




Tomb Raider: The Primordial Covenant
A custom Lara Croft’s adventure by Marco Ruggieri

Background Story
The story takes place after the events of Underworld. Lara comes to know about the recent archaeological excavations, funded by not-well specified benefactors, in the geographic area around the volcano Etna, near the town of Zafferana Etnea, in Sicily. Officially, the excavations aim at recovering the access to old temples buried by lava in the past centuries. However, Lara notices that the place where the major excavations take place are close to the alleged access to the Lost City of Topaz, a legendary complex of ancient sanctuaries in whose bowels, centuries-old documents claim the real tomb of Saint Malachy is located. In this tomb, it is believed that the original book containing the prophecies of the saint is guarded. 
In the tomb of Saint Malachy, Lara finds that the book of Malachy is one out of three mystical books, that exist since before humanity started walking on Earth, engraved on sacred paper by forces as old as the universe itself. She learns about the three books, of an ancient pact between the civilizations of Atlantis and Tinnos, as well as of the potential danger of putting together the three books. In fact, ancient cuneiforms suggest that the aforementioned civilizations decided to build, and then protect, the City of Topaz, where one of the three books is hidden, and hide the remaining two books in other places. Thousands of years later, priests from Tinnos gave one of the books to Saint Malachy, asking him to protect the book. For this reason, the saint was buried in the core of Topaz after his death, and the entrance to his tomb protected by Atlanteans and Tinnos creatures. 
Lara learns that the knowledge written on the three books would allow to put together and recite the chant of the spiritual resurrection, that gives permission to liminal demonic creatures to enter this world, possess people and bring torment to humanity. She understands the danger, yet her nature as a fierce anti-heroine takes over. Rather than destroy the books, she becomes determined to obtain all three for herself and keep them safely locked away in her manor.
The next destination lies deep within the bowels of the ancient bat-filled quarries of Matera. Hidden passages carved in the stone lead to forgotten catacombs beneath the Church of San Francesco d’Assisi. From those silent corridors, a sealed entrance descends into the legendary Tomb of Eve — the mythic resting place of the first woman. There, guarded by echoes of a primordial sorrow, lies the second book: the Lacrimosa. As Lara navigates the winding tunnels, she discovers unmistakable traces of the ancient Tinnos civilization carved into the stone walls. Their symbols, half-eroded yet still defiant, reveal that this place once lay within the reach of a power far older than any modern faith. Her excitement is short-lived. In fact, the ruthless mercenaries sent by wealthy patrons hungry for forbidden knowledge, have also found their way into the cavern. 
After surviving the dangerous Tower of Lamentations and retrieving the four tears of the Old Testament, Lara finally reaches the forgotten catacombs beneath Matera, again marked by the civilization of Tinnos. Exploring the catacombs she eventually finds the access to the Tomb of Eve, where the Lacrimosa is kept safe.
General structure of the levels
In the present release (15 November 2025), there are three playble levels called:
	The Lost City of Topaz
	The Tower of Lamentations
	Tomb of Eve
To follow the storyline, the levels should be played in the order listed above. However, in this release the game can be started from any level.
The Tomb of Eve is the natural continuation of The Tower of Lamentations, and together they form a self-contained narrative arc. In The Lost City of Topaz, Lara has to retrieve the book of Saint Malachy, while at the end of the third level she finds the book called Lacrimosa in the Tomb of Eve.
Moreover, there is a “home” level called Crypt. This is a very short level designed to help the player become familiar with the Custom Portable Light (CPL) which replaces the flares, as well as with the parallel bars. Crypt is designed as part of the main narrative arc, yet it is entirely optional and can be skipped without affecting the game in any way.
In the first level, The Lost City of Topaz, the adventure begins outside, where Lara has to find the entrance to Topaz. From there, she starts a moderately long descent into the core of ancient volcanic caves and sanctuaries in Topaz, where she will have to find hidden keys and beat demigods to proceed to the next underground level. There are overall three main big areas, each one guarded by a particular boss: the Minotaur Demigod, the Atlantean Centaur Demigod, and two Tinnos Monsters. All the bosses have been overpowered compared to their original in-game version, and therefore battling them requires more effort.
The level is moderately easy. It takes about 45 minutes to finish the level. 
Some areas are packed with activity, while others, for example the second sector, are willingly left empty to heighten the sense of loneliness in vast places touched by evil forces.
In the second level, Lara goes back to Italy after a short visit to her friend in Barcelona, in particular near Matera, in the cave of bats. There are no bosses in this level, but it is longer and more complex than the first one, and it contains more enemies.  The level contains backtracking, and some entrances are hidden therefore a deep exploration is needed to finish the level. Moreover, there are more lethal traps than in the first level. In addition to this, getting the three secrets of the level is quite tricky. I think that this level can be labelled as hard. It takes about one hour to complete the whole level.
Finally, the third level is a bit shorter, with less enemies and a final boss combat before the access to the tomb of Eve. This is the continuation of The Tower of Lamentations so it closes the narrative arc started in that level. The boss combat is against two overpowered Tinnos monsters. The level flows at a more relaxing pace in comparison with the previous one, but needs some exploration to get the four seraphs that are needed to open the gate to the tomb. Moreover, there are some death traps in parts of the level, and Lara needs to survive the Maze of Madness that contains some non-trivial deviation from the standard maze patterns. Knowing the full path in the aforementioned maze takes about 30 minutes to complete the level, otherwise the time will increase. 
Engine
The level has been built via the Tomb Editor, with the new Tomb Engine (TEN) version 1.10, and many customized lua functions for most of the events, particularly for the opening of custom gates and the creation of the lethal traps. 
Lara’s Moves
The moves of Lara are the standard TR4 ones, plus ledge jumps. The latters are necessary to complete some of the parkours.
Weapons and Medikits
In the level, Lara starts with her classic twin pistols and the shotgun. In the levels she collects ammo for the shotgun, the assault rifle and the uzi. She gets the uzi as a part of the third secret in the first level, while the assault rifle in the final secret of the second level.
Initially there are three small and one large medikits. Within the level, I have added a fair amount of medikits.   



Custom Portable Light (CPL) System
In these levels I have mimicked the Tomb Raider Legend portable light system of Lara, namely, a spotlight that points in front of Lara as well as a point light that enhances illumination around Lara. 
In order to switch on/off the portable light on, the standard flare-on key has to be pressed. Moreover, I have added a control system for the light: pushing the keyboard keys J/L, the spotlight aims to lower/higher positions, while pressing K brings the angle of the spotlight to its default value.
To keep things simple, there is no limit for the duration of the light. 
Diary
I have added the diary to the levels. It can be read anytime by pressing the keyboard key H. During the exploration of the levels, many pages of the diary are unlocked. When this happens, a note appears onscreen. 
Secrets
There are eleven secrets in the levels: five in the first level, three in the second and three in the third. The first two secrets in the first level are quite easy to obtain and should be considered as a warm up, and before the level ends, they can always be recovered. The third secret is hidden in plain sight. The fourth secret is a bit trickier and requires backtracking. The fifth secret of the first level is tricky, as the player can easily finish the level without entering the area that contains the secret. 
The second level contains three secrets. The first one should be easy to obtain for experienced raiders, while the second one is tricky and requires a careful exploration of the level in order to trigger the relevant doors and access the secret. The third one might also be tricky and requires a careful analysis of the relevant area.
The third level contains three secrets. The first secret is easy although it is fairly well hidden.  The second secret requires a full exploration of the level. The third secret is hidden in plain sight. 
Credits
The major credits go to the group that is currently developing the Tomb Engine (TEN) and the Tomb Editor. Without their work, nothing of this would have been possible to make. My gratitude goes also to the members of the TEN Discord server, whose technical help, insightful suggestions, and light conversations about anything Tomb Raider have greatly supported and inspired this project.
I could have not completed this level without the support of the community of TR level makers, particularly for the material found on TRSearch. The outfits of Lara are the AoD and Anniversary ones included in the Anniversary Outfits for TEN by THOR2010. I have also included the custom swimming animations made by DHermogenes. For the water animations I have used the Next-Gen Water V2 by Heckler89. Some sounds of Lara have been taken by those of Nicobass, distributed on TRSearch by CircusBabyGallerySL. Other sounds have been borrowed from another package distributed by the Legend pack of CircusBabyGallerySL. Centaur, TR4 Demigod, Winged mutants, TR4 bats and Tinnos monster wads have been downloaded from the TEN official website. The wall lever has been obtained from the Tibet set distributed by GHOST_5002Z. The skybox has been taken by the set published by Heckler89 on TRSearch. For a complete list of links see the Resources section below.
The first audio track in the level is taken from the default audio files distributed with the TEN and the Tomb Editor. All the others tracks of the soundtrack are free-to-use, royalty-free tracks and have been downloaded from Pixabay.   
Some royalty-free license 3D models have been downloaded from cgtrader, see below for the links.
Huge thanks also go to RickyTuraz for playing the first version of City of Topaz live, and for the valuable feedback and suggestions that came from his gameplay sessions.A special thanks as well to Mark TRLE, whose help in adding static objects to a WAD2 file proved invaluable. Also a special thanks goes to the Tomb Editor Group of Emanuele Di Bari for the several suggestions, support and the discussions on Tomb Raider in general.
Finally, all credit goes to Crystal Dynamics as the original creator of Lara Croft’s magnum and footsteps sounds, here adapted and made available by CircusBabyGallerySL on TRSearch.
Disclaimer
The level and all contents of this zip archive are provided free of charge as a fan-made creation. Any commercial use or resale is strictly prohibited, while free redistribution is only allowed with the prior written permission of the author.
The author can be contacted via email: marco.ruggieri.ufs@gmail.com
During all testing, the game has never caused any issues on the computers used. However, the author accepts no responsibility for any potential problems, malfunctions, or damage that this level or its files may cause to the user’s computer or software.
Only one user on TRCustoms reported that the first release of the game deleted some of their savegames. This issue was mentioned exclusively by that user, has never occurred in any other play session and in hundreds of tests done by many testers, and could not be reproduced in any test so far. It therefore appears to have been an isolated incident specific to that particular computer rather than an issue with the distributed game. Just in case, I recommend keeping two separate save slots.
Lara Croft and Tomb Raider are registered trademarks of Crystal Dynamics. All rights, titles, and interests in these trademarks and any related intellectual property are fully reserved to Crystal Dynamics. This fan-made level is an entirely non-commercial work created for entertainment purposes only. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Crystal Dynamics or any of its affiliates. No infringement of rights is intended.

Resources Links 
https://www.trsearch.org/item/6132
https://www.trsearch.org/item/6048
https://www.trsearch.org/item/6207
https://www.trsearch.org/item/4834
https://www.trsearch.org/item/4968
https://www.trsearch.org/item/6234
https://www.trsearch.org/item/6219
https://tombengine.com/docs/resource-downloads/
https://tombengine.com/
https://pixabay.com/it/music/
https://pixabay.com/it/sound-effects/
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/decoration/fancy-column
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/decoration/column-asset
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/exterior/historic-exterior/low-poly-gravestones
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/exterior/other/animated-crystal
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/decoration/pedestal1
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/decoration/17-different-models-of-baluster-and-11-different-smart-materials
https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/other/pillars-vr-ar-low-poly-3d-model

