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The chaos of the Call of Duty Zombies storyline starts with a simple experiment by Dr Edward Richtofen; a man, who was possessed with power and driven into madness by the Shadow Man. And now after years of absence, Richtofen shows up in the Black Ops 6 renouncing his active presence in the Dark Aether timeline. But we have too many variants of Edward Richtofen, you know. It all sounds rather confusing, I’m sure. Well, thankfully you’ve got me –a CoD fanatic– to run you through it all.
How Many Edward Richtofens Do We Have in The Call of Duty Zombies?
The answer to this question is split into 2 parts: There’s only 1 Edward Richtofen in the current Zombies timeline, including Vanguard, Black Ops Cold War, MW3, and Black Ops 6. However, an infinite number of Richtofens existed in the multiverse, before it all got collapsed by the end of the Black Ops 4 Zombies narrative.
One can talk for hours and even days about the full backstory of the character, but here I try my best to keep things simple and show you the most important versions of Dr Edward Richtofen in the Call of Duty Zombies storyline. The German scientist plays a major role in both the past and present narrative, and it is important to know more about Richtofen if you’re also hyped for the upcoming Black Ops 6 Zombies content.
The Great War Richtofen
This is where everything begins with the main Call of Duty Zombies crew taking on the Great War against the Apothicons. The details about this war are unknown in many Dimensions, but in Universe 63 a man named Sir Pablo Marinus was saved by Nikolai Belinski, Tank Dempsy, Takeo Masaki, and Edward Richtofen to write and document the history. This was a war of Keepers and humans against evil.
The Ultimis Richtofen
Ultimis, known as “The Last” is the first batch of Zombies crew that we meet in Call of Duty, making their debut in the Shi No Numa map in World At War. Dr Richtofen is the leader, and his three test subjects accompany him in pursuit of power. Let’s start from the beginning.
Edward Richtofen, a German scientist, is a man who seeks technology beyond the reach of normal humans. In 1925, he started his experiments on teleportation by joining a group called the Illuminati. Then later in 1942, another German scientist, Dr Ludvig Maxis asks him to join Group 935 on a new experiment for gaining control of the human mind; referring to zombies and how one can control the dead, of course.
But Richtofen uses the 935’s funding to further expand his own experiments behind Maxis, leading him to teleport himself to the moon. There he’d confront a device called the M.P.D, something that I can best explain as the device that bonds one’s soul to the Aether, allowing the user to reanimate the dead. But if you do so, you’ll be corrupted, forever.
Upon touching the device, Richtofen gets in contact with an entity known as the Shadowman. This corrupted being forces Richtofen to become obsessed with creating an artifact called the Agarthan Device, which grants users anything they demand. Sounds intriguing doesn’t it?
So Richtofen then betrays Maxis and his daughter Samantha, sending them both to an unknown location with the teleportation device. But things go wrong when Samantha is teleported to the moon and walks inside the M.P.D., thus controlling the undead.
Richtofen then teleports himself to the moon to stop Samantha, and switches bodies with her, blowing up the earth in the process. Now Maxis is gone, Richtofen is still in pursuit of Agartha, deceiving a group of people called “Victis” to gather the material. If Victis follows Richtofen’s command, he reaches the ultimate power. If not, he is trapped inside a zombified body, which he later escapes by joining his fellow Ultimis mates.
In the end, there are two outcomes: The history either resets and things go over and over again. Or, Primis Richtofen and his crew find the Ultimis to finish the cycle, the paradox of Multiverse once and for all.
The Primis Richtofen
In another universe, Edward Richtofen is a student of Dr Ludvig Maxis, and unlike the Ultimis universe, the great war of the 13th century is documented. Due to that, humans know where to find large deposits of element 115, one of which is located in France.
Samantha Maxis from the Ultimis timeline asks Dimension 63’s Ludvig Maxis for help. He then frees and teleports Sam and her friend Eddie to Agartha; somewhere safe. A quick note here: Eddie is a young and innocent version of Edward Richtofen who’s been saved from Dimension 2210. Now remember this version of Edward “Eddie” Richtofen as a child, because he’s very important to the current timeline’s narrative, AKA Black Ops 6 Zombies.
Unlike the Ultimis Richtofen, the one in the Primis is joined by his allies, not as the test subjects. Edward is not in pursuit of Agartha this time, but he wants to solve the paradox of the multiverse, which is caused by his own actions in different timelines, documented in a book called The Kronorium.
It’s important to note here that Kronorium was constructed by none other than Dr. Monty. Monty is an original Keeper, but he’s not helping humanity this time. In fact, he lives in his perfect world where the multiverse tends to repeat itself in endless loops. And to make sure that things go as planned, he constructs Kronorium to contain the fates of Edward Richtofen and the rest of the main Call of Duty Zombies story crew.
Following the Kronorium’s instructions and learning about the original timeline’s events, Primis Richtofen goes on to change the history in many universes, including the one that takes place in The Giant/Der Riese. However, his actions toward killing all these variants of himself do not end any cycle, as there’s always a way or another for Multiverse’s paradox to continue.
Long story short, Richtofen learns that the only way to break the cycle is by killing all the crew. Primis, Ultimis, and every version of Richtofen and his allies have to die after gaining the Agarthan Device. So after retrieving the Summoning Key from the Chaos storyline in Morg City and creating the Vessel for it, Dimension 63 Richtofen sacrifices himself in Alcatraz prison to help his fellow comrades.
The Great War Richtofen here emerges at Alcatraz, giving the Kronorium to Nikolai Belinski. So the idea is simple through all this chaos: Richtofen doesn’t have what it takes to finish the story and kill everyone including himself, so Nikolai has to read the book and do it.
With the Summoning Key, a Vessel, and the Elemental Shard obtained by Victis – the Black Ops 2 Zombies crew from Tranzit -, Nikolai is able to banish all the Aether storyline of Call of Duty Zombies into Dark Aether upon killing Richtofen and all the others except for the children.
The original timelines’ Samantha Maxis and Dimension 2210 Edward “Eddie” Richtofen are given the choice to leave all the bad behind and live in a new world. Now it might sound confusing, but this new universe is the one that has Modern Warfare 2019, Cold War, Vanguard, MW2, MW3, and now Black Ops 6 in it.
The Director Richtofen
Introduced in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War as the Director, Edward Richtofen has been taking the high tables in the new Zombies timeline. Unlike Samantha Maxis who grew up in an orphanage in the new timeline, Edward Richtofen is now high in the ranks of the U.S. government, being in charge of a group called the Requiem that investigates the anomalies.
Much of the information about the early life of this Richtofen is unknown, but we know that he is more of an American now in contrast to Ultimis and Primis versions of him from the past. Edward has a wife in the new timeline and a boy named Samuel, but a huge tragedy happens and he loses both of them.
Gregori Weaver, a commander of the Requiem, unwillingly murders Richtofen’s wife and son by burning their house. He only had thought that he was going to kill Richtofen, having no idea of the family inside.
This is the memory that haunts Richtofen in Black Ops 6‘s Liberty Falls trailer. Regardless, Edward Richtofen is last seen in his Liberty Falls HQ, fighting off zombies until he’s trapped within the Dark Aether by none other than Samantha Maxis.
And that’s the basic information that you need to know about all versions of Edward Richtofen in the Call of Duty Zombies storyline. This info is cut short, as we’ve only tried to cover the important details and mention the prominent Richtofen variants.
