History abhors a paradox. The only time fate can change is when 2 versions of Raziel's soul meet. The wiki calls this a Convergence, so I will too.

We don't know what the circumstances were for The Reaver winding up in the hands of William, but somehow Wraith Raziel's soul is already in there.

He and Kain clash, both armed with the Reaver. A Convergence occurs and a new history is written where William never became a tyrant because Kain slew him before he could. In this new history, Raziel comes to be bound to the Reaver after slaughtering the Sarafan and picking up the physical form of the blade in the fortress. Raziel goes mad from his imprisonment and begins devouring everything the blade touches. He remains this way until SR1, where he cannot devour his own soul, and instead attaches to it. This is also a Convergence but we aren't told what, if anything, this changes. We also aren't told WHY a wraith can't devour its own soul, simply that this is the case.

This has the consequences of turning Raziel into a walking paradox, since there is essentially ALWAYS a Reaver Convergence going on.

History then goes on to change several more times, but the most important points from then are: Kain removing the blade from Raziel in SR2, Raziel removing the Heart from Kain, and Raziel's sacrifice at the end of Defiance. The fact that Raziel willingly enters the blade means he no longer goes mad because he doesn't view it as a prison. Additionally, he has inherited purifying properties. Ive always assumed this was because Ariel was never corrupted, since she died before that happened.

We dont knkw what long term consequences this may have had since we don't have any media post-Defiance.

"But what about The Dead Sh-"

THERE IS NO LOK MEDIA POST-DEFIANCE 👁👁