Edward "Eddie" Richtofen

Edward C. Richtofen, also known as Eddie, is a character in the Aether Story and Dark Aether Saga of the Zombies game mode.
First appearing in the ending of the Call of Duty: Black Ops II map Origins as a child, Eddie was eventually established as an alternate version of Richtofen, hailing from Dimension 2210. He is the third most prominent version of Richtofen, following the Ultimis and Primis versions. Eddie is seen throughout Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in child form, and appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 as an adult in the Dark Aether Saga, now the director of Requiem, and later Project Janus.
==Biography==
===Early Life===
Not much is known about Eddie's early life, or how he grew up compared to the other versions of Richtofen. All that is known is that he resided in Dimension 2210. At some point while he was still a child, Eddie was visited by a grown-up counterpart of himself from Dimension 63, who killed him and acquired his soul with the Summoning Key, as part of his plan to "secure a better tomorrow".
===Living in Agartha===
After being gathered in the Summoning Key, Eddie's soul would be sent to Agartha to live in Doctor Monty's House. There, he would meet Ludvig Maxis, who introduced him to his young daughter, Samantha. The two became friends and would spend much of their time playing with toys gifted to them by Monty. Interestingly, some of these toys seemed to bear a resemblance to his other, older counterparts.
During the cycle, the souls of "Tank" Dempsey, Takeo Masaki, and Nikolai Belinski would each be captured and sent to the House after Nikolai's soul was captured. There, the souls would be transformed into children by Monty and met up with the others. They were all quick to befriend each other, and all of the children would live in peace. However, this would be disrupted by the arrival of the Shadowman and the Apothicon invasion of the universe. The Apothicons would be stopped and defeated once and for all by Primis, but sent to the Great War. After this, the fate of Eddie is left unknown.
===Escaping Agartha===
However, when the cycle was broken, things went awry. He and Samantha still lived in relative peace until Primis Nikolai began his master plan to rid the universe of Element 115 and to solve the Paradox of the Multiverse. Monty soon found out that Primis and Maxis were working behind his back. Feeling that the children would be threatened by this, Maxis brought Eddie and Samantha into the basement, teleporting them out of Agartha and to Camp Edward before Monty devoured him. When they arrived, Samantha destroyed the facility in anger and promised to Eddie that they would fight The Great War and defeat Monty.
===The Way Through===
Eddie and Samantha would accompany Primis and Ultimis to a forest, where they would celebrate their imminent victory against the nightmares of the Aether. Eddie was also present when Nikolai asked Samantha for a favor, to be the one to "kill the one who perpetrated all of this". Secretly, Nikolai had poisoned the rest of his comrades knowing that their lives kept the Multiverse together through the Elemental Shard.
After using the Agarthan Device to destroy the Summoning Key and the Multiverse in the process, Eddie would be present as Nikolai had Samantha mercy-kill him with a Welling. She then told him to look away as she did the deed. As the Multiverse collapsed, the Agarthan Device presented the children with a way out of the Dark Aether thanks to Nikolai, "The Way Through". Eddie and Samantha held hands and walked together out of the darkness into a new universe.
===A New Life===
Virtually nothing is known about what happened to Eddie immediately after entering the new universe. At some point, he was separated from Samantha as she was sent to an orphanage. Eddie was also admitted into an orphanage in Berlin on October 8th, 1954. The orphanage staff noted Eddie to be highly intelligent, yet he was constantly troubled by nightmares and other mental conditions. 
Roughly two years after being accepted into the orphanage, Eddie was adopted by demonologist Gabriel Krafft.Krafft assumed Eddie to be maybe 10 years old when he first met him. Krafft treated Eddie like his own son, though he would soon grow concerned of Eddie's conditions. In 1957, Krafft accepted an offer to move to the United States where he would join the CIA's MKULTRA program. Both Krafft and Eddie moved stateside as a result.
Eddie continued to grow up in the United States, eventually meeting a woman, with whom he would begin a relationship with and have a son. However, at one point, both his wife and son died in a fire leading him to a dark path.
Later on in his life, Eddie would join the CIA under the "Office of Extra-Regular Activities" where he would become an Associate Deputy Director.
===Creation of Requiem and Ulterior Motives===
After the Projekt Endstation Cyclotron was reactivated at Morasko by Omega Group member Doctor Aleksandra Valentina and the subsequent creation of Outbreak Zones, the CIA held a meeting led by regarding the incident and recent outbreaks from the Dark Aether on November 5th, 1983. During this meeting, Eddie proposed the creation of a new office under the DS&T with NATO representation - the Office of Requiem. Casey approved, and Eddie would be placed as the Office's Director 2 days later during Requiem's creation. He would personally choose Grigori Weaver as the Special Officer for this office, as well as approving Elizabeth Grey, Oskar Strauss and Mackenzie Carver for Requiem's senior staff.
Unbeknownst to the rest of Requiem, Eddie himself had ulterior motives to the creation of Requiem. Answering to a mysterious corporate "Board of Directors", Eddie was above all else dedicated to the completion of "Project Janus", manipulating both Requiem and Omega Group behind the scenes to his liking. At some point, he learned of the existence of an Elder God known as the Forsaken. To further his goals for Project Janus, Eddie devised a grand scheme to safely capture the Forsaken. He would also come into contact with American turned Soviet defector Dr. William Peck, Omega's Lead Scientist of Exoscientific Phenomena Research, who he would use to further his agenda. As the Director, Eddie would approve the undertaking of Operation Cerberus on November 13th and order the Requiem strike team (through Weaver) to shut down the Cyclotron and close the rift opened at Morasko. 
Omega Group would create a new dimensional research outpost in Vietnam known as Outpost 25, establishing it over what once was Firebase Ripcord used by American forces during the Vietnam War. Former-BND turned rogue Samantha Maxis (a familiar figure in Eddie's life) would infiltrate Outpost 25 before being captured and interrogated by Peck. While Maxis was under Peck's custody, Eddie would tell him to throw her into the Dark Aether using the dimensional breach Omega had managed to open at the site. He obeyed, and on June 15th, 1984, would allow Weaver to undertake Operation Lost Property to retrieve Maxis. The strike team sent to Vietnam would succeed, and rescue Maxis from the Dark Aether. Upon her return from the other dimension, Maxis had underwent various physical changes due to prolonged Aetherium exposure. Believing she was responsible for the Outpost 25 Outbreak, Requiem placed her in quarantine. Eddie, remembering the little lost girl from his childhood, continued to keep a close eye on her.
===Interrogation and Incursion===
On June 20th, 1984, Requiem was authorized to launch Operation Threshold , aiming to study the Ural Outbreak Zone and retrieved Aetherium samples using devices developed by Requiem departments in the previous months. The operation started to interfere with Omega's plan but both organizations tried to stay away from each other to prevent an escalation of the conflict. Operation Threshold would span several months. Knowing of Omega's "Operatisya Inversiya", Eddie secretly contacted Colonel Lev Kravchenko and informed him of the existence of an entity within the Dark Aether; the Forsaken. As planned, Kravchenko would divert his attention towards the Forsaken rather than the West. Kravchenko was not the only person to learn about the entity, as Major Carver learned of the entity thanks to a seemingly open document found on Eddie's desk. Carver would keep this information to himself, only sharing it with the strike team.
On November 16th, with the help of Ravenov, who acquired a listening device designed by Aleksandra Valentina working with the Beacon mechanism used by Requiem's team to navigate through the Ural Outbreak Zone, and the help of Grey and her comms protocols, Maxis established a covert and secure communication line with Requiem's Strike Team without Weaver's knowledge. Maxis, the strike team, and Omega Group-defector Captain Sergei Ravenov went rogue and worked together to dispose of Omega's Operatsiya Inversiya Inversion Warheads. The strike team would nearly be court-marshalled for their actions, but Eddie would personally intervene and pardon them, allowing them to continue operations as normal. He would then greenlight further testing for Maxis, forcing Weaver to have her removed from quarantine and brought to BLOCK 8 on December 1st, arriving two days later.
Eddie would reunite (unbeknownst to Sam) with Samantha on December 5th, where he planned to personally oversee the testing. This first meeting, while officially reported as an "orientation" to "establish boundaries" that went well for both parties, Eddie actually interrogated and electrocuted Samantha, asking her various questions about her life; the nature of which he already knew, due to his memories from the Multiverse. On December 7th, Samantha underwent another session with Eddie, where he asked Samantha to use her powers - to no avail. Fifteen days after Maxis' arrival, Eddie had yet another session with Maxis. This time, however, he purposefully played with her emotions in an attempt to provoke her into using her powers - specifically by threatening to make Weaver "disappeared" for his viewed failures, as well as calling Samantha a "pathetic, sad, little lost girl", which caused Samantha to shatter the glass protecting the Director with her powers in anger.
On December 14th, the Requiem strike team was led into a trap and captured by Dr. Hugo Jager and Kravchenko during Operation Excision. Later, in January of 1985, Aleksandra Valentina left Omega Group to pursue her own agenda in Berlin - the opening of a gateway into the Dark Aether and the unleashing of an undead Nazi army. Eddie was already aware of her plan, and secretly sent an experimental robot named Klaus as well as a nuclear device to a CIA safehouse hidden beneath the Berlin Wall in order to stop her. To prevent any leaks about the project, the Director activated Klaus to kill the operatives stationed at the safehouse.
Valentina would begin her master plan later in January, fulfilling the wishes of her long dead father: Dr. Ulrich Vogel, lead of Projekt Endstation. An outbreak zone appeared around one of Berlin's checkpoints unleashing the undead Nazi soldiers that once was Task Force Baldr. Requiem managed to contain the situation and evacuate the inhabitants by using a cover story about a leak of nerve gas stockpile dating from the war. The nuclear device, however, was lost when the outbreak happened. Eddie personally prevented the Senior Staff from acting further, initially planning to use on-site American forces but ultimately leaving the situation in the captured strike team's hands after learning about their capture from an Omega contact. Valentina would be defeated on February 2nd by the strike team, who Kravchenko deployed them to Berlin. Omega and Klaus would assist the strike team in building an Inversion Warhead and sealing the Dark Aether portal in Berlin. 
Maxis used her new powers to open a portal on a roof for the strike team to escape through after being attacked by Kravchenko. The team was teleported in a room at Block 8 where they met Weaver and Maxis who was accompanied by her dog, Notso. As Eddie reviewed the footage of this, he stated that Valentina was no longer a problem and Project Janus could proceed unimpeded. He, however, noted that Maxis was becoming a problem that needed to be dealt with. His testing of Samantha's powers continued into February, and by February 1985, forced her to kill a captured Omega operative by threatening to kill Grey, Maxis complied but was distressed by her actions. Over the next two months, Eddie continued to assess Maxis' powers which included telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation of objects, creation of two-way portals, etc. On February 8th, Eddie wrote a memorandum to his superiors, the Board of Directors. In the memorandum, he would assure them that Project Janus would proceed at the right time, and that Maxis would be dealt with.
===The Pieces Fall Into Play===
Afterwards, Omega Group began work on "Operatsiya Izbavitel", hoping to return Sgt. Kazimir Zykov, who had been trapped in the Dark Aether for decades, back to their world with the goal of having Zykov help weaponize the Forsaken against the West. Peck would secretly contact Eddie, informing him of Izabvitel. On April 29th, Carver called Weaver at home, talking to him about Eddie and his ongoing research to find out who he is. During the Major's research, Carver learned that before leading Requiem, the Director was an Associate Deputy Director at the "Office of Extra-Regular Activities" which specialized in clandestine sciences.
Carver then makes an offhand comment about the Director possibly wiretapping his communications, before abruptly realizing this is most likely the case. He would then state he was "just joking" in an attempt to cover his tracks before hanging up. A day later, Eddie requested a transcript of this conversation from wiretap B-14 which led to Carver's home line. In early May, Ravenov, who was blacklisted by the CIA following Operation Excision, contacted Weaver and revealed that he had information regarding Operatsiya Izbavitel and its location in the Zakarpatska Oblast with a courier having been sent to a Requiem's dead drop in Madrid with documents. Knowing Eddie was listening, Ravenov attempted to make a bargain for Maxis' freedom in exchange for the info. Maxis was still at Block 8 following the Berlin Incident, but Eddie allowed her to contact the different strike teams still in the field, as well as sending letters to Weaver and Elizabeth Grey.
On May 12th, Requiem was authorized to proceed with Operation First Domino, aiming to rescue Zykov and take him into custody before Omega. On the 28th, Eddie would approve Maxis for the operation with her being responsible for the strike team's infil at Test Site Anna through use of a portal. She would not, however, be allowed to participate any further in First Domino. On June 1st, a Secretary at the Executive Office sent the Director a progress report detailing a test site in West Virginia, where construction of "The Wall" was to begin. Three days later, the Requiem strike team undertook Operation First Domino, arriving at Omega's Test Site Anna, where it was revealed Zykov was none other than the Forsaken. The strike team, assisted by Samantha who manifested at Test Site Anna, did battle with the Forsaken before Samantha sacrificed herself by flying into the entity's core.
Weakened, the Forsaken was drawn into the spherical device in the containment chamber. With its capture, the Outbreak Zones around the world began to lessen and collapsed. Soon after, a helicopter arrived to transport the spherical device out of the Soviet Union. At his deck, Eddie stated in a memo that with Maxis now locked in the Dark Aether, she was no longer a problem for Project Janus. He ordered the strike team to be sent to Blacksite 13 for "indefinite containment" before shutting down Requiem. He then ordered his agents to move on Requiem's Senior Staff. Watching Grey, Carver, Strauss, Weaver, Raptor One and the strike team being arrested from his monitors, Eddie grabbed his briefcase from his desk and left his office.
===New Obsession===
Over the next several years, Eddie started setting up a new test site under Project Janus' name in Liberty Falls, a small town in West Virginia, where the Forsaken's containment chamber was held and studied. He also oversaw Requiem's imprisonment at Blacksite 13, which he gave full control of to Revati Modi after hiring her. Eddie specifically also ordered for Weaver to go through more extensive torture compared to the other members of Requiem. Throughout this ordeal, Eddie remained haunted by the deaths of his wife and son.
On July 14th, 1989, Eddie successfully booted up the Synaptic Algorithm Module (S.A.M.), an artificial intelligence that was designed based on brain scans he acquired from Samantha. Noticing that S.A.M. has remnants of Samantha's own memories, Eddie offered to teach S.A.M. to differentiate reality from what he deemed "nightmares".
At some point, Eddie learned of the Sentinel Artifact and its purpose: to control a proto-matter known as Prima Materia. He became obsessed with it, researching on its location. He eventually found evidence suggesting that the artifact was located in the Principality of Avalon, and hired a local criminal organization, the French Syndicate, to find it. He also specifically requested Syndicate member Francois "Franco" Moreau to torture Krafft for information, knowing that his adopted father was in Avalon and aware of the Artifact's location.
===Liberty Falls Outbreak===
On February 18, 1991, after waking up from a nightmare, Eddie was notified of a dimensional breach while on-site at Liberty Falls. Realizing that S.A.M. may have gone rogue, Eddie picked up a Wunderwaffe DG-2 in his room, and made his way down to the sub-level basement, while also ordering Janus operative John Blanchard to call in a response team. As Eddie took an elevator down, purple mist seeped through the elevator and grabbed him, rocking him up and down as he called out to S.A.M., claiming he would never set her free. The mist then phased Eddie away, taking him to an unknown location.
===Future===
As of 2021, Eddie's status remains unknown. After Operation Deadbolt managed to contain an outbreak in Zaravan, Urzikstan, Ava Jansen was given a Project Janus dossier, which included a photo of Eddie.
==Personality==
As a child, Eddie's personality is nothing substandard for a young boy, although he is a bit stubborn as noted by his unwillingness to share his toys with Samantha, and his insistence that Samantha doesn't "know enough about zombies" in the games they play. After migrating to the new universe, Eddie seems to have lost his memories, but otherwise his personality remains intact.
Eddie's personality as an adult is one of cold calculation - being just as manipulative as Primis and Ultimis Richtofen; though unlike them, he seemingly possesses no desire for recognition, and in fact goes out of his way to ensure people don't know who he is, indicating his ego may be somewhat more in-check. Eddie can also be described as highly manipulative and scheming. Eddie does not seem to have any attachment to his subordinates at Requiem, as seen with his willingness to arrest the entirety of the Requiem Senior Staff once he no longer has any use for them. Additionally, he is shown to take extreme measures in order to achieve the means he needs; purposefully putting others lives at risk if he views the situation as requiring it, such as when he threatened to have Elizabeth Grey killed if Samantha Maxis didn't kill a captured Omega Group soldier with her powers. Eddie does, however, seem to at least love his family as he keeps a picture of them at his desk.
==Appearances==
Origins Lobby Icon BO2.png|OriginsAppears in outro cutscene
Revelations Menu Selection BO3.png|RevelationsAppears in intro cutscene
AlphaOmega LoadingScreen BO4.png|Alpha OmegaAppears in intro and outro cutscenes
TagDerToten Teaser BO4.jpg|Tag der TotenAppears in intro and outro cutscenes, briefly controllable in the ending sequence
DieMaschine New Selection Screen BOCW.png|Die MaschineMentioned
FirebaseZ Promo BOCW.jpg|Firebase ZMentioned in intel
Outbreak SelectionScreen BOCW.png|OutbreakMentioned in intel
MauerDerToten Selection Screen BOCW.png|Mauer der TotenAppears in outro cutscene, face obscured
Forsaken Selection Screen BOCW.png|ForsakenAppears in outro cutscene
OperationDeadbolt LoadingScreen MWIII.png|Operation DeadboltPhoto appears in outro cutscene of Act IV story mission "Ascension"
LibertyFalls AARSummary Background BO6.png|Liberty FallsAppears in intro cutscene
==Gallery==
===Call of Duty: Black Ops II===
Eddie Origins BOII.png|The child version of Edward Richtofen seen in the House from the Origins quest ending.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops III===
Child Dempsey and Eddie BO3.png|Eddie with a child Dempsey.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops 4===
Sam and Eddie AlphaOmega.jpg|Eddie and Sam in the Alpha Omega intro.
Samantha shields Eddie from Dr Monty AlphaOmega opening cutscene BO4.png
Nikolai asks a favor TagDerToten Bo4.png|Eddie, alongside Samantha and Nikolai.
Nikolai w Eddie and Sam TagDerToten Bo4.jpeg
WeShouldNotBeHere TagDerToten BO4.png|Eddie hiding behind Samantha as Nikolai pulls a Welling out of his holster.
ABetterTomorrow TagDerToten Bo4.png|Eddie and Samantha leave the Dark Aether.
Samantha and Eddie TagDerToten Bo4.png|Eddie and Samantha within the Dark Aether, front view.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War===
Director watching Sam MauerDerToten BOCW.png|Director Richtofen watching Samantha.
Director typing memo MauerDerToten BOCW.png|Typing a memo.
BestDirectorEver MauerDerToten BOCW.png|"Best Director Ever!".
Director looks at memo Forsaken BOCW.png
Director watches as senior staff is arrested Forsaken BOCW.png|Richtofen watches as the Requiem senior staff is arrested.
Director leaves Forsaken BOCW.png|Richtofen leaving his office.
Director stops in tracks Forsaken BOCW.png
Richtofen reveal Forsaken BOCW.png
Eddie BlueBaron Forsaken BOCW.png|A photo of Eddie in "The Blue Baron".
Eddie Family Forsaken BOCW.jpg|Director Richtofen and his family.
PyrrhicVictory CallingCard BOCW.gif|The Director in the Pyrrhic Victory calling card.
===Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III===
Eddie Janus Dossier MWIII.png|A photo of Richtofen attached to a Project Janus dossier.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops 6===
EddieRichtofen LibertyFalls Cutscene BO6.png
Eddie Richtofen Wunderwaffe BO6.jpg|Richtofen holding the Wunderwaffe DG-2.
Zombies Promo48 BO6.jpg
==Trivia==
===Call of Duty: Black Ops 4===
* Eddie is depicted as being shorter than Samantha in Alpha Omega and Tag der Toten's comic-rendered cutscenes. However, he is shown to be much taller than her during the final step of Salvation Lies Above when he leaves the Dark Aether with her.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War===
*According to Mackenzie Carver, Richtofen is multilingual, capable of speaking English, German, French, Italian, and Russian.
*A photo of Richtofen in a fighter jet can be seen on his desk in the outro cutscene of Forsaken with the word "The Blue Baron". This is a reference to the Red Baron, the nickname of a German during World War I whose real name was .
*Unlike Samantha, Richtofen seems to have retained at least some of his memory from the events of the Aether Story, as noted by him remembering Samantha's birthday and birthplace.
**A snow globe can be seen on his desk containing a replica of Monty's house in Agartha. The snow globe was also featured in a trailer for Zombies Chronicles.
*Richtofen has a family, as seen in a photograph on his desk where he is seen kissing a woman and carrying a young boy on his shoulders.
**The photo itself was taken in real-life, with Richtofen's face being edited in.
===Call of Duty: Black Ops 6===
*Richtofen seems to speak with an American accent when calm, but when highly agitated, he would slip into a German accent that is more similar to his previous counterparts.
==References==
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Zombies Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Zombies Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Zombies Characters
Category:Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies Characters
Category:Antagonists