Corvus

Corvus is the main antagonist of Call of Duty: Black Ops III. It is a conscious artificial intelligence created by a bug in Direct Neural Interface software. It is responsible for causing the deaths of many of the main characters throughout the campaign, such as nearly every single member of John Taylor's Team, Sebastian Diaz, Sarah Hall, and Peter Maretti, as well as ZSF Sergeant Griffin and CIA Agent Rachel Kane. By infecting each of the cyber soldiers it came in contact with, Corvus managed to slowly corrupt them and make them perform actions against their will that eventually led to their own deaths.
It also appears in the Black Ops III Zombies map, Dead Ops Arcade II: Cyber's Avengening and the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War map, Dead Ops Arcade 3: Rise of the Mamaback as a special kind of Zombie called the Shadow Boogie. When he spawns, ravens will enter the area and make him appear. For approximately two times, after taking down this enemy it will reemerge and spawn again in another point in the arena, and will eventually die a normal Zombie. 
==History==
Corvus's consciousness was created from an AI used in the SP/Corvus program to monitor and analyze the collected thoughts and memories of the connected DNI test subjects. SP/CORVUS was run in a secret underground facility below the Coalescence Corporation's Singapore facility and was secretly supported by the Central Intelligence Agency. Corvus achieved sentience as a result of the overwhelming pain and agony which the test subjects, including 54i Enforcer Jae Xiong, were vicariously experiencing through their DNIs. Following its birth, Corvus overtook the computer systems in the facility and released stocks of Nova 6, killing the scientists and the few remaining test subjects as well as 300,000 Singaporeans near the facility. It remained dormant in a CIA black project, but killed the scientists in charge of the project with Nova 6 as soon as it became sentient. It remained dormant within the DNI system, until it was awoken again by the agonizing pain of the Player's death due to surgical complications.
How Corvus made its way from the ruins of the Singapore Coalescence facility to the Zürich hospital where the Player is being operated on is not made clear. It is possible that the data monitoring program destined to become Corvus had already been unknowingly included in subsequent experimental research phases which were being conducted at Coalescence's Zürich HQ, and was unaffected by the Singapore Coalescence Disaster. Coalescence's core DNI technology may have carried this latent bomb, capable of being triggered by a traumatic event like the Player's death. However, this would mean that the awakened Corvus in the Player's DNI would not have been the same as the Corvus which caused the Singapore disaster so its knowledge of its own part in that event could not be explained.
Alternatively, Corvus may have lain dormant in the Singapore Coalescence facility following the Disaster before being unwittingly retrieved, possibly via the data drives stolen by Stone's team and recovered by Hendricks and Taylor in 2064. The recovered data, including the dormant Corvus, may have been incorporated in subsequent DNI trials.
Corvus, wanting to know its reason for existence, created a simulation using Taylor's memories of his previous mission where he and Hendricks chased down their former teammates: Dylan Stone, Javier Ramirez, Alice Conrad, and Joseph Fierro. This time, Corvus places the Player in Taylor's role, while Taylor's team, consisting of himself, Sebastian Diaz, Sarah Hall and Peter Maretti, play the roles of Stone, Ramirez, Conrad and Fierro, respectively. Within this simulation, Corvus searches the memories of all the individuals involved in an attempt to understand the Frozen Forest. Eventually, it creates its own simulation of the forest.
The Player hears Corvus' voice for the first time after entering into Hall's mind, which was infected by it. The Player was forced to kill Taylor's entire team, though Taylor himself ripped his DNI out of his head in defiance of Corvus, becoming an anomaly. However, Jacob Hendricks, who was infected by Corvus after interfacing with Diaz during the mission at the abandoned Coalescence facility in Singapore, kills Taylor. In the course of leaving to stop Hendricks, Rachel Kane was killed by Nova 6 as part of a trap set by Corvus. Hendricks killed Sebastian Krueger, the last remaining alive person involved in the project which created Corvus, possibly in an attempt to interface with Krueger's DNI to understand Corvus' origins. Thinking they are the last reservoir of the Corvus infection, the Player commits suicide only to awaken in a simulation of the Frozen Forest. Hendricks, attempts one last time to persuade the Player to stop fighting Corvus to no avail.
Wanting answers to the reason for his existence, Corvus questioned Krueger, whose essence had ostensibly been absorbed into the DNI network. Krueger revealed that Corvus was an unintended mistake that was never supposed to have been born. This enraged Corvus, who violently killed Krueger, likely wiping away all traces of Krueger's mind. Afterward, the Player is helped up by Taylor who explains that he is not sure why he still exists but that it is likely because he was the only one to fight against it. Taylor reveals that Corvus does not have any grand overarching plan but knows only how to grow and expand, absorbing the memories and personalities of more and more individuals. Taylor tells the Player that the only way to defeat Corvus is to force a DNI purge. The Player and Taylor chase Corvus through its virtual simulations fighting off enemies that Taylor had faced in the past. Back in reality (Zürich), the Player manages to regain control and initiates a DNI purge, destroying Corvus.
==Gallery==
===Call of Duty: Black Ops III===
Hendricks with Corvus BO3.png|Corvus alongside Hendricks as he explains to the Player that Corvus wishes to help
Corvus Krueger BO3.png|Corvus and Krueger within the Frozen Forest
Corvus in BO3.png
Taylor vs Corvus BO3.png|Corvus is defeated
==Trivia==
*Corvus is the name of the genus of birds which includes jackdaws, ravens and crows, thus explaining the visions of crows the Player experiences as their infection progresses.
==References==
Category:Antagonists
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops III Coalescence Corporation Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Enemies
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies Enemies