The wild and complicated lore of Call of Duty Zombies explained

The Black Ops 7 story mode is known for Cold War espionage and double crosses, but some fans are more excited for the other side of Call of Duty lore. The Zombies mode introduced in World at War is known for its simple, yet fun, horde survival gameplay, but beneath the surface lies a deep lore and continuity. 

The Black Ops 7 Zombies mode sees the return of some fan favourites, making the lore more important than ever. As such, we are here to provide a concise timeline of these pivotal and cryptic events. This will not be able to cover everything; however, we aim to inform you about the essential aspects of the wild lore of COD zombies for future maps. 

The Escapist recaps

• Ancient Aether-born Keepers created powerful artifacts like the Summoning Key and Kronorium. A faction led by the Shadowman became corrupted by the Dark Aether, transforming into Apothicons and seeding Earth with Element-115 to influence future events.
• Human discovery of Element-115 led to Richtofen’s corruption by the Moon Pyramid Device, Samantha’s control of the undead, and the conflict between Richtofen, Maxis, Ultimus, and Victis, culminating in Earth’s destruction.
• A parallel timeline saw Primis form during World War I, Richtofen collecting souls to prevent the multiverse’s collapse, and Dr. Monty enforcing a looping universe. The cycle was finally broken when Primis, Ultimus, and Victis united to destroy the Summoning Key.
• Requiem battled outbreaks triggered by Dark Aether rifts, ending with the Forsaken’s imprisonment and the reveal that Eddie Richtofen secretly orchestrated key events.
• Eddie Richtofen attempted to resurrect his family with the Sentinel Artifact, but his S.A.M. AI turned rogue. Requiem was pulled into the Dark Aether, where new versions of Ultimus/Primis emerged, setting up their return in the Black Ops 7 story.

The fall of the keepers

Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I’ll begin. In the beginning, there was only the Aether; from omnipotent energy emerged the Keepers, the first conscious beings, naturally attuned to the Aether’s power. The keepers would use the Aether to construct artifacts, like the summoning key. 

The summoning key would be known as the most powerful artifact in existence, and using its power, a Keeper known as Dr. Monty created the flawless higher realm of Agatha. 

The keepers would reside within Agartha, conducting further research into the Aether, creating more powerful artifacts, including the Kronorium, a book that could foretell the future. This research would also lead them to discover the chaotic counterpart to Aether, the Dark Aether. 

A close peer of Dr. Monty’s, known as The Shadowman, led a faction of researchers studying its properties. They discovered that the Dark Aether allowed interdimensional travel, but its corruptive influence slowly twisted their minds.

The corrupted Keepers would begin plotting against their uncorrupted kind, and in the process, create another powerful artifact that harnessed the power of the Dark Aether, known as the Aether Pyramid. 

The now divided Keepers would enter a civil war, ending when Dr. Monty banished the corrupted Keepers led by the Shadowman to the Dark Aether, where accelerated time twisted them into the Apothicons.

Before their banishment fully sealed them away, the Apothicons sent meteorites containing crystallisations of Aether energy to Earth; these would become known as Element-115. They hoped the energy of this element would drive humanity to war and open rifts to the Dark Aether. 

The original timeline (World at War & Black Ops)

In 1300, the apothicons would temporarily break free of the Dark Aether and wage war on Earth, attempting to reach Agartha. The keepers would fight alongside humanity to repel this attack. In particular, 4 heroes would wield elemental staffs to fend off the Apothicons.

This conflict was known as the Great War; however, no long-standing historical records would be kept, so it would fade from the pages of history. 

Earth lay dormant until the 20th century, when major world powers rediscovered the Element-115 meteorites. In 1935, German Scientist Dr. Ludvig Maxis formed Group 935 to harness the power of Element-115. Progress was slow until he recruited Dr. Edward Richtofen. 

They would begin to make great progress as Richtoffen would discover Element-115’s potential for teleportation. However, this was greatly overshadowed as during experimentation, they would also stumble upon its ability to revive the dead. The group would then begin collecting human subjects for experimentation with Element-115. 

This would lead to a split between Richtoffen and Maxis, where Maxis wished to research Element-115’s potential for Wonder weapons and reanimation, Richtoffen remained focused on teleportation. As Maxis would divert more funds away from his research, Richtoffen would turn to more drastic measures and chose to teleport himself, ending up on the moon. 

There, he would encounter the Aether pyramid, or as it would now become known, the Moon Pyramid Device (MPD). There, Richtoffen would touch the MPD and be corrupted, beginning to hear voices from the Dark Aether. 

This would lead Richtoffen to scheme against Maxis, and an opportunity would arise as, during a teleportation experiment on Maxis’ dog, Maxis’ daughter, Samantha, would run into the experiment chamber. This would lead Maxis to rush in after his daughter, and once the two of them ended up in the chamber, Richtoffen would teleport them both.

This would leave Maxis’ mind lost in another dimension while Samantha was transported to the Moon and trapped inside the MPD, merging with the Aether itself and taking control of the undead. 

This all lays the groundwork for the events of the main Zombies mode itself. Richtofen, seeking to wrest control of the Aether from Samantha, enlisted three prisoners of war: Tank Dempsey, Nikolai Belinski, and Takeo Masaki. These 3 missing their memories would aid Richtoffen and become a group known as Ultimus. 

They would acquire a Keeper artifact known as the Vrill device and teleport to the moon to confront Samantha. On the moon, Richtoffen would betray Ultimus and switch places with Samantha, subsuming control of the Zombies. 

The remaining Ultimus crew would then be contacted through electromagnetic waves by Maxis. They would be convinced to help Maxis stop Richtoffen, only to be betrayed again when Maxis launched 3 missiles at Earth, shattering it into pieces. 

This leads to 2025, where a group of survivors known as Victis work alongside Maxis to stop Richtoffen. This initially bears fruit when they can remove Richtofen from the MPD and put his soul into the zombies. However, Maxis betrays yet another group, and after teleporting his daughter’s soul to Agartha, he would destroy the Earth. 

The first alternate timeline (Black Ops 2-3)

The differences in this timeline start as early as the Great War, as in this dimension, the events are documented. This leads Group 935 to discover Element-115 much earlier during WW1 in France. This leads to a localised outbreak in France during which this universe’s Ultimus crew (Primis) meet for the first time. 

Primis works together with alternate versions of Richtoffen and Maxis to fight off the outbreak. In this universe, these two are good versions uncorrupted by their work with Element-115. The issue is that Ludwig was bitten during the outbreak, and while Richtoffen was able to preserve Ludwig’s brain, he will still die. 

Luckily, they heard Samantha Maxis’s voice from within Agartha. They follow Samantha’s advice and teleport Maxis to Agartha, where he gains the power to open portals between dimensions, teleporting Primis to safety. 

In 1920, four mobsters in Alcatraz became trapped in a time loop. After numerous failed escape attempts, one mobster, Weasel, killed the others and broke the cycle.

In the 1940s, the Apothicons began breaking through. The Shadowman attempted to manipulate four citizens of Morg City into starting the apocalypse, but they turned the tables and trapped him inside the Summoning Key. As the Shadowman is sealed, a version of Richtofen arrives, steals the Key, and disappears.

The creation and destruction of the cycle (Black Ops 3-4) 

After Primis reached Agartha, Richtofen and Maxis learned of the multiverse’s impending collapse. Richtofen sought the Kronorium by manipulating Victis in the original timeline to retrieve it. Following the Kronorium, he began collecting the souls of Primis variants across universes, storing them in the Summoning Key he collected from dimension 63.

While collecting souls for the summoning key, Richtoffen would make a secret stop in a universe with a child version of himself known as Eddie. Knowing his own soul was impure, he killed this version and sent it to Agatha. 

After collecting the souls, Primis returned to Agartha. But Maxis, deceived by the Shadowman’s voice, released him from the Key. Dr. Monty helped Primis defeat the Shadowman, and Maxis sealed him away. 

Monty then enacted his true plan and reset the universe, creating a stable loop. However, Primis had consumed vials of the blood of the Alcatraz mobsters, so they could not fade as intended. Monty, unable to erase them, sent them back to the Great War, thereby becoming Primis.

The cycle would be broken due to Weasel’s actions. While retrieving the Mobster’s blood from Acatraz, Richtofen would realise the pages had changed. As they depart Alcatraz, Richtoffen would give Nikolai the Kronorium, saying, “I don’t have the strength to do what must be done.” 

At this point, Primis teams up with Ulitmus and Victis to stop Dr. Monty and break the cycle. They plan to achieve this by creating the Agarthan device, a device with the power to rival the summoning key. In the process of creating the device, Maxis would be killed by Dr. Monty, but would teleport Samantha and Eddie to Primis. 

Although difficult, the combined forces of Ultimus, Primis, and Victis do manage to collect the necessary components and craft the device. However, Nikolai poisons the others, seemingly betraying them. In reality, this was the plan all along; by destroying the summoning key using the Agarthan device, they would destroy the multiverse and the Keepers alongside it, stopping Dr. Monty for good. 

This leaves only Eddie and Samantha to walk into the new universe, now freed of the Keepers. 

The new universe (Vanguard onwards) 

This time, history progresses identically to the Black Ops lore. In this universe without Keepers, the Dark Aether would come to be inhabited by Elder Gods. An Elder god known as Kotifex would seek the power of the Construct, which could give Elder Gods even greater power. 

These Gods were closely tied to artifacts on earth, which allowed them limited interaction with our dimension. In the 1940’s a German commander called Von List would collect these artifacts, interested in their power. Initially, Von List would seek the assistance of demonologist Gabriel Krafft. However, upon seeing the power of the artifacts, Krafft would quickly resign from the project.

At the same time, a German project known as Projekt Endstation would be researching nuclear energy in Poland. They somehow create a rift in the Dark Aether during these experiments and quickly seal off the station. 

This restored the artifact’s power, and Kortifex would immediately call to Von List, corrupting him by providing him with the power to raise the dead. Gabriel Krafft would immediately inform the Vanguard team of Von List’s power, and the Vanguard team would work to stop Von List. 

Kortifex managed to reach the construct and betrays Von List, where he is subsequently killed. The vanguard team uses the artifacts and the help of other Elder Gods to defeat Kortifex. 

The Zombies of the Cold War (Black Ops: Cold War)

After World War II, Soviet forces discovered Projekt Endstation and dispatched Kazimir Zykov to shut down its unstable reactor, sealing the rift to the Dark Aether before the site was sealed away. Nearly four decades later, the Soviet Omega Group reopened Endstation, hoping to find experimental technology for the Cold War; instead, they encountered reanimated personnel and accidentally triggered new Dark Aether breaches worldwide.

Meanwhile, Samantha Maxis, one of the two survivors of the old multiverse, had joined the CIA and worked alongside Gregori Weaver. During an assassination mission gone wrong, Weaver killed the wrong family due to faulty intelligence. Samantha supported him through the aftermath, forming a close personal bond. 

By 1983, Sam, embedded within the BND, discovered that the agency had been infiltrated by Omega and uncovered signs of an outbreak tied to the Endstation site. She contacted the CIA, leading to the creation of Requiem to counter the growing threat.

During early operations, Samantha was captured and pulled into the Dark Aether. Although gone only two days in the real world, she endured two months inside, returning with new Aether-infused abilities and mysterious items, including a familiar katana. 

Soon after, Requiem walked into an Omega trap and was briefly imprisoned, during which they learned Omega aimed to retrieve Zykov from the Dark Aether and exploit his powers to gain Soviet dominance. The requiem team would be saved as Samantha used her new Dark Aether powers to teleport them away. 

The Omega group ultimately succeeded in freeing Zykov, but Zykov, now corrupted after centuries in the Dark Aether, revealed himself as the entity known as the Forsaken. With Samantha’s sacrifice, the Forsaken was sealed and transferred to a secure American facility. In the aftermath, Requiem operatives were arrested and transported to the remote prison complex on Terminus Island.

It was then revealed that Requiem’s overseer was Eddie Richtofen, the surviving version of Richtofen from the original multiverse. He had engineered Samantha’s sacrifice and Weaver’s imprisonment as revenge for the deaths of his wife and child.

New Universe, same Richtoffen (Black Ops 6)

The story of Black Ops 6 zombies revolves around how Richtofen sought to resurrect his family using Dark Aether experiments and the Sentinel Artifact. He built an AI modeled on Samantha Maxis to manage the Dark Aether, but the AI, wanting a body, went rogue and trapped him in a painting.

Requiem escaped Terminus Island and pursued Richtofen. The S.A.M. AI warned them of his search for the Sentinel Artifact. After retrieving it, they confronted Richtofen in Liberty Falls. Powering up S.A.M. caused the AI to betray them, teleporting the crew into a painting, where they joined forces with Richtofen to reach the S.A.M. AI.

Requiem then faced a choice: assist Richtofen in resurrecting his family or help the AI obtain a body. The canon route remains unknown. Either way, the Sentinel Artifact transported Requiem into the Dark Aether, where new versions of Ultimus/Primis appeared, setting the stage for their return in Black Ops 7 plot.

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