Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun Q&A at the Legacy of Kain Wiki
- June 2020
- By an anonymous friend of the Legacy of Kain Wiki and an anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
- Transcribed by Aevum
In June 2020, a Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer answered questions from a friend and associate of the Legacy of Kain Wiki team. The questions and answers are exclusively published here. Both individuals' identities and some short sections have been withheld due to NDA-related concerns.
Many thanks to both individuals for their contribution.
Profile[]
Boaz was a human priest who worshipped the elder god, who believed that vampires - starting with Kain - defiled the concept of the wheel. He wasn't a big character - part of Gein's ability was to be able to commune with the souls of the dead, and boaz was one such soul.
Is that your wikisite? Totally happy to answer any questions you've got, if I can even remember the answers. ... Obviously don't tell anybody where they came from - no idea how long the NDA stands for, but square are dicks...
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Sam Barlow mentioned that the Elder God would've likely been recast, as Tony Jay (the original VO) passed away. Do you have any information expanding on potential VOs?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Never got that far into casting - we only cast people who were doing motion capture.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-There is mention of a "vampire child." How exactly did they figure into the plot?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
So there was a vampire emperor who took a female lover, and somehow she got pregnant. (The concept of the wheel, represented another way.) Their son was a vampire, Saul - who was incredibly old, incredibly wise, in the body of a child. He was kind of being set up as the bad guy for the next game - as he formed an alliance with the Elder God.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Were Raziel and Kain present, outside of the "skit" from the intro?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
We spoke about Kain being a mystery to solve. It's important to note: SquareEnix didn't want them at all. So we wanted to have a puzzle through the game leading to the discovery of Kain's presence, free of the wheel - what would that have him be? And then he could be used in further sequels. This wasn't a game without them, rather it was a game where the spectre of them hung over everything. But they weren't allowed to be protagonists or antagonists, this had to be for a new audience, so we did what we could.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-There is a cutscene that was leaked regarding the "succubus" and a pregnant character - what exactly was there significance?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Pregnant character was the mother of Saul, I've totally forgotten her name. The succubus was a tainted worshipper of hers, and a dungeon boss for the Temple of the Whore Saint dungeon.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-What was, ultimately, the reason that Gein and Asher became one?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Asher was bound to the wheel as well. So he got his wife pregnant, something that humans were unable to do - they were all dying due to infertility - and somehow, when Gein tried to eat his soul, his soul fought back...
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-I hear rumors that John Goodman was being given a role in this. Any info you can share on that, or any other big names that were attached to the project?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
No, he was being used as a reference for concept art - as was Andre Braugher. We would have loved him, obvs, but I think he wasn't considered - all the motion capture was done in the UK.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Were the Pillars to have any influence on this game? Were they still standing/functional?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
There was a quest planned to find them. They were there, but not functional.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Were there any strong connections to the original games besides the play scene? I remember it mentioned that higher-ups wanted this story to be fairly distant from the originals, but surely something must've carried over, yes?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
The spectral realm was the big one, and the story of the original was our (far) backstory. There were lots of nods - Asher first discovered the spectral realm when Gein was killed by being thrown into a lake, a la Raziel. And Kain - he would have been a major part of the series, just not in this game.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-There are large, floating creatures encountered in the vertical slice of Dead Sun leaked several years ago, when you first enter the Spectral Realm. Gein mentions the name, but the creature roars, obscuring his voice. Sounded like he says "ky'gee" or something. Any info about how to pronounce their names or their lore?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Not a clue, sorry.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Was [the succubus] planned to have multiple appearances?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Just the one, but it was a massive dungeon boss fight. So, the dungeons were massive, and the succubus fight was a major part of that one. You could swim in water tainted by blood, so the mechanic was to cause her to bleed, then move in her wake. It was really cool.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-I saw some airships in this - felt very Bioshock Infinite. What was the inspiration behind the technology of this game?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Just a bit industrial age. We wanted the vampires to have moved on - there was one dungeon planned that was a massive city - and airships - only powered by heat, not gas or anything - were one thing we liked them to have created. It was a mini-boss in the open world if memory serves.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-There is a scene where Gein and Asher find a large metal sphere - was this a representation of the Elder God by any chance? Any information about this would be great!
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Yes, there was lots of this. It was inside the Temple of the Whore Saint.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-The Silenced Cathedral from LoK is visible in concept art and (I think) the Wetlands area. What was the significance of it to be in this game?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Destroyed. It was part of the old times, and was then ruined.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-Were any of Kain's clans still around during this present time in the game? The vampires in the trailer (drinking from the blood pool) look like enemies from the cancelled Nosgoth game.
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
No, not really. And they were in Nosoght - as much as SE liked to pretend the game wasn't just our multiplayer, it absolutely was. They got our assets when DS was cancelled.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-In regards to the play, were the Elder God and the Sun equivalents, or was the sun perceived as an extension of the Wheel of Fate?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Sun was the wheel. And also literal: the sun existed once, way back, but the sky was blackened by the vampires.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-It seems as though more of the play was to be revealed - would it continue in the POV format, or would the play resume during a cutscene (as evidenced by the deceased actors)?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
It was part of the whole intro, which was walk the village, meet the people, watch the play, have a nice time, then Gein rocked up and killed everybody.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
-The blacklight style of storytelling seemed a fitting theme, as the sun is eclipsed in gameplay trailers. Is there reading/resources from which the concept for this game was inspired (e.g. how Soul Reaver was loosely based on Paradise Lost)?
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
Yes. Lots of vampire stuff - George R R Martin's Fevre Dream was one, Dan Simmons' Carrion Comfort - but also The History Of The Decline And Fall Of THe Roman Empire - that was what the vampire society was built on. So, short version, as best I can remember: Kain set the wheel free of himself but faked his death, and the vampires flourished without him. They established themselves as a society, and a thousand years passed, and then our game.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
...
―Legacy of Kain Wiki
... Also, all of this was massively unfinished. The play, in particular, those effects were all placeholder. Sam and I and most of the team loved the original games, we were trying very hard to both please the fans (us) and also the paymasters, who - I'm sorry to say, clearly didn't give a fuck about the series, but were trying to leverage a franchise.
―Anonymous Legacy of Kain: Dead Sun developer
