Part 7

Kain followed Ariel's advice, roused the armies of King Ottmar to stand against the armies of The Nemesis, but it seems Ariel's foresight was not absolute. King Ottmar lost the battle, and as the last force between The Nemesis and dominion over Nosgoth, the fate of the world was thus decided.

But Kain, having used Moebius' Time Streaming Device at the last moment, was transported into Nosgoth's past, before this terrible event took place.

"Ah, so it seemed I was in the land of William the Just, fifty years before the battle I had just escaped would take place."

We proceed to William's castle. Perhaps, if we can stop him here in this time, before his rise to power, the terrible future can be averted.

Kain:
"The stronghold of William the Just. 'Twas time for me to pay a visit to he who would become the Nemesis and force Nosgoth on its knees."

As we make our way through the stronghold, we come upon an interesting scene:

It's Sir William himself, and Moebius!

William:
"Yes, these weapons you have provided will see to that. Pray tell, Moebius. What game do you play?"

Moebius:
"None, my lord. In only wish to aid you in vanquishing your foes. The weapons are but a token of my good will."

William:
"And the news you bring. A vampire sent to slay me. Where did you come upon such knowledge?"

Moebius:
"'Tis of no consequence, sire. 'Twas only out of concern for your Majesty's life."

William:
"Perhaps, perhaps... Very well, then. You may leave me, now. But should I wish to speak with you..."

Moebius:
"I will know, your Majesty, and I shall be there in time."

So Moebius foresaw this - and arrived before us. He's given Sir William some powerful arms - to aid him in killing us? But we mustn't let this stop us - we've already seen the horrors that will be unleashed if Sir William is allowed to live.

William:
"Ahhh yes, the Vampire. Moebius told me you would come..."

Sir William wields... The Soul Reaver. Moebius, 50 years before Kain came to possess the blade, gave it to Sir William, to aid him in killing the vampire assassin. This means, Sir William is every bit as deadly as we are.

Unfortunately for Sir William, he doesn't have Repel, which holds the Reaver's magic at bay.

We dispatch him easilly, but not before his guards arrive to bare witness.

Kain:
"As his guards rushed to save him, William the Just's blood was already renewing my strength, replacing the life his sword had stolen from my veins. The poor fools, come to aid their fallen leader. Let us have some amusement..."

And in the room beyond where the battle took place, we find...

"A Time Streaming Device! Strange. When coincidence seems too convenient, I prefer to call it fate."

Using the device immediately, we are transported back fifty years into the future - back to the time period in which the rest of the game takes place.

Kain:
"With William the Just dead, Moebius' plans have been thwarted. His pawn was removed from the game."

Kain:
"I found myself once more in the Nosgoth I knew. The carnage from battle was gone. Yet there was something amiss. From the distance, I heard cries and a breeze from the south carried with it the faint odor of vampire blood."

Kain:
"'Twould seem the folly fell upon my own shoulders. With their sainted King William dead by my hand, the people of the land were consumed by a hunger all their own - for vampire blood."

Kain:
"As I wandered about more, the shrieking and cheering became more apparent and defined. There was some sort of gathering to the south; for with each cheer I smelled an outpour of blood."

Kain:
"I make no pretense to justify my killing. Yet these vampire hunters would cloak their bloodlust beneath a veil of righteousness. Hypocrites! They would make themselves judge and jury. Very well, then. Let us see how they take to my role as executioner."

This segment is absolutely brilliently voice acted. You can feel kain's fury in his voice.

Watch it here:

Video - Vorador's Execution

We come, then, to a mob, surrounding a platform in the courtyard.

Executioner:
"We are free of this unholy scourge!"

Moebius:
"Not yet, my friend. Would you be free of a plague if only one city was cleansed?"

Crowd:
"No!"

Moebius:
"Would you spare one wolf in the pack that has devastated your herd?"

Crowd:
"No!"

Moebius:
"Then let us destroy them all!"

Crowd:
"Yes!"

Moebius:
"He is the last!"

Moebius:
"Destroy him!"

With that, a crowd comes for Kain, but luckilly, we're well equipped to deal with crowds.

Kain:
"I had been betrayed. In my haste, I had not realized it before. That sigil on his forehead. The Oracle of Nosgoth was in fact the Time Streamer Moebius. And I had followed his advice!

How much of my quest was of his design? Willendorf? The Battle of the Last Stand? William the Just? Was this the trap he had fashioned for me?"

Moebius:
"The people will not rest until Nosgoth is purged of your kind!
We will send you back to the grave whence you came, vampire!
I have seen the future, Kain. You are not in it!
Let us call upon the puppets from the past!"

And with that, he summons some of Sir William's soldiers to kill Kain - which we make short work of.

Moebius:
"From the present!"

Moebius:
"And from ages yet to come..."

This is hard to see, but Moebius has created a duplicate of Kain himself.

When his creations fail, Moebius himself comes down to finish Kain off.

Watch it here:

Video - Kain kills Moebius

Kain:
"Ironic. By going back in time, and altering the past, you turned William the Just into the Nemesis."

Moebius:
"Aye - you have seen my plan, vampire, as I have seen your destiny. The future says you die!"

Kain:
"But I am dead..."

Kain:
"As are you!"

And as he falls, we collect...

Moebius' Hourglass:
"I knew that Moebius' hourglass was the focus of his Time Streaming magic. Farewell, sorcerer, the sands of time have ceased to flow for you."

Mortanius telepathically contacts Kain:
"Well done, Kain. Ah, Moebius did so love playing the trickster's part. His guise as the Oracle served his schemes well. Pity with all his plots he failed to plan for you.

Come to me, my undead son. Make haste to the Pillars; the stage is set for the grand finale. You will have your vengeance."

Watch it here:

Video - Mortanius at the Pillars

As we arive, we find Mortanius, speaking with none other then Anarcrothe. How convenient that the last two surviving Pillar Guardians have come to us!

Anarcrothe:
"You betrayed us Mortanius! You had Kain killed and turned him into a monster! You set him upon us!"

Mortanius:
"It had to be. Nupraptor's insanity poisoned all of our minds. The Circle had failed in its sworn duties. It had to be destroyed."

Anarcrothe:
"Failed our duties? Idiot! The Circle exists for us, we don't exist for it! Our powers will save or damn Nosgoth at our whim! Stand with us, Mortanius, or die!"

Mortanius:
"Then I shall die!"

Kain:
"If the Circle is to be destroyed, you have to die as well, Necromancer. I admire your cunning, but you will not escape your fate."

"Nay, I will embrace it. But my death will leave one more to take, princeling. Finish me!"

One more? But he's the last remaining Pillar Guardian...

For one ready to embrace death, Mortanius puts up quite a fight, summoning undead to his aid.

But once again, Repel allows us to destroy him unscathed. With the remaining Pillar Guardians dead, the Pillars can be restored.

Anarcrothe's Scales:
"Anarcrothe's magic was contained within the metal of the scales, and would eventually be released back into the pillar from whence it came.

The scales of Anarcrothe I lay before the Pillar of States."

Mortanius' Death Orb:
"The Death Orb of Mortanius had given the Necromancer dominion over the grave. I had thought him the last of the Circle. And yet, he spoke of another.

Before the Pillar of Death, I laid the Orb of Mortanius."

But...

Watch it here:

Video - The Unspoken emerges

Kain watches as Mortanius' body is torn asunder, and an enormous demon emerges.

The Unspoken:
"You thought yourself a king when in fact you were a pawn! You have served me well, Kain."

Kain:
"I serve no one!"

The Unspoken:
"Indeed. Such narrow vision. Don't you see? My silencing of Ariel, and its calculated repercussions, is but the first act in my theatre of Grand Guignol. Of which you are the tragic 'hero'.

Play on, little vampire, play on..."

Kain:
"Vae victus!"

Lucky for us, Repel once again makes us invulnerable against the might of The Unspoken.

He falls before us, and we are presented with a choice:

Watch it here:

Video

Kain:
"I am the last Pillar."

Kain:
"The only survivor of the Circle of Nine."

Kain:
"At my whim the world will be healed..."

Kain:
"..or damned..."

Kain:
"...At my whim."

I love Kain's face, at the end - half lit, half dark, symbolizing the choices he's presented with.

If we choose one way...

Watch it here:

Video - Kain chooses oblivion to save Nosgoth.

Ariel:
"In his life, he was unknown - a petty noble."

Ariel:
"In death, he was unknown. Yet by choosing oblivion, he restored Balance to the land."

Ariel:
"Shades cast no shadows."

...

But, by now we've learned something of Kain: this is not his way.

Watch it here:

Video - The Real Ending

Kain:
"Once I embraced my powers..."

Kain:
"...I realized that Vorador was correct."

Kain:
"We are gods."

Kain:
"Dark gods."

Kain:
"And it is our duty to thin the herd."


So wait, what?

At the moment of Ariel's death, Kain was born, destined to take her place as the next Balance Guardian. As such, when Nupraptor's madness infected the circle, it infected him as well, corrupting him at birth.

Ariel, as we progress through the game, is no longer the Balance Guardian - Kain is.

Moebius saw this as an opportunity, and took full advantage. Moebius hates vampires, and wishes them all destroyed. Moebius returned to the past, then, and gave Sir William the Just the weapons he needed, convincing him of the need to conquer. Moebius, thusly, brought The Nemesis into being.

By playing Kain from the start, Moebius ensured he would find the Time Streaming Device, and return to the past to kill Sir William, stopping the terrors Moebius himself had brought about. In doing so, however, Kain imbued Sir William's followers with a blood lust of their own - and they began a cruisade to wipe Vampires from the face of Nosgoth entirely, to avenge their dead king.

Upon Kain's return to the present, he finds he is the last surviving vampire, as the rest have fallen in the previous 50 years. Vorador was the last to go.

Moebius knew that Kain would kill him - he's the Time Guardian, after all. He knows the future and the past, and can manipulate them for his own twisted purposes.

But he had planned for this. With Kain as the Balance Guardian, Kain would be faced with a decision: finish what he had started, killing himself, allowing a new Balance Guardian to be reborn, and saving the world - but securing, in the process, the extinction of vampires in Nosgoth - or, remain alive, damning the world to corruption. He chose the latter.

This decision is the "true" one, as it is the one upheld in the other games in the series. Kain goes on to raise more vampires - legions of them - and finds himself the effective king of the world. Each vampire he raises, however, is passed a small portion of Kain's soul, and with it, the corruption that Nupraptor brought upon him.

So, how about it - do you want to leave it at that, or shall we continue through the series? The next game, Soul Reaver, follows the path of one of Kain's lieutenants, Raziel. The intro can be seen here:


Video - Soul Reaver intro

If there's interest, we can give it a runthrough. So, what say you? I'll continue in the same thread, if there is.