#and nosgoth as a whole

[customkits]

"The Pillars of Nosgoth... pristine, whole and uncorrupted.

I had never beheld them in this undefiled state - yet something profound and indelible resonated within me at the sight.."

Raziel is done! I went for the Soul Reaver 2 style, since he is on the corrupted pillar.

He was so fun and I got to practice more OSL! Having Raziel as a mini makes me so happy, as the LoK series is very close to my heart.

I hope you like him!

[thunder-jolt]

ALYCIAN IF SHE WAS A BOT IN ASTRO BOT!

Since Kain and Raziel have representation in Astro Bot and I need to make more art for Alycian, making her a bot would be a good choice! Especially knowing how, as of posting this, Astro Bot is still kicking and people are still talking about it.

Anyway, I suppose it's also time to explain the references here, such as what that chest even is. (It doesn't look like anything seen in any of the Legacy of Kain games)

Well, it's because other than her being a Legacy of Kain OC, I was also thinking of giving Alycian her own game while still trying her to the Legacy of Kain lore, basic idea is that she wonders around the barren deserts and wastelands of Nosgoth (though it wouldn't be set in it because it's not a Legacy of Kain title and also because I'm not Crystal Dynamics), finding secrets and treasures while "stealthly" avoiding and evading monsters, who would instantly kill her if caught.

But anyway, to find these secrets and treasures, they're often in random chests, and these chests don't need a key, because I prefer things to be easy. But yeah, that's why there's a chest here.

For now, the working game title is either "Winged Heart" or "Winged Hope", maybe even "Hopeful Heart", who knows. But the "Winged" is more symbolic than literal, as my Pa suggested one of the titles to have "Winged" because of a poem, something to do with "hope is the one that has feathers" or so I recall. Feathers and wings are not literal for Alycian, it's just symbolic of her being the hope that Nosgoth needs to be itself again. Or yada, yada...

But another thing about this game that I won't make is that unlike Blood Omen or Soul Reaver, she doesn't have anything to heal herself, not blood, not souls, nothing, hence the "monsters who would instantly kill her if caught" and the whole game being stealth-based because she doesn't have anything to sustain herself other than regular food, which isn't special as blood or souls as a food source. She may be a half-vampire, yes, but the human half overwhelms the vampire half.

Anyways, have Alycian as a cute Astro Bot, I'm outta here.

[pigeonrocks]

finally, the guy ever.

mass lore under the cut bc I dont want to make 17 million posts about one guy, not organized. my insane ramblings about my guy

RIGHT!!!! Enoch lore! this is gonna be just a mash of things about him for convenience.

★ Enoch is entirely believed to be the sole werewolf left in Nosgoth, there haven't been any others found in a while. they're... just sorta gone?

his first appearance is in BO2, I think- where Kain meets him again, his former buddy! who was blood thirsty and full of insatiable frustration and so hot blooded is now trying to keep himself out of trouble due to initial overwhelming paranoia and anxiety, Kain spares him (that's his dog) and Enoch continues to help him in what ways he can, this is not the domino to his faulted loyalty- but where it starts to clearly had been stemming from, a sort of debt he needed to repay- which later itself manifests into his pride & loyalty to serving Kain.

★ Enoch himself has a bizarre ideology, genuinely. He believes the acts of vampires (specifically Kain) as righteous and what he does in their name as that same level of grandiose superiority with full acquiesce- not a complaint from him at ALL!!!! to kill in the name of Kain is to promote that beheld greatness of vampirism, the undying belief that what he's doing itself is correct- no matter the abhorred terrors and heinous acts hes doing.

★ The 'veil' is more based on the werewolf hcs I've had to come up with to explain both their disappearance (sarafan related) and why Enoch values hiding his face so much.

SO!!!! to explain, since Enoch withstood the werewolf related madness, he views it entirely as a shameful thing, being stuck as essentially a big dog and as what everyone else thinking of him as a monster, a thing that will kill their crops, their livestock and run a fool in their towns and deserves to be slaughtered- he cant stand being seen, by anyone- not even himself. It's shameful for him because of how he's the last, it's a permanent reminder of what cannot be- the heartache and sorrow that is a constant for him already.

★ alright, second appearances. He next shows up in SR1, wow crazy. uhm- specifically Raziel goes and finds him to seek out answers because Kain treated him as a confidant , surely he'd know about him being a sarafan right? turns out he does. he was advised (instructed, actually) to not tell any of the lieutenants, he had no play in their resurrection, just thought the fact (during the time) to be irrelevant because of how the two both mutually hated the sarafan.

Not a lot for soul reaver, since he doesn't show up that often, or really at all, bc hes not too important.

THATS DIFFERENT IN SR2 THOUGH!!! last of his appearances. bc of the time travel stuff where Raziel can meet Enoch at his peak, not some socially extinct guy in a catacomb. The feared general in Kain's empire, his beloved zealot- carrying out his beliefs bc he genuinely believes them with his whole heart & soul, believing in all the flaws and things that lead to Raziel killing him. little too overaggressive in his youth- no leash and muzzle. Hes reckless & crass- real tempered- said that before but it's real apparent with the younger version of him in sr2.

He wants to kill people!!!! He wants to exact revenge on anyone who crosses and wrongs his sire.

Alright, I think that covers everything. or at least all the important stuff! hooray!!!!

[kainissoable]

Legacy of Unplanned Pregnancies

This post brought to you by the cursed seahorse vampire theory, several jokes with friends, one other post in the tag, and not enough sleep. (It's how various LoK characters would react to getting pregnant. If you think this is serious you may be stupid.)

Kain: Depends on the era. If it's during the empire, then he will more than happily put his feet up for a few months to add another little terror to his brood. After being a single dad of six, one baby made the old fashioned way isn't going to bother him. But in the Blood Omen eras? Fuck that noise, he's gonna yeetus that fetus as soon as he finds out he got knocked up.

Raziel: Excitement. Panic. Internal conflict. Being a pregnant trans man is even more fraught with the additional gender politics of female humans and male vampires being the ones who give birth. he swings between being elated and deeply dysphoric on a dime, but is mostly so, so excited to be a dad.

Turel: No. If he even suspects birth control failed he's getting the Nosgothic equivalent of Plan-B. If he finds out too late, then, like his father before him, it's abortion time.

Dumah: Was pretty chill about this development, thinks kids might be fun, then the morning sickness hit. 50/50 on whether he deals with not being able to have fun fighting things for a few months or decides screw this shit, he'll stick to getting kids ready made instead.

Rahab: Is excited. Will he lay eggs? What is the child's physiology going to be like? Would a water-birth be safer or is the risk of it not inheriting his dark gift too high? He's going to find out and share his theories with anyone who will listen.

Zephon: Will whine and complain and be dramatic. "you know you don't have to-" "No, no, I'm gonna keep it."

Melchiah: Much like Raziel, is having the whole cocktail of pregnant trans man emotions, plus several available only to people with chronic health conditions. He's looking up what analgesics he can safely take while pregnant, checking his own health excessively, and generally trying to decide how much he's willing to put himself at risk for a much wanted pregnancy. The first unplanned one probably would not last long either by accident or design, but after a lot of planning, researching, and support from family, he does manage to have a biological child on his terms, by c-section and a few weeks early.

Vorador: Totally unbothered about getting knocked up, refuses to change his lifestyle in any way, probably has a dozen kids being taken care of in one wing of his estate, all of them sired by different people. Likes to take the kids out on trips, absolutely refuses to do actual parenting.

Janos: Isn't on birth control due to his religion, so knew this was going to happen when he settled down in a committed relationship. The main change to his lifestyle is that he starts knitting baby clothes instead of little sweaters for his cats.

Umah: Responsible for knocking Kain up. She's more than happy to parent the kid if Kain wants to carry to term, but is not going to settle down with that man. If he suggests it, she will try to kill him again. They were never even married but they're divorced.

[dogreed-blog]

Why Raziel is true Legacy of Kain.

Helo eweryone. Actualy wana share some insperation about mening of name Legacy of Kain frsnchise for me. In short, i think Raziel was the true Legacy of Kain. Yes i know about Bo 1 making other studeo and whole story with title, but i do this post with todey perspektive. Why i think he seas Raziel is his Legacy, not Nosgoth or his empire, or New vampire race. First of all Kain was betraid from the begining by those Who represents the balance of Nosgoth. Thats pushed him to the side of vampires. Yes i think he hated humanity not as a vampire, but as a human. So he bild his empire as a defiance against those Who betraid him. But his empire was his ambition, with help wich he can run avey from himself. But as it was with the pillars, same was with the empire, Kain get into showes bigger than his size. So he used cronoplast to weald his desteny. Only than he begin to lern about his mistakes, and exepting his role as a father of nations. So the qestion, why he dosent se his Legacy in New vampire race. As Kain put it, he was a prisoner of fate. But there wose one who is not, yes it is Raziel, atlest in his mind. So what Kain sees in Raziel as his Legacy? Free Will. But as we now of Kain, he was twisted by madness of Nupraptor and betrayed so many tims, so he seas it as a natural lesson of growing. And yes in his mind he sees a goal to rase a champion of fate by those methos he knew. He throw Raziel to the abyss, he orcastrated some events. He secrifice his Lieutenants to him, as his empire, and all of Nosgoth once again. Becouse as he put it"as long as one of us stand, we are legion, thats why i must secrifice my children to the woid, i can do so with a clear heart". In concept of new timline, with New Nosgoth it has meaning. So yes basicly in games Kain says to Raziel, "you hold all of the cards" Thats why i think Kain thinks about Raziel not as a servand, but more as a son, that was foreged by him, even more as his Legacy of Free Will.

[heisendaddysimp]

『Tag 9 People You Want To Get To Know Better』

thanks for tagging me @vivern-of-nosgoth!! Had really fun doing this since I love and can't stop myself from oversharing

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『Three Ships』

・really in love with Frobin (One Piece)! It's just their dynamic that I love, I think I started shipping them when Franky and Robin reunited after the time skip and Franky upon seeing Robin said something along the line "oh who's that beautiful woman I see over there?"

・definitely Clara and Sabnock (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun)! I know it's kinda canon that Clara has a crush on Iruma but have you seen the interactions between Clara and Sabnock? I mean... Y'all remember the scene where Azz and Clara literally sticked onto Iruma and Sabnock was like "if you let him go ill let you climb on my back again"??? If that's not love then I don't know too

・I know it's canon but it's my comfort ship so I gotta mention them: Yuki and Machi (Fruits Basket). Seeing them and their relationship just makes my heart feel so warm and fuzzy, I don't know how to describe it but I just love them so much

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『First Ever Ship』

・back in my time when I was still in the My Hero Academia fandom I shipped Tsuyu and Tokoyami and I still ship them im just not in the fandom anymore

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『Last Song』

・I Want Violence by Shwabadi

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『Last Movie』

・to be honest it's a long time ago I watched a movie with "real people" so no wonder my last move I watched was One Piece Film RED (watched it twice and can't wait to binge it every day when there's finally a dvd or if it gets on crunchyroll)

・but here's one I didn't watch because I wanted to but because I had to in German class: Die Schachnovelle (The Royal Game) from 2021

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『Currently Reading』

・Tougen Anki is one of the best manga I have ever read in my whole life, I love it so much that I re-read it like 3 times, honestly it really deserves an anime

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『Currently Watching』

・Wano Kuni Arc of One Piece

・Harvest Festival Arc of Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

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『Currently Consuming』

・not eating right now but I had self made hashbrowns a few hours ago, one of the best things I ate in my life, 100/10 will eat again

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『Currently Craving』

・the hashbrowns I just mentioned

・and my beloved cheese udon (honestly, I'm craving them every minute of my life since I had them for the first time)

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『My Picrew』

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『People I'll Tag To Get To Know Them』

@rosepetals-onthelake my beloved <3

@vodkafolie, @crowtrobotx, @jinxxparodiesproductions, @househusband-to-house-heisenberg, @myclownjunction, @heisenberg-simp257

(forgive me everyone, I only have 7 people)

[crowtrobotx]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Tagged by @vivern-of-nosgoth ! Thank you! ❤️

Three Ships: y’all know I don’t usually get into this but I am extremely feral over Max/Anne (Black Sails) and Ead/Sabran (The Priory of the Orange Tree.) Also gonna hardcore agree on Karl Heisenberg/OC or Y/N because I love seeing that old man in situations. ❤️

First Ever Ship: Oh god lol. I’m gonna age myself here but I think it was probably related to H*rry P*tter and it was uhhh W*lfstar. I was already very not normal about middle aged men at the ripe old age of nine lmao.

Last Song: Caroline - Colter Wall

Last Movie: I watched “Onward” with my mom last week - underrated Pixar movie imho. Even if Crisp Rat is in it. 😒 The Manticore is my favorite character by far.

Currently Reading: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - NK Jemisin. Making my way through the whole trilogy slowly but surely.

Currently Watching: Puppet History! The new season is so unhinged, I love it.

Currently Consuming: Peanut butter hot chocolate because I just got done with work and it was a DAY.

Currently Craving: The ability to quit my job and also maybe 15 lbs of the soy garlic Korean fried chicken from the joint downtown.

I’ll tag whoever wants to do it!

[twitchesandstitches]

some crossthicc vampire thoughts

a side note, in case you are concerned: human vampires are not exclusive to the Commonwealth! They are all over!

the commonwealth just lends itself to the ‘aristocracy feed and victimizes the working class’ metaphor of vampirism, but they are hardly the only hominid-descendants who happen to be cool blood-drinking creatures.

In general, one thing vampire ladies have in common is that they tend to get progressively larger the more they feed; not from any beings in particular, but from creatures closer to their own power, or stronger than them. they can get big EXTREMELY fast! But eventually they tend to hit a point where anything strong enough to empower them like that can one-shot them, forcing them to power up more gradually.

Additionally, women vampires have the trait of boosting their curves when they feed; a vampire who drinks blood WILL have her boobs, hips and butt expand to enormous, swollen sizes as she feeds!

most vampires in existence are modeled after the vampire clans from Vampire: The Masquerade/Requiem (following the latter’s trend of broad vampire archetypes settlign into local variants). ALL vampires are like that, more or less, not just the human ones. Assume that Requiem’s clans take precedence, since its easier to rework them to fit, and all vampires across fiction are reworked to fit into the paradigm.

Sanguinius, the father of human vampires, is a kind of uber-vampire who predates all forms of vampirism and thus has no clan. All clans are a little bit Blood Angel. Some guess that he has elements of the physically mighty Brujah (themselves a subset of the warlord Daeva clan) or the more feral Gangrel, but he really is the source of ALL of them, at least as far as humans are concerned.

rainbow drinkers/troll vampires fit pretty closely into the Daeva/Toreador vein. They have a connection of sorts to the other trolls that goes beyond the predator vibe, they are FAST and seem to have a thing for art/society. Possibly Rainbow Drinkers, here, are NOT exclusive to jadebloods; its just inherent to their bloodline, as a result of a mystical connection to the Dolorosa, the mother of all troll vampires. Possibly each caste of the hemospectrum corrosponds to a different vampire type, exaggerating that caste’s role and amping up their predatory attributes to ridiculous extremes.

Discworld vampires are basically Ventrue and Nosferatu, with some hints of Tzimisce or Gangrel muddled up into a unique flavor; they draw a LOT of power from the magical essence of what it means to be a vampire, so they are ridiculously tough on a broad scale (they almost always come back, you know), but they tend to be a bit more limited in how they can deal with people as anything but the dark overlord that feeds upon the world. They work around this by changing what it MEANS to be a vampire, and can even foreswear blood in lieu of some other passion. The implications this has for the vampire condition as a whole is fascinating to researchers of the topic.

Blood Angels are more or less a clan unto themselves, with elements from all of them; they can be considered not exactly a clan, but a mystical state that vampires can develop into through dedication to goodness and righteous thought. As they are fueled with the blood of Sanguinius, they ascend past the limitations of clan and inborn power, transcending it and becoming something closer to Sanguinius himself. They tend to resemble their old selves (Blood Angels of nosferatu origin tend to be still be beautiful, but in a feral, monster girl way).

other vampires can be figured out either by extrapoloating from canon and applying it through the rules I’ve mentioned up top, or by going with what sounds cool. Remember that with the diversity of the sheer scale in this AU, pretty much any variant you can imagine exists SOMEWHERE, so if it makes sense, go with that.

Werewolves and vampires do not have any kind of innate animosity, by the way. (This goes for other werecritters, too.) They do often fight and dislike one another, but this is often for class-based reasons, or interpersonal dynamics. Their natures have nothing much to do with it; while there might be a STEREOTYPE that werewolves see vampires as bloodsucking abominations and vampires see werewolves as insane 

[confusedkain]

CK questions LoK Ancients

So I went on a one sided tangent today while working on crafting/house chores and having LoK cutscene videos playing as background noise.

Makes me just, more and more, want Amy Hennig to answer certain questions about the Ancient Vampires because the more I sit and listen, even after all these goddamn years, my brain is like HEY WAIT A MINUTE!

Cut for reasons.

“-inflicting us with a predatory blood thirst, but then came our enemies true revenge: immortality."

So did the A.Vamps eat like normal people? What DID they eat? Did the Hylden basically make them do a 180 when they cursed them? Were they vegan and mortal and then suddenly BAM now you're the beasts of the night?

"Curse or blessing, it is the price we pay to keep the Hylden banished from the land."

This just, my god this is such shit from Janos. From close up and only siding with one race, you only see a portrait of holiness, right? Janos in this halo of gold doing "good" waiting for the messiah, but if you actually step back and look at the whole picture, there is nothing but genocide, xenophobia and other horrible shit within the panoramic view of it all.

We think at first, aw Janos what a good bean, he's just a soft priest man but then if you actually remember the entire reason he's there is to literally gate-keep a race of people sent to suffer for eternity only because of their opposite opinion of religious following?? FUCKIN YIKES.

It makes me realize that these games came out, especially Defiance right after 9/11 and well, IT'S FUNNY THAT I'M WRITING THIS NOW ON SAID DATE.

Speaking of religions, did each sect of A. Vamps look/dress differently?

I bring this up because going back into SR2, the temple forges all follow different types of early human irl religions. Light reaver leaning towards Egyptian, Air reaver with Aztec, Dark reaver seems very Norse? I could be wrong please someone correct me, and then we have the fire reaver which looks like it's in a gothic catholic church and given Janos' attire and accent? That checks out.

To add to this: They all worship the same God, but they all gave praise to him differently. Thus me speculating about the different sects.

With different looks of dress and possible different ways of worshiping the same God, did their skin tone also change if say they didn't live in the immediate location of Nosgoth? Like, they're apart of "a world" right? Nosgoth can't be their entire world. It's certainly a pangaea of "Europe" but I'm wondering if say the different forges for the reaver scattered about Nosgoth are like emissaries for the different sects that don't reside in Nosgoth? The Air and Light A. Vamps being prime examples.

And if so, are they a possible darker shade of blue? Like how human skin tones change depending on where they live on the planet and their melanin levels?

How in the Hell did their community/society work?

I mean we get a taste of it with the Pillar Guardians being regarded highly but like, were they that heavily religious where say, we’ll use Janos as an example (because the man DID make the first Human into a Vampire), he’s gotta have some sort of high status?

Would he be considered a High Priest? Or a Pope?  Cardinal? Like, he was also at the last minute was given the role as the 10th Guardian I’m sure it wasn’t for shits and giggles, Janos definitely kept the pot stirred while in their post-war recovery.

Speaking of Priestly-ness, what would their religion be called?

No seriously I’m wondering about this constantly...

I also bring all these questions up because Amy and whoever else made up this stuff for this series basically gave us the core, one dimensional concept of the A.Vamps and was like :) That’s it.

“What about A, B, or C?”

“Just Janos.”

“But there’s gotta be more, right?“

“Hahah no.”

Like even with Raziel resurrecting Janos and the shit he tells us, IT’S STILL NOT ENOUGH. You can’t do all of this IN A STORY BASED GAME and be like yeah, that’s enough :D we don’t need to know about the literal details on how THE LITERAL VAMPIRE HYLDEN HOLY CRUSADES STARTED

I HATE TO USE A TEMPLAR MEME BUT IT FUCKING WORKS. WHAT A SHIT CYCLE HOW THE ANCIENT VAMPIRES PULLED A HOLY-WAR TEMPLAR MOVE ON THE HYLDEN TO THEN GET SNUFFED OUT BY THEIR OWN BULLSHIT TEMPLAR WAYS WITH HUMANS BY HUMANS.

And I think that’s enough I seriously needed to get this OUT of my head, JFA.

[incorrect-nosgoth]

Moebius: Raziel isn't more important than the whole of Nosgoth.

Kain: HE IS TO ME.

[qhazomb]

i think i wanna do another “Kain’s Empire” Pokemon theme team run, but mix up some of the Pokemon i used. Melchiah, Turel, and Raziel’s ‘mons are staying the same because they’re already perfect, but i’m changing Zephon, Rahab, and Dumah. Melchiah’s a Garbordor, because of that whole “fragile skins barely containing the underlying decay” thing. Melchiah gets the least respect out of Kain’s sons, and Garbordor gets some of the least respect out of Pokemon species. rotten kindred spirits. Zephon’s kids may all be really spider-y, but he honestly looks more like a cross between a mantis and a termite queen (which is... odd considering that he was biologically male and also Nosgothic vampires can’t have kids. why did he evolve to lay dud eggs. what.) Vespiqueen are female-only Pokemon, but she LOOKS like Zephon more than any of the spider or mantis ‘mons. thought about making Rahab a Dragalge, because Rahab’s armor when he was human had seahorses on it, but i think Gyarados fits his sea monster looks better. Dumah’s a Grimmsnarl now because i said so. i mean they’re both Big Beefy Boys and have killer fangs, it can work. Turel’s a Noivern, because his evolved form is the most batty of all of Kain’s sons, and he has that sonic scream attack, so he’s got that in common with Noivern. i shouldn’t have to explain why Raziel is an Aegislash. you know why. you know exactly why.

[thunder-jolt]

These are the two and only digital artworks I have for my Legacy of Kain OC, Alycian. Though I might make more art of her in the future, we'll have to see how I might go.

To those in the Legacy of Kain fandom and in general, I'm sure I mentioned her to someone when "The Dead Shall Rise" was revealed, but basically, let me just dump her lore real quick.

ALYCIAN'S LORE:

Daughter of the vampire lord, Kain, and a human woman named Elizan, Alycian is a young wanderer of the now barren Nosgoth, she carries many secrets on her shoulders like how she carries many things on her back.

How she came to be is something saved for some other time, but to put it in a nutshell:

"Elizan unknowingly enters the palace, where Kain is, in hopes of shelter, while warming her hands by a fireplace (strange, I know, but it's for the aesthetics), she encounters Kain, who initially hostile at her, drawing his blade at her. Elizan begged Kain for her to stay, stating that all she just wanted was a place to live after wandering for so long. Kain, taking slight pity for the woman, lets her live and lets her stay at the palace, living together but not having any attraction yet. Then, the two became close, before falling in love (well, if we were to put it that way), and soon had Alycian! Kain's first daughter and blood-related child!"

Her relationships with other characters, overall, are either her having a relatively healthy relationship, or someone just having a one-sided beef with her, either because of her connection with Kain, or because. Such as her relationships with her relatives; her relationship with Kain is like any other father-daughter relationship, a daughter who thrives in knowledge and adventure, and her proud father.

In her relationship with Raziel, at the start, Raziel just finds her annoying, with her following him around Nosgoth and telling him things he already knows about, but didn't bother doing anything as there's no other way to get rid of her, at least, anything that doesn't involve killing or eating her soul.

But as time goes on, the two would sympathize with each other, about how Nosgoth wasn't as great as it was before, or how it was never great in the first place, which evolved from Raziel thinking Alycian as an annoyance to being like a protective brother to her. Funnily enough, when it's revealed that she and Kain are related, not only does it shock Raziel that he was friends with Kain's daughter for all this time, but also shocked that she is, technically, his sister, the only sister he could've had.

= = = =

At first glance, she seems like an ordinary human girl, a simple, thin, boring human girl, and might also be considered annoying to some, especially when she talks to someone about a fairytale or about Nosgoth's secrets, but deep down, she's a sweet girl who wants to learn and connect with other people. She's not as bloodthirsty as her father (she doesn't even drink blood due to her human DNA, evident when she tried drinking a goblet of blood, only to spit it out after the attempt because of how bad the taste of blood is), nor as "justice-driven" (or so to say) as Raziel, she's herself, half-human half-vampire, yes, but still herself.

And, spoilers, she sacrificed herself not only for Nosgoth's sake but also for her family's sake, to protect her father, Kain, and her adopted brother, Raziel. (She isn't as selfish as her father, she's selfless.) But she did come back to play a big role in my Tomb Raider x Legacy of Kain crossover, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Anyways! I hope you like her! She might be Mary Sue-ish to some, but unlike most Mary Sues, she has flaws, such as being annoying without intending to, not having any battle prowess in a world that is "Fight or Be Forgotten", etc.

But that's on me, this is purely self-indulgent, so yeah.

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

I just now realized that both Adam and Raziel are the small boys of their own duo. And by small I mean the other two are just insanely tall. This is just the second half of Part 4 of these ramblings that had to be split in two. Also, I really want Kain’s pants.

In which I chronicle my Legacy of Kain journey and bridge it with your boy Adam Warlock, and Thanos too for a bit! (Part 4.5 of many, not many SPOILERS for Soul Reaver 1 and 2)

Part 1

Part 1.5

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I ended Part 4 talking about how both Raziel and Adam can’t stay dead for long.

 In Adam’s case, whenever he is killed / is mortally wonded / just needs a bit of solitude and peace and quiet, this gross ass cocoon forms around him and keeps him safe (similar to the one that gave him birth).

He stays there dissolving and reforming, metamorphosing for an uncertain amount of time (could be an instant, could be years), and coming out a little bit changed every time.

He’s had other methods of resurrection but this is the main “normal” one.

And I want to follow that with a bit of a tangent on how this “undying business” translates into gameplay with Raziel. I think the devs made it into a very interesting mechanic in my opinion, present in both Soul Reaver 1 and 2.

 Basically, if you lose all your health, you are transported to the Spiritual Realm  - a more spooky and eerie version of the Material Realm, where architecture bends, passages open and everything gains a bluish tint. I let myself be killed here as an example:

If you get killed while in the Spectral Realm, you are transported back to the last checkpoint (in Soul Reaver 1, you would be transported to the bottom of the Abyss and have to make your way up to where you were killed). Another example:

In Soul Reaver 2, even the checkpoints have an in-lore explanation, which I think is awesome, Raziel says:

"These ancient obelisks were mysteriously attuned to my spiritual essence. By simply touching the symbol, I could safely preserve an imprint of my soul, and thus create a milestone to which I could return when weary, and from which I could resume my journey."

You can also just shift to the Spiritual Realm whenever you please without having to die. Useful to gain access to previously inaccessible places:

Yey stairs!

Here's a few examples of this mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 I found online:

But, even though you can go spiritual at will, to return to the Material Realm you need to be at specific marked points, and be at full health (done by consuming a few wandering souls):

I don't know if it is technically impressive or not for the PS1, Dreamcast and PS2 to pull this off, but I personally marvel at it every time. And I think it's an interesting way to represent immortality through gameplay, not just storywise.

I do wonder now how you would translate Adam’s resurrections into gameplay if Marvel had a game where he’s playable. I think some notes and ideas could be taken from Soul Reaver. Maybe while his body is being recreated in his cocoon, you take control of his soul, hanging out on Mistress Death’s domain, since he’s no stranger to that place. I don’t know, I guess I just want an excuse to see him and Death interact more:

Anyway... oh yeah! I spent so much time gushing all over the soul devouring mechanic in Soul Reaver 1 in my first post, that I forgot to show how it looks in Soul Reaver 2 in both Realms:

I'll be honest, I think I prefer the green flame look from the first game (probably because that was my first exposure to it), but I do like the Spiritual Realm version of the souls here with the little skulls flying about.

Ok, back to that scene between Raziel and Kain I started talking about in Part 4 when they’re at The Ruined Aerie .

I mentioned in Part 3, how it started to look like we might get a similar development for them to that of Thanos and Adam, in the sense of them going from sworn enemies to friends. And the tone of this meeting shows a nice little change in their relationship in that direction (yey! because I'm a huge unrepentant sucker for this kind of thing).

Whereas before their encounters were wholly antagonistic from Raziel's part, now it is much more ammicable. It's not sudenly smiles and hugs or anything, quite the opposite. Raziel does say that he will try and kill Kain if he even suspects that doing so will make things better. But it is noticeably different.  Instead of it being all like "face me and die monster!", like usual, we get this exchange:

Raziel:

"Oh no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens. I don't think I have the stomach for it."

Kain: (laughs softly):

"No drama this time, Raziel."

Nice.

In the last couple of scenes Raziel even openly defends Kain when talking to others, which would be unthinkable during Soul Reaver 1. Our greatest enemy in the previous game is now an ally of sorts, or the closest we have to that. And our previous benefactor, The Elder God, who rescued me form the Abyss and tasked me with destroying Kain and the vampire race, may not be as benevolant as he showed. 

Just awesome stuff here with your allies turning into foes and vice-versa the more we dig into this land's History. In fact, I'll just throw this out there, but the whole seemingly betrayal of Raziel, of Kain ripping his wings and throwing him into the Abyss...

I'm beginning to think that it may have been a necessary evil in Kain’s attempt to restore Nosgoth, and not so much a fit of jealousy as it was shown. But I'll reserve judgement. It kinda depends on when exactly did Kain stumble upon Moebius' secret lair and peered into the future. Like, if he knew that Raziel had to burn and become a wraith to help create the paradoxes. So for now it's just a random thought.

But yeah maybe Raziel's starting to see that Kain has been as much of a pawn as he is. Both forced to play out some part in a grand scheme, and both forced down a path of bad decision after bad decision. Just how Adam and Thanos get closer as they realise they’re more alike than they care to admit, especially in their flaws and shortcomings, and that each is the only person the other can really relate to on a deeper level.

I mean don't get me wrong, Kain is undeniably monstruous, but he seems to be genuinly trying to fix things and the raw deal he was given in life. So maybe we can get something like Thanos’ “redemption” years for Kain by the end of this cosmic drama:

Would like to see Kain getting out of this wiser (and Raziel too). Things seem to be pointing that way at least.

So once we do manage to travel to the distant past as we intended, to the big Vampire Purge Era (because Raziel wants to talk with this ancient vampire who supposedly knows about the Soul Reaver Sword, and is the only person who might tell me the whole truth), Soul Reaver 2 takes advantage of me and impales me through the heart:

I'll elaborate. On the next post. Where things will get very real again.

See you until then.

[songbird-and-her-fos]

Playing Legacy of Kain is so weird for me because while I only romantically selfship with one of the characters I often find myself conflicted because damn if Nosgoth doesn’t have a whole bunch of very very attractive people

[hedjblogr]

macelight replied to your post “just remembered someone decided to talk some shit on the lok fandom...”

He literally says " you could have been my queen" so there is a little evidence. Hr loved her as much as he could love anyone at that point

he does say that but also there’s like. 0 build to them having a romantic relationship before then beyond them interacting on a basic level and him having to go save her so they can get the intel from her

the lack of build is what makes it a stretch for me

and we know nothing about the political landscape of nosgoth; it could have been a political marriage offering that would place her in a great position of power once he took his throne as king of nosgoth, but have purely been that, a reward for being a faithful ally; there needn’t be any love there of any kind really

also, he speaks with so little readable emotion in that specific scene that he may have even just been saying it to twist the knife, to make her hurt that much more as she lay dying. the one thing I can read rather conclusively into that scene is that he’s deeply hurt, because he DID try to trust her, DID try to let himself lean on her even a little, and she turned on him

(ed: i did have to make a small edit to that to clarify because his tone being flat wasn’t necessarily that he wasn’t emotional he just wasn’t like. expressing it explosively? we’ve SEEN kain get more audibly and physically emotional so it’s not that he shuts down when he’s upset, it’s that this specific scene shut him down... that happened a bit in BO2 actually and that was actually some of the writing i LIKED. especially the whole thing with the eternal prison and how quiet he was, and with magnus. ANYWAY tangent over)

given his history that was going to break his heart no matter what their relation was, because it was cementing the idea that he could trust no one, and that everyone would use and manipulate and lie to him

but i must reiterate that ALL of this is up for interpretation and that’s my point! even all of my conjecture above is just conjecture and my own personal interpretations

i’m not denying that he could have had some kind of feelings for her, or been interested in her in some way - but I’m saying that it’s not explicitly canon, and it’s even less canon to state that she was his ONLY love interest

[overazielous]

So where do vampire babies come from? I see there are lots of vampire dads but no vampire moms. Is that because only male vampires reproduce? Like seahorses?

Raziel lost his composure momentarily with a painful sounding wheeze. Kain glanced back at him unamused. 

“Ah I hurt whatever remains in my ribcage. Apologies. Mention of seahorses never fail to amuse me for some reason.” Raziel uttered afterwards, tapping at his sternum with his knuckles.

“Some reason now capable of eating you whole.” Kain drawled as he vacated the conversation. Raziel nodded in acknowledgement.

“So, rogue one, quick lesson in the vampire biology in Nosgoth. When the ancient race was originally cursed into what we call vampires it had a lot of fun effects one being sterility. Vampires cannot reproduce. In order to make more of them they figured out how to turn humans into vampires. Its no longer birds and bees, so to speak, and now like predatory wasps.”

“We refer to the vampires that turn us or raise us as our sires or matrons, as they usually take charge of teaching one to vampire correctly whether personally or in a coven. In most eras anyway. So yes there are a lot of vampire moms it just so happens the most infamous happen to be vampire dads.”