Air Forge (Soul Reaver 2)

The Air Forge was an elemental Reaver forge encountered by Raziel in Soul Reaver 2. Created by the Ancient vampires, the forge was located to the west of Janos Audron's Retreat in Nosgoth's northern mountains and was the third forge encountered by Raziel in the game, discovered after meeting with Kain outside the ruined aerie in the Post-Blood Omen era. Completing the puzzle of the forge, Raziel was able to imbue the Wraith Blade with elemental Air, creating the Air Reaver.

Role
As Raziel left the forge he discovered that Reaver bolts from the Air Reaver could destroy cracked barriers and he was ultimately able to use this ability to breach the cracked door of the time streaming chamber in the Swamp and use it to reach Nosgoth's early history.

Design and Layout
Like the other elemental forges, The Air Forge is illustrated on the World map simply as a Air symbol and no effort is made to outline its area. The forge appears to be high up in Nosgoth's northern mountains, west of the Lake of Lost Souls, Janos Audron's Retreat and the Fire forge and northwest of Uschtenheim. Many of the features around the retreat areas are also slightly inconsistent when compared to the in-game layout. The world map depicts a canyon heading north out of Uschtenheim which forks with branches heading north-east to the retreat and north-west to the Air forge, with the air forge passage way only vaguely matching the position and orientation of the in game layout. The external lake area south of the retreat, where the split occurs in-game, is not present on the map though a similar small lake (apparently fed from the Lake of Lost Souls) is positioned slightly north of the split and west of the area marked as Janos's retreat on maps, while to the north-west of this lake a mountain can be observed flanked by the marked areas for the Janos retreat and the Fire forge (to the south and north respectively) - The directional clash may be explained by the possibility that Raziel climbed above the canyon and fork depicted on the map in the area beyond Uschtenheim and continued north through the area in uncharted paths. Because of clashes in the in-game layouts in the between the areas north of Uschtenehim depicted in Blood Omen and Soul Reaver 2, the location of the Air forge in relation to Blood Omen locations remains unclear - though it would appear to be located somewhere either north of the lower sections of the Ruined Land, or north of the Long and Winding Road areas. The map also continues to list Raziel as in the Uschtenheim area until he enters the Air Forge or Janos retreat.

In terms of in-game layout, the Air forge was located to the west of Janos Audron's Retreat and was accessed from an opening in the west wall of the lake area outside the retreat in the Post-Blood Omen era. The opening led through rocky passage curving northward up two sets of Scalable walls to a heavily eroded 'mini aerie' platform containing a Dark Reaver font, from here the passage turned west and widened to reveal the facade on the air forge - a large red patterned step-pyramid-like construction bricked terraced structure at the end of the canyon. The two brick terraced platforms each contained two metal standing torches and could be ascended using a small central staircase leading up to a checkpoint and the main forge entrance; flanked by images of the Reaver and topped with and Air symbol, but protected by a sealed door and a Sentry eye above the top of the arched doorway.


 * The final Light path puzzle chamber in the southeast was a wider and more open chamber, with towers in the southeast and northwest (with Raziel entering beneath the northwest tower), each with second tier platforms around them which could be climbed to from the courtyard floor. The second tier platforms around the southeast tower contained a light reaver font and a shadow bridge leading across to the opposite (northwest) second tier platform where a dark reaver font could be found along with a simple archway which could be scaled. Another face sculpture in the top of the northwestern tower blew air across the top of the room toward the high opening in the southeastern tower where Raziel could gain the Green heart.

Connections
From the main core forge chamber ("Air20")
 * The top eastern door (and hole above it) leads through a Z-shaped corridor ("Air2") and entrance mural room ("Air1") to the exterior facade of the forge ("Janos9") and a passage ("Janos8") leading to the lake beneath Janos Audron's Retreat ("Janos7").
 * the bottom northern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air13") to the green stone head chamber ("Air 14")
 * The bottom north-northeastern scaling wall leads up to a Reaver sealed door and a small chamber ("Air21") leading to the Blue heart puzzle room ("Air11")
 * the bottom east-southeastern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air15") to the red stone head chamber ("Air 16")
 * The bottom south-southeastern scaling wall leads up to a Light sealed door and a small chamber ("Air22") leading to the Green heart puzzle room ("Air6")
 * the bottom southwestern opening leads down a wide curving passage ("Air17") to the blue stone head chamber ("Air 18")
 * The bottom western scaling wall leads up to a Dark sealed door and a small chamber ("Air4") leading to the Red heart puzzle room ("Air8")

Background
Like the other Reaver forges of Soul Reaver 2, the air forge was based upon distinct architectural elements from real-world ancient temples The Air Forge is inspired by the real-world architectural design of temples in pre-Columbian south and central America. Mayan, Inca and Aztec influences are often noted by fans and design documents specifically mention "Pre-Colombian Central-American iconography" and "Mayan motifs" (though some doorways were intended to have Hindu architectural features). The Air forge consequently has many design elements and features associated with Mesoamerican culture and architecture. These include: prominent step and pyramid designs, arched doorways, pictograph/hieroglyphic writing (Ancient runes), carved 'tenon' stone heads and skulls, oversize Stele carvings and apparent sacrificial practices - many of the design elements were inspired by, and in some cases directly copied from, real world Mesoamerican designs. The forge also features several associated animal designs: The feline heads atop the forge are identified as "Panthers" in the Prima guide, a term which can apply to lions, tigers, leopards, cougars and jaguars; and refers exclusively to the Jaguar in Central and South America - which was a symbol of power and strength in Mesoamerican cultures. Several snake and dragon-like depictions are seen throughout the forge (including several Ouroboros symbols), including a prominent serpent design coiled around the core pillar at the center of the forge (a design strikingly similar to Moebius's Staff) - this sculpture was originally intended to bear wings, perhaps referencing another mesoamerican deity, the Feathered serpent.

Detailed documents relating to the design and implementation of the Air Forge were uncovered in Casto Vocal's portfolio by Divine Shadow in 2010, revealing that though the forge itself had maintained a largely consistent layout through development, several features had been changed drastically. Original plans include the main snake core having stained-glass and feathered wings and the items collected being weapons used to execute imprisoned vampires through different color-coded methods (incineration, decapitation and impalement). A similar puzzle would later feature in Vorador's Mansion in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, with Raziel collecting three weapons (the Heart Seeker, Blood Drinker and Soul Stealer) and using them to impale Hylden gargoyles to allow passage to the Water Forge. The Air Forge was also one of the first playable sections of Soul Reaver 2 completed - initially the area was finished for the cancelled Dreamcast version before the title was moved to the Playstation 2,  and on the newer platform the level would be released to the public as it was made available through a playable playstation 2 demo. Several features were changed between this and the retail version, with different enemies, combat HUD, Reaver effects and a strikingly different night sky above the forge with a much larger moon which is visibly altered by Spectral Realm effects.

Art Director Daniel Cabuco also elaborated further on the background and purpose of the Air Forge:

Cabuco's comments revealed that the forge was conceived as a place where the Ancient vampires sacrificed their enemies (and later themselves) by feeding their souls to the Elder God; with the heads (and the unspecified deity referred to in the development documents) representing the Elder and the three hearts representing the lifeforms of Nosgoth - The Red heart (in the Dark chamber) represents flesh and the Material Realm, the Blue heart (in the neutral/material soul reaver chamber) represents Spectral entities and the Spectral Realm, and the Green heart (in the Light chamber) represents the Hylden and Demon Realm. Design documents suggest that this aspect was changed during development and in early designs the three items were weapons representative of execution methods. Much like Moebius's Staff, the large snake sculpture in the Air Forge was acknowledged to disable the hearts of Vampires, enabling them to be extracted.

Appearances

 * Soul Reaver 2