Kane (Command & Conquer) - Character Biography

Character Biography

Since the inception of the Command & Conquer franchise in 1995, the storylines of the successive video games have consistently been portraying Brotherhood of Nod characters who are holding both Kane and the Brotherhood to be thousands of years old. This in holding true with the tradition of equating the man with the figure of Cain; the eldest son of Adam and Eve, the first human who was born out of the Garden of Eden and also the first murderer according to the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions. As the character doesn't appear to age, and this despite the fact that his activities within the modern to near-future settings of the C&C games are shown as spanning at least an entire century, there somehow appears to be a possibility of this claim being legitimate. The notion of Kane being none other than the figure of Cain is exemplified by numerous Judeo-Christian and Islamic allusions to Kane's nature which are found within the C&C games. He uses names like "Jacob", "Amir al-Quayym" and "Caine" as his aliases, the Brotherhood of Nod's first stealth tank prototype was called "Ezekiel's Wheel"—in apparent reference to the angels witnessed by Ezekiel—and the name of "Nod" itself appears to be alluding to the "Land of Nod", a place Cain was made to wander by God as the punishment for having slain his brother Abel; allegedly the first incident of murder in humanity's history according to the faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Additionally, in the Soviet ending of Command & Conquer: Red Alert, one of Kane's followers suddenly cites the very passage in the Bible which describes how Cain settled in this Land of Nod. Perhaps most importantly, in the Nod campaign of the original Command & Conquer game, the player's superior initially is a man named Seth, Cain's second and youngest brother according to the Bible and Islamic hadith, who is shown to act as Kane's right-hand man. As the player progresses through the campaign, Kane is shown as beginning to favour him over Seth, who subsequently becomes increasingly enraged with the player following each consecutive success. Seth then plots to have both Kane and the player removed by attempting to usurp Kane's position within the Brotherhood, while ordering the player on a suicidal invasion of the United States of America. Before this can occur, however, Kane shoots Seth in the head as he is briefing the player on the planned assault; his body is preserved in the Temple of Nod as a "trophy" and a constant reminder to any who would plot against Kane. This trophy was later seen in Command & Conquer: Renegade by a GDI commando who had managed to infiltrate the Temple grounds, and who discovered a sarcophagus bearing the name of Abel along with the parable of Cain and Abel carved in ancient Hebrew deep within the foundations of the structure, which according to Kane marked the site of Nod's original temple. Additionally, the Brotherhood of Nod is consistently portrayed in the Command & Conquer games as having strong sway in nearly all nations with an historical background in Abrahamic traditions.

"We have waited centuries for this moment. The rivers will flow with the blood of those who oppose us." - this particular quote of the Kane character, provided in the manual of the original 1995 Command & Conquer title, refers to a fictional Interpol file designated as "#GEN 4:16". This reference too appears Abrahamic, leading to the 4th chapter and 16th verse of Genesis in the Old Testament, and specifically to the early days after the creation of mankind, which reads: "And Cain went out from the presence of The Lord, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, east of Eden." Likewise, Kane's apparent ability to seemingly return from death and wreak havoc and destruction on those who apparently killed him, appears a reference to the "Mark of Cain"; a sign or curse God allegedly placed on Cain, to prevent other humans from killing him in retribution for having murdered his own brother, Abel. The wording of this Mark, while not actually preventing Cain's death, warns that any man who kills Cain would suffer a vengeance on themselves sevenfold stronger than that which they exacted upon Cain, striking parallels with the destruction wrought by Nod on the Global Defense Initiative following each of its re-emergings to the world. Additionally, a Brotherhood of Nod sub-faction in Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath was named the "Marked of Kane" by Electronic Arts Los Angeles.