History WMG / HorizonForbiddenWest

[[WMG: Frozen Wilds Vantage Spikes.]]
Bashar Mati from Frozen Wilds recorded his memories in the spikes, Who is to say that someone in FW didn't do the same and recorded some history from the Old world in them? Or maybe Athena in her last moments before Ted deleted the archive, tried to download as much of the history of the old world into the Vantage Spikes to try to save some of it from oblivion.

Think of the ''symbolism''! She could be able to hack robots with her hand!

The Glitch was no accident; of that we can be certain. A disturbing prospect, yes, but also one that raises several important questions. Who could have been responsible? Why would they do such a thing? And why were the two instances of the Glitch striking separated by nearly a thousand years?

Let us assume that there are no aliens involved, and the Glitch was in fact engineered by humans. Leaving aside the question of motive, this means one of three things: 1) the hack was not intended to cause global sterilization, but got out of control and did so anyways, and the creators were [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoisted By Their Own Petard]]; 2)the hackers intended to pull a TakingYouWithMe from the start; or 3) the hackers had an escape route. Given the fact that the Glitch made a sudden reappearance via a "transmission of unknown origins", its masters are still around and we can discard possibilities 1 and 2. So who could have hacked the swarm ''and'' escaped global sterilization for all that time? The answer to that question is the Far Zenith organization.

Putting together some of the stray bits of information from the [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]] in ''Horizon'' provides a highly compelling trail of clues. Far Zenith was responsible for reviving the ''Odyssey'' interstellar colony project after its initial failure. They were a largely-anonymous "futurist consortium" claiming to include 77 of the world's wealthiest individuals. (Now, if that doesn't scream "shadowy, sinister cabal" I don't know what does.) The ''Odyssey'' took years to set up, and finally set off during the Faro Plague, only to suffer catastrophic failure -- or at least, that's according to telemetry.

A reconstruction of events goes as follows. In the late 2040's, the already titanic Faro Automated Solutions begins work as a military contractor and is soon dominating the market. At a certain point, it creates the Chariot Line, which any GenreSavvy person can see is a doomsday device waiting to be triggered. FZ, likely with the help of inside information/assistance, create the override mechanism that would become the Glitch. Meanwhile, the nations of the world are developing the original ''Odyssey''. FZ manages to fatally sabotage the mission in 2057, leaving the ship a "heap of space junk (...) in graveyard orbit" and its developers all too glad to be rid of it. The consortium can then publicly step up and offer to take over, thereby gaining control over an interstellar colony project. When ''Odyssey'' has progressed far enough, the Glitch is triggered, unleashing the Faro swarm upon the world. A new urgency is added to ''Odyssey'''s success, and cooperation with the Zero Dawn project even nets FZ a prototype version of APOLLO. As things get worse down on Earth, ''Odyssey'', with the conspirators safely aboard, leaves for Sirius (or parts unknown). As it exits the solar system, it transmits a false telemetry signal, faking its destruction.

In reality, the conspirators are simply biding their time in cryosleep until conditions on post-sterilization Earth normalize. ''Odyssey'', full of the seeds and zygotes intended for a colony, can be used to re-seed Earth as Far Zenith sees fit. With the APOLLO education system at hand, they can even raise and indoctrinate fresh new generations of humanity, all according to whatever ideals they might have.

Unfortunately for them, however, Earth is ''not'' the blank slate they were expecting upon return. With the planet already terraformed and the Faro Swarm shut down, Far Zenith has no choice but to turn to hacking once again. They manage to track GAIA's signal to her source, and HADES is unshackled to undo the annoying complication she caused. That is, were it not for Elisabet Sobeck throwing yet ''another'' wrench into their plans...

-->'''[[http://horizonzerodawn.wikia.com/wiki/Dalgaard_on_FZ Osvald Dalgaard, representative of Far Zenith]]''': "We are devoted not only to extending humanity's legacy beyond this solar system, but also to making the world... sexier, I suppose. More interesting (...) Here's where I get to blow your mind. Very exciting. We are not interesting in escaping a dying world. For us this is not an act of panic or, ah...adrenal survival reflex. The Odyssey, under the stewardship of Far Zenith, will be a triumph, not a retreat. This is why we will succeed. [[YouAreAlreadyDead Why we already have succeeded, really]]."

It is already stated in-game that he has been altering the robotic eco-system through hacking the cauldrons to create more dangerous machines such as the Stalkers and the Thunderjaw among others to kill human beings, considering them as a "threat" to the machines he was made to build and care for. It is hinted in-game that he is the cause of the "Derangement" seen in the machine eco-system which was triggered at the time HADES became possessed by "The Glitch" and broke free from its shackles.

After the passing of Zero Day and MINERVA had acquired the codes, GAIA still had to manufacture the broadcast towers. Naturally all the activity would awaken the dormant FARO machines, who while not much smarter than insects on their own, could still intuit that the construction efforts were bad news for them. GAIA would then send out armed variants of her terraforming and construction machines to defend the efforts. Thus began the [[GreatOffscreenWar "Dawn]] [[TheGreatestStoryNeverTold War."]] The FARO Machines found themselves faced with an enemy they could not stop, With MINERVA's Codes [[NoSell they couldn't be hacked, as machines they had no Biomass to feed on,]] and [[BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame through Recyclers like Scrappers and Glinthawks]] [[ATasteOfTheirOwnMedicine were now themselves prey to an]] [[WhosLaughingNow enemy that can self replicate and has no exploitable weakness in sight.]] All they could do was Exhaust themselves in a futile effort to stop the towers from being built, out of resources they could exploit and faced with an intelligent and creative enemy that can actually strategize around whatever preloaded tactics they have, able to continuously imagine and fabricate brand new designs to fight them based on the [[GaiasVengeance very life forms]] [[LaserGuidedKarma they wiped out.]]

-->ELEUTHIA is not a genetic engineering project. Our goal is to preserve the human genome, not alter it. A snapshot of human genetic diversity, literally frozen in time — the genetic quintessence of our species, unmodified. Under my watch, our activities and initiatives will comply with the 2034 Clone Provisions and the 2048 Raliegh Accords. Now, that may seem a quaint, even trivial concern to you, in light of present circumstances — but, as one of the authors of the Accords, it is far from trivial to me.

The invasive red plant is first seen near the shore and looks similar to kelp, suggesting it came from the water -- POSEIDON's domain. Considering it seems hostile to both land plants and animals, it's unlikely to be the work of either DEMETER or ARTEMIS; so what if POSEIDON is fighting either one or both of them? If it has been tasked with recreating marine life as well as cleansing the seas, it might see the other two subordinate functions as competitors and try to take them out.

In the first game, it was established that after HADES became sentient, he proceeded to download a virus that freed the other subroutines from GAIA's command, with the DLC confirming that they all became sentient without her guidance.

Now, if something as harmless as a manufacturing AI like HEPHAESTUS could become something potentially worse than HADES -- an AI programmed to be a OmnicidalManiac -- it can be very likely that all of the other AI could become a similar threat with their limited resources. Unless Sylens' theory about cryogenics is proven true and some of Zero Dawn's scientific minds survived to the current era, the only things capable of creating something like this are the Zero Dawn AI. As big of a threat the Faro Plague and the Shadow Carja were, they needed HADES to get as far as they could.

Now let's look at the kudzu. It's a red, plant like substance growing naturally in the soul and it is proven to not only be toxic to animal life, but it sucks out all essential nutrients out of the soil. The AI who could create such a thing could be DEMETER. DEMETER was created to reintroduce plant-life to the Earth after AETHER and POSEIDON cleaned the Earth of its deadly toxins, but without GAIA keeping it on track, it is likely that DEMETER got it into its head to begin experimenting, maybe even creating an invincible apex predator of a plant so that nothing natural could kill it, much like how HEPHAESTUS started making deadlier machines so that they could defend themselves. This new mutant plant -- let's call it "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds red weed]]" -- could overcome any ecosystem and thrive, but at the cost of basic nutrients that the rest of the ecosystem could need, and either it would starve the herbivores to death -- itself being inedible and kill surrounding plants -- or release a pollen that could prove deadly to anyone that inhaled it.

Think of the ''symbolism''!
She could be able to hack robots with her hand!

Now, going off of the theory that Far Zenith succeeded in leaving the solar system and colonising the galaxy beyond... What if HEPHAESTUS did the same and built it's own ship in the most isolated place on Earth: Antarctica, entirely in secret.

Anyway once the towers were built and the FARO Machines shut down, GAIA retired the combat designs from construction, letting the ones still around act as a vanguard of sorts until time would eventually claim them, but even them some of these combat machines would live long enough to see the demise of GAIA, as demonstrated by [[LastOfTheirKind Two Thunder Jaws]] seen shortly after Aloy's birth, a few years before their first sighting by the lodge. Once the Derangement started HEPHAESTUS would begin recirculating the combat machines into production for the same perceived reason they were in the start, to safeguard the planet's terraforming efforts against [[HumansAretheRealMonsters what it sees as a threat to the biosphere,]] with Saving Grace and hazard of the machines being hackable now without access to MINERVA's Codes.

[[WMG: The GAIA Machines animal like designs, at least in some cases were meant to serve for Imprinting]]
Just as the ELUTHIYA Born Humans needed Robotic Surrogates to raise and socialize them, many Animals, effectively the first of their kind, would need similar rearing, with Machines to reintroduce their behaviors into where a void would have been. In effect ARTEMIS and HEPHAESTUS worked in tandem Under GAIA on the Pioneer ecosystem, ensuring behavioral stability via repurposing existing terraforming machines. Alas without APOLLO Educated humans and with the Programs now acting alone, many of these potential surrogates may never have animals to help raise.

During one side quest, a Sun-Priest mentions that several Carja who fled after the death of the Mad King traveled to the Forbidden West. These individuals can show a more sympathetic light of people who fled for their lives to contrast with the fanatical cult that Eclipse developed. Alternatively they could be another another off-shot cult like Eclipse and Syslens (who has [=HADES=] as his captive) could take control of them using the A.I.

Putting together some of the stray bits of information from the [[ApocalypticLog Apocalyptic Logs]] in ''Horizon'' provides a highly compelling trail of clues. Far Zenith was responsible for reviving the ''Odyssey'' interstellar colony project after its initial failure. They were a largely-anonymous "futurist consortium" claiming to include 77 of the world's wealthiest individuals. (Now, if that doesn't scream "shadowy, sinister cabal" I don't know what does.) The ''Odyssey'' took years to set up, and finally set off during the Faro Plague, only to suffer catastrophic failure - or at least, that's according to telemetry.

Heinously evil beyond CartoonishSupervillainy? Yes. And yet, too many pieces of the puzzle fit. Particularly so if one considers that a 'zenith' is the highest point an object reaches ''before it comes back down again''.
-->'''[[http://horizonzerodawn.wikia.com/wiki/Dalgaard_on_FZ Osvald Dalgaard, representative of Far Zenith]]''': "We are devoted not only to extending humanity's legacy beyond this solar system, but also to making the world...sexier, I suppose. More interesting (...) Here's where I get to blow your mind. Very exciting. We are not interesting in escaping a dying world. For us this is not an act of panic or, ah...adrenal survival reflex. The Odyssey, under the stewardship of Far Zenith, will be a triumph, not a retreat. This is why we will succeed. [[YouAreAlreadyDead Why we already have succeeded, really]]."

The Cradle under All-Mother Mountain - Eleuthia-9 was one of many. Most likely, all the tribes in the region - Nora, Carja, Banuk, Utaru, and Oseram - descend from this Cradle. But there are probably others in North America. At a rough guess, there might be four, with the others in the Eastern US, Canada, and Mexico. Of those, the Mexico Cradle is likely the closest - and could cause problems. One of the four languages used in designing APOLLO was Spanish, so it's not unlikely that the Mexico Cradle's multiservitors would speak Spanish. If so, the descendants of the Mexico Cradle will have no common language with the Colorado Cradle people. What are the odds their first meeting will go badly?

* Walruses and[=/=]or leopard seals. Again, arctic theme.

When Aloy reaches the [[http://horizonzerodawn.wikia.com/wiki/Zero_Dawn_Project_Facility Zero Dawn Project Facility,]] each of the project heads she can hear a presentation from makes a big deal of the Subordinate Function they are creating - and ''none'' of them turn out as they planned.\\

Samina Ebadji waxes poetic about APOLLO, which was intended to pass the knowledge of the Old Ones on to reborn humanity - only for Faro to blow the whole thing to hell and gone, leaving the rebuilt world to be populated by ''kindergartners.''\\

So this one requires more meta thinking. The core story is the building up of Elizabet story in the eyes of Aloy as a maternal figure. By the end, she's almost a MarySue in how pure good she is. Often, this is how many kids view their parents at a young age, often worshiping them. But that story is done, right? Well, often as kids grow up, they learn of the greater grey area of their parents, losing the ruby tinted glasses and coming to terms that their parents aren't perfect. So what might be the core of that? Maybe Elizabet made the only other rogue machine. Supporting this is that Vast Silver was the most advanced AI of its time and it was a climate AI - Elizabet's bread and butter. And let's consider that Elizabet knew immediately how to build an AI that exceeded the original record suggesting she had experience even though nobody had build AI's anywhere near that advanced since Vast Silver due to regulations. And based upon estimated dates, Elizabet would've been 24 and Chief Scientist of Faro by that point.

Now for us to be concerned about it, Vast Silver would need to crop up again in the modern era so it being HADES master makes sense - the one who sent the signal. But where would it have come from? The original core of the swarm. The real "Metal Devil". Why would it be there? Because Vast Silver was the core of the AI running the Swarms. It's the true source of the glitch - Faro used the Vast Silver framework to build the pieces for the Faro machines, an AI that is known to have gone rogue, and Elizabet, the original creator of Vast Silver, recognized her code in the machines hence why she could threaten Ted with that information.

Throughout the core game and the expansion, we get to see two other developing AI's - GAIA and CYAN. Both are shown learning from their creators and the others they interact with, and these interactions are in turn shown to influence how the AI develops emotionally and the kind of personality it develops. Now, who was the first and primary person HADES interacted with and learned from? Sylens. We get to see their first interaction in the datapoint [[https://horizonzerodawn.fandom.com/wiki/First_Meeting First Meeting]]. Sylens IMMEDIATELY establishes a relationship based on trading information, refusing to answer HADES' second question until it answers one of his, and expressing approval when the AI recognizes this tit-for-tat dynamic. It's later implied by the datapoint [[https://horizonzerodawn.fandom.com/wiki/Buried_Shadow_(Datapoint) Buried Shadow]] that he has taught, or at least advised, the AI on how to pass itself off as a mythological figure from the Carja faith in order to manipulate the Shadow Carja into becoming it's pawns. When HADES uses Sylens, deceives him, and orders his death once it had no more use for him, it's only doing what Sylens himself has taught it to do. Had it come into contact with or had a chance to interact with someone more nurturing, it's possible it could have developed a very different personality, but the only interactions it's had since it's birth are with either people that believe it's a god, or a man who taught it lying, manipulation, and only giving in exchange for getting something you want.

The invasive red plant is first seen near the shore and looks similar to kelp, suggesting it came from the water - POSEIDON's domain. Considering it seems hostile to both land plants and animals, it's unlikely to be the work of either DEMETER or ARTEMIS; so what if POSEIDON is fighting either one or both of them? If it has been tasked with recreating marine life as well as cleansing the seas, it might see the other two subordinate functions as competitors and try to take them out.

Now, if something as harmless as a manufacturing AI like HEPHAESTUS could become something potentially worse than HADES - an AI programmed to be a OmnicidalManiac - it can be very likely that all of the other AI could become a similar threat with their limited resources. Unless Sylens' theory about cryogenics is proven true and some of Zero Dawn's scientific minds survived to the current era, the only things capable of creating something like this are the Zero Dawn AI. As big of a threat the Faro Plague and the Shadow Carja were, they needed HADES to get as far as they could.

Now let's look at the kudzu. It's a red, plant like substance growing naturally in the soul and it is proven to not only be toxic to animal life, but it sucks out all essential nutrients out of the soil. The AI who could create such a thing could be DEMETER. DEMETER was created to reintroduce plant-life to the Earth after AETHER and POSEIDON cleaned the Earth of its deadly toxins, but without GAIA keeping it on track, it is likely that DEMETER got it into its head to begin experimenting, maybe even creating an invincible apex predator of a plant so that nothing natural could kill it, much like how HEPHAESTUS started making deadlier machines so that they could defend themselves. This new mutant plant - let's call it "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds red weed]]" - could overcome any ecosystem and thrive, but at the cost of basic nutrients that the rest of the ecosystem could need, and either it would starve the herbivores to death - itself being inedible and kill surrounding plants - or release a pollen that could prove deadly to anyone that inhaled it.

[[/folder]]

Now, if something as harmless as a manufacturing AI like HEPHAESTUS could become something potentially worse than HADES - an AI programmed to be a OmnicidalManiac - it can be very likely that all of the other AI could become a similar threat with their limited resources. Unless Silens' theory about cryogenics is proven true and some of Zero Dawn's scientific minds survived to the current era, the only things capable of creating something like this are the Zero Dawn AI. As big of a threat the Faro Plague and the Shadow Carja were, they needed HADES to get as far as they could.

And possibly to a degree where he becomes a VillianProtagonist like [[spoiler:Abby]] in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII''.

Similarly to how ''[[{{VideoGame/SpiderManPS4}} Marvel's Spider-Man]]'' handled Mary Jane and Miles, we'll get segments where we take control of other returning characters (Sona, Varl, Rost {provided he did indeed survive}, Eren, Avad, possibly Avad's half-brother Itamen, and the like) along with new characters introduced in this game. This way we can keep tabs on goings on in Meridian, the Nora Sacred Land, and possibly Ban-Ur while Aloy is on her new journey.

** ...Except Scrappers are already the wolf analogues.

Basically the same as ''Franchise/MassEffect'', though it will likely be harder to pull off due to being Next-Gen.

Throughout the core game and the expansion, we get to see two other developing AI's - GAIA and CYAN. Both are shown learning from their creators and the others they interact with, and these interactions are in turn shown to influence how the AI develops emotionally and the kind of personality it develops. Now, who was the first and primary person HADES interacted with and learned from? Sylens. We get to see their first interaction in the datapoint [[https://horizonzerodawn.fandom.com/wiki/First_Meeting First Meeting]]. Sylens IMMEDIATELY establishes a relationship based on trading information, refusing to answer HADES' second question until it answers one of his, and expressing approval when the AI recognizes this tit-for-tat dynamic. It's later implied by the datapoint [[https://horizonzerodawn.fandom.com/wiki/Buried_Shadow_(Datapoint) Buried Shadow]] that he has taught, or at least advised, the AI on how to pass itself off as a mythological figure from the Carja faith in order to manipulate the Shadow Carja into becoming it's pawns. When HADES uses Sylens, deceives him, and orders his death once it had no more use for him, it's only doing what Sylens himself has taught it to do. Had it come into contact with or had a chance to interact with someone more nurturing, it's possible it could have developed a very different personality, but the only interactions it's had since it's birth are with either people that believe it's a god, or a man who taught it lying, manipulation, and only giving in exchange for getting something you want.