Apothicon / Timeline

Timeline

Four universes, one spine each. Events sit in narrative order; a date appears only where a source gives one.

AetherWaW – BO4 (Treyarch)

The original continuity: Group 935, Element 115, and a time loop Primis Nikolai finally breaks at Tag der Toten. The only universe with an official ordering artifact, the timeline poster Treyarch shipped with Zombies Chronicles. No events charted yet.

ChaosBO4 (Treyarch)

BO4's parallel storyline: the Order, the Sentinel Trials, and Scarlett Rhodes's crew chasing her father from the Titanic to Delphi. The arc ends unfinished after Ancient Evil. No events charted yet.

Dark AetherCold War – BO6 (Treyarch)

Unrelated to Vanguard's Dark Aether, which shares the name only.

  1. Cold War, 1980s

    Requiem vs. Omega

    CIA-backed Requiem, directed by an unseen Edward Richtofen, races the Soviet Omega Group across Dark Aether outbreak zones.

    Die Maschine · Firebase Z · Mauer der Toten

  2. 1985

    The Dark Aether is sealed

    Requiem defeats the Forsaken. Samantha Maxis seals the dimension from the inside.

    Forsaken

  3. 1985

    Richtofen arrests his own staff

    Project Director Edward Richtofen has Requiem's senior staff, Weaver, Grey, Carver and Strauss, imprisoned without trial.

    Forsaken · Terminus

  4. 1986 – 1991

    Project Janus

    At the Terminus Island blacksite, Dr. Revati Modi weaponizes Aetherium for Richtofen's private agenda. Human experiments included.

    Terminus

  5. Feb 19, 1991

    Breakout at Terminus

    Smuggler Maya Aguinaldo frees the imprisoned Requiem crew with William Peck in tow, as a Dark Aether outbreak swallows the island.

    Terminus

  6. Feb 18, 1991

    Liberty Falls falls

    The same night, an outbreak erupts in Liberty Falls, West Virginia. The other half of BO6's opening.

    Liberty Falls

  7. Feb 1991

    Patient 13 destroyed

    The crew disarms the warheads Modi rigged to level the island, then destroys Patient 13, a Janus scientist mutated into a kraken-scale monster, and exfils to hunt Richtofen.

    Terminus

  8. 1991 onward

    The hunt for Richtofen

    Requiem's survivors pursue Richtofen through the rest of the BO6 arc.

    Citadelle des Morts · The Tomb · Shattered Veil · Reckoning

Dark Aether (Vanguard)Vanguard (Sledgehammer)

Nothing in the Cold War–BO6 arc references it; treated here as its own universe.

Officially billed as a prequel chapter of the Dark Aether saga, but its story is self-contained: WWII, Kortifex the Deathless, and entities bound to artifacts. Four maps, concluded in The Archon. No events charted yet.