The Quest Connection

Red, Yellow, and Blue Zones

A typical red zone.
Tiberium infestation has rendered 30% of the planet totally uninhabitable. Large swaths of the Earth's surface have been designated as "Red Zones" - areas that are desolate, swept by storms, and contaminated by vast amounts of Tiberium. Venturing into, over, or even near these wastelands can be extremely dangerous.

Beyond the Red Zones, Tiberium contamination has caused varying levels of environmental damage in another 50% of the Earth's populated areas. In the ecologically compromised and war torn Yellow Zones, Tiberium fields are common - growing in the middle of cities, on farmland, and throughout the environment. Tiberium-related climate change has caused an endless cycle of droughts, floods, and severe weather of all types including spectacular Category 6 hurricanes, tornadoes with wind speeds of 500 miles per hour, and exceedingly violent thunderstorms. Especially destructive Ion Storms occasionally rage out of the Red Zones to wreak havoc on cities and towns in the borderlands.

Only 20% of the Earth's surface is in relatively pristine condition. Blue Zones suffer from minimal Tiberium infestation and have been relatively untouched by war. The populations of the Blue Zones live in relative comfort, going about their lives in high-tech futuristic cities that sit in forested valleys or nestle in pastoral farmland.

Tiberium Primer

Tiberium: A gift or a curse?

Tiberium is a scientific curiosity, a vastly powerful resource, an unprecedented environmental cataclysm, a catalyst for war, and much more. It's like nothing we've ever seen before and it is constantly transforming itself.

We are almost certain Tiberium is extraterrestrial in origin; it is not man-made and there is no evidence of the substance on Earth prior to its first appearance half a century ago. Early forms of Tiberium were almost organic, sprouting out of the ground in what seemed to be plant-like pods, leaching minerals out of the Earth and emitting clouds of toxic gas. Over time, Tiberium showed it had the ability to evolve and change.

By 2047, most Tiberium on Earth has manifested in what we know as its most common form: A self-replicating proton lattice that turns any matter it touches into more of itself, giving off powerful radiation in the process. It can change anything it comes into contact with into more Tiberium.

Is Tiberium terraforming the Earth into a planet suitable for alien life? Is it a weapon? It is a creature of some kind? Perhaps some kind of consciousness resides in the crystal lattices, a quantum crystalline brain that grows ever smarter as it grows and grows. There are many theories about what Tiberium actually is... and why it is here. Ultimately, its origin and its purpose - if it has one - are still a mystery.

GDI has not given up on trying to contain the spread of Tiberium. With Tiberium infestation reaching critical levels and new, more sinister variants of the substance turning up, things started to look pretty grim for planet Earth in the middle of the 21st century. However, GDI has found a vulnerability in the green crystal that they have begun to exploit. GDI engineers have found the resonant frequency for Tiberium... and they have created sonic resonators that are capable of breaking up Tiberium crystals.

A high-level scientific explanation of the alien substance is included here for students, engineers, and scientists: The most recent form of Tiberium is a dense "dynamic proton lattice" held together by exotic heavy particles. When Tiberium comes into contact with other matter, the heavy particles randomly collide with the nuclei of the target matter, smashing it to pieces (in the case of smaller nuclei) or incrementally knocking off protons or neutrons (in the case of heavier nuclei). Tiberium captures a fraction of the protons that are ejected during this collision process and incorporates them into its own structure, thus transmuting matter into more Tiberium. Whenever one of the heavy particles - a muon or tauon - collides with an atomic nucleus, fission occurs, which results in the production of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation as well as other forms of electromagnetic radiation (like infra-red). During the transmutation process, nuclei that Tiberium has come into contact with may be changed into nuclei with different (usually fewer) numbers of protons or neutrons.

The Global Defense Initiative (abbreviated as GDI) is the global government of Earth. It was founded in accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), on the date of 12 October 1995, as a united military force for global peacekeeping. The GDI's initial goal was to preserve world order by combating global terrorism, epitomized by its nemesis the Brotherhood of Nod, but eventually outgrew its original mandate to become a world government.

Peace Through Power!

The Brotherhood of Nod, often shortened to Nod or the Brotherhood, was an organization with the characteristics of a religious movement, a multinational corporation, and a nation-state. It was classified as a terrorist group by the Global Defense Initiative.

The central tenets of Nod's beliefs included the worship of Tiberium, which they saw as the catalyst for the next stage of human evolution; the worship of Kane, Nod's charismatic leader, believed to be immortal by many within the Brotherhood; and the Ascension prophecy, a mythological reward promised to Nod's followers by Kane. In addition, Nod consistently presented itself as the voice of the oppressed masses, and worked to unite the downtrodden and the disenfranchised against the GDI, which it painted as a fascist group subservient to the wealthy western nations and global elites.

The origin of Nod is shrouded in mystery, with the group itself claiming that it existed since before 1800 BC. It rose to prominence in 1995, when a meteorite carrying Tiberium landed near Tiber river in Italy. During this period, Nod launched a series of terrorist attacks all over the world. In response, the United Nations founded the Global Defense Initiative, a multinational military alliance with the goal of eliminating multinational terrorism.