As Raziel entered and explored the mansion he soon found an unusual chamber with a distinctive fountain at its heart. Above the fountain three Hylden gargoyles were positioned on the balcony, each channeling water into the pool below. Around the edges of the chamber several frescoes and murals were positioned depicting three Ancient Vampire champions impaling Hylden adversaries with unique spear weapons - with finding the three spears being a main objective to Raziel in that chapter.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide]
Exploring the Mansion, Raziel was forced to pass through the Flooded Crypt beneath the building where he discovered a distinctive sealed door marked with a mural of an ancient vampire with a skull face bearing a spear. The door itself was locked but a recess in the floor nearby and symbols on the door itself indicated that an artifact was required to unlock it. Soon after Raziel found and recovered the Heart Seeker spear from the Great Hall and the Blood Drinker spear from the Library and used those spears to impale the gargoyles in the fountain room - stopping the flow of water from them and turning murals relating to their heroes into Breakables.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide]
Nearby the Flooded Crypt Raziel could discover a cracked mural of the Heart Seeker champion at the bottom of the Tower of the mansion that led down to a distinctive room with four pillars inscribed with a number of elemental symbols along with a mural aligning several of the same symbols. Matching the symbols on the faces of the pillars with those on the mural caused a central dais to rise up to where Raziel could reach a higher ledge and recover the Silver crest piece above.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide]
The crest itself consisted of a silver grey circular disc with a crow or raven emblazoned on the face, looking to the left with its claws raised and tail curving around the lower edge of the disc. On the reverse of the front face the artifact featured a small cylindrical extension with patterned sides terminating in a smaller circular disc with a smaller version of the same crow design - presumably the piece was fashioned in this way to allow it to slot into the Gold Half of Vorador's Crest.[Defiance][Defiance/8]
The Silver Half of Vorador's crest is never named as such in game and few sources actually distinguish between itself and the Gold half. In the inventory it is titled as "Half of Vorador's Crest" The Prima official guide uses similar language calling it "the second half of Vorador's Crest" (with bold used for "Vorador's Crest") or "the first half of Vorador's Crest". Both sources use the same names for the Gold half, but the order used in the Prima guide means they specify the gold as the "first" half and the silver as the "second" - although this ordering is not necessarily true.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide] while the Prima official guide simply calls it "Vorador's Crest" - with both sources using the same names for the Gold half.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide]
The artifact is labelled in game files as "vd_key_b". A corresponding lock texture labelled as "vd_keylock_b" is included in textures but only includes a repeat of the artifact textures suggesting it was used for after the placement of the crest in its lock. Another duplicate artifact texture - possibly used for cutscenes - is present at "dupe_vd_key_b". The actual lock texture is counted as part of the background environment and is labelled as "vorador12a-0001" and "vorador_ruin12a-0001" in the regular and ruined versions of the mansion respectively. The silver crest is also featured as part of the completed crest on "chapeldoor" texture - a mural of a skull-faced female vampire armed with the Soul Stealer. Crow symbology and similar motifs are featured throughout Vorador's Mansion - one symbol "keytworoom-0001" closely matches the silver crest and is appropriately used to mark the barrier to be broken to reach the pillar room where the crest is gained.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance/12][Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance/12]
The Silver Half of the crest is gained in a room beneath Vorador's Mansion titled as the "Pillar Room" in the Prima Guide. The room notably features a puzzle inspired by elemental associations of the Soul Reaver and the Pillars of Nosgoth - with Raziel rotating pillars marked with the elemental symbols to match a solution mural in the background. The mural itself matches the elemental relationships first seen in the diagrams in the Subterranean Pillars chamber within the Subterranean Ruins in Soul Reaver 2 - albeit without directly mentioning the link to the Pillars of Nosgoth. Ultimately these relationships would be explored and explained throughout Legacy of Kain: Defiance as Raziel gained and used the Wraith Blade enhancements. The original diagram with the pillars symbols would also reappear later in Defiance as it was seen in the Garden Crypt at the end of the Find Vorador chapter.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance strategy guide][Soul Reaver 2][Soul Reaver 2/3]
The Gold Half of Vorador's Crest uses a similar animal symbology to associate itself with Vorador - this time using the Dragon. Other artifacts in this chapter also use dragons and crow symbols such as the Library Seal. The deleted Unused artifact is another that features a dragon and crow design, with this perhaps suggesting it was intended to be gained in the mansion - its file name and designation also suggests this possibility.[Defiance][Defiance/8][Defiance/12]
The Artifact 1a Room at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
