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Turel's Clan Territory, also known as Turel's Lair, was the clan territory of Turel and his clan the Turelim, originally planned to appear as the penultimate playable locale in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The level was removed along with several elements of the original Soul Reaver storyline at some point in development, due to timing and budgetary issues.[1]

Behind the scenes[]

"Kain has withdrawn to his mountain retreat. Your only means of reaching him cut straight through the lair of your brother, Turel."
―The Elder God — Listen (file info)[src]

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver[]

The Turelim clan territory was a level that was originally intended to appear in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Raziel was supposed to visit Turel's territory after gaining the Possess ability from the Priestess in the Undercity. Ultimately the levels after the Chronoplast - including the Undercity, Turel's Lair and Kain's Mountain Retreat ended up cut and the retail "to be continued" ending added in their place.

The Turelim territory was to have been the industrial heartland of Nosgoth, with many furnaces and what appear to be rivers of magma. The Territory also contained the Smokestack seen in the opening video to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. After defeating Turel and gaining the Amplified Force Projectile, Raziel would have used an updraft from the top of the smokestack to glide to Kain's Mountain Retreat.[1]

Despite being cut from later builds, Turel's clan territory was found to be present in the northern wastes of Nosgoth in Soul Reaver alpha builds, positioned just up the canyon from the the Ruined City of the Dumahim. In later builds the entire area was removed and the Oracle's Cave moved into its position.

The territory itself revolved around the puzzle to get the Smokestack fans moving to create an updraft so Raziel could glide to Kain's Mountain Retreat. The first area of the retreat housed an impressive orrery structure overlooked by three glass windows - each containing further apparatus to control the mechanism - while the next room would be the main chamber of the smokestack with a lava floor and giant metal propeller in the middle. Through the area Raziel had to find three levers positioned on progressively higher fan blades to open all the metal doors surrounding the area: this would allow Raziel to return to the side chambers of the orrery where he could constrict dials and finally the orrery itself to activate the fans of the smokestack, activating the updraft intended to lead to Kain's Mountain Retreat.

"I know we moved one forge away from the Oracle’s cave after we cut down a lot of areas and repurposed things.
City and Citadel was supposed to have the majority of the possession puzzles, with a few scattered about. That said the area above Turel’s, I believe was a switch for releasing a constriction obelisk. Most other passageways were to cut environments of the game or shortcuts that couldn’t handle the streaming. We were literally running out of time to build corridors so things could stream"
―Daniel Cabuco[2]
Layout[]
  • The orrery (Mrlock) - This tall room is located right underneath the main propeller chamber with lava. It seems to be attached to the propeller and once the orrery was activated, it spun fast, activating the propeller as well. The orrery had several Pillar symbols etched on its surface.
  • Main chamber/Smokestack (Lair2) -A large metal propeller dominated the room. When inactive, Raziel used the blades to get to the upper rooms of the smokestack.
  • Gangway room with lava (Lair1) - Raziel had to walk across the gangway and use a scalable wall to proceed to the next area. It was decorated with three chandeliers and the room had two alcoves for unknown reasons. There were two Turelim on the gangway and the floor was burning with magma. This room had also been featured in several Soul Reaver trailers.
  • Tall room with double doors (Lair4) - Upon entering, Raziel found himself at the beginning of two corridors. The middle wall had a scalable wall used to glide to the giant double doors located in the upper left corner of the room. At the bottom of the room there was one Turelim and also a pushable block which enabled Raziel to get back to the upper ledge if needed.
  • The cistern (Mrlock) - This area had a ledge with two pipes and a crank with a sloped platform into a pool. The room could be flooded; apparently as part of a possession puzzle.
  • Turel's audience chamber (Mrlock6) - A stepped chamber with pillars facing Turel's arena. Part of the battle with Turel would have taken place here - so too would the finale with the chamber being flooded and killing Turel
  • Turel´s arena (Mrlock13) - An enclosed chamber which Turel emerged from. Thin pillars supported the cistern above and it appears charging into them would have been the initial phase of the battle.
  • The egg chamber (Mrlock10) - A platform over water containing a number of pupating Turelim eggs barred the way to the final Smokestack lever.

Nosgoth (icon)Apocrypha[]

Nosgoth-Crucible-Concept-High

The Crucible in Nosgoth concept art

In the background materials for multiplayer spin-off Nosgoth, the Turelim Clan territory was mentioned as the site chosen for construction of the first smokestacks and was something of an industrial heartland in Kain's empire in events of Soul Reaver Nosgoth.[NOS][3]

The territory eventually appeared in the game as part of the Crucible map area and contained a number of Turelim statues, industrial mechanisms, furnaces and chimneys, and prominently featured the main Smokestack nearby.[NOS][3]

Notes[]

  • Within the files of the alpha the levels of Turel's territory were named "Morlock" and "Lair". The distinction between the two is a little unclear but it appears the "lair" labelled areas are clustered around the Smokestack, whereas the "Morlock" rooms touch more upon the outer areas.
    • The chambers of the area consist of a number of rooms and small connector passages. The exact room titles for the overall area are encountered in order as follows: "Mrlock1" - the outer valley area leading from the the Ruined City of the Dumahim, "Mrlock7" - the initial area of the Spirit Glyph Altar, "Mrlock8" - the main Spirit Glyph altar, "Mrlock2" - the snowy valley outside the entrance, "Mrlock3" - the initial staircase leading to the orrery, "Lair9" - the orrery room, "Lair 31" - the first orrery-smokestack connector, "Lair 30" the upward slope on the first orrery-smokestack connector, "Lair2" - the main Smokestack area, "Lair 28" - the Smokestack-lava room connector (1), "Lair29" - the smokestack-lava room connector (2), "Lair1" - the Lava room, "Lair3" the top lava room connector (1), "Lair23" the top lava room connector (2), "Lair19" - the first fan blade lower connector, "Lair20" - the first dial connector, "Lair21" - the first dial room overlooking the orrery, "Lair 22" - the first dial-orrery connector, "Lair24" - the first fan blade upper connector, "Lair 11" the 'joiner' corridor, "Lair 4" the tall room, "Mrlock9" the tall room lower connector (1), "Mrlock10" the tall room lower connector (2), "Mrlock4" - the waterfall room, "Mrlock5" - the waterfall-audience chamber connector, "Mrlock6" - Turel's audience chamber, "Mrlock13" - Turel's back chamber, "Mrlock11" - the audience chamber connector (1), "Mrlock12" the audience chamber connector (2), "Lair12" - the tall room upper connector (1), "Lair25" - the tall room upper connector (2), "Lair5" - the second fan blade lower connector, "Lair6" - the second dial connector, "Lair7" - the second dial room, "Lair8" - the second dial-orrery connector, "Lair26" - The second fan blade upper connector (1), "Lair13" - the second fan blade upper connector (2), "Lair10" - the Pupating Turelim (egg) room, "Lair14" - the egg room connector (1), "Lair27" - the egg room connector (2), "Lair15" - the third fan (lower) connector, "Lair16" - the third dial connector, "Lair17" - the third dial room, "Lair18" - the third dial-orrery connector, "Lair32" - Smokestack top ring (1), "Lair33" - Smokestack top ring (2), "Lair 34" - Smokestack top ring (2). An additional room - "Lair35" - is present in the code but is a blank space outside the normal level.
      • The areas of the Smokestack notably change between builds with some being combined, extended, added or removed as development progresses.
  • Contrary to a popular misconception, Turel's Clan Territory is not situated within Dark Eden, despite visual similarities. During his visit to Crystal Dynamics in 2002, Ben Lincoln confirmed that imagery in prerelease Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver videos does depict the territory prior to its removal.[4]
  • Before the discovery of the alphas it had been believed that the area would be accessed using the Shift At Will ability via a series of ledges above the entrance to the Oracle's Cave, adjacent to the Ruined City of the Dumahim.[1] These ledges are still present in the finished game, but do not lead anywhere.[5]
    • The ledges speculated to lead to Turel's in the retail are still present in the alpha, along with a high opening leading down from the Smokestack area, potentially suggesting that rather than leading into the area they were originally intended for collectibles to be placed there which was intended to be gained after progressing through Turel's territory.
    • Some ledges appear to have been linked to an incomplete puzzle to gain entry to the area - apparently requiring possession.
    • One of the caverns outside of Turel's territory that had also been speculated to be linked to the area contains the Spirit Glyph Altar in the alpha.
  • Original music was produced for Turel's Clan Territory which made appearance in the game in the Sunlight Glyph Altar area in Soul Reaver. The track for boss battle with Turel was also recorded and is found on the Soul Reaver Promotional Soundtrack under the name "Turel Clan".

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