Anyone starting on their NieR: Automata journey may find themselves wondering where all the humans are. In the beginning, the answer appears to be "they are on the moon." That is, after all, what players are lead to believe. Questions soon arise as players realize that, as the story progresses, they never encounter or so much as speak to a human.

Toward the middle of the game, players discover that the humans, believed to be in a bunker on the moon, had perished several thousands of years ago. Understanding what happened to them can be something of a chore, as players must scrawl through data files and logs throughout the game to get a clear answer. Even with Commander White telling 9S that the humans are gone, she never explains how or why.

RELATED: The Philosophy of Persona 3

The End of the World

To answer that question, one must look back into the game's distant past. At approximately 3:00 PM on June 12th, 2003 AD, an enormous white statue, known as 'the Giant,' and a red dragon-like entity, known as the 'Dragon,' appeared in Tokyo's Shinjuku prefecture as if from nowhere. After a brief battle between the two, the Giant collapses and the Dragon perishes after being shot down by human fighter jets. This bizarre incident marks the beginning of the end of humanity.

By December of that same year, a mysterious infection that is eventually dubbed "White Chlorination Syndrome," or WCS, appears. The disease causes those infected to turn to a pillar of salt, killing them instantly. Initially, the infection numbers are small though cases increase drastically by the middle of 2004. Shortly after this, another issue arises as hundreds of people suddenly lose all senses, enter a berserk state and begin wildly attacking others with complete disregard for life. Unfortunately, humanity discovers that the cases of the salt pillars and the berserkers, known as Legions, are linked. When a human makes contact with Maso, a magical particle brought to Earth by the Giant, they are forced to make a choice: they can either join with a god from another dimension and become a Legion or refuse and become a pillar of salt.

By 2049 AD, humanity creates a way to separate their souls from their mortal bodies; this procedure renders the person immune to White Chlorination Syndrome. The soul, known as a "Gestalt," and the body, known as a "Replicant," are separated. The collective souls of humankind are sealed away in a bid to outlast the WCS and the Legions. This plan goes into full effect by 2053 AD and it is here that humanity has technically ceased to be. Over a thousand years later, the Replicants gained new sentience thanks to a bug in the Gestalt program. Gestalts, now known as Shades, went mad and turned hostile, attacking everything in sight. The leader and progenitor of all the Gestalts, the "Shadowlord," was slain by his own Replicant, which leads to all Gestalts failing and humanity's hope of revival perishing along with the last Replicant in 4198 AD. Humanity's legacy continues with the Androids created to help develop the Gestalt program and a magical, genetically modified entity known as 'Emil.'

RELATED: The Witcher: Five NPCs Who Deserve Their Own Game

The Legacy of Humanity

When Aliens invade during 5012 AD, they manage to take over 80% of Earth, despite Emil and the Android resistance's efforts to prevent it. The extraterrestrial enemies Machine warriors engage Earth's defenses and the ensuing war lasts until 7645 AD. By the year 11,000, the Machines have enacted a plan to overthrow and eradicate their Alien masters and within 306 years, they have achieved their goal.

By 11,945 AD, it is revealed that the Machine Network had manipulated nearly all events after the fall of the Aliens. The 'ego' of the network had purposefully orchestrated events, such as creating the YoRHa units and perpetuating the lie of humanity's survival in a bid to give androids a reason to fight and prolong the war. These decisions were all made by the Machines to create more obstacles for themselves and promote evolution. When the player learns this, humanity had technically already perished more than eight thousand years prior and the last chance of their revival followed suit nearly four thousand years later. The androids had been lied to until that point and the 'joke' is that the entire game was pointless. Ultimatly, the final fate of the humans in NieR: Automata is that they were never even in it.

KEEP READING: How Long Does It Take to Beat and Complete Nier: Automata?