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1This is a list of characters and associated tropes from ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain''. Characters who span multiple installments and play important roles in the overarcing plot are listed under "Main Characters." Other characters are listed in the folder for the game they first appeared in. '''Be warned, unmarked spoilers are present'''.
2
3[[foldercontrol]]
4
5!!Main Characters
6
7[[folder:Kain]]
8[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokkain_7167.png]]
9[[caption-width-right:250:Click the note to see Young Kain.[[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kain_blood_omen.png[[/note]]]]
10->"Given the choice; whether to rule a corrupt and failing Empire, or to challenge the fates for another throw, a better throw, against one's destiny... What was a king to do?"
11!!!Voiced by Creator/SimonTempleman (EN), Benoît Allemane (FR)
12
13The titular character and the guy who the series revolves around. Not always the main protagonist though. Was killed as a nobleman and revived as a vampire, and when he came to revel in his new powers he decided to conquer the world. When he discovered the destiny that had been set up for him though, he decided to play a game of GambitRoulette to try and TakeAThirdOption between the choice of ruling a dying world or dying himself to save it. In his arrogance though, he failed to realize that [[ScrewDestiny Screwing Destiny]] isn't as simple as he'd hoped.
14
15For a more [[FloweryElizabethanEnglish verbose description]] from the man himself, visit his [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Kain}} self-demonstrating page]].
16----
17* AffablyEvil: Best shown in his interactions with Raziel. Kain is almost universally respectful and polite to his former lieutenant, speaking with him casually and cordially, though Raziel [[PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes doesn't return the sentiment]]. In general, he is usually NiceToTheWaiter unless given reason not to be, as demonstrated in his interactions in ''Blood Omen 2''.
18* AdmiringTheAbomination: In ''Blood Omen'', when seeing creatures mutated by the Circle's magic, while he finds the sight of them horrifying, he admits to having some admiration for the mind that created them.
19* AmbiguouslyHuman: At the end of ''Defiance'', he isn't really a vampire anymore, as [[spoiler:Moebius' vampire-weakening staff no longer affects him, because the Heart of Darkness that originally gave him his vampirism has been removed]]. However, he retains all of his vampiric abilities and possibly vulnerabilities. Kain is definitely no longer human, but also no longer a vampire; what he ''is'' is as uncertain as the rest of the series since the story was LeftHanging after ''Defiance''.
20* AmbitionIsEvil: Repeatedly accused as such, considering the fact that he essentially doomed Nosgoth to an eternity of decay purely so he could rule over it.
21-->'''Sarafan Lord:''' Your ambition to rule this world is but the youthful craving of a petty noble who has gained too much power, but never enough.
22* AntiHero[=/=]AntiVillain: Zigzags either way. He's trying to save the world from destruction and demonic invasion, but he's trying to save it so he can conquer it with a vampire army. On the positive side, he is not without some capacity for mercy, values his allies and considers some of them friends, and has some lines he still won't cross. On the negative side, he's a remorseless mass-murderer, very arrogant and self-absorbed, and will act ruthlessly if it's more advantageous to do so. In any other franchise, Kain would be a straight villain, but in the BlackAndGreyMorality of this one, he's someone you want to see victorious because his enemies are even worse than him.
23* AristocratsAreEvil: Was a noble in his human life, and even then was not a very nice guy, considering he apparently ends up in Hell after his murder until Mortanius makes his offer.
24* AtLeastIAdmitIt: In ''Blood Omen 2'', he was at a point where learning that his own plan drove away his followers struck a nerve. By ''Soul Reaver'', he won't deny that his motives are selfish and looks down on hiding selfish motives behind supposedly altruistic ones. Even as early as ''Blood Omen'', Kain shows this side of himself; he's disgusted by the {{Vampire Hunter}}s Moebius rallies for being {{hypocrite}}s that "cloak their bloodlust [[KnightTemplar beneath a veil of righteousness]]", whereas he makes no pretense to justify his killing.
25-->'''Kain:''' There's no ''shame'' in it, Raziel – revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest. ''Hate'' me, but do it ''honestly.''
26* AxCrazy: In the first ''Blood Omen'', his RoaringRampageOfRevenge turned into saving the Pillars of Nosgoth quickly spreads out to wiping entire villages off the map and indiscriminate murder at his hands, laughing amidst the slaughter. He mellows out significantly by the time of ''Soul Reaver'', though his violent side is never too far as ''Defiance'' shows - he just knows how to temper and push it towards his complex machinations rather than upon all around him.
27* BackFromTheDead: It's what sets the events of the franchise in motion – his revival as a vampire by Mortanius. [[spoiler:Late into ''Defiance'', he invokes it again by somehow surviving having his heart ripped out.]]
28* BadassBoast: Kain's self-confidence is pretty much impossible to undermine. He treats any enemy like an insect that will soon be squished under his boot, even if they are clearly a lot stronger then he is. For a sample, here's his DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu moment, though a major spoiler.
29-->[[spoiler:"False ''god''! ''This'' '''is''' the end! The ''final turn'' of your wheel!"]]
30* BadassCape: His iconic attire for the series as pictured involves a sash with his clan emblem round over his chest and draping over the shoulder.
31* BadBoss[=/=]BenevolentBoss: Zig-zags between these. On one hand, there's what he did to Raziel and the fact that he planned for him to kill his other lieutenants, but on the other hand, he does value the lives of those loyal to him enough to extract a high price when he sells them. [[spoiler:By ''Defiance'', it is flat out stated that, [[PetTheDog at least in regards to Raziel]], he firmly sits on the more benevolent end given how much of his efforts to defy destiny throughout the series is as much to help Raziel avoid [[AndIMustScream his terrible fate of being trapped within the Reaver]] as it is to save himself.]]
32* BadLiar: He makes some attempts at lying in ''Blood Omen 2'', and they don't fool anybody. Then again, he does lie to Raziel about the eventual fate of the Razielim to make him angrier, so he either had a good training during his reign or he wasn't even trying in ''Blood Omen 2''.
33* BattleCry: "VAE VICTIS!" It's [[GratuitousLatin Latin]] for "Woe to the conquered/vanquished". In other words, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the conquered have no rights]]. It should tell you [[VillainProtagonist everything you need to know about him]].
34* BerserkButton: Kain does not like hypocrisy, as demonstrated in his exchange with Raziel at the pillars in Soul Reaver 2.
35** Accusing him of having no conscience is one of the few things that will make him enraged.
36* BetrayalByInaction: By refusing to sacrifice his life at the end of ''Blood Omen'', Kain doomed the pillars to shatter, ensuring Nosgoth's slow decay and the continued bondage of Ariel's spectre to their ruined remains.
37* BigBad: The closest thing to one in ''Soul Reaver'' as his actions set the plot in motion and he's Raziel's main enemy. ''Soul Reaver 2'' he moves away from antagonistic role to a supporting one.
38* BigNo: Done near the end of ''Defiance'' when he realizes [[spoiler:he just impaled Raziel on the Soul Reaver.]]
39* BloodKnight: He certainly seems to be [[LargeHam enjoying himself]] when he shouts out his battle cry after impaling an opponent, and he's always pleased when he's presented the opportunity to kill something.
40* BodyHorror: In ''Blood Omen'', Kain was just a man turned vampiric undead, which came with a wide assortment of abilities but mostly kept his appearance intact. By the time of ''Soul Reaver'''s intro, the ages and his constant mutating evolutions have turned him into something only vaguely humanoid, with giant claws for hands and feet, and a scalp that literally splits apart into something that resembled a twisted, spiked crown to make way for his hair beneath. He doesn't seem bothered by this at all, and this signature look is downright normal compared to what every other still-living vampire and Raziel went through.
41* BreakTheHaughty: Set up a couple times, but ultimately subverted – even when Kain's plans blow up in his face, his arrogance is unshaken, and he sets out to find out what went wrong and how to correct it. As such, he isn't shown to dwell on failures and generally continues on with his usual behavior. However, Moebius' [[spoiler:BatmanGambit of using the death of William the Just to enact a vampire genocide thanks to Kain]] likely shattered what limited idealism he had in the early days of the series.
42* ButterflyOfDoom: His assassination of the past [[spoiler: William the Just]] in ''Blood Omen'' before he could become [[EvilOverlord the Nemesis]] ended up kick-starting a new vampire purge in the present day... which is exactly what Moebius was planning all along.
43* CharacterDevelopment: From a mere haughty noble who was apparently fit for being sentenced to hell in his demise, to a bloodthirsty vampire hunting for vengeance, to the vampire king of the apocalyptic world all due to his own decisions – to, after centuries and time travel plots, a cynical, jaded shell of a man that just wishes for the hell he set into motion to come to a close and for his rivalry with Raziel to cease. Kain goes through a lot in this series, not that he wasn't deserving of a majority of it, but he does come to understand that his actions held consequences and very much searches for an end to the madness.
44* TheChessmaster: ''Very'' much so. Spending centuries with access to a time machine certainly helps him predict and plan the various results he wants, but even so, Kain is damn good at this. He switches over to XanatosSpeedChess in ''Defiance''; now that his gambit has been played and the result was not something he expected, Kain is at a loss for what has changed and has to scramble to find answers and keep up with Moebius.
45* TheChosenOne: ''Defiance'' reveals Kain thinks he is the prophesied Scion of Balance who is destined to return Nosgoth to vampire rule. [[spoiler:Actually his ''true'' destiny as Scion is to wield the Soul Reaver to destroy the Elder God and free Nosgoth from his control, and with Raziel's sacrifice, he fulfils it.]]
46* CompleteImmortality: To the extent that [[spoiler: in ''Defiance'', he was able to survive having his heart ripped out]]. According to ''Soul Reaver 2'' and ''Defiance'', only the Soul Reaver can truly kill him[[note]]In the original ''Soul Reaver'' storyline, Raziel was to absorb Ariel's soul and imbue it into the Wraith Blade, with both Ariel and Kain mentioning that only through her soul would Raziel be able to kill Kain[[/note]].
47* CoolSword: Wields the material Soul Reaver, (also known as just "The Reaver").
48* CosmicPlaything: The series is all about Kain fighting back against people trying to make him this because the fate of the world hinges on his actions and his destiny being fulfilled or not. The problem for Kain is they know he's fighting back, which is why almost ''everyone'' in the series, past or present, wants him dead because he's too hard to manipulate (unlike say, Raziel). This fact is lampshaded by Raziel several times when he notes that people are lining up to tell him Kain has to die, and he knows there must be a bigger reason for it than they let on.
49* CursedWithAwesome: After he comes to terms with being a vampire Kain lives and breathes this trope. [[EvilLaugh "Heh heh heh heh heh..."]]
50* DarkMessiah: Kain's destiny is to SaveTheWorld, but he's still a right bastard while doing it. His refusal to become a martyr to save the world at the end of ''Blood Omen'' is a perfect example – while it turned out to be the right thing to do in the long run because of [[spoiler:the Hylden]], Kain's refusal at the time was mostly because he wanted to find a way to save the world without having to resort to sacrificing himself, and in the meantime the world suffered for his decision.
51* DeadpanSnarker: Kain has a very dry wit and a well-developed sense of sarcasm. The result is a magnificent amount of snark series-wide.
52-->'''Marcus:''' You tried to murder me! \
53'''Kain:''' I seem to have failed.
54* DespotismJustifiesTheMeans: He refused to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, preferring to conquer the world in its rotting state. That being said, he's also trying to find a way to restore the world.
55* TheDeterminator: No obstacle or setback is too devastating for Kain - not even [[EldritchAbomination eldritch gods]], [[ScryVsScry all-powerful seers]], or [[spoiler: having his heart ripped out of his chest and being sent to a different dimension entirely.]]
56* DevilsJobOffer: In ''Blood Omen'', he's shown trapped in a Hell dimension until Mortanius ropes him into service.
57* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: He ultimately battles and defeats [[spoiler:the Elder God]], which was apparently the destiny set up for him all along.
58* DiscOneFinalBoss: He's implied to be the main antagonist of the Soul Reaver games [[spoiler: but Raziel decides not to kill him at the end of Soul Reaver 2's first act, during an encounter in the time distorting chamber of William the Just's crypt. Then Raziel's guides turn against him with Moebius and the Elder God become the antagonists, a big bad duumvirate for the rest of that game]].
59* TheEmperor: Is this to Nosgoth pre-''Soul Reaver''.
60* EscapedFromHell: In ''Defiance'', he's banished to the dimension of the Hylden, which conveniently looks like the same place as he was sent in ''Blood Omen'', and he fights his way out.
61* EvenEvilHasStandards:
62** He detests hypocrisy and moral posturing. He sneers at Raziel for viewing the Sarafan as righteous crusaders protecting people from vampires, and sees them as just as tyrannical and murderous as the vampires they hated. He also chews out Raziel for claiming he intends to kill Kain to restore Nosgoth, when they both know it's for revenge.
63--->'''Kain:''' Let's drop the moral posturing, shall we? We both know there's no altruism in this pursuit. Your reckless indignation led you here – I ''counted'' on it...There's no ''shame'' in it, Raziel. Revenge is motivation enough – at least it's honest. ''Hate'' me, but do it ''honestly''.
64** In the first Blood Omen, it's made clear that even Kain was creeped out by Elzevir the Dollmaker, and was unwilling to think about the disturbing implications of what Elzevir was planning to do with the soul of the Princess of Willendorf:
65--->'''Kain:''' The old man's intentions I shall never know.
66** Come Defiance, when he finally met the Elder God, he was horrified, and grew more so when he realized Raziel only came into contact with it after Kain had sentenced him to die:
67--->'''Kain:''' Had I condemned Raziel to this nightmare when I cast him into the abyss?
68** Despite his {{sadist}}ic tendencies and SociopathicHero status, Kain is shown to have a distaste for prolonged ColdBloodedTorture, preferring quick, if painful and messy, deaths. To that end, he {{Mercy Kill}}s Nupraptor's mentally-shattered servant girl in ''Blood Omen'' and the twisted Magnus in ''Blood Omen 2''.
69* EvilIsPetty:
70** It's initially believed that Kain had Raziel executed because he grew wings, and Kain was simply jealous that Raziel evolved before he did. The truth is far more complicated.
71** Kain holds a particular dislike of Malek, as he was the only Pillar Guardian in ''Blood Omen'' he couldn't defeat in single combat; he had to summon Vorador to do it. He defaced Malek's headstone in the Tomb of the Sarafan, and in ''Defiance'' when he needs to retrieve a sword and shield for a statue of Malek to open the path forward, he takes a moment to snark that restoring the statue's dignity is not a task he enjoys.
72* EvilLaugh: Heard quite often during ''Blood Omen'' when he's swinging his sword around, and again in the canon ending.
73* EvilVirtues: [[AtLeastIAdmitIt Honesty]] and [[{{Determinator}} fortitude]] are his biggest positive qualities.
74* TheFatalist: He's taking a huge gamble on his {{plan}}, so he's spent centuries gazing into the time stream to decide the best way to go about executing it. Thus, he knows how a lot of things are meant to be.
75* FemmeFatalons: In ''Blood Omen 2'' – as do all the other more human-looking vampires in that game. It seems that vampires develop long, black claws prior to their hands (and feet) becoming cloven.
76* FindTheCure: The main reason behind his quest in ''Blood Omen'' is to find a cure to his vampirism... until he learns to embrace it. And even then, it turns out [[AllForNothing there was never a "cure"]], Ariel strung him along with that claim so he'd finish off the Circle and then sacrifice himself.
77* FreudianExcuse: From being afflicted with Nupraptor's curse of madness at birth to discovering that his entire life has been predetermined, it's really no wonder that he's not a nice person.
78* FromNobodyToNightmare: When the series began, he was a simple human nobleman – a youngest son, in point of fact, unlikely to inherit anything. And then he was assassinated by brigands and resurrected as a vampire by the {{necromancer}} Mortanius. By the time of ''Soul Reaver'', he's become a powerful VampireMonarch and the GodEmperor of Nosgoth, with very few beings in the land, human or otherwise, aware that he WasOnceAMan.
79* GenreSavvy: If ''Defiance'' is any indication, he knows damn well that any suspicious looking statue [[LivingStatue isn't going to stay still for long]] once his business in the forge is concluded.
80-->'''Kain:''' These statues were singularly inanimate. I knew better than to assume they would always remain so.
81* AGodAmI: Set himself up a GodEmperor.
82-->'''Raziel:''' Kain is deified. [[ShroudedInMyth The clans tell tales of him. Few know the truth]] – [[WasOnceAMan he was mortal once, as were we all]].
83* GoldenSuperMode: According to artists in Eidos, his original design in ''Soul Reaver'' was to have him with gold skin, to show he has reached the pinnacle of what vampire evolution can achieve. However, he looks green-yellow in-game due to lighting; subsequent games, as well as action figures and concept art, show him in a more golden color. The "horns" he has are similarly symbolic of a crown, marking his status as the King of Nosgoth.
84* HamToHamCombat: Between him and Raziel at least twice in ''Soul Reaver''. He also gets some [[LargeHam hammy]] time with Moebius in ''Defiance''.
85* HazyFeelTurn: Later installments in the series show that he has mellowed out and is much more calculating, though still brutal and self-serving.
86* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Implied at the end of ''Defiance'', when Raziel purifies him of Nupraptor's curse of insanity.]]
87* HeroicBSOD: Has one at the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'' when [[spoiler:he realizes everything that he has planned and gambled on throughout the entire game has served the ends of his enemies]].
88-->"[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone My god]]... [[spoiler:[[SealedEvilInACan the Hylden]]]]! [[OhCrap We walked right into their trap...]]
89* HiddenDepths: In spite of how much of a [[SmugSuper gleeful]] [[SociopathicHero bastard]] he is throughout the entire series that is unapologetic in how cruel he can be to others just because he can; Kain frequently shows a side to him that ''does'' consider the consequences and weight of his actions that makes it more than just ItsAllAboutMe, [[spoiler:something increasingly clear with his interactions with Raziel as he reveals [[TakeAThirdOption the scope of his plans]] for both Nosgoth and his prized lieutenant.]]
90--> '''Kain:''' Conscience...? You dare speak to me of conscience?! Only when you have felt the full gravity of choice should you dare to question my judgment! [...] To know that the fate of the world hangs dependent on the advisedness of my every deed -- can you even begin to conceive what action you would take, in my position?
91* HornsOfVillainy: The elder Kain from ''Soul Reaver'' onwards has four horns growing on his forehead.
92* HyperspaceArsenal: In ''Blood Omen''. He carries his normal iron sword, a [[CarryABigStick spike mace]], [[DualWielding two axes]], the [[FlamingSword Flame Sword]] and the Soul Reaver, which in this game is longer than he is tall when he attacks with it.
93* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Regarding his manipulation of Raziel. He doesn't show a ton of regret, [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation possibly hiding it because he didn't think Raziel would believe him]], but he never expects Raziel to forgive him for it.
94* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Gets to be behind both ends of the blade in different games. [[spoiler:How he deals with Moebius in ''Defiance''.]]
95* ImmortalRuler: At the end of [[VideoGame/BloodOmenLegacyOfKain Blood Omen]], Kain decides to rule Nosgoth as it's VampireMonarch after the pillars collapse, and by the time of [[VideoGame/LegacyOfKainSoulReaver Soul Reaver]], he's been doing so for a millennium.
96* ItsAllAboutMe: Kain's self-absorbed, sociopathic selfishness is effectively half the backbone of the series. His refusal to restore the Pillars at the cost of his life so he could rule instead was merely the start, and he'll always be more concerned with his affairs and well-being than anyone else's. About the few exceptions are his plans to save Nosgoth (even if for his own rule), his interactions with his few true allies, and [[spoiler:how much scheming he does for Raziel's sake to avoid the latter having to become the Soul Reaver blade.]]
97* KickTheDog: Revelations past ''Soul Reaver'' unveil the fact that Kain's submitting Raziel to a FateWorseThanDeath was his attempt to [[spoiler:prevent the latter from becoming the Soul Reaver, as a twisted form of mercy.]] He could've gone about it in other methods, but his guise of pettiness and his method of punishment resulted in a vengeful and utterly angered Raziel for most of the rest of the series. [[spoiler:[[NiceJobBreakingItHero And put Raziel into the position their enemies needed to make him the Soul Reaver anyway.]]]]
98* LargeHam: And ''how''... which inevitably leads to plenty of HamToHamCombat against either Raziel or Moebius.
99* LastOfHisKind: Of the Circle of Nine by technicality, Kain is the last one to have a presence in the material realm after ''Blood Omen'' has him kill the survivors, and it's strongly presumed that the only reason Nosgoth hasn't totally collapsed in on itself is by his continued unlife. With Vorador's death after a ButterflyOfDoom scenario in changing history, Kain was also presumably ''the'' last vampire in Nosgoth until he sired his own generations to take over -- though another altered timeline implies this may have changed overall. And by the end of ''Defiance'', with [[spoiler:Janos Audron revived in the unwilling thrall of the Hylden]], Kain likely would've had to self-invoke this himself had the series continued.
100* LegendaryInTheSequel: By the time of ''Soul Reaver'', Kain's exploits in ''Blood Omen'' are the stuff of legends.
101* ALighterShadeOfBlack: His goals at least would leave humans and vampires alive, if marginalizing humans. The beings he calls his enemies, on the other hand, aim to exterminate the vampires and don't care if the humans go down with them in the process. He becomes [[ALighterShadeOfGray a bit more grey]] as he ages, but he's pretty unapologetic about the whole "vampires ruling over the human sheep" thing.
102* LonghairedPrettyBoy: He's at his prettiest in ''Blood Omen 2''.
103* MagicKnight: He has blatant magic in ''Blood Omen'', but in later games sticks to his telekinetic and vampiric powers more.
104* MeaningfulName: It's a common trend in both apocrypha and pop culture to say the Biblical Cain was the progenitor of vampires. While this Kain isn't the first vampire, he does become the last vampire in ''Blood Omen'' and thus the ancestor of all subsequent vampires to come in the ages after.
105* MegaManning: Absorbs power from his former lieutenants in ''Blood Omen 2''.
106* MementoMacguffin: It's easy to overlook, but after establishing his vampiric empire, Kain wore Vorador's signet ring (that he used to summon Vorador for aid against Malek) as an earring, having grown to respect Vorador and agree with his beliefs about the gift of vampirism that he'd previously rejected. During the abortive development of abandoned sequel ''Dark Sun'' [[WhatCouldHaveBeen there was even consideration of the future-version Kain using the ring again to summon either a revived or not-yet-dead Vorador for their first meeting (from his perspective) since the first game]].
107* MercyKill: Kain's pulled these off a few times. Though generally a sadist, he doesn't seem to have a taste for prolonged torture, preferring quick (if extremely painful and messy) deaths. Notably shown when he gives quick deaths to Nupraptor's mentally-shattered servant girl in ''Blood Omen'' and the twisted Magnus in ''Blood Omen 2''.
108* MindOverMatter: As of ''Defiance,'' telekinesis seems to be the most-used power in his magical repertoire.
109* MrExposition: In ''Blood Omen'', providing everything from info on abilities, weapons, and just information on the world and the characters he meets.
110* MultiMeleeMaster: Kain has demonstrated skilled use of a large variety of weapons; in Blood Omen he carried three different swords (one of which was [[FlamingSword on fire]] and the other was the [[SoulCuttingBlade Soul]] [[{{BFS}} Reaver]]), a mace, and a [[DualWielding pair of axes]]. In ''Blood Omen 2'' he used a variety of disposable, breakable weapons. However, he's never been shown using ranged weapons, only using magic at a distance; indeed, he admits to having fairly poor aim.
111* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
112** When he [[spoiler:sees the Elder God in ''Defiance'']], he realizes that what he forced Raziel to go through is much worse than he earlier believed.
113* NameOfCain: Goes without saying, really.
114* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Kain's obviously no "hero", but this trope is still in play in ''Blood Omen''. His murder of William the Just was a reasonable attempt to prevent the lad from becoming the Nemesis that would sack all of Nosgoth...but in turn gave Moebius the pull he needed to incite genocide upon the vampire race, which brought the Hylden one step closer to freedom.
115* NiceToTheWaiter: He's usually friendly to many of the non-hostile humans he talks to.
116* NobleDemon: Not as noble as Raziel, but Kain does have a sense of honor and morality, however loose and skewed it may be.
117* OlderAndWiser: In ''Soul Reaver'', he's ''much'' craftier than in ''Blood Omen'' and ''Blood Omen 2'', and thinks far more before charging in, given the time he's spent plotting and looking across the timeline. He's also far more willing to admit his own selfishness.
118* OrangeBlueContrast: Wears red clothing, his checkpoints in ''Defiance'' and health meter are red, and lets not forget the [[spoiler:hellish dimension of the Hylden he keeps revisiting]]. In contrast: Raziel's blue skin, blue and green checkpoints and life meter, and the design aesthetic of the Spectral Realm.
119* PayEvilUntoEvil: Killing [[spoiler:the defenseless Moebius]] in ''Defiance'' while taunting him about how his abilities have failed him. [[spoiler:Moebius]] might not have posed a danger to him anymore, but after five games, he's had it coming.
120* PetTheDog: Now and then Kain does show altruism and kindness without any selfish motives behind the act.
121** He sees Raziel as a valued ally, possibly even a friend, and really does want to save him from his fate. When [[spoiler:Raziel tricks Kain into drawing him into the Reaver]], Kain is visibly distraught and tried to stop it, telling Raziel he didn't want this.
122** He held affection for Umah, commenting she could have been his queen if [[spoiler:she hadn't betrayed him]], and telling her she was brave to at least try to [[spoiler:confront the Sarafan alone.]]
123** He performs a MercyKill on his former lieutenant [[spoiler:Magnus]], ending his centuries of torment, and in his final moments he comforts him that he was a loyal lieutenant and the cause he fought for is not lost.
124* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain[=/=]PoliticallyIncorrectHero: He mentions not being especially fond of gypsies (which is a racial slur for the {{UsefulNotes/Romani}}) in the first game, and sees them as mostly low-lives.
125* PowerfulAndHelpless: In the original ''Blood Omen''. Despite gaining various powers and weapons and taking various levels of badass as his potential as a vampire grows, Kain is still unable to keep himself from being manipulated by Moebius into inducing a genocidal crusade against the vampire race. This actually becomes a part of his CharacterDevelopment across the years, as he comes to realize that magical or physical prowess has no use in the web of manipulation that has been built across Nosgoth.
126* PreMortemOneLiner: His and Moebius' exchange in ''Blood Omen'':
127-->'''Moebius:''' You have seen my plan, vampire, as I've seen your destiny. The future says you die! \
128'''Kain:''' But I ''am'' dead... ''([[OffWithHisHead chops Moebius' head off]])'' as are you.
129* PsychoticSmirk: He unleashes an ''epic'' one shortly before killing [[spoiler:Moebius for the second time.]]
130* PutTheLaughterInSlaughter: If he's not yelling "Vae Victis!", he's doing this. Kain ''[[BloodKnight really]]'' enjoys hacking away at stuff.
131* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Many of his outfits in the ''Blood Omen'' games, as well as his iconic image in the ''Soul Reaver'' games and ''Defiance'', namely black leather pants and a red cape tied over his chest.
132* RedEyesTakeWarning: Has them as a fledgling vampire in ''Blood Omen''. By the time of ''Blood Omen 2'', he's got CreepyBlueEyes instead. Come the ''Soul Reaver'' era and subsequent appearance in that timeline, he has SupernaturalGoldEyes now that he's evolved to his full potential.
133* RemovedAchillesHeel: In ''Defiance'', [[spoiler:Raziel tearing the Heart of Darkness from Kain's chest]] has the handy side-effect of making him immune to Moebius' vampire-weakening scepter.
134* RevengeBeforeReason: In ''Blood Omen'', he's so determined to exact revenge on the brigands who killed him that he eagerly accepts Mortanius' offer without bothering to consider the cost. The rest is history.
135-->'''Kain:''' Nothing is free. Not even revenge.
136* RightForTheWrongReasons: When Kain refused the sacrifice, he was not yet working from some grand design: he selfishly preserved himself at the world's expense, and this act marked his transformation from a victim damned to a cursed state to a FullyEmbracedFiend. In the years to follow, he would come to feel a great deal of doubt and regret over this decision, but learned that ''taking'' the sacrifice would have been worse: [[spoiler:with no vampires left to assume guardianship of the Pillars, the Hylden would break free of their imprisonment and Nosgoth would be doomed anyway.]]
137* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
138** His very first act as a vampire is to hunt down his assassins and kill them.
139** The whole of ''Blood Omen 2'' is Kain helping to overthrow the Sarafan that deposed him.
140* RogueProtagonist: He was the PlayerCharacter of ''Blood Omen'' and was pretty much a VillainProtagonist in that game, the story essentially being a tale of EvilVersusEvil. He serves as the BigBad to Raziel in ''Soul Reaver''.
141* {{Sadist}}: Kain has an enjoyment for painful and messy deaths and often shouts "[[BattleCry Vae victis]]"[[note]]Latin for "Woe/suffering to the conquered"[[/note]] or [[EvilLaugh laughs evilly]] as he's slicing up anyone in his way. That being said, he has [[EvenEvilHasStandards a distaste]] for prolonged ColdBloodedTorture and has dealt out a few {{Mercy Kill}}s.
142* SadisticChoice: Is presented with one at the end of ''Blood Omen''. On one hand, he sacrifices himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, but as [[LastOfHisKind the only remaining vampire in Nosgoth]], this would render the vampires extinct; on the other, he refuses the sacrifice and thus dooms Nosgoth to an eternity of decay. Neither solution would properly solve anything; the consequences of refusing the sacrifice are quite clear, while accepting it would end the vampire race and ultimately bring the Hylden back. Thus, Kain's plan throughout the rest of the series is to find a way to TakeAThirdOption.
143* ScarsAreForever: It's not easily visible, but he still has the scar on his torso from being assassinated as a human. [[spoiler: It gets healed in ''Defiance''.]]
144* ShroudedInMyth: As Raziel states in the opening of ''Soul Reaver'', few people in Nosgoth are aware that Kain WasOnceAMan like all vampires.
145* ShutUpKirk: Gives such a speech in ''Soul Reaver 2'' to Raziel in response to his insistence that he's after him to restore Nosgoth, especially since Kain knows for a fact that Raziel only wants to kill him for revenge:
146-->'''Kain:''' Let's drop the moral posturing, shall we? We both know there's no altruism in this pursuit. Your reckless indignation led you here; I ''counted'' on it! There's no shame in it, Raziel. Revenge is motivation enough; at least it's honest. Hate me... but do it ''honestly''.
147* SmugSuper: As noted on more than one occasion, Kain is quite arrogant. That being said, he has more than enough power to back it up.
148* SociopathicHero: Sure, he's saving the world, but in the meantime, Kain has absolutely no problems with slicing up anyone in his way, be they extra-dimensional demons, Sarafan knights, or just innocent civilians going down the wrong alley at night. That evil laugh mentioned above? Perhaps most terrifying when heard as he's about to feed on helpless prisoners chained to walls begging him for help.
149* SophisticatedAsHell: When he first sees the Elder God, after five games of spouting all kinds of Shakespearean dialogue, the only thing he can utter is a horrified "What in the hell?!"
150* SpikesOfVillainy: Sports them in ''Blood Omen 2,'' and with the Chaos Armor in ''Blood Omen''.
151* TheStrategist: Described as being a master strategist.
152* SuperStrength: as the games focus more on his magical prowess and careful planning skills, it's easy to forget that Kain in ''Blood Omen'' was pushing car-sized boulders with ease and felling trees with a single axe swoop.
153* TakeAThirdOption: His entire plan from ''Soul Reaver'' onwards is to find one to his SadisticChoice at the end of ''Blood Omen''.
154* TranshumanTreachery: Over the course of ''Blood Omen''; while he initially seeks a cure for his vampirism, he soon grows to embrace it. Ariel dropping the bombshell at the very end that he'd need to die to "save" Nosgoth and that implicitly she was stringing him along for this very purpose while dangling a "cure" in front of his face was definitely the tipping point though.
155* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Casting Raziel into a damnation of suffering was one of Kain's pettiest moments, but it also led Raziel to the Elder God's grasp, shifting the rest of the series into motion with Raziel coming back hellbent on {{Revenge}}. [[spoiler: As it so turns out, while this moment was fated to happen regardless, it also double-applies on this trope because Moebius and the Elder God banked their plans on Raziel, meaning Kain effectively handed them their greatest pawn on a silver platter so everything could just get ''worse''.]] Once he comes to learn the repercussions of that choice, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Kain feels downright horrible about it.]]
156* VampireMonarch: Emperor of the clans, progenitor of all vampires post-''Blood Omen'' era ([[spoiler:the ContinuitySnarl of Vorador in ''Blood Omen 2'' not withstanding]]) and ruler of Nosgoth (for a time, anyway).
157* VillainsNeverLie: Leaving aside the question of whether he is truly a "villain", this trope holds true with Kain. He tells ambiguous half-truths and makes vague hints, but he rarely lies. The few times he does he's a BadLiar and the recipient tells him so, which he confirms with no qualms. The reason for this trope is mostly his arrogance – he's confident that the truth can never be used against him and he will still prevail if he tells it. There are times when lying would work to his advantage, but he still plays it straight. Also note this dialogue in ''Defiance'', where he combines this trope with his trademark boasting.
158--> '''Sarafan Guard:''' Surrender, fiend, and we will grant you an easy death!\
159'''Kain:''' I could promise you the same, but that would be a lie.
160* VillainousValour: Kain's motives might be selfish, but he's not afraid to risk his life to achieve his goals. [[spoiler: In ''Soul Reaver 2'', when he meets Raziel at the moment he was supposed to kill him, and while he does show some fear of his possible end, he takes the riskier option of talking Raziel into asserting his free will rather than trying to fight him.]]
161* VillainProtagonist: Kain is TheProtagonist of the ''Blood Omen'' games, and does have some good traits, but he is by no stretch of the imagination TheHero, and his story plays out as a tale of EvilVsEvil, with himself being ALighterShadeOfBlack. When the series shifts to Raziel's point of view in the ''Soul Reaver'' games and parts of ''Defiance'', Kain is treated as a villain while still having the same goals and personality as when players control him.
162* VillainTeleportation: Has become fond of it by the time of the ''Soul Reaver'' games.
163* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Maintains the ability to transform into either a [[SuperSmoke cloud of mist]] or a [[BatOutOfHell swarm of bats]] throughout the series (though the bat form does vanish during ''Blood Omen 2''). In the first game, he also could become a wolf.
164* WalkingShirtlessScene: In the two ''Soul Reaver'' games and ''Defiance'', and for the first part of ''Blood Omen 2''.
165* WellIntentionedExtremist: As revealed in ''Defiance'', his casting Raziel into the Abyss wasn't petty jealousy as originally believed. The visions within the Chronoplast informed him of Raziel's future, and in executing Raziel and ensuring his resurrection as a wraith, he created a creature that truly possesses free will and thus was ImmuneToFate, a key factor in his ultimate goal to restore Nosgoth.
166* WhiteHairBlackHeart: His transformation into a vampire turned his hair white, and thus his transformation from an unpleasant nobleman to a wicked vampire overlord begins. [[spoiler: Bonus points for having a heart that is literally black: the Heart of Darkness]]
167* WildCard: Raziel calls him in this in ''Soul Reaver 2'', as Raziel refusing to slay him has muddled Moebius' plots.
168* WillNotTellALie: He'll withhold information, usually from Raziel, but he doesn't outright lie. It's not made clear if he's actually honest by nature or just too proud. He lies a bit more in ''Blood Omen 2'', but usually just to talk his way past guards.
169* WorfHadTheFlu: His defeat at the hands of Raziel in ''Defiance'' wasn't exactly decisive. He gained the advantage early on and held his own throughout; it was only when he let his guard down in surprise at the Reaver absorbing Raziel that the latter was able to strike the finishing blow.
170[[/folder]]
171
172[[folder:Raziel]]
173[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokraziel_5694.png]]
174[[caption-width-right:250:Click the note to see the vampire Raziel.[[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/humanraziel.png[[/note]]]]
175->"This one thing I readily admit--I have been used by others time and again. But always I seem to stray from their path...What is it about me, Demon, that makes me such an unreliable instrument?"
176!!!Voiced by Creator/MichaelBell (EN), Creator/BernardLanneau (FR)
177
178The other protagonist of the series besides Kain, he was Kain's right-hand man in his vampire empire, until [[PowerGivesYouWings he grew wings]] before Kain. Kain had Dumah and Turel toss him into the Lake of the Dead to burn forever, but he was saved by the Elder God, deformed but given new life as a wraith and a chance to avenge himself. However, Kain instead led Raziel on a trip through Nosgoth's bloody and complex history to make him see the bigger picture and the grander destinies they both deserve. Raziel discovers he has free will and so he alone has the power to change history, and in doing so he could bring about the doom of Nosgoth, or its salvation. Everyone knows it, and is trying to sway him into helping them more than their enemies – and unfortunately, he often falls for it.
179----
180* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: As a result of his disfigurement in the Lake of the Dead and subsequent resurrection as a wraith, Raziel has blue skin.
181* AmnesiacDissonance: He has no memories of his life as a human when he's raised as a vampire. This turns out to be a plot point.
182* AndIMustScream: First, he gets cast into the Lake of the Dead and burns for several centuries until the Elder God plucks him from the time stream, then between ''Soul Reaver 2'' and ''Defiance'' he spends a few more centuries as the Elder God's prisoner. According to the Elder God this is the best he can do – Raziel's nature as his agent means he's physically incapable of dying, so he settles for keeping Raziel weak and immobilized. [[spoiler:Raziel's fate to be drawn into the Soul Reaver ''may'' be considered this, the series doesn't make it clear if the "Raziel" spirit in the Reaver has full sentience or not, though fortunately it's implied not. Either way though, he's finally freed at the end of ''Defiance'' when he releases the purified Spectral Reaver into Kain.]]
183* AndShowItToYou: In ''Defiance'', he [[spoiler: tears Kain's heart out]].
184* AntiHero: He's fundamentally good, but not above morally questionable acts depending on the circumstances. He's also willing to kill whoever he needs to that gets in his way, but unlike Kain (who relishes combat) Raziel takes no pleasure from it and stays his hand on occasion. However, Raziel is self-righteous and ignorant of Nosgoth's GambitPileup for most of the series. This leads to a habit of helping villains without realizing it, which in tandem with his initially selfish motivations (i.e. revenge), keeps him from being considered a true hero.
185* BadassNormal: In life he was a very powerful warrior.
186* BarbieDollAnatomy: In part because he was burned alive in the Abyss.
187* BeenThereShapedHistory: As revealed at the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'', Raziel was the one who [[spoiler:killed Janos Audron, during his days as a Sarafan. Not only that, but it turns out that the wraith Raziel from the future was the one who killed his own past self and the other five Sarafan who committed the murder, providing the very same corpses that Kain would raise from the dead as vampires 1000 years later.]]
188-->"And so it ends. My history comes full circle."
189* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Kain mocks him for this at the end of ''Soul Reaver'' and at the beginning of ''Soul Reaver 2'' – Raziel's tendency to presume he is the moral superior and his enemies are evil is one of his major flaws.
190* BlueIsHeroic: He has blue skin and is one of the main heroes of the series, being considerably more moral than Kain.
191* BodyHorror: After being tossed into the Abyss, Raziel is little more than a blue walking skeleton and has ''no lower jaw.''
192* BorrowedCatchphrase: When he defeats Kain in ''Defiance'', he calls out Kain's own "Vae Victis" as he deals the final blow.
193* BreakTheHaughty: Was described as proud of his looks before the execution.
194* BrokenAngel: As a vampire, Raziel was oddly beautiful, and even sprouted impressive wings... which Kain ripped from his body, leaving only tattered remnants, before throwing him into the abyss, reducing him to the ghoulish wraith you play as. [[spoiler:Meeting Janos Audron, who's horrified by what has happened to him, even implies that had it not been for the corruption he had inherited from Kain at his creation, his true appearance might have been an angelic creature like Janos.]]
195* BrokenPedestal:
196** He initially has UndyingLoyalty to Kain... until 1000 years of loyal servitude is rewarded by Kain destroying his wings and having him executed [[EvilIsPetty simply for daring to evolve before Kain]]. [[spoiler:Subverted once he discovers [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Kain had much more justifiable reasons]]; from the moment he starts to suspect it, his attitude towards Kain becomes notably a bit more respectful if still skeptical.]]
197** Upon finding out that he was once a Sarafan priest, he idolizes them and tries to live up to his heritage. This fades away throughout ''Soul Reaver 2'', as he discovers the humane side of the vampires and sees the Sarafan for the {{Knight Templar}}s they truly were.
198* CapeWings: Sort of. He did have bat-like wings, but Kain tearing the bones out and a few hundred years burning in water [[{{OurVampiresAreDifferent}} (which is acidic to most vampires)]] left them as dead flaps of skin. They act like a cape, and Raziel can hold them up with his hands to catch wind and glide with them.
199* CharacterDevelopment: Like Kain, he was originally of high status before being betrayed and cast to his death, and then dragged into an involuntary DealWithTheDevil so that he could come back and seek {{Revenge}}. Unlike Kain, Raziel comes to angst and hate his lot in unlife, and grows to wish to save the world for genuinely altruistic ends, even if it takes realizing the world is a GrayAndBlackMorality one that furthers his cynical and embittered perspective. His hatred for Kain also eventually gives way to [[spoiler:realizing how badly he screwed up in ''Defiance'' and swiftly moves to make amends, even if it [[HeroicSacrifice costs him his own soul in the process]].]]
200* CompleteImmortality: As stated in the first ''Soul Reaver'', Raziel is "beyond death." If he is slain in the Material Realm, he merely shifts back into the Spectral Realm, and if he is defeated there, he will eventually reform.
201* CoolMask: He uses his clan banner as one, to cover up his missing lower jaw.
202* CoolSword: Wields the [[SpectralWeaponCopy spectral]] Soul Reaver to Kain's material Soul Reaver.
203* CosmicPlaything: By virtue of possibly being the one being in existence who truly has free will, ''everyone'' tries to manipulate him into helping them, mostly all at the same time.
204* DeadpanSnarker: He definitely begins to pick up Kain's wit as the series goes on.
205-->''(to the Elder God)'' "Ah, my ancient 'benefactor'... And I dared to hope we had parted ways forever. Your silence was refreshing, while it lasted. No doubt you have a conveniently inexpressible reason for your presence here?"
206* DecoyProtagonist: Ultimately, ''Defiance'' reveals him as this.
207-->'''The Elder God:''' Your fate is trivial, Raziel. It was Kain's destiny that mattered all along.
208* {{Deuteragonist}}: To Kain's [[TheProtagonist Protagonist]] – the fact that Kain's name is in the series title proves the series is his story, but Raziel is clearly the secondary protagonist. [[spoiler:And if not for the last half hour of ''Defiance'', one could argue Raziel is the true protagonist with Kain as a DecoyProtagonist]].
209* DevilsAdvocate: Becomes this for Kain a ways into ''Soul Reaver 2''. Despite having as good a reason as any to want the guy dead, Raziel can't help but notice how loudly his nominal allies (the Elder God, Moebius, and Ariel) are all calling for Kain's head, and is moved to question their motives. His scathing dressing down of a despairing Ariel in particular reeks of this: for all their mutual hatred of Kain, Raziel points out that Kain wasn't responsible for her death, that she deceived Kain right up until the final choice she put on him, and that Nosgoth would have been ''even more'' screwed had he accepted the sacrifice.
210* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: In ''Defiance'', Raziel in no uncertain terms lets the Elder God know repeatedly that any gratitude he had for his revival has been exhausted.
211-->'''Raziel:''' I should have known I'd find ''you'' here. \
212'''Elder God:''' Here and everywhere, now and always. I am the Wheel and its turning, I am the circle of life and death. \
213'''Raziel:''' And ''I'' am beginning to think [[spoiler:the Vampires]] committed suicide only to escape your voice.
214* DoomedProtagonist: Unless he wants to undo history with dozens of paradoxes, eventually [[spoiler:Raziel has to merge with the Soul Reaver]] whether he wants to or not. According to WordOfGod however, he eventually subverts this with ''Defiance'', as [[spoiler:the wraith blade Raziel holds is released into Kain to purify his sight during his HeroicSacrifice, freeing Raziel's future self at last.]]
215* TheDreaded: Kain is trying to save him, but he is nonetheless afraid of him since Raziel was originally fate to kill him.
216* EasilyForgiven: Since Kain was responsible for what he went through in the first place, he never holds any ill will against Raziel for [[spoiler:killing him and tearing the Heart of Darkness out]] in ''Defiance''.
217* EveryoneHasStandards: While he starts out ''Soul Reaver 2'' cherishing his humanity and believing vampirism is a plague, he's nonetheless disgusted with the brutality of Moebius' soldiers.
218-->'''Raziel''': In this era, vampires were clearly not the uncontested predators we had been... these creatures were hunted mercilessly, and oppressed. And while I still believed that vampirism was a plague, and had to be wiped out, there was nothing noble or righteous in this crusade – this was simply ruthless persecution.
219* EvenMooksHaveLovedOnes: Barring his unjust execution, finding out his whole clan was wiped clean following it was one of the biggest reasons for Raziel's BrokenPedestal towards Kain in the original Soul Reaver, to the point he drops his TranquilFury and is practically roaring in anger at Kain for how unconscionable the act was to massacre his own children for ''his'' supposed crime. [[spoiler:However, [[AmbiguousSituation as Kain neither confirms nor denies the action and given how his intentions for Raziel were more benevolent than he knew at the time]], it's not clear if Kain even ''was'' the culprit behind his clan's eradication and was just simply egging on Raziel at the time to move him along to where he needed him to be in the plan.]]
220* FacialHorror: He completely lacks a lower jaw.
221* FallenAngel: A recurring motif connected to him, particularly with him being thrown into the Lake of the Dead and rising as the Elder God's servant to hunt the vampires. The Elder God even directly refers to him as "my angel of death" a few times.
222* FaustianRebellion: When he discovers more about what the Elder God really is, he stops serving him willingly. The Elder God and Raziel discuss that because of the way he was revived, the Elder God actually ''can't'' kill Raziel, he can only weaken him to keep him contained, and when Raziel is moving on his own the Elder God's only method to keep him in line is his CombatTentacles.
223* FullFrontalAssault: Aside from that scarf, as well as his gauntlets and shin guards, he's completely naked. Of course, he also doesn't have anything to conceal, unless you're really into pelvic bones.
224* FutureMeScaresMe: Given that his future self is a ravenous, barely sentient ethereal entity eternally imprisoned in a sword, it's understandable.
225* GlowingEyesOfDoom: His eyes glow white, sometimes green. [[spoiler:Green denotes that Hylden possession is influencing his actions.]]
226* HamToHamCombat: While decidedly less hammy than Kain, the two shared some hammy moments in Soul Reaver.
227* HeroicBSOD: Has a brief one in ''Soul Reaver 2'' when [[spoiler:he discovers that it was his Sarafan self who murdered Janos]], and again when he discovers that [[spoiler: the Soul Reaver is actually his own soul, sucked into the blade and trapped there for millennia.]]
228* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Defiance'', he lets himself be impaled by Kain to grant him the power to defeat the Elder God. To be clear, his current self is imprisoned in the Soul Reaver, while his own future soul that he wielded as a weapon throughout the series is is used to purify Kain of Nupraptor's insanity.]]
229* HopeBringer: [[spoiler: By the end of ''Defiance'' thanks to his HeroicSacrifice. Kain states that Raziel gave him great gifts by arming him with the purified Soul Reaver, granting him new sight that allowed him to see the Elder God, but his greatest gift was hope. The first real taste of hope Kain had in hundreds of years.]]
230* HunterOfHisOwnKind: Thrice over, believe it or not. He hunts vampires in ''Soul Reaver'', wraith-creatures like himself in ''Soul Reaver'' and ''Defiance'', and [[spoiler:Sarafan in the latter half of ''Soul Reaver 2''.]]
231* IHatePastMe: While Raziel initially aspires to his past life as a Sarafan knight, by the time he discovers the true nature of the Sarafan, he is utterly disgusted and renounces his human self.
232* IWasQuiteALooker: While he doesn't dwell on it too much, Raziel does often lament his current visage is a big step down from how he looked in life. Of course, this might be less about how handsome he once was and more about the fact that he used to have skin, a stomach and a jawbone.
233* IconicSequelCharacter: Introduced in the second game, he quickly became a central character in the games, with his conflict with Kain driving most of the franchise's plot.
234* ImmuneToFate: By virtue of being able to ScrewDestiny freely. ''Defiance'' explains that while Moebius (and presumably other omniscient beings) can see the ripples in time from Raziel's potential actions, they cannot see which single path he will take of them because he really does have free will. Raziel essentially has a blank check to do what he wants because he's either too valuable or too powerful to be killed, but is also too emotionally unstable to manipulate with certainty. [[spoiler:That is until the end of "Defiance" where Raziel, now holding all the cards, becomes the biggest SpannerInTheWorks to the Elder God's plan with his subsequent HeroicSacrifice.]]
235* {{Irony}}: He spends the whole of ''Defiance'' trying to avoid his fate of [[spoiler: becoming the Soul Reaver]], but at the end, he willingly submits to it to help Kain defeat the Elder God.
236* ItsPersonal: His rivalry with Kain is centered on Kain casting him into oblivion and disfiguring him for a relatively petty act of treason.
237* KickTheDog: He gives Ariel a BreakingSpeech in ''Soul Reaver 2'', listing off her own grim deeds and the unfair choice she forced upon Kain. But needling her about the death she bade Kain give Nupraptor was rather cruel.
238* KnightTemplar: Raziel has a natural urge to behave like he's entirely justified and in the right, and his enemies are entirely wrong, regardless of what causes or motives are involved. [[spoiler: His Sarafan and vampire selves were exactly the same, only working for different sides.]] It's only after he becomes a wraith that Raziel learns to see the viewpoints of others and understand the BlackAndGreyMorality that permeates the series. He fully realizes this trope when [[spoiler:his Sarafan self kills Janos and obviously feels no guilt or shame for it]], leading to this exchange:
239-->'''[[spoiler:Sarafan!Raziel]]:''' You're a righteous fiend, aren't you?\
240'''Raziel:''' Apparently I am.
241* LesserOfTwoEvils: At the end of ''Defiance'', he [[spoiler: allows himself to be absorbed into the Reaver rather than be the Elder God's captive for the rest of eternity. He's a prisoner either way, but one of his prisons can do more good than the other]].
242* LongHairedPrettyBoy: Look carefully at his concept art, and cutscene when he is thrown at the Abyss in Soul Reaver. He has his hair tied.
243* MagicKnight: Not as much as Kain though – he was at the height of his magical prowess in ''Soul Reaver'' when he could find glyphs that gave him access to magic attacks. The Glyph system and the abilities Raziel got from them were dropped in the next game, and the only magical powers or equivalent that Raziel was left with were his telekinetic skills and the powers of the Soul Reaver itself, which he cannot use on his own.
244* MeaningfulName: The Archangel Raziel is known as the Keeper of Secrets and Angel of Mysteries, and is associated with the Sephira Chokmah, for wisdom. Appropriately, Raziel is often compared to a dark angel due to his grotesque appearance, and his discovery of Nosgoth's bloody history and how he handles the information are the crucible on which the plot comes to turn.
245* MegaManning: As he kills his brothers he absorbs their souls and powers. In ''Defiance'', he unlocks new powers for the Reaver by feeding it the souls of former Pillar Guardians.
246* MirrorCharacter: Killed and revived to take vengeance on his murderers via a DealWithTheDevil, forced to do morally unpleasant things for a greater good, prone to manipulation by others, prone to being very self-righteous – for all their differences, Raziel and Kain are very much alike. Kain lampshades to Raziel that if he would just learn to trust Kain, he'd understand they could be allies, since in his opinion they work for the same causes.
247* MoralityPet: Is the only person Kain seems to care about besides himself, to the point where he continues to put himself in danger in hopes of saving Raziel.
248* MusclesAreMeaningless: According to the Elder God, even though Raziel's more or less a skeleton, his physical strength is greater as a wraith than it was as a vampire. Indeed, he's able to push and pull big stone blocks and overpower vampires with ease. He was [[HeroicBuild muscular]] when he was a Sarafan and a vampire though.
249* MysteriousPast: Discovers it during the course of the series.
250* NiceJobBreakingItHero: So many times. [[spoiler:Killing Kain most prominently]], not to mention [[spoiler:giving the Sarafan access to Janos' lair to kill him, and reviving Janos later to give the Hylden Lord the vessel he needs for his plans]].
251* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Following his casting into the abyss, he's an undead vampire. In the spectral realm, he's a ghost of a vampire. This in total makes him a zombie vampire ghost.
252* NobleDemon: While Kain is only in it for himself, Raziel really does want to do the right thing, he just doesn't see the larger scheme of things and so doesn't know that "the right thing to do" is a very hard term to define in this series.
253* TheOnlyOne: As revealed over the course of ''Soul Reaver 2'' and ''Defiance'', due to his rebirth as a wraith, Raziel is the ''only'' being in Nosgoth who truly possesses free will, thus making him the only being ImmuneToFate.
254* OrangeBlueContrast: See Kain's entry for the same. Raziel is associated with blue-greens while Kain is associated with red-oranges.
255* ParadoxPerson: The wraith blade bound to him as his symbiotic weapon is in fact [[spoiler:his future self, destined to be absorbed into the vacant Reaver blade, turning it into the Soul Reaver. Essentially, Raziel is wearing his own soul from a different time on his arm, making him a paradox on legs]]. Because of his nature, Raziel is the ''only'' being in Nosgoth with true free will, making him ImmuneToFate and allowing him to ScrewDestiny at his leisure.
256* PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes: Sorta. He's more moral than many of the characters in the series, and he displays a lot less respect when meeting Kain and Moebius than they show him in turn.
257* PossessingADeadBody: In ''Defiance'', after being denied access to the conduits between realms by the Elder God, he teaches himself to take control of corpses and use them as vessels in order to manifest in the material realm.
258* ThePowerOfHate: While Raziel doesn't claim it himself, Kain sees it in him. In ''Soul Reaver'', he even claims this is how he knew Raziel would come back for revenge.
259-->'''Raziel:''' Did it trouble ''you'' when you ordered me into the Abyss?\
260'''Kain:''' No. I had faith in you. In your ability to hate. In your self-righteous indignation.
261* ProperlyParanoid: He's ''very'' mistrustful, but it's still not enough to keep him from getting played.
262* ProphecyTwist: Throughout ''Defiance'' Raziel and Kain both find murals depicting two champions locked in combat to decide the fate of Nosgoth, but the murals variably depict either of them victorious. Raziel presumes the two champions are him and Kain, though he's uncertain which is which. According to WordOfGod, it's much more complex than that – [[spoiler:Raziel is ''both'' champions. He is the champion of the Hylden by way of reviving Janos and giving them the vessel they need to break the seal on their dimension, and he is the champion of the Ancients by allowing Kain to kill him and receive the empowered Soul Reaver needed to fight the Elder God. The murals show either champion victorious because Raziel allows himself to die to serve the greater good, perishing and triumphing with the same action.]]
263* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: As noted under KnightTemplar, this is an in-universe case. Raziel typically behaves like he's always acting in the right and his enemies are evil and should be defeated; the causes either of them fight for or the morality of their actions are secondary to this. Kain lampshades this repeatedly, referring to it as "self-righteous indignation".
264* RemovedAchillesHeel: When he devours [[spoiler:Rahab's]] soul, he gains immunity to water and the ability to swim.
265* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A majority of his quest during the games, though he develops other motives eventually. Goes on a smaller-scale one at the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'' against [[spoiler:the Sarafan when they kill Janos]].
266* ScarfOfAsskicking: his cowl is iconic.
267* ScrewDestiny: This becomes his driving force once he learns [[spoiler: that his fate is to become the ravenous soul-devouring spirit within the physical Soul Reaver. Ironically, he ultimately succeeds in doing so by giving into this fate...but under entirely different conditions. In doing so, he was able to purify the Soul Reaver, which allowed Kain to see and fight the true enemy: the Elder God.]]
268%%* ShutUpHannibal: Tosses quite of a few at Kain.
269* SpannerInTheWorks: By virtue of possibly being the one creature in all existence who can ScrewDestiny. DoubleSubverted since this simultaneously makes him the guy who can ultimately screw with everyone else's evil manipluations, but at the same time makes him the one guy to be the ''subject'' of said evil manipulations as everyone but him realizes this. Ironically, despite this power, he is the character in the game most likely to angst about how he seems to have no control over his own fate and finds himself manipulated at every turn.
270* SuperSwimmingSkills: After consuming Rahab's soul, along with gaining [[RemovedAchillesHeel immunity to]] [[KillItWithWater water]], he immediately learns how to swim.
271* TemporalSuicide: When he travels into Nosgoth's past and comes into conflict with the Sarafan Order, he ends up murdering the vampire hunter whose corpse Kain would use to create him.
272* TragicHero: [[spoiler: Lets himself die so Kain can fulfill his destiny]].
273* TransformationOfThePossessed: In ''Defiance''. After the Elder God removes all portals between the material and spectral realms to punish Raziel for his rebellion, Raziel finds a way around it by possessing corpses and then reshaping their flesh into his own form.
274* TheUnchosenOne: [[spoiler:As Moebius and The Elder God point out to him in ''Defiance'', despite Raziel's belief he's TheChosenOne, that title belongs to Kain. Raziel isn't the savior of Nosgoth, he's the guy who can make it right[=/=]screw it up for the real thing.]]
275* TheUnintelligible: Defied. Though Raziel has no lower jaw to speak of, he is still capable of perfect speech. Amy Hennig {{Hand Wave}}s this as a result of "very supple throat muscles."
276* UnwittingPawn: Ho boy, where to start. Pretty much ''everything'' Raziel ever does up until [[spoiler:his sacrifice at the end of ''Defiance'']] helps further the plans of someone else in ways he doesn't realize until it's too late. And even with that act marked in the spoiler tag, he's still submitting to the will of someone else and going along with their plan, he's just doing it willingly now.
277* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: [[spoiler: Raziel finally gets the revenge he wanted so badly in Defiance, defeating Kain in combat and even ripping out his heart before banishing him into a dimensional rift. But at this point, he knows too much of Kain's true motivations, the actions of Moebius, and the Elder God using him.]]
278-->'''Raziel:''' Kain was gone. The madness of this place had somehow fueled my rage, and as it subsided I felt no elation, no sense of victory. Only a calm certainty that we had once again walked blindly into our enemies' trap. I couldn't be sure whether Kain had truly intended to destroy me – and now it appeared I would never know.
279* VillainProtagonist: In the later parts of ''Defiance''. The player knows that [[spoiler:reviving Janos]] is a terrible idea, but Raziel does not and pursues his goal regardless of warnings from Kain. [[spoiler:And ultimately and inevitably, it backfires and causes the events of ''Blood Omen 2''.]]
280* WalkingSpoiler:[[spoiler: He is the spirit of the Soul Reaver]].
281* WingedHumanoid: Though he didn't get to enjoy it for long.
282* WrongGenreSavvy: By the time ''Defiance'' rolls around, Raziel has wised up and realized ''everyone'' is going to try and manipulate him for their own ends. However, when Kain tries to play it straight and tell Raziel the truth, Raziel assumes it's just more manipulations and refuses to trust him.
283* YourSoulIsMine: Raziel devours souls to sustain himself. In ''Soul Reaver 2'' the Soul Reaver itself will devour the souls of enemies Raziel fights with it, ultimately leaving nothing for him to snack on for healing if he deals the final blow with the sword. Furthermore, if he lets it get too worked up, it'll start to [[CastFromHitPoints suck the life out of him instead.]]
284[[/folder]]
285
286[[folder:The Soul Reaver]]
287[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soulreaver_5197.png]]
288->"The image of the Reaver was inscribed throughout this place, always depicted with reverence. The Vampires' holy weapon was borne by their prophesied hero, for whom it was forged."
289
290The Soul Reaver is a legendary Vampire weapon, forged in ancient times by Vorador at the command of the ancient Vampires. The sword drains the blood of its victims, and is originally known as simply "the Reaver", but at some point it gained the ability to devour souls, transforming it into the Soul Reaver. The blade houses a parasitic entity that has a semblance of sentience, causing the Reaver to act on its own accord at times. This parasitic entity is eventually freed as the sword's spectral half to be bonded to Raziel. The history of the blade connects it to many of the power struggles and gambits being played through history.
291----
292* AncestralWeapon: As of ''Defiance'', the Soul Reaver Kain wields in the ''Blood Omen'' games was originally used by his future self further in the past, making ''both'' versions of the weapon this to the other in a sense.
293* AndIMustScream: The parasitic intelligence in the blade has been trapped in it for centuries verging on millennia. [[spoiler:It is implied when Raziel purifies it at the end of ''Defiance'' and transfers its power to Kain, his future self in the blade is finally freed.]]
294* ArtEvolution:
295** In the ''Soul Reaver'' games the spectral sword is a simple blade of energy emerging from Raziel's hand. In ''Defiance'' the Soul Reaver is instead a complete spectral sword with crossguards and a hilt that Raziel holds. This was the intended design all along, but graphical limitations of the time prevented it.
296** As for the material Reaver, it looked slightly different in ''Blood Omen'', with only two horns on the side and a different hilt.
297* AscendedExtra: While the strongest weapon in ''Blood Omen'', it didn't have any significance beyond acting as another weapon for Kain to use. Later games added far more importance to it.
298* {{BFS}}: While the sword is much longer in ''Blood Omen'' than in the later games (the longer reach probably because in that game it drained magic everytime it was swung) where it was longer than Kain was tall, the rest of the series still presents it as a very long sword.
299* BladeBelowTheShoulder: As described above, originally the spectral Soul Reaver was a blade of energy Raziel conjured from his palm.
300* CoolSword: A weapon of prophecy forged for TheChosenOne, and worthy of the deed.
301* TheDreaded: Raziel's narration in ''Soul Reaver'' make it clear that the rest of the vampires are terrified of them, considering the blade to more dangerous any of them.
302* ElementalPowers: Raziel and Kain each gain SpellBlade powers channeled through the Reaver, though Kain only gets them in ''Defiance'' while Raziel has them in several games. Kain gets [[PlayingWithFire Fire]], [[TeleportSpam Dimension]], [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]], [[TimeStandsStill Time]], and [[EleventhHourSuperpower Spirit]], while Raziel has [[HolyHandGrenade Light]], [[CastingAShadow Dark]], [[FlamingSword Fire]], [[BlowYouAway Air]], [[MakingASplash Water]], [[DishingOutDirt Earth]], and [[InfinityPlusOneElement Spirit]].
303* EmpathicWeapon: In ''Soul Reaver 2'', Raziel awakens a parasitic intelligence within the blade, granting it a semi-sentience and causing it to act of its own accord at times. [[spoiler:Turns out this entity is Raziel's future self, when he goes back in time and is absorbed into the material Soul Reaver.]]
304* LaserBlade: Its spectral form is technically made of spiritual energy, but the visual effect is the same, and it has sound effects similar to a ''Star Wars'' lightsaber.
305* NotSoInvincibleAfterAll: The blade is stated to be indestructible, and yet it has been broken twice: once by Kain himself during his battle with William the Just, and once in ''Soul Reaver'' when Kain shattered it over Raziel's head (though this latter case is explained as having been the result of the Soul Reaver being unable to [[spoiler: consume its own soul]].)
306* OddlyShapedSword: The blade undulates back and forth.
307* OneHitKO: Kills all enemies in the ''Blood Omen'' in one hit, aside from bosses. To compensate, it drains some of Kain's magic each time it's used.
308* OverlyLongTongue: The blade of the Soul Reaver is actually the tongue of the skull carved into the handguard.
309* PowerGlows: Takes on an aura when fully charged in ''Defiance'', the type of aura depending on the elemental power equipped. Fire, of course, makes it a FlamingSword.
310* ReforgedBlade: Ironically, it was Kain himself who broke it, breaking William the Just's past version of the sword with his own Soul Reaver that was repaired between the two incidents.
311* SignificantNameOverlap: [[invoked]] Raziel is often referred to as a "soul reaver" as well. [[spoiler:This is very relevant.]]
312* SoulCuttingBlade: The blade drains the souls of enemies. This also allows it to instantly kill vampires, normally immune to normal weapons bar impalement or decapitation.
313* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The short story of it is that the fate of the world hinges on the Soul Reaver, who uses it, and how it is empowered.
314* WeaponWieldsYou: Sometimes the Soul Reaver does things Raziel does not necessarily want to do, and even when it doesn't exert direct influence, Raziel comments he can feel when the sword is compelling him to do something.
315[[/folder]]
316
317[[folder:Moebius the Time-Streamer]]
318[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokmoebius_5290.png]]
319->"Poor, deluded Raziel... did you somehow imagine you had the guile to change history on ''me?'' I'm the Time-Streamer: I knew your every intention before you did, you imbecile."
320!!!Voiced by Richard Doyle (EN); Jean-Louis Faure (''Soul Reaver 2''), Michel Barbier (''Defiance'') (FR)
321
322One of the Circle of Nine and a central antagonist, Moebius is the Guardian of Time and thus can see the past and future, as well as travel through time with the aid of specialized machinery. He manipulated Kain in ''Blood Omen'' to further his agenda to exterminate all vampires, only to be slain with the rest of the Circle. He reappears later in the series, where it's revealed he had plans for Kain and Raziel in place that transcend his death.
323----
324* ArchEnemy: To Kain. The bulk of the series concerns him and Moebius playing a game of XanatosSpeedChess across time and space.
325* AscendedExtra: Goes from just being another antagonist in ''Blood Omen'' to being a major antagonist in the rest of the series.
326* AssholeVictim: Moebius meets his death in an unpleasant fashion (multiple times even), but no one can say he doesn't have it coming.
327* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Got revived in ''Defiance'' about ten minutes after he died during the events of ''Blood Omen''. He got to enjoy his second chance for all of another ten minutes before he found out Kain had also invoked this trope.]]
328* BadassBoast: Subtly done with his "Death comes for us all. It's just a matter of time" line said to Raziel in the beginning of ''Soul Reaver 2''. What normally would be a somewhat philosophical statement takes a different meaning when the person saying it is a TimeMaster. Doubly so when we learn in ''Defiance'' that he and Mortanius used to be something of BashBrothers in the past – this boast might as well be describing them both.
329* BadassLongrobe: His standard attire is a blue hooded robe with gold trim.
330* BadBoss: When Raziel meets him in ''Soul Reaver 2'', Moebius gives him permission to slay his vampire hunter servants on his way out of his lair. He ''could'' let them know Raziel is their ally, but nah.
331-->"Try to keep the casualties to a minimum. But, do what you have to do. All great movements require a few martyrs."
332** CallBack: The last sentence can also be seen as an allusion [[spoiler: to his plan to have Kain kill William the Just in ''Blood Omen'', turning him into a martyr to kickstar his vampire purges.]]
333* BaldOfEvil: Though not always apparent due to his hooded robes, he is bald beneath them.
334* BecauseDestinySaysSo: He can see through time. It's kinda part of the package.
335-->'''Raziel:''' I should kill you where you stand.\
336'''Moebius:''' ''(Chuckle)'' Perhaps you should, my boy... but you don't.\
337'''Raziel:''' Are you so certain of that, Moebius?\
338'''Moebius:''' My role as Time Guardian offers me a certain level of omniscience, Raziel. No, you don't kill me; that honor belongs to your maker, Kain, [[VideoGame/BloodOmenLegacyOfKain some thirty years from now.]]
339* BigNo: In ''Defiance'' when [[spoiler: his spirit is ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice by Raziel and he gets his first and last glimpse at the Elder God's true form.]]
340-->'''Raziel:''' [[spoiler:Do you see [[EldritchAbomination it]] now? The monster that you served? Is this what you imagined when you worshipped it?]] \
341'''Moebius:''' Noooooooooooo!
342* BigBad: In ''Soul Reaver 2'', between him and the other antagonists he has the most direct role, since the Elder God doesn't do much and the Hylden are only brought up in the ending.
343* TheChessmaster: Plays a very mean game of XanatosSpeedChess against Kain's MagnificentBastard as the series progresses. [[spoiler:And he seemingly won, up until Kain survived losing the Heart of Darkness.]]
344* ConsummateLiar: He manages to fool Raziel even though he knew he was untrustworthy.
345* TheCorrupter: In ''Blood Omen'' is stated that he travelled back in time and turned the Boy-king William the Just into the dreaded ''Nemesis'' just to manipulate Kain into killing him before he becomes the Nemesis (i.e when he was still loved by the people) and using the ensuing outrage against the Vampire race, which leads to their near-extintion in the new present timeline.
346* DeaderThanDead: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Defiance'', his physical body is skewered by Kain, his soul is consumed by Raziel, and his corpse is then possessed by Raziel where it fades into nothingness after he's absorbed into the Soul Reaver]]. About the only thing left of Moebius by that point is his staff.
347* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler:Attempts this with Kain after the latter returns and kills him, with mediocre success. His other death by Raziel's hand however has him straight out whimpering at the end]].
348* DidYouActuallyBelieve: Gives Raziel such a speech during the climax of ''Soul Reaver 2'':
349-->'''Moebius''': Poor, deluded Raziel... did you somehow imagine you had the guile to change history on ''me?'' I’m the Time-Streamer! I knew your every intention before you did, you imbecile.
350** Raziel in turn gets to turn this back on him in ''Defiance'' when [[spoiler: showing him the true form of the Elder God, taunting him over having worshipped a glorified cosmic parasite.]]
351* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler:As Kain delights in pointing out, Moebius definitely didn't expect him to survive his battle with Raziel in ''Defiance''.]] Doubly effective because not only is Moebius TheChessmaster, he can also see the future, [[spoiler: moreso when it turns out he can't subdue Kain anymore]].
352-->'''Kain:''' First, your omniscience, and now your powers; you're slipping badly.
353* DirtyCoward: He looks brave at first, but it's only because his power to see across time [[BecauseDestinySaysSo means he can foresee when he's going to die]]. When his life is actually in danger, [[spoiler:either due to Raziel's paradox or Kain surviving despite his predictions]], he's not so brave.
354* TheDragon: For [[spoiler:the Elder God, as revealed in ''Soul Reaver 2'']].
355* EvilAllAlong: As revealed across the series, Moebius was the devious ManipulativeBastard he is long before Nupraptor's psychic attack on the Circle of Nine drove him insane.
356* EvilGloating: Quite fond of this when he's gotten the better of his enemies.
357* EvilFeelsGood: When Raziel figures out he was manipulating him, Moebius admits that he enjoyed playing puppeteer.
358* FantasticRacism: He absolutely and completely ''hates'' vampires, especially Kain.
359* FauxAffablyEvil: Often speaks politely to those he's duping, only to drop the act while he's gloating about how it was so easy to trick them. In his first meeting with Kain in ''Defiance'', he even greets his old foe with an almost cordial "It has been a long time, hasn't it?"
360* {{Foil}}:
361** To Kain. While they're both manipulative, Kain at least places some value on loyalty and the lives of those faithful to him, and isn't afraid to risk his life to achieve his ends. Moebius cares nothing for those under him, and is a DirtyCoward that only acts brave because knowing the future means he already knows how nearly every encounter he has will turn out.
362** He's also one to Mortanius. In Blood Omen, both end up manipulating Kain for their own agendas, but whereas Mortanius objective is somewhat moral, namely [[spoiler:to get Kain to purge the circle after they started to neglect their duties to Nosgoth]], Moebius goal is far more nefarious [[spoiler:as he manipulates events so that Kain ends up killing King William the Just in the past before he becomes the tyrant Nemesis, thus having an excuse to exterminate all vampires in Nosgoth]]. ''Defiance'' shows that this also goes way back as [[spoiler: both were the human guardians that overthrew the vampiric rule on mankind, took dominion over the Pillars and started the hunt on vampires]], but whereas Mortanius ends up regretting his actions and acts to fix the harm he has done, Moebius instead allows Nosgoth to tear itself apart if it means fulfilling his goals.
363* FreudianExcuse: Kain discovers the reason for his hatred of vampires over the course of ''Defiance'': [[spoiler:When he was a child, he was kidnapped by the ancient vampires, who knew he was to become the Guardian of Time and wanted to turn him into a vampire so he would be better suited to his duties. Moebius went on to lead a genocidal uprising of humanity against the vampires with the aid of fellow abductee Mortanius.]]
364* HateSink: While his [[FreudianExcuse backstory]] and his [[WellIntentionedExtremist motives]] for wanting the vampires dead are perfectly understandable, his sneering, overconfident demeanor and blindly genocidal ambitions do little to endear him.
365* HoistByHisOwnPetard: A very, ''very'' long running one that actually caused the entire saga to unfold. Back in ''Blood Omen'', Moebius initially manipulated Kain into going back in time to kill King William the Just before he could become the dreaded Nemesis down the line, which gave him the opportunity to use William as a martyr and kickstart another genocidal purge against the vampires. What Moebius didn't foresee though is that Kain would later on study his encounter and find out how was this even possible given that [[StableTimeLoop history is normally immutable to time travel]], allowing him to learn how to do the same thing himself and [[spoiler: by the time of ''Defiance'', finally free himself from Moebius omniscience and, with the help of Raziel, ultimately kill him off for good.]]
366* HumiliationConga: See KickTheSonOfABitch further down the page. In the span of about sixty seconds, all of Moebius's schemes blow up in his face, his powers fail him, and we see him reduced to a simpering old man before [[spoiler:he's finally put out of everyone else's misery for good.]]
367* {{Jerkass}}: Far more so than Kain even, as he often shows his face before his enemies just to mock them for how futile their actions are and/or that they've played into his hands.
368* KickTheSonOfABitch: In ''Defiance'', he's [[spoiler:impaled and killed by Kain, and then his spirit rises from his corpse, only to be impaled and reaved by Raziel in the Spectral Realm, and both times they taunt him before he goes.]] Harsh, but after all that he's done up to that point, it can't be denied he had it coming.
369* KryptoniteFactor: His staff can subdue vampires with a wave. Even Kain and Janos can't resist its powers. It can also disable Raziel's spectral Soul Reaver -- [[spoiler:an early hint that the spirit of the blade is that of a vampire]] -- though Raziel himself is somehow unaffected.
370* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[RuleOfThree Three times]], in fact! [[spoiler:At the end of ''Defiance'', Kain impales his body, his spirit rises in the Spectral Realm to be impaled by Raziel, and then Raziel possesses his corpse for Kain to impale yet again.]]
371* MadOracle: He was the Oracle of Nosgoth, and was certainly mad with power.
372* MagicStaff: His signature staff can subdue vampires. [[spoiler:It also has the power to subdue Raziel's spectral Soul Reaver, being that it's formed from Raziel's former-vampiric soul.]]
373* ManipulativeBastard: Oh yes. He has definite advantages in this regard (what with essentially being TheOmniscient), but his ability to play Raziel, who is ImmuneToFate, shows that his more conventional manipulative abilities are still pretty impressive.
374-->'''Raziel:''' So, this has all been arranged, every step of the way. And Kain thought I had free will.\
375'''Moebius:''' Oh, but you ''do'', and there's the greatest triumph of all -- To have compelled the one player who could choose otherwise, into doing exactly what we required.
376* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The way he rallies a crowd is described by Silicon Knights as "[[http://www.dark-chronicle.co.uk/resources/bo1_faq/faqtheme.htm Hitler-esque]]". That he views all vampires as vermin deserving of extermination regardless of whether they're deserving of it or not doesn't help.
377* NonLinearCharacter: At any one point, the Moebius you're seeing could easily be the Moebius from another time period. He appears in ''Soul Reaver 2'' and ''Defiance'' at times when he's technically supposed to be dead. WordOfGod said that the ContinuitySnarl in ''Defiance'' when he appears at Vorador's mansion, when he should have been fighting ''Blood Omen''-era Kain by then, was just Moebius jumping ahead in time briefly to taunt Raziel before he went back to face his death.
378* ObfuscatingStupidity:
379** Combined with ObfuscatingInsanity in ''Blood Omen,'' in which his Oracle persona generally gives every appearance of being a MadOracle delighting in playing silly games with Kain by the fireside. It takes Kain a little while to realize that the Oracle was Moebius manipulating him all along.
380** Invoked when Raziel first meets him, Moebius giving every appearance of being a doddering old man. He doesn't buy it and Moebius quickly drops the act and laughs in his face. However he still hides his true role in the events of the series, and it isn't until ''Defiance'' that he lets everyone see just how powerful and in-control he really is.
381** This is most evident in the way he talks -- throughout ''Soul Reaver 2'', he speaks in a timid old-man tone of voice, frail and scratchy. By the end of the game, however, when he confronts Raziel as an adversary in the Sarafan Stronghold, Moebius' voice is noticeably [[EvilSoundsDeep deeper and graver]] to highlight how he's no longer even ''pretending'' to be friendly.
382* OffWithHisHead: His death in ''Blood Omen'' features him being unceremoniously decapitated by Kain at the end of a boss battle. His other incarnations are actually quite sanguine about the prospect. [[spoiler: In the wake of his death, the Elder God brings him back to deal with the Hylden crisis - only for Kain to kill him again and Raziel to devour his soul, killing him off for real this time.]]
383* OhCrap:
384** Moebius displays a bit of [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness uncharacteristic apprehension]] towards Raziel when he reforms the broken Reaver on William's grave. [[spoiler:He had every reason to be afraid as it was the one of the few moments he had ''no omniscience'' due to the potential for a paradox occurring with the two Reavers (the physical Reaver and his Wraithblade), both held by Raziel at that moment and is putting [[SpannerInTheWorks a massive risk]] on the whole gambit him and the Elder God have by being in Raziel's presence at that moment]].
385** In ''Defiance'', the look on his face when [[spoiler:he realizes Kain is not dead and is right behind him]] is absolutely priceless, which is then followed up by [[spoiler:Kain's [[NoSell new immunity]] to his subduing staff]]. Were he not [[spoiler:ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice]] shortly afterward, he would have had to [[BringMyBrownPants change his pants]] right then and there. He also gets one last one [[spoiler:when Raziel shows him the Elder God, and he realizes exactly ''what'' he's served all those years. All he can do is squeal out a BigNo before he's consumed]].
386* TheOmniscient: He can see through time, backward and forward, at will, so he not only knows all that has and will happen, but any time the timeline changes you can be sure he already knows exactly what's changed by the time Kain or Raziel find him next - ''and'' will know better than them. However, his sight is not ''completely'' foolproof. [[spoiler:He can't see Raziel's future or what he'll do because he has free will – he can see the ripples in time from the potential actions Raziel ''might'' take if he chooses to, but they're liable to change any time, so all he can do is manipulate Raziel into making the choice he wants him to take and hope he falls for it. And come the end of ''Defiance'', he doesn't foresee Kain's return either.]] Kain practically invokes NotSoOmniscientAfterAll by name when he realizes Moebius has his limits.
387-->'''Kain:''' Is there a crack in your omniscience after all, Moebius?
388* ProphetEyes: It is almost impossible to make out his white irises and pupils even up close. His eyesight seems to be perfectly fine, though.
389* SmugSnake: He is eternally confident and in-control, tossing out a lot of smirks and sneers at Kain and Raziel. More than once, this nets him a nasty surprise and even a beatdown from Kain... but he manages to steer events back on course, his ego still intact. [[spoiler: He's so secure in his omniscience that he doesn't even imagine that the Elder God might discard him - or that Kain might be immune to his tricks for a change.]]
390* SquishyWizard: Without his anti-vampire staff, he's not much of a threat, to say the least.
391--> '''Raziel:''' These blades now coiled in sinister embrace have inspired terror in the hearts of creatures far more durable than you, old man.
392* ThisCannotBe: Exclaims "This is not possible...!" when [[spoiler:Kain returns from the dead, something he didn't foresee, and is now immune to his staff's powers.]]
393* TimeMaster: His entire shtick, having the title of "Time-Streamer" and all. In his boss battle in ''Blood Omen,'' he uses his powers to summon up allies from the past, present, and even the future; however, throughout the rest of the series, he prefers to rely on his staff, with his temporal talents restricted to his omniscience concerning history.
394* TheUnfettered: In his goal to exterminate all vampires, he doesn't seem to care how many humans he sacrifices, needless or otherwise, to do it.
395* UnwittingPawn: Kain refers to him as one in ''Soul Reaver 2'', thinking that he's being [[spoiler:manipulated without his knowledge by the Hylden]], he's not in the wrong to call him one as ''Defiance'' shows that [[spoiler:he was just the Elder God's tool with which to marginalize the vampires; once he's done that, the Elder God has no problems letting him die.]]
396* VanHelsingHateCrimes: He seeks nothing less than the extermination of all vampires. While the vampires are hardly saints, they are far more complicated than the AlwaysChaoticEvil race he views them as.
397* VillainousBSOD: [[spoiler:As he is brought face-to-face with the Elder God, and realizes what he has been serving, he is utterly horrified in his final moments.]]
398* VillainTeleportation: Though mainly dependent on his staff by the events of ''Defiance,'' he's still gifted enough in magic to teleport himself away.
399* VocalEvolution: Initially, his voice is rather high-pitched and scratchy; by the time of ''Defiance'', his voice has become more of a baritone.
400* WeAllDieSomeday: Points out to Raziel at the beginning of ''Soul Reaver 2'', in response to his acceptance that [[YouCantFightFate Kain will eventually kill him]]:
401-->'''Moebius''': Death comes for us all, Raziel. It's just a matter of time.
402* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:If we're to believe the murals Raziel finds, the humans were dominated by the vampires before Moebius led his rebellion, so for a while being a human in Nosgoth got a lot better thanks to him. He led that rebellion in the first place because he thought the Elder God was a genuine god, and believed his decree that vampires were a plague on Nosgoth that needed to be wiped out. As Raziel lampshades, when Moebius finds out he's been serving an EldritchAbomination all this time, [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he realizes to his horror how wrong he's been]].]]
403* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Almost invoked word for word by [[spoiler:the Elder God in ''Defiance''.]]
404-->[[spoiler:"Moebius was a good servant, but he was of no further use.]]
405[[/folder]]
406
407[[folder:The Elder God]]
408[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eldergod_8924.png]]
409->"I am the origin of life...The devourer of death...I am the hub of the wheel, the purifying cycle to which all souls ''must'' be drawn!"
410!!!Voiced by Creator/TonyJay (EN); Benoît Allemane (''Soul Reaver'' and ''Soul Reaver 2''), Marc Bretonnière (''Defiance'') (FR)
411
412An ancient entity dwelling in Nosgoth's underground, he controls the Wheel of Fate, which controls the destinies and souls of all of Nosgoth. As such he naturally despises the immortal vampires, and revived Raziel as a wraith to wipe them out and allow the Wheel to turn freely. After Raziel begins pursuing Kain through time and comes to doubt if Kain needs to die, the Elder God tries to sway him back to this path.
413----
414* AmbiguouslyEvil: Raziel doesn't fully trust him in ''Soul Reaver'', but given that he's offering him a chance at resurrection and vengeance and helps him in his path for the latter, how can he say no? [[spoiler:Turns out he was right to be suspicious.]]
415* BadassBoast: See his quote a little higher up. He uses variations of this speech a lot throughout the series.
416* BadBoss: He cares nothing for his servants, no matter how loyal. [[spoiler: When the vampires were cursed by the Hylden, he aimed to wipe out any who didn't commit suicide. When Moebius is killed for good by Raziel, he shrugs it off saying that he was of no further use.]]
417* BigBad: Though there are many antagonists in the series, the Elder God is the central one. [[spoiler:''Defiance'' reveals he's the one who convinced the Ancients to war with the Hylden, making him responsible for the creation of Hash'ak'gik and thus guilty of his deeds by proxy, and he's also the one who gave Moebius the power to exterminate the vampires and motivated him to overthrow them. All he does is to further his goal to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer Nosgoth and spin all souls in his wheel without dissension]].]]
418* BigBadEnsemble: With Hash'ak'gik. [[spoiler:Whatever events can't be traced back to Hash trace back to the Elder God or one of his servants]].
419* BossBanter: His Badass Boasting keeps going even in the middle of combat.
420* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:He's TheManBehindTheMan to almost ''everything'' that happens in the series, including the plans of the other main Chessmaster, Moebius.]]
421* CombatTentacles: The main way he acts throughout the series, primarily in ''Defiance'' when he tries to keep Raziel imprisoned in the spectral realm.
422* DemiurgeArchetype: Believes himself to be the TopGod, despite being nothing more than a powerful, parasitic EldritchAbomination who sees over Nosgoth and endlessly feeds off of war and death and the reincarnation of souls. Some of his servants in the spectral realm are even called Archons.
423* DidntSeeThatComing: The primary reason he leads Raziel, who becomes something of a walking ParadoxPerson, is to make sure this doesn't happen if the wraith somehow causes a new timeline divergence he cannot account for. [[spoiler:Of course, by Kain's continued and seemingly-impossible survival, and his murder of Moebius in Raziel's entrapped, spectral vicinity, Raziel finally manages to one-up those plans by sacrificing himself to the Soul Reaver while granting Kain the power to comprehend and ''fight'' the Elder God. To say [[OhCrap he's taken off-guard]] would be an understatement.]]
424* EldritchAbomination: A classic example, he's an ever-changing mass of tentacles and eyes who exists outside the normal boundaries of space and time. Even his name is straight out of Lovecraftian mythos.
425* EvilMentor: He does ''not'' have Raziel's interests in mind when he revives him as his servant.
426* EvilSoundsDeep: As deep as they come with Tony Jay doing his voice work.
427* FantasticRacism: He has nothing but disdain for the vampire race.
428* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:Of ''Defiance'', and therefore the entire series.]]
429* GiantEyeOfDoom: In ''Defiance'', it's the center of his mass of tentacles.
430* AGodAmI: Presents himself as one. [[spoiler:And the Ancients worshiped him as one too, as does Moebius.]]
431* GodIsEvil: Ambiguous since it is hinted that the Elder God may not be a god, but instead a very, very powerful EldritchAbomination. However, since all other "gods" in the series are also shown to be some variation of demonic creature, and Nosgoth is a CrapsackWorld, a genuine god being an EldritchAbomination fits right in.
432* GoForTheEye: [[spoiler:How you fight him in ''Defiance''.]]
433* GreaterScopeVillain: He's introduced as a supporting character in ''Soul Reaver'', the [[BadFuture furthest point]] of the franchise's timeline, but his role in Nosgoth's bloody history isn't elaborated upon until ''Defiance''.
434* HellishPupils: Not only slitted, but shaped like an infinity symbol in ''Defiance''.
435* HiddenVillain: [[spoiler:Until the end of ''Defiance,'' only Raziel has ever seen his true form.]]
436* {{Jerkass}}: [[spoiler:When his true colors are revealed in ''Defiance''. He cares nothing for his followers, loyal or otherwise, and mocks Raziel's misfortune any chance he gets, which is to say, a lot.]]
437* JerkassHasAPoint: In the beginning of ''Defiance'', he accuses Raziel of being a coward, because part of the reason he's remaining in the Underworld and refusing to obey him is in part because Raziel is trying to delay the inevitable and avoid being trapped in the Soul Reaver. Raziel even acknowledges in his narration that the Elder isn't wrong.
438* LargeHam: Naturally given his voice actor.
439* TheManBehindTheMan: To almost everyone. [[spoiler:Even if the Hylden are his enemies, it was the Elder God's actions that set them on the path to becoming secondary antagonists with him.]]
440* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In ''Defiance'', the Elder God attempted to imprison Raziel in the Spectral Realm after the latter's escape from the Underworld by denying him the use of conduits into the Material Realm. This lead to Raziel seeking a different method via possessing corpses. [[spoiler:This came to bite the Elder God in the ass at the end of the game as Raziel was able to possess the corpse of Moebius thereby causing Kain to run him through with the Reaver. Raziel then purified Kain and willingly allowed himself to be absorbed by the Reaver giving Kain the tools he needed to fight the Elder God.]]
441* NighInvulnerability: Only the Soul Reaver can hurt him, and it needs to be imbued with a lot of powerful souls to get to that point. [[spoiler:Furthermore he's entirely immune to spectral weapons, laughing when Raziel directly attacks him and nothing happens.]]
442* NonActionBigBad: He prefers to manipulate people, and when we see him fight someone, his combat abilities are severely unimpressive.
443* NonLinearCharacter: Raziel is quite surprised when he travels ''back'' in time and the Elder God calls to him by name. As the Elder claims, he is "eternally present, here and everywhere, now and always."
444* NoNameGiven: While his official descriptor is "The Elder God", in-universe he's only ever referred to through a variety of nicknames and titles, [[IHaveManyNames including several of his own invention]] -- though by far his favorite is to call himself "The Hub of the Wheel".
445* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: He constantly pressures Raziel to kill Kain, insisting it's necessary to restore balance to the dying lands of Nosgoth. In reality, all he cares about is [[spoiler:finding more souls to feed on and spin in his Wheel and take over Nosgoth for himself, and he wants Kain dead because, as the [[TheChosenOne Scion of Balance]], he's the only one who can stop him.]]
446* TheOmniscient: Being that he seems to control the concept of fate itself, he exists outside the boundaries of the normal spacetime continuum.
447* PunyHumans: While "human" isn't apt for most of the people he talks to, in general he doesn't think too high of much anyone.
448-->''(While [[spoiler:fighting Kain]])'' "Pathetic creature."
449* TheStoic: Impressive example given the number of insults Raziel throws his way, up until ''Defiance'' where he starts taking more amusement in Raziel's suffering.
450* StupidEvil: Wanting the extermination of the vampires. [[spoiler:He's trying to kill the race that served him loyally and are keeping his enemies the Hylden from entering Nosgoth.]] WordOfGod says that he may have known this would be the result and didn't care, since [[spoiler:the return of the Hylden still results in more war and death, and thus more souls for him to spin in his Wheel – presumably he'd find more servants to use against them once they got out of control as he'd done before.]]
451* ThreatBackfire: [[spoiler:Does a variant of his BadassBoast against Kain in ''Defiance'' while also threatening to bring the entire cave down on him. Rather than be intimidated, Kain realizes that if the Elder God wants him dead, it must mean he's a threat and can hurt him now with the empowered Soul Reaver.]]
452* UngratefulBastard: [[spoiler:The vampires follow his orders and wage war against the Hylden in his name, and for their efforts got cursed with immortality. He abandons them and spends the rest of time trying to wipe them out.]]
453* UnreliableExpositor: He claims to represent the natural cycle of reincarnation, that the vampires' immortality is an abomination throwing the balance of the universe askew, and that slaying Kain is the only way to fix everything. [[spoiler:In truth, the Elder God is a parasite feeding upon the souls of the dead, he resents vampires (who, in ancient days, once worshipped him) for simply being outside his grasp, he had a hand in engineering Nosgoth's metaphysical collapse to begin with, and he wants Kain destroyed to remove the only being in the world capable of threatening him.]]
454* UnskilledButStrong: He wields godlike power, and his tentacles are strong enough to smash walkways to smithereens... but as shown when [[spoiler: Kain fights him in ''Defiance'']], his combat skills amount to little more than flailing his tentacles around, clearly unaccumstomed to being threatened by ''anything.''
455* WalkingSpoiler: His real hand in the events of the series completely turn the plot on its head. [[spoiler:He's the god of the Ancient vampires, and the cause of the war between them and the Hylden, ''and'' Moebius is his servant to manipulate time and exterminate the vampires.]]
456* WildMassGuessing: An in-universe example. In ''Soul Reaver 2'', Raziel suggests the Elder God isn't a true god but just a powerful entity presenting himself as one, and also wonders if it was really the Elder God who revived him, or if it was another force that did it and the Elder God just took credit for the feat to get Raziel to trust and help him. Both theories are entirely possible, and WordOfGod says they would have explored them in future games that never came to light, but in the canon it's unknown what the truth is.[[note]][[WordOfSaintPaul Daniel Cabuco]] has clarified the Elder God [[DemiurgeArchetype is not a "real" god, but it is worshipped as one]], which makes it a god according to [[ExactWords strict definition]], and for sure it is the most powerful entity in the setting seen so far. However, he didn't have any comment as to the Elder God's role in Raziel's resurrection beyond using him to harvest souls to feed itself.[[/note]]
457* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:For the first time ever, he starts to noticeably lose it when Kain wields the purified Soul Reaver.]]
458-->'''The Elder God:''' You may ponder the futility of your ambitions as you spend a [[AndIMustScream deathless eternity beneath a mountain of rubble.]] You and your Soul Reaver will go equally mad as the eons pass; the Citadel of the Apostates will become your living tomb...(One of the Elder God's tentacles begins slithering towards Kain.)
459-->'''Kain:''' [[SarcasmMode Your words are heartening...]](He neatly hacks the tentacle to pieces)
460-->'''The Elder God:'''(surprised and in pain for the first time in its life) [[OhCrap Argh!?!?!]]
461-->'''Kain:''' For you would not fear us unless we could truly do you harm! (Hacks more tentacles as he confidently walks towards it)
462-->'''The Elder God:''' NO! You are ''nothing!''
463-->'''Kain:''' ''FALSE GOD!!'' (Brings down the empowered Soul Reaver on another tentacle)
464-->'''The Elder God:'''Gargh!!!
465-->'''Kain:'''This is the ''end''. The final turn of your "wheel"!
466* TheVoice: In ''Soul Reaver'', beyond the intro cinematic he's only heard in voice through out the game but he doesn't make a distinguishable physical appearance until ''Soul Reaver 2''.
467* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: No one is in-disposable to him; anyone that serves him shall be deemed not worth keeping around anymore if he decides so, even entire races.
468[[/folder]]
469
470[[folder:Ariel]]
471[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokariel_5902.png]]
472->"Rest...? A body is needed for sleep. Flesh and bones are required to recline. No, child, all I may do is watch, and remember, ceaselessly conscious as this wretched world's history unfurls. Ghastly past, insufferable future, are they one and the same...? Am I ''always'' here?"
473
474!!!Voiced by Creator/AnnaGunn (EN); Anne Rochant (''Soul Reaver'' and ''Soul Reaver 2''), Creator/LaurenceCrouzet (''Defiance'') (FR)
475
476Kain's predecessor as the Guardian of Balance in the Circle of Nine, her death sparked the circle's corruption and the events of the first game. The corruption of the Circle binds her spirit to the Pillars, and she will haunt them until the Pillars are restored – namely, until Kain dies. Thus she's pretty much condemned for eternity, and she knows it.
477----
478* AndIMustScream: Come ''Soul Reaver'', her spirit has been bound to the Pillars for over a thousand years. She's despondent, bitter, and a bit unhinged by the time Raziel meets her.
479-->'''Ariel''': Ghastly past, insufferable future, are they one and the same...? Am I ''always'' here?
480* BreakTheCutie: Not only did she have a terrible death, but she ended up with this ''after'', too. See below.
481* DespairEventHorizon: Kain refusing the sacrifice marked the beginning of hers, although she wasn't doing so great to begin with. [[spoiler:She's doing a bit better in ''Defiance'', as due to time travel shenanigans she is encountered ''before'' Kain makes his fateful choice, and thus still pins her hopes on him.]]
482* FacialHorror: The entire left side of her face is stripped of flesh.
483* FantasticRacism: She's none too fond of the vampires.
484* FateWorseThanDeath: Not only is she dead and unable to interact with the physical world, but thanks to Kain refusing the sacrifice, she's bound to the Pillars ''for all eternity.''
485* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:In ''Defiance'', she sacrifices herself to purge the Reaver of corruption, and by extension, allow Raziel to cleanse Kain of corruption.]]
486* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Her positive influence was the only thing that could keep Nupraptor stable; without her, he quickly descended into madness.
487* MoralityChain: Her death is what caused her lover Nupraptor to go insane and corrupt the Circle of Nine.
488* NeverMyFault: She'll rant that it's all Kain's fault that she's [[AndIMustScream stuck like this]] for refusing to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars and Nosgoth, but [[spoiler:even ignoring how it's latter revealed that [[SadisticChoice that wouldn't have ended well for anyone if he did so]],]] she seems to ignore or deny that she's the one who strung Kain on in murdering the rest of the Circle (starting with her own former lover no less) fully intending for him to die at the end anyways to free her from her state without care for what ''he'' thought of it.
489* PlotTriggeringDeath: Her assassination is what drives Nupraptor to madness and inspires the psychic attack on the other guardians, which corrupts the Pillars of Nosgoth and instigates the events of ''Blood Omen'' and the series as a whole.
490* SpiritAdvisor: For Kain in ''Blood Omen'' and Raziel in ''Soul Reaver''. Briefly revisits the role for Raziel in ''Defiance'', but having a different idea of what he is compared to her future self, she just aids him so he'll leave her alone. [[spoiler: Later in the same game, however, she serves as a straightforward example in helping Raziel purify the Reaver.]]
491* TreacherousQuestGiver: She knew Kain was her successor to the corrupted Pillar of Balance from the beginning, and she fully intended for him to die after killing the other members of the Circle just so she could be free herself, only ambiguously offering him "release" if he does, which he took to mean a cure for his vampirism.
492* UglyGuyHotWife: From what we can tell, Ariel in life was considered a very beautiful woman. Nupraptor... not so much in the looks department.
493* WhatTheHellHero: Gets one from Raziel when he points out that she condemned Nupraptor to be among Kain's first victims and deceived Kain himself into doing her bidding, letting him believe he'd be cured of his vampirism when he'd really be forced to sacrifice his life.
494[[/folder]]
495
496[[folder:Vorador]]
497[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokvorador_1608.png]]
498->"Centuries of persecution have taught me well. Five hundred years ago, our race was nearly exterminated by the fanatical crusades of the Sarafan. And now the same sick drama unfolds again: in merely a decade, Moebius's cutthroat citizen army has nearly accomplished what the Sarafan could not. Vampires meddling in the affairs of men... Look where it has brought us."
499!!!Voiced by Paul Lukather (EN), Creator/JeanBarney (FR)
500
501A high-ranking Vampire and the first human to be "blessed" with the dark gift from the Ancients. He's the one who forged the Soul Reaver for Janos Audron, though he doesn't know its true purpose. He prefers to remain absent from human affairs, as he considers them nothing but trouble, and fully embraces the idea that the vampires are superior beings.
502----
503* AssholeVictim: When he's executed by Moebius' purge of vampires in ''Blood Omen.'' Regardless of whether the other vampires killed were good or evil, Vorador himself was an arrogant hedonist who delighted in indulging himself on human blood. Nobody would shed tears of his death given his characterization in that game.
504* BackFromTheDead: They never fully explain why [[spoiler:he's alive in ''Blood Omen 2'': chronologically his death during the events of ''Blood Omen'' still happens, as ''Defiance'' takes the time to demonstrate]]. ''Defiance'' was supposed to explain it, [[spoiler:with some cut content indicating Kain (present version) would have revived him]], but [[WhatCouldHaveBeen it was left out]].
505* BadassBoast: Vorador gets one in Blood Omen when he meets Kain for the first time.
506-->"After slaughtering six of the sheep, I defeated their pathetic little shepherd Malek..."
507* BeenThereShapedHistory: ''Defiance'' reveals that [[spoiler: Vorador was the very first human to ever become a vampire, and he was the one who forged the Soul Reaver]].
508* BigGood: [[spoiler:In ''Blood Omen 2'', he has been leading the vampires in Kain's absence.]]
509* TheBlacksmith: The maker of the Soul Reaver.
510* CharacterisationMarchesOn: Vorador is depicted as a ''far'' more evil and depraved character in the first game than he is in the sequels. Kain even notes in ''Blood Omen 2'' that Vorador's current self does not at all call to mind the decadent monster he met so many years before. It's implied that the change in personality is the result of Kain going back in time and causing Moebius to revive the vampire crusades of old, with Vorador in the new timeline becoming much more cautious, cynical, and less indulgent than he was in the original timeline.
511* ColdBloodedTorture: His favorite hobby. His "pantry" is a specially designed torture chamber with acoustics that allow screams to reverberate for ''years'' after his victims are dead.
512* DeathlessAndDebauched: Lives in a ludicrously opulent mansion hidden in the depths of the Termogent Forever, surrounds himself with numerous scantily-clad brides, and drinks the blood of mortals from jeweled goblets. Even Kain - a nobleman himself - thinks that Vorador's digs are ludicrously decadent. For good measure, Vorador has very little interest in getting involved in mortal affairs, advising Kain to seek a similar life.
513* DoNotGoGentle: Though it happens offscreen, it's stated in ''Defiance'' that while Moebius' thugs managed to capture him, it was not without "a considerable price in blood."
514* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: As revealed in ''Soul Reaver 2'', his slaughter of the Circle was influenced by the Sarafan Brotherhood hunting down and brutally executing [[TheMentor Janos Audron]].]] He's also very fond of Umah, treating her almost like a daughter.
515* EvenEvilHasStandards: Displays this of the PragmaticVillainy type in ''Blood Omen''. He sees vampires as superior to humans and delights indulging himself on human blood. Nonetheless he is against vampires meddling in human affairs out of fear of reprisals.
516* FreudianExcuse: In Soul Reaver 2, Janos implies Vorador suffered much at the hands of humans as a vampire, resulting in his current views on humanity.
517-->"He has suffered much. He cannot forgive them."
518* FullyEmbracedFiend: Especially in the first game. He represents what Kain might become if he fully embraces his curse and revels in his inhumanity.
519* TheHedonist: Owns a ludicrously opulent mansion, and surrounds himself with concubines. Kain even refers to him as a "sado-hedonist."
520* JadeColoredGlasses: Earned them after the Sarafan vampire purges killed off Janos Audron and keeps them on for the rest of his life.
521* LaResistance: [[spoiler:In ''Blood Omen 2''.]]
522* LargeHam: Vorador gets in on the ham in ''Blood Omen''.
523-->"Call your dogs! They can feast on your corpses!"
524
525-->"Whelp! As if you knew what eternity was. Grovel before your true master!"
526* TheMentor: For Kain. Plays with the role to Raziel, briefly advising him in ''Soul Reaver 2'' and ''Defiance'', but aids him much less than Kain.
527* MonsterProgenitor: As revealed in ''Defiance'', he was [[spoiler: the very first human-derived vampire in Nosgoth]].
528* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:After Moebius manipulates Kain into altering time, Kain returns to find Vorador beheaded by a guillotine.]]
529* TheOlderImmortal: Is the oldest [[spoiler: human-derived]] vampire in Nosgoth when Kain first meets him, and unlike the wandering warrior fledgling, Vorador prefers the life of [[DeathlessAndDebauched indulgence]] within his remote stately manor, over matters of revenge.
530* PragmaticVillainy: Counsels Kain not to meddle with mortals except to feed, lest he provoke another round of [[KnightTemplar Sarafan]] vampire hunts.
531* RetiredMonster: And for good reason.
532* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Soul Reaver 2 shows us that Vorador's slaughter of the Circle was direct revenge for the murder of Janos Audron, his Sire.
533* TeethClenchedTeamwork: [[spoiler: With Kain in ''Blood Omen 2''. While they have a common enemy, they don't like each other, and nearly come to blows after Vorador learns about Umah's death before Janos breaks the fight up.]]
534* UnexplainedRecovery: It's never fully explained ''how'' Vorador came BackFromTheDead in ''Blood Omen 2''. It's only confirmed by a comment by Kain ("Do you so wish to return to the grave, old friend?") that he did indeed die before.
535* TheWorfEffect: He defeated Malek in ''Blood Omen'', something Kain wasn't able to do. Showing Vorador executed by Moebius' vampire genocide shows how devastating it was.
536* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Pretty similar to Kain in this respect, though he doesn't often use it.
537[[/folder]]
538
539[[folder:Mortanius The Necromancer]]
540[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokmortanius_6650.png]]
541->"Strange, isn't it Kain? That one cannot quite accept that which sustains him: you in your death and me in mine. But death cannot reign in a world without life... and soon you will find the quest ahead of you is yours and yours alone."
542!!!Voiced by Creator/TonyJay (Blood Omen) / Creator/AlastairDuncan (Defiance)
543
544The Guardian of Death in the Circle of Nine, he's directly responsible for Kain's resurrection as a vampire in ''Blood Omen,'' and serves as a guide and mentor to him alongside Ariel, helping Kain to slay the rest of the Circle for his own obscure and sinister motives.
545----
546* TheArchmage: Mortanius was considered by most to be the most powerful magic wielder in Nosgoth at the time of the corruption of the Pillars. [[spoiler: He's powerful enough that he could easily kill another member of the Circle on his own: he not only assassinated Ariel but goes on to kill Anarcrothe in single combat.]]
547* TheAtoner:
548** In ''Blood Omen'', [[spoiler: having unwillingly murdered Ariel while under the control of Hash'ak'Gik, Mortanius spends most of the first game trying to repair the damage this has caused, both by having Kain kill the rest of the Circle and sacrificing his life to Kain at the end of the mission.]]
549** In ''Defiance,'' [[spoiler: it's also revealed that he's atoning for much more – helping Moebius overthrow the vampires and removing the Pillars from vampire ownership, as well as unearthing a connection to the Demon Realm beneath Avernus Cathedral, allowing the Hylden to gain a hold on Nosgoth and to eventually possess him - hence his resurrection of Kain as the Scion of Balance.]]
550* AuthoritySoundsDeep: In ''Blood Omen'', being voiced by Creator/TonyJay ; amusingly, he had much of the same role in ''Blood Omen'' that the Elder God (also voiced by Jay) had for Raziel in ''Soul Reaver'', being Kain's resurrector and offscreen advisor.
551* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:Once he figured out the Vampires were supposed to be the ones in charge and Moebius' rebellion was in error, he revived Kain since he knew Kain was supposed to be TheChosenOne, and hoped for the best]].
552* ComesGreatResponsibility: The reason ''Blood Omen'' gives for him [[spoiler: killing the rest of the Circle besides their corruption]] is that he views the power granted by the Pillars gives them responsibility to the rest of Nosgoth. In fact, he's pretty much the only character besides Janos that believes in this.
553* BigBad: Of the first game. [[spoiler:Actually was the unwilling puppet of Hash'ak'Gik, the ''real'' villain of the first game.]]
554* DarkIsNotEvil: Mortanius' Necromancy is a perfectly natural form of magic tied with the Pillar of Death; [[spoiler: also, demonic possession aside, Mortanius himself is actually one of the nobler characters in the series, especially compared to the rest of the Circle.]]
555* DefectorFromDecadence: As he believes that the Circle exists for the benefit of Nosgoth, unlike the rest of the corrupted members.
556* DemonicPossession: ''Something'' dark is inside him and influencing his actions. [[spoiler:''Defiance'' reveals he's a vessel of the Hylden Lord, controlling him to bring down the Pillars from within the Circle.]]
557* DoNotGoGentle: He freely admits prior to his battle with Kain that he has embraced his fate to die at Kain's hands. Doesn't mean he's gonna go down without a fight.
558* EasilyForgiven: While Kain does still kill him, he doesn't seem to hold any ill will against him despite learning he was responsible for [[spoiler:Kain's death in the first place.]]
559* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: In ''Defiance,'' it's revealed that under his mask, he's mostly human in appearance except for his unhealthily pale skin – which would be an UndeathlyPallor if Mortanius hadn't still been alive at the time.
560* ExpressiveMask: His skeletal "face" in the first game is actually a mask – a very convincing one at that.
561%%* LargeHam
562* {{Necromancer}}: It's his title after all, and he proves the point by not only bringing Kain's soul back from a FireAndBrimstoneHell, but also summoning up hordes of zombies to fight Kain during the boss battle.
563* ProphetEyes: Both his mask and his true self show blank white eyes.
564* TokenGoodTeammate: To the entire Circle of Nine. One of his reasons for sending Kain after the rest of the Guardians is because [[spoiler: he sincerely wants to restore their Pillars and allow Nosgoth to heal because the others are unwilling to aid in this endeavour themselves and would rather leave Nosgoth to its fate]]. ''Defiance'' reveals that his other reason is [[spoiler: because he wants to repair the damage caused by him and Moebius uprising against the vampires, as well as allowing the Hylden to regain influence in Nosgoth, which lead to his possession and the events of Blood Omen]].
565[[/folder]]
566
567[[folder:Janos Audron]]
568[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janos_audron.png]]
569->"Embrace your destiny, Raziel. You must reclaim the Reaver--it was forged for you and you alone...Without it, there is no hope."
570!!!Voiced by Creator/ReneAuberjonois
571
572The last Ancient Vampire and one of the highest-ranking of them, he is Vorador's sire and the one who commissioned the forging of the Soul Reaver. This also makes him the only person who understands its true purpose and thus the key to many mysteries. His heart, torn out of him centuries before Kain's birth, is known in legend as the Heart of Darkness, and is said to be able restore vampiric unlife.
573----
574* AlmostDeadGuy: In ''Soul Reaver 2'' he manages to pull this off after ''having his heart torn out''.
575* AntiHero: Janos is probably the only character in the series who is unambiguously good and is always portrayed as helpful, gentle, and wise. However, he's still [[spoiler:a servant of the Elder God]] with the rest of his race, even if he doesn't realize it, which potentially casts a shadow on everything he does.
576* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Raziel's quest to revive him and get some answers out of him is his driving motivation in ''Defiance''.]]
577* BeatStillMyHeart: [[spoiler:Almost invoked word for word in ''Soul Reaver 2'']].
578* BewareTheNiceOnes: Despite being kind and affable, Janos can and ''will'' kick ass if it's required of him. He would prefer not to, though.
579* BigGood: In Soul Reaver 2 he seems to be the only person Raziel looks up to. Janos was originally a tenth guardian of the Circle and protector of the Soul Reaver, whose power binded the demons away in the Demon Realm [[spoiler: His true nature is revealed in the next two games where we find out Janos worships the Elder God and took a part in sealing the Hylden away, who didn't worship the Elder God and they went mad.]]
580* BlueIsHeroic: He has blue skin, and is arguably the most unambiguously heroic character in the series.
581* BodyHorror: [[spoiler:In ''Blood Omen 2'', he's deformed and devolved from powering The Device.]]
582* ChekhovsGunman: He's mentioned in a grand total of two lines in ''Blood Omen'', but isn't introduced as a character until ''Soul Reaver 2''.
583* CosmicPlaything: He worshipped an EldritchAbomination that desires the death of all vampires, got murdered by Sarafan [[spoiler: and was brought back thanks to the manipulation of the Hylden to serve in their plans to wipe out humans and vampires alike. And as of the unaltered time, his final fate is to get chucked into the Hylden dimension.]]
584* DemonicPossession: [[spoiler:What happens to him in ''Defiance'', and kick-starts the events of ''Blood Omen 2''. With the Pillars of Nosgoth corrupted by Kain refusing the sacrifice to purify them, the Hylden seal cracks wide enough for the Hylden Lord to seize Janos as a vessel.]]
585* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:His ultimate fate, as of ''Blood Omen 2''; Thrown through the Hylden Gate into the Demon Dimension.]]
586* GoodWingsEvilWings: He has black feathered wings.
587* HeroWithBadPublicity: He's the closest thing the series has to a true hero, with no ulterior motives aside from keeping the Hylden locked out of Nosgoth. This doesn't stop the Sarafan from portraying him as a diabolical monster that ransacks entire villages and drains them dry.
588* HumansAreFlawed: His thoughts on humans. As vampires prey on humans, and also kidnapped the humans chosen by the Pillars to turn into vampires, he understands why humans see vampires as monsters.
589* LastOfHisKind: He's the last Ancient Vampire.
590* {{Leitmotif}}: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5sRGWOl44Y The gorgeous piece of music/ambience that plays in his mountain retreat]] in ''Soul Reaver 2'' is briefly reprised in ''Defiance'' when [[spoiler:Raziel brings him BackFromTheDead]].
591* MrExposition: Though pretty much every character in the series can qualify for this (it's a very dialogue-heavy series), Janos deserves special mention as this is his purpose in-game. Raziel goes through hell to seek him out [[spoiler:and later to restore his heart and bring him back to life]] just so that Janos can tell him what the heck is going on. When watching a cutscene featuring Janos, be prepared for a ''very'' long history lesson.
592** Lampshaded rather hilariously by Michael Bell (Raziel's voice actor) in the outtake videos for ''Defiance''.
593--->'''Bell:''' Oh good. You have the big chunk. You have the big exposition. Thank you! Thank you for giving him the exposition!
594--->'''Auberjonois:''' [turns script page] ''*gasp*'' ... I'd like to talk to my agent.
595* NiceGuy: Probably the most clear-cut example in the entire series. He welcomes Raziel with open arms, and makes it clear that he does not begrudge humans for their disdain for vampires. It's no wonder why [[spoiler:Raziel was devastated after witnessing his past self mutilate him and rip his heart from his chest, or that his death caused Vorador to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]] His only real character flaw is that he [[spoiler:is unaware of the true nature of the god he serves.]]
596* NoShirtLongJacket: His chest is bare under his robes.
597* OnlyMostlyDead: Despite having his heart ripped out from his chest by the Sarafan, his body had not been decayed for 500 years, and Raziel trying to find his heart to resurrect him in ''Defiance'' became a major plot point. [[spoiler:That heart of his was christened as "The Heart of Darkness", and was used to resurrect Kain at the beginning of ''Blood Omen''.]]
598* RealMenLoveJesus: [[spoiler: [[CrapsackWorld Unfortunately, what he's really worshipping is an]] EldritchAbomination [[CrapsackWorld masquerading as a god]].]]
599* ReligiousBruiser: He prefers not to fight, but he can when needed. And like the rest of the Ancients, he is a devout follower of their God.
600* ReligiousVampire: Ties in with his RealMenLoveJesus status.
601* TeamDad: Treats everyone, [[spoiler: including ''Kain'' in ''Blood Omen 2'']], in a gentle and paternal manner.
602* TokenGoodTeammate: Between Nosgoth being a CrapsackWorld and the series running on BlackAndGrayMorality, Janos is probably the only character that is truly "good" through and through. He has no hidden agenda, he doesn't manipulate anyone, he has no selfish or self-serving motivation or goal, doesn't hold any grudges against humans for their actions, whenever he's on screen he's polite and affable, and he plays it straight when Raziel demands answers from him. It says something that in a series where most recurring characters are varying degrees of magnificent bastards, Janos ''is not''. Even his one notable flaw, [[spoiler:being a devoted follower of the Elder God and unquestionably doing its bidding]], is a result of him being misguided more than anything else.
603* VampireVords: The only vampire to play this straight.
604* WalkingShirtlessScene: In ''Blood Omen 2''.
605* WingedHumanoid: The defining trait of the Ancients.
606[[/folder]]
607
608[[folder:Hash'ak'gik]]
609[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hashakgikblood_omen.png]]
610[[caption-width-right:350:Click the note to see how he looks later in the series. ''Massive'' spoiler warning. [[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_hylden_lord.png[[/note]]]]
611->"Don't you see? My silencing of Ariel and its calculated repercussions is but the first act in my theater of Grand Guignol, of which you are the tragic hero. Play on, little vampire, play on..."
612!!!Voiced by Creator/EarlBoen
613
614The ''true'' main antagonist of the original game, he possessed Mortanius and murdered Ariel with the intent to destroy the Pillars of Nosgoth. His existence was revisited in later games, revealing he was a much more important character than Kain suspected at the time, and his plans were not limited to just the Circle.
615----
616* ArchEnemy: To Kain, mostly by virtue of being [[spoiler:the BigBad of both ''Blood Omen'' games, as well as the mastermind behind Ariel's assassination and the corruption of the Circle that forced Kain into his SadisticChoice.]]
617* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler:As Kain realizes when he saves Raziel at the end of ''Soul Reaver 2'', Hash was banking on Kain doing this so Raziel would eventually revive Janos, giving him the vessel that he needed to open the gate to the Hylden realm]].
618* BigBad: In ''Blood Omen'' [[spoiler: and ''Blood Omen 2''.]]
619* BigBadEnsemble: With Moebius [[spoiler:and by proxy the Elder God]]. Most of the conflicts Kain and Raziel face throughout the series trace back to one of them, and while we never see them come into conflict during the games, the backstory establishes that the two are enemies and are directly opposed to each other. The end of ''Defiance'' has Moebius addressing that now that [[spoiler:Kain and Raziel have been dealt with, it's time to turn attention to the Hylden]].
620* BodySurf: [[spoiler:He's possessed Mortanius, Janos, and has likely used other vessels when needed.]]
621* BreakingSpeech: [[spoiler:Gives a good one to Kain at the end of ''Blood Omen 2'', ridiculing him as a man that got far more power than he ever should have and still couldn't be satisfied with it and endlessly craved more while destroying everything touched, hence why everyone around Kain kept betraying him. Even though Kain follows with a ShutUpHannibal, it's not a particularly convincing one, and the player is left thinking that Kain was trying to avoid facing the fact that his enemy was right.]]
622* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In ''Blood Omen'' Hash'ak'gik/The Dark Entity was just an ancient demon that wanted to conquer Nosgoth by destroying the Pillars, but by the time of ''Defiance'' it's shown that he was part of something much bigger...
623* ChekhovsGunman: [Apparent] GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere in ''Blood Omen''... then ''Blood Omen 2'' and ''Defiance'' came around and revealed he was playing a much larger gambit than he showed in the first game.
624* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Orchestrates the events of ''Blood Omen'' with the intent of collapsing the Pillars, and it worked.]] See also BatmanGambit above.
625* DemonicPossession: His main method of action is to control others, since he can't manifest in Nosgoth directly (or at least, not permanently).
626* EvilIsBigger: In both ''Blood Omen'' and [[spoiler: ''Blood Omen 2'']] he's much larger than Kain.
627* EvilSoundsDeep: All the different forms he uses have ''really'' deep voices, often with a VoiceOfTheLegion effect too.
628* GeniusBruiser: He's not only a powerful warrior in combat, but also a brilliant manipulator.
629* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: In ''Blood Omen'', there's almost no foreshadowing (only a secret altar beneath Avernus Cathedral with his name and appearance) to his existence and very little explanation as to what he even is.
630* GlowingEyesOfDoom: A signature trait of those he controls.
631* HijackedByGanon: Retroactively hijacks [[spoiler:''Blood Omen 2''. ''Blood Omen 2'' came out and named the villain "the Hylden General" aka the Sarafan Lord, but it wasn't until ''Defiance'' that it was revealed that he was the Dark Entity / Hash'ak'gik from the first game.]]
632* IHaveManyNames: [[spoiler:Hash'ak'gik, the Hylden Lord, the Sarafan Lord, the Hylden General, the Unspoken.]] Though he's nice enough to share one with [[spoiler:Turel]], who also goes by "Hash'ak'gik".
633* LargeAndInCharge: [[spoiler:As the Sarafan Lord, to his human and Hylden servants, though some of the demons serving him are bigger than he is.]]
634* KnightTemplar: [[spoiler:The war between the Ancients and the Hylden was started by the former, and only because the Hylden refused to submit to the Elder God's control. Hash is entirely justified in wanting to wipe the vampires out and free his people. He could be an outright HeroAntagonist except that, much like Kain, he has no regard for any humans caught up in his plans]].
635* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:To Mortanius in ''Blood Omen'', and the Sarafan in ''Blood Omen 2''.]]
636* MirroringFactions:
637** In ''Blood Omen 2'' [[spoiler:the rule of the Sarafan under him is just as bad as the rule of Kain's empire in ''Soul Reaver'', and worse when one realizes he planned on wiping out the humans. Noted by Umah, who asks outright how Kain's empire will be any different from the Sarafan, and by Hash himself]].
638** [[spoiler: With regards to Janos, they both feel their race was in the right with the war and the acts they committed, Hash'ak'gik feeling the vampires deserved their curse for starting the war and Janos feeling the Hylden deserved to suffer for what the curse did the vampires and what it drove them to do to the humans.]]
639* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:His victory over Raziel in ''Defiance'' weakens Raziel enough for the Elder God to reign Raziel in and trap him in his realm again, thereby setting the stage for Raziel to have his epiphany moment and grant Kain the empowered Soul Reaver.]]
640* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:His EvilPlan in ''Blood Omen 2'' had him planning to use a superweapon to wipe every remaining vampire and human.]]
641* TheOmniscient: Possibly, since he seems to exist outside the boundaries of the normal spacetime-continuum. He clearly knows a huge amount about time travel, and is able to manipulate Kain and Raziel to his own ends across centuries backwards and forwards. If he doesn't have some way of seeing through time, he's a king among {{Magnificent Bastard}}s for pulling it all off in a linear timeframe.
642* PunyHumans: [[spoiler:His thoughts on humans are never made clear besides not caring if he wipes them out to wipe the vampires, but if he actually has the same disgust for them that the rest of the Hylden who appear in ''Blood Omen 2'' do or is indifferent to them in unknown.]]
643* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The apparent leader of the Hylden and the strongest of their ranks, and was also the strongest among [[spoiler:the Sarafan]].
644* {{Retcon}}: [[WordOfGod Amy Hennig admitted]] that the Dark Entity and the [[spoiler:Hylden General]] were separate characters but decided to combine them into one character when writing ''Defiance'' as a way to connect to the first game.
645* SatanicArchetype: Is the highest [[spoiler:([[http://www.dcabdesign.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=592 at least shown]])]] leader of the demonic/fallen angel-like [[spoiler: Hylden]], commands actual in-universe demons, possesses demonically looking forms [[spoiler: (including his actual one)]], demonically possessed others, as well corrupted and manipulated countless people for his goals. His guise as the seeming savior of humanity [[spoiler: the Sarafan Lord]], could even be seen as a direct reference to Satan being described in the ''Second Epistle to the Corinthians'' to masquerade as an angel of light.
646* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:Along with the rest of the Hylden. At the end of ''Blood Omen 2'', they're forced back into their own dimension, and the one thing that can get them out of it, the Nexus Stone, is hurled through the portal after them right before it closes - they're not coming back any time soon. However the Hylden Lord is killed by Kain with the Soul Reaver absorbing his soul.]]
647* TautologicalTemplar: [[spoiler:Insists that he, and by proxy the rest of the Hylden, are on the side of "justice" with their actions, including the curse on the vampires, even the part of it that drove them to prey on humans.]]
648* VillainHasAPoint: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Blood Omen 2'', he gives a speech about how the Hylden deserve vengeance for their banishment [[note]]Janos [[ShutUpHannibal responds that the Hylden had no right to curse the vampires and drive them to feed on human blood]], but doesn't actually have a rebuttle to the injustice the vampires inflicted on the Hylden[[/note]], and sums up Kain's desire to rule the world as "The youthful craving of a petty noble, who has gained too much power--''but never enough!''" Kain's weak ShutUpHannibal just demonstrates that the Hylden Lord wasn't too far off the mark.]] See also BreakingSpeech above.
649* WalkingSpoiler: His influence in the plotlines of later games is a big plot twist. [[spoiler:He's the leader of the Hylden that are prominent in the plots of ''Blood Omen 2'' and ''Defiance'', and his plot in ''Blood Omen'' was just one step in a more elaborate plan to free his people from their prison.]]
650* WrongGenreSavvy: [[spoiler: During his final battle with Kain at the end of ''Blood Omen 2'', he and Kain are at a stalemate with Kain holding the Nexus Stone that keeps him from being harmed by the Soul Reaver, but he doesn't need to kill Kain because as long as the gateway is open he can just stall for time and let the rest of the Hylden pass through it. He didn't count on [[VillainousValour Kain having the guts to throw the Nexus Stone into the gateway]] and seal it, leaving himself vulnerable to the Soul Reaver but keeping the Hylden from entering Nosgoth.]]
651* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Through Mortanius, it orchestrated the events of ''Blood Omen'' in the hopes of destroying the pillars. Specifically, the pillars would collapse if either the Scion of Balance remains corrupted, or if there are no vampires left to sustain the barrier between worlds. By ensuring that the corrupted Scion of Balance was also the last vampire in the world, the pillars would fall regardless of whether Kain lived or died.]]
652[[/folder]]
653
654!!Introduced in ''Blood Omen''
655
656[[folder:Nupraptor The Mentalist]]
657[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nupraptor_render_egm2.png]]
658->"Come, Kain... come share my pain..."
659!!!Voiced by Richard Doyle
660
661The Guardian of Mind in the Circle of Nine, Nupraptor went mad when he found that his lover Ariel had been murdered; with his psychic powers, he went about spreading his insanity to the rest of the Circle, kicking off the events of the first game.
662----
663* BodyHorror: Nupraptor's appearance has suffered due to his role as The Guardian of Mind, with his skull swollen into what looks like a large globe exposing the greater part of his [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/legacyofkain/images/6/67/Nupraptor-Render-EGM2.png/revision/latest?cb=20181209235006 cranium]].
664* TheEmpath: According to the Silicon Knights FAQ, Nupraptor is "hypersensitive to peoples' emotions and thoughts" and was more than a little unstable due to this – even before Ariel's death.
665* EyeScream: During his FreakOut, he ends up sewing his eyes and lips shut.
666* LoveMakesYouEvil: His lover's death drove him insane.
667* MyBrainIsBig: Sports an enormously oversized head to match his psychic abilities.
668* OffWithHisHead: His eventual fate at the end of his boss battle.
669-->'''Kain:''' "[[AlasPoorYorick Alas poor Nupraptor, I knew him well]][[DeadpanSnarker ... Well, not really.]]"
670* PsychicPowers: His specialty, including MindOverMatter, {{Telepathy}}, and VillainTeleportation.
671* PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery: After Ariel was murdered, Nupraptor realized that only another member of the Circle of Nine could have committed the deed. Having no idea ''which'' of the Circle was the murderer, Nupraptor decided that none of the Guardians could be trusted and [[RevengeThroughCorruption punished all of them with the curse of insanity]]. [[HereditaryCurse The curse would also be passed on to any future Guardians chosen by the Pillars]], as exemplified by Kain. Nupraptor has selfishly doomed Nosgoth by corrupting the Guardians in his efforts to avenge Ariel's murder.
672* SmallRoleBigImpact: He's the very first member of the Circle that Kain kills, but it was his psychic attack on his fellow Guardians, as well as Kain, that instigated the Pillars' corruption.
673** Since Nupraptor's madness still affected Kain after the Pillars' corruption, elements of that madness were passed on to his vampiric sons Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah. As the centuries passed, that madness eventually manifested in the monstrous devolution of these vampires, in both body and mind. Any vampires that claim Kain as a progenitor, no matter how many generations apart, can be expected to be at least slightly insane, thanks to Nupraptor.
674* TragicVillain: He went insane after his girlfriend's death. Then said girlfriend sends a vampire to put him down.
675[[/folder]]
676
677[[folder:Anarcrothe the Alchemist]]
678[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anarcrothe_the_alchemist.png]]
679->"The Circle exists for us, we don't exist for it! Our powers will save or damn Nosgoth at our whim!"
680!!!Voiced by Creator/NeilRoss
681
682The Guardian of States in the Circle of Nine.
683----
684* DirtyCoward: He flees rather than face Kain, despite summoning Malek and having two other members of the Circle present to back him up. Then again, considering how that fight ended, perhaps discretion was the better part of valour.
685* EvilSorcerer: Next to Azimuth, he's the most formally magical of the Circle, complete with robes, magical symbols, and (of course) alchemy. He's also a narcissistic psychopath willing to twist the world out of shape with his powers regardless of who gets hurt or killed.
686* GoodScarsEvilScars: His face has been badly scarred by experiments gone wrong, the better to emphasize his corruption.
687* InsaneTrollLogic: His WithUsOrAgainstUs speech is undercut by him being the last Circle member standing other than his opponent himself. Mortanius and Kain had done such a thorough job in purging the Circle that it's a bit bold of him to assume there's still a group left for him to speak on behalf of. Then again, [[JustifiedTrope he ''is'' insane]].
688* ItsAllAboutMe: Just look at the quote.
689* MadScientist: The alchemical equivalent, he's described as an obsessive tinkerer and experimenter, using his magics to toy around alien machinery and arcane substances he barely understands, and is even willing to continue his work even after it's scarred him for life. Needless to say, Dark Eden is his laboratory, for while Bane and Dejoule are taking part in the project out of their specific mania, Anarcrothe is likely in it just for his own curiosity - hence why he scarpers rather than face Kain alongside his fellow Guardians.
690* PurpleIsPowerful: Wears distinctive robes of imperial purple, both to demonstrate his importance and to draw attention away from his mangled face.
691* TwoFaced: The left side of his face was disfigured many years ago by an alchemical experiment gone awry, "melding skin and bone in an unsightly writhing tangle," hence why he prefers to hide his face under a hood.
692* TheUnfought: The only member of the Circle besides Malek not killed by Kain, instead he makes a VillainExitStageLeft and is later killed by Mortanius.
693[[/folder]]
694
695[[folder:Azimuth the Planer]]
696[[quoteright:279:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo1_character_azimuth_azimuthcgi.jpg]]
697->"Come to me my children! We shall ravage Nosgoth together!"
698!!!Voiced by Creator/AnnaGunn
699
700The Guardian of Dimension in the Circle of Nine.
701----
702* BaldOfEvil: It's hard to tell from her sprite, but art reveals that she's completely bareheaded; she's also a delusional megalomaniac.
703* ChekhovsGunman: Turns out in ''Defiance'' [[spoiler:she was the one who pulled Turel from the future to serve as a host for the Hylden.]]
704* EnemySummoner: After her corruption, she has started summoning demons to burn Avernus down. Her main way of battle is to summon more of them against Kain.
705* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: The ruler of Avernus, but by the time of Blood Omen, it is burning to the ground thanks to the demons she has been summoning.
706* LargeHam: "You wear those trinkets well, Kain. But I DO belieeeeeve that they would look betterrr on mmmmeeeeeuuuurh!"
707* {{Sadist}}: The official Silicon Knights character guide describes her as "a raving lunatic that revels in the pain and misfortune of others." Plus, it's indicated that she was cruel even before she went mad; Nupraptor's insanity wave just gave her sadism room to grow.
708* ThinkingUpPortals: As the Planer, she has the ability to open doorways into other worlds at will, hence her demon summoning skills and her ability to stay ahead of Kain in battle.
709* ThirdEye: Her Pillar token is this. It allowed her to see into other realms.
710* TeleportSpam. When she's not summoning a demon or two, she's zooming away from Kain.
711* WhileRomeBurns: Directly compared to Nero in the Silcon Knights character guide, she's summoning demons for nothing more than her own amusement while the entire city burns down around her.
712[[/folder]]
713
714[[folder:Bane the Druid]]
715[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bane_the_druid.png]]
716->"He is an affront to Nature itself! It is our duty to purify him!"
717!!!Voiced by Paul Lukather
718
719The Guardian of Nature in the Circle of Nine.
720----
721* TheBeastmaster: According to Silicon Knight's biography, he can control the behaviour of animals.
722* CreatingLife: His ability to influence animals and their biology made him one of the most integral proponents of the Dark Eden triad.
723* {{Druid}}: As noted by his epithet, he's a Druid.
724* ElementalPowers: As the Nature Guardian, he has the ability to emphasize the elements, most prominently ''water.''
725* KillItWithWater: During the boss battle, he converts the ground into water, exploiting Kain's vampiric weakness.
726* LanternJawOfJustice: His model has a very large chin.
727* TheTransmogrifier: Bane has become obsessed with distorting nature, and such, uses his abilities to transform the world around him in various ways - hence Dark Eden. Furthermore, because Kain is immune to Bane's usual tricks, his sole tactic in the boss battle is to transform the ground beneath his feet into water.
728[[/folder]]
729
730[[folder:Dejoule the Energist]]
731[[quoteright:321:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dejoule_the_energist.png]]
732->"Burn, wretched vampire, burn!"
733!!!Voiced by Creator/AnnaGunn
734
735The Guardian of Energy in the Circle of Nine.
736----
737* BlackCloak: Until the boss battle, of course...
738* CreepyHighPitchedVoice: Speaks in a piercing, helium-voiced shriek.
739* FullFrontalAssault: She seems to be stark naked during her boss battle against Kain. [[PowerIncontinence Given her]] [[InstantDeathRadius condition]], though, it does makes sense that she does that.
740* MeaningfulName: As joule is the unit used to measure energy.
741* PosthumanNudism: Downplayed. Having apparently become a living avatar of energy, she bothers to wear a robe only so she doesn't end up harming her fellow Guardians; as soon as those concerns go out the window, she strips nude to reveal her glowing body.
742* SinisterNudity: When Kain faces off against Dejoule during her boss fight, she casts aside her cloak which reveals her buck-naked body as she attempts to kill him.
743* WalkingWasteland: According to both deleted lines and the Silicon Knights character biographies, Dejoule's powers have grown to the point that her presence can blister the skin and sterilize the cells of anybody standing too close to her - hence the reason why she wears an insulating cloak.
744[[/folder]]
745
746[[folder:Malek The Paladin]]
747[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo_concept_malek.jpg]]
748-> "It is not often that a man sees his own corpse: it is a sobering experience. But I am far less interested in my own corpse than I am in ''yours..." ''
749!!!Voiced by Creator/NeilRoss (Blood Omen) and Creator/TonyJay (Soul Reaver 2)
750
751The Guardian of Conflict in the Circle of Nine, and the official bodyguard of the other members. After his failure to protect the Circle of Nine from Vorador's attack, Malek was punished by having his body destroyed and his soul bound to a suit of magical armour, condemning him to the post of Defender of the Nine for all eternity. In ''Soul Reaver 2'', it is discovered he only failed to protect the rest of the Circle because Moebius ''stopped'' him from doing so; given that Moebius went on to be one of the people who sentenced him to eternal imprisonment within the armour, this makes him quite TheWoobie.
752----
753* AnimatedArmor: His soul was sealed into a suit of armor.
754* AntiVillain: [[spoiler: Was cruelly manipulated by Moebius the entire time. Granted, he was a ChurchMilitant KnightTemplar already, but his fate and the reasons for it push him into this territory, as he was only ever trying to do his duty and became an UnwittingPawn as a result.]]
755* ArchEnemy: To Vorador, and on a more one sided note, to Kain. With the exception of Moebius, Kain never held a grudge like he held a grudge against Malek, defacing his (never used) tomb centuries after his death. This is likely because Malek is the ''only'' foe Kain faces in the series that he was never able to personally defeat. For his part, Malek's hatred was too firmly rooted on Vorador to care that much for Kain.
756* BadassBoast:
757-->''"I'll hack you from crotch to gizzard and feed what's left to your brides!"''
758* BrokenAce: The only member of the Circle to best Kain in combat, yet suffers a FateWorseThanDeath for his inability to save six members of the previous Circle from Vorador.
759%%* ChurchMilitant
760* DeadGuyOnDisplay: In the throne room of his fortress, he's left a rotting corpse "holding court." However, it's ambiguous if the body is actually Malek's or not.
761* TheDragon: Served as the Dragon to the Circle during their crusade against the vampires. Was [[DragonTheirFeet dragon his feet]] during Vorador's assault on the Circle [[spoiler: thanks to Moebius]], and Kain was smart enough to go after him early on.
762* EmpoweredBadassNormal: As a human he was already a strong warrior that could fight against vampires on his own, even Vorador (though he still lost). As AnimatedArmor, he could reassemble himself if damaged, making him the only antagonist Kain couldn't defeat.
763* FateWorseThanDeath: For his failure to save the Circle from Vorador, his soul was ripped from his body and fused to his armor, leaving him with no purpose but to serve the Circle for eternity.
764* {{Foil}}: His back story is similar to Raziel.
765* GeniusBruiser: He might not be the most tactically-sound mind in the Circle, but he did manage to construct a number of machines built to recycle and fuse the souls of dead warriors into suits of armour.
766* TheHedonist: [[spoiler: Before ''Soul Reaver 2'' established that this was due to Mobius' manipulation]] ''Blood Omen'' had contained some subtle hints that Malek was late to defend the Circle because he was busy carousing. Being turned into a fleshless suit of AnimatedArmor knocked it out of him anyway.
767* HopelessBossFight: Kain cannot kill him personally because Malek simply reassembles himself, and eventually creates an AdvancingWallOfDoom. All you can do is keep up the attack long enough for the exit to appear.
768%%* KnightTemplar
769* LastOfHisKind: Last of the Sarafan priesthood by the time of ''Blood Omen''. [[spoiler: ''Soul Reaver 2'' established that the rest were killed by Raziel at the same time Vorador slaughtered the Circle of Nine.]]
770* MagicKnight: Uses offensive spells in combat alongside his spear.
771* RevengeBeforeReason: He lets Kain chase after Bane and Dejoule so he can focus on Vorador, just for the chance at personal vengeance. Granted, Vorador was the greater threat.
772* SayMyName: Most of the Circle Members he failed to save at the beginning of Blood Omen end up shouting Malek's name a lot. So [[{{Narm}} Narmtastic]] that even Vorador laughed.
773* WeaponTwirling: Likes this trope a lot. He does this every time he attacks Kain, presumably combining a more powerful blow with IntimidationDemonstration.
774[[/folder]]
775
776[[folder:William the Just]]
777[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sr2_texture_stronghold_reaverconvergence.png]]
778!!!Voiced by Creator/TonyJay
779
780A once virtuous king, he became corrupted and turned into the Nemesis, a tyrant bent on conquering Nosgoth. Kain travels back in time to kill him before this happened, an event that sparks the destruction of the Vampire race since [[NiceJobBreakingItHero oops, a Vampire just killed a young and kind king in cold blood]].
781----
782* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: After turning evil he was a brutal tyrant. Not terribly popular, as you can imagine.
783* DamageSpongeBoss: It takes a ton of hits even from the Soul Reaver to take him down, but doesn't have any attacks beyond basic sword swings.
784* DontCreateAMartyr: Kain falls victim to this trope – [[spoiler:by killing the Nemesis before he became evil, Moebius rallies the humans into exterminating the vampires out of vengeance for William.]]
785* EvilOldFolks: Considering the 50-year gap between being the boy-king able to wield the Soul Reaver against Kain and becoming the Nemesis, we can infer that by the time he had conquered Nosgoth, he had to have been in his 60s/70s.
786* FaceHeelTurn: He was a kind king at first, but turned evil later in life. Kain realises that Moebius himself was responsible for this.
787* {{Foil}}: William is one to Kain in many ways beyond both wielding the Soul Reaver against the other.
788** Both were [[UnwittingPawn manipulated by Moebius as young men.]]
789** Both went on to [[EvilOldFolks conquer Nosgoth as elders.]]
790** And both eventually [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness found themselves targeted by a new foe also directed by Moebius as part of his, and by extension the Elder God's, grand design once they'd served their purpose.]]
791** Where they diverge is [[TheChessmaster Kain]] became aware of the great plots of those who'd seek to decide both Nosgoth's fate and his own before actively [[ScrewDestiny resisting them]], while William died in ignorance as their [[UnwittingPawn pawn.]] Its possible Kain took William's example as a cautionary tale which might have inspired his quest to avoid the treacherous fate, also ordained for him, in the first place.
792* TheGoodKing: He started out as this.
793* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: You don't want a guy called ''the Nemesis'' descending on your village.
794* RankScalesWithAsskicking: When Kain faces him at least. He's one of the strongest bosses in the game.
795* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As a young king he was regarded as a benevolent ruler.
796* SpikesOfVillainy: His armies, along with their creepy red armor. The Nemesis himself is extra-spiky. Later games retconned this to a [[SomethingAboutARose rose theme]] when he was still William the Just.
797* TinTyrant: Post FaceHeelTurn.
798* VocalDissonance: One of the few characters who shouldn't have been voiced by Tony Jay. As the Nemesis, perhaps, but not the polite, unsure boy we see.
799* SmallRoleBigImpact: He doesn't show up in any other games after Blood Omen, but him being a ripple in the time stream impacts Raziel's decision to kill Kain.
800* UnwittingPawn: In the cutscene where he kills Moebius, Kain accuses the Timestreamer of having gone back in time first and actually transformed William into the Nemesis to begin with, and Moebius confirms it.
801[[/folder]]
802
803[[folder:King Ottmar]]
804[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_ottmar.png]]
805!!!Voiced by Creator/NeilRoss
806
807Ruler of Willendorf, the kingdom that opposed the Nemesis. After Kain retrieves his daughter's soul, he rallies his people against the Nemesis's army.
808----
809* AnimalMotifs: He's called the Mighty Lion of Willendorf, and this is reflected in his weaponry and banners.
810* CarryABigStick: He wields a mace shaped like a lion's head.
811* TheGoodKing: He just needs to get his motivation back.
812* HeroicBSOD: While his daughter lies soulless, all he can do is mourn, even as the armies of The Nemesis approach. As soon as Kain returns her soul, he is ready to fight.
813* RousingSpeech: "The scourge of Nosgoth is upon us, friends! We shall die today as heroes, lest we live tomorrow as slaves! Ready thine arms! FOR NOSGOTH!"
814* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: He fights on the frontline with the Army of Hope, which leads to a DecapitatedArmy with his death.
815* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: He is never seen again in the series after Kain goes back in time to kill William the Just.
816[[/folder]]
817
818[[folder:Elzevir the Dollmaker]]
819[[quoteright:391:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elzevir.png]]
820!!!Voiced by Creator/NeilRoss
821
822An accomplished toymaker and minor magician. During the backstory, he took part in a contest to produce a doll worthy of the Princess of Willendorf's birthday and won; as a reward, he requested a lock of the princess's hair- which he received. Shortly afterwards, the princess fell into a coma, and Elzevir ended up becoming one of Kain's targets in his mission to rally Willendorf against the Nemesis.
823----
824* AnimateInanimateObject: Specialises in animating his dolls and turning them into warriors.
825* {{Ephebophile}}: Heavily implied to be why he was so interested in the princess.
826* OffWithHisHead: Kain decapitates him at the end of the boss fight.
827* PsychopathicManChild: "You shall ''not'' have it! '''''Mine, mine, mine!'''''"
828* SympatheticMagic: Another specialty of his.
829* WickedToymaker: He imprisoned the soul of King Ottmar's daughter with a doll he made. When Kain crashes his workshop, he goes up against Elzevir's creations.
830* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: It's probably for the best that we never find out just ''what'' he wanted with the princess' soul, though we get a pretty clear idea. Even Kain seems pretty creeped out by it.
831[[/folder]]
832
833!!Introduced in ''Soul Reaver''
834
835[[folder:Melchiah]]
836[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_melchiah.png]] [[caption-width-right:300:Click the note to see devolved Melchiah [[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sr1_melchiah_boss_023png.png[[/note]]]]
837->"Do you not recognize me, brother? Am I so changed?"
838!!!Voiced by Creator/MichaelBell
839
840One of Raziel's brothers, he was the last to be resurrected by Kain, and having the least of his power, still suffers from decay. Thus, on top of having to drink blood, he has to skin the corpses for hides to replace his own festering skin; by the time Raziel emerges from the Abyss, this practice has degenerated into incorporating entire ''bodies'' into his own, transforming Melchiah into a hulking mass of corpses and mangled organs. Even his fingers are actually severed limbs grafted onto the ends of his arms.
841----
842* BaldOfEvil: The only of Raziel's brothers to lack any hair on his head.
843* BodyHorror: Since his body still decays he has to skin the corpses for hides to replace his own festering skin. He looks like an EldritchAbomination by the time Raziel gets around to killing him.
844* BodyOfBodies: His mutated, slug-like form.
845* CameBackWrong: He's the least powerful of Kain's off-spring and for it has devolved into something you would never guess used to be human.
846* CursedWithAwesome: Despite his apparent revulsion at his obscene form, according to WordOfGod (series artist Daniel Cabuco) Melchiah is neither depressed nor downtrodden; despite initially believing he had received the poorest gift from Kain, he later reconsidered that his ability to incorporate the flesh of others into his form gave him the potential to be the most powerful of all vampires. According to ''VideoGame/{{Nosgoth}}'', this attitude was passed onto his clan (particularly the playable Summoner class), who embraced a culture of endless self-improvement through pillaging the body parts of others to make themselves either more powerful or more attractive.
847* DeathSeeker: Implied. His words, especially his last ones, showed he was obviously loathing his existence by the time Raziel confronts him. The fact he willingly confronts Raziel in a place that could actually kill him (ie, spiked gates and a giant bladed grinder) also suggests this.
848* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: the Melchahim Vampires have more in common with zombies than vampires, even bursting up from the ground to attack.
849* AFateWorseThanDeath: His words indicate that he did ''not'' enjoy his existence. Not that you can blame him...
850-->"Do you think I feel no revulsion for this form?"
851* IDieFree: "I am... ''released''..."
852* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Courtesy of spiked gates.
853* {{Intangibility}}: The main ability he diplays in his boss battle is to phase through structures such as cages and walls. Raziel acquires this power upon defeating him, though he can only use it in the Spectral Realm.
854* PuzzleBoss: Raziel has to lure him under spiked gates to impale him.
855* SlidingScaleOfUndeadRegeneration: Due to being the youngest and weakest of Kain's sons, his body is afflicted with decay, and he and his clanmates must graft the skins of their victims onto their own bodies in order to prolong their immortality.
856[[/folder]]
857
858[[folder:Zephon]]
859[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_4_opt_zephon.png]]
860[[caption-width-right:300:Click the note to see devolved Zephon[[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wall_boss1.jpg[[/note]]]]
861->"See how the humans' weapon of destruction has become my home – indeed, my ''body.'' A cocoon of brick and granite from which to watch a pupating world..."
862!!!Voiced by Creator/TonyJay
863
864Another of Raziel's brothers, his offspring have mutated into arachnid-like creatures capable of climbing walls and wrapping their prey in cocoons for later meals. Zephon himself has grown more massive and more insectoid, to the point that he resembles a thinly-veiled version of the [[Film/{{Aliens}} Alien Queen]].
865----
866* AllWebbedUp: the Zephonim's victims generally end up like this.
867* BodyHorror: Zephon's evolved form is reminiscent of the [[Film/{{Aliens}} Xenomorph Queen]]. Zephon's body has also grown into the uppermost levels of the Silenced Cathedral, to the point where the cathedral itself can be considered [[WombLevel part of his body]].
868* DirtyCoward: Raziel accuses him and his Clan of being this, as they hide in the shadows to prey on vulnerable, unsuspecting victims without a fight.
869* EvilRedhead: Was a redhead when he was still a human, fighting for the Sarafan, according to a mural depicting Zephon in ''Soul Reaver 2''. This is confirmed by WordOfGod.
870-->'''Daniel Cabuco:'''[[labelnote:Note]]Series artist and art director.[[/labelnote]] His hair was red as a human, and turned black as his soul when he turned into a vampire.
871* StationaryBoss: He's attached to the wall, so he doesn't move during his boss fight.
872* TennisBoss: Though not in the usual sense of direct deflecting--he spits out eggs that Raziel has to pick up, [[KillItWithFire light on fire]] and throw back at him.
873* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody:
874--> "Will... instinct... reflex action... the insect mind finds little difference. I warn you, brother, as my stature has grown, so it is matched by my appetite..."
875* WombLevel: The uppermost levels of the Silenced Cathedral have become a part of his body.
876[[/folder]]
877
878[[folder:Rahab]]
879[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_rahab.png]]
880[[caption-width-right:300:Click the note to see devolved Rahab[[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sr1_rahab.png[[/note]]]]
881->"You, of all of us, should respect the power bestowed by a limitation overcome."
882!!!Voiced by Creator/NeilRoss
883
884One of Raziel's brothers, he and his brood have become aquatic creatures and overcame the vampire weakness to water. While his spawn are amphibious, Rahab himself has metamorphosed into a merman rather reminiscent of a shark.
885----
886* BossArenaIdiocy: ZigZagged. Rahab's territory is a flooded abbey, and both his lair and the passage to it are also flooded. If Raziel couldn't shift to the Spectral Realm where water is insubstantial, he wouldn't even be able to ''get'' to Rahab's lair. And once you do get there, the only dry land are small pillars where he can easily knock you back into the water, forcing Raziel to shift back to the Spectral Realm. On the other hand, you have an aversion to sunlight, it might be considered unwise to make your lair in the one part of the abbey that rises above sea level, in a room full of breakable windows.
887* DiscardAndDraw: He and his brood have overcome the vampire weakness to water, at the cost of having [[WeakenedByTheLight no tolerance to sunlight whatsoever]].
888* IHatePastMe: Raziel reveals to him that they were members of the Sarafan as humans; Rahab doesn't care, declaring that Kain "saved them from themselves." [[spoiler:Ironically, Raziel would come around to Rahab's point of view once he [[BrokenPedestal got a good look at his past human self]].]]
889* MeaningfulName: In Jewish tradition, Rahab is the name of a sea demon.
890* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: He's a vampire evolved/devolved into a shark-man.
891* PuzzleBoss: Raziel has to shatter the windows of his lair to let in sunlight to harm him.
892* RemovedAchillesHeel: Rahab and his spawn have completely overcome the vampiric vulnerability to water, something of which he is extremely proud. Unfortunately for them, [[DiscardAndDraw doing so made them even more]] [[WeakenedByTheLight vulnerable to light]] than normal vampires.
893* TokenAquaticRace: He and his clan, the Rahabim, evolved to overcome their vampiric weakness to water so they could claim dominance over Nosgoth's aquatic environments. Even in the opening cutscene, a closer look at Rahab's appearance shows he was already forming scale-like growths and even gills.
894* UndyingLoyalty: To Kain. He warns Raziel to watch his tongue when he insults their creator, and does not care that he was once a Sarafan vampire hunter, feeling that Kain saved him. Kain even told him that he would perish against Raziel, and he went to his fate willingly.
895* WeakenedByTheLight: In exchange for their immunity to water, the Rahabim are vulnerable to sunlight well into adulthood, which Raziel exploits to kill Rahab himself.
896[[/folder]]
897
898[[folder:Dumah]]
899[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_4_opt_dumah.png]]
900[[caption-width-right:300:Click the note to see devolved Dumah [[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rcii6oc2u6681.jpg[[/note]]]]
901->"The centuries in limbo have honed my strength. Not even Kain is my equal."
902!!!Voiced by Creator/SimonTempleman
903
904One of Raziel's brothers, and along with Turel one of the two who actually threw Raziel into the Abyss. By the time he is encounted, he has been impaled, trapping his soul in limbo. The centuries like this have transformed him into a wraith, able to exist and act in both realms at once and making him stronger than ever. Ironically, his offspring were scattered and disorganized when he was finally defeated by an army of humans, and serve as the main Mooks of the game, easily killed in two or three hits.
905----
906* AdvancingBossOfDoom: Even shifting into the Spectral Realm doesn't grant an escape, because he can move through both realms now. Instead, Raziel has to exploit this [[LuredIntoATrap to lure Dumah into the city furnace]].
907* CameBackStrong: Like all vampires, his spirit evolved into a Wraith upon his physical death, and again like all vampires resurrecting him brings this Wraith-spirit back into his body and carries soul-sucking powers along with it; unlike every other such vampire other than Raziel however, Dumah can also enter the Spectral Realm.
908* GroundPunch: Get too far away from Dumah, and he'll strike the ground to release a tremor that will stun Raziel and allow him to catch up. The only way to avoid it (and he will almost certainly use it at least once due to getting too far behind Raziel while luring him to the furnace) is to jump into the air as he strikes.
909* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: How Raziel finds his body, skewered onto his own throne by multiple human spears.
910* TheJuggernaut: [[NighInvulnerable Absolutely nothing]] in Raziel's armory can harm him.
911* KillItWithFire: Due to the above, Raziel kills him by luring him into a giant furnace.
912* MeaningfulName: Dumah is the angel of "the stillness/silence of death", reflecting Dumah's trapping in limbo due to his impalement.
913* MirrorCharacter: In a way to Raziel, as both died and came back as powerful, nigh-unkillable Wraith-vampires.
914* OnlyMostlyDead: His killers didn't really kill him, they just trapped him in limbo by impaling his body. Removing the spears allows his soul to return to his body.
915* OverlyLongTongue: His offspring sport long tongues capable of draining the blood from victims.
916* PuzzleBoss: ''Nothing'' in Raziel's arsenal can hurt Dumah, whether in the physical or spectral realms. The only way to defeat him to lure him out of the boss room and all the way back to city furnace before setting him on fire, all while avoiding Dumah's attacks.
917* SmugSnake: It's mentioned that Dumah's [[HoistByHisOwnPetard own arrogance]] was what let the humans stake him in the first place. After being revived, he claims that the time spent in Limbo have honed his strength to the point that he is now more powerful than Kain himself.
918* TheStarscream: Implied, as he claims that not even Kain is his equal now after his return from limbo, suggesting that if he defeated Raziel then he would have went on to try and supplant his old master.
919* UselessUsefulSpell: The Constrict power Raziel gets for defeating him--there's a good reason why this is the one power Raziel ''doesn't'' retain in later games. It lets you bind enemies in place by running a circle around them, but to do this you're both letting the enemy attack you while you run, and you're relying on them letting you complete the binding in which case they're already holding still anyway. Its only practical purpose is to solve puzzles.
920* TheUsualAdversaries: Not Dumah himself, but his vampire offspring serve this purpose. Since he was destroyed, his clan scattered throughout Nosgoth and are thus the most common enemies Raziel fights; they can be found not just in Dumah's old territory, but also in Raziel's, as well as around Kain's fortress and near the Sarafan stronghold, and other miscellaneous encounters. In fact, in and near Dumah's haunt is more or less the ''last'' place you run into them.
921* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Believing himself invincible, Dumah was caught unawares by a human assault, his clan decimated and Dumah himself speared to his throne and left OnlyMostlyDead for centuries.
922[[/folder]]
923
924[[folder:Turel]]
925[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_turel.png]]
926[[caption-width-right:300:Click the note to see devolved Turel [[note]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/defiance_bonusmaterial_characterart_renders_11_turel.png[[/note]]]]
927->"Yes. I am changed. I have become a God. Greater than you ever were, Raziel. You were never a God. Greater even than Kain!"
928!!!Voiced by Richard Doyle (''Soul Reaver 2'') and Creator/GreggBerger (''Defiance'')
929
930The final brother and the strongest for sure, he has telekinetic abilities surpassing Kain's own. Turel along with Dumah were the two who actually threw Raziel into the Abyss. He is spared Raziel's vengeance in ''Soul Reaver'', but returns later in the series.
931----
932* BlindBats: He gained more bat-like features over the centuries, which resulted in a gradual loss of sight in exchange for telekinetic and sound-related abilities.
933%%* BossArenaIdiocy:%%Why and how are these examples?
934%%** The giant gongs -- {{Justified}} as this may have been [[spoiler: the Cult's way of keeping him under control]].
935%%** His deleted boss fight in ''Soul Reaver'' took place in an arena surrounded by water, going by the dialogue that remained in the disc files.
936%%* TheBusCameBack: His sudden appearance was ''very'' out of left field.%%How?
937* DemonicPossession: When Raziel encounters him in ''Defiance'', he's under the control of the Hylden Lord.
938* DisabilitySuperpower: He went blind in exchange for telekinesis and super-hearing.
939* DyingAsYourself: "We shall all be... ''free''...".
940* AGodAmI: PlayedWith. He considers himself one, since he has a cult dedicated to worshipping him. Considering he is ''forced'' to be worshipped and is a prisoner against his will, however, this could be self-depreciation.
941%%* HandicappedBadass:
942* ItIsDehumanizing: When he first smells and recognizes Raziel in his pit, Turel refers to him as "it".
943* LargeAndInCharge: Aside from [[spoiler:the Elder God]], Turel is probably the largest boss in the series. His vampire offspiring are also the tallest and most dangerous regular enemies in ''Soul Reaver 1'', pretty much serving as EliteMooks, with the first one you meet actually being a mini-boss fight.
944* LargeHam: Just look at his profile quote.
945* LeftHanging: The exact means and reason of how and why he [[spoiler:was pulled back in time to the ''Blood Omen'' era]] was going to be covered in a future game. WordOfGod has since explained [[spoiler:it was Azimuth who pulled him back, using a time-streaming device of Moebius'. The intent was for him to be a host for the Hylden Lord, but he was too large and hard to control so they left him in the basement of Avernus and used him to invoke fear and reverence to the Hylden Lord among the humans]].
946* MindOverMatter: Like his vampiric brood, Turel possesses telekinetic powers.
947* MyMasterRightOrWrong: In ''Soul Reaver 2'' Raziel encounters the pre-vampire Turel and paints him as this as a vampire, dutiful and righteous in throwing him into the Abyss at the command of Kain without question, and faced with the Sarafan Turel remarks that he wasn't really different as a human.
948* SanitySlippage: He shows some shades of this. Centuries of imprisonment and being worshiped as an idol haven't done wonders for his mental state.
949* SenseImpairedMonster: When he appears in his monstrous form in ''Defiance'', he's gone blind but has developed acute senses of smell and hearing. Note that he first recognizes Raziel by scent, despite Raziel possessing a random corpse at the time; apparently, his sense of smell is so powerful he can smell people's ''souls''.
950* TragicVillain: Has become this in ''Defiance'', as he's a prisoner of the cult of Hash'a'gik.
951* TheUnfought: The only one of Kain's sons to not be fought in ''Soul Reaver'', as he and the Turelim lair were cut by time constraints. Raziel [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade on it]] when confronted by Turel's human self in the past, but he eventually gets to fight Turel the vampire in ''Defiance''.
952* WhamLine: When he first appears you probably have no idea who or what he is, you just know he recognizes Raziel somehow. And then Raziel mutters his name, and suddenly the scene takes an interesting turn.
953[[/folder]]
954
955[[folder:The Tomb Guardian]]
956[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tombguardian.jpg]]
957->"Heretic! You shall not pass..."
958!!!Voiced by Richard Doyle (EN)
959
960An adult member of The Turelim Clan ordered by Kain to guard the Tomb of the Sarafan.
961----
962* CameBackStrong: The Tomb Guardian is a revived vampire with soul-sucking powers that he gained as a vampire-wrath.
963* DegradedBoss: After the Tomb Guardian is defeated, regular Turelim vampires start showing up as EliteMooks for the game's final stretch.
964* MindOverMatter: Like his vampiric Sire Turel, The Tomb Guardian possesses telekinetic powers, after Raziel kills him he obtains the Guardian's power.
965* MiniBoss: He is the only "boss" in the game who isn't one of the bloodline patriarchs, and exists to justify Raziel gaining Turel's MindOverMatter powers despite Turel being TheUnfought.
966[[/folder]]
967
968!!Introduced in ''Blood Omen 2''
969
970[[folder:Umah]]
971[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo2_character_umah.jpg]]
972!!!Voiced by Elizabeth Ward Land
973
974A member of the Vampire resistance, she is Kain's contact and assists him when she can.
975----
976* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Umah wears a purple outfit which leaves her stomach exposed. Presumably because adhering to the same [[WalkingShirtlessScene dress code]] that male Vampires in this series have, would seriously increase the games rating.
977* CharacterTic: Whether it's deliberate or just a quirk of the animation, Umah never seems to stop moving her hands.
978* DamselInDistress: Briefly, when she [[spoiler:betrays Kain and is wounded by the Sarafan. She doesn't survive.]]
979* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: A deathly-pale vampire with black hair.
980* FacialMarkings: Has black facial tattoos.
981* FemmeFatalons: She has long, claw-like nails that she often uses on her enemies.
982* HeKnowsAboutTimedHits: Her explanations serve as something of a tutorial for the game.
983* LightningBruiser: She moves fast and hits hard, though she's neither as quick nor as powerful as Kain.
984* TheMole: [[spoiler:Kain believes this towards the end of ''Blood Omen 2'', but it is never revealed if this is true or not. When Kain boasts to the villain about how he had uncovered her he seemed genuinely confused and claimed to have never heard her name before then.]]
985* MoralityPet:
986** Seemed to be becoming Kain's, thanks to the ShipTease. [[spoiler: This makes the manner of her death all the more shocking. Kain's forcing her to acknowledge his dominance before killing her anyway is one of his few KickTheDog moments in the series.]]
987** Also possibly for Vorador, since he seems to treat her [[LikeASonToMe more as a daughter]] than as the concubines he had in ''Blood Omen''. [[spoiler: [[YouMonster His reaction]] to Kain killing her is the only time in the series he is seen to lose control and show strong emotion]].
988* MsFanservice: Her clothing is downright {{Stripperiffic}}, with her [[BareMidriffsAreFeminine stomach bared]], her large bust emphasized by her top, and the fact that she wears [[ZettaiRyouiki thigh-baring stockings]] instead of pants.
989* ShipTease: With Kain. [[spoiler: It doesn't end well .]]
990-->'''Kain:''' [[spoiler: ''You should never had betrayed me. You could have been my queen, now you have left me alone.'']]
991* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:She steals the Nexus Stone from Kain because she fears when he returns to power, he'll become the same type of EvilOverlord the Sarafan are, to vampire and human alike. It's hard not to understand or even agree with her concerns]].
992[[/folder]]
993
994[[folder:Faustus]]
995->''I care not for those destined to die. I don't weep for them, and I won't weep for you.''
996!!!Voiced by Creator/PhilProctor
997
998One of Kain's former lieutenants, he switched sides in the backstory when he decided Kain would lose.
999----
1000%%* FemmeFatalons
1001* GetBackHereBoss: Fights you directly at first, but eventually resorts to attacking you from a distance while staying out of your reach.
1002* HunterOfHisOwnKind: As he puts it, "Who better to kill a vampire than a more powerful vampire?"
1003* IFightForTheStrongestSide: He joined up with the Sarafan when he realized that Kain was losing the war. When Kain calls him out on betraying his own kind, he says as much:
1004-->'''Faustus:''' What is our kind? In serving the Sarafan, I have protection, I have power! And who better to kill a vampire than a more powerful vampire? History is WrittenByTheWinners, Kain. ''That'' is my kind.
1005* JumpPhysics: The power Kain gets for killing him.
1006* LongHairedPrettyboy: He looks like a male version of Umah.
1007* MadBomber: Throws burning projectiles in one phase of the fight, which subsequently explode.
1008* MeaningfulName: Could there be a more [[Myth/{{Faust}} fitting name]] for someone who made a deal with the local SatanicArchetype in exchange for power?
1009%%* PuzzleBoss
1010* WakeUpCallBoss: If you haven't figured out how to block attacks and use your Dark Gift powers yet, prepare to suffer.
1011[[/folder]]
1012
1013[[folder:Marcus]]
1014->''I hold the cards now, Kain. Surrender yourself to me, or I will kill him.''
1015!!!Voiced by Creator/NicholasGuest
1016
1017One of Kain's former lieutenants, Kain apparently tried to kill him. Marcus claims it was because Kain feared his growing powers, but of course Kain denies this. However, Kain nonetheless has trouble shaking off Marcus's mental powers at first, and seems hesitant to fight him. Considering how eager Kain is to flatten other enemies, Marcus could well be right.
1018----
1019* BaldOfEvil: His head is as bare as his conscience.
1020* BrainwashedAndCrazy: His specialty is the "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Charm]]" Dark Gift.
1021%%* CowardlyBoss
1022* DirtyCoward: He tries to Charm Kain's mind, flees when that fails, and then when Kain doesn't back off when Marcus seizes control of the bishop he's looking for, he begins running from him some more.
1023-->'''Marcus:''' "In your arrogance you presumed me dead, but I was stronger than you knew. I crawled from my haven and fled into hiding." \
1024'''Kain:''' "That's the Marcus I remember."
1025%%* FemmeFatalons
1026* HunterOfHisOwnKind:Sides with the Sarafan in hunting down his fellow vampires and especially Kain.
1027* KneelBeforeZod: Attempts to force Kain to obey him with his mind control powers. Doesn't work.
1028* LooksLikeOrlok: He's bald with pointed ears and FemmeFatalons, CreepyLongFingers, and wears a BadassLongcoat to boot.
1029[[/folder]]
1030
1031[[folder:Sebastian]]
1032->''I dealt the blow that cost you the war. Glorious, was it not? So many killed, so quickly. And all my doing.''
1033!!!Voiced by Creator/NickJameson
1034
1035Yet another of Kain's lieutenants, this one was more direct in his betrayal--he tipped off the Sarafan on how and when to ambush Kain's army. He is encountered in the facility where the Nexus Stone is kept.
1036----
1037* AxCrazy: His first scene involves him brutally slaughtering several humans under the pretense of feeding. Kain outright calls him a "sloppy butcher."
1038* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: When he realizes he can't beat Kain in a straight fight, he starts attempting to destroy the Nexus Stone, [[TakingYouWithMe knowing full well the resulting explosion with kill both him and Kain]].
1039* TheDragon: To the Sarafan Lord.
1040* EvilLaugh: More of a high-pitched annoying giggle than anything else, and he uses it ''so'' often.
1041* FemmeFatalons: As with other vampires, he attacks with claws.
1042* HunterOfHisOwnKind: Notice a running theme here?
1043%%* PuzzleBoss
1044%%* SmugSnake
1045* SuperSpeed: He can run at hyper-speeds around the area.
1046* TheStarscream: He wasn't content to serve loyally and betrayed Kain to get more power and influence under the Sarafan Lord than he had under Kain.
1047[[/folder]]
1048
1049[[folder:Magnus]]
1050->''It must be blanched! It must be poached! It must be fresh! Where is my meat!? Sopping with blood and running with gore!''
1051!!!Voiced by Creator/RodgerBumpass
1052
1053Kain's final lieutenant, he ran away before the climactic battle between Kain and the Sarafan to side with the Sarafan. Kain later finds him imprisoned in an extra-dimensional prison where centuries of torment have driven him mad.
1054----
1055* AxCrazy: He's gone entirely mad and has little thoughts beyond killing and feeding.
1056* BadassBoast:
1057-->''"I will divine from your entrails!"''
1058* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Or more accurately, driven insane by centuries of torture.]]
1059* BodyHorror: His nose is cut off, his intestines are hanging out, the top of his skull has been removed with his brain exposed. And oh yeah, he has a burning furnace fused to his back.
1060* TheChampion: He used to be Kain's finest warrior and right-hand man. The two of them even invoke the trope by name.
1061* CloudCuckooLander: [[spoiler: Being trapped in hell-hole of prison run by cruel guards who define indefinite periods of torture as "peaceful" means of rehabilitation does that.]]
1062* DirtyCoward: He fled from the final battle with the Sarafan Lord the night before the attack. [[spoiler:Or so Kain believes. Actually Magnus snuck away to try and assassinate the Sarafan Lord himself, but was caught and thrown into his current prison.]]
1063* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:After being mortally wounded, he comes to his senses during his final moments]].
1064* IDieFree: [[spoiler:Invoked by Kain, who kills him now that he is himself again.]]
1065* ImplacableMan: Beat the hell out of him, throw him into running water (which is like acid to him), he just keeps coming.
1066* TheLancer[=/=]TheDragon: To Kain, formerly.
1067* LargeHam: "WATER IS NOT MY FRIEND!"
1068* MercyKill: [[spoiler:The centuries spent in pain and madness that drove him to his current state are ended by Kain, who tells him he's suffered long enough]].
1069* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:Kain pities him after learning the true nature of his fate, and likely the player will, too.]]
1070* UndyingLoyalty: [[spoiler: Was the only one of Kain's lieutenants in ''Blood Omen 2'' who stayed loyal to him.]]
1071[[/folder]]
1072
1073[[folder:The Seer]]
1074[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo2_control_station_controlstation_05.jpeg]]
1075->''Who I am, what I am, is of no concern to you.''
1076!!!Voiced by Elizabeth Ward Land
1077
1078An enigmatic woman hinted to be of Hylden origin (Though she does not resemble the ones seen in-game- it's possible she's a hybrid.) Kain encounters her briefly to gain information on the Device being used by the Hylden.
1079----
1080* {{Dhampyr}}: A non-human example, although implied.
1081* {{Foil}}: Serves as one to Ariel, oddly enough- Ariel is a human, the Seer is (probably) a Hylden/Vampire hybrid, Ariel is modestly dressed and hideously scarred, the Seer wears very little and is comely, and while Ariel hates Kain for his actions, the Seer has a strange attraction to him.
1082* KissOfTheVampire: Is on the receiving end of a very erotically-charged one from Kain- an anomaly in the series, where VampireBitesSuck is the norm.
1083* NonHumanHumanoidHybrid: Hinted to be a Hylden-Vampire hybrid.
1084** The other popular theory is that she's a pure-blooded Hylden, but that she somehow avoided banishment to the demon realm; Hash'ak'gik repeatedly laments that the Hylden were once beautiful and that their monstrous forms were the result of their long banishment.[[note]]The fact that the Builder, the only Hylden confirmed not to be banished, looks as deformed as the rest of them could cast doubt on this theory, but could otherwise be explained either as a result of his own torturous existence in the Eternal Prison or simply due to resource limitations.[[/note]]
1085* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: If she is truly a Hylden, then she is one of only two sympathetic examples of her race in the entire series.
1086* RiddleForTheAges: Her motivation in helping the vampires against the Hylden- and indeed much of her existence, as a hybrid of two warring races that appears with little backstory, and disappears never to be mentioned again.
1087* {{Seers}}: It's in the name.
1088* {{Stripperiffic}}: Wears even less than ''Umah''.
1089* {{Underboobs}}: Her top exposes the undersides of her breasts.
1090* WitchWithACapitalB: Kain tended to call the Seer a "witch" in a rather.....[[ParentheticalSwearing parenthetical manner]].
1091-> '''Kain''': ''"I'm no man's dog, '''''witch'''''."''
1092[[/folder]]
1093
1094[[folder:The Builder]]
1095->''I can indeed help you, but in return, I need an end to my suffering.''
1096!!!Voiced by Creator/FrankWelker
1097
1098A Hylden Kain finds in the [[HellholePrison Eternal Prison]], that built the Device the [[BigBad Hylden Lord]] attempts to use to destroy all non-Hylden life on Nosgoth.
1099----
1100* TheAtoner: Is apparently aiding Kain to atone for his role in creating [[PhlebotinumBomb the Device]].
1101* HeelFaceTurn: Implied to have had one while in the Eternal Prison.
1102* LastOfHisKind: Based of his appearance, it is likely he is the last of the non-corrupted Hyldens- until Kain kills him.
1103* ReluctantMadScientist: Or just possibly a regular MadScientist who came to regret his actions.
1104* NonStandardCharacterDesign: He is subtly different from the other Hylden- a possible indication that he wasn't corrupted like the rest.
1105* MercyKill: Requests this of Kain- and his request is granted.
1106* MyGreatestFailure: Creating the Device.
1107* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Like the Seer, he is a Hylden opposed to their plan of conquering Nosgoth and exterminating or enslaving the other races.
1108[[/folder]]

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