Welcome to Meridian

Chapter 1: The Slums: Welcome to Meridian was the first level of Blood Omen 2 . It followed Kain from his reawakening in the opening video, through the Slums, until he gained entry to the Smuggler's Den in Chapter 2.

Profile[]

Kain awakened from a dream of the Vampire-Sarafan war, discovering he had been revived by the vampire resistance, the Cabal (represented by Umah), in a building in the Slums. After a short conversation, Umah took Kain to regain his strength.

The majority of the level was taken up by Umah 's tutorial, which taught Kain about the Whisper, Basic Jumping, Floating, Feeding, Blood, Lore, Basic Combat and Kain's Fury and Mist Dark Gifts and also Kain would also encounter his first Ward gates, Glyph magic and glyph wrights .

Kain would later be separated from Umah by a Ward Gate and Sarafan Glyph Guard, which forced Kain to seek out a Cabal Contact at the Grand Hotel to open the way to the Smuggler's Den and Chapter 2 . Kain would be followed into The Den by Faustus^{[Blood Omen 2]}.

Notes[]

In Chapter 1, Kain can find 12 Red Lore coffers (for a total of 36 'Lore Orbs' ) and one Weapon Power Chest . The main Enemies that Kain encounters are Thugs, although Glyph guards and glyph wrights are seen in videos, or are otherwise impossible to reach. In addition to his claws, Kain can pick up the Club, or the Dagger.
NPC's for this level werePeasants and by listening to them, Kain could hear about minor character unseen Agnes. Kain was also able to meet his first Cabal Contact at the end of the level^{[Blood Omen 2]}.

The level begins near a Lighthouse and several Smokestacks, which may have been meant to hark back to Soul Reaver, though they also represent the 'Industrialisation' that Meridian has undergone^{[Blood Omen 2]}.

Throughout the Level, there are several areas (behind gates or on high platforms) that Kain cannot access; some appear to rely on later Dark Gifts, that Kain has not yet gained ^{[Blood Omen 2]}- these are likely part of the removed Bonus mode from Blood Omen 2, that would have allowed Kain to re-explore levels with a full Dark Gift list as well as full Blood, full Lore and the incredibly powerful Iron Armor and Soul Reaver combination. (still accessible with cheats ).^[1]

This level is the first to feature Kain's One Shoulder Costume, previously seen in promotional material and the opening videos^{[Blood Omen 2]} (which suggests he has been wearing it for at least 200 years since his defeat to the Sarafan Lord^[2] - Early videos even depicted Kain walking away from the Collapse of the Pillars [at the conclusion of Blood Omen, 400 years previously] in the 'One Shoulder' Costume - which was eventually corrected and changed to the Iron Armor and Soul Reaver combination).^[3]

Chapter One also features the first detailed glimpses of Meridian's written language - it is as yet unnamed and not universally translated, but appears to be made up of parts of English, French and some Eastern European languages (notably seen in Chapter 1 is the News-stand labelled 'Gospikon' )^{[Blood Omen 2]}