Horizon Forbidden West is set to drop February 18 on PS5 and PS4. The sequel to the award-winning Horizon Zero Dawn will be the sophomore adventure for Aloy, the main character of the series. Much was revealed about who Aloy is and her role in Horizon Zero Dawn, setting her up to further explore the dystopian world filled with mechanical beasts in Forbidden West.
Below, you will find an overview on the protagonist, Aloy. There will also be added sections to fill in some of the gaps.
Note that spoilers from Zero Dawn are unavoidable in the sections below. If you haven’t played Zero Dawn, one, you probably should play that before Forbidden West; and two, it’s recommended not to read any further.
Where does Aloy come from?
Aloy mysteriously appeared as a baby in front of the doors to ELEUTHIA-9, which the Nora tribe considered to be their god, the All-Mother. With the baby seemingly spawning out of nowhere, two of the High Matriarchs of the Nora disagreed on whether the child was a curse or a gift. Further, with mothers having a high importance in Nora society, her motherless status was seen as taboo. It was decided that the unnamed baby would be put in the care of an outcast to be raised as an outcast herself.
Rost was able to successfully name her during a Nora Naming Ritual, bestowing her the name “Aloy” with the blessing of High Matriarch Teersa. High Matriarch Lansra arrived to excoriate the two for performing the ritual on an outcast.
She was then raised and trained by Rost in advance of The Proving.
Is Aloy a robot?
No, Aloy is not a robot. It turns out that Aloy is a genetic clone of one of the designers of GAIA – the most advanced A.I. ever and responsible for the restoration of life on Earth. Specifically, she is a 99.47 percent clone of Dr. Elizabeth Sobeck. Rather than a robot, Aloy, even though a clone, is closer to an android than a robot.
However, she is raised as a Nora and for all intents and purposes is human.
What is Aloy’s earpiece?
Early in Zero Dawn, Aloy falls into the a ruin of the Old Ones – the vestiges of society before being wiped out by the Faro Plague. Here, she finds Focus on the long-dead corpse of an individual. She attaches it to her ear and is then able to see the world in greater detail using Focus. It’s an augmented reality device that transposes information to the user, essentially a multi-functional HUD.
With Focus, Aloy can gain further insight to her enemies, human and machine alike, as well as track patrol paths and see what devices might be interactable. Other functions include accessing the information of other Focus devices, reveal the location of enemies and devices, and repair damaged files. It’s notable that the Focus Aloy finds is completely functional after at least a millennia of just sitting on the ear of a corpse, speaking to its durability and craftsmanship.
The Focus earpiece that Aloy finds is integral to your success in Zero Dawn and presumably, Forbidden West.
Who are the Nora?
The Nora are one of the tribes in Zero Dawn and the first you encounter as Aloy was found in front of their embodiment of the All-Mother. The other tribes are the Carja, Oseram, and Banuk. The Nora are one of the oldest tribes in the game’s lore and shun the technology of the Old Ones.
The Nora are a matriarchal hunter-gatherer society with rituals similar to those in other fantasy RPGs. There is the aforementioned Naming Ritual, but also The Proving, which will sound familiar to Dragon Age players as the Orzammar Proving took place in Origins. The Proving is the time for adolescents to show their skills, with those passing The Proving becoming Braves – essentially warriors for the tribe – and the winner able to ask anything of the High Matriarchs. The Proving is a critical story mission for Aloy in Zero Dawn.
With their shunning of the Old Ones, a faction split from the Nora after one of their members found a tome of the Old Ones and tried to bring that to the tribe. They exiled the followers and they eventually became the Carja, which led to a centuries-long feud between the two.
The Carja, following the technology and ways of the Old Ones, led an incursion into Nora lands and eventually forced them out of most of their lands. A peace was brokered, but it’s tenuous.
Shortly after the peace was brokered, Aloy was found outside the doors to ELEUTHIA-9. She was then placed in Rost’s care.
Is Rost Aloy’s father?
Biologically, no, but paternally, yes. Aloy considered Rost her father and Rost held Aloy has his daughter. He loved her deeply, the only adult to ever care for her. Rost, a man who held to tradition, ritual, and Nora ways, held the same in his caring for Aloy even though he was an outcast.
However, Rost became an outcast voluntarily and out of tragedy. A group of outlanders invaded his outpost and killed his mate, taking their child and others as hostages. He beseeched the High Matriarchs to make him a Death-Seeker. A Death-Seeker is a Seeker whose only purpose is to kill others, in Rost’s case those who killed his mate and took his child hostage. The tradeoff is they become removed from the tribe, unable to step into the Sacred Land ever again.
Rost was only able to stay after a Nora broke taboo, healed, him, and brought him back over the barrier to the Sacred Land. The High Matriarchs, having vowed to never speak of the ceremony, decided to make Rost an outcast, which he gladly obliged.
Rost met an untimely death coming to the aid of Aloy, fulfilling his fatherly duty to the end.
The lore to Horizon is dense, and this is just an inkling into Aloy and her role in the series. Make sure to pick up Horizon Forbidden West only on PS4 and PS5 on February 18!
