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Soul Reaver 2 prologue

Revision as of 13:31, 6 December 2017 by The Device (talk | contribs) (→‎Development: standard headings, replaced: ==Background== → ==Development==)
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"Raziel...
Redeemer and destroyer.
Pawn and messiah.
Welcome, time-spanned soul.
Welcome... to your destiny."
―Moebius[src]

Prologue is the introduction chapter to Soul Reaver 2, presented as a cinematic which recaps the concluding events of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The chapter shows a slightly altered version of the confrontation between Raziel and Kain at the Chronoplast and follows Raziel as he pursues Kain through a portal into the past and is met by Moebius.

Profile

Plot

In pursuit of his former master Kain, Raziel enters the Chronoplast - the long abandoned Time-streaming chamber of deceased Time Guardian, Moebius - to find Kain awaiting him in the main chamber. As Kain slowly activates the dials of the chamber, they two begin to debate the morality of their actions - of Raziel's murder of his brothers and of Kain's ordering Raziel's execution. Kain responds to Raziel's furious challenges by explaining his discovery and study of the Chronoplast, and his conclusion that Fate is predestined and Free will is an illusion.

SR2-Prologue-263

Raziel angrily changes the subject to Kain's blasphemous raising of Sarafan saints to be his lieutenants as he lunges at Kain, but Kain is easily able to rebuff Raziel's attack. Raziel once again praises the martyrs of the Sarafan succeeding in pinning Kain against a wall, but Kain denounces their agenda as merely lust for power and once again escapes Raziel's grasp, knocking him to the floor.

Mocking Raziel, Kain throws the last dial, activating a time portal and promises more dramatic turns before escaping through the portal. Raziel rushes across to the portal and - pausing only briefly to draw the Wraith Blade - he passes through the threshold. As the smoke clears a voice addresses Raziel by name and the figure of Moebius himself appears and welcomes Raziel to his destiny.

Transcript

Players (in order of appearance)

Dark Chronicle: Prologue

[Raziel enters the Chronoplast chamber, and surveys its tiered walkways and arcane dials, noting both the mysterious device suspended from the domed ceiling, and the undulating portal on the far side of the chamber. None of this interests him. He is looking for Kain.
Raziel hears a voice, and Kain reveals himself as he steps out from the shadows of the upper tier.]
Raziel: At last.
I must say I'm disappointed in your progress. I imagined you would be here sooner.
Tell me – did it trouble you to murder your brothers?
[Raziel slowly descends the stairway, keeping his eyes locked on Kain.]
Raziel: Did it trouble you when you ordered me into the Abyss?
[Kain's only response is ironic laughter. He steps back toward one of the arcane dials and prepares to turn it.]
Kain: Eternity is relentless, Raziel.
When I first stole into this chamber, centuries ago, I did not fathom the true power of knowledge.
[Kain throws the switch, and the Chronoplast device responds.]
Kain: To know the future, Raziel – to see its paths and streams tracing out into the infinite...
As a man, I could never have contained such forbidden truths.
But each of us is so much more than we once were.
Do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods?
And as such, are we not indivisible? As long as a single one of us stands, we are legion...
[Kain descends the main staircase, and moves toward the second-tier dials.]
Kain: Our futures are predestined –
Moebius foretold mine aeons ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us.
Free will is an illusion.
[Kain punctuates his statement by throwing the second switch. Raziel glares up at him from the floor of the chamber.]
Raziel: I found the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain.
How could you profane a priest by turning him into a vampire?
[Furious, Raziel launches himself at Kain – who easily stops Raziel in mid-air with one hand, and holds him by the throat, at arm's length.]
Kain: How could I not?
One must keep his friends close, Raziel – and his enemies even closer.
[Kain effortlessly hurls Raziel to the lower floor of the chamber, and then drops down himself, approaching Raziel's sprawled figure.]
Kain: Who better to serve me than those whose passion transcends all notions of good and evil?
[Raziel rises slowly, enraged and humiliated, and wheels on Kain.]
Raziel: The Sarafan were saviors, defending Nosgoth from the corruption that we represent.
My eyes are opened, Kain – I find no nobility in the unlife you rudely forced on my unwilling corpse!
[Raziel lunges at Kain. Kain evades the blow, but Raziel attacks again and pins Kain against the wall, his forearm to his throat.
Kain is unfazed by Raziel's attack – he is composed, even slightly amused. He allows Raziel to pin him there momentarily, and continues to taunt him, their faces inches apart.]
Kain: You may have uncovered your past, but you know nothing of it. You think the Sarafan were noble, altruistic?
[Kain breaks Raziel's grip and propels him away with a blast of telekinetic energy. Raziel flies backward and slams into a buttress with bone-shattering force.
Kain laughs and moves toward the final dial.]
Kain: Don't be simple.
Their agenda was the same as ours.
[Kain throws the final switch. The arms of the Chronoplast device descend, and the portal flares into life.]
Kain: (mockingly)
You nearly had me, Raziel...
[Kain vanishes in a flash of light, and reappears on the upper tier, in front of the portal.]
Kain: But this is not where – or how – it ends. Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds completely.
[Kain turns and strides deliberately through the portal. Raziel gets to his feet and races up the stairway. He pauses briefly, then leaps through the portal to pursue Kain.
Raziel finds himself floating in darkness, and hears an unfamiliar voice calling to him out of the ether. As Raziel drifts to the floor and the chamber coalesces, Moebius the Time Streamer steps out of the mist to greet him.]
Moebius: Raziel...
Redeemer and destroyer.
Pawn and messiah.
Welcome, time-spanned soul.
Welcome... to your destiny.


Conclusions

  • Seeking revenge for his execution, revived wraith Raziel has eliminated his brothers and after discovering their shared heritage in their human lives as Sarafan warriors, has pursued their master Kain to the Chronoplast – a Time-streaming chamber once occupied by legendary Time Guardian Moebius.
  • Kain discovered the Chronoplast centuries earlier and has spent some time studying the Time-stream, coming to the conclusion that the future is predestined and Free will is an illusion.
  • Kain has rebutted Raziel altruistic beliefs about the Sarafan and retreated through a time-portal into Nosgoth's past.
  • Raziel has followed Kain through, and has been met by Moebius himself on the other side.

Development

The Chronoplast confrontation between Kain and Raziel appears as the location of the final boss battle in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver in the final chapter Showdown With Kain, and this confrontation is revisited and recapped in GlyphX's Soul Reaver 2 opening video, with some minor dialogue edits and more cinematic action. Several other design changes were seen between the renditions of the chamber, though it essentially maintained the same structure:

  • The combat and action of the scene is increased, with the former version depicting Kain simply shooting a Lightning-like attack at Raziel and progressively teleporting further up the chamber and Raziel striking Kain with the Wraith Blade three times. In the new version, Kain walks around the chamber activating dials as he debates with Raziel and the two actually come to physical blows, although Kain is able to repel Raziel's attacks fairly easily. Raziel does not use the wraith blade until he is about to pass through the portal.
  • The colour of the Chronoplast is changed from grey and purple tones to cream, brown and oranges, and the capping of the curved pillars is changed from a unusual face-like design to less frequent light crystal-like decorations. Several lamps can be seen lit around the chamber, perhaps accounting for the orange lighting of the room.
  • The design on the entrance doorway is altered from a brown design depicting the face of an elderly man (possibly Moebius himself and a texture originally intended to feature in the City) on square double- doors to a more simplistic orange figure-of-eight/infinity sign design on an arched doorway. The entrance also gain a stairway down to the floor of the chamber where it was previously a ledge and the same is seen in the route to the time portal.
  • The complexity of the room is notably increased, with a lot more 'dials' added around the outside of the chamber and the symbols on the dials of the Chronoplast vary between depictions, with each dial now bearing ornate gold, green and bronze decorations and with several gearing mechanisms visible.
  • The claw-like ceiling mechanism is now lit internally, making it glow orange. The size of the piece is notably increased and more circular 'planet' structures orbit it. There is also one less claw arm, with the structure being reduced from four arms to three.
  • The floor of the chamber is changed from circular 'target' design created from dark green and grey circular bands with a blue health recharge in the center to a simpler two-tone target design with a dark green circle on the outside and a gold trimmed pale green or cream circle in the center with a golden infinity sign in the middle.
  • The activation sequence used by Kain to activate the Chronoplast is changed. In Soul Reaver Kain moves 3 dials, moving them all to the extreme right to point to an infinity sigil, whereas in Soul Reaver 2 The 3 dials activated are in different places in the more complex layout and the dials are only moved one space each - this time left-right-left to different runes, with infinity sigils no longer represented on the dials.
  • The portal gains a gold trim, figure of eight/infinity sign top piece and side crystal decorations and the portal effect is completely reworked from a simple pulsing starry background in Soul Reaver to a 'flowing' waterfall-like effect which is initially blue and when properly activated provokes an 'explosion' of sorts, turning yellow and falling back into the portal - an effect not unlike the activation sequences seen in the Stargate franchsie.
  • Much of the dialogue from the original battle is slightly rewritten or edited, though little of the tone is changed:
    • Kain's line "No – I had faith in you. In your ability to hate. In your self-righteous indignation." And Raziel's response "Lies. You cannot have foreseen all of this." are removed.
    • Kain's question "Gazing out across the planes of possibility, do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods?" is trimmed to "do you not feel with all your soul how we have become like gods?" and his subsequent justification "That is why, when I must sacrifice my children to the void, I can do so with a clear heart..." is removed.
    • Raziel's line "Very poetic, Kain – but in the end, you offer no more than a convenient rationalization for your crimes." is removed.
    • Kain's declarations about the Chronoplast "These chambers offer insight for those patient enough to look – in your haste to find me, perhaps you have not gazed deeply enough. Our futures are predestined –" is trimmed down to "our futures are predestined" and his subsequent lines are slightly rewritten from "Moebius foretold mine a millennium ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us. We are compelled ineluctably down pre-ordained paths. Free will is an illusion." To "Moebius foretold mine aeons ago. We each play out the parts fate has written for us.Free will is an illusion."
    • Raziel's line "I have been to the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain. Your dirty secret is exposed. How could you transform a Sarafan priest into a vampire?" is rewritten as "I found the Tomb of Sarafan, Kain. How could you profane a priest by turning him into a vampire?"
    • Kain's line "Can you grasp the absurd beauty of the paradox? We are the same – Sarafan and vampire. With our holy wars... our obsession with Nosgoth's domination..." is removed.
    • Raziel's line "I will not applaud your clever blasphemy" is removed.
    • Both Raziel's line "You are lost in a maze of moral relativism, Kain. These apparitions and portents... what game are you playing now?" and Kain's return "Destiny is a game, is it not? And now you await my latest move..." – which led into the battle in Soul Reaver are removed.
    • The Elder God's warning "Be warned, Raziel – once you cross this threshold, you are beyond my influence..." is removed.
    • The final epitaph read by Moebius "Where Time is but a Loop, A Loose Stitch in the Universal Cloth, A Streamer might Seize upon a Chance, a Fatal slip – And plunge the Fate of Planets into Chaos..." is removed.

Ultimately whereas the Soul Reaver area was designed by Crystal Dynamics developers as a boss arena, the Soul Reaver 2 area was designed by GlyphX and was to be used purely for a cutscene full-motion video using the upgraded technologies of the Playstation 2 over the Playstation and thus the area was redesigned for more cinematic action. The production of the Soul Reaver 2 introductory Prologue also caused some conflict between the developer and animation studio centering on the amount of action and effects that should be present in the scene. One animator commented:

Template:Quotebox-Opaque

Notes

  • Soul Reaver 2 is not formally divided into chapters or levels in-game. The chapter names and definitions used at the Legacy of Kain Wiki originate from the supplementary Prima Guide, Prima's Official Strategy Guide - Soul Reaver 2.
  • The dialogue transcripts used in this article are, wherever possible, adapted directly from the Dark Chronicle summary transcripts available in game. Scenes not included in the Dark Chronicle feature are instead adapted from Tenaya's transcript of Soul Reaver 2 at Nosgothic Realm - itself derived from the Dark Chronicle and an official game script provided by Crystal Dynamics' Kyle Mannerberg.[1]
  • A notable and somewhat unclear change in ability level is shown when Raziel is able to summon the Wraith Blade at will before stepping through the portal - he did not possess the ability in Soul Reaver and will not gain the ability in Soul Reaver 2 until he finds the Soul Reaver blade in the Sanctuary area of the Sarafan Stronghold in A Reaver in Time.

Gallery

 

See also

References

  1. ↑ Template:Icon-NR Soul Reaver 2 - Dialogue at Nosgothic Realm (by Tenaya)
  2. ↑ File:Wiki-Icon-TLW.png Turel at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln)
Preceded by:
Showdown With Kain 		Soul Reaver 2 chapters
Prologue 		Followed by:
A Reaver in Time
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Icon Soul Reaver Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
  • "Vampire Scourge"
  • "Underworld"
  • "Raziel's Clan Territory"
  • "Necropolis"
  • "Melchiah"
  • "Soul Reaver"
  • "The Silenced Cathedral"
  • "Zephon"
  • "Tomb Of Sarafan"
  • "The Drowned Abbey"
  • "Rahab"
  • "Ruined City of the Dumahim"
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  • "Prologue"
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  • "Decision at the Pillars"
  • "Through the Swamp"
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  • "A Fateful Meeting"
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  • "Welcome to Meridian"
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  • "Infiltrate the Stronghold"
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  • "Stop Raziel"
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