Chronological Order of the Gears of War Games
The Gears of War universe unfolds across decades of brutal conflict on the planet Sera, beginning long before the cataclysm of Emergence Day and continuing into a second-generation war against evolved, relentless threats.
The timeline charts humanity’s descent into desperation, the rise of new heroes from the ashes of the old, and the ever-present shadow of legacy and inherited trauma.
While the games were not released in narrative order, their internal chronology reveals a structured, painful progression from covert skirmishes to global apocalypse, and finally to a post-war recovery fractured by horrifying mutation.
From E-Day to the Swarm: A Timeline of Conflict
Gears TacticsShortly after E-Day (1 A.E.)
This story follows Gabe Diaz, a brilliant but disillusioned COG mechanic, who is pulled back into the fight to hunt Ukkon, the monstrous Locust geneticist creating the army's most fearsome beasts. Gabe's success establishes him as a tactical genius, but his defiance of COG's brutal "total victory" mindset leads him to abandon the military, setting a precedent of principled rebellion that his daughter, Kait, will later inherit.
Gears of War: JudgmentWeeks after E-Day (1 A.E.)
Centering on the court-martial of Baird and Cole, this story exposes the impossible choices faced by soldiers in the war's chaotic opening days. Accused of using a Lightmass missile to save Halvo Bay, Kilo Squad's testimony reveals a COG leadership more concerned with protocol than survival. It’s a harsh look at military bureaucracy failing in the face of an apocalypse, forcing soldiers to become judges of their own morality.
Gears of War14 years after E-Day (14 A.E.)
After 14 years of a losing war, humanity is broken. Marcus Fenix, imprisoned for abandoning his post to save his father, is reinstated out of sheer desperation. His fatalism is a stark contrast to Dom's enduring hope. Delta Squad’s mission to deploy the Lightmass Bomb is not a strategic masterstroke but a last-ditch gamble, revealing the true scale of the underground Locust civilization and proving that there is no simple, single solution to their extinction.
Gears of War 215 years after E-Day (15 A.E.)
The COG's plan to sink Jacinto, humanity's last bastion, forces a massive assault on the Locust Hollow. Here, the war complicates immensely with the formal introduction of the Lambent—Imulsion-infected Locust locked in a civil war with their pure-blooded kin. This game deepens the lore, hinting that the Locust invasion was not an act of aggression, but a flight from the Lambent threat. This revelation is overshadowed by the intense personal tragedy of Dom's discovery of his tortured wife, Maria, a moment that solidifies the series' theme: even in a planetary war, the deepest wounds are personal.
Gears of War 317 years after E-Day (17 A.E.)
With the COG government shattered, humanity clings to survival aboard naval fleets and in isolated camps. The Lambent pandemic has begun to infect humans, making it the ultimate threat. Marcus must confront the ghost of his father, Adam Fenix, who reveals a weapon that can destroy all Imulsion—and by extension, the Locust and Lambent. The climax is a series of Pyrrhic victories: Dom’s sacrifice saves his friends but breaks their spirit, and Adam’s weapon saves Sera but erases its primary fuel source, creating a new kind of wasteland and leaving a legacy of scientific and moral compromise.
Gears of War 442 years after E-Day (42 A.E.)
Twenty-five years of enforced peace under a totalitarian COG has created a sanitized, sterile world. JD Fenix and his friends live as Outsiders, rejecting this new order. Their rebellion is cut short by the Swarm, a terrifying new enemy that "podbats" humans into monstrous Juvies and Drones. The game is a story of inherited war, as an older, grizzled Marcus is forced to teach a new generation how to fight a terrifyingly familiar enemy, all while the mystery of Kait's connection to them begins to surface.
Gears 5Months after Gears 4 (42 A.E.)
Kait Diaz takes center stage as she seeks answers for her debilitating visions. Her journey uncovers the COG's darkest secret: the Locust were not monsters from the Hollow, but the mutated descendants of Imulsion-infected miners, created in a secret lab as a failed attempt to cure a disease. Queen Myrrah was the original test subject's daughter, and Kait is her direct heir. This reframes the entire saga from a war of extermination to the tragic cycle of a government hiding its sins. Kait's final, devastating choice is not just about a squadmate; it's about deciding whether to embrace her legacy of rage or forge a new path.
The Gears of War timeline progresses linearly but with deepening complexity.
The Swarm is not simply a new enemy; it is the biological and psychological evolution of the Locust threat, a ghost reborn from failed COG science and the lingering genetic will of Queen Myrrah.
The narrative arc masterfully shifts from pure survival to the crushing weight of legacy—exploring what it means to inherit a war, to rebuild broken institutions, and to decide whether true peace is worth the compromises it demands.
Unlike franchises that reboot their timelines, Gears remains committed to a singular, unfolding history.
The trauma of Emergence Day still echoes decades later, as new generations confront the sins of the old and discover their own identities within a world forever defined by combat, memory, and loyalty.
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