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Raziel (Legacy of Kain)
Encyclopedia
Raziel is a central character
in Eidos Interactive
's Legacy of Kain
series of video games, the protagonist
of the Soul Reaver story arc. Initially appearing in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
, the character was created by a team of storywriters at Crystal Dynamics
, notably series director Amy Hennig
, and conceptualized by various Crystal Dynamics artists, with his in-game appearance directed and designed by Daniel Cabuco. In all of his English-language appearances, he has been voiced
by Michael Bell.
Portrayed as both an anti-hero
and tragic hero
, Raziel is a soul
-devouring vampire-turned-wraith, introduced in Soul Reaver as one of six lieutenants raised to serve series eponym
and protagonist, Kain
. Upon evolving beyond Kain through growing wings, Raziel is executed for his transgression, but is revived by The Elder God as a reaver of souls, bent on avenging himself by slaying his brothers and former master. Over the course of his journey, his history is revealed in reverse, and his motivations and loyalties gradually shift as he unearths the truth behind his cyclic destiny
.
Praised for his visual appearance, character development and Bell's vocal performance, Raziel has been well-received by the gaming media and players alike.
Raziel
, prevalent in Jewish mysticism, with the name's meaning ("Secret[s] of God") considered appropriate by the game's developers. Early visual artwork of Raziel was influenced by The Cabinet of Doctor Caligaris character of Cesare, and dozens of concept sketches were produced to shape his final incarnation. Hindu
tradition was the basis for his blue color, while his broken, ruined wings symbolized his tragic nature as a fallen angel
.
When writing the script for Soul Reaver, series director Amy Hennig
considered it important to make Raziel's character flaws apparent as well as his positives, contrasting his personality with Kain's and emphasizing the notion that he is a character with strong aspects of villainy as well as heroism. She focused on the evolution of his personality in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
, describing him as "kind of a self-righteous little twit" with a lot to learn, and pointed out her belief that Kain was, in some ways, a more interesting and complex character, with Raziel a more two-dimensional personality in the original game.
Raziel is introduced in Soul Reaver as the most powerful of the vampire Kain's six lieutenants, and Kain's second-in-command
. Surpassing Kain by evolving a pair of batlike wings, he is condemned to execution, and cast into the Lake of the Dead. While thought to be an act of jealousy, Legacy of Kain: Defiance
later reveals that Kain executed Raziel in order to create a creature with free will
, capable of altering history. Reanimated in the Spectral Realm as a wraith by The Elder God, Raziel serves as the deity's "angel of death", stalking the ruined landscape of Nosgoth in hopes of confronting and destroying his five undead brethren, and eventually Kain himself.
In the Necropolis, Raziel finds and slaughters his brother Melchiah, then travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth where Kain's throne is seated, and is enraged when he discovers that Kain also destroyed his vampire clan. He battles Kain, but is overpowered; Kain attacks Raziel with his legendary sword, the Soul Reaver, which unpredictably shatters as it strikes his body. Kain departs, strangely satisfied, while Raziel slips into the Spectral Realm. There, he discovers the vampiric spirit formerly dormant in the Reaver, which binds itself to his arm as a symbiotic weapon. Advised by the spectre Ariel, Raziel then pursues and slays his sibling Zephon.
Traveling the land, Raziel reaches the long-abandoned Tomb of the Sarafan, where he discovers a crypt of sarchophagi inscribed with his own name and those of his brothers (and Malek). Infuriated and startled by the gravity of Kain's blasphemy in raising Sarafan priests as vampires, he resumes his journey, systematically tracking down and consuming the souls of his brothers Rahab and Dumah. Deep within the northern mountains, he chases down and battles Kain, but is cheated of vengeance when Kain activates the Chronoplast (a magical time machine
) and slips into Nosgoth's past with Raziel in hot pursuit.
In the Sarafan Stronghold, where he is fated to murder Kain, Raziel is persuaded to exert his free will and spares him, altering predestined history as part of Kain's plan. Following Vorador's advice, he uses Moebius' devices to travel to Nosgoth's past and future, seeking the ancient vampire Janos Audron. In the distant past, he manages to traverse Janos' aerie and encounters the vampire, who turns out to be benign and knowledgeable about Raziel's nature. However, their meeting is interrupted by the leaders of the Sarafan—the Sarafan Inquisitor Raziel and his comrades, all six of Kain's future vampire lieutenants—who brutally slay Janos, pulling the Heart of Darkness from his body.
Bent on revenge and now fully realizing that the Sarafan were not the noble saviors he thought they were, Raziel renounces his Sarafan heritage and pursues himself and his future brothers, tracking down and slaying each one in the Stronghold with the physical Reaver, thus providing the corpses for Kain to turn into vampires in the future
. As Raziel kills his own former self, the roused Reaver turns itself on him, and Raziel, with despair, realizes that the soul-devouring entity within the Reaver is and always has been himself; thus, his destiny is to become imprisoned within the Soul Reaver and thus be stuck in a time loop
. Just as the weapon threatens to consume him, Kain appears and saves him by wrenching it from his body. Unfortunately, this causes a time paradox that changes Nosgoth's history for the worse
. Severely weakened but alive, Raziel dematerializes and slips back into the Spectral Realm as Kain, now possessing new memories as a result of the alterations caused by this action, frantically attempts to warn him that Janos Audron must not be revived. Back in the Spectral Realm, Raziel discovers that the spectral Reaver is still bound to him; thus, his fate has not been averted, but merely postponed.
and a parasite and out of fear that he would encounter and become trapped in the Reaver. After escaping the God's lair, he travels Nosgoth in search of the Heart of Darkness, hoping to revive Janos against Kain's wishes and avoid becoming the Reaver. During his quest, he encounters his brother Turel in Avernus Cathedral, slaying him and devouring his soul, and learns from Mortanius the Necromancer that the Heart was used to transform the corpse of the human Kain into a vampire. Raziel encounters and confronts Kain on exiting the Cathedral. Influenced by the Hylden, Raziel attacks Kain in a blind rage and refuses to listen to reason, finally provoking Kain into fighting back. Raziel eventually gains the upper hand and rips the Heart out of Kain's chest. He then blasts Kain with telekinesis through a portal to the Demon Realm, apparently to his death. Raziel revives Janos, who leads him to the Spirit Forge where he discovers the purified spectre of Ariel. Ariel is willingly absorbed into the wraith blade, leaving Raziel with cryptic but hopeful advice. However, the Pillars of Nosgoth collapse as Raziel departs the Forge, and Janos' body is possessed by the Hylden Lord.
After a hectic battle, the possessed Janos defeats Raziel, forcing his soul back to the Underworld. Enraged, Raziel attacks the Elder God with the purified wraith blade, but the weapon is of no effect. In the game's final act, when Kain (alive despite Raziel's attack) slays Moebius at the Forge, Raziel devours the Timestreamer's soul before the Elder can resurrect him, using Moebius' corpse to enter the Material Realm and trick Kain into attacking him. Impaled on the Reaver, Raziel accepts his fate and is willingly drawn into the sword after reaffirming his loyalty to Kain. As he fades into the physical sword, his future incarnation—the wraith blade—disperses into Kain's body and purifies his soul, simultaneously dooming himself to centuries of imprisonment and freeing himself from his cyclic fate. After defeating The Elder God with the newly-imbued Soul Reaver, Kain silently thanks Raziel for his sacrifice, remarking that it has given him hope for Nosgoth's future.
's editor described Raziel's narrative as one of the most convincing he had ever heard, echoed later in the site's review for Legacy of Kain: Defiance which described the series' cast as "just damn good at talking like vampires, tortured souls and gods". GameSpot
included Soul Reaver in a 1999 list of ten computer games with the best voice acting of all time, stating of Bell "you'd never guess that the same person carried out all those voices", and of the cast "there's not one weak link in the bunch, and together they create one of the best examples of voice acting in a game for PC or consoles." In contrast, Douglass Perry of IGN, in his review of Soul Reaver 2, felt Raziel's (and Kain's) dialogue was overdone, stating that "overwritten text makes them sound like caffeine-imbued English students verbally jousting in their first semester in college", but liked the advancement and rebalancing of Raziel's personality and aggressiveness, and enjoyed his depiction, stating that he "looks magnificently decripid [sic]."
Raziel was praised by GameSpot's reviewer for Defiance, who wrote that "it's rare enough to find a truly memorable main character in a game, let alone two", and closed deeming the title "one of those rare games whose characters and story to some extent supersede the problems in the gameplay." In a review for Soul Reaver, Game Critics' editor found Raziel and his quest appealing, feeling "Raziel is no saint" and is "evil with the addition of morals and ethics". In a later review for Defiance, the site expressed disappointment with the game itself, but enjoyed its "unique story and memorable characters", wondering "Who could possibly forget [...] the eerie green glow streaming from Raziel's dead eyes as he glides his way through the netherworld" and claiming "these characters are without a doubt some of gaming's finest". Official UK PlayStation Magazine welcomed Raziel's debut in Soul Reaver, extensively covering the game and featuring his visage on the cover of issue 43. His story and in-game appearance were endorsed - in a comparison with Tomb Raider III
, his free-flowing character animation was described as making "Lara
look like a glove puppet."
Alongside Kain, Raziel was selected by IGN's readers as one of ten heroes most wanted to appear in a Soulcalibur
game. He was inducted into Diehard GameFAN's Top Ten Video Game Vampires list (as "Not A Vampire #2"), was ranked ninth on Electronic Gaming Monthly
's Top Ten Badass Undead, and was included as one of GameSpot's 64 All Time Greatest Game Heroes. Thunderbolt
ranked him as #9 on their list of the top 10 videogame anti-heroes, and GamesRadar
have listed him as one of eight "videogame characters we'd go gay for". Former Capcom
artist and game designer Akiman
and Clash of the Titans
concept artist Tsvetomir Georgiev have also created fan art
interpretations of the character. Several action figures and figurines of Raziel have been created by Blue Box Interactive and the National Entertainment Collectibles Association
in partnership with Eidos, and his likeness appeared extensively in promotional material and televised commercials for the Legacy of Kain series. He was also featured in Top Cow's promotional comics for Soul Reaver and Defiance. He appears alongside Kain as a playable character in downloadable content for 2010's Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
's Legacy of Kain
Legacy of Kain
Legacy of Kain is a series of action-adventure video games developed initially by Silicon Knights in association with Crystal Dynamics. After a legal battle, Crystal Dynamics continued the series without Silicon Knights and Eidos Interactive became the publisher...
series of video games, the protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of the Soul Reaver story arc. Initially appearing in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. It was released for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows in 1999 and for the Dreamcast in 2000. As the second game in the Legacy of Kain series, Soul Reaver is the sequel to...
, the character was created by a team of storywriters at Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics
Crystal Dynamics is an American video game developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and founded in 1992 by Judy Lang, Madaline Canepa and Dave Morris...
, notably series director Amy Hennig
Amy Hennig
Amy Hennig is a video game director and script writer currently employed by video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City...
, and conceptualized by various Crystal Dynamics artists, with his in-game appearance directed and designed by Daniel Cabuco. In all of his English-language appearances, he has been voiced
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
by Michael Bell.
Portrayed as both an anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
and tragic hero
Tragic hero
A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy. Tragic heroes appear in the dramatic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Webster, Marston, Corneille, Racine, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Strindberg, and many other writers.-Aristotle's tragic hero:Aristotle...
, Raziel is a soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
-devouring vampire-turned-wraith, introduced in Soul Reaver as one of six lieutenants raised to serve series eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
and protagonist, Kain
Kain (Legacy of Kain)
Kain is a fictional character and the titular character that appears in the Legacy of Kain series of video games. Depending on the game and its viewpoint, Kain has been either the central protagonist, or an antagonist, but in all his depictions he is an anti-hero, interested only in his own goals...
. Upon evolving beyond Kain through growing wings, Raziel is executed for his transgression, but is revived by The Elder God as a reaver of souls, bent on avenging himself by slaying his brothers and former master. Over the course of his journey, his history is revealed in reverse, and his motivations and loyalties gradually shift as he unearths the truth behind his cyclic destiny
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
.
Praised for his visual appearance, character development and Bell's vocal performance, Raziel has been well-received by the gaming media and players alike.
Conception and design
Raziel was initially conceived as the nameless protagonist of Shifter, an unproduced, non-Legacy of Kain related game concept by Crystal Dynamics which preceded Soul Reaver, and the outline of his character concept and motivations was based on the former title. His name was taken directly from that of the archangelArchangel
An archangel is an angel of high rank. Archangels are found in a number of religious traditions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Michael and Gabriel are recognized as archangels in Judaism and by most Christians. Michael is the only archangel specifically named in the Protestant Bible...
Raziel
Raziel
Raziel |God]]") is an archangel within the teachings of Jewish mysticism who is the "Keeper of Secrets" and the "Angel of Mysteries"...
, prevalent in Jewish mysticism, with the name's meaning ("Secret[s] of God") considered appropriate by the game's developers. Early visual artwork of Raziel was influenced by The Cabinet of Doctor Caligaris character of Cesare, and dozens of concept sketches were produced to shape his final incarnation. Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
tradition was the basis for his blue color, while his broken, ruined wings symbolized his tragic nature as a fallen angel
Fallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
.
When writing the script for Soul Reaver, series director Amy Hennig
Amy Hennig
Amy Hennig is a video game director and script writer currently employed by video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City...
considered it important to make Raziel's character flaws apparent as well as his positives, contrasting his personality with Kain's and emphasizing the notion that he is a character with strong aspects of villainy as well as heroism. She focused on the evolution of his personality in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2 is an action-adventure game that was released on the PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and the third game in the Legacy of Kain series. It was released in 2001 developed by Crystal Dynamics & published by Eidos...
, describing him as "kind of a self-righteous little twit" with a lot to learn, and pointed out her belief that Kain was, in some ways, a more interesting and complex character, with Raziel a more two-dimensional personality in the original game.
Characteristics
Raziel's typical physical design is characterized by his skeletal profile, tattered wings and bluish body tones. He is depicted with cloven, tridactyl claws and feet, and radiant, pupilless eyes. A brownish cowl bearing his clan symbol, originally a red cape, masks his disfigured, jawless mouth, which glows either green or bluish-white (varying between games) upon devouring souls. The clan symbol was based on a rearward profile of his undamaged, outstretched wings. He is usually depicted wielding the ethereal form of the Soul Reaver, an ancient vampiric blade. One of his features which remains consistent between his transformations is his hair; when queried regarding the logic of Raziel retaining his hair after several centuries of torture in the Abyss, Hennig responded "because he'd look silly if he was bald", while when questioned as to his capability of speech without a lower jaw, she replied "very supple throat muscles". His vampire incarnation from the intro cinematic of Soul Reaver, designed after his more common appearance was finalized, is batlike, and depicted with a sword in some indirectly official media. The design of his human, Sarafan incarnation (who appears in Soul Reaver 2) was inspired by influences from the Roman era.Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Second-in-command
The Second-in-Command is the deputy commander of any British Army or Royal Marines unit, from battalion or regiment downwards. He or she is thus the equivalent of an Executive Officer in the United States Army...
. Surpassing Kain by evolving a pair of batlike wings, he is condemned to execution, and cast into the Lake of the Dead. While thought to be an act of jealousy, Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Legacy of Kain: Defiance is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos. It is the fifth and thus far final game in the Legacy of Kain series. It was released in North America in November and December 2003, and in Europe in February 2004...
later reveals that Kain executed Raziel in order to create a creature with free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, capable of altering history. Reanimated in the Spectral Realm as a wraith by The Elder God, Raziel serves as the deity's "angel of death", stalking the ruined landscape of Nosgoth in hopes of confronting and destroying his five undead brethren, and eventually Kain himself.
In the Necropolis, Raziel finds and slaughters his brother Melchiah, then travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth where Kain's throne is seated, and is enraged when he discovers that Kain also destroyed his vampire clan. He battles Kain, but is overpowered; Kain attacks Raziel with his legendary sword, the Soul Reaver, which unpredictably shatters as it strikes his body. Kain departs, strangely satisfied, while Raziel slips into the Spectral Realm. There, he discovers the vampiric spirit formerly dormant in the Reaver, which binds itself to his arm as a symbiotic weapon. Advised by the spectre Ariel, Raziel then pursues and slays his sibling Zephon.
Traveling the land, Raziel reaches the long-abandoned Tomb of the Sarafan, where he discovers a crypt of sarchophagi inscribed with his own name and those of his brothers (and Malek). Infuriated and startled by the gravity of Kain's blasphemy in raising Sarafan priests as vampires, he resumes his journey, systematically tracking down and consuming the souls of his brothers Rahab and Dumah. Deep within the northern mountains, he chases down and battles Kain, but is cheated of vengeance when Kain activates the Chronoplast (a magical time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
) and slips into Nosgoth's past with Raziel in hot pursuit.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2
Soul Reaver 2 picks up where the previous game left off, with Raziel in pursuit of Kain but waylaid by Moebius the Timestreamer. Manipulated by Moebius, Kain and The Elder God, he seeks to distance himself from all three, concerned with unveiling his own fate. No longer a direct antagonist, Kain instructs Raziel on the history of Nosgoth and the truth of its corruption.In the Sarafan Stronghold, where he is fated to murder Kain, Raziel is persuaded to exert his free will and spares him, altering predestined history as part of Kain's plan. Following Vorador's advice, he uses Moebius' devices to travel to Nosgoth's past and future, seeking the ancient vampire Janos Audron. In the distant past, he manages to traverse Janos' aerie and encounters the vampire, who turns out to be benign and knowledgeable about Raziel's nature. However, their meeting is interrupted by the leaders of the Sarafan—the Sarafan Inquisitor Raziel and his comrades, all six of Kain's future vampire lieutenants—who brutally slay Janos, pulling the Heart of Darkness from his body.
Bent on revenge and now fully realizing that the Sarafan were not the noble saviors he thought they were, Raziel renounces his Sarafan heritage and pursues himself and his future brothers, tracking down and slaying each one in the Stronghold with the physical Reaver, thus providing the corpses for Kain to turn into vampires in the future
Predestination paradox
A predestination paradox is a paradox of time travel that is often used as a convention in science fiction. It exists when a time traveller is caught in a loop of events that "predestines" or "predates" them to travel back in time...
. As Raziel kills his own former self, the roused Reaver turns itself on him, and Raziel, with despair, realizes that the soul-devouring entity within the Reaver is and always has been himself; thus, his destiny is to become imprisoned within the Soul Reaver and thus be stuck in a time loop
Time loop
A time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction in which time runs normally for a set period but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset...
. Just as the weapon threatens to consume him, Kain appears and saves him by wrenching it from his body. Unfortunately, this causes a time paradox that changes Nosgoth's history for the worse
Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain
Blood Omen 2 is an action-adventure game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the fourth game in the Legacy of Kain series...
. Severely weakened but alive, Raziel dematerializes and slips back into the Spectral Realm as Kain, now possessing new memories as a result of the alterations caused by this action, frantically attempts to warn him that Janos Audron must not be revived. Back in the Spectral Realm, Raziel discovers that the spectral Reaver is still bound to him; thus, his fate has not been averted, but merely postponed.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance
Defiance opens with Raziel trapped five centuries onwards in the Underworld, refusing to serve the Elder God both due to his opinion that the Elder God is a false godFalse god
A false god is, in Abrahamic doctrines, a deity or object of worship that is either illegitimate or non-functioning in its professed authority or capability...
and a parasite and out of fear that he would encounter and become trapped in the Reaver. After escaping the God's lair, he travels Nosgoth in search of the Heart of Darkness, hoping to revive Janos against Kain's wishes and avoid becoming the Reaver. During his quest, he encounters his brother Turel in Avernus Cathedral, slaying him and devouring his soul, and learns from Mortanius the Necromancer that the Heart was used to transform the corpse of the human Kain into a vampire. Raziel encounters and confronts Kain on exiting the Cathedral. Influenced by the Hylden, Raziel attacks Kain in a blind rage and refuses to listen to reason, finally provoking Kain into fighting back. Raziel eventually gains the upper hand and rips the Heart out of Kain's chest. He then blasts Kain with telekinesis through a portal to the Demon Realm, apparently to his death. Raziel revives Janos, who leads him to the Spirit Forge where he discovers the purified spectre of Ariel. Ariel is willingly absorbed into the wraith blade, leaving Raziel with cryptic but hopeful advice. However, the Pillars of Nosgoth collapse as Raziel departs the Forge, and Janos' body is possessed by the Hylden Lord.
After a hectic battle, the possessed Janos defeats Raziel, forcing his soul back to the Underworld. Enraged, Raziel attacks the Elder God with the purified wraith blade, but the weapon is of no effect. In the game's final act, when Kain (alive despite Raziel's attack) slays Moebius at the Forge, Raziel devours the Timestreamer's soul before the Elder can resurrect him, using Moebius' corpse to enter the Material Realm and trick Kain into attacking him. Impaled on the Reaver, Raziel accepts his fate and is willingly drawn into the sword after reaffirming his loyalty to Kain. As he fades into the physical sword, his future incarnation—the wraith blade—disperses into Kain's body and purifies his soul, simultaneously dooming himself to centuries of imprisonment and freeing himself from his cyclic fate. After defeating The Elder God with the newly-imbued Soul Reaver, Kain silently thanks Raziel for his sacrifice, remarking that it has given him hope for Nosgoth's future.
Reception and promotion
Received positively by players and the gaming press, Raziel has attracted praise for his character development, graphical portrayal and Michael Bell's voice acting. Reviewing the Dreamcast port of Soul Reaver, IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's editor described Raziel's narrative as one of the most convincing he had ever heard, echoed later in the site's review for Legacy of Kain: Defiance which described the series' cast as "just damn good at talking like vampires, tortured souls and gods". GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
included Soul Reaver in a 1999 list of ten computer games with the best voice acting of all time, stating of Bell "you'd never guess that the same person carried out all those voices", and of the cast "there's not one weak link in the bunch, and together they create one of the best examples of voice acting in a game for PC or consoles." In contrast, Douglass Perry of IGN, in his review of Soul Reaver 2, felt Raziel's (and Kain's) dialogue was overdone, stating that "overwritten text makes them sound like caffeine-imbued English students verbally jousting in their first semester in college", but liked the advancement and rebalancing of Raziel's personality and aggressiveness, and enjoyed his depiction, stating that he "looks magnificently decripid [sic]."
Raziel was praised by GameSpot's reviewer for Defiance, who wrote that "it's rare enough to find a truly memorable main character in a game, let alone two", and closed deeming the title "one of those rare games whose characters and story to some extent supersede the problems in the gameplay." In a review for Soul Reaver, Game Critics' editor found Raziel and his quest appealing, feeling "Raziel is no saint" and is "evil with the addition of morals and ethics". In a later review for Defiance, the site expressed disappointment with the game itself, but enjoyed its "unique story and memorable characters", wondering "Who could possibly forget [...] the eerie green glow streaming from Raziel's dead eyes as he glides his way through the netherworld" and claiming "these characters are without a doubt some of gaming's finest". Official UK PlayStation Magazine welcomed Raziel's debut in Soul Reaver, extensively covering the game and featuring his visage on the cover of issue 43. His story and in-game appearance were endorsed - in a comparison with Tomb Raider III
Tomb Raider III
Tomb Raider III is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It is the third instalment in the Tomb Raider series, and the sequel to Tomb Raider II...
, his free-flowing character animation was described as making "Lara
Lara Croft
Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Square Enix video game series Tomb Raider. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic British archaeologist-adventurer who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world...
look like a glove puppet."
Alongside Kain, Raziel was selected by IGN's readers as one of ten heroes most wanted to appear in a Soulcalibur
Soul (series)
The is a weapon-based historical fantasy fighting game series by Namco Bandai Games. The series revolves around a sword that, after years of bloodshed and hatred, gained a soul of its own, the Soul Edge, and the sword forged to counter it, Soul Calibur. The series is special in that each character...
game. He was inducted into Diehard GameFAN's Top Ten Video Game Vampires list (as "Not A Vampire #2"), was ranked ninth on Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly
Electronic Gaming Monthly is a bimonthly American video game magazine. It has been published by EGM Media, LLC. since relaunching in April of 2010. Its previous run, which ended in January 2009, was published by Ziff Davis...
's Top Ten Badass Undead, and was included as one of GameSpot's 64 All Time Greatest Game Heroes. Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt (website)
Thunderbolt is an independent videogames website that was launched on November 20, 2000 by Philip Morton . Thunderbolt publishes reviews, previews and features covering the major gaming platforms, particularly consoles...
ranked him as #9 on their list of the top 10 videogame anti-heroes, and GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
have listed him as one of eight "videogame characters we'd go gay for". Former Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
artist and game designer Akiman
Akira Yasuda
is a Japanese animator, character designer, game designer and mecha designer, who works under the pen name "Akiman".-Career:...
and Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans (2010 film)
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...
concept artist Tsvetomir Georgiev have also created fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
interpretations of the character. Several action figures and figurines of Raziel have been created by Blue Box Interactive and the National Entertainment Collectibles Association
National Entertainment Collectibles Association
The National Entertainment Collectibles Association or NECA is an American manufacturer of collectibles typically licensed from films, video-games, sports, music, and television based in New Jersey...
in partnership with Eidos, and his likeness appeared extensively in promotional material and televised commercials for the Legacy of Kain series. He was also featured in Top Cow's promotional comics for Soul Reaver and Defiance. He appears alongside Kain as a playable character in downloadable content for 2010's Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a fixed-camera 3D platform viewpoint action video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix for the PC, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and the iOS as part of the Tomb Raider series for digital download...
.