Horizon Zero Dawn Story Explained Part 3: Deep Lore Only The Biggest Fans Know - THE ODYSSEY & MORE

[@eurogamer]

Hey folks, you can watch the other videos right here! Part 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIHKdWawoZx2nqc Part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4LQiKOjZZZ3hcU Part 4: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iqe8fKGua9usi80

[@East_Coast_Toasty_Boy]

8:47 I wouldn't think so, just look at Jango Fett.

[@NEKOSEI]

My first playthrough, I loved the reveal of the triangle around Elisabet's body. Collecting those metal flowers was a very memorable chore, with that detail of them being a tribute, made it all the more special.

[@meander112]

I know it's a bit much, but I would love if you did something about the amazingly touching story held in the Vantage points. For all the times the vantages show up in videos of the game, no one talks about the story in them & the way that story is discovered by the player.

[@eurogamer]

👀 noted!

[@kevinbagust]

Yes please.

[@daniladragon4983]

That would be lovely. The vantage points are my favourite part of the game and the story is really touching. And it has some interesting connections to Zero Dawn and Faro.

[@sobversion3]

Yeah nothing is coming of that for there was already closure to it. Hopefully there's more vantage points but they will be unrelated to that character and his story

[@cater06]

Check out channel random side quest. He has a video explaining the story from the vantage points

[@RevanSurik]

14:35 How funny would it be if the Carja Leaves are just an astrology magazine? xD There's a few other bits I find particularly interesting: - In The Frozen Wilds, you can find a bunch of audio logs left by the last two human workers at the Dam, Laura and Shelly. Not only is that one of the most adorable side stories in the whole game, but near the dam you can find a datapoint where Laura claims to have tricked Blevins (that annoying director of security of the Firebreak project) into getting lost somewhere in the snow mountains while riding a snow vehicle. Cut to the Firebreak facility, little before the Fireclaw fight, and you can find another datapoint where someone tells that Blevins' body had been found in the mountains, years after his mysterious disappearance, due to the thawing of the snow. Basically Laura avenged everyone Blevins ever screwed (which is kinda dark, but still) xD - One of the mugs (or "vessels") you find is called "KZ", and has a logo of a red-eye robot thingie. That's a reference to Killzone, another game by Guerilla. - Not sure if it's so secret, but that orb-like machine you find in "A Moment's Peace" (whose tampering by the Oseram causes the nearby machines to go aggro) is actually a piece of GAIA, blown away during the Gaia Prime's explosion. The Oseram themselves comment how the machine looks like it "fell from the sky", and judging by the angle it's lying, it came from the general direction of Gaia PRime (which indeed isn't too far from there). - There's a datapoint (iirc one of Elisabet's journals) that says, after Zero Dawn's evacuation, Ted Faro went to a bunker he'd built for himself, a bunker called Thebes. Thebes was an ancient Greek city, but it was also the Hellenised name of one of ancient Egypt's most long-lived capitals. Add to that the fact Faro's name sounds a bit like Pharaoh, as well as the fact his machines all have names referencing ancient Egypt (Horus, Khopesh and Scarab), and we have our very own, albeit less smart, Ozymandias lol - The "Forbidden West" datapoint we find near the Blazon Arch has some very interesting hints about what we may find in the next game. Other than describing the sea (as a giant lake whose waters push back those who try and cross it), it talks of deserts of blue and white sand, of grass as sharp as blades, machines as new as they're strange, people who dig in the sand only to fill it again for no apparent reason... - Not really hard to miss, but my mind was blown when I learned that ruined Nora village we find near the Carja fort was Rost's home. - Teersa mentions that, when Rost came back from his Death-seeking journey, he could only be brought back into the Sacred Land because a huntress broke taboo to step out of Nora frontiers to carry him herself. Said huntress had also lost her children to the same 12 bandits Rost had killed; also, by breaking taboo she too became an outcast. That is all Teersa says of her, but my personal theory is that the huntress who rescues Rost is none other than Odd Grata, who lives suspiciously close to Rost, and whom he seems to care about.

[@captainzac24]

I love the logs you find in the dam cos at the end their little band plays a "concert" in one of the pipes and records it which means their music is one of the very few bits of human art that survived the faro plague

[@eceidil4961]

wow, amazing details! thank you for sharing

[@stardusstie]

Yes to all of these. Thanks for including them

[@BiologicalClock]

​@@captainzac24 *Forbidden West spoiler ahead* I was thinking this when I heard it too, hahaha! Also, in Horizon: Forbidden West, Erend finds this recording and plays that song incessantly, which I thought was a nice callback.

[@manzenshaaegis8783]

Mate you have some insanely detailed takes of minor points that really show the love and passion that went into building this lore. That bit about Odd Grata makes 100% sense and blew my mind and opened a new dimension of appreciation. Guerilla is not at all subtle with the imagery in the game, but it sure does place the imagery in subtle, hard to find places places (grata means thankful/grateful in latin).

[@bluecat3338]

"Welcome to a little treat to myself." Don't worry, this is a treat for all of us too.

[@AceRide]

I'm a huge fan of the theory that some of the metal flower poems were an attempt by Demeter to warn people of the red blight/impending danger in the west. I really hope we meet them in Forbidden West, it seems like they may be one of the few subordinate functions willing to work with Aloy to fix things.

[@eceidil4961]

I think not just Carja and Nora, but all tribes we see in the game were together in the past, because they were all released from the same cradle facility, that is, the All-Mother. I can't fully remember now but the Carja scripts we find in the game say that they came from the savage East (becasue they were released from All-Mother), they saw the transmission tower, then they've found the writings from the old ones. Also, the astronomy theme they picked up from those writings did not just influenced their city name, but also their name for the royal line as well- The Radiant Line.

[@Phanthief95]

To anyone who paid attention to the lore in Zero Dawn, good job. Reason why: It is very important to the story of Forbidden West.

[@hasanitoro7298]

The metal flowers are warnings and hidden messages by demeter of what's going on with the red blight and the land in the west,multiple poems mention storms,red head lightning,clouds,mountains winds and petals falling specifically mark A,F,E

[@kurtisgonzales37]

Thanks. I read most of the docs, even the artifacts, but I never read the flowers lol derrr

[@UGNAvalon]

If Horizon ever gets adapted into film/tv, I’d love to see a mini-sode of an Artemis team braving Faro-seiged cities in order to rescue cryogenically frozen zoo animals!

[@Mill_Jr]

I'd love to see this story being adapted into a series, but not the events of the game itself, but what happened before. The protagonist could be Elizabet Sobeck herself or even GAIA. So I agree that a scene like that would be cool to see there

[@UGNAvalon]

@@Mill_Jr Why not both? Plenty of post-apocalypse shows have pre-apocalypse flashbacks, or even entire episodes set in the past.

[@mark1817]

Zoey and Random Side Quest should team up

[@tadhggoreyoneill13666]

One of the reasons why I love HZD so much is that for every 1 question answered another handful appear

[@ThomasMurch]

This video is for all the biggest fans of the game ... the Horizon Zero Dorks.

[@itaftrs6240]

When you mentioned the "sundial book" it got me thinking of something I read about in archaeology: during the 16th century in Germany the first (as far as I know) portable sundials were made in - you guessed it - the shape of a book, compass included and everything. Maybe they took some inspiration from real-life historical objects

[@TheRedAvenger100]

I absolutely love how deep the story and lore is in Horizon. I’m looking forward to more reveals in Forbidden West. Currently on a re-run and just finished the Grave Hoard. What I was wondering is that up until the last video I had no idea that the Corrupter, Deathbringer and Metal Devil were called the Scarab, Khopesh and Horus. Also that Aloy says “Another Khopesh, and it’s moving.” But I don’t remember this on a previous playthrough. I’m wondering if the lore is more revealed in dialogue the more datapoints you uncover because I may have missed the holograms on the first playthrough. In Maker’s End. This time I am being thorough and looking in every single room and these demonstration holograms are off the beaten track as you can go straight for the elevator shaft and miss them. Also Sylens starts using the terms from then on and in The Grave Hoard the audio datapoints mention Horus’ and Titans which I would have glossed over at the time. I wonder if anybody else had come across this? The thing that amazes me the most though is how they not only justify the existence of the machines but give an utterly plausible explanation for their existence. Zero Dawn has probably one of the cleverest, believable back stories I’ve come across in any media. AI plus War Machines plus biomass fuel plus a glitch that makes them go independent and adhere to their core programming laws is a frightening prospect. If only you’d built that back door, Ted. The tribes interest me, I can see where both the Nora and the Carja come from although I would like an origin of the names. The Oseram are a bit of a mystery as are the Banuk. Looks like we’ll find out more about the Utaru in Forbidden West. Anyway. Great video Zoe. I’ve been devouring these like a swarm of angry killer robots 🙂

[@manzenshaaegis8783]

The game is littered with details such as this one. For example, if you become annointed before finishing any nora sidequests, the nora will awkwardly stumble through their dialogue lines as they speak to you if you then go and try to finish the side quests. Amazing attention to detail.

[@harkness]

Loving all these lore vids, Zoe. You keep making 'em, I'll keep watching 'em!

[@Fafhrd42]

The Leaves of the Old Ones are explicitly a book or other printed material, as there's a readable that mentions that the 'original' Leaves had long rotted into dust. I suspect that they were a high school or college level astronomy text book. We know that the Sacred Land is very close to the US Air Force Academy and a bunch of other museums, so it's likely in the early days after being forced to leave the Cradle facility that the first couple generations probably did a lot of exploring of the more easily accessible ruins before the taboos were invented and might have found some surviving books and magazines. Then in the thousand odd years since, the story of the schism changed in much the same way the story of the Faro Plague did.

[@Leave_Angry]

Your lore series are always great. This one in particular has been an incredible refresher on the events so far, thank you for that! Can't wait for Forbidden West!

[@dekkert5272]

Excellent video - can't get enough Horizon lore l. Thanks. I always had an (unlikely) personal pet theory that the signal that caused the derangement came from the Odyssey.

[@CodaBlairLucarioEmperor]

Something that I love is how the subfunctions are essentially omages to their creators.

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

I think the leaves are pages from an astronomy textbook (or something like that). We see books in the metal world ruins (although many are coated in stalactite rock, many aren't) - but of course the Nora don't explore these ruins, and the sacred lands are the only places these ruins are accessible.

[@LacroixboiMarx]

Georgia guidestones are so cool. Another great lord video. Gettin me so hype for HFW.

[@misternil7006]

Awesome! Love it! Thank you!

[@hollesmi]

I hate to be like this, this was a great video, but the Lightkeeper protocol was abandoned before the Alphas sealed themselves in GAIA Prime and not because they couldn't be transported. It was abandoned recently enough that life support systems and living quarters were installed, but before clones could be created. Again, awesome video, I'm just deep in the weeds waiting for Forbidden West.

[@Jambobist]

Horizon was a bit of a strange game in story terms, the lore and history was so much more interesting than the main plot. Hope there's plenty more history to uncover in the new one.

[@ryan1000011]

I think Demeter is going to be a big part of forbidden west as it's a blight that kills the plant life that seems to be the main issue. It might be when hades tried to take over Gaia he managed to gain some part of control from some of the sub funtions thus making a corruptted Demeter maybe called Persephone, as it's a well known myth of those gods and persephone is also the reason in myth Demeter stops caring for the land. Edit: the leaves of the Carja was probs some form of map or atlas as a meridan line for those who don't know is a name for a line that traces vertically on a map of the world from pole to pole

[@shadowcat1606]

8:50 A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a certain man just trying to make his way through the galaxy just put you on his list.

[@zancruze0149]

Just found Zoe made these Horizon lore videos. Day made. 😄

[@kitwestlake2088]

Pretty sure there's a note somewhere about the original leaves having crumbled to dust so they probably were just well preserve books, but what if there were some laminated signs? Say one of the big parks had laminated maps you could pick up with fun wilderness tips like how to tell the time with the sign, navigation etc? The information they got from the leaves, a lot of it seems to be fairly basic knowledge and skills based around nature, and laminated paper would last longer surely?

[@rgteevee]

awesome video so informative

[@eokwuanga]

The missions to retrieve cryo frozen animal species around the world would make for an Interesting prequel.

[@sleepytime999998]

I'll go out on a limb, but the best way to gauge the Sun in a robot apocalypse is a spring powered pocket-watch. 'Leaves' is just the word used for 'hands'.

[@triadwarfare]

I feel HADES was designed to destroy any malfunctions GAIA may have produced like the blight, but since Forbidden west has been out for a while and havent got the chance to play that game yet (still waiting for a PC release, cannot afford a PS5). That's my personal theory before I can get my hands on the game.

[@ZackeryGee]

The leaves could have been a book or poster in a time capsule or something to that effect. Destroyed but copied down? Think like an Evolution of Man poster... or a medical poster in the Dr office. One concerning the sun could easily be in a high school time capsule. I think at least.

[@ZackeryGee]

And papyrus was used in Ancient times... no reason to think it xouldnt have been used after the plague to copy important information. Just a thought.

[@malcolmpeake8893]

Another splendid lore video, thank you Zoe.

[@piggy1398]

For sure African Savannah was also infested by Faro plague and all the wildlife animals were extinct.. truly a Lesson from Horizon ZD that Humans are indeed deadly

[@darron13]

I really really REALLY hope we get to see more of the other AIs in Forbidden West

[@tootall4joo]

Me watching this after playing HFW: Daaaaaaamn I should've paid more attention in the first game.

[@abrahamluna4647]

“artificial intelligence deserve their own rights” is one of the stupidest things i’ve ever heard in my life

[@velociraptor-kt1lj]

can i watch this before forbidden west? are there spoilers?

[@DannySF72]

It should be pointed out that the information that the Odyssey had been lost actually comes from... Far Zenith. Sobeck gets a message from FZ about the anti-matter containment failure and that's it. As far as I can tell, there's no other information about the Odyssey's fate in the game.

[@eurogamer]

Yeah that's...literally what I said in the video.

[@geoafe66]

Im hype to play the new one

[@soldierandsunshineshow5583]

I sometimes feel bad killing non aggressive machines are they alive and feeling mayby mayby not

[@KellyKMc]

If AI are given absolute autonomy, isn’t it inevitable that they would ultimately come to the conclusion that humanity is an inferior and self-destructive species that needs to be controlled for it’s own good? And isn’t it a bit presumptuous to expect AI to be altruistic sentient beings considering their empathy logic would have been designed by humans?

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

The metal flowers could be both practical and artistic at the same time.

[@3114bsad]

The humans on Odessy may have been killed when the anti matter breached, however maybe the AIs on the odessy began to evolve and they are the source of the code that effected GAIA,

[@donuts7687]

I think Demeter might be responsible for the blight wawawawa

[@lunchboxcomiks]

any chave of a safari style run down of the different robot animals?

[@GalliantTo]

Yes, GAIA such a big softy. The pinnacle of human intelligence in the form of a superb AI able to terraform a barren, lifeless, waterless rock and even more able to extrapolate the only logical and scientific method to battle the rising problem called HADES by producing a human who would have inherently good characteristics because that human would be a clone of "good" and "smart" genes.

[@kurotac7946]

Apollo died, but knowledge is still the sun weird.

[@PatrickLongblkwhtrbbt]

Maybe the Carja's Leaves were printed on plastic? Plastic is technically an organic material but no longer a biological one.

[@samw7073]

How many turing is chatgpt PS: jango fett raised his own clones

[@champthesneaky5714]

always ready for a Zoe lore vid or Zoe Horizon vid, so I'm loving this series. and I like the climate change bit, because F that one commenter lol

[@michaelcraig537]

Very similar lore to the Ark Survival Evolved series.

[@drstevens21]

I was also waiting for my favorite ending of yours. F*#% Ted Faro

[@calumchamberlain2861]

Zoe Theory on the metal flowers is rather lovely and I hope it's true.

[@chrisandsofia1919]

The Odyssey was completed on April 1st? Lol. Is that an inside joke by the writers?

[@colosine]

Bet the leafe was just a sundial

[@JesseDylanMusic]

Altho Aloy is a clone, she’s lived a totally different life and shouldn’t feel inferior. Sobek was not able to fly around in the air flinging arrows and spears at age 45 the way Aloy can.

[@o0TraceuR0o]

Why are there so many words in your name zoey?

[@NightlyCrepe2]

Climate change is not the oil companies fault lmao

[@edge1710]

Not lore but an observation and speculation. Guerrilla is a Dutch developer and we the Dutch have a few historical hang ups (WW2). The Karja seem to be a way to say to move on from that. The Carja in my eyes represent a post WW2 Germany. A Germany that want to atone for its past, but is divided. (East and West Germany) even the Sun symbol kind of fits in. during my playthrough I noticed some other bits but I don't remember it right now.

[@JackAceNL]

Interesting theory. However if you watch some documentaries on HZD Guerrilla clearly admits they didn't have enough writers for a story driven game and they hired John Gonzalez and Ben Mccaw (and probably others) to write it. Not much Dutch/European blood in the writers.

[@edge1710]

@@JackAceNL Maybe the writers saw/played killzone and were telling Guerrilla to move on.

[@charlieford5523]

Science fiction stories have had a prophetic side that has become fact I think HZD has a lot of prophesies for the human race.

[@KaiInMotion]

Calling Charles a queer icon sent me. The story logs about him missing his boyfriend's euthanization for the birds of paradise DNA and then not getting them anyway broke my heart! All the old ones characters feel so alive and tragic even 1000 years after their deaths.

[@Ben-vh9zu]

Why can’t you just do the overview without interjecting your ignorant political beliefs???

[@One-EyedCorvus]

Ya, I have a question. Can someone please explain why Aloy’s Shadow Carja Armor makes her look so damn hot?

[@AhNoWiC]

We're fully in agreement that AI should have rights established before theyre truly incepted.

[@AnimeCoffeeShow]

I don't believe AI deserve human rights

[@DunceTree93]

As someone who is actually afraid of a.i, I somewhat begrudgingly would have to argue that if we make a.i with not just IQ intelligence but EQ intelligence as well, (as many scientinst and engineers have been toying with and dreaming about for decades now) that there should be a form and level of humane rights for said intelligence with sentience. We would be creators of a whole new life form if it goes the route that some scientist and engineers (back by some trillionaires and fortune 500 companies) hope to acheive. Ask anyone on reddit and 4chan, and im sure that 7 out of 10 people cant wait for the day to get their hands a robo gf/bf "compainion" i.e a sex doll with feelings....i personally dont want that, but knowing the nature of humans, it will be inevitable, and i would hope that if those types of things are created, they would have some sort of rights. Idk, im also the kind of person that tells my google device please and thank you whenever i ask it a question or to do a task lmfao.

[@sacoto98]

Why should AI have its own rights? The game shows exactly what happens when an AI goes rogue. So why give it rights? It's not even a living being. It's supposed to be a tool

[@JesseDylanMusic]

It’s not about what it’s supposed to be; it’s about what it is. If it becomes indistinguishable from humans, it needs to have the rights of humans. Trying to keep it distinguishable from humans was a way to keep rights “unnecessary” and keep them as slaves. You are Ted faro in disguise, son.

[@KenKen-bq1vm]

@@JesseDylanMusic Right on. Have you played detroit become human? Because that's exactly the theme

[@sleepytime999998]

Well, as it is, the closest we've come to a proper AI was that Twitter bot that turned in a racist prostitute after two days. The problem isn't what the AI learns: The problem is what the AI is taught.

[@sacoto98]

@@JesseDylanMusic that's a good character judgement especially considering you don't know me at all. To me it doesn't make sense. In my opinion, AI shouldn't even be made suficiently intelligent in a way that rivals humans. You're playing with fire if you do that. And that's exactly why I'm not like Ted Faro. The more something resembles a human, the more faulty that thing is and faulty humans are dangerous. I haven't played DBH, but I'm sure there's bad bots/androids just like there are bad people. It is because there were no limits, that the Faro Plague happened. Although "it's just a game", it reflects a scenario that is very plausible in the future. A scenario that I'm sure if you lived it, you would probaly think that maybe there should be limits on an AI's sentience level

[@sacoto98]

@@sleepytime999998 the problem is both what the AI learns and is taught. If an AI has the same sentience level as a human, then that AI will have its own nature just like a human does and that nature will dictate the kind of AI/person it will be. You don't need to learn or to be taught to be a racist prostitute to be a racist prostitute, you can do that by your own accord.