What became of Provance after the defeat of the vampire army was not divulged. However, the Hylden Lord and the Sarafan may have recaptured it: "the Sarafan seized control of all of Nosgoth" within the ensuing two hundred years.[Blood Omen 2/1]
Provance was known to have continued to exist into events of Soul Reaver and made its playable debut in Nosgoth in this time as one of the first playable areas. Background lore indicated that in the early Soul Reaver era as the Major human kingdoms fell, it was considered a "strategic prize" situated in a "defendable enclave" between mountains and rivers at the border of vampire-controlled land around the Pillars of Nosgoth and Nachtholm and the human cities further south. As Kain's empire moved to capture the southern cities, the residents and defenders of Provance were left cut-off with no supplies and with little choice but to abandon the town to the vampires. Initially the town was used to "process supplies and prisoners." and satiate the "hedonistic" appetites of the vampires on the front lines, but as time progressed it became increasingly isolated from Kain's court at the Pillars and was slowly deserted by the vampires too.
As the humans began to return in the shadow of the Vampire civil war in the mid-Soul Reaver era, they soon occupied Provance again, once more recognizing its strategic importance in defense of the settlements further south. No major battles were seen at Provance, however both sides waged a brutal guerrilla war to control the town and the land around it.
In the map, Provance lay on the southwestern edge of the Great Southern Lake. It sat south of the Pillars of Nosgoth, between Ziegsturhl and Meridian. It seemed that Provance was enclosed by a mountain chain to the east, the same chain bordering Meridian and the Sarafan Keep, and was shielded by several rivers that flowed from the Lake.[Blood Omen 2/1][1]
Provance dwarfed the nearby town of Ziegsturhl in terms of size, but, in turn, was dwarfed by the larger southern cities of Freeport and Meridian.[Blood Omen 2/1]
Behind the scenes[]
Provance and Freeport are both introduced in Blood Omen 2, but never actually seen, explored, or mentioned in that title beyond its image on the map in the game's introductory cinematic.[Blood Omen 2/1][1][2]
Provance, Freeport, Meridian, and most of the other locations in Nosgoth's southern regions were added to the lore of the Legacy of Kain series by the Blood Omen 2 development team, not the other Crystal Dynamics team led by Amy Hennig:[3][4][5]
"Mostly the locations themselves came from the needs of the design team. To create some fairly new locations that fit better with our needs in Blood Omen 2, we elected to move down the map of Nosgoth into some unexplored areas in the southern regions of Nosgoth."
In Nosgoth background story, Provance is noted to be "a stronghold against both the Vampires and marauding Human bandits who prey on the unwary" - perhaps hinting at the similar attacksobserved by Kain in the nearby Canyons in Blood Omen 2.
'Provance - Home to Raiders and Rebels' at the Nosgoth official blog(preserved at Tales of Nosgoth/Nosgothic Realm)
