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The story of Legend is essentially a reebot of the franchise and makes very few references to any prior games. There are "Easter
Eggs" that make minor references to previous games, however the storyline is standalone. See "Trivia" below.
When Lara Croft was just nine years old, the plane carrying her and her mother crashed into the Himalayas leaving them
as the only survivors. After taking shelter in the ruins of an ancient temple, Lara discovers an ornate stone dais holding
a sword. Unwittingly activating the ancient artifact, Lara watches in horror as her mother vanishes in front of her eyes.
Years later, Lara travels to the ancient civilization of Tiwanaku in Bolivia, searching for a similar stone dais. However
she is not alone as she soon runs into James Rutland and his mercenaries on the edge of Lake Titicaca, where the dais is situated.
Old memories are brought back to haunt Lara as Rutland implies that her deceased friend Amanda Evert is still alive.
Lara meets up with university friend Anaya Imanu outside the tomb in Paraíso, where a tragedy befell Lara and her friends
many years ago, leaving her as the only survivor. She returns to the tomb and a flashback reveals the events leading up to
Amanda's "death". While as a student on an excavation of tomb similar to the one in Bolivia a demon was released
and killed most of the team. In their dash to escape the cave fills with water and Amanda is left behind. Then in the Present
Lara discovers that her old friend had escaped and the legend of Tiwanaku's Queen who rose to power after meeting a shaman
and staff weapon (and was shortly brought to paradise by a woman in a lake). The tomb of the Queen of Tiwanaku is linked to
Bolivia and also the incident in Nepal when she was a child (as well as the Arthurian Legend). To her surprise she realises
that the artefact she is hunting has already been discovered, and is in the 'care' of Yakuza boss Shogo Takamoto.
Lara's journey takes her to Japan, where she meets with the murderous Takamoto and demands a stolen sword fragment from
him. He refuses and retreats to his penthouse, leaving Lara to deal with his cronies. She wipes them out and follows Takamoto
to the roof of his penthouse, where she witnesses for herself its terrifying power. Nonetheless, she manages to overcome Takamoto
and retrieve the second artefact.
She leaves for Ghana to chase Rutland. He too possesses a sword fragment and he tells her about something called the Ghalali
Key, believing Lara to own it. Lara has no idea what he is talking about and this frustrates him and he attacks her. She beats
him and takes his sword fragment.
Lara now chases Amanda, who attacked her manor whilst she was in Ghana. She traces her to a Soviet lab in Kazakhstan that
performed experiments on a sword fragment that led to their peril fifty years ago. Lara catches up with Amanda, who is clearly
still angry with Lara about being left behind in Paraíso. Amanda now controls, to Lara's horror, the demon which killed their
friends in Paraíso. She fights it off and recovers the sword fragment from the machinery.
Surprisingly, Lara's adventure brings her home to England, where she discovers the real King Arthur's tomb in Cornwall
hidden under a corny King Arthur tourist attraction, along with the fourth and final sword fragment. She realises that Arthur
and his knights brought the fragments of Excalibur to locations across the world influencing the destinies of various civilizations.
After battling a sea creature hundreds of feet underground, Lara returns home to try and figure out how to put the sword back
together. Lara realises that the previously unknown Ghalali Key was in fact a pendant that was given to her mother by her
father and also the one that her mother took to the Himalayas with her.
Lara is thus forced to return to her past once again, as she tracks the plane wreck she was on and recovers the key before
the plane falls off the cliff. She then returns to the temple where her mother lost her life and there she reassembles the
sword, Excalibur, and uses its awesome power to escape.
Lara returns to the stone dais of Bolivia and within moments has cut through Rutland's remaining mercenaries and Rutland
himself. Amanda rushes over to the dying Rutland, and he passes away in her arms. Furious, Amanda releases her demon once
again and merges with it. With the help of the sword, Lara defeats the creature once and for all. Then she approaches the
dais...
At last, Lara understands how her mother died, as she looks into the mirror of light and sees her mother. Lara realises
that the mirror spans time and what she is seeing is her mother just moments before she was killed by the artefact. Her mother
tells Lara (apparently not recognising her) to leave her daughter alone and that she "meant no harm". Amanda wakes
up and tells Lara to pull out the sword otherwise the dais she stands on will explode. Believing that Amanda's advice was
meant for her, Lara's mother pulls out the sword, the same as she did all those years ago and Lara runs from the dais just
before it blows up. Furious, Lara fires her gun next to Amanda, accusing her of killing her mother, but Amanda tells Lara
that she is not dead but has gone to Avalon. Lara knocks Amanda out, saying that she will allow her to live, despite what
she has done. Lara then makes arrangements to make her finds known worldwide.
Characters
Lady Amelia Croft
When Lara was 9 years old, she and Amelia survived a plane crash in the Himalayas on the way home from a trip. Taking
shelter in an ancient tomb, Lara accidentally activates a stone dias. Amelia pulls Lara out of the way as the two gaze into
a glowing portal. Seeing something in the light, Amelia approaches the portal and confronts the voices speaking to her from
the other side. Suddenly, Amelia rushes to pull out the sword sitting in the stone in front of the portal and disappears.
With the portal destroyed, Amelia Croft is presummed dead.
In the present when Lara discovers a similar dias in Bolivia, she places the reforged Excalibur in the stone and activates
a similar portal. On the other side of the light is Amelia. Despite Lara telling her not to pull out the sword, Amelia can
barely understand what she is saying. Amanda Evert, Lara's former friend, cries out to Lara to pull out the sword or the portal
will explode, but Amelia panics and pulls it out instead. Amanda reveals to Lara that she had the chance to go to Avalon,
but because her mother did she went there instead.
Lord Richard Croft,10th Earl Of Abbingdon
Lord Richard Croft, 10th Earl of Abbington is a character from the Tomb Raider series and the father of Lara Croft. He
was first mentioned in the instruction manual of the first game (then known as Henshingley Croft) but did not appear until
the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider where he was portrayed by Jon Voight. He was mentioned for the first time in-game in Tomb
Raider Legend, but only appeared in a portrait above the fireplace in Croft Manor. Richard Croft will play some sort of role
in the upcoming remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary.
Anaya Imanu
Anaya is a civil engineer working in impoverished areas of South America. She's an old friend of Lara's dating back to
their days at university, and she was with Lara during the tragedy near Paraíso. She has since led a distinguished career
of her own, routinely crossing paths with Lara.
Amanda Evert
Amanda Evert was one of Lara Croft's best friends at university. She had a huge fascination with anthropology, mysticism
and metaphysics and dreamed to rediscover all the mystical knowledge from the past, that the scientific age has driven out
of the world. By teaching these forgotten truths, others could gain spiritual enlightenment.
During one of their expeditions in Paraíso, Peru, Amanda and Lara, along with other students, came across a mysterious
entity that guarded the tomb. Running for her life, while the entity kills their friends one by one, Amanda reaches a central
area in the tomb, where she and Lara become stuck. Amanda notices a dark stone on the wall, and after quickly reading the
markings on the wall, Amanda is convinced that the stone is the key to unlock the door.
Amanda struggles to remove the stone off the wall, and just as she does, the entity vanishes — seconds before
getting Lara. However, just as Lara had warned Amanda, removing the stone also set a trap. Lara and Amanda run for the exit,
as the tomb starts collapsing and filling with water. Amanda isn't so lucky, however, as large pieces of debris fall on her
feet. Lara holds the gate open while Amanda struggles to remove her feet from beneath the heavy rocks. A few seconds later,
the water level has risen over them and more pieces of the ceiling crumble, covering Lara's sight of Amanda. In disbelief
of what's just happened, Lara turns away and swims for the surface.
A few years later, Lara meets a man named James W.Rutland Jr., in Tiwanaku. He mentions Amanda and Paraíso, but refuses
to expand on what he knows about it.Zip suggests Lara should go back to Paraíso to see if she can discover what Rutland was
referring to.
Returning to Paraíso, Lara gets in touch with Anaya to go back to the excavation site. Anaya leads Lara to the site, but
she refuses to go down the tomb. Down there, Lara discovers Amanda somehow survived, leaving only her unlaced high tops. Even
more confused, when she returns to Anaya, they discuss why Amanda never got in touch with them.
Lara tracks Rutland down to Ghana and beats him to conquer his piece of the Excalibur, and as she does so, he tells her
that Amanda has broken into her house looking for the Ghalali Key, a crucial item to put the sword back together. Lara gets
in touch with her friends at the manor and they say they're fine, but also add that Lara should head to Kazahstan straight
away if she wants to reach Amanda.
Inside the secret laboratory, Lara finally meets Amanda again. Amanda expresses her anger to Lara, for leaving her for
dead in Paraíso back then, and demands her guards to not allow Lara to follow her. They fail on the mission however, and Lara
catches up with Amanda shortly after. Lara apologizes for the past and suggests teaming up with Amanda to, once again, work
together. Amanda denies it saying they never worked together, and in Paraíso there was only her and the stone she took off
the wall.
Amanda unleashes the entity that chased them and killed their friends back then, and as she does so, Lara realizes Amanda
has been blinded by her own beliefs. While Lara can't defeat the entity, she grabs hold of another Excalibur piece and escapes
the laboratory through an underground tunnel, once again losing sight of Amanda.
Knowing Lara would recover all of the pieces of the sword, Amanda heads back to Tiwanaku to wait and ambush Lara. Lara
does return, and once again they confront each other. Lara once again suggests they can use the sword together, but Amanda
promptly denies it, saying it will only work once and she wants to be the one. As she does so, she unleashes and merges into
the entity to take Lara down and take the Excalibur for herself. She fails.
Lara uses the sword, activating the stone dais and making touch with her long lost mother. While Lara tells her mother
not to touch the sword, on the other side of the looking glass, to avoid her fate, Amanda tells Lara to take out the sword
otherwise the dais will explode. Lara's mother listens to Amanda and quickly removes the sword, supposedly going to Avalon.
Lara becomes furious with Amanda, for having sent her mother "to death", but Amanda say she's not dead. Lara
defiantly fires a few shots past Amanda's head, demanding her to explain where her mother is. Amanda then says she's gone
to Avalon, the place where she wanted to go and where Lara could have gone, had she pulled out the sword before her mother
did. Lara doesn't kill Amanda, but instead knocks her out, and goes after more clues to reach Avalon and her mother. Lara
also asks Zip to spread the news of what she has done to the civilians of England.
Kent
One of Lara's university peers. He and his team were mysteriously killed in Peru.
James W.Rutland Jr.
James Rutland Jr. grew up in a bubble of enormous wealth and privilege. He went to West Point and managed to graduate
at his own merits, barely. As hard as it was, he's glad for it, because it gave him a sense of self-discipline and strength
that he finds useful now that he's free of the military. He's a charismatic man accustomed to getting what he wants; however,
this time the object of his desire is also sought by Lara Croft.
Winston Smith
Winston is Lara's butler, and he has served the Crofts for most of his life. He's calm, sophisticated, unflappable, and
knows more about Lara and her doings than anyone. He worries about her but knows how capable she is, and he does nothing to
dissuade her from her life's pursuit, and indeed he's just as willing to fetch 9mm ammunition as he is to set out tea service,
and he will even toss a few ammo clips into her bag without her asking. In this respect he is closer to Batman's Alfred Pennyworth
than a 'traditional' English Butler, sharing as he does his employer's secret life.
"Winston Smith" is the name of the English "everyman" character in George Orwells 1984.
Alister Fletcher
Alister is Lara's research assistant, providing another mind with arcane historical information, someone to bounce ideas
off of, and provide quick additional research while Lara's in the field. He's in this to test his theories, uncover secrets
no one else can, and because it's the only place his eccentric knowledge is really useful. Alister is tense and prickly, and
takes himself much too seriously.
Zip
Zip is the tech guy of Lara's team, responsible for providing technical and logistical support for Lara's endeavors worldwide
- he's the guy in the van or the server room at Lara's mansion, and Lara's constant remote companion via radio headset. A
wisecracking guy who's part ultra-techno-geek and part street savvy. He used to be over-the-top, but a few years in prison
tonned him down a notch and increased his resentment toward all things established. A former computer hacker, he works with
Lara for the challenge and the thrill of it. He's personally loyal to Lara, and it really is the most fun he can have without
getting arrested.
Shogo Takamoto
Shogo Takamoto is a character from the video game Tomb Raider:Legend. A crimelord in Japan, Takamoto agrees to meet Lara
at a corporal party held by Toru Nishimura where she tries to bargain for his piece of Excalibur. Without success, Lara follows
him to the top floor of his penthouse across the street. Takamoto is the boss for the Tokyo based level and is voiced by Michael
Nagiwara.
Toru Nishimura
Toru Nishimura is a character from the Tomb Raider video game series. He is an old friend of Lara Croft's and helps her
during her mission to retrieve a fragment of Excalibur from Japanese crimelord Shogo Takamoto in Tomb Raider Legend. He is
voiced by Paul Nakauchi.
Lady Amelia Croft
When Lara was 9 years old, she and Amelia survived a plane crash in the Himalayas on the way home from a trip. Taking
shelter in an ancient tomb, Lara accidentally activates a stone dias. Amelia pulls Lara out of the way as the two gaze into
a glowing portal. Seeing something in the light, Amelia approaches the portal and confronts the voices speaking to her from
the other side. Suddenly, Amelia rushes to pull out the sword sitting in the stone in front of the portal and disappears.
With the portal destroyed, Amelia Croft is presummed dead.
In the present when Lara discovers a similar dias in Bolivia, she places the reforged Excalibur in the stone and activates
a similar portal. On the other side of the light is Amelia. Despite Lara telling her not to pull out the sword, Amelia can
barely understand what she is saying. Amanda Evert, Lara's former friend, cries out to Lara to pull out the sword or the portal
will explode, but Amelia panics and pulls it out instead. Amanda reveals to Lara that she had the chance to go to Avalon,
but because her mother did she went there instead.
Lord Richard Croft,10th Earl Of Abbingdon
Lord Richard Croft, 10th Earl of Abbington is a character from the Tomb Raider series and the father of Lara Croft. He
was first mentioned in the instruction manual of the first game (then known as Henshingley Croft) but did not appear until
the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider where he was portrayed by Jon Voight. He was mentioned for the first time in-game in Tomb
Raider Legend, but only appeared in a portrait above the fireplace in Croft Manor. Richard Croft will play some sort of role
in the upcoming remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary.
Anaya Imanu
Anaya Imanu is a character from the Tomb Raider video game series. She makes an appearance in Tomb Raider Legend during
the Peru level.
Anaya is a civil engineer working in impoverished areas of South America. She's an old friend of Lara's dating back to
their days at university, and she was with Lara during the tragedy near Paraíso. She has since led a distinguished career
of her own, routinely crossing paths with Lara.
Amanda Evert
Amanda Evert was one of Lara Croft's best friends at university. She had a huge fascination with anthropology, mysticism
and metaphysics and dreamed to rediscover all the mystical knowledge from the past, that the scientific age has driven out
of the world. By teaching these forgotten truths, others could gain spiritual enlightenment.
During one of their expeditions in Paraíso, Peru, Amanda and Lara, along with other students, came across a mysterious
entity that guarded the tomb. Running for her life, while the entity kills their friends one by one, Amanda reaches a central
area in the tomb, where she and Lara become stuck. Amanda notices a dark stone on the wall, and after quickly reading the
markings on the wall, Amanda is convinced that the stone is the key to unlock the door.
Amanda struggles to remove the stone off the wall, and just as she does, the entity vanishes — seconds before
getting Lara. However, just as Lara had warned Amanda, removing the stone also set a trap. Lara and Amanda run for the exit,
as the tomb starts collapsing and filling with water. Amanda isn't so lucky, however, as large pieces of debris fall on her
feet. Lara holds the gate open while Amanda struggles to remove her feet from beneath the heavy rocks. A few seconds later,
the water level has risen over them and more pieces of the ceiling crumble, covering Lara's sight of Amanda. In disbelief
of what's just happened, Lara turns away and swims for the surface.
A few years later, Lara meets a man named James W.Rutland Jr., in Tiwanaku. He mentions Amanda and Paraíso, but refuses
to expand on what he knows about it.Zip suggests Lara should go back to Paraíso to see if she can discover what Rutland was
referring to.
Returning to Paraíso, Lara gets in touch with Anaya to go back to the excavation site. Anaya leads Lara to the site, but
she refuses to go down the tomb. Down there, Lara discovers Amanda somehow survived, leaving only her unlaced high tops. Even
more confused, when she returns to Anaya, they discuss why Amanda never got in touch with them.
Lara tracks Rutland down to Ghana and beats him to conquer his piece of the Excalibur, and as she does so, he tells her
that Amanda has broken into her house looking for the Ghalali Key, a crucial item to put the sword back together. Lara gets
in touch with her friends at the manor and they say they're fine, but also add that Lara should head to Kazahstan straight
away if she wants to reach Amanda.
Inside the secret laboratory, Lara finally meets Amanda again. Amanda expresses her anger to Lara, for leaving her for
dead in Paraíso back then, and demands her guards to not allow Lara to follow her. They fail on the mission however, and Lara
catches up with Amanda shortly after. Lara apologizes for the past and suggests teaming up with Amanda to, once again, work
together. Amanda denies it saying they never worked together, and in Paraíso there was only her and the stone she took off
the wall.
Amanda unleashes the entity that chased them and killed their friends back then, and as she does so, Lara realizes Amanda
has been blinded by her own beliefs. While Lara can't defeat the entity, she grabs hold of another Excalibur piece and escapes
the laboratory through an underground tunnel, once again losing sight of Amanda.
Knowing Lara would recover all of the pieces of the sword, Amanda heads back to Tiwanaku to wait and ambush Lara. Lara
does return, and once again they confront each other. Lara once again suggests they can use the sword together, but Amanda
promptly denies it, saying it will only work once and she wants to be the one. As she does so, she unleashes and merges into
the entity to take Lara down and take the Excalibur for herself. She fails.
Lara uses the sword, activating the stone dais and making touch with her long lost mother. While Lara tells her mother
not to touch the sword, on the other side of the looking glass, to avoid her fate, Amanda tells Lara to take out the sword
otherwise the dais will explode. Lara's mother listens to Amanda and quickly removes the sword, supposedly going to Avalon.
Lara becomes furious with Amanda, for having sent her mother "to death", but Amanda say she's not dead. Lara
defiantly fires a few shots past Amanda's head, demanding her to explain where her mother is. Amanda then says she's gone
to Avalon, the place where she wanted to go and where Lara could have gone, had she pulled out the sword before her mother
did. Lara doesn't kill Amanda, but instead knocks her out, and goes after more clues to reach Avalon and her mother. Lara
also asks Zip to spread the news of what she has done to the civilians of England.
Kent
One of Lara's university peers. He and his team were mysteriously killed in Peru.
James W.Rutland Jr.
James Rutland Jr. grew up in a bubble of enormous wealth and privilege. He went to West Point and managed to graduate
at his own merits, barely. As hard as it was, he's glad for it, because it gave him a sense of self-discipline and strength
that he finds useful now that he's free of the military. He's a charismatic man accustomed to getting what he wants; however,
this time the object of his desire is also sought by Lara Croft.
Winston Smith
Winston is Lara's butler, and he has served the Crofts for most of his life. He's calm, sophisticated, unflappable, and
knows more about Lara and her doings than anyone. He worries about her but knows how capable she is, and he does nothing to
dissuade her from her life's pursuit, and indeed he's just as willing to fetch 9mm ammunition as he is to set out tea service,
and he will even toss a few ammo clips into her bag without her asking. In this respect he is closer to Batman's Alfred Pennyworth
than a 'traditional' English Butler, sharing as he does his employer's secret life.
"Winston Smith" is the name of the English "everyman" character in George Orwells 1984.
Alister Fletcher
Alister is Lara's research assistant, providing another mind with arcane historical information, someone to bounce ideas
off of, and provide quick additional research while Lara's in the field. He's in this to test his theories, uncover secrets
no one else can, and because it's the only place his eccentric knowledge is really useful. Alister is tense and prickly, and
takes himself much too seriously.
Zip
Zip is the tech guy of Lara's team, responsible for providing technical and logistical support for Lara's endeavors worldwide
- he's the guy in the van or the server room at Lara's mansion, and Lara's constant remote companion via radio headset. A
wisecracking guy who's part ultra-techno-geek and part street savvy. He used to be over-the-top, but a few years in prison
tonned him down a notch and increased his resentment toward all things established. A former computer hacker, he works with
Lara for the challenge and the thrill of it. He's personally loyal to Lara, and it really is the most fun he can have without
getting arrested.
Shogo Takamoto
Shogo Takamoto is a character from the video game Tomb Raider:Legend. A crimelord in Japan, Takamoto agrees to meet Lara
at a corporal party held by Toru Nishimura where she tries to bargain for his piece of Excalibur. Without success, Lara follows
him to the top floor of his penthouse across the street. Takamoto is the boss for the Tokyo based level and is voiced by Michael
Nagiwara.
Toru Nishimura
Toru Nishimura is a character from the Tomb Raider video game series. He is an old friend of Lara Croft's and helps her
during her mission to retrieve a fragment of Excalibur from Japanese crimelord Shogo Takamoto in Tomb Raider Legend. He is
voiced by Paul Nakauchi.
Locations
* Tiwanaku,Bolivia - A pre-Incan civilization currently in ruins. Lara arrives there by scaling the rocky cliffs of Bolivia.
Lara is in search of a stone dais, very similar to the dais where Lara's mother mysteriously disappeared.
* Paraíso,Peru - Lara meets an old friend, Anaya, in the town square, but they soon find themselves under enemy fire.
They then revisit the dig site where Lara once lost many friends and she uncovers the secret they had been searching for all
those years ago.
* Tokyo,Japan - A piece of the sword, stolen from Waseda University, is in the hands of the Yakuza boss and Lara wants
it back.
* Ghana,Africa - Another piece of the sword is in the hands of James Rutland, who is currently in Ghana. Lara uncovers
a phenomenal temple, set in a lake and hidden from sight by roaring waterfalls.
* Kazahstan - Lara's search brings her to a secret KGB testing facility called Project Carbonek, abandoned since the
50s - or is it?
* Cornwall,England - "As in take the M5 to the A30 Cornwall?" asks Lara dubiously. Could King Arthur's tomb
really be hidden beneath a tacky tourist attraction based around the Arthurian legend?
* Himalayas,Nepal - The artifact that can re-forge Excalibur lies in the plane wreck where Lara and her mother once
crashed. Lara revisits the crumbling Buddhist monastery where her mother disappeared.
* Bolivia Redux - The final confrontation between Lara and Amanda and the truth is revealed about Lady Croft's death.
* Croft Manor (training level), England - Croft Manor contains a number of puzzles in the form of hidden passageways,
lyrical codes and concealed switches.
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