The Entire Rebel Moon Timeline Explained

Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon" duology is unusual and momentous among contemporary space operas for a variety of reasons. The first of those reasons is that the film tells an original story: All the characters, plot turns, and world-building details were created for the films, which are scripted by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Shay Hatten from a story by Snyder, with no preexisting source material.

Snyder and Netflix have announced that the "Rebel Moon" universe is getting more spin-offs than initially expected, including short films, an animated series, novelizations, comics, narrative podcasts, and a tabletop game. Given the poor reception the films have had, not all of these are likely to pan out — the tabletop RPG, for example, has already been canceled. In terms of stuff we already have, there's the film "Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire," its sequel, "Part Two: The Scargiver," the novelizations written by V. Castro, and a four-issue comic series titled "House of the Bloodaxe" — to say nothing of the possibly upcoming "Rebel Moon" director's cuts. Those works alone are enough to send even a dedicated fan of dense sci-fi mythologies into a tailspin.

For that reason, we're here to help. Pulling from the aforementioned media as well as the information provided by the official Netflix explainer, this article lays out the entire timeline of major events in the "Rebel Moon" universe, from the Motherworld's dawn tens of thousands years in the past, all the way to the ending of "The Scargiver."

Faced with the havoc they'd wreaked upon their own homeland, the rulers of the Motherworld set their sights on resources on other planets. It's not specified in the media released thus far if faster-than-light space travel was invented on the Motherworld, but given that they're shown to be the most technologically advanced civilization in the known universe, that is a possibility.

So it was that, either by inventing or availing themselves of existing technology, the Motherworld's armies took off toward new stars and planets, made contact with new civilizations and sentient species, and began a process of interplanetary colonization, conquering and establishing dominion over new worlds by brute military force. That expansion process wore on for centuries and then millennia, allowing the Motherworld itself to recover from its own self-ravagement by extracting, securing, and rapidly accumulating a vast amount of resources around the galaxy — thereby becoming, once again, a powerful and highly organized kingdom.

The Motherworld's army had a complex structure comprising innumerable officers stationed around the Realm. In addition to enforcing the Motherworld's rule on its subjects and ensuring that resources were collected, the armed forces were also tasked with quashing any potential subversion against the Imperium. One particular instance of such repression, about five decades prior to the assassination of the royal family, started a chain of falling dominoes that ultimately led to the events of the two "Rebel Moon" films.

It all started when Fidel Damaqasha, an officer stationed on the planet Aih Kalroo, took a leadership role in the repression efforts against a revolt known as the Diggers' Uprising. For his work, Damaqasha was promoted and named an Imperial lord presiding over the planet Shasu. At the time, the Feodom of Shasu amounted to an outpost, as the Motherworld did not yet have power over the planet, which was considered unconquerable due to the strength and technological advancement of the native Tarungtusa people. Over time, Fidel ingratiated himself with the Tarungtusa, eventually marrying a native Tarungtusa named Hiraat and changing his name to Koseba. He then started a campaign that led to the conquer of Shasu and his own installation as ruler of the planet, earning him the nickname of Koseba the Conqueror.

While the emergence of the Bloodaxe family was taking place, the Motherworld continued to send legions to every planet and solar system it could reach, conquering more and more galactic territory. Their campaigns laid waste to countless communities and cultures around the Realm.

A few decades prior to the films' events, young Kora (Elizabeth Martinez) was growing up on an unnamed planet alongside her parents, brother, and sister; her family ran a tea shop. When she was 9 years old, her planet was attacked by a Motherworld unit led by General Balisarius (Fra Fee). Kora's entire family was killed, and Balisarius decided to spare her life, take her in, and raise her as his own daughter.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, the planet Samandrai was claimed by the Motherworld; its royal family fell, leaving Prince Tarak Decimus (Staz Nair) to flee to the planet of Neu-Wodi. Nemesis' (Doona Bae) planet, Byeol, was also attacked; her fishing village was burned to the ground and her children were killed, sending her on a years-long revenge quest in which she managed to kill a total of 16 high-ranking Imperial officers. Milius (Elise Duffy), who lived in a farming community on Meadai, also had her planet overtaken by the Motherworld and was forced into mining work. Kai's (Charlie Hunnam) planet Saaldorun, meanwhile, was straight-up destroyed by the Imperium.

Princess Issa's birth fundamentally changed the dynamics of the Motherworld. She was named after an ancient queen, revered in legends for her peaceful demeanor and her ability to bring about life and light. It was rumored among the populace of the Realm that the ancient Queen Issa would keep reincarnating across the centuries and that one of her reincarnations would eventually be responsible for ending the war. As Princess Issa's trusted guardian, Arthelais shadowed her at all times, which allowed her to witness seemingly inexplicable events and actions — all pointing to the possibility that the princess could, indeed, be the Redeemer of myth.

So powerful was Issa's light that she even caused a change of heart in her father. Inspired by his daughter's immense capacity for love and compassion, Athander reconsidered the Imperium's millennia-long expansionist policy and vowed to transition into a new era of peace in the Realm, in which the campaigns of colonization would finally be put to an end.

Over on Shasu, Lord Yisrael's rule became unstable following the death of Amirami, which happened in the same week as the coup against the Motherworld royals. As the coup caused the Imperium's communications network to go dark for a week, word of the king and queen's death reached Shasu via Colonel Helika, now working under the orders of newly self-appointed Regent Balisarius. Helika ordered Yisrael to wipe out the Black Mountain Tarungtusans, Shasu's most ancient community of residents, who were being officially blamed for the coup due to the presence of anti-Imperium radicals among them.

This order caused Darrian Bloodaxe to revolt against Imperial rule; he joined forces with the Suthen people and endeavored to resist the Imperium's attempts to eradicate the Black Mountain Tarungtusans. Eventually, his sister Devra joined his side and the two started a full-blown insurgency movement against the Imperium, staging small but effective attacks that disrupted the Motherworld's supply lines; in one such attack, they liberated Milius, who joined their ranks.

While traveling around the Realm to escape her past, Arthelais, now once again going by the name Kora, took up a nomadic lifestyle, never settling down in any one place for too long — the better to avoid being discovered by Imperial forces. After three years of hopping from one planet to another, she found herself on Veldt, a moon orbiting the gas planet of Mara. On Veldt, Kora was discovered and taken in by a farmer, Hagen (Ingvar Sigurdsson), who helped her settle into a local rural community. The smallness, tranquility, and uneventfulness of life on Veldt allowed Kora to stay for much longer than she ordinarily would. For the first time since fleeing the Motherworld, Kora began to develop an attachment to a new place.

Although the residents of Kora's village on Veldt believed they were staying entirely out of Imperium business, that wasn't quite the case. During the months Kora spent on Veldt after arriving, the farmer responsible for overseeing the harvest, Gunnar (Michiel Huisman), sold the surplus of that year's crops to Darrian and Devra Bloodaxe — out of pure economic interest rather than any sort of belief in the siblings' cause.

After leaving Veldt and returning to his ship, The King's Gaze, Noble left behind a small group of soldiers to intimidate the townsfolk and force them to fall in line. The soldiers were openly cruel and sadistic toward the villagers, brutalizing them for fun and forcing them to work tirelessly to meet Noble's enormous quota of wheat.

Faced with Noble's impossible demand, Kora decided to break camp and run away again. Yet for all her efforts to remain as detached as possible from the village around her, she couldn't help but get into trouble after a while. One night, she overhead Noble's soldiers terrorizing Sam (Charlotte Maggi) and preparing to sexually assault her, and went in to kill them all and save the girl with the unexpected help of Jimmy the robot — who by then had fully defected the Imperium.

With all of Noble's detachment killed except for Aris (Sky Yang), who also defected and was victimized alongside Sam during the other soldiers' attack, Kora knew that it was only a matter of time before the admiral returned to wipe out the whole village. Feeling partly responsible, she decided to search for help and mount a viable stand against Noble's forces.

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With a small army and a group of highly skilled fighters en route to Veldt, the rebels briefly appeared to have actually decent odds against Noble. Kai, who was initially in it only for the money but had seemingly begun to develop a genuine enthusiasm for the rebels' cause, requested a stop at a trade depot on one of the five moons of the planet Gondival — claiming that he wanted to tie up the final loose ends of his life as a mercenary before officially joining the resistance. When the band arrived at the depot, it turned out to be a trap, with Noble waiting to ambush them; knowing Kora, Tarak, Nemesis, and Titus were all wanted by the Motherworld, Kai's plan all along had been to sell them to the Imperium.

Gunnar managed to kill Kai and free the captured rebels. A battle ensued, in which nearly the entirety of Darrian Bloodaxe's detachment of insurgents was killed, including Bloodaxe himself. Milius was the only survivor. Kora got into a bitter, brutal scuffle with Noble, which apparently ended with Kora causing the admiral to fall to his death.

Because the only six people in the entire village with any combat experience were Aris, Kora, and the four outsiders Kora brought along, it became clear that the Veldt farmer had to rely on smarts and resourcefulness as much as brute force if they were to engage in a stand against an Imperium fleet.

Thus, Titus concocted an elaborate plan to make the best of the resources that the Veldtian farmers had at their disposal. First, he came up with the idea to use the wheat bags themselves to build barricades and protect citizens' homes, assuming that the Imperium would never open fire on such a valuable resource. Secondly, he ordered citizens to gather every weapon in the village, which extended to turning tools like scythes and dull cooking knives into weapons. He also had the fighters study the terrain and build tunnels, to maintain a geographical advantage over Noble's forces and sneak up on them with surprise attacks. He also led basic training to teach the farmers how to handle weapons and bombs. As a final major strategy, the small spacecraft in which Kora had come to Veldt was found, cleaned up, fixed, and positioned in a well-hidden launchpad for future use.

Despite the rebels' victory, the post-battle mood wasn't exactly celebratory, as many men, women, and children had perished. Their sacrifices were honored in a large-scale funeral rite. Nemesis and Gunnar, along with the rest of the dead, were burned. Kora finally revealed at the funeral that she was the infamous Arthelais, assassin of Princess Issa. Titus then told her that he already knew that and revealed that Princess Issa was still alive.

Shocked and at a loss of what to do, Kora was advised by Titus to hold on to that knowledge as a newfound purpose. Devra, Milius, Tarak, and Titus all endeavored to help Kora and fight against the Imperium if she chose to seek out Issa, and the robot Jimmy volunteered as well — protecting Issa was built into his programming, after all. With renewed resolve, the group reaffirmed and officialized their mission: to find Issa and to fight the Imperium.

As for what the future holds, there's plenty more mythology to excavate. Zack Snyder has teased that the titular "rebel moon" wouldn't even appear until a potential third installment. "The Rebel Moon is not the moon that they're on," he told Empire. "The title was conceptual, but there's a planet named Vanna, and Vanna is the rebel moon. It's not even in one shot of this movie!" While we wait to see whether Netflix wants more "Rebel Moon" movies, we can only imagine how deep the lore and the timeline of this bold new sci-fi universe can get.