3. The Vril
The secretive and alien Vril played a major role in the Zombies storyline for a brief moment in time, but they continue to intrigue players to this day. The celebrity-laden Call of the Dead level has never proven to hold much relevance to the current Zombies storyline, but it introduced a mystery that still has many players scratching their heads.
The Vril are based upon real urban lore and legends, first seen in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel, “The Power of the Coming Race.” Their existence has turned into not only a Zombies conspiracy, but a real-life one too. According to the story, the race dwelled in the hollow core of the Earth, which allowed a society to grow and flourish unbeknown to humanity.
Having telepathic and other parapsychological abilities, the Vril were a more advanced race than humans. The conspiracy goes that they worked directly with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi forces to create theoretical weaponry they had proposed including the Wonder Weapons found in the Zombies game type.
The presence of the Vril can be seen in the very core Nazi Zombies through specific Wonder Weapons. The mysterious species also influence the Call of the Dead mission with the Vril Generator alongside the VR-11. Mysteriously, the Vril Generator was included in Black Ops 3’s Der Eisendrache DLC map, but no explicit explanation has been given as to how the Vril tie in at this point.
They appear to be a variant of the popular “precursor race” storyline, and are often referred in Zombies as the “Keepers”. Completing a certain sequence of events in Der Eisendrache’s will let you face off against a Keeper Ghost, letting you see one of the Vril up close and personal.