The Call of Duty Zombies storyline is more than just undead waves—it’s a tapestry of heartbreak, betrayal, and existential dread across multiple dimensions. Here’s a deeply detailed ranking of the 10 characters who endured the most suffering in the Aether saga.
🔟 Abby “Misty” Briarton
Once a survivalist traveling through the zombie wasteland, Misty was forced into multiple timelines and manipulated by voices beyond her control. Eventually cornered by Richtofen, she watched friends die repeatedly. Her fate is to vanish off-screen or be trapped in the Dark Aether—making her entire arc one of isolation, confusion, and abandonment.
9️⃣ Marlton Johnson
The intellectual of the Victis crew, Marlton was forced into building towers that shattered reality, endured multiple deaths, memory erasure, and betrayal by both Richtofen and Maxis. His mind became his prison—and his knowledge, a torch he couldn’t escape.
8️⃣ Primis Edward Richtofen
Richtofen’s redemption arc came at a horrific cost. He dove into alternate dimensions, forced his Ultimis self to death, and bore the psychological burden of controlling multiversal power. In Black Ops III, he navigates fractured timelines to secure redemption—but the emotional toll is catastrophic.
7️⃣ Primis Takeo Masaki
A disciplined samurai torn between honor and multiverses, Primis Takeo was compelled to slay his alternate self and fight in wars he never believed in. His spiritual anchor cracked under timelines he couldn’t reconcile, leaving him duty-bound but broken.
6️⃣ Primis Dempsey
The tough marine grew weary over repeating the same doomed battles. Watching Primis comrades fall again and again—often by his own hand—eroded his psyche. Dempsey endured grief, trauma, and the collapse of his identity under cosmic stakes.
5️⃣ Primis Nikolai Belinski
Once a hard-drinking soldier, Nikolai lost his wives on the battlefield and sacrificed his friends to end the cycle—only to ask Samantha to shoot him in despair. His path from grief to heroic martyrdom is tragic and emotionally devastating.
4️⃣ The Victis Crew (Misty, Marlton, Stuhlinger, Russman)
These ordinary people were ripped from obscurity and turned into expendable pawns. Manipulated, betrayed, erased—and possibly trapped in Agartha—they represent the ultimate victims: powerless, used, and forgotten across timelines.
3️⃣ Ultimis Edward Richtofen
Before redemption, he was haunted. Richtofen was possessed by Samantha’s soul, forced into body-swaps and cosmic madness. He became a zombie-controlled puppet—and a puppet master at the same time—losing sense of self across interdimensional horrors.
2️⃣ Ludvig Maxis
Driven by guilt, he lost his wife, risked everything to save his daughter, and ultimately killed himself. Yet through the timeline maze, he’s repeatedly resurrected, erased, and puppeteered. Each version of Maxis dies—and sometimes by his own design.
🥇 Samantha Maxis
The ultimate tragic figure: unborn at Rasputin’s hands, orphaned, experimented on, possessed by the MPD, used as the executioner of Group 935, trapped in Dark Aether for decades, and forever tormented by voices and guilt. Samantha’s innocence was stolen—and her soul paid the price across every reality.
🧠 Why These Stories Cut Deeper Than the Zombies
The Aether saga layers cosmic horror, identity crises, and sacrificial tragedy into its characters—pushing them beyond body horror into emotional horror. Here, suffering isn’t just about death—it’s about losing your mind, your agency, or even your entire reality.
🔗 Related Reads on Fantastic Nerdom
💬 Share Your Opinion: Who Had It Worst?
Was it the eternal torment of Samantha? Maxis’ doomed reincarnations? Or the crushed spirit of Victis? Let us know which character you think suffered the most—and why.
Fantastic Nerdom 