I've had this one kicking around in my head for awhile, but I found it to be perhaps too controversial to post anywhere. But now that I've discovered a safe place in the Zombies Community to express opinions, I figured now was the best time to finally share it. In my opinion, the most tragic characters in the entire Story-Line are EASILY the Victis Crew. Before you send your nuclear warheads towards my current location, let me back up my opinion with stuff said in not only the timeline, but in our own theories as a community. To start off with it, the Victis crew is a group of random civilians who led relatively normal lives before the events of Richtofen's Grand Scheme took place in 2025. Misty was a farm girl, Marlton was a conspiracy theorist hellbent on uncovering the mysteries of Broken Arrow, (theory) Russman was a worker for Broken Arrow with a family, and Samuel Stuhlinger was a simple man who happened to be a mad conspiracy theorist unlike Marlton. Once Richtofen's Grand Scheme fell into place and the rockets hit the earth, the Zombie Outbreak began worldwide. Russman lost his life's work at Broken Arrow, Misty lost both her parents to Zombies, Marlton dug a little too deep and found more than he bargained for, and to survive, Samuel began to eat Zombie flesh. These guys got fucked hard by powers far beyond their control and perception. As if that isn't enough, let's look at their story when their paths cross in the first place. 10 years after the missiles hit Earth, Marlton, Misty, Russman, and Stuhlinger meet one another at the Green Run facility. (AKA Hanford Site) When there, they are contacted by both Maxis and Richtofen. Richtofen however can only speak to Samuel because of his past with eating Zombie Flesh to survive. In an effort to gain the upper hand on Richtofen and destroy the world, Maxis tells the group to construct the Pylons in his favor. To which the group obliges, despite Samuel's pleas to follow Richtofen. Richtofen for a moment even attempts to blackmail Stuhlinger into following his plan at Die Rise, threatening to tell the rest of Victis about his time with The Flesh. Once there's only one Pylon left, Victis begins to wander the earth while the voices of Maxis and Richtofen fall silent for a two months. Upon arrival to Buried, the group constructs the final Pylon in favor of Maxis who then thwarts Richtofen and opens a pathway to Agartha, causing the destruction of Earth to occur within the next year. Victis was betrayed by Maxis, the one who they thought would lead them to salvation. Not only are they betrayed by Maxis canonically, but in Richtofen's ending we see him take control of Stuhlinger's body against his will. Currently that's all we know about the Richtofen ending, but either way you slice it, these guys get betrayed by other-worldly powers beyond their control. They have no power or even choice. They're merely pawns to Maxis or Richtofen, no bigger purpose. They are betrayed despite their efforts to please the voice of what they hope is salvation. It's really rather sad to think about. Even when they separate for a point in time and return to one another, they now follow the voice of Richtofen hoping that he will be their salvation. Only to once again, be sent on a quest for his own intentions and being frozen in cryo-stasis at the end of it all. I guess you could say Primis Richtofen at least did them a favor offering them a chance to live, but they would be stuck in cryo-stasis for the rest of the cycle, never to be awakened. Forgotten by time. This happens in the Cycle Universe, but an arguably worse fate befalls them in the Broken Cycle. In the Broken Cycle, they're awakened from their cryo-stasis slumber in Alcatraz after Nikolai reads from the Kronorium attempting to finally end things right. Once again, they are sent on a mission to acquire a device for Nikolai. This time, they have to build and deliver the Agarthan Device for a purpose they know nothing of. Being loyal to Richtofen as they have yet to be steered wrong by him, the group listens to Samuel when Richtofen speaks to him. When they build the Agarthan Device and deliver it to Nikolai, they are once again betrayed despite their hard work and sacrifice. This time, they're erased from existence rather than plain and simply betrayed. Banished to the Dark Aether along with Primis and Ultimis, forever being forced to endure darkness and suffering until the end of time. One of Samuel's last words to Richtofen is literally "You haven't forgotten about us have you? We did everything you asked." It's honestly sad to see that not many people care for Victis as characters when they've all been through so much. Of course, their actual characters are not the best in the world, being incredibly stereotypical and all, but so is Ultimis and everyone loves them. Victis was perfect to play as to end the story we all know and love, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

Ok, so, we all have an introduction story for Zombies I'd assume. Some are more boring than others, some are more adventurous than others as well. Me personally, I'd say I fall in the middle when it comes to a good introduction story. It wasn't exactly boring, but it wasn't too adventurous either. Regardless, that is besides the point. The point is that through this story I'm about to tell ya, I met some wild ass people and had a ball of a time following the story and being a part of the community. This, is how I became introduced to Zombies. If my memory serves me right, it was April 5th of 2009. Soon after the release of DLC Pack 1 which was March 19th 2009. It was a rather normal day of school, we all played Pokemon at the round-tables at lunch and were simply having a good time being kids. I was either in Kindergarten or 1st grade at the time, I don't exactly remember. But what I do know is that my life was about to change for the better once lunch was out and it was time for us to go to recess. Unfortunately, we'd gotten hit with a rain-storm and we had to stay inside for recess. Bummer, right? No playground time and instead we have to be inside playing with baby-toys as we referred to them as back then. It was a bummer, but one of my best friends who to this day I keep in contact with was about to change my life forever. He decided to bring in his copy of Call of Duty World at War, and his freaking Xbox. How did he get away with this you may ask? Dude, I have no idea. The school really just let us kids run wild for an hour or so with no chaperones until the next class of the day would begin. Regardless, we got into a huge group and crowded ourselves around the Xbox, passing the controller back and forth playing the game. Eventually it was my turn and something caught my eye. "Nazi Zombies" it was called. I had grew up with Zombie movies, having an uncle that was in his middle-school and high-school years as a kid really helped me in that department. I was asked my friend, "What's this right here?" he told me it was a super scary game-mode with you guessed it, zombies. Super scary and Zombies? You were speaking the language of 7 year old me. I pressed the buttons to set up a match, and played my first game of Nacht Der Untoten. Needless to say I didn't make it too far, only Round 10 but for my first time ever playing at the age of 7, I consider that an achievement. I remember opening the Mystery Box and getting the M2 Flamethrower and having the time of my life lighting zombies on fire with it. It was simple, difficult, and incredibly fun. We began to play it every single time we had inside-recess and would all take turns playing it. About a week later, my friend came to me after school and wanted to hang out at my place over the weekend. I asked my parents that night and they let it happen. To this day I don't think I've ever told them what exactly occurred that night, but it was legendary. My friend brought his Xbox and surprised me with an all new zombies map for us to play together. The map was called Zombie Verruckt, and there was so much more to do in it. I fell in love as soon as we played it. We didn't sleep at all that night, not because we were playing for so long, but because we were so scared of Verruckt. The haunting screams and shouts throughout the Asylum, the feeling of isolation being separated from your team-mate behind the power doors, it was absolutely mind-boggling to us at the time. The highest round we ended up getting to was Round 15. We could never beat out the super-sprinters in Verruckt, but we loved the endless replay value. I truly owe so much to this silly little gamemode, for forging endless friendships with people I'd never end up knowing had this not come into existence. So with that, I leave you with my story of first playing Zombies. I hope you enjoyed!

That's an incredibly interesting take that I cannot say I thought of. I think you may actually be right about this now that you say it

If the reason will forever remain unexplained, I feel like that will be one of the few things I will actually take issue with never being explained.

What I find superbly strange is that Richtofen had to kill his younger, child self in order to retrieve his innocent soul yet the others are restricted to having to kill their adult-selves who have been through some shit. Especially Nikolai and Takeo. If they're going after innocent souls, why would they be going for the souls that have been through so much? Being through a lot can ruin innocence, but yet there they are collecting that specific soul. It just doesn't make sense to me.

You could ask the same question about the Summoning Key, but I feel it was intentionally hidden in the boxes so an Apothicon being, (The Beast mode) could open it and reveal it's secret powers. What I find to be odd about the Apothicon Sword is that its base form is, well, Apothicon. But when upgraded it becomes a sword of a Keeper by killing Apothicons around the map on Keeper Circles. What is also strange is that Keeper symbols are inputed into a wall to obtain the Apothicon version of the sword. There really is no sense to all of this at all.

Hey everyone, I'm here to start a series of discussions I'm calling Plot Hole Discussion for the Zombies Storyline. Basically, it's me going on small tangents on incredibly small details in Aether that while they may seem unimportant have a larger purpose in the long-run. This post will discuss the corruption of the Dark Aether that created the evil of the multi-verse we know as the Apothicons. Former Keepers who turned against their brethren and became agents of pure evil and mass destruction. Thing is, we know that the corruption of the Dark Aether is what created the Apothicons. But there's a glaring issue with this. In the Zombies Timeline shown during the release time of Zombies Chronicles, we get an incredibly interesting look at the true power Dr. Monty has. These three entries in the Timeline are incredibly interesting to look at. "Samantha Arrives: Monty brings Samantha to the House, reuniting her with the Dimension 63 incarnation of her father." "Samantha's Corruption: Knowing that Samantha has been corrupted by the Dark Aether, Monty takes her away from Maxis and the House." "The Restoration of Innocence: Monty returns Samantha to Maxis, her innocence restored." These three entries in the Timeline are interesting because Monty clearly has the powers required to cure corruption of the Dark Aether. Thing is, if this is the case, why doesn't he simply use this power on himself and the Shadowman in the first place? If he were able to do this to all the Apothicons, there would literally be no more troubles in the multi-verse. We learned in Tag Der Toten from Nikolai that Monty himself was corrupted by the Dark Aether trying to desperately save the Shadowman from its clutches. So then, if Monty is corrupted, how come he still is able to align himself with the Keepers rather than the Apothicons? That question is a whole other can of worms as Monty would say, but why couldn't he just simply restore both himself and the Shadowman if he so clearly has the power to wipe the slate clean for someone who was corrupted? I think the answer resides in multiple possible answers that can also raise more questions. My first theory is that Monty simply cannot do that to anybody who is unwilling to go through with it. Because free will exists, Monty cannot just simply do as he pleases to everyone around him. Plain and simple, but a very boring answer. My second theory? Monty simply can't use his powers on other higher-powers. His power to erase the affliction of the Dark Aether can only work on mortals who come into contact with it. Hence why he cannot prevent Apothicons from coming into existence. Final theory is probably my favorite of the bunch. The story of the Yin-and-Yang. Good, cannot exist without the presence of evil. While Monty can at least prevent some people from becoming afflicted by evil, he cannot prevent all from becoming evil simply because Fate willed both to exist at the same time, forever and ever. It's a paradox that will always be around even in our world. There will never be only good with no evil or evil without any good in the world, regardless of what world you're in. I mean think about this, even in stories have you ever heard of there being absolutely no good willed individuals in said world? Every story at the root of it all is good vs evil. Without one another, there simply wouldn't be anything in existence. If Monty were to make an attempt to rid evil completely, he'd have to rid himself and everything he stands for as well. Sure, he has the power to likely do it, but at what cost? What do you guys think? Let me know down below, we can continue the conversation there as I've given my take. I wanna hear yours.

My theory is that the main reason that statues exist there in Morg City is because there's a cult there that worships the Keepers. Considering Apothicons came from corrupt Keepers, I would assume the Shadowman could easily manipulate something originally meant for Keepers into something Apothicon. What once was theirs, shall now be ours I suppose is the saying of the Apothicons in a way if this is true. Hopefully my response isn't too confusing, but that's what I think.

There's only one thing preventing me from believing that a Broken Arrow facility truly exists at Die Rise. The fact that Die Rise is in China and Broken Arrow was founded during the Cold War. How in the hell would the United States be able to secure a base of operations with such a dangerous element in a communist country, during the Cold War nonetheless? It just doesn't make sense to me. Nobody in China would allow that to happen at all, I can't begin to imagine the conversation between the US and China to establish the Broken Arrow base. You could say that because Castro was at FIVE during the outbreak that he could be a trusted word to let it take place, but at the same time I feel like the outbreak would be something for Castro to say not to let them do it. But regardless, I like the theory that it is a Broken Arrow facility. It'd make Victis the Broken Arrow Chapter of CODZ and I find it interesting.

An abandoned airfield forgotten by time, to make first contact with Them. Through the walls of an Asylum, haunted by years of torture and sickness. Sloshing through the endless swamp of death. Returning to where it all began, learning of the endless pain and suffering. Traveling time and space to return to the Theatre of the Damned and the Doomed. Secret military operations become exposed for all to see as the damned break free. The countdown to the apocalypse, beginning at the Cosmodrome. Eternal damnation of a ship-wrecked film cast in a frozen hellscape, minions to the doctor’s nefarious agenda. Explorers stuck in paradise trying to find secrets far greater than them. Where nobody can hear you scream, nobody can hear you plead for forgiveness. Contact survivors of a fractured earth, hoping to win their favor. Encourage the survivors to mend the rift in space time. Eternal damnation, stuck in an endless loop of the same events throughout eternity. Cursed to forever be one of Them, because the survivors followed The Other. Flashback to where it all truly began, disturbing the grave of an Ancient Evil. Witness the sins of the individuals who sought redemption in the wrong power. Fools dare to change history to seek a better tomorrow. The Frozen One awaits his demise in the heartland of the Knights. The Betrayed One awaits his honorable death on a remote island of biological warfare. The Agonized One waits to meet his other self, in order to let the Fool set things right. The Fool’s plan doesn’t work, allowing the cycle to repeat until the end of time. The Fool who tried to change history passes the torch to the Agonized One who vows to truly bring a better tomorrow. Arriving at the secret military base to uncover the darkest secret of all. They, were the ones perpetuating the madness and needed to be stopped. The Agonized One brings them all, to peace.

So, the Keepers and the Apothicons. Technically they are the same beings, but one of them is just corrupted and corroded by the evil of the Dark Aether. What exactly is it that makes The Keepers and Apothicons who they are though? Is there someone in control of them or are they simple beings with free will similar to you or I? In this theory of mine, I will attempt to explain to you what I believe controls each of these forces of both light and darkness. Let's begin with the Keepers. Intelligent life-forms that were around when time and space itself didn't even exist yet. Who was the first among the Keepers? One could argue that it was Monty or Shadowman. You could even say that there is no first, but the Keepers simply sprouted into existence at the same time as each other. But the concrete answer is within a cipher found in Gorod Krovi. Keep in mind that only 5 of the 7 ciphers have been decoded, so there could be more mentioned about this particular Keeper. "The Summoning Key is one of the oldest artifacts in all of creation. It was used by the First One to mix all the dimensions with life, giving each one its unique balance. Under certain circumstances, it has the ability to form bridges between dimensions allowing the transfer of life forces back and forth. It resides in the 63rd Dimension of Creation." -Kronorium Excerpt 349,561,223 Notice anything from that cipher? It calls a Keeper by the name of "The First One" implying that he was the first of the Keepers to come into existence, hence having the most power. Considering that the First One is confirmed to be, well, the first of the Keepers given this cipher, the Keepers are simply servants of the First One, correct? Controlled by him and his desires? Well, if that were true the Apothicons would never have come to be. If the First One was in control of every single Keeper, none of them would have messed with the Dark Aether to begin with. So that crosses off the possibility of The First One being in control. All leads show that the Keepers are simply beings with their own will and control. So if the Keepers are not controlled by anything, then what of the Apothicons? Are they the same way? Well, let's get into that now. The Apothicons are a different case. The Shadowman even hints to them being controlled by certain Apothicons that have gone unseen (Or at least we haven't seen anything confirmed to be an Overlord) when you complete the rituals in Shadows of Evil. The Overlords are similar to The Great Old Ones seen in the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P Lovecraft. Now the thing is, if The Overlords are meant to be the Zombies equivalent of The Great Old Ones then they are the ones in control of the Apothicons, deep within the Dark Aether. In Cthulhu Mythos, The Great Old Ones are deities that were once rulers of Earth who are now in a death-like sleep. Perhaps The Overlords are similar to The Great Old Ones in the way that they are in an eternal slumber within the Dark Aether or the Earth, forever resting hence why they can never appear before us. In Tag Der Toten, we hear of what can only be assumed as an Overlord residing at the bottom of an ocean. Jebediah Brown, the creator of the Pack-A-Punch Machine referred to the being as an "Elder God" and Harvey Yena calls it a being from another time. Now if you know the Cthulhu Mythos, you know that Cthulhu himself resides in an ocean underneath the lost city of R'lyeh. Sounds similar to this Elder God mentioned by the "Angels" who spoke to Jebediah Brown, right? Now as for these Elder Gods/Overlords being in control of the Apothicons, how do I have proof of that? Well, Monty refers to the Shadowman as the face of the Apothicons, their agent of destruction. Shadowman may be an immensely powerful Apothicon, but he is nowhere near the leader. The Overlords being in control of the Apothicons has no real proof behind it, but it is the most logical reason for the controlling of the Zombies. What do you think? Let me know down below, I'll be sure to respond to all of you!

Here's just a small thing I made in Adobe Premier in a couple of hours. Never ever used an editing software or frankly edited a video in my entire life, so I'm proud of my first time managing to do it without any tutorials or help from other people. I will admit that some scenes are longer than they should be and there's more I coulda included, but alas, I'm a newbie with this software. Regardless of these little nit-picks of mine, I seriously hope you enjoy a few Aether scenes with the amazing music from Johnny Cash. What would you perhaps like me to do next? Whatever you wanna see, i'm open to it and would enjoy to take up an editing challenge, this is something that interests me.

I think I may go for some high round challenges throughout all the Zombie maps. Consider yourself an inspiration mate, you've got my creativity a-flowin!

Now, we all know of Group 601 by now. The superbly mysterious Group that has been referenced since WaW all the way up to Black Ops 3. But we've literally heard nothing about them throughout their long lives in the Zombies Storyline. Not even the Zombies Timeline has a single mention of them. It is my own personal belief that Group 601 is a faction of Group 935 that is controlled by Dr. Richtofen, Dr. Schuster, and Dr. Groph. I believe that Group 601 was created by frustrated members of Group 935 in an effort to make their own mark on the world while Group 935 was stuck in the war effort helping the Nazis. Group 601 could very well be all along the group we've seen functioning in 935 throughout the years. Think of it as Richtofen's own division of 935. Group 601 is simply a secret group of 935 scientists who are loyal to Richtofen. I do have a small bit of proof to back this up. Remember this image of Group 601? When translated it says "Stage 2: Strength Through Order" Perhaps this was simply the slogan for Group 601 as lead by RIchtofen. The strength through order phrase simply symbolizes Richtofen's dislike of the Nazi ideology coming into 935's research, so it would bring people together through order. Hence making them a stronger scientific group. It's not much to go off of on proof of this concept as Group 601 has barely ever been seen in general, but I personally feel as if it is true. It's my own little head-canon if you will. I think another good theory is that Group 601 is Division 9 before Treyarch fully had the idea of Division 9 in their heads. But this one is faulty in one way, Group 601 still appears in Black Ops 3, and Division 9 were already thought of in Black Ops 3. So what do you think? Is Group 601 truly something bigger, or is it a concept that Treyarch simply forgot about and didn't bother adding onto? I'm curious to see your thoughts on it as this is hardly ever talked about in the community.