Excalibur is a powerful artifact that can be used both to open gateways to the underworld and as a weapon. It was composed of four individual fragments that were mystically held together by the Ghalali Key. The swords fragments moved around the world in different historical and cultural settings. This lead to the creation of many individual myths that were actually part of a larger mono-myth (namely, the legend of King Arthur and Excalibur). It is a central part of the plot of Tomb Raider: Legend.
History[]
Early History[]
Excalibur is a mythical sword-like artifact that was forged in ancient times. Its use varied as a key to open portals to the underworld (namely Avalon/Helheim) and a weapon to wield in battle. The exact origin of Excalibur is unknown, as many cultures around the world acquired fragments of the sword at different times throughout history. The sword was usually used by monarchs and nobility in the accession to power as evidenced by the stories of the last Queen of Tiwanaku and King Arthur.
Arthurian Times[]
In Arthurian Times the artifact was known as a sword. After the sword in the stone was lost, King Arthur was gifted Excalibur as a replacement.
Arthur wielded the sword in battle and became a legend likely due to his power when wielding the artifact. Upon his death, the artifact was broken and the fragments were scattered by his Knights of the Round Table to various places around the globe.
Mid 20th Century[]
Richard Croft discovered the Ghalali Key on a dig in Ghana, which he later gifted to his wife Amelia; which she wore as a broach.
Amelia was wearing the broach when the plane she and Lara were on crashed in the Himalayas. It was left in the wreckage of the plane after she took Lara to try and find shelter in a nearby, abandoned monastery. In this monastery, a young Lara stumbles upon a stone dais while looking for material to make a fire. A frozen cadaver lay on the ground next to the dais, which had Excalibur plunged into it. Curious, Lara touched the sword and unwittingly activated the dais's spacetime portal.
Amelia then stumbles upon Lara and holds her away from the glowing green energy emanating from the portal's stone ring. Amelia hears distorted, far off voices that make her scared for her daughter's safety. Amelia tries reasoning with the voice in the glowing light, but suddenly shouts and grabs the sword from the dais. She is covered in the same blindingly, glowing green light and disappears without a trace. Lara was left alone after this and made detailed drawings of the symbols surrounding the dais before leaving.
Tomb Raider: Legend[]
Lara becomes aware of another stone dais, like the one she say as a child, in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Upon arriving to the stone dais, Lara encounters James Rutland, brandishing (unbeknownst to Lara at the time) a fragment of Excalibur. She and Rutland exchange a few words before Rutland attacks Lara and leaves. She follows clues from their chat to Paraiso, Peru. Here, she revisits a site from her past and discovers a ceremonial copy of Excalibur in the last Queen of Tiwanaku's tomb. In this tomb she finds hieroglyphs that tell the queen's story and makes note of the similarities to King Arthur's legend.
She recognizes Rutland's sword fragment in the center of the sword and realizes it must be a piece of a larger artifact. She also remembers seeing another fragment some time ago in Japan and travels to Tokyo to retrieve it.
In Tokyo, Lara confronts Shogo Takamoto, the man who currently possesses the sword fragment she is after. He refuses to give her the fragment and attacks her. Lara wipes out his Yakuza henchmen and follows him to his high-rise headquarters. She, again, asks for the fragment before Takamoto swings it at her. This sends a wave of bright green energy rushing at Lara; which she dodges. Lara subdues him while evading his attacks and acquires the fragment.
Lara then travels to Ghana due to Zip finding a lead on Rutland. She visits a monumental temple hidden behind a waterfall. She discovers that her father had previously visited this site before Lara was born. As she explores the site she finds Rutland, again brandishing his sword fragment. This time he attacks her with it. As he does the fragment glows a bright green. His piece also allows him to levitate and heal himself throughout the confrontation. Lara subdues him, without killing him, and retrieves his piece as well.
Alister discovers a hidden Soviet program to study an ancient artifact similar to those Lara has been searching for. Lara travels to Kazakhstan with this information and finds an old Soviet laboratory buried within an icy mountain. She learns that the sword fragment left there decades ago created a power surge during an experiment. The power surge killed many of the scientists and lead to the forced shut down of the facility. In this facility she comes face to face with Amanda Evert, her former friend, and her pet, the Unknown Entity. Amanda summons the entity to attack Lara and prevent her from retrieving the former Soviets' sword fragment. Lara uses part of the facility's long abandoned experiment, an electromagnetic cannon, to repulse the ghostly creature and retrieve the sword fragment from the laboratory. As Lara escapes the meltdown of the facility following her retrieval of the artifact, she learns that an abandoned King Arthur, roadside attraction may hold the key to another sword fragment.
In Cornwall, England, Lara, Zip, and Alister meet up to investigate the abandoned building. Inside, Lara discovers a bricked up wall that hides a secret passageway underground. The roadside attraction was built on top of much older ruins that lead Lara down a deep shaft. She explored and eventually finds her way to an underground lake. Here she climbs and gains access to a mausoleum containing none other than the remains of King Arthur Pendragon. She solves a riddle to remove a barrier from between her and his corpse and retrieves Arthur's own sword fragment; while apologizing for taking it from it.
Lara, Zip, and Alister return to Croft Manor and try to figure out what to do next. With all the known pieces of Excalibur in her possession, Lara needs to figure out how to put the pieces back together. After toying with the handle and hilt fragments Lara realizes that they leaven an impression shaped exactly like her mother's broach from when she was young. Lara knows that she has to travel to the Himalayas, in Nepal, to retrieve it.
In Nepal, Lara explores icy, craggy surfaces and Rutland's mercenaries. She finds the wreckage of the plane she and her mother flew in decades prior. In the plane she finally finds her mother's broach, the Ghalali Key. After this, she makes her way to the Nepalese monastery where her mother disappeared and she ceremoniously lays out the fragments of the sword. She then hold out the Ghalali Key to the fragments. They all begins reacting and glowing with green light as the Ghalali Key levitates, on its own, over the sword. It slowly pulls the pieces of the sword together and slots itself into the impression left by its absence. The entire artifact, finally repaired, flashes blindingly in a green glow. The Ghalali Key then floats out of the sword and Lara grabs it and puts it away. With Excalibur reforged, Lara takes the chance to insert it into the stone dais transported her mother. The dais does not activate, and instead, crumbles at the sword's intrusion. Lara then swings Excalibur to escape the monastery and a bright wave of green energy emanates from it. She decides to return to Bolivia to try that dais instead.
In Bolivia, Amanda and Rutland await Lara's arrival. Lara refuses to stand down to their threats and instead attacks them and their mercenaries with Excalibur's power. Amanda merges with the Unknown Entity and brings down an assault in an attempt to stop Lara from using the dais before she can. Amanda is unsuccessful as Lara's attacks incapacitate Amanda and destroy her pet. Lara activates the dais by plunging Excalibur into it. This activates the same portal that Lara and Amelia encountered in the past. It is here that Lara realizes she is communicating with her mom from the past. She yells at her mother to not touch the sword. Amanda, who becomes conscious again, yells at Lara to take Excalibur out of the dais before it explodes. Amelia, mistaking this as a threat to her safety, removes the sword just as she did in the past. The modern-day dais in Bolivia begins to shake violently and Lara dives away from it as it explodes. Lara survives, gets the truth about Avalon from Amanda, retrieves Excalibur, and plots her next steps to find her mother in the mythical paradise.
Powers[]
The Swords are powerful artifacts besides opening the underworld they give their user extraordinary powers. These Swords are also keys to the Gateways to the Underworld called Stone Dais. They can also broke into pieces and repair themselves with Ghalali Key.
- Energy Waves: When swung the sword can create a powerful green energy wave. The sword’s tip fragment (the piece taken from Takamoto) also showed this power. These energy waves are powerful enough to destroy stone, kill living things, and throw objects and enemies back with concussive force. These attacks were also one of the only known ways of harming and defeating the Unknown Entity. Wooden crates hit by the energy waves suddenly ignite, indicating a heating element to the energy waves’ properties.
- Physical Enhancement: One of the pieces was able to give superhuman speed to Shogo Takamoto (and possibly James Rutland).
- Healing: Rutland's piece of Excalibur bestowed regenerative healing abilities.
- Levitation: Rutland's piece of excalibur also gave him the power to levitate for short times.
- Separating/Reforging: Ghalali Key; designed to break Excalibur into pieces and forge back together as needed.
- Key to the Stone Dais: Excalibur can activate the Stone Dais all over the world which open a portal; through spacetime and to the underworld.
Trivia[]
- As of Tomb Raider: Underworld, Lara has two of these artifacts in her possession.
- Although the sword fragments seemed to give other inhuman abilities to their users (super speed to Takamoto, hovering and regeneration abilities to Rutland) the assembled Excalibur only had the power to throw energy blasts when Lara wielded it.
Gallery[]
