Since then, the Sarafan have long since been disbanded, and humans and vampires co-exist in a state of relative, if uneasy, truce. The Circle recovered, but one of its senior members - Mortanius the Necromancer - damned Malek for his failure, condemning him to serve the Circle for eternity as an unliving wraith. Vorador stormed the Circle's domain, and slaughtered six of the Circle of Nine before defeating Malek, the leader of the Sarafan and appointed defender of the Circle. The Sarafan vampire purge devastated their enemies, prompting the vampire Vorador to retaliate. In response, the Circle of Nine formed, and sponsored the crusades of, a monastic brotherhood of fanatical, vampire-hunting warriors, known as the Sarafan. Hundreds of years before the events of the game, Nosgoth's vampire population increased. Since the times before Nosgoth's recorded history, it has been the responsibility of the active Guardians to locate, apprentice and induct new members. When a Guardian dies, the Circle remains temporarily broken, until their successor is found. Equally, each Pillar is represented by a Guardian, culled from Nosgoth's human population together, the Guardians form the Circle of Nine, an oligarchy of immortal sorcerers dedicated to serve and protect the integrity of the land. Each Pillar is linked to a fundamental principle: Mind, Dimension, Conflict, Nature, Balance, Energy, Time, States and Death. In the fictional land of Nosgoth, which resembles Medieval Europe, the health of the world is inextricably tied to the Pillars of Nosgoth, nine columns of "marble and other indescribable materials" which reach infinitely into the sky. Nothing is free." ―Kain "Not even revenge." ―KainĪrtwork depicting Vorador's slaughter of the Circle. And like a fool, I jumped at his offer without considering the cost. The Necromancer Mortanius offered me a chance for vengeance. Plot Backstory and setting "Sometimes you get what you wish for. This led to the 1999 release of a sequel - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. After the release, a dispute arose between Silicon Knights and Crystal Dynamics concerning ownership of the game's intellectual property rights, with Crystal Dynamics ultimately retaining permission to continue the series. During development, Crystal Dynamics contributed several staff members to aid production. Though praised for its scope, high-quality voice acting, moody atmosphere and rich, compelling storyline, the game was criticized for lengthy loading times. He travels Nosgoth, slaughtering the corrupt sorcerers of the Circle of Nine in hopes of discovering a cure for his vampirism, but gradually begins to view his transformation as a blessing over the course of the story. In the game, the player takes the role of Kain, a human nobleman, who is murdered and given the chance to exact revenge on his assassins by becoming a vampire. It was followed by four sequels, which were all developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive.īlood Omen: Legacy of Kain introduces the fictional setting of Nosgoth. A Sega Saturn version was announced during production but later cancelled before release. The game was first released in 1996 for the PlayStation, and later ported to Microsoft Windows. It is the first game in the Legacy of Kain series, and the only one developed by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics. After the Horus Heresy, the remaining Legions were divided into smaller Chapters limited to approximately 1,000 Marines each.Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a top-down action-adventure video game with role-playing game elements. The size of Legions was not set, and there was much variance, but their strength is estimated at around 10,000 Marines, some perhaps reaching 15,000. When the Primarchs were united with their respective Legions, they chose iconic names such as Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Raven Guard. Each Legion consisted of Space Marines of a single Primarch's gene-seed, making a total of 20 Legions differentiated by Roman numerals I to XX. Legions were the original Space Marine unit before the Horus Heresy civil war.