These spectral foes latch onto Raziel when they attack, siphoning his energy through a spirit-tether. Raziel must counter-attack or retreat to escape being completely drained.
Archons are the spectral envoys of the Elder God. These highly intelligent hunters swim through the currents of the Spectral Plane in search of souls to devour for the God they are symbiotically connected to (much like Raziel). The Archon’s appearance and movement are highly cephalopod and crustacean in design. Their more predominant features include a large gaping maw, which they use with sinister aggressiveness to devour souls and an alien bioluminescent glow, which plays along their sinuous form during feeding.
They look like sharks and like Raziel, eat souls to replenish their energies. If Raziel continued to lose his sentience, he claimed he would degrade into such creature.
"The Reaper Archon is the smaller of the two types of Archons. They are built more for speed and quickness than strength and prefer to attack while floating along the spectral currents they effortlessly swim through."[Defiance strategy guide] When defeated, Reaper archons fizzle and disappear entirely with a bloodcurdling scream.
The Dreadnaughts are the bulky ones suited for more ground combat and will attack Raziel and the Sluagh on the ground. The are immune to Raziel's telekinetic attacks while the reapers are not immune. These ones are built for strength and tend to knock Raziel a bit of distance when they attack, forcing Raziel to hit them to break their Soul Siphon-stream. When defeated, Dreadnaught Archons break apart and melt into a puddle of bright blue liquid.
The term "archon" come from the ancient greek world and means "ruler" where magistrates were typically given the title. However the word has a deeper meaning in Gnosticism (which inspired Legacy of Kain) where it relates to "demonic entities subordinate to the embodiment of evil". Among some belief systems they prevent souls leaving the Material Realm.
The term "reaper" relates to an implement (originally scythe-like) that is used to gather grains at harvest-time. Imagery associated with this is often associated with death as in the case of the Grim Reaper - the personification of death and harvester of souls.
The Draining Leash ability of the archons is actually listed slightly differently for the two archon variants in the official guide. The Reaper archons variant is listed as "Draining Leash", while the Dreadnaught variant is listed as "Energy Draining Leash" - the similarity of the attack is noted however and the only difference referenced is the tendency of the dreadnaught archons to use it as a follow up to their Projectile Hold attack. Visually and in gameplay terms the two leash attacks seem to be virtually identical.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Like other Spectral fauna, the archons are only found where they are required as enemies. Attempts to enter the Spectral Realm in Kain's chapters through Debug menus or the like will include few Spectral effects and no Spectral enemies - although this could be because the Elder God deems them unnecessary for the time period.
In terms of gameplay the archons are something of a successor to the Vampire wraiths in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and the Greater sluagh seen in Soul Reaver 2 as the highest predators of the Spectral Realm in each title. Each of these enemies is notably only seen in the one title and cannot be seen elsewhere and the reasons for the absence in other areas/time periods unknown.
Although it is only explicitly listed as an ability in Defiance, the Draining Leash ability bears a remarkable resemblance to the unnamed ability used by Spectral entities such as Vampire wraiths, Revived vampires and the revived Dumah to drain Raziel's health in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - both are used by species and individuals that have adapted to the Spectral Realm and learnt to consume souls or soul energy, both require an initial wound to be opened, both consist of a similar blue/purple band and both form a 'leash' of sort that can be broken by distance or damage. Arguably Draining Leash may be considered to be the same ability with updated visuals. Another ability that is highly related is Constricting, which again uses a similar spectral band and may have been directly developed from the vampire wraith ability.[Defiance][Soul Reaver]
