Legacy of Kain

Legacy of Kain is a series of video games developed by Crystal Dynamics. It follows the quest of the Vampire Kain, and his former lieutenant, the Wraith Raziel in the world of Nosgoth, as Kain seeks to undo his apocalyptic decision to damn the world, and Raziel desires to seek revenge and uncover his mysterious destiny.

Kain

• At the beginning of the game,a young human, Kain, enters the local tavern as he passes through town: Barkeep: "The tavern’s closing - best be on your way, stranger!" Kain: "What, no mug of ale for a weary traveler from distant Coorhagen!? I can reward you well, for I am of noble blood!" Barkeep: "I stay open for no man in these dark times. Things come with the night that no sane man would welcome." Kain: "And so I left - cold of heart and soul. Forced to the road, and the long, bitter night. "
• "Vae Victis - suffering to the conquered. Ironic that now I was the one suffering. Not anything as pedestrian as physical pain. Rather the cruel jab of impotent anger - the hunger for revenge. I didn’t care if I was in Heaven or Hell - all I wanted was to kill my assassins. Sometimes you get what you wish for. The Necromancer Mortanius offered me a chance for vengeance, and, like a fool, I jumped at his offer without considering the cost. Nothing is free. Not even...revenge."
• After being killed and waking in his mausoleum: "I woke to the pain of a new existence, in a dank womb of darkness and decay"
• "Their sneering faces were forever etched upon my memory. I had crossed death for this moment. My mind was empty save for one thought; I would kill."
• While holding Nupraptor's severed head: "Alas, poor Nupraptor. I knew him well... Well, not really."
• "Worms and maggots fed upon his festering skin, the scent of tainted blood seeped through the wounds upon which they feasted. Pity, such a waste-- good blood gone bad."
• "Life without blood. What a travesty!"
• "The winds carried screams from the west... I could not help but smile. Someone in this world was suffering more than me."
• Upon encountering Vorador's brides: "Their charms were visible through the gauze of their clothing, yet beauty such as theirs delivered only death."

Mortanius

• "There is a Magical operation of maximum importance: the Initiation of a New Aeon. When it becomes necessary to utter a Word, the whole Planet must be bathed in blood."
• "You will have the blood you hunger for..."
• "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... I can assist you no longer"
• "You are the tragic hero"

Umah

• "That you awoke at all is a miracle. When we found you, there was but the barest thread of life left in you. We nurtured it, fed it, and now you rise and walk again."
• Umah: "Tell me, since you remember your name, do you also remember your nature?" Kain:"Of course."

The Seer

• "So I see. Kain, the Disruptor, the pebble in the pond who destroys all he touches."

The Sarafan Lord

• "Bathe them in fire. Let them learn, as they writhe in the flames and their bones dissolve, the futility of their actions.The vampire and all of his kind shall be razed from the land. This world will be made pure by my hand. I will give you the peace you seek, Kain..Your death beckons you."
• "Did it not occur to you that perhaps my cause, and not yours, is the cause of right and justice? That your ambition to rule this world is but the youthful craving of a petty noble, who has gained too much power, but never enough?"
• "I sentence you to the hell of your own making - a prisoner for all time."

Kain

• Marcus points at Kain and uses his gift. Kain clutches at his head, but shakes off the influence with ease : Marcus:"What? Impossible!" Kain: "What manner of creatures have you been practicing on? Dull mortal fools, with their minds full of commerce and dung? My mind is far too strong for your powers."
• "From the shards of tattered dreams, I rose - unwilling... Tossed upon tides of pain that flowed and ebbed and left me searingly awake. And more revoltingly - alive .. It was then I saw her, for the first time."
• "My mind was in fragments like shattered glass."
• "Strange how one's life casts a shadow far beyond one's own understanding. Here, in this alien vault, I discovered a being whose existence was entwined with mine, far more than I could ever imagine."
• "Cowards and traitors deserve no second thoughts, only their complete annihilation."
• "I have lived long enough to dispose of you."
• Kain walks away from the gate as it explodes and collapses behind him, destroying the Hylden already in Nosgoth. He considers what the future will hold. : "Umah... What was it she said to me in that fateful moment when she took from me the Nexus Stone? How would my rule differ from that of the Sarafan Lord?If you had lived, Umah, you would have learned the difference.You should have trusted me... The war was over, and yet there was another battle to be fought. The cruel masters of Nosgoth, the Sarafan - now leaderless - still had to be put down. There were cities to be rebuilt, and order to be restored. And a new rule, my rule would then begin.To the victor go the spoils. At last, Nosgoth would be mine."

Soul Reaver 1

• Raziel: "Kain is deified. The clans tell tales of him, few know the truth. He was mortal once, as were we all. However, his contempt for humanity drove him to create me and my brethren. I am Raziel, first born of his lieutenants. I stood with Kain and my brethren at the dawn of the empire. I have served him a millennium. Over time we became less human and more . . . divine. Kain would enter the state of change and emerge with a new gift. Some years after the master, our evolution would follow, until I had the honour of surpassing my lord. For my transgression, I earned a new kind of reward. Agony. There was only one possible outcome, my eternal damnation. I, Raziel, was to suffer the fate of traitors and weaklings: to burn forever in the bowels of the lake of the dead." Kain:"Cast him in!" Raziel:"Tumbling, burning with white hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain, relentless agony, time ceased to exist. Only this torture and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell. An eternity passed and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me. Yet, I lived." Elder God: "Raziel. You are worthy."

• "Answer me, Little Brother, or I shall beat an answer from your horrid lips!"

• Kain: "...and that is why, when I must sacrifice one of my children to the Void, I can do so with a clear heart." Raziel: "Very poetic, Kain.

• Raziel: "Am I reduced to this? A ghoul? A fratricide?" Elder God: "Elevated, Raziel. Not reduced."

• Raziel: "These apparitions and portents... what game are you playing now?" Kain: "Destiny is a game, is it not? And now, you await my latest move..."

Ariel

• "Beware - those blind with rage are by destiny ensnared."

• "Far in the eastern mountains, a stifled titan stands in mute surrender - unwilling host to a parasitic swarm"

• "Kain refused the sacrifice. The Pillar of Balance, corrupted to its core, stands as a monument to his blind ambition. Now these pillars serve only to bind me here -- my prison and eternal home, thanks to the avarice of your master, Kain..."

• "Like a corpse in a shallow grave, corruption rises to the surface... Beyond these Pillars, the defiled victim mutely screams its outrage."

The Elder God

• To Raziel, as the earth shakes beneath his feet: "This world is wracked with cataclysms. The earth strains to shrug off the pestilence of Kain's parasitic empire. The fate of this world was preordained in an instant, by a solitary man. Unwilling to martyr himself to restore Nosgoth's balance, Kain condemned the world to the decay you see. In that moment, the unraveling began...now it is nearly played out. Nosgoth teeters on the brink of collapse. Its fragile balance cannot hold."
• "Deep in Nosgoth's northern wastes, the hushed silences embrace an ancient enigma."

Soul Reaver 2

(Dialogue)

Kain:"At last. I must say I'm disappointed in your progress, I imagined you'd be here sooner. Tell me . . . did it trouble you to murder your brothers?"

Raziel:"Did it trouble you when you ordered me into the abyss?"

Kain:"*chuckles* Eternity is relentless, Raziel. When I first stole into this chamber, centuries ago, I did not fathom the true power of knowledge. To know the future, Raziel. To see it's paths and streams tracing out into the infinite. As a man, I could never have contained such forbidden truths, but each of us is so much more than we once were. Do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods? As such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion. Our futures are predestined. Mobius foretold mine eons ago, we each play out the parts fate has written for us. Free will is an illusion."

Raziel:"I found the tomb of Sarafan, Kain. How could you profane a priest by turning him into a vampire!"

Kain:"How could I not? One must keep his friends close, Raziel, and his enemies even closer. Who better to serve me than those whose passion transcends all notions of good and evil?"

Raziel:"The Sarafan were saviors, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we represent. My eyes are opened, Kain. I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse!"

Kain:"You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it. You think the Sarafan were noble? Altruistic? *laugh* Oh, don't be simple! Their agenda was the same as ours. You nearly had me, Raziel, but this is not where or how it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds . . . completely."

Moebius:"Raziel. Redeemer and destroyer. Pawn and messiah. Welcome, time spanned soul. Welcome. To your destiny."

Kain

• "History abhors a paradox."

• "But suppose you throw a coin enough times... Suppose one day, it lands on its edge."

• "Hate me, but do it honestly."

• "I have seen the beginning and the end of our story, however - and the tale is crude and ill-conceived. We must rewrite the ending of it, you and I."

• "The Pillars don't belong to them, Raziel... They belong to us. "

• "History is irredeemable."

• "I'm biding my time."

• After Raziel thrusts the Soul Reaver into William the Just's corpse: "...poor William."

Raziel

• "I had a choice and I chose mercy."

• "Why, when the rest of Nosgoth is in misery and death, do you appear to thrive?"

• "...and the Reaver is the key."

Janos Audron

• "They fear what they don't understand; and they despise what they fear... but no... I do not hate them."

Kain

• "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? -

• "But does one ever truly have a choice? One can only match, move by move, the machinations of Fate, and thus defy the tyrannous stars."

• "But stones, too, can lie..."

• "The coin is still turning, Raziel."

• "And it was then - I saw."

• "Your words are heartening - for you would not fear us unless we could truly do you harm."

• "Locked. What a love of doors these pathetic humans have."

• "Vae Victis!"

• Sarafan Soldiers: "Surrender, vampire, and we promise you an easy death!" Kain: "I would promise you the same... but it would be a lie."

• "I always was considered heartless."

• "At last, the masks had fallen away. The strings of the puppets had become visible, and the hands of the prime mover exposed. Most ironic of all was the last gift Raziel had given me; more powerful than the sword that now held his soul, more acute even than the vision his sacrifice had accorded me; the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion: hope."

Raziel

• "I know you well, Ariel - though you do not yet know me "

• "The Soul Reaver - pure of all corruption - this is what it is for. This is what I am for. The two become one - both Soul Reavers - together - and the Scion of Balance is healed. And I - am not your enemy - not your destroyer - I am, as before, your right hand. Your sword. And now you will see - the true enemy..."

• "There's some grim satisfaction in infuriating you..."

• "My kind!? What exactly do you think I am?"

• " And I am beginning to think that the vampires committed suicide only to escape from your voice."

• "But I do not accept."

• "So this is the prophisised battle, I win, because you refuse to fight me?! The mighty Kain, Scion of Balance, would-be ruler of Nosgoth, surrenders before the final battle even begins!

• "Vae Victis - woe to the conquered! I have found the Heart of Darkness. And you - go to Oblivion!

Dialogue

• Elder God: Do you see? However far you strave, you will always return to me. Surrender, Raziel.

• Raziel: Never! (Slashes the Elder God with the Soul Reaver, but it has no effect)

• Elder God: (Laughs) Your efforts are wasted, Raziel! That weapon you bear, however endowed, remains only a wraith blade. It cannot touch me.

• Raziel: I will not be your prisoner!

• Elder God: You have no choice! Your task is fulfilled. Kain has been cleared from the board, and this chamber made ready for my more malleable servants. There is nothing more for you to do.

• Raziel: I refuse to bend my wi-

• Elder God: It has always been MY will you have satisfied, never your own!

• Raziel: You parasitic fraud. You're forced to imprison me because I possess free will!

• Elder God: You posess nothing!