Sealed doors



Sealed Doors, also known as Sealed Barriers, Reaver Doors, Emblem Doors or Artifact Doors, were special doors featured throughout Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance that were marked with a particular symbol and prevented entry until the correct object or elemental Reaver was acquired.

Profile

 * Name: Sealed Doors
 * Category: recurring terms
 * Introduced: • Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)
 * Appearances:
 * Related Articles: Doors, Wraith Blade, Emblem keys, Category:Soul Reaver 2 wraith blades, Category:Defiance wraith blades, Category:Defiance items, Blessed barriers, Gates, Combat barriers

Role
Sealed doors broadly consisted of any door which was initially encountered as locked with the method of unlocking the door marked upon them by a symbol, silhouette or emblem representing the correct object or empowerment required to unlock them.

Two distinct version of sealed barriers were seen in the series depending upon the method used to unlock them. Reaver doors were the most obvious requiring the use of the Wraith Blade or a symbolized element to open. Another set of sealed doors required special artifacts to open and were symbolized by the shape of the artifact required.

Reaver Doors
Legacy of Kain: Defiance also featured sealed doors in a prominent position. Here the Reaver doors returned to a more unified design distinguished by mural symbols and colors. Raziel first encountered these sealed doors in the Cemetery in the chapter Find the Path to the Pillars where Raziel could gain entry to the Dark Forge, allowing him to open the way to Kain's Mausoleum and the Light forge in the Material Realm. Each of the 'entrance chambers' which contained the Warp gates to the elemental forges within the Vampire Citadel were locked with sealed doors, many with elemental variants of the locks. As before the locks were frequently used as puzzle elements, preventing entry until Raziel had gained the appropriate element.

Design
The designs of sealed doors are diverse and vary throughout the series, though several elements of the design can be said to be recurring and are often used in the design of the sealed doors, with similar types of doorway often sharing a similar appearance or similar ingredients:

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver the Reaver doors bear unique designs, but all are based on a similar theme, with two depictions of the Reaver blade (either crossed or parallel) and all notably featuring an obvious "keyhole" motif where the Wraith Blade was inserted. The designs around the keyhole were different however, with two barriers using a 'starburst' or 'explosion'-styled design one making use of four outward facing triangles, roughly resembling a flower and the coffin making use of a triangle surrounded by the burst, more resembling a traditional keyhole. The decorative designs and motif around the outside of the doors were different and unique for each doorway.

Soul Reaver 2 ' s Reaver doors were even more diverse, with designs for the barriers accompanied by widely varying artwork and symbolism. Some of the common features were however standardized, with a circular or circular and slit keyhole and a symbol for each of the elemental attunements - with a different standard symbol for doors requiring only the Wraith Blade itself.

Emblem doors also featured diverse artworks and opening mechanisms with common elements, with each door featuring a circular (albeit sometimes decorated) hole for the Emblem keys to fit into, while symbolic representation of the elemental symbols were also common.

The Reaver doors featured in Legacy of Kain: Defiance were even more uniform than their predecessors, with each represented as an arched double doorway with a circular design at the center of the door. Inside this were two circular motifs placed one above the other - the top circle contained the symbol of the wraith blade or appropriate elemental enhancement; while the bottom was effectively a large golden lock with a vertical slit for the Reaver to be used as a key, not unlike key-lock in real world door locks. Each design had unique subtle variations in color as did the particle effects emanating from the lock.

The locks associated with the Balance Emblem were similarly uniform with each consisting of a golden circular dial with an impression of the completed emblem on it and the required fragment to unlock the barrier missing from the design. The only exception to this was the final emblem lock on the 'inner sanctum' of the Vampire Citadel, which required the emblem to be completed and was thus decorated with a space for the full emblem backed by the same design as was featured on the pillars dais. The Emblem locks could be placed on a variety of objects, walls, gates and doorways, but most often they were found on the golden doorways of the Citadel which consisted of several decorated interlocking circles.

The artifact locks of Defiance were a lot more diverse and unique, with each one bearing several unique designs - the only unifying features for these doors the presence of a space for the appropriate artifact on or nearby the doorway and occasionally illustrations of the item itself.

Appearances

 * Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
 * Soul Reaver 2
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance