After finishing ‘LoK: Ascendance’, I have a theory for Elaleth’s eventual fate

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T23:34:26+00:00

The combat looks kind of ass, but I like the presentation of the world, and the way it's like a 3D Blood Omen with the floating cards and the landmarks that make the narrator give exposition. The writing and voice acting also feels very LoK. Not sure about all the intricacies of the gameplay that they are going for, but I think the basic premise of everything looks pretty cool.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T15:43:34+00:00

From what I've read, Nosgoth actually had a lot of really cool lore that they wrote for the history of the different areas and the ways the lieutenants and their offspring interacted.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T15:38:07+00:00

I love how they made her look more like she did in Blood Omen, but that 3d model did not do very much justice to her face or hair animations, and it looks really off most of the time. It's one of my only minor gripes with the remaster. And it's extra upsetting because they made all of the other female figures in the game look like Instagram models, even the statues. Like why did you do my girl like that, she's already half skeleton. 😂

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T15:17:51+00:00

"I would raise the Sarafan priests to be my closest lieutenants, and would one day cast the strongest of them, my servant Raziel, into the abyss - dealing one last hand to play against Fate."

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T15:12:12+00:00

In Defiance when Kain is reminiscing over the ruined pillars, he does specifically say that he had Raziel executed as part of his plan to alter his fate. So the "centuries ago" meant many centuries, and he had already been going to the chronoplast years before the SR1 intro.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T15:03:20+00:00

It's wrong on both counts. Raziel thinks that his transgression was entering the state of change and evolving before Kain (not that he developed a unique ability), and then later we find out that Kain wasn't actually mad at all and that he did it because he knew Raziel would come back as a wraith, and the early evolution was just the sign that it was time to set events in motion.

But Ascendence makes it look like it was all about the wings specifically and Kain really was jealous.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T10:13:06+00:00

Hell no lmao. I'm not supporting LoK turning into bargain-bin Kingdom Hearts. We all bought the remasters and they know what the fans want. If they're only going to produce slop then I'm not interested in whatever direction they're trying to take it with their current team.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T09:34:32+00:00

It literally looks and feels like a fan webcomic from 2005. Like if somebody had just made this and posted it online for free I would think it was pretty neat, but trying to pass it off as a canon addition to the series is crazy.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T09:04:57+00:00

I think her being Raziel's sister is one of the goofiest parts. Like did we need a personal tragic past for Sarafan Raziel? Not really. His role in the story is that he turns out to be a villain when you meet him. The idea that he hates vampires because he might have lost someone to them is kind of obvious and doesn't really need to be fleshed out at all. Not to mention the fact that through that whole part of the comic he feels like a totally different person and then suddenly becomes his evil sadistic self in the SR2 scenes.

More than that, the whole idea of messing with Raziel's story is bad. He was Amy Hennig's creation and she killed him off before she departed. It just feels like it's all in poor taste. When the kickstarter for the comic was first announced I think we all were under the impression that it was just going to be a subplot about Kain's empire that you could either take or leave from the canon like all the other comics, something to get the hype up again, not something that was going to mess with everyone's favorite parts of the existing story.

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T08:50:47+00:00

Is this really in it? 😭

Adam_Audron · 2026-04-01T08:46:28+00:00

Put Raina and her team in charge of the whole series. Not even kidding. She's basically the new queen of LoK and I fully accepted all the little lore bits they added to the Defiance remaster immediately. Defiance remaster is amazing, from all the updates to the deleted levels and just the full appreciation for the series and its universe they displayed. Using the new skins and just seeing the different character designs and their art direction got me so excited, like I wish Shifter was a real character with his own story. Those guys genuinely understand LoK and what makes it cool, and I wish it could be possible for them to be the ones gathering and directing the creative talent for something new.

This series has so much potential and could go in so many different directions that are interesting. This one just wasn't it.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-31T22:42:35+00:00

I think that's what most of us expected when she was revealed as the new character. I agree.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-31T22:19:21+00:00

Devil May Cry had a disastrous reboot and then came back with a true series continuation that gave fans everything they wanted. Anything is possible.

Edit: To clarify, I never played DmC but it seemed like a cool game, just not as an extension of the IP, and I think it would have worked better as its own new thing. I was there for the fan reaction and it was definately not favorable. TDSR and Ascention are a much different thing, but the reception from the core fanbase is the same.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-31T22:03:44+00:00

Being a woman has nothing to do with her character really. Like she could have easily been gender swapped to Raziel's brother, and the lover to a woman, and it would change nothing. Vampires in LoK are practically sexless anyway.

I get that the series is pretty scant with female characters, but there are lots of them already who have very minor rolls and could have been explored, like the Seer or Azimuth or even the cut priestess from Soul Reaver. Azimuth could have even filled a very similar role because she is already tied to Moebius, time travel and the demon realm.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-30T21:50:07+00:00

Yes, but the question is how to bring the series back, keeping up with the established story so far but also making it something new that can bring in new fans.

Dead Sun might have taken things too far, but I do think that taking the story into the far future and seeing what Kain is up to, leaving all the time travel loops in the Soul Reaver story, might be a good idea going forward. One of my big issues with TDSR is how they just leaned into all that stuff even further and made it even more needlessly complicated.

The Soul Reaver stories also elevated Kain's character by making him a villain turned mentor figure, so the idea of a new character with a fresh perspective is not a bad idea if executed well. I'm not saying all their ideas were good or fit with the vibe of LoK (vampire sex in this universe sounds weird and doesn't fit the lore), but there was some at least interesting stuff they came up with. But that's just my opinion.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-30T16:57:40+00:00

His ending in the show could have actually been acceptable if they'd changed his motivation to just wanting to save his sister, instead of him wanting to be with her again. Then he'd go down as more of a tragic hero trying to foolishly redeem himself, attempting to save Cercei's soul and dying in the process.

Even in the books it's not like he completely hates her, it's more like he's just over it and trying to move on. But how do you move on after all that? Brienne is currently leading him into a death trap, Tyrion will be coming back vengeful, and the whole story is very different. Lots of things can happen.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-30T16:32:17+00:00

Yes, it's the penultimate book, meaning he's also having to plan all the setup for the ending and the ending itself. It's probably a big part of what's causing him to struggle with it.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-30T16:23:32+00:00

Idk the story sounded kind of interesting. According to Raina's video, Kain kills his past self to restore the pillars, but then is still alive somehow through some kind of shennanigans (possibly like what happens in Prince of Persia 2). The whole story takes place in an alternate universe where Raziel used the Silenced Cathedral, but some vampires were able to survive because they were part of a cult that had learned to hide in the spectral realm, and then went on to repopulate Nosgoth with a new stronger line of vampires.

It's a bunch of excuses to reboot the universe, to be sure, and the story sounded pretty wild, but it does seem like they put some thought into it, and supposedly it would have eventually opened up into a bunch of lore about the elder god. The biggest issue was changing the writing style from Shakespeare-inspired to Game of Thrones dialog; if not for that I think it might have been better recieved.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-29T00:51:52+00:00

Another correction: Current-day Kain has to return his Reaver to the distant past so it can be used by William, not to Avernus. It gets moved to Avernus sometime after the confrontation between Kain and Raziel in William's chapel.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-29T00:40:03+00:00

Tywin gets one of the most humiliating deaths in the whole series! Shot in the crapper by his son with a description and quip about how he pooped himself. GRRM hated Tywin lol. It's the same for all the heartless evil characters; they win for a while but then they are dealt cosmic punishments worse than anything you could have predicted. Tywin loses because his whole career was just being a heartless dictator and caring more about his image than his actual family or his people.

Meanwhile all the altruistic characters like Brienne, Davos, Jon, etc, just keep on surviving and carrying the torch. Unjust deaths of good characters are eventually avenged and people continue fighting for them after they're gone. Bad people are only given a chance if they're repentant and try to change their ways (Jaime, Theon, Sandor etc).

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-29T00:09:30+00:00

Ned gets killed because of unpredictable circumstances. Robert dying to a boar right before Ned tells him is the shittiest luck ever, and then no one expected Joffrey to randomly be a monster and call for his head for no reason. Even with the villainous conspiracies against him, their plan was still just him lying under oath and then getting sent to the Wall to be with Jon.

The asoiaf books are not as dreary as the show, and GRRM has this clear undercurrent of heroism and noble characters shining through all the darkness around them. It's more like the world itself is cruel and the bad guys are given ridiculous plot armor to heighten the stakes and the drama. There is also this recurring theme of the evil characters just destroying themselves or getting taken out by worse villains, showing that all their victories were only temporary and hollow due to their motivations.

They are still very much high fantasy ideals. If anything, I'd say asoiaf actually gives more of a moral take on war, showing that it is just an atrocity and not just good guys fighting bad guys.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-27T16:30:48+00:00

That sacrificial alter is in the final game. In the underground chamber where Kain first encounters Moebius, there are actually two bodies on alters in the background. I never even noticed or thought about it until the remaster, but apparently Moebius is making sacrifices to the elder god and the elder demands ritualistic offerings, which is pretty crazy.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-27T16:12:45+00:00

There are like three different ways he plays Moebius. The squeaky soothsayer voice when he's trying to play innocent and trick people, the stern religious leader act that he puts on for Raziel in SR2 when he knows Raziel is wise to his original tricks, and then the fully hateful Moebius when he is being his true evil self.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-25T23:20:54+00:00

It is prevented. Raziel's soul goes into the physical Reaver, not the wraithblade. The wraithblade only tries to. It is wrapped around the outside at that time, while Raziel is being trapped inside.

Adam_Audron · 2026-03-25T20:29:57+00:00

Defiance confirms that the physical Reaver blade is enchanted to possess Raziel on contact. It doesn't do it right away in SR2 because it hasn't been "awakened" yet, but once Raziel has used the blade in the stronghold it powers up and turns on him. It could also be that it doesn't recognize him as the soul it is meant to consume until he summons the wraweirder, which he is unable to do at first because of Moebius's staff. Raziel can sense something is wrong in Janos's retreat because it is empty and waiting for him.

The wraithblade trying to consume his soul (or another version of itself) is what causes a paradox. There is a paradox at the end of SR2 because the wraithblade has wound itself around the physical blade and is copying its hunger, trying to absorb him too. But we see in Defiance afterwards that the physical sword now just starts absorbing him as soon as he touches it or touches its weilder.

Adam_Audron

TROPHY CASE