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This is a list of characters and associated tropes from Legacy of Kain. 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.

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Main Characters

    Kain 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokkain_7167.png
Click the note to see Young Kain.note 
"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?"

Voiced by Simon Templeman (EN), Benoît Allemane (FR)

The 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 Gambit Roulette to try and Take a Third Option between the choice of ruling a dying world or dying himself to save it. In his arrogance though, he failed to realize that Screwing Destiny isn't as simple as he'd hoped.

For a more verbose description from the man himself, visit his self-demonstrating page.


  • Affably Evil: 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 doesn't return the sentiment. In general, he is usually Nice to the Waiter unless given reason not to be, as demonstrated in his interactions in Blood Omen 2.
  • Admiring the Abomination: 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.
  • Ambiguously Human: At the end of Defiance, he isn't really a vampire anymore, as 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 Left Hanging after Defiance.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Repeatedly accused as such, considering the fact that he essentially doomed Nosgoth to an eternity of decay purely so he could rule over it.
    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.
  • Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain: 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 Black-and-Grey Morality of this one, he's someone you want to see victorious because his enemies are even worse than him.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: 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.
  • At Least I Admit It: 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 Hunters Moebius rallies for being hypocrites that "cloak their bloodlust beneath a veil of righteousness", whereas he makes no pretense to justify his killing.
    Kain: There's no shame in it, Raziel – revenge is motivation enough. At least it's honest. Hate me, but do it honestly.
  • Ax-Crazy: In the first Blood Omen, his Roaring Rampage of Revenge 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.
  • Back from the Dead: It's what sets the events of the franchise in motion – his revival as a vampire by Mortanius. Late into Defiance, he invokes it again by somehow surviving having his heart ripped out.
  • Badass Boast: 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 Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu? moment, though a major spoiler.
    "False god! This is the end! The final turn of your wheel!"
  • Badass Cape: His iconic attire for the series as pictured involves a sash with his clan emblem round over his chest and draping over the shoulder.
  • Bad Boss/Benevolent Boss: 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. By Defiance, it is flat out stated that, 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 his terrible fate of being trapped within the Reaver as it is to save himself.
  • Bad Liar: 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.
  • Battle Cry: "VAE VICTIS!" It's Latin for "Woe to the conquered/vanquished". In other words, the conquered have no rights. It should tell you everything you need to know about him.
  • Berserk Button: Kain does not like hypocrisy, as demonstrated in his exchange with Raziel at the pillars in Soul Reaver 2.
    • Accusing him of having no conscience is one of the few things that will make him enraged.
  • Betrayal by Inaction: 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.
  • Big Bad: 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.
  • Big "NO!": Done near the end of Defiance when he realizes he just impaled Raziel on the Soul Reaver.
  • Blood Knight: He certainly seems to be 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.
  • Body Horror: 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.
  • Break the Haughty: 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' Batman Gambit 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.
  • Butterfly of Doom: His assassination of the past William the Just in Blood Omen before he could become the Nemesis ended up kick-starting a new vampire purge in the present day... which is exactly what Moebius was planning all along.
  • Character Development: 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.
  • The Chessmaster: 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 Xanatos Speed Chess 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.
  • The Chosen One: Defiance reveals Kain thinks he is the prophesied Scion of Balance who is destined to return Nosgoth to vampire rule. 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.
  • Complete Immortality: To the extent that 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 himnote .
  • Cool Sword: Wields the material Soul Reaver, (also known as just "The Reaver").
  • Cosmic Plaything: 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.
  • Cursed with Awesome: After he comes to terms with being a vampire Kain lives and breathes this trope. "Heh heh heh heh heh..."
  • Dark Messiah: Kain's destiny is to Save the World, 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 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.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Kain has a very dry wit and a well-developed sense of sarcasm. The result is a magnificent amount of snark series-wide.
    Marcus: You tried to murder me!
    Kain: I seem to have failed.
  • Despotism Justifies the Means: 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.
  • The Determinator: No obstacle or setback is too devastating for Kain - not even eldritch gods, all-powerful seers, or having his heart ripped out of his chest and being sent to a different dimension entirely.
  • Devil's Job Offer: In Blood Omen, he's shown trapped in a Hell dimension until Mortanius ropes him into service.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: He ultimately battles and defeats the Elder God, which was apparently the destiny set up for him all along.
  • Disc-One Final Boss: He's implied to be the main antagonist of the Soul Reaver games 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.
  • The Emperor: Is this to Nosgoth pre-Soul Reaver.
  • Escaped from Hell: 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.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • 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.
      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.
    • 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:
      Kain: The old man's intentions I shall never know.
    • 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:
      Kain: Had I condemned Raziel to this nightmare when I cast him into the abyss?
    • Despite his sadistic tendencies and Sociopathic Hero status, Kain is shown to have a distaste for prolonged Cold-Blooded Torture, preferring quick, if painful and messy, deaths. To that end, he Mercy Kills Nupraptor's mentally-shattered servant girl in Blood Omen and the twisted Magnus in Blood Omen 2.
  • Evil Is Petty:
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • Evil Laugh: Heard quite often during Blood Omen when he's swinging his sword around, and again in the canon ending.
  • Evil Virtues: Honesty and fortitude are his biggest positive qualities.
  • The Fatalist: 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.
  • Femme Fatalons: 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.
  • Find the Cure!: 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 there was never a "cure", Ariel strung him along with that claim so he'd finish off the Circle and then sacrifice himself.
  • Freudian Excuse: 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.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: 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 Vampire Monarch and the God-Emperor of Nosgoth, with very few beings in the land, human or otherwise, aware that he Was Once a Man.
  • Genre Savvy: If Defiance is any indication, he knows damn well that any suspicious looking statue isn't going to stay still for long once his business in the forge is concluded.
    Kain: These statues were singularly inanimate. I knew better than to assume they would always remain so.
  • A God Am I: Set himself up a God-Emperor.
  • Golden Super Mode: 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.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: Between him and Raziel at least twice in Soul Reaver. He also gets some hammy time with Moebius in Defiance.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: Later installments in the series show that he has mellowed out and is much more calculating, though still brutal and self-serving.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Implied at the end of Defiance, when Raziel purifies him of Nupraptor's curse of insanity.
  • Heroic BSoD: Has one at the end of Soul Reaver 2 when he realizes everything that he has planned and gambled on throughout the entire game has served the ends of his enemies.
  • Hidden Depths: In spite of how much of a gleeful 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 It's All About Me, something increasingly clear with his interactions with Raziel as he reveals the scope of his plans for both Nosgoth and his prized lieutenant.
    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?
  • Horns of Villainy: The elder Kain from Soul Reaver onwards has four horns growing on his forehead.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: In Blood Omen. He carries his normal iron sword, a spike mace, two axes, the Flame Sword and the Soul Reaver, which in this game is longer than he is tall when he attacks with it.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Regarding his manipulation of Raziel. He doesn't show a ton of regret, possibly hiding it because he didn't think Raziel would believe him, but he never expects Raziel to forgive him for it.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gets to be behind both ends of the blade in different games. How he deals with Moebius in Defiance.
  • Immortal Ruler: At the end of Blood Omen, Kain decides to rule Nosgoth as it's Vampire Monarch after the pillars collapse, and by the time of Soul Reaver, he's been doing so for a millennium.
  • It's All About Me: 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 how much scheming he does for Raziel's sake to avoid the latter having to become the Soul Reaver blade.
  • Kick the Dog: Revelations past Soul Reaver unveil the fact that Kain's submitting Raziel to a Fate Worse than Death was his attempt to 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. And put Raziel into the position their enemies needed to make him the Soul Reaver anyway.
  • Large Ham: And how... which inevitably leads to plenty of Ham-to-Ham Combat against either Raziel or Moebius.
  • Last of His Kind: 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 Butterfly of Doom 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 Janos Audron revived in the unwilling thrall of the Hylden, Kain likely would've had to self-invoke this himself had the series continued.
  • Legendary in the Sequel: By the time of Soul Reaver, Kain's exploits in Blood Omen are the stuff of legends.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: 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 a bit more grey as he ages, but he's pretty unapologetic about the whole "vampires ruling over the human sheep" thing.
  • Longhaired Pretty Boy: He's at his prettiest in Blood Omen 2.
  • Magic Knight: He has blatant magic in Blood Omen, but in later games sticks to his telekinetic and vampiric powers more.
  • Meaningful Name: 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.
  • Mega Manning: Absorbs power from his former lieutenants in Blood Omen 2.
  • Memento Macguffin: 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 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.
  • Mercy Kill: 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.
  • Mind over Matter: As of Defiance, telekinesis seems to be the most-used power in his magical repertoire.
  • Mr. Exposition: In Blood Omen, providing everything from info on abilities, weapons, and just information on the world and the characters he meets.
  • Multi-Melee Master: Kain has demonstrated skilled use of a large variety of weapons; in Blood Omen he carried three different swords (one of which was on fire and the other was the Soul Reaver), a mace, and a 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.
  • My God, What Have I Done?:
    • When he sees the Elder God in Defiance, he realizes that what he forced Raziel to go through is much worse than he earlier believed.
  • Name of Cain: Goes without saying, really.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 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.
  • Nice to the Waiter: He's usually friendly to many of the non-hostile humans he talks to.
  • Noble Demon: Not as noble as Raziel, but Kain does have a sense of honor and morality, however loose and skewed it may be.
  • Older and Wiser: 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.
  • Orange/Blue Contrast: Wears red clothing, his checkpoints in Defiance and health meter are red, and lets not forget the 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.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Killing the defenseless Moebius in Defiance while taunting him about how his abilities have failed him. Moebius might not have posed a danger to him anymore, but after five games, he's had it coming.
  • Pet the Dog: Now and then Kain does show altruism and kindness without any selfish motives behind the act.
    • He sees Raziel as a valued ally, possibly even a friend, and really does want to save him from his fate. When 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.
    • He held affection for Umah, commenting she could have been his queen if she hadn't betrayed him, and telling her she was brave to at least try to confront the Sarafan alone.
    • He performs a Mercy Kill on his former lieutenant 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.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain/Politically Incorrect Hero: He mentions not being especially fond of gypsies (which is a racial slur for the Romani) in the first game, and sees them as mostly low-lives.
  • Powerful and Helpless: 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 Character Development 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.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: His and Moebius' exchange in Blood Omen:
    Moebius: You have seen my plan, vampire, as I've seen your destiny. The future says you die!
    Kain: But I am dead... (chops Moebius' head off) as are you.
  • Psychotic Smirk: He unleashes an epic one shortly before killing Moebius for the second time.
  • Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": If he's not yelling "Vae Victis!", he's doing this. Kain really enjoys hacking away at stuff.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: 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.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Has them as a fledgling vampire in Blood Omen. By the time of Blood Omen 2, he's got Creepy Blue Eyes instead. Come the Soul Reaver era and subsequent appearance in that timeline, he has Supernatural Gold Eyes now that he's evolved to his full potential.
  • Removed Achilles' Heel: In Defiance, Raziel tearing the Heart of Darkness from Kain's chest has the handy side-effect of making him immune to Moebius' vampire-weakening scepter.
  • Revenge Before Reason: 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.
    Kain: Nothing is free. Not even revenge.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: 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 Fully-Embraced Fiend. 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: with no vampires left to assume guardianship of the Pillars, the Hylden would break free of their imprisonment and Nosgoth would be doomed anyway.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
    • His very first act as a vampire is to hunt down his assassins and kill them.
    • The whole of Blood Omen 2 is Kain helping to overthrow the Sarafan that deposed him.
  • Rogue Protagonist: He was the Player Character of Blood Omen and was pretty much a Villain Protagonist in that game, the story essentially being a tale of Evil Versus Evil. He serves as the Big Bad to Raziel in Soul Reaver.
  • Sadist: Kain has an enjoyment for painful and messy deaths and often shouts "Vae victis"note  or laughs evilly as he's slicing up anyone in his way. That being said, he has a distaste for prolonged Cold-Blooded Torture and has dealt out a few Mercy Kills.
  • Sadistic Choice: Is presented with one at the end of Blood Omen. On one hand, he sacrifices himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, but as 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 Take a Third Option.
  • Scars are Forever: It's not easily visible, but he still has the scar on his torso from being assassinated as a human. It gets healed in Defiance.
  • Shrouded in Myth: As Raziel states in the opening of Soul Reaver, few people in Nosgoth are aware that Kain Was Once a Man like all vampires.
  • Shut Up, Kirk!: 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:
    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.
  • Smug Super: As noted on more than one occasion, Kain is quite arrogant. That being said, he has more than enough power to back it up.
  • Sociopathic Hero: 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.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: 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?!"
  • Spikes of Villainy: Sports them in Blood Omen 2, and with the Chaos Armor in Blood Omen.
  • The Strategist: Described as being a master strategist.
  • Super-Strength: 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.
  • Take a Third Option: His entire plan from Soul Reaver onwards is to find one to his Sadistic Choice at the end of Blood Omen.
  • Transhuman Treachery: 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.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: 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. 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, Kain feels downright horrible about it.
  • Vampire Monarch: Emperor of the clans, progenitor of all vampires post-Blood Omen era (the Continuity Snarl of Vorador in Blood Omen 2 not withstanding) and ruler of Nosgoth (for a time, anyway).
  • Villains Never Lie: 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 Bad Liar 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.
    Sarafan Guard: Surrender, fiend, and we will grant you an easy death!
    Kain: I could promise you the same, but that would be a lie.
  • Villainous Valour: Kain's motives might be selfish, but he's not afraid to risk his life to achieve his goals. 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.
  • Villain Protagonist: Kain is The Protagonist of the Blood Omen games, and does have some good traits, but he is by no stretch of the imagination The Hero, and his story plays out as a tale of Evil vs. Evil, with himself being A Lighter Shade of Black. 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.
  • Villain Teleportation: Has become fond of it by the time of the Soul Reaver games.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Maintains the ability to transform into either a cloud of mist or a 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.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: In the two Soul Reaver games and Defiance, and for the first part of Blood Omen 2.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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 Immune to Fate, a key factor in his ultimate goal to restore Nosgoth.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: His transformation into a vampire turned his hair white, and thus his transformation from an unpleasant nobleman to a wicked vampire overlord begins. Bonus points for having a heart that is literally black: the Heart of Darkness
  • Wild Card: Raziel calls him in this in Soul Reaver 2, as Raziel refusing to slay him has muddled Moebius' plots.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: 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.
  • Worf Had the Flu: 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.

    Raziel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokraziel_5694.png
Click the note to see the vampire Raziel.note 
"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?"

Voiced by Michael Bell (EN), Bernard Lanneau (FR)

The other protagonist of the series besides Kain, he was Kain's right-hand man in his vampire empire, until 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.


  • Amazing Technicolor Population: As a result of his disfigurement in the Lake of the Dead and subsequent resurrection as a wraith, Raziel has blue skin.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: 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.
  • And I Must Scream: 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. 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.
  • And Show It to You: In Defiance, he tears Kain's heart out.
  • Anti-Hero: 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 Gambit Pileup 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.
  • Badass Normal: In life he was a very powerful warrior.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: In part because he was burned alive in the Abyss.
  • Been There, Shaped History: As revealed at the end of Soul Reaver 2, Raziel was the one who 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.
    "And so it ends. My history comes full circle."
  • Black-and-White Insanity: 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.
  • Blue Is Heroic: He has blue skin and is one of the main heroes of the series, being considerably more moral than Kain.
  • Body Horror: After being tossed into the Abyss, Raziel is little more than a blue walking skeleton and has no lower jaw.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: When he defeats Kain in Defiance, he calls out Kain's own "Vae Victis" as he deals the final blow.
  • Break the Haughty: Was described as proud of his looks before the execution.
  • Broken Angel: 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. 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.
  • Broken Pedestal:
    • He initially has Undying Loyalty to Kain... until 1000 years of loyal servitude is rewarded by Kain destroying his wings and having him executed simply for daring to evolve before Kain. Subverted once he discovers 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.
    • 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 Templars they truly were.
  • Cape Wings: Sort of. He did have bat-like wings, but Kain tearing the bones out and a few hundred years burning in water (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.
  • Character Development: Like Kain, he was originally of high status before being betrayed and cast to his death, and then dragged into an involuntary Deal with the Devil 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 Gray-and-Black Morality one that furthers his cynical and embittered perspective. His hatred for Kain also eventually gives way to realizing how badly he screwed up in Defiance and swiftly moves to make amends, even if it costs him his own soul in the process.
  • Complete Immortality: 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.
  • Cool Mask: He uses his clan banner as one, to cover up his missing lower jaw.
  • Cool Sword: Wields the spectral Soul Reaver to Kain's material Soul Reaver.
  • Cosmic Plaything: 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.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He definitely begins to pick up Kain's wit as the series goes on.
    (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?"
  • Decoy Protagonist: Ultimately, Defiance reveals him as this.
    The Elder God: Your fate is trivial, Raziel. It was Kain's destiny that mattered all along.
  • Deuteragonist: To Kain's 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. And if not for the last half hour of Defiance, one could argue Raziel is the true protagonist with Kain as a Decoy Protagonist.
  • Devil's Advocate: 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.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: In Defiance, Raziel in no uncertain terms lets the Elder God know repeatedly that any gratitude he had for his revival has been exhausted.
    Raziel: I should have known I'd find you here.
    Elder God: Here and everywhere, now and always. I am the Wheel and its turning, I am the circle of life and death.
    Raziel: And I am beginning to think the Vampires committed suicide only to escape your voice.
  • Doomed Protagonist: Unless he wants to undo history with dozens of paradoxes, eventually Raziel has to merge with the Soul Reaver whether he wants to or not. According to Word of God however, he eventually subverts this with Defiance, as the wraith blade Raziel holds is released into Kain to purify his sight during his Heroic Sacrifice, freeing Raziel's future self at last.
  • The Dreaded: Kain is trying to save him, but he is nonetheless afraid of him since Raziel was originally fate to kill him.
  • Easily Forgiven: Since Kain was responsible for what he went through in the first place, he never holds any ill will against Raziel for killing him and tearing the Heart of Darkness out in Defiance.
  • Everyone Has Standards: 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.
    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.
  • Facial Horror: He completely lacks a lower jaw.
  • Fallen Angel: 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.
  • Faustian Rebellion: 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 Combat Tentacles.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: 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.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Given that his future self is a ravenous, barely sentient ethereal entity eternally imprisoned in a sword, it's understandable.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes glow white, sometimes green. Green denotes that Hylden possession is influencing his actions.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat: While decidedly less hammy than Kain, the two shared some hammy moments in Soul Reaver.
  • Heroic BSoD: Has a brief one in Soul Reaver 2 when he discovers that it was his Sarafan self who murdered Janos, and again when he discovers that the Soul Reaver is actually his own soul, sucked into the blade and trapped there for millennia.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: 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.
  • Hope Bringer: By the end of Defiance thanks to his Heroic Sacrifice. 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.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: Thrice over, believe it or not. He hunts vampires in Soul Reaver, wraith-creatures like himself in Soul Reaver and Defiance, and Sarafan in the latter half of Soul Reaver 2.
  • I Hate Past Me: 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.
  • I Was Quite a Looker: 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.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: 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.
  • Immune to Fate: By virtue of being able to Screw Destiny 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.
  • Irony: He spends the whole of Defiance trying to avoid his fate of becoming the Soul Reaver, but at the end, he willingly submits to it to help Kain defeat the Elder God.
  • It's Personal: His rivalry with Kain is centered on Kain casting him into oblivion and disfiguring him for a relatively petty act of treason.
  • Kick the Dog: He gives Ariel a Breaking Speech 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.
  • Knight Templar: 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. 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 Black-and-Grey Morality that permeates the series. He fully realizes this trope when his Sarafan self kills Janos and obviously feels no guilt or shame for it, leading to this exchange:
    Sarafan!Raziel: You're a righteous fiend, aren't you?
    Raziel: Apparently I am.
  • Lesser of Two Evils: At the end of Defiance, he 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.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Look carefully at his concept art, and cutscene when he is thrown at the Abyss in Soul Reaver. He has his hair tied.
  • Magic Knight: 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.
  • Meaningful Name: 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.
  • Mega Manning: 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.
  • Mirror Character: Killed and revived to take vengeance on his murderers via a Deal with the Devil, 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.
  • Morality Pet: 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.
  • Muscles Are Meaningless: 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 muscular when he was a Sarafan and a vampire though.
  • Mysterious Past: Discovers it during the course of the series.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: So many times. Killing Kain most prominently, not to mention 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.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: 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.
  • Noble Demon: 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.
  • The Only One: 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 Immune to Fate.
  • Orange/Blue Contrast: See Kain's entry for the same. Raziel is associated with blue-greens while Kain is associated with red-oranges.
  • Paradox Person: The wraith blade bound to him as his symbiotic weapon is in fact 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 Immune to Fate and allowing him to Screw Destiny at his leisure.
  • Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: 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.
  • Possessing a Dead Body: 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.
  • The Power of Hate: 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.
    Raziel: Did it trouble you when you ordered me into the Abyss?
    Kain: No. I had faith in you. In your ability to hate. In your self-righteous indignation.
  • Properly Paranoid: He's very mistrustful, but it's still not enough to keep him from getting played.
  • Prophecy Twist: 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 Word of God, it's much more complex than that – 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.
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: As noted under Knight Templar, 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".
  • Removed Achilles' Heel: When he devours Rahab's soul, he gains immunity to water and the ability to swim.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: 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 the Sarafan when they kill Janos.
  • Scarf of Asskicking: his cowl is iconic.
  • Screw Destiny: This becomes his driving force once he learns 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.
  • Spanner in the Works: By virtue of possibly being the one creature in all existence who can Screw Destiny. Double Subverted 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.
  • Super Swimming Skills: After consuming Rahab's soul, along with gaining immunity to water, he immediately learns how to swim.
  • Temporal Suicide: 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.
  • Tragic Hero: Lets himself die so Kain can fulfill his destiny.
  • Transformation of the Possessed: 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.
  • The Unchosen One: As Moebius and The Elder God point out to him in Defiance, despite Raziel's belief he's The Chosen One, 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.
  • The Unintelligible: Defied. Though Raziel has no lower jaw to speak of, he is still capable of perfect speech. Amy Hennig Hand Waves this as a result of "very supple throat muscles."
  • Unwitting Pawn: Ho boy, where to start. Pretty much everything Raziel ever does up until 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.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty: 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.
    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.
  • Villain Protagonist: In the later parts of Defiance. The player knows that reviving Janos is a terrible idea, but Raziel does not and pursues his goal regardless of warnings from Kain. And ultimately and inevitably, it backfires and causes the events of Blood Omen 2.
  • Walking Spoiler: He is the spirit of the Soul Reaver.
  • Winged Humanoid: Though he didn't get to enjoy it for long.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: 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.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: 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 suck the life out of him instead.

    The Soul Reaver 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soulreaver_5197.png
"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."

The 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.


  • Ancestral Weapon: 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.
  • And I Must Scream: The parasitic intelligence in the blade has been trapped in it for centuries verging on millennia. 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.
  • Art Evolution:
    • 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.
    • As for the material Reaver, it looked slightly different in Blood Omen, with only two horns on the side and a different hilt.
  • Ascended Extra: 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.
  • 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.
  • Blade Below the Shoulder: As described above, originally the spectral Soul Reaver was a blade of energy Raziel conjured from his palm.
  • Cool Sword: A weapon of prophecy forged for The Chosen One, and worthy of the deed.
  • The Dreaded: 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.
  • Elemental Powers: Raziel and Kain each gain Spell Blade powers channeled through the Reaver, though Kain only gets them in Defiance while Raziel has them in several games. Kain gets Fire, Dimension, Lightning, Time, and Spirit, while Raziel has Light, Dark, Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Spirit.
  • Empathic Weapon: 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. Turns out this entity is Raziel's future self, when he goes back in time and is absorbed into the material Soul Reaver.
  • Laser Blade: 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.
  • Not So Invincible After All: 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 consume its own soul.)
  • Oddly Shaped Sword: The blade undulates back and forth.
  • One-Hit KO: 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.
  • Overly-Long Tongue: The blade of the Soul Reaver is actually the tongue of the skull carved into the handguard.
  • Power Glows: 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 Flaming Sword.
  • Reforged Blade: 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.
  • Significant Name Overlap: invoked Raziel is often referred to as a "soul reaver" as well. This is very relevant.
  • Soul-Cutting Blade: The blade drains the souls of enemies. This also allows it to instantly kill vampires, normally immune to normal weapons bar impalement or decapitation.
  • Sword of Plot Advancement: 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.
  • Weapon Wields You: 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.

    Moebius the Time-Streamer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokmoebius_5290.png
"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."

Voiced by Richard Doyle (EN); Jean-Louis Faure (Soul Reaver 2), Michel Barbier (Defiance) (FR)

One 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.


  • Arch-Enemy: To Kain. The bulk of the series concerns him and Moebius playing a game of Xanatos Speed Chess across time and space.
  • Ascended Extra: Goes from just being another antagonist in Blood Omen to being a major antagonist in the rest of the series.
  • Asshole Victim: Moebius meets his death in an unpleasant fashion (multiple times even), but no one can say he doesn't have it coming.
  • Back from the Dead: 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.
  • Badass Boast: 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 Time Master. Doubly so when we learn in Defiance that he and Mortanius used to be something of Bash Brothers in the past – this boast might as well be describing them both.
  • Badass Longrobe: His standard attire is a blue hooded robe with gold trim.
  • Bad Boss: 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.
    "Try to keep the casualties to a minimum. But, do what you have to do. All great movements require a few martyrs."
    • Call-Back: The last sentence can also be seen as an allusion to his plan to have Kain kill William the Just in Blood Omen, turning him into a martyr to kickstar his vampire purges.
  • Bald of Evil: Though not always apparent due to his hooded robes, he is bald beneath them.
  • Because Destiny Says So: He can see through time. It's kinda part of the package.
    Raziel: I should kill you where you stand.
    Moebius: (Chuckle) Perhaps you should, my boy... but you don't.
    Raziel: Are you so certain of that, Moebius?
    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, some thirty years from now.
  • Big "NO!": In Defiance when his spirit is Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by Raziel and he gets his first and last glimpse at the Elder God's true form.
    Raziel: Do you see it now? The monster that you served? Is this what you imagined when you worshipped it?
    Moebius: Noooooooooooo!
  • Big Bad: 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.
  • The Chessmaster: Plays a very mean game of Xanatos Speed Chess against Kain's Magnificent Bastard as the series progresses. And he seemingly won, up until Kain survived losing the Heart of Darkness.
  • Consummate Liar: He manages to fool Raziel even though he knew he was untrustworthy.
  • The Corrupter: 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.
  • Deader than Dead: 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.
  • Defiant to the End: 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.
  • Did You Actually Believe...?: Gives Raziel such a speech during the climax of Soul Reaver 2:
    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.
    • Raziel in turn gets to turn this back on him in Defiance when showing him the true form of the Elder God, taunting him over having worshipped a glorified cosmic parasite.
  • Didn't See That Coming: 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 The Chessmaster, he can also see the future, moreso when it turns out he can't subdue Kain anymore.
    Kain: First, your omniscience, and now your powers; you're slipping badly.
  • Dirty Coward: He looks brave at first, but it's only because his power to see across time means he can foresee when he's going to die. When his life is actually in danger, either due to Raziel's paradox or Kain surviving despite his predictions, he's not so brave.
  • The Dragon: For the Elder God, as revealed in Soul Reaver 2.
  • Evil All Along: As revealed across the series, Moebius was the devious Manipulative Bastard he is long before Nupraptor's psychic attack on the Circle of Nine drove him insane.
  • Evil Gloating: Quite fond of this when he's gotten the better of his enemies.
  • Evil Feels Good: When Raziel figures out he was manipulating him, Moebius admits that he enjoyed playing puppeteer.
  • Fantastic Racism: He absolutely and completely hates vampires, especially Kain.
  • Faux Affably Evil: 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?"
  • Foil:
    • 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 Dirty Coward that only acts brave because knowing the future means he already knows how nearly every encounter he has will turn out.
    • 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 to get Kain to purge the circle after they started to neglect their duties to Nosgoth, Moebius goal is far more nefarious 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 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.
  • Freudian Excuse: Kain discovers the reason for his hatred of vampires over the course of Defiance: 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.
  • Hate Sink: While his backstory and his motives for wanting the vampires dead are perfectly understandable, his sneering, overconfident demeanor and blindly genocidal ambitions do little to endear him.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: 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 history is normally immutable to time travel, allowing him to learn how to do the same thing himself and by the time of Defiance, finally free himself from Moebius omniscience and, with the help of Raziel, ultimately kill him off for good.
  • Humiliation Conga: See Kick The Son Of A Bitch 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 he's finally put out of everyone else's misery for good.
  • 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.
  • Kick The Son Of A Bitch: In Defiance, he's 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.
  • Kryptonite Factor: 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 — an early hint that the spirit of the blade is that of a vampire — though Raziel himself is somehow unaffected.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Three times, in fact! 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.
  • Mad Oracle: He was the Oracle of Nosgoth, and was certainly mad with power.
  • Magic Staff: His signature staff can subdue vampires. It also has the power to subdue Raziel's spectral Soul Reaver, being that it's formed from Raziel's former-vampiric soul.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Oh yes. He has definite advantages in this regard (what with essentially being The Omniscient), but his ability to play Raziel, who is Immune to Fate, shows that his more conventional manipulative abilities are still pretty impressive.
    Raziel: So, this has all been arranged, every step of the way. And Kain thought I had free will.
    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.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: The way he rallies a crowd is described by Silicon Knights as "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.
  • Non-Linear Character: 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. Word of God said that the Continuity Snarl 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.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity:
    • Combined with Obfuscating Insanity in Blood Omen, in which his Oracle persona generally gives every appearance of being a Mad Oracle 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.
    • 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.
    • 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 deeper and graver to highlight how he's no longer even pretending to be friendly.
  • Off with His Head!: 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. 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.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Moebius displays a bit of uncharacteristic apprehension towards Raziel when he reforms the broken Reaver on William's grave. 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 a massive risk on the whole gambit him and the Elder God have by being in Raziel's presence at that moment.
    • In Defiance, the look on his face when he realizes Kain is not dead and is right behind him is absolutely priceless, which is then followed up by Kain's new immunity to his subduing staff. Were he not Impaled with Extreme Prejudice shortly afterward, he would have had to change his pants right then and there. He also gets one last one 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 Big "NO!" before he's consumed.
  • The Omniscient: 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. 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 Not So Omniscient After All by name when he realizes Moebius has his limits.
    Kain: Is there a crack in your omniscience after all, Moebius?
  • Prophet Eyes: It is almost impossible to make out his white irises and pupils even up close. His eyesight seems to be perfectly fine, though.
  • Smug Snake: 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. 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.
  • Squishy Wizard: Without his anti-vampire staff, he's not much of a threat, to say the least.
    Raziel: These blades now coiled in sinister embrace have inspired terror in the hearts of creatures far more durable than you, old man.
  • This Cannot Be!: Exclaims "This is not possible...!" when Kain returns from the dead, something he didn't foresee, and is now immune to his staff's powers.
  • Time Master: 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.
  • The Unfettered: In his goal to exterminate all vampires, he doesn't seem to care how many humans he sacrifices, needless or otherwise, to do it.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Kain refers to him as one in Soul Reaver 2, thinking that he's being manipulated without his knowledge by the Hylden, he's not in the wrong to call him one as Defiance shows that 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.
  • Van Helsing Hate Crimes: He seeks nothing less than the extermination of all vampires. While the vampires are hardly saints, they are far more complicated than the Always Chaotic Evil race he views them as.
  • Villainous BSoD: 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.
  • Villain Teleportation: Though mainly dependent on his staff by the events of Defiance, he's still gifted enough in magic to teleport himself away.
  • Vocal Evolution: Initially, his voice is rather high-pitched and scratchy; by the time of Defiance, his voice has become more of a baritone.
  • We All Die Someday: Points out to Raziel at the beginning of Soul Reaver 2, in response to his acceptance that Kain will eventually kill him:
    Moebius: Death comes for us all, Raziel. It's just a matter of time.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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 Eldritch Abomination all this time, he realizes to his horror how wrong he's been.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Almost invoked word for word by the Elder God in Defiance.
    "Moebius was a good servant, but he was of no further use.

    The Elder God 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eldergod_8924.png
"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!"

Voiced by Tony Jay (EN); Benoît Allemane (Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2), Marc Bretonnière (Defiance) (FR)

An 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.


  • Ambiguously Evil: 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? Turns out he was right to be suspicious.
  • Badass Boast: See his quote a little higher up. He uses variations of this speech a lot throughout the series.
  • Bad Boss: He cares nothing for his servants, no matter how loyal. 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.
  • Big Bad: Though there are many antagonists in the series, the Elder God is the central one. 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 conquer Nosgoth and spin all souls in his wheel without dissension.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: With Hash'ak'gik. Whatever events can't be traced back to Hash trace back to the Elder God or one of his servants.
  • Boss Banter: His Badass Boasting keeps going even in the middle of combat.
  • The Chessmaster: He's The Man Behind the Man to almost everything that happens in the series, including the plans of the other main Chessmaster, Moebius.
  • Combat Tentacles: The main way he acts throughout the series, primarily in Defiance when he tries to keep Raziel imprisoned in the spectral realm.
  • Demiurge Archetype: Believes himself to be the Top God, despite being nothing more than a powerful, parasitic Eldritch Abomination 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.
  • Didn't See That Coming: The primary reason he leads Raziel, who becomes something of a walking Paradox Person, is to make sure this doesn't happen if the wraith somehow causes a new timeline divergence he cannot account for. 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 he's taken off-guard would be an understatement.
  • Eldritch Abomination: 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.
  • Evil Mentor: He does not have Raziel's interests in mind when he revives him as his servant.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: As deep as they come with Tony Jay doing his voice work.
  • Fantastic Racism: He has nothing but disdain for the vampire race.
  • Final Boss: Of Defiance, and therefore the entire series.
  • Giant Eye of Doom: In Defiance, it's the center of his mass of tentacles.
  • A God Am I: Presents himself as one. And the Ancients worshiped him as one too, as does Moebius.
  • God Is Evil: Ambiguous since it is hinted that the Elder God may not be a god, but instead a very, very powerful Eldritch Abomination. However, since all other "gods" in the series are also shown to be some variation of demonic creature, and Nosgoth is a Crapsack World, a genuine god being an Eldritch Abomination fits right in.
  • Go for the Eye: How you fight him in Defiance.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: He's introduced as a supporting character in Soul Reaver, the furthest point of the franchise's timeline, but his role in Nosgoth's bloody history isn't elaborated upon until Defiance.
  • Hellish Pupils: Not only slitted, but shaped like an infinity symbol in Defiance.
  • Hidden Villain: Until the end of Defiance, only Raziel has ever seen his true form.
  • Jerkass: 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.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: 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.
  • Large Ham: Naturally given his voice actor.
  • The Man Behind the Man: To almost everyone. 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.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: 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. 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.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Only the Soul Reaver can hurt him, and it needs to be imbued with a lot of powerful souls to get to that point. Furthermore he's entirely immune to spectral weapons, laughing when Raziel directly attacks him and nothing happens.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: He prefers to manipulate people, and when we see him fight someone, his combat abilities are severely unimpressive.
  • Non-Linear Character: 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."
  • No Name Given: While his official descriptor is "The Elder God", in-universe he's only ever referred to through a variety of nicknames and titles, including several of his own invention — though by far his favorite is to call himself "The Hub of the Wheel".
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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 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 Scion of Balance, he's the only one who can stop him.
  • The Omniscient: Being that he seems to control the concept of fate itself, he exists outside the boundaries of the normal spacetime continuum.
  • Puny Humans: While "human" isn't apt for most of the people he talks to, in general he doesn't think too high of much anyone.
    (While fighting Kain) "Pathetic creature."
  • The Stoic: Impressive example given the number of insults Raziel throws his way, up until Defiance where he starts taking more amusement in Raziel's suffering.
  • Stupid Evil: Wanting the extermination of the vampires. He's trying to kill the race that served him loyally and are keeping his enemies the Hylden from entering Nosgoth. Word of God says that he may have known this would be the result and didn't care, since 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.
  • Threat Backfire: Does a variant of his Badass Boast 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.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: 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.
  • Unreliable Expositor: 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. 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.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: He wields godlike power, and his tentacles are strong enough to smash walkways to smithereens... but as shown when Kain fights him in Defiance, his combat skills amount to little more than flailing his tentacles around, clearly unaccumstomed to being threatened by anything.
  • Walking Spoiler: His real hand in the events of the series completely turn the plot on its head. 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.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: 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 Word of God 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 
  • Villainous Breakdown: For the first time ever, he starts to noticeably lose it when Kain wields the purified Soul Reaver.
    The Elder God: You may ponder the futility of your ambitions as you spend a 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.)
    Kain: Your words are heartening...(He neatly hacks the tentacle to pieces)
    The Elder God:(surprised and in pain for the first time in its life) Argh!?!?!
    Kain: For you would not fear us unless we could truly do you harm! (Hacks more tentacles as he confidently walks towards it)
    The Elder God: NO! You are nothing!
    Kain: FALSE GOD!! (Brings down the empowered Soul Reaver on another tentacle)
    The Elder God:Gargh!!!
    Kain:This is the end. The final turn of your "wheel"!
  • The Voice: 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.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: 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.

    Ariel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokariel_5902.png
"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?"

Voiced by Anna Gunn (EN); Anne Rochant (Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2), Laurence Crouzet (Defiance) (FR)

Kain'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.


  • And I Must Scream: 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.
    Ariel: Ghastly past, insufferable future, are they one and the same...? Am I always here?
  • Break the Cutie: Not only did she have a terrible death, but she ended up with this after, too. See below.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Kain refusing the sacrifice marked the beginning of hers, although she wasn't doing so great to begin with. 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.
  • Facial Horror: The entire left side of her face is stripped of flesh.
  • Fantastic Racism: She's none too fond of the vampires.
  • Fate Worse than Death: 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.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In Defiance, she sacrifices herself to purge the Reaver of corruption, and by extension, allow Raziel to cleanse Kain of corruption.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Her positive influence was the only thing that could keep Nupraptor stable; without her, he quickly descended into madness.
  • Morality Chain: Her death is what caused her lover Nupraptor to go insane and corrupt the Circle of Nine.
  • Never My Fault: She'll rant that it's all Kain's fault that she's stuck like this for refusing to sacrifice himself to restore the Pillars and Nosgoth, but even ignoring how it's latter revealed that 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.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: 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.
  • Spirit Advisor: 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. Later in the same game, however, she serves as a straightforward example in helping Raziel purify the Reaver.
  • Treacherous Quest Giver: 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.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: From what we can tell, Ariel in life was considered a very beautiful woman. Nupraptor... not so much in the looks department.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: 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.

    Vorador 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokvorador_1608.png
"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."

Voiced by Paul Lukather (EN), Jean Barney (FR)

A 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.


  • Asshole Victim: 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.
  • Back from the Dead: They never fully explain why 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, with some cut content indicating Kain (present version) would have revived him, but it was left out.
  • Badass Boast: Vorador gets one in Blood Omen when he meets Kain for the first time.
    "After slaughtering six of the sheep, I defeated their pathetic little shepherd Malek..."
  • Been There, Shaped History: Defiance reveals that Vorador was the very first human to ever become a vampire, and he was the one who forged the Soul Reaver.
  • Big Good: In Blood Omen 2, he has been leading the vampires in Kain's absence.
  • The Blacksmith: The maker of the Soul Reaver.
  • Characterisation Marches On: 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.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: 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.
  • Deathless and Debauched: 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.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: 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."
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As revealed in Soul Reaver 2, his slaughter of the Circle was influenced by the Sarafan Brotherhood hunting down and brutally executing Janos Audron. He's also very fond of Umah, treating her almost like a daughter.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Displays this of the Pragmatic Villainy 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.
  • Freudian Excuse: In Soul Reaver 2, Janos implies Vorador suffered much at the hands of humans as a vampire, resulting in his current views on humanity.
    "He has suffered much. He cannot forgive them."
  • Fully-Embraced Fiend: Especially in the first game. He represents what Kain might become if he fully embraces his curse and revels in his inhumanity.
  • The Hedonist: Owns a ludicrously opulent mansion, and surrounds himself with concubines. Kain even refers to him as a "sado-hedonist."
  • Jade-Colored Glasses: Earned them after the Sarafan vampire purges killed off Janos Audron and keeps them on for the rest of his life.
  • La Résistance: In Blood Omen 2.
  • Large Ham: Vorador gets in on the ham in Blood Omen.
    "Call your dogs! They can feast on your corpses!"

    "Whelp! As if you knew what eternity was. Grovel before your true master!"
  • The Mentor: For Kain. Plays with the role to Raziel, briefly advising him in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, but aids him much less than Kain.
  • Monster Progenitor: As revealed in Defiance, he was the very first human-derived vampire in Nosgoth.
  • Off with His Head!: After Moebius manipulates Kain into altering time, Kain returns to find Vorador beheaded by a guillotine.
  • The Older Immortal: Is the oldest human-derived vampire in Nosgoth when Kain first meets him, and unlike the wandering warrior fledgling, Vorador prefers the life of indulgence within his remote stately manor, over matters of revenge.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: Counsels Kain not to meddle with mortals except to feed, lest he provoke another round of Sarafan vampire hunts.
  • Retired Monster: And for good reason.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Soul Reaver 2 shows us that Vorador's slaughter of the Circle was direct revenge for the murder of Janos Audron, his Sire.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: 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.
  • Unexplained Recovery: It's never fully explained how Vorador came Back from the Dead 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.
  • The Worf Effect: 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.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Pretty similar to Kain in this respect, though he doesn't often use it.

    Mortanius The Necromancer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lokmortanius_6650.png
"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."

Voiced by Tony Jay (Blood Omen) / Alastair Duncan (Defiance)

The 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.


  • The Archmage: Mortanius was considered by most to be the most powerful magic wielder in Nosgoth at the time of the corruption of the Pillars. 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.
  • The Atoner:
    • In Blood Omen, 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.
    • In Defiance, 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.
  • Authority Sounds Deep: In Blood Omen, being voiced by Tony Jay ; 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.
  • Batman Gambit: 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 The Chosen One, and hoped for the best.
  • Comes Great Responsibility: The reason Blood Omen gives for him 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.
  • Big Bad: Of the first game. Actually was the unwilling puppet of Hash'ak'Gik, the real villain of the first game.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Mortanius' Necromancy is a perfectly natural form of magic tied with the Pillar of Death; also, demonic possession aside, Mortanius himself is actually one of the nobler characters in the series, especially compared to the rest of the Circle.
  • Defector from Decadence: As he believes that the Circle exists for the benefit of Nosgoth, unlike the rest of the corrupted members.
  • Demonic Possession: Something dark is inside him and influencing his actions. Defiance reveals he's a vessel of the Hylden Lord, controlling him to bring down the Pillars from within the Circle.
  • Do Not Go Gentle: 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.
  • Easily Forgiven: While Kain does still kill him, he doesn't seem to hold any ill will against him despite learning he was responsible for Kain's death in the first place.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: 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 Undeathly Pallor if Mortanius hadn't still been alive at the time.
  • Expressive Mask: His skeletal "face" in the first game is actually a mask – a very convincing one at that.
  • Necromancer: It's his title after all, and he proves the point by not only bringing Kain's soul back from a Fire and Brimstone Hell, but also summoning up hordes of zombies to fight Kain during the boss battle.
  • Prophet Eyes: Both his mask and his true self show blank white eyes.
  • Token Good Teammate: To the entire Circle of Nine. One of his reasons for sending Kain after the rest of the Guardians is because 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 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.

    Janos Audron 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/janos_audron.png
"Embrace your destiny, Raziel. You must reclaim the Reaver—it was forged for you and you alone...Without it, there is no hope."

Voiced by René Auberjonois

The 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.


  • Almost Dead Guy: In Soul Reaver 2 he manages to pull this off after having his heart torn out.
  • Anti-Hero: 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 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.
  • Back from the Dead: Raziel's quest to revive him and get some answers out of him is his driving motivation in Defiance.
  • Beat Still, My Heart: Almost invoked word for word in Soul Reaver 2.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being kind and affable, Janos can and will kick ass if it's required of him. He would prefer not to, though.
  • Big Good: 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 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.
  • Blue Is Heroic: He has blue skin, and is arguably the most unambiguously heroic character in the series.
  • Body Horror: In Blood Omen 2, he's deformed and devolved from powering The Device.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: He's mentioned in a grand total of two lines in Blood Omen, but isn't introduced as a character until Soul Reaver 2.
  • Cosmic Plaything: He worshipped an Eldritch Abomination that desires the death of all vampires, got murdered by Sarafan 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.
  • Demonic Possession: 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.
  • Fate Worse than Death: His ultimate fate, as of Blood Omen 2; Thrown through the Hylden Gate into the Demon Dimension.
  • Good Wings, Evil Wings: He has black feathered wings.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: 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.
  • Humans Are Flawed: 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.
  • Last of His Kind: He's the last Ancient Vampire.
  • Leitmotif: The gorgeous piece of music/ambience that plays in his mountain retreat in Soul Reaver 2 is briefly reprised in Defiance when Raziel brings him Back from the Dead.
  • Mr. Exposition: 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 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.
    • Lampshaded rather hilariously by Michael Bell (Raziel's voice actor) in the outtake videos for Defiance.
      Bell: Oh good. You have the big chunk. You have the big exposition. Thank you! Thank you for giving him the exposition!
      Auberjonois: [turns script page] *gasp* ... I'd like to talk to my agent.
  • Nice Guy: 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 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 Roaring Rampage of Revenge. His only real character flaw is that he is unaware of the true nature of the god he serves.
  • No Shirt, Long Jacket: His chest is bare under his robes.
  • Only Mostly Dead: 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. That heart of his was christened as "The Heart of Darkness", and was used to resurrect Kain at the beginning of Blood Omen.
  • Real Men Love Jesus: Unfortunately, what he's really worshipping is an Eldritch Abomination masquerading as a god.
  • Religious Bruiser: 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.
  • Religious Vampire: Ties in with his Real Men Love Jesus status.
  • Team Dad: Treats everyone, including Kain in Blood Omen 2, in a gentle and paternal manner.
  • Token Good Teammate: Between Nosgoth being a Crapsack World and the series running on Black-and-Gray Morality, 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, being a devoted follower of the Elder God and unquestionably doing its bidding, is a result of him being misguided more than anything else.
  • Vampire Vords: The only vampire to play this straight.
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: In Blood Omen 2.
  • Winged Humanoid: The defining trait of the Ancients.

    Hash'ak'gik 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hashakgikblood_omen.png
Click the note to see how he looks later in the series. Massive spoiler warning. note 
"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..."

Voiced by Earl Boen

The 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.


  • Arch-Enemy: To Kain, mostly by virtue of being the Big Bad 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 Sadistic Choice.
  • Batman Gambit: 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.
  • Big Bad: In Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: With Moebius 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 Kain and Raziel have been dealt with, it's time to turn attention to the Hylden.
  • Body Surf: He's possessed Mortanius, Janos, and has likely used other vessels when needed.
  • Breaking Speech: 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 Shut Up, Hannibal!, 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.
  • Characterization Marches On: 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...
  • Chekhov's Gunman: [Apparent] Giant Space Flea from Nowhere 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.
  • The Chessmaster: Orchestrates the events of Blood Omen with the intent of collapsing the Pillars, and it worked. See also Batman Gambit above.
  • Demonic Possession: His main method of action is to control others, since he can't manifest in Nosgoth directly (or at least, not permanently).
  • Evil Is Bigger: In both Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2 he's much larger than Kain.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: All the different forms he uses have really deep voices, often with a Voice of the Legion effect too.
  • Genius Bruiser: He's not only a powerful warrior in combat, but also a brilliant manipulator.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: 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.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: A signature trait of those he controls.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Retroactively hijacks 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.
  • I Have Many Names: Hash'ak'gik, the Hylden Lord, the Sarafan Lord, the Hylden General, the Unspoken. Though he's nice enough to share one with Turel, who also goes by "Hash'ak'gik".
  • Large and in Charge: As the Sarafan Lord, to his human and Hylden servants, though some of the demons serving him are bigger than he is.
  • Knight Templar: 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 Hero Antagonist except that, much like Kain, he has no regard for any humans caught up in his plans.
  • The Man Behind the Man: To Mortanius in Blood Omen, and the Sarafan in Blood Omen 2.
  • Mirroring Factions:
    • In Blood Omen 2 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.
    • 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.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: 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.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: His Evil Plan in Blood Omen 2 had him planning to use a superweapon to wipe every remaining vampire and human.
  • The Omniscient: 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 Bastards for pulling it all off in a linear timeframe.
  • Puny Humans: 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.
  • Rank Scales with Asskicking: The apparent leader of the Hylden and the strongest of their ranks, and was also the strongest among the Sarafan.
  • Retcon: Amy Hennig admitted that the Dark Entity and the 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.
  • Satanic Archetype: Is the highest (at least shown) leader of the demonic/fallen angel-like Hylden, commands actual in-universe demons, possesses demonically looking forms (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 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.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: 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.
  • Tautological Templar: 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.
  • Villain Has a Point: At the end of Blood Omen 2, he gives a speech about how the Hylden deserve vengeance for their banishment 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 Shut Up, Hannibal! just demonstrates that the Hylden Lord wasn't too far off the mark. See also Breaking Speech above.
  • Walking Spoiler: His influence in the plotlines of later games is a big plot twist. 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.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: 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 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.
  • Xanatos Gambit: 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.

Introduced in Blood Omen

    Nupraptor The Mentalist 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nupraptor_render_egm2.png
"Come, Kain... come share my pain..."

Voiced by Richard Doyle

The 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.


  • Body Horror: 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 cranium.
  • The Empath: 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.
  • Eye Scream: During his Freak Out, he ends up sewing his eyes and lips shut.
  • Love Makes You Evil: His lover's death drove him insane.
  • My Brain Is Big: Sports an enormously oversized head to match his psychic abilities.
  • Off with His Head!: His eventual fate at the end of his boss battle.
  • Psychic Powers: His specialty, including Mind over Matter, Telepathy, and Villain Teleportation.
  • Put Them All Out of My Misery: 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 punished all of them with the curse of insanity. 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.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: 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.
    • 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.
  • Tragic Villain: He went insane after his girlfriend's death. Then said girlfriend sends a vampire to put him down.

    Anarcrothe the Alchemist 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anarcrothe_the_alchemist.png
"The Circle exists for us, we don't exist for it! Our powers will save or damn Nosgoth at our whim!"

Voiced by Neil Ross

The Guardian of States in the Circle of Nine.


  • Dirty Coward: 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.
  • Evil Sorcerer: 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.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: His face has been badly scarred by experiments gone wrong, the better to emphasize his corruption.
  • Insane Troll Logic: His With Us or Against Us 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, he ''is'' insane.
  • It's All About Me: Just look at the quote.
  • Mad Scientist: 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.
  • Purple Is Powerful: Wears distinctive robes of imperial purple, both to demonstrate his importance and to draw attention away from his mangled face.
  • Two-Faced: 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.
  • The Unfought: The only member of the Circle besides Malek not killed by Kain, instead he makes a Villain: Exit, Stage Left and is later killed by Mortanius.

    Azimuth the Planer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo1_character_azimuth_azimuthcgi.jpg
"Come to me my children! We shall ravage Nosgoth together!"

Voiced by Anna Gunn

The Guardian of Dimension in the Circle of Nine.


  • Bald of Evil: It's hard to tell from her sprite, but art reveals that she's completely bareheaded; she's also a delusional megalomaniac.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Turns out in Defiance she was the one who pulled Turel from the future to serve as a host for the Hylden.
  • Enemy Summoner: 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.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: 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.
  • Large Ham: "You wear those trinkets well, Kain. But I DO belieeeeeve that they would look betterrr on mmmmeeeeeuuuurh!"
  • 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.
  • Thinking Up Portals: 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.
  • Third Eye: Her Pillar token is this. It allowed her to see into other realms.
  • Teleport Spam. When she's not summoning a demon or two, she's zooming away from Kain.
  • While Rome Burns: 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.

    Bane the Druid 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bane_the_druid.png
"He is an affront to Nature itself! It is our duty to purify him!"

Voiced by Paul Lukather

The Guardian of Nature in the Circle of Nine.


  • The Beastmaster: According to Silicon Knight's biography, he can control the behaviour of animals.
  • Creating Life: His ability to influence animals and their biology made him one of the most integral proponents of the Dark Eden triad.
  • Druid: As noted by his epithet, he's a Druid.
  • Elemental Powers: As the Nature Guardian, he has the ability to emphasize the elements, most prominently water.
  • Kill It with Water: During the boss battle, he converts the ground into water, exploiting Kain's vampiric weakness.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice: His model has a very large chin.
  • The Transmogrifier: 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.

    Dejoule the Energist 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dejoule_the_energist.png
"Burn, wretched vampire, burn!"

Voiced by Anna Gunn

The Guardian of Energy in the Circle of Nine.


  • Black Cloak: Until the boss battle, of course...
  • Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Speaks in a piercing, helium-voiced shriek.
  • Full-Frontal Assault: She seems to be stark naked during her boss battle against Kain. Given her condition, though, it does makes sense that she does that.
  • Meaningful Name: As joule is the unit used to measure energy.
  • Posthuman Nudism: 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.
  • Sinister Nudity: 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.
  • Walking Wasteland: 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.

    Malek The Paladin 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo_concept_malek.jpg
"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..."

Voiced by Neil Ross (Blood Omen) and Tony Jay (Soul Reaver 2)

The 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 The Woobie.


  • Animated Armor: His soul was sealed into a suit of armor.
  • Anti-Villain: Was cruelly manipulated by Moebius the entire time. Granted, he was a Church Militant Knight Templar 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 Unwitting Pawn as a result.
  • Arch-Enemy: 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.
  • Badass Boast:
    "I'll hack you from crotch to gizzard and feed what's left to your brides!"
  • Broken Ace: The only member of the Circle to best Kain in combat, yet suffers a Fate Worse than Death for his inability to save six members of the previous Circle from Vorador.
  • Dead Guy on Display: 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.
  • The Dragon: Served as the Dragon to the Circle during their crusade against the vampires. Was dragon his feet during Vorador's assault on the Circle thanks to Moebius, and Kain was smart enough to go after him early on.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: As a human he was already a strong warrior that could fight against vampires on his own, even Vorador (though he still lost). As Animated Armor, he could reassemble himself if damaged, making him the only antagonist Kain couldn't defeat.
  • Fate Worse than Death: 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.
  • Foil: His back story is similar to Raziel.
  • Genius Bruiser: 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.
  • The Hedonist: 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 Animated Armor knocked it out of him anyway.
  • Hopeless Boss Fight: Kain cannot kill him personally because Malek simply reassembles himself, and eventually creates an Advancing Wall of Doom. All you can do is keep up the attack long enough for the exit to appear.
  • Last of His Kind: Last of the Sarafan priesthood by the time of Blood Omen. Soul Reaver 2 established that the rest were killed by Raziel at the same time Vorador slaughtered the Circle of Nine.
  • Magic Knight: Uses offensive spells in combat alongside his spear.
  • Revenge Before Reason: 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.
  • Say My Name: Most of the Circle Members he failed to save at the beginning of Blood Omen end up shouting Malek's name a lot. So Narmtastic that even Vorador laughed.
  • Weapon Twirling: Likes this trope a lot. He does this every time he attacks Kain, presumably combining a more powerful blow with Intimidation Demonstration.

    William the Just 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sr2_texture_stronghold_reaverconvergence.png

Voiced by Tony Jay

A 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 oops, a Vampire just killed a young and kind king in cold blood.


    King Ottmar 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/king_ottmar.png

Voiced by Neil Ross

Ruler of Willendorf, the kingdom that opposed the Nemesis. After Kain retrieves his daughter's soul, he rallies his people against the Nemesis's army.


  • Animal Motifs: He's called the Mighty Lion of Willendorf, and this is reflected in his weaponry and banners.
  • Carry a Big Stick: He wields a mace shaped like a lion's head.
  • The Good King: He just needs to get his motivation back.
  • Heroic BSoD: 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.
  • Rousing Speech: "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!"
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: He fights on the frontline with the Army of Hope, which leads to a Decapitated Army with his death.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: He is never seen again in the series after Kain goes back in time to kill William the Just.

    Elzevir the Dollmaker 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elzevir.png

Voiced by Neil Ross

An 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.


  • Animate Inanimate Object: Specialises in animating his dolls and turning them into warriors.
  • Ephebophile: Heavily implied to be why he was so interested in the princess.
  • Off with His Head!: Kain decapitates him at the end of the boss fight.
  • Psychopathic Man Child: "You shall not have it! Mine, mine, mine!"
  • Sympathetic Magic: Another specialty of his.
  • Wicked Toymaker: 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.
  • You Do NOT Want To Know: 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.

Introduced in Soul Reaver

    Melchiah 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_melchiah.png
Click the note to see devolved Melchiah note 
"Do you not recognize me, brother? Am I so changed?"

Voiced by Michael Bell

One 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.


  • Bald of Evil: The only of Raziel's brothers to lack any hair on his head.
  • Body Horror: Since his body still decays he has to skin the corpses for hides to replace his own festering skin. He looks like an Eldritch Abomination by the time Raziel gets around to killing him.
  • Body of Bodies: His mutated, slug-like form.
  • Came Back Wrong: 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.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Despite his apparent revulsion at his obscene form, according to Word of God (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 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.
  • Death Seeker: 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.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: the Melchahim Vampires have more in common with zombies than vampires, even bursting up from the ground to attack.
  • A Fate Worse Than Death: His words indicate that he did not enjoy his existence. Not that you can blame him...
    "Do you think I feel no revulsion for this form?"
  • I Die Free: "I am... released..."
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Courtesy of spiked gates.
  • 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.
  • Puzzle Boss: Raziel has to lure him under spiked gates to impale him.
  • Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: 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.

    Zephon 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_4_opt_zephon.png
Click the note to see devolved Zephonnote 
"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..."

Voiced by Tony Jay

Another 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 Alien Queen.


  • All Webbed Up: the Zephonim's victims generally end up like this.
  • Body Horror: Zephon's evolved form is reminiscent of the 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 part of his body.
  • Dirty Coward: Raziel accuses him and his Clan of being this, as they hide in the shadows to prey on vulnerable, unsuspecting victims without a fight.
  • Evil Redhead: 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 Word of God.
    Daniel Cabuco:Note His hair was red as a human, and turned black as his soul when he turned into a vampire.
  • Stationary Boss: He's attached to the wall, so he doesn't move during his boss fight.
  • Tennis Boss: Though not in the usual sense of direct deflecting—he spits out eggs that Raziel has to pick up, light on fire and throw back at him.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body:
    "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..."
  • Womb Level: The uppermost levels of the Silenced Cathedral have become a part of his body.

    Rahab 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_rahab.png
Click the note to see devolved Rahabnote 
"You, of all of us, should respect the power bestowed by a limitation overcome."

Voiced by Neil Ross

One 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.


  • Boss-Arena Idiocy: Zig-Zagged. 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.
  • Discard and Draw: He and his brood have overcome the vampire weakness to water, at the cost of having no tolerance to sunlight whatsoever.
  • I Hate Past Me: Raziel reveals to him that they were members of the Sarafan as humans; Rahab doesn't care, declaring that Kain "saved them from themselves." Ironically, Raziel would come around to Rahab's point of view once he got a good look at his past human self.
  • Meaningful Name: In Jewish tradition, Rahab is the name of a sea demon.
  • Our Mermaids Are Different: He's a vampire evolved/devolved into a shark-man.
  • Puzzle Boss: Raziel has to shatter the windows of his lair to let in sunlight to harm him.
  • Removed Achilles' Heel: Rahab and his spawn have completely overcome the vampiric vulnerability to water, something of which he is extremely proud. Unfortunately for them, doing so made them even more vulnerable to light than normal vampires.
  • Token Aquatic Race: 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.
  • Undying Loyalty: 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.
  • Weakened by the Light: In exchange for their immunity to water, the Rahabim are vulnerable to sunlight well into adulthood, which Raziel exploits to kill Rahab himself.

    Dumah 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_4_opt_dumah.png
Click the note to see devolved Dumah note 
"The centuries in limbo have honed my strength. Not even Kain is my equal."

Voiced by Simon Templeman

One 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.


  • Advancing Boss of Doom: 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 to lure Dumah into the city furnace.
  • Came Back Strong: 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.
  • Ground Punch: 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.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Raziel finds his body, skewered onto his own throne by multiple human spears.
  • The Juggernaut: Absolutely nothing in Raziel's armory can harm him.
  • Kill It with Fire: Due to the above, Raziel kills him by luring him into a giant furnace.
  • Meaningful Name: Dumah is the angel of "the stillness/silence of death", reflecting Dumah's trapping in limbo due to his impalement.
  • Mirror Character: In a way to Raziel, as both died and came back as powerful, nigh-unkillable Wraith-vampires.
  • Only Mostly Dead: 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.
  • Overly-Long Tongue: His offspring sport long tongues capable of draining the blood from victims.
  • Puzzle Boss: 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.
  • Smug Snake: It's mentioned that Dumah's 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.
  • The Starscream: 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.
  • Useless Useful Spell: 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.
  • The Usual Adversaries: 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.
  • We Have Become Complacent: Believing himself invincible, Dumah was caught unawares by a human assault, his clan decimated and Dumah himself speared to his throne and left Only Mostly Dead for centuries.

    Turel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/loksr_3_turel.png
Click the note to see devolved Turel note 
"Yes. I am changed. I have become a God. Greater than you ever were, Raziel. You were never a God. Greater even than Kain!"

Voiced by Richard Doyle (Soul Reaver 2) and Gregg Berger (Defiance)

The 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.


  • Blind Bats: 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.
  • Demonic Possession: When Raziel encounters him in Defiance, he's under the control of the Hylden Lord.
  • Disability Superpower: He went blind in exchange for telekinesis and super-hearing.
  • Dying as Yourself: "We shall all be... free...".
  • A God Am I: Played With. 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.
  • "It" Is Dehumanizing: When he first smells and recognizes Raziel in his pit, Turel refers to him as "it".
  • Large and in Charge: Aside from 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 Elite Mooks, with the first one you meet actually being a mini-boss fight.
  • Large Ham: Just look at his profile quote.
  • Left Hanging: The exact means and reason of how and why he was pulled back in time to the Blood Omen era was going to be covered in a future game. Word of God has since explained 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.
  • Mind over Matter: Like his vampiric brood, Turel possesses telekinetic powers.
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: 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.
  • Sanity Slippage: He shows some shades of this. Centuries of imprisonment and being worshiped as an idol haven't done wonders for his mental state.
  • Sense-Impaired Monster: 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.
  • Tragic Villain: Has become this in Defiance, as he's a prisoner of the cult of Hash'a'gik.
  • The Unfought: 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 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.
  • Wham Line: 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.

    The Tomb Guardian 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tombguardian.jpg
"Heretic! You shall not pass..."

Voiced by Richard Doyle (EN)

An adult member of The Turelim Clan ordered by Kain to guard the Tomb of the Sarafan.


  • Came Back Strong: The Tomb Guardian is a revived vampire with soul-sucking powers that he gained as a vampire-wrath.
  • Degraded Boss: After the Tomb Guardian is defeated, regular Turelim vampires start showing up as Elite Mooks for the game's final stretch.
  • Mind over Matter: Like his vampiric Sire Turel, The Tomb Guardian possesses telekinetic powers, after Raziel kills him he obtains the Guardian's power.
  • Mini-Boss: He is the only "boss" in the game who isn't one of the bloodline patriarchs, and exists to justify Raziel gaining Turel's Mind over Matter powers despite Turel being The Unfought.

Introduced in Blood Omen 2

    Umah 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo2_character_umah.jpg

Voiced by Elizabeth Ward Land

A member of the Vampire resistance, she is Kain's contact and assists him when she can.


  • Bare Midriffs Are Feminine: Umah wears a purple outfit which leaves her stomach exposed. Presumably because adhering to the same dress code that male Vampires in this series have, would seriously increase the games rating.
  • Character Tic: Whether it's deliberate or just a quirk of the animation, Umah never seems to stop moving her hands.
  • Damsel in Distress: Briefly, when she betrays Kain and is wounded by the Sarafan. She doesn't survive.
  • Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: A deathly-pale vampire with black hair.
  • Facial Markings: Has black facial tattoos.
  • Femme Fatalons: She has long, claw-like nails that she often uses on her enemies.
  • He Knows About Timed Hits: Her explanations serve as something of a tutorial for the game.
  • Lightning Bruiser: She moves fast and hits hard, though she's neither as quick nor as powerful as Kain.
  • The Mole: 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.
  • Morality Pet:
    • Seemed to be becoming Kain's, thanks to the Ship Tease. 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 Kick the Dog moments in the series.
    • Also possibly for Vorador, since he seems to treat her more as a daughter than as the concubines he had in Blood Omen. His reaction to Kain killing her is the only time in the series he is seen to lose control and show strong emotion.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Her clothing is downright Stripperiffic, with her stomach bared, her large bust emphasized by her top, and the fact that she wears thigh-baring stockings instead of pants.
  • Ship Tease: With Kain. It doesn't end well .
    Kain: You should never had betrayed me. You could have been my queen, now you have left me alone.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: She steals the Nexus Stone from Kain because she fears when he returns to power, he'll become the same type of Evil Overlord the Sarafan are, to vampire and human alike. It's hard not to understand or even agree with her concerns.

    Faustus 
I care not for those destined to die. I don't weep for them, and I won't weep for you.

Voiced by Phil Proctor

One of Kain's former lieutenants, he switched sides in the backstory when he decided Kain would lose.


  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: Fights you directly at first, but eventually resorts to attacking you from a distance while staying out of your reach.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: As he puts it, "Who better to kill a vampire than a more powerful vampire?"
  • I Fight for the Strongest Side!: 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:
    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 Written by the Winners, Kain. That is my kind.
  • Jump Physics: The power Kain gets for killing him.
  • Long Haired Prettyboy: He looks like a male version of Umah.
  • Mad Bomber: Throws burning projectiles in one phase of the fight, which subsequently explode.
  • Meaningful Name: Could there be a more fitting name for someone who made a deal with the local Satanic Archetype in exchange for power?
  • Wake-Up Call Boss: If you haven't figured out how to block attacks and use your Dark Gift powers yet, prepare to suffer.

    Marcus 
I hold the cards now, Kain. Surrender yourself to me, or I will kill him.

Voiced by Nicholas Guest

One 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.


  • Bald of Evil: His head is as bare as his conscience.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: His specialty is the "Charm" Dark Gift.
  • Dirty Coward: 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.
    Marcus: "In your arrogance you presumed me dead, but I was stronger than you knew. I crawled from my haven and fled into hiding."
    Kain: "That's the Marcus I remember."
  • Hunter of His Own Kind:Sides with the Sarafan in hunting down his fellow vampires and especially Kain.
  • Kneel Before Zod: Attempts to force Kain to obey him with his mind control powers. Doesn't work.
  • Looks Like Orlok: He's bald with pointed ears and Femme Fatalons, Creepy Long Fingers, and wears a Badass Longcoat to boot.

    Sebastian 
I dealt the blow that cost you the war. Glorious, was it not? So many killed, so quickly. And all my doing.

Voiced by Nick Jameson

Yet 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.


    Magnus 
It must be blanched! It must be poached! It must be fresh! Where is my meat!? Sopping with blood and running with gore!

Voiced by Rodger Bumpass

Kain'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.


  • Ax-Crazy: He's gone entirely mad and has little thoughts beyond killing and feeding.
  • Badass Boast:
    "I will divine from your entrails!"
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Or more accurately, driven insane by centuries of torture.
  • Body Horror: 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.
  • The Champion: He used to be Kain's finest warrior and right-hand man. The two of them even invoke the trope by name.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Being trapped in hell-hole of prison run by cruel guards who define indefinite periods of torture as "peaceful" means of rehabilitation does that.
  • Dirty Coward: He fled from the final battle with the Sarafan Lord the night before the attack. 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.
  • Dying as Yourself: After being mortally wounded, he comes to his senses during his final moments.
  • I Die Free: Invoked by Kain, who kills him now that he is himself again.
  • Implacable Man: Beat the hell out of him, throw him into running water (which is like acid to him), he just keeps coming.
  • The Lancer/The Dragon: To Kain, formerly.
  • Large Ham: "WATER IS NOT MY FRIEND!"
  • Mercy Kill: 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.
  • Tragic Monster: Kain pities him after learning the true nature of his fate, and likely the player will, too.
  • Undying Loyalty: Was the only one of Kain's lieutenants in Blood Omen 2 who stayed loyal to him.

    The Seer 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bo2_control_station_controlstation_05.jpeg
Who I am, what I am, is of no concern to you.

Voiced by Elizabeth Ward Land

An 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.


  • Dhampyr: A non-human example, although implied.
  • 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.
  • Kiss of the Vampire: Is on the receiving end of a very erotically-charged one from Kain- an anomaly in the series, where Vampire Bites Suck is the norm.
  • Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Hinted to be a Hylden-Vampire hybrid.
    • 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 
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: If she is truly a Hylden, then she is one of only two sympathetic examples of her race in the entire series.
  • Riddle for the Ages: 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.
  • Seers: It's in the name.
  • Stripperiffic: Wears even less than Umah.
  • Underboobs: Her top exposes the undersides of her breasts.
  • Witch with a Capital "B": Kain tended to call the Seer a "witch" in a rather.....parenthetical manner.
Kain: "I'm no man's dog, witch."

    The Builder 
I can indeed help you, but in return, I need an end to my suffering.

Voiced by Frank Welker

A Hylden Kain finds in the Eternal Prison, that built the Device the Hylden Lord attempts to use to destroy all non-Hylden life on Nosgoth.



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