User blog:Baziel/Winter Is Coming

Welcome back. Okay, first and most obviously you may have noticed a change on the front page and my usually humble update blog has taken centre stage on the main Legacy of Kain Wiki front page. Let me reassure you that this is nothing more than a temporary measure as the front page is redesigned - normal service will be resumed in a little while.

So now summer has faded and winter is fast drawing in what has been happening in the world of Legacy of Kain and the wiki? The short answer is it's been busy and we can always use extra hands to click 'edit' and add to stub articles.

In August Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver reached its 15th Anniversary, several sites put up extra content to celebrate the occasion; including a new HD Raziel sculpture from HD artist the Hylden and a retrospective from SR1 master Raina Audron. Suitably Aevum made a short retrospective of his own on the title at the Square Enix forums, linked the other developments and released a set of previously rare interviews to celebrate - click here for the low-down. In other news Denis Dyack has broken his silence on LoK and spoke about it and his attitudes towards the series in an interview here.

In terms of wiki-work, there has been so much going on it's hard to adequately summarise. As you can see, there is some major redesign work currently in progress on the front page, but a number of other areas have had additions, expansions and changes of their own. For starters there is a new Category for Narrative influences, containing stubs for acknowledged real world inspirations and themes of the series. Our Sources category has also had several additions and updates as we endeavour to preserve old material. Our History categories have also had a major rearrangement, with Eras, Timelines, Paradoxes, Events and Factions all becoming sub to the main History category and with Events in particular overhauled and having many new additions including the Summoning of the Guardians, the Affliction of the blood curse, the Age of the Sarafan, the Assassination of William the Just, the Seduction of the Circle and Raziel's detour. In a similar manner, the Soul Reaver chapters are also currently in the midst of a transition with the new titles more accurately reflecting the way the official guide reflects the information; accordingly, the new chapter pages are at Chapter 1: Vampire Scourge, Chapter 2: Underworld, Chapter 3: Raziel's Clan Territory, Chapter 4: Necropolis, Chapter 5: Soul Reaver, Chapter 6: The Silenced Cathedral, Chapter 7: Tomb of Sarafan, Chapter 8: The Drowned Abbey, Chapter 9: Ruined City of the Dumahim, Chapter 10: Oracle's Cave and Chapter 11: Showdown With Kain. Content from the old chapters will soon be migrated across to the new titles.

Other wiki additions mean the addition of new content and completion of pages, so you will now find complete sets of images for Soul Reaver 2 maps and some rather interesting and enlightening images for Soul Reaver 2 pre-release screenshots. On top of this the pages for the Time Guardian (recurring term), Chapter 2: Decision at the Pillars (SR2 chapter), Checkpoints (recurring terms), Combat barriers (recurring term) and everyone's favourite recurring objects- Blocks - have all been referenced and concluded.

Moving onto that Nosgoth thing - one incredibly important change has taken place with respect to how it is treated on the wiki. With Nosgoth undergoing beta testing it has become apparent that certain content is subject to rapid changes which cannot be adequately related by our small team, thus we have made the decision that until the end of the closed beta period at least the wiki will no longer be focusing on these pages until we have things have settled down a bit and we have a bit more breathing space to assess where everything fits. Accordingly the Nosgoth related pages and excerpts have been temporarily relocated to a behind the scenes namespace at Legacy of Kain Wiki:Nosgoth/ (so "Nosgoth (game)" has become "Legacy of Kain Wiki:Nosgoth/Nosgoth (game)" - this may still be viewed and edited by all visitors but will not show up on main namespace page links or be directly related to articles on the main site for the time being.

In terms of Nosgoth updates, there have been several major developments in the game and background - with some prompting new pages in the wiki (albeit ones now moved to the "Legacy of Kain Wiki:Nosgoth/" space). First off the Fane map was added to the map rotation to a quite positive reception due to many Lok fan friendly touches, and a new trailer announced a "winter" open beta release date (which could technically be upto February 2015). Along with a slew of new abilities and new executions, recent open and bonus events, recent blogs have also revealed the next class - the Melchahim Summoners and the next map the Turelim clan territory Crucible. So new articles related inducted as a result of these developments include: the maps the Fane and the Crucible; locations the Erebus Mountains, Tartarus and Eumenides; abilities Infect, Eldritch Guard and Immolation; executions Curbstomp, Disembowel, Frenzied Maul, Head Slam, Impale, Psychotic Assault, Throat Rip and Winged Death; term the Ghouls and named characters Tychard, Jehoel, Lailah and Sarakiel.

As always, if you can lend a hand - even if it's to the "Legacy of Kain Wiki:Nosgoth/" pages then you are more than welcome to do so. Happy editing and Vae Wiktus Baziel (talk) 15:57, November 13, 2014 (UTC)