Arcane Tomes: Janos Audron & The Heart of Darkness

 We've released a new video in the Arcane Tomes series, covering Janos Audron and the Heart of Darkness.

You can also find the following diagram charting the progression of the Heart of Darkness:

Arcane Tomes: The Soul Reaver

As part of the Arcane Tomes series we've been working on this video covering the Soul Reaver in all its glory for several months now and its become something of a monster, clocking in at nearly an hour and a quarter, and thoroughly detailing every aspect of the Soul Reaver blade 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc7XpX5QTpk&t=3106s&ab_channel=RainaAudron

This could have been several separate videos so feel free to browse through using the chapters below to explore. Enjoy and have a wonderful winterval.

1. Introduction 
2. Reaver, Soul Reaver and Wraith Blade
3. Plot 
4. Gameplay 
5. History and Timeline 
6. Reaver Enhancements and Elemental Reavers 
7. Elemental Associations 
8. Design and Appearance 
9. Behind The Scenes 
10. Credits 
11. Bloopers 

You can also find the timeline diagrams we've created for the Reaver here: 
Fourth Timeline:

 Third and earlier timelines:

Ten Year Challenge

Kain in Blood Omen concepts circa 1993-94 Vs Kain in Defiance promotional images 2003.
Happy new year and new decade from Cult of Hash'ak'gik and the Legacy of Kain Wiki.

Soul Reaver 20th Anniversary and the Sources Archive

A bit late to the party but Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver celebrates its 20th anniversary today on the 16th August, marking 20 years since the wraith Raziel and his soul stealing goodness first entered our lives. An instant classic, it remains the most successful and most critically acclaimed entry in the series.

Many have marked the occasion but for those who crave sources we've compiled a handy collection of sources and LoK materials for the curious:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rn3HwkyzgxDH6n1UtZJoHS5RdAMW5UHr?usp=sharing&fbclid=IwAR0nddIkqQvOpVw5Iah7TQ4yAUkJzl9SJSkjtIQWd0KCCFEDOZ0pTPigy4Y
Meanwhile Raina Audron has uploaded her entire LoK magazine collection:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JIzEZlM7Ssc78MevAiGmf5N3lQs1g0m4
Her retrospective can also be found here.

LoK Figures Reunion

From the Pit: LoK Merchandise: Action figures#3 - NECA Kain

This is the first Player Select first stage NECA Kain action figure, made by National Entertainment Collectables Association.

 Standing 7" (18cm) tall, NECA Kain comes with a Soul Reaver blade and an exchangeable hand to represent an enhanced TK attack.

 The cloak, while looking dynamic is actually fixed in place. Notice the slightly different design of the Soul Reaver blade in comparison to the BBI (NECA on left); also note that the cloak symbol is now the actual Kain symbol (as opposed to a placeholder Raziel symbol on the BBI version) - unfortunately now it’s upside down.

 The NECA Kain figure is somewhat controversial because of it’s facial design which was based on concept art for Defiance, with the figure displaying the traits and expression from this art. While largely faithful to the artistic design, some feel it does not represent the appearance of Kain in the series adequately with the facial expression often criticised. The chest scar is however arguably much better than its rendition in the BBI figure.

For more information on the Legacy of Kain action figures see here. Raina Audron’s reviews of the figures can be found on her ‘Ancient’s Den’ site here

From the Pit: LoK Merchandise: Badge of Honour

This is the ‘Legacy of Kain: Defiance’ official pin badge, produced as promotion for the game and distributed s freebies at the 2003 E3. A slew of other ‘Defiance’ branded items were available at the 2003 E3 event, including hats, badges, jackets and mints, though most are becoming increasingly rare and expensive these days.
You can find out about other LoK marketing materials and merchandise here.

This post originally appeared here

From the Pit: Lok Merchandise - Comic Collection

Here’s completed set of official Legacy of Kain comics. Most were promotional and released as one-off titles at the time of the release of the games - you can however find them online these days and physical copies of the major ones are relatively easy to come by on your local online auction site (although #2 and #4 are notably rarer and harder to find).

1)Left in the first pic (and middle in the second) is the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver comic by Top Cow. Produced as promotion for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, the comic tells a brief original story set shortly before the events of the game with the vampire Raziel being warned of his coming betrayal, execution and resurrection as a wraith by a ‘Construct of the Elder Gods’ - a warning which Raziel angrily denounces and ignores. The comic notably includes several premonitions of events that were planned but not included in the final game, such as the slaying of the Priestess and the opening of the sounding pipes at the pinnacle of the Silenced Cathedral.

2)Left in the second pic is a promotional ‘Preview Edition’ release of the Tomb Raider comic series -  released some time before the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver comic, it contained preview artwork in monochrome line drawing style for the Tomb Raider comic series and artwork in the same style for the Soul Reaver comic.  

3)Right in the first pic is the Legacy of Kain: Defiance comic by Top Cow, with alternate cover on the far right in the second pic. Produced as promotion for Legacy of Kain: Defiance, the comic tells a brief original story set shortly before the events of the game, with Kain recounting Nosgoth’s and his own history as he battles Sarafan troops and approaches the Sarafan Stronghold - the story effectively recaps the major events of the series so far. Notably the comic has two alternate covers depending upon where the comic was originally bought - with the Gamestop cover shown in the first pic and the Electronics Boutique cover in the second.

4)The third and fourth pics show the German language official guide Das Offizielle Lösungsbuch - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and its exclusive comic ‘Vorgeschichte’. Produced as part of the German official guide to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver , the comic tells a brief original story set shortly into the events of the game with the wraith Raziel recounting how he was betrayed, executed, resurrected and set on the path of vengeance against Kain. The comic is entirely in German, although translations can readily be found online. The comic notably includes several mistaken references and details, presumably relating to the interpretation, unclear language and developmental changes from the very early promotional materials for Soul Reaver.

This post originally appeared here

From the Pit: LoK Merchandise: German Special Editions

Oh the lucky Germans and their exclusive stuff.
These are the special editions of Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance that were available in Germany.

On the right is Legacy of Kain: Defiance which comes complete with full versions of Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2 plus a full colour manual booklet. (where other versions were partially or completely black and white).

On the left is the Soul Reaver 2 release which comes complete with several exclusive extras - most notably the inclusion of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. There are lots of other goodies hiding on the disc too  - with some extra concept arts not available elsewhere (although these days they are viewable on the net), extra wallpapers, a poster, a screensaver, a copy of the Soul Reaver 2 soundtrack (in dvd audio format) and four trailers from various stages of pre-release.

For more info on the German Special Editions see here - the trailers can be seen here, here and here (Trailer 2 is a shorter version of Trailer 1)

This post originally appeared here

From the Pit: LoK Merchandise: Promotional Soundtrack

The Soul Reaver Official promotional soundtrack contains a selection of music from Soul Reaver 1 and Soul Reaver 2 (and by extension Defiance as well)

Tracks include:
1) “Soul Reaver 2 theme” (aka Ariel’s Lament)
2) ”Sarafan” (aka Sarafan Stronghold)
3) “Overland”
4) “Dark Battle” (aka Dark Forge - combat variant)
5) “Overland Battle” (Overland - combat variant)
6) “Pillars Battle” (aka Pillars (SR2) - combat variant)
7) “Sarafan Battle” (Sarafan Stronghold - combat variant)
8)  “Necropolis: Danger” (Necropolis - danger variant)
9) “Pillars/Tomb: Danger” (Pillars (SR1) - danger variant)
10) “Ruined City: Combat” (Ruined City - combat variant)

Along with the musical tracks, the disc also features a “sneak preview” of Blood Omen 2 - which consists of an early version of the Blood Omen 2 intro video, complete with some rather attractive views right up Kain’s nose as he sleeps and no Nexus Stone. The video can be found here.

This post originally appeared here

From the Pit: LoK Merchandise: Guide Dang It

Here’s my completed collection of (mostly) official Legacy of Kain guides:

BO1 Prima, SR1 Prima, SR1 Das Offizielle Lösungsbuch (German), SR1 Brady, SR2 Prima, SR2 Das Offizielle Lösungsbuch (German), BO2 Prima, Defiance Prima

So what’s best? Well they all have strengths and weaknesses:
*Surprisingly it’s probably the German ones that have the better production quality, most interesting extras/special features and the best walkthroughs (even if you don’t speak German).
*The BO1 and Defiance Primas have excellent room and area maps (BO1 in particular originally came with a pull-out map of Nosgoth which is virtually impossible to find these days), while the SR1 Lösungbuch has a lot of hand drawn ‘home-made sketches’ providing visual aid and guidance (it’s also home to the German ‘Vorgeschichte’ comic)
*The SR1,SR2 and Defiance Primas have excellent classification and tactics sections
*The BO1,SR1 and BO2 Primas have noticeable snippets of pre-release info
*All of the guides feature several concept arts and/or promotional images.

Personally, I think Defiance Prima is probably the most helpful and BO2 Prima the least, but all have their charms and interesting bits that are worth a look.

This post originally appeared here

From the Pit: Vampire Guardians from concept to final design

Legacy of Kain: Defiance - The original ancient vampire pillar guardians from concept to final designs.
Yes, there were more concepts than there are guardians :D

This post previously appeared here

From the Pit: Bonus Materials

Legacy of Kain Wiki - Recent Highlights: Bonus Materials
Here’s a selection of images from the recently completed article on the Bonus materials of the series. It’s taken a while to compile and summarize, but the article is a collection of all the bonus materials presented in Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, comprising of over a thousand images, audio excerpts and videos from the development of the whole series. The article also includes all materials that were cut from certain releases of the games. Enjoy.
http://legacyofkain.wikia.com/wiki/Bonus_materials
http://legacyofkain.gamepedia.com/Bonus_materials

This post previously appeared here