History

A newspaper article from the Zion Archives

This page chronicles the history of The Matrix universe and the events that took place in it.

20^th, 21^st and 22^nd centuries

Events: The Second Renaissance, Bits and Pieces of Information

Circa 1985–2025

• Humanity at the peak of human civilization
• Technology is advanced at a rapid pace

Early 21^st century

• Humanity is united in celebration as it develops the first Artificial Intelligence
• The single AI spawns an entire race of Machines

2026

• Construction of the Pequod

2069

• Construction of the Nebuchadnezzar

2079

• Construction of the Osiris

2090

• Start of the Second Renaissance

2101

• Construction of the Logos

2106

• Construction of the Vigilant

2111

• Construction of the Mjolnir

2090–2139

• B1-66ER kills its master Gerrard E. Krause
• B1-66ER is put on trial and found guilty of murder
• B1-66ER is sentenced to death and is destroyed
• Machines and humans start to riot in protest of each other's actions
• The Machines are exiled from human society
• The Machine City of "01" is established in Mesopotamia
• Machine technology and AI becomes more advanced
• 01's economy competes fiercely with the rest of the world
• Blockades are formed around 01 in an attempt to disrupt its economy
• The Machines send ambassadors to the United Nations Organization with a proposal of Peace

2139

• The end of the Second Renaissance dubbed as the end of the era of human technology
• Beginning of the era of Machine technology

2139–2199

• The United Nations launch a nuclear attack on 01, starting the Machine War but doing very little permanent damage to the Machines
• Operation Dark Storm begins to cut off the Machines from the sun, the sky is permanently darkened
• The Machines modify themselves to become war machines
• The Machines start to experiment with using humans as a source of power for themselves
• The war continues and the Machines overwhelm the humans
• The Machines are victorious over the humans
• The United Nations form an Instrument of Surrender but a thermonuclear device is detonated by the Machines inside the United Nations Headquarters, destroying New York City
• Nuclear winter sets in
• Humans are captured by the Machines and used for experimentation
• The Machines develop a way to extract energy from humans and combine it with fusion power

23^rd, 24^th, 25^th, 26^th centuries

• In order to pacify the humans, The Architect designs the first version of the Matrix as a perfect Utopian paradise
• The "Paradise" Matrix fails because of its perfection and lack of choice
• The Merovingian is set to be deleted, but refuses and returns to the Matrix to go into exile
• Persephone is exiled along with The Merovingian and is bound to him as his wife
• The Architect redesigns the Matrix as a grotesque, hellish nightmare
• The "Nightmare" Matrix fails because of its excessive suffering and lack of choice
• The Oracle solves the problem of choice

23^rd Century

• The third version of the Matrix is redesigned as a late 20^th Century Mega City
• The cycle of The One, given the moniker of the "Prime Program" by The Architect, is developed and implemented
• The One, a human with the ability to change the Matrix as desired, was born inside the Matrix
• The Architect begins numbering each iteration of the modern Matrix based on the emergence of The One, with the 23rd century Matrix being labeled as the "First Matrix"
• 99% of the humans accept the Matrix
• The One self substantiates and begins freeing other humans resulting in the formation of the Resistance
• The free humans hide from the Machines in an underground city that they name Zion
• The One dies; The Oracle prophesies his return
• The Matrix continues for approximately one hundred years
• A professional athlete Dan Davis breaks a world record and attempts to self-substantiate
• The Agents ensure that the professional athlete stays in the Matrix
• Glitches occur within the Matrix and are eliminated
• Humans begin experimenting with turning Machines into allies
• The experiments with the Machines result in disaster
• The second incarnate of The One appears, follows his intended path and meets The Architect
• The One makes the logical choice to save humanity
• Zion is destroyed
• The One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix to build a second Zion; knowledge of the previous resistance is erased and Zionites believe they are near the beginning of the century
• Other programs deviate from their parameters or are no longer necessary due to the Prime Program
• Deviant and useless programs set for deletion choose to hide with The Merovingian

2274

• Construction of the Mnemosyne

24^th century

• The Matrix is rebooted; the second Matrix begins
• The One dies; The Oracle prophesies his return
• The Matrix and Zion continue for approximately one hundred years
• The third incarnate of The One appears, follows his intended path and meets The Architect
• The One makes the logical choice to save humanity
• Zion is destroyed for the second time
• The One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix to build a third Zion; knowledge of the previous resistance is erased and Zionites believe they are near the beginning of the 23rd century

25^th century

• The Matrix is rebooted; the third Matrix begins
• The One dies; The Oracle prophesies his return
• The Matrix and Zion continue for approximately one hundred years
• The fourth incarnate of The One appears, follows his intended path and meets The Architect
• The One makes the logical choice to save humanity
• Zion is destroyed for the third time
• The One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix to build a fourth Zion; knowledge of the previous resistance is erased and Zionites believe they are near the beginning of the 23rd century

26^th century

• The Matrix is rebooted; the fourth Matrix begins
• The One dies; The Oracle prophesies his return
• The Matrix and Zion continue for approximately one hundred years
• The fifth incarnate of The One appears, follows his intended path and meets The Architect
• The One makes the logical choice to save humanity
• Zion is destroyed for the fourth time, after a seventy two hour defense
• The One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix to build a fifth Zion; knowledge of the previous resistance is erased and Zionites believe they are near the beginning of the 23rd century

27^th and 28^th centuries

2599–2699

Events: The Miller's Tale, A Detective Story, The Man Who Knew Too Much

• The Matrix is rebooted; the fifth Matrix begins
• The One dies; The Oracle prophesies his return
• The Matrix and Zion continue for approximately one hundred years
• Morpheus is freed from the Matrix
• Geoffrey leads a team of five people from Zion to find wheat in the Real World
  • Geoffrey discovers an abandoned university town and finds a seed depository
  • Geoffrey's team is attacked by the Machines and Geoffrey is left as the sole survivor; returning to Zion
  • Geoffrey farms wheat and bakes bread which become a treasured luxury in Zion
  • The secret grain farms on the surface are attacked and Geoffrey is killed
  • The surviving grain stockpiles are rationed out twice a year; the Bread Feast is created and held in Geoffrey's memory
• Morpheus visits The Oracle who tells him that he will find The One
• Trinity hacks into the IRS database
• Morpheus becomes Captain of the Hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar and frees Trinity from the Matrix
• Ghost is freed from the Matrix on the same day as Trinity
• Ghost and Trinity develop a close, brother-sister relationship
• Trinity becomes First Mate of the Nebuchadnezzar and other crew members join
• Trinity visits The Oracle who tells her that she will fall in love with The One
• Private Investigator Mr. Ash is hired by Agents to track down Trinity and is killed by Trinity as he becomes possessed by an Agent
• Morpheus finds someone who he believes could be The One who is later killed by an Agent
• Morpheus goes on to find four more potential candidates to being The One but each is ultimately killed by Agents^{(Possibly non-canon)}
• Cypher begins doubting the prophecy of The One
• Morpheus gains notoriety as an international "terrorist", according to public authorities within the Matrix

c.2699

Events: The Matrix, The Matrix: Path of Neo, Final Flight of the Osiris, Saviors, A Path Among Stones, Beyond, I Kant

• A hacker named Thomas A. Anderson, aka Neo, begins searching the internet for Morpheus
• The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar begins monitoring Neo as a candidate to being The One
• Cypher expresses his lack of faith in Neo to Trinity
• Trinity monitors Thomas Anderson from the Heart o' the City Hotel
• Cypher betrays Trinity's location to Agents Smith, Jones, and Brown
• Trinity escapes from the Heart o' the City Hotel
• The Agents begin their search for Neo
• Neo sells an illegal disk to his friend Choi, who invites him to a rave
• Neo and Trinity meet for the first time
• Neo goes to work at MetaCortex where Agents Smith, Jones, and Brown catch up to him
• Neo is contacted by Morpheus who tries to help him out of the building
• Neo is captured and interrogated by Agent Smith
• A tracking bug is placed inside Neo's navel, and he wakes up in bed
• Neo is contacted by Morpheus again
• The bug is extracted from Neo's navel
• Neo meets Morpheus for the first time at the Hotel Lafayette
• Neo chooses the red pill over the blue pill and is extracted from the Matrix
• The Nebuchadnezzar recovers Neo from the sewer and begins the recuperation process
• Neo sees the Matrix for what it really is and is told of the Prophecy of The One
• Neo's training begins
• Cypher meets with Agent Smith to negotiate his betrayal
• The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar takes Neo to see The Oracle
• Cypher betrays the location of the Hotel Lafayette to the Agents
• Neo meets Spoon Boy
• Neo meets The Oracle and interprets her response to mean that he isn't The One
• The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is attacked at the Hotel Lafayette and Mouse is killed
• Cypher is captured by the police
• Morpheus is captured by Agent Smith
• Cypher's paddy wagon crashes, he escapes and exits the Matrix
• Cypher critically wounds Tank and kills Dozer
• Cypher kills Apoc and Switch
• Tank recovers from the attack and kills Cypher
• The Agents begin attempting to extract the Zion access codes from Morpheus' mind
• Neo and Trinity enter the Matrix to save Morpheus
• Neo and Trinity demolish the lobby of the Government Building
• Using a B-212 helicopter, Neo and Trinity ambush the Agents and rescue Morpheus
• Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo safely land on a rooftop as the helicopter crashes into a nearby building
• Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix, but Neo is trapped by Agent Smith
• Neo defeats Agent Smith, but he quickly returns
• Sentinels close in on the Nebuchadnezzar
• Neo runs to the Heart o' the City hotel
• Neo is killed by Agent Smith outside of Room 303
• Trinity confesses her love to Neo
• Neo is brought back to life due to the imbalanced equation of the Matrix
• Neo destroys Agent Smith
• Neo declares his intentions to the Machines

c.2699-2700

The following events happen in a span of six months:

• Smith is faced with deletion or exile, and he chooses exile
• Tank dies and his brother-in-law Link volunteers to take his place on board the Nebuchadnezzar
• The Keymaker is faced with deletion or exile, and he chooses exile
• The Keymaker is imprisoned by The Merovingian
• Sati is designed by Rama-Kandra and Kamala
• Spoon Boy is freed from the Matrix
• After Cypher's betrayal, new simulations are implemented among Zion ship crews to gauge their capacity for betrayal - offering them the same choice of being plugged back into the Matrix and observing their reaction
• Michael Popper ("Kid") begins questioning reality and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar begins monitoring him
  • Michael is contacted by Neo but is cornered by Agents, culminating in Michael "self-substantiating" - freeing himself from the Matrix without the use of a red pill
  • Michael is retrieved by the Nebuchadnezzar and wakes up on board to see Neo and Trinity
• The Machines muster a vast Sentinel army a quarter of a million strong, and begin digging towards Zion
• The crew of the Osiris is chased by a Sentinel patrol to the surface, where they stumble into the army and discover their activities
• The Osiris hurries back to broadcast depth and manages to transmit its findings to a "dropbox" in the Matrix just before the vessel is destroyed by Sentinels; killing its entire crew

--

Event: Enter the Matrix

• The crew of the Logos is sent to retrieve the last transmission of the Osiris.
• Ghost infiltrates the post office and recovers the transmission
• Ghost and Niobe are pursued by Agents Johnson and Jackson
• Ghost and Niobe escape from the Matrix and transmit the last transmission of the Osiris to Zion
• Commander Lock orders an immediate full recall
• Ghost and Niobe go to the airport to call the captains of the fleet
• Axel is captured by Agents Johnson, Jackson, and Thompson
• The crew of the Vigilant goes to the Airport to rescue him
• Ghost and Niobe agree to help the crew of the Vigilant to rescue Axel
• Niobe infiltrates the hangars and attempts to rescue Axel
• Ghost shoots the front tire off the Gulfstream that Axel is aboard as it takes off
• Ghost shoots down a helicopter piloted by an Agent
• Niobe attempts to rescue Axel as he is transferred to a cargo plane
• Niobe steals the Agents' car and drives it into the back of the plane as it takes off
• Niobe crushes the Agent against a pile of cargo boxes
• An Agent takes over the pilot's body as Niobe gives Axel a parachute
• The Agent tries to close the cargo door, but Axel manages to jump out in time
• Niobe and the Agent fight
• Niobe opens the door again and kicks the Agent out
• Ghost recovers Axel and picks up Niobe after she parachutes out of the plane
• Axel and Ghost exit the Matrix through a hardline in a subway station
• The Trainman warns Niobe that Zion only lasted 72 hours "last time"

Event: The Matrix Reloaded

• Neo begins having prophetic dreams about Trinity
• A Crisis Meeting is called for all of the active hovership crews (meeting within the Matrix itself rather than taking time to meet in person). The revived Smith leaves a message for Neo then leaves, but is followed by new upgraded Agents. Neo fights off the Agents while the ship crews successfully retreat to their exits.
• Because the Nebuchadnezzar needs to recharge its batteries, it withdraws to Zion with the other ships. Instead, Morpheus convinces the crew of the Caduceus to defy orders and remain at broadcast depth waiting for contact from The Oracle. Eventually she does deliver instructions on a new location for Neo to meet her, but as Bane is exiting the pick-up mission he is possessed by the revived Smith, who can now copy himself into any human connected to the Matrix.
• Morpheus addresses a large gathering at Zion's temple, warning of the impending attack.
• The Nebuchadnezzar leaves Zion and returns to broadcast depth. Neo meets with The Oracle again at a public park, where she gives him instructions to retrieve The Keymaker from The Merovingian and his Exile programs.
• Neo is confronted by the revived Smith, and he is soon attacked by a hundred different copies of Smith at the same time. As Smith's numbers continue to increase, Neo eventually manages to flee by flying away.
• Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus visit Le Vrai restaurant to seek audience with The Merovingian, but he refuses their request. As they leave, The Merovingian's wife Persephone leads them through a portal to the Chateau, where they retrieve The Keymaker.
• The Merovingian catches up with them, and the team splits up: Neo holds off The Merovingian's powerful henchmen programs at the Chateau, while Morpheus and Trinity flee through a portal with The Keymaker back to the parking garage of Le Vrai. As they switch to vehicles and are chased by The Twins, they quickly attract the attention of the system's Agents - leading to a chaotic three-way fight on the freeway. At the last moment Morpheus and The Keymaker are saved by Neo, and all of them escape.
• The Keymaker instructs Neo that they must gain access to a heavily guarded building with a secret door leading to the Source - the Machine mainframe - in order to fulfill the purpose of The One. This involves a three-pronged coordinated attack by three ship crews. When one crew fails, Trinity re-enters the Matrix to complete their objective. Neo reaches the secret door but is attacked by Smith again, who fatally wounds The Keymaker. As he dies, he points Morpheus to his exit from the Matrix, and Neo to the correct door.
• Neo enters the portal, where he meets The Architect - the program that created the Matrix. The Architect explains to Neo the secret cyclical nature of the Matrix, The One, and Zion. The early versions of the Matrix failed because they did not incorporate choice, but the later ones that did include choice also generated an anomaly that took the form of "The One", a super-powered human who could bend the Matrix to his will. The Machines could not prevent the occurrence of The One but they could predict it, thus giving them a measure of control. The real purpose of The One is to reset the Matrix before it becomes too unstable.
• Unilke his five predecessors, Neo chooses not to reset the Matrix but to return and rescue Trinity.
• The Nebuchadnezzar is destroyed by Sentinels using TOW bombs, though the crew abandons the ship beforehand. Just as they are about to be overwhelmd, Neo accesses previously unknown powers in the Real World to de-activate the Sentinels - but then falls into a coma. The crew are then saved by the hovership Mjolnir.
• Commander Locke planned a first strike on the Machine army when its drill reached a choke point near iron deposits, but just as the hovership fleet was in position, the Smith-possessed Bane prematurely activated his ship's EMP to disable all of them. What followed was not a battle but a slaughter. The only surviving hoverships after this are the Mjolnir and much smaller but faster Logos.

c. 2700

Event: The Matrix Revolutions

• Neo remains trapped in Mobile Avenue by The Merovingian and The Trainman, where he meets Sati and her parents.
• Morpheus and Trinity meet The Oracle again (in her new shell), and are joined by Seraph - who leads them to The Merovingian's hideout at Club Hel. After battling through the glitch-enhanced Exiles, they succeed in forcing The Merovingian to release Neo.
• Returning to the real world, Neo and Trinity take the Logos to head to the Machine City, while Morpheus, along with Niobe and her surviving crew, start traveling back to Zion aboard the Mjolnir.
• Agent Smith manages to copy over everyone in the Matrix, culminating in him infecting even The Oracle herself.
• The Machines drill into Zion, and the Battle of Zion begins.
• The APU core makes a valiant stand at the dock but are gradually overwhelmed by endless waves of Sentinels.
• Bane stows away aboard the Logos and tries to kill Neo and Trinity, but is killed by a blinded Neo when he surprisingly discovers that he no longer needs eyes to see.
• Niobe pilots the Mjolnir to Zion through the Mechanical Line, pursued by Sentinels.
• The last of the APUs manages to open the gate to Zion just in time for Mjolnir to enter and fire its EMP, destroying all the Sentinels in the Dock. There is a brief pause in the battle as the remaining thousands of Sentinels regroup for a second wave. With no hope of holding the dock anymore, the surviving human forces retreat to the temple level in hope of forcing the Sentinels through the only remaining choke point.
• The Logos arrives at the perimeter defenses of the Machine City. Neo uses his new powers to carve a path through their defense grid, but even he is eventually overwhelmed by their numbers. In desperation he tells Trinity to fly above the defensive line - through the nanobot shroud blocking out the sun. This shorts out the Sentinels on their hull but shorts out the ship as well, which makes a hard landing / controlled crash into the city. Trinity is impaled on debris and dies in Neo's arms.
• Neo continues into the Machine City, where he makes a deal with Deus Ex Machina (the collective representation of the Machines' authority): the rogue Agent Smith has spread as a virus across all of the Matrix, and it is only a matter of time until he spreads to the real world as well. Neo's power as The One is the only thing that can stop Smith. In exchange for saving both the humans and Machines from Smith, Neo demands peace between both sides.
• Just as the Sentinel army is on the verge of penetrating Zion's temple, they halt their attack when they are broadcast new instructions. Both sides pause the fighting as the fate of both worlds hinges on Neo.
• The Machines plug Neo back into the Matrix, now fully overrun by the Smith virus, where Neo engages in an epic battle with the Prime Smith. At the end of their confrontation, Neo allows Smith to infect him - despite suspecting a trick, Smith cannot choose any other course of action beyond his purpose. Because Neo's body is plugged directly into the Machine mainframe in their city, this allows them direct access to the Smith virus, and they pump a massive anti-virus signal through Neo into the Matrix which completely purges it of Smith. Neo's lifeless body, left in the Machine City, is then carried away.
• The Matrix reboots for the eighth time.
• The Architect meets with The Oracle, as she watches a new dawn over the Matrix megacity. He says that he will agree to the terms of Neo's Truce, that any Redpills who want to leave the Matrix (less than 1% of the population) will now simply be allowed to leave. Sati asks The Oracle if they will ever see Neo again, and she says she hopes they will.

C. 2701 - C. 2705

Event: The Matrix Online

It is as-yet unclear how "canon" the following events should be considered. The story of the MMORPG occurred in real time from 2005 to 2009, across four years. Thus within the narrative it began around 2701 with storylines lasting through 2705.

• The Assassin tries to recycle Trinity's body as part of his function
• Other Machines prevent The Assassin from recycling Trinity's body because they are working on her cranial jack
• Morpheus is elected as the High Chairman of the Council of Zion for his efforts in bringing the Machine War to an end
• The citizens of the Mega City assess the damage caused by the rainstorm and by the fight between Neo and Smith
• Hundreds of obsolete and belligerent programs are exiled and form gangs within the Mega City
• The Machines declare the Richland district open and unrestricted for all Redpills
• The Agents begin hunting down the Exiles to delete them from the Matrix
• The Exiles discover ways to hack into the access nodes placed throughout the city
• The Assassin is set to be deleted for his disobedience regarding the recycling of Trinity's body
• The Assassin flees to the Matrix with the help of The Merovingian
• Morpheus is considered to be deceased by the citizens of the Mega City
• The framework of the HvCFT Novalis is salvaged and repaired
• Sawayaka becomes the captain of the HvCFT Novalis II
• Glitches caused by Agent Smith begin appearing in the Matrix
• Leaks in the code of the Matrix begin to appear, Redpills begin to tap these data nodes for information
• Humans within the Matrix are extracted at the highest rate ever
• Massive hoverbarges are provided to house all of the new Redpills
• Due to a lack of adequate training disks, Redpills start trading valuable information for new abilities
• The Machines try to fix the glitches caused by Smith
• Hundreds of Redpills experience déjà vu
• Thousands of humans are freed from the Matrix in a single day
• C. 2704 - New Zion is built and is discovered by Cypherites who report it to the Machines
• The Machines consider New Zion to be a violation of the Truce, sparking the Second Machine War

The following information contains spoilers from The Matrix Resurrections. Read at your own risk.

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c. 2701 - c. 2759

• The Machines start losing power
• The Machines attempt to optimize their systems to compensate
• Morpheus encourages all Redpills to strain the system so that the Machines will be inclined to return Neo's body
• The Machines consider Morpheus' actions to be in violation of the Truce
• The Machines contact Lock to request that Morpheus be stopped
• Commander Lock orders all Zionite Redpills to apprehend Morpheus on sight
• The Merovingian's lieutenants begin to shadow Morpheus
• Rama Kandra builds the resurrection pods, which are used to store the bodies of Neo and Trinity
• The bodies of Neo and Trinity are repaired and revived in the resurrection pods, while their consciousness is reinserted to the Matrix
• A faction of the Machines invade Zion, killing Morpheus in the real world and possibly including Commander Lock and most humans inside
• IO is built under the leadership of Niobe. A few humans who survived the complete destruction of Zion and certain groups of the Machines adherent to the Truce come to settle to the new city and live together in peace, ushering a new era of human-machine cooperation that is absent since the Second Renaissance several hundred years earlier
• The Machines finally lose most of their power sources
• C. 2720 - The Machine Civil War breaks out (based on the fact that in flashbacks, Niobe looks about twenty years older, like her actress).
• Machines are now divided into competing factions, one among many of which is in alliance with the humans
• The Analyst takes over the control of the Matrix from The Architect
• The Analyst orders the deletion of Rama Kandra and Kamala, subsequently wiping them out from the Matrix
• Sati defects to the human cause, distraught over the deletion of her parents Rama Kandra and Kamala
• The Oracle was deleted during the Machine civil war

c. 2760

Event: The Matrix Resurrections

• Neo wakes up once again in the real world with the help of Bugs, a program version of a younger Morpheus, and the crew of the hovership Mnemosyne.
• Neo heads to IO, meeting Niobe who is now a general of the human forces and the leader of the city.
• Trinity wakes up once again in the real world with the help of Neo, Bugs, and her team with assistance from Sati.
• Neo and Trinity confront The Analyst a final time and promise him that they will free the humans trapped in the Matrix and remake the world.

See also

• Timeline