Circle of Nine

"Your imprisonment here has deranged you, spirit. You fixate on Kain because you believe he is the tether that binds you here. But we both know he is not the author of your agony. The Pillars were subverted by dark forces, invited by the Guardians themselves. The more I learn of your Circle, the more I see a tangle of nested manipulations."

- Raziel

The Circle of Nine was the collective name for an oligarchy of sorcerers summoned before Nosgoth's recorded history to serve and protect the Pillars of Nosgoth, which gave life to the land. All members of the Circle were Pillar Guardians, whose powers of extreme longevity enabled them to live for centuries, and before the post-Blood Omen era, there were almost always nine active members at a time in Nosgoth. Circle membership and Pillar guardianship were mutually inclusive: if a Pillar Guardian died, the Circle would remain broken for a time, until the Pillars culled a successor.

When Mortanius murdered Ariel under the control of the Hylden Lord in the pre-Blood Omen era, the subsequent corruption of the Pillars drove the Circle of Nine to irrevocable insanity. Kain, the corrupt Balance Guardian, destroyed his fellow Circle members and purged their Pillars, but instead of sacrificing his own life to enable new Guardians to be born, he chose to live on, and thus triggered the collapse of the Pillars. Since that event, he has remained the only serving Pillar Guardian in Nosgoth, and the Circle has remained broken.

Technically, as Kain (a Circle member) has appeared in all Legacy of Kain media, so too has the Circle of Nine. Circle members other than Kain appear in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

History
"The book spoke of the birth of the Circle. The Circle served the Pillars, protectorates to the strange power that gives life to our land. At the unlikely death of a member, the Circle remains broken for a time, until the Pillars can cull a worthy successor."

- Kain

Background
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain director Denis Dyack, of Silicon Knights, originally conceived the concept of the Pillars of Nosgoth, from which the Circle of Nine was derived. In doing so, he drew inspiration from the cover art of Ken Follett's 1989 historical novel, The Pillars of the Earth.

Appearances

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

Non-canonical

 * Tomb Raider: Legend (depicted only)
 * Tomb Raider: Anniversary (depicted only)
 * Tomb Raider: Underworld (depicted only)
 * Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Raziel and Kain Character Pack)