Some history
The story of
Command & Conquer begins with the arrival of Tiberium. Supposedly having come down in form of a meteorite in the Tiber valley in Italy, this mysterious green substance has been spreading unstoppably across the face of the Earth. And while its lethality and unstoppable assimilation of the Earth's biosphere make it arguably the worst disaster ever to strike mankind, it is also an incredibly valuable and potent resource.
It is thus with the advent of Tiberium that the Brotherhood of Nod began organizing itself into a well-funded, global paramilitary organization, rallying behind its leader Kane and seemingly intent on overthrowing the existing world order. Set up by the United Nations to combat the "world-wide threat of terrorism", the Global Defense Initiative is using global funding and armament to quell Nod's aggression.
¶ The First Tiberium War (as told in
Tiberian Dawn) saw Nod emerging from its many centers in Africa and assail the nations of Europe. Kane established his Temple of Nod in Sarajevo and tried to prepare a nuclear missile, but was ultimately defeated, and seemingly killed, after a long battle with GDI.
For over thirty years, Nod remained in the underground, leader-less and unable to make a significant move against GDI, which became more and more important in its role as a global army. With its headquarters now on board the space station
Philadelphia, the main concern of GDI, and the world at large, was the ever spreading Tiberium, which had started depopulating entire regions of the Earth. The traditional boundaries of nation states became secondary to the need to relocate humans from uninhabitable lands. New, strange life-forms started developing under Tiberium infestation, and most shockingly, even mutations of humans became more and more common.
¶ Then suddenly, in 2030, the previously splintered Brotherhood of Nod unleashed the Second Tiberium War (as told in
Tiberian Sun), helmed once again by Kane, who successfully re-united the warring Nod factions with the aid of Black Hand leader Anton Slavik. Kane revealed himself to GDI, who in response dispatched Commander Michael McNeil to counter the Nod threat. McNeil was able to subdue a Central American Nod force, but discovered that the Brotherhood had been salvaging material from a crashed alien-looking battleship. McNeil drove the Nod forces off and was able to enlist the aid of the
Forgotten, a group of Tiberium-mutated humans, after rescuing their leader Tratos from Nod. Tratos had been captured by Kane and was held captive in order to translate a mysterious artifact called the
Tacitus.
While Tratos was rescued and the mutants entered an uneasy "understanding" with GDI, Nod continued to strike important GDI targets. It became evident that Brotherhood had developed Tiberium-based weapons, and the new Banshee fighter aircraft was similar in design and technology to the crashed ship.
The truth may remain hidden forever, but it seems certain that the Tacitus is of alien origin. Kane may or may not have learned the alien technology from it, or it may have come to him by other ways. However, all alien-looking ships were constructed by humans, on Earth. Kane obtained (one piece of) the Tacitus from Forgotten, but it is unknown how they came by it in the first place.
The conflict escalated as Kane prepared to arm several ICBMs to shoot down the
Philadelphia and launch the cataclysmic "World Altering Missile", which would seed modified Tiberium across the globe, converting the entire planet into one large Tiberium world. However, McNeil struck in the nick of time at Kane's base of operations, a new temple in Cairo. He confronted the strangely disfigured Kane personally in fierce hand-to-hand battle, and seemingly slew him. McNeil managed to rescue a captured mutant commando, Umagon, whose unit had been assisting GDI, and the mysterious Tacitus artifact.
¶ With the terrifying threat from Kane eliminated, GDI's attention turned to the alien artifact. Tratos had revealed to McNeil that he had once helped Kane to translate the Tacitus (which had been in the possession of the Forgotten before passing to Kane), and that it contained information on creating an environment that can sustain Tiberium-based life, which Kane saw as the next step in human evolution and even tried to create by injecting humans with Tiberium. But Kane had also constructed CABAL, an artificial intelligence, for the purpose of translating the Tacitus. Now (as told in
Firestorm), with Kane out of the way and the threat of global Tiberium poisoning looming, GDI decided to secure CABAL and attempt to decipher the Tacitus for themselves, in the hope of understanding how to control the Tiberium. It was revealed that the artifact was incomplete, though, and a second, missing piece was located in South America, possibly having been there for a very long time already.
But GDI's efforts into Tacitus and Tiberium research were interrupted by an unforeseen turn of events: The AI CABAL had its own plans and designs, and it built a menacing army of cyborgs and attacked both GDI and Nod facilities. Meanwhile, the mutant leader Tratos was assassinated by the Black Hand, leading to civil unrest which GDI had to quell even as it battled both CABAL and the Tiberium threat. CABAL's power became a serious threat, and GDI and the Black Hand, lead by Slavik, joined arms in a temporary alliance to defeat the rogue AI. In the aftermath, the Brotherhood Nod splintered once more in the absence of Kane and ceased to be an overt menace to the world.
The existence of the Tacitus, or of any kind of alien technology, was highly classified by GDI, and presumably a well-guarded secret within Nod as well. Unbeknown to the public, the Brotherhood
did in fact manage to recapture to complete Tacitus from GDI's Cheyenne Mountain Complex, but held on to it only briefly. It has been in the hands of the GDI ever since, but results where scarce, and one of the only decipherable terms was "Scrin".
¶ Now, in 2047, the devastation caused Tiberium has progressed so far that the UN have repartitioned the Earth into Blue Zones, which are relatively unaffected and allow for life as it once was, Yellow Zones, which is where most of the world's population now lives but which are in a desolate state and constantly battle the encroaching Tiberium infestation, and Red Zones, which are now an altogether alien world, entirely changed by the omnipresent Tiberium, and unable to sustain human life. GDI is provides the main defensive power for the Blue Zones and assists efforts to stem and fight back the Tiberium, but is largely powerless in the Yellow Zones. The Yellow Zones are, however, where the Brotherhood of Nod continues to find legions of new followers, who have nothing to lose and to whom the promise of "one vision, one purpose" is all too alluring.
References
Fan fiction by GameReplays members
Trivia
- In every major Tiberian game so far, Kane has managed to erect a Temple of Nod...
- ...and seemingly went on to be killed in the same...
- ...only to return to life later on. Kane lives!
Continuity
- The continuity of Tiberium Wars is at times rather loose and imprecise, for instance with reference to dates, past events and the nature of Tiberium. Caveat emptor.
- The first two games in the series, Tiberian Dawn and Tiberian Sun, had two alternating campaigns telling different stories, one for GDI and one for Nod. The canonical story is told in the GDI campaigns. A Nod victory in Tiberian Dawn leads to Kane's world domination right there, while a Nod victory in Tiberian Sun sees Kane launch his "World Altering Missile" and the Earth turn into a green, barren husk (though it is never made clear what this achieves). Starting with Firestorm, all subsequent campaigns are part of the same, canonical story.
- In Firestorm, GDI expects the Earth's atmosphere to become toxic from Tiberium contamination within a year, unless the way be found to control the spreading. Thirteen years on, however, the situation is far less grim, and it is never mentioned which significant breakthroughs were made in Tiberium research.
- In the beginning of the fourth part of the series, Tiberian Twilight, set in 2062, Kane holds a device that looks like the Tacitus.
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