that, Raziel was being influenced in a limited way by the Hylden. They were heightening his rage against Kain; his bitterness at being a 'pawn' in Kain's game, expendable when it suited Kain's whim.

Kain tried to unsuccessfully to reason with Raziel, re-iterating that Raziel had a choice, and (for the first time) explicitly describing the nature of Raziel's free will. Because of his execution and "remaking" in the Abyss, Raziel was the one creature who was not shackled to the Wheel of Fate. He had free will all the time, unlike Kain and everyone else. It appeared that the Reaver paradox was not necessary for Raziel to alter the path of history, except perhaps for momentous changes, but this was not clarified. They fought. Kain managed to subdue Raziel after a while, but Raziel restarted the battle, attacking ferociously. Kain intercepted what could have been the finishing blow by grabbing Raziel's wrist; unintentionally causing Raziel's soul to start transferring into the physical Reaver through Kain's body. Raziel saved himself, and won his revenge against Kain by plunging his claws into Kain's chest, and tearing out the Heart of Darkness. Raziel then threw Kain through a portal using telekinesis, presuming he was completely dead at last, wherever he ended up. Raziel reflected that he "... I felt no elation, no sense of victory only a calm certainty that we had once again walked blindly into our enemies trap".

Raziel returned to Vorador's Mansion. There, he encountered Moebius, who congratulated him on his victory over Kain. The Time Streamer said that it did not matter which hero - Vampire or Hylden - Kain and Raziel convinced themselves they were, as long as the outcome was the same: that they would fight and Kain would die. Kain's destruction was the only important thing, and Raziel had achieved that. Moebius gloated that Raziel had been successfully compelled into performing the task, despite having the free will to choose otherwise. Moebius departed to oversee Vorador's execution, leaving Raziel to battle the vampire hunters that blocked Raziel's route between the library and the garden crypt.

Raziel returned Janos' heart to his body, and resurrected the winged Ancient Vampire. Luckily, Janos' memory was intact, although he was shocked to find out that he had been dead for five hundred years. He tried to hurry Raziel into action, but after so many delays and misdirections, Raziel was not exactly co-operative. Now Janos was alive again, without the Sarafan beating down the door, Raziel wanted answers: How could he be the Vampire saviour if the Reaver was designed to imprison him? Raziel unsettled Janos further by showing him the wraith-blade - he already held the Reaver, but not in the way Janos had been expecting. Despite all this, Janos continued to believe in Raziel, and teleported them both to the Vampire Citadel.

Raziel's argumentative mood continued, even as Janos protested that there was no time to explain everything; the Pillars were in peril. At Raziel's insistence, Janos briefly described the history of the Vampires, how the Hylden curse of immortality had "banished us from God's grace," and how the Pillars came to have human Guardians. Eventually, Janos convinced Raziel to explore the Spirit Forge, promising him answers there.

As Raziel entered the forge, he discovered and was surprised to find, that a mural in the three murals depicted that he was not the Vampire's prophesied hero, but the champion of both the vampires and the hylden, and that Kain was in fact the Scion of balance, which the Elder God, present at the time, admitted was true, gloatingly saying "It was Kain's destiny that mattered all along". The Elder God intervened in Raziel's attempt to imbue his reaver with spirit by forcing its tentacles through the floor around the altar and pulling it down, deeper into the earth as Raziel tried to activate it. However, Raziel completed the task, and the forge summoned the souls of Ariel and her Balance Guardian predecessors to itself to imbue the wraith-blade with Spirit. As she was absorbed into the wraith-blade, Ariel told Raziel that he must "unite what has been set asunder. Only then would the Scion of Balance.." - Kain - "..be armed for his true endeavor". Believing Kain was gone for good, Raziel wondered what hope there was for Nosgoth. Kain's "true endeavor" could never be embarked upon. Raziel was even more confused, if that were possible, so he returned to Janos.

Janos was watching the Pillars from the Vampire Citadel's council chamber. Very soon after Raziel arrived back, the Pillars exploded in a flash of cataclysmic lightning. In that instant - in the Pillars clearing - the fledgling vampire Kain had just refused to sacrifice himself, as he did in Blood Omen. The Hylden Lord, who had recently been using Mortanius' deformed body to fight Kain, suddenly possessed Janos. Janos fought the possession, but could not shake it off. The Hylden Lord spoke "You have played your part flawlessly" - in resurrecting Janos and murdering the Scion of Balance he had invaluably helped the Hylden's cause. Janos managed to re

assert his own will just long enough to ask Raziel to kill him, before the Hylden regained control. Raziel refused to let the Hylden Lord leave the Vampire Citadel without a fight.

Raziel fought Janos/the Hylden Lord, and eventually knocked him to the ground. Raziel stood over Janos' body, but even though the Ancient Vampire pleaded for Raziel to end it, before the Hylden came back, Raziel could not bring himself to destroy Janos. Raziel's inaction gave the Hylden Lord enough time to consolidate his power. He used magic to obliterate Raziel's current physical body, and sent him back to the Elder God.

In the Spirit Forge, in the Spectral Realm, the Elder God told Raziel there was nothing more for him to do, now that Kain was gone. The Elder was going to keep Raziel imprisoned in the Spectral Underworld - permanently this time - as he was "undying" and his soul could never be returned to the Wheel of Fate. Raziel's future looked very bleak as the Elder summoned Moebius to converse with it in the Spirit Forge chamber.

Unknown to Raziel, Kain had survived their Avernus battle and made his way to the Spirit Forge, floating down behind Moebius (who was standing at the bottom). Kain impaled Moebius on the Reaver, and as the Time Streamer died, Moebius found himself in the Spectral Realm. Not realizing that Raziel was standing behind him, Moebius told the Elder that Kain still lived, and started to ask his god to restore him to life again. Unfortunately for him, Raziel mimicked Kain's earlier action, and thrust the Wraith-blade Reaver through Moebius' spirit body. His sight 'purified' by the Spirit-imbued blade, Moebius saw the Elder God's true form for the first time, before Raziel finally opened his cowl and devoured Moebius' old soul.

The Elder God was unconcerned about the loss of Moebius, but Raziel started to understand that he was not as powerless as the Elder claimed. Kain had survived - something the Elder God appeared to have missed. Also, although there had never been any hope of exposing the "unseen" Elder God's deceits, the Spirit Reaver had allowed Moebius to see his master for what it truly was. Piecing together these revelations with what Kain, Janos and Ariel had previously told him, Raziel made a terrible but necessary choice. He was both 'Redeemer and Destroyer', with the potential to be both the Hylden and Vampire champions. Kain, the Scion of Balance, was neither; Mortanius had been wrong in believing otherwise. Raziel decided to do what Ariel had said, and exert his free will one last time to arm Kain for "his true endeavor". He would sacrifice himself to give Kain the power to see and fight the Elder God.

Using Moebius corpse as a host, Raziel re-entered the Material Realm. Kain, seeing only Moebius, attacked instinctively, running 'Moebius' through with the Reaver, and using so much force that the sword tip became embedded in the rock behind him. Raziel manifested fully, and Kain realized his mistake. He tried to withdraw the Reaver, but Raziel stopped him. Raziel placed his hand on Kain's chest, allowing the Spirit-imbued wraith-blade to disperse into Kain and heal him of his wounds, both physical and spiritual. Raziel's final words before allowing himself to be absorbed by the physical Reaver both forgave Kain and established Raziel's renewed loyalty to his maker as both vampire and the wraith component to the Soul Reaver. His physical form flickering and fading, he said:

"The Soul Reaver - pure of all corruption - this is what it is for. This is what I am for - the two become one - both Soul Reavers - together - and the Scion of Balance is healed. And I - am not your enemy - not your destroyer - I am, as before, your right hand. Your sword. And now you will see - the true enemy - ". The last part being spoken more as the Soul Reaver.

Raziel's sacrifice did indeed let Kain see the true enemy: the Elder God. After a brief battle - where it was seen that the newly-created Soul Reaver was an effective weapon against the Elder's tentacles - Kain left the Spirit Forge before the enraged Elder God could bury him in its rubble. In the Vampire Citadel's council chamber, Kain paused to look across Nosgoth, towards the ruined Pillars. He reflected that Raziel had given him "the first, bitter taste of that terrible illusion - Hope". Thus concluded Raziel's story within the Legacy of Kain series. It is very unlikely he will return in any recognizable physical form, although as the spirit of the Soul Reaver, he remains a crucial element in Kain's continuing pursuit of his true destiny.

Redeemer and Destroyer
Raziel's dual destiny was something that could only be accomplished by his unique free will. For it was this very same free will that allowed him to be Redeemer and Destroyer for both Hylden and Vampire races.

As the Hylden messiah, Raziel had fulfilled three great Hylden prophecies:

1. He had resurrected Janos Audron, allowing the Hylden Lord to possess him. In the previous time-line, without the body of the Reaver guardian (as the Reaver was the lock on the Hylden prison) the Hylden could never be trully free. As spectres they could only interact with Nosgoth by possessing living or dead bodies, but they could not physically enter Nosgoth. With Janos the Hylden could now open a portal to the demon dimension and physically enter Nosgoth. Furthermore by giving them Janos he also provided them the "blood of their ancient enemy" to feed the Mass, and thus use the "Device".

2. He had killed the future Kain, the Scion of Balance (this was particularly important because the Hylden via seeing into the time-stream knew they had to get rid of the future Kain. Since Raziel had "seemingly" dispatched him, this meant now the Hylden could return to Nosgoth unopposed and then finish off the younger Kain)

3. He killed the Vampire messiah (himself), by setting up Kain to stab him with the Blood Reaver, trapping his soul-devouring essence inside the Blood Reaver, to create the Soul Reaver.

As the Vampire messiah, he also fulfilled three prophecies:

1. He armed the wraith blade (his own future incarnation) with the different elemental forges prepared by the Ancients, granting the blade the different elemental powers attuned to each Pillar principle. And more importantly, he forged the Spirit Reaver.

2. He armed the Scion of Balance, dispersing the wraith blade with all its enhancements into Kain. The Spirit Reaver would purify Kain of all corruption and help him fulfill his future destiny

3. He killed the Hylden messiah (himself), by setting up Kain to stab him with the Blood Reaver, trapping his soul-devouring essence inside the Blood Reaver, to create the Soul Reaver.

This is how Raziel served as both Redeemer and Destroyer for both Vampire and Hylden races.

Personality
Raziel is a very upstanding and moral character, with a strong inherent sense of noblesse oblige; however, the conditions and situations he finds himself in (almost never of his own making) rarely lend themselves to unambiguous ethical judgments and he often ends up doing the wrong thing for the right reason. As a mortal man, he engaged in the systematic extermination of countless Vampires in his fanatical quest to rid the world of his perception of evil. As a Vampire he helped Kain establish his empire, under the controversial belief that Vampires deserved (as a higher form of life, and thusly "knowing better") to rule the world. He became The Soul Reaver, the state he found himself in after being "betrayed" by Kain and his brethren, then "saved" by the Elder God, by being thrown into the Abyss, a swirling vortex of water. (Its depth is such that it could almost be described as endless although its exact depth is not known for sure.) he stalked Kain and massacred his former brethren, prevaricating that he was not only exacting vengeance, but just settling the balance of existence. He often finds himself the willing or unwilling pawn of those around him, for good or evil. His systemic redemption is found in his final act, one of self-sacrifice. This puts him in harmonic opposition to the character of Kain (though he sacrifices himself not only to escape his curse of infinite death/rebirth cycle or to help defeat "the true enemy", but also for Kain - to whom he pledges allegiance), whose behavior is characterised by viciousness, manipulation and the belief that every person and thing is utterly expendable, but whose actions generally turn out to be right, because he defies those around him, most of whom turn out to be directly or indirectly in league with evil. Kain proudly admits his actions are motivated by lust for power and revenge (but he truly was predestined to become a tyrant, only in a quest for survival and because of Nupraptor's curse, at his birth), while Raziel unrelently claims his sole motivation is a desire to save the world and that he is solely guided by morals. Raziel unrelently switches from one master (often a manipulator) to another (Moebius and the Sarafan, Kain, the Elder God, Ariel, Janos Audron, Kain - again, Raziel is either being lied to or being told half-truths or what they think the truth is.), while Kain only follows orders when they suit him and never trusts anyone (not even his only love Umah, the female Vampire who cared for him during his comatose sleep in Blood Omen 2 ).