There is a magical operation of maximum importance: the initiation of a new aeon. When it becomes necessary to utter a word, the whole planet must be bathed in blood.
KAIN
Look at you...
KAIN
...self-proclaimed protectors of man.
KRAK!
KAIN
You can't even save yourselves.
KAIN
We each play the part fate has written for us.
KAIN
We are compelled ineluctably down pre-ordained paths.
KAIN
Free will is an illusion.
KAIN
Your destinies have been foretold. Your fate is inescapable.
KAIN
The order of the Sarafan has been killing my kind for ages. Do you truly believe you can succeed where so many of your brethren have failed?
KAIN
You will join countless others before you and accept my greatest gift.
KAIN
Death.
KAIN
Blood. The eternal hunger of my kind. But how different can my own dark heart be?
KAIN V.O.
I am Kain.
KAIN V.O.
I am the last Guardian – the only survivor of the Circle of Nine.
KAIN V.O.
At my whim the world will be healed... or damned.
KAIN V.O.
With each step I take into the future my choices in the past gain in importance.
KAIN V.O.
But will my actions be enough?
KAIN V.O.
Enough to ensure I take my rightful place as ruler of this world?
KAIN V.O.
I am the Guardian of Balance.
KAIN V.O.
I hold the future of Nosgoth in my hands.
KAIN V.O.
But my journey has been long.
KAIN V.O.
The opportunity for mistakes littered along the way.
KAIN V.O.
How far I have travelled since the beginning.
KAIN V.O.
Throughout recorded history, two races struggled for control of my world. The ancient Vampires' battle with the Hylden continued for centuries.
KAIN V.O.
In the end, the Vampires were triumphant, but the victory came with a terrible cost. The Hylden had cursed my race with sterility, and a never-ending thirst for blood.
KAIN V.O.
The Vampires banished their enemies from Nosgoth, and the Pillars would stand to ensure that the Hylden never returned.
KAIN V.O.
Each Pillar had a Guardian, a Vampire personification of the Pillars' strength, called the Circle of Nine.
KAIN V.O.
The Vampires' world changed as we lost the ability to reproduce. Never again would a true Vampire be born. The balance of power began to shift.
KAIN V.O.
When a Guardian dies, the Pillars choose a successor from the moment of birth. With no more Vampire births, it fell to the humans to serve as Guardians.
KAIN V.O.
It was only a matter of centuries before the humans had complete control of the Pillars. With this control came a new sense of self-worth.
KAIN V.O.
The order of the Sarafan was created as the cattle attempted to control their own destiny. The humans had turned on their masters.
KAIN V.O.
Thus began the Vampire Purge, and they slaughtered us by the hundreds.
KAIN V.O.
There is no wrath as terrible as that of the righteous.
KAIN V.O.
The Sarafan's holy war continued, almost bringing about the extinction of my race. Murdering all they encountered, including the last true Vampire.
KAIN V.O.
Janos Audron, reputed to be the most ancient and powerful of vampires, had his still-beating heart torn from his chest...
KAIN V.O.
...a heart supposedly imbued with the power to restore vampiric unlife. It was hidden away by the Sarafan, to prevent it from falling into vampire hands.
KAIN V.O.
It was a dark time. The die had been cast and the future of Nosgoth stood at the brink of destruction.
KAIN V.O.
My own story is unique in this world. I was born a human of noble blood. Although I did not know it then, I was also born the Guardian of Balance.
KAIN V.O.
As I walked out on that cold night, I had no idea that my fate was about to be sealed.
KAIN V.O.
A plan had been set in motion by the Necromancer Mortanius. The chance for his atonement lie in orchestrating my murder and resurrection as a vampire.
KAIN V.O.
He alone knew the importance of my creation – the need for a creature powerful enough to restore Balance to Nosgoth.
KAIN V.O.
Centuries ago, under the possession of a great evil, Mortanius had committed an act that threatened the very existence of our world.
KAIN V.O.
Mortanius had murdered the Balance Guardian, Ariel, and set forth a dangerous turn of events.
KAIN V.O.
Ariel's death led her lover, Nupraptor, to insanity. A disease that he spread to his fellow Guardians through the connection they shared.
KAIN V.O.
This madness was the reason for my resurrection. I was to cleanse this sickness from our world and restore the Pillars.
KAIN V.O.
It was then that I learned the true nature of my fate. The madness had driven the decay deep within the Pillars.
KAIN V.O.
The decay was so deep that only the death of all nine Guardians would restore the Pillars completely. My own death as the Balance Guardian would be required to restore Nosgoth, but with it a terrible cost.
KAIN V.O.
I was the last vampire, and my death would also mean the extinction of my race, which was a natural part of this world's order.
KAIN V.O.
The choices remained: kill myself and restore the Pillars to full strength, while making extinct a race that this world would need to survive...
KAIN V.O.
...or continue my existence and let Nosgoth suffer while I restored the natural order.
KAIN V.O.
I made the only choice I could. The vampires would rule again, with me was their rightful king.
KAIN V.O.
And so my reign began. I was secure in the knowledge that with enough information I could devise a plan to bend the fates to my whim.
KAIN V.O.
Using the time-streaming devices of the treacherous sorcerer Moebius, I travelled through time, exploring all periods of Nosgoth.
KAIN V.O.
It was in these travels that I discovered my third choice – a solution for the future to ensure the world I wanted would come to pass.
KAIN V.O.
The first born of my lieutenants was Raziel, the key to my future.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel fulfilled his fate when I cast him into the Abyss, ensuring his destiny, re-birthed as a being like no other in the land.
KAIN V.O.
Only I knew the truth of the Soul Reaver. The truth that would be released when I struck Raziel with the sword.
KAIN V.O.
Later he would discover that terrible truth himself – that it is his very soul contained in the Soul Reaver blade. In a world where time means very little, his destiny was already written.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel fulfilled his role to perfection, as he set out to destroy his very brethren.
KAIN V.O.
Time had taken its toll on his brother vampires. They had become monstrous reflections of their own dark souls.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel took their power, as he took their lives, but even then he did not see his true destiny.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel was led back through history, using the time-streaming devices.
KAIN V.O.
In the past, forgotten in their vampiric transformation, my lieutenants had once been proud Sarafan heroes, the pride of the order.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel would kill these heroes, including the young human he once was. This act would allow me to resurrect them into the loyal vampires they would become.
KAIN V.O.
Time travel would ensure that the events in Raziel's life would come full circle, allowing him to play a part in his own vampiric creation.
KAIN V.O.
This set the stage for me to turn the most righteous vampire killers into the most ruthless vampires this world had ever seen.
KAIN V.O.
Herd to killer, feeding on the very society they had pledged to protect.
KAIN V.O.
Everyone he encountered since his re-birth had manipulated Raziel. Nothing is as it seems on Nosgoth.
KAIN V.O.
Even I, to a certain extent, had misled him, holding back information to ensure the proper course was taken.
KAIN V.O.
But everything had gone according to my plans. Even the others had unknowingly steered him down the path I had chosen.
KAIN V.O.
There I was, watching as Raziel fulfilled his fate and began to surrender his soul to the Reaver blade, as it was always meant to be.
KAIN V.O.
Everything was in motion. My moment had come – my one chance to control my own destiny, and re-direct fate.
KAIN V.O.
I pulled the Soul Reaver from him, mere moments before the bonding could be completed. But my plan failed. More than failed, it opened my eyes to the true threat to Nosgoth.
KAIN V.O.
With fate changed, I was flooded with new memories – memories of why the Pillars were built, and why they must never fall.
KAIN V.O.
Raziel means to resurrect Janos Audron, and that is something I have to stop. The Hylden, neglected in memory, had laid a trap and we walked right into it.
KAIN V.O.
Now I must find Raziel.
KAIN V.O.
When I stopped his soul from joining the blade, he slipped from this reality.
KAIN V.O.
Disappeared into a realm beyond my sight, a place that restores him, and ensures his survival.
KAIN V.O.
It is a place that I must someday discover for myself, for this land still has some secrets I have yet to learn.
KAIN V.O.
My only hope of finding him lies with the one person who plays with time as if it were a child's toy: Moebius.
KAIN
Well, cattle? Do you not wish to avenge the deaths of your fallen comrades?
KAIN
Come, let us finish this little distraction.
KAIN
There must be no further delay.
SARAFAN WARRIOR 1
Die, monster!
SARAFAN WARRIOR 1
Die! Die!
KAIN
I saw a glitter of hope in your eyes just then. Let me assure you, the outcome of this battle is not in question.
KAIN
But the time for games is over.
KAIN
The true battle lies ahead.
KAIN
Let your blood grant me the strength I need.
SARAFAN WARRIOR 2
ARRGGHHH!
KAIN V.O.
Given the choice, whether to rule a corrupt and failing empire or to challenge the fates for another throw, a better throw, against one's destiny, what is a king to do?
KAIN V.O.
But does one ever truly have a choice?
KAIN V.O.
One can only match, move by move, the machinations of fate, and thus defy the tyrannous stars.
