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The Age of the Celestials

The powerful race known as the Celestials were born in the earliest days of the universe. These beings were forged from so-called "living light," which they used to manipulate matter itself and create their own bodies. It's possible these were the beings who "forged" the Infinity Stones into their current form. They certainly took possession of the Power Stone, and the Collector showed footage of the Celestials using it to judge entire worlds and civilizations.

The final fate of the Celestials is unclear, but it seems likely that other races rose up to wage war against them. The Celestials were rendered virtually extinct, with just fragments of their bodies left behind; one gigantic skull would ultimately become the mining installation Knowhere. Only one last Celestial was left, the newborn being who would come to call himself Ego.

According to the Collector, the Power Stone was briefly acquired by a group of lesser beings, who used its power for moments before being consumed. It's possible they used it against the Celestials, and that these monstrous alien beings were destroyed by their own weapon. The Power Stone was ultimately secreted on the planet Morag.

Sources: Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

The Founding of Wakanda

2.5 million years ago, a Bashenga, received a vision from the Panther God. He was guided to the rare Heart-Shaped Herb, and ingesting this granted Bashenga tremendous superhuman powers. Bashenga used these powers to unite the tribes, and formed the world’s first civilization – Wakanda. He became the first Black Panther.

RELATED: Wakanda is an 'Anchor Point' for the MCU Going Forward

Wakanda was mostly dedicated to worship of the Panther God, Bast, although the Jabari tribe continued to worship Hanuman. It seems likely Bashenga was the one who first guided the Wakandans to begin tapping into the secrets of Vibranium, as they named the Vibranium mound after him. The Black Panthers became ancestral defenders of Wakanda, with successive Black Panthers protecting their nation from any threats. Wakanda became increasingly isolationist over the millennia, distancing itself from the rest of the world.

Sources: Black Panther; The Art of Black Panther

Page 2: Extraterrestrial Societies

The Inhumans and the Beginning of Hydra

Millennia ago, the blue-skinned race known as the Kree began to form a warlike empire. Around 5,000 years ago, the Kree began to travel the universe, experimenting on other races. Their goal was to create super-soldiers, who would serve as their greatest weapons. Although most of these experiments were unsuccessful, on Earth they succeeded in creating the Inhumans. The first Inhuman, Alveus, possessed the power to take control of other of his race. He led an uprising against the Kree, driving them away from the planet. It's unclear quite how this happened, given the Kree actually believed the Inhumans had been rendered mostly extinct in the aftermath.

Humans and Inhumans alike feared the power of Alveus. They united to banish Alveus through a Kree Monolith, sending him to the planet Maveth. Alveus's disciples formed a secretive cult with the sole purpose of finding a way to bring him back to Earth; always seeking power, this cult would endure through the millennia, known as Hydra.

Tension grew between the humans and Inhumans, with humanity fearing their power. The bulk of the Inhumans chose to relocate to a Kree outpost on the Moon, which they dubbed "Attilan." There, the Inhumans established a strict caste system in order to control their population.

Sources: Inhumans

RELATED: Marvel Can Just Ignore the Inhumans Now

The Age of Asgard

In 2,988BC, the Dark Elves recognized that a cosmic event known as the Convergence would see the fabric of reality weakening. They sought to use the Reality Stone (which they called the Aether) to recreate their own universe of darkness. Fortunately, the Dark Elves were opposed by the forces of Asgard, under the leadership of Bor. When the dust settled, Bor thought he had committed genocide, wiping the Dark Elves out. Believing the Reality Stone to be too dangerous, he had it secreted away. Unknown to Bor, the last survivors of the Dark Elves – including their leader, Malekith – locked themselves in suspended animation, awaiting the next Convergence.

Bor would be succeeded by his son, Odin, who initially pursued an imperial policy. The forces of Asgard ransacked other worlds and civilizations, taking their treasures for themselves. Odin’s greatest warrior was his daughter, Hela, who cut a bloody swathe through all Asgard’s opponents. Finally, as the centuries ed, Odin began to believe he was leading Asgard in the wrong direction. He attempted to push Asgard towards a more benevolent policy, but was fiercely opposed by Hela. The All-Father ultimately banished his daughter, trapping her with his own might; it was a decision that cost Asgard dearly, as she briefly escaped and slaughtered Asgard’s famous Valkyrie warriors.

Odin may have renounced the old imperialism of Asgard, but he was still willing to intervene in galactic affairs. He led Asgard in defense of other realms, most notably Midgard (the Asgardian name for Earth). When King Laufey of Jotunheim invaded Midgard in approx. 1,000AD, the Asgardians intervened. The Frost Giants were driven back to Jotunheim, and their most powerful weapon – the Casket of Ancient Winters – was secreted away in Odin’s Vault. The All-Father stumbled upon a Frost Giant child, who he adopted as his own son in the hope he would become a bridge between the two races. Asgard would launch another campaign on Midgard in the 1300s, and one of their Berserker warriors would choose to desert. A century later, in 1409, Odin decided to hide the Tesseract with a group of worshipers in Tønsberg, Norway. It would remain hidden until the 20th Century.

Sources: Thor: Ragnarok, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1, 'The Well', Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years

The Fall of Titan

Another alien society developed upon the planet Titan, a rich and lush world. Population growth on Titan was explosive, not helped by the exceptional long lives of the world's inhabitants. One of Titan's philosophers, Thanos, game to believe that population growth was in danger of outstripping Titan's natural resources. He believed this would lead to a global catastrophe. Thanos's solution was an act of genocide, the proposed slaughter of half of Titan's population. "At random," he explained. "It would be fair, for rich and poor alike." This inhuman idea was dismissed by Titan's rulers, and Thanos was called a man.

Tragically, Thanos's warning came to . Somehow, overuse of Titan's resources led to an extinction level event. Thanos, who had seen the disaster coming, was the sole survivor of Titan. As he looked out at the universe, Thanos realized he saw the same pattern repeating on a cosmic scale; everywhere he looked, life was flourishing, and consuming resources. Thanos would ultimately decide to apply his twisted philosophy to the rest of the cosmos.

It's impossible to accurately date the fall of Titan. All life on the world seems to have been consumed, and this may have even affected the planet's bacteria, meaning the normal process of decay no longer affects the planet. Thanos's exceptionally long life actually means this could actually have happened millennia ago.

Source: Avengers: Infinity War

Page 3: Ancient Societies

K'un Lun, the Hand, and the Divine Pairing

Sometime in the distant past, Earth’s mystics learned to access another dimension, one that only overlapped with Earth once every 15 years. They established a city in this dimension, K’un Lun, which became a center of enlightenment and learning. The Iron Fist was chosen to act as protector of K’un Lun, and guardian of the gateway.

RELATED: Iron Fist: K'un Lun's Monastery and Danny Rand's Powers Explained

Five of K’un Lun’s disciples sought to pervert the city’s teachings, seeking out the secret of immortality. The Elders of K’un Lun banished these five, but were unaware that they had already learned how to conquer death. These five, led by the woman known as Alexandra, were able to tap into the energy of dragons, and create a “substance” that granted immortality from their bones. Using the promise of immortality to gain powerful allies on Earth, the five formed the Yami no te – the Hand. The Hand would be responsible for countless atrocities over the millennia, and their quest for dragon bones would frequently lead to tragedy due to powerful releases of energy. In AD79, the Hand were responsible for triggering the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius, destroying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

The Elders of K’un Lun learned of the Hand’s evil, and sought to combat it. The Iron Fist became their greatest weapon against the Hand, and he allied with some of the Hand’s victims, who he trained into an organization known as the Chaste. These two secretive groups – the Hand and the Chaste – would wage war against one another for millennia.

Meanwhile, in North America, a famine struck the area that would become New Orleans. The local Choctaw tribe was saved by the first known "Divine Pairing," with a Choctaw girl sacrificed in a ritual to bring an end to the famine. It's possible that this established the pattern of the "Divine Pairing," a cycle that would run throughout history. Whenever New Orleans was threatened, a new Divine Pairing would emerge, and the death of one would save the area.

Sources: Iron Fist season 1; The Defenders, 'Royal Dragon'

There's now something of a gap in the MCU timeline, running up to the 20th century. There have only ever been occasional flashbacks to the last 1,000 years or so of world history, but all they've done is confirm that everything we've seen so far was still ongoing. Hydra were still sending sacrifices through the Monolith, the Hand and the Chaste were waging war, and an Asgardian berserker was becoming a legend on Earth.

Hydra Allies with Nazism

In the twentieth century, Hydra used the rise of Nazism as an opportunity to gain power and influence. The most notable figure was Johann Schmidt, a scientist who believed the legends of Asgard were the key to ancient, advanced science. He ingratiated himself within the SS, and in June 1934 took advantage of the Night of the Long Knives to take control of the Nazi's weapons testing program in Kumersdorf.

Under Schmidt's leadership, Hydra pursued two avenues of research. Arnim Zola continued to develop advanced weapons systems, which Hydra secretly tested during the Spanish Civil War. But Schmidt himself was more interested in attempts to create the perfect human, and became fascinated by the theories of Dr. Abraham Erskine. When Erskine attempted to flee in September 1935, Schmidt intercepted him, and forced him to cooperate with Hydra.

RELATED: The History of Hydra in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

1940 proved a turning point in the history of Hydra, with war now raging across Europe. British Intelligence stole footage of weapons testing in Guernica, sharing it with the United States; this evidence persuaded the Strategic Scientific Reserve to prepare for outright war with Hydra, and they recruited genius industrialist Howard Stark. In November that year, Schmidt forced Erskine to pursue human trials of his super-soldier serum, and was transformed into the Red Skull. British Intelligence smuggled Erskine out of before Erskine could be killed for his apparent failure.

In December 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced the United States to finally enter the Second World War. Only three months later, though, Hydra’s weapons programs received a terrifying boost; the Red Skull was finally able to locate the Tesseract, the Space Stone, which had apparently been left on Earth by Odin. Hydra swiftly recognized that they could use the Tesseract as a powerful energy source.

Sources: Captain America: The First Avenger; Captain America: First Vengeance

Page 4: WWII, Hydra, and S.H.I.E.L.D.

The War Between the SSR and Hydra

The SSR's super-soldier program proved successful, but Erskine was assassinated by Hydra after creating just one super-soldier: Steve Rogers, a skinny kid from Brooklyn who Erskine recruited for his strength of character. Although the so-called "Captain America" was initially used as a propaganda tool, in October 1943 Rogers launched an unauthorized mission behind enemy lines to rescue POWs. He proved successful and was recruited by the SSR as a field operative against Hydra. Rogers would serve across the entire European continent, leading an attack on the SSR's Leviathan submarine, neutralizing a Hydra base in the Danish Straits, and capturing a Hydra spy in London.

Meanwhile, Hydra operatives continued to research paranormal phenomenon. In 1945, Werner Reinhardt conducted a dig in Portugal, discovering an ancient Kree Obelisk. He returned to his base in Austria, where he conducted human trials. The same year saw the 5th U.S. Infantry Division encounter the phenomenon known as “Zero Matter,” likely another Hydra experiment.

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Finally, the SSR successfully captured senior Hydra scientist Arnim Zola, although at a cost; Rogers's friend Bucky Barnes was believed killed. Using Zola's intelligence, the SSR launched a crippling campaign against Hydra. Desperate, the Red Skull used Tesseract technology to empower his Valkyrie bomber, and piloted it in a bombing run on the United States. Captain America stole aboard, and the two super-soldiers battled. The Red Skull was transported to the distant world of Vormir.

All that was left for the SSR was the mopping up, and the last Hydra base to be taken out was Reinhardt’s Austrian headquarters. The Kree Obelisk became the SSR’s first “0-8-4” (object of unknown origin).

Sources: Captain America: The First Avenger; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, 'Shadows'; Captain America & Thor: Avengers!, Captain America: First Vengeance, Marvel's The Avengers: The Avengers Initiative

S.H.I.E.L.D. and the "Beautiful Parasite"

The SSR had badly underestimated their opponents, though, believing Hydra merely to be a rogue Nazi science division. In reality, Hydra was a vast and ancient organization, and Hydra agents could still be found in other countries. Barnes’s battered body had been found by Hydra agents and ferried into the USSR. There, Hydra would begin the long and arduous program of transforming him into the Winter Soldier.

When the Second World War finally came to an end in September 1945, Allied governments began to consider what to do with Nazi scientists. In the United States, powerful political and military forces pushed for “Operation Paperclip,” allowing the best German scientists to be given a fresh start in the U.S.. This allowed many of Hydra’s best minds, including Arnim Zola, a chance to infiltrate the United States government and intelligence services. Hydra had learned that humanity would resist any attempt to take their freedoms, so humanity would need to surrender its freedom willingly. This reformed Hydra sought power and influence in order to control the direction of history.

RELATED: Ant-Man Concept Art Reveals Arnim Zola Was Originally In The Film

In 1946, SSR agent Peggy Carter proved herself when she exposed Stalin’s most secretive spy agency, Leviathan. The next year, she traveled to the SSR’s new Los Angeles office and brought an end to some unwise experiments with Zero Matter. This involved a mysterious conspiracy known as the Council of Nine, who may have been loosely connected to Hydra. Bolstered by these and other successes, Carter became a particularly important figure in the SSR. In 1949, she oversaw construction of the SSR’s secret headquarters, the Playground, and was placed in charge of the base. Shortly after, the SSR was formally renamed S.H.I.E.L.D., with Carter as the organisation's first Director.

Sources: Agent Carter season 1 & 2; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4, 'Meet the New Boss', Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years

Page 5: Plans for Domination