Dagger of Xian
The Dagger of Xian is Lara Croft's objective in the second installment of the Tomb Raider Series, Tomb Raider II. It is also coveted by Marco Bartoli, and protected to some extent by the Barkhang Monks.
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Background
The only clues as to the dagger's history are provided in the opening cutscene. The particular event could be at almost any point in China's history pre the use of gunpowder weapons. The Great Wall is illuminated in the early morning sunrise, as a flock of birds fly up from a copse of trees. The figure of a warlord is seen, along with his recently impaled prisoners.
The warlord's eyes appear reptilian and have slitted pupils like those of a reptile. He orders a charge and his army respond to his command. A band of archers fire a volley of arrows at several peasants working along the wall's length (there is debate whether these are in fact Barkhang monks, but Tibet is a very long way away from the Wall).
The warlord's army continues to assault the wall, aided by a large dragon. It incinerates one of the crossbowmen on the wall and (prompted by another crossbowman) turns to the next guardhouse to do the same. While it moves to the guardhouse it walks over one of the peasants. He sees the dagger planted in its chest.
The dragon blasts the guardhouse with its fiery breath. The peasant stands and removes the dagger, the action is accompanied by a red and gold ghost that hovers around him as he does so. It then integrates into the dagger.
As its last act the dragon incinerates the unlucky peasant before it collapses to the ground. As the soldiers watch, the flesh blackens and drips off the bones in a black slime. The warlord doubles over in pain, and his eyes return to normal.
The next scene is at night. Several figures approach an entrance to an underground tunnel. All are Chinese, and all wear the Manchu pigtail. They unlock the familiar door using the Talion, and replace the dagger. There is a bright flash of light, the men scream, and the door slams, leaving the sign on it glowing in the darkness.
Analysis
From the initial cutscene it is difficult to assess exactly when the events take place. It could be at any time between the fifth century BCE (first appearance of crossbows in China) and the fifteenth century CE (widespread use of gunpowder weapons). This second date is an approximation.
Therefore, there is some two thousand years for the dagger to make its first appearance within the game. The warlord and his army would most likely be a different Chinese faction during one of the country's various civil wars. As the Wall appears to be built of stone, the cutscene is most likely set during the Ming Dynasty (the earliest versions of the Great Wall were made of compacted earth, some of which remain to this day).
The peasants indicated are probably not monks. Although wearing similar clothes to the monks, they are unlikely to be the same people. However, as the Barkhang Monks are very interested in keeping the dagger secure and out of reach of those who would misuse it, it is possible that this band of peasants became the order.
In the second part of the video we can attribute a more exact date. The figures wear the Manchu pigtail or queue, which was imposed on the native Han Chinese by their Manchu overlords in the Qing Dynasty from 1644 until the early 20th century. Their mission is to return the dagger of Xian to the Temple of Xian. It is unclear whether this is as a result of the first part of the video (as a substantial time period would have elapsed between the two events), or whether this is a final solution to keeping the dagger safe by replacing it in its original trapped temple after centuries of misuse. The adoption of the queue might be a disguise for the monks - by this time the order would have been well established in their Tibetan homeland.
By replacing the dagger however, the monks doomed themselves as the door swings closed. This is the reverse of the usual grave-robber defense - usually the traps would occur after artefacts have been removed (seen countless times in the Tomb Raider series and elsewhere). However, the temple is designed to prevent anyone who knows of its location escaping to pass on information.
The Temple of Xian itself poses several questions. Some players assume that the first person to use the dagger was Qin Shi Huang. If we accept this theory, then he may also have been the builder of the temple. If this is the case then the temple must have been added to or even rebuilt in later dynasties as neither the artwork nor religious iconography in the temple correspond well with Qin-Han era art styles. The terracotta warriors in the temple itself however do point to a Qin or pre-Qin era as later dynasties shifted more towards making smaller scale wooden burial armies.
Alternatively, the army in the Temple of Xian could have given Qin Shi Huang the inspiration for his own (proverbially) booby-trapped tomb and its terracotta warriors found within. This leads us to the possible conclusion that the dagger pre-dates the Qin unification of China; meaning it was perhaps created by preceding dynasties, or an even earlier civilisation, or that it is a relic akin to others such as Excalibur and the Atlantean Scion.
Powers
Essentially, use of the dagger involves plunging it into the bearer's chest. The bearer is then transformed into a huge, fire-breathing dragon. There is no known method to reverse the transformation. A theory posed by one walkthrough site is that it also gives the bearer's army reptilian appearance and increased strength - doubtless as a result of the reptilian appearance of the warlord in the video. However, any sympathetic effect of the dagger is unknown in the game, as Lara kills most of Bartoli's army before these effects can be seen.
It may have other powers, but what these might be can only be imagined.
Related Artefacts
Notes
In Mandarin Chinese, the word 'Xian' can be interpreted as 'mythical being' (immortals). Alternatively it could be an erroneous rendition of 'Xi An', previously known as Chang An and capital of several Chinese Dynasties.
