History Headscratchers / RiseOfTheTombRaider

** It’s a possibility she might have been catching hypothermia by the time she came into contact with Jacob. He’s known for his healing prowess back in his hay days, and it’s not entirely farfetched to consider his influence has a lingering affect. She’s affected by the cold (as evidenced by her statements lamenting on the cold waters), but his ‘healing touch’ (no pun of any sort intended) might stave off the worst of the effects after he’s helped her out the first time around. It’s a stretch, but not utterly impossible an idea.

*** Going back even farther, she took a huge tumble at the beginning of the game due to that avalanche. There've been stories of people being stripped completely naked by the force of the snow hitting them, so it's not unrealistic that a knife could fall from its sheathe or the whole thing get torn off. Granted, none of that explains why she didn't bring a gun along, knowing Trinity was involved after Syria...

** Trinity has some pretty arrogant leaders and their main footmen are comprised of hired mercs. They probably believe with their technological supremacy, that the Remnants (who are woefully unequipped arsenal and equipment-wise) won’t make such a hard push back against them, or even think to intercept radio transmissions. Trinity probably doesn't even believe these isolated peoples, who still hunt with bows and arrows and wear animal skins for clothing, would even know what a radio was. And while it’s shown throughout the gameplay that the Remnants have some knowledge on things (drones, cameras, etc) they don’t have the tech to replicate or produce or repair them on their own. And since they were shooting down drones, they could have done irreparable damage to them so that the Remnants couldn’t use those for themselves, either. You’ve got to remember, they’re pretty isolated, and they’ve working with really outdated, and not to mention salvaged, Soviet tech from the Cold War. They’re still using a mixture of carrier birds and CB radios and lighted pyres when it comes to communication valley-and-mountain-wide. Also, throughout the recorded journal logs, there is a Trinity mook whose logs mention that he had been hired to perform security. It could be he’s being purposefully incompetent, since he really just wants out a lot more than he had wanted in.

* Based on conversations heard in the Geothermal Valley, the Remnant clearly know Jacob is the immortal prophet. Why then do they accuse Lara of murdering him? They should should know that's impossible.

** It's implied they did but were intercepted by Remnant or Deathless. The latter have murals dedicated to Soviet technology they've fought with, at least.

*** Eh, the issue depends greatly on the timing actually. The timing from "Baba Yaga" implies this is happening at the end of Joseph Stalin's reign over the Soviet Union where A LOT of people disappeared without really much going on. In the chaos of his death, its' entirely possible this particular Gulag got lost in the purges.

** In terms of pure physical possibility, the timeline is feasible. London to Turkey to Syria and back could have taken about a week, assuming Lara headed back as soon as the events of the prologue are complete. Lara doesn't really stay in one place for all that long, and she's also aware that she's in a race with Trinity to track her father's progress. Judging from both Lara's overall characterization (someone who relies on good instincts, but can also be reckless) and how Lara's expeditions are framed in Expedition Mode, it's implied that Lara approaches her missions with on the fly-thinking and heavy use of the IndyPloy moreso than meticulous planning. She has the skillset needed to live off the land via hunting and foraging, and in both Syria and Siberia, she's traveling pretty light. Since she's both racing against the clock and isn't planning a traditional expedition backed by a research team which requires significant supplies, she could probably have made the trip to Siberia in a matter of a few days after returning from Syria.

** Jacob wasn't affected by the Divine Source in the same way as the Deathless Ones. For example, he gained healing powers and they didn't. One of the journals of the historical Trinity agent indicates that the Deathless Ones seemed to lose a bit of their humanity with each revival, so by the time Lara destroyed the Source, they were pretty much just supernatural horrors. Ana didn't live long enough after being exposed to the Source for anyone to see whether the same would have happened to her.

* Given that Richard Croft and Atlas de Mornay despised each other, to the point where Atlas was deliberately sabotaging Richard's efforts to secure funding for his research, why did Lord Croft allow his brother in law to have ''any'' control over the Croft estate?

** Richard was mentally ill-equipped after his wife died as he built an Egyptian tomb under their house and started looking into immortality.
*** It should be noted Lara may have lucked out as it's implied Ana wanted to get Richard to marry her, which would have made Lara her ward.

* The general rule with inheritance in Britain is that if their is no will, the estate goes to the next of kin, unless there are no surviving relatives to within a reasonable degree, at which point the estate goes to the government. As Richard's daughter, Lara would be considered next of kin to Richard, and thus would be her father's default heir whether her mother was dead or not. Atlas is not a Croft by blood, so while he might have been able to claim the right to manage the estate on his niece's behalf while she was underage, and could potentially claim Lady Croft's belongings as her brother while she was considered missing and not dead, he should have no claim on Richard's estate whatsoever.

*** The comics have an AuthorsSavingThrow in that the reason Lara is having severe issues with her uncle is because she came back from Yamatai talking about ghosts, goblins, and demons so he was afraid she'd gone "crazy" like her father. He used that to argue she needed to be kept from her inheritance and have him as a guardian for it. It's just he's a snake and was going to use it to steal all of her family inheritance.

How is it that Lara is able to converse with them with no trouble at all? Logically, they should probably speak a distorted version of Byzantine Greek. Lara can apparently read the written form they use, but depending on how the pronunciation has shifted the spoken language might not be intelligible. Yet the lack of a language barrier is not even commented upon, and Trinity has no trouble getting understood when they interrogate prisoners. Also, why does she hear the Deathless as speaking Modern Greek with no subtitles?

The plot behind Blood Ties is that Lara has to find proof of her mother's death in order to retain possession of Croft Manor. But if Lord Richard was able to bring back Mrs Croft's corpse from the Himalayas, how come her death was never entered into public record? Did Richard just not tell anyone?
* Basically, yes. When you complete Blood Ties, you find a letter from Atlas stating that [[spoiler: Richard had hid the exact circumstances of Amelia's death, including her actual body, from the DeMornay family. Considering that performing occult magic to revive a cadaver probably wouldn't fly too well in the public record, it's safe to assume that this is why there are legal issues in transferring ownership of the estate to Lara.]] Also note that even Lara didn't know the exact circumstances of her mother's death, and in the main story her mother's status is referred to as a "disappearance."

*** It should be noted Lara may have lucked out as it's implied Anna wanted to get Richard to marry her, which would have made Lara her ward.

How is it that Lara is able to converse with them with no trouble at all? Logically, they should probably speak a distorted version of Byzantine Greek. Lara can apparently read the written form they use, but depending on how the pronounciation has shifted the spoken language might not be intelligible. Yet the lack of a language barrier is not even commented upon, and Trinity has no trouble getting understood when they interrogate prisoners. Also, why does she hear the Deathless as speaking Modern Greek with no subtitles?
* The Remnant has had contact with the Russians quite a bit, even having been required to work under them, so likely most if not all of them also speak Russian. Lara, and presumably Trinity, are probably just conversing with them in Russian

How is it that Lara is able to converse with them with no trouble at all? Logically, they should probably speak a distorted version or Byzantine Greek. Lara can apparently read the written form they use, but depending on how the pronounciation has shifted the spoken language might not be intelligible. Yet the lack of a language barrier is not even commented upon, and Trinity has no trouble getting understood when they interrogate prisoners. Also, why does she hear the Deathless as speaking Modern Greek with no subtitles?