Recurring characters in the Tomb Raider game series

A list of recurring characters that appear through the successful game series, Tomb Raider.

Winston Smith
Lara's butler who is often seen at Croft Manor. He rarely plays any role in the game's plot, usually only seen in Lara's Mansion, in the 2nd and 3rd games he follows Lara around the mansion, carrying a tray with what seems to be blue mugs on it and often farts and groans. In Tomb Raider Chronicles, he sits around a table with various other friends of Lara as they recall Lara's past adventures.

In Tomb Raider Legend he stands beside the fire place in Croft Manor and offers advice to Lara in cutscenes. He also appears in the manor level of Tomb Raider Anniversery. In the Crystal Dynamics games he is voiced by Alan Shearman.

Zip
Zip is described in Tomb Raider: Legend as Lara's right-hand man and also describes him as knowing about "all things geeky".

He first appears in Tomb Raider: Chronicles as it is shown that he helps Lara when she breaks into Von Croy's building. He communicates with her via a headset. He advises her on what to do and how to navigate through the building.

He re-appears in Tomb Raider: Legend and plays a simaliar role as his original appearance, as he communicates through Lara via a headset once again. At one point he and Alister are attacked by Amanda as she breaks into Lara's mansion. He and Alister helps Lara from a tech van when she find King Arthur's tomb.

He is confirmed to appear in Tomb Raider: Underworld but in "low profile". It is unknown what role he will have, however, he is seen in the first gameplay trailer.

Alister Fletcher
Alister Fletcher is one of Lara's closest allies in Tomb Raider: Legend and will be returning in Tomb Raider: Underworld. He is Lara's research assistant and is described on the Tomb Raider: Legend website as providing another "mind filled with arcane historical information". He is also described as "tense and prikley" and as "taking himself too seriously".

In Tomb Raider: Legend, he, along with Zip, communicate with Lara via her headset, he returns from France after having his dissortation rejected at the beginning of the game while Lara is in Bolivia. He sometimes gives advice concerning ancient civalisations. He and Zip are Attacked by Amanda Evert when she breaks into Lara's home, looking for the Ghalali Key. He gives Lara advice when she enters King Arthur's tomb from a tech van.

He will re-appear in Tomb Raider: Underworld but in "Low Profile".

Jacqueline Natla
Natla was one of the members of the triumvirate ruling the lost continent of Atlantis. However, she was later condemned for her misuse of power and was imprisoned in a capsule by the other two rulers, Qualopec and Tihocan. After escaping from her prison in 1945 during a nuclear test in Los Alamos, New Mexico, she took on the name Jacqueline and founded her own company called Natla Technologies using her scientific expertise and cunning. In 1996 she hired adventurer Lara Croft to search for Qualopec's piece of the Atlantean Scion in his Tomb located in Peru. Shortly after finding the artifact, Lara was attacked by another adventurer Larson under orders by Natla. Knowing Natla had betrayed her, Lara went in search for the remaining two pieces in Greece and then Egypt. After obtaining the final piece, Lara was ambushed by Natla and her men. Stealing the now assembled artifact, Natla ordered Lara to be killed and left Egypt in her boat heading to Atlantis.

It is inside the Great Pyramid of Atlantis that Natla's grand scheme is revealed: to use the Scion's powers to breed a new race of mutant creatures. Realizing this, Lara made her best effort to destroy the Scion. Refusing to let her work be destroyed, Natla charged for Lara sending them both falling into a deep abyss. While Lara managed to grab a ledge, Natla continued to plummet into the lava pit below. As Lara tries to escape the pyramid Natla confronts her a final time, revealing her true appearance. After a fearsome battle, Lara defeated Natla and escaped the pyramid, leaving Natla inside when it exploded.

Jacqueline Natla returns in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the original Tomb Raider game, developed Crystal Dynamics. Here she is voiced by Grey DeLisle. . In Anniversary, her role remains the same. However, Natla is visually depicted as having a much skinnier body frame as well as sharp and almost alien-like facial features, and also unusually long hair, pale skin and long fingers with long, sharp nails. In this game she also describes herself as immortal and sought to bring about the 'Seventh Age' though what this was remained ambiguous.

In Tomb Raider: Legend, several crates containing the "Natla Industries" logo can be seen throughout the final level. It is unknown if this was meant to imply Amanda Evert, the apparent owner of the crates, has some connection to Natla or if it was merely an easter egg.

In May 2008, when asked if Natla was dead or if she would be appearing in Tomb Raider: Underworld, Creative Director Eric Lindstrom replied: "Natla is immortal, she can't die, but I'm not saying she's in the game or not!"

Larson Conway
Larson was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S., in 1967. In 1995, he is working with Pierre Dupont in an attempt to acquire the Philosopher's Stone in Rome. He meets with Lara during an opera performance to exchange the Mercury Stone for money. As Lara prepares to hand over a suitcase full of cash, Pierre shows up with a pistol aimed at Lara's head - planning on taking the money and keeping the stone. As Larson and Pierre prepare to leave, Lara kicks the stone out of Larson's hand and jumps off the balcony onto the stage. Escaping the opera house, Lara rides off on a scooter with Larson and Pierre trailing behind. Sliding beneath a half-closed gate, Larson and Pierre continue after her only to crash their car. Larson and Pierre continue to stalk Lara throughout Rome as she collects three more stones to open a gateway that will lead her to the Philosopher's Stone. After finding the final stone, Lara is confronted by Larson and the two fight outside the stone gateway. Wounding Larson, Lara notices three gargoyles animating from the stone building. Despite her warnings, Larson refuses to believe her until it is too late, and is tossed across the garden. He is portrayed as being something of a halfwit, which Pierre attributes to the fact that Larson was "kicked in the head by a horse" at some point in his life.

In 1996, Larson meets with Lara in India on behalf of Jacqueline Natla, CEO of Natla Technologies. While Lara was hired to retrieve a portion of the Scion artifact in Peru, Larson was hired to ambush her and take the artifact. Lara defeats him and is told that Natla has sent Pierre on the trail for the second piece. Larson shows up again later in Egypt just before Lara can obtain the final piece, and she kills him in cold blood.

Larson returns in Crystal Dynamic's re-imagining of the original game, Tomb Raider: Anniversary where he was voiced by Dave Wittenberg. Larson has a more muscular body compared to the original, now wears a dark blue shirt in place of his red one with the vest, a belt with a buckle shaped of the state of Texas and a slightly different haircut. He is also now equipped with a shotgun.

In the opening cutscene in which Lara is hired by Natla to find the Atlantean Scion, she acknowledges Larson that they have met before. His character in this continuity is a nicer one, albeit still an enemy. He remains willing to kill however should he succeed in killing Lara during interactive cutscences he expresses his disdain, stating ''"It didn't have to be this way," "What a waste..." and "Damn..."''.

Further evidence of his reluctance to kill Lara is seen in Peru, where he and Lara engage in a battle. Larson attempts to either knock Lara down or stun her, and only attempts to use his firearm when frustrated. After finding the last piece of the Scion in Egypt, Natla's group ambushes Lara, and as she escapes Natla's thugs, Larson prevents "The Kid," from shooting her, and takes aim himself. However, at the last second, he purposefully aimed to the right, away from Lara, and fired. Furthermore, as she breaks free from their grasp, Kold and The Kid attempt to, respectively, stab or shoot down Lara, while Larson only attempts to knock her down with his firearm.

In Natla's Mines, Larson reveals himself, blocking Lara from continuing any further, confident that Lara won't go as far as to kill him for just doing his job, and because it's just not who she is. However, Lara's obsession with the Scion pushes her into proving his assumption wrong, as she fires at Larson, who, between each of Lara's shots, attempts to raise his own weapon to defend himself. Finally, he suffers one shot too many, and falls down. Before quickly dying, he reaches out his hand towards Lara.

The unlockable in-game commentary states that the pair had a certain chemistry between them and Lara was deeply disturbed by her actions afterwards.

Pierre Dupont
Pierre Dupont was born in Nantes, France, in 1951. In 1995, he is working with Larson in an attempt to acquire the Philosopher's Stone in Rome. He meets with Lara Croft during an opera performance to exchange the Mercury Stone for money. As Lara prepares to hand over a suitcase full of cash, Pierre holds Lara at gunpoint - planning on taking the money and keeping the stone. However, as Larson and Pierre prepare to leave, Lara kicks the stone out of Pierre's hand and jumps off the balcony onto the stage, escaping the opera house. A chase ensues, and is ended when Pierre and Larson crash their car into a half closed gate. Larson and Pierre continue to stalk Lara throughout Rome as she collects three more stones to open a gateway that will lead her to the Philosopher's Stone. Inside the Coliseum, Lara slips off a ledge with Pierre standing right above her. She agrees not to lay a finger on him if he helps her up, but catches him off guard with a "boo" causing Pierre to slip off the ledge.

In late 1996, Pierre is hired by Jacqueline Natla to find the second part of the Scion artifact in Greece. However, he is followed into St Francis' Folly by Lara, and attempts to kill her on a number of occasions. After Lara arrives at the Tomb of Tihocan, she encounters Pierre and the two engage in a gunfight for the piece of the Scion. The fight ends with Lara killing Pierre in cold blood.

In Anniversary, Pierre taunts her at a few triggered stages, until Lara reaches the Tomb of Tihocan. There, Pierre reveals to have obtained the piece of the Scion before Lara, and holds her at gunpoint before Lara manages to fight back, causing him to flee. However, as soon as he steps out, the two centaur statues outside the tomb turn to life and attack Pierre, who, in a moment of cowardice, throws the piece of the Scion to Lara, in hope that their attention will then be driven to her instead. Unfortunately for him, they decided to kill him before turning to Lara - and thus, in this version, Lara does not kill Pierre Dupont. Also, in the original games, Pierre has long hair; in Anniversary, he is bald.

Werner Von Croy
Werner Von Croy is a fictional character from the Tomb Raider game series. He was a world renowned archaeologist and explorer, and also the mentor of the young Lara Croft. He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1940.

When Lara was sixteen years old, Von Croy took her on a journey to Angkor Wat in Cambodia for her very first adventure in a training level at the start of the game in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. The purpose of this exercise was to instruct Lara in exploration techniques and also to instill a respect for the past in her; for the gamer, this acts an introductory and training level. Ironically, Von Croy's downfall comes as a result of his greed, as when he reaches the sanctuary of the Iris in Angkor Wat, he completely disrespects the temple carvings which warn vengeance on those who remove the Iris. These events are covered in the first two levels, Angkor Wat and Race For The Iris. At the conclusion of Race For The Iris, Von Croy is left entombed in the sanctuary while Lara escapes.

Fifteen years later, and Von Croy encounters Lara again; this time contesting his attempts to claim the Amulet of Horus from the Tomb of Set in the Valley of the Kings. During the events of the game, Von Croy is possessed by the god Set, as a vessel through which Set can complete his objectives.

Von Croy witnesses Lara's apparent death at the Temple of Horus underneath the Great Pyramid. He offers her assistance, but the tomb collapses on top of Lara and Von Croy, mirroring the start of the game, only just makes it to safety. Thus ends Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation.

In Tomb Raider Chronicles, a story was told of Lara's past in which she recovers the Iris from Von Croy in his high-tech American business headquarters called Von Croy Industries (VCI). This also is also the first appearance of Zip, Lara's technological partner. At the end of this game a cutscene plays with Von Croy and a digging team finding Lara's backpack in the ruins, picking up from the end of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation.

Between the events of The Last Revelation and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Von Croy finds Lara again in Egypt. However, Lara seems unable to forgive Werner's actions in Egypt; this suggest a lack of continuity between the two games, as Werner did not in fact leave her to her death in Egypt as she states. Lara visits Von Croy's apartment in Paris at his request. However, he is murdered by the Monstrum, a serial killer, and The Angel Of Darkness begins.