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Call of Duty: MW3 Zombies marks the first ever Modern Warfare game that features a mode to fight the undead. But did you know that the story of MW3 Zombies is directly connected to the ones of Vanguard and Black Ops Cold War? After the events of the previous Black Ops games, Vanguard starts a new era called the Dark Aether, and here’s how its narrative is followed by BOCW and MW3 Zombies in a quick summary.
Black Ops 4 And The Full Reset of The Call of Duty Timeline
The Call of Duty‘s Zombies mode has always been a mystery box for most fans. The narrative started in Nacht Der Untoten of World At War expanded into a branching multiverse that was trapped in a cycle. But once that cycle got broken, everything was reset by the end of Black Ops 4 Zombies.
This marked a new era called the Dark Aether, featuring all the later Call of Duty games into one big narrative. To make things simple, every single Call of Duty game starting with Modern Warfare 2019 and their Zombies modes takes place in the same universe.
The Start of The Dark Aether Timeline
The story begins in Vanguard, in the year 1944. A group of German scientists led by Dr. Urich Vogel started a project named Endstation in Morasco, Poland. Their task was to test a particle accelerator and make discoveries; hoping to help the Nazis win the war. The result of this project opened a portal to another dimension, adding a new chemical element to work on; something that we know as Aetherium in the MW3 Zombies story.
However, opening the portal ended up being even more dangerous than expected, as it turned many of the crew into zombies. The team shuts down the accelerator, but the damage has been done, and it has already activated five demonic relics that give their owner the power of five Dark Aether realm’s superior beings.
Vanguard Zombies Storyline Summary
After the activation of the five relics, a commander named Wolfram Von List gathers a team of scientists and demonologists. He finds a relic belonging to a Dark Aether entity called the Kortifex, who was once the ruler of that realm. Using this relic he commands the dead soldiers to rise again, adding fuel to the fires of war.
Now, while Von List was gathering forces, a special force team was sent to defeat the commander and unlink him from the Kortifex’s relic. And that’s what exactly happens, when the Vanguard team defeats both the Von List and the Kortifex, killing the Dark Aether’s god in action. This activity takes place fifty years before the MW3 Zombies story.
Black Ops Cold War Zombies Storyline Summary
After the death of Kortifex, all Dark Aether superior beings are left in that realm. This is where WWII is nearly over, and the Russians have taken the position of the project Endstation in Poland. They send a soldier named Zykov into the Dark Aether, hoping to make new discoveries. But what happens next is something truly unbelievable.
Zykov gets trapped in the unknown realm and sees his sacrifice in vain. His death is for nothing, thus he begins to consume all the Dark Aether’s superior beings, gaining so much power he becomes capable of merging the human world and the Dark Aether. Meanwhile, Edward Richtofen, the director of the Western Bloc Requiem group, gathers forces to learn about Project Endstation and close Anamoly’s case. On the other hand, the Omega group from the Eastern Bloc led by Lev Kravchenko is also beating Requiem in running research about the Dark Aether.
In the end, Omega brings Zykov back from the Dark Aether. He’s been trapped in that damned place for 40 earthly years, which equals to ages in the Dark Aether. Zykov, also known as the Forsaken, tries to merge the human world with the Dark Aether, but in the end, he’s stopped by the sacrifice of Samantha Maxis and the Requiem operators. Sergei Ravenov is the one who gives Requiem the info about Omega and the release of Zykov from the Dark Aether. In the final battle, the Requiem operators trap Forsaken in a containment chamber, finishing the Dark Aether threat. Nearly thirty years later, we have the story of MW3 Zombies.
MW3 Zombies Storyline Up Until Season 1
MW3 Zombies mode starts with some clues on how the narrative connects to the BOCW storyline. First, we have Victor Zakhaev, now finding the Aetherium crystals and recruiting scientists to discover new weapons to sell. And then we have the aged Ravenov, now working with Operation Deadbolt to defeat Zakhaev.
The operation takes place in a time between MW2 and MW3‘s campaign storyline. A group of operators in the form of a strike team is sent to Urzikestan, ordered to discover the anomalies and capture Zakhaev before he unleashes more horror into the human world.
During their mission in Urzikestan, the strike team finds out that a physicist called Dr. Ava Jansen is the person who works beside Zakhaev to make weapons out of Aetherium elements. They capture the doctor and realize that all she did was for science’s sake only, not aware of Zakhaev’s plans. Therefore Jansen joins the Deadbolt team, helping them to study the Aether. In fact, Dr. Jansen has a crucial role in the MW3 Zombies story, as she can communicate with a being inside the Dark Aether.
Samantha’s Return
The strike team defeats Zakhaev in the end, but a Dark Aether portal is found in Urzikestan after. This is where the strike team finds more about an entity inside the other realm, who sounds a lot like Samantha Maxis; the one who sacrificed herself to defeat the Forsaken during Black Ops Cold War.
In the final cutscene of the MW3 Zombies Season 1, we see that Dr. Jansen is seeing visions of fighting the undead and then killing Ravenov in dreams. Then she speaks in the position of that Dark Aether entity, mentioning that “We will be, one.” This is probably a reference to how Samantha is now corrupted in the Dark Aether and wants the human world to be merged with that realm.
But will that ever happen? Will we finally see the return of Samantha Maxis to the Zombies storyline? All we can do is wait for more details, coming soon with Season 1 Reloaded and Season 2 updates.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone are currently available to play on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
