Really hope you guys enjoyed this one as it took a lot of work, and am looking forward to discussing your ideas in either the comments or my discord discord.gg/nmC7Xtt

I love how the devs mentioned this vid in the monthly update but refuse to confirm or deny the back story 😆

I didn’t realize the map was THAT physically accurate to its real life counterpart

As far, as the timeline goes…I like to play on high-pop servers when I’m feeling like PvP. It simulates the first days of the outbreak when it’s total chaos, every man for himself. Then there is times when I like to slow it down and simply emulate the later days of the apocalypse. Focus more on survival, building bases and stashes, and take time to enjoy the atmosphere of the game. That’s when I play on my home server which is a low-pop. I love this game. I play no other. It’s so open. So free of any restrictions whatsoever. It truly is whatever you want it to be. No subscriptions. Nothing hidden behind pay walls. No pay-to-win. No loot crates. Just you. The game. And other survivors.

The "2172km to Moscow" sign might be referring to the dev studio distance to Moscow. A quick search of Prague to Moscow results in over 1900km distance, which falls a bit short of the 2172, but depending on a specific location maybe on the outskirts of the city, with some indirect side roads, might possibly come out to that distance. Just a theory...

One of the main DayZ Wiki guys here... Sounds pretentious I know... XD Really appreciated the shout-out to the team at the end of the video! Made us super pumped to be mentioned! We are always looking for help! Loved the video and will be subbing! Keep doing what you do man!

I’m a console player and never played arma. Just dayz on Xbox. As an active duty marine, I wondered why I kept finding zombified marines in bases and marine uniforms on the ground. Great explanation!

I always thought of the Arma II mini campaign Eagle Wing as the prequel to Day Z. A build up to a world war 3 scenario ending with a nuke being dropped on the US navy somewhere along the Chernarus coast and the player eventually escaping the island by boat.

Great video, really well researched My own 2 cents to add: The virus could be an experimented chemical weapon - which makes sense why a covert military ship disguised as a civilian vessel carried it. In addition, given the way PO-X works and results in cuts all over your body, and the Infected are wounded and bloody all over, perhaps PO-X and the Virus are linked. PO-X could be a stronger or alternate version of the Virus with guaranteed lethality, which may explain why the player character is immune to the Virus, but not PO-X. Or if they are not linked as actual viruses, they may still likely originate from the same research as two different bioweapons. The Virus would act as a bioweapon that makes a population eradicate itself and spread the disease further, while PO-X can be used on high priority areas, or connecting areas (i.e. the airport) to immediately eradicate those areas completely. Also the reason why Helis are crashing (and being shot down?) and why there even is American activity at all - perhaps West Chernarus is an active war zone as of the outbreak, or some time around the outbreak, perhaps due to a NATO intervention after noticing what happened in Chernarus, for example after the Rify shipwreck. American intelligence might've caught on, and turned the rest of Chernarus into an active conflict zone, which also explains why there are no excursions of any kind by interested parties INTO South Zagoria, because they can't. And only the military could, but choose not to for obvious reasons.

I think that the outbreak also saw a resurgence of fighting between NAPA and ChDKZ groups (them taking advantage of the chaotic situation) as you can find Chedaki berets at checkpoints on military zombies. Due to this resurgence of fighting, this could of further caused chaos among CDF forces which is why they couldn't fight the infection - because they had to deal with infected and gunmen at their checkpoints. This could explain why you can find destroyed/damaged jeeps, tanks, APC's and other military hardware at checkpoints.

You pretty much taught me how to play DayZ, man. Have loved your vids for a good while. Can't wait to dive into this one!

Great work Rav, you really did your home work, and the lore makes more sense now, as they release future content I am sure more of the official story will come to light!

Wow, just wow. I've played dayz for 3 years now, and never new any of this. Amazing job rav, never cease to impress me.

I love it when games have very vague story telling so people can make and discuss their own theories.

One of the clearest and well done DayZ videos I have seen in years. For a newcomer to the game this would of been Gold.

My theory is that there’s this guy who really loves beans and hiking mountains who made a zombie mod in a military game because he likes zombie games

I really hope someday bohemia releases a full lore rundown and story so we dont have to speculate, it will definitely make the game more enjoyable when you know whats happening.

Finally a back story video keep up the content ❤️

Crazy how far this game has come and how big the following has become. I remember being a wee-little 11 year old, dying to tell my dad about how cool this game was and how badly I wanted to play it ahaha Now im 23, oh how time flys…

I remember there used to be handheld radios scattered around the map that would tell you bits of a story and lead you to the next radio. The last one had the dead body of whoever was talking in a hunting stand.

Started this, and saved it to my watch later list. I’ve just finally found time to finish. Brilliantly done. My only tidbit to add to all the details is blatantly obvious, nearly every building on the map has at least 1 or more sealed door and rooms you cannot access. I have always presumed that they are packed full of the 80% dead citizens population. About 1 in (wild guess) maybe every 100+ play sessions I will find a house or building with an infected trapped in one of those rooms, and sometimes they will scream at me through that barred door

There's definitely a distinction between the mod and standalone. I seem to remember that it was implied that the original player character was an operative, sent to investigate. The uniform and standard issue pistol supported this. No idea who said that, sorry. The infection seems to mirror the epidemic in the 1973 film "The Crazies" by the late George A. Romero.

I also found that In The right conditions in real life damaged or burned metal can rust in just a few of its exposed to high amounts of humidity(rain) snow or salt water in the air would also make sense for a lot of the car wrecks being partially burned and rusted

I’ve been alive for 13 weeks yesterday on vanilla official, playing like my life depends on it. It’s so intense, glad I started playing

Wow thank u for this masterpiece, if it wasnt for u and this highly informational video i would never have known that the story of dayz was this deep and even reaches back to arma. awesome, this totally changed the way i percieve dayz and gave another level of meaning to it!🙏

I've been looking forward to this!! Thanks Rav!!

Hey this is extremely helpful, because as an aspiring screenwriter, I am currently in the works of writing a DayZ spin-off show, obviously showing the story of a group of survivors in Chenarus.. although the characters are not native to Chenarus meaning there would be much to be explained in the lore of it. I’m believing personally the virus had to be connected to the war, and obviously the military areas were most likely placed during the war. Picturing stuff like present day Ukraine, where people are still living in the country, but military and compounds are presently being monitored. I think the outbreak had to have been going on for much longer than a few weeks, but not fully yet. The virus 🦠 was still alive and personal made attempt to stop it for a while and fight off the dead with their already existing military posts and people from the wars. Making this whole happening like a 10 year battle. The country was still able to live producing goods and stuff, until the outbreak went country wide/ most likely global too. Which is what we play in, about a week or two after most of the population has been thinned to none. Anyways LOVED THE VIDEO! Praying this show I’m working on eventually becomes true, and I get to work with many amazing players of the game for aid, was Well as the devs! Much LOVE! (As for the rify theory, I have a neat idea based on the stories of my chars of how this entire happening unfolded.)

Great job Rav! I’ve been waiting for something like this.

Awesome! I like every little dive into the lore :) The Origins story suggests that the virus started spreading as early as 1979, which fits Arma 2 and the Arma 2 mods pretty good - the entire game has a -80's feel to it.

Really well done; thoroughly researched with plausible conclusions. EXCELLENT work, a Must see for any true fan of DayZ.

Really awesome content! Thank you for providing us at the wiki as a source, and we'd love to have more insights and editors come help us out! We're only a small team so any help or edits made are always a huge help to us! Cheers again!

Yay! Was hoping you would make this after you propositioned it in another recent video. Best DayZ lore video out! Thanks Rav

So with the Decay of the buildings, broken glass i feel like the start of the pandemic started a little earlier, the current food ( exp date) could be explained by air drops to keep those alive while being quarantined. As you mentioned the road blocks are very basic which means they were able to contain the spread really quick. with the bombing ( gas attacks) and Helio crashes we know that there is outside help/support ..but remember with the Helio crashes there are zombies so its not 100% contained. Far as the Moscow location , we are assuming that the location of Moscow hasn't changed , remember this is a different world from our own so the location could be different if you went 2k klm from the sign what would you run into ? Also remember 2k klm on a road vs a map is a lot different that road could not be a straight path. One theory i have is you were dropped off as a test subject to be monitored to test a new vaccine against the virus. it will be interesting to see where the story goes with the bunker location in Livonia and how it will tie with Chernarus and if you can travel between the two location at some point.

That was awesome I've been waiting on this video for years! Thank you for doing all that.

Wow this was awesome. Great job Rav!

Solid vid! Great research and love the way you put it all together!

This game would have been the perfect opportunity to have some sort of real time system in the game, for example when it first came out it was pretty normal looking on the map etc, and now over ten years later everything has become overgrown, weapons are harder to find in pristine condition etc. A cool concept i reckon for a game. Changing the game overtime keeping it interesting while also being able to feel like everything slowly getting more overgrown and harder to survive in.

It's extremely weird that the epidemic in this game spread, dated March 12th, when that was the same day covid was declared a national emergency

Scary to think that the infected are conscious and aren’t walking corpses. They are humans that are just sick, and can’t control themselves. Animalistic behaviour is all they can do. Moving in hordes. I wish there was a way to get the infection and go through the painful symptoms but being asymptomatic is cool too.

Hi, the reason why the map resembles north part of czech republic is because main game area designer was from city Ústí nad Labem and he ported this area as his own easter egg to the game. Basically every villiage/city/poi is based and placed on real thing

Also, there may be a war between the CDF and the Russian Federation, because the helicopter crash noises sound like they are releasing flares before crashing, suggesting they are being shot down. Although it would be weird to fight each other over something like containing the virus, maybe the two powers are trying to achieve something before the other one does- like maybe the secret hidden at Rify, or even PO-X.

You definitely put more thought into the surrounding lore than the devs. Devs just want an excuse to make a wicked cool game, which they definitely did.

DayZ Lore Poggers 😁

Just a tip: The distance to Moscow isn't a developer mistake... It's a particular road length to Moscow, not a distance...

I’m impressed, never would I have taken the time to pice all this together, regardless of the couple holes in the timeline if anybody ever asks me this is the theory I’m pitching. Thanks Rav.

My theory doesnt go as far as this but, it ties to the green mountain radio. Idea is, the lady speaking on the radio signal on green mountain says some numbers, those numbers tie coordinates to some sniper outposts, ripping chernarus in half, north, and south. This might be a way to mark a safezone in the north/south. Anyways, something wouldve happened, and the virus somehow breaks the sniper outpost line and goes in to infect the whole south zagoria. Not much, i know, but there is more. As to how the infection started, i figured out it mightve been from the airplane that crashes into the hotel in Chernogorsk. The airplane mightve been a military or civilian one, and carried an infected or more, maybe test subjects, or infected that have not turned yet. From where though? Livonia. The virus firstly happened in Livonia somehow, i dont really have anything to say here since i dont have a copy of the Livonia DLC, so, yeah. The entire ordeal goes about this: > Infection unexplicably starts in Livonia, but is then contained. > An airplane (Either headed for Chernarus or another country) that contained infected (presumably unturned at first, lying so they werent left in livonia) crashes because of the now turned infected, they ransack the entire airplane and make it crash into the Chernogorsk hotel. (This might also happen at night) > Most die instantly from the impact, but some (infected and healthy) dont. > The infected quickly start spreading around the city, most people either stay inside their house, or directly run ftrom the city. > After some time of confusion, the government is told what happened, and in an effort to curb an infection to Chernarus (considering that by now, Chernogorsk might be gone) put a little military outpost in Electrozavodsk. > The civilians that ran from Chernogorsk reach the South-West military checkpoint. > Some of the civilians have been bitten, and turned, combined with the fact that the infected mightve also followed them through Balota, Komarovo and Kamenka (Considering these villages have close to no idea to what is happening) infecting them too. > The amount of infected people eventually sweep the SW military checkpoint, forming that massive car jam at calm bay. > Considering that the infection spread very fast, the government manages to inform only big citites (thats why there are less zombies and loot in cities compared to villages), and the entire south part of the South Zagoria region is now infected. > As i said at first, the military steps in and send coordinates to some sniper posts that are supposed to watch for anything that might be a problem for the northern safezone. A link to the radio message on the coordinates is this one kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLyoi6uqqpeneoE.html BUT BE CAREFUL AS IT IS VERY VERY LOUD. Also, someone said this: "The numbers are the coordinates of different deer stands. In the mod you can (or at least could) find military weapons such as machine guns, assault rifles, ammo, and even military zombies wandering around. What if the coordinates were there for telling the remaining soldiers to go to the deer stands and hold ground to prevent the virus to spread further? Like a last line of defense? Whatever it was, they failed.." >As the comment says, the numbers are coordinates to deer stand (i reffered to them as sniper outposts but ignore that) where you could find military weapons and all of that, but at one point, the line of defense was shattered, there are many ideas as how it was destroyed, theories might go like this: Theory 1: A horde of zombies simply formed and swepped the entire outpost after some noise made by the military there (gunshots etc.), simple as that. Theory 2: Lawlesness and banditry formed in the infected region, and eventually met with the military sniper outposts, where the bandits (OR REMNANTS OF THE CHEDAKI/NAPA) wouldve raided them, and the sound of firefights mightve attracted the zombies, as i dont think that the military couldve failed to stop a bunch of bandits. Theory 3: The military simply saw that they were no match to the zombies and left with the civilians, or just after the civilians were all escorted. Theory 4: Seeing as the situation in the northern part of South Zagoria was going to shit, the government takes everything from there and retreats into the west. Theory 5: This is just a bigger horde theory, basically massive horders form due to the government wanting to liberate the southern part of South Zagoria, and they simply break the defence line and sweep the north. For me, its a mix of Theory 1 and 2, but hey, you are free to believe anyone of them. > As for the last part, the government still stands, and tries whatever they can to liberate South Zagoria, of course this means using gas. They know there are still some survivors there (mostly people that didnt want to, or couldnt relocate to another city outside of South Zagoria) and they usually send some supplies there. Anyways this is my theory hope you like it!

11:04 Holy...! The amount of Research you have done for this Video... Good Job!

Really great dive into the lore. It would be so good if the devs tied together all the loose ends and gave us proper lore. Thank you so much for this video keep up the great work

Not sure if this has already been said, but the Mi-8 wrecks have CDF insignia on the back right cargo door, not Russian. You can even see it in the video at 21:00.

Great vid, makes Chernaurus even more interesting and eery!

Awesome viddy Rav! 8 year DayZ player and learned a lot! 👊

I find it weird how just a few weeks into the outbreak, civilians are already breaking into military bases and arming themselves

I’ve played since it was epoch mod on arma 2- operation arrow head, I can’t remember when exactly it was, but at one stage of the game if you died to infected you respawned as infected and had to then die again to respawn as a player, as infected you could carry nothing, hold no weapons but you could summon other infected to your area be calling/ yelling, it was an interesting twist but no very popular and hence phased out.

GG Rav, this was a good video and the work involved is very noticeable

This was a really good watch and great detail! Thanks 🙏

Fascinating video and thanks for putting it together!

When I saw "Instanbul" the Turkish inside me screamed a lil.

Can we take a mo- nah just kidding but your videos are OP, I love DayZ

It would be cool if they added an update where they scatter pieces of lore around the map for people to find

You have some pretty cool thoughts on DayZ lore and I for sure learned a few things even just about the game itself without really talking about the lore. One question that I have about the pox bombings/battery fire is why do the infected seem to be alright with walking around in the gas? Maybe that's thinking too much about it but I would think that maybe doing damage over time could have even been an option for in game mechanics if it was supposed to be for them. Which would be pretty cool tbh. From what you brought up in the video it does sound like they really did add a lot of little things that tells a larger story both in game and through forums/ads/posts. So I feel that it might be for the people who are left, and if the thing that broke out of the boat caused it all. What if that was the pox virus. It does make you bleed (which are probably soars) and throw up both puke and blood. Sounds a lot like what all the infected look like and maybe some people's bodies just couldn't handle all that trauma so they gave out? Just actually thought about that now as I was typing this out.. In my head it does kinda make sense. And the ship coulda been from the docks somewhere by Pavlovo mili picking up a shipment to take it somewhere? Or bringing something back.

I love the theory. Although the one thing I think may be off is how long everything has been going on ,the fruit specifically.your correct on the timing of fruit decay but what about preserved fruit through different means like cold weather Packaging and then human regrowing the fruit as it runs out that's the only part that threw me off

Rav that was amazing! You`re such a nerd but we love all your work for that very same reason. Mega like for this one dude! (as of now, not one dislike😆). Keep up the good work bro.

Great job putting this together. It definitely adds to the DayZ lore. 🧟‍♂️🧟

Huge work, excellent work. Thank you for this vid !

I've been waiting for this. Thank you

The fact they will aboustly do there best to just distance themselves from a story but do everything they can to keep the structure

Awesome video Rav

I know this video is like a year old, but I really appreciate your content.

Why is this mans voice so soothing

My own bit of lore... The perma-bio-zone with the shipwreck is how the virus spread to the island.

This is a solid video, I think any DayZ player would enjoy watching this

As a seasoned player myself I always wondered what the actual backstory of DayZ was. Before the whole PO-X update I was always very unsure of what actually went down etc but this video summed up my own personal theory perfectly. One thing I did however think of is that both permanent gas zones are linked directly and the covert shipment was more product/research stuff for the development of the PO-X virus and its antidote. My theory is that the outbreak started in the lab when they were creating a new bio weapon and the ship either crashed at a very unlucky time or was already sitting there waiting for a pick up. So the two gas zones aren't leaks but rather the first two that were shot and are now kept up as cover up so other countries can't investigate where the virus originated from so incase Russia does manage to keep things controlled inside Chernarus/Livonia they still have their secret weapon with now an antidote and a way to fight it. Also I believe PO-X is simply the finished version of the original weapon that broke out since the player is no longer immune to it and the hazmat infected that spawn are what I'm assuming also other immune people from the first virus outbreak that were tasked to retrieve/destroy any left over evidence and either had a faulty hazmat suit or they didn't have antidote with them.

Loved it, thank you! I do love lore! Going to check now in case you have already done one, but if you haven't. Id love to see one on the Deer isle lore!

I think the lore is a bit haphazard nonsense of course but it would be interesting to see a lore revamp. fix the dates on various items in the game and posts and just do a rewrite. over the years so much stuff contradicts itself would be cool to see a revamp

Phew I always assumed it meant DayZero. SO thanks for clearing that up.

I think better than the fruit and lack of overgrowth (which can be chalked up to some gamification), the mass graves not being skeletons are a good indicator of a short period of time since outbreak.

I love how the fruit was set up on the table 😂😂🙌🏼🙌🏼

I live in Lipová (Czech Republic) and it helped me find my way around in dayz. even that the map isnt 1:1 to the detail i knew where am i etc.

Great vid, though I do think the infection is global - not just in Chernarus and Livonia alone

Takistan isn't just desert. It's got quite a lot of vegetation, including a large swamp like area in Arma 2: PMC.

Also to add I know on Cherno there are Bunker doors in some of the mil areas that are obviously locked shut I wonder with future updates will they add in Vanilla Keys that will open them up to find legitimate secrets to confirm the backstory like Namalsk with Documents and maybe you can only find them in locations based off the Lore and from potential Heli drops that play more significance to the back story You’ve gotten me extremely intrigued for what’s to come and what I have yet to explore hopefully the devs see this and my comment and consider it 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

great vid rav! best lore vid made

Now I feel stupid for thinking the Z in dayZ stands for Zombie lol

Some serious research grind here. Nice work.

I felt that sigh at the beginning

Great video thanks for explaining the backstory of dayz

Would love to see an expansion of chernarus to encompass all of the locations listed on that map that'd be amazing

This was great bro!

My version of the Dayz lore is that the virus from Days gone is the same virus thats in Dayz but mutated

Man I love this!! I love Lore! And playing around with google maps I'd say Branzow Castle in Livonia might be Schloss Panemune in Lithuania and the location of Chernarus in the Czech Republic might be best fitting with the Lopatino roadsign pointing towards Moscow. Maybe there was a road or highway not built in 2013 which would make the distance on that sign quite accurate. And that geolocation link of yours points that out as well. Though that would negate the marine assault ship and the labe (Elbe) river would not be able to support a ship like rify shipwreck either.

I like your take on this. I enjoyed the video, thanks for putting all the effort in.

That was awesome thanks for the loreee, they were some mad theorys❤❤❤

The food on table looks sus hahahaha great video tho !!!!

thank. you. rav. ive had such a hard time finding lore.

I love me some lore! Thanks Rav!

Appreciate you making this!

Bro, I really love this vid, the sumup of all the theories existing within the community so far and all the good work you did to put all this together. I would like to dispute one point of your research. I am not sure if I agree with your a little point of your findings. I:m talking about the distance of Amsterdam, Venice and IStanbul to Mowcow. that you mentioned. In fact they are all three round about 2600 km away from Moscow and not less than 2172 km. The most western part of Tsczech Repubic is up to 2000 km away from Moscow. I discovered that the distance between Chernarus and Moscow is roughly the same as the distance between Moscow and the inner-German border before the German Union back in 1989- At the same time the USSR broke into pieces and Moscows influence was strongly minimalized. Perhaps the devs got this in mind. Perhaps everyboddys wrong and Chernarus is in fact located in Saxony or the Uckermark region. Just kidding, but isn't it a little funny that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics reached exactly 2172 km from Moscow to Europe?

Love this game just because Sarka 120 is ingame Škoda 120. And I like that car.

This game goes one of two ways for everyone I have bought a copy. 1.) They fall in love almost instantly and then bug you daily to play for months if not years. 2.) They hate it almost instantly and never play it again. You get your gift refunded.

Great work! I really enjoyed this!