Soul Reaver

:This article is about the weapon featured in the videogames of the same name. For the video games of this name, see Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2.

The Soul Reaver is a weapon in the Legacy of Kain series. The sword is forged before the timeline of the series by the Vampires to be wielded by their prophesied champion, and it is revered by them as a holy relic. It plays a key role throughout the series, serving not just as a weapon for series protagonists Kain and Raziel, but as a device through which history can be changed - at any time two separate incarnations of the Reaver meet, the paradox from this allows history to be altered. Thus, for Kain and Raziel who wish to advert their doomed destinies, using time travel to force separate Reavers to meet is critical to adverting their fate.

The physical blade is known as the Blood Reaver when first forged and devours the blood of its victims, and after drawing Raziel's spirit into itself, becomes a soul-consuming Soul Reaver. After Kain attempts to strike down Raziel with the Reaver, a paradox is formed when Raziel's soul in the Reaver attempts to consume its past self. This shatters the physical Reaver, leaving it in its true form as a wraith blade of spectral energy. This spectral Reaver bonds to Raziel, bringing its history full circle.

Form

The Soul Reaver's physical form is a flame-bladed sword with a broad, serpentine blade forged from unknown materials. The blade and the handle are separated by a skull emblem with four bone-like crossguards. The Reaver's spectral form retains the shape of its physical form and visibly undulates. The spectral Reaver glows green in the spectral realm, and blue when manifested in the material realm. The spectral Reaver also changes color in the material realm when baptized in various elemental springs to enhance its power. Although in the Soul Reaver games, the spectral Reaver has no handle or crossguards and emerges directly from Raziel's hand, in Defiance the spectral Reaver possesses ghostly crossguards and a handle that Raziel grips. Also in Defiance, the material Reaver produces a colored aura after killing enough victims.

Appearances in the Legacy of Kain Series

The Reaver was first forged by the Vampire Vorador some time around the end of the war between the Ancients and the Hylden, at the behest of Janos Audron. After its forging, the highest mages among the Ancients endowed the Reaver with the power to drain its victims of their blood. At that point, the sword was known as the Blood Reaver. After the end of the war and the raising of the Pillars, the Reaver was given to Janos Audron for protection. Centuries later, Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah of the Sarafan Order stormed Janos' Retreat, murdered Janos and stole the Reaver. The wraith Raziel, who had traveled back in time from the future and spoken with Janos, sought to avenge Janos by chasing the Sarafan down, reclaiming the Reaver and killing the Sarafan, including his human self. In the unaltered timeline, Raziel was then drawn into the blade, transforming it into a soul-devouring weapon. Hereafter the blade was known as the Soul Reaver.

In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, the fledgling Kain finds the Reaver for the first time in the depths of Avernus Cathedral, presumably left there by his older incarnation following the events of Legacy of Kain: Defiance. During this game, Kain fights and kills William the Just, who also possesses an incarnation of the Soul Reaver as arranged by the Time Streamer, Moebius. While William was intended to become a tyrant known as the Nemesis, the force of two incarnations of the same blade meeting created a paradox strong enough to change history. Upon killing William, Kain ignites a hatred of vampires in the land as William was at that time a good king and not the evil Nemesis. Although the results are horrid to him, this act demonstrates to Kain the Reaver's power to alter time.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Kain shatters the blade when he strikes Raziel with it, separating the Reaver back into its physical form and its spectral form: a wraith blade. Intentionally, the Reaver was destroyed because of a paradox as it cannot devour its own soul, Raziel. Raziel then gains the wraith blade, and bonds with it, forever making it a part of him. During the game, Raziel can baptize the Reaver with the power of fire, but this is not canon: in Soul Reaver 2, the blade lacks this power at first and it must acquire this power by a different means.

In Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 the wraith form of the Soul Reaver meets with its old physical form in the Sarafan Stronghold after Raziel travels back in time, and the Reaver almost kills Raziel while attempting to rejoin with its other half. This "awakens" the blade, and it gains a will of its own, consuming Raziel's own energy if it is overused and acting of its own accord in other situations. When the blade's power is nullified by Moebius near the end of the game, Raziel uses the physical form of the Reaver to kill the Sarafan Order, including his human self. Afterward, the wraith blade enters the physical Reaver and then impales Raziel, absorbing his soul and bringing to the light the truth of how the paradox in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver occurred when the sword shattered. The soul devouring entity within the wraith blade had always been Raziel, he was destined to be tied to a loop; however, Kain saved him by pulling the Reaver away from him in the midst of a distortion in Nosgoth's timeline. Raziel, barely conscious, shifted back into the Spectral Realm as a newly enlightened Kain tried to give him a critical warning.

In Legacy of Kain: Defiance Kain still possesses the physical form of the Reaver that he had pulled out of Raziel. During his search throughout Nosgoth for the answers to his destiny and the whereabouts of Raziel, Kain collects the four pieces of the Balance Emblem to complete the sword's powers. The Balance Emblem consists of the blade itself along with insignias/powers of Flame, Dimension, Lightning, and Time. As Kain searches for augmentations for his version of the blade, Raziel also advances his own wraith version by endowing it with the elements of Light, Darkness, Fire, Air, Water and Earth. The final augmentation of the wraith blade was found at the forge locked deep within the ancient Vampire Citadel where all the elements of the sword were required to open the means of unlocking its final augmentation. The ghost Ariel, the spirit of a guardian of the Pillars of Nosgoth combined with the souls of her predecessors and rendered the wraith blade pure of spirit and released her from her captivity in the Pillars. This Reaver is referred to as the Spirit Reaver in the game menu.

Raziel discovers later the blade is capable of purifying the sights of others, allowing Moebius to see the Elder God before devouring him. And then, by allowing Kain's sword to absorb his soul while dispersing the purified wraith blade into Kain, finally purifying him from all corruption and allowing him to see and to fight the Elder God. The physical Reaver that absorbed Raziel's soul is called the Soul Reaver in the game menu.

Other Appearances

* In Blood Omen 2, the player can access the Soul Reaver along with Kain's Iron Armor from the original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain by inputting a cheat code on the title screen. Simon Templeman's voice (Kain) confirms correct entry by yelling saying "Go, Cheese!" Upon starting a new game, the player will note that Kain possesses the Soul Reaver and the Iron Armor (also visible in the first cutscene at the intro which glazes over the events directly after Kain's defeat of Mortanius and the Dark Entity where he chose to destroy the Pillar of Balance). The Soul Reaver is immensely powerful in this game, allowing Kain to easily defeat all non-boss enemies with one to three slashes. Although Kain is unable to drop the blade in these circumstances, the Reaver is unbreakable, enabling Kain to block incoming attacks without the player worrying about the sword breaking. It must be noted, however, that this cheat code is prone to causing glitches in the game's cinematic events wherein the Soul Reaver's graphics are forced into Kain's left shoulder.

* It also appears as a weapon in Dark Messiah Of Might And Magic. Its first appearance is in the House Of Ashes.

* The Soul Reaver is available in the video game Tomb Raider: Legend. The weapon is available through a cheat code only accessible after 100% completion of the game.

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See Also

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