Over the years, Lara Croft has battled a diverse array of foes. She has confronted the usual suspects including mercenaries, power-hungry individuals, and vicious animals. However, the stakes rise significantly when her adventures veer into the supernatural territory where myths and legends come to life. One such challenge appeared as Tomb Raider: Underworld’s Thralls, which Lara had to battle as she sought to uncover the truth about what happened to her mother, Amelia Croft.

Thralls are the primary guardians of Thor’s Guantlets, Thor’s Belt, and Thor’s Hammer Mjölnir as well as guardians of Helheim – World of Hel. Lara uses her PDA journal in Tomb Raider: Underworld to document her findings and describes Thralls as following:

“The term 'Thrall' referred to a kind of slave to the Norse. The god Thor traveled in the company of two Thralls, Pjálfi's and Röskva, and also with him were two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, which pulled his chariot. These goats were special, in that Thor could cook and eat them each night, and restore them the next morning with a single touch as long as he had not damaged their skeletons. Father apparently was thinking of this when he named these animated tiger skeletons. By what means they are kept animate I don't know, but I think I have seen something of what Odin meant by the artifacts of Thor being protected by the dead.”

Thralls are a direct product of living begins falling into a toxic liquid substance known as the Eitr. The entry in her PDA Journal states:

“In Norse myth, Eitr was an elixir that bestowed eternal life to the gods, but paradoxically it was a poison that same from serpent, like the Midgard Serpent. This is similar to the Hindu concept of amrita, or ambrosia to the Greeks. Only the Norsk came closest to the literal truth; that the substance was indeed a poison, and in fact only gave the appearance of eternal life in the animation of corpses. At some point there must have been a similar pool of this substance in Bhogavati, Thailand to create the tiger Thralls, and it either decayed in the past or my father dispersed it somehow.”

Lara first encounters Thralls in the form of two tiger Thralls beneath Croft Manor. Her father, Richard Croft, brought them from Thailand. They have since escaped their cages and roamed the old undergrounds of the Manor. They were protecting one of Thor’s Gauntlets and a map showing where the rest of his treasures were hidden.

While exploring Southern Mexico, Lara encounters new kinds of Thralls guarding Thor’s Belt hidden in Xibalba and notes the discovery in her PDA Journal:

Mayan Thralls

“What happened to the tigers in Thailand happened here as well, to jaguars and ancient Mayan warriors. Anything failing into that toxic glowing liquid dies, but continues to remain animate, with only one purpose; to kill trespassers and throw them into the pool, where they will join the guardian ranks. Later civilisations probably sealed them up not only to protect themselves from the Thralls below, but to stop the curious from going down and adding to the ranks of the animated dead protecting the artifacts.”

Eventually, Lara discovers two new types of Thralls: Viking and Yeti. She first encounters them on Jan Mayen Island and soon after, in the Arctic Sea. She continues to document her findings:

Viking Thralls

“What isn’t clear is whether these poor souls were Vikings who stumbled upon this place, fell victim to its Eitr, and became these Thralls, or whether these undead guardians are far more ancient warriors whose appearance later influenced the Nordic cultures that came after. Either way, they are capable of fighting fiercely and ceaselessly, and were perhaps the origin of the stories of berserker warriors.”

Yeti Thralls

“While it’s difficult to identify the corpse of a Yeti after it has lost its hair, that is clearly what these creatures once were. Whether they were capable of equipping themselves with armor in the distant past or were used as beasts of burden or a warrior class, they would have been formidable creatures that could be the giants that populate all Norse mythology.”

Lara can defeat the Thralls in couple of different ways: by using her weapons to bring them down and then stomp them to prevent them from rising again, using the sticky grenades, performing an Adrenaline Headshot, or by using Thor’s Hammer.

Lara's quest to uncover the truth about her mother ends in tragic irony when she discovers that Amelia has been turned into a Thrall.

In the Tomb Raider: Underworld DLC expansions, Beneath the Ashes and Lara’s Shadow, Lara discovers the Eitr Stone, documented by her father as an artifact with the ability to not only create Thralls, but also control them by pronouncing the carved in word “Okh Eshivar".

Ready to take on the Thralls? Tomb Raider: Underworld is available for purchase here:

• Steam

Love Tomb Raider lore? Check out some of our recent Lore features to learn more about Lara’s past adventures!

• Tomb Raider: Legend - The Unknown Entity

• Himiko, the Undying Sun Queen of Yamatai

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Tomb Raider: Underworld