Kain's Mausoleum

Kain's Mausoleum is the crypt where Kain was buried after his human death in the Blood Omen era, and the place he awoke as a vampire shortly afterward. Situated within the Cemetery in southwestern Nosgoth, it appears as a playable location in Blood Omen and Legacy of Kain: Defiance.

Role
When Kain was murdered by brigands in the opening chapters of Blood Omen and was resurrected as a Vampire by Mortanius, Kain awoke in his family mausoleum four days later. The mausoleum served as something of the first 'dungeon' area and was where Kain found many of his most frequently used items, including the Iron Sword, Iron Armor and the Sanctuary Spell. He also gained his first Blood Vial, Rune triangles and the Heart of Darkness relic. This was also where he found his first 'Save altar'.

Through the use of the Sanctuary Spell, Kain could often return to his mausoleum, gaining a small health boost when he did - it was also well-equipped with human sacrifices, and relative safety (though there were many low level enemies, like grave robbers and skeletons.). When he left the Mausoleum he found himself in the Cemetery and recognized his first vampiric vulnerabitilies - to sunlight and rain. After passing through The Cemetery and several other Mausoleums, he able to begin his journey back to Ziegsturhl.



Kain's Mausoleum returned in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, where Raziel emerged from Elder's Lair into the Cemetery. Raziel initially passed through the structure without incident and - after gaining the Dark Reaver from a nearby chamber - he was able to bypass a pair of Guardian gargoyles and discover that he had entered Kain's Mausoleum, apparently shortly after the younger Kain's exit. Raziel investigated Kain's crypt and recovered Kain's Family Crest, using it to escape the tomb and ultimately reach a high vista that enabled him to breach the teleporter to the Light Forge.

Design, Layout and Comparisons
Kain's Mausoleum undergoes some radical changes between its Blood Omen and Defiance incarnations and with both seen in the Blood Omen era the changes are almost certainly due to artistic interpretation.

At a basic level the color scheme, environment and layout has changed between titles. With the area seen in Blood Omen featuring a much more angular, darker feel than the more rounded and traditional cemetery feel of Defiance. The map of the Blood Omen area is treated as a single map tile and features ten distinct rooms, with the Defiance area treating them as four different sub-areas of the main Cemetery level, with a number of inter-connecting corridors that could comprise of upto seven rooms. Although though some could be considered to represent the same rooms, each is radically different from its predecessor.
 * The main 'Entrance' chamber linking to the rest of the Cemetery is a set of three straight corridors in an upside down 'U' shape in Blood Omen with the eastern corridor notably wider than its fellows. In Defiance this is replaced with a large circular room with a broken tomb and corpse host in the center which has three entrances (a door and two barred windows) in the north, which leads to a small corridor heading west, where two Guardian gargoyles protect the doorway leading further into the mausoleum.
 * In Blood Omen the chambers following this consist of a large square pillared room with a spike pit in the center with a purple magic sphere, a room alongside containing a save altar and a rectangular room to the south which itself has two auxillary chambers to east and west, each populated with Chained humans and a power up (a Blood vial and a Rune triangle respectively. In Defiance these are replaced by a longer corridor leading to a barred doorway which opens onto a larger double height room with two large 'towers' which alter in the Spectral Realm. To the south a double sided ramp leads up to the crest sealed door which leads through another set of winding corridors to the upper vista above the Light forge megalith circle in the main Cemetery. To the north a high opening - accessible by jumping across the 'towers' - leads directly through to Kain's tomb. A doorway in the east also leads through to Kain's tomb through some auxiliary rooms.

Generally, The Mausoleum in Defiance is filled with small nods to the original Blood Omen; Kain's grave appears in similar fashion to its appearance in Blood Omen, with the lid opened from the inside; The Painting of human Kain grows small fangs in the Spectral Realm and is decorated with Furthark runes which translate as "Here Lies Kain". Further down the corridor, there is also a grate which appears to have been broken, presumably by the younger Kain's escape, and a large bust of the Human Kain.

A notable difference comes from the orientation of the Cemetery itself which is aligned north-south in Blood Omen, but is changed to a more diagonal tilt in Defiance. The Mausoleum still appears to be located in roughly the same position within the cemetery - the northwestern most building in the cemetery - but the building and all its rooms appear to have rotated.