Horizon: Aloy's Origin Story

Aloy from the "Horizon" series is a beloved protagonist with a pretty unique origin story. For this essay, we'll be showcasing the Savior of Meridian's humble beginnings. There will be full spoilers for “Horizon: Zero Dawn” ahead, but we won’t be covering anything found in “Forbidden West.” We'll be taking you through Aloy's time as an outcast through her connection to Elsabet Sobeck and what happened to the Old World. Are you a fan of the flame-haired heroine? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Despite being one of Sony’s newest roster additions, Aloy has quickly become a recognizable and beloved character. Outside of her well-received debut, she’s cameoed in major games like “Monster Hunter: World,” “Genshin Impact,” and “Fortnite.” To celebrate the sequel, she even appeared on the cover of “Vanity Fair,” an incredibly rare occurrence. So where did this icon begin and what makes her so well-liked? As a baby, Aloy was discovered by the Matriarchs of the Nora, one of several tribes seen throughout “Horizon: Zero Dawn.” The Nora worship the All-Mother, represented by a mountain they believe brings all life. When Aloy was found inside the mountain, a place where only Matriarchs are allowed to visit, she was declared a curse by most. As such, she was cast out of her tribe as only an infant, given to another outcast named Rost to be raised as his own. How Aloy appeared here and where she actually came from wouldn’t be revealed until later, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Sadly, Aloy grew up not only as an outcast, unable to speak to anyone other than Rost, but with no understanding as to why she was cast out in the first place. As a child, others would often shun or tease her. And it was during one of these instances when Aloy discovered the Focus, a highly useful piece of Old World tech that would be instrumental in her journey. An intense desire to discover her origin would never leave her. And there was only one way she was ever going to get answers: by winning the Proving. This Nora contest tasks participants with killing a machine and trekking across a dangerous mountain. Those who complete it become a Brave, one of the Nora’s hunters and defenders. But more importantly, the winner can ask whatever they want from the Matriarchs. From an early age, Aloy began tirelessly training for the Proving. Although unwelcome and ridiculed by most, she actually managed to win. Her victory was cut short, however, when members of the cult group, The Eclipse, attacked, murdering many Nora, including Aloy’s father figure Rost. Afterwards, inside the mountain, Aloy would finally get some answers about where she came from, though they’d only lead to more questions. Matriarch Teersa told her she was birthed by the All-Mother and named her Seeker, a rare position given to Nora that are allowed to leave their sacred lands in times of conflict. It was here that she would also first glimpse the image of an older woman who looked exactly like her. To understand the rest of Aloy’s origins, we have to go further back to when humanity met its end. The older woman in question was Elisabet Sobeck, a genius roboticist who earned her doctorate at just 20 years old. She’d then be hired by Ted Faro, founder of his own impressive robotics and technology company. Together, they’d battle the world’s environmental issues by creating robots to tackle specific issues. However, fixing the world wasn’t enough for Faro as he pushed to build militaristic machines, causing Sobeck to leave the company behind. Unfortunately for the world he had helped save, Faro didn’t give up on his ambitions. He got his line of combat-heavy machines, making himself wealthier in the process. But he also insisted that they be impossible to hack from outside sources. So when some began experiencing a glitch that caused them to disobey orders, it spelled trouble for everyone. These machines had the capability to take over others and add them to their neural network. Not only that, but they ingested organic material to use as fuel and were self-replicating. All of these elements made for a dreadful combination that would doom humanity, and Sobeck knew it when Faro came crawling back to her for help. She estimated that the world had 15 months before the machines brought death upon everyone. And so she came up with a plan. As Aloy and the player would soon discover, Project Zero Dawn was devised as a way to jumpstart humanity via a terraforming system when the Earth became habitable again. With an elite team, Sobeck created GAIA, an AI with various subordinate functions in charge of fixing what was lost. While most humans fought and lost against the ever-growing rogue machines, Sobeck and her team worked for the future. Despite all odds, the plan succeeded. But not without Faro’s increasingly dangerous mental state leading him to delete APOLLO, GAIA’s subordinate function in charge of housing all the Old World’s knowledge. He also murdered Sobeck’s elite team of Alphas. And thus, when humanity was re-created, it knew nothing of his mistakes and greed. That is, until about a thousand years later. With humans once again living yet having no knowledge of or access to the structures of the Old World, there was no way for them to be warned of what was to come. GAIA received a mysterious signal that turned each of her subordinate functions into advanced AIs. HADES, which was designed to destroy GAIA’s work if it wasn’t suitable for human life so the process could be restarted, went rogue. To slow HADES down, GAIA destroyed itself but not before implementing a failsafe for humanity. With Dr. Sobeck’s genes on file, GAIA commanded a facility to create a genetic clone so that this person could access all Old World facilities, stop HADES from destroying the Earth, and eventually rebuild GAIA. Across her journey, Aloy would discover the secrets of the Old World and her origins as a clone of the one person who fought so hard to see life continue. Beginning as a cursed outcast, Aloy has had a long and difficult origin. But she’s a strong-willed protagonist and, quite literally, the chosen one to save humanity. Watching her persist against her rough upbringing and even rougher dealings with machines and war-torn tribes has made her an engaging protagonist. She embodies everything that Elisabet Sobeck stood for and we hope she has many adventures ahead of her.