As vampire worshippers, the novitiates were among those humans who "adapted to the vampire menace by serving their tormentors and worshipping them as gods". They were considered "an insidious threat to the human population, since they [kidnapped] victims for Blood sacrifices. Considering no sacrifice too great, they [would] also gladly give their own blood, and lives, if necessary, to sustain their vampire masters".[Soul Reaver manual (US)] They, and the adepts, answered to the Priestess, and were adversarial to the vampire hunters operating from the Human Citadel.[Soul Reaver manual (US)][Soul Reaver comic] If Raziel had established an alliance with the vampire hunters, harming and killing novitiates and adepts would not break it.[Soul Reaver]
Novitiates considered Kain their god, and wielded "decorative but deadly staves" - Novitiate staffs.[Soul Reaver manual (US)][Soul Reaver/1] They wore flowing gray garbs with red trimmings, and face masks with a distinctive red circle surrounding the left eye. Raziel came upon them on his quest to destroy Kain, but only while traversing the Silenced Cathedral; they were servitors to the Zephonim residing in the long-derelict building.[Soul Reaver/7] Like adepts, they attacked Raziel on sight, in their "blind allegiance to their vampire masters".[Soul Reaver manual (US)] Though exceedingly weak in comparison to vampires, they were immune to the elemental powers of the Water and Sunlightglyphs.[Soul Reaver]
Behind the scenes[]
In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the vampire worshippers feature only in the Silenced Cathedral, a peculiarity considering that most other enemies appear in multiple regions.[Soul Reaver] The initial production design of the game warranted a larger role for the worshippers in the main storyline: after defeating Kain in the Chronoplast, Raziel would travel to the City and infiltrate its secret subterranean compound, the Undercity, which led to a Temple where the Priestess dwelled.[1][2][3][4][Soul Reaver/Cut content] Presumably, the novitiates - as her vampire-worshipping underlings - would have reappeared as enemies in this area. Due to time constraints, Crystal Dynamics cut this planned scenario (along with all other events following the Chronoplast encounter) in favor of a truncated ending, and the novitiates and adepts do not make appearances beyond the Cathedral.[5][6][7]
Though Raziel cannot pick up and use the staffs wielded by the novitiates in the final, retail version of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, pre-release screenshots indicate that he was able to wield them in early versions of the game.[8]
Notes[]
Though not officially clarified, the novitiates' title (which implies the state of being a novice) indicates that they were junior vampire worshippers relative to the adepts (whose name is an adjective indicating more experience).
Vampire Worshippers (Adepts, Novitiates and Feral Humans) at Dark Chronicle (by Ardeth Silvereni).
