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This is one of mah favorites. The story is too awesome for words. Which is unfortunate, because words are all I have here. Well, pics, too. Anyway! Major spoilers to follow! I recommend that you read on, though. Why? It'll be difficult for you to play all the games. So I'll try and share the LoK mythos the best way I can.

--Important Objects--

The Blood Reaver
An enchanted sword forged by Vorador of bone, carbon, and a secret alloy of steel. It has the ability to draw in the blood of the enemies attacked with it, and channel it into magical energy for the weilder's use. It was forged for one reason alone: to be used by Raziel to realign Kain's skewed destiny.

The Soul Reaver
When the Blood Reaver absorbs the blood of a certain individual, it will meld with the same's soul to be released as a new weapon entirely. It is the key to fate's lock, and plays the most important role in restoring Nosgoth.

The Wraith Blade
In the first battle between Kain and Raziel, the solid blade of the Soul Reaver is broken upon striking Raziel. The impact destroyed his body as well, and his spirit faded into the spectral realm. There he was greeted by the very soul that the Reaver contained, still bound to a blade-like form. As Raziel touched the shimmering soul, it bound itself to him in a symbiotic coil, the two souls wrapped around each other permanently. From that point onward, Raziel carried it with him, unlocking the doors to restore Kain's destiny. At one point during a trip into the past, Raziel finds that Moebius can seal the blade away, unusable. So Raziel takes up the Blood Reaver, given him by Janos Audron, and uses it to break into the Sarafan's fortress, where they hide with the tainted Circle. As Vorador does his dark deed on young Kain's behalf, Raziel realizes the true identity of the Sarafan's mysterious killer. It is none other than he. He impales his human self, and the Blood Reaver's enchantment is fully released as it drinks in his blood. It then moves on its own to impale the time-traveling Raziel, in an attempt to force him into his fate as its new soul. He is surprisingly rescued by Kain in the last instant, who keeps the partially-aroused Blood Reaver for himself.

Kk, that lost me about halfway through the timeline...

--Raziel's Story--

Raziel began life as a human nobleman, excelling at sword combat. Not long after coming of age, he would go on to join the ranks of the vampire-hating Sarafan.

Together with his comrades, Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dum'ah, and Turel, Raziel leads the vast armies of the Sarafan to all-but eliminate the "plague" of vampirism. Only two remain alive--the last of the Ancients, Janos Audron, and the very first human-turned-vampire, Vorador. At long last, the Circle of Nine direct the Sarafan, and they soon discover Janos' stronghold.

Raziel himself slays the Ancient, tearing his heart from his chest, and stealing the Blood Reaver as trophies to take back to their stronghold. Shortly thereafter, Vorador and a second mysterious figure appear to avenge Janos Audron. While Vorador fights off and then slaughters the entirety of the Nine, his dark compatriot tracks down and destroys the six highest-ranking Sarafan warriors.

In a coup de grace, the creature saves Raziel for last, impaling him upon the Blood Reaver it had stolen from the Sarafan vaults. Moments afterward, a third, previously unknown vampire arrives to take the Blood Reaver and abscond with it as the mysterious wraith disappears into thin air.

Centuries later, the young vampire Kain would discover the tomb of the vampire's most hated nemeses in their history--the six Sarafan priests. In a delicious twist of cruel irony, Kain used his powerful vampiric gifts to give flesh and new life to the old bones. Raziel, Melchiah, Zephon, Rahab, Dum'ah, and Turel are born again as vampires one-by-one, with no memory of their lives as humans.

For a thousand years, they spread their dark seed, and managed to subjugate nearly all of the Nosgothic world. One day, true to the new vampire breed's nature, Raziel goes through an evolutionary stage, as his kind often do every decade or so.

Instead of mirroring one of his master Kain's existing powers or characteristics as normal, Raziel expressed a new change before his sire: a set of skeletal wings. Upon presenting this change to Kain, Raziel is shocked and horrified when Kain tears the new wings off in a fit of jealousy.

As further punishment for this "insult," Kain commands Turel and Dum'ah to cast Raziel into the Lake of the Dead, which swirls about a portal to the Underworld.

Waking up to find that he still lived some way, Raziel discovered that his new body, though frail and decrepit, exhibited immense superhuman strength and augmented vampiric powers. His bloodthirst had been replaced by a darker need: the appetite for freshly liberated souls.

The Elder speaks to him, and convinces Raziel that he spared him. In reality, Raziel's unique nature is what prevented his soul from returning to the Wheel of Fate.

Raziel then embarks on a quest with his newfound powers, killing his former brethren one at a time and absorbing their dark gifts (Melchiah's ability to phase through solid matter; Zephon's ability to cling spiderlike to any surface; Rahab's resistance to the vampire's weakness to water; Dum'ah's ability to concentrate and direct concussive energy.)

After tracking down Kain, Raziel is defeated in battle, and attacked with the Soul Reaver, an upgraded version of the Blood Reaver. The blade breaks upon touching Raziel's flesh, revealing that a deranged, chaotic ancient soul is its core. Raziel and this soul touch, and the core of the Reaver attaches itself to him as the Wraith Blade.

Thus armed, Raziel follows and confronts Kain in the derelict Sarafan stronghold, in the chambers of the last, long-dead human Time Guardian, Moebius. They do battle, and Raziel wounds his former master. Not wishing to continue the fight as such, Kain activates Moebius' ancient time machine, the Chronoplast.

The two tumble through the timestream, to emerge in the era of Moebius' last crusade against the vampires. The Sarafan are long dead, and the armies of Moebius fight in honor of the six who fell after the killing of Janos Audron.

Raziel finds that the device is now inoperable, and Kain has fled. Exploring the old, still-lush and beautiful Nosgoth as it was before Kain destroyed it in his future takeover, Raziel begins unlocking the secrets of the ancient world, and discovers that he and Kain are both a part of something much larger than either of them could imagine.

Finally, Raziel finds Kain at the Pillars of Nosgoth, and the two exchange words, but do not fight. Kain reveals that he has been the new Balance Guardian since his birth, and Raziel looks upon the Pillars in perfect condition for the first time. In the next instant, the two witness the Pillars crack, break, and turn black with corruption. The Mind Guardian has discovered his lover dead, and gone insane. He has spread his infection to the remaining guardians as well.

Kain goes on to explain that somewhere, miles away, his human self has just been born to replace the newly-dead Balance Guardian, Ariel. Raziel leaves the Pillars and speaks to Vorador, and explores the ruins around Vorador's domicile. Murals created by the ancient vampires depict a power struggle, and Raziel begins to realize that somehow, he is a major part of it.

He leaves to return to the Sarafan stronghold to find the Soul Reaver laid across the tomb of King William the Just, a nemesis of a much younger, time-traveling Kain. The incarnation of Kain that Raziel has been chasing is here, waiting. Raziel takes it up, and is presented with a choice: Kill Kain now, and restore balance, but leave the secret plot of Moebius in motion, or wait a while to see how things play out.

Raziel, to everyone's shock (particularly Kain's) spares his former master's life, and departs the stronghold by way of a second Chronoplast. He arrives 100 years in the future to discover that the vampires have been very nearly driven to extinction once more, but not by Moebius or the Sarafan; a race of hideous extra-dimensional beings have torn their way into Nosgoth and done the deed themselves.

They speak to Raziel by name, and seem to have intimate knowledge of the goings-on of Nosgoth, in regards to the corruption of the Pillars and Kain's fate.

Finally managing to escape, Raziel uses a third Chronoplast to travel back to the age of the Sarafan: the very time of his forgotten human life.

Horrified by what he and his brethren did to the benevolent Janos Audron, and shocked to find that all the old stories about the man were completely fabricated, Raziel chases the Sarafan to their stronghold, and slaughters the whole of them with the Blood Reaver, which he stole back from his human self.

Vorador arrives as well, and kills nearly all of the Circle of Nine for revenge, and the time-traveling Kain sneaks into the stronghold, now following Raziel.

Realizing that he was the mysterious murdering phantom of the legends, Raziel renounces his human nature, and murders his past incarnation last. As his human blood touches the Reaver's blade, the enchantment upon the sword is activated, and it attempts to merge with the soul of the phantom Raziel.

He is spared in the last instant as Kain grasps the hilt of the Blood Reaver, and tears it out of Raziel's broken body. Raziel fades from physical existence to return to the spectral Underworld, where the Elder waits to enslave him.

After centuries of serving the parasite that thought itself God, Raziel escapes from the clutches of the Elder, and returns to the world of the living, seeking the heart of Janos Audron, in hopes of restoring the dead Ancient.

He eventually discovers that the heart was used by Mortanius, the Guardian of Death, to turn Kain into an artificial vampire, at the beginning of his life. Raziel seeks Kain out, and finds him in Avernus Cathedral, a former haven for vampires.

He and Kain battle, and Raziel manages to tear the heart from Kain's chest, in exactly the same manner that his human self tore it from Janos. He travels to Vorador's estate and returns the heart to its owner.

Janos takes Raziel to the place where he must fulfill his destiny: the city of the Ancients. At the center of the complex, there is a spiritual forge intended for Raziel's use. He activates the device, and the souls of all former Balance Guardians are drawn from the Underworld to Raziel and absorbed by his Wraith Blade.

The blue glow is replaces by a white light as the vampiric element of Balance transforms the weapon into a new creation: the Spirit Reaver. Raziel realizes its true purpose, and reveals that he has always been the soul at the core of the Reaver. He tricks a resurrected Kain into impaling him upon the Blood Reaver, by possessing the murdered body of Moebius. The body realigns itself to take Raziel's form, and Kain tries desperately to undo what he has done.

Raziel refuses, and forgives Kain for what he did at the end of Raziel's vampire life. He reaffirms his loyalty to Kain, stating that had always been and would always be Kain's right hand--his sword.

Kain reveals that it was not jealousy that motivated his actions, but fatalism. He had Raziel killed because it had to be done to set things in motion to restore Nosgoth. In fact, Kain implies that it hurt him to have to perform such a horrible act against his own son.

With his dying breath, Raziel tells Kain he is free to fulfill his true destiny, and passes the Spirit Reaver on to Kain. The time-twinned soul of the blade combines with Kain's incomplete vampire soul, to create a new being, fit to restore Nosgoth.

Raziel himself is merged with the Blood Reaver, creating the Soul Reaver. Thus his story ends.