The best lies are rooted in truth, the same goes for fiction. For what is fiction but lies we tell to try to find the truth. Truth is said to be universal, which is why so many stories have been able to travel from country to country, continent to continent and resonate with the people that live there, no matter their ethnic make-up or religious ideology. Family, love, friendship, and history are things we all experience no matter our geological location.
The Uncharted franchise takes us to a multitude of those geological locations and for most of the individual games, at least three separate locals. In the first game in the series we meet our protagonist off the coast of Panama, which is the last known location of Sir Francis Drake. Drake was a notorious pirate who, with the blessing of Queen Elizabeth I, went after Spanish ships and colonies within the new world. With the aid of Christopher Columbus and other explorers, Spain was able to get a jump start on colonization as well as imperialization in Northern, Central, and South America. Although England would win most of North America, it could not compete with Spain in Central and South America, so they decided to steal from them instead.
Besides being a pirate, Sir Francis Drake is most known as the English Admiral who circumnavigated the globe from 1577 to 1580. He was only eighteen when he enlisted in the Hawkins Family fleet off of the French coast. In 1572, he obtained a privateering commission from the Queen. Some believe that Drake’s mission to circumnavigate the globe was a secret Pirate mission sanctioned by the Queen against Spain. Only Drake and Elizabeth know how much he looted on this voyage since it has been classified as “The Queen’s Secrets of the Realm.” Anything classified a secret leads to conspiracy as to what exactly he could have found which leads to Nathan Drake’s quest in the first three games of the series. Within Sir Francis Drake’s life; he saved the first Roanoke colonist from starvation, was made mayor of Plymouth in England and organized their water supply for 300 years, sailed around the world, brought back treasure and spices, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth and put in command of 25 ships against Spain. That is quite an accomplishment for someone who only lived to be about 54 years, or so we are told to believe.
After discovering Drake’s coffin to be empty, Nathan Drake and Sully ditch Elena to follow the clues left behind in a diary that was left in the coffin. This leads them into the Amazon rainforest and to a Nazi uboat. While finding a Nazi submarine in the middle of the rainforest seems far fetched finding Nazis there is not. According to a Daily Mail article from 2012, it is believed that 9,000 Nazi officials and collaborators found sanctuary in South America during and after World War II. The most going to Argentina. President Juan Peron established secret escape routes through Europe and many well known SS officers, including Josef Mengele the angel of death. Mengele would die from an accidental drowning off the coast of Brazil in 1979, 34 years after the war ended in Europe. Although they were not looking for Nazis or Uboats Nathan Drake and Sully stumble on both, and it is here where we meet the villain of the game Gabrial Roman and his side kick Atoq Navarro. Roman, Navarro, Drake and Sully are all after the same prize, El Dorado.
El Dorado is Spanish for the Golden One but is more aptly called El Hombre Dorado, the Golden Man. In the sixteenth century, Conquistadors Spanish and German went looking for this elusive figure but could not find him. Through stories told the golden man ended up becoming exaggerated to golden cities. Gonzolo Pizzaro and Sir Walter Raliegh also went looking for it. But instead of an it, it was a who, a legendary ruler of a town near Bogotá in what is now Colombia. He would cover his body in gold dust and dive into a lake that other sacrificial jewels were thrown into. It is a rite of passage ceremony for the Musira people, in some cases as a transfer of power when the old leader died this Golden Man would be the chosen one.
It seems appropriate that the Spanish who would bring diseases and enforce their religion on the indigenous people would be eluded by a man who covers himself in gold simply to wash it away in a sort of baptism to become the next ruler. Hundreds of people died searching for this treasure which is just a ceremony. It is also appropriate that in the end of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, their El Dorado does just the same, disappearing into the water. Fact once again meeting fiction.
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