Caim



Caim was a lord in the Union and bastion in the battle against the Empire. He is the main character and protagonist in the Drakengard and returns as an antagonist in Drakengard 2.

Personality
Caim is a bloodthirsty man out for vengeance against the Empire. He takes immense joy from killing enemy troops. Even before making a pact with Angelus, Caim is the Union's one man army.

Caim proves to be surprisingly versatile over the first game. After making his pact, Caim learns to function without a voice: louder gestures and Angelus's interpretation. In searching for allies against the Empire, he is also surprisingly flexible (see Arioch and Leonard).

Caim loves his sister dearly, in fact he reciprocates her incestuous feelings. He is likely ashamed of his actions as a brother and friend of Inuart.

Caim's thirst for vengeance has made him a cold person lacking in interperosnal skills. Luckily, the Union required only a good commander and not a kind king for its war. His primary expressions consist of blank stares, gloomy pouts, bloodthirsty grins, and anguish-induced grimaces. The only time he smiles when next to Furiae and listening to Inuart's song.

Caim is a man with little left in life. He constantly puts his life on the line to retrieve those precious to him and destroy those who have betrayed him.

His favorite insult is jackal.

Childhood
Caim and his sister grew up in a peaceful kingdom. But the Black Dragon's troops invaded. The King, in bequeathing his sword to Caim and ordering him to run, was killed before the prince's eyes. Since then, Caim has desired nothing but revenge on the Empire and the Black Dragon that slew his parents.

Emperial Invasion
The Castle of the Seal is where the Union defends the Goddess of the Seals. While Caim was out at another battle, the Castle was attacked. Quickly overrun by Empire troops, the gates were locked shut and battalions surrounding its high walls. The surrounding villages were all destroyed.

Caim and his troops and locked in battle at the outskirts of the castle's territory. Caim has just cut down another red-eyed soldier when he notices an Empire soldier on the castle's parapet light the Union flag aflame. Worried for his sister's will being, Caim rushes headlong into the throng of enemy troops without any allies.

After battling his way to the gates, Caim enters the courtyard to find Red Dragon chained to the ground. It is bloodied and weakened. Caim, bearing heavy wounds and trailing blood, grows enraged at the sight of the dragon. Raising his blade above her head, Caim prepares to kill her; but then her prideful rebukes give him pause. He proposes a pact to ensure their mutual survival.

In the middle of his proposal, Caim is ambushed. The fight is bitter and, though he emerges victorious, he barely has the strength to stand. Using his sword as a crutch, Caim staggers to the dragons side. The |Red Dragon, impressed by his will to live despite the odds against him, enters into a pact with him. The two are renewed with strength and take to the skies. After clearing the skies of enemies, Caim rushes inside the castle to find Furiae. Meanwhile, his troops have been advancing on the castle proper and grow worried at their prince's lack of response.

Hacking and slashing through enemies, Caim reaches Furiae's chamber, where Inuart is struggling to fend off Empire soldiers. Caim easily finishes off the last enemies of the castle. In the following conversation, Caim reveals his tongue, bearing the mark of his pact. With the help of the red dragon and his newfound pact, Caim wins back the castle. However, the castle has become unsafe for the Goddess. They journey to a nearby elf village for sanctuary.

Destruction of the Seals
In the war against the Empire, Caim is in a race against time to protect the seals. Despite valiant efforts, Caim and his company were unable to protect any of the seals.

After retreating from the castle, they find out quickly that the evlish seal has been shattered, as all the guardian elves have been defeated.

Now matter what path the party takes, nor what ally Caim gains, every temple falls under the Empires hand. When Furiae is captured by Inuart, her fate grows ever more perilous as the seals are destroyed. Caim turns his attention to the fate of his sister.

Death of the Goddess
Heeding Leonard's words, Caim ventures to the Ocean Fortress. There, he finds himself at Furiae's side. Though she is alive, the priestess reaches into her soul and reveals its darkness: she did not wish to be the goddess, she wanted her brother to keep holding her - he was stupid of him to protect the goddess but not as his lover. Furiae looks to him to see his reaction; and Caim looked away. Perhaps it was for himself: unable to accept that he had caused his sister such suffering; perhaps it was his rage that Furiae would willingly take the role of the goddess despite her feelings. Furiae could not accept the rejection, and she committed suicide.

Overcome with grief, numbness, and rage, the red dragon managed to coax Caim back into the fray of the Imperial City. All that was left in his soul was slaughter.

Angelus's Sacrifice
Deep in the Imperial City, Caim and the red dragon did battle with the high priestess. When she fell, merely a child begging to be killed, the Empire met its end. But the world still needed a goddess to seal away the chaos.

Quietly, Angelus gave her body. Verdelet coats her body in the seal. Though still bound by the pact, the two were separated. Caim wept. The world was saved.

Goddess Reborn
Inuart took Furiae's body to revive her, and Caim follows the madman. But, he is too late, Inuart has placed her body within the seed. What was born is the darkness that slept in the bottom of her heart: the desire for the world that condemned her love to burn. Inuart met his death, staring into her smiling face.

Agonized, Caim did battle with the creature that was once his sister. Victorious, he held her corpse within his arms as the sun rose on a new day. From the seeds were born her sisters, and their screams heralded the end of mankind.

Betrayal
Caim flung himself into battle, deep within the Imperial City. But Manah was already killed - betrayed by the Imperial dragons who had commanded her. No longer did the dragons find usefulness in mankind; it was decided to execute them.

Despite their bond, Angelus broke her pact with Caim. It was fate that determined they would do battle. Caim had grown too strong, he had to be defeated. But Caim was victorious. As the light faded from the dragon's eyes, he made a decision. He shattered the seeds before turning to battle the dragons.

Sacrifices for Solace
Manah was killed, the grotesqueries descended from the sky, and the queen-beast arisen from the Imperial Capital. The end of the world was near.

But Seere formed a plan. The queen-beast controlled the Great Time, a portion of which lies within the boy. Angelus and Caim had to fight through the infested sky to reach the queen-beast, in order to use their last hope. Seere jumped from Angelus's back, just as the grotesqueries began to devour them - too many too fend off.

Seere released eternity, stopping time, locking them in endless suffering with no escape.

A Rip in Time
Manah was killed, the grotesqueries descended from the sky, and the queen-beast arisen from the Imperial Capital. The end of the world was near.

But Caim and Angelus would handle it as they had handled all else that had come before: in battle. Ramming into the growing stomach of the queen-beast, the duo are transported to the world of the gods (Tokyo). The queen-beast hampered Angelus's abilities, and together they created a discordant symphony that shattered the queen-beast into fragments of the Great Time. Her poison spread through the world.

Caim, pact-broken and on the verge of death, confiscates a jet fighter and shoots down the fighters that killed Angelus. He does not survive long after.

Life After the War
After Angelus became the goddess, Caim decided to take Manah and show her the suffering she had wrought. On their journey, Caim felt the suffering of Angelus across their bond. It was Verdelet as he refashioned the seals to painfully bind the dragon. Caim looked to the sky, hoping to comfort the other part of his soul. Seeing a distraction, Manah takes a hidden dagger and stabbed Caim in the eye and retreated off a cliff.

Caim let her be, for he had more important things to accomplish - and a hierarch to see. Caim began his journey to destroy the seals and free Angelus, but he was thwarted by the pact-partners he met. It took him fifteen years to put an end to the betrayer Verdelet, yet Angelus remained chained. Nowe hastened Caim's journey, destroying the seals. Caim managed to find and capture Manah once more, but was distracted by a battle with Urick; he barely managed to kill the guardian after Nowe's attempt to interfere, and was pushed into an underwater river.

Caim journeyed back to the castle where Angelus was chained, ensured that Nowe would shatter the seals he had been unable to reach. By the time he reached the castle, Angelus had lost her mind, she could no longer recognize even her pact-partner. Caim spoke to Legna, in the voice that only pact-partners can hear, and told him to end it. Angelus was no longer in her right mind, he had no more reason to live.

As she fell back to earth, Caim got to say one last goodbye to the other fragment of his soul before passing on.

Drakengard
In Drakengard, Caim is your primary hero of use. Caim has the ability to pick up any weapon in the game and wield it with equal proficiency: from daggers, swords, axes, to halberds.

After running for a short period of time, Caim gains a quick burst of speed, useful for traversing large battlefields. With this burst of speed, Caim can thrust his weapon forward, creating a shockwave of energy that blows weaker opponents off their feet. Opponents have a harder time hitting Caim at this time and the weapons of weaker opponents repel off of the air stream. However, if Caim is hit with a frontal or powerful attack, he will be knocked off his feet.

As all playable characters with pact-partners, Caim has the ability to call upon Angelus in battle. However, dismounting from the dragon causes no shockwave to throw surrounding troops off of their feet (unlike Nowe).

The price of Caim's pact was his voice. However, he can still communicate telepathically with Angelus through the bonds of their pact. The player is aware of only the ringing sound, like a rippling wave, that signifies Caim sending thoughts to his pact-partner.