Paradoxes

Much of the story behind Legacy of Kain involves the elements of destiny, fate and traveling through time and as a consequence, introduces many paradoxes. These paradoxes further add to the confusion, as each paradox that comes up throughout the games tends to actively re-write history and the course of past, present, and future events.

In general terms, a paradox ([ˈpærəˌdɒks], pl. paradoxes) signifies a contradictory statement that may nontheless be true. Paradoxes range from logic, to mathematics and economy, however the term used in Legacy of Kain series relates to what is known as a time paradox.

Time Paradox
A time paradox is an event or condition, caused by something a time traveler does while in the past, that is logically impossible based on the state of the universe in their original time. Time paradoxes are further subcategorized. Despite the fact that a paradox signifies an alteration in the course of history (also known as timeline corruption hypothesis), the games are also filled with what is known to be a predestination paradox.

The timeline corruption hypothesis assumes that any change in the timeline, even without personal interaction, while allowable, would cause a "butterfly effect" in the timeline. All history after the time the traveler visited would be affected by minute changes the traveler had made in the past, and the history, depending on how severe the time traveller's actions were, would sooner or later be completely changed. Evidently, Kain through his actions in Soul Reaver 2 attempts to re-shuffle the course of history by introducing paradoxes of his own.

A predestination paradox (also known as a casual loop or closed time loop) exists when a time traveller is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" or "predates" them to travel back in time. Because of the possibility of influencing the past while time traveling, one way of explaining why history does not change is by saying that whatever has happened must happen. A time traveler attempting to alter the past in this model, intentionally or not, would only be fulfilling their role in creating history as we know it, not changing it. Or that the time-traveler's personal knowledge of history already includes their future travels to their own experience of the past. A major example where predestination is evident is the Soul Reaver as well as Raziel, whose soul is contained inside; Raziel's soul must become part of the Reaver, despite the fact that it has been a part of the weapon the whole time.