Fire Forge (Soul Reaver 2)

The Fire Forge was an elemental Reaver forge encountered by Raziel in Soul Reaver 2. Created by the Ancient Vampires, the forge was located within Janos Audron's retreat and was the fourth and last forge encountered by Raziel in the game, only discovered after meeting with Janos in Nosgoth's early history. Completing the puzzle of the forge, Raziel was able to imbue the blade with elemental Fire, creating the Fire Reaver

Role
Raziel returned just in time to witness Janos's death, as his former Sarafan self tore the Heart of Darkness from Janos' chest and fled with the other inquisitors, taking the Reaver blade with them. Speaking with the dying Janos one last time, Raziel set off to avenge himself on his former brethren.

Design and Layout
Like the other elemental forges, The Fire Forge is illustrated on the World map simply as a Fire symbol and no effort is made to outline its area. In game, the forge appears to be high up and roughly in the center (or east-central area) of the retreat, however the maps shows it as slightly north of the area identified as Janos's retreat on maps - it appears that the area identified as the retreat is only by an outline of the externally visible areas (like the main facade) and does not include the internal areas of the retreat, most of which are north of the Fire Forge.

In contrast to the other forges in Soul Reaver 2, which were all large complicated buildings featuring many rooms, the Fire Forge was a much simpler area, with much of the action taking place in a single large chamber and minor adjoining rooms. An small arched corridor led north away from the Sealed door connecting to Janos's chambers (itself emblazoned with a Fire symbol and a depiction of the Reaver blade), reaching a small circular room decorated with several Fire symbols divided by red 'spokes' descending from the ceiling and containing a Fire Reaver font at its center (which was initially inactive). Progressing beyond this, the corridor headed northwest emerging on a high balcony above the main forge chamber which curved westward along the south end of the main chamber passing the main altar point of the forge - in front of a statue depicting a winged wraith Raziel armed with the Reaver blade - and led southwest into another small circular chamber decorated with Fire symbols and red spokes, this one containing a Save altar.

With the liquid initially at its lowest level Raziel was able to proceed to the low flaming cauldron at the north end of the room, where he could retrieve a torch from a nearby rack and light it from the cauldron. This caused red liquid to pour from the mouths of the gargoyles, temporarily half-filling the chamber and raising the square platforms into steps leading to the raised circular platform at the southern end where he could light the second cauldron - the torch would quickly be doused and the sequence reset if Raziel was not quick enough. Once the second cauldron ignited the next phase began, locking the liquid at its raised level and changing the heights of the pillars - making the air font descend under the liquid to ground-level, the light font become level with the water and the air plinths slightly raised. Imbuing the Light Reaver from the font Raziel could fire at Light Reaver bolt at the Light Crystal in the ceiling, temporarily draining the liquid and allowing Raziel to imbue the Air Reaver from the font. Swimming back up once the liquid returned, Raziel could jump to one of the Air plinth pillars and activate them, causing the plinths to issue Air updrafts and change heights - providing three 'steps' of updrafts leading up to the small northern balcony. Retrieving a torch from racks in alcoves beneath the southern balcony, Raziel could ignite the it from the second cauldron and use the updrafts to glide north up the middle of the forge to the small northern balcony and ignite the third cauldron. Once this was lit the room was completely filled with liquid and the four highest pillars descended revealing air plinths atop them, but all of the plinth pillars were quickly submerged leaving only the font pillars (with the Air font too high to reach). Utilizing the Light font, Raziel could again use the Light Crystal to make the liquid temporarily descend exposing the air plinths. Quickly igniting a torch from the third cauldron, Raziel could glide across the updrafts in a 'figure of eight' pattern (careful to avoid the liquid pouring from the gargoyles, which would douse the torch) and allow Raziel to reach the southern balcony and main altar point of the forge with a lit torch to power the forge enabling him to imbue the Fire Reaver. Once forged, the eyes of the Raziel statue glowed and its Reaver blade ignited with flame.

Connections
From the balcony overlooking the main forge.
 * The large chamber below and to the north is the main forge chamber ("Fire 1")
 * The southeast passage leads into a small room containing a save altar ("Fire1")
 * The southwest passage leads through a small corridor to a chamber containing a Fire font ("Fire2") and on through another corridor to the Sealed doors leading back to the retreat ("Fire3"). Beyond the doorway the passage emerges in the top-level northern balcony in Janos's chamber within Janos Audron's Retreat ("Janos7")

Appearances

 * Soul Reaver 2