In the history preceding Blood Omen, Ziegsturhl was considered a "violent and seedy" place, secluded and undesirable.[Blood Omen strategy guide] On one of his aimless journeys across Nosgoth, Kain passed through the little hamlet, stopping at a tavern to sate his thirst.[Blood Omen/1] Its Barkeep shunned him, however, urging him to be on his way; despite Kain's offer of high reward, the tavern landlord would "stay open for no man in these dark times". "Things come with the night", he claimed, "that no sane man would welcome".[Blood Omen/1]
Thus forced back to the road and his travels, Kain left the bar, "cold of heart and soul". He did not get particularly far, though; as soon as he left the establishment, a band of brigands recognized the nobleman, and swarmed him. Finding all exits from the town blocked by carts, he was surrounded and outnumbered.[Blood Omen/1][1] There, in the streets, he was murdered, "cruelly impaled on his assassin's sword".[Blood Omen/1][2] Little did he know that these killers had been hired by the man who would soon offer him resurrection and vengeance - Mortanius, the Death Guardian, and fellow member of the Circle of Nine.[Blood Omen/2][Blood Omen/12]
After returning to life as a vampire and killing his assassins, Kain was forced to pass through the grim village once again, disgruntledly regarding it as the place where "the bloody deed of [his] murder took place". At his leisure, he could choose to slay or feed upon its inhabitants - who offered minimal resistance - and infiltrate some of the homes, where there were a few Flay artifacts for him to collect.[Blood Omen/2] The Barkeep was still manning his post, and, if Kain wished, he could exact revenge in a variety of ways - one entailed using Control Mind on him, and sending him to be sacrificed at the Flay Spirit Forge (curiously accessible via a secret door in the tavern).[3]
In the Blood Omen era, Ziegsturhl was a rudimentary forested settlement, and the smallest of the human dominions visited by Kain. Like Stahlberg, its few homes and buildings were constructed from wood, but its roofs were thatched, not tiled. The place had no paving, having been constructed on bare dirt and earth, though interiors had tiles and floorboards. A stream stemming from the Great Southern Lake separated the town property from the wildernesses to the east. Wooden bridges allowed travelers to cross these waters, and lanterns lit the town by night.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
Ziegsturhl was depicted with a total of five structures in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, three of which could be entered (though this is arguably not literal, and instead symbolic of a larger town, as Uschtenheim - with eight buildings in the same game - becomes significantly more elaborate in its Soul Reaver 2 portrayal). Only one business was identifiable: the unnamed tavern outside of which Kain was killed.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1][Blood Omen/7][Soul Reaver 2/5]
Businesses & Landmarks[]
Ziegstruhl contained one unnamed tavern in the northwestern building - the same establishment Kain begins the game in.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
Two additional buildings could be entered: a small house in the northeast and a larger house in the southwest. The larger house is locked in the prologue.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
One of the invisible switches to open the way to the HMCS Bitter area can be found in Ziegsturhl. It is found in the trees below the southwestern lamppost and can be activated with the use of Energy Bolt.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
Behind the scenes[]
The deleted FMV of Kain's murder
Kain's assassination in Ziegsturhl is a playable sequence in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, but was originally intended to be conveyed in the form of a cutscene, bridging the introduction and the game's second full-motion video. The cutscene was replaced in the final product because it had not turned out as well as Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics hoped. Still imagery from this deleted cinematic was included in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, and other frames can be seen at The Lost Worlds. The human Kain was depicted with blond hair in the excised FMV; at the time it was made, the developers had not yet decided to change his hair to black.[Defiance][7]
Kain is unable to leave Ziegsturhl during the assassination sequence; both exits are blocked by toppled carts. One house can be accessed, but it is filled with Brigands and Men-at-arms who will quickly kill him. Kain can fight and slay the brigands, and it is possible to exploit the game in such a manner that he can fend them off indefinitely, but they continually respawn, and the scene is scripted so that Kain has to be murdered for the story to proceed. The entire town in that scene is counted as a separate map area to the town seen in the rest of the game[Blood Omen/1][1]
When Kain revisits Ziegsturhl as a vampire his introduction varies slightly depending upon the platform. Both versions have him state "This was where the bloody deed of my murder took place.", however the PC version contains an extended passage where Kain continues "I would not be kind to the denizens that lurk here. They would taste my steel, and I their blood."[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
The version of the town seen in the Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain alpha is very similar to the town seen in the retail version but there are several differences:
The tavern in the alpha is missing the backdoor to the FlaySpirit forge and has a square alcove on the bar rather than the flat bar seen in retail - this alcove actually persists into retail where it can be seen during the prologue but thereafter bar is flat for the rest of the game.[Blood Omen/Jul 12, 1996][Blood Omen/Jul 15, 1996][Blood Omen]
The rest of the regular interiors seen in the alphas have some subtle reordering of items and one house has its theming changed, with walls, floor and windows all changing style.[Blood Omen/Jul 12, 1996][Blood Omen/Jul 15, 1996]
At least one copy of the town map area during the prologue exists in the alpha that is apparently unused: in that map area the assassins are placed differently to their final locations - but their position in the far northeast of the map does match the environment seen in the deleted murder cutscene.[Blood Omen/Jul 12, 1996][Blood Omen/Jul 15, 1996]
Ziegsturhl can be briefly seen in the introduction to Blood Omen 2 which shows the path of the initial conquests of Kain's vampire army - with a map overlaid with images of a town and a massacre taking place there. Close observation reveals these are in fact using the roofs of the Smugglers Den as a stand-in and is possibly intended to represent a generic town on Kain's path to conquest.[Blood Omen 2][Blood Omen 2/1][Blood Omen 2/2]
Notes[]
Ziegsturhl is the first playable location in the Legacy of Kain series, but not the first to be seen; that honor belongs to the Sarafan Stronghold, viewed in the game's introductory cutscene. The first playable location in the "proper" or "main" game is Kain's Mausoleum.[Blood Omen][Blood Omen/1]
Ziegsturhl at Dark Chronicle (by Ardeth Silvereni)
