Kitezh

Kitezh (Ки́теж) is a mythical city said to have sunken under Lake Svetloyar in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in western Russia in the early 13th century. The city was allegedly built by Georgy II, Grand Prince of Vladimir, on the lake's shores and named "Bolshoy Kitezh", or "Big Kitezh". When Batu Khan of the Mongolian Golden Horde learned of the city, he drove his army to pillage it, overrunning another of Georgy II's settlements, Maly Kitezh ("Little Kitezh"), along the way and forcing the prince to flee for Bolshoy Kitezh. Upon arriving at the city, Batu Khan found it completely defenseless, its residents praying to God for their salvation. When the Mongols charged, however, Bolshoy Kitezh submerged beneath the lake. The story of Kitezh appears to originate in "Kitezh Chronicle", an anonymous book written in the late 18th century that some scholars have attributed to a splinter group of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Rise of the Tomb Raider features the myth of Kitezh. According to Lara Croft's investigation, Kitezh's origins lie in the Deathless Prophet of Constantinople, a prophet and purported miracle-worker who rose to prominence in the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century and established a city for his followers in an oasis in Syria. The Order of Trinity hunted down the Prophet and his followers, but although their knights reportedly killed the Prophet, rumors surfaced he had returned to life. Trinity pursued the Prophet's followers to their oasis city and trapped them in the Prophet's tomb, but the Prophet cheated death once again and escaped, leading his surviving followers to safety.

Deep within Siberia, the Prophet's followers constructed Kitezh, a new city in a mountain valley. There, they hoped to lead a peaceful existence under the Prophet's guidance, away from the persecution of Trinity and the greed of those who sought after their most prized artifact: the Divine Source. Unfortunately, this hope was in vain. A Mongol army ventured into the mountains in search of Kitezh, prodded by Trinity's claims of treasure. Centuries later in the midst of the Cold War, the Soviet Red Army set up a mining operation in the area and forced many of the Remnants, the descendants of the Prophet's original followers, into slavery, although the operation was eventually abandoned. Most recently, Trinity resumed its quest for the Prophet and the Divine Source, which led them to Kitezh.