Showing posts with label Raziel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Raziel. Show all posts

Friday 25 December 2020

The Arcane Tomes - The Soul Reaver video

Merry Christmas to all and hope you had a great day today! After many months of working on this video, I finally present you the latest update to the Arcane Tomes series which deals with the Soul Reaver blade in great depth. Dive in for this over hour long analysis of the legendary blade:



Reaver timelines download link




Tuesday 1 November 2016

My Raziel cosplay at London Comic Con October 2016

As it just turned 20th anniversary of Blood Omen and 15th of Soul Reaver 2, I wanted to do something special. This October´s London Comic Con provided a good opportunity to do so and was my first where I have actually participated as a cosplayer. The choice what to cosplay was pretty obvious right from the start to me - what better choice than my favourite wraith himself?

My first obstacle was how to recreate muscle like tissue on top of my own body. I have seen other cosplayers do protruding muscle suits, but I have felt this would be too difficult to achieve in my first cosplay idea, so I had to find a work around. Looking around on ebay, I have discovered that there is a tank top and leggings with a muscle structure already imprinted. The issue was that they did not come in blue and painting spandex is not really possible either. However, I put a transparent blue stockings and top to make it appear blue/purple. The wings themselves were not as difficult, but it took some time to discover which kind of material would do best for them and how big should they actually be (I had to cut out like 5 pairs in the end until I was finally happy with the result).


After I had the wings done, I had to figure out how to attach them to my back without attaching them to the net top. I have decided to try and use a coat hanger held onto a belt on my chest, which turned out to work well and kept the wings posable and easily removable. For the hands I had to order custom tri-fingered gloves. I covered my arms with two wristwarmers on each side to form a string of brown bandages and for the upper part I have cut up a tube bandage into two pieces and just tied it around my arm. I´ve put the golden armbands on top the wristwarmers.

The boots were one of the bigger challenges that I had to rely solely on myself, so I have purchased cheap used boots which suited the style. The huge issue was how to create the protruding exposed double toes, which are so specific about Raziel. I have thought about it and to make the boots durable and not awkward when walking, decided to just paint a dividing line between the toes, rather than attaching something which can easily fall off. I think it came out alright in the end. Since the original boots were pure black, I purchased Angelus leather colours and applied three coats of bronze paint. The bottom part I have painted blue to indicate those are Raziel´s feet and used a lighter blue to draw the muscle going in between the toes. After the paint was sealed in, there was still a missing piece. The plates which are at the front of the boots, right above the toes, had to be cut out of the raw leather and attached with glue.


The cowl was a custom made item and was one of the most expensive items on the list. The craftsmanship of it and nice material make up for the price, though. The only problem which I faced on the convention and in general was, that while moving my head around, the cape would slide down, exposing my chin, so I have added a rubber band to the top circle of the cape so it will stay in place and I can freely move my head around.

The head itself was a challenge and I was contemplating using face paint or a mask, but a mask won because of how practical it was. I just bought a simple plain white mask,cut it up and painted it with acrylic colours. The colours were a bit damaged while I was wearing it, so a quick repaint and sealing the coat will do the trick. For the hair I purchased a black wig, which was quite cheap but fulfilled its purpose well. For the eyes I have ordered zombie eye pre-scription contacts, so I could walk around and still see sharply (I´m shortsighted). It was quite difficult to put them in at first (still takes me several tries to insert them in and out) but I got used to them. After I got home from Comic Con, I have discovered I had a balaclava, which would have been great to cover up my lower jaw, so I´ve used that for the newer shots. For the ears I have bought two pairs, one full on ears and the second pair just stick ons. Stick ons proved more practical in the end (just cut out ear slots in the balaclava so my ears can poke out and stick on blue ears can be attached).

Overal, making this cosplay was a lot of fun but even more fun was posing for people and walking around acting as Raziel, trying to do my best impression of his walking, gliding, fighting, etc (did a little "glide" down the stairs with my wings up at the end on my way to the cloak room). Looking around and breathing was a bit difficult but I knew cosplaying comes at a cost of some discomfort. Totally worth it and thanks goes to all the fans who took a picture of me and appreciated my cosplay, you made me really happy! I´ll definitely attend another comic con next year.

Resources:
Cape: 40
Wig:  8
Ears: 3
Contacts: 30
Armbands: 2
Boots: 10
Raw leather: 15
Angelus paint: 30
Bandages: 3
Gloves: 15
Wrist warmers: 6
Mask: 2
Aquarel colours: 3
Belt: 4
Coat hanger: free
Wing fabric: 10
Blue leggings+top: 8
Muscle suit: 10
Torch materials: 8

Total estimate: 200 pounds
Time needed: 1-2 weeks

Monday 16 June 2014

Gamer's Republic Soul Reaver Preview

A few weeks ago I was browsing Ebay for any magazines which would have rare SR1 info or screenshots and stumbled upon Gamer's Republic issue no. 6 from 1998. The  front cover with Raziel looked very promising... I had a hunch it will be worth it, so I purchased it almost immediately (luckily it was not expensive at all). When it arrived in the mail I was rewarded with plenty of previously unseen information and screenshots. The magazine also features and advertisement for a an official SR1 strategy guide by Millennium publications set to release in January 1999. However, in that time only the SR1 Prima guide was published as the official one. No other record of this SR1 'official' guide by Millennium supposedly exists (if anybody has any info, I'd be grateful).
 



Greenish SR1 logo


This page mentions the following info - it is unclear as whether there were 10 actual Lieutenants planned or it mistakenly lists 3 Kain Encounters and Priestess as part of the number:
''In victory against 10 clan leaders, special abilities are bestowed upon Raziel as he assimilates his victim's essence, every confrontation leading  to a greater being.''

 About the Reaver enhancements:
''Raziel starts out with only his claws to battle, but once he first confronts Kain, he destroys the Soul Reaver sword (the weapon Kain used to butcher his victims in the original game), and must claim it as his own in the spirit world. Once Raziel claims the sword, he can baptize it, as with other weapons, in streams of light, water, fire, spirit, imbued it with added strengths.''

About the Undercity and vampire worshippers:
''In religious undercity, zealot cult members will actually rush to torched vampires and split themselves open to pour blood over the vampires' charred remains, resurrecting them.''


 Close up of the Chapel area

 Rare close-up shot from the Sunlight Forge

 Rare close-up shot from the Water Forge

Previously unseen render of Raziel with lava as background (implying Turel's territory?)

Tuesday 1 April 2014

Amy Hennig IS coming back! *UPDATE*

Today we inform you that a super secret source from inside Square Enix HQ has emailed us about what every fan yearned for - that Amy Hennig is retaking Legacy of Kain! More details follow soon!

UPDATE: Our source decided to reveal himself and also sent pictures confirming the discussions he had with Amy. He says his driving force to contact her is that he has been missing in the game industry for ten years now and he got bored while being trapped in Soul Reaver. He stressed that the fact that he is not in the latest game called Nosgoth is just outrageous and demands a new LOK Game to be made!

Here are some incriminating photos he sent us:



According to him, he and Amy got their heads together and conceived a new idea for a LOK Game. Then they went back to Square together and pitched them the new title Legacy of Raziel: The Tales of the Talking Sword, which will be in the same style as critically acclaimed games such as Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us. He did not say when the production on this new LOK game will start, but we can only hope it will be soon.


On another note, Nosgoth is giving away special skin of Justin Reaver! Don´t miss this once in a year opportunity to get you this slick haired sexy golden Reaver that everybody wants!