Greater thralls

Greater Thralls were a Thrall variant enemy featured in Soul Reaver 2. They were powerful Undead who guarded Nosgoth's ancient shrines and appeared in all of Soul Reaver 2's eras.

Role
Greater Thralls were the strongest of the Thrall variant enemies seen in Soul Reaver 2. As with other thrall variants, Greater Thralls were undead warriors, re-animated and tasked with eternally protecting the sacred places of the Ancient vampires against intrusion, rising from underground to confront Raziel as he approached. Visually Greater Thralls were large green-skinned, heavily decaying humanoids that wore a dark grey and red armor and chainmail, as well as a distinctive helmet design.

In combat, Greater thralls were the strongest of the Thrall variant enemies, able to deal more damage and defend themselves better than lesser thrall enemies, but slower and easily sidestepped. Greater Thralls often led other Swordsmen thralls and Sorcerer thralls in battles, but the lesser thrall troops would retreat if the senior Greater thrall was defeated. Greater thralls were armed with Scimitars and usually either a Reflector or Emblem Key which they used as 'shields'. Once defeated, Raziel could recover these 'shield' items and use them to open emblem doors and solve forge puzzles.

Because of their role, Greater Thralls were only seen in the shrines and forges sacred to the Ancient Vampires. They were first encountered in the Light Forge in the Pre-Blood Omen era and were seen carrying the golden Reflectors which were necessary to complete the Light Forge puzzle (by reflecting light beams around the forge). Greater Thralls would again be encountered in the Air Forge in the Post-Blood Omen era, where they would be seen with the blue air symbol-shaped air forge Emblem keys, which were used to open special Emblem doors. Greater thralls would be encountered for the final time in the Sarafan era inside the Inner sanctum of Janos Audron's Retreat, where they were one of the few enemies encountered inside the retreat; on this occasion they were unaccompanied and held one of several red Emblem keys, once again needed to open special emblem doors through the retreat.