Jacqueline Natla
Jacqueline Natla is a character from the original Tomb Raider, making her return in Tomb Raider Anniversary. She hired Lara Croft to travel to Peru to uncover Qualopec's third of an artefact called the Scion, but underestimated both Lara's ability and her moral solidarity. When Larson, one of Natla's employees, revealed to Lara that there was more going on than she originally thought, Lara took up the trail of the Scion, unwilling to blindly hand over such a powerful artefact.
Lara travelled from Peru to Greece, and then to an ancient city in Egypt collecting the three pieces of the Scion before Natla could. However, Natla caught up with Lara on a cliff side in Egypt and stole the completed Scion from her. Natla travelled to the great pyramid, an ancient Atlantean construction, to finally complete her experimentation.
Lara infiltrates the great pyramid and finds the control room at the top of an enormous chasm. With Natla's experiments almost complete, Lara attempts to destroy the Scion before it can be used to create Natla's hideous monsters. Natla jumps on Lara, preventing her from shooting the Scion, but apparently falling to her death far below.
However, Natla is not defeated, she reappears in a final showdown with Lara, this time revealing her true Atlantean heritage. She sports red wings and blasts fire balls at Lara. When she is sufficiently damaged she plays dead, lulling Lara into a false sense of security, but will then keep fighting until she is finally killed.
Jacqueline Natla's background
Natla was one of the three legendary rulers of Atlantis, along with Tihocan and Qualopec. Together they created the Scion, a device of immeasurable power. This device was split into three parts, one for each of the rulers, representing the democracy that Atlantis lived by.
Natla abused this power, however, using the Scion to experiment in genetic engineering and create a new, improved race of Atlanteans. When they learned of this, Tihocan and Qualopec sentenced Natla to eternal imprisonment, freezing her and then burying her in present day New Mexico.
During World War II, the U.S. began testing nuclear weapons in Los Alamos, New Mexico. One of these tests happened to detonate very near to Natla's prison, freeing her from her eternal punishment.
Natla adopted the guise of Jacqueline Natla and founded Natla Technologies, a very successful company which gave her considerable financial backing. With the rest of her people long dead, there was no one to stand in the way of her experiments, and she began to research the whereabouts of the Scion.
Speculation
During the final level of Tomb Raider Legend, Bolivia - The Looking Glass crates can be seen with the Natla Industries logo. These have led to speculations if there might be connections between Natla and the storyline of Legend; some even believe that they point to a possible relation between Natla and Amanda, as both women look similar.
Other fans support the theory that it was just a joke (Easter Egg) and has nothing to do with the game.
As Tomb Raider Anniversary is only a remake of the original Tomb Raider it is unlikely the game will solve this riddle, however Tomb Raider 8 might.
Voices
Trivia
- It's confirmed that a scorched Natla outfit will be unlockable in Anniversary.
- In Tomb Raider: Legend, several crates containing the "Natla Industries" logo can be seen throughout the final level.
- Amanda Evert's appearance from Tomb Raider: Legend is believed to have been influenced by Natla's original design from the first game, and there is much speculation among the fans that Amanda is either related to or involved with Natla in some as yet undisclosed way. Sophia Leigh from Tomb Raider III also bears a slight resemblence despite using the same model as Lara.
- Natla has featured in a number of Tomb Raider fan fiction stories, including "GM" and "The Dead" by Ostercy and "An Eye For An Eye" by Dr. Amazing.
- The Klaxons song "Atlantis to Interzone" is dedicated to Natla.
- The goddess Astarte of ancient Asiatic mythology is thought to have her origin with Natla's sister of the same name.
- The Aramaic word "natla" (נטלא) means "the vessel used for washing hands". Another possible etymology of "natla" says it derives from "נטל " and should be viewed literally as "that which is lifted" or "that which is taken".
