Wham Episode / XCOM: The Advent Directive

WARNING: Unmarked spoilers in this page.

Advent Directive

• Chapter 4, "Brought to Light", illustrates the current state of the aliens, and the universe beyond Earth, setting the stage for the new phase of the war:
  • For starters, the Ethereals are focusing on Earth because they were told to do so, by an eons-old race called the Sovereign Ones.
  • To add upon that, the current living Ethereals of the Collective are the sole survivors of the original Ethereal Empire 200.000 years ago, destroyed after a war against psionic machine intelligences and their army of converted thralls, the Synthesized. The Collective was formed by the last living Imperator to survive, rebuild, and prepare for the return of the Synthesized.
  • Finally, Aegis brought schematics for highly-advanced technology for XCOM and ADVENT to start fighting on equal footing with the Collective's forces.
• Chapter 29, "Siege: North America": The enigmatic Chronicler is revealed to be an agent for a rogue Sovereign One, opposed to the Collective.
• Chapter 33, "The Imperator". The titular character reveals a lot of things about the Collective and the wider galaxy, flipping our previous perception on its head:
  • The Sovereign Ones, who are allegedly helping the Collective, are the creators of the same Synthesized that brought an end to the Ethereal Empire. They're also all at war with one another, and only one is actually aligned with the Collective... but merely to co-opt it to wage war on the other Sovereigns in its stead.
  • The Creator has made contact with another Sovereign: the Bringer, trapped in the Psionosphere. The Imperator wants to use it as a weapon against Mosrimor and the rest of the Sovereigns.
• Chapter 44, "The Broken and Defiant":
  • Abby is revealed to be held captive aboard Fectorian's Blacksite. Fectorian himself is revealed to have several doubts about the Imperator's plan to deal with the Synthesized and the Sovereign Ones, and is considering the possibility of defection.
• Chapter 46, "Harbinger": Patricia accepts the Imperator's offer to be his Avatar.
• Chapter 53, "Enter the Harbinger":
  • Patricia attacks the Praesidium, killing nearly a full third of XCOM's personnel (among them Nuan, Oliver and Dr. Shen) and abducting Caelior before revealing herself as Harbinger of the Imperator to the world at large.
  • On a lesser note compared to that: Shen manages to complete JULIAN before being killed, leaving XCOM with a fully-fledged AI working with them.
• "Interlude: Wrath of the Deep":
  • This chapter introduces an entirely new faction out of blue in the Throne World, who possess an unsettling amount of knowledge about not only humanity and the Collective, but also the Sovereigns and the Bringer.
  • T'Leth rises from the ocean for the first time, sending countless aliens in Australia to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.
• Chapter 55, "A Strangled Paradise":
  • The Dead World is destroyed, and the Bringer's Embrace is killed as punishment for Paradise's intervention in Beijing, leading to the direct intervention of Omnima, one of the Bringer's Sovereign minds.
  • Liam Jaster, previously thought to have died on the Dreanought at the end of Hades Contingency, is alive and well, residing in Fectorian's Blacksite.
• Chapter 64, "Streets of Blood, Storms of Ice":
  • The Throne World's Riders are revealed to be hunting for Fiona as they interrupt the Collective's attack of New York, which all but confirms the former to be the Aen Elle's Red Riders, and the latter to be Ciri.
• Chapter 66, "Sever the Head":
  • The Entity, teased throughout the most recent chapters, appears for the first time. The unwitting receiver of his attention? Volk.
    • Chapter 67 also reveals that not only has the Entity managed to infiltrate XCOM, it has also taken an interest in the Battlemaster.
• Chapter 78, "Crescendo's Approach": The Imperator and Patricia are brought before Mosrimor, who wastes no time in showing the true might of an awakened Sovereign by telepathically subjugating them, and all but seizes control of the Ethereal Collective.
• Chapter 80, "Operation: Jericho":
  • XCOM and ADVENT's attack on the Muton homeworld of Desolan proves to be something of a success, as several Mutons are saved. In addition, the Sectoids appear to be also willing to speak with XCOM, with Hive Commander 029 sending one of its Lesser Hive Commanders to establish contact.
  • In the Throne World, Nithral looks over an individual retrieved from the Sphere of the Fallen. Her name? Velanna.

The XCOM Files

• The Overmind Dossier chapter delivers what might be the single biggest wham at the time it was posted:
  • For one, it reveals that the entirety of Ethereal history as the Ethereals themselves knew it was a lie: the Overmind is not only the oldest living Ethereal, but also the first Ethereal to awaken; the Ethereals are nowhere near extinct, thriving in a hundred different galaxies and guided by the One Hundred (the first and oldest Ethereals, of which the Overmind himself is a part of), all for one single purpose: to break the Sovereigns' hold on the universe.
  • How did they manage to spread to so many galaxies in the first place? Simple: after mentally subjugating their (heavily sedated) Sovereign creator, they were approached by a shapeshifting entity all but outright stated to be the Entity, who offered them a way to harness the dormant Sovereign's mind in order to access the knowledge therein, including many different psionic techniques and advanced technologies.
• The Ankara Miracle: The Chronicler is eyeing the Lion for an as-of-yet unspecified role; in addition, it is revealed that T'Leth has some form of "Armada" at his disposal... and the Agent in charge of it has already been awakened.