Soul Reaver

"Time fades even legend and the origin of Soul Reaver has been lost long ago. But its purpose remains; to feed on the souls of any creature it strikes. Kindred, this blade and I."

- Kain

The Reaver, later known as The Soul Reaver (and sometimes known informally by fans as "The Blood Reaver" in its initial state), is a weapon appearing in every title in the Legacy of Kain series. It is a flamberge-class sword with a broad, serpentine blade forged from unknown materials (perhaps bone, carbon, or iron).

The Reaver is a physical weapon which can drain victims' blood, later absorbing the wraith Raziel, a reaver of souls. Trapped within the blade, they become one and the blade inherited Raziel's soul hunger and the sword was renamed the Soul Reaver. Through most of the series, the sword has the ability to devour the souls of its victims and its physical manifestation's power can only be quelled by an artifact known as The Nexus Stone, while it's energy manifestation (the Wraith-blade) in the Material Realm can be suppressed by Moebius' staff although the effects of both are only temporary. It plays a key role throughout the series, serving as far more than just a weapon for Kain and later/earlier Raziel.

Ancient History
The Reaver was first forged by the Human swordsmith Vorador some time after the end of the war between the Ancients and the Hylden, at the behest of Janos Audron (as a reward for this action, Vorador would become the first 'turned' vampire). After its forging, Janos endowed the Reaver with the power to drain its victims of their blood, as well as to transform using the energies of the elemental fonts. At that point, the sword was known as "The Reaver", (though some fans have taken to calling the blade the "Blood Reaver" after its vampiric abilities). At the time of the binding, when the first Guardians were called to serve the Pillars; Janos was also called as a 'tenth guardian' to serve as guardian of the Reaver blade, keeping the sword (explicitly the weapon of the vampires salvation) safe until the Vampire Champion of prophecy came to claim it.

Early History
Centuries later at the time of the human Sarafan crusades against the Vampires, the Sarafan Inquisitors Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Zephon and Melchiah stormed Janos' Retreat, where they murdered Janos and stole the Reaver blade. The wraith Raziel, who had traveled back in time from the future and spoken with Janos, sought to avenge Janos and chased the Sarafan down to the Sarafan Stronghold. After a confrontation with Moebius and Malek, Raziel was able to reclaim the Reaver and with his Wraith Blade disabled by Moebius' Staff, Raziel was left with the Reaver as his only choice of weapon. As the Vampire Champion of prophecy, the Reaver bound itself to Raziel making him invincible and unable to drop the blade; and when Raziel was confronted by the Sarafan Inquisitors he was easily able to dispatch them, including his former human self. But as the human Raziel died, the Wraith Blade manifested and turned the Reaver on Raziel, absorbing him into the blade and temporarily creating the Soul devouring Soul Reaver blade. However, with interference from the time traveling Kain a Soul Reaver paradox was created, with Raziel's fate postponed and a new timeline of history created.

With Raziel lost to the Spectral Realm, Kain collected the vacant Reaver blade and kept possession of it as he investigated the late Sarafan era in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. During his search throughout Nosgoth for the answers to his destiny and the whereabouts of Raziel, Kain found fragments of the Balance Emblem to augment the powers of the Reaver and when completed, the Balance Emblem consisted of the Balance Hub along with the Flame, Dimension, Lightning, and Time fragments; which each allowed a specific enhancement for the blade based upon the Pillars of Nosgoth. During the events of Defiance, Kain was able to use the completed Balance Emblem to enter the inner sanctum of the Vampire Citadel; where the "Oracle of the Ancient Vampires" (the Elder God) sent him forwards in time to the Blood Omen era to prevent Raziel's attempts to restore Janos Audron.

When the two met at Avernus Cathedral (at this time believing themselves to be opposing champions of prophecy), they were both armed with their respective versions of the blade and with the Hylden fueling Raziel's rage (and with Raziel once again narrowly averting being absorbed by the vacant Reaver blade), Kain was defeated and apparently killed by Raziel, having his heart ripped out and being blasted into the Demon Realm. But Kain was able to survive and brought the Reaver back with him into the Material Realm and feeling the pull of the Spirit Forge activated by Raziel, returned to the Vampire Citadel where Kain killed a resurrected Moebius and Raziel sacrificed himself to create the Soul Reaver; whilst simultaneously healing Kain of his corruption and enabling him to see the Elder God ("the true enemy"). Raziel was then drawn into the blade, transforming it into a soul-devouring weapon. Hereafter the blade was known as the Soul Reaver.

The Soul Reaver
As 'The Soul Reaver', the sword would become known as a legendary blade and it already had quite a reputation by the Blood Omen era (suggesting some time travel since the newly created Soul Reaver was first seen in the hands of the elder Kain); though it's origins had been all but forgotten. When the fledgling Kain traveled to Avernus on his quest to cleanse the Pillar of Dimension, he was given cryptic advice by Ariel that he would need to "rise and ...fall and find [his] salvation in between".

Once Kain entered Avernus Cathedral, he found that it was split into different 'dimensions', with a Heavenly Realm and Hellish Realm in addition to the usual reality of the cathedral. Negociating the realms using teleport pads, Kain was able to 'rise' into the heavenly realm, where he discovered and claimed the powerful Soul Reaver blade. After collecting the Wraith Armor from the 'hellish realm' (actually the Avernus Catacombs) Kain was able to confront Azimuth, The Dimension Guardian. Azimuth claimed to be unaware that the Reaver and the armor were hidden in her Cathedral (suggesting someone else had placed them there for Kain to find) and accordingly the combination of the Wraith Armor and Soul Reaver was greatly effective in the battle against her and a single hit from the Reaver blade was enough to kill her. After dispatching her, Kain found a Time Streaming Device which Azimuth had been intending to use to summon demons from other ages. Investigating the manipulations of Time Guardian Moebius, Kain later found himself trapped in the Battle of the Last Stand between the Legions of the Nemesis and Willendorf's Army of Hope. As the army of hope was defeated, the time streaming device activated and propelled Kain fifty years into the past. Seizing the chance to alter the fate of Nosgoth, Kain travelled to the Land of the Nemesis, seeking to eliminate the boy-king William the Just, who would one day become the tyrant 'The Nemesis'. Kain infiltrated William's Keep and was able to overhear a conversation between Moebius and William, with the timestreamer and providing William with a shipment of weapons (possibly including the Soul Reaver itself). Shortly afterward Kain confronted William in battle and, as arranged by Moebius, both were armed with the Soul Reaver (indeed the Reaver is the only weapon that could be used to defeat William). The presence of two Soul Reavers created a Soul Reaver Paradox allowing history to be changed and William to be killed; igniting the Second Paradox timeline.

Ignorant of the scale of the changes he had made to history, Kain returned to the Blood Omen era to find that his actions had caused genocidal hatred of vampires amongst Nosgoth's human population and Moebius had taken advantage of this, creating a Mercenary Army that had destroyed the vampire race. Though he was able to defeat and kill Moebius, restoring the Pillar of Time, Moebius' manipulations had left Kain as the last vampire in Nosgoth.

The Soul Reaver was part of the backstory to Blood Omen 2, where it was revealed that the Sarafan Lord had used the Nexus Stone at the Battle of Meridian to negate the power of the Soul Reaver. With Kain unable to use the power of the blade, he was defeated and apparently killed by the Sarafan Lord who took the Reaver and began his own conquest of Nosgoth. When Kain returned, killing the Sarafan Lord and regaining the blade were his main objectives; though for much of the game the Reaver would be unobtainable.Only in the final phase of the final boss battle was Kain able to regain use the Soul Reaver; it was however possible to access the Soul Reaver earlier using several methods (see 'Trivia' below).

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Kain shatters the blade over Raziel therefore returning the blade to its true state, a Wraith-blade. Intentionally, the blade was destroyed because of a paradox, as it cannot devour its own soul, Raziel's soul. During the events of the game, the blade can only manifest in the Material Plane when Raziel's health is full and it will maintain his health unless he is injured, where the blade will then retreat to the Spectral Plane. In order to retrieve the Reaver, Raziel would have to shift planes and then be at full health to use the portals or just feed on some spiritual energy (from a willing or defenseless human). Also in Soul Reaver 1 the wraith blade can be endowed with the element of fire after earning the 'swimming' ability and finding the enhancement within Rahab's territory.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2, the wraith form of Soul Reaver meets with its old physical form (this incarnation belonged to King William the Just and was broken in the battle with Kain) in the Sarafan Stronghold, almost killing Raziel while leeching his lifeforce to repair it's other half. Throughout the game, the blade acts directly opposite to what it did in the previous game. It basically drags Raziel around as he imbues it within ruined forges and will drain his energy if he uses it for extensive amounts of time in battle. When the blade's power is nullified by Moebius, Raziel uses the Blood Reaver to kill the Sarafan Order, including his human self. Afterward, the wraith blade, which had acted as his symbiotic weapon enters the Blood Reaver and then impales him, absorbing his soul and bringing to the light the truth of how the paradox in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver occurred when the sword shattered. The soul devouring creature within the wraith blade had always been Raziel, he was destined to be tied to a loop; however Kain saved him from the reaver, and while it did send him into the Spectral Realm, he at least survived. In all games, regardless of health the Spectral Reaver is always available for Raziel in the Spectral Plane.

As Kain searches for augmentations for his version of the blade, Raziel also advances his own wraith version by entering the spiritual forges of the Ancient Vampire Guardians. The primary reason the Blood Reaver was forged, was for their messiah to "baptize" it with the elemental properties attuned between the Pillar principles. Except for the Light and Dark forges (as these two elements were not attuned to any Pillar), each of the elemental forges were guarded by the original vampire guardians. The guardians had absorbed and divided the energies of the Air, Water, Earth and Fire forges within their own souls. And by devouring theirs soul, recycling them in the Wheel of Fate, Raziel was able to reclaim each of the elemental principles for the wraith-blade. Where as in Soul Reaver 2, he was only able to keep enhancement for a limited period of time (needing elemental fonts to re-imbue the blade), by the time of Defiance the wraith-blade had evolved enough to be able to retain those same elemental enhancements permenently.

The final augmentation of the wraith blade was found at the forge locked deep within the ancient Vampire Citadel where all 6 acquired elements of the sword were required to open the means of imbuing the final transformation. Where as the other elemental forges had their energies guarded by only the original Pillar guardians, the Spirit Forge was operated by every balance guardian that came before Kain. The pillar of Balance had dispersed the "spirit" element into each Balance guardian it summoned.



Thus by having the wraith-blade devour them all, and recycling them into the Wheel of Fate, and reclaiming the "spirit" element in each of them, the Reaver was now forged with "spirit", and thus the Spirit Reaver was born. Interestingly, Ariel called this the "final baptism of the blade", for this final purpose is what the balance guardians were called for, and through Raziel they gained the freedom they sought.

Raziel discovers later the blade is capable of purifying the sights of others, allowing Moebius to see the Elder God before devouring him. Fulfilling his fate, Raziel allowed himself to be absorbed into the Blood Reaver to create the Soul Reaver, while his future-self, the newly created Spirit Reaver was dispersed into Kain.

Appearances and usage in-game


The Soul Reaver first appeared as a weapon in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where the fledgling Kain found the Reaver for the first time in the depths of Avernus Cathedral. In that game, the Reaver was a two-handed weapon, meaning that whilst wielding it, Kain was unable to cast any spells or use any items. The Reaver was incredibly powerful in game and when fully charged, it could kill (non-boss) enemies in a single strike but also drained Kain's magical energy and was only as powerful as his Iron Sword when his magical energy was fully depleted. Though the plot implications of the Soul Reavers usage were only discussed in later games, it is necessary to use it to kill both Azimuth and William in their boss battles.

The Soul Reaver blade returned in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver where the blade was observed in the opening cutscene and during Raziel's confrontation with Kain at the Sanctuary of the Clans. After the destruction of the physical blade in that battle, Raziel gained a version of the blade as his symbiotic weapon, the Wraith Blade. The Wraith Blade, much like the physical Soul Reaver in Blood Omen, was the most powerful weapon in the game and was able to dispatch most enemies with a small number of strikes and a finishing move (Spears were the only other weapon that allowed the use of a finishing move).Once gained, the Wraith Blade could be used at any time in the Spectral Realm, though it could not be used in the Material Realm when Raziel's Soul Spiral was completely filled. Once manifest in the Material Realm it would sustain Raziel's form, preventing the usual drain on his health, however a single strike from an enemy would disperse the blade until Raziel topped up his Soul Spiral. After Raziel gained the Telekinetic Force Projectile, he was able to use the Wraith Blade to fire Reaver Bolts and the Wraith Blade could also (optionally) be ugraded with the Fire Reaver enhancement.

Raziel's use of the Wraith Blade continued into Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 with much of the same game mechanics as its predecessor (though Raziel did not initially have the Fire Reaver). After Raziel's first meeting with the physical Soul Reaver blade the Wraith Blade was 'upgraded', allowing Raziel to summon it at will, regardless of his health; this had a cost however, as using the Wraith Blade quickly filled the Reaver Bar 'over-arousing' the Reaver and causing it to turn it's hunger on Raziel. Throughout the game Raziel was able to imbue the Reaver with various enhancements (Dark, Light, Air and Fire) and in the final stages Raziel gained the physical (Blood) Reaver which along with being the most supposed most powerful weapon in the game (it could only be tested on the elite Sarafan Inquisitors) also temporarily made him invincible.



In Blood Omen 2 the Soul Reaver was seen throughout the game in cutscenes in the hands of the Sarafan Lord, though in the storyline it could only be used by Kain in the final boss battle against the Sarafan Lord. The Soul Reaver could be unlocked earlier by using cheats or other methods such as Bonus Mode. Upon starting a new game, Kain would be attired in the Iron Armor and armed with the the Soul Reaver (this combination is also visible in the first cutscene at the intro which glazes over the Collapse of the Pillars) when used, the Reaver was immensely powerful allowing Kain to easily defeat all non-boss enemies with approximately three slashes. The Reaver's moveset makes it effectively a Long Sword variant; with the same pommel/impale grabs (the power of the impale grab upgrades it to 'instant kill' status) and decapitation/downward smash(in the case of the Reaver a jumping downward smash, as with the other 'instant kill' weapons) stealth kills. Although unlike other weapons, Kain is unable to drop the Reaver and it is unbreakable.

In Defiance, both Raziel and Kain were armed with different versions of the Reaver as their only weapon (Raziel armed with the Wraith Blade and Kain with the physical 'Blood' Reaver blade). As the only weapon available, the Reaver was a vital part of combat technique, with both Raziel and Kain able to Feed The Reaver, thereby filling Reaver Charge, which enabled the use of Charged Attacks and Reaver Spells (see also Combat (Defiance)). The Reaver could also be upgraded with several enhancements (with Dark, Light, Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Spirit for Raziel; and Balance, Flame, Dimension, Lightning and Time for Kain) which could be imbued by forging the blade in a particular forge within the Vampire Citadel, or by collecting fragments of the Balance Emblem. Each collected enhancement had specific applications for combat or puzzles and these often changed the Charged Attacks and Reaver Spells. In the final part of the game, Raziel's sacrifice created the final enhancement; the Soul Reaver blade, supposedly the most powerful weapon in the game (though as in other games; it can only be used in the final boss battle).

Enhancements
only Reaver enhancements demonstrated in-game will be listed here (for complete list, including deleted Reaver enhancements, see Category:Reavers)

Balance Emblem
The Balance Emblem are pieces of a device used by Kain to enhance the physical (Blood) Reaver blade.
 * Balance Emblem - A blast that damages surrounding enemies and strengthens its wielder
 * Flame - Deals Fire Damage to attacked foes and causes its enemies to attack each other (also enhance Kain's own pyrokinesis)
 * Dimension - allows the wielder to move at the speed of light and make clones of themselves. Also allows the wielder to disperse damage done to one of the enemies in the area.
 * Lightning - allows its wielder to manipulate lightning
 * Time - all enemies are slowed down drastically

Reaver Elemental Enhancements
Enhancements used by Raziel on the Wraith Blade; typically these were imbued at Ancient Vampire 'forges'.


 * Spectral Reaver (the natural form of the Reaver manifested in the spectral realm)
 * Material Reaver (the natural form of the Reaver manifested in the material realm)
 * Light Reaver (blinds enemies, operates crystal oriented devices)
 * Dark Reaver (makes Raziel invisible, can create matter from darkness)
 * Fire Reaver (burns enemies)
 * Air Reaver (launches shockwave)
 * Water Reaver (can turn water into ice and vice-versa)
 * Earth Reaver (grants Raziel control over his own weight, used to create earth brigdes)
 * Spirit Reaver (the only Reaver attuned to the Balance element, can also manifest in the spectral realm)