The Female Vampire was a minor cut character originally planned to have featured in Soul Reaver 2. The cutscene featuring her was removed and she is never mentioned or referenced ingame, rendering her status in the Legacy of Kain continuity dubious.
During the development of Soul Reaver 2, there was some debate among the crew about how to portray the Vampires in earlier eras, prior to the rise of Kain's progeny and his empire in the events of Soul Reaver. Early designs had featured a cinematic in the history preceding Blood Omen at the Shrine in which Raziel observed an unnamed Female vampire being attacked and killed by a group of Vampire hunters who then proceeded to attack Raziel. The cinematic was removed after it was felt that it did not fit in well with the rest of the game, turning audience sympathies too quickly and dialogue from the cutscene was also deemed imperfect.[1][2][3][4][5]
Though the sequence was removed, both the audio of the cinematic and the character model of the Female Vampire remain in the files of Soul Reaver 2 and can be extracted through various means.[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/Cut content] The Female Vampire model can also be viewed in-game and her (inactive) model is hidden behind the walls shortly after the top Shrine bridge, before the first turn towards the Pillars entrance area. The simplest method to view the vampire was by standing up against the left wall shortly after the first banner and aiming a forcebolt or other projectile directly at the wall before panning right to the main trail to the pillars - this caused the camera to pass through the wall and reveal the vampire at the edge of the screen. Closer views could be gained through the use of cheats codes allowing flying, or the free-camera manipulation of trainers.[Soul Reaver 2][6]
In 2021 the exposure of the Soul Reaver 2 beta made the cutscenes featuring the female vampire available to the public for the first time. Here she was initially encountered along the path leading away from the lake where she would be accompanied by a male vampire (untextured in the beta) who voiced his suspicions of Raziel before the pair retreated. As he progressed to the gate outside the pillars Raziel would then find the female vampire alone and pinned down by a pair of vampire hunters who executed her before turning on Raziel.[7]
Beyond her appearance, little is known of the history or personality of the Female Vampire: she was given no back-story, her dialogue consists of only two lines cursing her assailants, and she remained unnamed during the production of Soul Reaver 2.[Soul Reaver 2][4][Soul Reaver 2/Cut content] As the cutscene featuring her was removed and she is never mentioned or referenced in-game, her status in the Legacy of Kain continuity is dubious.
One method of exposing the Female Vampire in game
1/7
Notes[]
Though no name has yet been given for Female Vampire, she is referred to as "Bvampf" in game files and was referred to as "BeforeVampF" on Kory Heinzen's former portfolio.[Soul Reaver 2][4] Perhaps because of this designation, the female vampire is sometimes known on fan-sites and forums as "Betty".[8]
Commenting on the usage of the Shrine in 2012, Daniel Cabuco commented: "The Vamp Hunters claim the area for Moebius, and execute vampires there. We had a cinematic along those lines, but we had to cut it for time.",[5] tying the location to the removed cutscene featuring the murder of the unnamed female vampire at the hands of the vampire hunters - previously Chris Bruno had mentioned that the scene took place "right before the double doors to the Pilars [sic] in the first time zone" but did not explicitly relate it to the Shrine construction in the area.[4]
After the cinematic involving the Female Vampire was removed, some of the crew attempted to introduce a similar cinematic in a Vampire village above the Swamp. This sequence also ended up cut for similar reasons, and in the final release of Soul Reaver 2Janos Audron and Vorador were the only members of previous vampire generations seen alive.[Soul Reaver 2][1][3]
The Soul Reaver 2 beta revealed that all four had apparently made it into earlier versions of the game. The male vampire is untextured in the beta but this vampire presumably represents the same individual seen in concepts with the female vampire. The other vampire pair are encountered in the Swamp in Nosgoth's early history.[7]
Concept art of the Female Vampire by Kory Heinzen can be seen in the Bonus materials of Soul Reaver 2, alongside concept art of three other unused vampire concepts (two male and one female). In this image the female vampire appears similarly attired to her character model though there are subtle differences, and she additionally wears a gold choker around her neck and gold-hooped earrings. All of the vampire designs in the bonus materials were placed in the 'enemies' section.[Soul Reaver 2][3]
Gallery[]
Female Vampire model
A long-shot of the Female Vampire in-game
The Female Vampire in SR2 concept art by Kory Heinzen