Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy

Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy was a canceled Legacy of Kain game – the planned sixth title in the series, and sequel to Legacy of Kain: Defiance. It entered development at Ritual Entertainment in 2004, with consultancy from Crystal Dynamics, but production ended for unknown reasons after three to six months of work. The project was never officially announced by publisher Eidos Interactive, but its existence has been acknowledged by Crystal Dynamics' Chris Bruno and Daniel Cabuco, and by several artists formerly employed at Ritual Entertainment.

Evidence of Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy's development was largely publicized by Legacy of Kain fan and community member, Divine Shadow, between 2008 and 2012, in the form of screenshots of Malek's Bastion in the Legacy of Kain: Defiance engine, and concept art of the pre-banishment Hylden. Kain was to feature as the main character in the game, much of which would take place in the Demon Realm, and would further the storyline surrounding the Hylden, the Hylden Lord, and Janos Audron. Targeted platforms included the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows.

Development
Little is known regarding the events the game would have entailed, although concept art by Ranjeet Singhal suggests that, similar to Legacy of Kain: Defiance, it may have involved parallel stories with the player switching between two incarnations of Kain in the fourth timeline: his younger, post-Blood Omen 2 self, and his elder, post-Defiance embodiment.

3D imagery by environment artist Jason Muck depicts screenshots of the Defiance engine, showcasing the elder Kain traversing a snowy fortress populated by animated suits of armor. A later update to his site confirmed that the locale in question was Malek's Bastion. His portfolio also features screenshots of a tech demo, set in an expansive castle-like structure. Further evidence uncovered by Divine Shadow in August 2011 suggested that several locations were linked to Malek's Bastion; including 'Malek's Bastion Base Tower', 'The Bridge', 'The Elevator', 'Malek's Bastion Boss Chamber' (related to a 'Statue Boss' in files) also present are two large puzzle locations 'The Soul Mine/Soul Machine' (possibly related to Malek's soul machinery in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain) and the 'Dragon Forge' (presumably a Reaver Forge-like puzzle with recurring images of Dragons).

A multitude of concept images by the Gaston Brothers, uncovered in 2010, depict various demons and male and female Hylden. The Hylden are markedly different from their portrayal in Blood Omen 2, most of them resembling their race's fairer forms from prior to the Binding. Some of the concepts have significant names; there are images named Hylden Warlords, Hylden King/Hylden Boss, and Demon Boss. Several images are annotated with the term "sisters", and one female Hylden image contains the comment "maybe the 3rd sister has wings".

Numerous further Ritual Entertainment portfolios were unearthed and presented by Divine Shadow in July 2010. Imagery of various Sarafan-stylised suits of armor was discovered in David Demaret's online portfolio. Each successive suit resembles the Hylden anatomy more closely. Richard Gray's site displays artwork resembling Ariel and Kain's Dire Wolf form.

In response to fan inquiries in 2012, Daniel Cabuco revealed some of the details of that were being considered for the title, commenting that the original idea was that "It dealt more with Kain going to the Hylen realm, and kicking the ever living sh*t out of them, the Hylden Lord and Janos [sic]". On the subject of playable characters Cabuco confirmed that they were deciding whether the post-Blood Omen 2 Kain would be playable, a sunlight-triggered disguise, or part of another dual-protagonist story with the Elder Kain in the demon-realm assisting his unknowing younger-self in the Material Realm - even going so far as to hint that Kain may have met his Blood Omen self in battle as part of one of Moebius's traps. Cabuco also explained that Ritual had proposed a way to summon Raziel from the Reaver, but "That was a proposal shot down by the Crystal delegation. The basic news [they] brought was that Soul Reaver was Raziel's story, and it ended with Defiance. After that it was all Kain.". Other characters included Vorador who might similarly have been 'summoned' and Janos, though his role and fate were undecided. Cabuco also hinted that The Dark Prophecy would have featured a retun to the Soul Reaver era.

Andez Gaston has posted at Nosgothic Realm, revealing that a script for the story had not been written at the time he created his artwork, and expressing his support for a new game in the future. The media discovered by fans has received coverage from online gaming sites, including Destructoid, Blue's News and ScrewAttack's Hard News (whose reporter demands "Now make it anyway, Eidos").

Credits

 * Story: Richard Lemarchand, Jennifer Fernández
 * Base level mechanics and art direction: Kyle Mannerberg, Daniel Cabuco
 * Senior 3D artist and Lead Artist: Stephane Gaudette
 * Art: Anderson Gaston, Andez Gaston, Aaron Hausmann, Isabelle Lemay, Jason Muck, Jason Sallenbach, Ranjeet Singhal