Timeline of Events in the Tomb Raider Universe

Core Design Era
  • 1968 Feb 14th - Lara Croft was born in Wimbledon to Lord and Lady Henshingly Croft.
  • 1971 - Lara entered private tutoring.
  • 1979 - Lara was enrolled at Wimbledon High School for Girls. She was 11 years old.
  • 1984 Summer - Lara saw the name of Professor Werner Von Croy on the front cover of National Geographic, and reading inside she learnt that he was preparing for an archaeological tour across Asia. Lara went to her parents and insisted that she join.
  • 1984 - Lara’s first adventure to find the Iris in Cambodia with Werner Von Croy.
  • 1984 - Investigated the mysteries of the Black Isle in Connussie, Ireland.
  • 1984 - Sent to Gordonstoun Boarding School, aged 16.
  • 1986 - Enrolled at the Swiss Finishing School, aged 18.
  • 1989 - Plane crashed in the Himalayas on the way home from a skiing holiday.
  • 1989 - Lara walked into the village of Tokakeriby.
  • 1990 - Inherited Surrey mansion and butler from her Great Aunt.
  • 1995 - Found the Philosopher’s Stone in Rome, Italy.
  • 1995 - Hunted Bigfoot.
  • 1996 - Lara had the ballroom converted into her own personal gym.
  • 1996 - Put a bulk of her Great Aunt’s belongings into storage.
  • 1996 - Discovered the three Atlantean Scion pieces in Peru, Greece and Egypt.
  • 1996 - Lara returned to the City of Khamoon to find an undiscovered tomb dedicated to Bastet and destroyed any remaining Atlanteans hidden inside.
  • 1997 - Lara had a custom built assault course added to the back of the mansion. She also converted the gym back into a ballroom.
  • 1997 - Lara searched for the Dagger of Xian, and travelled to China, Italy and Tibet.
  • 1997 - Lara looked for the Golden Mask in Tibet.
  • 1997 - Lara stole the Iris from Von Croy Industries.
  • 1998 - Lara converted the ballroom back into a gym, and she changed the maze outside into a quadbike course. The outside assault course had also been extended, with a shooting range added on at the end.
  • 1998 - Lara searched for a meteorite artefact in India and she was then hired to find 3 more meteorite artefacts, in Nevada USA, London UK and South Pacific Islands.
  • 1998 - Lara was contacted by Peter Stothard when his men uncovered new tunnels inside Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt.*
  • 1998 - Searched for the Spear of Destiny.
  • 1999 - Lara accidently released Set whilst searching for the Amulet of Horus in Egypt. She knew that she must find a way to imprison him again.
  • 1999 - Lara learnt that there was a fifth meteorite artefact, Hand of Rathmore and headed firstly to Scotland to find it.
  • 2000 Jan 31st - A newspaper reported of an explosion in the Channel Tunnels, and mentions a mysterious goo - which Lara had seen at Willard’s Lair. She went to investigate it.
  • 2003 - Lara is contacted by Werner Von Croy about a commission he has. When he is murdered, she must find out how to avenge his death as well as clear her name.
 
Other Events:
  • ? - Lara released her travel book ‘A Tyrannosaurus is Jawing at My Head’.
  • ? - Lara published her travel book ‘Slaying Bigfoot’.
  • ? - Lara drove down the Alaskan Highway from Tierra del Fuego in South America in record time. However the Guinness Book of Records later denounced the record due to her “reckless driving”.
  • ? - Lara began stitching a kind of Bayeaux tapestry of her adventures.
  • ? - Lara had managed to acquire the Ark of the Covenant.

Crystal Dynamics - TR Legend - TR Underworld
  • 1968 Feb 14th - Lara was born to Lord Richard James Croft and Lady Amelia Croft in Surrey’s Parkside hospital.
  • 1977 - Lara and her mother survived a plane crash in the Himalayas. Soon after, Lara found an ancient device inside a Nepal Temple. After touching it, it activated. Amelia, after hearing voices coming from the device, pulled out the sword and disappeared.
  • 1977 - Lara survived a ten-day solo trek across the Himalayan Mountains and arrived in Kathmandu. She called her father to him to collect her.
  • 1983 - Lara’s father went missing in Cambodia.
  • ? - Lara successfully hunted Bigfoot.
  • 1996 - Lara was commissioned by Jacqueline Natla to find the Scion.
  • 2006 - Lara received a tip from her friend Anaya Imanu about a dais in Bolivia. She uncovered a series of dais and sword fragments.
  • 2008 - Lara set out to find Avalon and to find her mother.
  • 2008 - Lara discovered a photo from her father’s study of another Norse artefact. She uncovered a clue that there was a hidden area beneath the study.

Crystal Dynamics - TR2013 - SotTR (including Dark Horse Comics)
  • 1992 - Lara Croft was born to Lord Richard and Amelia Croft.
  • 2013 - Lara set out on her first adventure to discover the lost island of Yamatai.
  • 2013 - Lara set out to find the Golden Fleece to help heal her friend, Sam Nishimura.
  • 2014 - Samantha Nishimura was taken back to Yamatai by a cult that hoped to resurrect Mathias. Lara returned to the island to save her life.
  • 2014 - Lara, haunted by visions of a dead friend, went in search of Alex Weiss’ sister, Kaz.
  • 2015 - Lara and her friends travelled to Mexico in search of an old friend, whom they had presumed had died on Yamatai.
  • 2015 - Lara decided to search for the Divine Source in the Prophet’s Tomb in Syria, using her father’s research. She was then led to Siberia to look for the city of Kitezh.
  • 2016 - Lara agreed to help Professor Robert Demur find the mythical Mushroom of Immortality.
  • 2016 - Lara searched for the Wei Mirror to help free her friend Sam Nishimura of Himiko once and for all.
  • 2017- Lara took a year’s break away from hunting down Trinity, only to find herself being hunted by them.
  • 2018 - Lara went in search for the 'Tomb of Eden' in Antarctica.
  • 2018 - Lara travelled to Mexico in search of the Key of Chak Chel.

Crystal Dynamics - Lara Croft Series
  • 2010 - Lara travelled to Central America to find the Mirror of Smoke, however she discovered that she was not alone and she had to work with an ancient guardian to set things right.
  • 2014 - Lara and Carter Bell travelled to Egypt to find the Staff of Osiris. They soon discovered that they were wrong to try and remove it, and they had to find a way to re-imprison Set.
  • 2015 - Lara and Carter came across some ivory pieces that were being searched for by a dangerous cultist. It was up to them to stop him from destroying the world.
  • 2016 - When Carter Bell went missing at an archaeological dig, Lara headed out to find out what had happened and why.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider Movies
  • 2001 - Lara discovered a clue in her home, hidden by her father, that would help her to discover the Triangle of Light, which at the same time was wanted by the ancient organisation, the Illuminati.
  • 2003 - Lara searched for and discovered the Luna Temple. Inside she found two artefacts- one was a key and the other was a clue to the resting place of Pandora’s Box.

Reboot Tomb Raider Movie
  • 2018 - Lara goes in search of her missing father.

Sources and Notes

  • Classic Lara’s timeline used the book ‘Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness The Official Companion’ by Computer and Video Games Magazine.
  •  * - Using the AOD companion, the author had put in two entries for ‘The Lost Artefact’ – one that says ‘The Lost Artefact’, dated 1998 and coloured green to show an entry for ‘Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation’, and the other reads ‘The Hand of Rathmore’, dated 1999 and coloured yellow for ‘Tomb Raider 3’.  We’ve taken the yellow entry to be TR3: TLA as it has a specific title and it lines up well for the date of the newspaper on the loading screen of ‘Shakespeare Cliff’. We therefore assume that the green ‘The Lost Artefact’ actually refers to ‘The Gold Mask’ that Lara picks up in ‘The Times Exclusive Level’, even though this suggests that the Times Exclusive level comes before TR4.