On Fractures

[caljitsu]

Within Black Ops 3's filler arc, we are introduced to the concept of "Fractures". At face level, they seem to be a clever narrative tool in order to take real locations and make them more interesting (i.e. Stalingrad with Dragons) - however I believe there *is* a narrative explanation. However first, let's clear up some misconceptions:

 

Fractures are NOT "Dimensions"

This is an easy trap to fall into, but the distinction is important. Dimensions differ in that entire world histories can be different, people can die at different times, people's personalities can differ, people can even be born a different gender. The specific differentiation between dimensions is given in the following cipher, found in Gorod Krovi:  

"Kronorium Excerpt 349561223:
The Summoning Key is one of the oldest artifacts in all creation. It was used by the first one to mix all the dimensions with life, giving each one its unique balance. Under certain circumstances, it has the ability to form bridges between dimensions allowing the transfer of life forces back and forth. It resides in the 63rd dimensions"

So seemingly, the exact definition of an "alternate dimension" is one with a different "mix" of life to any other. The Zombies storyline primarily takes place in Dimensions 1* and 63, meaning that these dimensions have a different balance of life throughout, possibly contributing to the differences in individuals (i.e. Cornelius and Cornelia Pernell)

 

A Fracture, on the other hand, is something different entirely. Here I will make the claim that, during Black Ops 3 (bar Shadows of Evil and Revelations), we never even leave Dimension 1*. 

 

As given by the timeline, the Deceptio fracture is formed at the moment Primis Richtofen shoots his alternate self in the head (or arrives in the teleporter, based on the intro cinematic, however the difference between the two is seemingly irrelevant). At that point, as illustrated by the following comic panel, not only does the future begin a new course, but past events adapt in order to make the "fractured" event make sense. 

As seen here, the event retroactively changes the past, in order to adapt it for Primis being present in Dimension 1*, hence the appearance of a Giant at Der Riese, even though they were only present in Dimension 63 beforehand. The presence of Primis forces the new "fracture" to be closer to their home dimension. 

 

This can be seen during the course of Black Ops 3. With each new fracture (Proditione and Agonia), Dimension 1* becomes more and more fractured, and as it is due to the interference of Primis, closer and closer to Dimension 63.

 

As evidence for the retroactive changing of the past, however, this is given clearly on the timeline, as Zetsubou no Shima takes place two weeks before Der Eisendrache, yet is altered due to the effects of it. 

 

I hope this post is somewhat useful if anyone is confused about the difference, it's not the easiest thing to wrap your head around, so I felt it was useful to talk about. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

 

(*We have no canon number for the original dimension, so I have used 1 here for ease)

[anonymous]

Good clarification Cal! Now wheras dimensions/universes are indeed something different than fractures, I wonder how the similarity in living beings can exist. I mean,  D1, D63 and D2210 are all inhabited by a Richthofen. D1 and D63 both have a Nikolai, Takeo, Dempsey, Maxis and Pablo. How would this work? Also, the Great War also seems to have happened in more than one universe. But, like you said, these linear universes were distinct and seperate from the beginning. Kinda odd if you ask me. Can't restrain myself to start to talk about souls again: There doesn't merely seem to live the same characters in each dimension, they also seem to be connected with each other via souls. When Maxis grew corrupted in the original universe, Maxis wiping him out of existence also caused D63 to become soulless. The Primis characters seem to be connected with their Ultimis counterparts as well, as collecting their souls also makes theirselves soulless (I believe?). Honestly, of all things I find this the hardest to wrap my mind around.

 

Concerning fractures, I still don't fully get how matter transference could lead to the creation of it. Like, I'd be fund on a more sciencific explanation. That the Giant/Der Eisendrache fracture is created is logical, as RIchthofen kills himself and changed the already-happened future. I would like to argue that this new fracture pretty much 'overwrites' the original universe, as I believe this is how Grandfather Paradox stuff happens.

• 

So the creation of this fracture isn't to blame to some vague MTD experiments, but really to Primis changing the past (of a universe they do not belong to). How would this work for the Zetsubou no Shima and Gorod Krovi fractures? Well, as the Deceptio (TG/DE) fracture just overwrote Universe 1, I believe the Proditione fracture is a fracture of Deceptio. Following this, Agonia is a fracture of Proditione. So Gorod Krovi occurs in a fracture of a fracture of a fracture, hence the admosphere of this map is so....fictional and far away of reality. It would also explain some other things: Things like Report 44, breeding Dragons, the Island Facility, the Giant Metal Men all didn't seem to happen in the Dimension 1, but they did in all the fractures. This would be too coincidential if the fractures weren't based upon each other. 

 

Now one might ask, if history is rewritten/fractured that much, how could Primis travel to the original Universe 1 in Alpha Omega then? If there would be some sort of linear chronology of the Multiverse, I believe they did this before their past selves did the Black Ops 3 fracturing stuff. So they travelled to Camp Edward in the time Dimension 1 wasn't changed yet. Hope I just didn't murder your brains.

 

[NaBrZHunter]

Brains to you, my dude! This is a concise, but solid breakdown of the distinction, and I actually needed the update, myself. 

 

It’s comforting to know that GK, Giant, DE and ZNS are OG fractures, too. I’d like to plot this out on paper at some point. 

[caljitsu]

57 minutes ago, NaBrZHunter said:

Brains to you, my dude! This is a concise, but solid breakdown of the distinction, and I actually needed the update, myself. 

 

It’s comforting to know that GK, Giant, DE and ZNS are OG fractures, too. I’d like to plot this out on paper at some point. 

It was just something I felt needed writing down. I've been trying to resolve why the fractures were similar to both d1 and d63 for a long while now and I think, at the very least, this is the closest explanation I've seen.

[anonymous]

Some weird things and assumptions that seem to happen in the fractures:

• Letters and ciphers seem to be spread across maps, I'm unsure if this is canon or not. For example, in Der Eisendrache we can find ciphers written by Samantha in the House, Richthofen after he obtained the Summoning Key in D63, and one about the construction of the Island Facility which happened in the Proditione Fracture.
• We are introduced to Report 44. After the Mexican died in an experiment, Group 935 identified 4 new test subjects in this report, which are presumably Tank, Takeo, Nikolai and Nikolai's brother. It is odd that Group 935 specifically wanted these four test subjects, rather than any other POW. Report 44 contradicts with the OG dimension as originally, the Mexican died when Takeo and Nikolai were already captured.
• The Riese robots, similar to the design of D63 Group 935, appear. Group 935 also has the D63 insigma. I guess this could be best explained by the OP's, of the presence of Primis forcing the fracture to to be closer to Primis' "home dimension": Dimension 63.
• Dragons are rezurrected by Division 9. While we see them for the first time in the Agonia fracture, a message about this can already be found in Deceptio fracture, and the Dragon eggs are even observable in Proditione.
• The Rising Sun facility is overrun in 1942, with the creation of the Island Facility as a result. This too seems already be confirmed by a cipher in Deceptio fracture.
• Richthofen is killed in 1945, which seem to have happened many times. Dempsey is killed in November 1945 (Deceptio), Takeo in October 1945 (Proditione) and Nikolai in November 1945 as well (Agonia).
• The Moon, as well as the MPD, seem to be destroyed in 1945 in the Deceptio fracture.
• The first changed events in Proditione and Agonia seem to have happened in 1942 already. In these maps, Richthofen is never encountered nor mentioned. 

 

Fun fact: Deceptio pretty much means deception, Proditione means betrayal and Agonia means agony. Could this hint to the reasons why these fractures independently were created?

[anonymous]

Okay so we are familiar with the three best known fractures: Deceptio, Proditione and Agonia. Following this understanding of how fractures work, what we consider to be the Original Timeline is fully overwritten by Deceptio, leading to minor changes such as the existence of Riese robots and early documentions of the Dragons.

 

This ‘Deceptio fracture’, which has replaced the Original Timeline as a whole, is subsequently overwritten by Proditione, where the first offspring of actual Dragons are being bred. Proditione was, on its turn, overwritten by the Agonia Fracture. As this is the farthest away from the Original Timeline, it shows the least similarities with it: There is no Richtofen, Dragons are being used extensively as weapons and giant robots are just as common as tanks in the Second World War.

 

But I believe we have ignored two other fractures. Let’s recap a bit, shall we? We know the first temporal rifts were created by Ultimis’ teleportation between ‘45 Der Riese and ‘63 Kino.

Quote

 

“October 28th, 1963 - KINO DER TOTEN 

From Der Riese, Ultimis teleports to Kino. This marks the first time ultimis travels across space and time. Temporal Rifts occur across dimensions. In light of these developments, Monty feels obligated to step in, and begins to make changes in the background across time. He helps Group 935 invent Perk Machines. He adds chalk drawings to walls. Little nudges. Ultimis locates a Lunar Lander and fly to the Ascension Facility.”

 

I think this marks the first fracture being created. With Monty helping Group 935 inventing the Perk-a-Cola’s, he changes the already occured past of the Original Universe. This means that the original, really first versions of Verrückt, Shi no Numa and Der Riese, actually didn’t had Perk machines. Ultimis came this far without opening any bottle, create a fracture with their teleportation to Kino which allows Monty to change the past and overwrite it with a version in which Perk-a-Cola’s were invented by Group 935. So the ‘original universe’ that we know is actually a fracture itself as well! 

 

Now there is another major fracture creation, occuring after the launch of the missles of Griffin Station to Earth. The first thing that should be noted is the sudden appearance of Mule Kick in all the original Black Ops I maps after the release of the Rezurrection DLC. I think this is the effect of the second fracture being created, overwriting the earlier fracture that was generated at Kino. So the version of Black Ops I that we play today, along with Black Ops II’s Victis maps, take place in this fracture. But there is another notable thing we receive with the Rezurrection DLC: The Classic World at War maps….but changed. The presence of Mule Kick proves that it HAS to take place in the fracture created after Moon. And we play as Ultimis in Nacht and Verrückt, rather than the original characters. That’s why the community mostly bashed these maps away as ‘non-canon’. But then we got Zombies Chronicles, with these Monty quotes hidden in it:

 

Quote

Nacht der Untoten, that translates as "Night of the Dead", I learned that tonight, hah! I've been trying to scrub up on my German, you see. Anyway, it happened in an old concrete building on an airfield somewhere-- oh, I don't know where. I remember it being really small, simple, by today's standards. I think there was a fog, not a lot of it, certainly not coming into the building itself. You know what I just realized? You weren't even there! At least, not at first. It was some other random, forgettable soldiers that had the misfortune to live through that horrible night, or "Nacht", as it was actually known. There, I speak German now.

 

Quote

Electroshock therapy, chemically engineered beverages, hordes of undead Nazis. Find the power to unite and send them back to their graves! Can you believe that's how I actually described it back then? It was an asylum. It was also a horrible, terrible, grim, depressing place. I'd give you a full explanation of everything that happened there, but it would only be horrible, terrible, grim, depressing. Oh, fuck. You weren't there either. But then you were.

 

Both ‘At least, not first’ and ‘But then you were’ seem to hint that Ultimis actually were present in Nacht and Verrückt. My theory is that this was after the Moon fracture. This would explain why there is a version in which you play as the marines, and there is a version in which you play as Ultimis and there is also Mule Kick. Question remains, though, why and how could they travel there? As of why, I think it was a temporal error in teleportation site. There are countless of times Ultimis teleported, surely they could accidently travel to Nacht and Verruckt in between two maps (think of Kino-->Ascension) or within a map (think of the variety of rooms you can teleport to in Kino). Anyway, just some thoughts rambling, I wonder what y’alls thoughts are on this.

[caljitsu]

On 4/26/2020 at 1:43 PM, anonymous said:

Okay so we are familiar with the three best known fractures: Deceptio, Proditione and Agonia. Following this understanding of how fractures work, what we consider to be the Original Timeline is fully overwritten by Deceptio, leading to minor changes such as the existence of Riese robots and early documentions of the Dragons.

 

This ‘Deceptio fracture’, which has replaced the Original Timeline as a whole, is subsequently overwritten by Proditione, where the first offspring of actual Dragons are being bred. Proditione was, on its turn, overwritten by the Agonia Fracture. As this is the farthest away from the Original Timeline, it shows the least similarities with it: There is no Richtofen, Dragons are being used extensively as weapons and giant robots are just as common as tanks in the Second World War.

 

But I believe we have ignored two other fractures. Let’s recap a bit, shall we? We know the first temporal rifts were created by Ultimis’ teleportation between ‘45 Der Riese and ‘63 Kino.

I think this marks the first fracture being created. With Monty helping Group 935 inventing the Perk-a-Cola’s, he changes the already occured past of the Original Universe. This means that the original, really first versions of Verrückt, Shi no Numa and Der Riese, actually didn’t had Perk machines. Ultimis came this far without opening any bottle, create a fracture with their teleportation to Kino which allows Monty to change the past and overwrite it with a version in which Perk-a-Cola’s were invented by Group 935. So the ‘original universe’ that we know is actually a fracture itself as well! 

 

Now there is another major fracture creation, occuring after the launch of the missles of Griffin Station to Earth. The first thing that should be noted is the sudden appearance of Mule Kick in all the original Black Ops I maps after the release of the Rezurrection DLC. I think this is the effect of the second fracture being created, overwriting the earlier fracture that was generated at Kino. So the version of Black Ops I that we play today, along with Black Ops II’s Victis maps, take place in this fracture. But there is another notable thing we receive with the Rezurrection DLC: The Classic World at War maps….but changed. The presence of Mule Kick proves that it HAS to take place in the fracture created after Moon. And we play as Ultimis in Nacht and Verrückt, rather than the original characters. That’s why the community mostly bashed these maps away as ‘non-canon’. But then we got Zombies Chronicles, with these Monty quotes hidden in it:

 

 

 

Both ‘At least, not first’ and ‘But then you were’ seem to hint that Ultimis actually were present in Nacht and Verrückt. My theory is that this was after the Moon fracture. This would explain why there is a version in which you play as the marines, and there is a version in which you play as Ultimis and there is also Mule Kick. Question remains, though, why and how could they travel there? As of why, I think it was a temporal error in teleportation site. There are countless of times Ultimis teleported, surely they could accidently travel to Nacht and Verruckt in between two maps (think of Kino-->Ascension) or within a map (think of the variety of rooms you can teleport to in Kino). Anyway, just some thoughts rambling, I wonder what y’alls thoughts are on this.

My jaw dropped when I read this post. I think this is worth us putting our noggins together to figure out.

[anonymous]

1 hour ago, caljitsu said:

My jaw dropped when I read this post. I think this is worth us putting our noggins together to figure out.

Coincidentally a part in the latest Podcast der Toten is also about how Ultimis in the Classic Maps (meaning Nacht and Verruckt here) is canon. Not sure if it was Rad, Mattzs or Tac but someone mentioned the possibility that all locations exposed to 115 are connected in some kind of 'web', hence why teleporting always makes the subject end up in a location where experiments with 115 were being done. Why did overloading the teleporter in Der Riese send them to another Group 935 station of all places? The same goes for Shangri-La-->Classified and the teleportations of the rooms in Kino (all exposed to 115, I think). I see this like Earth as some kind of plate/field with 115-locations as dents in it. Once you roll a ball in this field (symbolic for a teleporting subject), the ball will roll into one of the dents and end up at another 115 location.

With that hypothesis, I assume Ultimis being present in the Classic maps went by accident. But that would still leave the question of when. During the podcast, someone also mentioned the pressence of the Classic maps in the Kino loading screen.

So what we see here might actually be the creation of a fracture. Maybe the classic maps simply refer to the original events happened prior, but it could also be about Ultimis' pressence there. After all, we follow Ultimis' voyage during the comic book loading screens. That would mean that perhaps, after the "Moon fracture", Ultimis were send there between Der Riese and Kino? Might also explain the very odd radio of BO1 Shi no Numa in which the characters talk about timetravel ("a better question is when are we?"). We see the dates 1941, 1943 and 1950 in the loading screen and I am not sure if those are relevant, but could that perhaps be the years to which Ultimis were send to Nacht, Verrückt and Shi no Numa (again)? After all, none of these dates correlate with Der Riese (1945) or Kino (1963).