Vampire Golems were an enemy class encountered in Legacy of Kain: Defiance. The Golems were classified along with Guardian constructs in the Statues enemy grouping - originating as ordinary statues, reanimated by ancient vampire magic and tasked with protecting important artefacts or places from intruders.
Vampire golems were a class of enemies encountered in Legacy of Kain: Defiance and were the more basic of the Statues enemies classification. They were enchanted statue warriors devised by the Ancient vampires to defend their secrets against any unwanted visitors that would come to life when specified trigger conditions were met - such as a person entering a room, an object placed or removed, or a mechanism activated - and would attack until they were destroyed.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Visually the golems appeared to be stone statues intended to resemble Ancient vampires and bearing many of the same physical features including feathered wings sprouting from their back tridactyl claws on their hands and feet. A bowl cut hairstyle and tunic/toga style outfit could also be made out in the stonework. As they became damaged during battle the stonework of the statues would noticeably crack, dent and corrode as pieces fell off - exposing glowing yellow eyes, crude fangs and areas of a black material apparently holding the statue together. Certain variants also bore the symbols of Light and Darkness on their chest that would be exposed as they were damaged.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Generally the golems would move slowly with a number of strike and lunging attacks, but they could also use a stamping attack which could knock players off their feet. They did have one notable special attack however:[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
Kinetic Shield - a glowing shield used by golems which protected them from attacks. This was active most of the time, but notably dropped during their own offensive attacks leaving them open to quick counters.[Defiance][Defiance strategy guide]
In the real world " Golem" relates to Jewish folklore and tales of animated anthropomorphic beings that are created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay or mud). Such beings were generally mindless slaves subject to the will or instructions of their creators.[1]
Vampire golems are one of the few enemies in the game that has multiple models and states - as they visibly appeared damaged and loose pieces as combat extends. There are no less than five separate models relating to the golems in game files with "statue_s" seeming to relate to the class (compared to "statue_l" for Guardian constructs). The individual titles as "statue_swhole" (inactive), "statues_s_spawn" (activated) and "statue_s" (damaged). Two further models are listed, bearing the symbols for Darkness and Light - these variants are labelled as "guardian_dark" and "guardian_light" respectively.[Defiance]
"statue_swhole" model
"statues_s_spawn" model
"statue_s" model
"guardian_light" model
"guardian_dark" model
"Statue_brknswrd" model
1/6
When they were armed the Vampire golems wielded a distinctive broken sword-like weapon, labelled as "Statue_brknswrd" in files.[Defiance]
Although they are not given much explanation in game, Vampire Golems and the Statues enemy classification is given more background in the official guide where it is noted they were " merely normal statues [that] through vampiric magic have been animated for various purposes. Generally they are set as guardians of important places of [sic] objects."[Defiance strategy guide]. This along with their placement in vampire related locations like the Vampire Citadel would suggest that the golems were originally a creation of the Ancient vampires.[Defiance] In game they are something of a successor to the Thralls of Soul Reaver 2 except animated using inanimate matter rather than corpses and Undead.[Soul Reaver 2][Defiance]
Vampire Golems notably appeared in pre-release imagery used as promotion for Legacy of Kain: Defiance and a much more basic version - labelled as "golem" and appearing to be more in line with traditional 'golem' imagery - was depicted in Defiance concept art by artist Kory Heinzen.
.jpg "Guardian golem (Light Forge).jpg (178 KB)")
