Once upon a time, some programming nerds at Las Vegas-based Westwood Studios created the Command and Conquer series, complete with its own intriguing story about a United Nations defense initiative combating a global terrorist organization, with a strange alien substance known as Tiberium at the center of the conflict. Then, like a black hole, EA Games assimilated Westwood Studios and began to do their best to put their own mark on the Command and Conquer series. Depending on who you ask, most fans say that EA ruined the lore of the games as well as the gameplay. But this article will do what few have dared to do before: examine the stories behind the games in the Command and Conquer series and bring them together into one canon to clarify some of the (many) inaccuracies caused by EA’s conquering of Westwood.

First Tiberium War (C&C: Tiberian Dawn/Renegade)

Opening

From the get-go, only one side is given a full description: that being the Global Defense Initiative, or GDI. Their main goal is to maintain freedom by eradicating terrorist activities across the globe. With the Brotherhood of Nod being the most prevalent terrorist organization in this universe, that puts Nod as GDI’s primary target. Simple enough.

The Brotherhood of Nod, however, is given less clear descriptions. They aspire to bring about brotherhood, unity, and peace, but have no qualms against wiping out civilian populations: whether directly through military force, or indirectly through expansion of Tiberium, which is referred to nebulously by their leader Kane as “the future.” What that “future” entails for the world is never made clear.

Endgame

GDI’s endgame is the destruction of Nod and the death of Kane. In the campaign, you are given the choice whether to use GDI’s ion cannon to wipe out the Temple of Nod, or destroy it conventionally. In the endings, it is hinted that high death-tolls result from conventional destruction of Kane’s Temple; however, using the ion cannon puts bad light on the leadership of GDI, since they had earlier denied rumors that they had been testing the ion cannon.

Nod’s endgame is unclear. Global unity, brotherhood, and peace is not achieved, nor is any Tiberium future brought to realization. Instead, Nod’s net-runners hack the GDI mainframe and, using the control codes for the ion cannon that they had previously stolen (why GDI didn’t just change the codes when they knew they had lost them is beyond me, but I guess that countermeasure was unimaginable back in 1995), destroy a national landmark of the GDI-supporting G-7 nations. This puts a bad light on GDI, but it is not stated if GDI’s funding is cut or whether this allows Nod to claim victory.

Second Tiberium War (C&C: Tiberian Sun/Firestorm)

Opening

After thirty-two years, the planet has changed for the worse. Tiberium is now an ecological threat that has altered the weather, taken over larger portions of the world’s resources, and brought about real-time genetic mutations among humans and animals. GDI, however, has not changed its course of action: they still intend to eradicate Nod and protect those civilians that Nod threatens (those who claim that GDI doesn’t care have bought into Nod propaganda).

The Brotherhood begins in a state of chaos, with Kane presumed to be dead and most of Egypt under control of a GDI spy who attempts to execute Anton Slavik, loyal follower of Kane and leader of the Black Hand. Once order is restored in Egypt and the GDI spy executed, Kane is revealed to still be alive and unites the Brotherhood in their war against GDI. As Nod begins to stabilize, we see more examples of terrorist actions from them: they use subterfuge to slaughter a colony of mutants and blame GDI for the attack, they publicly broadcast executions of political enemies and prisoners of war. They also unleash Tiberium-based weapons of mass destruction upon the civilians of Europe as part of Kane’s endgame.

Endgame

GDI’s endgame remains the same: kill Kane, stop Nod. This they do, though the effectiveness of this is brought into question. Footage from the First Tiberium War revealed that Kane embraced the blast from the ion cannon, as if he had been expecting just this.

Nod’s goals are a bit clearer in this installment, though not necessarily how those goals tie in to their ultimate goals of brotherhood, unity, and peace. Kane unleashes a Tiberium super-missile that terraforms the world, covering it in Tiberium. What doom this spells for the human race is unknown, but it is known that Nod succeeds in destroying GDI by launching ICBMs at their orbital space station the Philadelphia.

Firestorm Opening

With Kane presumed dead, GDI is suddenly and massively crippled. Communications with the Philadelphia is lost and the Kodiak, the airship that, like Nod’s Montauk, allowed GDI command to be active anywhere in the world, is destroyed. Their goals become the safe-guarding of civilian populations from Tiberium mutants and dangerous riots incited by agitators due to Nod’s influence. In addition, they are burdened with solving the Tiberium riddle before Tiberium makes life on earth unsuitable for humans. To this end, they capture and reactivate Nod’s command AI: Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform, also known as CABAL. However, his activation causes more damage for GDI than initially expected…

With Kane presumed dead, Nod is fractured once again. The Inner Circle, Kane’s closest commanders, are divided. In an effort to unite them, Anton Slavik decides to bring their command AI CABAL back online. However, his activation causes more damage for Nod than initially expected.

Endgame

GDI is forced to strike a deal with Nod in order to stop CABAL’s genocidal war against the humans. Once they are successful in putting down CABAL, they are able to unlock the secrets of Tiberium using the Tacitus: an alien artifact that had been at the heart of the war since Tiberian Sun.

Nod is forced to strike a deal with GDI in order to stop CABAL’s genocidal war against the humans. Once they are successful in putting down CABAL, Nod achieves its goal of unity within the Brotherhood, as they await the return of Kane. However, a secret bunker under CABAL’s command reveals that Kane may not be as dead as they had initially expected…

Third Tiberium War (C&C 3: Tiberium Wars/Kane’s Wrath)

Opening

GDI’s goals have somewhat changed. Using the Tacitus, they have been able to slow the advance of Tiberium. However, in an unusual move, they abandon large populations of humans as they redraw the globe around the three zones of Tiberium infection. This may be in an attempt to eradicate Nod through attrition, since they are delegated to Yellow Zones – hazardous to human-life but not uninhabitable – and no attempts to combat them are made. Also, it is suggested that GDI decommissions its walker program from the Second War, heavily destroying their defense capabilities.

The Brotherhood of Nod is still alive, though they have taken a more pseudo-religious approach to Kane’s message and the power of Tiberium. The motto of “Brotherhood, Unity, Peace” is missing, and they are still more than willing to attack civilian cities. However, their goals begin to take some kind of formation.

Endgame

Nod develops a liquid Tiberium weapon, which seems to have a similar effect to the super-missile from the Second War, only on a smaller scale. In response to this, GDI levels Temple Prime – a new Temple of Nod constructed on the ruins of the first Temple destroyed in the First Tiberium War – with their ion cannon. Doing this causes the liquid Tiberium weapon to go critical and release radiation into the atmosphere. This catches the attention of the Scrin, extraterrestrials who launch an immediate invasion plan. However, their invasion is cut short when both GDI and Nod begin at first to defend themselves. The Scrin establish Threshold Towers across the world, and GDI proceeds to destroy them all except one. The endgame results around finishing off the Scrin’s Tiberium control nodes on Earth, with once again the choice of using a liquid Tiberium weapon developed by rogue GDI Director Redmond Boyle or destroying the nodes conventionally. Using the weapon causes more radiation to flood Europe, costing millions of lives, while conventional destruction saves the lives of millions and GDI wins, but only the battle against the Scrin.

For the Brotherhood, the events unfold very similarly, with Kane presumed dead after GDI levels Temple Prime with their ion cannon. Once the Scrin invade, the traitorous Nod general Killian Qatar attempts to broker an alliance with GDI to stop the Scrin invaders, but Kane resurfaces and has her executed for treason. It is then revealed that the Threshold Towers being constructed by the Scrin are gateways to worlds beyond the earth. To fulfill the goal of “ascension”, Kane requests that one of the Threshold Towers be completed and defended. This succeeds, but ascension does not immediately take place…

Kane’s Wrath Opening

The Kane’s Wrath expansion focuses solely on the perspective of Nod, particularly that of Kane. This ties up certain loose ends between Tiberian Sun, Firestorm and Tiberium Wars. Depending on your view, a wounded Kane appears and declares to you (the command AI Logarithmically Engineered Governing Intelligence Of Nod, or LEGION) his intention to rebuild a great army. From acting behind the shadows shortly after the Firestorm events to plotting the events of the Third Tiberium War, Kane’s goals remain more or less the same from Tiberium Wars.

Endgame

After being infected with a virus shortly after the Scrin arrive, LEGION is awoken some time after the end of the Third Tiberium War. Nod seems to have advanced, with Kane bearing Scrin markings upon his robes (it is hinted that he has entered the Threshold Towers, though not confirmed). Kane declares that LEGION will merge with the Tacitus in order to take command of a cyborg army, the remnants of the one CABAL used during the events of Firestorm. The ending is ambiguous with LEGION merging with the Tacitus and its readout being replaced with Scrin code.

The Tiberium Canon

Nod’s endgame was always Tiberium. They had chosen to focus on defaming GDI during the First War so that they could be left alone to research Tiberium unmolested. By the Second War, the technology, and Tiberium, had advanced to such a point that a world-altering Tiberium super-missile was not a dream, but reality. With this, they would cover the world in Tiberium: “divination”, Nod’s name for Tiberium mutation, was the goal of the Brotherhood, that they could survive the Tiberium world. Once the world was covered in Tiberium, the Scrin would arrive, build their Threshold Towers, and the Brotherhood would ascend.

But that was cut short by GDI’s victory in the Second Tiberium War. The destruction of Nod’s Tiberium missile and raiding Kane’s Cairo Pyramid put Nod research into Tiberium-based weaponry behind by years. By the time of the Third Tiberium War, they could build a weapon, but not of the same strength and potency as the first one. Using the ion cannon to destroy Temple Prime, where the liquid Tiberium weapon was located, Kane hoped that enough radiation would be created to summon the Scrin to earth, thinking that Tiberium had covered the world. During the Scrin campaign, they attempt to scrub their Tiberium harvesting mission due to the earth not being completely terraformed. Once the Threshold Towers were put under construction, Kane chose one as the sight for the Brotherhood’s ascension (which was put off until Tiberium Twilight, which is considered noncanonical due to its complete ignoring everything that had come before it and its lackluster non-ending).

This canon features GDI winning in every game, which is often considered the ‘canon’ ending formally, but with Nod emerging victorious regardless.

Why Tiberium Twilight Doesn’t Count

This game was the last in the Command and Conquer series, and was supposed to end the Tiberium saga. Unfortunately, it ended much more than that: the real-time strategy genre of games, which Command and Conquer had dominated, died as a result of this game. As a result of this game, EA shut down Victory Games, the EA-owned company that was to continue the Command and Conquer RTS games, thereby destroying the Command and Conquer series (if not real-time strategy gaming’s biggest name) in one fell swoop.

As if political wrangling from higher up wasn’t bad enough, the game itself was wrecked from the start. Online connection was required to play the game, full access to Nod and GDI’s units was hidden behind grinding, the game could only be installed on one machine at a time, and, worst yet, the game could not be sold. Yes, that’s right. Once you bought Tiberium Twilight, it was yours for life. You couldn’t sell it, you couldn’t take it back to the store, you couldn’t trade it. But then the game-mechanics weren’t much else either: gone was everything that had made Command and Conquer games since the beginning. Instead of base-building or resource management, mobile bases and spammed units turned Tiberium Twilight into a moba-style capture the flag.

Then the story happened. EA had already caved to the whims of modern prejudices with Red Alert 3, the third installment of Westwood’s other equally successful RTS franchise. Anglophiles, people with anti-American sentiments, socialists, and weeaboos were given a game that praised the United Kingdom, turned America into a backwards, treacherous x-factor, distanced itself from Josef Stalin – the tyrannical dictator of the Soviet Union whom many apologists of socialism decry as “not truly socialist” – and created a third Japanese faction that was part stereotype, part anime, totally moral and unified (unlike the Allies and the Soviets, the other two factions).

With Tiberium Twilight, they brought more of the same. GDI starts off as the good guys, then descends into madness as the high-brass become enemies of both the people as well as your CO, who herself also eventually betrays you and kills you. As if that were not bad enough, Kane is now working with GDI. No, you didn’t misread that, Kane is working with GDI. Apparently GDI no longer believes in the UN policy of non-negotiation with terrorists. But Nod isn’t really ‘that’ bad, they say, mirroring secular humanist’s defense of the Muslim world, it’s only the fault of a few ‘extremists.’ Excuse me, but the Brotherhood of Nod has ALWAYS been an extremist fringe since the beginning! And, like with Tiberium Wars, Tiberium no longer seems to be the center of the conflict. Now Kane just wants to leave the earth, and uses you to accomplish that goal. Tiberium is now being controlled and eventually is cleansed from the earth due to the Tiberium Control Network, created by Kane using the Tacitus.

Where do I begin with how much this contradicts what has already been established, both by the Westwood games and those made under EA’s surveillance! And don’t even get me started on the plot-holes left dangling from the previous games! How did the last war end? Why has Kane suddenly decided to help GDI? Why have his plans suddenly changed? If the Tacitus was the Rosetta Stone of the Tiberium riddle, why is Kane using it to protect GDI instead of destroying them as before? What about LEGION? What happened to the cyborg army at the end of Kane’s Wrath? Why didn’t the Brotherhood ascend at the end of the Third War instead of waiting until now? Why does the future look so…2010s? Was this Kane’s plan all along, just getting home? Couldn’t they afford better actors? And why did they kill the gameplay mechanics that everyone loved about the original games?

That was the long, and now here is the short of it: EA screwed over everyone with Tiberium Twilight and it is best left forgotten forever. If you manage to find some kind of enjoyment from playing this game, congratulations.