[SPOILER] Hylden (a little bit spolierish)

[pel026]

We learned for LOKD that the Hylden goes in Nosgoth trough possession of corpses or living beings. What I would like to know if the Hylden in Bo2 are using the same tatic. Also why they look so differnt from LokD. I know that there is a differnt game design but maybe there is an expliation.

[DestinyOfKain]

ah well, I guess the hylden are sort of like people, you know, we have different ethnic traits, distinctive body types and so on. The Hylden were definitely able to sneak back into Nosgoth once one of their leaders came through, I'd assume after the corruption started, and once he was through, he helped others out with a magical pull. I guess the Hylden we saw in Defiance are a specific type of typical Warrior Hyldens..you know?

then in Blood Omen 2, we saw worker hyldens and security hylden(you know, the ones with sword-like arms)...

the way they look could also be influenced upon how they came into Nosgoth, either through emerging through dead bodies or possession, or simply escaping with their own mutated bodies.

this is only theory, so either add on or criticize, but I hope we can lead to some good ideas!

[pel026]

Well, that is what I belive. I think you`re right that the hydlen we see in Bo2 have their own bodies not possessed ones.

[Kandy_Kain]

Remember in BO2 on in the final chapter on the island. there were people in tubes, i always assumed that was how the hylden came to be in nosgoth again by changing and then possesing the bodies of their altered human slaves.

[Lozza Mate]

The description of the revnants said that when a hylden fully posseses a body it becomes warped and mutated. Perhaps the BO2 bodies were the more highly mutated version due to their longer possesion?

[smoakyspeedster]

it is to my knowledge that in Defiance, the hylden that were encountered were only hylden that have possed a dead body, but in BO2, the Hylden were the actual living Hylen. There were able to return to Nosgoth in their full form by using the portal that the Sarafan Lord opened, (the same one the Kain destroys at the end of BO2).

[LauraOrganaSolo]

I think smoaky's got it dead on. There's also the fact that according to BO2, the Hylden's prolonged stay in the demon dimension altered and almost mutated their phsyical appearence.

[Kandy_Kain]

Well my only real evidence is this look at the SL at the end of BO2 hes got the same head as all the other hylden(granted hes a big ol'boy) and those that we know to be hylden in SR2 and defiance are huge, and breath fire and shoot lightning and such. True that B02 takes place several hundred years later, but from what we can tell the hylden have been there for a millennia and it would seem that the demon dimension to which they were banished seems to make things bigger meaner uglier. Not smaller and err grayer with blue dresses. Also it would seem that the hylden are the science fair winners of nosgoth, doing much more with technology, unlike the vampires which tend to lean towards the spiritual. So it would make since that although the portal is open to the demon world it may not be bringing in physical examples of the hylden race maybe its just there souls or essence something like that. And that (Once again) that the humans in the pods are to be the future hylden and have they’re bodies turned into hylden, sorda like what the vampires do but utilizing they’re scientific abilities.

[smoakyspeedster]

Actually, those big fire breathing creatures, and the ones that shoot lighting, are actually demons not hylden. The Hylden were banished to the Demon realm, and when the hylden were sent over to Nosgoth, i guess some of the Demons made it over with them.

[Kandy_Kain]

not to be a geeky know it all but....
if im remembering correctly i do belive they are, when kain has his heart torn out by Raz he is sent there with them and i do beive they say that they are indeed hylden, and that kain to in time would change into a monster

or of course there is always the chance im a big wrong dummy

[Gad]

From what i've gotten out of playing defiance, BO2, and reading the thread of answers from amy, I gathered that the different types of hylden depended on how strong the possession was. In the begining of Defiance, the pillars are weak, but still hold up some barrier. Near the end, they break and thus the barrier breaks down. Notice the enemies raziel fights in the vampire sanctuary on his way to fight corrupted janos? hylden - fully formed hylden - just as they appeared in blood omen 2. Which brings me to another point, also mentioned in the question thread i believe. The hylden refer to janos as the "uncorruptable host", or something like that. No matter for how long or how intense the hylden posses janos, his body will not warp. humans and their corpses however would therefore be corruptible hosts; that is, after a time or through stronger force of will they warp more and more into the physical bodies of hylden.

And the big giant fire breathing things are in fact demons, and not hylden. Kain is banished into the demon dimension, where the demons originally lived and the hylden later banished after the great war. The hylden say that kain "is still fair of form...that will go first". If you play bo2, listen to the dialogue and pay attention to the murals, you will notice references to the hylden once appearing differently than they appear now - for example, the large wingy things on their backs. They now appear different because they have been ravaged by the demon dimension. That's what the hylden were warning kain about when he entered the dimension - losing his intact physical form.