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I began by writing a flashback scene, a cinematic opening in a crumbling German castle being bombed by WW II Allied planes in a remote border region of the failing Third Reich. [...] As the first game was originally plotted out, there was to be action in a massive, bombed out fortress in a mountainous region on the German Austrian border and a finale in the subterranean cities of Cappadocia, central Turkey. As both Paris and Prague grew in scope the other locations had to be jettisoned and the Nephilim last act moved to Prague.

Until the release of this information, the only information regarding the lost levels of Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness were contained within an article by Adrian Smith. Castle Kriegler itself is only given a small mention:

Eckhardt actually met a Nephilim back [in the 1300s]. He actually double-crossed them in 1442; he tried to stitch them up, and they hadn't fully gone, they were still here, so they threw him into a pit that was hell like. That's where he stayed until 1945 which was a castle in Germany called Castle Kriegler, the castle was bombed and he escaped.

Concept art of Castle Kriegler also exists within the official Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness game companion. Although at first glance these pictures do not seem to reveal much information, a closer study sheds much light on this deleted location.

One piece of artwork (above) depicts Lara climbing a piece of wooden scaffolding, which winds haphazardly about the Castle's interior. From this structure, we can plainly see that Castle Kriegler was intended to have at least one very high tower, and had obviously undergone some measure of repairs or preservation in its recent history--it is highly unlikely that any wooden structures from the Middle Ages would have survived throughout the centuries.

Even armed with this knowledge of a circular tower and a precise location, (among the mountains on the German-Austrian border) a search for the real life location of Castle Kriegler is an almost impossible task--there are hundreds of castles and castle ruins in Germany alone. It is probably safe to say that Castle Kriegler was based on several real life locations, and not a recreation of any. Indeed, there are no castles left in the area which fit the necessary criteria; namely, a 'bombed out' fortress with a centuries-long history of abandonment.

It is much easier to hazard a guess as to the location of the Castle--the 'mountainous region' along the German-Austrian border is almost certainly the Eastern Alps, which include parts of Switzerland, Austria and southern Germany. A likely candidate could be a castle belonging to the Habsburg monarchy, who built an impressive empire among the Eastern Alps from 1200 until the demise of Austria-Hungary following the First World War. The ruins of their ancestral castle in the lower valley of the Aar seems a perfect match, until it is revealed that the district was lost to the Swiss in 1415.

Although the Castle was 'massive', it must have been well hidden or defended, since it held Eckhardt prisoner and thwarted the Cabal's attempts to free him for over five hundred years. Perhaps even some supernatural forces were in play at Castle Kriegler; Eckhardt was thrown into 'a pit that was hell like', and by the time the Castle was bombed in 1945, aerial warfare, even in a rudimentary form, had been around since the 18th century. The Lux Veritatis who guarded the Castle must have had some magical means of hiding or defending it from the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It seems likely that Adolf Hitler, 'a manufactured person' allied with the evil Cabal, would have ordered a raid on the Castle once its location was finally known, but in a cruel twist of fate the Castle was ultimately destroyed in an air raid by Allied planes.

The name 'Kriegler' itself is derived from the Middle High German word kriege, meaning 'obstinate' or 'cantankerous'. This is perhaps a reference to the almost stubborn nature of the Castle, which stood firm against the Cabal for more than five centuries until its destruction in 1945.

The U.S. state of Utah is probably best known for two things: Mormons, and the vast salt lake which gives its name to their most celebrated city. With an average surface area of seventeen hundred square miles, Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the western hemisphere and the fourth largest in the world, but it is a child's paddling pool compared to its ancient predecessor Lake Bonneville.

Lake Bonneville—named for Captain Benjamin de Bonneville, a Parisian-born US Army officer who was one of the first Europeans to explore the American West—existed during the last Ice Age and averaged a surface area of twentythousand square miles, a size comparable to modern day Lake Michigan. The name was, of course, given in retrospect. Since the lake's existence predated the arrival of homo sapiens in the Great Basin region by several millennia, it was never seen by human eyes.

First formed around thirty two thousand years ago, this enormous pluvial lake covered not only most of northern and western Utah but also parts of neighbouring Idaho and Nevada. It continued to exist mostly unchanged for the next sixteen thousand years, until an overflow at what is now Red Rock Pass in Idaho swept away natural barriers, resulting in a catastrophic flood. The geological record suggests that this flood lasted for up to a year, and by the time it ended the lake level had fallen by more than a hundred metres.

The shoreline remained more or less constant for another five centuries, but eventually the changing climate completed the work begun by the flood. As the Great Ice Age came to an end and the Earth became warmer and drier, the glaciers receded and so did Lake Bonneville, finally evaporating to leave behind the much smaller and shallower body of water we know as Great Salt Lake--and to its west, the famous Bonneville Salt Flats.

Composed of the concentrated alkaline deposits formerly suspended in the waters of Lake Bonneville, the flats are a rare and impressive sight: a vast white level plain stretching all the way from Salt Lake to the mountains of Nevada. The densely-packed salt pan or playa—which in places is up to six feet deep—is one of the smoothest and flattest areas on Earth, so much so that when standing on it is possible to see the curvature of the planet's surface. And during the summer, when it is firm and dry, it is perfect for use as a racetrack; enthusiasts bring specially designed cars and motorbikes from all over the States to participate in the annual Speed Week.

It is also a place where records are set. Rocket-powered vehicles have in the past achieved speeds in excess of six hundred miles per hour on the flats, although racing is now carefully controlled due to concerns over erosion.

It may seem curious at first that the Salt Flats specifically are given as Kurtis' birthplace, since they are a geological feature and not a town or city. In fact the closest thing to a habitation on the flats is the casino-resort town of Wendover, so far to the west that it straddles Utah's border with Nevada. However, Kurtis' creator and lead Angel of Darkness writer Murti Schofield has made reference to the existence of a "secure Lux Veritatis bolthole" beneath the flats themselves, where Kurtis' father took his mother Marie to give birth in safety away from the forces of darkness that relentlessly pursued them.

Like Kurtis himself, the Salt Flats are a literal relic, the final remnant of something bigger and more powerful. By the time of Angel of Darkness, the age of the Lux Veritatis is over. Lake Bonneville too is long gone, but it has left a permanent footprint on North America.

Originally published at Game Bunker

According to our connections at Core Design, Angel of Darkness should not be on the shelves yet. The release date they were shooting for was Christmas 2003, probably a November release date as most of the rest of the TR games have had. Then, in Summer of 2002, Eidos told the Angel of Darkness team to have the program ready for release in Christmas of 2002, full twelve months before their original projected date of completion. Naturally, this was all but impossible, so Eidos backed the date up to February of this year. In the meantime, two of their staff quit due to a disagreement and the remaining AI programmer was, according to my informer, not exactly the best programmer we've ever used. In addition, there was major slowdown plaguing the NTSC version and a slew of other bugs that needed to be worked out. What it boiled down to was the entire staff pulling four days of all-nighters for no extra pay in an attempt to get Angel of Darkness out before the end of Eidos's fiscal year so they could report a profit to the shareholders. It was very heavily implied that if it was not ready by July of 2003 that they would all lose their jobs.

Sony US gave the green light for the game to be released in North America in July, and so everyone at Core kept their jobs. Sony Europe, however, refused to put their stamp of approval on a product that was so unfinished, and Core was given until August to get it released in Europe. As we all know, they got it out in the rest of the world in August, still not as polished and finished to their liking, but better than the version that shipped to the States. And, despite what Eidos says, they reached their target goals for the year concerning profits.

Shortly after the release of AoD, the department heads at Eidos got together and blasted Core for being "late" in releasing the game, despite the fact that they got it out nearly six months in advance of the time they were slated to release it. Rather than taking the blame for this themselves, they decided to make an example out of the managers at Core and essentially forced both Jeremy and his brother Adrian Smith (who practically founded Core) to resign. The rest of the staff was told that a review board would be formed later to decide what to do with the rest of the staff. They also informed Core that even though they invented and developed the character of Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider video games, Eidos was taking the rights and giving them to Crystal Dynamics, another subsidiary of Eidos (who owns Core and several other development houses in both the US and Europe).

Eidos kept Core in the dark for the next few weeks, with the Eidos Human Relations head coming down and telling them they weren't sure what was going to happen or when or what game Core would be working on next.

Apparently, a group of Core staff met with Jeremy Smith about ten days ago and learned that he is starting up another software development company, that he was basically going to start from scratch, and that he'd picked about 30 people to take with him. This new company is going to be in Derby, somewhere around the current Core building, and is being tenatively named "Circle Studios". Of the people he picked, he said that he was taking mappers, programmers, writers and animators, but didn't have the finances to take any members of the test team, musicians or producers at the moment and they would have to stay with Core for the time being.

A few days later, the Eidos HR guy came back and informed them that Jeremy Smith was, indeed, being allowed to start a new development company (his contract originally stipulated that if he left Core/Eidos, he would not be able to start another development house for at least twelve months) and what was left of the Core staff was going to be reduced even further. Eidos currently has no need of the Core testing staff and a few other people were also selected for dismissal, about twenty people in all. Everyone left at Core would be set to work on a new, smaller project so that Eidos can still keep the name "Core" in active use (which would help given how much exposure they've had in the world).

Another item that was disclosed to Game Bunker was that Core was in the process of creating another "Fighting Force" game which, according to my source was, looking really good and could have been released in Feb. 2004. This game, however, was canned and shelved by Eidos after the major staff cuts.

In closing, my informant is one of the people who has been "made redundant" (read as: fired) at Core, the job to be terminated as of the 1st of September.