Tiberian Timeline: Command & Conquer from Tiberian Dawn to Firestorm

The Tiberian saga is the main storyline of Command & Conquer: a slow-motion apocalypse in which an alien crystal consumes the Earth while two superpowers fight over it. It runs across five games from 1995 to 2010, with live-action briefings and a villain who refuses to stay dead. This timeline takes it in order, with spoilers. (Command & Conquer)

Before the meteor#

The Brotherhood of Nod claims a history stretching back to the dawn of civilisation. Its teachings tie its founder to the biblical Cain, and in Hebrew Nod is the land of wandering where he was exiled. Whether any of that's true is a question the series deliberately leaves open. (Command & Conquer)

The games were also planned with a stranger prehistory. Westwood designed Red Alert as a prequel, with the Allied ending leading into this story and Kane already advising Stalin. (Command & Conquer: Red Alert)

The First Tiberium War#

In 1995 a meteor strikes near the Tiber River in Italy, and the strange substance it carries is named Tiberium. It leaches metals from the soil into crystals that can be harvested cheaply, and it's extremely poisonous. Nod moves first, funding itself on the crystal and on terrorism. The Global Defense Initiative, a UN-backed force, is given authority to stop it. (Command & Conquer)

The GDI campaign runs through Europe. Kane's media operation almost wins the war without a shot, when a faked massacre at Białystok in Poland turns public opinion and the UN cuts GDI's funding. GDI recovers, finds Kane at the Temple of Nod in Sarajevo and destroys it with the orbital Ion Cannon. In the Nod campaign, set in Africa, Kane has his commander Seth shot for planning his own operation, and the player ends the game with the Ion Cannon under Nod control. The later games follow the GDI ending. (Command & Conquer)

The years between#

GDI comes out of the war as something bigger than a UN force, and builds the orbital command station GDSS Philadelphia. Tiberium spreads anyway, and by the 2020s it's wrecking the planet's climate and ecology. Ion storms tear through the worst areas, and people exposed for too long become the mutants known as the Forgotten. Nod survives in pieces under General Hassan, who is secretly working for GDI. (Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun)

The Second Tiberium War#

Tiberian Sun opens in 2030. Anton Slavik, a Black Hand officer, is sentenced to death by Hassan, escapes and rebuilds the Brotherhood with the help of the AI CABAL. Hassan is taken alive. Then Kane reappears, unchanged, and declares the war on GDI's General Solomon. (Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun)

Both sides want the Tacitus, an alien database about Tiberium. GDI's Commander Michael McNeil allies with the Forgotten and their leader, Tratos. The war ends at Cairo, where Kane plans to launch a missile that will turn the Earth over to Tiberium. McNeil destroys it and kills Kane himself. In the Nod ending the missile flies, but the later games don't follow that. (Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun)

The Firestorm crisis#

GDI's command ship Kodiak crashes in an ion storm with the Tacitus on board, and the race starts again. CABAL then turns on the Brotherhood, kills most of its leadership, assassinates Tratos and starts turning people into cyborgs. For the first time GDI and Nod fight side by side. They bring CABAL down, and GDI keeps the Tacitus. The Nod ending adds a last sting: CABAL had been linked to the recovering Kane. (Tiberian Sun: Firestorm)

To the Third Tiberium War and beyond#

Nod splits again. Brother Marcion has Slavik assassinated and takes the Black Hand to Australia. Kane is alive, and in Kane's Wrath he brings Marcion back into line and starts quietly rebuilding through the AI LEGION, testing his followers in the Rio Insurrection and planning the destruction of Philadelphia. (Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath)

By 2047 Earth is divided into Red, Yellow and Blue Zones. Nod destroys Philadelphia and the Third Tiberium War begins. An alien faction, the Scrin, arrives to harvest Tiberium, and it turns out Kane provoked a huge liquid Tiberium explosion to bring them here. He wants their Threshold towers, which he calls the way to ascension. (Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars)

In 2062 Tiberian Twilight ends it. Kane has allied with GDI to build a Tiberium Control Network that also powers Threshold 19. Tiberium recedes, and Kane and his followers enter the Scrin tower and disappear. (Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight)