The Weapons of the Ancients: an analysis

[anonymous]

Olla amigo's! Yesterday I saw @Boom115 made the 'Brains'-feedback button reappear, and desperately craving for some (though Spleen tastes, of course, much better), I decided to instantly write a thread about what was in the back of my head ever since a discussion I had with @The Meh and @NaBrZHunter a few weeks back. Quite some stuff included here is a direct explanation by either of them, so props to them! 

 

Another reason for writing this is that I would like to show that, how fantastic and fictional things may look, I would like to encourage any type of pseudosciencific/mythological research into game elements. This thread will discuss the pressence of the Staves and Bows of the Ancients, encountered in Origins and Der Eisendrache. And they might be more than just fun (and a bit overpowered) weapons to play with. Grab your popcorn and take a drink, this'll be a long one.

 

The Staves of the Ancients

 

Let’s begin with what can be said about the backstory of the Staves of the Ancients. To us four Elemental Rods are know: one wielding ice (Ull’s Arrow), one lightning (Kimat’s Bite), one wind (Boreas’ Fury) and one fire (Kagutsuchi’s Blood), all named after ancient gods of different mythologies spread across the globe. The ‘Ancients’ refers to the Keepers, or the predecessor race: the Vril-Ya (though never mentioned in BO2, BO3 or BO4 most likely due to the ideology being illegal). These mythical beings are said to have Vril staves, conduiting an energy known as Vril. A Vril staff is an object in the shape of a wand or a staff which is used as a channel for Vril. The narrator of the book The Coming Race describes it as hollow with "stops", "keys", or "springs" in which Vril can be altered, modified, or directed to either destroy or heal. The staff is about the size of a walking stick but can be lengthened or shortened according to the user's preferences. We have actually seen such staff in Call of the Dead, Moon and Der Eisendrache (most likely all being the same one). 

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"I'm trying to remember... The staffs of the ancients were lost, but father made copies! You can find them!” - Samantha

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"These staffs were crafted by Maxis, Samantha. They're not evidence of your mythical realm." - Richthofen

So as most of you know, the rods seen in Origins are not original staves of the Ancients, it are artificially crafted copies made by Doctor Ludwig Maxis. However, they were merely the stick-part, having a role in channeling energy. They excluded the source, which required a more mysterious source.

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"I believe this crystal may help focus some ancient power." - Nikolai

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"Only with the crystal can the true power of the staffs be revealed." - Richthofen

When the crystal and rod are combined, a human being is able to use it’s power, although limited for them. I believe this crystal is some sort of catalyst for increasing the rate and force of the chemical reaction of 115 upon matter, since crystalline structures and properties are used in physics to absorb and rebroadcast electromagnetic fields and frequencies in a cleaner form. So these distinct Elemental Crystals each catalyze the reaction of 115 on matter, each causing a distinct product/effect: Lightning, Wind, Fire and Ice. This would be no different than any other element. When chemicals combine and cause an exothermic reaction that manifests in fire, we don’t say that the fire ‘is’ the chemicals, but we know that it is the energy from those chemicals being released. Ice is the result of a reduction in potential energy, so it can be suggested that 115 can be channeled to both energize and drain. Wind is caused by massive molecular movements in the atmosphere. Channelling a more moderate and steady energy flow to target particles could cause a wind as they move and scatter rather than ignition of those particles. Electricity is associated with the movement of electric charged molecules, which is a bit more complex, but you can see the application of 115's electric reactions in various ways in our story, including powering up machines.

 

Next to this pseudoscientific, proximate explanations, we can also see the mythological, ultimate explanations behind the appearance of these four elements. Electricity would merely be a reference to 115's electromagnetic functions, as well as the belief that it has ties with atmospheric magnetism, Vril, and electricity itself. In game, it is multiple times used to charge up devices and machines  Quite straight forward. Fire could be hinting Heroclitus' theory of the Ancient Fire. Heroclitus was a central person in Greek pre-Socrates philosophy. In that time, philosophy was the investigating/theorizing in order to explain things, pretty much what science is nowadays. Heroclitus called the entire cosmos an ever-burning fire, and believed that all things are exchanged for fire and fire for all things. Fire changes into various elements in a Cosmic Cycle, all eventually ending up in the fire again (similar to the Ragnarok and Welteis theories, only this time with fire). He even equated fire as the divine ruling order. Wind could be referring to the ancient Greek idea that if one heats air, it becomes an even more thin aerial substance known as Aether, the air of the upper Heaven and that which God's breathe. They also believed this was the elemental state where light comes from. The Soul of Earth. And finally, Ice, is of course connected with the Welteislehre. This ideology, gaining alot of followers among Nazi scientists, discussed the idea of ice being the basic substance of all cosmic processes, and Aether, the postulated medium for the propagation of light, also being made of ice. This doctrine has been present in our story ever since BO1, as a GKNova6 document talks about 'Welteis', the Shadows scrap paper has ice crystals (the fabric of space-time) and 935 even decodes to ICE. It could also be very well a possibility that ice is a metaphor of pure, crystalline 115.

 

The Bows of the Ancients

 

The map Der Eisendrache reintroduced elemental weapons, this time being bows. The basic bow, the Wrath of the Ancients, is made out of bones, a mysterious adhesive and burning arrows, and obtainable by feeding the Dragon heads. I fail to find any explanation by this, and I am not even sure if the Bow were actually used by the Ancients (the Keepers) in the past. The only far-away connection I can make is the fact that @caljitsu recently referred to Moon taking place 250 million years ago, when the sole supercontinent Pangea was formed on Earth. This was the time Dinosaurs were roaming our planet, and as on the Moon (and ‘meanwhile’ Shangri La) loading screen Vimaña’s are seen, the pyramids of the Keepers, there could be a possibility that the Keepers lived, or visited Earth, around the same time. Could Dragons be the ancient beings of this era? Just a quick thought, with probably lots of counter-arguments.

 

Moving on to the upgraded Elemental Bows: We’ve got a Lightning Bow (Storm/Energy Volatile), a Fire Bow (Rune Prison/Fall Banish), a Void Bow (Demon Gate/Decoy Portal) and Wolf Bow (Wolf Howl/Keeper Servant). The elements used are 

remarkable similar to the Runes of Creation encountered in Revelations: Matozzar, or electricity, being tied with the Energy Volatile, Othlor, or fire, with the Fall Banish, Maroth, or shadow, with the Demon Gate and Ormat, or light, with the Keeper Servant. What exactly are the Runes of Creation? While in-game, they are merely a part of the Story Quest, their importance is heavily overlooked. In many creation myths, the use of symbolic elements in the shaping of creation are quite prevalent, and now we see these elements in Zombies Canon. ‘Shadow’ and ‘Light’ are referring to the two opposites of the Aether. Electricity (or energy) and Fire (or heat) were also essential for the creation of our previously static, frozen universe. Think of the Big Bang Theory for example, where a ball of infinite energy and heat exploded and caused our universe to be born and ever-grow. The influences of the four energies could be the purple, blue and orange forces we have encountered so many times in our games. Also saw this once on the subreddit posted by a guy named SpaceDoggs:

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"All this talk about energy, it’s so vague, ja? Its best not to worry about it. Just think of the big ones, positive and negative, north and south, light and dark, good and evil." - Richthofen, Buried

Also note that the Blue Elemental Shard is said to have an infinite amount of electric energy, as it constantly recharges itself. The Avogadro, the "Electric Man" is also an indirect result of the Blue Shard. Seems to be ties with electricity quite well...

 

Now the Elemental Bows encountered in Der Eisendrache each seem to have an application of one of the Elements of Creation. The Lighting and Fire Bow each are quite straightforward. The Void Bow seems to generate a portal to the Dark Aether, the place beneath creation, similar to a Gersch Device, possibly by emitting a tiny piece of antimatter that reacts with our matter. It’s interesting how Takeo says, upon using the Void Bow, that a pact has been made, but at what price for his soul. This indicates he is aware of the evil he is using to survive. 

 

The Wolf Bow is the most interesting, and mysterious. As this one is using the Elemental Force of Light (also stated by the name ‘Keeper Servant’), it seems like Souls have ties with this Light Aether. I’m not gonna theorize much further into this, but could this element be Life Force? Or our Afterlife? Could Heat and Energy be the cause of our physical creation, whereas Shadow and Light are the influences on our soul?

 

If you got this far, you must know I have great respect for you. I hope you enjoyed the read and shoutout to all the active members on this Forum that constant inspire and motivate me to investigate our favourite Zombie-Slaying game. A new Order of Forgotten Mysteries is coming soon, but if you feel like, I would heavily recommend you to take a look to the most recent one discussing Nacht der Untoten's relevance in our Canon Story, written be good ol' @RadZakpak. Cheers, and love you all!

[Lenne]

1 hour ago, anonymous said:

though Spleen tastes, of course, much better

This is one of the reasons why I love you so much.

 

Thank you for the fun read, as always and enjoy your brains.

 

I always wondered why the vril-ya haven't been mentioned (or refered to) anymore. Why is the ideology illegal?

[anonymous]

37 minutes ago, Lenne said:

This is one of the reasons why I love you so much.

 

Thank you for the fun read, as always and enjoy your brains.

 

I always wondered why the vril-ya haven't been mentioned (or refered to) anymore. Why is the ideology illegal?

I'm not 100% sure if it is actually illegal but my best guess is that the developers didn't directly wanted to include things related to the Black Sun concept, which is even today used by neonazi's, Nazi Occultism and folks believing the whole Aryan-supremacy stuff. It is even involved in modern day wars, as certain radical-right groups use it as their flag in their war against pro-Russian Ukrainians in the Donbass. Involving Nazi's is okay, but I get it when they don't want to include Nazi ideology.

[caljitsu]

10 hours ago, anonymous said:

Cheers, and love you all!

You can't equate the plot-crystal and The Elemental Shard to the seals of creation.

 

Let's dissect this a bit: The Seals of Creation are very literal and serve a singular purpose - the literal creation of Revelations' bossfight arena. The fight features elemental phases - those being Light, Shadow, Fire and Electricity. 

 

The crystal from Blood of the Dead is still an enigma, however we can't equate it to Fire as we simply don't know enough. The fact that it is able to free the souls of those who've been reanimated suggests it has a much closer link to Life-energy, speaking of which:

 

The elemental shard. It does not have dominion over electricity, though it can be understood why you think that. We learn in the map that the APD specifically "passes current" through the shard - meaning the electricity is a byproduct of the shards energy, not the cause of it. The shard itself has a limitless supply of life-energy, however, much like the red crystal. The link here is not of classical elements, but of "the" element - 115, and how it interacts with life energy.

[anonymous]

While I agree with the idea that there is not any proof that the Shards/Crystals are connected with the Runes, I am of the opinion that these Runes of Creation are way more important than merely generating a bossfight area. But good, critical points.

 

Concerning the Elemental Shard, it is curious actually that once again, Electromagnetic Energy and Life Force are found so close together to each other again. The electricity is generated by the crystal, right? Or the pyramid?

 

(Hope you're okay with me deleting your quotation of my thread. Makes your comment too long for me :p)

[NaBrZHunter]

Bestow brains in vast quantity! Behold the great work!

The more you and the rest of our team discuss the old and new elements of the story, the more I am reassured of its continuity. Honestly, the staves were a brilliant addition to the storyline, and a long time coming. 

I don’t beleive I can ever be satisfied with any explanation of the bows, because they are just so very arbitrary, and in truth, derivative (of the staves) when you know anyone in the community would have been thrilled to get the staves in DE, and that their presence at the castle would make so much sense. But alas...

At any rate, discussions as of late are sparking ideas left and right. One I’d like to see discussed is the Division 9 dragon experiments. As much as I disliked having dragons in the game, such a concept is as classic as Jurassic Park. Someone should throw together an explanation of that process. Maybe I will...lol

[anonymous]

7 hours ago, NaBrZHunter said:

Bestow brains in vast quantity! Behold the great work!

The more you and the rest of our team discuss the old and new elements of the story, the more I am reassured of its continuity. Honestly, the staves were a brilliant addition to the storyline, and a long time coming. 

I don’t beleive I can ever be satisfied with any explanation of the bows, because they are just so very arbitrary, and in truth, derivative (of the staves) when you know anyone in the community would have been thrilled to get the staves in DE, and that their presence at the castle would make so much sense. But alas...

Thank you sir! Concerning the Bows, if they are really the weaponized manifestations of the Elements of Creation, I actually do find them very interesting as well. Since Fire/Heat is actually moving particles, and Electricity could stand for energy, these two 'elements' could be the source of everything. Movement and energy: Whether you're talking about radiowaves, solid rocks, solar flames or even life....it all includes these two aspects. Shadow and Light could be more complex. Yesterday I heard a guy speaking quite some inreresting (yet confusing) stuff. He believed that the entire consmos was kept together by energy, what he called the X-field or something. Everything is in balance, as when someone dies, or a solar flame errupts, this energy is continued in waves in the X-field, and eventually continued at the other side (as the field must be in balance). He tried to explain this with a symmetric pyramid as metaphore, but I lost him there. Anyway, what I was thinking: Could each side of this 'X-field' be either Shadow or Light? And while our life force and our universal energy is in the field, we have influences from the Shadow and the Light. Above and Beneath.

 

He also said that every end is connected with the beginning of something, something we cannot comprehend. Our energy jumps over to our start, or something. Like Primis is Ultimis. I'm rambling

 

About the dragons, the Nazi's actually had some kind of Jurassic Park program...