Instead of posting this on every thread, I'll make my own.
My Theories:
::::::::::::Spoilers:::::::::::::::: Not that anyone cares.

Nomad and Psycho: No idea, might be dead but also might be around the world on different missions against the Ceph since they are all over the place. But they are probably dead from the same virus as they had tons of contact with alien tissue like Prophet and they didn't have the antivirus programs the Nanosuit 2 did, or at least not as good.

Origin of Ceph: ONE idea: They arrived on earth 2 million years ago (reference to Crysis 1). They might've come in too fast due to gravity or something (seeing as they prefer zero-g they will have much lower gravity on their world) and went into a dormant lockdown to survive the impact. When the humans activated the ship on Lingshan, it sent out a message to the others saying that the meteor is gone and that it's "safe" to wake up. There was a whole crashed-landing-woke-them-up-now-sending-beacon dialogue in the first game. In that case, there must have been water on their home planet (Greaves says they are definitely evolved from aquatic animals and whos to say they don't have similar animals on that planet?) and evolved there. Then they thought of expansion and flew out to conquer new planets. The blues possibly chose Earth as the first target and sent ships there, however maybe the reds were like us and sent one too (reference to the space race between Soviet Union and US). There might've been a chain reaction with the other races on the planet which cause the many ships now inside Earth. Notice that they definitely prefer water as on the map at the end the game it shows the Ceph civilizations are all near the water.

Edit: By MMAMickey
Hargreaves stated that they were here before us and that they evolved underwater. This is what we know. It's possible that they evolved on earth and went into hibernation for some reason. It's even implied with his 'behind the fridge' monologue. In fact, from what he said it could be interpreted that they evolved here and left Earth for some reason, to find that we had evolved and taken their place. This would explain the signal going into space in Crysis 1; calling back more Ceph.

Sgt. Arceon: I agree with this. It makes more sense if one follows Greave's logic, but the space theory could also be correct. It'd be nice if we got some real confirmation about all this.

"Squid": If you guys noticed the Ceph are not the giant robots, they are the jelly, the cephlopod, inside them, controlling the suits. The REAL Ceph is a squid looking being as you can clearly see in the first game. The Ceph's main solution to their physical weakness is to get in mecha suits like you saw in the first game and second.

Red vs Blue: Since they are an old civilization all around the world, they probably have different races and customs. We have different skin colors and customs, so why shouldn't they? The blues built their group off of their ship's mass freezing tech, so they use the ice and can fly around in very cold environments (I'm guessing all Cephs can do this , but not all of them have the tech to get it to be that cold). They also specially designed their bots to use antigrav systems ( maybe when they are close to their cold sphere). As for the mass invasion force you saw in the first game, they either turned around to try and expand their sphere's range or dived underwater, or in the case of they have a perfect antigrav system then they just sailed away to conquer other land.

The reds are another race, most likely, of Cephlopods. They didn't have the tech to make antigrav stuff, so they made the bipedal suits. But as far as I could tell, in C2 they still used ice projectiles and energy bombs. Only prob is that their tech (the guns) could only freeze a small portion of water, not an entire atmosphere. Also, while the blue Cephs use the little tube digger things in moderation, the reds civilization is based on it, thus the huge tube formation under Central Park.

No more EMP: In Crysis you used an EMP to screw up the comms and tech of some of the Ceph in the Reactor and to disable the shields for the ships. This doesn't work in Crysis 2 because the alien comms and tech is different.

The Virus: The alien tissue is obviously toxic, so once the Ceph learned they could use it against us, they created these spore releasers aka the tube thingies. However, since their tissue is the virus, once Alcatraz sent out the cure in the end the tissue was literally getting cured. Thus all the Ceph in that area died. This also shows why you lose energy very fast when grabbing a Ceph. The suit is fighting the spore as you grab it. I imagine this mass cure release will be of some use in the next game as well.

Well thank you for reading this to the end, hopefully it helps. Also, if you have any other questions or want to argue with some of my ideas, then feel free. This is how it made sense in my head, and, just like you, I want the real story.

The problem with them being natively from Earth being the fact that the Ceph in Crysis were living in a 0g environment. I'm pretty sure Nomad knew the difference between 0g and underwater. If you're wondering what that has to do with anything, something that evolved to live without gravity (i.e. without bones) will get squished if it goes on land, let alone if it goes several thousand meters underwater.

They didnt evolve on Earth.

1. They have a massive crashed spaceship.
2. They are sending a signal out into space.
3. They survive in extremely cold temperatures.
4. They live in a zero (or extremely low) gravity environment.

To JackPumpkinhead they may have bones. If you go into the Core in Crysis and tag them you can see something inside of them.


My theory is that they crashed on Earth long before humans were around, went into a hibernation state (we see them in stasis in Crysis) while waiting for help. Humans came to be and now they are waking up.

Even if they do have something that resembles a skeletal structure, it's not going to do them the slightest bit of good if they hit gravity, considering where they live.

The thing is... there is a radical shift from the storyline and experience in crysis 1 compared to crysis 2. In crysis 1, some of the aliens do have a squid look especially the green ones so... they could have some cephalopod features. My guess is the aliens came from space way before humans existed and integrated with the Cephalopod family DNA because its scientifically proven that squids and octopus are the most intelligent invertebrate with the ability for quick adaptation to the surroundings by changing to their environment. Why they chose earth.... i have no idea.

Glad to see I'm getting intelligent responses. Yeah, thank you, I forgot about the whole crashed-sending-beacon dialogue in the first game. In that case, there must have been water on their home planet (whos to say they don't have similar animals on that planet?) and evolved there. Then they thought of expansion and flew out to conquer new planets. The blues possibly chose Earth as the first target and sent ships there, however maybe the reds were like us and sent one too (reference to the space race between Soviet Union and US). There might've been a chain reaction with the other races on the planet which cause the many ships now inside Earth.

As for the gravity thing, I disagree. The aliens in the first showed they had some kind of bone, possibly cartilage. As we have seen with sea animals on our planet, even if they have cartilage they can still move (not to mention thousands of feet underwater). If we gave them an intelligent mind rival to our own and bipedal suits to move in, I think they could resemble the red Cephs.

Edit: Also they could survive in this temperature as well. They may have extreme warm blooded capabilities or (correct me if Im wrong) since only a few hundred feet underwater it is already incredibly cold and sharks can still survive the transition between deep water and land (save the fact they can't breathe).

How well you deal with pressure is extremely dependent on where your species first showed up, not on what your bones are or aren't. Yes, there are cartilaginous animals that live very deep underwater, but pulling them out would kill them. Same goes in reverse. If you shove a cartilaginous (or otherwise) animal very deep underwater it will die.

And the Ceph issue isn't with pressure, anyway, since in 1 there weren't any pressure changes noted by Nomad, only temperature and gravity loss.
So unless they enjoy living in a depressurized environment, they couldn't have evolve very deep underwater, assuming they didn't evolve in 0 g (which is what 1 indicates due to, y'know, gravity loss).

The bones argument doesn't hold up. There are Cephalopods in our seas right now which have no bones whatsoever and can cope just fine with hundreds of tonnes of water pressure on them. If anything, the low gravity would be to support their bodies out of water because of the fact they have no bones.

Hargreaves stated that they were here before us and that they evolved underwater. This is what we know. It's possible that they evolved on earth and went into hibernation for some reason. It's even implied with his 'behind the fridge' monologue. In fact, from what he said it could be interpreted that they evolved here and left Earth for some reason, to find that we had evolved and taken their place. This would explain the signal going into space in Crysis 1; calling back more Ceph.

However, this is all just speculation.

Well if you evolved underwater, why bother creating a 0g environment to live in at lower pressure? It'd be easier to just build the ship in a wet-dock, have it naturally filled with water rather than bother inventing anti-gravity devices.

How well you deal with pressure is extremely dependent on where your species first showed up, not on what your bones are or aren't. Yes, there are cartilaginous animals that live very deep underwater, but pulling them out would kill them. Same goes in reverse. If you shove a cartilaginous (or otherwise) animal very deep underwater it will die.
Not really, they die if you take them out of water because they have nothing to support their bodies, but if you placed them in aquariums, which have nothing like the same amount of pressure, they do just fine.

It's not a vice versa situation. If you have bones, you have something that can be crushed under pressure - if you don't you cope better with pressure and can expand/contract as necessary.

So yeah, they didn't evolve deep underwater on their planet and the games never hint that they went any deeper on ours. SO they could still technically survive here in our temp and gravity just like our not-so-deep-water fish and mammals.

Another solution to this issue is that Crytek is terrible at storytelling and this whole thing is a mess and they are relying on guys like us to piece it together for them.

Edit: Can an angler fish (insanely deep water fish) survive in a tank though? Sorry, was never that great with this kind of science.

Also, MMA Mickey does make a valid point on the space vs earth thing. His theory goes along better than the other way around according to Greave's science.

Edit: Can an angler fish (insanely deep water fish) survive in a tank though? Sorry, was never that great with this kind of science.

These sources talk about looking after deep water fish in home aquariums with no issues of pressure:

http://www.fishchannel.com/saltwater-aquariums/aquarium-care/deep-fish.aspx

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/2005/9/fish
Creating a deep-water reef aquarium can be both exciting and challenging. Except for the lighting system, there is little difference between the equipment and aquarium care involved in setting-up and maintaining a deep-water and a shallow-water reef aquarium. The biggest difference between these two biotope aquariums is their inhabitants. Finding organisms that are more indicative of deep reef environments can be more of a challenge and tend to be more expensive.

http://www.allthesea.com/Deep-Sea-Fish.html
The Abyssopelagic Zone
The name of this zone comes from the Greek meaning "no bottom", and refers to the ancient belief that the open ocean was bottomless. It extends from 4000m to the sea floor. The only zone deeper than this is the hadal zone, which includes areas found in deep sea trenches and canyons. This zone is home to pretty inhospitable living conditions, which include near- freezing temperatures and crushing pressures

If they came from deep sea areas, it would explain why they like the cold so much as to produce ice-based weaponry.

In reality, the writer Crytek hired for Crysis 2 did not do any research on the first Crysis games. He probably just watched the opening scene of Crysis 1, thinking that Prophet was the "main man" since he was the squad leader. Therefore he wrote a game about Prophet, not having a clue about who Nomad and Psycho are.

SPOILER FROM CRYSIS 1. Prophet turned out to be a rather pathetic charatcter as he first got lost and then had to be carried around because he could not handle the cold.

Thanks for trying to fill in the plotholes though. Crytek needs to fire the Morgan guy and hire you to write Crysis 3

Origin of Ceph: They arrived on earth a long time ago, possibly before the Dino-meteor

In Crysis 1 Dr. Rosenthal (the father) was telling Jhong that the fossil predates man by 2 million years. Chicxulub impact was 65 million.

In reality, the writer Crytek hired for Crysis 2 did not do any research on the first Crysis games. He probably just watched the opening scene of Crysis 1, thinking that Prophet was the "main man" since he was the squad leader. Therefore he wrote a game about Prophet, not having a clue about who Nomad and Psycho are.

SPOILER FROM CRYSIS 1. Prophet turned out to be a rather pathetic charatcter as he first got lost and then had to be carried around because he could not handle the cold.

Thanks for trying to fill in the plotholes though. Crytek needs to fire the Morgan guy and hire you to write Crysis 3

No way in hell is Prophet depicted as "pathetic" in Crysis. He didn't "get lost," he got svcked into the Core like Nomad and he fought his way out using a Ceph ice-cannon modified in the field to work with Nano-suit tech. As if that weren't badass enough, Prophet's Nano-suit malfunctions in negative 200 degree wasteland and he still makes it out alive (with Nomad as an escort) when every other once-living thing is frozen into a sheet of brittle ice.

And it's not the writer's fault. Crytek told him where they wanted the story to go, and that's where he took it. It's not like he wrote a script and Crytek built their game around it. Still, the guy could have at least tried to tie the two stories together, that much I agree with.

In reality, the writer Crytek hired for Crysis 2 did not do any research on the first Crysis games. He probably just watched the opening scene of Crysis 1, thinking that Prophet was the "main man" since he was the squad leader. Therefore he wrote a game about Prophet, not having a clue about who Nomad and Psycho are.

SPOILER FROM CRYSIS 1. Prophet turned out to be a rather pathetic charatcter as he first got lost and then had to be carried around because he could not handle the cold.

Thanks for trying to fill in the plotholes though. Crytek needs to fire the Morgan guy and hire you to write Crysis 3

Thanks man. I'm actually trying to write a script for a game I hope to create later on. I first need to get through college and get some buds together for coding but I have hope.

Origin of Ceph: They arrived on earth a long time ago, possibly before the Dino-meteor

In Crysis 1 Dr. Rosenthal (the father) was telling Jhong that the fossil predates man by 2 million years. Chicxulub impact was 65 million.

And now you see my masterful knowledge of science. Thanks for the input, I'll change that now.

This is an admirable attempt to reconcile the many discrepancies between Crysis and Crysis2, however if Crytek hadn't simply abandoned their original storyline, if they'd made any effort whatsoever to form a cohesive narrative structure between the two games, then all this speculation wouldn't be necessary. It's not our job to patch their holes for them.

They should have just written a genuine sequel.

Thanks to killing off C1's Story, the C2 Ceph are totally different in every case. They are nothing like the blue ones. Remember, outside of their ship the blue ones were fully covered by all sorts of exosuits. they are probably not able to survive our atmosphere without the suits. The red ones on the other side are just squids, riding a bipedal robot. they werent fully covered, made some nasty sounds and used no antigrav-tech.

Much more important is, the blue ones never talked to each other. they made some noises, but the red ones talk. this might be a hint, that Morgan never tried to give the Ceph something like a higher form of speech nor intelligence. i always thought, the Ceph are telepathic, or something like that. talking through brainlinks or are just using another method to communicate, humans cannot "hear" or detect.

I doubt that we will see Nomad and Psycho again. In my opinion, they dropped this part completely form the storyline, turned the Ceph into something that appears to every Player as something new and arent interrested in bringing us back the blue ones and the Lingshen related stuff.

it would have been awesome to see how these thousands and thousend of Scouts we see after the nuke on the island run into the worlds larger citys and destroy everything.

Ok, please bear with me because this is quite a lot of information, I've actually spent a fairly large amount of time thinking about this, and with considerable effort, have been able to piece together a sort of picture of the Ceph's history on Earth. Ok, 2,000,000 years before primate evolves into man the Ceph arrive on Earth. Now at first I couldn't think of many reasons that the Ceph would choose Earth, but then I began to factor in some of the things stereotypical of space faring species in movies and books. The Ceph are obviously more technologically advanced than us, capable of reaching long distance space travel long before we had evolved, so assuming that they have been around for a long time it is very possible to assume that they have run out of resources on their home world. Now I say home world because to me it seems very unlikely that the Ceph could have evolved on Earth. Consider that if the technology found in crysis one was created during a time of the Ceph's civilization on earth, then the evidence of their presence should have shown up in the fossil record or have had some form of impact on the earths geological history.
But I'm getting off track, so their homeworld is running out of resources and so what they do is look for planets similar to theirs in respect to environment. Now Earth at this time was an Oasis, it was long off the effects of the dinosaur related mass extinction, the majority of earth's life forms had been repopulated by new and strange ones, and the oceans were bustling with life, perfect for a species that is similar to the cephalopod family. So the Ceph find Earth, decide its up to snuff, and begin tactfully harvesting the Earth's resources.
This is where the technology in C1 comes into play. When we were presented with the technology of the Ceph in C1, we all thought undoubtedly that it was military, but we all had our minds blown when we saw the Ceph's technology in C2 so this is where my theory on the difference in style originates. The C1 technology and exosuits are repurposed mining equipment.
Now before you go "Now why on earth would you mine with ice?", think about it. It can be strong and durable if made under certain conditions, it was obviously already widely implored by the Ceph inhabiting the core, and when fired at the speed that the exosuits shot it at I don't think that it's a long shot that it could break rock. Also if you look at the Ceph troopers in Crysis 1 they look . . . strange, almost like they're wearing astronaut suits, hardly suitable for affective combat. Also take into account that if this is true, it would explain the color difference. Let's say that the Ceph use blue light exclusively for their minig equipment, while miltary is in red, much like us with our construction and mining machines all painted in that bright cautionary yellow, while our soldiers fight in green camo. You have to admit that it at least makes a little sense. Further backing up this theory is that one of the tougher enemies in Crysis warhead was the RED Hunter, something that could have been initially intended for miner safety and protection form wildlife.
So the aliens set up shop, start mining, and for them everything is fine for the next few hundred thousand years. Then something goes wrong, There isn't much room to speculate, possibly it could have been a global climate shift due to their tendency towards the cold, but lets assume that for some reason that the aliens had to lock themselves up and wait for help. Now this is where the differences in the aliens appearance come into play. The Ceph were locked up in Lingshan for god knows how long, so since we don't have a cut off date will say about 1,000,000 years before man. For man, 1,000,000 years ago we were wandering around in the wilderness, covered and fur and snarling at prey. Evolution happens fast people, and locked up in a mountain with no sunlight, zero gravity, most likely for comfort because if you consider it water is more difficult to move in than air, and a lot of blue mining technology, it's no wonder that the blue ceph look so different form the red ceph.
So the blue Ceph are under the mountain evolving ever so slowly, man is upstairs evolving ever so slowly, and the other ceph are up in space wondering where all their mining equipment has gone, and for awhile everything seems to be running smoothly until Dr. Rosenthal comes along and mixes everything up. Now the original european colonists didn't take kindly to the fact that land they had claimed was already inhabited, so imagine the Ceph's frustration when they look up thinking that help is here and find an alien looking beck at them, saying that the land the Ceph have owned all along is rightfully theirs. This is what I think Hargreave meant by his speech, "Like coming home for spring cleaning one year, and taking distaste to what is festering behind the fridge" or something along those lines. So naturally the Ceph, realizing that they have a serious problem on their hands resort to using their mining equipment to defend themselves from Nomad and the gang, while they simultaneously try to find away to phone home for help.
So fast forward, humans win the battle at Lingshan but not before they could stop a signal from getting out, Prophet is actually a double agent working for Hargreave, and a whole bunch of other little things happen setting the stage for crysis 2, where the red ceph with their healthy sun-kissed glow have come the assist their pasty faced comrades, but finding that they are to late, attack New York instead, armed with new tech, greater numbers, and a bioweapon that ends up being their downfall. However, if the map in the core room of the spore chamber was right, then NY was just the first city hit by an invasion force that is getting ever closer by the second, which us most likely the stage set for crysis 3.

Alright. My take on the matter.
What we know.

The CIA had been keeping tabs on Rosenthal. Hinting that Hargreave could of been aware of Rosenthal's expedition. Considering they had military contracts that in 2016 the Nano-suit program was under way with Military test subjects (i.e. Aztec, Jester, Nomad, Psycho, Prophet, O'Neill) had all been in the loop in. Let's not forget that Lockheart is connected in the same way since his "nephew" was in the program and apparently Prophet put him in a rock and hard place. Which Lockheart blames Prophet Solely for this.

Prophets abduction: Prophet was getting a bad feeling all around about this mission. As much as people think that they are rebooting the story, I tend to disagree. If anything they could have an altered version of what happened right after here to Prophet. I'll continue this little rant down the road when we see the relevant vid.

This is the first "intact specimen" that we found:
They've been discovering these artifacts in Afghanistan, Hindu Kush, Siberia. All fragments until Lingshan.
The "fossil" that predates man by 2 million years. Turned out to have an active system in hibernation mode that triggered the "Freeze Ray" overload that froze Dr. Rosenthal. And we know that the pilot of the said vessel was in hibernation as well.


"Looks like Jester wasn't so crazy after all"
That just sums Jester up.

Apparently the Nano-suit program was known amongst military personnel.
Btw this is sort of a precursor to Crysis 2. Since Alcatraz was a force recon marine. Perhaps this was the jolt of the joke that inspired the idea of a untrained marine getting his hands on it for the first time.


First walk into the breach. Not only do we discover the "temple". Also this suggests (given the fact that Hargreave is in the loop now with the nano-suit program) Hargreave or Rasch did dealings with the North Korean government about the same time the Hargreave-Rasch Corporation began military contracts with the U.S. Government.
"Something is transmitting signals into that structure." Could it be that Hargreave was waking them up. After all he did say that he woke them up. Perhaps that was the precursor to the events.
"Prepare to witness the shift in power" Hargreave told Kim Jong Il that there was more in the island in terms of weaponry?


Prophets return, not much to say here, just that we learned something new. I'll get onto that also down the road.


Apparently the aliens had a "weather machine" which caused mini-tornadoes.


"They can drain energy from nearby power sources"
Which explains the power outages in Times Square. Also the Pinger can take the blame also due to its micro emp burst.


"It's an infestation"
"Four days ago NASA picked up a high frequency signal emanating from the center of the mountain"
Again this goes back to what Helena said prior a signal being sent to the temple. "Something is transmitting signals into that structure." Hargreave awoke them they began transmitting that signal after that.


Thank you Alister for pointing this out. This digs deeper into what I wanted to point out.
"One of those airborne SOBs hauled me into the jungle, its dead now!" (Hargreave may have contacted him after that"
"I think he's really loosing it, whatever happened in that sphere really shook him up."-Hargreave briefed him on the situation.
"We thought you were dead?!" "I made it, that's all that matters now. I'm going to finish it": After hearing what Hargreave told him he made it a personal agenda.

"I've still got no idea how you rigged these weapons boss." -Psycho
Prophet: "Guess I'm a natural"-Hargreave sent him the schematics on what he discovered from Tungska and Prophet modified them to where they'd work.


"There's a naval fleet on route from Japan" Suggests that the fight continued and they were able to repel and destroy the alien threat at Lingshan given the new history revealed in Crysis 2. "The Lingshan insertion nominally remains a U.S. covert operation"-Which suggests this assumption.

Now onto Warhead:

The KPA in the loop during the entire incident as mentioned before it can be assumed that Hargreave did double dealings. Which explains why the North Koreans took a great stride in retrieving the alien and to that effort it was seriously underplayed.


Colonel Lee remarks on the military status of the Nano-suit program and that anyone wearing it has no military rights as a POW. Also revealing that the North Koreans are harsh and cruel in terms of torture techniques.


Plans have drastically changed instead of the sub going off to sea with the alien, it surfaces prior to a freeze. It can be assumed that Lee was given a heads up by the outposts in the inner parts of the island that it was beginning to freeze up so he ordered the sub to surface and have a hover-boat team in standby for a new transport.



Don't ask why I put these to here, I just like this scene so much, I had to.




The KPA's motive behind the entire game as revealed by Colonel Lee and Kim Jong Il. The "Powershift in weaponry" I assume that given these motives why they wanted to reverse engineer the alien tech, was actually a half truth behind Hargreave, he promised them the tech for the weapons in return for a full live specimen or anything that they could bring back. If anyone recalls back in Hargreave's office there is a fresh artifact from 2020 in the room that says "Recovered by Dr. Helena Rosenthal during the Lingshan island Incident" Which suggests that they did make it off the island.

Well I hope this helps fills in the gaps, mind you this is my opinion on the matters presented, to be frank I think they make the most plausible since. Now as to why the Aliens in NY are bi-pedal and still squishy I point to the previous statements.

Also it should be put into consideration that I spent an hour typing this out and digging all possible info from what limited resources I have. So if you agree or disagree you can do your own digging.

given the nature of space, it seems the Ceph have adapted to living and travelling in space. especially since space is gravityless so bones do you no good.


the red Ceph are faceless goons. they're simply soldiers made by the Ceph Nanites, made to occupy the human forces as they readied their superweapon

given the nature of space, it seems the Ceph have adapted to living and travelling in space. especially since space is gravityless so bones do you no good.


the red Ceph are faceless goons. they're simply soldiers made by the Ceph Nanites, made to occupy the human forces as they readied their superweapon

space isn't "gravityless!" :-O

given the nature of space, it seems the Ceph have adapted to living and travelling in space. especially since space is gravityless so bones do you no good.


the red Ceph are faceless goons. they're simply soldiers made by the Ceph Nanites, made to occupy the human forces as they readied their superweapon

space isn't "gravityless!" :-O

Wut?

Planets and stars have gravity which is responsible for the organisation of our solar system, but outside of orbitting a planet, and on something the size of a creature, yes; space is without gravity.