Archived official site biographies

[Moedred]

These are the biographies from the official site's archives (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://indianajones.com) under 'Marshall college.' I don't know if they were tweaked any if at all between 2005 and 2007, or how they'll read when and if they post them again. Bits may now be apocryphal. After years of Star Wars news and merely hawking Indy videos (2000-2003), it was great to have anything at all.

Indiana Jones
The Early Years
Born at the start of the 20th century, Indiana Jones' life kept pace with and mirrored the tumultuous events that reshaped the modern world through two World Wars and an era of adventure. So synonymous was his name with death defying exploits, a popular phrase was coined: "If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones."
In truth, "Indiana" was but a fanciful alias adopted by Jones at a very young age. He was born Henry Jones, Jr. on July 1, 1899, in Princeton, New Jersey. The son of Henry and Anna Jones, he lived in the shadow of his esteemed father, and often bristled at the belittling moniker "Junior." Jones began using the name "Indiana" as a child, borrowing the appellation from the beloved family dog. It was an early and largely innocuous act of rebellion, much to the consternation of his conservative father.
The elder Jones, a professor at Princeton University, embarked on a two-year lecture tour starting in 1908. Accompanying him was Anna and Indy, and Helen Seymour, Professor Jones' former tutor at Oxford who came along to school the young Jones. The small family traveled to major universities and cities around the world as Professor Jones spoke on the medieval chivalric code and the Holy Grail, topics of great importance to him.
The experience opened up young Jones' eyes to the world's many different cultures and traditions. In Egypt, he encountered Howard Carter in his search of the Valley of the Kings. Jones' earnest desire to learn and his sharp mind earned him the respect of T.E. Lawrence, another new acquaintance found in Cairo. The two maintained a correspondence for years. It is said that Lawrence may have first turned Jones on to archeology and the wonders of antiquity.
In Paris, Jones witnessed firsthand the transforming world of modern art by meeting Pablo Picasso. In Vienna, at the age of 9, he became smitten with young Princess Sophie, the daughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The following year, he explored the African wilderness in Nairobi with former President Teddy Roosevelt. The last year of Professor Jones' lecture tour brought young Indiana to Asia, where he learned a great deal of the various religions of the world in Benares, and the merits of Eastern medicine when he was treated for illness while traveling through China.
Returning to America, the Jones family was shattered by the tragic death of Anna, who succumbed to scarlet fever in 1912. Henry Jones moved with his son to Utah to begin work at the Four Corners University in Las Mesas. Later that year, Jones narrowly avoided his own death by escaping the Titanic disaster alongside his tutor, Helen Seymour.
In Utah, Jones witnessed thieves attempting to steal the Cross of Coronado and came to realize the importance of preserving items of antiquity in museums. He recklessly plunged headlong into a daring romp to recover the cross from the cutthroats, but ultimately failed. Nonetheless, it was important in young Jones' development, and he would carry much with him from that day -- he scarred his chin in his first attempt to use a bullwhip, developed a well-founded ophidiophobia from plunging into a circus tank filled with snakes, and was given a rumpled, well-worn fedora by one of the robbers in an uncharacteristically generous gesture.
He would carry these traits -- hallmarks of his character -- with him for decades to come.
The Great War
In the years following Anna's death, Henry Jones became consumed by his research regarding the Holy Grail. This served to distance him from his young son. In 1916, during a visit to extended family in New Mexico, Indy escaped his father's reach. A trip across the Mexican border swept Indy up in the Mexican revolution, and Indy briefly rode with General Francisco Villa.
Among Villa's riders was a displaced Belgian named Remy Boudian. Reports from Europe, as well as letters from T.E. Lawrence, told of the growing advance of German forces. Indy became disillusioned with Villa's cause, and was trying to find himself at the age of 16. When Remy was determined to return to Europe to defend his beloved Belgium, Indy accompanied him. He would later credit youthful exuberance and naivete for propelling him into the bloody battlefields of a European war. As he would later recount, "when you're 16 and you hear of a fight going on, you sometimes think it'd be a good idea to get involved."
The first port of call across the ocean was Dublin, a brief stopover on their way to London. Once again, revolution erupted around Jones as he witnessed the Easter Rebellion. Once in London, he found a recruitment office. At 16, he was too young to serve -- and America was not yet involved in the war. Nonetheless, Jones adopted a less-than-clever alias -- Henri Defense -- and signed up for the Belgian Army. Though the recruitment officer saw through his ruse, he didn't stop Indy. Belgium was hungry for fresh soldiers to defend her soil.
It wasn't long before Indy witnessed firsthand the horrors of war. At the Battle of the Somme, Indy's unit was decimated, leaving the young Corporal Defense in charge of the frightened troops. They were reassigned under French command, and Indy was captured by German forces during a devastating counterattack. Jones was taken to a daunting maximum security prison, but with the help of fellow inmates -- including future French general Charles DeGaulle -- he escaped, and rejoined the Belgian army.
After briefly serving as a motorcycle courier for the French army, Jones was reassigned to Africa, receiving a promotion in the process. Along with Remy, Lieutenant Defense became lost in transit and came to serve with the very unorthodox 25th Royal Fusiliers as they tracked down enemy artillery in German East Africa.
Indy rejoined his unit in Lake Tanganyika, where he continued to prove himself despite differences with his commanding officer, Major Boucher. Jones received a promotion to Captain, and was given the grueling task of crossing the unforgiving elements of the Congo to deliver weapons. Many of the unit's soldiers died of disease, including Boucher. Incapacitated by jungle illness, Jones recovered in a hospital run by Albert Schweitzer.
Following his Africa duties, Jones returned to Europe in 1917, and graduated from his frontline activities to espionage and intelligence operations. He accompanied the secret emissaries attempting to negotiate a separate peace between the Allies and Austria, and also tried to encourage the Spanish to turn against the Germans. By the time of his 18th birthday, Indy was stationed in Petrograd, Russia, working in the French Embassy. He tried to ferret out information about the Bolshevik uprising and was caught in the riots during a failed attempt to overthrow the provisional government. Other assignments that year led Jones to Prague and Beersheba. In 1918, his intelligence operations took him to Romania, Northern Italy, and Istanbul.
By 1919, following long years of death and destruction, the Great War finally came to a halt. At the Paris Peace Conference, Indy's talent for language served him well as he worked as a translator. With the formalization of treaties, many believed the claim that "a thousand years of peace" would follow from that day, but within two decades, the world would be at war again.
The College Years
Following the end of the War, Indiana Jones finally returned to America to continue his studies at the University of Chicago. Having experienced war before his time, Indy found himself older and much worldlier than his fellow classmates.
As a reflex to the death and destruction of the Great War, America in the 1920s was eager to celebrate life. Jones was no different. He embraced the growing popularity of jazz, trying his own hand at the soprano saxophone with such up-and-coming luminaries as Sidney Bechet. These musical contacts led Jones to New York during a break from school in the summer of 1920, where he worked backstage at a Broadway musical and met young George Gershwin. Jones' brief fling with the entertainment industry even brought him to California, where he worked as a stuntman on a John Ford western.
In the 1920s, Jones' academic pursuits were split between his strengths in linguistics and archeology. After having completed his undergraduate degree, Jones moved into a linguistics graduate program at the Sorbonne. There, he was lured by a beautiful archeology professor, Dorian Belecamus. With her, Indy went to Greece to study the Oracle at Delphi. While there, he was drawn into a plot to overthrow King Constantine, a plot Jones was able to thwart. Despite such danger, he realized that archeology would become a lifelong pursuit in his life.
After completing his graduate program, Jones was hired for his first professorial job at London University. The head of the Archeology department, Joanna Campbell, invited Jones to a dig in Whithorn, Scotland, on an expedition to confirm the legend of Merlin. Here, Jones met and became romantically involved with Campbell's daughter, Dierdre. The two traveled together in other archeological pursuits, and tragically, Dierdre Campbell Jones was killed in a plane crash during an expedition to Brazil in April of 1926.
While studying archeology, Jones learned from Professor Abner Ravenwood. The two developed a strong friendship, which Jones destroyed in 1926 by romancing Abner's young daughter, Marion. He would not see her again until a decade later.

[Moedred]

Indiana Jones (continued)
The World Returns to War
Despite the promised millennium of peace, the world was gearing once again for a globe-enveloping war. As international tensions grew in Europe, Jones was in Asia. In 1935, when attempting to recover the lost ashes of Nurhachi for a family of Chinese gangsters in exchange for a rare diamond, Jones was double-crossed. During his harried escape from Shanghai, his plane crashed in India.
Alongside his traveling companions Willie Scott and Short Round, Jones discovered a surviving Thuggee cult in the caverns beneath Pankot palace. The bloodthirsty cult had kidnapped all the children from the neighboring village of Madripoor, forcing them into slave labor to dig for gems to fund their dark cause. The cult was determined to recover the sacred Sankara stones, mystical rocks with great power that would allow the Kali-worshiping cult to dominate the world. Jones was able to kill the cult leader and free the enslaved children.
The next year, Indiana Jones was contacted by the U.S. government following reports of Adolph Hitler's growing interest in occult antiquities. A French archeologist, Rene Belloq, led a German dig in the deserts of Africa. Army Intelligence confirmed that Hitler was in pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred chest described in the Bible as being the transport for the Ten Commandments. According to legend, the resting place of the Ark could be determined with a related relic, the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. Its owner, Abner Ravenwood, lived in Nepal, so Jones voyaged there to make amends with his former mentor.
Nazi spies discovered Jones' plans, and attempted to secure the headpiece before he did. They failed, and Indy was reunited with Marion Ravenwood. He learned that Abner had died. Jones and Marion rekindled their turbulent romance during their quest to recover the Ark. They succeeded, transporting the Ark to Washington D.C.. Indiana Jones and his patron, Marcus Brody of the National Museum, were handsomely compensated for the priceless artifact, but the government reneged on its initial promise to allow the museum to keep the Ark.
In 1937, Jones left Marshall College in Connecticut for Barnett College in New York. The following year, wealthy industrialist Walter Donavan contacted Jones. Donavan was funding an archeological expedition to find the Holy Grail, and the venture had stalled when the project leader, Henry Jones Sr., went missing. The elder Jones had been kidnapped by German agents, and Indiana Jones was once again recruited to beat the Nazis in a race for a priceless relic. The Holy Grail was never recovered, but Jones was able to reunite with his father, ending decades of estrangement.
Post War Years
Indiana Jones continued to lecture and teach in a variety of higher learning institutes around the world after the 1940s, though records of his adventuring diminished. It is known that in 1950, he attempted to save a sacred Native American relic from falling into the wrong hands in Wyoming, but not much is known after that.
Age and injury may have finally taken their toll on Jones' adventuring days, though he was markedly active in his advanced age. Even in the 1990s, Jones was still lecturing, at the age of 93. Though he needed a cane and wore an eye-patch, Jones still led an independent life, possessed a quick wit, and could recount a lifetime of extraordinary adventures throughout the 20th century.

Barranca
Barranca was a shifty thief who ran scams in the South American jungles. Partnered with another con man, Satipo, the two worked out of a remote river outpost called Machete Landing, although they had contacts throughout Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela who set up jobs for them. Their favored con was to guide adventurers into the jungle -- then rob or murder them.
The conniving duo looked for profit in whatever illegal activity they could find, whether it was trading junk with native jungle tribes for valuable stones and artifacts, collecting funds for phony jungle expeditions, or working as paid mercenaries to waylay others trying to find their fortunes in the rain forests.
Barranca was the bloodthirsty brains of the pair. He made the deals, bargained for the terms, and was the one concerned with making off with the prize. Given the chance, and if the profits were big enough, he would have betrayed Satipo in a minute.
Barranca often dressed in jungle khakis and tattered clothing stained with sweat and soil. His straw hat had seen better days, but it served its purpose -- to keep the sun from his face and to hide his eyes from betraying his true intent. He was generally able to persuade people to trust him by tricking them into thinking he was weaker, or easier to buy off than he really was. One particular episode of chicanery allowed Barranca to obtain half of a map that would lead to a lost temple of the Chachapoyan warriors, hidden deep in the jungles.
Barranca ultimately met his fate after attempting to kill Indiana Jones. Once he'd learned that Jones had the other fragment of a map to the lost temple, he tried to gun the archaeologist adventurer down in the back. Jones was too fast, however -- coiling his whip around Barranca's gun hand, the thief was disarmed and sent fleeing into the jungle, where hostile natives hunted him down with a volley of poisonous darts.

Satipo
Satipo was a con man and thief partnered with Barranca, and the two ran scams in the South American jungles. Based at the Machete Landing outpost, the two would con adventurers into following them into the jungle, then rob or murder them.
Although Satipo and Barranca knew the general location of the lost temple of the Chachapoyan warriors -- they had a fragment of a map leading into the dark jungles -- they were not brave or foolish enough to try and retrieve the solid gold fertility idol themselves. Most everyone they had guided there never returned, and if any adventurer did actually find the idol, it was the pair's intent to murder him and make off with the treasure.
Satipo was more cautious and worrisome than his partner. Though a bit bigger than Barranca, he wasn't as ambitious or determined unless there was an immediate profit to be gained. When the treasure was in sight, Satipo could strike up the nerve to go after it -- most of the time, however, he'd be prone to suspicion and worry. He would incessantly pick Barranca's plans apart, emphasizing all the different ways they could go wrong. He rarely hesitated to voice his concerns, a quality which quickly annoyed Barranca, especially when negotiating deals.
Indiana Jones found himself at the short end of one of these deals after hiring the two to lead him to the Chachapoyan temple to retrieve the fabled golden fertility goddess idol. Barranca made the first move, attempting to shoot Indy in the back once he'd revealed the temple's actual location. Quickly disarmed by Indy's bullwhip, Barranca was sent fleeing into the jungle, leaving only Satipo to press on into the temple. Satipo claimed to have no knowledge of Barranca's duplicity, saying only that the other man was crazy.
Satipo decided to make his move once Indy had already retrieved the idol, offering to throw Indy the whip he'd just used to swing over a yawning chasm in exchange for the treasure. Not surprisingly, Satipo double-crossed him, leaving Indy trapped on the far side of the pit, minus one golden fertility idol.
Fortunately, Indy was able to jump the chasm and escape -- Satipo hadn't been so lucky, however. Meeting the same fate as Forestal (Indy's competitor/predecessor), Satipo was impaled by a booby trap which had been triggered by a careless misstep.

[Moedred]

Belloq
Rene Emile Belloq is a shifty, sly and conniving adversary to Indiana Jones. When others managed to obtain an archaeological prize through hard work and perseverance, Belloq often stepped in and somehow managed to take it as his own discovery.
Belloq used to be like any other good archaeologist, interested in uncovering the past and bringing it back to the public in museums. He studied history at several famous French academies, and later pursued art and archaeological studies at the Sorbonne and Louvre. Belloq followed in the proud footsteps of some of the greatest archaeologists in the history of France -- Dominique Vivant, Jean-Francois Champollion, Auguste Mariette and many others.
Rene Belloq met Indiana Jones during their studies at the Sorbonne in the 1920s. Belloq was completing his Masters in Archeology, and had managed to win the Archaeological Society Prize with an insightful paper on stratigraphy. According to Jones, Belloq had plagiarized his work, yet he was never able to prove the theft.
Just after he graduated with his Masters in Archaeology from the Sorbonne, Belloq began working expeditions for the Louvre. Though a thorough investigation of the events never materialized, accusations flew that Belloq used unsavory business contacts and questionable methods to acquire several medieval Persian artifacts from a site in Iran. The incident involved several deaths, including those of Belloq's assistants and the murder of another archeologist from the British Museum.
Belloq was fired from the Louvre, and became a mercenary archaeologist, working for private collectors who were willing to fully finance his expeditions and purchase his finds at a higher price than museums. Belloq's clientele and contacts became increasingly diverse and dangerous. Somewhere along the meandering path of his unscrupulous career, he met a Wehrmacht officer named Dietrich, who would come to hire him years later in a most momentous assignment.
In the summer of 1934, Indiana Jones had been planning an expedition to the Rub al Khali Desert in Saudi Arabia, looking for the remains of an ancient nomadic culture that existed before the birth of Christ. He spent months researching the subject, reading personal journals of travelers to that region from Roman times through the Middle Ages up to the 19th Century. Jones requested funding from his curator patron, Marcus Brody, as well as from other museums and even some wealthy philanthropists. All the arrangements were made -- travel, supplies, workers.
But when Indiana Jones got there, Belloq had already conducted an extensive excavation at the exact site he had planned to explore. Apparently, Belloq had been watching Jones (and other competitors) to stay one step ahead. Although the excavation proved fruitless, the enmity between Jones and Belloq continued to grow
It came to a head in 1936, at a Chachaoyan temple in the jungles of Peru where Jones recovered a golden fertility idol; Belloq promptly took the artifact from Jones who was helpless against the threat of the native Hovitos' spears. The crafty Frenchman had struck an allegiance with the Hovitos, due to his mastery of their obscure language.
That same year, Belloq was hired by the Nazis to lead the archeological excavation to uncover the lost Ark of the Covenent. Jones was hired by U.S. Army Intelligence to find the Ark first, and the two rivals crossed paths again as they sought to uncover the Well of Souls, the fabled resting place of the lost Ark. Clues to the Ark wouldn't be the only thing the two archaeologists competed for: in the search for the Well of Souls, Belloq came face to face with Indy's ex-flame, Marion Ravenwood.
As a warning to Jones to discontinue his search, German agents kidnapped Ravenwood from a busy Cario marketplace. Belloq met with Jones shortly thereafter in a tavern to discuss the wonders of the Ark. Jones could barely restrain his temper in this tense encounter, but he was rescued by his friend Sallah before any more blood would be shed. At the excavation site, Belloq attempted to wine and dine Marion in an attempt to charm her into revealing information about Jones and his hunt for the Ark, but streetwise Marion easily deflected Belloq's amorous attempts.
Belloq's German superiors, namely Colonel Dietrich and Arnold Toht, tired of the Frenchman's personal pursuits, finding them to be a waste of time. Once Indy found the Ark, he was captured in the Well of Souls by soldiers who discovered him trespassing at the excavation site. The German soldiers, on Dietrich's orders, threw Ravenwood into the pit to be buried alive with Indy. The Germans had the Ark, and Belloq's mission proved successful.
There was little time for celebration, as Jones and Ravenwood both escaped from the Well of Souls, and Indiana managed to hijack the truck transporting the Ark. Indy and Marion set voyage for England on the tramp steamer Bantu Wind. The Nazis were able to intercept the ship with their U-boat, Wurrfler. Belloq not only took back the Ark, but also Marion Ravenwood.
Jones followed them to Geheimhaven, a secret submarine pen on an island north of Crete, where he disguised himself as a German soldier. Armed with a Panzerfaust rocket launcher, Jones threatened to destroy the Ark unless Belloq freed Marion. Belloq called Jones' bluff; he knew Jones well enough that he could not destroy such a holy artifact. The Germans captured Jones and Ravenwood, and tied them to a stake to witness the triumphant opening of the Ark.
Despite the misgivings of his Nazi superiors, Belloq insisted in carrying out a Jewish ritual in the opening of the Ark. Jones, remembering the tales of the terrible power contained within the Ark, urged Marion to keep her eyes shut, no matter what happened. The supernatural power of the Ark ended up destroying Belloq and the Germans, searing and consuming their bodies in a whirlwind of fire. Belloq's last words upon witness of the wrath of God: "It's beautiful."
Neither Indy nor Marion saw these events, and were spared from annihilation.

The Raven
Like many saloons in towns around the world, The Raven was a good place to come in from the cold, sit by a roaring fire and chat with locals. Located in the cradle of the Himalayan Mountains in the small Nepalese village of Patan, The Raven's sundown crowd was typically comprised of local men and women, sherpas and hikers, and perhaps the occasional shady character or two. Made of rickety old wood, the structure contained little more than a half dozen tables with benches, a balcony, piles of wood to feed the fireplace, and an attached room where the proprietor, Marion Ravenwood, had lived for ten years until one night in 1936.
The Raven is first seen in Raiders of he Lost Ark with patrons huddled around Marion and a portly man as they compete in a regular drinking game, which Marion wins with fortitude.
As the daughter of Abner Ravenwood, renowned archeologist and Egyptologist who had spent his life traipsing the world with his daughter in tow on obsessive quests for relics and treasures, Marion considered the objects "junk." It was his drive to locate the Ark of the Covenant that brought the little family to Nepal. He purchased The Raven, hired Mohan (a strong and silent majordomo), and set Marion there while he went in pursuit of his destiny. Unfortunately, instead of meeting the Ark, Abner met his demise by avalanche. Since then, Marion used her father's treasures for barter, for decoration, for firewood, and -- one piece in particular -- for insurance for a better life.
The Raven was soon consumed by fire in 1936 during a fight between Nazis, Marion, and Indiana Jones over the coveted the headpiece of the Staff of Ra.

[Moedred]

Marion Ravenwood
Although Marion Ravenwood was privileged to travel to some exotic locations as a young girl, the experience was hardly luxurious. She was the daughter of Abner Ravenwood, a notable archeology professor obsessed with finding the lost Ark of the Covenant. The elder Ravenwood would travel the world searching for clues regarding the lost Ark's resting place, and he would bring Marion to some seedy and dangerous locales in his quest.
It was a lonely existence, flitting from place to place with only her father. Perhaps this is what helped cement a romantic connection with Abner's most promising former student, Indiana Jones, who shared a similar childhood.
Jones was a 26-year old graduate student when he met Marion, who was still in her teens. Knowing full well that a fling with his mentor's daughter could upset his friendship with Abner, Indy nonetheless continued. Marion would later attribute her love to childhood naivety. Indy sees it differently, though. He recognized the strength of Marion's spirit, and is convinced she fully knew the consequences.
These consequences resulted in Jones being estranged from the Ravenwoods for a decade. Abner and Indy had a falling out over his relationship with Marion, and the two did not speak for years. Around this time, Abner was dismissed from the University of Chicago. Marion, furious at Indy, found it easy to blame this tide of misfortune on Jones.
Though no longer affiliated with the university, Abner nonetheless continued his search for the Ark. Following clues to Asia, he eventually wound up in Nepal, where he settled and came into ownership of a rough-and-tumble bar and inn, The Raven.
Though she loved Abner, Marion was bitter about being stuck in remote Patan, Nepal, having to sling drinks to rude and dangerous clientele, all so Abner could obsessively hunt down tenuous clues. His passion sealed his fate as Abner disappeared in an avalanche, leaving Marion alone.
Marion took charge of the Raven. With her brawny barman Mohan, she made a living in Patan. She supplemented what meager income the Raven took in by winning at drinking contests, beating burly opponents twice her size. It was still not enough to get back to the United States. In 1936, that opportunity came knocking on her door.
Indiana Jones returned to her life, offering three thousand dollars for a relic that belonged to her father. She feigned ignorance about its whereabouts, relishing finally getting the upper hand on Jones. The tables soon turned when German agents also came looking for the artifact. The Gestapo agent Arnold Toht was about to torture her with a searing hot fireplace poker when Indy arrived to save the day.
In the melee that ensued Marion was able to escape with her life and the artifact -- the headpiece to the Staff of Ra -- but her bar was consumed by fire. With nothing left to anchor her in Nepal, she traveled to Cairo for the next leg in Jones' journey.
In a crowded Cairo marketplace, local toughs tried to kill Indy and Marion, who were on the trail on the lost Ark. Though Indy was able to fend off the thugs, Marion was captured. She was taken to the head of the German excavation searching for the Ark, a French archeologist named Rene Belloq.
Belloq had long been Jones' nemesis, and he tried questioning her about Jones' whereabouts and activities. Belloq's techniques of interrogation were far more civilized than Toht's brutish methods. He fed her, invited her to drink, and even dressed her in a beautiful white dress. Belloq, an arrogant man who fancied himself a conqueror of the unknown, had his amorous eyes set squarely on Marion.
Her street-smart savvy and strong will easily deflected Belloq's charm, and the German agents grew tired of the Frenchman's time-wasting venture. Once they had secured the Ark, and captured Indiana Jones in the Well of Souls, the German soldiers threw Marion into the pit to be buried with Jones.
The two escaped from the pit of snakes, and Indy was able to regain the Ark. Marion helped Sallah to secure transit from Cairo, a pirate steamer called the Bantu Wind. Marion and Indy shared some quiet, close moments aboard the steamer, but a German submarine quickly overtook the Bantu Wind. The Ark was once again stolen back.
Indy and Marion, both German captives, were tied to a stake to witness the triumphant opening of the Ark. Indy, remembering the tales of the terrible power contained within, urged Marion to keep her eyes shut, no matter what happened. The power of the Ark destroyed Belloq in the Germans in a spectacular display, but neither Indy nor Marion saw it happen, and were spared from annihilation.
Having completed his quest, Indy returned to the United States with Marion. Though he was paid for his trouble, he was unable to wrest possession of the Ark from the government, despite the promise of Washington agents to allow the National Museum to own the sacred relic.
Back in the U.S., Marion and Indy attempted to rekindle their romance, but Indy's passion for antiquity kept him traveling around the world, and her newfound freedom in the U.S. also kept her on the move. Shortly after her return, she tried her hand at journalism, and also opened a new nightclub in New York City, this time named the Raven's Nest.

Toht
Arnold Toht was a top agent of the Gestapo, reputed for his resourcefulness and cunning. Toht's deep-rooted belief in the Fuhrer as Germany's savior was embedded during his indoctrination into the Nazi party and the Gestapo. He and his fellow Gestapo brethren were trained in the art of combat, interrogation, torture, and espionage, and were well-versed in mysticism and the belief in Aryan society.
Toht, though, was not a superstitious man and was skeptical of anything people claimed as supernatural. He did, however, believe in the Fuhrer's leadership. His primary goal was to please his Fuhrer, and carried out his orders to the letter to insure his place in the Gestapo hierarchy.
Like many within the Nazi SS and the higher levels of Germany's military government, Toht believed the pure Germans were a race of superbeings that would rise up and conquer the world. Through purity of blood and spirit, they believed they were the chosen ones to lead Germany from the despair and depression caused by the Great War, the Communists, and the Jews. In protecting their racial and political purity, Toht believed the Nazis had the right to destroy any threats to their supremacy.
In 1936, Toht received orders from the Fuhrer to find the headpiece to the Staff of Ra, a key artifact in discovering the location of the Ark of the Covenant. Toht tenaciously pursued it with the goal of achieving a heightened glory for the German people.
Toht assembled several henchmen recruited from the streets of Katmandu to aid him in the recovery of the headpiece, and arranged transportation to follow Indiana Jones along the road to Patan. Once The Raven tavern had been located, Toht and his men confronted its owner, Marion Ravenwood, demanding she tell them the location of the headpiece.
Toht's interrogation was foiled by the arrival of Indiana Jones, who opened a melee of gunfire, fisticuffs, and flames that left the entire band of henchmen for dead. Toht had managed to escape, but left deeply scarred by the incident -- the medallion, which had been searing in the flames of a burning table, branded the Nazi's palm when he tried to pick it up. The medallion's profile, now scarred into his flesh, would later be used to determine the height of the staff used by Rene Belloq, the French archaeologist hired to direct the search for the lost ark at the Tanis dig site.
Like Belloq and fellow Nazi Colonel Dietrich, Toht met a gruesome end when the ark's unspeakable powers were revealed at the secret island location selected to open the ark. For Toht, all the years of pain and torment that had shaped the Nazi interrogator's masochistic tendencies were finally melted away -- literally.

Monkey Man
The mercenary known only as the Monkey Man kept to the shadows of Cairo's alleys in the 1930s, perched atop his sputtering motorcycle like a one-eyed falcon. Monkey Man reported what he saw to the highest bidder, aided by his furry little accomplice, a trained Capuchin monkey.
Most often, the Monkey Man worked for shady businessmen or those trafficking in illegal goods. He was suspected of being involved in smuggling ancient Egyptian artifacts from a treasure hunter out of the country. No doubt he had his fingers in many illegal activities around Cairo.
In 1936, Monkey Man worked for the Nazis, keeping tabs on American interlopers Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, who had come to Egypt to seek out the lost Ark of the Covenant. His pet proved adept at gaining entry to otherwise inaccessible places. The monkey was especially effective with young women, like Marion Ravenwood, who found the creature's charm hard to resist. The monkey often acted as a tracker following marks from rooftops or by jumping from bazaar stall to stall.
The monkey had insinuated itself as a pet to Ravenwood and Jones, following their progress. Following orders from the Germans, Monkey Man attempted to kill Jones by poisoning a plate of dates destined for the American. Ironically, it was the monkey that first ate of the poisoned fruit. The monkey's dead body served as a warning to Jones of the danger.
With his principal accomplice dead, Monkey Man disappeared.

[Moedred]

Dietrich
Colonel Dietrich was a German Wehrmacht officer tasked by the Schutzstaffel to hire and oversee Rene Belloq and the excavation of the Ark of the Covenant in 1936. Due to prior contact with the mercenary archeologist, it was Dietrich who contacted Belloq and arranged for his employ.
Because his prime concern was carrying out his Fuhrer's orders, Dietrich would constantly hound the archeologist for updates and progress reports that he would relay back to Berlin. Obsessed with order and proper military protocol, Dietrich expected instant results on every matter, and had little patience for the methodologies of archeology. Because of his dedication only to the important goal at hand, he had no hesitation when suggesting to Belloq that his captivating prisoner, Marion Ravenwood, be tortured --instead of dined -- in order to retrieve valuable information about the Ark.
Once Belloq and his team had secured the Ark and captured interloper Indiana Jones in the Well of Souls, it was Colonel Dietrich who told the German soldiers to throw Marion into the pit as well. However, with their usual knack for survival, Indy and Marion escaped the Well of Souls, and stole back the Ark from Belloq and Dietrich's Nazi convoy. Indy and Marion set sail on the Bantu Wind for England with the Ark in tow only to have Belloq and Dietrich's men intercept it with the Nazi U-Boat, Wurrfler. Jones followed the submarine to a secret island base north of Crete, where disguised as a German soldier, he threatened to destroy the Ark with a rocket launcher. Belloq convinced him to surrender and Indy and Marion, now both German captives, were tied to a stake to witness the triumphant opening of the Ark.
Dietrich had deeply-rooted misgivings about carrying out a Jewish ritual in the opening of the Ark, but allowed Belloq to do so nonetheless. When unleashed, the supernatural power of the Ark destroyed Belloq, Deitrich and the Germans, searing and consuming their bodies in a whirlwind of fire.

Ark of the Covenant
According to the King James Bible, after the Israelites fled Pharaoh in Egypt, they wandered the Sinai desert for 40 years. The Lord wanted to give the Hebrews a set of laws by which to live, and called Moses to receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Horeb. To contain the sacred tablets upon which these laws were inscribed, the Israelites constructed a container of acacia or shi ttim wood.
The Ark was a gold-gilded box with rings for the carrying poles. It was capped by a mercy seat surrounded by a rim of gold. Two cherubim, facing each other, also adorned the top of the Ark, forming the throne of God. The Bible also describes the Ark as containing a pot of manna and Aaron's rod that budded.
The Ark was carried before the Hebrews on their march to the Promised Land, and protected them while they forged the Israelite nation. The Bible references the Ark changing the landscape during the travel, burning thorns, scorpions and serpents, and drying the river of Jordan. The Ark helped the Israelites conquer the great walled city of Jericho, utterly destroying what was within.
After the Isrealites settled in Canaan, the Ark of the Covenant was briefly captured by the Philistines, who took it to several places in their land, causing each one to suffer some sort of misfortune. When the Philistines placed the Ark in Ashdod, before a great statue of their god, Dagon, the statue was soon found to be smashed beside the Ark. A plague of disease, death and famine rained down on the Philistines. Fearing more of the Hebrew God's wrath, they returned the Ark. Left in the fields of the Besh-Shemites, the Ark was responsible for the death of over 50,000 Besh-Shemites who gazed upon its surface.
The Hebrews forged a small empire out of Israel, with David defeating the Philistines. King Solomon constructed a mighty temple to the Lord. The Isrealites placed the Ark of the Covenant within the innermost chambers of the temple, the Holy of Holies.
After the Babylonians plundered the temple in their destruction of Jerusalem, the Ark vanished. A number of theories persist regarding its ultimate fate. Many historians believed it to be destroyed, while others believe it is still buried somewhere, perhaps in Jerusalem or along the banks of the Jordan, waiting to be discovered. Another theory contends that Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, stole the Ark and hid it away in what is now Ethiopia.
The theory put forth in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark is that an Egyptian pharaoh named Shishak invaded Jerusalem soon after Solomon's reign ended, and stole the Ark. Shishak brought the Ark back to his capitol city of Tanis in the Nile Delta, where he placed it in a vault known only as the Well of Souls. Apparently God's wrath at Shishak for stealing the Ark was manifest a year later, when the entire city of Tanis was consumed by a sandstorm that lasted an entire year.
Raiders, set in 1936, depicts a Gestapo expedition to recover the Ark, ordered by Adolf Hitler. The Nazi organization ordered two teams to be assembled to complete various tasks integral to the recovery of the Ark. One team, headed by Wehrmacht Colonel Dietrich, would assemble a task force led by the French mercenary archaeologist Rene Belloq. They had located and began uncovering Tanis, but still needed to find the Well of Souls.
The other team, led by Gestapo agent Arnold Toht, was responsible for recovering the headpiece to the Staff of Ra -- a related relic said to reveal the location of the Well of Souls. The German SS knew an American named Abner Ravenwood was last in possession of the headpiece, and sent several agents to the University of Chicago, his last known whereabouts. Toht's team turned up nothing other than Ravenwood had left the university years before. But Ravenwood had a colleague named Indiana Jones whom they were also watching.
At the same time, the United States Army Intelligence asked Jones to find the headpiece for them, to prevent it and the Ark from falling into Hitler's hands. The Germans decided to follow Indy to find the headpiece. With a copy of the headpiece, Belloq was able to divine the location of the Ark. Belloq's copy, though, was flawed, and with the original headpiece, Indy found the Ark before Belloq did.
Belloq and the Germans discovered Indy's dig, and recaptured the Ark from him. A deadly game of cat and mouse played out as the Ark switched hands several times before ultimately falling into Belloq's control. In an uninhabited Mediterranean island, Belloq recreated a Jewish ceremony to open the Ark. Inside, all they found at first was sand.
No eyewitnesses survived to report what happened next. Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood were prisoners at the Ark ceremony, but both closed their eyes and refused to look at the Ark. They were spared the fiery cataclysm that consumed Belloq, Toht, Deitrich and the other Germans.
Jones returned with the Ark to Washington D.C., delivering the Ark to U.S. Army Intelligence. The officers, Colonel Musgrove and Major Eaton, reneged on their original deal to let the National Museum keep the Ark. Instead, they told Jones it was in a top secret location undergoing careful study and analysis.
In truth, the Ark was placed in an undisclosed government storage facility. It is crate number 9906753, one of thousands, gathering dust in a top secret warehouse.

[Moedred]

Lao Che
As a distinguished-looking man of 50 (in 1935) with jet-black hair and a neatly-trimmed moustache, Lao Che carried himself with the bearing of a fighter. He was always impeccably attired in finely-tailored suits, and wore on his left hand a large pinky ring bearing the design of a golden falcon with emerald chips for eyes.
Lao Che was a well-known merchant whose many businesses included an air freight service, an import-export company, a pharmaceutical plant, several taverns, and the Club Obi Wan, one of the most spectacular nightclubs in Shanghai's International Settlement. It featured fine dining, a full-scale Broadway-style floor show, and a very private after-hours casino below. In addition, he headed perhaps the largest criminal organization outside the Green Gang in the city of Shanghai. As with other underworld crime lords, he had a substantial number of Shanghai's public officials in his pocket, but more than half of those under his control served him as the result of blackmail rather than bribes.
Like so many of Shanghai's other notorious gangsters, Lao Che enjoyed cultivating his image as a legitimate businessman, and gained a reputation over the years as a philanthropist and a patron of the arts (thanks in no small part to the several reporters on his payroll). His nightclub was regularly frequented by many of Shanghai's most prominent citizens, providing lavish entertainment, fine food, and for those who wish it -- a discreet, seemingly safe venue for indulging in darker pleasures like gambling and prostitution. But under this veneer of respectability, Lao Che remained a ruthless criminal interested in no one's affairs save his own and his two sons (Kao Kan and Chen), who were his chief lieutenants.
As Indiana Jones met Lao Che at Club Obi Wan to deliver a priceless Chinese urn containing the lost ashes of Nurhachi in exchange for a rare diamond, Lao decided to instead double-cross Jones by poisoning him. Desperate to get Lao to back down, Jones tried to threaten the gang lord by holding his prized possession -- Club Obi Wan singer Willie Scott -- hostage. However, recovered artifacts and priceless gems held Lao's heart more, and the gangster called his bluff by saying he could keep her.
A frantic display of gunfire erupted between Indy and Lao's gunmen on the dance floor, and Willie inadvertently snatched the antidote, which Indy later took after their harried escape from Lao's gang. In the melee that followed, Kao Kan was killed by Jones, and Lao Che swore vengeance.
Lao Che's gunsels chased Jones to the Nang Tao Airport, where Indy had arranged a plane to lift him out of Shanghai. Lao Che smiled while Jones escaped -- the plane he had inadvertently chartered belonged to Lao Che Air Freight. Lao Che's agents would dispose of Jones in the air.

Kao Kan
Tall, thin and rather homely, Lao Che's eldest son -- Kao Kan -- was sometimes an embarrassment to his father. He had no real great love for the bloodshed that accompanied the family business, but instead has more of a head for bargaining. Not only had Kao Kan played a large role in expanding Lao Che's legitimate businesses, he had also been the main force in moving the family beyond boats into the newest wave of freight transportation -- the airplane.
As smart and essential as Kao was to the family empire, he was well aware that his younger brother was his father's favorite. So Kao remained quietly in the background, believing that Chen's temper would get him killed soon enough.
It was on a rare instance that both Kao Kan and Chen joined their father on bloody business that saw a deadly turn for Kao Kan. Kao Kan was instructed to serve as a silent gunman covering the tense negotiations between Lao Che and Indiana Jones. The American archeologist was delivering the priceless urn of Nurhachi to Lao Che. The Chinese gangster turned the tables on Jones, and poisoned him. Kao Kan took advantage of the distraction of popping champagne corks to shoot Jones' backup man, Wu Han. Jones, staggering from the poison, killed Kao Kan with a deftly thrown pigeon flambe skewer, which speared Kao Kan in the chest.

Chen
Chen, Lao Che's younger son, had a face like a bulldog and the disposition of one as well. Although he was only of medium height and build, he possessed a tightly coiled ferocity that made him an imposing foe in a boxing ring or a dark alley. It also made him a lunatic whose sadistic temperament and mental instability couldn't be easily concealed by a silk suit or sponsorship of a charity ball.
Chen's lack of self-control had led to several scandalous incidents that were covered up only by the fullest use of this father's network of officials. Lao Che excused these incidents as "youthful indiscretions," and viewed Chen as the successor who would finish the job of making the family the undisputed king of the Shanghai underworld.
Chen's impetuousness got the better of him in 1935 when he attempted to steal the urn of Nurhachi that was being delivered to Lao Che by Indiana Jones. Though the partners had agreed to a meeting to exchange goods at the Club Obi Wan, Chen tried to get the urn without paying the night before. He escaped Jones' retribution with a severed finger and an even fouler temperament.
When Lao Che turned the tables on Jones and attempted to poison him, the negotiations erupted into chaos. Jones barely escaped the melee that followed, in which Chen tried to gun down the American archeologist with a submachinegun. Jones fled the club, and Chen doggedly pursued Jones to the Nang Tao Airport, where other agents of Lao Che took over the assignment to kill Jones.

Willie Scott
Even as a young farm girl growing up with her family in Missouri, Wilhelmina Scott had visions of fortune and glamour. A gifted singer and dancer, she wanted to make a name for herself in lights, and pined for stardom in New York or Hollywood. She didn't want to follow the path of her beloved grandfather, the only other entertainer in her family. The folksy magician entertained many, but ultimately died penniless.
The economic depression of the 1930s hobbled her attempts to build a career. Failing to make a splash in Hollywood, she followed rumors of greater opportunities in the Orient. She had heard that an independent, free-spirited and resourceful girl could make her fortune in the Far East. Reality proved harsher, for she ended up broke and stranded because she found herself unable to do some of the more unsavory things necessary to succeed.
With the professional name of Willie Scott, she achieved marginal success in Shanghai's fledgling film industry. Her profile was enough to catch the eye of one of Lao Che's enforcers, who introduced the American singer to his boss. Though Lao Che called himself a merchant prince, everyone else quietly used more accurate labels like "gang lord" and "crime boss."
Willie naively thought she could control Lao Che. The Chinese shipping baron kept her in baubles and dresses from Paris, but she had little freedom. Though she had a nice little house with a garden in one of the more affluent area of Shanghai, she knew she had to tread carefully with Lao. His temper was notorious.
She saw it in action one fateful night in 1935, after performing a crowd-pleasing rendition of Cole Porter's Anything Goes in Lao Che's nightclub, Club Obi Wan. Joining Lao Che at his private table, Willie witnessed a tense negotiation already in progress. A handsome American archeologist, Indiana Jones, was delivering a priceless Chinese urn in exchange for the biggest diamond she had ever seen in her life. Lao, never one to let go of valuables too easily, double-crossed Jones by poisoning him.
When Indy threatened Willie in a bluff to get Lao to back down, the gangster chuckled, "you keep the girl; I'll find another." With such casually discarded loyalties, Willie found it easier to forget about Lao and fend for herself when all Hell broke loose. A chaotic melee between Indy and Lao's gunmen ensued on the dance floor, and Willie inadvertently snatched the antidote. Seeing salvation in the tiny blue vial tucked in Willie's dress, Indy grabbed her and swept her along in his frenzied getaway. The next few days were a terrifying ordeal for Scott, who was used to a pampered lifestyle -- something that traveling with Indiana Jones rarely delivers. An impoverished village on the outskirts of India, a disgustingly exotic meal of eels, insects, brains and eyes in Pankot, a bug-filled corridor in the dank bowels of a palace, and a horrific Thuggee sacrifice are some of the things she wished she never saw.
With the help of Indiana Jones and Short Round, she survived it all. Willie Scott did eventually make her way back Stateside, and was more than happy for the break in adventure.

[Moedred]

Short Round
The day that Short Round tried to pick Indiana Jones' pocket on a crowded Shanghai street was the luckiest day in the young Chinese boy's life. Though the street urchin was catapulted into a dangerous life of adventure, Shorty's friendship with Jones was the ticket out of a hard life and into the wealth of opportunities that lay in America.
Short Round was born Wan Li -- a name he kept closely guarded, even from Indiana -- in 1924. He was the oldest child of a steel plant foreman. The family lived a comfortable life, and at a young age, Short Round began learning English and math at a Christian mission.
Indy would once remark that Short Round had been living on the streets since he was four, but whether or not that's true remains unclear. Short Round definitely showed the survival instincts of having learned tough lessons in the seamy streets of the Shanghai underbelly. Furthermore, much of his English comes not from a formal education, but rather by absorbing Americans films shown at the Tai-Phung Theater. And though a Christian mission did have the name Wan Li on register, Short Round kept a very reverent attitude to Chinese theology. He would often silently invoke from a pantheon of gods to watch over him and protect him in times of need.
Such times were in abundance after Fall, 1932. Japanese bombing raids on Shanghai killed Short Round's family, leaving the young boy an orphan. For a time, he was consigned to the mission's orphanage, but before long he turned to the streets. He eked a meager living acting as a guide, but also was an effective pickpocket and cutpurse. Short Round worked near such shady areas as the opium dens on Liu Street.
One day in 1935, Short Round attempted to pick the pocket of a tall American visitor whose senses were far more attuned than the common outlander. Shorty tried to snatch and run, but he found himself trapped in the coils of Indiana Jones' bullwhip. Seeing that the kid was just trying to survive, and recognizing some of the youthful energy and bravado he had at that age, Indy chose not to turn Short Round into the authorities.
Instead, Indy introduced Shorty to his friend Wu Han. Short Round became part of Indy's circle of trusted contacts in Shanghai, and provided the archeologist with much-needed assistance during a risky negotiation with gangster Lao Che. Short Round was able to borrow a car belonging to his "Uncle Wong" (it is not known whether he was a real blood relation or not), which served as a timely getaway vehicle for Indy.
Though life on the streets had given Shorty an education in survival, Indy taught him even more. In a hurried series of lessons, Indy taught the kid how to drive -- and also introduced him to what would become a passion: baseball, particularly the New York Yankees.
After his business with Lao Che ended poorly, Indy crashed through the roof of Shorty's waiting car. Short Round then sped through the crowded Shanghai streets, delivering Indy and a new face, Willie Scott, to the Nang Tao Airport. The plan had been for Indy, Wu Han and Short Round to leave China, but Wu Han had been killed. Short Round had secured passage to Siam, but that too didn't go as planned. The cargo flight belonged to Lao Che, and his loyal pilots ditched the plane into the Himalayas.
Thanks to Indy's ingenuity, the trio survived, but found themselves stranded in India. There, they discovered the plight of the impoverished village of Mayapore. The villagers were suffering from the depredations of an evil Thuggee cult hidden within nearby Pankot Palace. The cultists had stolen a sacred stone, and kidnapped the children from the village. Indy set off to investigate the cult activity, with Short Round and Willie Scott in tow.
For the passage to Pankot, Short Round rode atop a juvenile elephant. The animal was the closest thing to a pet Shorty ever had, and he took to calling him Big Short Round. Shorty was convinced that the spirit of his lost brother Chu had been reincarnated as his elephant companion. It made parting from the beloved animal somewhat difficult, but Shorty knew that that was kid's stuff. He was determined to be Indy's number one bodyguard.
The harrowing experiences at Pankot made Short Round's promise difficult to keep. The trio was surrounded on all sides by evil -- the bloody cult of the Thuggee had captured Indy, Willie and Short Round. Indy had been placed under an evil spell that made him a near-mindless slave of the cult, while Willie was to be a human sacrifice.
Short Round was put to work in the Thuggee mines, searching for other sacred stones or the gems to fund the cult. He instead turned his pickaxe into a tool of liberation as he hammered through his chains and dashed off to save Indy. Short Round, having witnessed the method of waking a brainwashed cultist, burned Indy with a torch. In a burst of pain, the haze of Kali was lifted, and Indy returned. He and Shorty fought side by side to defeat the cultists and free the other imprisoned children.
After these adventures in India, Shorty accompanied Indiana Jones to America, where he found a new life.

Chattar Lal
A dapper, soft-spoken man in his mid-thirties as of 1935, Chattar Lal was Prime Minister of Pankot Province and the primary advisor to its young Maharajah, Zalim Singh. Oxford-educated, he was well-versed in Western ways and customs, favoring Western styles of attire by day. In conversation, he had a dry, acerbic wit, which he used to deflect any unpleasant inquiries made about suspected cult activity taking place in his province.
Prior to 1935, Lal would most likely have been encountered within the boundaries of Pankot Province, acting as the "point-man" to the British authorities of the Raj. Lal also traveled freely about India to confer with the Crown's representatives, with whom he had many profitable contacts, and the general reputation of a sensible man who can "get things done."
Though unfailingly polite on the surface and unlikely to raise his voice in anger, he sometimes revealed a glimpse of the steely resolve that lied beneath.
Lal was in fact a fanatical devotee of the death cult of Kali, and had used his knowledge and carefully cultivated supply of psychotropic herbs to bend the young Maharajah's will to the service of the goddess. Lacking the charisma or strength to command the masses like the High Priest Mola Ram, Chattar tried to exert influence more subtly -- the unseen puppeteer holding the strings of power. Though Lal was far from an imposing physical specimen, he did possess some training in the Thuggee arts, and was more than willing to bloody his own hands for his holy cause.
In a battle on the floor of the temple, Lal was defeated by Indiana Jones in hand-to-hand combat, pinned by the wheel of the great winch which hoisted the victims of Kali into the sacrificial flames. Although severely injured, he apparently escaped, leaving the pursuit of Jones through the underground caverns to Mola Ram and his minions.
It was believed that Chattar Lal left with several thousand pounds in gold, diamonds, and jewelry, some stolen from the Palace. The British kept a vigilant eye out for Lal, suspecting he might try to set up another Kali temple in India.

Zalim Singh
The young Maharajah, born in 1922, was thrust into the responsibilities of rule after his father, Premjit, mysteriously died in the spring of 1930. Unbeknownst to Zalim, Thuggee cult leader Mola Ram had actually killed his father, who had discovered the renewed Kali rituals and threatened to expose them to the British.
Though slender of build with a smooth face and high soprano voice, the young Maharajah's powers included summary justice over any offense committed in his realm. As preparation for his reign, Singh had received a formal education from an English tutor, and in fact possessed a fairly good understanding of Indian and British history, culture, and the current state of the relationship between the two countries.
Though Zalim was certain that the cult of Kali was a part of Pankot's past, he became an unwitting participant in the dark rites whenever his chief advisor, Chattar Lal, secretly administered ceremonial blood into his drink, inducing the Black Sleep of Kali. This transformed the basically good-hearted prince to a young adept of Mola Ram's mystical arts.
Singh had also been trained in the making of krtya dolls and fetishes -- any damage inflicted on a doll would be felt by the one whom the figure represented. Indiana Jones became one such victim of this art, arching in agony as the Black Sleep-induced Singh held the doll near a flame or stuck it with a silver hairpin. Short Round was ultimately able to rouse the young Prince from the Black Sleep with a brief burn of a torch, breaking the hold of the psychotropic drug. His head cleared, Singh was able to provide Short Round with a route of escape from the catacombs.

[Moedred]

Mola Ram
For over a century, the diamond mines surrounding Pankot Palace were a place of fear and death. Thuggee cultists were known to prowl the dark underbrush, kidnapping victims for their foul sacrifices. The British eradicated the Thuggee menace in the early 1800s, and thought the bloodthirsty cult to be extinct. They were wrong; it simply went into hiding.
In 1935, Mola Ram was one of the last High Priests of the Thuggee death cult of Kali left in the world. He was not content to simply hide in the shadows. He had seen and read of the destruction of his people, and he longed for retribution. His one passion was to restore Kali to her former glory, and accepted no excuses, delays, or failures to reach this end.
The evil acts he had committed for his goddess had slowly transformed him over the years. He was easily distinguished by the red-rimmed eyes that glared from sunken sockets in his pale, sinister face. To enhance his appearance, Mola Ram often painted his face and head before conducting a ceremony.
Because of his power and knowledge, Mola Ram had little trouble getting the worshippers of the temple to help him with his plans. Those who refused or didn't show enough loyalty were quickly disposed of. One of the first things he ordered was the construction of a new temple, one that would show the power of Kali to all who looked upon the structure.
As construction of the new temple began, Mola Ram turned his attention to other matters. Like the former priests, he was afraid that too much Thuggee activity near Pankot would attract the attention of the British, endangering both the temple and his master plan. He also knew, however, that to gain favor with Kali, he must offer her a human sacrifice. So he sent his Thuggee followers as far away as he could, instructing them to only capture non-white travelers, and not to return to the area where travelers were captured. Failure to follow these orders would mean death.
Though Mola Ram was concerned about the British, he refused to let his or his followers' fear of them interfere with his plans. He kept an eye on the things happening in and around Pankot Palace, always looking for opportunities to spread the Thuggee influence into the very fabric of the realm. As a result, he soon learned of a British advisor to the Maharajah named Chattar Lal, who not only knew of Kali, but was willing to freely join the Thuggee and help the temple. Soon after Lal became a member of the cult, he arranged for the young Maharajah Zalim Singh to unknowingly receive the Blood of Kali, so he too would serve the dark goddess.
By the time Indiana Jones arrived at Pankot, Mola Ram and his followers had helped the dark hand of Kali descend not only over the Palace itself but the surrounding areas as well. With the Maharajah firmly under his control, Mola Ram no longer saw any reason to send his Thuggee far away from the temple. As a result, the Thuggee started raiding nearby villages, not only for sacrifices, but also for slaves to work in the mines and to finish building the new temple. Mola Ram himself took part in the raid on the village of Mayapore, to ensure that the Sankara Stone found there was returned to the temple.
Learning of the stone's theft from the altar at Mayapore, Indiana Jones set out to retrieve it from the clutches of the Thuggee. Finding a hidden passage into the catacombs below Pankot Palace, Indy, Willie Scott, and Short Round discovered an expansive chamber where a sacrificial ceremony conducted by Mola Ram was unfolding. A human sacrifice was being sent up to Kali by means of burning him in molten lava, but not before Mola Ram chillingly removed the victim's beating heart with his bare hand, using occult means to keep the victim alive.
Following the ceremony, with the chamber abandoned, Indy was able to abscond with the stones, but not for long -- Mola Ram's Thuggee captured him and the others, condemning Short Round to slavery and Willie Scott to Kali as a human sacrifice. Under Mola Ram's "Black Sleep" spell, induced by imbibing the Blood of Kali, Indy shackled Willie to the sacrificial cage and prepared it for lowering into the lava.
Fortunately, Short Round was able to break away and rouse Indy from his possessed state, consequently allowing him to save Willie from the pit of lava. While Mola Ram escaped, Indy was able to retrieve the three Sankara Stones once again.
The relentless Mola Ram caught up with Indy once more on a bridge high over a ravine. Trapped, Indy's only means of escape was to sever the bridge with his sword, clinging to one half that remained suspended from the cliff edge. Mola Ram was also able to ride the broken bridge down, fighting Indy to reach the top. Indy ultimately prevailed, however, sending Mola Ram plummeting to the crocodiles below.
A single Sankara Stone survived the ordeal over the ravine, which Indy dutifully returned to the people of Mayapore.
Several rumors claimed that shortly after his death, Mola Ram's body disappeared from the river. The British made an intense effort to quell these apparent falsehoods, but were hampered by the fact that they themselves could not produce any evidence of his death.

Sankara Stones
A Shiva linga is a sacred symbol of the Hindu God Shiva. They can be found in temples and shrines throughout India. There are several types of lingas. The Anadi or Svaymbhu are said to be the most sacred, and originate from heaven itself, falling from the sky. The Jangam are miniature symbols often cast in stone, clay, metal or other material. They are small enough to be worn as amulets or necklaces, and are often thought of as "movable" lingas.
Then, there are the fixed lingas. They are crafted and installed at a location following a sacred ceremony. They should not be moved once placed, or else calamity will befall the site. The fictitious Sankara stones depicted in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are of this category.
The creation of the Sankara stones is attributed to Sankara, a priest of Shiva. There were five of the stones, and they are reputed to possess the power to grant fertility to those people who follow the teachings of Shiva.
As depicted in Temple of Doom, dependence on these blessings can have disastrous consequences if the stone is stolen. The stones are reputed to have their own powers such as the heat generation shown in the last conflict with Mola Ram, but the nature and extent of these remain unknown.
Over the centuries, the five stones were dispersed around the world by wars and thievery. At least two of the five Sankara Stones were stolen by the Thuggee and taken to their temple under Pankot Palace. When the temple was destroyed by the British in 1850, the stones were hidden somewhere in the catacombs by a loyal priest.
Mola Ram forced his enslaved miners to search for them, having acquired the other three stones. One of the three was stolen from the nearby Madripoor village, outside Pankot. With the stone gone, a terrible blight hit Madripoor. The village wells dried up and the river turned to sand, and the crops and animals died.
Mola Ram had children kidnapped from the village work as slave laborers, digging in the catacombs for the lost two stones and the gems to fund their cause. With all five stones, Mola Ram hoped the Thuggee would be all-powerful.
Indiana Jones thwarted the Thuggee plot in 1935, when he infiltrated Pankot Palace's subterranean temple to steal back the Madripoor stone. In the process, he killed Mola Ram, freed the slave children, and dispersed the other two stones into a nearby river.
When Jones returned the Sankara stone to Madripoor, life returned to the village.

[Moedred]

And that's about as far as they got before the purge.
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Holy grail
The Holy Grail is generally thought to be the cup which Jesus Christ drank from at the Last Supper. It is also believed to be the vessel in which Joseph of Arimathea caught Christ's blood as he was removed from the cross. The many attributes of the grail were actually culled from several different narratives, each building upon its predecessor to perpetuate the grail legend.
The earliest written story of the Holy Grail dates back to a northern French poet, Chretien de Troyes, who is credited with starting the whole cycle of Grail Romances beginning in 1188. Chretien's Perceval, or the Le Conte du Graal (The Story of the Grail), became the prototype for all other legends that followed. Perceval, a young knight in King Arthur's court, searches out the grail which he believes will restore health to the Fisher King, and ultimately to the land and its people. In this story, the grail is a wide, deep bowl, and not a cup.
The grail surfaces again in a work called Joseph d'Arimanthie by Robert de Boron, in which the grail is defined as the cup from the Last Supper. Passing to Joseph of Arimathea, he uses the cup to catch the blood of Jesus when he is removed from the cross. This story introduces the grail as a vessel which possesses miraculous healing powers.
The next French Grail Romance, composed between 1191 and 1212, is Perlesvaus, or Li Hauz Livres du Graal (The High History of the Grail). In this version, the anonymous author assigns the Knights Templars as Guardians of the Grail, and introduces a new hero to the grail legend. Sir Gawain, whose role eclipses Perceval's in this version, actually sees the grail, and discovers it to be a series of visions that culminates in the image of a golden chalice that gives off a brilliant light.
With the grail's chief attributes in place, it was next up to Thomas Malory in the mid-fifteenth century to combine, edit, re-arrange, and further develop the earlier myths in his seminal work, Le Morte D'Arthur. In his tribute to the end of the Age of Chivalry, the grail first appears as a vision before all the Knights of the Round Table at Arthur's Pentecostal feast. They all vow to quest for it, with many too immature or sinful to achieve more than a fleeting glimpse of the sacred vessel.
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Adolf Hitler is depicted in believing the grail to be an actual relic. Because of the many myths surrounding the holy vessel, Hitler's dreaded SS searched for it, primarily around the ancient ruins of Renne-Le-Chateau in the South of France. Hitler's men also looked into 4th century legends that Mary Magdalen, fleeing the Holy Land, had taken the grail to Marseilles.
Dr. Henry Jones, who devoted his life to searching out the legendary vessel, recognized the grail quest as one of virtue, of healing, and compassion, not the vulgar hunt for a relic of power.
This version of the grail story told that after the cup was entrusted to Joseph of Arimathea, it was lost again for a thousand years, before being discovered by three knights of the First Crusade. The knights were brothers, and each lived to a remarkable old age. One knight made the return to France, and recounted the tale to a Franciscan friar. The knight promised that two markers, left behind by the brothers, would provide clues to the grail's whereabouts.
The first marker, an inscribed stone tablet, was found in Ankara, Turkey, in 1938 during a copper excavation funded by wealthy American industrialist Walter Donavan. Realizing the markers were the key to the Holy Grail, Donavan hired Professor Henry Jones to serve as leader of the expedition. The search for the second marker led Jones to Venice, Italy, but at that point, Jones was kidnapped.
In truth, the Nazis had teamed with Donavan to find the grail. Jones' assistant, Dr. Elsa Schneider, was a Nazi collaborator. The Germans planned to secure Professor Jones' grail diary, a treasure trove of clues and notes from a lifetime of grail research. The elder Jones sent the diary to his son, Indiana Jones, who picked up the search. The second marker was found in the catacombs beneath Venice. In the tomb of one of the knights was the marker, inscribed into his shield. That marker pointed to Alexandretta -- the city that became Iskenderun in Hatay.
The Joneses stayed one step ahead of the Germans, and the loyal Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, an order dedicated to protecting the grail's sanctity. The searchers found the Canyon of the Crescent Moon in the deserts outside Iskenderun. In the canyon was the grail temple, armed with three major traps to prevent the theft of the grail. Professor Jones had found clues to bypass the traps in the Chronicles of St. Anselm.
Getting past the traps, Indy discovered the grail chamber, wherein resided the last of the three knights, still alive despite the centuries that passed. The grail knight explained that the cup could not pass beyond the great seal within the temple, or its ability to extend life would disappear -- thus was the price of immortality.
The grail also had the power to save the life of Henry Jones, who was suffering from a deadly bullet wound in the final leg of their quest. It could also take life away, as seen when Walter Donavan attempted to drink from a false grail and was turned to dust by his poor choice. When Dr. Schneider attempted to take the grail beyond the great seal, the temple began to shake apart in a severe quake. The grail plummeted into a vast chasm, but the Joneses and their allies managed to escape.
Although Henry and Indiana ultimately uncovered the fabled relic in The Last Crusade, it's the journey itself that most revealed the true nature of the Grail. Each is able to rediscover the other, and in so doing heal their long-estranged relationship.

[Lao_Che]

Chen and Kao Kan seem to be the wrong way round.

[metalinvader]

Nice find Moedred..It really takes me back to when the OS was more then a marketing tool for KotCS...

[Lao_Che]

"Madripoor" is wrong too. That's an (non-Jones) island in Marvel comics. :confused:

[Adamwankenobi]

Nice find Moedred..It really takes me back to when the OS was more then a marketing tool for KotCS...

Ah yes, the days when we got quality articles, rather than that "flash" BS, with quick news fluff and the occasional set video.

[metalinvader]

Ah yes, the days when we got quality articles, rather than that "flash" BS, with quick news fluff and the occasional set video.


We still get those good Indy articles...It's just that they feel the need to post them on SW.com for whatever reason...

[Adamwankenobi]

We still get those good Indy articles...It's just that they feel the need to post them on SW.com for whatever reason...

D'oh! I forgot about that! :o

[Moedred]

Did Kao Kan get skewered...
http://www.raven.theraider.net/images/avatars/100/kao_kan.gifhttp://www.raven.theraider.net/images/avatars/100/chen.gif
http://raven.theraider.net/showpost.php?p=296004

...or did Chen? Okay, it was Chen.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087469/
http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Kao_Kan
http://indianajones.wikia.com/wiki/Chen

I guess the Raven and the old official site are wrong! Maybe this early draft (http://www.theraider.net/films/todoom/screenplay.php) was the cause of the confusion:
"Indy stares pointedly at Chen's recently bandaged hand."
........
"Willie lunges past the pigeon-skewered Chen"

[Kooshmeister]

Yeah there's some (minor) confusion about which of Lao Che's sons is which. However I maintain that Chen is the eldest and Kao Kan the youngest, as the script says. However it's just that in the script, Chen also has the injured hand.

[Moedred]

I understand Lucas is preparing a "Kao Kan chopped first" scene for the ToD special edition, which will require Ford's famous finger to be digitally erased from all four movies. ;)