The elder god is a central antagonist throughout the Legacy of Kain series. Characterised as a writhing mass of tentacles and eyeballs, he resides deep underground underneath Nosgoth and exists simultaneously in both the spectral and material realms. However it wasn't an entity that most could actually see, even those that worshipped it. The race of ancient winged vampires (of which Janos Audron belonged to), who were the original guardians of the Pillars worshipped him - however the Hylden didn't, which lead to the ancient vampire-Hylden war that ended with the Hylden being banished to the Demon Realm but not before cursing the vampires with bloodlust and immortality. This lead to the elder god turning his back on the ancient vampires, as he was sustained by souls of Nosgoth and the vampires, now immortal and sterile with no way to be "born" anymore, did not flow with the Wheel of birth, death and rebirth to which all souls are drawn. Most of the ancient vampires died out (likely committing suicide due to despair and madness from being unbearably separated from their god) and only a few, such as Janos Audron, accepted the curse as the price they paid for keeping the Hylden banished. Eventually, Janos found a way to pass the curse onto humans to turn them into vampires, starting with Vorador, ensuring the survival of the race even though the extinction of the ancient vampires was inevitable.



The elder god is first introduced in Soul Reaver. After Raziel was thrown into the abyss, it was the elder god that resurrected him as a wraith, and explained to him the world was imbalanced due to the nature of the immortality of vampires. Although he doesn't explicitly state it, Kain's vampire empire that he had built threatened his existence - as Kain's vampire lineage spread, less and less souls were being returned to the Wheel. He wanted the eradication of the vampires, especially Kain, and sent Raziel to do his bidding, telling him to seek vengeance on Kain and his brethren as his "Soul Reaver". Throughout the game, the elder god acts as somewhat of a guide to Raziel, explaining to him what had happened in the centuries since his execution, and confirming things such as Raziel and his brethren once being Sarafan when he finds the raided tomb. When Kain struck Raziel with the physical Reaver blade and it shattered, Raziel discovered that the spirit form of the blade had become part of him, wrapping itself around his right arm, and the elder god told him that he had restored it to its true form, releasing it from its physical prison. All the while, he kept Raziel's true destiny from him. Before following Kain through time in the Chronoplast chamber, the elder god warned him that he would be beyond his influence.



In Soul Reaver 2 Raziel travelled back in time 30 years before the events of Blood Omen. Initially, he doesn't find any evidence that the elder god actually existed in this era. However, during the paradoxical moment where he threatened to kill Moebius (and very well could have, therefore altering history), Moebius manages to convince him to spare his life by telling him that he, too, served the elder god. Raziel already didn't hold Moebius in particularly high regard, and now that he knew he was allied to the elder god, he began to distrust the elder god too. This moment clarifies exactly why Moebius is so bent on constantly trying to influence Raziel to kill Kain - because it was his master, the elder god, that wanted it to happen.



Raziel eventually does find the elder god in this earlier time period of Nosgoth's history, who chastises him for not killing Kain earlier when he had the chance, reiterating that Kain and the rest of the vampires were a poisonous scourge on the land. Raziel told him that he was unwilling to be his pawn, and was no longer interested in carrying out his plans. If he was to kill Kain, he'd do it on his own terms, for his own reasons. Later in the game, after Raziel didn't kill Kain during the paradoxical moment and he altered history by not doing so, he was sent into the future by Moebius where he found the elder god again...Raziel being somewhat surprised that the collapse of the Pillars 100 years earlier actually seemed to cause the elder god's body to grow. The elder god spurned him, becoming increasingly angry at Raziel's continued rebellion of his order to kill Kain, and Raziel began to question the elder god's motives, calling him a parasite. Following the death of Janos Audron later in the game (now 500 years before Blood Omen), Raziel met with the elder god one last time, and Raziel wondered whether the elder god had actually had anything to do with his resurrection at all. After Kain had removed the Reaver blade from Raziel and altered history, Raziel's physical form was too weak and he slipped back into the spectral realm.



In Defiance it's shown that Raziel had been kept in the spectral realm, detained by the elder god as long as he continued to defy the elder god's orders (this is what Moebius was referring to when he told Kain that Raziel was contained). Raziel certainly didn't consider the elder god to a "god", restating his earlier opinions of him being a parasite on the land. Raziel eventually decided to end the face off, and feigned loyalty to the elder god in order to convince him to release him. However, just as Raziel was actually making his escape, the elder god seemed to change his mind and tried to stop him, but Raziel got away. He then tried to prevent him from entering the material realm again by removing the portals Raziel had previously used, but Raziel found a new way to do so by inhabiting the body of a corpse in a cemetery. When he emerged, he found that 500 years had passed and he was in the Blood Omen era.



Later, Kain entered a sealed chamber within the Vampire Citadel, and found a small bath within it. The elder god (who Kain had not previously met before) spoke to him through this pool, knowing he was searching for Raziel. He informed him Raziel was in fact 500 years in the future and searching for the Heart of Darkness. Kain actually had no idea where the Heart of Darkness was, and certainly didn't suspect it was actually within him, but he feared the worst if Raziel found it (when he pulled the Reaver from Raziel at the end of Soul Reaver 2, he had seen that the Hylden would be released through Janos Audron). The elder god transported Kain into the Blood Omen era, where he would eventually face Raziel in battle, reiterating to him that Raziel was the only being with true free will. Raziel defeats Kain and pulls the Heart of Darkness from his chest, leaving him for dead.



Towards the end of the game, Moebius has been resurrected by the elder god and is speaking to him, when Kain surprises him and kills him again. Neither Moebius nor the elder god had seen this coming, they both assumed he had perished after the encounter the Raziel. In the spectral realm, as Moebius' spirit asks the elder god to restore him again, the wraith Raziel plunges his wraithblade into him, purifying Moebius' spirit and allowing him to see the elder god's true form for the first time, and he is horrified to see the entity he had worshipped for centuries. Raziel consumed his soul, but the elder god was unfazed, saying that Moebius had been a faithful servant but was of no further use to him. The elder god began to pull on the foundations of the building, threatening to bury both Kain and Raziel underneath the rubble. Raziel realised that Moebius had never seen the elder god until his spirit Reaver had allowed him to, and even the ancient vampires had no idea what it was they worshipped. He now knew what he had to do.



Raziel returned to the material realm using Moebius' corpse, and when Kain noticed the body moving again he immediately plunged his Reaver blade into it before Raziel revealed himself to him. Kain was aghast that he had just impaled Raziel, but this is what Raziel intended. He had finally embraced his destiny to become the spirit within the Reaver blade, telling Kain that the two Reavers come together to become one, and the Scion of Balance is healed - this was what the Reaver was for, this is what HE was for. He wasn't Kain's enemy, he wasn't Kain's destroyer, he was, as he was before, Kain's right hand, his sword. This healed Kain of the corruption that was within him since birth, when he had been chosen as the next Balance Guardian and was infected by Nupraptor's madness. It purified Kain, and Raziel told him he can now see the true enemy - and the elder god was revealed to him. Kain was mortified when he saw the elder god...was this what he had condemned Raziel to when he had him thrown into the abyss? With his vision purified, and empowered by the completed Soul Reaver, Kain was able to inflict damage on the elder god for the first time, slicing his tentacles cleanly through. He called him a false god and remarked that he wouldn't fear them if they couldn't do him harm, and was able to wound him enough to subdue him. As the walls of the building started to crumble, Kain escaped, leaving the building to topple on top of the elder god. Even though the elder god told him he can not be destroyed, and that Kain's death was a foregone conclusion, Kain simply responded by telling him he'd best burrow deep in the meantime, and left the chamber. As he looked out at the collapsed pillars from on top of the Vampire Citadel, he now knew that "the strings of the puppets had become visible, and the hands of the prime mover exposed". Raziel's final gift to him...more powerful than the sword that now held his soul, more acute than the vision his sacrifice had accorded him...was the first bitter taste of that terrible illusion: Hope.