Revelations of the Apothicons

[InfestLithium]

This map is full of Apothicon-everything, and rightly so...after all, this is considered the grand finale, the end all to the universe(s). One important detail to this map, however, is the official introduction to the Apothicons that we've only known so little about until now. Thanks to Monty, we have better intel regarding everything we really need to know about them.

 

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Once Element 115 came along, the Apothicons weren't far behind. Have I mentioned them yet? The Apothicons are beings that feed on energy. Wait, that's an oversimplification. Energy is a rather broad term. It may be better to explain it as the spark of life, the purest form of energy that ever existed. Is that better? Hmm not sure.. sounds a bit hippity-dippity new-agey when I said it out loud. Anyway, this energy, the Apothicons feed on it. They conquer and consume dimensions, it's kind of.. their thing. The ball-crushingly bad thing is that their appetite is ferocious, veracious, insatiable even. They're hungry. Very hungry. Bottom line, if you don't sort shit out, they're going to gobble up this universe just like they gobbled up so many others.

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Like the seers and sages of the old world, they could see how the actions of the Apothicons would lead to the destruction of life itself, the keepers have always been here.

 

There is also a quote by Monty himself discussing the indirect origins of the Shadow Man.

 

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Here's the thing: I knew a bloke - and I'm talking way, way back! He was the sweetest, most charming individual you could ever wish to meet. It was funny too, but we used to have such a good ol' laugh together. Honestly, my sides hurt thinking about it.

He was my friend. He was my...best friend.

And then the Apothicons got hold of him.

Since then, he's pretty much acted as their agent, zipping around the galaxy. Wait...I keep changing it, don't I? Which do you prefer - universe, multiverse, omni-fucking-verse? Oh, doesn't really fucking matter, does it?

Eh let's get on with it. Ehm, short version is he's no longer sweet, charming, or funny. He's what brought them here...when he escaped the key.

 

What does this basically boil down to in a nutshell? I'll try to sum it up best I can (and hopefully y'all can add onto it as well so we can get a better understanding of it all).

 

The Apothicons are an ancient, alien race that feed on sources of energy that have the ability to promote the purest forms of life and light. Their hunger for this energy is never satiated, and thus, they consume entire worlds, dimensions, universes, whatever you wish to call it. They assimilate these planes of reality and continue to move on, forever feeding.

 

At some point in our human existence, Element 115 made its way into our universe. It was unintentional and unsure how it happened, but it did. And Group 935, now having it in their possession, utilized it for their own goals and began to rupture the space time continuum. This paved way to the Apothicons entering our universes in due time, with the fracturing of our universe as a result of the conclusion in Black Ops 2 opening the gateway for them. Since then, they relied on the Shadow Man - the harbinger of the apocalypse - to continue opening these gateways for the Apothicons to feed off the dimensions' energy.

 

Now, at some point in time, Monty and the Shadow Man were once great friends, perhaps both already at a status of a god. But the "sweet, charming individual" that Monty considered his best friend was taken away by the Apothicons and turned into a Silver Surfer-esque emissary to unleash havoc on their behalf. This is why Monty feels so bitter towards the Shadow Man...imagine your best friend changed into your worst enemy, with the sole intention of stopping your every move, calling each other out as deceitful and manipulative.

 

Now we can also infer that the influence of the Apothicons ran deeper, and a bit beyond our knowledge prior to Shadows of Evil.

 

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You do know Richtofen is a friend of mine..? Now, I say friend, but really he's so much more than that. At one point, I almost considered him my apprentice. I mean, he did stab my reporter friend, and steal the summoning key...but at one point he did everything I told him to. I keep hoping he will remember the promise he made to me, so long ago. - Shadow Man, Revelations

 

It appears that the turnaround for Richtofen choosing to rectify the damage done happened starting at Shadows of Evil, or somewhere within the vicinity (as we see the stabbed reporter in-game was already committed). Oddly enough, we were also told that Richtofen had went on a solo mission under the orders of Maxis while the other characters were busy killing off Richtofens in different universes on an unknown plan. Ergo, does this mean that Richtofen's promise to the Shadow Man runs deep, long back when he was within the MPD...? And if so, could that mean that Apothicon influence was present during the Black Ops era?

[anonymous]

Gordo Krovi ciphers about the origins of the Apothicans:

Spoiler

"IN THE BEGINNING, THERE WERE ONLY THE
KEEPERS. BUT THEN CORRUPTION OF THE DARK
AETHER LEACHED ITS WAY INTO THE REALM
AND TWISTED THE MINDS OF SOME OF THE KEEPERS.
THESE KEEPERS TURNED TO SHADOWS
OF THEIR FORMER SELVES AND EVENTUALLY
BECAME THE APOTHICONS "

"Kronorium Excerpt 654371979 Once the great war ended with the defeat of the Apothicons, the Keepers ascended to become the wards of all universes. The surviving Apothicons were cast out, banished to the dark Aether beneath creation. After eons of exile in the dark Aether, the Apothicons evolved into twisted creatures that now bear little resemblance to their keeper brethren. The Apothicons ceaseless desire is to reenter creation to consume and corrupt all the universes. It is the Keepers that guard against these perpetual attempts to reenter creation, and guard against any beings that may have fallen under the influence of the Apothicons"

The Apothicans once were the same as Keepers. What I think, and I know some others think that as well, is that the Keepers are the Vrill Ya. They both live in Agartha/Aether. They are both highly technological developed (MPD, antigravity devices, golden rod). There are old Indian myths about a great war, very long ago, between two alien races, using pyramids as weapons. Sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it? That might be the great war between the Keepers and corrupted Keepers, later the Apothicans.

Now about The Shadowman and Monty's origins. There is a theory about Shadowman being Gary (American) and Monty being Brock (British). When they found Agaryha, they became the masters of it. Personally I don't know what to think of that, it seems very untrue, but at the same time its an attractive theory. It has, however, some points why it has to be impossible.

What you say in the end, I really like. About Richthofen having contact with the Apothicans in the MPD. I think that could be very true. Richthofen first was a normal scientist, but once he touched the MPD, he came in contact with the aether, heared voices and became the crazy sadistic guy as we know him later. It might be the Apithicans who were behind this. This should be discussed more

[MysteryMachineX]

I think the Shadowman's quote about Richtofen being his apprentice is a direct reference to Richtofen touching the MPD and hearing voices. I think the Shadowman is claiming responsibility for manipulating evil Richtofen's actions.

[Monopoly Mac]

15 minutes ago, MysteryMachineX said:

I think the Shadowman's quote about Richtofen being his apprentice is a direct reference to Richtofen touching the MPD and hearing voices. I think the Shadowman is claiming responsibility for manipulating evil Richtofen's actions.

The thing is that he says that Richtofen stabbed the reporter and stole the summoning key. 

[MysteryMachineX]

1 hour ago, Monopoly Mac said:

The thing is that he says that Richtofen stabbed the reporter and stole the summoning key. 

Yes? We know he stabbed the Reporter from the cipher in Der Eisendrache. That's why the truck was abandoned when we see it. And we know he stole the Summoning Key at the end of Shadows of Evil. The Shadowman is a liar, but we know this information to be true already from other sources.

[Monopoly Mac]

34 minutes ago, MysteryMachineX said:

Yes? We know he stabbed the Reporter from the cipher in Der Eisendrache. That's why the truck was abandoned when we see it. And we know he stole the Summoning Key at the end of Shadows of Evil. The Shadowman is a liar, but we know this information to be true already from other sources.

But he says these things right after he talks about Richtofen being his apprentice. So he's talking about the same Richtofen. 

[MysteryMachineX]

I wouldn't bet on that. You can look throughout Monty's quotes about the main character's pasts, and you can identify a great many moments when he jumps back and forth between alt-universe-versions. I'm not surprised to see Shadowman doing the same. "Dempsey had the world record for one-arm push-ups, even in the world where everyone had only one!" "Takeo's suffering at Division 9..." "Dempsey died... on at least 18 million instances".

 

We have the word of a known liar saying a character we know to exist in many alternate universes, referencing things that we already know happened to which versions and you think the Shadowman must be correctly referring to the same universe version of the character simply because he makes one comment about one event following the other? That seems incredibly unlikely to me. Especially because it supposes Origins Richtofen is evil, when we have been given mounting evidence to the contrary. Shadowman is a total liar. If he happens to say something that is already known, then fine. But when he lies, it's a lie. Turns out Monty isn't the devil. And Richtofen isn't evil. At least. THIS one.

[Slade]

Richtofen made a secret promise to The Shadow Man long ago that during the events of Revelations, he hasn't fulfilled yet.

At the end of the easter egg, we help Monty close off all the other universes and essentially start over with a clean slate in a new brave world. Apothicons gone, Shadow Man gone, zombies gone. Our characters soon to follow the same fate. Fade away never to be heard from again.

At least, that's what would've happened had we not collected those infamous blood vials. Monty explains they're from the realities (universes dimensions whatever) we've just closed off. That they shouldn't have been brought into his perfect world because their existence puts said world at risk.

What I'm thinking is that by using the blood you somehow create a backdoor into the other, closed off universe(s) where said blood originated from. A tear - or rift - if you will. That would allow our characters to still be around even if Monty wiped them from existence. But maybe, unbeknowst to even our characters, this action can also work in the favor of other forces from those universes. Like the apothicons.

Imagine creating a backup of your old stuff on a separate harddrive, then updating your PC's OS, and putting all the stuff back on your newly updated PC. Later finding out you also copied malicious software your anti-virus didn't pick up on.

[AetherialVoices]

Thanks to Revelations, we have gotten a clear timeline of events with the "brackets". I am currently working on a full post about this, but here is a quick outline of the timeline:

Spoiler

*Primis fights in a "Great Battle"

*Group 935 starts using teleporters for time travel (unintentionally), rupturing the timeline and splitting it.

*Events of Origins take place, allowing the Apothicons to invade, and forcing Monty to "step in".

*Events of W@W-BO2 take place.

*Events of BO3 take place.

*Monty sends the Origins characters back to the Great Battle, now knowing that they are Primis.

 

[RadZakpak]

57 minutes ago, AetherialVoices said:

Thanks to Revelations, we have gotten a clear timeline of events with the "brackets". I am currently working on a full post about this, but here is a quick outline of the timeline:

  Hide contents

*Primis fights in a "Great Battle"

*Group 935 starts using teleporters for time travel (unintentionally), rupturing the timeline and splitting it.

*Events of Origins take place, allowing the Apothicons to invade, and forcing Monty to "step in".

*Events of W@W-BO2 take place.

*Events of BO3 take place.

*Monty sends the Origins characters back to the Great Battle, now knowing that they are Primis.

 

This brings up an interesting thought, that maybe the Tunguska Event was no accident at all. With what we saw in the Revelations Intro, the Apothicons were very intentionally sending 115 rocks through time and space to different universes, because that's how they get their minions, the zombies. So if the Great Battle took place before the Tunguska Event, then perhaps the Apothicons found a way to send the meteor that caused the Tunguska Event into the WaW universe, setting off the creation of the teleporter and zombies in that world, which would fracture the timeline, which then caused Origins, and so on and so forth. Only thing I questions is how they managed to send it when they were banished at this point.

Also, different thought, I wish Revelations also cleared up the existence of the Vril-Ya, and answered if they are meant to be the Keepers, kind of like how they cleared up the Aether/Argatha/Agartha argument.

[AetherialVoices]

13 minutes ago, RadZakpak said:

 Only thing I questions is how they managed to send it when they were banished at this point.

Also, different thought, I wish Revelations also cleared up the existence of the Vril-Ya, and answered if they are meant to be the Keepers, kind of like how they cleared up the Aether/Argatha/Agartha argument.

115 was first introduced to the universe pre-Great Battle. Over time, it seems to erode and loose its shape and coloring, becoming the 115 that we saw in the older games. The 115 was already there, just waiting to be discovered.

 

And as for the Vril-ya, they did clarify it. Just not in a very straightforward way. In Der Eisendrache, we use the Vril Generator/Golden Rod to summon an incorporeal Keeper. In a cipher in Gorod Krovi, it is stated that the Keepers created (or at the very least placed) the M.P.D.(s) in the universes. It was a well known fact that the M.P.D. was created by the "Vril", so there is the clarification.