Korima

Interesting... It's hard to say for sure, as I can see the woman when i just look at the head, but when I look at the clothing, I see Big Guy. It's definitely a White/gold dress scenario. If it is the Big Guy, it would do one of two things. One, solidify that the universes are melding together and the Big Guy of Buried somehow ended up encountering the Wolf King in this universe's past (Much like Icarus following Richtofen's "jumps" through SoE and T.G.). OR He just pulled a Pokemon X and Y and survived so long that he just grew big. lol

A raven huh? That matches us up with 4 of the Prestige icons now. Ghostly Wolf, Cthulu-like Squid, An Iron-colored Dragon, and now the Red-eyed Raven. Interesting...

Aye, I see your point, but have to debate a bit. I agree that we can't take straight from the page of Lovecraft's works, but we can refer back to them to understand the CoDz's universes versions of his creatures. In particular, we already know SoE has a very close tie to Lovecraft's works, but takes it's own liberties (Insanity Elementals, Margwa, Apothicon, etc...). However, the way the plot is going, and if Nightmares is anything to compare by, there has to be a Greater Evil of some sort of lore. Now unless Treyarch wants to make a completely new evil being for the SoE universe, we can assume it's going to follow Lovecraft lore. Therefore, it's safe to say that The Shadow Man, with his tentacle form being pretty obvious, as well has his normal form and motives following that from a specific work that 3arc could have taken creative liberty with (Specifically "The Dreams in the Witch House"). That also explains their particular reason to add in the Parasites (as you stated, based off the Mi-Go) per creative liberty from the work of "The Whisperer in the Darkness". We could even go as far as bringing in the completely different EE song into play. Nyarlathotep is known as the one who plays the flute. If we take the song as coming from The Shadow Man, the way it brings back the jazzy feel and particularly the solo portion as his modern-version of playing a "flute"-like instrument. Another reason everyone is inferring Nyarlathotep=Shadow Man is due to the lore used in the other universes of the zombies story so far, which seem to link to mythologies in a similar fashion. Nightmares and (possibly) MotD using Greek for Deimos, Dolos, and Hades. The main having hints and clues to possible Aztec ties, even referring to Mictlantecuhtli directly in one of the loading screens. There's possibly more in there that I'm not aware of or missed/forgot in some way, but it's a strong enough case. If I missed anything however, please let me know.

That was a theory of mine as well. It was either that, with Cthulu's influence, or Azathoth since The Shadow Man is clearly Nyarlathotep and it's right hand tentacle man.

Edit: figured I'd throw in that I haven't played Eisendrache yet due to steam. If the Keepers from Shadows appear, then it could simply be them following Richtofen to get the summoning key back. The way I see it with this multiverse thing going on... The Keepers exist in each in different forms. Vril-ya could be the form they exist in the Origins universes, hence their strange appearance in The Crazy Place. In Shadows, they took on a more Lovecraft-friendly appearance. Their goals seem to be preventing The Gateway from being opened. The Gateway in shadows was the Pack-a-punch. In Nightmares, it was something Dr. Salim did. In Moon, it was the MPD. It's whatever has a direct link to the aetherical realm of each universe, whether it be called Aether, Agartha, or Malum. the reason being every time a Gateway is opened, a Great Evil is unleashed. Deimos, Azathoth/Cthulu, even Hades (if you count MotD keeping Nightmare's Greek God influence and its references to Cerebus). We were never introduced to what this "Great Evil" is in the original WaW/BlOps universe because maxis intervened. (Personally I think it's the maxis from Giant radios who did it, but that's another story.) If I remember correctly, the Nuketown zombies had an Aztec God on a candy bar on the loading screen or something, but I'd have to look back and see. What's really concerning is if the Nightmares ending is foreshadowing, we could see quite a showdown coming up in the future.

Judging from SoE's theme there will likely be a malukah song hidden in there, as well as a guest song from another artist (a la mob of dead). The Giant... I hope it's either a new song or another rendition of Beauty of Annihilation, but it's gotta be either Elena or all three.

This is great! I personally am a fan of Lovecraftian works, but never went too far into the mythology as I should have.

This is lovely! Great work!!! I'd love to see the other maps if you ever do! =D

MotD takes place around 1933, while as Origins takes place during 1918 or so. This complicates things a bit, unless Dempsey and the others retained some of their memories from before this new cycle. That helps with the confused Richtofen case, but seems to make it difficult as to how much knowledge they know. Actually, thinking about it a bit, it may help this theory a bit. If, for instance, when they went to the aether, they didnt meet with sam. They had this knowledge prior to meeting Sam, but much like when they were brainwashed (A la Call of the Dead radios) the memories come back little by little, except Richtofen. Why though? Perhaps because he actually was in the aether at the time, or is in the aether at the same time? Or is the Richtofen in the aether a different Richtofen, but because there's multiple richtofens in the same timeline, he shares some of the knowledge with each other because they are technically the same person. If that's the case, when Origins Richtofen is sent back, he didnt HAVE to meet with Original Richtofen, since they are in the same timeline and share knowledge. Hivemind in a way. This actually makes my head hurt a bit more now, lol. -Korima

I actually do see your point regarding the censorship on this end, however the missing 935 and Z-A on the Group 935 logos are still relevant to the ripple effect. I actually didn't take into account the fact they hyped it up so much prior to release to such a large audience that they'd have to censor it due to the massive audience compared to years ago. The only reason I state the moon base was not constructed due to the lack of red markings on the moon we've seen in the previous two incarnations of Der Riese, meanings it's definitely not there, or at least on the scale we see in Moon. Perhaps, because Original Richtofen definitely interacted or knew Origins Richtofen was there to kill him (Hence the lack of pistol, reaction to the zombies, and the way he lowered his hat as though expecting to be killed), whatever it was that informed Original richtofen what was going to happen was well before the MTD was created. Or perhaps Origins Richtofen appeared during the first tests of the MTD to set this new plan in motion. That could be why 3arc specifically put a radio regarding the walnut transportation rather than just giving us background regarding Schuster/Groph/Richtofen relation. Also going off this, I'm thinking the blue eyes was due to Samantha and Eddie both "Playing" zombies together. Sam technically has the main "control", so the main zombies we see have yellow eyes, while as Eddie is more of a side character during this "playthrough" so the minor zombies have the blue eyes. As for zombie's original eye color, I'd like to say red, but that's a topic up for debate due to the lack of evidence. Only reason I believe red is due to MotD's eye color, however it's unknown if that's an incarnation/version of Shadow Man controlling them, or if it's Brutus. But thank you both for the responses! I really hope when the maps drop we'll have some answers, but I live for this kind of brainstorming together! =D -Korima

Okay, so i had a theory, and it's not a really well thought out one, but here we go... Before the Samantha/Maxis/Richtofen shenanigans, the dead remained at peace. No zombies, but definitely some sort of afterlife sort of thing going on. Perhaps there is a hell-like dimension in this universe. If so, perhaps this dimension is the Aether. Therefore, whomever is in control controls the dead. So... in this case we know whoever was in control before Samantha was letting the dead rest per se in the real world. Now the events we know and love happen. Whomever is in control basically gets kicked out of the way for these 3 struggling for control of the aether (sam, maxis, richtofen). Perhaps this original owner would like his throne back? Enter the events of Mob of The Dead. He takes four "bad" people and interferes with them in the past. They are stuck in an endless cycle of revenge. He intervenes and discovers he can break the cycle, changing the past. Weasel is free from the cycle, and I'd like to assume he made the comic of what happened there, thus Group 935 attempting to create such weaponry with the look of the comics they read. This.. Entity realizes he can manipulate them into doing what he wants, So he plans to "assemble" a team to change the events of the past. Assuming we get 4 dlc, that leaves 2 more for new characters, and 2 for the finale. If we get multiple zombie maps, it'll probably be following The Giant's timeline and MotD and SoE timeline. The Shadow Man wants his throne back, and Samantha (Now in control after the reset again) is attempting to stop him as well as Richtofen's plan (or perhaps Richtofen is now working with her to stop him in general), hence the yellow eyes and his own appearance as a "Character", not the announcer. The creatures we see could be the remnants of the Vril (especially since we know someone or something had to create the MPD, and Vril are mentioned multiple times in the other maps). I'm wondering if their "Blood" that spews out will change colors based on the zombies eyes, just due to it being yellow with Sam in control. Not the most solid theory, but just an idea. XD -Korima EDIT: I forgot my other main point! lol. The hidden easter eggs not found are likely small ones like the brick in Der Riese or the book in Shi No Numa that hint toward future events, but are so small that they are super hard to find. I have a feeling they're likely in tranzit just due to so many unused lines by Aether-richtofen, or even in Black Ops 1 due to all the "Sighs" and comments when on Der Riese interacting with the Tac-boards, red goo, or seemingly random objects throughout the map that probably trigger a single line of dialogue or something silly.

Lovely theory! Never thought of it from the point Samantha was the one that created/went to the Origin's timeline. It would also explain why Richtofen looks so confused at the end of the intro cutscene. That sort of "Wait, what... DANG IT!!!" look

True, the ripple effect can be huge, but to entirely remove Griffin Station? That would be a bit extreme, and change Richtofen's motivation to eliminate Samantha and Maxis at that time. At this point in the story, Griffin Station is already at the peak of its success. Actually, Griffin seems to be where everything fell apart. Groph didn't apprehend Sam, Maxis was sent to the Aether with control over machines by being killed and sucked into the MPD like the zombie souls, and it's where the missiles that struck earth were stored that caused the paradox or "The Rift" to be formed. The MPD room had oxygen, judging by the radio of Richtofen accidentally teleporting to it prior, presumably without space gear due to the clarity of his voice in the recordings. EDIT: correction, it was Groph, not Schuster. But realistically it was both of them who failed to apprehend her.

Knowing Treyarch, it wouldn't be something so simple. He has an Iron cross on him, and uniform is still that of German Officer attire, but with all the time travel, I have a feeling they changed the course of history, hence the lack of Dots on the moon (moon base), 935 or Z-A in the Group 935 logos, and lack of swastikas or eagles on the teleporter. Ripple effect.

Hello! So, with the teaser of The Giant, i figured it was time for me to step out of the shadows again since my activity with the Call of The Dead Easter Egg. So, after replaying the trailer multiple times, and completing origins multiple times, I couldn't help but post my friend and I's findings and theories. First, regarding The Giant trailer, there's quite a particular topic up for debate right now: Lack of the swastikas on Richtofen and the Teleporters. Personally, we don't believe this was just because it was a world release. Why? If you look at the previous World Release trailers for Der Riese and Kino, they didn't censor them until the region specific trailers released. Now, why would they just suddenly decide to alter it in such a noticeable way? Lets take a step back a bit in the trailer; The Group 935 logo. There's no 935 in any of the logos. Note, the trailer takes place in Teleporter Z-A of Der Riese. Well, they zoom in on the logo on the wall, which is also missing the "Z-A" in the center of the logo. Now, if they simply wanted to censor the swastika, why would they remove these as well? Now, lets take a look at the clock. On Der Riese, the clock was frozen at 1:15 around the 40-35 second mark. On this trailer, the clock is frozen at 1:15, but exactly at 1:15:00. Meaning that while this is repeating events of the past, as we know this is also altering/taking place in a different path of the timeline we know with slight discrepancies. Finally, before going to the main theory, lets look at when Origins Richtofen is revealed in the trailer. The Origins 3 know what's in the Teleporter. They know about Origins Richtofen being in there, and what he's planning. Note that Old Richtofen has no gun in his holster; no weapons on him. He also has a strange gold medallion on him thats not there in the previous versions we've seen of him. He purposely opens the teleporter, revealing Origins him, as a large smile appears on his face. Now the kicker: He puts his hat to his chest, and fails to react at all as Origins Richtofen kills him. Why? He Knew Origins him was there to kill him. Okay, let's get to our main theory now. Lets take a look at Origins first. There were two versions of the intro Cinematic. One with what we assumed to be demonic Samantha voice, and one with regular Samantha voice. I believe these two trailers are the key points to why Origins exists in the first place. During the events of Moon, Richtofen and Sam swap bodies. This is the only time Maxis, Sam, and Richtofen are in the aether together. Maxis was already aware of Richtofen's treachery, and enacts his counter plan. He basically sparks the events of Origins at that point. He has Samantha basically play out a scenario from the Aether (Which is everywhere, anywhere, anytime at once). In this scenario, Wibbly Wobbly timey wimey shenanigans are involved. We hear the Saman-tofen voice, which explains whats going on to the Original 3 characters, who are technically "Becoming" the Origins 3. Then we see the regular cutscene, which happens when Sam is the only one in the Aether due to the events of Origins actually happening, thus Maxis is trapped in the drone, and Richtofen is back in his normal body in a kind of two-places-at-once sort of ordeal. I'll discuss a bit of this later on though. Skip forward to Origins ending. The siren at the end of the cutscene; We hear that in one place... Nuketown. Right before a projectile (In the case we frequently hear it, the perk-a-colas) hits. The only time we have to infer it happening is when the missile at the end is about to hit. So... Richtofen and Samantha switch. Origins is in place. By the time Origins happens, the rest of the Moon easter egg is finish. Maxis is about to nuke the earth, destroying the future and creating a paradox, so he tells them to go to the basement. Then the sirens, and the nuke hits. Let's take a look at the seemingly pointless events of the New 4. As we see, there's two different endings. Both seem to make the events that we see in Origins and The Giant impossible. There's a reason for this: Both endings are canon. They take place separate from Origins and The Giant. This takes place directly after Moon, after Maxis' plans are made. Maxis sparks this sort of 'feud' with Richtofen, knowing that either way The Rift will be mended, in order to distract Richtofen from his real plans. Unfortunately it didn't seem to work, or it may have, but it's hard to say with just The Giant releasing. Now, back to Origins ending and Maxis' counterplan. We see the Origins 4 rising up into the Aether, despite Eddie's Blue eyed zombies attempting to stop them. They enter the Aether, and Samantha/Maxis catch Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai up to speed. They send them back to stop any of the events from happening. Richtofen, also in the aether, enacts his... Counter counter plan? (Unsure of the correct terminology for it) How Origins Richtofen knows what to do? That'll be later... Anyways, Origins Richtofen gets sent back further than the other 3. He meets up with Original Richtofen, and this is the only point I can't be sure of. How far back did he go? He definitely prevented the construction of Moon Base Griffin, as seen from the lack of dots on the moon during the trailer, since it was the main failure of his initial plan (Killing maxis too close to the MPD while it was opening, thus his soul being sucked into the aether and being able to communicate and control computers/electronics) Anyways, Origins Richtofen lays await at the MPD for Original Richtofen to teleport Maxis and Sam. We've seen in the Moon Radios the MPD had oxygen around it and had the ability to be teleported to without Griffin station being made. Likely Original Richtofen sent him there using the Teleporter, knowing now that Maxis and Sam would be teleported there, and somehow Sam would be able to enter the MPD. So, he lays awaiting Maxis to kill him before he could approach the MPD and have his soul sucked into the Aether, therefore leaving his only threat as Samantha, which he knows how to fix. Likely, that new Amulet that Original Richtofen has on is the Golden Rod/Focusing stone merged into a more portable and less... Noticeable form. Back to The Giant Trailer. The Origins 4 know Richtofen will be waiting in the Teleporter. Origins Richtofen kills Original Richtofen to look like he's still on their side by stopping the events from happening, but he retrieves the amulet from the corpse and replies to Nikolai's comment: "Only a fool changes the course of History." "I am no fool. What I do is for a better tomorrow." Origins Richtofen knows what he's doing, and knows how to stop Maxis' plan. The real question is, how many times has this happened? If this is a cycle, could it be the previous map remakes with modern weapons are previous attempts at this cycle happening, with minor changes to history? Could it be that this cycle changed so much that it erased the Nazi's involvement with Group 935; to the point they are no longer known as Group 935. Could this be the Group 601 picture they teased us with prior? Or was Group 601 (Which, unless it was a hoax appeared in the game files for an unused loading screen for the original Der Riese) the very first cycle of Der Riese (World at War, or even prior to our experience in World at War)? Or could they have dropped the 935 and simply became their true front, which, taking credit from AlphaSnake's Post, become simply known as The 87? Better yet, could Maxis' creation/interference in Origins in WW1 cause a ripple effect across history, potentially stopping WWII from happening, or changing the enemies through it? Time travel can be trickey (as many Whovians or Bioshock fans will know). Another thing we can relate to the Cycle point is, (and a point I can't seem to fit into this theory, but I'm sure we can relate it with modification somewhere) is back to the intro of Origins. At the end of the cutscene of Origin's intro, Richtofen seems to be very disconcerted and confused, looking at his hands strangely, like he's realizing they're there and looking around. He also seems to know who Samantha is before the others. Reason for this, if Samantha and Maxis basically hit the reset button, or changed the events of the past (Thus affecting WWI, hence the robots and steampunk-esque items), Richtofen could have been "Thrown" from the aether back into his own body, much like Maxis returns to his spot within the regular realm, but still retaining his machine form.... just in a different sense. It's very much a bioshock-style theory: There's always a Richtofen. Always a Maxis with machines. Always a Samantha. But circumstances can be different. I can't seem to fit this in, simply because it means Aether Richtofen is the Origins Richtofen, but leaves a plothole as to who Eddie is (Unless it's yet ANOTHER Richtofen) and the blue-eyed zombies in Origins. As always, please be as brutal as possible to deconstruct this or point out what I may have missed/needs improvement. I feel like we're close to something, but there's too many holes for this to be completely on point. I'll edit the post later if anything changes or improves. -Korima 1st EDIT 7/18/15: So... I can't believe we missed this. There's a part in the trailer where Dempsey says "DAMN IT Richtofen, We've been over this!" which means that more than likely they've done this before. This does definitely support the Cycle theory, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Der Riese series. If the remake ones in Black Ops were the 2nd cycle, they probably tried to stop it, but events continued as we know, thus the "We've been over this!" quote. 2nd EDIT 7/18/15: Thanks to NaBrZHunter There's a few things clarified and a modification to this theory. While the whole "Time ripple, no nazi" idea is great, it's too much of a jump. Too much of a ripple effect. Taking his post into mind, it is likely a form of censorship as the trailers I mentioned before were when zombies were just releasing and picking up on the hype potential. Now that it's literally a hype train, and the audience is far larger than ever before, thus catering to the many rather the few, which is understandably so.