AOD II - Murti Schofield

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AOD II
Notes for Game II
[Xtra-synop-GAMEII-v1]
12-June-2002
 
"LEFT UNSPECIFIED UNTIL GAME II:
 
1/ KURTIS RETURNS IN GAME II.
 
2/ ONE OR MORE OF THE APPARENTLY DEAD ALCHEMISTS HAVE BECOME THE EMBRYO STAGE OF THE NEXT NEPHILIM RACE. THE QUEST TO RE-ESTABLISH THE NEPHILIM RACE WILL CONTINUE.
 
3/ SHAPESHIFTER HAS NOT DIED. HIS DISAPPEARANCE IN A BURST OF LIGHT WAS HIS TRANSFORMATION INTO A HIGHER STATE – HE HAS BECOME THE GOLDEN LION OF THE SUPPRESSED PROPHETIC TEXTS, WHAT ECKHARDT HAD BEEN TRYING TO ACHIEVE FOR HIMSELF.
 
4/ THE QUEST TO RE-ESTABLISH THE NEPHILIM RACE WILL CONTINUE WITH SHAPESHIFTER TAKING  THE MASTER PLAN FORWARD.

5/ THE SHAPESHIFTER/NEPHILIM HAS WORKED UNDERCOVER THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE FIRST GAME POSING AS A MERE MORTAL MEMBER OF THE ADEPTS-ALCHEMISTS. THE NEPHILIM WAS PREPARED TO SUPPORT ECKHARDT BECAUSE HE WANTED THE RESULTS OF THE MADMAN’S WORK.
 
6/ BUT IT WAS ALSO VITAL TO SABOTAGE ECKHARDT’S ATTEMPT TO BECOME A SUPREME NEPHILIM ENTITY HIMSELF. SHAPESHIFTER NEEDED LARA’S HELP FOR THIS [or someone of her qualities]. THIS IS WHY HE HELPED HER OUT AT CERTAIN TIMES.
 
THE STORY ARC OVER TWO GAMES:
Because some key elements are to be picked up and developed in Game II some themes in the first game are left open ended. The motives of Shapeshifter, for example, are hinted at and used but not developed fully until Game II.
 
USING THE WEBSITE:
There is a lot of background detail and story that will be of obvious interest to players but are not essential and would slow the game down. Players will be able to access these details, character profiles and back story on the webpage. Specially prepared, playable chapters from the same story can also be downloaded."


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Game II - Alternate ideas and spin-offs
[LARA-KURT-ECKI-v1]
02-July-2002
 
"GAME II – ALTERNATE IDEAS & SPIN OFFS
 
LARA GAME – TOMB RAIDER II
  1. Lara solo adventure – no sign of Kurtis.
  2. Small appearance by Kurtis – (still playable)
  3. Shared game with Kurtis again.
  4. Minor appearance of Kurtis who turns up at the end as a plot twist. He is discovered locked in a Nephilim stasis field helpless, a bit like Eckhardt was for 500 years. He is nothing more than a human component activating some powerful Lux Veritatis weapons that work only for an LV adept (it’s to do with the bloodline). Nephilim Karel is using him.  
 
KURTIS GAME
  • With Lara guesting
  • No Lara at all.

ECKHARDT GAME.
  • Eckhardt’s early history. We see what takes him down the dark path of the Black Alchemist.
  • Eckhardt runs foul of the Nephilim. Gets stuck in pit.
  • Eckhardt gets out of pit and runs amok throughout history for 500 years.
  • He is present at main points of history, Fire of London, Plague, French Revolution, Jack the Ripper 1880 etc.
  • He is in constant secret warfare with agents of the Lux Veritatis – perhaps even an early incarnation of Kurtis (one of his ancestors).
  • See ‘Two Artefacts’ doc.
  • See ‘New backstory-1’ doc"

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Game II ideas
[GAME II-PORTALS-v5]
09-September-2002

"GAME TWO – TOMB RAIDER

Game II will not be simply a continuation of Game I, though the initial situations Lara faces will pick up from Game I elements and events encountered in Paris and Prague will be expanded on.

To avoid any sense of doing a cheap rehash job new story elements will introduce new situations and challenges. Will we learn what has happened to Kurtis?

Will we see more of Karel-ShapeShifter after having revealed himself as a Nephilim?
What does the last of the Nephilim have planned and does it involve Lara?

What about the Cabal members who survived?
  1. Rouzic – the Illusionist.
  2. Gunderson.
  3. Karel/ShapeShifter.
  4. Eckhardt – really dead or just Hollywood dead?

But the emphasis will be on action with puzzles, more classic TR territory. Lara’s enemies will include Nephilim, monsters, new types of vampires, devil spawn, werewolves, the dark world of grotesques.

CURRENT IDEAS

KURTIS MAKES CONTACT
Lara is contacted by Kurtis three months after the events in Game I. He needs her help to prevent the Nephilim Karel from completing Eckhardt’s unfinished plans of re-establishing the Nephilim race. Where has he been all this time? – explanations later - first, a mission brief, should she care to take it.

On the German Czech border sits Castle Kriegler, a Lux Veritatis  stronghold where Eckhardt was kept imprisoned from 1445 until 1945. Hidden away beneath its ruins is a massive vault protected by a door with an occult seal. Karel must not be allowed to reach what is inside.

Their task of to lock it down permanently using the Periapt Shards (which Lara still has from Game I).  The Shards are the only thing up to the job.

Kurtis also needs to rejuvenate his powers after being so badly damaged in Prague. There is a Lux Veritatis chamber called the Bloodline Room beneath the Castle where he can revitalise, also using the Shards.

She must meet him at Castle Kriegler.

CASTLE KRIEGLER
Lara makes her way to the Castle on the border and has to fight her way through the forest, which is infested with mutants, zombie-breed, werewolfies, anomalies and general ugly stuff. It’s as if some weird demon dimension has spewed up around the castle.
(These are ordinary wolves and forest critters warped by the arts of Cabal Illusionist Rouzic, so that when Lara kills them they lose their grotesque appearances.)

She gets to the foot of the colossal ruins untouched since the Allied bombing in 1945. It was this bombardment that enabled Eckhardt to escape with the help of the Cabal.

Kurtis is waiting there. He has been in hiding since events at the Strahov. He explains how Boaz’s poison nearly killed him but he managed to crawl into the Lux Veritatis  Vault of Trophies where he went into toxic coma. Later he escaped when the coast was clear and has been tracking Karel’s moves whilst trying to recover his own strength. Lara offers Kurtis his Blade weapon back but he says his powers are too weak for him to use it yet.

They make their way into the ruins and Kurtis leads the way down into the sublevels. Below the rubble left by the bombing whole sections of a subterranean complex are still intact. This was the stronghold of the Lux Veritatis and still contains many secrets and dangers..."  


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Game II Lara goes in search of Kurtis
[G2-L-finds-KURTIS-v1]
10-September-2002
 
"LARA GOES IN SEARCH OF KURTIS

BRAZILIAN HOUSE.

Optional training level accessed from the title screen.
The player can use this or go straight into the game after a brief cutscene summarising the details of the following scenario.

Lara has been dreaming of a house perched on the side of a mountain mixed up with images if Kurtis. She tracks the place down to a remote area (Brazil? Australia? Africa?) in some tropical location.

The wooden house is a series of steps built into mountainside, an exotic mixture of primitive basic and hi-tech with a lift to get between the levels and simple ladders for when power fails. Rooms lead into the mountain side and there are secret accesses to inner chambers. It’s like the Batcave with Lux Veritatis training facilities. This is Kurtis’ version of Lara’s mansion with personalised LV gear and mysteries.
 
Kurtis is there, too weak from the venom injected by Boaz to do more than beam messages to Lara. He needs to get to the Lux Veritatis Bloodline Room beneath castle Kreigler to rejuvenate. He is too weak even to control the Blade which Lara has brought with her. She has also brought the Shards which Kurtis will need for his rejuvenation.

Lara can make use of all Kurtis’ training facilities. When the time is right she/they head off for the Czech-German border to get to the Bloodline Room."


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Future Kurtis game ideas
[KURTIS-RUFF-NOTES-v1a]
19-September-2002

"KURTIS TRENT GAME

LIST OF LOOSE IDEAS:
  • Demon infestations break out through human beings. Ordinary people can be voluntary hosts, or get inhabited or infected.
  • Kinetic shield that absorbs impacts and energy bolts, stores it, then zaps it back at the enemy.
  • Telescoping staff with two retracting blades like an ice axe. Carried on a back shoulder holster.
  • A third LV weapon gets stolen by some interfering archaeologist bint in a pigtail.
  • The shield gets stored back somewhere safe – too dangerous to be let out into the world.
  • The staff gets destroyed.
  • Kurtis’ mentor is a contemporary of his dad, an LV adept.
  • An illegal LV bloodline came from the Count or Countesses guardians.
  • Remote jungle portals are being gashed open by wild (possessed?) tribes.
  • Kurtis has tattoos and a ring.
  • Kurtis gets hired as a body guard, but the client is infected and K is stuck in a confined area.
  • A shadow beast/hell hound is constantly on K’s trail and pops up in all kinds of unexpected situations whilst K is exploring or even battling some other baddy."


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Game II outline
[GAME II-OUTLINE-v2]
10-June-2003

"GAME TWO – TOMB RAIDER

Game VII will not be simply a continuation of Game VI, though the initial situations Lara faces will pick up from Game VI elements. To avoid any sense of doing a cheap rehash job new game/story elements will introduce great new challenges. Karel, the surviving Nephilim has retreated to his final base and stronghold in Cappadocia, the central region of. Turkey.

We will see more of Karel-ShapeShifter’s powers after having revealed himself as a Nephilim in game VI. Also look at how the final scene with K being ‘incinerated’ by the intense column of light/energy was more of a transformative reaction than an obliterative one. The alchemic maxim ‘Dissolve et coagulae’ destroy & reform, was in action here. Karel was being transmuted into…?...something else, something higher on the vibrational plane. What? Certainly something with augmented powers. To be explored. His ‘seduction’ attempt with Lara was a genuine offer. He could really have made use of her abilities which he recognised as outstanding.

What does the last of the Nephilim have planned and does it involve Lara?
Is Eckhardt – really dead or just Hollywood dead?
Will we learn what has happened to Kurtis and will he appear in this game?

What about the other Cabal members who survived?
  1. Rouzic – the Illusionist.
  2. Gunderson.
Gunderson could now be a super Boss standard baddy able to command hordes of armed squads or monsters for Lara to take out.

But the emphasis will be on action with puzzles, more classic TR territory. Lara’s enemies will include Nephilim, monsters, reactivated guardians of the city and Karel’s revived Cabal forces.

IN TURKEY - CAPPADOCIA
They end up in Turkey. They are at the heart of the underground cities [which actually exist in Cappadocia].

Karel has made his evil preparations here for completing the revival of the Nephilim race.  This is Nephilim home turf and Karel knows all the local traps and secrets. Also he is pretty damned powerful himself – having survived Game VI he has more special powers.

This part of Turkey is where the NEPHILIM SLEEPER from Game VI was dug up by Eckhardt. There may even be a couple of other SLEEPERS lying around – there were three originally.

Lara will have to fight her way into the underworld through a temple complex and into the subterranean levels including lots of flooded areas. Eventually she would reach Karel’s final base, a more hi tech area. His ultimate defence is the THREE REALMS or THREE REALITIES.

FINAL BATTLE
Karel-Nephilim has now been returned to his full Nephilim powers. The final confrontation involves a Nephilim defence system called the THREE REALITIES or THREE REALMS. This ancient system protects something big like:
  • a Nephilim source of power and knowledge.
  • the last of the Nephilim Sleepers.
  • Some other secret.

This THREE REALITIES defence system projects any non Nephilim intruder into three deadly situations generated from their own fears. For Lara these are possibly:
  • the lost world area with the T-REX from Tomb #1
  • the HIMALAYAS, site of Lara’s plane crash from Tomb #2
  • EGYPTIAN TOMBS how Lara managed to escape from Tomb #4.

Lara has to shut down each of her realities by locking a Periapt Shard in some crucial place or stabbing Karel or some other baddy.

*There are other possibilities that could be used including Lara being put into some possible future where the Nephilim race has been successfully revived by Karel and dominates life on Earth with all the horrors that implies for human beings.

*Another possibility could be back in Castle Kriegler.  

Lara finally battles Karel and destroys the Nephilim installations and plans. Ends with a race to get out of the subterranean levels as it collapses."


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Copyright (c) 2024 Murti Schofield. Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are the property of Embracer Group AB and Crystal Dynamics (formally Core Design, Eidos Interactive, and Square Enix).
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