Guardian Constructs were an enemy class encountered in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. The Constructs were classified along with Vampire golems in the Statues enemy grouping - originating as ordinary statues, reanimated by ancient vampire magic and tasked with protecting important artifacts or places from intruders.
The Guardian Constructs were a class of enemies encountered in Legacy of Kain: Defiance and were the more advanced of the Statues enemies classification. They were enchanted statue warriors devised by the Ancient vampires to defend their secrets against any unwanted visitors that would come to life when specified trigger conditions were met - such as a person entering a room, an object placed or removed, or a mechanism activated - and would attack until they were destroyed.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Kain battling Guardian Constructs in pre-release imagery
Kain battling Guardian Constructs in pre-release imagery
1/2
Like the Vampire golems the constructs visually appeared to be stone statues intended to resemble Ancient vampires and bearing many of the same physical features including feathered wings sprouting from their back tridactyl claws on their hands and feet. Compared to their golem counterparts they appeared to be much heavier and bulkier with more angular features. Instead of a tunic they wore a kind of armor, sported a crowned forehead, pointed ears and spiked shoulders. Some variants had red glowing eyes and had flames sprouting from their heads, shoulders and swords.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Like their Golem counterparts the Constructs usually moved quite slowly and attacked with a number of strike and lunging attacks, but they also frequently used special attacks for both defensive and offensive purposes:[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Fiery Shield - The primary defensive attack of the constructs was a shield made of Fire that protected the construct and burned any attackers. This was frequently used and only brief windows to counter attack were present.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Fireball - A slightly homing Fire-based projectile spat at the protagonist, generally signaled by the construct raising its arms together and lifting its sword upward.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
The Guardian Constructs are not directly named in game but they are however titled as such in the Legacy of Kain: Defiance: Prima's Official Strategy Guide where they are classified and grouped along with other statue enemy types which are similarly given the overarching title "Statues". Their "Fiery Shield" and "Fireball" abilities are also named as such in the official strategy guide. The Defiance manual also mentions the overarching Statues title as "animated Statues". Where they are mentioned in dialogue Kain refers to them simply as "statues" and stage directions in scripts similarly mention them as "large statues".[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide][Defiance manual]
The term "Construct" implies something that is created or made - and in many fantasy settings can refer to kinds of artificial lifeforms. "Guardian" meanwhile would imply the Ancient vampires or Pillar Guardians. Thus the name given to the class could well be taken to mean an artificial lifeform created by the ancient vampires.
Like the Vampire golems the Guardian Constructs also share multiple models with "Statue l" representing the class in game files (compared to "statue_s" for Vampire golems). The individual titles are "statue_l" (active) and "statues_l_spawn" (inactive).[Defiance]
When they were armed the Guardian Constructs wielded a distinctive broken sword-like weapon, labelled as "Statue_sword" in files.[Defiance]
Although they are not given much explanation in game, Guardian Constructs and the Statues enemy classification is given more background in the official guide where it is noted they were " merely normal statues [that] through vampiric magic have been animated for various purposes. Generally they are set as guardians of important places of [sic] objects."[Defiance strategy guide]. This along with their placement in vampire related locations like the Vampire Citadel would suggest that the golems and constructs were originally a creation of the Ancient vampires.[Defiance] In game they are something of a successor to the Thralls of Soul Reaver 2 except animated using inanimate matter rather than corpses and Undead.[Soul Reaver 2][Defiance]
Guardian constructs can be clearly seen in early promotional screenshots for Legacy of Kain: Defiance, although the shots used showed Kain in Vorador's Mansion - a situation which never occured in the retail game.[Defiance] A much more basic version of the statue classes - labelled as "golem" and appearing to be more in line with traditional 'golem' imagery - was depicted in Defiance concept art by artist Kory Heinzen.
