When is this game supposed to take place?

[Gea Force]

The timeline is confusing enough with Raziel leaping back and forward in time. But when I finally start to understand the series, I play this game to close the circle and... I'm confused again, Vorador is still alive but Kain somehow has the Soul Reaver in his possession (he says something like "a price from a lifetime ago"). However, this doesn't seem to happen after Soul Reaver games either, since Kain looks significative younger.

[Dezoul]

If i remember blood omen 2 takes place 200 years after regular blood omen but before soul reaver 1. If you haven't played Defiance yet that should clear up some questions you got.

[Newblade]

It takes place before SR1, but after the changes in the timeline produced by Raziel in SR2 and Defiance (note that Janos Audron is alive).

[Agonisus]

The main gameplay of Blood Omen 2 takes place in the Post-Blood Omen era, four hundred years after the Collapse of the Pillars and two centuries after the battle of Meridian; when Kain awakened from his 'slumber' in the city of Meridian.

The events of Soul Reaver 1 occurred 'several' centuries' after Blood Omen 2 (meaning more than two centuries but not many). We can safely assume this range between 300 and 500 years after the events of Blood Omen 2. However, this does not mean that Soul Reaver takes place 300 to 500 years later. This simply means the beginning of the events that lead to the Soul Reaver game began at about this time. Let me explain this in detail....

Raziel claims to have served Kain for a millennium (a thousand years) at the opening of Soul Reaver. That statement provides us with a much more accurate timeline for which I base my own. So when the developer says these things occurred several centuries later, I personally take this to mean Kain stumbled upon the Tomb of the Sarafan 300 to 500 years after he defeated the Serefan Lord. There, he discovered the remains of Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah, and resurrected their corpses as vampires.

A thousand years later, the first scene in Soul Reaver opens with Raziel's prologue and subsequent execution. Raziel also states that hundreds of years had inexorably passed (which will assume to be another 300 to 500) when he returned to the material plane for the first time after being executed by Kain. So factoring these numbers in, the actual gameplay in Soul Reaver took place about 1600 to 1800 years after Blood Omen 2.

The events of Blood Omen 2 are an alternate timeline created by Raziel and Kain's manipulation and creation of temporal paradoxes at the end of Soul Reaver 2. (i.e. Raziel being spared from the blade due to his own soul being unable to consume itself when met by himself from the past/future.) Every time Kain or Raziel affected a change in Nosgoth's path, it changed history, including elements of Kain's own past leading to present day. It was from these changes Blood Omen 2 came to be, and you experience Kain's re-written past.

In reference to Kain's younger appearance in Blood Omen 2, you can assume that he is roughly 600 years old at the time of his awakening in Meridian. (Reference first paragraph)

Kain appeared much more human during the events of BO / BO 2 as he had not yet experienced his first molting / metamorphosis (more on this later). The torpor he did experience was directly due to being severely injured by the Sarafan Lord and in that state he could not evolve as he was clinging to a mere thread of life.

That's why the traitorous vampires thought he would be easy to defeat because he was in a coma, and during that time, their powers had grown where his had waned. Even then, Vampires like Faust, Marcus, Sebastion and the others remained human in their appearance because they were young. Neither Kain or they had yet to experience a physiological change of state by this point in time.

In regards to the age / appearance of vampires in the Legacy of Kain universe, Over time, they enter periodic 'states of change'. When they emerge from a state of change in the early years, they do so with new Dark Gifts. These gifts are generally supernatural 'powers' by nature and are generally things that make the vampire a more effective predator. (i.e. moving faster, jumping higher or farther than a normal human, channeling rage or fury to increase strength, or mental powers like pyrokinesis and or dominating the minds of lesser beings, etc.

However. As the centuries go on and a vampire gets older, the changes are less in the way of Dark Gifts (powers) and far more physiological in nature. Their bodies evolve and change to appear less human and more... 'divine'. These physiological mutations eventually make them look more like the ancient Vampyres who passed the Hylden curse of bloodlust and immortality to humans in order to serve as replacement Piller Guardians. These changes are anatomical mutations such as denser and or re-shaped bone structures, tougher skin, alterations to appendages like the hands and feet, bestial facial features, eyes, etc.

Kain cited in the original Blood Omen when speaking to Vorador, that this (referencing Vorador's inhuman appearance) was the monster that he himself would become over time.

Vorador was very old and at the time of Blood Omen, had to have already under went several changes of state and it was evident in his bestial appearance. His skin had hardened like armor, molding taut about an inhuman bone structure that gave him the appearance of a bat-like humanoid in visage. He no longer had five fingers like other far younger vampires. He adapted the three-finger, two-toed archetype of the Ancient Vampyres, Etc.

The Elder Kain is later depicted in game as having similar bat/beast-like characteristics, traits that marked him as an elder amongst his peers. Raziel, Turel, Dumah, Rahab, Zephon and Melchiah, also bore some of these features (hands and feet), though far less than Kain and Vorador as the younger lieutenant's faces still retained a human visage (At the opening of Soul Reaver)

It can be assumed that Vorador at the time of the original Blood Omen was likely at about Kain's age and power at the time of Defiance. At any rate, based on the aforementioned numbers and reference citations, Kain is between 2200 and 2400 years old by the events of Defiance. Basically, the older a vampire gets, the more powerful they become. In fact, official game descriptions written by the developer themselves cite that Kain is an 'all-powerful demigod' at the time of Defiance.

I imagine that if a vampire were to age well beyond this they would eventually adapt a corrupted form of the Ancient Vampyres with large leathery wings, and other bat/demon-like features, along with longer arms, a stooped posture and or the ability to move on all fours like some kind of dragon-bat looking... thing...

[Gea Force]

So, If I got that right, Human Raziel killed Janos Audron and took his heart. Reaver Raziel from the future killed himself. But then the blood reaver absorbed his soul creating the soul reaver. But then in another timeline Kain saved Raziel's soul from being absorbed creating THIS timeline, where Raziel would save Janos Audron.
Phew. this guy messes everything arround whenever he goes

[Agonisus]

Pretty much. The Soul Reaver broke when it struck Raziel because it was his soul in the blade and it could not consume itself. Due to there being two Raziels in one moment in time, Raziel's spirit in the blade (future) and his body / spirit which was manifested in the material plane (past) meeting at the exact same place / time in the universe, resulted in a shattered blade which released the future Raziel's spirit from the Soul Reaver Blade and in turn bonded to the other Raziel, forming the wraithblade on his hand. Whew... This is a mouthfull..

This is why time travel should never be attempted by man. The results will make us all crazy.

[bug12lm]

this is why lok series is the best its a great gem from my childhood!!

[Allard]

400 years after Blood Omen 1

[FORBIDDEN WARRIOR]

In short, the events that occur in Blood Omen 2 is the alternate history experienced by Elder Kain at the end of Soul Reaver 2. The "New memories blossiming in his head" as time struggled to rewrite itself.
"The Hylden! We played right into their hands. Raziel, Janos must stay dead!"

Blood Omen 2 is WHY Kain implores Raziel to not resurect Janos at the end of Soul Reaver 2. Because he knows what happens when Raziel resurrects him.