Philosophers' Legacy

The Philosophers' Legacy was one hundred billion dollars (or 1.2 trillion dollars based on inflation from 1945 to 2009) collected by the highest powers in China, the Soviet Union, and United States around the time of World War II. They called themselves the Philosophers. During the Second World War, a secret pact was concluded between the Philosophers, that eventually resulted in the creation of the legacy.

The Philosophers from the three countries pooled their assets in order to secure victory in the war by developing the technologies that would define warfare for decades to come; rocketry, nuclear weapons and superhuman soldiers such as the Cobra Unit - enough for five world wars.

Following the war, these funds were divided and hidden in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Hong Kong and other such economic strongholds. The records of the transactions were stored on a single microfilm; the only means to access the vast fortune. One of the main reasons why the cold war started, was because all of the three nations wanted the legacy for themselves. The philosophers had been disbanded into three groups, holding the true power of the supernations, all fighting for the legacy. Volgin's father managed to obtain the microfilm through his connections with the Philosophers, and it passed to his son after his death. Volgin used the money to build Groznyj Grad, his own personal fortress, and fund the Shagohod project, as well as many other advanced weapon projects. When it was finally discovered that he was the one that possessed this apparently lost microfilm, the first Shagohod was already nearing completion, and the Chinese quickly dispatched an agent who would take the name EVA.

EVA stole the legacy from Naked Snake following Colonel Volgin's defeat, but, unbeknownst to her, the film she recovered was a fake. This failure in her mission caused EVA to lose her reputation and credibility. In actuality, Ocelot had obtained the real film, but it only contained half the legacy. (The precise location of the film at the end of the game is debatable - while EVA is seen with a fake copy of the film before she leaves, Snake is seen in possession of the film the morning after, suggesting that he was the one to return it to America in order to complete The Boss' mission, and EVA had obtained her copy elsewhere -- possibly from The Boss.)

In 1970, Ocelot and Zero set up the San Hieronymo incident as a ploy to obtain the second half. Ocelot assassinated the DCI and obtained the remainder of the money. He and Zero later used the money to fund the creation of the Patriots.