| abstract | - The Elder God is a video game character in the Legacy of Kain series, voiced throughout the series by Tony Jay. Although not named in-game, the title of Elder God is given in the manual of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and a variety of other sources. The Elder God's role in Soul Reaver is that of an ally to the game's protagonist Raziel, but subsequent games in the series portray the Elder God in a less beneficent light. The Elder God is the final boss of Legacy of Kain: Defiance, and arguably the main antagonist of the series overall. The Elder God is first depicted in Soul Reaver as the entity that revives the main character Raziel after his execution by Kain. In this game, he talks to Raziel anywhere he is, but in subsequent games he only talks to him when Raziel meets him physically. It claims to preside over the Wheel of Fate, a cycle of birth, death and rebirth to which all souls are drawn. Vampires, being immortal, are exempt from this cycle and the Elder God seeks to destroy them in order to free their souls. The Elder God bids Raziel to take revenge against his destroyers and guides Raziel in locating them. At the end of the game, he tells Raziel that he will be beyond his influence if he goes through the time portal after Kain. The events of Soul Reaver 2 take place at an earlier point chronologically in the series, but the Elder God, being omnipresent, recognizes Raziel and chastises his refusal to kill Kain. There is no apparent animosity between the Elder God and Raziel throughout the first Soul Reaver game, but in Soul Reaver 2 Raziel greets him with disdain, having learned of the Elder's ties to Moebius the Timestreamer. In Legacy of Kain: Defiance the Elder God continues to exhort Raziel to serve him. Over the course of the game it is revealed that the Elder God was worshiped by the Ancient Vampires, and it encouraged the Ancients to wage war with the Hylden, who did not share their faith. When the Hylden afflicted the Ancients with blood-thirst, sterility and immortality, the Elder God abandoned them, eventually orchestrating the rebellion of the humans against the Vampires by manipulating Moebius. The final battle in Defiance ends with Kain defeating but not killing the Elder God, who warns Kain he is immortal and will return.
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