Magma and Storms: The Elements of the Aether

[RadZakpak]

I've had some many great discussions on Discord that have culminated here.

 

The Storms

 

First, I discussed with @RichKiller the importance of storms in Zombies. We see them all over the place:

 

The "Five" intro cutscene is the first one. Kennedy says this famous line after Nixon freaks out when the zombies are breaking in to the Pentagon: 

There actually is a storm heard in the background of this scene, meaning one is actually happening on the day of this meeting. We also see storms physically in: Shadows of Evil, TranZit, Nuketown, Mob of the Dead, Origins, BO3's Ascension, Der Eisendrache in the form of the Storm Bow, Zetsubou No Shima, Alpha Omega, and in the distance during Tag der Toten's final step. There may be more I'm forgetting.

 

There's also some quotes as Rich has pointed out talking about an ominous storm on the horizon, some from (of course) The Giant:

 

"A storm is coming, the earth will be cleansed."

 

"A storm is coming, sooner than you think."

 

"I dare not ask if the others have also seen him. I fear a storm approaches."

 

"I have seen many storms. I have weathered them all."

 

I'm sure there are many more examples, but Storms have appeared countless times, and noticeably in many instances where we deal with inter-dimensional-hullabaloo (official term). We've also got the songs "Shockwave" and "The Gift" which hold many relations, including mention of storms:

 

Quote

I’m always here

I bring the storm

just like a

 

I'm 

just 

like a

shockwave

 

 

Quote

Up in the sky

down wind another 

light goes dim

And I know its him 

Reigning like a storm again

deep inside of me

I argued in threads about these lyrics that they are from the perspective of Ultimis and Primis Richtofen, respectively, each talking about a storm being brought and reigning over us, caused by, I believe, Richtofen's actions which bring the Aether's influence into our world.

 

Enough about storms for now, let's talk about:

 

The Magma

We've also got Magma appearing in multiple key locations, and I've noticed quite the pattern between them.

 

The key ones that come to mind:

 

- TranZit

 

- Origins' staff creating pools of magma when charged

 

- Der Eisendrache's bows, of course

 

- Blood of the Dead (The river and the Magmagat)

 

- Tag der Toten, during the final step after constructing the Agarthan Device

 

And that's just instances of specifically Magma or Lava, but there's plenty more instances of plain old fire. Napalm Zombies, the Shepard of Fire, "Burn the liars, and begin again" from Archangel, etc.

 

So speaking specifically where magma comes from the ground, we've got TranZit, Blood, and Tag der Toten. @clueless discussed at length his excellent ideas about the Moon rockets and Sleepy Maxis' plan with them. The idea is to target points with high amounts of 115, and by sending rockets to those locations, each with a copy of the Vril Egg, the impact of the Vril with the 115 would destroy both, and sever Richtofen's connection to the Aether. Instead, the explosions rocked the earth, nearly destroying it and opening a Rift in Angola.

 

So what is the magma in TranZit besides a result of the Earth's rupturing? I believe it may possibly be an implication that Victis are within a pocket dimension. Let me explain further.

 

We know Victis' blood is just as important as the Mobsters, as it is collected by Richtofen to be used in his plan to keep Primis alive. There are also a great deal of paradoxical things related to Victis' journey, such as Richtofen bringing them back every time they die, round infinity in the Buried easter egg, and the navcard paradox, explored in this thread.

 

Later, in Blood of the Dead, we see a river of magma surrounding the prison. What is curious about this lava river, however, is it does not appear in Mob of the Dead. Something between Mob and Blood caused the lava to bubble up to the surface.

 

Finally, in Tag der Toten, after constructing the Agarthan Device, magma rises up from the ground covering much of the area:

 

All these places seem to be in pocket dimensions with their own internal time loops. TranZit has Victis, Blood has Primis, and Tag has Victis again as well as Pablo (We believe Pablo to be in a pocket dimension because of how long he has been stuck in Siberia, unable to leave, and how despite the Ascension Group arriving at the facility, he was not able to leave with them). But wait, Blood and Tag start off without magma on the surface, yet they are still pocket dimensions. I believe that magma may be just beneath the surface in pocket dimensions, and with enough of a break between dimensions it comes to the surface. (The rockets from Moon, the Weasel breaking the cycle, the construction of the Agarthan Device)

 

The Elements

So what is the common thread between magma and storms? Both are forms of the bows from Der Eisendrache. The Storm Bow brings a whirlwind of electricity, while the Fire Bow brings magma up from the earth to consume zombies in flame. I got to thinking about why the Staves of Origins and the Bows of DE are different elements. It has been theorized before that the Staves represent elements of Earth: Fire, Wind, Lightning, and, of course, Ice.

 

But I theorize that the DE bows represent elements of the Aether instead. This would explain why storms and magma pop up during instances of interdimensional fuckery, as the Aether is the path between dimensions. "Return Through Aether." There's the Void bow, which summons a portal, and I believe represents the Dark Aether and all that it makes up. Then there's the Wolf Bow, a bow forged using soul energy which summons the soul of the King's Wolf. It represents the eternal souls which make up the Aether.

 

This is not to imply that the Earth and Aether are not related, as on the contrary, Magma and Fire are related as are Lightning and Storms. They are a duality. Thinking on the Soul and Void elements of the Aether, they too pop up when 115 is involved on Earth, through the countless soul boxes we've filled up and the souls of prisoners in Mob and Blood, to the countless portals that have been opened and teleporters used. These processes are using Aetherial Elements rather than Earth Elements.

[RichKiller]

I'm going to talk more about the storm here.

There is another key quote regarding the storm:

Quote

"The snow falls heavy, storm clouds gather. I fear we will soon succumb to madness and delusion." - Nikolai, The Giant

The storm is also tied to clouds. There's the following conversation in DE between Richtofen and Nikolai: 

Quote

Richtofen: Is your contempt for me finally diminishing, my simple minded Russian friend?
Nikolai: I am beginning to think you're not the Richtofen I once knew.
Richtofen: You are stronger than you realize, Nikolai. If only your judgement were not so... clouded. You would be invincible.

Here we can see that Richtofen talks about how Nikolai forgets the reason as to why he hates Richtofen (Dempsey also talks about forgetting why he hates Richtofen).
Richtofen likes to pose many riddles around in the conversations (as suggested by the conversations themselves), so here I think the use the clouded memories may have double meaning. This ties to the last quote as well. 

As said in the main thread, another interesting quote comes from Takeo:
 

Quote

"I dare not ask if the others have also seen him. I fear a storm approaches."- Takeo, The Giant.

 

The first quote was talking about storm clouds gathering. There is another cipher that ties into that concept: 

Quote

"Shadows are gathering, a great evil will be unleashed"- Comic #2, cipher #1 

Here we can see that the clouds take a more evil connotation. In Takeo's letter to the emperor from DE, this idea comes up once again:

Quote

Not only do they (Division 9) use prisoners of war for living-body tests, but they have also been trying to control the supernatural powers of Element 115.
I therefore think that if we permit them to continue their work, dark clouds may soon loom over our great country.

We can clearly see a theme talking about evil, dark, apothiconized storm that approaches.
One of the more interesting details within SoE is the great war wall in the sacred place.
Specifically, an interesting part is that the warriors from both sides of the war stand on... clouds.

 

 

There's the following quote from DE:

Quote

"A storm is coming, the earth will be cleansed."- Richtofen, DE

The cleansing the earth seems to be tied to the following cipher:

Quote

"After the Great Battle, they stood upon the mound. Their light shone down and cleansed all the sickness for as far as the eye could see.
They are the first; they are the last... Visions of fractured worlds and strange rooms haunted our dreams."- DE cipher

Furthermore, The Shadowman poses himself as Mr. Rapt. which is a very unique name. 
There are two interesting takes on this name. One take is that Rapt is an anagram for "Trap".
I want to focus here on the other take which is a shortcut for Rapture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture
Rapture talks about the end of times:

Quote

The rapture is an eschatological concept of a minority of Christians... consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."

According to Wikipedia, Rapture has 5 tenets: 
 

Quote

1. Those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who are dead 
2. The dead in Christ will resurrect first 
3. The living and the resurrected dead will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air
4. Those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air
5. The meeting with the Lord will be permanent: "And so shall we ever be with the Lord"

All of those really fit well with concepts brought up in here, as well ones that don't... 

The following quote @RadZakpak added caught my eye:

Quote

 

light goes dim

And I know its him 

Reigning like a storm again

deep inside of me

Got me thinking (yet again) about this image from Classified's marketing: 

 

As always there's more to talk about here... 115, memories, end of the cycle, samantha, etc. 
The clouds and the storms are just one piece of the bigger picture. 

[anonymous]

I'm curious when you think exactly the storms will form: Is it due to the nearby pressence of Samantha or another ethereal entity, lurking on the other plane? Or is it due to the meddling with E115, the anomaly of the periodic system that doesnt belong to our dimension? Either way, the electricity generated in a thunderstorm might have something to do with a shift in the etheric realm.

 

As for Magma, it reminded me of the following record of BO4's MP map, Remnant.

 

"Ahh... The sleepy town of Hanford, Washington State. Where normal people go about their mundane lives in peace. Where nothing of note ever happens. If only it had stayed that way. One fateful night, the entire population of the town and its surrounds vanished - without so much as a trace. Visitors arriving in Hanford the next day were greeted by lava oozing from ragged fissures in the ground, and an eldritch, clinging gof, rank with the smell of death. The miasma hung heavy over the deserted town a full week, before vanishing as mysteriously as it had arrived. Even carrion birds kept their distance from it's creeping, dank and acrid tendrils. No records exist of Hanford, erased from the history books; only these artifacts remain to tell of the fate of its inhabitants. Where did they go? Where are their mortal remains? Was this a botched military experiment? An alien abduction? An incursion of an antediluvian dimension into our own? Or did demons rise from the Stygian depths to execute the default clause of some infernal contract? Until such time as the sealed records are declassified, we'll continue to gather relics of this modern Marie Celeste, and search for the truth ourselves"

 

The weird thing from this radio is that it mentions the appearance of the magma as before the rockets of Moon. Of course, this radio might not be canon, but it talks about some interesting stuff. As for Victis being in a Cycle as well, I'd totally buy that and it would totally make sense. Great post!

[clueless]

I've seen you and Rich specifically going back and forth a LOT about this topic, and it's been very interesting seeing it come together! The idea of storms and lava being part of a duality already would make sense and it representing a pocket dimension would clear up a lot involving the Victis maps, especially the NAVCards Paradox like you mentioned.

[RichKiller]

14 hours ago, anonymous said:

I'm curious when you think exactly the storms will form: Is it due to the nearby pressence of Samantha or another ethereal entity, lurking on the other plane? Or is it due to the meddling with E115, the anomaly of the periodic system that doesnt belong to our dimension? Either way, the electricity generated in a thunderstorm might have something to do with a shift in the etheric realm.

It's hard to tell exactly but it seems to be a sign of the Apothicons. There are interesting quotes regards the storm and so. 

Quote

"The spirits whisper on the wind, ready to unleash lightning."- Upon killing with the storm bow, Takeo, DE.

I find this quote interesting as we know that whispers are related to the Apothicons, as well as the quote "Shadows are gathering, a great evil will be unleashed", and seeing Richtofen being the lightning in Samantha from the classified image. 
 

Quote

"I have a very good memory. At least, that is what Richtofen's said on more than one occasion. Myself, I am not so sure. Recent events have led me to conclude that exposure to the MPD may in fact be corrupting and clouding our cognitive processes. Speaking to my own, personal experiences, I'm reminded that I had a dream about Maxis’s daughter, Samantha."- Dr. Groph, DE, Radio. 

Where you see the storms in SoE, Mob, Five, DE storm bow (Warth of the ancients and so), etc. it does seem to be a sign of the Apothicons. 
There are times in which we can see Samantha influenced by the Apothicons, and there are times in which we can see the Apothicons stand against Samantha and influenced by the keepers. Five/Ascension is certainly one of those points where Samantha is influenced by the Apothicons. 
It seems to me the storm also comes with relation to the great war: A storm approaches, a war (and a storm) is coming, the clouds and shadows gather, a dark evil will be unleashed, the war is inevitable and we can't stop it. 

There is also the whole thing regards the different states of element 115, dynamic weather and the different states of it (ice/snow/meteors, water/rain/liquid divinium/flow, gas/storm/clouds). This is also ties to the flow of energy and the energy fields.
 

Quote

"The energy flows like a river"- Takeo, Origins, Upon killing zombies near the soul box. 

Quote

"Kronorium Excerpt 27101978: The life force from the dead world allows the bearer to flow with all creation."- GK cipher

Talked about this a bit more here (and perhaps I should also point towards this video explaining fields and flow): 

So I hope I addressed your question here @anonymous