NOTE ON LARA'S AGE & TIMELINE
Working out the exact timeline for events in the Survivor timeline is tricky. In interviews the creators have stated that the games each take place roughly one year after the previous game, how this does not match up with in-game details. A gravestone in "Shadow" places that game in 2018 at earliest and a recent event in "Survivors Crusade" places that story in 2017 at earliest. "Rise" opens with a recently released magazine dated as November 10th. Placing the initial reboot game is a bit trickier, as newspapers in "Rise" date the events of the game in either April 2012 or August 2013. I decided to go with the latter to match with general fan consensus.
This means that Lara was born in 1992, was 21 in 2013 during the events of the reboot, 23 in 2015 during the events of Rise, and 26 in 2018 during the events of Shadow.
Tomb Raider 2013
Placement of the events of this game based on newspaper in "Rise" which dates the rescue of the crew of the Endurance to the first week of August. Using this date I worked back to place the events of the main game, "The Beginning" and other flashbacks.
Tomb Raider the ten thousand immortals
In the novel Lara states that the events of TR2013 happened "a year ago". This has been stated to be an error and doesn't line up with other plot points, and it has since been stated to take place between the game and the tie-in comics in the official timeline. Lara also learns a bit about Trinity at the end but suffers a concussion which means she doesn't remember all the details (although if we are going to treat Lara's injuries as real then a concussion is the least of her worries...)
Season of the witch
Stated to take place a month after TR2013
Secrets and lies
Placement of this story based on some in-game text from "Rise of the Tomb Raider"
Rise of Tomb Raider Announcement trailer
Included due to featuring a scene with Lara in therapy which is exclusive to this trailer. It is linked to the "sessions" recording which can be found in "Rise" itself, which lists the therapy session as "July 25th". No year is given but for plot reasons it must happen in 2016. Given that the trailer seems to portray a later session that means it must take place sometime between July 25th and the beginning of "Rise". I placed it in October but it could take place earlier.
Rise of Tomb Raider
Dating based on in-game magazine covers. Story also begins with the "Mountain Peak" level before flashing back. The end credits scenes also take place out of order, with the Post-credit taking place shortly after the end of the main story and the pre-credits scene taking place sometime later, when Lara has recovered from the adventure but it is still fresh on her mind. Interestingly, the post-game "open world" mode where you can wander and mess about in the games world, gathering collectables etc beings with a brief scene which indicates that it takes place between the post-credit and pre-credit scenes.
Baba Yaga: Temple of the Witch
DLC which takes place during the "Soviet Installation" level.
Blood Ties
A Rise of the Tomb Raider tomb raider level which, curiously, is not integrated into the main game like Baba yaga despite taking place during the games plot. "Blood Ties" takes place between the "Prophets Tomb" flashback and the Mountain Peak opening level in the main game, with characters referring to Lara visiting the Mansion between these two scenes. "Blood Ties" also features a post-game mode where you can explore the level which appears to be set before the pre-credits cutscene.
Spore
issues 1-6 of volume 3 of the Tomb Raider comic take place over the course of a week and begin at the "university of Minnesota Archeology Conference". Given that this conference is fictional I am placing it roughly during Springtime in Minnesota to match the apparent weather.
Choice and Sacrifice
Slight continuity hiccup here, Issue 6 of Volume 3 ends with Lara receiving a dramatic phone call about Sam and then Issue 7 opens with Lara receiving an entirely different dramatic phone call about Sam. Since we didn't see much of the call in issue 6 we can assume that its unrelated to the events of "choice and sacrifice" (perhaps it was just an update on her condition? or contact from Sam's understandably bitter mother?). Issue 7 also opens with Lara stating that she has "spent the last week" reviewing her fathers notes in relation to the events of "Rise", so I assume it takes place a week after "Spore".
Survivors Crusade
Interesting timeline in this one, although frustratingly without any dates. Issue 2 includes a flashback to Lara and Jonah traveling in Thailand, with Lara referring to it as a holiday following the events of "Rise" and "Spore". I placed it in "July" to be congruent with the weather in Thailand while also being recent enough that the events of the earlier installments are still somewhat fresh.
The main story of issues 1-2 is said to take place one month after the flashback, placing it in January. Issue 3 includes a montage of Lara's globe trotting adventures over the next year, with each section broken up into seasons (which doesn't really work with globe-spanning adventures, but I just assume that they are referring to the global north's seasons). There is also a flashback to Lara's childhood in Issue 3 but no dates outside of "Spring" to place it. Given that Lara appears to be an older child I placed it in 2003, shortly before Richards death.
Inferno
Follows on immediately from Survivors Crusade. Issue 2 includes some flashbacks which quite dramatically altered the timeline, as stated above.
Shadow of Tomb Raider
Date on a grave stone indicates that the game takes place in 2018 at the earliest. Game begins with an action sequence before flashing back "Two days ago" to a section that takes place on Day of the Dead, explicitly placing the Mexico level on November 2nd and the Peru level on November 4th. Note that this places "Shadow" as almost a year after the events of "Survivors Crusade" which works given that Lara and Jonah are portrayed as actively hunting down Trinity for some time now, which doesn't match up exactly with things in Survivors Crusade/Inferno. Not to mention that Jonah's hair is a lot longer than it was in Inferno.
rest of the games events take place with a scripted day/night cycle, making it easy to track the passing of each day. The post-credit scene takes place an undefined amount of time following the end of the game with Lara back at home. Given the apparent weather I've placed it in Spring 2019.
Path of Apocalypse
Path of the apocalypse is a short novel that takes place during the two days between the Mexico and Peru sections of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I have managed to map out the breakdown of each days events, using the page numbers from the kindle e-book version.
if you are planning to do a play/read-through of the survivor timeline the placement of this one is a bit awkward. While it is a prequel to "Shadow" it does spoil some big plot points from "Shadow"s opening level, so I guess you either read the book after playing the game or do what I do, which is play the Mexico level, then read Path of Apocalypse, and then return to playing the game.
