Mortanius the Necromancer

Mortanius is a video game character in the Legacy of Kain series. In Blood Omen, he was voiced by Tony Jay. In Legacy of Kain: Defiance, he was voiced by Alastair Duncan.

Biography

Mortanius was born well over five centuries before the start of the first game. He was selected by fate to become the Guardian of the Pillar of Death. In that era, after the thousand-year war between the Vampires and the Hylden, the Pillars were still under Vampire control and the Vampire Guardians took to turning new Pillar Guardians into Vampires before they could take up their charge.

Mortanius, and his fellow human guardian Moebius, rose up against the vampire guardians, establishing the Sarafan Order and killing the Guardians in order to take the new human guardians under their protection. As the centuries passed, Mortanius became a powerful Necromancer and fulfilled his duties as Death Guardian loyally. At the end of the Sarafan crusade, Mortanius oversaw the punishment of Malek the Sarafan, tearing his soul from his body and fusing it to his armour without technically killing him.

As history drew closer to Kain's birth, Mortanius' life changed. The Hylden Lord, Hash'ak'gik, telepathically broke through the barrier which sealed the Hylden race in the Demon Dimension and started periodically possessing his body and mind, making him spontaneously do terrible things, including murdering Ariel, the Guardian of the Pillar of Balance. He became one of two leaders of a Hylden worshipping cult in the catacombs of Avernus Cathedral alongside Lady Azimuth. Around this time, Mortanius uncovered the ancient Vampires' prophecies. He realized that the Pillars had been holding back the Hylden and that the Hylden Lord had orchestrated Ariel's murder to bring them down.

Mortanius implemented one last plan to bring order to Nosgoth. He arranged for the assassination of Kain and his rebirth as a Vampire, in the hopes of returning the Pillars to their rightful masters. After Kain returned to the Pillars following his murder of Moebius the Timestreamer, he witnessed Mortanius and Anacrothe the Alchemist arguing about the corruption of the Circle of Nine. Mortanius killed Anacrothe, and addressed Kain before fighting his young Vampire 'son'. After a brief battle, Mortanius was fully possessed by the Hylden Lord, dying when his body was transformed into that of a Demon, which Kain destroyed. Mortanius was the final guardian killed on Kain's journey.

Trivia

• Mortanius's name originates from the word 'Morte', meaning Death.

• Alastair Duncan was brought in to replace Tony Jay as the voice actor for Mortanius to avoid confusion between the characters of the Necromancer and the Elder God, both voiced by Tony Jay.

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