Uncharted: Is Nathan Drake Related To Sir Francis Drake?

thegamer.com:

One of the first things you’ll find out about Uncharted’s protagonist, Nathan Drake, is that he’s a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, one of history’s greatest explorers, fuelling him to carry on his legacy. The history buffs out there will tell you that Francis Drake never had any children, something which Elena points out as soon as she hears it.

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As Nate replies, “History can be wrong, you know.” As the series progresses, Nate’s connection to Francis Drake is brought up several times, and his most defining character trait is brought into question - is Nathan Drake really related to Sir Francis Drake?

As mentioned above, the first Uncharted brushes the question off as history being wrong and Nathan being an unrecorded ancestor. Nate has quite the connection with Francis Drake through the game, quoting him whenever he can, being in possession of his ring, and having an emotional moment when he runs into his decaying corpse.

However, late into the tale, Nate decides to call off the adventure when things get too hot, causing him to shrug off his supposed ancestry. Elena eventually brings him back by giving him his ring and the adventure ends with the case closed.

Uncharted 2 doesn’t make any big mention of Sir Francis Drake, or Nathan’s connection to him, but it’s given a lot of importance in Uncharted 3. Here it’s revealed that Nate stole Sir Francis Drake’s ring from a museum in Colombia, where he runs into Sully for the first time. This brings Nate’s claims of being related to Francis Drake into question, although even as a child he claims that it belongs in his family.

The first real evidence to suggest that Nate isn’t a Drake happens when Marlowe