#murti schofield

Eric Loren Murti Schofield Interview

The Dark Angel Symphony brings together Murti Schofield and Eric Loren for The Angel of Darkness' 16th Anniversary with an exclusive interview! Hear Eric's impressions of AoD's legacy and the cult following it has within the Tomb Raider fandom. 

 Pre-order The Dark Angel Symphony at shop.trdarkangel.com 

NOW AVAILABLE: Kurtis' Journal

The creative genius of writer Murti Schofield combines with the fan-driven passion of the Dark Angel Symphony team to bring you a unique artefact: Kurtis”Demon Hunter” Trent’s personal journal!

Currently specially discounted, this A5-sized, 32-page journal has been entirely handwritten by Murti Schofield IN CHARACTER as Kurtis Trent – Lara’s mysterious ally from The Angel of Darkness and last of the Lux Veritatis order. Each page is packed with all-new, original sketches, maps, character profiles, Lux Veritatis lore, and personal musings that chart Kurtis’ journey across the globe as he tracks the bloody trail of “The Monstrum”, aka Eckhart, leader of the shadowy Cabal. It also contains pages “inherited” from Kurtis’ father, Konstantin Heissturm.

The journal is available as a digital download and as a physical object of movie-prop quality, bound in real leather and scuffed/aged to reflect the hazardous lifestyle of its owner!

Pre-order in Renne's Pawnshop.

Set a reminder HERE!

And in the meantime do not forget to support the @trdarkangel project by sharing and pledging their Kickstarter campaign.

I will never forget you. You will live on forever in my heart.

I'm very happy it got made and it's so beautiful, but the story is to close to La(ra)wrence of Arabia for me? It's not bad, just not very original 🤷‍♀️

(I'm also glad Lara didn't become leader of the tribe, that would make it very corny and her into white-savior 😂)

Sorry about my English 🙏

😘 💞

Yeaaahhh now it's when you send me to hell because I've absolutely not watched it before due to.... personal hectic life. In fact I've watched it just now and only because you asked me to. I'm really sorry for it because my dearest @adayka who has done so much for me and my fanfics worked in this project. But you can tell how personally and mentally exhausted I've been these last years that even if I reblogged and shared the shit outta this project when it came out, I didn't take the time to watch it myself, until now.

Here I leave the thing for if someone else wants to enjoy it:

I've enjoyed it a lot, for sure. I mean, the team is a full brick of talents: Murti, who's a skilled and gifted writer, Jasmine, who has nothing to envy to TR official comic artist when it comes to draw Lara, and of course, Jonell's voice is THE voice for me. Dean Kopri is also fantastic in putting music to all this beauty.

Yet, as you say, the plot isn't original enough. It follows loyally the original idea it existed for the link between The Last Revelation and The Angel of Darkness. Most of us have used it for our fanfics. And the fact it resembles so much Lawrence of Arabia is rightfully pointed out by yourself because even Core team, back in those days, called this plot Lara of Arabia. So they themselves were the first to acknowledge it was deeply inspired in this story.

As for the plot itself, I've enjoyed it but I don't feel particularly taken away for it. The white traveler being sheltered by a POC tribe and later accepted as one of them and initiated in their lore is old as fuck and as you well say, it stinks of white saviour-ism. Efforts have been made here to disclaim it, such as Lara acknowledging that the tribe didn't need her to survive, and the fact you point out, that she finally leaves before turning herself into a leader or something.

Only she HAS turned a leader, commanding expeditions of fighters to defend the people until she's nicknamed El Hawa. It also mentions her wearing blue as a special color to distinguish her, when, in fact, blue is the traditional colour Tuaregs - not Bedouins - use in the desert of Sahara.

It is also unclear why Putai is a black woman if the Bedouins are Arabs, and thus, not black. But that's a mystery that goes back to 2003, right?

In the end, I find it quite enjoyable and we should be grateful fans and former TR members cared enough for us to bring forth this little jewel, but I'm afraid it will just be a passing thing as it happens with everything TRAOD related. Also, as a way of filling the void between TR4 and TR6, it fits a bit distorted, since it would need more fleshing out and completing to fit properly in the rest of the lore - why would she go to Von Croy in Paris if, as she claimed, she cared little anymore about it and was instead anguished to find out what happened to Putai and her people? It just doesn't make sense. Moreover, you can see that's not her attitude in TRAOD at all. But yet again... undevelopment. On the game's part, of course.

Hi, you’ve sent this question concerning my tags in the last post about Kurtis’ journal as merchandise from The Dark Angel project - just stating it for the readers that might be confused about what you’re asking about.

When I say “what we know” I refer mostly to all those - rather scarce - TRAOD/TR fans who have bothered to read every detail about TRAOD’s lore, every making off video and documentary concerning this game, every interview and beta/hidden/deleted/unused content related to all this universe - which I did. I also refer to those who have discussed all of it in this Tumblr over the past years - and honestly if you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s because, perhaps, you’re not totally up to date about it.

I would recommend to catch up  - and those are long hours of reading - with all this content so you can have the whole picture of what I’m talking about, but just to reduce it to the point that concerns us now, it’s not surprising Kurtis’ journal was gonna end being just a TRAOD lore concept art compendium than a Kurtis focused item as character because:

1. It was always announced and marketed like that. Murti Schofield has always stated the journal was gonna be a compendium of fresh TRAOD concept art - it’s not old, the old one you can find it in the notes I pledged for in the Kickstarter - more focused on Konstantin Heissturm - Kurtis’ father - character than in Kurtis himself. 

2. Murti also said there’s no content related to the game itself, but a collection of data and lore prior to the events of the game.

3. He also said there was not gonna be big notes or textes or written lore, mostly concept art, maps and short data file about some characters he didn’t have space to develop more in the final version of the game, such as the Cleaner. 

4. Finally, that most of the present lore belonged to Konstantin Heissturm and not Kurtis Trent. The journal belongs to his father in origin and he receives it from him. 

Now with all of this is not surprising the journal has turned out like this, but to be fair I must admit I, myself, was expecting a bit more because, after all, it’s called Kurtis’ journal, not Konstantin’s journal. I wanted it to look more rough, used, and worn out fitting not only Kurtis’ hazardous lifestyle - as it was marketed - but also Konstantin’s himself. But it’s Murti doing it, and Murti Schofield is extremely delicate and polished in his calligraphy and design. So in the end it’s more a Murti’s journal containing lore of the game than some item in-character. For me, it looks like more like an add-on to the old notes I pledged for than a whole new product.

Again, though I’m a bit disappointed - because I wanted to see more of KURTIS himself in here, not Murti/Konstantin - I am not surprised of the result and here’s the point you’re asking about: Murti was never that interested in releasing more lore concerning Kurtis himself. If you’ve paid attention to all of his interviews, statements, and the way he sees the whole TRAOD project itself - I am now talking about the game released in 2003, not the Dark Angel music project - which I did because I’ve been in some contact with him recently and also following his activity due to my backing of the project, Murti wasn’t the only creator of the story, neither he was of the characters, Kurtis included.

In fact, the final version of the story we see in the game has much more to do with Adrian Smith and Richard Morton’s involvement and creative decisions than with Murti as storywriter. Soon you realize he cares much more about Konstantin - a character that barely appears in the game because he’s already deceased, not even his name’s mentioned - than about Kurtis. That doesn’t mean he isn’t involved in his bio and lore and other details, because he absolutely was, I just mean that the final version of what we saw is a teamwork, not just Murti’s ideas. Even Murti is not at all behind the dynamic between Lara and Kurtis - the delicious dynamic we all know about - this being a product of the creative ideas and process of Morton rather than Murti.

From the moment only Murti Schofield was involved in TR Dark Angel project and not other Core Design members, I’ve had very clear in my mind than only a part of the final lore of the game was gonna be present at the project. And it’s fine, I don’t mind, it’s amazing they gave me the chance to meet this fantastic writer. But as I’ve been following all the content related with the project and the game I realized he doesn’t know everything or could answer to everything he was asked, because, naturally, he could only respond to the parts he was involved with - and that’s perfectly fine, and he had no problem to admit it, and nothing otherwise was expected!

This means many details about what Kurtis is, looks, and we enjoy about him were born by Richard Morton’s decision. So I knew this part was not gonna be present in the journal. Also, if you explore Murti’s activity and statements, he’s been recently working more on the past lore of the game. He’s been talking and headcanoning more about Konstantin than Kurtis, he’s been talking about more of the Nephilim, the Lux Veritatis, and producing content for Morgau and Eckhardt rather than for Kurtis and Lara at all. And it’s because he handles the part in which he was involved, the lore of the game, not the game content itself. For that, they should have included Morton or Smith, as far as I’ve found out.

This means Lara was never gonna be present at the journal, neither Kurtis as personality, because it was Richard Morton who created this personality - he chose the final name, I think, after all! Murti wanted him to be called Vance Renner - and of course Murti has been more seduced and interested recently in Konstantin as character than in Kurtis himself. And more invested in describing artefacts, power devices and other lore definitely not present in the final version of the game because he left the team before the game was released, since his task had been concluded: giving lore and plot. 

As you can see, this way, it is not surprising the journal is not a piece of merchandise that responds 100% to the final version you saw of what Kurtis is in the game, nor I expected it, but rather a recently crafted product that reflects more of the immediate past of the game’s universe, than the game plot itself. I would say it looks, at most, as if Kurtis has just gotten this diary from his father and the blank pages are still to be filled by him.

Which again, despite it was noted in advance, and we all could see photos of the inside pages, and nothing that wasn’t marketed was delivered, I still would have preferred it to look like a Kurtis’ journal, not a TRAOD lore concept art compendium whose pages don’t even look aged. But yet again, if you’ve been digging and listening to Murti’s part in the whole project, it was expectable in a way. And all of this I am not saying in a derogatory manner. It’s natural. TRAOD was the result of a teamwork, not just one single man. This one single man, thus, gives you his part in the story, but not the whole picture at all.

Today is the day I got my pledge reward for participating in The Dark Angel Symphony project of Peter Connelly. Thank you so much @trdarkangel @tomb-of-ash and everyone involved in this project for allowing me the chance to participate and cooperate. It’s been a wonderful ride and everything has been delivered safely and in perfect condition. 

Not much projects left to me to participate in Tomb Raider, unfortunately. The games that I cherished and loved still exist but won’t get sequels anymore, and my favourite of all of them will never get its deserved sequels - also my fav character will never have his spin-off game. At least I’ve been privileged to participate in this project to help Peter Connelly and his team to bring the desired edition and remake of his soundtracks to life.

Thank you specially because you chose an early version of Kurtis as the piece of TRAOD original concept art for me. You know what I like :) He will never get his spin-off but he gets his own statue - finally! - and I get one of his earlier concepts. The statues and the pendants are also beautifully crafted.