The second timeline was created when Kain assassinated William the Just in his Stronghold during the history preceding Blood Omen. Moebius had propelled William and Kain together – coercing Kain to travel back in history and assassinate William – but ensured first that both were armed with an incarnation of the Soul Reaver. The Reaver convergence enabled a paradox to be created, a temporal distortion powerful enough to derail history.[Blood Omen/10][Soul Reaver 2/5]
Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights did not provide official names for the timelines explored in the series. This timeline is the only one to be specifically labeled by either developer – in the bonus materials version of "Historical Timeline", it is referred to as the "Altered Historical Timeline." However, because that document only reflects events up to the beginning of Soul Reaver 2, it does not refer to any historical timelines and paradoxes beyond the assassination of William the Just.[Soul Reaver 2] "Second timeline" is unofficial terminology original to the Legacy of Kain Wiki, used for ease of reference.