To the End

Chapter 12: To the End is the twelfth and final "level", or chapter, of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. It concludes the game's storyline, and offers a multiple-choice ending. The final cinematic is determined at the player's discretion.

Having defeated the Dark Entity and restored eight of the Pillars of Nosgoth, Kain finally realizes a monumental truth: he himself is the final Pillar Guardian, representing the Pillar of Balance. He is presented with a fateful choice: sacrifice himself to heal the world, or refuse the sacrifice and doom Nosgoth to eternal decay.

Plot


The Dark Entity has been defeated, and, with the deaths of Anacrothe and Mortanius, eight of the Pillars of Nosgoth have been healed. Kain stands at the juncture of the Pillars' dais, on the threshold of a terrible revelation. He, himself, is the ninth member of the Circle of Nine - the Balance Guardian, Ariel's replacement and successor. The Balance Pillar is the last remaining corrupted edifice. The fate of Nosgoth rests on Kain's shoulders: "at [his] whim", he muses, "the world will be healed or damned". Ariel appears, and enables him to choose his fate: sacrifice himself, and restore the world, or refuse the sacrifice, and doom the Pillars, and Nosgoth, to collapse.

Damn the World
Refusing the sacrifice, Kain causes the Pillars to collapse, prolonging his own life, but allowing corruption to seep into the land and transforming Nosgoth into a wasteland. Celebrating the blood curse as a blessing, he sets his throne in the ruined Pillars dais, and drinks blood from a goblet beneath an incarnadine sky. Raising the chalice in triumph, he laughs to himself, concluding his quest with the epiphany that Vorador was right - that vampires are gods, whose duty is to thin the human herd.

Heal the World
By electing to sacrifice himself, Kain commits himself to oblivion, but heals Nosgoth, restoring the world to abundant life and vibrancy. Panning through healthy fields, trees, mountains and lakes, Ariel's visage appears, contemplating Kain's existence. Ariel remarks that he was "unknown", both in life and death, but that his sacrifice ensured the constancy of Balance in the land. She finishes, cryptically, with the remark that "shades cast no shadows".

Walkthrough
To complete the chapter, and the game, the player needs only to choose one of the two endings by having Kain pick up the desired "card". The westernmost one triggers the "damn the world" ending, whereas the easternmost one triggers the "heal the world" one. Following the concluding cinematic, the player's statistics and final prestige ranking will be displayed, and the credits will follow.

Players (in order of appearance)

 * Kain (voiced by Simon Templeman) and Kain's voiceovers
 * Ariel (voiced by Anna Gunn)

Conclusions

 * Kain has realized that he is Ariel's successor as Balance Guardian and as the final corrupted guardian, he must Sacrifice himself to restore Nosgoth.
 * Kain has refused the Sacrifice and the Pillars of Nosgoth have collapsed. (canonical ending)