Sarafan inquisitors

Sarafan inquisitors
Enemies article
Sarafan inquisitors in Defiance.
Introduced in	Legacy of Kain: Defiance (2003)
Appearance(s)	Defiance

This article is about the Sarafan spell-casters encountered in Defiance. For the similarly named highly-ranked 'boss' characters encountered in Soul Reaver 2, see Sarafan commanders.

Sarafan Inquisitors, sometimes known as Sarafan Spell Casters or Sarafan Mages, were a Sarafan variant enemy class that were encountered by Kain in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. They were notable for their use of magic to defend themselves and enhance their allies, which made them dangerous foes. They were seen predominantly in Kain's early chapters at the Sarafan Stronghold and the Pillars.

Profile

Sarafan Inquisitors were the spell casters of the Sarafan faction, encountered by Kain in Nosgoth's early history at the start of Defiance. The inquisitors had a uniform which consisted of metallic armor with yellow clothing underneath and they had their heads covered with the same cloth.^{[Defiance][Defiance/3][Defiance/5][Defiance strategy guide]}

They were armed with wrist mounted blades that they could use in close combat - however their preferred tactic was to remain at a distance and utilise several magic attacks, including Holy Projectiles (a "mortar like burst" ranged attack) and Radial Blast. Sarafan Inquisitors also frequently used their magic to enhance their allies using three spells: Heal, Amplify Damage and Berserk Shield - for this reason they were the highest priority in combat and should be targeted before the other Sarafan enemy classes.^{[Defiance][Defiance/3][Defiance/5][Defiance strategy guide]}

The inquisitors were first encountered in the third chapter of Defiance Pursue Moebius as Kain explored the Sarafan Stronghold of Nosgoth in Nosgoth's early history and were encountered again in the fifth chapter Reveal the Guardian Citadel as Kain explored the The Pillars in the same era.^{[Defiance][Defiance/3][Defiance/5][Defiance strategy guide]}

Abilities

• Heal
• Amplify Damage
• Berserk Shield
• Holy Projectiles
• "Holy Projectiles"

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Like other spell-casters the abilities of the Sarafan Inquisitors are notably used to empower and buff allies - giving other Sarafan units more potency and arguably making themselves a higher priority in combat. Spells used to power-up other Sarafan allies include:

• Heal/Regeneration - The caster summons a yellow spell which heals one ally, allowing them to recover from damage inflicted.^{[Defiance][Defiance manual][Defiance strategy guide]}
• Amplify Damage - The caster a red spell which manifests around the weapon of an ally and allows them to cause more damage when attacking.^{[Defiance][Defiance manual][Defiance strategy guide]}
• Berserk Shield - the caster summons a green/red cloud like spell which allows an ally to "attack furiously" and not react to pain (although they will still take damage).^{[Defiance][Defiance manual][Defiance strategy guide]}

The Inquisitors also have some defensive abilities of their own, but these are rarely referred to in the same way as the ally buffs.

• "Holy Projectiles" - a blast of mortar-like projectiles which arc through the air and home towards the target and cause damage.^{[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]}
• Radial Blast - a sudden shockwave that knocks the target back.^{[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]}

Notes

• Sarafan Inquisitors are not named in game. They are however titled as such in Legacy of Kain: Defiance: Prima's Official Strategy Guide where they are classified and grouped along with other Sarafan enemy types.^{[Defiance strategy guide]} Manuals do not refer to the specific class, but do label a subset of enemies titled as "Spell Casters" and identifies their spells and abilities - this sub-class apparently includes the Sarafan Inquisitors along with the Vampire hunter sorceresses, Cenobite summoners and a number of other magically attacking enemies such as Revenants and Statues.^{[Defiance manual]} The Inquisitors are labelled as "sarafancaster" in game files.^[Defiance]
  • The title "inquisitor" originates in the real world as an official in charge of an Inquisition: these were a system of institutions within the Catholic Church which aimed to combat heresy and religious dissent, often through forceful means.
  • The abilities of the Sarafan Inquisitor class are somewhat inconsistently named and identified between the manual and the official guide. The guide notes the main ally abilities as "Heal", "Amplify Damage" and "Berserk Shield", while also noting the "Holy Projectiles" and "Radial Blast" abilities in its summary. The Manual - which is notably less detailed and only features abilities under a general section on spell casters - treats these differently: It notes the Sarafan use of Amplify Damage, but calls Heal "Regeneration" and calls Berserk Shield simply "Berserk" while implicating it as the same Berserker Rage used by Hylden revenants. Most notably the manual says the Sarafan Inquisitor class is able to use "Glyph Shields" - although this ability is seen used by other spell caster classes it is not used by the Inquisitor class in the final game.^{[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide][Defiance manual]}
• The Sarafan Inquisitor rank in Defiance is something of a puzzle: the rank bears the same name as the high-ranking Sarafan commanders seen at the climax of Soul Reaver 2 (Sarafan Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah, Turel, Raziel and Malek), but the Defiance rank is clearly distinct from this, focusing on magic as opposed to skilled combat and with the Defiance Inquisitors behavior much closer to the Sarafan Warrior Sorceresses of Soul Reaver 2. Like many of the Defiance Sarafan ranks, the design and role of the Inquisitor Sarafan ultimately does not match with the roles seen previous in Nosgoth's early history in Soul Reaver 2. Developer comments revealed that much of Kain's Defiance journey in Nosgoth's early history actually takes place 'some years' after the conclusion of Soul Reaver 2 and the ranks and organisation of the Sarafan may have changed in the interim.^[Defiance]

• Many of Defiance Sarafan units bear similar color schemes to the former Sarafan commanders.^{[Defiance][Defiance/1][Defiance/3][Defiance/5]} The uniform of the Sarafan Inquisitors is a similar color to those worn by the Sarafan lieutenant Melchiah - who wore similarly mustard-yellow clothing underneath his armor.^{[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/8][Soul Reaver 2/9]} It is possible these colors were intended as a deliberate callback or the Sarafan using the martyred lieutenants as inspiration.^{[Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/8][Soul Reaver 2/9]} Melchiah's yellow shade was also used for the Melchahim banners in the events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver^{[Soul Reaver][Soul Reaver/2][Soul Reaver/4][Soul Reaver/5][Soul Reaver/6]}
  • The cloth covering the heads of the Sarafan Inquisitors may indicate that they are bald, a look that may have been inspired by the Sarafan Warrior Sorceresses and Sarafan Inquisitor Melchiah - who was bald and shared the yellow color scheme. Their wrist blades also resemble those used by Sarafan commander Raziel to eviscerate Janos Audron, but on both wrists.^{[Defiance][Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/7][Soul Reaver 2/9][Soul Reaver 2/Epilogue]}
• Along with the other Sarafan designs in Defiance the Inquisitors were designed with influences from the diverse sources such as Japanese martial arts and the Crusades. A Sarafan crusader artwork on Daniel Cabuco's website bore this accompanying annotation which provided some background to the Defiance Sarafan design:

" For Defiance we added Aikido style pants and color coding for the Sarafan.
It supposed to be a few years after SR2, so I evolved the armor from Roman to Crusader style armor"

―Daniel Cabuco

Gallery

Sarafan Inquisitor

Inquisitor

A Sarafan Inquisitor

A Sarafan Inquisitor firing holy projectiles at Raziel

Holy Projectiles

Heal

Berserk Shield

Amplify Damage

See also

This article is about the Sarafan spell-casters encountered in Defiance. For similarly named highly-ranked 'boss' characters encountered in Soul Reaver 2, see Sarafan commanders.

• Sarafan
• Sarafan crusaders
• Sarafan archers (Defiance)
• Sarafan zealots
• Sarafan templars
• Sarafan sorceresses
• Sarafan commanders
• Vampire hunter sorceresses
• Cenobite summoners