Historical Timeline

Before Nosgoth's recorded history

 * thousands of years before Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The earliest events

 * The Land of Nosgoth. Before the dawn of recorded history, Nosgoth is ruled by two elder races, similar in power, but different in method and intention: the Vampires, and the Hylden.
 * The Vampires worship the Wheel of Fate, the cleansing agony of birth, death, and rebirth, the purifying rhythm of the universe – the cycle which sustains all life, to which all souls are irresistibly drawn, manipulated by the parasitic Elder God.

The vampire-Hylden war

 * The Hylden oppose the Vampires' tyrannous God, and refuse to submit to the Wheel of Fate. For this, the Vampires oppress their Hylden adversaries.
 * The races battle for dominance of Nosgoth in a great, apocalyptic war, which flames for a thousand years, and will destroy both victor and vanquished alike.

The genesis of the Pillars

 * In triumph, the Vampires banish the Hylden from the world with powerful magic, sealing them into another plane of existence, and raise the Pillars of Nosgoth as the lock that binds them.
 * The nine Pillars reach infinitely high into the skies, and deep into the earth (representing the principles of Mind, Dimension, Conflict, Nature, Energy, Time, States, Death, and – at the center of all of them binding them together – Balance), intrinsically and supernaturally tied to the spiritual and physical "health" of the Land.

The summoning of the Guardians

 * The Pillars stand like silent sentinels over Nosgoth, and will perpetually be represented by an oligarchy of sorcerer-guardians known as the Circle of Nine. With the appointment of nine Vampire Guardians, the original Circle – entrusted with the safekeeping of the Pillars, sworn to serve and protect the ancient edifice – is formed.
 * Each Guardian is marked from birth, chosen and summoned by the Pillar he is destined to serve for his lifetime. In return, the Guardians are granted longevity and extraordinary powers. The death of a Circle member is inevitably followed by the birth of a successor – the supernatural force behind the Pillars culls a replacement to fulfill that role, whom it is the responsibility of the remaining Guardians to seek out and apprentice into the Circle. The Guardians each represent the principle that their Pillar embodies, and the Balance Guardian is the axis of them all.

The affliction of the blood curse

 * In their defeat, the vanquished Hylden retaliate with a terrible curse as they fall – afflicting the Vampires not only with a blood-thirst that turns their once-noble race into ravenous predators of humankind, but with sterility as well.
 * With the Vampires' transformation comes their enemies' true revenge: immortality. Imprisoned in the flesh, the Vampires are expelled from the purifying cycle of death and rebirth, and cast from the Wheel of Fate. Plunged into torment and despair – unable to bear the separation from their god – many of the apostates are driven to madness and self-annihilation.

The forging of the Reaver

 * Two champions are prophesied – one destined to be Nosgoth's redeemer; the other, its destroyer. The Vampires' hero is destined to wield the mystical sword known as the Reaver, a holy weapon, for whom it will be forged. The Hylden foretell a messiah of their own, an adversary worthy of his powers, who will destroy the shackles of the Vampires' god, brandishing a fiery sword; two heroes locked in combat which only one will survive.
 * The era of Janos Audron begins – a creature reputed to have been the greatest Vampire that ever lived. Janos is the Tenth Guardian, the keeper of the Reaver. The blade is crafted by the Human, Vorador, at his behest.

The human revolt

 * As the Ancient Vampires begin to die out, the Pillars summon human Guardians to fulfill their roles. The Vampires adopt - and, when necessary, abduct - the human Guardians, and make Vampires of them when they come of age.
 * Moebius, the Guardian of Time, is introduced to the Elder God when he lives among the Vampires. A bloody revolt is orchestrated through Moebius by the Elder God. Led by Moebius, and Mortanius, the Guardian of Death, the humans rebel against their masters, refusing the curse and seizing the Pillars as their own.
 * Over time, the Ancient Vampires' bloodline trickles away, until Janos alone remains - sustained solely by obligation, his unfaltering faith in the old prophesies, and his guardianship of the Reaver blade.
 * Just as the origin of the Pillars is seemingly lost to history, the genesis of the Circle of Nine is also unknown. As long as the Pillars have existed, there has been a body of sorcerers sworn to protect them. Millennia pass.

Nosgoth's early history
over 500 years before Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The vampire purge

 * The formation of the Sarafan (a monastic order of warrior-priests, charged with the eradication of the vampires) by the Circle and the crusade to counter the "vampire menace." Malek, Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah command the armies.
 * The Vampire Purges. Thousands of vampires killed.
 * The Sarafan hunt down and destroy the vampires

The slaughter of the Circle

 * Raziel emerges from the Swamp time-streaming chamber into Nosgoth’s early history.
 * The death of Janos Audron. He is murdered, his heart torn "throbbing and bleeding" from his body.
 * Vorador takes his revenge upon the Circle. He infiltrates their stronghold and murders six of the sorcerers, before humiliating the Sarafan general Malek (the Pillar of Conflict) in combat.
 * Raziel himself slaughters the Sarafan commanders, and is his own murderer, and unearths how he thus becomes the catalyst not only of Kain's future empire, but of his own dark destiny.
 * Finally, he realizes how he is fated to become the ravenous spirit imprisoned in the Soul Reaver blade - that this is, and always has been, the hellish cycle of his destiny. The wraith blade, he finally understands, is his own soul, twinned and bound eternally to him.
 * Kain prevents the blade from consuming Raziel's soul, but Raziel, nearly obliterated by the Reaver, realizes that he can never escape this terrible destiny - Kain has merely postponed it.
 * The Pillars cull new successors

The age of the Sarafan

 * The necromancer Mortanius (one of the surviving Circle members, and the Pillar of Death) punishes Malek for his failure to protect the Circle, by fusing his soul into a magical suit of armor.
 * Vorador retreats from the world of human affairs, ensconcing himself in his remote mansion.
 * The Sarafan crusade ceases

The pre-Blood Omen era

 * roughly 50 years before Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The assassination of William the Just

 * Kain travels nearly 50 years into Nosgoth's past
 * Kain assassinates the young king William the Just, who will become the Nemesis

The seduction of the Circle

 * Azimuth, not content with summoning demonic thralls, steals a Time Streaming Device in order to gather creatures from other ages as well. Since Azimuth is the Dimension Guardian, she cannot pull creatures from other times - only from other places or dimensions. Through the use of the Time Streaming Device she possesses, Azimuth pulls Turel from the future back to the bowels of Avernus Cathedral.
 * Azimuth and Mortanius serve the Hylden, who they know as "Hash'ak'gik." They are seduced away from their service of the Pillars by the power they unearth beneath Avernus.
 * The necromancer Mortanius is possessed by the Hylden Lord - a leader among the Hylden, who has his own agenda. Their two wills struggle for dominance of Mortanius's body - at times Mortanius maintains a modicum of control; at other times the Hylden Lord manipulates him to do evil like a sinister puppeteer.


 * 30 years before Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The corruption of the Pillars

 * Upon emerging from the Chronoplast time portal, Raziel discovers he has been transported nearly two thousand years into Nosgoth’s past, to a time roughly 30 years before Kain’s resurrection as a vampire... but a decade after Kain’s own ill-fated journey into Nosgoth’s history, and his assassination of William the Just.
 * Ariel - the Pillar of Balance - is murdered, apparently at Mortanius' hands. It is actually (surprise!) Hash'ak'gik - in the guise of Mortanius - who assassinates Ariel.
 * Ariel's murder drives her beloved, Nupraptor (the Pillar of the Mind), insane with grief. In his agony, he unleashes a telepathic assault which ripples across the Land of Nosgoth, infecting the other members of the Circle (who are all symbiotically connected) with his madness.
 * With the infection of Nupraptor's madness, the Circle - who, as the "Protectors of Hope" are sworn to preserve the Land - are now poisoning the Land with the deranged sorcery.
 * The human Kain is born - the son of one of Nosgoth's most noble families. He is (unknowingly to him) marked from birth as Ariel's successor; it is his destiny to take her place as the Pillar of Balance.
 * The Pillars reflect their patrons' corruption, growing gray and corroded. For Nosgoth to be preserved, the infection must be completely eliminated. How to do this? The entire Circle of Nine, now wholly corrupted, must die so that the Pillars may cull new successors from the populace, and the Land may be healed with their purity.
 * Raziel and the Elder Kain travel over 100 years into Nosgoth's future.

The collapse of the Pillars

 * Mortanius orchestrates Kain's assassination - Mortanius is in control, for now; not Hash'ak'gik. In the village of Ziegsturhl, Kain is amubshed by brigands who murder him by impaling him with a sword.
 * Kain's body is interred in a crypt west of Ziegsturhl.
 * Kain awakens in the underworld, where Mortanius offers to revive him, so that Kain may take revenge upon his assassins. Kain, heedless of the cost, accepts the necromancer's offer. The catch: in order to rejoin the world of the living, Kain is reborn as a vampire.
 * Kain awakens, and begins his "unlife" as a vampire.
 * Kain finds his assassins and kills them, getting his revenge - but Mortanius drives him on to the Pillars, saying that the brigands were only the instruments of his murder, not the cause.
 * Kain visits the decaying Pillars for the first time, meets the spectre Ariel, and learns the nature of his quest. The Circle - the sorcerers poisoning Nosgoth - must be destroyed for the Land to be healed and the Pillars righted. Ariel promises him release (and peace) when the Balance is restored.
 * Following Ariel's direction, Kain hunts down and kills the Circle members one by one, returning the "tokens" of their service in order to heal each Pillar in turn. The mentalist Nuprator is Kain's first victim.
 * Kain confronts the immortal warrior Malek in his frozen, bleak stronghold, but Malek eludes him.
 * Kain meets the Oracle of Nosgoth, a reclusive soothsayer who holds court in the arctic caves.
 * The Oracle warns Kain of the legions of the Nemesis attacking from the north, of the bereaved King Ottmar of Willendorf, helpless to withstand their attack. He gives Kain some of Malek's history, including his defeat centuries ago at the hands of the vampire Vorador. Kain, intrigued, asks for more information about Vorador - the Oracle directs him to Vorador's mansion. The Oracle is in fact Moebius the Time Streamer, member of the Circle of Nine (representing the Pillar of Time). He uses the guise of the Oracle to influence pilgrims and orchestrate events.
 * Kain meets Vorador, Nosgoth's oldest vampire.
 * Vorador recounts the stories of the Sarafan purges, and his revenge upon the Circle and Malek.
 * Kain discovers a mysterious Time Streaming Device, planted by Moebius (the Pillar of Time).
 * Kain activates the Time Streaming Device, and is propelled nearly 50 years back in time.
 * Kain returns to present-day Nosgoth... and discovers that assassinating William 50 years ago triggered a renewed vampire purge.
 * Kain cleanses each of the pillars, leaving only Balance at the end.
 * Ariel appears and reveals to Kain that he is the Pillar of Balance, and that the only way the Pillars can be healed is for him to sacrifice himself to the Pillar. She presents him with the final, climactic decision - sacrifice himself to heal the world, or refuse the sacrifice and ensure the world's corruption. Kain chooses the latter path, deciding to rule the world in its damnation rather than commit himself to oblivion.

The post-Blood Omen era

 * over a century after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

Raziel's detour

 * As Raziel exits the time-streaming chamber, he realizes that Moebius has tricked him.
 * Raziel sees memorials commemorating Moebius’s murder at Kain’s hands, and the climax of the vampire purge – Vorador’s execution. As he works his way through the nightmare Stronghold, he encounters the spectre of Moebius, who has been dead for a century (killed by Kain).
 * Raziel enters the ruined Pillars clearing, and sees the devastation wrought by Kain’s fateful decision a century ago. In the gloom, he sees the spectre of Ariel drifting restlessly among the toppled Pillars.
 * Raziel revisits the subterranean Pillars grotto after having been propelled over a century into Nosgoth's ghastly future.
 * Raziel and the Elder Kain travel over 600 years into Nosgoth's past.

Vorador's resurrection

 * Vorador returns from the grave in unexplained circumstances.
 * Vorador creates a new race of Vampires, and from that race, Kain recruits his legions. Kain becomes the powerful commander of an army bent on ruling the Land of Nosgoth.


 * roughly 200 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The vampire-Sarafan war

 * The Hylden Lord uses his magic to draw other Hylden through, but has not yet the power to begin a full invasion. He requires an army, and humans to drain of energy. He learns of a legendary order whose purpose was to purge the world of Vampires long ago. He revives this order, and the Sarafan are born again.
 * In response to Kain's ascension to power, the revived Sarafan appear in the land. They are a group of militant and zealot humans led by the Hylden Lord. Determined to wipe out the Vampire scourge, the Sarafan clash with Kain's army over decades of blood-stained and internal conflict. Eventually, the war ends when the Sarafan triumphantly defeat Kain's army. In the final battle, the Hylden Lord defeats Kain in mortal combat, strips him of the Soul Reaver, and tosses him off a cliff into an abyss of apparent demise.


 * 400 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The death of the Hylden Lord

 * When Kain's torn body is found, it is revived and brought to the capital of Nosgoth, the city of Meridian. In the two centuries that Kain is dormant in hibernation, the Sarafan rise and take fascist control over most of Nosgoth. Far from the great empire they once embodied, the Vampires now exist only as a small resistance to the Sarafan, called the Cabal, in Meridian. It is into this resistance that Kain emerges and is now, by brotherhood and lust for vengeance, a part of. The ambition of the resistance is simple: slay the Hylden Lord, and the Sarafan Order will crumble.
 * Because the Sarafan have no knowledge of Kain's existence, he is the perfect agent to locate and kill the Hylden Lord. Kain agrees to help the Cabal for the time being, until which time he sees fit to follow his own agenda, and seek revenge at all cost.


 * roughly 500 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

The raising of the lieutenants

 * With intentional irony, Kain sets the ruined Pillars as the symbolic seat of his fledgling empire, with the unrestored Balance Pillar as the base of his throne. Kain establishes his empire by recruiting six lieutenants. Kain, raised by necromancy, cannot "turn" a vampire via the traditional blood gift. By breathing a small portion of his vampire soul into a corpse, he draws the corpse's soul back into the body - the corpse is then revived as a fledgling vampire. In an act of calculated blasphemy, Kain raids the ancient tomb of the six martyred Sarafan commanders. Their well-entombed corpses - though long dead - have been spared the corruption of the grave. Going from crypt to crypt, he breathes his revivifying gift into each of the dessicated Sarafan knights in turn. Thus he raises his six first-born vampiric "sons" to become the Lieutenants of his fledgling empire.
 * The Pillars, Kain ultimately realizes, were more than just a human edifice - the health of the Pillars was tied inextricably into the health of the land. With the Pillars left unrestored, corruption seeps slowly into the land like a poison, turning his empire into an irredeemable wasteland.

The holy war

 * Kain's empire grows. The six lieutenants recruit clans of their own, "turning" the corpses of their human victims to do their bidding.
 * The destruction of the major human Kingdoms is inevitable. Within a hundred years, humanity is thoroughly domesticated. Some feral humans remain scattered across the hinterlands, clinging to their hopeless holy war to rid Nosgoth of 'the vampire scourge'.


 * 1500 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

Raziel's execution

 * Over the centuries, each of the vampires undergoes a series of evolutionary adaptations. These evolutionary "growth spurts" are preceded by a near-hibernatory period of retreat, from which the vampire emerges transformed.
 * Raziel emerges from one of these evolutionary hibernations having grown wings. He returns to the Sanctuary of the Clans to present himself to Kain, and reveal his latest gift.

The vampire civil war

 * Not long after Kain casts Raziel into the Abyss, Kain disappears. Gone, in search of a way to restore Nosgoth to the world it was before, Kain leaves the land and his court in the hands of his Lieutenants. Riven by jealousy and conflicts, it is not long before the Vampire Clans began fighting amongst themselves.

The war for Nosgoth

 * With the Vampires focused on their internal squabbles, Nosgoth’s Human population seizes the chance to grow stronger. Cities are rebuilt, skills relearned and Humanity’s power recovers to the point where they can launch a devastating attack on their Vampire masters. This attack reunites the warring Vampire Clans in the face of a common enemy. Now, each race is pitted against the other.


 * 2500 years after Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain

Raziel's resurrection

 * Raziel is revived by the mysterious Elder God at the bottom of the Abyss and is reborn as a reaver of souls.
 * Raziel returns to reap the vampires' apostate souls and take his revenge on his vampire brethren and his creator, Kain.
 * Turel is summoned back in time, and used by the Hylden to command the Cenobites of Avernus, in order to further their final cause of toppling the Pillars.
 * Raziel confronts Kain within the ruins of the Pillars sanctuary; Kain attacks Raziel with the Soul Reaver, his ancient sword - the blade is destroyed on impact. Now a wraith blade, the Soul Reaver intertwines with Raziel and becomes his symbiotic weapon.
 * Raziel pursues Kain through Moebius's ancient Chronoplast time portal, and is plunged into Nosgoth's past.

The latest events

 * The Spirit Forge summons every Balance Guardian to itself. Ariel's spirit, united with the souls of her predecessors, is drawn back in time for the final baptism of the Wraith Blade.
 * Now armed for his true endeavor, the Scion of Balance is destined to return the Pillars to vampiric rule. The coin is still turning, and the Legacy of Kain continues...