Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Summary
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain is a top-down action-adventure title featuring role-playing elements. It marks the beginning of the Legacy of Kain series and is the sole entry developed by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics. Initially launched in 1996 for the PlayStation, it was later adapted for Microsoft Windows. A version for the Sega Saturn was announced during development but ultimately scrapped before release. The game was succeeded by four sequels, all crafted by Crystal Dynamics and released under Eidos Interactive.
Storyline
On a journey, the nobleman Kain is ambushed and slain by a group of assassins. Mortanius offers him the chance to take vengeance—Kain agrees, unaware of the consequences, and awakens as a vampire. After slaying his killers, Mortanius reveals that while they were the ones who caused his death, they were not the true cause. Seeking the truth and a remedy for his vampiric curse, Kain travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth. There, Ariel explains that he must destroy the Circle of Nine before peace can be achieved. Kain begins by tracking down and killing Nupraptor, then confronts Malek, but their battle ends in a draw. To defeat Malek, Kain seeks the guidance of the Oracle of Nosgoth. The Oracle warns him of the Legions of the Nemesis and instructs him to seek out Vorador, Malek’s former rival. When they meet, Vorador welcomes Kain and offers his aid, but urges the young vampire to fully embrace his nature and avoid meddling in human affairs. Tormented by the elder vampire, who embodies what he may become if he fails to find a cure, Kain continues his quest. In a decisive confrontation, Vorador defeats Malek while Kain slays Bane the Druid and DeJoule the Energist. Later, after killing Azimuth the Planer and retrieving a time-streaming device, Ariel informs Kain that he must now focus on the war against The Nemesis, whose forces threaten to overrun Willendorf. Kain convinces King Ottmar to gather his army for a final stand, but the battle turns disastrous. Ottmar is killed, the Willendorf forces are crushed, and Kain, surrounded, uses the time-streaming device to flee. He emerges 50 years into the past and kills the younger version of The Nemesis—beloved King William the Just—to create a temporal paradox that erases the Legions from history. However, when Kain returns to the present, he discovers that William’s murder has triggered a new wave of vampire purges. The Oracle of Nosgoth—revealed to be Moebius the Time Streamer, a member of the Circle—leads the genocidal campaign and, having orchestrated Kain’s actions from the start, completes his trap by executing Vorador. Kain kills Moebius, but is left the last of his kind. At the Pillars, he overhears Mortanius arguing with Anarcrothe the Alchemist, who exposes Mortanius as a guardian and holds him responsible for both Ariel and Kain’s deaths. Tempted by The Dark Entity, Mortanius was unknowingly controlled and forced to kill Ariel. To correct the imbalance, he created Kain, a being strong enough to destroy the Circle. Mortanius slays Anarcrothe and then falls to possession by The Dark Entity (the true force behind all of Nosgoth’s suffering), whom Kain defeats. With only one Pillar left to be restored, Kain realizes the truth: he himself is the final, unknowing member of the Circle, Ariel’s successor as guardian of balance, born in the brief moment between her death and the Pillars’ corruption. The "cure" he sought for vampirism is his own death. Players can choose to heal the world—an ending in which Kain sacrifices his life, ensuring the end of the vampires and the restoration of Nosgoth—or to doom the world, in which case the Pillars collapse, leaving Nosgoth a ruined wasteland, with Kain fully embracing his curse and becoming the most powerful being in the land. The latter choice is considered the canonical ending that leads into the rest of the series.
