Character Profile: Raziel

I’ve always like this guy for his dashing good looks and charming personality. He was a priest that got turned into a vampire, and then turned into a wraith. His story is a bit complicated, but I’ll try to explain it as I understand it.

After Raziel died as a human he, along with five other priests, were “resurrected” as undead vampires by Kain. Yeah, that guy from Blood Omen. They acted as Kain’s lieutenants and helped him acquire full control of Nosgoth. Raziel was so awesome that he developed a new vampiric feature, a pair of wings. Not even Kain had reached such awesomeness and this made him very jealous. He ordered two of his goons to rip Raziel’s wings off and cast him into the Lake of the Dead, where he became a wraith. He had lost his flesh and need for drinking blood and could now devour souls instead. He can also travel from the dead realm to the real world. Even though his wings were badly damaged, he can still hover around with what little is left of them.

Raziel set out to take revenge on Kain, but first he had to take care of the other priests turned vampire. At some point Raziel bonded with Kain’s weapon, the Soul Reaver. During a fight, Kain shattered the blade on Raziel’s head and it was sent to the Spectral Realm. Since Raziel can travel to that realm he was able to fuse with it. It’s not really a blade, but it’s used at one. See that weird light on Raziel’s right arm in the pic above? That’s the Soul Reaver.

The first game Raziel appeared was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver for the PSone, released in 1999 by Eidos. It reminded me of Tomb Raider because there was a lot of exploring and climbing around. Fighting baddies was cool and you could perform little fatalities with spears and stuff. After defeating an enemy, their soul was released and you could absorb it for extra health. Raziel lost his lower jaw when he fell to the Lake of the Dead and when he lowers the cape around his mouth you can see the huge hole where he sucks up the souls. Creepy and cool at the same time.

There hasn’t been any new Legacy of Kain game since Defiance, released in 2003 for the PS2, Xbox and PC, but there’s hope. In Tomb Raider Legend, also developed by Crystal Dynamics, there was a secret costume for Lara Croft that gave her a neck tattoo of Raziel’s clan glyph and a belt buckle with Kain’s glyph. Maybe this is a hint, and we’ll be seeing more of Raziel in the future.