World map

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The world map was a gameplay feature in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Soul Reaver 2. It assisted in navigation, offering Kain and Raziel an aerial view of the land of Nosgoth, and the landmarks most pertinent to their respective journeys.

Menu Selection
During his travels of Nosgoth as a fledgling in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Kain could call upon the world map for a bird's-eye view of the land. Initially, the map canvas was dim, but regions would become distinctly brighter as Kain explored them. Landmarks such as the Pillars of Nosgoth were identified by text. Usually, the landmark most salient to his current objectives was highlighted with a blue aura. Kain also utilized the world map when determining a destination for his Bat Form flight.

After Raziel traveled from the Soul Reaver era to the pre-Blood Omen era, he could similarly consult an overhead map of Nosgoth in Soul Reaver 2 using his ring menu. The world map co-existed on this interface with the ability to shift, and summon or sheathe the Wraith Blade. This variation also highlighted locations of immediate importance to Raziel, and symbolized Reaver forges with the appropriate elemental icons.

Paper Maps
A slightly different map of Nosgoth was also available, printed on paper and packaged with PC versions of Blood Omen and the Official strategy guide. Coming in a number of different sizes, the map extended slightly further and featured some minor changes from the menu selected world map, although it was largely consistent.

In-Game Maps
A number of other maps have appeared in game settings, though these were not selectable and generally appeared as part of environments or cutscenes - thus they were rarely revisited. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain featured the first of these maps, with two different views of the world - both slightly different from the in game maps - able to be found during the game. Blood Omen 2 also featured its own map of Nosgoth in a cutscene.

The first of these was discovered in Blood Omen in the chapter Defeat Azimuth as Kain explored the Heaven realm of Avernus Cathedral, where several of the floors were decorated with a mural depicitng Nosgoth as if viewed from the sky looking down - even complete with clouds. The map was generally consistent with the in-game and paper maps, although a lot of the world appeared somewhat squashed in comparison.

Another similar map could be found in Stranded in Time as Kain explored the Stronghold of William the Just within the Land of the Nemesis in the Pre-Blood Omen era. Here the map was found in a single chamber, apparently used by William or Moebius to plot the conquest of Nosgoth. The map here was very similar to the 'Heaven Realm' map - depicting an overhead view that was slightly squashed in comparison to the other world maps - although this map was significantly darker and with more 'rocky' than the green coloring on other maps. Several swords are also impaled into the map at important locatons including the Pillars, Stahlberg, Willendorf and the Elzevir's mansion - presumably these relate to Moebius and William's plans.

Blood Omen 2 also featured a map in gameplay, shown at the initial Prologue cutscene, where Kain and Vorador planned the conquest of Nosgoth by Kain's vampire army. The map featured here dealt mainly with south-western Nosgoth and expanded in that direction, introducing the settlements of Freeport, Provance and Meridian and included a new coastline and sea in the southwest.

Other maps
No maps exist for the world areas as seen in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Legacy of Kain: Defiance, although there are numerous fan depictions, attempting to marry the environments of various games to create definitive maps.

In Blood Omen, Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2, it is possible to extract the individual room maps from game files - and these could also be arranged to create maps of the areas, although this approach often highlights inconsistencies between the game and real-world geography, with several areas apparently clashing.

The début of Nosgoth saw a number of supplementary materials supplied through the official website that fleshed out the background of the land of Nosgoth in the mid-Soul Reaver era. Among these was a map of Nosgoth focussing on the southwest (much as Blood Omen 2 had done) - where its first four playable areas were based. Later updates also included overhead area maps in the style of those extracted from previous games.

Appearances

 * Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
 * Soul Reaver 2