In the beginning, before memory and before the first chisel touched stone, Nosgoth belonged to powers older than history. The Elder God slithered beneath the world, claiming to be the engine of all life  a claim Raziel and I would later expose as a self‑serving lie. Life emerged, and with it, two ancient races rose to dominance: the Vampires, custodians of the Wheel, and the Hylden, who rejected it.

Their conflict ignited the first great war  a thousand‑year crucible that scarred the world. In those final centuries, Janos Audron, the Seer, the Builder, and the first Guardians were born. The Reaver was forged as the weapon of prophecy, destined for the champion who would redeem or destroy the world. The Hylden, too, foresaw their own messiah, a fiery adversary who would shatter the Vampires’ god.

When the war reached its zenith, the Vampires triumphed. The Hylden were banished to another plane, sealed away by the raising of the Pillars  nine monoliths binding the land’s fate to the Guardians who served them. But the Hylden’s dying curse twisted the Vampires into blood‑driven immortals, severed from the Wheel, abandoned by the god they once worshipped. Madness and suicide followed, and their noble race dwindled.

Janos became keeper of the Reaver, and Vorador  once human  was the first to receive the dark gift. The ancient Vampires built their forges and sanctuaries, preparing for the prophesied bearer of the blade. But as their numbers faded, the Pillars summoned human successors. These humans were taken, trained, and  when the time came  transformed. Among them were Moebius and Mortanius, who would shape Nosgoth’s fate more profoundly than any mortal deserved.

Moebius, seduced by the Elder God, incited a revolt. The humans seized the Pillars, slaughtered their Vampire masters, and claimed the edifice as their own. The ancient race vanished into myth, leaving Janos as the last of his kind.

Centuries passed. New human Guardians rose. The land prospered  until the Sarafan Order emerged. A crusade of zealots, forged by the Circle, sworn to purge the “vampire menace.” Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon, Melchiah  all were born human, warriors of this holy order. Vorador’s vengeance upon the Circle only deepened the conflict. Raziel himself died a Sarafan hero, entombed with the martyrs he once led.

But history is a wheel, and fate delights in irony.

Raziel returned  not as a man, but as a wraith  and witnessed the truth of his past. He confronted Janos, forged the Reaver anew, and watched the Sarafan murder the last ancient Vampire. He hunted his former brethren, slaying them one by one, and learned that he himself was destined to become the soul imprisoned within the blade.

I spared him  delaying the inevitable, but not preventing it.

The Circle fell. Malek was damned to eternal servitude. New Guardians were culled. The land decayed as Nupraptor’s madness poisoned the Pillars. Ariel was murdered, her spirit bound to the ruins. And into this corruption, a nobleman was born  Kain  destined to inherit the Pillar of Balance.

My own story began with betrayal and death. Mortanius resurrected me as a vampire, and I hunted the Circle to restore the Pillars. But Moebius manipulated every step, twisting time itself to engineer a genocide. By slaying William the Just, I became the catalyst for humanity’s hatred  and the extinction of my own kind.

When the final Guardian fell, I stood before the Pillars and was offered a choice: sacrifice myself to restore the world, or refuse and let it fall. I chose defiance. The Pillars collapsed, and Nosgoth entered its age of ruin.

From that ruin, I forged an empire. I raised six lieutenants  Raziel foremost among them  resurrected from the corpses of the Sarafan martyrs. Together we conquered the land, enslaved humanity, and shaped Nosgoth to our will. But corruption seeped through the world, twisting my empire into a wasteland.

Raziel’s wings  shattered the fragile order. I cast him into the Abyss, beginning the cycle that would bind us both. He returned centuries later, a devourer of souls, and hunted his brothers: Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dumah. Each death revealed more of the truth  the decay of my empire, the lies of the Elder God, and the inevitability of our intertwined destinies.

Raziel pursued me through time, uncovering the ancient forges, the truth of the Pillars, and the corruption that had shaped every age. He confronted me in the Chronoplast, and together we unraveled the lies that bound Nosgoth’s fate.

In the end, Raziel sacrificed himself  willingly  to purify my soul and complete the blade. His essence became the true Soul Reaver, and I was made whole.

With the purified Reaver, I confronted the Elder God and cast him down into the depths he once ruled. But victory came at a cost: Janos, resurrected and corrupted by the Hylden Lord, was lost to the abyss. The Hylden Gate collapsed, ending their final bid for dominion.