Alternate Silenced Cathedral Areas

article by Ben Lincoln

Like any game, Soul Reaver's areas went through many designs before being finalized in the production release. The Silenced Cathedral in particular in known to have numerous interesting alternative designs.

Prototype versions of Soul Reaver from January and February 1999 include a partially-completed series of rooms behind Zephon, which are discussed in The Pinnacle of The Silenced Cathedral. These versions of the game also feature a giant statue near the bottom of the Cathedral, similar to the one in the Stone Glyph area. Midway up, a large room with a wedge-shaped puzzle element is present. These early versions also place the Sound Reaver Forge inside the Cathedral, but omit the Sound Glyph area (which is near the Tomb of the Sarafan), and the Sunlight Glyph area (which is attached to the training areas near the entrance to the Underworld).

In its lower levels, one of the main corridors originally branched in two directions, and had been decorated by its inhabitants with cocooned humans.

Zephon's chamber has two side rooms which contain mysterious spouts of green material, similar to the "soul dispenser" in the Underworld. These doors are still present in the final version of the game, but inaccessible. These may have been related to a different way in which he would have been killed - perhaps they are a poison, or a flammable gas which would have been ignited by the flamethrower of the fallen human in the main chamber when the doors were opened (similar to how Dumah is slain).