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Plot[]

The Elder God explains the Wheel of Fate to Raziel - how vampires defy its cleansing nature and that all souls must go through it in order to be reborn. The Elder God offers a chance for a revenge and Raziel, given no choice, accepts to become his soul reaver.

Raziel´s first goal is to escape the Underworld and return to the world of living. With Elder´s aid, he discovers a planar portal which can lead to many places but the gates on the other end must be activated as well. In the next room Raziel realizes he completely lost his lust for blood and the Elder God explains he was transformed into a reaver souls. In order to replenish his health, he now must devour the souls of his enemies. After absorbing the souls from the soul dispenser, Raziel climbs the valley and the Elder notifies him that even his wings are tattered, he can still use them for gliding. In a large room with four pillars beyon the canyon, Raziel finds strange creatures preying on the lost souls. The Elder explains that if these souls are consumed by the Sluagh, they are forever lost and cannot enter the Wheel of Fate. After defeating the Sluagh, Raziel finally escapes the Underworld and finds his first planar portal in the small canyon with pillar structure in the middle. The Elder explains that he can abandon his physical body anytime, however in order to manifest in the material realm, he needs to be at full health and use a portal.

Raziel shifts and manifests in the material realm after all those years. He finds that his health is constantly being depleted and if he waits too long before feeding, he will be sent back to the spectral realm. The touch of a water is still dangerous to him as he retains his vampiric weakness so Raziel jumps over the pool of water in the tunnel and enters a large chamber with a pool and a ray of light. Noticing hideous creaturs, Raziel questions their nature. The Elder exclaims Raziel spent a long time among the dead and that those are in fact Dumahim, children of his brother. Shocked at their appearance and feral behaviour, Raziel engages them in combat and utilizes his knowledge on how to kill a vampire. He kills them by throwing in the water and the rays of light and devours their souls. As the exit from the room is too high for him to reach, Raziel moves a stone block and uses it to get to the higher floor with a tunnel that leads him to the Sanctuary.

After going through the tunnel, Raziel finally arrives at the Sanctuary of the Clans. Horrified that the beauty of the once proud Sanctury is long gone and that it became a ruin of its former self, he questions how long was he actually gone from the world of the living. As he approaches closer, an earthquake occurs, shaking the ground violently. The Elder explains the world has been slowly decaying over time, losing the balance ever since Kain refused the sacrifice. Raziel´s tries to enter the main door, but he finds out it is rusted shut. He quickly finds another entrance, however, it is blocked off by metal gate.

On the way to the Abyss, Raziel dispatches the adult Dumahim and activates the next Warp Gate. Then he enters a large canyon filled with waterfalls and finally recognizes the second landmark in this changed world - the endless vortex of the Abyss. Considering it his womb and place of his rebirth rather than execution ground, Raziel turns to the West and is eager to known what became of his own clan.

Conclusions[]

Walkthrough[]

Behind the scenes[]

The Underworld chapter undergoes a number of changes during development and at the alpha stage of development the chapter was known to lack the Elder God's platform and Force fields. The cutscenes were still being finalized in the area and the Soul Well goes through three different designs in the three alphas. Souls and the first Planar portal also have different designs. There is nothing blocking access to the Underworld in Material, so Raziel can easily reenter in Material - although the water effect stops soon after - he is appropriately played the water warning here as the water jump in the next corridor is not present. In the combat training area Melchahim are found rather than Dumahim and the corpse being fed on is notably simpler - and seems to have been killed with an axe.

Notes[]

  • Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is not formally divided into chapters or levels in-game.[Soul Reaver] The chapter names and definitions used at the Legacy of Kain Wiki originate from the supplementary Prima Guide, Soul Reaver 2: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.[Soul Reaver strategy guide (Prima)]
  • This chapter features the formal start of gameplay in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and so introduces its basic mechanics, many of which are typical of the third person action-adventure titles of the era. Most of these mechanics will continue to be used through Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance - and even Blood Omen 2 will use many similar gameplay.
  • Much of this chapter acts as something of a training level to get the player familiar with controls and mechanics. Introductions include general movement, Warp gates, Souls and Soul devouring, jumping, crouch-jumping, gliding, Spectral combat and enemies, the Spectral Realm, the Material Realm, Shifting, Planar portals, material combat and enemies, fatal moves (through the use of wall spikes, sunlight, water and fire) and block mechanics. It also see the introduction of several different weapon types including spear weapons, torches and boulders. Some mechanics are only seen in the training levels here and do not make a return afterwards: these include forcefields and the soul well, although in the latter cases similar mechanics were planned but cut from later stages in the game.
    • The Elder God's platform though present is not formally introduced on Raziel's initial progress through and will only become active as Raziel reaches the Sanctuary of the Clans and the Abyss. If the platform is returned to before Raziel reaches Raziel's clan territory in the next chapter the Elder God will simply hint: "Use your newfound talents to gain entry where you have been otherwise impeded.".
  • Much of the chapter takes place in the eponymous Underworld location in the Spectral Realm - the location will be regularly revisited as the each load starts Raziel from the same location. Once Raziel reaches the Material Realm he effectively leaves the Underworld proper and moves through the outskirts of the Silenced Cathedral and the Sanctuary of the Clans before reaching the top of the Abyss. This parts are still counted in the official guide as part of the 'Underworld' chapter despite not taking place in the Underworld location.
    • In the files and Debug menus the situation is even more complex with only the chambers up to the first warp gate being counted as part of the "Under" designation used for the Underworld - with rooms counted as "Under1" to "Under4". The rest of the rooms upto the Sanctuary of the Clans are given titles under the "Training" designation and are numbered as "Train1" to "Train12". The areas from the Sanctuary of the Clans onward are instead counted under designations relating to the Sanctuary if the Clans ("Pillars9" under "Pillars"), the Abyss ("Cliff1" under "Cliff") or a mixture of the two ("Clfpil1" to "Clfpil4" under "Clfpil").
  • This chapter introduces several weapon variants and types. "hndtrch" Torches are the first weapons encountered in the passages before the Sanctuary of the Clans and they are followed shortly by the "cstaff" spear weapons found along the front of the Santuary building. At least two different boulder types - "boldasc" and "boldase" are seen at the front of the Sanctuary building
  • Enemies in this chapter include the introduction of the Sluagh - and the Sluagh creature family in general - as well as the first devolved Soul Reaver era enemy vampires represented first by the Fledglings and then Adults of the Dumahim clan.
  • It is possible to glimpse some bonuses in this chapter in the form of a Health power up which is present high above the exit of the Underworld. This however cannot be gained until Raziel has gained the Climbing ability.

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