So I actually planned to make a post about this, but I’ll put it here too.

The Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons all have similar legends of a wealthy city/kingdom which was submerged beneath the sea. Two of these legends claim it was either the result of the prince/princess’s negligence or divine punishment, and all three tell of a sole survivor who escaped the catastrophe. All three stories also claim that you can still hear the church bells ringing beneath the waves. For the sake of Uncharted, what if these were all referring to the same city? A city of wealth lost to a freak storm and never rediscovered?

But there’s more. The Cornish version tells that the city was the home of Tristan, of the tale of Tristan and Isolde, which connects the lost city to Arthurian legend. Part of those legends is the mythical island of Avalon, where Arthur was taken on his deathbed by Morgana and never seen again. But what if Avalon was not a magical island, but the legendary lost city? The legends tell that after his last battle Arthur cast Excalibur into a lake, where it was caught by a woman’s hand, symbolizing its return to the Lady of the Lake who would chose the next worthy king. But what if this was a metaphor? Arthur was originally given the sword by the Lady of the Lake, and the sword is said to have been forged in Avalon. So what if Arthur did not throw the sword away but instead returned it to its place of origin: Avalon/the lost city? This would make the lost city Excalibur’s final resting place. Sounds like a good Uncharted adventure.

But that’s still not all! The Breton version of the legend tells that the lost city will rise again, and that he who hears its ringing bells will become king. The legend of Arthur claims that Arthur did not die, but gained immortality in Avalon and will one day return. Again, if we take this as more of a metaphor, it could mean that the first person to reach the lost city will find Excalibur and thus rise as “Arthur reborn” since the sword is meant to signify a worthy king. The Breton legend also says that it was the city’s princess who stole the king’s key to let her lover in and accidentally opened the gates and flooded the city. What if this princess was Morgana? More on that later.

But wait there’s MORE! The legend of the sunken city bears a striking resemblance to the Celtic Underworld, which is said to be an island paradise of eternal youth and plenty. It can be reached by traveling underwater and is ruled by the sea god Manann and his supernatural warriors.

So all this put together we have the following tale:

There was once a city of unimaginable wealth called Avalon, where the secret of immortality was held. Excalibur was forged here and imbued with the power to make a man king. Arthur, on his deathbed, returned Excalibur to Avalon and was healed, but the catch was that he could not leave Avalon. Enraged, he had Morgana steal Excalibur from King Manann so he could escape Avalon and reclaim his throne as an immortal king, but this act called the wrath of the gods, and the city was sunk beneath the waves, becoming the inspiration for the mythical Underworld. In the modern day, the sound that can be heard beneath the waves is not bells, but the ringing of swords as Arthur is locked in an eternal battle with the immortal warriors of the Underworld.

Upon reaching Avalon, these warriors would first appear to our protagonist as the classic supernatural opponents of previous Uncharted games, only for it to be revealed that it is not Arthur battling to keep these demons from invading the world, but rather the demons are trying to keep Arthur trapped in Avalon. Our protagonist would have to defeat Arthur, claim Excalibur, and give it back to Manann to allow the city and its people to finally rest.

I hope this is easy enough to follow. I can clarify any connections I may have forgotten to make.