I’m playing through Doom3 again after completing Doom’16, and being a huge worldbuilding nerd, I went to the Doom wiki and read through the timelines again, and I noticed they line up better than I originally thought. At first, it seemed like a stretch, but it looks like Id either intentionally or accidentally kept things somewhat consistent.Some key points:
1) Some things make more sense in Doom3 and Doom’16 when read in reference to each other. I’ll explain this with notes in the timeline.
2) Despite what I remembered, Mars in Doom3 is shown as partially terraformed. In Doom3 the Marine is shown walking around in the Martian atmosphere with little more than an O2 mask. This is only possible if the planet is terraformed. In Doom’16, there seems to be more oxygen based on all the fires, but the differences between the Mars of Doom3 and Doom’16 aren’t as great as I thought.
3) The Argent Tower complex could be very far away from Mars City, so the invasion and destruction of Mars City wouldn’t necessarily impact the Argent facility. Moreover, the events of Doom3 help explain the lack of other large population centers on Mars during the events of Doom’16.
4) The differences in creature design is a non-issue, since Doom’16 implies there are a variety of different types of imps (reg. imps, summoners etc.), and classes of Hell Knights (Hell Barons etc.), with pinkies being “animals” of Hell. Some of the designs are the same anyway (e.g Hell Knights).
THE TIMELINE
-Unknown Time in the Universe’s Past
Malevolent beings capable of stealing and exploiting the souls of sentient creatures are imprisoned in a parallel universe that will later come to be known as Hell.
2 Million B.C.
An advanced race of beings the Demons refer to as the Seraphim uplift a human civilization that later colonizes Mars. Little is known about them today except they had advanced technology and social stratification of some kind.
(Here, I’m assuming the Seraphim were actually aliens/Martians. This is an attempt to explain why the Doom Slayer, the Night Sentinels, and the Martians are basically human in appearance.)
~200,000 B.C.
Anatomically modern humans evolve in Africa
<40,000 B.C. - The First Age of Ascension
(The following is a combination of the backstory presented in Doom3 and Doom’16. They line up well. This is based on the fact that the first age involves a great battle, an Armageddon, the defeat of a Great Serpent by the “Guardian” etc. This sounds very similar to the history of the Martians in Doom3. There is also mention of the Doom Slayer absorbing the souls of his enemies, which sounds like the Soul Cube.)
The Martians begin experimenting with wormhole technology that allows them to travel instantly between worlds. They use the portals to freely travel between Mars, Argent (a major energy source), and Earth. The technology inadvertently opens a gateway to Hell, resulting in a demonic invasion of Mars. A war between the Martians and Hell begins
The martians greatest warrior, the Guardian, who the Demons would come to know as the Doom Slayer, leads the battle against the Demons. Equipped with the Soul Cube, which allows him to absorb the souls of fallen demons, and the Praetor suit, a virtually indestructible armor plated with adamantine materials forged in the fires of Hell, the Guardian decimates the demonic forces.
The Guardian defeats the Great Serpent and destroys the greatest demon beast, a gigantic Titan, and routes the armies of Hell. Unsatiated with the destruction of the Great Serpent and the Titan, the Doom Slayer assaults the Blood Keep, where the Demon Priests ambush him, toppling the tower onto him. The priests then sealed the Doom Slayer in a stone sarcophagus where he would remain forever unless freed.
To honor him, the Martian survivors build a tomb on Mars, filling it with warnings of Hell, and erect statues of the Doom Slayer on Mars and Argent.
(Doom3 never explains exactly how the “Hero” persished. Here I’m assuming the tomb is symbolic and he was actually lost in Hell. See notes about the statues later in the timeline.)
With most of the Martians having been sacrificed to power the Soul Cube, their civilization was destroyed and Mars is once again rendered inhospitable. Some of the survivors travel to Earth, where they influence human language and mythology. Others survive on Argent D’Nur, a distant colony world once connected to Mars via a portal.See AlsoDoom 3 vs. Doom (2016) face-off
(The Doom’16 Codex plainly states that the people of Argent colonized their world, they weren’t native. The native “race” was the Wraiths, a rather monstrous species shown on their backs, chests cut open, at the end of Doom’16. Moreover, this explains why The Well connects to a "fracture" on the Martian surface. It may be a remnant of a portal between Mars and Argent D'Nur.)
On Argent, the monstrous “elemental” race of alien creatures known as the Wraiths, which were native to the world, are harnessed for their energy. Unfortunately, the energy of the Wraiths attracts the forces of Hell, as it has the power to create dimensional fractures in space and time. The Night Sentinels, empowered by the Wraiths, are able to defeat Hell’s attempts at invasion.
Deag Grav and the other demon priests devise a plan to overthrow the Argent D’Nur. Deag Grav tricks a Night Sentinel, grieving over loss of his son who was lost in battle, into betraying the Wraiths. Led to their lair by the Betrayer, the demons ambush the Wraiths. The demons pull the Wraith’s hearts from their bodies to form The Well, which produces a fracture in spacetime between Argent D’Nur and the ancestral homes of the Night Sentinel’s: Mars and Earth.
Middle Ages
A war is waged between Argent and Hell. At one point during the War, a portal is opened that connects Iron Age Europe to the Titan Realm of Hell. The Night Sentinels succeed in closing it but not before an Earth city is pulled into Hell. The interaction with the people of Earth influences myths of Hell and angels.(This is based on three things: The Titan Realm level shows the skeletons and armor of medieval warriors in Hell (as well as medieval architecture), the armor of the Night Sentinels looks like medieval armor, and the codex states that some of the architecture in Hell looks similar to ancient architecture on Earth.)As a final blow to Argent, Deag Grav resurrects the fallen son of the Betrayer as the Icon of Sin, the Demon Spitter. Faced with an endless wave of demons, the Night Sentinels are finally defeated, the people of Argent are turned into the Unwilling, and the world of Argent is fractured and assimilated into the Inferno.21st Century
2019
Samuel Hayden is born.
2095
The Argent Fracture is discovered in a trench on Mars by an expedition from the SS Amundsen.
October 29 - Construction of Phase One, Alpha Labs and terraforming stations begin on Mars
(It’s interesting that both games have the first Martian outposts established at basically the same time.)
2096
The Union Aerospace Corporation establishes an outpost on Mars to extract plasma from the Argent Fracture.
2104
The explorations of the caverns in 2104 leads to the discovery of ancient artifact code-named U1, the Soul Cube, along with stone tablets written by the ancient Martian civilization depicting a humanoid warrior using the cube in battle against monsters.
(The Praetor suit sculpture is code-named U9, as if it were taken from the same site, and resembles the warrior on one of the tomb's tablets.)
2115
Martian Civilization is first discovered
2120
Construction of Mars City begins.
2122
March 10 - A statue of the Praetor Suit, codenamed U9, is excavated.
2124
November 16 - Two Ancient Sentinel statues are excavated (Artifact J46).
(The dates under these statues are before the first explorations of Hell in Doom’16 and before the first portals are built in Doom3. Moreover, the Soul Cube code is U1, and the Praetor suit code is U9. This could just be a mistake on Id’s part, or the writing team could have been imply some connection.)
2127 - The Argent Tower is completed. 6 months later, Samuel Hayden transfers his mind over to a cyborg to continue his existence, after his body breaks down due to Stage 4 Cancer.
2130
July 17 - The Alpha Labs are completed
2136
The Advanced Research Complex is completed.
2139
Project Mercury, is built in Delta Labs, and became operational.
2143
During one of the first teleporter explorations, the Corrax tablets are retrieved from Hell in a UAC Automated Survey.(The Advanced Research Complex of Doom’16 and the portal experiments of Doom3 take place within 3 years of each other. Artifacts and demon remains are retrieved shortly after in both timelines)
2144
January 1 - Research on a partial Imp remains.February 5 - Hellknight (partial) research.
July 28
Series 3 Plasma Gun information video is released.November 2 - Research on the Living Dead.
2145
The first Project Lazarus Manned Expedition is sent to Hell. The expedition ends with complete loss of human life, but achieved its mission. The sarcophagus of the Doom Marine is recovered from Kadingir Sanctum.
July 12 - Research on the Imp
September 27 - Revenant research
October 5 - Specimen Stasis Museum video is produced, Soul Cube video is produced. Tablets video is produced.
October 10 - BFG 9000 Briefing video is produced.
October 13 - The first incident occurred on October 13th, 2145 at the Exis surface tunnel. One of the construction workers, Bill Sanders, was unloading a shipment of steel supports when a procurement manager stopped him. In the heated conversation that followed, Sanders grabbed a nearby pickaxe and lunged at the manager. Luckily the argument beforehand generated a sizable crowd, and when Sanders attacked the manager, a number of men were able to subdue him.
Jenny Lin broke into a supply cabinet containing emergency weaponry supplied to the local security teams. For reasons unknown she then became hostile and killed two security officers. Another security officer was injured while bravely putting himself in harms way. Technician Lin was also killed.
November 15 - A marine corporal arrives on Mars on Transport 4409 at 6:18 MC, he was transferred as punishment for assaulting a superior officer for ordering his soldiers to fire upon civilians, and to replace another soldier. The commanding officer and his body cast were shipped to Pearl Harbor, while the Marine were transferred to Mars, home of the Union Aerospace Corporation. .
+6 hours post invasion: An experiment in the Delta Labs triggers an unknown event, resulting in a demonic invasion of the entire facility. Marine forces are deployed to hotspots around the facility, with many teams encountering heavy resistance. Bravo Team was ambushed in EnPro facility while searching for survivors. There was only one survivor of the team.
November 20, 2145 - The Recon Zulu marine team found only one survivor, a Marine Corporal. Important UAC personnel such the company's lawyer and counselor Elliot Swann and his bodyguard Jack Campbell, who arrived hours before the outbreak to make an assessment of the whole Mars operation and enact damage control if necessary, were found dead. Master Sergeant Thomas Kelly and other Delta Labs scientists were also found dead. The marine team had no information regarding the fate of Dr. Malcolm Betruger, the chief scientist of Delta Labs who - unknown to them - had become the demon Maledict.
(This would be the first portal opening. Note this follows a similar pattern to what happened to Olivia Pierce: Betruger, a brilliant scientists, was assimilated as a demon and became one of their leaders.)
2146
May 1 - An orbital probe detects a faint unidentified signal broadcast from the abandoned Site 1 Complex.
August 6 - Mars mission Goals & Safety video is produced.
August 8 - The UAC announces the renewal of its Mars research program. Dr. Elizabeth McNeil is chosen to lead the primary assessment team.
(This shows that the UAC didn’t abandon its research even after the destruction of Mars City. In events of Doom’16, they become a cult.)
Industrial accident related deaths in the Foundry drop significantly thanks to new UAC safety protocols where employees exposed to dangerous materials are sent to the Lazarus Labs. The first Project Lazarus Tethering Operation is conducted. Pinkies are discovered for the first time.
September 12 - Elizabeth McNeil welcomes personnel to the Site 1 Expedition.
2147
A Marine Combat Engineer is sent to investigate Martian ruins, where he discovers an ancient artifact that reopens the original Martial Hell Portal. He fights his way to the Delta Labs where he enters Hell to combat the Maledict. He succeeds in his mission and the Martian portal is sealed once again.(This would be the secoind portal opening.)
2148
The second Project Lazarus Tethering Operation is on the Great Steppe. The expedition ends in a confrontation with the Hell Guard, resulting in similar losses to the first expedition. The petrified remains of a Baalgar demon is recovered.
2149
Olivia Pierce and her cult trigger a hell wave and releases captive demons into the Argent outpost facilities, killing virtually all staff. The wave awakens the Doom Slayer, who battles his way through the demonic forces. Using an argent Accumulator, Olivia Pierce opens a massive portal to Hell over the Argent Tower, allowing for the mass invasion of Mars. The Doom Slayer fights his way through Hell back to his homeland, Argent D’Nur, now assimilated into Hell, where he frees the Wraiths, destroying the Well. Afterwards, he finds Olivia who is absorbed by a spider demon, which the Doom Slayer quickly destroys. Samuel Hayden uses to the tether to pull the Doom Slayer from Hell, but takes the Crucible Sword from him and leaves him trapped in the Vega facility on the Martian ice cap.
This would be the third and largest portal opening.)
Timeline Source: http://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_Timeline