Kain gleaned little information regarding the forces behind the Pillars' corruption during his quest, finding only a few references to the Cult of Hash'ak'gik in the Library of Willendorf and Hash'ak'gik's altar in Avernus Cathedral. Of which you are the tragic ”hero.”" ―The Dark Entity Don’t you see? My silencing of Ariel, and its calculated repercussions, is but the first act in my theatre of Grand Guignol. Defying the Dark Entity's will, Mortanius guided Kain in a quest to slaughter the mad sorcerers and restore their Pillars, seeking to ensure that a new Circle of Nine could rise to replace the old.
During one of these periods of respite, Mortanius hired assassins to murder the human nobleman Kain, and subsequently revived him as a powerful vampire, in a desperate bid to purge the Circle of its corrupt members. "In constant conflict" with his possessor, Mortanius struggled to redeem himself for "inviting" these dark forces and enabling the Pillars to be compromised. Over the ensuing thirty years, the Dark Entity maintained his hold over Mortanius, though his control was not unhindered - sometimes, Mortanius was able to assert his own shattered will. His mental onslaught drove the entire Circle to irrevocable insanity, and invoked the corruption of the Pillars. The Mind Guardian Nupraptor, Ariel's lover, soon found her corpse, and - "wracked with grief and tormented by suspicions of treachery" - plunged into madness, and turned his powers against his fellow Guardians. Mortanius' seduction provided him the opportunity he sought in an "expertly calculated" move, he murdered the Balance Guardian, Ariel, through Mortanius' body.
Over many years, the cult blossomed and spread, and the Dark Entity managed to possess Mortanius himself. Attached to the name Hash'ak'gik, he and his followers attracted a considerable number of worshippers in their travels. In the first timeline, long prior to the events of Blood Omen, the enigmatic Dark Entity - bent on destroying the Pillars of Nosgoth - utilized human possession to seduce the Guardians Mortanius and Azimuth to his cause in Avernus. The corruption of the Pillars of Nosgoth. The Dark Entity murders Ariel through the body of Mortanius.
Profile "Did it not occur to you that perhaps my cause, and not yours, is the cause of right? Of justice? That your ambition to rule this world is but the youthful craving of a petty noble who has gained too much power, but never enough." ―The Sarafan Lord Calculated Repercussions "You thought yourself a king when in fact you were a pawn! You have served me well, Kain." ―The Dark Entity However, he was slain by Kain at the Hylden City before his plan could reach its fruition. Following a major temporal paradox created by Raziel and Kain in Soul Reaver 2, the Hylden Lord succeeded in escaping into the Material Realm, reviving the Sarafan and attempting to conquer Nosgoth entirely. Initially introduced in Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain as the malevolent force in control of Mortanius, his true identity, ambitions and motives against the Circle of Nine are further explored throughout successive installments.Īs the leader of the militant Hylden trapped within the Demon Realm by the original Circle of Nine, the Hylden Lord orchestrated the murder of Ariel in an effort to topple the Pillars of Nosgoth, thereby attaining both freedom and vengeance. The Hylden Lord, also alternatively known as the Dark Entity, the Unspoken, the Sarafan Lord, Hash'ak'gik or the Hylden General, is the primary antagonist of both Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Blood Omen 2, and a major antagonist in Legacy of Kain: Defiance.