Corrupt and deranged, the remaining sorcerers turned their powers to dark purposes, poisoning the land with their sorcery and abandoning their guardianship of the Pillars, which began to crumble, manifesting the corruption of their patrons.

Kain was born into this decaying world, marked from birth as Ariel's successor, and destined to grow to adulthood ignorant of his intended role as Balance Guardian. He is assassinated, revived as a vampire, and used by the necromancer Mortanius and the ghost of Ariel as the scourge of the Circle. Only once Kain has destroyed the eight tainted Guardians and restored their Pillars is his true destiny revealed - that he is the Balance Guardian, and he too must die for the Pillars to be completely restored.

Kain refused the sacrifice, opting to rule the world in its damnation rather than commit himself to oblivion. His fateful decision triggered the Pillars' collapse; the mighty columns shattered and toppled. Centuries later, Kain established the ruined Pillars as the symbolic (and ironic) seat of his new empire, and set his throne at the base of the unrestored Balance Pillar.

But the Pillars, Kain ultimately realized, are more than just a human edifice - the spiritual and physical health of the land is tied inextricably to the Pillars' well-being. With the Pillars left unrestored, corruption seeped slowly into the land like a poison, turning Kain's empire into an irredeemable wasteland.