Excalibur

Completed Excalibur on the left, and the pieces on the right.

Excalibur is the sword which Lara Croft acquires in Tomb Raider Legend, which belonged to the semi-mythical King Arthur. It is the strongest weapon in the game, killing enemies with one hit. The sword also has unlimited range.

Origins

There are primarily two origins for the sword. The first is that Arthur pulled the sword from a stone, an act which prophecy stated could only be performed by the rightful king of England. Le Morte de Arthur is the first work to refer to the sword as Excalibur. Both origins are found in the book, which, confusingly, does not explain how Arthur could receive the sword twice in two different ways. According to the second legend, as he lay dying, King Arthur requested that one of his trusted knights, Sir Bedivere, throw the sword into the lake. After some initial hesitation, he did so, and the lake re-claimed the sword.

Tomb Raider Legend

In Tomb Raider: Legend, When Lara switches on the power to the King Arthur Museum in Cornwall, Zip tells Lara to go pull the musem's model version of Excalibur out of the stone, prompting Alister to explain, in a strained voice, that the sword in the stone and Excalibur are two different swords. Why he does this is unclear - as previously stated, the Sword in the Stone has historically been referred to as Excalibur, and towards the end of Legend, Lara places a sword named Excalibur into a stone dais.

In the game, the sword has been split into five pieces which were scattered across the world:

• 1st Piece - Tokyo, Japan
• 2nd Piece - Ghana
• 3rd Piece - Kazakhstan
• 4th Piece - Cornwall, England
• Ghalali Key - Nepal

The Ghalali Key is needed to piece together the sword that appears in Tomb Raider Legend. The sword is a key to opening two portals, located at Nepal and Tiwanaku, which lead to a mysterious foreign dimension called Avalon. If the sword is pulled out while connected to the portal, the portal will explode, as Lara discovered in Nepal. Each individual piece (except the Ghalali Key) can give the bearer the powers of levitation as well as the ability to produce concentrations of energy, which can be focused and used as a weapon. The pieces can also give the powers of regeneration, thus replenishing the bearer's health. When the sword is pieced together, it can produce balls of energy from its tip, when it is swung. These balls of energy fly with high velocity and are very dangerous. When an enemy is struck by the sword or the balls of energy, they are immediately killed.

Tomb Raider Underworld

In the ending of Tomb Raider Underworld, Lara once again finds Excalibur (or a sword similar to it). She - along with Amanda Evert - uses it with the Stone Daises to return to the same site in Nepal where Lara's mother accidentaly entered Helheim or Avalon.