Cod Timelines-The twin Universes

I predicted the story of ghosts back when nuketown zombies and Black ops 2 was fresh from the oven, then I predicted the advance warfare/second cycle when origins and extinction came around. I gave this a lot of thought, so I would listen and think it over. Major TL;DR for anybody not interested. Grab something to eat and drink, and prepare to have your mind blown. Don't stop reading till the end, or it will sound like gibberish to you. This is a long ass post, so ignore the spelling mistakes, if any. Here it goes:

basically, extinction and zombies tie together. All games(modern warfare, ww2, black ops, ghosts) are in the same universe, so when you play extinction, you find out about the ancestors. It is said that they are the illuminati, so richtofen is technically working for the ancestors, not the elite. Pyramid structure on moon was created by the ancestors, and it makes sense since they have psi-powers beyond our comprehension. So richtofen was a sleeper agent for a ancient race that was here way before us, and he was trying to destroy the human race so they could rise up and control the planet once more. It's complicated, play extinction from map one to exodus and get all the intel to get the full picture.

Anyways, with all that said, let's get some dates:
BO2 ending that is cannon for this to make sense is the :bad: ending, the one where you kill menendez and start riots all over the world. People burn down the white house in the US, and there are major riots in the middle east(from cordis die, you see them on some multiplayer maps).
Eventually, the events of these nation wide riots lead to the middle east getting glassed, and resources to run low. With such a blow to our oil supplies, and most countries at war with their own people, most countries, including USA, become third world nations. This leads to the rise of the federation, formed from several south american nations that control most of the remaining oil supplies in the world. They become the most powerful nation on earth, and quickly conquest the remaining nation in the americas, eventually butting heads with the US. After the ODIN/KEM/MOAB strikes, most of US major cities are turned into craters, and they also awaken the ancestors. This starts the events of gohsts/War with the federation, as well as the events of extinction, which will be where we see the downfall of the human race. The game states that the war with the federation takes place for 10 years, which would mean that events of ghosts take place anytime from 2025-2035 or even longer(since the BO2 ending riots take place in 2025, as well as the flashback mission in ghosts where you see the point where federation HATES america and seals its fate). However, for this theory to work, you make up your own dates to make the whole thing work together. Since the studios do their own thing and do not collaborate this amongst themselves, you just have to make this fit yourself. I find it unrealistic that a war like this could take place 10 years and still be a stalemate, even with the remains of all the powerful technology and might of the once powerful US army, so I just say that the first true ghosts mission takes place around 2 or 3 years later, and I ignore the " 10 years later" message.
The message at the start of "point of contact" states that it takes place several weeks after the first odin strikes, or after the intro mission, and several years before the first true mission. However, the whole story of extinction supposedly takes place in span of several months, and ends with extinction of nearly all mankind, so this is the timeline I made for the events happening between odin strikes and missile strikes from griffin station:
2025-Rorke gets captured and brainwashed by the federation. Events of black ops 2 happen, ending with riots happening all over the world, and the nuking of the middle east. Anarchy spreads, and federation becomes the wealthiest nation in the world, and the only true 1st world country remaining. Ghosts achieve their legendary status at this time, since many soldiers and mercs alike put their iconic skulls on their guns and try to become the same thing to their squad.
202x-Federation starts their conquest of americas, and ends with the US. Still a powerful enemy, they hijack their ODIN station and destroy their biggest cities and entire inferstructures in mere hours. The fact that the country is already weakend by cordis die rioters and menendez mercs does not help the situation.
several weeks later-One of the odin strikes has unearthed something in the colorado. At first, the refuge camp was believed to be struck by federation mercs or anti government anarchists, but that rumor was proven false after the first squad that went to investigate was MIA. Radio gibberish mentioned "aliens". Task force Spectre investigates. Orders come to detonate the nuke and eradicate the alien threat. This marks the first "mainstream" contact with cryotids, who were thought of as aliens as of this time. US thinks the threat is over, and the newspapers spin it off, as they usually do. Public remains unaware of the "aliens", and remains hungry and hopeless as they become a victims of a war, and they experience what they brought to the middle east themselves years ago.
202x-203x-events of ghosts happen. I will not spoil anything, but it is hinted that this wasn't over. I am sure ghosts 2 will come out, and that will be the last true campaign before the earth meets it's faith from our 4 heroes on the moon.
203x-People were pre-occupied with their own misery and the threat of the federation, so all but the most hardcore conspiracy theorists let their mind go of the mysterious "colorado incident". All but the Nightfall group, of course, and Archer, who saw them fist hand in afganistan years ago(during the events of modern warfare). Obsessed with the cryptids, he hires samantha cross, a well known codebreaker, and studies the cryptids for years while everybody else is distracted. Sometime after events of ghosts 2 and ghosts, archer creates or births a breeder. The whole facility is compromised. CIF team one(made of the same soldiers who stopped the colorado incident years ago) come to clean up the mess once again. Archer runs off with samantha cross on the stormbreaker, with a unknown contact who is hinted at to either be very influential, or have ties with the SDC.
several weeks later-Godfather recieves a mayday call from the stormbreaker ship. CIF is send in. The operation ends with archer joining forces with the US, even tho they do not trust each other, in search of samantha cross, who was captured by the ancestors.
48 hours after operation "Mayday"-Events of "awakening: unfold. Samantha cross is deep inside a ancestor's pyramid. one of the many around the globe. Ancestors lived here millions of years ago, much earlier before humans did. Meteor strikes were thought to have wiped out all live on earth millions of years ago. Ancestors created doomsday bunkers deep under the earth, and took control of creatures on the surface, so they could get intel on what is going on, and eventually take over once again. Ancestors try to turn samantha cross, who is now much more than human, but she refuses. Operation ends with retrieval of a brain of a ancestor, retrieval of samantha cross, and destruction of the ancestor structure. Archer is considered KIA.
72 hours later-Ancestor pyramids around the world awaken. It's time, the earth will belong to them once again. Several important events happen in no particular order in the next few hours, but I am pretty sure you know how it all ends. We all did back in 2011.
*In mere 72 hours, cryptids and ancestors destroy most of the human population in that time. Humanity, weakened by their petty conflicts and the loss of resources, is unable to fight back, and is forced to slow their progress by scorched earth tactic. Nukes go off around the world, armies fall, people think it is the second coming and hide off in doomsday bunkers. Exodus program is given green light, and preparations to lift off with the humanities best into the orbit is underway. In other words, humanity is abandoning ship:we lost. The medusa device, which could potentially wipe off all ancestor and cryptids life forms like a neuron bomb, is completed, but it still needs a battery, like the brain of a ancestor, to power it. Events of "exodus" unfold, and end the chapter of human world domination. Medusa device lets the exodus space station lift off and carry the last known remnants of the human race wait it out in space, as they plan their revenge. "history repeats", and now humanity is waiting patiently for their time to strike back, as ancestors are the dominant race once again. Samantha cross may be humanities last hope...
-CDC and CIA is sent in to supervise the mining of the last of element 115 from a green run group facility codename "nuketown". Top secret facility was believed to be a harmless old nuclear testing ground by all but the most elite.( in reality was one of the biggest mining sources of E115. There are few known skirmishes between russian spetsnaz and green run group task forces that date back to the days of cold war. Many of these old firearms still reside there, as the facility was mostly untouched in years). In panic of the ancestor invasion, nobody bothered to tell that to whoever ordered a KEM/MOAB strike on the facility in Nevada. E115 is spread across the land, and re-animates corpses of fallen warriors of the old and the CDC agents alike. With no support, the agents are forced to carry out their last stand with their firearms from the truck and the old, cold war weapons that date back to the old, forgotten conflicts. It is unknown if the undead or the missile fired from griffin station finished them off. It should be noted that ODIN/LOKI satellite is seen on nuketown loading screen, on the very last pane(not the big thing, that's the E115 drill. The last panel in space).
Back in 201x, richtofen and his minions collected the focusing stone. This allowed him to combine it with the golden rod. Both devices are believed to be of ancestor origin, and have unknown properties. It is believed that the "voices" in his head(the ancestors) were telling him what to do, and where to go. With all going according to plan, richtofen was going to be the greatest asset for the ancestors when the time was right. With a few remaining gersh devices and the ancient ancestor artifacts, richtofen steps into the aether. It should be noted that teleporters(like the MDT or gersh devices) access the aether, that is why they can "teleport" you in seemingly a instant. However, aether is way beyond our comprehension, and can take you not only anywhere in space, but also time. That is why the four teleported into the future after the events of der riese, and after ascencion: all you need to know is how, and you will be teleported back, or forward, in time. Ancestors have access and knowledge of the Aether, it is unknown if they know how to travel in between time, or if that knowledge is exclusive to richtofen(by accident).
It is unknown if events of moon happen right after the 4 step thru the teleporter/gersch device and collect the focusing stone, but it is known that events of moon seal the fate of the earth. Richtofen has perfected the art of time travel via aether, and is waiting for the call from his masters, as the sleeper agent for the ancestors.
203x-Events of moon unfold at the same time as events of nuketown zombies, and perhaps even exodus. The 3 still have memory problems, but know something is up. The four travel to green run facility in nevada or washington(the same one we see in "tranzit" or area 51, or maybe even some other facility, it is unknown) and teleport to griffin station. Richtofen slowly, but surely, completes his grand scheme, as all hell is loose on earth below. Eventually, richtofen trades souls with samantha, and becomes a god. Ancestors now have a very powerful ally, but richtofen is much more pre-occupied with "finishing the game". Maxis, and indeed richtofen and the whole Group 935 for all we know, knew about the ancestors and cryptids for a long time. How much he knows is unknown, but he seems to know that richtofen is working for them, and that the energy from the pyramid and the energy that the ancestors draw is from the earth, or the "rift". Knowing that humanity is in deep shit, he tries to minimize the damage. In the end, 3 experimental MOAB missiles strike three key places around the globe, and weaken the power that richtofen and the ancestors have over reality itself. Oh, and fuck up the entire interstructure of the earth and kill most of the population. What happens to the four is unknown, they most likely die as weasel(who is technically dead) hears "nikolai", which infers that the 4 die and are in personal hell of their own for all eternity, just like the 4 mobsters. What is known, however, is that richtofen wants samantha to suffer, and throws her in the aether to rot for all eternity. With hundreds of years of experience with the aether and the ancestor technology, it ends up backfiring big time for richtofen, but we will get to that soon.
Any events after the earth is blown up and most of the population of the earth, including people and cryptids/ancestors, is eradicated, is considered "AE", as in "After the end". The dates for these events is unknown, could be months, weeks, or years. It all happens after 203x, and that is all that is known.

Four survivors, nicknamed the "new 4", are trying to get by, but like all the survivors in the green run facility, are told to do something by two voices. They are the four who succeed. It is unknown which voice they listened to, but it is not important in the long run. What happens after the events of buried or if the exodus space station is compromised or any other small question like that do not matter, because history will repeat itself soon enough.

There is a secret "4th" ending in mob of the dead. It is called "history repeats". It is unknown what it means, but it ends the game with a special tune of "samantha's lullababy" playing in the background. In order to achieve this, you must start the game in solo, and do not move until you bleed out. This means that either the events of mob occurred, and the cycle was broken, or the gangsters just gave up. Either way, it involves samantha, and restarting the history somehow. How does this involve the purgatory and the dead, you might ask?
This also applies to the dead. This means that the souls are released,or erased, and everything happens again. So this means just what it says on the tin: EVERYTHING repeats itself. This means that whoever controls the aether or the MPD can also control other realities, like the afterlife.

Events of Origins state "this is how it all began". This might lead people to believe that dempsey was messing zombies up with gallils and rays mk2 back before he was even deployed into the pacific. That is not the case. This one is important, so just stay with me:

Samantha goes back in time(remember how I said that you can control both time and space with the aether if you know how? If there is one person who would know how to operate it, it would be the one who was sitting in it for a hundred years) while her soul is damned in the aether. It seems that time travel does not work like we thought it would, as when she does, events don't exactly happen like they happened the fist time.

So let's get something clear before we move on: YES, this is how it all started. Dempsey, Nikolai, Takeo, Richtofen and Maxis, and possibly samantha, met for the first time. The 4 were send in to investigate a old WW1 battlefield(both times, the events take place between 1943-1945, I know it's cool to believe that the map takes place in WW1, but it doesn't make sense since the soldiers are shown to have STG44s. First prototypes were made in 1943, and don't give me BS that they took it from the box, cause then the soldiers would also have Type25s, B23rs, Galils and all that other jazz. Plus, the "good guys" like americans and russians are called allies. Germans were the allies back in WW1, the biritsh and americans belonged to the "triple entante(sic), so the events most definetely took place during WW2 both times. Group 935 might have had it's origins during the great war, but you are not gonna tell me that old man dempsey, nikolai and takeo were then turned into super soldiers. They look that old because of the war and the hell they took when brainwashed 2 years later. During the first events of origins, the three were still young, able bodied special agents. They were most likely deployed to europe or pacific later, and the war took toll on them. If that was not the case, the psychotic super soldier experiments wore them out, body and mind. Heart wrenching really, but just shows you that even at their worst, they can still kick ass.

Anyways, samantha tries to get her body back from the aether, and increase her powers. She goes back in time to do just that, where she remembers it all started. For the fist time around, there was no demonic announcer(just like in Nacht), since nobody was in control of the MPD. The four were fighting with WW2 weapons(most likely MP40s, Stgs and Kar98ks, maybe trench guns. Since the excavation site had a major WW1 battle that took place here, there is also a old MG08 machine gun here, as well as old Mauser pistols. As you see in the second cycle, maxis dies and we see all sorts of futuristic weapons here. Of course, none of this is right, so what we have here is a case of alternative history: We see maxis die, so this might be the timeline where samantha was never born, or indeed when maxis was never wed. That is why nobody knows who sam is, and richtofen thinks she is a demon. Richtofen touched the MPD in 1933 and became a ancestor sleeper agent at that time due to the mimetic virus, but he seems much more naive at that time(and less psychotic). This means that in this timeline he either never touched the MPD, and thus is "normal", or he is having second thoughts about the "voices", or in other words, does not embrace them, thinking of them as a sickness. I am sure that in the first cycle, during the true events of "origins", Richtofen was the same bumbling psychotic we know. As for the futuristic weapons, I say that sam either teleports the remaining survivors(like soldiers and civilians, maybe remaining CDC and CIA agents) onto the battlefield, who obviously have futuristic guns for the era, or she creates them out of thin air. She IS a little girl turned god, after all. She wouldn't know what the guns were unless she was back in the other earth, seeing the survivors use them, after all. That might explain the "buried" rifles and shotguns from years into the future. Why don't we see the dead bodies of these people? Story and segregation. Just like the drawn weapons and the box: It wouldn't be fun, and would break the flow of the game, if you had to scavenge for the guns, so the devs put gameplay over whatever makes sense. COD devs always put the gameplay first, and that is one of the reasons they still make these games. I don't buy into time teleporting guns bullshit, but to each their own, nobody knows what is what when magic gets involved. But if you ask me, that is simply a mechanic that gives you guns on the spot, in the background the character either looks for the guns or takes them from their stash in the truck or the ammo boxes or something. Use your imagination.

As the story progresses, the 4 unleash the ancient seal, and access the agartha itself. Sam has access to her body once again. However, to get the true ending, you must take the maxis drone(a brain of her dead father put into a WW2 dragonfire drone prototype) and make it fly into the aether. The exact moment this happens, I believe the ending for mob "history repeats" happens, and everything ends. As a time paradox, or the final piece of the easter egg, completed for gameplay purposes, completing this task gives you the ending cutscene. Many people are confused over it, so I will tell you what I think it means:

You see sam playing with her toys. These toys represent all the characters we saw, all the most important set pieces. You see the "real" eddy, and "real fluffy". One can easily think that none of this ever happened, and these are just some (batshit crazy) kids, some nobodies in the cod universe. You can think that, but this infers none of this ever happened, and just creates a big mind fuck. What makes more sense is explaining it by tying it all together: We know sam is basically a god. She can create guns out of thin air, control waves of the undead, communicate with people thousands of miles away telepathically, even control reality, and time, itself. So, if this was technically a new universe she formed after she got her powers back, and the powers of the ancients, creating little toy replicas would be a piece of cake. These serve as reminders of the previous universe. After all, everything is gone. It is unknown if the previous universe(the one that got fucked up) even exists, or if history indeed repeated itself. What is important is that sam is the only remnant, or living being that made it out. She got her body back, so she gave herself, and the entire world, a second chance. She created a world to her liking, sealed the ancient zombie threat, brought her dad and her dog(and perhaps her mother too) back to life, she turned eddy into a little boy her age, most likely to keep a eye on him(seeing as he DID pretty much almost enslaved the human race for the ancestors). The toys are nothing but reminders for her, after all you would want to keep a reminder for something big like creating a new universe, for the old one right?

As for the rest, sam obviously still has her powers. Whetever she can age or not remains a mystery, but since she is capable of anything, I would say she is still around today, child or adult. As for the world, it progressed naturally. It can be inferred that the ancestors are either gone, or are still sleeping and creating sleeper agents. The world originally ended around 203x, then it was completely gone by xxxx AE, however we see that the world went by pretty much untouched by the ancient, world ending threats, up until 2060. That is right, the new universe we see in the ending cutscene for origins is the first glimpse of Advance warfare universe.I called that shit out in 2013, and then surprise, I am proven right when the game comes out. It is the year 2054, the technology is getting more advanced everyday. The only threat to humanity is humanity itself, however Atlas corporation is making sure that doesn't happen. There is a "doomsday" of sorts that happens in the campaign, and I will explain that. The story is full of underlying themes and conspiracies, as it is the most thought out and deep single player in cod history. However, the story is also full of plotholes, and it seems it was made in the last minute so they could make Irons look like a villain. With that said, the events you see in AW campaign are mostly BS. You got to read deeper, and ignore the full blown american fantasy that the second half of campaign is. It was most likely made so that america would be the good guy(even tho the game states many times they are no better than the "terrorists" they fight). However, I don't think it would go over well in the pitch for the game at the activision offices when the devs said you will be fighting for the most powerful PMC company in the world to bring down the governments of the world, put atlas in charge, so they had to force Mitchells(a naive, but smart) protagonist to join sentinel, with underlying themes that the KVA are actually working for the governments as puppets and such, the game makes various comparisons to our own world so I wouldn't doubt that. Or the sentinel story line might have been planned from the begging, I don't know, but it doesn't make sense either way. I will spoil the story for you now, point out the plotholes, and tell you how to put it all together, so if you don't want single player spoiled for you, scroll down to the very bottom. Why are we talking about the campaign when we are talking about zombies? Well, for the first time, SIngle, Multi, Survival, And zombies all involve each other: In order to get the full story, you got to play each game mode. Single player is just the intro to the zombies storyline and the big war ahead.

So the story all ties in well until the events of manhunt. At the end of the mission, you fighting Hades, a terrorist leader, and he gives you a sketchy hologram message. In it, it is revealed that Irons is the "bad guy", even tho it is never explained if the tape is real or any of it even happened. This makes mitchells, Illona, and eventually Gideon, to betray Atlas corporation. That starts the "murican" side of the story, and ends the atlas chapter of it. I say that is where the story ends, since the story seems forced and full of plotholes and rushed story telling afterwards. It can be assumed that events you see, like sentinel raid on irons mansion in thailand, invasion of new baghdad, manticore strikes on military bases all over the world and collapse of the golden gate bridge all happen, just without gideon and mitchells, working for sentinel(illona seems to have betrayed atlas either way).
Now, why do I say that? First of all, who is KVA? It seems un-explained. More disturbingly, they seem to have access to american military rifles, like the MK14, so who they get the funding and weapons from is un-explained. I like to think of them as ISIS: Mysterious, although in the end, there is plenty of evidence they get the funding from the US and if not flat out work for them, at least seem to be doing what the higher ups in the military or the CIA want them to do. In other words, they are just puppets. Even more mysteriously, the leader of the KVA, hades, also seems to be talking about "dying for the right cause". This could mean that the evens of manhunt were all going to happen, and he knew he was going to die. This wouldn't make sense unless he was a puppet for say, the US government, who is stated to fear atlas, and want it gone from the picture, since they cannot be controlled. I could go on, and tell you more, but this will just sound like conspiracy theory stuff, if you know how the world today works, this is a nice little tidbit for you, since the world works in a similar way 50 years from now. Now the facts of the matter is that KVA seemingly work for somebody, have access to many advanced weapons, including western weapons(if these were ultranationalists from COD4, they would have M14s, M4s, Acrs, SCARs, and many other advanced weapons instead of rag-tag weapons that have seen the days of the cold war like they do ingame), they are way too well organized to be trained by some bumfuck terrorists in a cave somewhere, and destroyed powerplants around the world like it was nothing. The powerplant budgets were said to be lowered and I bet they were in no better state than they are today. It almost looks like they were kept on spit and clay on purpose, so the gov could take over take control. Of course, they didn't account on atlas just fixing things up, and making them stronger in return, so they had to take care of that little business. Irons needed to be out of the picture, he became too influential and powerful, so the govs(again, scared of atlas, listen to the intel that is in the menu screen) created that hologram tape to seal the reputation of atlas and take them down. The tape was a fake, obviously. I mean, how would anyone record this? Why? And if atlas wanted the powerplants to be destroyed, why would they try and rescue them? This is never explained, neither is the fact that Hades could beat the ass of two operatives in power armor, so I will just go ahead and tell you that the tapes were forged, fakes. They were meant to smear the reputation of atlas, blame them for the biggest terrorist attack in history, and take them down. I mean, doesn't it seem strange that cormack(leader of sentinel) was listening to them when the main characters listened to the tape? Almost like they made it, and expected their little lie to make the main characters betray atlas corporation? This isn't that different from reality, governments operated like that since the dawn of their creation, it is a no brainer that if somebody was much more wealthy and powerful than them, if they couldn't control them, they would want them out of the picture. I can give you real life examples of this happening now, but we are not talking about that, we are trying to tie in the story of the games together, so how does this relate to zombies?

Well, like I said, the main cast betrays atlas corp for the "bullshit:" Part of the story. That includes gideon, announcer for the atlas team in multi. He wouldn't be their announcer if he actually sided with sentinel, and sentinel does not come out of the shadows until the betrayal, so fighting them in multi with gideon still sided on atlas side does not make sense. So if we want to connect everything, and we do, then gideon never betrays atlas. This means that the three never see the tape, or dismiss it as a fake(maybe illona doesn't, she did seem like she hated atlas). This means that manticore strikes are happening, irons declares war on the US, new baghdad is invaded, but gideon is still fighting for atlas, and so is mitchells. Irons is most likely still alive, as when you lose the match in multi, gideon often says "irons is not going to like this". That will be important in a minute. So in other words, after manhunt, just assume everything else is noncannon, making this the shortest single player in history of cod. Of course, the experience carries over into 3 other modes, so it ain't all bad.


Now, I said that the story ties into survival and zombies. That is true. In survival, ATLAS fights waves of government/sentinel soldiers, like back in MW3. It should be noted that you are fighting for the "bad guys". Unless the game would be trying to tell you something in between the lines(LISTEN TO THE INTEL), you would be fighting for sentinel. After all, in MW3, you dont play as two spetsnaz soldiers, fighting never ending waves of army rangers and SAS. This could be easily explained and handwaved, however, this all changes on the last map, riot. The game starts out normal, however, at round 11, a manticore strike rocks the map. It should be noted that giden specifically states that you belong to ATLAS team, so that erases any doubt of who you fight. When the dust clears, you see zombies rocking the battlefield. After 2 minutes, you escape, and none other than gideon, the same one from singleplayer, welcomes you. He states that "there aren't many of us left", meaning that atlas forces are being eliminated by both government and the zombies from the manticore strikes. Gideon wears atlas standard issue gear before you ask, so this makes the campaign betrayal 100% not cannon. You then see him brought down by a zombie, and presumably eaten. Note that this happens at the end of the story, when new baghdad is invaded, but without the betrayal.

This ties directly into the new zombies map, since the intro mentions the "riot" and how it was brought there. This means that Survival directly continues from the campaign, and the last mission of survival is the intro for zombies. This means that singleplayer is nothing but a intro to zombies and multiplayer battles, a backstory if you will, along with a alternative "what if" take if mitchells was tricked into working for freedom and democracy or some crap.
Nothing is known at early point, other than that gideon is most likely dead, and this all continues from that cutscene from origins. This is how it all ties together. This may sound crazy and especially well build, but that is the beauty of it: You can make your experience as shallow or as deep as you want in COD, that is why casuals and hardcore gamers alike love it. You can just leave the story as a excuse to blow shit up, or you can connect it all and consider your own cannon, but either way, this is the only way this all makes sense. I wouldn't trust the COD wiki as a legit source on the story, unless you are rechecking what is actually in the games. The wiki is run by bronies and many children, I remember seeing how they thought that green run and nuketown took place in 1960s, which doesn't make a sliver of sense unless you haven't played cod in your life or you are mentally retarded, so take that as you will. I am sure that the devs didn't plan for it to end like this, but if you want the story of zombies to be deeper, and the universe of COD in general, you should keep what I said in mind and take that as the official "cannon". There are 3 dev teams who think less about making things connect, and more about making the best experience they can, so it is up to the fans to connect the dots and make sense of it if we ever want to see it all make sense in context of one universe. Again, everyone makes the game and the experience their own, so don't tell me I am "wrong", I put a lot of thought into this, and to me, this IS cannon. I don't care what treyach or activision tells me, unless the next maps directly contradict something here and make me rethink something, this is what actually happened in my book. Like I said, I predicted both how ghosts and AW would be, bewildered, long before they were released(or announced in case of AW), so I would at least remember how this "theory" plays out if not accept it, cause I guarantee you that treyarch will make a "second universe, second cycle" a thing in BO3, if not directly connect it to exo zombies. Plus, it is not like I took that out of my ass, there is a lot of unexplained mysteries around the zombies universe. If you fill in the blanks, like I did, things make a whole lot more sense. Like the nova crawlers, wtf are these things? Well, the boxes they are in on kino and shangrila have the eye of the providence on them which mean they belong to the illuminati. We already established that illuminati either works for, or is directly controlled by, the ancestors, so the ancestors are involved. Either way, the crawlers themselves look like cryptids-human hybrids, which makes sense since cryptids are hinted to be ancient life forms, genetically engineered to be slaves, wardogs, for the ancestors. The endgame if maxis didn't fuck the earth up might have been to take over and turn any remaining humans into nova crawlers. This raises a whole lot more questions, like who group 935 really works for? Were these things here since WW2, or did the illuminati bring them here, out of mind and out of sight, during the cold war? And how on earth did richtofen get the vrill device, which is of unworldly origins? As a matter of fact, what IS vrill? If say, the ancestors made it, and knew how it operated, then you would never have access to it unless they let you. And we established that richtofen not only works for the illuminati, but is a sleeper agent for them.

SO, I guess what I am trying to tell you is, not everything is black and white. You have to look at things 3-dimensionally, and think outside the box if you want to ever get the full picture. You make your own experience, you can take this as cannon or dismiss it,it's your own experience, and you make of it what you want. This isn't a RPG where you know everything, you are told little and left to wonder even more, which leaves even more questions. It's almost like a background to make your own story, and that is why I love zombies, and many other people as well. So what I am saying is, I don't think there will ever be any "cannon" to zombies. What I put on the table connects not only the zombie maps, but also everything else that happened in the universe. It is the closest thing we will ever get to "cannon" in zombies. If you are confused by this, you have to play all the gamemodes I mentioned, accept the fact that all the games(aside AW) take place on one earth, and directly influence one another(WW3 from MW3 left many russian weapons around, so in ghosts, when ammunition and weapons are rare due to no economy, US uses these russian weapons, and that is why you see them in singe, multi, survival and extinction, ect), and look up more info, and of course, put the dots together. Or you could just play the games and not worry about it :P. The choice is yours, but if you want to get your mind blown and make sense out of the story, you want to listen to this. It enriches the experience, trust me. Little things like playing the map like nuketown for the first time and feeling confused, then playing it again after extinction and knowing what is going in can make for a different experience.


/\ Congratulations, if you read all that, you don't have ADHD! In case you are wondering, I am not a troll. Been playing COD since the first game, 2003, and I was always wondering why zombies was so disconnected and made little sense. As I played later games, specifically ghosts, things started hitting me and it all made sense. With zombies season two, I would start thinking outside the box as well, so you can get a bigger picture.

The only thing I am wondering is: Does this cutscene take place during WW2, or 2060s, with the atlas war? Or maybe after the events of exo zombies(after the campaign of AW, remember?), there is some sort of a worldwide infected outbreak? This universe's equivalent to the ancestor war(extinction), actual aliens? Who knows. Maybe we could mention this to the devs(don't spam), maybe they can give us a answer.

UPDATE 7/11/2015:
Looks like the 4 are traveling back to the future or are traveling thru timelines to "secure" a better future. It seems that the ending cutscene in origins might take place all the way at the end of BO3 zombies, since richtofen is a little boy there. Notice the futuristic weapons, that means that sam is still helping them. After origins, the giant map comes next in whatever they do to secure the future we see in AW and the ending cutscene from "Lost little girl" comes at the very end of that. We will find out for real on november, but I called everything that happened in the recent COD games, so I am calling this out now.
What might be the case is that AW universe is OUR universe, but sam needs the 4 to actually travel back to the original timeline to stop richtofen and change the events there. That might mean that AW is actually the original timeline after the 4 from universe 2(origins universe) changed history. I am not sure about that but calling it now when it happens. That also means that origins cutscene after lost little girl DOES take place at the very end of the timeline, right before AW universe comes to fruition. So in other words, all the zombies maps>Mob of the dead>origins>Giant>Rest of the maps>Origins ending cutscene, which births the AW universe and ends the series with exo zombies. Descent ends the zombie saga totally.


UPDATE 8/7/2015
I believe that there are 2 timelines, like in legend of zelda. The time timelines diverge is at the end of black ops 2. The final action determines which timeline this universe leads to. Everything talked about here only happens if you get the "bad" ending by killing menendez and letting Cordis Die cripple the first world. Then, the actions of Extinction and Zombies finish off our universe. Actions of Samantha maxis also redeem humanity, and give us another chance. This leads into the events of BO3 zombies, and later, the fixed universe becomes Advance warfare. However, if you spare menendez, and get the best ending, cordis die never riots. This "good" ending leads to events of Black Ops 3. Zombies never happen in this universe, since The ancestors still sleep. Richtofen is never given the go to, and stays in some sort of dimensional limbo, never activating events of Moon. Therefore, earth never gets destroyed. However, that means that the illuminati(ancestors) is still very much active, and they are trying to take over humanity quietly. Not unlike in our real world("We're being conquered by banks, not tanks").

This is all speculation, but since I doubt that treyarch will confirm this document as cannon bible, unless they pull a bigger plot twist out of their ass, you can consider this latest revision cannon. Will update this if something doesn't click when I play the actual game.