The Tragedy of Victis

[ProjectKMR]

I've had this one kicking around in my head for awhile, but I found it to be perhaps too controversial to post anywhere. But now that I've discovered a safe place in the Zombies Community to express opinions, I figured now was the best time to finally share it.

 

In my opinion, the most tragic characters in the entire Story-Line are EASILY the Victis Crew. Before you send your nuclear warheads towards my current location, let me back up my opinion with stuff said in not only the timeline, but in our own theories as a community. To start off with it, the Victis crew is a group of random civilians who led relatively normal lives before the events of Richtofen's Grand Scheme took place in 2025. Misty was a farm girl, Marlton was a conspiracy theorist hellbent on uncovering the mysteries of Broken Arrow, (theory) Russman was a worker for Broken Arrow with a family, and Samuel Stuhlinger was a simple man who happened to be a mad conspiracy theorist unlike Marlton.

 

Once Richtofen's Grand Scheme fell into place and the rockets hit the earth, the Zombie Outbreak began worldwide. Russman lost his life's work at Broken Arrow, Misty lost both her parents to Zombies, Marlton dug a little too deep and found more than he bargained for, and to survive, Samuel began to eat Zombie flesh. These guys got fucked hard by powers far beyond their control and perception. As if that isn't enough, let's look at their story when their paths cross in the first place. 10 years after the missiles hit Earth, Marlton, Misty, Russman, and Stuhlinger meet one another at the Green Run facility. (AKA Hanford Site) When there, they are contacted by both Maxis and Richtofen. Richtofen however can only speak to Samuel because of his past with eating Zombie Flesh to survive. In an effort to gain the upper hand on Richtofen and destroy the world, Maxis tells the group to construct the Pylons in his favor. To which the group obliges, despite Samuel's pleas to follow Richtofen. Richtofen for a moment even attempts to blackmail Stuhlinger into following his plan at Die Rise, threatening to tell the rest of Victis about his time with The Flesh.

 

Once there's only one Pylon left, Victis begins to wander the earth while the voices of Maxis and Richtofen fall silent for a two months. Upon arrival to Buried, the group constructs the final Pylon in favor of Maxis who then thwarts Richtofen and opens a pathway to Agartha, causing the destruction of Earth to occur within the next year. Victis was betrayed by Maxis, the one who they thought would lead them to salvation. Not only are they betrayed by Maxis canonically, but in Richtofen's ending we see him take control of Stuhlinger's body against his will. Currently that's all we know about the Richtofen ending, but either way you slice it, these guys get betrayed by other-worldly powers beyond their control. They have no power or even choice. They're merely pawns to Maxis or Richtofen, no bigger purpose. They are betrayed despite their efforts to please the voice of what they hope is salvation. It's really rather sad to think about.

 

Even when they separate for a point in time and return to one another, they now follow the voice of Richtofen hoping that he will be their salvation. Only to once again, be sent on a quest for his own intentions and being frozen in cryo-stasis at the end of it all. I guess you could say Primis Richtofen at least did them a favor offering them a chance to live, but they would be stuck in cryo-stasis for the rest of the cycle, never to be awakened. Forgotten by time. This happens in the Cycle Universe, but an arguably worse fate befalls them in the Broken Cycle.

 

In the Broken Cycle, they're awakened from their cryo-stasis slumber in Alcatraz after Nikolai reads from the Kronorium attempting to finally end things right. Once again, they are sent on a mission to acquire a device for Nikolai. This time, they have to build and deliver the Agarthan Device for a purpose they know nothing of. Being loyal to Richtofen as they have yet to be steered wrong by him, the group listens to Samuel when Richtofen speaks to him. When they build the Agarthan Device and deliver it to Nikolai, they are once again betrayed despite their hard work and sacrifice. This time, they're erased from existence rather than plain and simply betrayed. Banished to the Dark Aether along with Primis and Ultimis, forever being forced to endure darkness and suffering until the end of time. One of Samuel's last words to Richtofen is literally "You haven't forgotten about us have you? We did everything you asked." It's honestly sad to see that not many people care for Victis as characters when they've all been through so much. Of course, their actual characters are not the best in the world, being incredibly stereotypical and all, but so is Ultimis and everyone loves them. Victis was perfect to play as to end the story we all know and love, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

[anonymous]

Absolutely agree with you, KMR, good post. This actually reminded me of Richthofen's ending, and I wonder to what this senario would lead. In oposition to Maxis, Richthofen desprerately wants to mend the Rift, close the dimensional hole created by the fracturing of Earths Magnetic field (theory). Also, during the Buried easter egg, a very important step is to close a tear in space-time that has accidentally been created during the step in which the characters travel to Round Infinity. This all kinda make it seem to me that Ultimis Richthofen cares about dimensional gaps and wants to close off "his" universe from all other in each other bleeding universes, as this is the only way to make this world genuinely his own, personal plaything. So maybe, in a universe locked off of the entire Multiverse, Victis still live. And if Richthofen's soul really parasites in Samuel's body, I imagine he wouldn't care bad for his physical self and his "friends". Maybe, in this universe Victis are like kings ;)

[Lenne]

19 hours ago, ProjectKMR said:

civilians who led relatively normal lives

 

19 hours ago, ProjectKMR said:

Marlton was a conspiracy theorist

This made me giggle. ^^

Nice write up. You know, I gave the Tranzit crew a lot of shit back in the day, because I wasn't ready to let Ultimis go, but looking back at it, they were pretty good.

[Adem Farron]

I totally agree with this. It makes it even sadder when you translate Victis. Its latin. And it means " Defeated "

Primis means "youngest" wich suits the Primis crew.

Ultimis means " last " wich suits the original characters.

The Victis crew are truly the defeated. Especially after Nikolai destroyed the Summoning Key... in Tag der Toten, Victis knew they were doomed from the beginning.