The continuation of the Aether Story

[anonymous]

Heyo my beloved fellow slayers! I got something here which might be a fun read in the evening. Some time ago, @RichKiller made a thread about this new document found in Classified, talking about a major outbreak in Washington DC. 

Quote

 

31 OCT 1962

MEMORANDUM TO: THE SECRETARY OF DEFENCE

SUBJECT: Classified experiment at secret pentagon laboratory

         evacuation advised

 

1.At 10:25 am event unknown: hundred dead humans reanimate in an unconscious

frenzy. They are coming in hoards and seem to be going after any

living thing they can find. We believe it is a virus but have not

yet gotten confirmation.

2.Whatever it is, it is spreading at a rapid rate. Recommend D.C. be completely

Evacuated and quarantined until we know how to proceed.

3.The Advisory committee for International Science and Engineering

states that at the current rate, within the next 72 hours 1 million

people will be exposed to the infection. That number will only multiply

until we can assess the cause and try to neutralize the spread.

 

For the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

Thisisahll Maydeup

Chairman

Joint Chiefs of Staff

 

1 Enclosure

  Memo for the Chief of Operations, six06-6

 

The one-worded summary of this letter would be 'randomness'. Just like the London Newspaper in Der Eisendrache, we've never heard of any outbreak in this capital. And it even takes place one year before Five happened, in 1962. Though this might explain why Kennedy already knows about the undead in the intro cutscene, it is kinda contradictionary, huh?

 

The key might lay in the end, as it is addressed to one Thisisahll Maydeup. Pronounce that name: This is all made up! We can questionize if this document is even canon in our Main Story. But why would they have added it in the map, then? @caljitsu told me that before Mob of the Dead and Origins (a.k.a. BO2's Blundell maps) were developed, the original final map of the second Black Ops would take place in Arlington National Cemetery, the military graveyard near the Pentagon and Washington DC, with the Five crew as playable characters. At one point, Kennedy would even able to see his own tombstone. 

So Zielinski was fired, Blundell got in charge and the story took another direction. The only legacy of this Washington map I can think of is the Weasel's real name being 'Arlington', though that might be coincidence. Until now, with this Classified document easter egg written by the developers. It is probably not canon, but it does show us something. This was recently said by the CoD Zombies Writing Team, upon questioned if we're approaching the end: 

Quote

"With the multi-verse established, there will always be other stories to imagine - but in terms of Primis, Ultimis and Victis - This is the end of the line."

While we are heading to the by developers created end of the Aether story, there will always be us. There will always be infinite other stories in the Zombieverse, waiting to be explored by us. What is the real reason the CIA and CDC are present in Nuketown, Hanford and in the mining town near the Rift? What happened to our Shadows crew? The Weasel? And then we're merely talking about playable characters, how about Sally, who travelled from Tunguska to Shangri La. Have Brock and Gary eventually discovered Agartha? Who is the Witch, and who lived in her mansion? Why did Mason had that 115 tattoo on his arm after that mysterious mission in the jungle of Vietnam? Did Dempsey really lived in Farm? What happened to his neighbours, after the arrival of Broken Arrow in the area? And then we are only talking about the known characters… What happened to all those hypothesised survivors in Maxis' Wastelands, the Fracturing Earth? Hell, without the Timeline we wouldn't even know about the civil war between the Flesh and Maxis' followers occuring at Hanford. 

 

The Five crew might actually have used the Matter Transference Device seen in the basement, a theory I made in my early time on these forums. Overloading the teleporter, they could have ended up in another timepocket or fracture, at the Arlington Military Cemetery. As millions of formerly dead people arose their graves, and, like the Classified document states, the spread grows with a speed no one could forsee, our planet is eventually completely undead. But how about Kennedy and Castro? They are drinking American beer while smoking Cubanese cigars on top of the Washington Obelisk. 

 

You think this is the end of the story? No, for what Group 935 started so long ago, this is just the beginning...

[RadZakpak]

There really is an infinite amount of great stories to be told in the Aether story. If Treyarch had enough time and resources, and they could have devs that stick through the whole way and stick to one plan, they could create a truly special overarching narrative. I like all the ideas that you mentioned; There are just so many gaps in time that would be perfect for a map, as Classified and Alpha Omega have shown us.

[RichKiller]

Some notes about the authenticity of the document:

 

1.  The signature "Thisisahll Maydeup" is crossed out in at least one of the versions of the documents, switched by a signature that seems to be by someone else. The Rushmore document is also signed by "Thisisahll Maydeup", which is then redacted and signed by Pernell. As far as I'm aware the Rushmore document is canon, so I don't think "Thisisahll Maydeup" disqualifies this document, just like it doesn't disqualifies the Rushmore document. You could then ask yourself why using "Thisisahll Maydeup" in the signature? Maybe because if the document was to leak into public hands, people would think it's fake because of that signature. 

 

 

 

2. If you're looking for a good reason to make the document non-canon, besides no further evidence of the outbreak, it's the grammar mistakes. From what Coldstone and I managed to deduce, the document includes grammar mistakes such as "Labratory", "Unconcious". As mentioned in the original thread, these were ironed out in the final version.
In that case the document wasn't important enough for grammar review and therefore may not be important. 

3. Going back to why it could be canon, if Treyarch wanted some dummy text they could use "Lorem ipsum", and in fact they have used it in Classified, but not with this document. Also there were quite a lot of versions of the document, so that could be a sign for it being canon.

If you ask me, I don't think Treyarch expected people to recover the the content of the document. However, one of the great things about zombies is how Treyarch listens to the community and adapts the storyline and the way it is presented accordingly. It may not affect the current storyline, but I like the idea of it being related to future story. Only time (travel) will tell. Great post.
 

[Spider3000]

On 8/11/2019 at 3:49 AM, anonymous said:

caljitsu told me that before Mob of the Dead and Origins (a.k.a. BO2's Blundell maps) were developed, the original final map of the second Black Ops would take place in Arlington National Cemetery, the military graveyard near the Pentagon and Washington DC, with the Five crew as playable characters. At one point, Kennedy would even able to see his own tombstone. 

Off-topic, but where did this info come from? I seem to vaguely remember a PlaytheGame video talking about this years ago, but is that the only source for this info? Interesting stuff regardless.

 

As for the main topic of this thread, I do think Aether is definitely, for real, no takesy backsies, done with DLC 4, at least in its current iteration. Am I a fool for taking Treyarch at their word once again on this story finally ending? Probably. But I do find the Zombies Writing team quote interesting, since it seems to line up pretty heavily with the current rumours of Aether getting a fully fledged reboot in Treyarch’s next game. And in regards to receiving more one-off maps in the future that fill in some story gaps, I wouldn’t be a fan. A map every now and then like Classified is cool, but I’d much rather the main story progress instead of having multiple ‘side-quels’ for a story that has already finished, but maybe that’s just me.

[anonymous]

4 hours ago, Spider3000 said:

Off-topic, but where did this info come from? I seem to vaguely remember a PlaytheGame video talking about this years ago, but is that the only source for this info? Interesting stuff regardless.

 

As for the main topic of this thread, I do think Aether is definitely, for real, no takesy backsies, done with DLC 4, at least in its current iteration. Am I a fool for taking Treyarch at their word once again on this story finally ending? Probably. But I do find the Zombies Writing team quote interesting, since it seems to line up pretty heavily with the current rumours of Aether getting a fully fledged reboot in Treyarch’s next game. And in regards to receiving more one-off maps in the future that fill in some story gaps, I wouldn’t be a fan. A map every now and then like Classified is cool, but I’d much rather the main story progress instead of having multiple ‘side-quels’ for a story that has already finished, but maybe that’s just me.

I have to admit that I've heard someone talk about it, though, of course, I have not any official source nor can I confirm it. So it could be untrue but I dunno, I just like the idea.

 

Anyway, what I mean to say with this thread is not that I am expecting another Aether franchise, but that this continuation lays in us: Theorists, story-tellers and possibly even custom map designers. We were introduced to so many characters, so many stories we can still find out. 

 

@RichKillerDidn't knew that, that would definately make it seem more canon. I wonder how this outbreak would fit in the rest of the story, like the International Zombies Center in Shanghai would make sense now, though Nixon in Five not knowing what zombies are seems weird.

[caljitsu]

On 8/11/2019 at 3:49 AM, anonymous said:

 

You can see the legacy of Arlington in Revelations. When you spawn in, look to the left. Even interact with your *own* characters' graves as a part of the Easter egg.

 

(Sorry for the messed up formatting, mobile isn't fun.)

[caljitsu]

9 hours ago, Spider3000 said:

Off-topic, but where did this info come from? I seem to vaguely remember a PlaytheGame video talking about this years ago, but is that the only source for this info? Interesting stuff regardless.

 

As for the main topic of this thread, I do think Aether is definitely, for real, no takesy backsies, done with DLC 4, at least in its current iteration. Am I a fool for taking Treyarch at their word once again on this story finally ending? Probably. But I do find the Zombies Writing team quote interesting, since it seems to line up pretty heavily with the current rumours of Aether getting a fully fledged reboot in Treyarch’s next game. And in regards to receiving more one-off maps in the future that fill in some story gaps, I wouldn’t be a fan. A map every now and then like Classified is cool, but I’d much rather the main story progress instead of having multiple ‘side-quels’ for a story that has already finished, but maybe that’s just me.

It was from PtG, yeah, but I believe it was later corroborated in private by a dev, although I need to verify that, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

[anonymous]

4 hours ago, caljitsu said:

You can see the legacy of Arlington in Revelations. When you spawn in, look to the left. Even interact with your *own* characters' graves as a part of the Easter egg.

Going off-topic here (though that's the whole point of a discussion so doesnt matter), but Primis dies, in Monty's Cycle, at the battlegrounds of the Great War. As these graves are at the House in Agartha, I'm gonna guess these are of Primis dying there after they defeated Monty? Or are it symbollic graves for the souls they collected of Ultimis, spread across fractures?

[RadZakpak]

54 minutes ago, anonymous said:

Going off-topic here (though that's the whole point of a discussion so doesnt matter), but Primis dies, in Monty's Cycle, at the battlegrounds of the Great War. As these graves are at the House in Agartha, I'm gonna guess these are of Primis dying there after they defeated Monty? Or are it symbollic graves for the souls they collected of Ultimis, spread across fractures?

They don’t necessarily have to die near the battlegrounds. The timeline just states that they “disappeared from history” after the war ended. So potentially Richtofen took them to some house to live out the rest of their days, and that location was pulled in when the Shadowman corrupted Agartha.

 

Problem with that is Richtofen after the Great War ends up frozen in Alcatraz, and the Blood of the Dead Richtofen seems to be aware of this, so presumably this happens every cycle? That makes me wonder where the rest of Primis is then.

 

It’s also totally possible that Monty just made those graves since he turned their immortal souls into children and wiped them from history, maybe as sort of a reminder to Primis what they’ve done.

[Schrödinger]

There are unexplored places in zombies mode, but it's more than time that it stops instead of making stupid transdimensional remakes against money.

 

15 hours ago, RadZakpak said:

Problem with that is Richtofen after the Great War ends up frozen in Alcatraz, and the Blood of the Dead Richtofen seems to be aware of this, so presumably this happens every cycle? That makes me wonder where the rest of Primis is then.

There are 2 groups of Primis after Revelations, one in dimension 63 and the other in the first(so just one great war where Monty and Shadowman participated as seen in Alpha Omega intro). There's even a message from a dying Dempsey in the multiplayer map Outlaw.

[Spider3000]

22 hours ago, RadZakpak said:

They don’t necessarily have to die near the battlegrounds. The timeline just states that they “disappeared from history” after the war ended. So potentially Richtofen took them to some house to live out the rest of their days, and that location was pulled in when the Shadowman corrupted Agartha.

I always assumed that after they “seemingly disappeared from history”, they would return back to 1918 France where the cycle can begin again and again.