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I'd be wary of using the term "original timeline" purely based on the semantics of it and the complex nature and amount of timelines in the series - as there were at least four timelines shown and possibly a fifth one prior to those if you include developer comments in the BO1 FAQ.
Ultimately Raziel postponing his fate and entering the blade willingly in the Blood Omen era (as seen in Defiance) only occurs in the fourth timeline (or fifth if you count the guide). While the end of SR2 that has Raziel being absorbed into the blade in the Sarafan era could be said to only occur in the third timeline - as that's when we 'see' it - but so much relates to and hangs from it logically that you'd have to say it occurs in prior ones too - especially since it was stated that generally history will only allow the slightest alterations to the timestream.
I.E. in order for Raziel to acquire the Wrath blade, he would have first have to have been consumed by it to break the Blood Reaver, to later to back in time to be consumed by Blood Reaver, to later be set free by a later Raziel...
OK I think I can apprieciate that paradoxes in story lines are mind bending.
It's called the bootstrap paradox and lacks explanatory power because of infinite regression. It only really works if you can accept that there's no first cause. Luckily there are other interpretations. Raziel searches for Vorador and Janos because he believes the magics they put on it caused it to trap him. It's possible the reaver was designed to imprison the hylden champion not knowing that Raziel was both.
Edit: i forgot that the pillars collapse didnt destroy Nosgoth.
In that one moment Raziel is simultaneously sacrificing himself to imprisonment in the blade but also freeing his future self from centuries of that torment.
Kain is now theoretically free to regain ownership of the pillars..... had they not already collapsed by his native time period - but there is now 'hope' that he can restore them.
At the start of Soul Reaver 2 it's shown that the base "Blood Reaver" that Raziel finds takes the Wraith Blade blade from him as the Blood Reaver must trap Raziel's soul within it in every version of history, the timeline won't allow any other outcome.
The Wraith Blade itself is a version of Raziels soul from the timeline where Kain does not stop Raziel being trapped within it, so at the time of Soul Reaver 1 & 2, Raziel is running around with 2 souls, one he uses as a weapon and the one within his body.
The Wraith Blade that Raziel uses for all of Soul Reaver 1 is a calm and "mature" version from the "Original" timeline from Blood Omen 1, at the time Kain breaks it, Raziels soul has been within it for thousands of years and has calmed down / accepted it's fate.
During the start of Soul Reaver 2, where Raziel refuses to kill Kain and the broken reaver gives Raziel the Wraith Blade back, this is a much younger and more recently trapped soul of Raziel, it's why it's got that "ravenous" mechanic as the soul of Raziel was much more recently trapped at that point in time so is still rather feral and perhaps desperate to escape.
To try and answer your original question, the Soul Reaver Kain finds in Abernus in Blood Omen 1, while it does contain the soul of Raziel at that time, After the events of Soul Reaver 2, the timeline is altered, rather dramatically.
By my understanding, Kains actions at the end of Soul Reaver 2 mean that the young Kain only found the "Blood Reaver" in Abernus, still a powerful weapon which he used as his signature from that point, but not much compared to the Raziel infused version.
As I understand it that is the whole reason Blood Omen 2 happens, Blood Omen 2 is what needed to happen for a weaker young Kain with only the Blood Reaver and not the Soul Reaver to establish his world conquering vampire empire.
If Kain had the Soul Reaver at the time of the war with the Hylden Lord, Kain would not have lost the fight and the timeline would of continued more or less the same as it did.
(The timelines being screwed about with by Kain & Raziel is of course the only reason the Hylden Lord could break through the dimensional barriers so the fight would still have happened, but if Kain had let Raziel be trapped, Blood Omen 2 would not have happened the same way, as Kain would not have lost the war by using the more powerful Soul Reaver so he would not have been in a coma for 200 years)
To put it very short!
After Kain saved Raziel in Soul Reaver 2,
Young Kain in Blood Omen 1 did not find the Raziel infused reaver, only the normal Blood Reaver.
This weaker weapon was one of the main reasons Blood Omen 2 got added onto Young Kains story, he was not an unstoppable vampire lord with a near unbeatable weapon anymore.
Thanks for your explaination :P
There is a base 'Blood Reaver' (or simply 'The Reaver') that drains blood and does not contain Raziel soul, and it is destined to trap Raziel soul in every timeline. However the branching point between BO2 and the rest of the series is the end of SR2. Either Raziel goes into the blade in the Sarafan era, or goes in at the Blood Omen era and the blade goes back in time after we've seen it. That's the main change. All the major events we've seen in previous games - be it BO1, SR2 or SR2 - stay the same, only the background events that fill in the gaps change
The Reaver that Kain finds in Avernus in BO1 is still the 'Soul Reaver' version in the 'new' timeline of BO2/Defiance - it still contains the soul devouring wraith Raziel inside - that does not change. Hence the blade in BO2 is also the 'Soul Reaver'. What does change is Raziel's actions before being absorbed into the blade - the key is he revives Janos which in turn allows the Hylden Lord/SarafanLord/Dark Entity to possess Janos, use him to open the Hylden Gate and begin a secret Hylden takeover.
The reason Kain is beaten with the Soul Reaver in BO2 is openly stated in that game - the Nexus Stone nullified the power of the Soul Reaver. Much like the effect of Moebius' staff on the Wraith Blade in SR2, the nexus stone means that the Soul Reaver is little better than an ordinary sword when Kain confronts the Sarafan Lord at the start of BO2. That's why he is beaten.
But at the end of Defiance, when Raziel willingly lets himself be trapped within Kain's sword.
Doesn't that mean that the reaver Kain was using for for the whole of defiance did not have Raziel's soul within it?
Unless the reaver that Kain uses to fight the elder god has two Raziels within it, but I never got that detail, I suppose it technically does have 2 of Raziel's soul because it absorbs both the wraith blade & Raziel himself.
What I always took from it was the "original" timeline had a corrupted & wild Raziel within the Soul Reaver and it was a corrupted weapon.
The events of Soul Reaver 2 & Defiance were detailing the process of Raziel purifing himself during all the extra time he had after Kain postponed his imprisonment and then willingly accepting his fate, rather than being forced into it, meaning the power was significantly more stable as it was now willing.
As for the nexus stone, I don't have any details to confirm it, but I had always thought that the fact the reaver no longer had Raziel's soul within it was the reason that a magic stone was enough too nullify it, as the Blood Reaver was still a magically enhanced weapon, but no where near as powerful.
(Also to add, isn't the reason that the Soul Reaver shattered over Raziel's head in Soul Reaver 1, because that reaver already had the rabid version of Raziel's soul within it, it had no room to absorb another Raziel and broke apart freeing the Wraith Blade for Raziel to claim.
Surely at the end of Defiance, if Kain was using a soul imbued reaver, it would of simply broken again when attempting to absorb Raziel while already having him within it)
It does mean that, because at the end of SR2 Kain spared Raziel. Throughout the game Kain is carrying the same sword. But at the end of Defiance Raziel is absorbed, creating the Soul Reaver - and that's the blade that young Kain will eventually find in Avernus and later use in the fight with Sarafan Lord in BO2. The Reaver always becomes the Soul Reaver, just at different points in different timelines.
As Baziel Moon stated before - the Reaver only absorbs Raziel, while the purified Wraith Blade is dispersed into Kain. That was confirmed by the developers by the way.
Yes indeed. In terms of narrative Defiance does follow up SR2 and Kain has picked up the (Blood) Reaver from the end of SR2. Because they changed history it's empty and only at the end of Defiance does Raziel get trapped inside creating the Soul Reaver (for the first time in this new timeline). This new blade will eventually go back in time to be held by William the Just and then go back again to be picked up by a younger Kain to go through BO1,BO2, SR1 and become the wraith blade after it shatters. There is only one Reaver in history btw - it loops around to meet itself several times but there is only one.
No, there's only one Raziel soul in the new Reaver at that time, it's quite subtle in the final scene but was explained more thoroughly by devs and scripts. As Raziel is sacrificing himself to create the Soul Reaver, the Spirit Reaver wraith blade - future Raziel himself - is actually being dispersed into Kain. It heals his injuries and purifies him of the corruption that has plagued him since his birth before being completely dispersed. That's the ultimate poetic beauty of that scene - Raziel is simultaneously imprisoning himself and freeing himself from the imprsionment at the same time - and putting in place the mechanism to restore the pillars as he does it.
This isn't too far from the mark. In the pre BO2/Defiance timeline (I'm wary of saying 'original' because there are more than one previous timeline in the series and three different ones are seen in SR2 alone) we had a bitter Raziel who was sucked into the blade driven mad and ravenous through centuries of hunger and imprisonment. Now we have a Raziel who has willingly sacrificed himself to the blade and know's he'll eventually get out - but he's still tortured by centuries of impriosnment and hunger - that's the key.
Whether him accepting his fate before he went in had any effect on the SR's temperament has yet to be seen, but whatever effect it has it'll only be on the physical SR going forward. Raziel of course was purifying the wraith blade instead and that goes into Kain to purify him, not into the physical Reaver.
As above. The Reaver blade in BO2 has Raziel's soul within and is acknowledged throughout as the 'Soul Reaver' - ie containing a soul devouring component, Raziel. (Interestingly part of the clever trick they pulled particularly in SR2 was calling it the "Reaver" as shorthand for the "Soul Reaver" when "Reaver" was it's original name and "Soul Reaver" what it was called after it started devouring souls - to mask the fact you're holding different versions of it) The Nexus stone apparently disables the 'Wraith blade' component - much like Moebius's staff - making the SR blade, as you say "still a magically enhanced weapon, but no where near as powerful".
Sort of. The Soul Reaver shattered in SR1 because of the paradoxical nature of the situation: you're feeding past Raziel to future Raziel - then how did future Raziel get there to even attempt to devour past Raziel? That kind of thing is a microcosm of what causes most of the paradoxes and timeline changes in the series.
For the reason above, were Kain to have had a 'Soul Reaver' at the end of Defiance then it may have shattered, yes, but as stated above Kain's 'Reaver' is indeed empty at the time of the end of Defiance - only at the very end does it become the true Soul Reaver and get used by Kain to fight the Elder God.
Hope this clears things up a bit.... I spend way too much time invested in the minute details of this series