Kain (Legacy of Kain)
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Kain is a main character in the Legacy of Kain series of video games. Throughout the series, he was voiced by Simon Templeman.
Kain often shouts "Vae Victis!" (Translated as “Woe to the conquered”) whilst inflicting severe punishment upon his enemies, a phrase which was borrowed from Brennus.
During the course of the Legacy of Kain games, Kain is portrayed as a dark vampire brought back from the dead to fulfill his desire for revenge and as such makes a very good anti-hero.
It is later found out that Kain is the Guardian of the Pillar of Balance and the successor to Ariel, and much later that he is destined to become the Scion of Balance.
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History
Kain was a nobleman and born in the city of Coorhagen, in the fictional realm of Nosgoth. He grows up completely unaware of his birthright and not knowing the full extent of his grand destiny.
Not much is known of Kain’s life before his resurrection as a vampire and the history of his life is unimportant to the Legacy of Kain series.
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Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Kain is introduced as a 30-year-old traveller roaming the land when suddenly one night, for unknown reasons, he is assassinated by several brigands. Kain awakens in hell, with the sword of his demise still impaled in his back. He is approached by the necromancer Mortanius, and offered a chance of vengeance against the instigators of his murder. Kain unwittingly accepts, not fully knowing that his resurrection would come at a cost, a curse of vampirism.
Kain quickly found his assailants and exacted his revenge. However Mortanius told Kain that they were only acting on the orders of another who wanted him dead. To find out who wanted him dead, Kain had to visit the Pillars of Nosgoth. There Kain encountered the spirit of Ariel, the murdered Guardian of the Pillar of Balance. Ariel told Kain that in order to be cured of his vampirism he must seek out and kill all of the corrupted Guardians of the Pillars. Thus Kain began his quest to kill all of the corrupted guardians.
During his quest, Kain found and claimed the legendary sword, Soul Reaver, as well as meeting the ancient vampire Vorador and starting a genocidal war against the vampire race. Kain succeeded in slaying eight out of the nine corrupted guardians and returned to the Pillars of Nosgoth. There he confronted Ariel who revealed that the last guardian was in fact Kain himself. Thus Kain was given an almighty decision to either sacrifice himself and restore the pillars to their former glory or refuse the sacrifice and damn Nosgoth for all eternity.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Kain refused the sacrifice and Nosgoth was condemned to damnation. Kain built his empire in the land of Nosgoth and kept the ruined Pillar of Balance as his seat of throne. Kain raised 6 lieutenants from the fallen bodies of sanctified Sarafan warrior priests, with which to rule his empire.
One day, his first born lieutenant, Raziel had inexplicably evolved wings surpassing Kain’s own evolution. In an act of jealousy, Kain ripped the wings from Raziel’s back and ordered his execution. Raziel was thrown into the abyss, but survived and returned thousands of years later as a reaver of souls. Raziel rightly wanted revenge for his rejection and went after Kain. Though first Raziel would have to deal with his brethren who had appropriately devolved after centuries of neglect. During his journey, Raziel encountered Kain at the fallen pillars. They engaged in a fight, where Kain's Soul Reaver was shattered upon striking Raziel. In the spectral relam, Raziel took up the spirit of the Soul Reaver, which then clung on to him, thus becoming Raziel's symbolic weapon. After which, Raziel defeated his brethren, whose souls he devoured, and thus granting him the various powers they had.
Raziel finally caught up with Kain and they battled within the chronoplast chamber, whereupon Kain activated the time-streaming device and propelled both himself and Raziel into Nosgoth’s past.
Soul Reaver 2: Legacy of Kain
Raziel, still seeking revenge from Kain, continues to pursue Kain in Nosgoth's past. Here Kain reveals his agenda to Raziel, explaining that he was cheated out of his true destiny. Kain explained that he brought Raziel to the past to try and find a third option to his dilemma, where he would not have to choose between his own death and the damnation of Nosgoth.
While Kain sought a solution for his problem Raziel went on his own "crussade" bent on discovering the truth behind all the plots layed out before him.
This third option would not be without risk and Kain would have to manipulate history and Raziel was vital in this manipulation. Kain argued that Raziel's execution was a necessary evil in order to fully restore Nosgoth.
Kain was able to persuade Raziel sufficiently enough to spare his life where history dictated that he should have died. Kain was also able to manipulate history by preventing (later revealed as delaying) Raziel’s soul from entering the Reaver. Kain instantly realised that this was in fact a mistake and Raziel's soul should have been consumed, but it was too late.
Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
After the fall of the pillars, Kain raised an army of vampires with the help of Vorador, intent on taking all of Nosgoth for himself and declaring himself absolute ruler. Kain's campaign ran unchecked until his siege of Nosgoth's capital city Meridian. There, his army is scattered and he himself is struck a mortal wound by the Sarafan Lord, the general of Meridian's forces and leader of the Holy Order of the Sarafan, an order dedicated to the destruction of all vampires. During the battle, Kain's legendary Soul Reaver proves incapable of hitting the Sarafan Lord. Kain is left for dead.
Kain reawakens two centuries later, shadowy bits of memories about his army razing the land on their path to victory teasing the former vampire lord. Kain remembers he had been betrayed by members of his own legion, who have joined with the Sarafan Lord as his underlings since the failed final siege.
Kain has friends in his new world, however. The Vampire Cabal, a resistance group against the ruling Sarafan, has sent an operative named Umah to assist Kain and persuade him to help the Cabal defeat the Sarafan Lord. She quickly fills him in on the recent history, in turn, he vows vengeance upon those responsible for his fall, and ultimately to deliver the Sarafan Lord’s head on a pike.
Through his journey to regain his strength and power, he meets up with familiar faces. One is Vorador, the leader of the Cabal and Kain's erstwhile mentor. Within the Cabal are both humans and vampires trying to defeat the Sarafan Lord's plans of world domination. The plot runs much thicker, as Kain will eventually discover. Along his path, Kain meets and ultimately defeats the legionnaires that betrayed him long ago. Kain also discovers that the Sarafan Lord was not even a human but a Hylden, the enemy of the Ancients (those later cursed to become the first vampires), and his intent was to raze Nosgoth of all life so that his own race may attempt to colonize it once again. He discovers what happened to his finest warrior and prime lieutenant, Magnus, who had his mind destroyed and left to rot in the Eternal Prison, where all dangerous enemies of the Sarafan are kept.
Kain also meets the 'first' vampire Janos Audron, who explains the history of the Ancients and the Hylden and their ages-long perpetual struggle for Nosgoth. Audron explains the Ancients repelled the initial Hylden invasion and banished them into a chaotic realm beyond time. Exacting vengeance, the Hylden cursed the Ancients with vampirism, forcing them to feed on the humans they loved and protected and to live away from the sun they reveled in.
Across the ocean within the Hylden City, a base of operations made by the Hylden in their guises as high-ranking Sarafan knights and the mysterious Glyph Wrights, Kain meets the Sarafan Lord in a final battle that closes the portal between Nosgoth and their realm, shutting out the Hylden and ending their deadly plot. Janos is thrown into the Hylden's chaotic prison realm in this conflict, and is presumed dead.
Kain's enemy defeated, he resumes his quest to subjugate Nosgoth under his flag.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
After Kain prevented Raziel from being consumed by the Reaver and history reorder itself, Kain found himself alone in the Stronghold of the Sarafan Order. Kain tracked down Moebius, the Timestreamer, who guided him to learn some hidden secrets in Nosgoth's past.
Kain was soon to learn that he, not Raziel, was the prophesied hero of the vampires and Raziel was, in fact, the destined hero of the Hylden. In time, he confronted Raziel in the main chapel of Avernus Cathedral. After a fierce battle, Raziel ripped out Kain's heart.
The heart, Kain realized, was the Heart of Darkness, which once belonged to Janos Audron. This was how Mortanius transformed Kain into a vampire, not via the traditional blood-gift. Raziel then proceeded to banish Kain to oblivion.
Kain later awoke, inexplicably alive, in the dimension the Hylden had been banished to at the end of their war with the vampires. Kain was able to fight his way out of the Hylden realm and made his way to the Citadel of the Vampires. There, he found Moebius, who was reporting to the Elder God at the time. Kain killed Moebius, but a few minutes later, Moebius' body arose. Kain impaled the Timestreamer with the Reaver only to see the body transform into Raziel.
Kain, shocked by what he had done, tried to free Raziel from the blade, but Raziel finally submitted to his fate and entered the sword, but this time assuring that the power of the Reaver was pure and uncorrupted. As his last act, Raziel healed the hole in Kain's chest, giving him a new heart, and granted him unerring vision, allowing Kain to see the Elder God for the first time. Kain proceeded to fight and defeat the Elder God in single combat.
After their battle, Kain turned a deaf ear to the Elder God's threats and returned to the meeting hall in the Citadel from where he could see the newly fallen Pillars of Nosgoth. As he gazed out, Kain realized that Raziel had given him one last chance to heal the wounded land... and this time, he must not fail.