From the opening movie of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiLNc46jAM
And of course, the quote of all quotes, from the videogame story of all videogame stories. The final conflict between the immortal The Nameless One and his mortality...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFiLNc46jAM
Kain is deified. The Clans tell tales of him. Few know the truth.
He was mortal once, as were we all. However, his contempt for humanity drove him to create me and my brethren.
I am Raziel, firstborn of his lieutenants. I stood with Kain and my brethren at the dawn of the Empire.
I have served him a millenium.
Over time, he became less human, and more... Divine.
Kain would enter a state of change and emerge with a gift. Some years after the master, our evolution would follow. Until I have the honour of surpassing my lord.
For this transgression, I earned a new kind of reward. Agony.
There was only one possible outcome: My eternal damnation.
I, Raziel, was to suffer the fate of traitors and weaklings: To burn forever in the bowels of the Lake of Dead.
Tumbling, burning in white-hot fire, I plunged into the depths of the Abyss. Unspeakable pain. Relentless agony. Time ceased to exist. Only this torture, and the deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this Hell.
An eternity passed and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me, and yet, I lived.
And of course, the quote of all quotes, from the videogame story of all videogame stories. The final conflict between the immortal The Nameless One and his mortality...
NAMELESS ONE: "Then my final question is this - what can change the nature of a man?"
THE TRANSCENDENT ONE: "THAT QUESTION HAS NO MEANING."
NAMELESS ONE: "Nonetheless, before there is ending between us, I will hear your answer."
THE TRANSCENDENT ONE: "THEN MY ANSWER IS THIS, AND YOU ARE ITS PROOF: *NOTHING* CAN CHANGE THE NATURE OF A MAN."
NAMELESS ONE: "If there is anything I have learned in my travels across the Planes, it is that many things may change the nature of a man. Whether regret, or love, or revenge or fear – whatever you *believe* can change the nature of a man, can."
THE TRANSCENDENT ONE: "THEN YOU LEARNED A FALSE LESSON, BROKEN ONE."
NAMELESS ONE: "Have I? I've seen belief move cities, make men stave off death, and turn an evil's hag heart half-circle. This entire Fortress has been constructed from belief. Belief damned a woman, whose heart clung to the hope that another loved her when he did not. Once, it made a man seek immortality and achieve it. And it has made a posturing spirit think it is something more than a part of me."