ETEl2NAL407

This is an interesting theory because I do suspect Samantha to have more power than we originally thought and her being the Anti-Christ fits to explain that thought. As much as I dislike the religious implications (first seen in MotD) surrounding the direction Treyarch is taking this story, I have to acquiesce that it is entirely possible. I would think the latter circumstance because Maxis maintains that Richtofen killed his daughter throughout BO:2. Of course that could just be a charade...Maybe Richtofen is the only one that can stop Samantha and Maxis and is the anti-hero of our story. A vile, homosexual, known for all manner of perversion that ends up saving the world from eternal damnation. Ah, the irony. :mrgreen:

I think the massive pump-like structure are a way to fill the cavernous underground temple with some weaponized gas. Notice the soldiers are all wearing gas masks when they first break through the wall. I'm thinking, 935 set up at this site, perhaps using the church as a base, and began to excavate. The gas and soldiers mean they may have suspected to meet hostility and instead of having a scientist meticulously excavate, they sent in force to just ram through, after hoping to incapacitate danger with a weaponized gas. The meteor/rock looks to be above ground since it's surrounded by foliage and looks to be in water. So, what I can't deduce is whether the meteor came prior to 935 arriving. Since the meteor and the monolithic structures seem to share that blue energy, it would make sense they were connected somehow, but were these monoliths constructed by 935 or unearthed by 935 and the meteor's appearance powered them on, so to speak? I'm thinking the latter. What was just a fact-finding excavation may have turned to a battlefield after the meteor arrived and existing structures began to show signs of life. This may have alarmed 935 into bringing in force to continue the excavation. Just like the film, 'Independence Day' when the President first arrives at Area 51 and the lead scientist tells him "the last 24 hours have been really exciting for us." because the recovered spacecraft they couldn't figure out was suddenly working again after the appearance of the mother ships. Perhaps this meteor is a sentient being of its own and a similar event is ocurring. Still don't have an adequate way to explain that Robot...

Just so kinda put the Teutonic/Templar debate to bed...Any knight could have became a Templar during the crusades. All being a Templar meant was that you, and/or your entire unit, were fighting for the Catholic church and by such were automatically blessed by God through papal power. Teutonic knights could have been on a crusade, same as a French knight. In the film, 'Kingdom of Heaven' Liam Nesson portrays a Templar and his unit consists of multiple knights from various nations. The unifying thing is that they're fighting a religious war. The crusades, in a nutshell, were a call to war by the Catholic church. As the Bible circulated through Europe, European citizens demanded that the "Promised Land", aka Israel (namely Jerusalem) was being controlled by Christians and not the Islamic people of the middle east. Thus, the church, having created this monster by preaching the Bible to their followers, started a war and threatened kings of Europe with excommunication if they did not charge certain knights with the journey to Jerusalem to join the struggle for power. Not all knights would have worn the white cloak with a red cross, perhaps there weren;t enough available to go around, maybe certain knights had spent so much coin on their current garb, they could not afford to spend more on new garments. Them being on a crusade and fighting for Heaven, leads me to believe they were able to resist this evil of the zombies, hence the purple eyes. I think they acquired other traits of the Infection, like long life and super strength, but still had the will to fight the evil zombies...That is, until soldiers of the Reich uncovered them in this Temple and a new fight broke out. Why do we stop seeing Templars after that initial scene in the cinematic? Because they infected the soldiers and were all slaughtered. This is why the next scene after the templars fighting is a mass of zombie soldiers running from the Temple.

Lots of great discussion about the O4's past...Thanks to everyone. I am more interested in the revelation from Samantha. She states that 2 germans, Maxis and Richtofen, were seeking "dark and mysterious forces". Maxis is nowhere to be seen in this cinematic, but he is mentioned in Richtofen's first letter as "the doctor". I am assuming that this was an archaelogical dig that Maxis and Richtofen were working at, seeking their dark and mysterious forces. Either they were using the war as a front, or just couldn't avoid it and their site became a battlefield. Normally, I wouldn't expect soldiers to be doing any archaelogical digging, as archaeologists usually need to be sensitive in what they uncover. In the cinematic, however, there seems to be a haste in the work, hence we see a soldier using the butt of his rifle to smash through a wall marked with some ancient symbols/writing. This could represent the greed that Maxis and Richtofen had in finding these forces. They were not trying to piece together these ruins stone by stone and make sense of it...They knew there was something here and sought it with reckless abandon. Therein lies the moral of our story: "Careful what you wish for." I think this is why we see the shocked look on Richtofen's face. They dug too fast and too deep and unearthed an ancient evil. Much like the dwarves of LotR at the mines of Moria. Instead of some shadowy singular demon, they seemingly unleashed a curse or a plague of zombies. We can deduce from the cinematic that zombies infect their victims, as the first ones found by the soldiers are the Templar knights, but as the soldiers are attacked, we then see soldiers as zombies. I'm thinking (and this is only a theory) the purple eyes are because of the Templar's faith. I am not a religious person, myself, but if we are going to say that the red eyes of the MotD zombies indicate control by Lucifer, we should also say that the opposite of Lucifer exists...God, Jesus, the Holy Trinity, whatever. A Templar knight would have been ordained by the Catholic church to fight for Heaven in God's name, thus they are blessed in a way. I believe the crusaders were the first to uncover the ancient evil of the zombies, but by their divine endowment, they were able to resist...to a point. The purple eyes indicate their resistance to this evil. I would stick by my initial theories about yellow as the default color, or we should just say yellow means "infected" and that Samantha never tried to alter this color when she became able to control them. I could be horribly wrong in this theory, as the cinematic seems to suggest Samantha has more power than expected. After all, she knows more than we do... "My names's Samantha and I'm going to tell you how all this really began." So, we don't know the whole story yet? Or what we think we know is not correct? The emphasis on "really" implies so much.

I'm thinking this Knight is a gatekeeper of some sort. Like the Templar from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade protecting the Holy Grail deep inside some mountain cave or the Mayan warrior from The Fountain protecting the Tree of Life. He's more than likely protecting an entrance to Agartha, or the seal which contains the zombies. Treyarch said in Origins, we'd be "unearthing an ancient evil". Suppose our O4 meet at this archaelogical site that's become a battlefield. The archaeologists are all long gone since war has erupted, but the explosions from battle, grenades, air strikes, etc.. have indirectly dug deeper into the site and possibly broken this seal that's keeping the zombies from spreading. Unfortunately, this theory would kinda make all the experiments with 115 for purposes of reanimation void, unless we defeat the outbreak at Origins and Richtofen's inquisitive nature leads him to try and replicate zombies synthetically. The part that really intrigues me is the 935 logo on the crate, so long before 935 was supposedly formed...

The box/crate in the background has a logo on it. I tried to zoom in and paint around the markings and just confused myself. There is definitely an open circle (like the power symbol) and inside the top are markings. Due to resolution restraints, I couldn't uncover whether these markings are writing or features. I thought the logo almost looked like snake head and the markings were eyes/eye sockets, but they could just be lettering. Still, I think the logo on that box is a clue. Logo can't really be anything else except a 935 logo that's faded...935 logo stamped on a crate and faded by 1918? How in the hell? As for the purple eyes... What if this knight was placed here in this tomb centuries ago and empowered with Vril-ya strength and longevity. He may have been a Templar, charged with guarding an entrance to Agartha. To make his post stand the test of time, the Vril-ya infused him with Ethereal energy or something. Taking the Vril-ya out of the picture, he could just be guarding the "ancient evil" we're uncovering here. Perhaps zombies were discovered once before, but mankind decided to keep them sealed and this knight is the warden of their prison... Taking from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a Templar was protecting the Holy Grail deep within an isolated mountain cave, in The Fountain there is a Mayan warrior protecting the Tree of Life...It makes sense that this Knight is protecting something, why else would he be dressed in medieval armor during the 1900's? Obviously he's been there a long time on guard.

This is a very convincing argument. I would only speculate that at some point, arriving in 2025+ from the 40's or 10's, or 90's, or 60's, etc.., they did travel forward in time. If so, time travel is possible and it would be foolish to rule it out of the story at any given point. ...However because MMX makes such a good case, I can also speculate that instead of traveling time, our O4 put themselves into a cryogenic slumber (directly referenced technology via the tanks on the stage at Kino), so they aged slowly...They wanted to give the world decades of zombie slaughter, whole generations of humans cleansed of the infection either through saving or damnation at the hands of these elite warriors. Pretty cool, if you think of it like that...

I refuse to believe that. What evidence do you have that Zombies are present on skyscrapers in Die Rise as the nukes hit?

I knew I was good when playing Kino with some randoms, brother and sister on split screen. I admit, their ability to handle boredom was admirable as they began going down every round past 10. I was running the whole map loop (MP40 side only) and took it to about R22 when the hordes started to get pretty thick, 0 downs at this point. The siblings were at first astonished, but as I started to make clutch moves to grab powerups and keep myself interested, i.e. go prone in spawn room and try to kill the train with Dragonuv, then run and grab powerups before continuing, the siblings began to voice their concerns for my well-being. I was being silent on the mic and just snickering to myself at their exclamations. After a few rounds though, they started to get a bit abusive, yelling obscenities and ordering me to go this way or that. I took them to R27 before I decided I'd had enough and came on my mic to let them know how rude they were being, before suiciding by frag. You know you're good when you can control the game in such a way.

If you think I'm trying to offend German people and want to continue mincing words, please do so via PM. I was merely pointing out the existence of a stereotype that was more than likely assigned to our character Richtofen. I honestly don't see why you continue after I've clearly stated I'm not trying to offend or insult anyone, but your persistence is beginning to insult me as you're clearly taking my words out of context.

All sterotypes can be insulting, but they do exist, unfortunately. I am not trying to insult or offend anyone, but as the stereotype of Germans pertains to matters of sexual fetish, the stereotype demands mention to explain Richtofen. The stereotypes also exist in the N4. Stu, the old, paranoid, cynic. Russman, the hobo. Marleton, the nerd. Misty, the girl next door.

These characters are designed from stereotypes and cliches, though. Tank, the rough and tough American Commando. Doesn't really care about Zombies, but he definitely knows his way around guns and warfare. Takeo, the Samurai. Steeped in honor and tradition, yet super deadly. Nikolai, a drunk, mysoginistic, Russian. Vodka, vodka, vodka...'Nuff said. Richtofen, the mad scientist, German/Nazi known for all manner of perversion. All of our characters our their own cliche, so to rule something out because it's stereotypical is incorrect.

Sure, it may take a few days after the initial shock for life to continue. Earthquakes are a possibility, but Asian countries have been dealing with them for centuries. Japanese architecture is known for it's ability to withstand an earthquake. See this article. No government is just going to give up after devastation, regardless if their biggest trading partner is out of commission. They have contingency plans. Immediately, such plans would have been enacted and every effort to make life continue would have been made in countries not directly affected by the blasts. The missiles, though quite a remarkable disaster in history, would not shut down life on the planet. They would make it quite difficult, but not impossible. As I've stated before, the fallout would cause the worst damage, but we don't see evidence of fallout in Die Rise...We only see floating rocks and debris and obvious signs of damage to the buildings. Now, look at the skies in the western hemisphere maps. They're black, cloudy, thick with fog. This is fallout. There's potentially a haze of radiation or dust from the impact of the missiles and it's clouding up the atmosphere. The fact that this is not the case on Die Rise is a clear indication that not much time has elapsed from TranZit to Die Rise, but time has elapsed from Moon...Rocks don't take orbit like that immediatley. So, to me, there is a gap in time from when the missiles hit, to when we actually play as the N4. Long enough time for fallout to occur in the close vicinity of the blasts, long enough for jettisoned rock to find an orbit and move around the planet, but not enough time for the atmosphere to carry the fallout across the globe. This does make sense that one would happen prior to the other. Whereas fallout is a slow process, affected by rain, storms, and the electromagnetic field of the Earth (of which could have been altered, but I really don't want to analyze that: too much work), the orbiting debris is affected mostly by the gravity of the Earth and their initial velocity at the time they're blasted away. So, if 9/11 is a silly comparison...What about the Tsunami in Indonesia? Hurricane Katrina? Pearl Harbor? The Holocaust? Regardless of what disaster you reference, natural or man-made, life proves that it will survive and this includes construction.

I honestly don't think homosexuality is what defines Richtofen. As Shooter said, it's a pointless debate. Instead, I believe he's just a sexual deviant. That goes with the territory of being insane. German culuture is known for having odd fetishes and a very non-traditional viewpoint of sex. If you were insane like Richtofen, loved murder and death, and were isolated with 3 other men for some time, you'd become attracted to Nikolai too. The only problem is there is no in-game evidence to suggest Richtofen has ever had any relations with a woman, therefore, we can only assume he is homosexual based on evidence, but I just think he has no scruples about his sexual partner's gender. He's DTF with a man, woman, animal, or alien.

I've heard it too. It's either the Giant or Misty just being silly. I think it's Misty being silly because I only ever hear when I play as her. Don't think it's a glitch in your sound files, it's meant to be like that. She's making fun of someone or trying to mimic a male voice, I think... It does sound creepy, though.

The vast majority of the global population are in Asia, so if the Western Hemisphere was wiped out, there would still be plenty of people alive to keep technology going. BTW, though nuclear missiles pack a punch ( ), impact on one side of the globe would not cause damage on the other side. The fallout would be the hardest thing for humanity to survive, but fallout can take years to kill. Initially after the rockets hit, only those in the immediate blast radius would be killed, which for nuclear missiles is really not as large as some other bombs, like the hyrdogen bomb. So, plenty of people would have survived the initial blasts...They're not just going to stop their lives because a bunch of people on the other side of the planet died. Did Japan shut down on 9/11? No. If their everyday lives continued, so would all their projects. We don't know when Shanghai would have been subjected to zombie outbreaks, nor do we know when the damage to these skyscrapers would have ocurred, so we can't really say for sure when they would have abandoned projects like the Jin Mao Tower. I'm not saying I'm right and anyone else is wrong. The timeframe of Moon, and BO:2 maps is a big controversy. All I'm doing is illustrating the possibilities and both are equally as possible. There isn't evidence to support one outcome moreso than another and the more you debate my theories, the more I will debate yours. Getting back to the OP...The 1996 sign in Die Rise is not a sufficient piece of evidence to pinpoint timeframes one way or the other.

Broken Arrow. Yes, that's right. We don't know much about them, but we do know they exist and Russman was a member. As far as the chunks of rock staying in orbit, it's all trajectories and velocities. A rocket scientist could mathematically explain it better, but the short answer is yes, they could remain in orbit for well over 40 years. How long has the Moon been in orbit of the Earth? All the Moon is, is a big chunk of rock, that many astronomers think may have actually been a chunk of the Earth at one time that was jettisoned out from a huge meteor strike in the past (possibly the one responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs). I actually think that technology would improve after an apocalypse. With a reduction in global population a lot of energy used to sustain the population wouldn't be needed anymore, so those energies could be used elsewhere. Humans are very good at adapting, this is why we've evolved from climbing trees to evade predators to designing weapons with which to make them our prey. It only makes sense we would adapt just as fiercely to a zombie apocalypse. Why else do we have the N4? Seemingly very average people, yet they're adept at dispatching the Zombies. Seems like they've been dealing with it for a while...Our O4 were just military badasses, but the N4 are like born into it. It's like looking at technology on a generational standpoint. Kids born in the 80's grew up with computers, but not really cell phones and wifi. That generation can operate computers much more efficiently than say a baby boomer, but look at kids born in the 90's or 00's...I was born in the 80's and I never had a laptop when I was a kid. So, you don't have to be a military badass post-apocalypse to slay zombies...It's a regular thing, just as regular as it is to us to operate a computer.

I understand what you're saying. You're saying that if Moon ocurred in the 60's, why would the Jin Mao Tower had been built after the rockets hit Earth? Great point for debate. Thank you for actually coming up with something. Of course, one other in-game piece of evidence is 'The Flesh' and the 'Zombie Center'. Both of these show up in Die Rise. We're only assuming one of the rockets from Moon hit Shanghai to cause the damage we see in Die Rise, but that's not a fact. The sky in Die Rise is littered with chunks of rock, like meteors, but some of them appear to orbit. If a nuclear missle struck the Earth and caused a great enough impact, it's entirely possible some large chunks of rock could be launched into orbit. These rocks would constantly be fighting gravity, eventually some would lose the battle and fall back to Earth like a meteor. It's highly possible (and highly likely) that the Nukes hit the Western Hemisphere and did not devastate Asia, so survivors were not subject to the initial blast, but they would battle surviving radiation and, of course, falling chunks of the Earth after they were jettisoned away from the blasts. So, life and civilization continued. What happened to the US when we dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Did we stop building things? No. The fact that 'The Flesh' exists is proof that survivors adapted to dealing with the Zombies and the orbiting rocks in the sky of Die Rise are proof that chunks of the Earth were blown away from the surface. Whether these falling rocks caused the damage we see in Die Rise is not clear, but it is possible. So, your statement that nothing could be built after the rockets and zombies is not accurate at all. Sure it might be crazy to think and imagine, but how crazy is the formation of a cult that eats zombie flesh? Life goes on, regardless of the circumstances. Furthermore, what is Arrow? Apparently Arrow is some sort of military intelligence or security that Russman was a member of. Is it logical to think that maybe Arrow was developed to combat all the zombies? Russman sure seems like a hardcore slayer based on his quotes... So, there's plenty of evidence to support civilization and society continuing and even adapting after the "apocalypse".

Actually Cossacks were a group of East Slavic people known for their traditional way of living, military skills and were extraordinarily good at horse-riding. During the Tsarist regime of early Russia, the Cossacks were used as defenders of the realm, sentries, and soldiers. They were early Russia's police force, so to speak. They fought in many Russian wars and Napoleon quoted that they were, "the best light troop of all that exist."

Grill is updating the OP (Original Post, i.e. first page, first post) with new letters, etc.. The missing words are "prove fortuitous". Cossack is a slang term for Russian that was originally adopted since it was a term for some Russian police or something...It became adopted much like we hear Germans called Krauts.

I may entertain the notion that TranZit, NTZ, or Buried take place in the 60's because Moon and NTZ happen at the same time and Marleton is clearly at NTZ. Unless Marleton is a time-traveller himself (could be because of his watch and his "brainy" pesonality), I would assume that Moon and NTZ occur at the same time and TranZit shortly after. Die Rise is obviously taking place at a later date than the other maps, but TranZit, Buried, Moon, NTZ, and all other maps besides Die Rise could be taking place within the same decade. There's just not enough evidence to confirm or deny such, but there is plenty in Die Rise, as Pinnaz illustrated. The question is: Why would the N4 need to go into the future for one map and power a tower? It doesn't make sense for all the tower maps to be in different times as they are physically linked. So, Die Rise, TranZit, and Buried must all take place during the same relative times. In conclusion, this means either: A) Moon, NTZ, TranZit, Die Rise, & Buried all take place in the future circa 202X -or- Moon & NTZ ocurr in the 60's and Marleton is a time-traveler. I lean towards B, because I ask myself...What was Marleton building in the NTZ bunker? Why would anyone build a device in a fallout bunker while a Nuke is going off? Maybe he needed some highly radioactive material for his device...He could have a hazmat suit on to have harvested this material, but we don't know because we never see him.

Not much difference, but the first four letters were all dated in 1917 and detailed them leaving for there mission in Northern France, these letters are prove enough that the map has to take place between the latest letter written in 1917 and the end of World War I on November 11, 1918, as after that they would have no reason to investigate a Trench and Giant Metal Men, or that the Kaiser's War Machine was creating weird weapons. my take on it. I agree with Misty, especially since Dempsey says in his letter he plans to be at the site by the end of the week, and he said this on November 19, 1917. The problem with this is that Takeo's most recent letter is dated in 1918...Are we to assume that after "Origins" he writes this letter? If that's the case, that would mean he wasn't captured here and we could also assume Nikolai and Tank weren't either. So then, if they aren't captured after Origins, when did they become captured and have their memory wiped by 935? See what I mean? The flip side to this is that this may not be a letter that Takeo's writing, but it could be a journal. He could still potentially write in a journal while being held captive, but I think he made this journal entry/letter after having been at the site for some time already. He talks about having strange dreams/visions, but if Origins had already ocurred, he'd have stranger things to write about than dreams. So, by the writing of this letter. I am assuming Origins has not yet ocurred.

Looks like the dates of these letters keep moving forward, so perhaps the actual map is going to take place closer to 1920... I'm thinking that from here our O4 teleported away, perhaps not by a device they created, but perhaps something else. Some natural phenomena, perhaps, related to the lightning strikes/electrical disturbances we see in the trailer. This could explain how Richtofen becomes so fascinated with time-travel and teleportation. The question should be: Where are they teleported, if at all? Do they go to where we first meet them at SNN? Do they go to some other yet undisclosed location?

I can understand that, but it's messy. It's like trying to kill a fly with a bazooka. I don't think the story needs to be that convoluted. I'm sure Treyarch can come up with a cleaner explanation that doesn't require a PhD in theoretical physics to understand. JS...

The idea of a random cool-down time in itself I think would be confusing. Players would just be like "Why can't I move?" I think if they were to add effects like dizziness and disorientation, it would be better. But it can only last a few seconds or the players themselves would get dizzy and the Power-Up would be avoided. Yes. Good idea. Perhaps instead of restraining their hands after the power-up, they can use everything as soon as the power-up ends, but the player is now red-screened and their vision is blurred and distorted. Good way to illustrate that the "berserker rage" has taken it's toll. Would still make this power-up a godsend when you're in the high rounds, but if you don't anticipate the pending cool-down and you chase the zombies into a tight corridor, you could be screwed. Few seconds, sure...If the power-up lasts 60 seconds, a 12 second cool-down would be appropriate. Thanks for the input, MMX!