Sarafan (Blood Omen)

"Let us call upon the puppets from the past..."

―Moebius — Listen (file info)^[src]

Sarafan were a category of enemy in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The Sarafan were a monastic sect of warrior-priests who waged a holy war against the vampire race in Nosgoth's early history. Their crusade ceased centuries before the Blood Omen era, but some warriors returned as wraiths, or humans outside of the time-stream. Kain encountered them in Malek's Bastion and the Heaven dungeon.

Profile[]

"The towering metal structure gave birth to these wraiths. I could hazard only a guess at its function: fusing the souls of long dead warriors to their armor, so that they may do battle once again.
Life without blood. What a travesty!"

―Kain — Listen (file info)^[src]

The Sarafan were a class of enemies first appearing in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, with related classes of the same order appearing in subsequent games in the series. In Blood Omen the living members of the order in their proper historical context were only seen in the rendered intro cutscenes at the start of the game which recapped events of Nosgoth's early history, centuries before the main events of the game.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/1]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

By the time of the gameplay sections the Sarafan order was defunct and had been virtually extinct for a number of years - with Guardian of Conflict Malek openly acknowledged as the last of the Sarafan warrior priests. Despite this limitation the Sarafan could still be fought as enemies using a number of conceits.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

BO1-DD-TheFailureOfTheCircle-002 — The Sarafan warriors seen in the Blood Omen intro

The first Sarafan encountered were found in Malek's Bastion in the chapter The Hunt for Malek as Kain sought to confront Guardian of Conflict Malek. They were created by machinery which the Souls of long dead Sarafan warriors to suits of armor - allowing them to take material form and confront Kain in a manner much like that of Malek himself. In cut content Kain openly described this variant as "animate suits of armor".^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/4]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}

Later on in the story, Kain encountered further Sarafan warriors that were not created by machinery and were not in thrall to Malek - no explanation was given to the but their locations do give clues to their presumably intended explanations.^{[Blood Omen]}

In the chapter Defeat Azimuth Kain travelled to Avernus as he sought to battle Guardian of Dimension Azimuth and explored the many realms of Avernus Cathedral - traveling at one point to the Heaven realm, which contained much angelic and cloud imagery. Appearing to suggest it was literally a higher plane of existence where the souls of the honored dead resided. Here Sarafan warriors were notably the main enemies of the realm - with the suggestion perhaps being that they were dead Sarafan warriors that had made their way into heaven.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/8]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}

The final story related appearance of the Sarafan warriors was in the chapter The Vampire Purges as Kain battled Guardian of Time Moebius in his boss battle. Here Moebius explicitly summoned "puppets from the past" to battle Kain before a troop of Sarafan warriors appeared to confront Kain - it being implied that Moebius had used his time-related powers to snatch them from the era of Nosgoth's early history.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/11]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}

Sarafan warriors were seen in one other location, unrelated to the story as they could be found within the confines of the Lost City. The hidden nature of the lost city and its lack of concrete explanations means that there is ultimately no conclusive reason for them to have contained warriors of the long dead order - however the location notably contained an unusual collection of diverse enemies that would seem unrelated including werewolves, Demons, City guards, Will-o-Wisps, Skeletons, Shadows and Mages.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}

"Animate suits of Sarafan armor were all they were, spirits bound to metal and leather, clumsily going through the motions they were taught in life."

―Kain — Listen (file info)^[src]

Classes[]

A number of different Sarafan classes were seen throughout Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. Although their locations and the manner they were encountered could give some suggestions as to their origins, there were ultimately three discreet classes seen, most of which were seen across the different 'versions' of the order.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

char0022 (sword)[]

Sarafan Swordsmen, also known as Malek's Warriors (Katana) were one of the commonly encountered Sarafan soldier classes. They were introduced and exclusively featured in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where they appeared as Sarafan warriors dressed in silver armor with a gold trim backed by purple chainmail and with a silver helmet and greaves. Distinctively they were armed with long swords or katanas which they held by their sides and swung in a long wide arc when attacking.^{[Blood Omen]}^[1]

The class was initially found defending Malek's Bastion in the chapter The Hunt for Malek Later variants of the same class could be seen in the Heaven realm in the chapter Defeat Azimuth and in the Lost City - meaning they were likely seen as armor wraiths and Ghosts (enemy state). Like other spirit enemies, they bore Blue blood. ^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/4]}^{[Blood Omen/8]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

The class were modestly dangerous, but could prove quite a challenge when combined with the lack of available blood in Malek's Bastion. They had a decent endurance level (20 Health points), but a relatively weak Attack (10 points) which was boosted by its range and wide arc.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1] Successors to this class could be seen in later titles, with the Sarafan swordsmen of Soul Reaver 2 and the Sarafan crusaders and Sarafan templars of Legacy of Kain: Defiance all seemingly derived from the class.^{[Soul Reaver 2]}^[Defiance]

char0041 (knives)[]

Sarafan Knifemen also known as Malek's Warriors (Daggers) were one of the commonly encountered Sarafan soldier classes. They were introduced and exclusively featured in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where they appeared as Sarafan warriors dressed in silver armor with a gold trim backed by purple chainmail and with a silver helmet and greaves. Distinctively they were armed with a pair of daggers which they could use to attack quickly in combination attacks at short range.^{[Blood Omen]}^[1]

The class was initially found defending Malek's Bastion in the chapter The Hunt for Malek Later variants of the same class could be seen in the Heaven realm in the chapter Defeat Azimuth and in the Lost City - meaning they were likely seen as armor wraiths and Ghosts (enemy state). Like other spirit enemies, they bore Blue blood. ^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/4]}^{[Blood Omen/8]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

The class were modestly dangerous, but could prove quite a challenge when combined with the lack of available blood in Malek's Bastion. They had a decent endurance level (20 Health points), but a relatively weak Attack (10 points).^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1] Successors to this class could be seen in later titles, with the Sarafan zealots of Legacy of Kain: Defiance in particular seemingly derived from the class.^[Defiance]

char0042 (axes)[]

Sarafan Axemen also known as Malek's Warriors (Axes) were one of the commonly encountered Sarafan soldier classes. They were introduced and exclusively featured in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, where they appeared as Sarafan warriors dressed in silver armor with a gold trim backed by purple chainmail and with a silver helmet and greaves. Distinctively they were armed with a pair of axes which they could use to attack at medium range. ^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1]

The class was initially found defending Malek's Bastion in the chapter The Hunt for Malek Later variants of the same class could be seen summoned by Moebius in his boss battle boss battle in the chapter The Vampire Purges - meaning they were likely seen as armor wraiths and as enemies summoned from the past. Like other spirit enemies, they bore Blue blood. They were also seen in the Lost City.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen/4]}^{[Blood Omen/11]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}

The class were modestly dangerous, but could prove quite a challenge when combined with the lack of available blood in Malek's Bastion. They had a decent endurance level (20 Health points), but a relatively weak Attack (10 points).^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]}^[1] Successors to this class could be seen in later titles, with the Sarafan crusaders and Sarafan zealots of Legacy of Kain: Defiance in particular seemingly derived from the class.^[Defiance]

Behind the scenes[]

The design of the Sarafan classes seems to be derived from the design chosen for Malek the Paladin, with the same purple chainmail and armor combination. This design would go on to inspire the designs of the Sarafan enemy classes and the Sarafan commanders in Soul Reaver 2 before being updated slightly for the Sarafan enemy classes seen in Legacy of Kain: Defiance.^{[Blood Omen]}^{[Soul Reaver 2]}^[Defiance]^[2] Malek was explicitly described as the "last of the Sarafan sorcerer-priests" in dialogue which also implies that none of the classes seen in the game are truly 'living' humans.^{[Blood Omen]}

Notes[]

The Sarafan title is referenced throughout Blood Omen in dialogue.^{[Blood Omen]} The individual classes are generally referred to in the official strategy guide as "Malek's Warriors", although the terms "Armored warriors" and "Armored fighters" are used on occasion.^{[Blood Omen strategy guide]} Some developer assisted magazine previews refer to the warriors as "animated suits of armor" - specifically relating to those in Malek's Bastion.^[3] Internal classifications also refer to them as "minion", with the individual classes being labelled as "minion 1", "minion 2" and "minion 3".^{[Blood Omen]}