Phil Chapman, the animator for Tomb Raider games, sent us a DVD with some incredible renders.

Discover more content on the Angel of Darkness

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We continue to publish exclusive Angel of Darkness documents from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game. This one reveals more details about the second game in the Angel of Darkness trilogy.

Game II kicks of by revisiting the ending of AOD, after events at the Strahov, where we all thought we knew the fates of Lara, Kurtis and Karel. Well think again. (See document which revisits the final scene of AOD and puts a new light on the entire concluding scene between Lara, Kurtis and Karel).

KURTIS survived and managed to crawl into the relative safety of the Vault of Trophies. There he went into a protective toxic coma and later, much much later, escaped making his way back to the place of his birth at Utah Salt Flats where his mother & family tribal elders took him in whilst he convalesced.

Later, onboard a Nato transatlantic convoy, he met up with an old buddy from the Foreign Legion and heard disturbing rumours about disquieting events in the Languedoc region of southern France. Kurtis had once followed a trail which led him to believe that a Lux VeritatisBloodline Room might be located there. There had been some possibility that it might also have been located in Castle Kriegler,hidden away beneath its ruins in extensive catacombs and tunnels but Kurtis’ money was on the ruins of Montsegur.

Kurtis decides to go and check out the rugged region around Carcassone first. This blood soaked landscape is where the Cathar/Albigensian ‘heresy’ was so brutally suppressed around the time that the Knights Templar were also persecuted and scattered. Beneath the fortress of Montsegur, deep in the quarried subterranean quarters, is a massive vaulted door protected by occult seals and slumbering, deadly guardians. Inside there are vital clues to where the Lux Veritatis hid the last two Nephilim Sleepers.

There were always three Sleepers and Karel wants the remaining two Nephilim Uyuyanlar to continue his unchanged dream of reviving his near extinct race and set it in dominion over the dark age that is looming. Everywhere on the planet there is war, slaughter and strife and amidst such all consuming chaos his great shadow-plan has every chance of gaining ground before coming to anyone’s attention – until it is too late of course.

LARA meanwhile, has been recuperating with her once-mentor Putai in the heat and isolation of the desert landscapes of North Africa (El Hawa, Lara of Arabia). She too picks up rumours and signs of Nephilim-Karel’s survival and has begun tracking his moves as tries to recover his strength and powers.

Karel is in action again. He has hunted down the only other living descendant of a Lux Veritatis initiate, Vasiley, and tortured her into translating the unbreakable LV code of the Sleeper Scrolls. The name rings a bell, Morgau Vasiley. It emerges that Mathias Vasiley, the murdered dealer in Prague, was a rogue Lux Veritatis initiate expelled from the Order in the 1950’s for degenerate behaviour. He should have been terminated by the Order but disappeared and re-emerged decades later with a new identity and a daughter tutored in basic LV skills. The unfortunate Morgau never had the true training that made Kurtis unique and when she came to Karel’s attention she suffered terrible treatment, which left her mutilated and unhinged. Whatever, the end result was now that Karel had the Sleeper Scrolls at least partially translated and subsequently knows where the last two Sleepers are hidden – or are likely to be hidden. Lara has to go after Karel and scupper the Nephilim Shapeshifter’s plans, again.

For Kurtis the clues at Monsegur seem to indicate that the Sleepers are back at one of the ancient original sites in Anatolia, Turkey and Karel, along with the pain-slaved Morgau, hightail it to the Cappadocian plains and the Gőrėme valley.

LOCATION CAPPADOCIA – TURKEY.

Eckhardt planned and built a base here once on an ancient site but never got to use it before he was incarcerated beneath Castle Kriegler. (It’s weird, deep and scary and of course ideal for our heroes to bash the living daylights out of creepy abominations). Time for intense subterranean action in the underground cities of Anatolia –  Nevşehir, Kayseri, Kaymaklı Derinkuyu and Niğde along the Gőrėme valley.

[ See other documents on possible final scenarios.]

THE NEW CABAL

Gunderson and Rouzic the Illusionist are reassembled by Karel posing as Eckhardt. The Cabal survivors presume Karel perished at the Strahov and have no idea he was a Shapeshifter or a Nephilim. They get introduced to the three replacement Cabal members by Eckhardt who explains to them all about the two remaining Sleepers and why he needs them.

The LV Scrolls that were part translated by Morgau put the site of the last Sleeper in a sunken Nephilim complex in a huge underground lake. Cabal forces are sent ahead to secure the location and assemble a massive submersible platform (a huge lunking steam punk contraption) to access the Sleeper at the sunken site. It also comes to light that the other Sleeper was destroyed in a Lux Veritatis action decades ago, so this really is the last one. No mess ups this time.

Gunderson and Rouzic are antagonised by the new Cabal members. Bitter rivalries are blossoming already. This is not a collection of easy going personalities and mutual venom and infighting is rife. The newcomers are mocked as inadequate and Gunderson says that running the Anatolian-Sub operation is what Karel used take care of so well. Pity he’s dead.

Not so, says Eckhardt and morphs into Karel giving everyone the conniptions, especially the newcomers. Shit! What have they let themselves in for? They are all pretty scary individuals in their own right but this takes some adjusting to.

Karel goes on to explain how things are going to be, promises them wonders and victories and gives them their orders. He’s lying of course but what do they know.

LOCATION – ANTARCTICA  BASE

Towards the close of WWII, when the misdirected Allied bombers were bombing Castle Kreigler and unknowingly setting the monstrous Eckhardt free the Nazi Kommand was looking to re-establish its power base in places as far flung as Argentina, the Himalayas and remote Scandinavian regions. But the most ambitious bunker base was located in Antarctica. (imagine what fun could be had with Nazi-Nephilim….wow!)

Various branches of what had once been Eckhardt’s breeder programme back in the 1300-1400’s have survived and have continued in various remote parts of the world. Some of these obscene experimentations were carried out under the guise of the 1930’s and 1940’s concentration camps. As the thousand year Reich began to implode large shipments of equipment, research data, materials and personnel were shipped off to their remote Antarctic base in the ice-locked mountain ranges far beyond reach. This had been under construction since the 1930’s and by the end of the war was complete, ready to receive the results of the Dunkle Welten Programme (Dark Worlds) into its bunker complex.

So, guess where Lara and Kurtis are going to end up…? Yep.

For precedent see:

Genesis by W. A. Harbinson.

At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft

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Exclusive Angel of Darkness documents from Murti Schofield, the writer of the game. Learn what happened after the end of the Angel of Darkness.

“Flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo.”

“If I cannot move the gods then I will stir up Hell.”

Oath sworn by Régis Limoux (Karel’s identity during the 1300’s to 1400’s) after being caught up in, and barely escaping, Eckhardt’s murderous treachery in destroying the First Cabal in 1368 and repeated in 1888 when Karel joins the Cabal as a being of human origins (though not quite of course).

 FINAL CONFRONTATION SCENE BETWEEN LARA, KURTIS AND KAREL.

What we witness is an epic Joseph Campbell moment of revelation for our heroine. Lara has a Road To Damascus moment of empathic understanding about Joachim Karel as he battles for survival and finally lies broken and dying.  This is the defeated King Lear, Chingachcook last of the Mohicans, the remorse-filled Othello, the crushed and dying Arthur, Beowulf expiring at the conclusion of his last great battle. It is the essence of every archetypal climactic moment of every great heroic saga. Nations will mourn. The Earth will weep. Dreams will wither and die. Nations will pause and become reconciled. Couch potatoes will choke on their TV dinners. (sob!)

Why? Well let’s see.

REVISITING THAT FINAL SCENE IN AOD

In the final confrontation between Lara and her AOD nemesis she has finally had her eyes opened to the nature of what this last Nephilim has been trying to do for his race. “All we’ve ever been trying to do is survive.” He spoke the truth. She sees this now. In his terms and in light of what his race has suffered at the hands of a treacherous and violent humanity over the millennia his actions and methods are perfectly understandable. The realisation shocks Lara to the core especially as it throws an unattractive light on her own inflexible behaviour and limited perceptions. Humans, she is forced to admit, are barbaric and a deeply flawed race.

She has at last come to grasp what is going on here, the tragic grandeur of a lone survivor, last of his race fighting for the life of his near-extinct species.

In the last scene:

Lara, Kurtis and Karel have been battling it out and after a prolonged head to head slugfest the two ‘heroes’ gain the upper hand. They have managed to breach Karel’s defences and Kurtis has pressed home the advantage. Kurtis is proving the more indomitable and his rage is merciless.

With the full rallying of his considerable abilities and empowered by vengeful wrath he is taking the wounded Karel apart. Righteous fury consumes the young Lux Veritatis. This unholy creature, this embodiment of evil, this monstrous abomination will pay for the slaughter of his father and every LV adept and elder throughout history.

The intensity of Kurtis’ fury blinds him to everything except annihilation. And for the first time in her life Lara realises what this says about human nature, herself and a life spent in violence. She undergoes a total and profound cognitive shift and it nearly obliterates her.

Karel falls and Kurtis is about to deliver the final shattering blow when Lara intervenes attempting to spare Karel at the last moment. But things go wrong. The very air is being ripped apart by the colossal assault of etheric and physical violence. Lara herself is mortally wounded and despite her sacrifice Karel too has received his death blow. And he knows it. The two of them lie entangled in the wreckage of this last titanic battle with Kurtis standing over them stupefied by what has happened. He is still gripped by the battle-trance his body trembling from barely contained passions. He is totally unable to comprehend what Lara has done. He stares horrified, stunned and completely immobilised.

The crushed body of Karel stirs and the broken Nephilim peers up into Kurtis’ face, his eyes hooded by agony. His breathing is laboured but he manages to rally his thoughts and speaks,

“Son of Humanity I am finally dead. By your hand. Which is as it should be. All things end that do not transform and there can be no more transformations for me. You have seen to that.”

He spasms. A coughing fit shakes his broken frame. He groans. His head drops to the floor but he struggles to continue speaking,

“Some dreams may outlast our bodies even when they are dust and I have carried such a dream as might shake the world, young Lux Veritatis. Alas my dream will not survive the finality of ashes. It will die with me. But I have birthed a new thought, a hope – that something be salvaged from the destruction that our twin races have created. So I lay a charge on you.”

He raises an unsteady arm and holds it palm up in Kurtis’ direction as if offering a gift.

Kurtis cannot tear his gaze away from the dying Nephilim but is unable to speak. Confusion has robbed him of the ability to move or think. The Nephilim’s body is coming apart before his eyes. And yet Karel is hanging on. Karel raises his agonised face to peer directly at the young warrior and his words penetrate deep into Kurtis’ brain, directly, mind-to-mind.

“Son of Eve – return to the world. Remember your roots and rediscover your true self. Revive and remake the Lux Veritatis into what it was meant to be.  It was a noble endeavour once. Restore your Order to the light. Make of it a beacon instead of something rancorous and without grace. Then, for the sake of all races, something meaningful may be salvaged from all…this…”

His arm moves weakly to embrace the destruction around them including the inert form of Lara.

More dialogue – yatter, natter, yammer, banter – but the outcome is that Karel, last of his race, uses his remaining strength to drag Lara back from the pit, imparting the remaining dregs of his life force to her crushed body. Karel disintegrates into dust scattered by the hurricane that suddenly roars into existence.

Some time later Lara comes to …

…and from that point on begins to seriously examine the grave robber life she has pursued.

Kurtis returns to the salt plains of his birth in Utah to recover with the aid of his mother Marie Cornel-Heissturm. He needs to rethink and realign his life especially with regards the Lux Veritatis.

Lara goes back to the desert, to Putai, and goes into retreat, embracing the stillness and purifying simplicity of the furnace landscape. This part of her journey is finished. Another tale is ready to be told.

Solve et coagule. Dissolve/destroy and reform – alchemist’s axiom.

Karel: “We have committed crimes, each and every one of us. Repugnant, indefensible  crimes. Against nature and ourselves. Unforgivable.  Deplorable. And the price has been paid by endless generations of peoples. Entire races. What is left from this carnage? Nothing but the ashes of my people and the degradation of yours.”

“From this I go into the final darkness unremarked and unmourned.”

“Carry the dream. Pursue your true path.”

Karel of course is far too sinewy and resilient a cookie not to have planned ahead for all possible outcomes. The hurricane wind, far from scattering his constituent atoms to oblivion herded them to where they could be gathered and conveyed to a reinforced subterranean regeneration chamber. There, in a cryo-sarcophagus of ancient construction his physical components were painstakingly reconstituted and his regeneration proceeded according to his carefully laid plan. This guy thinks in centuries not from moment to moment like mere mortals.

From this sleeper state he will re-emerge revitalised, his shape shifter powers restored his dream undiminished. It is time for the next step in bringing the Golden Lion to Earth. First the long running Breeding Programme must be stepped up to create more Nephuman progeny. The Morgau youngling will be a good start. The path to fulfilling the Dream of Resurrection is going well.

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Kurtis VS Proto

3DS Max

See more of my renders

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Tomb of Ash presents an exclusive interview with Murti Schofield – the writer of the Angel of Darkness. Along with talking about his inspiration for the story, Murti reveals some previously unknown details that were left out of the game, including the fate of Kurtis Trent.

Hello Murti! First of all, thank you for taking your time to speak to me today.

Oh you’re welcome, I love talking about myself!

Don’t we all?

Yeah, I’m just more honest about it! [He laughs.]

So, how did you start working at Core?

I did some work for them on a game called Fighting Force through a good friend of mine. Probably about a year after that that same friend told me that they were looking into making a new Tomb Raider game and that they were a little bit stuck. He said that he reminded them that I’d done some dialogue work for them before and asked if I’d be interested. I drove over to Derby. I thought that they simply wanted some more dialogue work doing… Adrian Smith asked me if I might have any ideas for the game. They wanted to revamp Lara. They wanted something ground-breaking and yet spookily the same whilst keeping all the signature marks of Lara Croft. At the time I had my head stuffed with Cappadocia and Turkey and France, because I did a lot of writing about that and was travelling in those places. So I told him a whole series of possibilities for a story.  Adrian seemed very interested and he asked when I could start. That was in May 2000 and I turned up again in June and was introduced to the team that was working on the ideas for the Angel of Darkness, which was James Kenny, Peter Duncan and Mark Donald. It was just three of them and they had worked for six months on that game. I started producing ideas and it all went from there.

I know that you did some writing work before the Angel of Darkness. How different is it to write a script for a videogame?

I worked on computer games before; for about 4-5 years as an artist doing environments and animation.  I am a trained animator. I worked in Cosgrove Hall animation studio in Manchester and worked on the BFG film all of whicih was hand drawn traditional animation. I also worked on concept designs for central television in London.  So, I was familiar with working in the media. But then I had an idea for a computer game with a friend of mine even though at the time I knew nothing about computer games.  This was in about 1994.  I offered the idea to Sony and they offered me a job at Psygnosis in Chester, where I worked on two games as an artist. I was still writing in my own time. I was working on a novel calledCappadocian Aengelus with some of the similar themes that I transferred to the Angel of Darkness.

When you started approaching the script for the Angel of Darkness did you read scripts by Vicky Arnold and Andy Sandham to get a grasp on Lara’s character?

I didn’t talk to Andy very much as he was very busy on the then current game [Tomb Raider Chronicles]. I looked at the documents that were written for TR1-5 but the idea was not to copy what was done before, it was to make a quite a radical break from that. So although I wanted to know what Lara was doing in Egypt, what was she up to in around the world there was only a certain amount of that that I wanted to take with me into the Angel of Darkness world. Like Von Croy’s walking stick.

So your Cappadocian Aengelus was the main inspiration for the AOD?

Yeah, as well as From The Ashes Of Angels by Andrew Collins. Aengelus came in at something like 175,000 words and took me about two years to write. It was one of the main inspirations. I was always interested in obscure aspects of history. Particularly when some mystery is involved like secret societies and information that is in public domain but nobody notices it because it’s encoded. Having spent time in the underground cities of Cappadocia I was just saturated with this kind of material. Also the Languedoc area in France where the Cathar heresy was crushed and the Templars were wiped out. So Knights Templar and angelic forces were in my head and it was basically the root of the proposal that I made to Adrian [Smith].

What was the main inspiration for Lux Veritatis?

One of my obsessions was the Knights Templar, but I didn’t want to use them as such because they were used in other games. The moment you say “the Knights Templar” people immediately think they understand what you are talking about. I wanted to create something that would make people think “oh, what the Hell is that?” So Lux Veritatis was actually a secret inner order within the Knights Templar but it allowed me to use “Lux Veritatis” all the way through instead of saying “the Knights Templar”.

How Kurtis was created?

Adrian [Smith] said in the initial interview that he wanted the possibility of a playable spin-off character and if I had any ideas. As a big Raiders of the Lost Ark fan I suggested a playable male character that was an adventurer, that was about as far as it went at that point. Adrian said I could come up with more ideas on that.  So the concept was to create a young male adventurer and when I started writing background material I wanted him to have some sort of connection into the mystic past. I decided to make him a member of Lux Veritatis but not a full-on member. He had to be a trainee or apprentice and that is when the idea of making him a descendent of one of the last Lux Veritatis’ adepts came in. When I’d get an idea like that I’d propose it to the team and they would do artwork and in the meantime I’d spending every hour that I could spare writing up possible background stories. I wrote a lot of material, more than we could possibly use, but the more I’d write as a foundation for a story the more convincing the story would be. If anyone would ask me “why is that there?” I could give them a good reason rather than just say “oh it seemed like a good idea”. All the ideas are there because they’re built on the established background story. I hate cliché and I hate gratuitously used information, so every name was chosen for a particular reason, every character was built on a certain idea, and all the concepts were definitely interrelated to each other. I tried to create an entire universe that worked. Oh and Ash, I really loved your interpretation of Konstantin!

Ah, thank you!

I thought he was great! I’d never seen any illustration of him before.

Thank you so much! To be honest the Angel of Darkness is a very dear game to me because when it came out I was going through a very difficult period of my life and it made that period a bit more bearable.

Yes, I read your blogpost about it. It does sound like a very dark period.

Was Kurtis the last adept of the Lux Veritatis?

When the game starts, his father [Konstantin] has just been killed which left no other elder Lux Veritatis adepts alive. So Kurtis was the only trained Lux Veritatis initiate still active, except, there is one other; a female character that went to the dark side. That’s all I’ll say at this stage.

What were the plans for Castle Kriegler and Cappadocia?

It all started quite early on in the process. When I first met the three members of the team it was Mark Donald, Pete Duncan and James Kenny. We began discussions about the kind of things they wanted to do and I could deliver. I obviously gave them the run past of all the things I’d proposed to Adrian and then we started to discuss it all. The first thing I wanted to do was to establish the mood of what I was trying to set up.
So I wrote an FMV script, like a film script, of events in Castle Kriegler in 1945, where Eckhardt is held captive in the subterranean chambers. The Count and Countess Kriegler and their son were the Lux Veritatis guardians at the time. They were guarding the world from Eckhardt. Somehow members of the Cabal arranged to misdirect an Allied bombing force and bombarded the castle in order to release Eckhardt.

The FMV script was well received by the team. So, the idea was that at some point in 1945 Eckhardt has been released by the Allied bombing of Castle Kriegler. Gerhard Heissturm, Kurtis’s grandfather who was a young man at the time, was a man servant to the Krieglers and he escapes the destruction. Also it’s worth noting that in the script it talks about the Periapt Discs. There weren’t Shards at that point but three talismanic Discs. And so Gerhard escaped with some of the discs that were used to keep Eckhardt imprisoned. The Discs were changed, I think a couple of months later, into Shards. In the early stages of development the idea was to have four locations: Paris, Prague, and then going on to Castle Kriegler where various things were hidden and had to be dug out. This would lead to the finale for the first game in Cappadocia.
I only outlined the things that might happen in there in broad outline but it fairly soon became clear that it was just too much to achieve in one game.

You have to remember that I had never done this before, not on this scale and not for a triple A project. What I was trying to do was come up with lots of interesting story ideas that held together and around which a mass of gameplay opportunities could be built. So when Rich Morton came on board after a few months I began to talk to him and Andy Sandham about it. That was the point at which everybody began to realize that Castle Kriegler and Cappadocia were just too big. We needed to bring everything back and make it happen in either in Paris or Prague which is what we did and it still seemed to hang together very well. At that stage I was pleased that it was still working okay. I now began to work very closely with Rich. If this story takes Lara in this situation what sort of gameplay opportunities are there for that to happen in Paris in the game? And so on. You know there was the nightclub in Paris and all the other stuff? Now what could take place in there was outside my area of expertise. I don’t do gameplay and puzzles. I would create the story where things would occur and Lara would be going around asking questions and Rich and various other people came up with “All right well she goes to this nightclub. She can do this this, and these are the kind of clues need she be looking for there”…and so on.

My challenge was to keep the story coherent. For example in Castle Kriegler there are all sorts of secret areas which could support game play.  Some Lux Veritatis chambers are hidden in there, as was Eckhardt’s old alchemist lab and a ritual chamber where Eckhardt was going to be attempting a critical self transformation.

Once I found out that we had to abandon Kriegler and put everything into Prague I just pushed everything else to the side and concentrated on Paris and Prague. There was no time for anything else with the pace hotting up. Yeah that’s about all I can say at this stage, nothing of the proposed Kriegler or Cappadocian levels was ever properly finalized.

You’ve just reminded me about the nightclub, “Le Serpent Rouge”. Lara has to retrieve a mysterious box from one of the flashlights that don’t work. What’s inside of that box?

Right. You know the Tarantino film where everybody is fighting for this suitcase but no one knows what’s inside it. They only see a blue glow coming out of it when it’s opened. I loved that idea. So basically that was a rip-off from that film. It just remains mysterious, an intriguing possibility because if I never specified what was in that box I could always pick it up in Game 2.  I would make sure that it was something really essential to the story but was left hanging for the present. I left a lot of clues in Game 1 that could be picked up later on in games 2 and 3.  But, of course because those games never happened you never got to see why they were there and why they were significant. Hm, what was the name of that film…

Pulp Fiction?

Yes! Thank you, that’s the one! I just thought it was so cool and so funny! I grew up with comics, I did all my escapism through comics like you did with games. I was reading comics avidly and passionately from the age of about six. I was hugely inspired by comics; British comics, European comics, American comics and film. Whenever I was in meetings with people at Core I used to be referencing all sorts of comics and films. It was only after a while that I realized 90 percent of them didn’t know what the hell I was talking about because they haven’t seen the films or they haven’t read the comics or they didn’t get the cultural references. So I had to start dialling back on that. But I had one guy came to me, “You know all this stuff you keep mentioning Hellboy and Hellblazer. How do I get a hold of all this stuff?” It was because I was using these as a way of expressing the ideas I was proposing. It was a sort of shorthand language to establish moods and style. Hellboy particularly. There was one occasion where I was talking about a monster that Lara and Kurtis could run into in Castle Kriegler and it was based on the Jewish idea of the golem.

Oh yeah, I know that one!

Yeah, well you’re obviously a cultured person because nobody in that particular meeting understood what I was talking about.

The only reason I know of it is because I played Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption and there is a Jewish neighbourhood in there where you have to fight a golem!

Brilliant! So you know what I’m talking about. But when I mentioned this idea of the golem one particular guy said that we couldn’t do that because of copyright. Tolkien will have a fit, because you know, “Gollum”… Good grief.

In the early game concepts Putai, the shaman who saved Lara in Egypt, was supposed to say things like “you feel stronger now Lara”, “you learnt a new skill” and stuff like that. Why was this idea dropped?

I honestly don’t know. Basically when it came to dialogue, I wanted to make the characters as realistic and lively as possible, but within the limits imposed on you by gameplay, I was having to ask Rich and others what kind of dialogue did they need. I don’t know who was making decisions about that, but what was coming back to me was that they needed loads of things that Lara could say at different points in the game. I wasn’t involved in the decision of how the dialogue would be used except when it was carrying story content. If it was stuff during the gameplay, I just threw in loads of things and they cherry picked the bits they wanted. Although we were all supposed to be working closely together, it was only a couple of people like Rich that I was working closely with. Basically the programmers were a very separate entity, the artists were a separate entity and I was separate from both of those. I found it very difficult to talk to programmers; Although, Tom Scutt was great to communicate with because he could talk both artist and programmer language. He was the main conduit through which I/we communicated with the programmers if there was the need. I didn’t make many decisions at all related to how the gameplay worked. Not my area of expertise. I was quite distinct from that process.

What is the purpose of Von Croy’s Stick?

Well, originally there were supposed to be a whole series of clues linking back to previous situations in previous games. In fact, I was going through some notes the other day and came across a whole set of charts showing all the clues that appear in various notebooks and documents. I don’t think it was used cause quite honestly I never went back and played the game afterwards – I couldn’t face it. But, the idea was that the top of the Anubis (Seth) walking stick came off and inside there was a scroll with some clues scrawled on parchment. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what they even were. I wrote the clue in, it was in a discussion I had with Rich. I think we did a few things like that just in case we needed to pick them up later on.

For the first 5 or 6 years after its release I had very little idea that anybody cared about AOD as I myself didn’t at that point. Basically, I was downhearted because I’d put so much into it and I know a lot of other people had as well. The KTEB were the first ones to get in touch with me and that was kind of interesting in a certain way. But, then on the 10^th anniversary, The Lost Dominion people got in touch with me and I thought I’d pay some attention and see what was going on. I simply didn’t know how keen people were. I had no idea so I started talking to Jenni and various other people and I thought “Blimey, people have really dug into this”. People were discussing things on the site that I’d hidden in clues, names, and other stuff and it was a complete revelation for me as well as an affirmation of all the effort I’d put in.  I just thought it had vanished without a trace. I knew that the KTEB were keen on Kurtis, but that’s a different thing.

I like your renders of Kurtis by the way, they are great!

Thank you so much! I think I was the first one to actually make a Kurtis render in 2006’ish…

How did Lara come clean with the police?

As far as I know, she still hasn’t. At the end of AOD she’s still on the run from the police. She’s never cleared her name properly.

There are a number of references to Sumerian Gods in the game, can you comment on those?

Very often when people are building levels they’ll just include something that would link her to some moments in her past.   I don’t think overmuch thought was given to it. Or perhaps a lot. I don’t know. I wasn’t party to that. People would pick up some Syrian or Babylonian architecture and put it in. It was very often left to the artist as long as no one spotted any real glitches with it like Pete Connelly appearing in the Mona Lisa.

In Von Croy’s notebook there is a reference to the Golden Lion that will bring destruction upon earth. Can you give a bit more details on that?

The Golden Lion was a prophecy relating to a Nephilim Saviour, who would return and re-establish the Nephilim race. Eckhardt was very aware of this. He tried to bring together a Sanglyph to reawaken the Sleeper and transmute himself using alchemical processes into the person or being who would become the Golden Lion. He thought he would inherit The Golden Lion of the Nephilim mantle and of course rule over everything.

What’s the history between Lara and Karel? They never met in the game yet Lara acts like she knows him when she first meets him in the final scene.

In 1300s Eckhardt makes his first contact with the Nephilim and tries to kill off the original Cabal so he remains the only one. Incidentally one of the original members of the Cabal at that period was a character called Régis Limoux, which was one of Karel’s identities. Anyway when Lara first arrives in Prague she sees Karel’s photo in Luddick’s folder with dossiers on the Mafia/Cabal members [in the cutscene you can’t see Karel’s photograph]. She recognises him from that.

I read somewhere in your notes that there is a possibility that Lara and Kurtis have their extraordinary physical abilities because they come from Eckhardt’s genetically engineered generation of people

Hm, yes, that’s very true. How strange because I’ve hinted at this in various documents and is something I wanted, and still want, to say a great deal more about. In fact, I was also reading that document the other day. My idea of Lara and Kurtis is that they do come from unusual bloodlines. I began by thinking hard what would motivate someone in Lara’s position to do the things that she does. What would have influenced her life choices at a more profound level than simply the urge to go adventuring and shooting everything that crosses her path. I wanted to look into the inner darkness that could be driving her. I felt like there must be some deep, shadowy part of her past, as yet to be disclosed, which might link her to some ancient historic forces that have been battling in the shadows of a mythic and recorded history. That became the starting point of taking Cappadocia and angelic myths and the idea of ancient beings that might possibly be linked to her own genetic past.

Why is Karel in his Nephilim form is so different to the sleeper in terms of looks?

Basically that’s because he’s gone through so many shape-shifting transformations that he never really returns to his original, true form. Shape shifting has its consequences and costs, like every use of power.

That brings us to our next question – does he survive at the end of the game?

Yes, everybody survives except Eckhardt.

Gunderson also?

Yes, him and Rouzic [who is not in the game]. They are the only two surviving members of the Cabal. Karel also survived.

Did Kurtis survive?

Oh yes of course, he also survived. There are games of his own waiting to be written!

Cool! that’s the first firm answer on his fate!

When Lara and Kurtis are both knocked out outside Louvre, why was Kurtis’s Periapt Shard left behind?

That is a glitch. There was supposed to be another scene in there that should have explained how that happened.

What relationship if any was planned to develop between Lara and Kurtis in the future games

Well I like the idea of this sort of that teenage “push me pull you” dynamic, the kind of relationship where they are actually strongly attracted to each other; a lot of sexual tension which expresses itself in a sort of buddy relationship, with a lot of mutual respect…and tussling.

During his time in the Foreign Legion Kurtis got a nickname the Demon Hunter. How did that happen?

When Kurtis was in the Legion he tried to leave the shadow wars far behind him. However, when he’s in the Legion various incidents happen where dark and demonic forces come to the fore of his life. There was one event when he was out with a patrol in the desert and a tribe of Arabic nomads gets attacked by djinn. Kurtis got drawn into that and tackles the djinn. Two of his fellow comrades die and two others survive, as well as Kurtis. Later back at the Legionaires’ drinking lair tongues start wagging, people start talking about the djinns and the name sticks. There were also many additional events where Kurtis seemed to be attracting demonic entities.

What happens to Kurtis’ body in the end of the game?

The idea was that he drags himself away and relapses into a toxic coma, which is when the body is protecting itself most dramatically. Basically, he survives that way.

Can you explain who the Agency is?

It’s the enforcement arm of the Cabal. They were the hit squad of the Cabal and Gunderson was in charge of it. There was just no space in the game in which to use them anymore, but I was very keen to bring them back in the second game because Gunderson survives and one of the way they reconstruct the Cabal is to set up all the protective measures as they were before, including the Agency. I liked the Agency, I could have done a lot with them. I think it was the Agency that Kurtis was working for unknowingly at one point as a mercenary.

If you would receive an offer to work in the videogame industry what would be your response?

That’s a good question because I’ve been thinking about that for the last couple of years. I wouldn’t want to be working the way I was before. I don’t want to be dealing with massive deadlines and so on. If I was to be used as an ideas consultant or a concept design consultant, I’d be very happy about that. Depending on the project of course. I’ve got to be passionate about it because I’ve got so many things of my own needing a lot of my attention and energy. But, I’d be very interested to be used as a consultant for a game project or something media oriented. I wouldn’t want to be fully employed though or tied to a daily timetable grind again. I don’t have the stamina and energy that I used to have 10 years ago. I need to concentrate on things which I know are going to get completed.

Oh! Speaking of the videogames, I don’t know if you play them much but you may want to consider the Broken Sword series…

Oh is that the one with the Knights Templar?

Yep

Yes! I did a lot of research on that one.  I tend not to play games, but I research them.  Assassin’s Creed has a brilliant concept.

Well these are all the questions I had for you. Thank you so much for your time Murti!

You’re very welcome.

The Angel of Darkness fans must consider checking out Murti’s The Shadow Histories book series as “Tomb Raider Angel Of Darkness and The Shadow Histories, all share some fundamental similarities of theme”. Volume I and II are available on Kindle

Further Read

Special thanks:

Tatiana Leitzel

Tina Ljubenkov

Leksaart

The post Murti Schofield – Writing the Angel of Darkness appeared first on Tomb of Ash.