Soul Reaver



''Time fades even legend and the origin of Soul Reaver has been lost long ago. But its purpose remains; to feed on the souls of any creature it strikes. Kindred, this blade and I.''

-Kain

The Reaver also known as The (Blood) Reaver (later the Soul Reaver)is a weapon in the Legacy of Kain series. It is a flamberge-class sword approximately 50" (127 cm) in length with a broad, serpentine blade forged from unknown materials (perhaps bone, carbon, or iron). It is a physical weapon which can drain victims' blood.

It later absorbs the wraith Raziel, a reaper/reaver of souls. Trapped within the blade, they become one, the blade has Raziel's soul hunger and the sword was renamed the Soul Reaver. Through most of the series, the sword has the ability to devour the souls of its victims and its physical manifestation's power can only be quelled by an artifact known as The Nexus Stone, while it's energy manifestation (the Wraith-blade) in the Material Realm can be suppressed by Moebius' staff although the effects of both are only temporary. It plays a key role throughout the series, serving as far more than just a weapon for Kain and later/earlier Raziel.

Forging
The Reaver was first forged by the Vampire Vorador (although at the time of the forging Vorador was human because as a reward he was turned by Janos Audron) some time after the end of the war between the Ancients and the Hylden, at the behest of Janos Audron. After its forging, Janos endowed the Reaver with the power to drain its victims of their blood, as well as to transform using the energies of the elemental fonts. At that point, the sword was informally known as the "Blood Reaver."

After the end of the war and the raising of the pillars, the Reaver was given to Janos Audron for protection. Centuries later, Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Zephon and Melchiah of the Sarafan Order stormed Janos' Retreat, murdered Janos and stole the Reaver. The wraith Raziel, who had traveled back in time from the future and spoken with Janos, sought to avenge Janos by chasing the Sarafan down, reclaiming the Reaver and killing the Sarafan, including his human self. During the events of Defiance the wraith Raziel was then drawn into the blade, transforming it into a soul-devouring weapon. Hereafter the blade was known as the Soul Reaver.

In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the fledgling Kain finds the Reaver for the first time in the depths of Avernus Cathedral, place there by the future Kain in Defiance for his younger self to find. In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the Reaver is a two-handed weapon. Kain cannot cast spells while wielding it, and though the sword instantly kills enemies when fully charged, it drains Kain's magical energy, and is only as powerful as his Iron Sword when his magical energy is fully depleted. During this game, Kain fights and kills William the Just (the Nemesis of Nosgoth), who also possesses an incarnation of the Soul Reaver as arranged by Moebius.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Kain shatters the blade over Raziel therefore returning the blade to its true state, a Wraith-blade. Intentionally, the blade was destroyed because of a paradox, as it cannot devour its own soul, Raziel's soul. During the events of the game, the blade can only manifest in the Material Plane when Raziel's health is full and it will maintain his health unless he is injured, where the blade will then retreat to the Spectral Plane. In order to retrieve the Reaver, Raziel would have to shift planes and then be at full health to use the portals or just feed on some spiritual energy (from a willing or defenseless human). Also in Soul Reaver 1 the wraith blade can be endowed with the element of fire after earning the 'swimming' ability and finding the enhancement within Rahab's territory.

n Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 the wraith form of Soul Reaver meets with it's old physical form (this incarnation belonged to King William the Just and was broken in the battle with Kain) in the Sarafan Stronghold, almost killing Raziel while leeching his lifeforce to repair it's other half. Throughout the game, the blade acts directly opposite to what it did in the previous game. It basically drags Raziel around as he imbues it within ruined forges and will drain his energy if he uses it for extensive amounts of time in battle. When the blade's power is nullified by Moebius, Raziel uses the Blood Reaver to kill the Sarafan Order, including his human self. Afterward, the wraith blade, which had acted as his symbiotic weapon enters the Blood Reaver and then impales him, absorbing his soul and bringing to the light the truth of how the paradox in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver occurred when the sword shattered. The soul devouring creature within the wraith blade had always been Raziel, he was destined to be tied to a loop; however Kain saved him from the reaver, and while it did send him into the Spectral Realm, he at least survived. In all games, regardless of health the Spectral Reaver is always available for Raziel in the Spectral Plane.

In Legacy of Kain: Defiance Kain still possesses the Blood Reaver that he had pulled out of Raziel. During his search throughout Nosgoth for the answers to his destiny and the whereabouts of Raziel, Kain collects the four pieces of the Balance Emblem to augment the sword's powers. The Balance Emblem consists of the blade itself along with the Flame fragment, Dimension fragment, Lightning Fragment, and Time fragment.

As Kain searches for augmentations for his version of the blade, Raziel also advances his own wraith version by entering the spiritual forges of the Ancient Vampire Guardians. The primary reason the Blood Reaver was forged, was for their messiah to "baptize" it with the elemental properties attuned between the Pillar principles. Except for the Light and Dark forges (as these two elements were not attuned to any Pillar), each of the elemental forges were guarded by the original vampire guardians. The guardians had absorbed and divided the energies of the Air, Water, Earth and Fire forges within their own souls. And by devouring theirs soul, recycling them in the Wheel of Fate, Raziel was able to reclaim each of the elemental principles for the wraith-blade. Where as in Soul Reaver 2, he was only able to keep enhancement for a limited period of time (needing elemental fonts to re-imbue the blade), by the time of Defiance the wraith-blade had evolved enough to be able to retain those same elemental enhancements permenently.

The final augmentation of the wraith blade was found at the forge locked deep within the ancient Vampire Citadel where all 6 acquired elements of the sword were required to open the means of imbuing the final transformation. Where as the other elemental forges had their energies guarded by only the original Pillar guardians, the Spirit Forge was operated by every balance guardian that came before Kain. The pillar of Balance had dispersed the "spirit" element into each Balance guardian it summoned. Thus by having the wraith-blade devour them all, and recycling them into the Wheel of Fate, and reclaiming the "spirit" element in each of them, the Reaver was now forged with "spirit", and thus the Spirit Reaver was born. Interestingly, Ariel called this the "final baptism of the blade", for this final purpose is what the balance guardians were called for, and through Raziel they gained the freedom they sought.

Raziel discovers later the blade is capable of purifying the sights of others, allowing Moebius to see the Elder God before devouring him. Fulfilling his fate, Raziel allowed himself to be absorbed into the Blood Reaver to create the Soul Reaver, while his future-self, the newly created Spirit Reaver was dispersed into Kain, and thus the true Scion of Balance was born.

Used by
 * Raziel - (Original/Kain)
 * Kain - (Original, Stolen by The Sarafan Lord then reclaimed)
 * The Sarafan/Hylden Lord - (Kain)
 * William the Just - (Moebius the Time Streamer)
 * Janos Audron - (when Guardian)

Balance Emblem
The Balance Emblem are 5 pieces of a device used by Kain to enhance the physical Reaver. These are not permenent enhancements, nor are they equitable to the elemental enhancements made by Raziel.
 * Balance Emblem - A blast that damages surrounding enemies and strengthens its wielder
 * Flame - Deals Fire Damage to attacked foes and causes its enemies to attack each other (also enhance Kain's own pyrokinesis)
 * Dimension - allows the wielder to move at the speed of light and make clones of themselves. Also allows the wielder to disperse damage done to one of the enemies in the area.
 * Lightning - allows its wielder to manipulate lightning
 * Time - all enemies are slowed down drastically

Reaver Elemental Enhancements
While it is likely these provide all sorts of elemental abilities to their wielder, only the ones demonstrated in the games will be listed.
 * Spectral Reaver (the natural form of the Reaver manifested in the spectral realm)
 * Material Reaver (the natural form of the Reaver manifested in the material realm)
 * Light Reaver (blinds enemies, operates crystal oriented devices)
 * Dark Reaver (makes Raziel invisible, can create matter from darkness)
 * Fire Reaver (burns enemies)
 * Air Reaver (launches shockwave)
 * Water Reaver (can turn water into ice and vice-versa)


 * Earth Reaver (grants Raziel control over his own weight, used to create earth brigdes)


 * Spirit Reaver (the only Reaver attuned to the Balance element, can also manifest in the spectral realm)

Trivia

 * The Soul Reaver in Blood Omen:Legacy of Kain depletes Kain's Magic Energy and is only effective when Kain has an appropriate amount of Magic Energy. In later games The Soul Reaver's dependence on 'magic' is dropped, though this may be because Magic Energy itself is not seen again in the series. Arguably Defiance 's Reaver Spells and Charged Attacks can be seen as developments of this concept.
 * In Blood Omen, the Soul Reaver makes a distinctive 'screaming' sound. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver gave the Wraith Blade a Light Saber-like 'Swoosh' sound effect (perhaps as homage to the Star Wars Franchise). Throughout Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance the tone and pitch of the 'swoosh' varied with the various Elemental Reavers .When Raziel finally acquires the Spirit Reaver in Defiance, the sound effect has graduated to once again become a 'scream' reminiscent of the sound effect in Blood Omen.
 * In Blood Omen 2, the player can access The Soul Reaver along with Kain's Iron Armor from the original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain by inputting a cheat code on the title screen. Simon Templeman 's voice (Kain) confirms correct entry by yelling saying "Go, Cheese!" Upon starting a new game, Kain possesses the Soul Reaver and the Iron Armor (also visible in the first cut scene at the intro which glazes over the events directly after Kain's defeat of Mortanius and the Dark Entity where he chose to destroy the Pillar of Balance). The Soul Reaver is immensely powerful in this game, allowing Kain to easily defeat all non-boss enemies with approximately three slashes. Although Kain is unable to drop the blade in these circumstances, the Reaver is unbreakable, enabling Kain to block incoming attacks without the player worrying about the sword breaking.
 * In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Raziel sees three futuristic Visions in the Oracle's Caves beneath The Chronoplast . While there are differences, these events do play out in the next instalments. (see Chronoplast Visions and Original Soul Reaver Storyline for more details)


 * The Soul Reaver is also available in the video game Tomb Raider: Legend . The weapon is available through a cheat code only accessible after 100% completion of the game.