Character Information

[nicearsenal]

IN CHARACTER
Name: Chloe Frazer
Canon: Uncharted
Canon Point: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, after Nate and Sully leave for Yemen.
Age: Early thirties

History: Fan wiki entry is here but is embarrassingly poorly written so here's a brief synopsis.

Chloe is a half-Indian Australian; her Indian roots are based in the south of the country. (These roots are due to be expanded in 2017 when the Lost Legacy dlc is released.)

At some point in her past, Chloe meets Nathan Drake and the two hit it off extremely well and form some sort of relationship*. It is implied through their banter in Uncharted 2 that they have worked together as well as slept together and they form an effective team. Nate eventually leaves her- a fact that she reminds him of when they are reunited- but despite this, she is still very fond of him and the two are still attracted to each other. She is, however, at this point, in a ‘mostly professional’ partnership with Harry Flynn; Flynn has been contracted by the Serbian warlord Zoran Lazarević to break into a museum in Istanbul and steal an artefact brought back from Mongolia by Marco Polo which will lead them to his lost treasure fleet. With Drake and Chloe’s previous history unbeknownst to Flynn, Chloe reunites with Nate behind his back and proposes that they take their share of the treasure and run off together after the heist is done.

While the theft is successful, Nate is betrayed by Flynn and subsequently imprisoned in a Turkish prison for 3 months until he is bailed by Victor Sullivan and Chloe. Believing her to have been working with Flynn, Nate is initially wants nothing more to do with Chloe until she reveals she had no idea of the betrayal, thinks that Lazarević is mad and is still very keen to make off with the treasure with Nate… only this time, they plan to beat the others to it.

Chloe operates as a double agent, getting access to Lazarević’s camp in Borneo when the trail takes them there and then discovering with Nate and Sully that his true goal is Shambhala and the Cintamani Stone. They discover the grave site of the lost members of Polo’s expedition and a Tibetan phurba which turns out to be a vital tool for the discovery of Shambhala. When they are discovered by Flynn and Lazarević’s men, she appears to betray Nate and Sully by turning a gun on them and seeing them captured before she knocks out Flynn’s henchman once he’s left and helping Nate and Sully to escape, revealing that she was covering for them. With the trail now leading to Nepal, Sully opts out of the chase while Nate and Chloe go ahead, with Chloe still keeping up appearances with Flynn and Lazarević.

Chloe and Nate arrive to find Lazarević terrorising the city, supporting civil uprising in order to provide cover to search for the temple that will lead to him to the location of Shambhala. While there, Chloe comes across Nate with two journalists, who turn out to be Nate’s ex-girlfriend Elena Fisher and her cameraman Jeff who are on Lazarević’s trail. Nate decides they need to come with them, but Chloe is less than happy about this and tries to persuade him to ditch them. The small band wind up running through the city to the exact temple they need to find Shambhala’s location, giving them a small victory before things start to go horribly wrong. After this, things take a turn for the worse as Jeff is injured and they try to escape, despite Chloe’s arguments that they need to leave Jeff to die in order to save themselves. This does not go down well with Nate and Elena and she reluctantly helps, only for them to be cornered by Flynn and Lazarević himself. Chloe appears to have captured the others in order to save her own skin, but Flynn’s suspicions are definitely roused. He takes Chloe away to a train which Lazarević has claimed, and they head for the mountains. Despite a disastrous rescue attempt from Nate (which ends up with an exploded, derailed train and Nate hanging on for dear life from the wreckage as it dangles over a cliff), Chloe is with Flynn and Lazarević when they discover the lost city of Shambhala. Around the same time, Nate and Elena (on track to get to the Cintamani stone before the competition) cross paths with them and as a result, Elena and Chloe are used by Lazarević as bartering chips to ensure Nate’s cooperation.

When the gates to Shambhala are opened, Chloe, Nate and Elena are able to make a break for it and try to beat Lazarević to the Cintamani stone. They discover that it is not a giant sapphire as previously thought, but the blue sap of a huge tree growing in the heart of the ancient city that imbues great strength on any who ingest it, as well as healing them; it is this that Lazarević is looking for in order to become truly unstoppable. A mortally wounded Harry Flynn, whom Lazarević has decided he has no further use for, interrupts them. Despite being their enemy, Elena approaches Harry determined to help while Chloe and Nate hang back warily. Harry pulls a grenade out, which then explodes, killing him and seriously wounding Elena. Chloe tries to get her to safety while Nate heads after Lazarević, even after Chloe begs him not to go through with what she views to be a suicide mission.

Nate saves the day, stops Lazarević and leaves him to be torn to shreds by Shambhala’s guardians. He meets up with Chloe and Elena, and the three manage to escape the crumbling ruins of the city. They stay in a Tibetan mountain village where Elena recovers from her injuries. Here, Chloe realises the extent of Nathan’s feelings for the other woman and urges him to act on them, ending their relationship on friendly terms and teasing him that he will miss her backside (a feature he compliments multiple times during the course of the game).

In Uncharted 3, two years later, Chloe is working with Nate (along with Sully and Charlie Cutter) in London. She is seen driving a van and following their target, a woman named Katherine Marlowe who has a long and unpleasant history with our heroes. She helps steal T.E. Lawrence’s (of Lawrence of Arabia fame) journal and a map, detailing clues to help trace Sir Francis Drake’s route to find the lost city Iram of the Pillars (also known as Ubar and the Atlantis of the Sands). The path leads to clues being hidden in crusader crypts in a chateau in France and a Syrian citadel; in order beat the competition, the four split up with Nathan and Sully going to France and Chloe and Cutter going to Syria. Helpfully, neither of them have a working phone on them, which leads to Nate and Sully getting worried they’ve been captured or worse by Marlowe’s men after they have a run in with them in France.

Sully and Nate race to Syria and find Chloe and Charlie safe and sound, but very much aware that Marlowe’s men, and her second in command Talbot, are also in the castle and looking for the same thing they are. They have also discovered that Marlowe is part of an order dating back centuries who are obsessed with tracking down the lost city, due to the promise of immeasurable wealth and power that would come with its discovery. The tables turn when Charlie is shot with an hallucinogenic dart by their enemies, which causes him to give up his notebook and gun to Talbot and later, in Chloe’s words start ‘tripping balls’ and attack Nate. When Charlie manages to shake off the dart’s effects, they are able to find an amulet (the twin of one found by Nate and Sully in France, which was in turn taken by Talbot before he burned the place down). They are able to use this to work out that the next clue can be found in Yemen, but no sooner have they learned this than they are ambushed by Talbot and his men. Nate, Sully and Chloe are able to get away safely, but Charlie is cornered and is forced to jump off a perilously high ledge to escape. He survives the fall, but with a horribly broken leg. The four manage to make a getaway in a tourist bus, and it is at this point that Chloe takes Nate to task about whether or not the quest is worth it, warning him that he is becoming dangerously obsessed by it and that he and Sully might end up being killed if he keeps going ahead with it. Nate and Sully then head to Yemen to track down the next clue. Chloe does not accompany them, it is likely she remained in Syria with Charlie until he was fit to travel.

(*The Uncharted comic covers the first time Nate and Chloe met, but this is considered supplementary material and not part of the full canon as played out in the games, and interactions in the comic contradict interactions in the game. As such I will not be using this as word of god for their history.)

Personality:

When the player looks at Chloe Frazer’s character biography in Uncharted 4’s multiplayer, it sums her up the following way:

"If you need someone who can talk, shoot, or drive her way out of a sticky situation, Chloe Frazer is the one to call. But be warned: her allegiances are as varied as her skill set, and she'll work for anyone as long as their price is right and their priorities (i.e. her) are straight. Take good care of her, or she'll take care of you... and not in a sexy way."

This is a pretty good overview of her character, but there is, of course, more to her than that.

Chloe is very much a shades of grey, chaotic neutral kind of girl. When she is first introduced in the series, she is portrayed as only being concerned with what serves in her best interests; she is clearly still attracted to Nate and has unfinished business with him, and does not care about upsetting Harry Flynn (who is clearly under the impression that they’re an item- which they sort of are. Ish.) She is an attractive and confident person who uses her not inconsiderable appeal to the opposite sex to her advantage. Flirtatious, playful and quick-witted, she sees what she wants and she goes for it. She is perceptive and good at reading people; she is able to tell that Nate and Elena have history together when they first meet in Nepal through very little interaction between the two and can tell that Nate is being driven to the point of obsession with his quest to find Iram of the Pillars and calls him out on it.

She is somewhat self-serving, she is happy to take on any job as long as it pays well and serves her principal priorities- namely herself- and isn’t about to put her in any immediate danger. She states very plainly in the second game that there is no need to play the hero and cannot understand why Nate is willing to put both of their lives in danger in order to help Elena Fisher and her cameraman Jeff out of the city. She is particularly callous when Jeff is shot and is all for leaving him behind to die because taking him will slow the rest of them down and almost certainly lead to their capture- she is sadly proven right, but this does not stop Nate and Elena doing all they can to try and save Jeff. In Chloe’s eyes, unforeseen complications are dangerous elements which compromise her goals; in this she is very black and white in her outlook, and very business like, almost mercenary. However, by the end of the game there is a stark contrast drawn when Elena is injured in a grenade blast and she does everything she can to get her to safety. It could be argued that she goes to these lengths because she has come to know Elena by this point and realises how important she is to Nate, making her important to Chloe by proxy. Even so, her care and attention to Elena’s safety and comfort is ungrudging and genuine, suggesting that she has become someone important to Chloe in her own right.

As a thief, Chloe is very motivated by money and is very pragmatic in her pursuit of it. She allies with Nate over Flynn because she knows that he is the better choice to go after the treasure- the fact that they were previously romantically involved and she can pick that up again is a helpful bonus- and stands by that decision to the extent that she risks blowing her cover to get Nate out of jail in Turkey. She also knows when to cut and run, which is demonstrated in Uncharted 3 when she tries to convince Nate to give up his dangerously single minded pursuit of Iram of the Pillars after one too many brushes with death and the serious injury of Charlie Cutter going up against Marlowe’s men. Chloe will go to great lengths for her friends, but she calls a spade a spade and won’t put up with bullshit, especially when said bullshit stands a very good chance of getting them killed.

While there are many less than wholesome aspects to Chloe, she does have a strong set of principles. Although she played with Flynn’s feelings for her and used them to her advantage to bring her back in contact with Nate, she has no intention of doing him out of his share of the profits from the heist until he double crosses Nate, and then all bets are off. When the chips are down and the stakes are high, Chloe is someone that you would want to have on your side. She is a quick thinker and handy with guns and heavy artillery, definitely not someone you want to underestimate.

Chloe is not an angel by any stretch of the imagination, but she has a good heart deep down and is willing to set aside her own feelings and interests in order for someone she cares about to be happy. This is best seen when she confronts Nate about his feelings for Elena at the end of Uncharted 2 and tells him to act on them, giving up her claim to him with good humour and grace.

Contracts:

Chloe’s thought process on arrival would be as follows:

1. What do you mean I’m in space?
2. So you abducted me and now you want me to work for you?
3. …oh this is a fair old bunch of bollocks.
4. But do I want to get stuck on an unfamiliar planet with no way off it?
5. Looks like I’m out of options.
6. And I’m going to have to play along for now because what else can I do?
7. Just going to have to play along until I can find a way to turn the tables.
8. ...can’t be any worse than working for a crazy warlord, right?

And then she would read the contract carefully to see if there are any loopholes she can use to wriggle out of it if needs be in the future before signing it.


Abilities/Skills:
Driving – Chloe is referred to in both Uncharted 2 and 3 as one of the best drivers in the business, a skill she demonstrates in Uncharted 3 when in pursuit of Katherine Marlowe.

Marksmanship – She knows how to use guns, both long ranged and hand guns.

Hand to hand combat – Chloe is a brawler, able to handle herself unarmed as well as armed. While she lacks bulk and brawn, she knows how to use her body to her advantage in a fight, as well as her surroundings.

Stealth and cunning – as a thief, and a successful one, Chloe is very good at working covertly. She is able to pick locks too.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

+ Cool and collected under pressure and stress
+ Physically fit and able: Chloe’s a good climber, explorer and capable physical fighter.
+ Intelligent and well read: while not as much of a history nerd as Nathan Drake, Chloe knows her stuff, especially when said stuff could earn her a tidy sum of money.
+/- Loyal…ish. If Chloe likes or trusts someone well enough, she will stick by them through thick and thin, even if it goes against her own extremely well honed self-preservation instincts. If she regards someone less highly than she regards herself however, she will definitely put herself first and leave them high and dry.
- Selfish: Chloe likes to look out for herself first; that being said, she will do as much as she can to help those she cares about.
- Actually terrible at keeping a mobile phone in working order.

Items:
A .45 colt Defender and a few rounds of ammunition
A broken mobile phone


SAMPLES
Network Sample:

[The video feed starts with a jolt before a feminine, Australian accented voice cuts in.]

-would have been nice if they’d given us a bloody crash course in how to use these things. How do you even-

[There is a certain amount of distortion as a finger jabs at the TAB]

-tell-

[Another jab and more distortion.]

-if it’s-

[One more jab and for some strange reason, the image feed is flipped upside down and everything is strangely… purple.]

-working?

[There’s a sigh, and then coming through the upside down, purple video feed there’s a woman with dark hair looking quizzically at the TAB with a furrowed brow until she sighs.]

Bloody terrific day this is shaping out to be.

[She jabs at the tab again, and while the feed returns to right side up, it’s still conspicuously purple.]

Okay. I don’t get it. Never did go in much for the whole sci-fi thing. First person to tell me where I can get a beer and a back rub in that order is my new space best friend. Name’s Chloe by the way. Chloe Frazer.


Prose/Action Sample: Test drive entry