Legacy of Kain: Defiance Designer Diary # 3

By Kyle Mannerberg
Game Designer

Back in 1996, Crystal Dynamics produced the progenitor of the Legacy of Kain series. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was originally developed for the PlayStation game console and centered on the exploits of the fledgling antihero Kain in his quest for revenge against the forces that stole his mortal life.

Among the large cast of characters who populate the world of Nosgoth, Kain has remained constant as the most important character in the series. He made many appearances in the Soul Reaver series as one of Raziel's main antagonists and continued to further explore his own unique destiny in Blood Omen 2. What it is that has kept Kain so vitally important to the series, and where did his journey start?

Kain has undergone some pretty dramatic changes since he started life as a simple, yet surly, sketch.

To quote Amy Hennig:

"In the centuries before Kain's birth, the land was protected by an oligarchy of sorcerers known as the Circle of Nine. These guardians were sworn to serve and protect the Pillars of Nosgoth, the ancient edifice towering over the earth as a manifestation of the mysterious power which preserved and gave life to the land.

The Circle was infiltrated by an enemy and Ariel, the Balance Guardian, was cruelly murdered. Her assassination sent psychic shock waves throughout the Circle, and in their derangement, the remaining sorcerers turned their powers to dark purposes, abandoning the Pillars to stand like silent, decaying sentries.

Into this dying world, Kain was born. The son of an aristocratic Nosgoth family, he lived the privileged life of a nobleman, never realizing his undiscovered destiny--that he was marked from birth as Ariel's successor and was fated to take her place as the Guardian of Balance. Ignorant of his destiny, the ambitious but directionless young nobleman was ambushed by brigands and murdered, cruelly impaled on his assassin's sword.

Plucked from the brink of oblivion by the necromancer Mortanius (the Guardian of Death), Kain awakened in the underworld, still transfixed by his enemy's blade. Tormented by his hunger for vengeance, and heedless of the spiritual cost, Kain recklessly accepted the necromancer's Faustian offer for revenge, and rose from his tomb to discover that he had been resurrected as a vampire.

Kain is, not surprisingly, a pretty big fan of revenge.

Kain quickly tracked down his assassins and exacted his bloody revenge. With his vengeance and hunger sated, he sought only a cure for the vampiric curse that afflicted him. Guided by Mortanius and the specter of Ariel, Kain hunted down each of the corrupt sorcerers now poisoning Nosgoth. Only with their deaths could the Pillars be healed. Kain believed that restoring this balance would release him from his curse.

As his quest brought him full circle, Kain confronted the destiny that Mortanius and Ariel had hidden from him--the fact that he was the next Balance Guardian and only by sacrificing himself could he restore the Pillars. Ariel presented Kain with a final climactic decision. Kain could either sacrifice himself to heal the land, and ensure the extinction of the vampires, or he could refuse the sacrifice, and seal the world's corruption.

Revolted by the machinations of the human sorcerers, and alienated from his former humanity, Kain chose the latter path--opting to rule the world in its damnation rather than commit himself to oblivion. This apocalyptic act completed the Pillar's destruction, and the mighty columns toppled as Kain sealed their ruinous fate.

The Pillars, Kain ultimately realized, were more than just a human edifice. The health of the Pillars was tied inextricably to the health of the land. With the Pillars left unrestored, corruption seeped slowly into the land like poison, turning his empire into an irredeemable wasteland."