I wonder if the elder god's hate didn't come just from their desire for immortality but from the fact the Hylden were the race most likely to discovery the truth behind his parasitic existence and share it with the others, potentially uniting them against him. Together, the races might have even learned how to destroy it. Tragically this would once again leave the ancient vampires with a voiceless uncaring natural phenomenon to worship, but it might temper them enough to live together or even get some hylden to accept spirituality since it would prove the wheel was real.
Personally I believe the Elder did not hate the Hylden, at least not until the vampires banished them. Once the Hylden were banished all of their souls were removed from the wheel and with the curse they afflicted on the vampires they too were removed from the wheel. I believe the Elder hated the vampires most for removing an entire race of his life energy as well as having no need for the vampires as their souls were also trapped and removed from the wheel. This is why he fell silent to the vampires and why he hates them so deeply. If not for the actions of the vampires his wheel would turn as he wished.
They do. Through Raziel. If you haven't, play all the games in the series. Blood Omen 2 gets a lot of hate for being too disconnected from the continuity of the others but personally I think it leaves the possibility open for more in depth explanation. I always hoped that would happen but I highly doubt it since so many of the original voice actors have died. Perhaps with some help from ai and recording this franchise can be revived. In case you didn't know already the games are Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain:Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain 2, and Legacy of Kain Defiance. There were some spin offs and an mmo, I think, but those are the core to the series. If you haven't played them I highly recommend them. Graphics compared to modern games will likely be underwhelming but for their time they were decent.
I was thinking the very same while listening to this. Me wondering if the Elder God wanted the Hylden out of the way not only due to not caring for spirituality but as you mention, but possibly learning of the true existence of the eldritch parasite and revealing to the Vampires what they were truly hailing as a deity...
@CPTcast That's an interesting insight and may be one of the reasons why the Elder God drove the two races to war with each other. With them both being distracted by war, I suppose neither really had a chance to delve too deeply into what it was the Ancient Vampires were worshipping. Of course, given that the Hylden were using the Mass, an Eldritch Abomination for their experiments, perhaps they do have some understanding of the creature claiming to be god and thus were adamantly opposed to conforming to its will. It's fun to speculate.
This is the future, the scion's job. Unite what has been sundered. Get the two old species on the same page to fight the true enemy who's been keeping them apart this whole time.
1. The Hylden's fate is just plain tragic. They were likely the first to realise who and what the Elder God really was and the Ancient Vampires, in their ignorance and blind devotion, banished the only beings that could have helped them see the truth before it was too late 2. I think its almost better that the war between the Hylden and the Ancient Vampires is kept vague. It adds to the mystery of Nozgoth
I truly appreciate your dedication and loyalty to LoK series after all these years ! Your videos on the various topics and lore are amazingly detailed! Keep up the great work!
Only wish Crystal Dynamics and Embracer Group were more passionate about this series - we really need more comics, TV Shows, and movies to keep LOK alive!
It's confusing. At first I thought the Hylden were defying the elder god by being immortal. In blood omen 2 the Hylden lord says they are immortal because of the demon dimension
Yeah I think the developers did talk briefly about this. The Hylden weren't originally immortal but when they were banished to the Demon Realm, that place made it so they would never wither and die by natural means either. So their immortality is a bit different from the Ancient Vampires but by the time of Blood Omen 2, they're immortal none the less.
Love it! Very believable that the Hylden were working on achieving immortality and that they would use their unfinished research as a weapon against the Vampyres. I also think the Hylden would have accepted the blood thirst as the price of immortality. Based on the way they viewed humans - I imagine them herding and farming the people of Nosgoth like animals. And then the Hylden 'achieved' immortality anyway, because the demon dimension is outside of normal time and space.
As i said in previous videos, i think that the blood curse was directly related to the Hylden's attempt at becoming immortal. By the time the war started the immortality process was almost complete, except for one major problem: it had the nasty side effect of making the subject thirsty for blood and vulnerable to sunlight and water, and was therefore not deemed complete yet. It was however a suitable retaliation against the the vampyres. What makes me think that the vulnerability to sunlight and water was a side effect of the curse and not a trait specific to the vampyre race is the fact that the vampyres had built temples to these elements, it wouldn't have made sense for the vampyres to harness these forces if they were dangerous to their kind. The sterility on the other hand wasn't a side effect, but rather an intended feature, since without it immortality would quickly lead to catastrophic overpopulation.
I think the blood thirst was part of the curse to destroy the vampyres. Consider this: The Hylden find early humans and breed them into a worker/slave caste, creating the humans we know. Humans then see the ancient vampyres come down and war against their masters and oppressors and humans treat the vampyres as saviors and gods and join the war against Hylden. The blood thirst is ment to make the vampyres turn against their human allies and even worse than the Hylden, raise humans to be food. Not workers or slaves but cattle. That seems rather horrible to me and fitting of a curse.
@@arx3516 Well of course a religious zealot that doesn't know his god is a great old one is going to say that that was the real curse but that was just an aspect of it. The whole package is that vampires can no longer breed, they can no longer join the wheel of fate and they must consume their own allies for food.
Love it! Very believable that the Hylden were working on achieving immortality and that they would use their unfinished research as a weapon against the Vampyres. I also think the Hylden would have accepted the blood thirst as the price of immortality. Based on the way they viewed humans - I imagine them herding and farming the people of Nosgoth like animals.
We need a video about The Seer about how she could be a vampire hylden crossbreed and how she doesn't have face tattoos like Umah, the Priestess and Vorador’s lady
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I was literally rewatching your Kain one's this past weekend!!! Dont stop making these analysis videos please!!
And you did it again. Just when I thought there really isn't more you can squeeze out of the lore you actually release another great video about the lore. Fantastic essay as always. Thank you very much!
Ultimately Daniel Cabuco stated: "The Hylden aren't immortal, they just live in a dimension where time is warped and they age differently in relation to the material realm.
One theory I had was that Raziel had both Vampire and Hylden blood in his family line from long in the past and that this was the reason for his uniqueness and resemblance to both races.
It's pretty hard to say what the Hylden were like as a race before the ancient war. The nature of their banishment was so brutal (and the war itself so unjustified) that using the words of a 'modern' Hylden scientist to judge the attitude of their ancestors is not very reliable. Of course it could be possible that the scientist was actually around at the end of the war, and with their research into immortality he could even have been around at the beginning of their war but the cruel nature of the war/banishment would certainly have twisted his attitude to match the words that he gave to that human slave even if he and the Hylden as a whole were originally more benevolent. So sure, the creation of The Device and their modern actions are certainly brutal and uncaring but this attitude could simply be a result of the trauma of their race's fate since The Elder set the Vampyres upon them... or maybe they were just always dicks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The only thing we can really say about the early races of Nosgoth with any certainty is that the Vampire race seemed to focus on magic/sorcery whereas the Hylden race were focused on technology. As Janos put it _"Another race, similar to ours in power, but different in method and intention."_ One thing of note that your video did not bring up is the presence of the Seer. A Hylden woman that was apparently not caught up in the banishment and even having ties with the vampire Vorador (though unclear if he knew what she was). What her existence means to the war I can't say but it does bring up a number interesting questions and speculations.
If memory serves, the Demon Realm is supposedly a place of chaos where the normal rules of physics in the Material Realm don't apply. Assuming it also applies to the laws of time, it could be that despite them being banished for thousands of linear years, for the Hylden in the Demon Realm, it could only be a minute, a day, a week, a month or any other time frame. We know that time stops in the Spectral Realm as Raziel shifts. After all, when Kain was sent there after his fight with Raziel, the Hylden ask "Do you not think of this place, Vampire? Or are we truly forgotten?" so it could be that while there is some passage of time, either they just don't know how long or it's less linear than the Material Realm
@@irishdc9523 Two Statements of Daniel Cabuco would indeed support your words. Quote one: _Further still they realized that they could not die from old age, essentially freezing them in time and space (I think unable to raise children as well. Realizing their eventual fall was due, they reached out to their old enemies and forged alliances, finding ways to breach the thinner passages to the Material Realm of Nosgoth. (Entropy has a way of making strange bedfellows) Lesser demons would have been enslaved, greater demons would have been in an uneasy alliance with the Hylden._ Quote two: _The Hylden aren't immortal, they just live in a dimension where time is warped and they age differently in relation to the material realm. Remember that Vampires weren't immortal until the Hylden cursed them so. How much they know and cooperate with the Elder God was still a mystery._
I think dependence on blood came with the Hylden curse, as Janos condemned the Hylden for making his people predators of Mankind when he confronted the Hylden Lord before being chucked into the demon realm.
Birds can't fly out of a vortex. Evidence: green energy windmills kill 1000s of birds. Ooh there went another one. Mmmmm, green energy. Hylden tech on Earth.
*Thank you for making these videos. It quenches my blood thirst for The Legacy of Kain games that were never continued. Devouring these videos souls to sustain my faith in the future revival of The Legacy of Kain from the Spectral Realm.*
Love your series keeping LoK in front of people. I will never stop asking for more games. I honestly would just be happy with a series remaster put on steam on current console gens. Just one download to play all 5 games in their best versions is all I want.
Great to see more Legacy of Kain-content from you. I've always thought that if we ever should get some new LoK-content (though I hope we'll get some good remasters), then a game that explores the conflict between the Ancients and the Hylden could be really interesting, and it would be so far back in time that it wouldn't impact the core story of the series too much (which Dead Sun would have, being placed in a really weird place in the timeline if I've understood it correctly). I can't quite remember where I read it, but some developer said that The Seer in Blood Omen 2 was supposed to be a Vampyre-Hylden hybrid. How that came about could be a really cool story, and connect to what you mention at 13:55.
Absolutely love how the Legacy of Kain series goes far, far deeper than when I played the games. The Hylden/Vampire/Elder War is such a fantastic segment that I wish we could play that story somehow. Maybe one day soon. Thank you so much for continuing to dive into the Legacy of Kain series. You are indeed the best person to explain this series. Thanks again. 🙂
Some thoughts occurred to me watching this. The three Elder Vampire champions had spears called Heart Seeker, Blood Drinker and Soul Stealer were a source of inspiration for the Hylden curse. They took the heart from the Vampires by cutting them off from their god and making them sterile so they had no chance of reproducing normally, a death sentence for their race. They made the Vampires drink the very blood the champion named their weapon to do and they cut the Vampires off from the wheel of fate by making them immortal thereby stealing their souls from their god.
9:10 they also represent Raziels journey. Heart seeker (Sarafan Raziel), Blooddrinker (Vampire) and soul stealer (wraith) Nice video as always. It is amazing how good these videos are and I still miss this franchise (I hope they revive it, as long as it is a good revive of the franchise). It is amazing how much story they could fit in just 5 games
massive thank you i just watched all video on Lok here over last and really enjoyed in fact it has been incredible to watch and listen i really hope there is another lok game at some point
The spears also represent Raziels way in history: Heartseeker- his time as a sarafan, Blooddrinker: his time as a vampire, Soulstealer: his wraith and current form.
Great video. I really wish this series had been given a proper conclusion. It had so much potential and its poetic dialogue was exceptionally unique among other games of its era, being both written and performed exceedingly well.
I think that the prevalence of spears in vampyre art is simply to attribute to the fact that in real life medieval art angels were almost always depicted wielded either spears or swords. Just look at the depictions of St. Michael.
These games are so poetic in their unique combination of amazing world building, writing and voice acting. The only thing that keeps me from replaying them more often is their outdated gameplay and controls.
Another fantastic piece, cannot wait for the next one. Why is the video game industry sleeping on this magnificent series, if anything's deserving of a comeback, it's Legacy Of Kain.
@@pious83 Isn't the Emracer Group holding the rights from Square Enix these days, though, given that they're not exactly stable either, I feel like Legacy Of Kain should be brought back under the proper care of Amy Hennig, whoever the dev might be story should be handled by her.
I enjoy all your lore videos across all games, but I LOVE the LoK content! 🔥 I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your videos, Thank you for helping in keeping this series alive 🙏🏻
I love your compilations of thoughts. I think what ultimately lead to both races' demise is just that, though - the inability to see, to understand and to accept each other's perspective. Only from that understanding, by allowing yourself to see the world with someone else's eyes, can come any semblance of peaceful relationships.
That could very well be true. We just don't have enough evidence either way. But the fact that they were using an Eldritch Abomination (the Mass) for their own purposes may infer that they at least knew something about the Ancient Vampires' God's true nature.
@@strictlyfantasy Actually... The Elder God never wanted the Hylden banished. He constantly works towards not only removing all vampires from Nozgoth, but also towards the Pillars corruption and ultimate ruin. He actually wants the Hylden back, just as he wanted them to survive the ancient war. And, this is, imho, to a simple fact. The wheel of fate, is in fact a lie. There is no real circle of birth, death and rebirth. Otherwise, Kain wouldn't get the chance to ressurtect the Sarafan elite, Raziel included, after so many years after their deaths, their souls would have been reborn as something, over and over again. The truth behind the Elder God's method and plan is, perhaps more sinister. He's an eldritch creature, some Lovecraftian parasitic entity that, perhaps, originates from some other dimension, that feeds on souls. That much we all know from the games, but, what does that tells us? If the Elder God feeds on the souls, they never get reborn. When Raziel, or any other soul eating wraith, feeds on a mortal soul, they never get to live again, example being the various wraith turned vampires, that Raziel gets to fight. Not to mention, he needs an entire army of soul harvester wraiths, in order to feed on the souls inhabiting the spectral realm. Souls, that, had the wheel been real, would be instantly drawn to it, upon death, and spin back to a rebirth, not wander the spectral realm endlessly.He just wants conflict, hatred, and hostility, to fuel wars, that keep sending recently died souls to him to feast upon. And, in that aspect, it's safe to assume he spoke to both the Hylden, and Vampyres, presenting himselfdifferently to each race, igniting hatred for one another. And, given the chance, as soon as the humans finally got to rise to power, he did the same once more. He manipulated Moebius, and Mortanius, and kept the killing spree going on. Let's not forget the core of the "device" and eldritch abomination, most likely a gift from the Elder God to the Hylden. Should they succeed, they'd kill all vampyres, and all humans at the same moment, delivering all those souls to the squid to feed. He only turned his back on vampyres, when their new-found immortality made them inedible to him. And, a little twist , or theory, of my own. Both races had these Messiah figures foretold.But, through their preparations, machinations and plans, they, unknowingly perhaps, only worked towards exposing the truen nature of the Elder God, allowing them to unite against him, not just them, but the humans as well, and rid Nozgoth of the parasite. And, that is what the Elder God tried that hard to stop. Both Messiahs uniting into one. Kain, and the purified Reaver. The Vampyre messiah, and the Hylden, working as one.
I always found it curious that a being for whom water was lethal would keep a pool filled by fountain generated waterfalls in the middle of his home. Considering it was dimensional portal, maybe the Ancients incorporated water into mystic arts, which might explain why the Dark Gift came with a "water is an acid to you" caveat. Another insult to injury, as the Dark Gift was a curse of Hylden creation.
Legacy of Kain forever man!!! Such a good video. Lore have some key similarities to the lore of TES3: Morrowind. Conflict between two races, one deeply religious, other puts faith in logic, reason and science. Devastating war between the two that shaped the land, one race changed forever, other disappeared. Vae victis!
Some ask why Kains evolution made him become looking like a Hylden. I think this is because he drank the blood of the architect. It isnt outright explained lore, but the fact that Kains blood put into the machine made it crumble shows, that there is more "essence" consumed by a vampires feast than just nutritious contents. The vampires curse seems to consume part of the being that is drained, and as Kain and the blood fountains state in BO1, "blood is life", "blood is strength", "blood prevails". So the vampires gain part of the strength of their victims - maybe even their souls. This taps curiously also into the Reavers abilities of soul consuming and soul stealing - being a vampire made weapon but with characteristics of the Hylden technology. This is a topic, I dont know anyone of having researched or made a video out of yet. Perhaps you want to go into this rabit hole - the connection of technology and magic that makes the vampires more Hylden like than made aware of yet.
I also think that the Seer is a product of a forbidden love between an Ancient Vampire and Hylden. I wouldn't be surprised if that forbidden love took the Reaver and added that labyrinthine 3rd choice before it was reclaimed by the Ancient Vampires unbeknownst to them. I believe the Hylden could actually see the Eldrich Gods, but the Ancient Vampires couldn't, hence why all Raziel had to do for Kain to see. Hylden Glyph and Ancient Vampire Magic w/ a silver bullet and wishful thinking making it happen. Janos could of been in-love or not with the Ancient Vampiress, discovered the forbidden love when they found where the Reaver was, and Janos saw the child and instead of killing their child "the seer" (as he didn't have the heart) he left the child or hid the child. Nevertheless, the Seer can not be overlooked, I am certain her existence tells the story of how and why the Reaver can do stuff that goes against the beliefs of the Ancient Vampires.
Something always interesting for me is how the series developed, and the Elder God in itself, since it shows the Pillars are mainly only hold the Hylden back, so the decay of the land seems not connected and rather to the Elder God that feeds on it as a Parasite like Raziel describes him. Still wish we had a true follow up to this, since the license for the IP was bought I still hope for some sort of revival, in a good way tho and not some monetizing hellscape like other franchises.
I would love to see this game series ported to PS4 and PS5. My favorite franchise and I still play them to this date. The artwork and atmosphere of this gothic games is beautiful and I'm sure updating to a newer game engine would only greatly enhance the experience. How many new players are potentially out there because of them being available on Steam. Give us true UHD 4K versions of these beautiful games. Start a petition and I'm sure we'll all sign it to get the ball rolling, I'm in!
I have lots more ideas for Legacy of Kain content. These videos just take a long time to produce. Admittedly, this one has quite a bit of speculation, but there seems to be a good appetite out there for more of this lore.
I just had the thought that maybe the Device and the Mass wasn't started out as an effort towards a weapon of mass destruction, but a route to immortality. An enlightened race like the Hylden would know that killing *every* other life but themselves is really just a route to starvation. They definitely should have a working theory on Ecology. My thought is that the Device originally was supposed to channel life force from all other life to the Hylden, remotely and hopefully without any nastyness, so that it grants immortality to one race, and at worst reduces the natural lifespan of other life in exchange - kind of like an alternate to the Elder God. But they couldn't figure out how to tune the device properly, and the hylden military saw it as a weapon instead. That's why the Builder shows such remorse for something he probably worked on for the better part of his entire life. The curious part is that the single weakness of the Mass is the pure blood of a hylden (unaffected by the demon realm). It was never meant to feed on Hylden lifeforce, it was meant to sustain it. Introducing hylden blood to its system either short-circuits the whole procedure, or it is a built-in failsafe that kills the Mass rather than let it be turned against the hylden.
Good theory - as it explains why the Builder was so remorseful. Like real world scientists who worked on atomic energy research only for it to be used as a weapon to kill millions.
If the Pillars were created to seal away the Hylden, why do they also weaken the Elder God? The Elder God is much smaller when the Pillars were prestine and he's much bigger when the Pillars are crumbled. Did the Vampires or the Elder God know the Pillars would make him weak? Or did the Hylden also do something to the Pillars so that they would also weaken the Elder God?
There's no reason to suspect that the pillars made the Elder God weak. The changes in size can just as easily be due to "natural" growth. Remember that in cases we see the pillars pristine, it's in the past, the EG is simply younger. While the opposite certainly seems observable, that by weakening the pillars the EG grows much stronger. Could be that he's been syphoning the pillars' power somehow, or just that he grows fat from the rampant corruption and bloodshed - causing souls to cycle into death faster. I don't think it's his primary reason for weakening the pillars though. He wants the Hylden to be able to operate in Nosgoth unimpeded, as he's expecting them to serve better than the current vampires. Notice that as time progresses, we never see the pillars restored, so we cannot for certain say that restoring the pillars would directly weaken the EG.
The Vampire-Hylden war is definitely one of the most interesting nuggets of LoK lore. While the Hylden are portrayed as the more malign force, in the Hylden city, we see that they had art, and a sense of beauty. Just as the Vampires were not completely good, I can't think of the Hylden as completely bad either. I'd have loved to see what the Hylden civilization was like before the war. The same goes for the Vampires too, those of Janos' era and before. Maybe if not for the Elder God's meddling, maybe the three races could have found common ground?
Never let this series die!
We are Legion!
your sentence lacks "a" or "the"
@@arishzager6999 shut up
@@arishzager6999as it did, as Kain spewed it out.
As long as a single one of us stands, WE ARE LEGION.
Vae Victis!!!
"The Pillars choose their guardians from birth, Raziel - and vampires are no longer born. This is the crux of our dilemma." - Janos Audron
And this was the terrible irony.
God, these games had some of the best story telling and voice acting in all of gaming history. Thee most underrated game series of all time.
I wonder if the elder god's hate didn't come just from their desire for immortality but from the fact the Hylden were the race most likely to discovery the truth behind his parasitic existence and share it with the others, potentially uniting them against him.
Together, the races might have even learned how to destroy it. Tragically this would once again leave the ancient vampires with a voiceless uncaring natural phenomenon to worship, but it might temper them enough to live together or even get some hylden to accept spirituality since it would prove the wheel was real.
Personally I believe the Elder did not hate the Hylden, at least not until the vampires banished them. Once the Hylden were banished all of their souls were removed from the wheel and with the curse they afflicted on the vampires they too were removed from the wheel. I believe the Elder hated the vampires most for removing an entire race of his life energy as well as having no need for the vampires as their souls were also trapped and removed from the wheel. This is why he fell silent to the vampires and why he hates them so deeply. If not for the actions of the vampires his wheel would turn as he wished.
They do. Through Raziel. If you haven't, play all the games in the series. Blood Omen 2 gets a lot of hate for being too disconnected from the continuity of the others but personally I think it leaves the possibility open for more in depth explanation. I always hoped that would happen but I highly doubt it since so many of the original voice actors have died. Perhaps with some help from ai and recording this franchise can be revived. In case you didn't know already the games are Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Legacy of Kain:Soul Reaver 2, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain 2, and Legacy of Kain Defiance. There were some spin offs and an mmo, I think, but those are the core to the series. If you haven't played them I highly recommend them. Graphics compared to modern games will likely be underwhelming but for their time they were decent.
I was thinking the very same while listening to this. Me wondering if the Elder God wanted the Hylden out of the way not only due to not caring for spirituality but as you mention, but possibly learning of the true existence of the eldritch parasite and revealing to the Vampires what they were truly hailing as a deity...
@CPTcast That's an interesting insight and may be one of the reasons why the Elder God drove the two races to war with each other. With them both being distracted by war, I suppose neither really had a chance to delve too deeply into what it was the Ancient Vampires were worshipping. Of course, given that the Hylden were using the Mass, an Eldritch Abomination for their experiments, perhaps they do have some understanding of the creature claiming to be god and thus were adamantly opposed to conforming to its will. It's fun to speculate.
This is the future, the scion's job. Unite what has been sundered. Get the two old species on the same page to fight the true enemy who's been keeping them apart this whole time.
1. The Hylden's fate is just plain tragic. They were likely the first to realise who and what the Elder God really was and the Ancient Vampires, in their ignorance and blind devotion, banished the only beings that could have helped them see the truth before it was too late
2. I think its almost better that the war between the Hylden and the Ancient Vampires is kept vague. It adds to the mystery of Nozgoth
Seriously, your coverage of this series is nothing short of incredible. Thank you for making these videos.
I truly appreciate your dedication and loyalty to LoK series after all these years ! Your videos on the various topics and lore are amazingly detailed! Keep up the great work!
Only wish Crystal Dynamics and Embracer Group were more passionate about this series - we really need more comics, TV Shows, and movies to keep LOK alive!
Great theory on the immortality was originally meant for the Hylden.
It's confusing. At first I thought the Hylden were defying the elder god by being immortal. In blood omen 2 the Hylden lord says they are immortal because of the demon dimension
Yeah I think the developers did talk briefly about this. The Hylden weren't originally immortal but when they were banished to the Demon Realm, that place made it so they would never wither and die by natural means either. So their immortality is a bit different from the Ancient Vampires but by the time of Blood Omen 2, they're immortal none the less.
Love it! Very believable that the Hylden were working on achieving immortality and that they would use their unfinished research as a weapon against the Vampyres.
I also think the Hylden would have accepted the blood thirst as the price of immortality. Based on the way they viewed humans - I imagine them herding and farming the people of Nosgoth like animals.
And then the Hylden 'achieved' immortality anyway, because the demon dimension is outside of normal time and space.
It’s amazing how much lore legacy of kain has
Thank you for your work!
Thanks for making another day for us with your video! 😍
AND OF COURSE FOR KEEPING THE SERIES ALIVE BY CARRYING IT ON YOUR ENORMOUS SHOULDERS 💪💪💪
As i said in previous videos, i think that the blood curse was directly related to the Hylden's attempt at becoming immortal. By the time the war started the immortality process was almost complete, except for one major problem: it had the nasty side effect of making the subject thirsty for blood and vulnerable to sunlight and water, and was therefore not deemed complete yet. It was however a suitable retaliation against the the vampyres. What makes me think that the vulnerability to sunlight and water was a side effect of the curse and not a trait specific to the vampyre race is the fact that the vampyres had built temples to these elements, it wouldn't have made sense for the vampyres to harness these forces if they were dangerous to their kind. The sterility on the other hand wasn't a side effect, but rather an intended feature, since without it immortality would quickly lead to catastrophic overpopulation.
I agree. - Lily&
I think the blood thirst was part of the curse to destroy the vampyres.
Consider this: The Hylden find early humans and breed them into a worker/slave caste, creating the humans we know.
Humans then see the ancient vampyres come down and war against their masters and oppressors and humans treat the vampyres as saviors and gods and join the war against Hylden.
The blood thirst is ment to make the vampyres turn against their human allies and even worse than the Hylden, raise humans to be food. Not workers or slaves but cattle.
That seems rather horrible to me and fitting of a curse.
@@glenngriffon8032 in Defiance Janos explains to Raziel thst the real curse was immortality, since it separated them from the wheel of fate.
@@arx3516 Well of course a religious zealot that doesn't know his god is a great old one is going to say that that was the real curse but that was just an aspect of it.
The whole package is that vampires can no longer breed, they can no longer join the wheel of fate and they must consume their own allies for food.
Love it! Very believable that the Hylden were working on achieving immortality and that they would use their unfinished research as a weapon against the Vampyres.
I also think the Hylden would have accepted the blood thirst as the price of immortality. Based on the way they viewed humans - I imagine them herding and farming the people of Nosgoth like animals.
Yes I'm here early. And thank you for keeping this series alive
We need a video about The Seer about how she could be a vampire hylden crossbreed and how she doesn't have face tattoos like Umah, the Priestess and Vorador’s lady
Will definitely do a vid on the Seer in the future 👍
Likely she's just a pure hylden, uncorrupted by the hellish demon world.
Absolutely outstanding video many thanks for continuing this outstanding series!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
I was literally rewatching your Kain one's this past weekend!!! Dont stop making these analysis videos please!!
And you did it again. Just when I thought there really isn't more you can squeeze out of the lore you actually release another great video about the lore. Fantastic essay as always. Thank you very much!
Another Legacy of Kain lore video great way to start a Monday.
This is one of your best works, man. Not just because i love LoK. But the editing and sound mixing is really well done. Keep it up.
Thanks a ton! I confess I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to making sure the editing and music are point. 😅
@@strictlyfantasy nothing wrong with striving to do it right man
Ultimately Daniel Cabuco stated: "The Hylden aren't immortal, they just live in a dimension where time is warped and they age differently in relation to the material realm.
I love how you narrate and go deep with the lore while showing relevant snippets of the story. Keep up the good work, love your channel!
One theory I had was that Raziel had both Vampire and Hylden blood in his family line from long in the past and that this was the reason for his uniqueness and resemblance to both races.
his undoing cited by kain and rebirth is a trait to his hylden origin , he can't be destroyed , he is immortal!
I was waiting for you man.....
The real MVP of the series is back
You are seriously one of the coolest channels on TH-cam. People who love this series crave this kind of thing. You're the best.
It's pretty hard to say what the Hylden were like as a race before the ancient war. The nature of their banishment was so brutal (and the war itself so unjustified) that using the words of a 'modern' Hylden scientist to judge the attitude of their ancestors is not very reliable. Of course it could be possible that the scientist was actually around at the end of the war, and with their research into immortality he could even have been around at the beginning of their war but the cruel nature of the war/banishment would certainly have twisted his attitude to match the words that he gave to that human slave even if he and the Hylden as a whole were originally more benevolent. So sure, the creation of The Device and their modern actions are certainly brutal and uncaring but this attitude could simply be a result of the trauma of their race's fate since The Elder set the Vampyres upon them... or maybe they were just always dicks ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
The only thing we can really say about the early races of Nosgoth with any certainty is that the Vampire race seemed to focus on magic/sorcery whereas the Hylden race were focused on technology. As Janos put it _"Another race, similar to ours in power, but different in method and intention."_
One thing of note that your video did not bring up is the presence of the Seer. A Hylden woman that was apparently not caught up in the banishment and even having ties with the vampire Vorador (though unclear if he knew what she was). What her existence means to the war I can't say but it does bring up a number interesting questions and speculations.
The Seer is indeed a mysterious character, so I figure she deserves a separate video for herself at some point.
@strictlyfantasy she was interesting! Love nosgoth
If memory serves, the Demon Realm is supposedly a place of chaos where the normal rules of physics in the Material Realm don't apply. Assuming it also applies to the laws of time, it could be that despite them being banished for thousands of linear years, for the Hylden in the Demon Realm, it could only be a minute, a day, a week, a month or any other time frame. We know that time stops in the Spectral Realm as Raziel shifts. After all, when Kain was sent there after his fight with Raziel, the Hylden ask "Do you not think of this place, Vampire? Or are we truly forgotten?" so it could be that while there is some passage of time, either they just don't know how long or it's less linear than the Material Realm
@@irishdc9523 Two Statements of Daniel Cabuco would indeed support your words. Quote one: _Further still they realized that they could not die from old age, essentially freezing them in time and space (I think unable to raise children as well. Realizing their eventual fall was due, they reached out to their old enemies and forged alliances, finding ways to breach the thinner passages to the Material Realm of Nosgoth. (Entropy has a way of making strange bedfellows) Lesser demons would have been enslaved, greater demons would have been in an uneasy alliance with the Hylden._
Quote two: _The Hylden aren't immortal, they just live in a dimension where time is warped and they age differently in relation to the material realm. Remember that Vampires weren't immortal until the Hylden cursed them so. How much they know and cooperate with the Elder God was still a mystery._
I think dependence on blood came with the Hylden curse, as Janos condemned the Hylden for making his people predators of Mankind when he confronted the Hylden Lord before being chucked into the demon realm.
Im still laughing at this moment. Like, just fly away dumass
@@Brandelwyn His wings were broken.
@@Ieatpaste23 i don't remember that being the case
Birds can't fly out of a vortex. Evidence: green energy windmills kill 1000s of birds. Ooh there went another one. Mmmmm, green energy. Hylden tech on Earth.
@@Brandelwyn that's why he has him by the wings.
Amazing videos - these make my weeks at times they pop up! Thanks again 🙂
Great content as always, every time I see a new video I get giddy. Thanks for taking time to make these videos, they really mean a lot to us.
I really enjoyed this in-depth analysis of one of my favorite game lore stories. Thank you.👍
*Thank you for making these videos. It quenches my blood thirst for The Legacy of Kain games that were never continued. Devouring these videos souls to sustain my faith in the future revival of The Legacy of Kain from the Spectral Realm.*
I always look forward to your LOK videos. Thanks for keeping the fandom alive.
Love your series keeping LoK in front of people. I will never stop asking for more games. I honestly would just be happy with a series remaster put on steam on current console gens. Just one download to play all 5 games in their best versions is all I want.
This is the most underrated lore channel for this glorious series
Vae Victis
I love that over 2 decades later there's still more LoK content being made
Great to see more Legacy of Kain-content from you. I've always thought that if we ever should get some new LoK-content (though I hope we'll get some good remasters), then a game that explores the conflict between the Ancients and the Hylden could be really interesting, and it would be so far back in time that it wouldn't impact the core story of the series too much (which Dead Sun would have, being placed in a really weird place in the timeline if I've understood it correctly). I can't quite remember where I read it, but some developer said that The Seer in Blood Omen 2 was supposed to be a Vampyre-Hylden hybrid. How that came about could be a really cool story, and connect to what you mention at 13:55.
I really enjoy all the artwork you find of the ancient Vampyres and Hylden! Simply amazing :D
I was missing the content on this channel. Always amazing!
Thank you for this. I never tire of the lore of one of the greatest games ever made.
Love these videos thanks for helping keep the series alive!!!
Absolutely love how the Legacy of Kain series goes far, far deeper than when I played the games. The Hylden/Vampire/Elder War is such a fantastic segment that I wish we could play that story somehow. Maybe one day soon. Thank you so much for continuing to dive into the Legacy of Kain series. You are indeed the best person to explain this series. Thanks again. 🙂
Thanks for another good insight into the history of Nosgoth Strictly!
I always get so excited when I see you've posted new LoK content >:3
Your videos on LoK are so thorough, insightful, and well made!
Please do one on the Eternal Prison.
Thank you for posting your videos covering the history and lore of the Legacy of Kain!
Thank you for your dedication and analyses on the war and keeping the series alive!
Some thoughts occurred to me watching this. The three Elder Vampire champions had spears called Heart Seeker, Blood Drinker and Soul Stealer were a source of inspiration for the Hylden curse. They took the heart from the Vampires by cutting them off from their god and making them sterile so they had no chance of reproducing normally, a death sentence for their race. They made the Vampires drink the very blood the champion named their weapon to do and they cut the Vampires off from the wheel of fate by making them immortal thereby stealing their souls from their god.
HELL YEEEAH!!! Strictly dropping another banger!
I really hope a remaster of the Legacy of Kain series comes to fruition eventually. The day can't come soon enough. The series is just so good.
Wish granted!!! The coin landed on it's edge
Thank you for another insightful video!
Thank you for every one of your videos. This one was very well-made 👌🏻
I miss your vids! Long Live Legacy of Kain
Man.........these are so good. As always thank you.
9:10 they also represent Raziels journey.
Heart seeker (Sarafan Raziel), Blooddrinker (Vampire) and soul stealer (wraith)
Nice video as always. It is amazing how good these videos are and I still miss this franchise (I hope they revive it, as long as it is a good revive of the franchise).
It is amazing how much story they could fit in just 5 games
Videos like this keep LoK alive in spirit for me. Keep up the great work!
massive thank you i just watched all video on Lok here over last and really enjoyed in fact it has been incredible to watch and listen i really hope there is another lok game at some point
The spears also represent Raziels way in history: Heartseeker- his time as a sarafan, Blooddrinker: his time as a vampire, Soulstealer: his wraith and current form.
I miss this series. Great story and voice acting.
Kain is one of my All time favorite vampires. I loved all of these games. I’d have loved to see more of them.
Great video. I really wish this series had been given a proper conclusion. It had so much potential and its poetic dialogue was exceptionally unique among other games of its era, being both written and performed exceedingly well.
YES! A new video. Can not wait to see this. Thanks man!:)
I think that the prevalence of spears in vampyre art is simply to attribute to the fact that in real life medieval art angels were almost always depicted wielded either spears or swords. Just look at the depictions of St. Michael.
These games are so poetic in their unique combination of amazing world building, writing and voice acting.
The only thing that keeps me from replaying them more often is their outdated gameplay and controls.
Another fantastic piece, cannot wait for the next one. Why is the video game industry sleeping on this magnificent series, if anything's deserving of a comeback, it's Legacy Of Kain.
Square owns LoK currently. Given they were behind the Nosgoth release and the current remake fad. Better to leave the series where it is for now.
@@pious83 Isn't the Emracer Group holding the rights from Square Enix these days, though, given that they're not exactly stable either, I feel like Legacy Of Kain should be brought back under the proper care of Amy Hennig, whoever the dev might be story should be handled by her.
I enjoy all your lore videos across all games, but I LOVE the LoK content! 🔥 I appreciate the amount of effort you put into your videos, Thank you for helping in keeping this series alive 🙏🏻
Always love to see each upload.
Early af for a video but screw it. Hell yeah
Im so glad im not the only one who has the same theory on the hylden blood curse and immortality
I love your compilations of thoughts. I think what ultimately lead to both races' demise is just that, though - the inability to see, to understand and to accept each other's perspective. Only from that understanding, by allowing yourself to see the world with someone else's eyes, can come any semblance of peaceful relationships.
Such a beautiful game
That was very well explained! Keep up the good work!
happy to see another video, good work bro 🙌
Gosh how I hope this series gets a reboot one day.....
Love seeing these uploads! Cant get enough of LOK lore!
I think it's possible that the hylden might have always seen the elder God for what it was, but the vampires wouldn't listen
That could very well be true. We just don't have enough evidence either way. But the fact that they were using an Eldritch Abomination (the Mass) for their own purposes may infer that they at least knew something about the Ancient Vampires' God's true nature.
@@strictlyfantasy Actually...
The Elder God never wanted the Hylden banished. He constantly works towards not only removing all vampires from Nozgoth, but also towards the Pillars corruption and ultimate ruin. He actually wants the Hylden back, just as he wanted them to survive the ancient war. And, this is, imho, to a simple fact. The wheel of fate, is in fact a lie. There is no real circle of birth, death and rebirth. Otherwise, Kain wouldn't get the chance to ressurtect the Sarafan elite, Raziel included, after so many years after their deaths, their souls would have been reborn as something, over and over again.
The truth behind the Elder God's method and plan is, perhaps more sinister. He's an eldritch creature, some Lovecraftian parasitic entity that, perhaps, originates from some other dimension, that feeds on souls. That much we all know from the games, but, what does that tells us? If the Elder God feeds on the souls, they never get reborn. When Raziel, or any other soul eating wraith, feeds on a mortal soul, they never get to live again, example being the various wraith turned vampires, that Raziel gets to fight. Not to mention, he needs an entire army of soul harvester wraiths, in order to feed on the souls inhabiting the spectral realm. Souls, that, had the wheel been real, would be instantly drawn to it, upon death, and spin back to a rebirth, not wander the spectral realm endlessly.He just wants conflict, hatred, and hostility, to fuel wars, that keep sending recently died souls to him to feast upon. And, in that aspect, it's safe to assume he spoke to both the Hylden, and Vampyres, presenting himselfdifferently to each race, igniting hatred for one another. And, given the chance, as soon as the humans finally got to rise to power, he did the same once more. He manipulated Moebius, and Mortanius, and kept the killing spree going on.
Let's not forget the core of the "device" and eldritch abomination, most likely a gift from the Elder God to the Hylden. Should they succeed, they'd kill all vampyres, and all humans at the same moment, delivering all those souls to the squid to feed.
He only turned his back on vampyres, when their new-found immortality made them inedible to him.
And, a little twist , or theory, of my own. Both races had these Messiah figures foretold.But, through their preparations, machinations and plans, they, unknowingly perhaps, only worked towards exposing the truen nature of the Elder God, allowing them to unite against him, not just them, but the humans as well, and rid Nozgoth of the parasite. And, that is what the Elder God tried that hard to stop. Both Messiahs uniting into one. Kain, and the purified Reaver. The Vampyre messiah, and the Hylden, working as one.
I always found it curious that a being for whom water was lethal would keep a pool filled by fountain generated waterfalls in the middle of his home. Considering it was dimensional portal, maybe the Ancients incorporated water into mystic arts, which might explain why the Dark Gift came with a "water is an acid to you" caveat. Another insult to injury, as the Dark Gift was a curse of Hylden creation.
the water was like a security feature, stopping just any old vamprie/any one else entering the portal
Whoa. Right! Once it was fountaining blood a vampire could dive in, but before that it was running water. Like an electric fence for vamps.
Vae Victus! Thx for putting out all the awesome LOK content!
Legacy of Kain forever man!!! Such a good video.
Lore have some key similarities to the lore of TES3: Morrowind. Conflict between two races, one deeply religious, other puts faith in logic, reason and science. Devastating war between the two that shaped the land, one race changed forever, other disappeared.
Vae victis!
Some ask why Kains evolution made him become looking like a Hylden. I think this is because he drank the blood of the architect. It isnt outright explained lore, but the fact that Kains blood put into the machine made it crumble shows, that there is more "essence" consumed by a vampires feast than just nutritious contents. The vampires curse seems to consume part of the being that is drained, and as Kain and the blood fountains state in BO1, "blood is life", "blood is strength", "blood prevails". So the vampires gain part of the strength of their victims - maybe even their souls. This taps curiously also into the Reavers abilities of soul consuming and soul stealing - being a vampire made weapon but with characteristics of the Hylden technology.
This is a topic, I dont know anyone of having researched or made a video out of yet. Perhaps you want to go into this rabit hole - the connection of technology and magic that makes the vampires more Hylden like than made aware of yet.
Interesting theory! And Kain drank A LOT of Hylden blood in Blood Omen 2.
Fascinating stuff, as always!!
I wish more was known about the Hylden. Such a mysterious species.
thanks for still doing these videos. :)
It would be nice if we one day get a legacy of kain prequel where we play as janos or vorador.
Excellent - cheers for this interesting lore vid 👍!
New favorite channel
A massive part of what needs to be in a sequel to Defiance is the resolution to this war one way or another.
I was waiting for this video for so long i had to pre like it before watching.
I also think that the Seer is a product of a forbidden love between an Ancient Vampire and Hylden. I wouldn't be surprised if that forbidden love took the Reaver and added that labyrinthine 3rd choice before it was reclaimed by the Ancient Vampires unbeknownst to them. I believe the Hylden could actually see the Eldrich Gods, but the Ancient Vampires couldn't, hence why all Raziel had to do for Kain to see. Hylden Glyph and Ancient Vampire Magic w/ a silver bullet and wishful thinking making it happen. Janos could of been in-love or not with the Ancient Vampiress, discovered the forbidden love when they found where the Reaver was, and Janos saw the child and instead of killing their child "the seer" (as he didn't have the heart) he left the child or hid the child. Nevertheless, the Seer can not be overlooked, I am certain her existence tells the story of how and why the Reaver can do stuff that goes against the beliefs of the Ancient Vampires.
The Hylden blood curse could actually be a disease/virus they had created, as they were less magical and more technological race. Would fit more.
Man, whenever i see a new video pop up from you, i get the urge to hop back into defiance. I still need to beat it. 😅
Something always interesting for me is how the series developed, and the Elder God in itself, since it shows the Pillars are mainly only hold the Hylden back, so the decay of the land seems not connected and rather to the Elder God that feeds on it as a Parasite like Raziel describes him.
Still wish we had a true follow up to this, since the license for the IP was bought I still hope for some sort of revival, in a good way tho and not some monetizing hellscape like other franchises.
Thank you sincerely!!
I would love to see this game series ported to PS4 and PS5. My favorite franchise and I still play them to this date. The artwork and atmosphere of this gothic games is beautiful and I'm sure updating to a newer game engine would only greatly enhance the experience. How many new players are potentially out there because of them being available on Steam. Give us true UHD 4K versions of these beautiful games. Start a petition and I'm sure we'll all sign it to get the ball rolling, I'm in!
But Kain has to be black and Raziel gay, lol. Better not
Awesome as always
That MediEvil 2 soundtrack kicking in was pretty cool ngl
This needs All the likes! Let's get it trending!
Beautiful essay
I know that blood omen, 2, is the black sheep of the series. But to be honest with you, that's one of my favorites.
Every time I think this franchise has ran out of lore you publish another video.
I have lots more ideas for Legacy of Kain content. These videos just take a long time to produce. Admittedly, this one has quite a bit of speculation, but there seems to be a good appetite out there for more of this lore.
@@strictlyfantasyNothing wrong with speculation. Look at all those Dark Souls lore channels.
I just had the thought that maybe the Device and the Mass wasn't started out as an effort towards a weapon of mass destruction, but a route to immortality. An enlightened race like the Hylden would know that killing *every* other life but themselves is really just a route to starvation. They definitely should have a working theory on Ecology.
My thought is that the Device originally was supposed to channel life force from all other life to the Hylden, remotely and hopefully without any nastyness, so that it grants immortality to one race, and at worst reduces the natural lifespan of other life in exchange - kind of like an alternate to the Elder God. But they couldn't figure out how to tune the device properly, and the hylden military saw it as a weapon instead. That's why the Builder shows such remorse for something he probably worked on for the better part of his entire life.
The curious part is that the single weakness of the Mass is the pure blood of a hylden (unaffected by the demon realm). It was never meant to feed on Hylden lifeforce, it was meant to sustain it. Introducing hylden blood to its system either short-circuits the whole procedure, or it is a built-in failsafe that kills the Mass rather than let it be turned against the hylden.
Good theory - as it explains why the Builder was so remorseful. Like real world scientists who worked on atomic energy research only for it to be used as a weapon to kill millions.
If the Pillars were created to seal away the Hylden, why do they also weaken the Elder God? The Elder God is much smaller when the Pillars were prestine and he's much bigger when the Pillars are crumbled.
Did the Vampires or the Elder God know the Pillars would make him weak? Or did the Hylden also do something to the Pillars so that they would also weaken the Elder God?
Why can all of the elder gods powers be explained by the powers of his two pillar guardian followers Mortanious and Moebius
There's no reason to suspect that the pillars made the Elder God weak. The changes in size can just as easily be due to "natural" growth. Remember that in cases we see the pillars pristine, it's in the past, the EG is simply younger.
While the opposite certainly seems observable, that by weakening the pillars the EG grows much stronger. Could be that he's been syphoning the pillars' power somehow, or just that he grows fat from the rampant corruption and bloodshed - causing souls to cycle into death faster.
I don't think it's his primary reason for weakening the pillars though. He wants the Hylden to be able to operate in Nosgoth unimpeded, as he's expecting them to serve better than the current vampires.
Notice that as time progresses, we never see the pillars restored, so we cannot for certain say that restoring the pillars would directly weaken the EG.
The Vampire-Hylden war is definitely one of the most interesting nuggets of LoK lore. While the Hylden are portrayed as the more malign force, in the Hylden city, we see that they had art, and a sense of beauty. Just as the Vampires were not completely good, I can't think of the Hylden as completely bad either. I'd have loved to see what the Hylden civilization was like before the war. The same goes for the Vampires too, those of Janos' era and before. Maybe if not for the Elder God's meddling, maybe the three races could have found common ground?
doubt it