How to Make the Scion

The Scion is the first artifact in the Tomb Raider series that Lara ever sought. It had been divided into three parts that she was looking for in Peru, Greece and Egypt, and she wasn't home and dry even once she found them. Natla, the queen of Atlantis, wanted to use the artifact to her own purposes, and Lara couldn't just let that happen… If you don't know this, play Tomb Raider 1 (or Anniversary) and see for yourself.

A short time ago, I had a moment of enlightenment - I got an idea for a great gift for my sister, LaraHCroft. To make the Scion. Originally, I planned to make a pillow from various cotton fabrics, but then I somewhat reduced my plan because hemming tiny unraveling pieces would drive me crazy. So how could the lords of Atlantis possibly make the Scion? Did they need some sort of a special forge? Or did they create this powerful artifact just using their divine powers? And what metal did they use? It certainly wasn't any alloy from this world. I had none of that at my disposal. I didn't want to make it from paper, because I don't have good, thick paper like that. I also dismissed Fimo. I decided to use colored felt from sheep's wool - it's pleasant to the touch and most importantly, it's easy to work with.

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How to make the Scion?

And which one? That was my dilemma. My goal was to make the Scion from Tomb Raider 1, not from Anniversary (for nostalgic reasons, and I also like it better). But which version? The individual depictions of Scion in TR differ slightly. It looks different in artwork and in the game menu, it looks different in the game itself (where it's mainly split into pieces), it looks a little different again in the renders - you can see one above. Eventually I chose the Scion that is depicted in the menu and promotional renders, and also the one that is depicted as the artifact in the game. Simply put, I sort of mixed the two.

There are a few other manuals on the internet on how to make your own Scion. This one, to give one example. I admit that I found the result unfinished; it could use better coloring of the top layer and then it would be great.

I was lucky because I chanced upon the absolutely perfect template - a design of a Scion tattoo from geckokid. Although I somewhat adjusted several things in my own Scion (because felt simply is no divine metal from Atlantis and it doesn't make such detailed work possible), it served me great as a basic model.

What I needed for my work:

→ felt - the basic material. I used dark brown felt, 3 mm thick, and beige-rusty, yellow, grey and white felt 1 mm thick
→ a needle and threads. Preferably a thinner needle that won't leave too thick puncture marks and won't ruin the structure. I used dark brown, orange-rusty, yellow and white thread.
→ the Scion template
→ scissors - as sharp as possible
→ a thin marker pen to copy the template
→ several pins if need be
→ enough time and patience

1. First, I copied and cut out the back part. I decided not to complicate it and just keep it in one piece. It would certainly be possible to make a double-sided Scion, but I made my work a little easier here. Besides, this solid base is just easy to work with.

2. Then it was time to do the smaller pieces. First, the Scion's outer perimeter. When working, I made use of the fact that in the game, Scion was also in several pieces, and it's easier to work with smaller pieces than with the entire circle. Especially if you're cutting something soft and pliable that could easily twist or stretch. So I divided the outer perimeter into three "crescents". After that, I cut out the circular parts which bear the gems one more time - to make them more plastic.

3. As you can see in the pictures, I cut the template step by step in order to get the individual pieces. Since Scion is symmetrical, it was always enough to cut them out from the paper only once, although it's true that when sewing it together, I found out that not all the "crescents" are of the equal length. But they fit the base well and they fit together just right too. It was necessary to repeatedly check that all the pieces fit together.

4. The last brown part that I cut out was the inner ring. The three thorns in the middle were cut separately. The whole time, it felt like working with chocolate cookie dough :-)

5. Then it was time for the caramel… I mean the bronze-rusty-golden part. Here, I basically set the template aside and cut it at a guess. I tried to stick to the Scion's original shapes as faithfully as possible, but I had to resort to several simplifications. For example, I reduced the amount of the "little pineapple pieces" on the outer ring - the render shows seven, I only made six. And I really simplified the toothed strip in the inner circle - for me, it's just a strip. Felt is easy to work with, but such small-scale maneuvers with it might not end well.

6. The diamonds are simple hexagons from yellow felt. I sewed them on the little circles first, but I didn't sew the circles on the main part yet.

7. Then, step by step, I used the orange-rusty thread to sew all the bronze pieces on the brown pieces…

8. Yes, I still kept assembling it and checking that everything fit. The next step was to create the center. In the game, the Scion's center is… well, there's nothing except the three thorns. Of course I could just cut a hole in the back part and leave the center free, but truthfully, I only realized that now… Instead, I sewed a circle of grey felt into the middle. At least the Scion has a solid center and the three thorns have something to hold on to.

9. The central ring came last. Again, I used the bronze felt. This time I didn't cut out the three copied parts closely, I left about two or three millimeters along their perimeter for easier sewing. I also cut out the white, "glowing" part of the ring according to the template. Truth be told, sewing it on was probably the fiddliest work of the entire Scion, even though I simplified it some more.

10. Then I again put the entire Scion together to check that the central part is positioned right, and then, to be sure, I helped myself out with several pins when sewing it on. Extraordinarily, I didn't sew the felt on with the side with drawings on it facing downwards, because earlier, when I was sewing the white part on, the lines were helping me place it properly (even then, it went slightly off in about one third, but small imperfections are hopefully okay).

11. After the central ring it was time to sew on the already finished inner circle. Since the brown felt is thick, my thread consumption increased quite a bit :-)

12. Step by step, I sewed on the individual parts of the perimeter ring. As I already mentioned, they weren't all identical because I didn't manage to cut out the basic circle perfectly symmetrically - or the template wasn't so perfectly symmetrical. Either way, I fit it together like puzzle pieces and it worked.

13. The last parts to sew on were the circles with gems. And voila…

It looks quite good in LaraHCroft's collection, doesn't it?

And felt Scion has many advantages:
→ You can't destroy the world with it (or the rest of Atlantis). Unless you hit the button for launching a nuke with it…
→ It contains no parts that a small child could swallow, which is ideal if you want to raise little Laura/Natla to love Tomb Raider from the cradle.
→ It's simply cute and cuddly.
→ You can make it yourselves :-)

Have you ever tried to make a TR artifact? And how did it turn out?