Elder God (Legacy of Kain)
The Elder God is a powerful entity who features in Legacy of Kain.
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Biography
The Elder God was an ancient being that had lived in the world of Nosgoth for countless centuries and was worshipped by the Ancient Vampires when they were dominant on the planet. It was this entity who encouraged the vampires to wage a war on the other native race of the world who were the Hylden and who did not share in the worship of the Elder God. During the war, the Hylden were defeated and banished to another dimension but not before inflicting the Ancients wih a blood thirst, sterility and immortality. As a result of this, the Elder God abandoned his once faithful disciples and secretly began to orchestrate the fall of his former servants by igniting the fires of rebellion among Humanity who turned against the vampires. The Elder God accomplished this by manipulating Moebius in leading a crusade against the vampire race.
Despite his attempts at using Humanity against the vampires, the race managed to defeat the mortal species and attain dominance on Nosgoth. As a result, vampires ruled the world and this state of affairs did not sit well with the Elder God. This was because the vampires held onto their souls and essence of life preventing it from being nourished and thus starving the Elder God as it drew nourishment from the souls of the dead.
To rectify matters, a new pawn came before the Elder God when the vampire Raziel was thrown into the Abyss due to his crime of evolving before his master Kain. Using its powers, the creature claimed to have spared Raziel from total dissolution from the acidic effects that water had on his kind. Offering the betrayed vampire the chance for revenge against his brethren for what they did to him, the Elder God transformed him into a wraith and gave him the role as an "Angel of Death" who would serve as the creatures assassin against the vampire race. As Raziel was only interested in revenge, he followed the Elder Gods instructions without question.
By communicating symbiotically with Raziel, the Elder God introduced his new servant to existence as a devourer of souls. He mentored Raziel on the subjects of warp gates, soul devouring, Sluagh, planar portals and water, shepherding the wraith beyond the Underworld and into Nosgoth's barren wilderness. Raziel encountered unfamiliar, monstrous creatures; the Elder explained that these were devolved Dumahim, and, bemused by Raziel's disbelief, asked "do you suppose that time stood still for you, Raziel? Much has changed since you passed from the world of men". Five centuries had passed since Raziel's execution. At the Sanctuary of the Clans, violent tremors in the earth unsteadied him, prompting the Elder to explain that "this world is wracked with cataclysms – the earth strains to shrug off the pestilence of Kain's parasitic empire". He explained how Kain had refused to martyr himself to restore the Pillars of Nosgoth, and asserted that the world's "unraveling", invited by Kain's empire, had nearly played out. From that point onward, he usually only dispensed advice to Raziel following significant events, but would provide guidance if his counsel was solicited in the Underworld. When Raziel battled and slaughtered Melchiah, the Elder congratulated him and dismissed his misgivings of fratricide, expressing that Raziel bad been elevated by consuming his brothers souls. After Raziel fatefully claimed the Wraith Blade following his battle with Kain and the destruction of the Soul Reaver, he outlined the incorporeal weapon's uses, stating that Raziel had liberated it from its corporeal prison, and restored it to its true form. At the Tomb of the Sarafan, he confirmed the revelation that Raziel was born of the same force that all but destroyed his race, and freely volunteered the histories of the Drowned Abbey and the Ruined City of the Dumahim. All the while, however, Raziel was left unwitting and ignorant of his true, inevitable destiny.
Later on, Raziel battled Kain in the Chronoplast below the Oracle's Cave, and pursued his destroyer through one of Moebius the Time Streamer's portals, believing that, by crossing the threshold, he would pass beyond the Elder's influence. He emerged in the Sarafan Stronghold of the much earlier era, and, at first, encountered no evidence of the God's presence in this distant time period. However, while threatening Moebius in William the Just's chapel - when he uttered that "Death comes for us all" - the cowering Moebius said to him that the Wheel of Fate demanded it. Taken by surprise, Raziel stayed his hand as Moebius confirmed that he, too, served the Elder God. The Time Guardian warned Raziel that to strike him down would be striking God's own attendant, and he did not believe that he would even take that risk. Disgusted by this new revelation, Raziel stalked away, spurning Moebius's pronouncements that he was "now most powerfully equipped to be the Elder God's agent - his instrument of restoration and retribution". He had already held a low opinion of Moebius from listening to Kain's tales, and this new information - that the infamous Guardian was allied to the Elder - instilled him with an intense distrust of both his co-conspirators. In the Subterranean Ruins, the Elder God, his mass lodged in the waters deep below the Subterranean Pillars Chamber's surface and coiled around the Pillars, interrupted Raziel's study of the ancient vampire murals contained therein. The Elder condemned Raziel, who had just allowed Kain to escape him, and they bickered. Raziel questioned the Elder's candor and supposed omnipotence, unwilling to become his pawn. The Elder encouraged Raziel to kill Kain, reiterating his opinion of the vampires, and stated that "to embrace a serpent is to invite poison into your heart", but Raziel insisted that "if and when I kill him, it will be for me, alone, to decide".
Overview
Personality and attributes
In appearance, the Elder God was portrayed as a cephalopod-like mollusc creature.
The Elder made primary use of servants to achieve its goals; manipulating individuals into serving it and fulfilling its tasks. After revealing its place in the world, Raziel called the Elder God a parasite.
The Elder Gods appearance was massive and monstrous; its form resembling that of a giant squid. The creature was said to reside partially beneath the Abyss on Nosgoth.
Powers and abilities
The Elder controls the Wheel of Fate, the natural, spiritual cycle of inevitable life and death within Nosgoth. Though he claims to be a benevolent force - "the origin of all life" - he is actually a parasitic creature who somehow established a link with the Wheel, bleeding souls to sustain his own insatiable hunger.
The deity fed upon the souls of the dead of Nosgoth which served as sustenance for it but it was incapable of gaining its nourishment from vampires who held onto their essence of life.
It claimed that its role on Nosgoth was controlling the Wheel of Fate by influencing the destinies of souls that came to it. By presiding over it, it drew power from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth from which all souls are drawn.
Notes
- Cabuco noted, "The Elder God was a DemiUrge, a false god. When I was working on SR1, I always felt the EG had resurrected him. But after hearing Amy's explanation for SR2 and Defiance, I realized Raz would have risen anyway. The Elder God lied to Raziel and told him he resurrected him. It was believable because every soul Raziel 'ate' nourished him but also returned the soul to the Elder God (a parasite to the wheel, who bled every soul to grow larger and more powerful) So he convinced Raziel (who was pissed at Kain anyway) that he was a servant to the Elder God.. Worthy."
- Series artist Daniel Cabuco has since disclosed his own ideas for such a confrontation: "Raziel's cycle was complete, Kain was given a chance at hope, and the Elder God, though defeated, was set up to be an adversary in the next game. Except.. there was no next game. LOL. If Kain were to ever defeat the Elder God, I am sure it would require the restoration of the pillars and somehow 'pinning him down' before finishing him off with some Epic use of the Soul Reaver. It could be a level or the intent of a whole game to beat him, involving multiple locations where you track him down and destroy key areas that he dwells in or uses as anchors to keep himself in our world. In any case it shouldn't be a single encounter or small thing to beat him..."
Appearances
- Legacy of Kain:
External Link
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