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The Soul Reaver is a weapon in the '' Legacy Of Kain '' series. It is a sword approximately 50" (127 cm) in length with a broad, serpentine blade (more appropiately, a Flamberge) forged from unknown materials (presumably iron, carbon and bone). Through most of the series, the sword has the ability to devour the souls of its victims and its power can only be quelled by an artifact known as the Nexus Stone. It plays a key role throughout the series, serving as more than just a weapon for Kain and later/earlier Raziel .


FORGING

The Reaver was first forged by Vorador some time around the end of the war between the Ancients and the Hylden . 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 informally known as the "Reaver."

After the end of the war and the raising of the Pillars, the Reaver was given to Janos Audron for protection. Centuries later, the Sarafan stormed Janos' keep, murdered Janos and stole the Reaver. Raziel , who had traveled back in time from the future, chased the Sarafan down, reclaimed the Reaver and killed the Sarafan. 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.


KAIN, WILLIAM AND RAZIEL


450 years after the evil one became the Soul Reaver, the sword was given as a gift to the young King William The Just by Moebius The Timestreamer . The young Kain, who had been compelled to travel back in time, was also armed with the Soul Reaver and did battle with William, killing the young king and breaking the past version of the sword.

After William's death, he was entombed in the Stronghold of the Sarafan Order, with the broken Reaver laid across his coffin. Twenty years later, Raziel, visiting from another time period, repaired the broken blade when he touched it with his wraith blade.

Then, some thirty years after the blade was re-forged, it was laid across the young Kain's path in Avernus Cathedral and the vampire took up the weapon on his journey. Kain continued to wield the Reaver almost constantly (the blade was in the possession of the Hylden for two hundred years) for the next few thousand years.

The saga of the sword supposedly ended when Kain faced Raziel, who had just emerged from the nether realm as a wraith. Kain shattered the blade against Raziel, utterly destroying it and releasing the spirit within the sword. The Reaver's soul, Raziel, bound himself to his past self and became a wraith blade.


ALTERED HISTORY

Kain's last attempt to restore his true destiny involved him interrupting the moment Raziel first entered the blade. For a time, Kain was armed with the Reaver in its original form, a blood-drinking sword, but soon, Raziel willingly entered the sword and baptized it with pure, uncorrupted force, thus arming Kain with the true weapon of the Scion of Balance.


TRIVIA

  • In ''Blood Omen 2'', the player can access the Soul Reaver along with Kain's old Iron armor by inputing a Cheat Code on the title screen. Confirming correct entry by a voice saying "Go!... Cheese!" The player could then start a new game, possessing the Soul Reaver, and the, rather decorative than useful, Iron armor he wore in the first cutscene at the intro, when he destroyed the Pillars of Balance, which was also first armor Kain wore in Blood Omen. The player could then easily defeat all enemies within reach with only 1, 2 or 3 slashes no matter what. And although Kain would not be able to drop the blade, the Reaver is unbreakable, enabling the player to block incoming attacks without worrying about the sword breaking.


  • An apparent discrepancy of the games is the visions of the future Raziel sees before fighting Kain in the first Soul Reaver game. Raziel sees himself killing Ariel, and thereby acquiring the Light Reaver, and he later sees himself wielding a blood red Reaver. A possible explanation is that the timeline was changed by the events of Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance, but this still does not explain the existence of the apparently non-existent "Blood Reaver.". It is most commonly assumed that those visions had to be the original ending of "Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver" with Raziel killing Turel, consuming Ariel's Soul obtaining the weapon to finally defeat Kain (thus acquiring new powers, like Shift-at-will); After killing Kain and, thus, restoring the balance, Raziel could activate the Human Weapon in Zyphon's territory, exterminating any existing vampire in Nosgoth. In the first versions of "Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver" released, audio and video files of this original ending were accessible, but the ending had been changed in the finally one: Kain sees this future (the visions we were talking about) and tries to change it, using Moebius' Time Streamer, beginning "Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver 2". You can find more informations at http://www.thelostworlds.net .