Device

The Device was an ancient Hylden weapon encountered by Kain in Chapter 9: Into the Depths of Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2.

Role
The Device was designed and built in the time of the war between the Ancient vampires and the Hylden, to wipe out all non-Hylden life in Nosgoth.  Kain: "I seek an ancient device of great power. I am prepared to kill any who stand in my way."//Beast: "Have no fear of me.  I am enslaved by the fiends that built this monstrosity, to feed this machine with my life."//Kain: "Then perhaps we have an interest in common.  I am here to destroy the device."//Beast: "Yes.  Yes, I can help you, then.That which you seek is too great for you to destroy alone.  It descends far underground, it rivals a city in its size.  To destroy the device, you must seek out the being that built it."//Kain: "The Sarafan Lord?"//Beast: "No, no, it is older, far older.Those who dwelt in Nosgoth eons ago left some structures in their passing.  The device is one.  The Sarafan Lord discovered how to use it.  Only the Builder can make it stop."//Kain: ''"Do you mean to tell me that this being still lives? Impossible."//Beast: "He is…listen to me. There is a place in Nosgoth, far to the north, where time means nothing, where hours and years are frozen for eternity. The Eternal Prison. The wretches imprisoned there pay for their crimes for eternity. The builder is there."//Kain: "The Eternal Prison. I have heard of such a place. I did not realize it was so close to Meridian. How do I reach it?"//Beast: "There is a tunnel leading out of the city through this room. It will take you into the Prison."//Kain: "And if this builder refuses my help?"//Beast: "Tell him you wish to destroy the device. Believe me, he will aid you."//Kain: "I hope, for your sake, that what you have told me is true."//Beast: "You may believe me. Destroying the device…will free me…at last. I will be in your debt, Kain" Crystal Dynamics. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2. (Eidos Interactive). PlayStation 2. (March 19, 2002) Transcript. This would be achieved by 'attuning it' to all non-Hylden life and channeling the mental energy of the Mass - a living creature with fantastic mental powers, apparently fed by the blood of the Ancients - onto a conduit that would spread the power over the land. This conduit was never completed as the ancient vampires banished the Hylden to the Demon Realm before it was finished, with 'the Builder' of the Device ending up in Eternal Prison. Kain: "I seek a prisoner in this place, a builder. He created a large Device that lies below the city of Meridian."//Builder: "Seek no further. I am he."//Kain: "How fortunate. I intend to destroy this Device. I was told only you can tell me how."//Builder: "I can indeed help you, but in return I need an end to my suffering."//Kain: "Tell me of the Device and I will grant you any request within my power."//Builder: "Yes, yes… The Device was built as a weapon, eons ago when two races warred with each other for dominance of Nosgoth. It houses an ancient creature, who’s very mind is capable of killing any living thing with but a thought. The Device was to channel the mental energy of this creature, and direct it onto Nosgoth. It would attune the creature’s mind to kill all living creatures except for my race. Before it could be completed, however, I was imprisoned here, and the rest of my race was banished to another, far more terrible, realm."//Kain: "So this Device was never finished. And yet the creature still lives within it?"//Builder: "It was dubbed “The Mass.” It is eternal and deadly, yet harmless without a channel for it’s mind. We never completed the weapon. We needed a way to send its energy out of the Device and into the land itself. We needed a conduit spread all throughout the cities, a network, if you will. Once this network was created, the Device would channel the mental energy of the Mass, and send death upon our enemies."//Kain: "You say a network? Placed like a web throughout a city?"//Builder: "We never completed the network. We never used the Device."//Kain: "But the Sarafan Lord will. The Glyphs! He is using the Glyphs to channel the Mass, to wipe out the city, humans and vampires alike! That must be his plan!"//Builder: "If this is indeed true, you must act quickly. It would be too large a task to destroy the Device itself. You must kill The Mass itself."//Kain: "You said this creature was eternal."//Builder: "It has a simple weakness. Blood is like poison to its system. And not any blood, but pure blood from the Elder races. My blood. My blood will poison and kill the creature. Drink from me, vampire, and use my life’s blood to kill that which I created, out of arrogance and pride. Kill me so that the Mass will die, and the Device will be destroyed!" Crystal Dynamics. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2''. (Eidos Interactive). PlayStation 2. (March 19, 2002) Transcript.

Eons later, Raziel as the Hylden messiah, would unintentionally allow the Hylden Lord to possess and take the body of Janos Audron. This enabled the Hylden Lord to open the Hylden Gate and the Hylden to once again gain a foothold in Nosgoth. The Hylden Lord revived the Sarafan order, defeated the young Kain's growing empire and manipulated the Humans to take over Nosgoth. During this time, The Device was secretly uncovered and Janos imprisoned within to feed the Mass, as the Hylden - disguised as Glyphwrights - completed an maintained a glyph magic network that would provide heat, light and to a certain degree protection from vampires (in a similar manner to electricity) to the human population. This network however could also be used as a conduit for the Device.  Janos: "Not dead, but imprisoned in this place. My blood was needed to power the device, and feed the Mass within.  Starved of blood and sapped of life, I devolved into that horrible creature.  The moment you poisoned the Mass, I felt my strength return.  That which is divine cannot be wholly suppressed"//Kain: "Divine?  Your imprisonment has damaged your mind, Janos.  The curse of vampirism is no mark of divinity."//Janos: "You must delve further back into history, Kain, to know the truth of our heritage.  Long ago, and long before I first walked the earth, vampires were god-like, and our kind ruled the land.  But we were opposed by another race, similar to ours in power, but different in method and intention.  The wars between us flamed for a thousand years. But we prevailed at last, and we banished our enemies from the face of the earth by powerful magic, sealing them into another plane of existence."//Kain: "What has this history lesson to do with my task at hand?"//Janos: ''"Patience, Kain. The race that fought the vampires was the Hylden, the very Hylden that you have just encountered. They control the Sarafan. They are striving to wipe out the vampires, enslave the humans, and reclaim all Nosgoth as their own. They are the evil that plague us once again, authors of the demons and the Device and all else that threatens the land. They have returned to enact a terrible revenge."//Kain: "I thought you said that they were banished."//Janos: "They were, Kain. But several centuries ago, one of the Hylden was able to return to our world. He then used his magic to draw other Hylden through, but had not yet the power to begin a full invasion. He required an army, here, and humans to drain of energy. He learned of a legendary order whose purpose was to purge the world of vampires long ago. He revived this order,and the Sarafan were born again."//Kain: "The Sarafan Lord. It was he that broke through. But how?"//Janos: "Now we come to your part in this story. When you chose to destroy the Pillar of Balance, you caused a rift throughout the world, sufficient to breach through the dimensions."//Kain: "Was it I, then, who had engendered this war? No, I had been set, step by step, upon the path that led to this outcome. Hadn’t this all been a Hylden plot from the beginning? My mind reeled at the implications." Crystal Dynamics. Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen 2''. (Eidos Interactive). PlayStation 2. (March 19, 2002) Transcript.

By the time Kain had returned in his quest for vengeance against the Sarafan Lord, the network was virtually complete. After he defeated Sebastian, Sebastian gloated that Kain's death was inevitable and that the Device would rain destruction upon Nosgoth. On Vorador's advice, Kain traveled to the Canyons to find out more information from the Seer, who also viewed the Device in similar fashion to Sebastian, but eventually gave Kain the Dark Gift 'Telekinesis' and teleported him to The Device.

Upon entering Kain conversed with a deformed Beast that lay within, apparently being drained to power the Device, who told Kain the whereabouts of the Eternal Prison and that the Builder would likely help him destroy the device after his centuries of imprisonment. The Builder was only to happy to help and offered Kain the solution to destroy the Device, to poison the Mass with Hylden blood. Kain returned to the Device, and descended into the machinery. Fighting off many Hylden and Hylden warriors to reach the Mass, where he was able to poison the Mass and render the Device useless. By the time he reached the highest levels of the Device once again, the Beast had regained his true form - that of Janos Audron - and after explaining some of the background to the Device and the Hylden, Janos teleported them both to Sanctuary.