Note: In the vacuum of this post, pretend that leak about PvE getting cancelled never happened
I was thinking about the Zenyatta focus the story mode was taking and had a Eureka! moment about a potential way the story will go. And writing this is a way of organizing my thoughts.
Warning, this will be long.
TL;DR: I think Talon is using Null Sector and Ramattra to release Anubis and cause another Omnic Crisis.
Before Invasion Missions:
Overwatch/GENESIS Setup
- Omnica Corp is a corporation that make robots (“Omnics”) for several purposes, mainly as servants/workers.
- Overwatch’s (then, Omnica Corp’s) Dr. Mina Liao created Aurora, the first sentient omnic. Her existence caused much controversy and led to Omnica Corp shutting down.
- God AIs created to solve humanities problems, such as the climate crisis
- Omnic Crisis caused by the rogue climate/environmental protection God AI: Anubis who used omnics and the omniums to create warbots. This was because humanity was seen as the ultimate threat to the planet.
- Aurora, with the help of Dr. Liao in what would become the Shambali Monastery, gave up her life to give all existing omnics sentience, freeing them from Anubis’ control. Human forces overpowered Anubis and jailed it, stopping the crisis.
- The omnics given sentience by Aurora are the only sentient omnics, and cannot procreate/be rebooted from death.
- Anubis was put under containment and nearly broke out, displaying its power to take control of omnics in its vicinity.
- Some omnics form a religion in an effort to understand the mysteries of Aurora and how she gave them sentience. They view the event of her sacrifice as “The Awakening” and her ascension into a state of transcendence known as the “Iris”.
- Ramattra left the Shambali in an effort to find a more direct way of liberating omnics from oppression, inviting Zenyatta to join him (though he declined). This journey led to Ramattra and other omnics establishing Null-Sector
- Null-Sector is an omnic liberation group that attacked King’s Row, London sometime before Overwatch disbanded. They’re goal is to create a world where omnics are free from oppression by humans.
- Talon is an international terrorist organization that seems to have a goal of creating progress through causing a global conflict.
- As of Storm Rising, Doomfist and Ramattra have set up a deal of some sorts, though the details are unknown.
- Talon orchestrated the assassination of the Shambali’s leader: Mondatta. This is for an unknown purpose but can be guessed to be to cause unrest between omnics and humans.
- Ramattra has stated in interactions of being firmly against the existence of Anubis, wishing it destroyed instead of simply jailed.
Invasion:
Barring the actual quality of the Invasion Missions, there were a few things they set up as plot points that the story wants to cover:
Invasion Story
- Null-Sector has begun a worldwide invasion and have a particular interest in subjugating omnics for an unknown purpose.
- “Subjugation” effectively makes an omnic comatose and will cause death if they’re removed from the technology on their head.
- Ramattra is the face of the Null-Sector Invasion and delivers a speech, which is a new thing as noted by the returning Overwatch agents.
- In the speech, Ramattra (using red, the color Anubis uses) mentions Unity, being of One Mind, making the world a Paradise, ascension, and being welcomed into the Iris.
- This speech cause Overwatch, at Genji’s suggestion to seek Zenyatta for potential leads.
- The post-credit cutscene shows that Talon also has an interest in Zenyatta, tracking him down to what seems to be Suravasa.
Potential Expansion:
Teased Exploration
- During showcases of OW2, clips were shown of missions taking place in Suravasa (referred to as India by devs) and Shambali Monastery (particularly there being a fire inside).
- With the launch of OW2, Rialto (a Talon HQ) received an expanded out-of-bounds area that may hint at a story mission taking place there.
- In Mauga’s animated short, it was seen that Talon was conducting a mission to infiltrate a destroyed Null-Sector ship to use the Power Relay housed within, even though Talon and Null-Sector are working together in some way. Takeaway: Talon is doing something behind Ramattra’s back.
- In promotional material for Venture, several hints were pointed towards Anubis. In their gameplay trailer, they stumble upon a giant Anubis statue (possibly the Anubis) that seems to also be part of a new map, maybe the Clash rework of Temple of Anubis (like how Hanaoka is the rework of Hanamura). In their animated story trailer, it was seen that they were researching an Anubis reminiscent artifact in Cairo that led them to the Shambali due to similarities in imagery, then confronting Talon in Petra who had stolen the artifact for some strange purpose. It is also of note that their key art for Season 10 features them battling Talon soldiers at Petra.
Speculation:
While the previous section seemed quite speculation heavy, it was still mostly based on what was already presented by Overwatch. This next part is my Brain Blast Conspiracy Theory moment:
Speculation
- We know that Anubis seems to be a big looming figure in the current story, even after its jailing at the end of the Omnic Crisis.
- In the current story, Null-Sector is acting uncharacteristic/contradictory with its invasion: subjugating omnics in its goal of liberating them. This was expressed in the Liberation mission with Ramattra’s speech, which also felt very close to the character of Anubis (Red color; use of “Unity” and being of “One Mind”; and making the world a “Paradise”. Anubis is an environmental program, remember?). Ramattra also mentions the Iris and ascension which gives the impression that he views the invasion and subjugation as a means of reaching the state that Aurora had with her sacrifice.
- “But why is Talon after Zenyatta?” You may ask. Well, it’s been established that Talon isn’t to be trusted, and they’re likely to backstab Ramattra in their effort to cause a global conflict. This global conflict could possibly be another Omnic Crisis caused by freeing Anubis. However, it’s been shown that Anubis can only control omnics in its direct vicinity and that free & sentient omnics can fight Anubis’ control. Talon may be researching the Shambali and Zenyatta in an effort to find a way to bypass the protection Aurora gave omnics during her ascension and to use Zenyatta as a hostage to prevent Ramattra from turning on Talon. This could be what the India, Nepal, and Italy missions are about.
- This “pack” of missions is where we would’ve gotten the Zen Shambali skin that we saw in the post-credit flashback. It would act like the Sojourn vigilante skin to the invasion pack.
- Overwatch searches for Zenyatta in Suravasa but find that Talon wants him for their plot (as seen in the cutscene). They battle each other, OW coming up on top though not without Talon escaping to the Shambali Monastery.
- Overwatch (plus Zen) follows Talon to Nepal where they find the Monastery is being destroyed. OW stops Talon again but with more questions on why they’re interested in Omnics and the Iris, leading to a potential thread of “Are they working with Null-Sector?”.
- OW finds a thread that leads them to Rialto where they want answers and it’s revealed that Talon is manipulating Ramattra and Null-Sector. Using Sombra’s hacking tech, omnics are subjugated and put into a stasis where their protection from Aurora is bypassed, allowing a force such as Anubis to take control (though Ram believes its to allow for ascension into the Iris). However, Anubis is still jailed.
- This leads to the final chapter of this story arc, where Overwatch is trying to stop Talon from awakening Anubis and causing another Omnic Crisis. This is also where Ramattra will be backstabbed/wises up to Talon’s intentions. At least one of the missions would take place on the new Anubis clash map and the God AI would potentially be destroyed for good. Maybe Zenyatta could even sacrifice himself and ascend as Aurora had to prevent Anubis’ return- which ties to his abilities in-game.
(And on the topic of the supposed death of PvE. AFAIK, there’s been only one official announcement: that skill tree Hero Missions have been cut, though this was back around season 4 iirc. The “Blizzard is cutting all PvE” story from a couple months back has rocky sources, being a spokesperson’s vague statement and the firing of many PvE staff. So I would take this idea with both a grain of salt as well as measured expectations, especially with all the Anubis hints that have been dropped recently. I feel that it is just as likely for some missions, still of questionable quality, to return- say in S12 to parallel S6; as it is that missions won’t return for years if at all.)
I know this seems like the inane ramblings of an insane person, but what do y’all think? Does this line of reasoning make sense? Feel free to include any ideas you guys may have on where you think the story could go.