Raziel emerges from the Chronoplast time portal, and returns to different eras of Nosgoth’s past in his relentless pursuit of Kain.  Over the course of his journey, he unearths the mysteries of Nosgoth’s ancient races, and exposes the secrets behind the corruption of the Pillars and the vampire genocide.  Confronting the shadows of his unremembered past, he discovers a web of destiny stretching eons into Nosgoth’s dim, unrecorded history.  As his destiny comes full circle, Raziel finds his personal vendetta transformed into a hero’s journey, with the fate of Nosgoth hanging in the balance.

 

This text was transcribed from Eidos’ official SR2 Flash website. Much of it is identical to content appearing in the game manual. However, some alterations, omissions, and additions would be made later on.

 

Kain

Into this dying world Kain was born. The son of an aristocratic Nosgoth family, he lived the privileged life of a nobleman, never realizing his undiscovered destiny - that he was marked from birth as Ariel's successor, fated to take her place as the Guardian of Balance.

Ignorant of his destiny, the ambitious but directionless Kain roamed the land - during one fateful journey, he was ambushed by brigands and murdered, cruelly impaled on his assassin's sword.

Plucked from the brink of oblivion by the Necromancer Mortanius, Kain awakened in the underworld, still transfixed by his enemy's blade. Tormented by his hunger for vengeance, and heedless of the spiritual cost, Kain recklessly accepted the Necromancer's offer of revenge - and rose from his tomb to discover that he had been resurrected as a vampire.

Kain quickly tracked down his assassins and exacted his bloody revenge. With his vengeance and hunger sated, he sought only a cure for the vampiric curse that afflicted him. Guided by Mortanius and the spectre Ariel - now bound helplessly to the decaying Pillars she once served - Kain hunted down each of the corrupt sorcerers now poisoning Nosgoth. Only with their deaths could the Pillars be healed - and only by restoring Balance would Kain be released from his vampiric curse.

During his journey, Kain discovered and claimed the Soul Reaver, an ancient soul-devouring blade, and stumbled across - not so coincidentally - a time-streaming device created by Moebius, the Guardian of Time.

Against the counsel of the ancient vampire Vorador, Kain found himself embroiled in human events, caught in a bloody battle between Ottmar's Army of Hope and the ruthlessly advancing armies of the Nemesis, from the north. As the tide of the battle turned, Kain used his only means of escape - the time-streaming device, which swept him nearly 50 years back into Nosgoth's past.

Hoping to alter the course of Nosgoth's history, Kain assassinated the young King William the Just, who would become the diabolic tyrant known as the Nemesis. After sating himself on his victim's blood, Kain returned to the present - only to discover that his murder of the beloved King had ignited a genocidal war against vampires, led by the Time-Streamer Moebius, himself.

Upon his return, Kain witnessed the future that he had wrought - and the final, triumphant act of Moebius's cold-blooded mob. Vorador, the last of Nosgoth’s vampires, is guillotined and his head held aloft for a cheering, bloodthirsty crowd - leaving Kain the sole surviving vampire in Nosgoth.

As his quest brought him full-circle, Kain confronted the destiny that Mortanius and Ariel had hidden from him - that he was the Balance Guardian, and that only by sacrificing himself could he restore the Pillars. Ariel presented him with a final, climactic decision - sacrifice himself to heal the land, but ensure the extinction of the vampires; or refuse the sacrifice, and seal the world's corruption.

Revolted by the machinations of the human sorcerers and alienated from his former humanity, Kain chose the latter path - opting to rule the world in its damnation rather than commit himself to oblivion.  This apocalyptic act completed the Pillars' destruction - the mighty columns toppled as Kain sealed their ruinous fate.

Kain concluded with the epiphany that Vorador was right - that vampirism is not a curse but a blessing.  That vampires are dark gods whose duty it is to thin the human herd.  With intentional irony, Kain established the ruined Pillars as the symbolic seat of his new empire, and the unrestored Balance Pillar as the base of his throne. In an act of calculated blasphemy, Kain raided the ancient tomb of the Sarafan, a fanatical order of warrior-priests once sworn to eradicate the vampires plaguing Nosgoth.  From the desiccated corpses of these long-dead knights, Kain raised his six vampiric "sons" to become the Lieutenants of his fledgling empire.

But the Pillars, Kain ultimately realized, were more than just a human edifice - the health of the Pillars was tied inextricably into the health of the land. With the Pillars left unrestored, corruption seeped slowly into the land like a poison, turning his empire into an irredeemable wasteland.

When Raziel, first among Kain's Lieutenants, revealed his latest evolution - a pair of bat-like wings - Kain responded with an act of seemingly egotistical sadism.  Tearing Raziel's newly fledged wings from his back, he ordered Raziel to be cast into the Lake of the Dead, where he would burn forever in the Abyss.

But like Kain before him, Raziel was saved from the brink of oblivion by a mysterious benefactor – an ancient god dwelling in the depths of the Abyss, who transformed Raziel into a devourer of souls, and released him back into the world to take his vengeance.

Kain, however, had other plans for Raziel. Seemingly unsurprised by Raziel's miraculous return, Kain baited Raziel across Nosgoth’s ruined landscape, leading to their final confrontation in Moebius’ long-abandoned Chronoplast chamber. 

Driven by the fatalistic visions revealed by Moebius's chambers, Kain activated the time-streaming portal that would propel him and Raziel centuries into Nosgoth's past.  Free will, Kain argues, is an illusion; their fates are intertwined in ways that Raziel has not begun to fathom.

 

Moebius

Moebius is one of the most ancient members of the Circle of Nine, the oligarchy of sorcerers sworn to serve and protect the Pillars of Nosgoth.  Moebius – also known as the Time Streamer – serves as Guardian of the Pillar of Time, a role which grants him the power to bend time and manipulate history.

Moebius is one of the most ancient members of the Circle of Nine, the oligarchy of sorcerers sworn to serve and protect the Pillars of Nosgoth.  Moebius – also known as the Time Streamer – serves as Guardian of the Pillar of Time, a role which grants him the power to bend time and manipulate history.

Moebius played a pivotal role in Kain’s journey as a fledgling vampire, initially masquerading as a frail and harmless old soothsayer known as the Oracle.  In this guise, he choreographed Kain’s every step, leading him to discover one of Moebius’s time-streaming devices, and ultimately embroiling him in a fateful battle between Ottmar’s Army of Hope and the advancing Legions of the Nemesis from the North.

Cornered in this losing battle, Kain used his only means of escape – the time-streaming device that he had so conveniently discovered – and found himself hurled nearly 50 years back into history.  Hoping to alter the course of Nosgoth’s future, Kain assassinated the young King William the Just, who was destined to become the vicious tyrant known as the Nemesis.

His task accomplished, Kain returned to present-day Nosgoth – and realized too late that he had been Moebius’ pawn all along.  For his murder of the beloved young king had triggered a genocidal crusade against the vampires od Nosgoth, led by the Time-Sreamer Moebius, himself.

Kain took his revenge on the Time Guardian –  beheading him as a fitting retribution for the countless vampires he had guillotined – but the damage had already been done.  Moebius’s brutal crusade had wiped out the vampire races, leaving Kain not only the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, but the unwilling catalyst of his own species’ extinction.

When Raziel plunges back in time through the Chronoplast portal in pursuit of Kain, he discovers Moebius waiting to meet him on the other side.  Raziel is all too aware of Moebius’s deceitful reputation, but realizes that they share a common enemy in Kain, and that he may have to consider a careful alliance with the devious Time-Streamer…

 

Ariel

A powerful sorceress, Ariel governed the Circle of Nine as Guardian of Balance.  The Circle was infiltrated by dark forces, however, and Ariel was assassinated by one of her fellow Guardians – the necromancer Mortanius, who had been possessed by a demonic entity bent on overthrowing the Circle.

Ariel's murder drove her beloved Nupraptor, the Guardian of the Mind, insane with grief.  In his madness, he unleashed a telepathic shockwave throughout the Circle, and tainted the remaining Guardians with his derangement.  Corrupted, the sorcerers turned their powers to dark purposes, and abandoned their guardianship of the Pillars.  Symbiotically bound to the Guardians who served them, the Pillars absorbed the sorcerers' corruption and fell into decay.

Ariel is fated to be bound eternally to the Pillars as a disembodied spectre, until Balamce can be restored.  She failed to persuade her successor, Kain, to sacrifice himself in order to heal the Pillars.  His refusal condemned the Pillars to an eternal stasis of near-collapse, and damned Ariel to ceaselessly haunt the dilapidated Pillars she once served.  Until the Balance is restored, she will never be released.

Most of this text appears in the SR2 manual.  It is supplemented with information about vampire hunters and demons that appeared only on the official SR2 website.

Sluagh

These craven scavengers prowl the Spectral Realm, preying on the lost souls wandering in the spirit world.  They tend to travel in packs in order to corner and overwhelm their prey.  The smaller Sluagh are cagey and evasive in combat; their larger brethren are more swift and aggressive.

Shades

These soulless shadow-creatures are able to manifest at will in either the Spectral or Material Realms.  They are easy prey, but often confound Raziel by stealing the elemental energy from fonts and Reaver-barriers,
thus forcing Raziel to confront them before he can proceed.

Thralls

These ancient, undead warriors are charged to eternally guard Nosgoth’s ancient shrines, and challenge any intruders.  Some Thralls exhale projectiles at Raziel, and will strive to keep their distance, but will attack if cornered. Thralls sometimes carry emblem-keys which Raziel needs in order to progress.

Vampires

In the historical eras that Raziel visits, he discovers that Nosgoth’s early vampires were persecuted and eventually hunted to extinction.  Out of self-preservation, the vampires have retreated from the world, and Raziel therefore encounters few of their kind.

Vampire Hunters

Upon emerging from the Chronoplast time portal, Raziel discovers he has been transported nearly two thousand years into Nosgoth’s past, to a time roughly 30 years before Kain’s resurrection as a vampire… but a decade after Kain’s own ill-fated journey into Nosgoth’s history, and his assassination of William the Just.

This is the era of Moebius’s genocidal vampire purge, and these hunters are the soldiers of his mercenary army.  Because the crusade is still in its infancy, Moebius’s forces are more a cutthroat militia than an orderly army – but what they lack in organization they more than make up for in zealous brutality.

Swordsmen are slower than their comrades, but more formidable.  Pikemen are swift, but their attacks are not as powerful.  Cannoneers can be fearsome from a distance, but have only limited close-range fighting ability.

Sentries

These guardians, often mounted above doorways and archways, will destroy any creature that tries to cross the threshold.  A single blast from a Sentry will unerringly shunt Raziel into the Spectral Realm.  Sentries can never be destroyed, but can be disabled by a specific weapon’s projectile.

Demons

The Demons plaguing Nosgoth are able to rip through from the Demon Realm into the physical world at will.  As the spiritual health of the land declines, the barriers between the Realms are weakened and become more easily permeated.  Raziel has to contend with several forms of Demon, each armed with its own distinctive attacks.  He will often find himself ambushed and trapped by impassable Demon barriers which force him into combat. Demons are also able to shift between Material and Spectral at will, and can thus pursue Raziel from one plane to the next.

The Gray Demon wields the power of Lightning –  electric charges course over its body and leap between the powerful pincers of its foreclaws.  Its sheer size and stature, powerful limbs, chitinous hide, and deadly foreclaws make the Gray Demon a formidable opponent.

Demon Hunters

With the vampire threat exterminated, Moebius’s mercenary army evolved and turned its attention to the Demons now menacing Nosgoth. These Hunters are more skilled and aggressive than their ancestors.  As with the Vampire Hunters, the swordsmen tend to be slower but more powerful; the pikemen are swift but not as strong; and the cannoneers are formidable from a distance but have limited close-range fighting ability.

Attack Dogs

Both the Vampire Hunters and their descendants, the Demon Hunters, use attack dogs which they’ve outfitted with cruel-looking weapons.  Dogs are able to sense Raziel from a longer range than most enemies.

Mutants

These degenerate creatures evolved in the decades following Kain’s fateful decision at the Pillars.  They shamble on one deformed limb while attacking with the atrophied claw of another.

Sarafan Warriors

The Sarafan are a monastic sect of warrior-priests, made legendary by their holy war against the vampire menace in Nosgoth’s early history.  The Sarafan are formidable enemies, renowned both for their ruthlessness and a fanatical devotion to their crusade.  Sarafan warriors are sometimes aided in combat by spell-casting sorceresses, who will attempt to flee if cornered.