About 30 years ago, the world stood on the verge of revolutionary change. Machines had started taking over human labor. To create economic equality over the world and improve production, a new line of robots with sophisticated AI were being created. Designed and produced by the Omnium facilities, these robots would later be known as “Omnics”.
While things did work as intended for a while, this era of prosperity turned into a disaster when omnics rose against their creators due to reasons no longer remembered. When omnics realized that they had no chance of victory against humans with small rebel forces, they kicked off production of military robots in the Omnium facilities. The bulk of this army were the deadly assault units, code named as “Bastion”.
As the governments proved incapable of crushing the rebellion in this era by themselves, dubbed as the First Omnic Crisis which broke out around the globe, United Nations stepped in to create a taskforce. Bringing together the best soldiers and the most advanced weapons from all around the world, this force was named “Overwatch”. The original Overwatch team was composed of 5 people:
Original Overwatch team: Ana Amari, Gabriel Reyes, Torbjörn Lindhorn, Jack Morrison and Reinhardt Wilhelm
Decorated with countless medals for demonstrating bravery and sense of justice in the heat of battle, the German soldier Reinhardt Wilhelm covered his team mates just the same in his Lion-themed armor as they fought against the omnic assault.
A Swedish engineer whose weapon designs were used by the whole world, Torbjörn Lindhorn was a vital support member of the team as he applied his engineering skills and inventions onto the field.
Another war hero and a fearsome sniper, the Egyptian Ana Amari kept the team safe.
Last, but not least, were the two close friends who were part of the “Soldier Enhancement Program” conducted by the United States of America to augment soldiers beyond human capacity: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. While Reyes was the designated leader, it was Morrison who made sure the wheels of the team were turning.
Each a legend in their fields, this elite taskforce fought against the omnics relentlessly for years. Carved in the pages of history as “the First Omnic War”, this major struggle naturally affected numerous regions of the world. A major part of the Indian population were driven off of their homeland, Australia and Siberia were left in ruins due to this unending war, and Korean peninsula was laid siege by regular attacks of a colossal oceanic omnic that adapted itself to everything thrown at it. World truly had seen a revolutionary change but the results were nothing like what humanity had expected when they built the Omnium facilities.
Despite all the disasters and destruction, humanity did succeed in certain areas. For example, the Russians were indeed able to beat the omnic forces back and shut down the Omnium facilities. South Korea built MEKA (Mobile Exo-Skeleton Korean Arms) units to fight against the colossal omnic that was attacking them regularly. With losses in millions from each side, the war finally ended thanks to the incredible efforts of the Overwatch force. When the dust of the battle settled, both parties truly caught up with the magnitude of destruction wrought and a time of fragile peace and reconstruction started for a better future.
The heat of battle between the omnics and humanity…
The humans that survived the war regarded the omnics as second-class citizens instead of equals. This created an everlasting tension between the races in certain places. Aware that the breaking point might be close, and afraid of the consequences, the United Nations took some proactive steps. A group of rebel robot monks, who claimed to have gone through a spiritual awakening, were allowed to set up a monastery on the Himalayans so that they could spread the peaceful belief that they were more than their articial intelligence and programming, and that they had souls of their own. Lead by Tekhartha Mondatta, these monks played a major role in healing the wounds of the Omnic Crisis, restoring the human-omnic relationship and defending equality. One of the world-famous Shambali monks disagreed with this new path that their organization had taken. Known as Zenyatta, this monk believed that the problems between humans and omnics would only truly be solved by personal connections and engagement instead of dogmatic doctrines. He left the monastery to wander on the path of his won convictions. He was not alone in this regard: A Bastion model robot was left behind in dormancy after the First Crisis; and when it unexpectedly reactivated, its offensive combat programming was almost completely offline, which led this gentle unit into wandering the world with an unending curiosity.
As the rest of the world witnessed such developments, the West African city of Numbani had been transcending into an importal central for the integration of the omnics and the humans. Thanks to the intersecting cultures, Numbia became the most technologically advanced city in the world. On the other side of the Indian Ocean, another symbol of peace arose when the Australian government returned the local Omnium facilities to the omnic. On the other hand, this move was met with harsh reactions by the residents of Outback, the country where the facilities were installed. Mostly consisted of solar farmers and survivalists, the population wanted to be left alone. When forced to share the land with the omnics, they formed the Australian Liberation Front. However, their anger led the Outback county into an even worse disaster: The Front sabotaged the fusion core of the Omnium facility, triggering a radioactive explosion that turned the surronding land into a radioactive wasteland. Furthermore, the few survivors were damaged both physically and mentally to the brink of insanity. Some of them started to live on their own terms, without recognizing any rule or law, and scavenging the land. They called themselves “the Junkers”.
The duo infamous for even Junkers’ standards: Junkrat and Roadhog
Meanwhile, Overwatch thrived into a larger organization with heftier funding that stretched over subjects like science, medicine and travel. Morrison was designated as the first official Commander while Reyes was given the management of “Blackwatch”, a secretive sub-organization that deals with the “dirty” work that Overwatch’s official sources could not handle. Known as the keepers of peace, the Overwatch crew was treated like superstars by the public. In fact, this attention caused the original team’s sniper Ana Amari’s daughter Fareeha to follow the steps of her mother as a hero and join the Egyptian army.
As the world rebuilt under the watchful eye of Overwatch, the roster had also been expanding: Among the new team members were a Swiss nano-biologist and medicine expert Dr. Angela Zeigler, who was against the militant stance of the team; a hyper-intelligent gorilla named Winston who escaped from a rebellion from the moon colony; an English pilot named Lena Oxton, whose life was completely changed after an accident that occured during the trial of a prototype teleporting fighter; the heir to a Japanese crime empire named Genji Shimada, who was reborn as a cyborg after being beaten nearly to death by his own brother Hanzo; a Chinese climatologist named Mei-Ling Zhou who studied the environmental and resource-based problems of the world; and an ex-Deadlock Gang member Jesse McCree, who was arrested and given the choice to either rot in prison or join Blackwatch.
The first and second generation heroes of Overwatch…
While the peace was much more stable compared to the period of the Omnic Crisis, some regions still had ongoing conflicts. Charged with helping the world rebuild after the crisis, India-based Vishkar Corporation started instilling in totalitarian rules and strict laws to the areas they were to govern. Making promises of self-sustaining cities and building dynamic cities that would be controlled by new architects using the revolutionary hard-light technology to the public, Vishkar Corporation would gain control over the society first, then punish them with harsh actions.
This cruel and relentless attitude of Vishkar started building up on many employees, including Satya Vaswani, who was one of the brighest architects. The build-up finally snowballed into the unexpected in Rio de Janeiro. A DJ named Lúcio Correia dos Santos stole the sound technology that Vishkar used to overwhelm the populace, and used it to trigger a rebellion against the corporation. Successfully leading the coup against Vishkar, Lúcio became famous overnight and became a reminding symbol that status quo could change with enough effort.
Russia had played a major role in ending the war but they were on the brink of a new crisis. War was on the table once again when the Siberian Omnium facility was reactivated. Throwing away her will to enter the World Heavy-Lifting and Body Building Championships she had been preparing for all her life, the national athlete Aleksandra Zaryanova turned to stand against the Omnium threat and became a national symbol of hope.
As chaos spread back to the world, bells of catastrophy started ringing. Some clamities started making the way. For example, one of the many bases that Overwatch set up to observe various climates, Watchpoint: Anctartica lost all communication with the outside world after being exposed to a violent storm. The only survivor amongst the climatologists and scientists inside the facility was Mei-Ling Zhou, who was able to freeze herself. While not directly related to Overwatch, South Korea was having difficulty in finding pilots for the MEKAs against the siege from the ocean. Calling desperate measures on these desperate times, they turned to Hana “D.va” song, a Starcraft world champion, to be a MEKA pilot.
Just about then started the attacks on the organization. The most noticable one was from the terrorist group Talon which had been long tracked by the French Overwatch agent Gérard Lacroix. Kidnapping Gérard’s wife Amélie and brainwashing her into an agent, Talon made Amélie murder her own husband. Returning to Talon under the codename “Widowmaker”, Amélie conducted more assassinations for the organization. Overwatch was being cornered by not only these attacks but also claims of corruption, mismanagement and breach of human rights; and their reputation started to falter. While United Nations formed a committee to investigate the organization, it was Overwatch’s two public faces that hammered the final nail on Overwatch’s coffin: Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison.
As Overwatch’s public status started to decline…
Morrison spoke up about his concerns that Blackwatch’s dirty work (especially considering their faltering reputation at the time) could completely bring Overwatch down while Reyes was against this idea. The relationship between the two had already been strained after Morrison’s promotion and the disagreement quickly escalated into violence. The fight between the two resulted in an explosion of the Swiss base of Overwatch, and both of the once-close friends were assumed dead since their bodies were nowhere to be found. This escalation, 20 years after the original Omnic Crisis, resulted in Overwatch to be shut down and deemed illegal. Some former Overwatch agents became arms for hire while others kept being heroes on their own. Only one of them, Winston, withdrew to the lab in Watchpoint: Gibraltar, built a satellite drone that would re-enable Overwatch’s global connections, and started to wait for the day when the world would need more heroes.
Assumed KIA, Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison both became spectres of their former selves. Jack Morrison took the name of Soldier: 76 and became a masked avenger bent on exposing the conspiracy against Overwatch in a relentless hunt. After being reborn as the Reaper, Gabriel Reyes’ only goal was to find and kill the former Overwatch agents. He even joined the terrorist organization Talon as a means to this end. And years later, when he infiltrated Winston’s laboratory in Watchpoint: Gibraltar, he unintentionally called Overwatch back to duty. Following the call, the struggle between Talon and now-outlawed Overwatch became even more intense. The two groups kept running into each other in several cases, such as Tekharta Mondatta’s assassination.
