"These forges are tuned to the Soul Reaver’s energy. One you have baptized the sword in these elemental fonts, the blade may be imbued with that element at any future time."
The Stone Forge was a deleted elemental Reaver forge that was intended to feature in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The forge would have allowed Raziel to imbue the Wraith Blade with elemental Stone allowing him to forge the Stone Reaver. Both the forge and its accompanying enhancement were ultimately cut due to time constraints.
The Stone Forge was an optional playable location that was intended to make an appearance in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, and was one of many elemental Reaver forges that were supposed to make an appearance in the game. The forge was a special chamber associated with elemental Stone where Raziel would be able to imbue the Wraith Blade to forge the Stone Reaver enhancement. Due to the time constraints, all of the other forges were cut and only the Fire forge remained in the final version - with both the Stone Reaver and Stone forge removed.[Soul Reaver][1][2][3][4]
Behind the scenes[]
The Stone Forge was originally mentioned and featured in pre-release materials promoting Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver which discussed the planned enhancements for the game - although no imagery of the forge was present in these materials.[1][5][6][7]
Model of the Stone Forge that appears in the alphas
Despite records of its presence the release version of Soul Reaver contained only one of the elemental forges that had been discussed - the Fire Forge - with the others cut before release. The Stone Reaver enhancement itself is present in the Debug menus of the retail game and can be activated through various means, however in some versions it is misattributed as the Sunlight Reaver. The forge itself is not present in any capacity in the retail or beta versions of the game and the location of the forge was not definitively known until many years later.[Soul Reaver][8][1]
In 2020 alpha versions of the game containing much of the previously cut content were publicised and these contained and definitively identified the lost Stone Forge. In this version the Stone forge was revealed to have originally been positioned in the Ruined City of the Dumahim, in one of the rooms coming off the constrict object courtyard area beyond Dumah's throne room. Raziel needed to have the Constricting ability to open its door.[2][3][4][1]
The Stone Forge had the same layout as the other forges with one prolonged corridor and forge at the end, with decorated pillars on along both sides. The chamber was fully textured with the stone like textures and it contained a stone pedestal or anvil at its end illuminated by a shaft of weak sunlight. The forge is ultimately not able to imbue the Stone Reaver in the alpha versions and it is unclear how it was intended to function, but given the arrangement it is possible Raziel was intended to strike the stone with the Wraith Blade to obtain its power.[2][3][4][1]
The Stone Reaver is present in the alpha builds but needs to be manually activated and cannot be imbued from the forge. It was intended to be reimbued from "distinctive stones" and would have petrified enemies in one hit and shattered them with a second - neither mechanic is implemented in the alphas.[2][3][4][1][9][6]
Initially a generic explanation of all forges by the Elder God was intended to play when Raziel discovered his first forge, but upon deletion of the other forges this dialogue was tailored to be specific to the Fire Forge. The original voice recording is still present but unused in the files of some builds.[Soul Reaver]
"These forges are tuned to the Soul Reaver’s energy. One you have baptized the sword in these elemental fonts, the blade may be imbued with that element at any future time."
The Forge itself appears to keep much of the basic forge layout as seen in the other forges in the build, consisting of a long rectangular chamber with a curved end, adorned throughout with multiple pillars on both sides. Like the Sunlight Forge, the Stone Forge was noticeably darker than other forges and was shrouded in shadow, but a wide shallow channel could be distinguished running along the middle of the chamber towards the back of the room. At the curved end of the room, the channel ended in front of a circular stepped stone platform decorated by subtle line markings and at its center was a small raised plinth - possibly intended to be an anvil of some form as with the Stone Glyph Altar. The central plinth illuminated by a weak ray of sunlight from above and as with the rest of the Ruined City Snow could occasionally fall within.[2][3][4][1]
Inhabitants and collectibles[]
The Stone Reaver (cannot be forged or imbued in known builds): "Once Raziel has visited the Stone Forge and baptized the Reaver in the elemental altar, the blade has the potential to be imbued with stone wherever it appears in the environment. Once manifest in the material plane, the blade can be imbued with stone by striking it against objects made of the same distinctive stone. A single blow stuns the affected enemy, effectively paralyzing/petrifying it for a period of time. A second blow destorys the enemy, shattering it on impact. An enemy struck only once will eventually recover, breaking free from its petrified state. Other adjacent enemies (within a small radius) are affected by the shockwave of the second (destroying) blow and knocked into a stunned state."[6]
In game files the Stone Forge is labelled as part of its territory as "nightb7" - referencing its place within the territory of the Ruined City of the Dumahim, notably it also contains the object "mstone" which identifies the forge within. This room designation is notably absent from later builds where the forge has been removed and the chamber itself is replaced with a different room known as "nightb10" which contained a Eldritch energy recharge.[2][3][4][1][Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver/12][Soul Reaver/13]
The Stone Reaver cannot be imbued from the Stone Forge in the alpha builds. No cutscene or interaction with the forge is present and no change is made when attempted, even in Debug menus. This leaves it currently unclear how the forge was intended to function - though it is possible that as with the Stone Glyph Altar the raised platform may have been intended to be struck or otherwise used as an anvil.[2][3][4]
The role of the cut forges and elemental Reavers was intended to be much larger and better integrated with the rest of the game. Originally the Wraith Blade lacked a finishing move and Raziel was thus unable to kill vampires with just the basic version. Imbuing the Reaver with the various elements gave it deadly properties and enemies could then be killed just by striking them. Once the additional forges had been cut, the developers added the charging attack seen in the retail version which was capable of destroying enemies - and in the process removed the reliance on elemental imbuing.[2][3][4][8][10][Soul Reaver]
While later games moved to more traditional elements the concept of the Stone Reaver and Stone Forge could be considered to have loosely continued with the appearance of the "Earth Reaver" enhancements in the later games of the Soul Reaver arc of the series. Soul Reaver 2 was planned to feature an expansive Earth Forge Forge which was designed by the Ancient vampires and would have gifted a similar temporary Earth Reaver which could then be reimbued from specific Reaver fonts - ultimately it was quickly decided that there wasn't enough time in the schedule to complete them so the forge wasn't completed beyond the initial designs and both Reaver enhancement and forge ended up cut from the game. Legacy of Kain: Defiance finally debuted the concept, featuring a more generic and less unique Earth forge, again designed by the Ancient vampires but with simpler puzzle elements and a greater combat focus to gain its more permanent Earth Reaver.[Soul Reaver 2][11][12][13][Defiance]
The Stone Reaver (cannot be forged or imbued in known builds): "Once Raziel has visited the Stone Forge and baptized the Reaver in the elemental altar, the blade has the potential to be imbued with stone wherever it appears in the environment. Once manifest in the material plane, the blade can be imbued with stone by striking it against objects made of the same distinctive stone. A single blow stuns the affected enemy, effectively paralyzing/petrifying it for a period of time. A second blow destorys the enemy, shattering it on impact. An enemy struck only once will eventually recover, breaking free from its petrified state. Other adjacent enemies (within a small radius) are affected by the shockwave of the second (destroying) blow and knocked into a stunned state."[6]
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
