#old gods of sylan

[windwakemeup]

"Has the Dream forgotten the letter of the Law? The law made Us king. We will be kings once again." Part one of the Old Gods of Sylan series. Sylan is my original setting that I have worked on for many years, and I've had these as sketches in my book since about 2018. Figured i'd finally finish them in a digital form

[darthluffy]

So I’m playing through Horizon: Forbidden West for the 3rd time… and I really think Far Zenith was a mistake. Not just in universe(cause obviously) but as an inclusion in the game. Part of what I loved about Zero Dawn was that the end of the world wasn’t intentional. Sure Ted’s a dick but he didn’t mean for that to happen. It was a glitch that caused the HORUS line to go rogue and a culmination of events that meant they had no way to immediately react. Far Zenith feels like the opposite of that, a group of self-obsessed billionaires who do nothing but cause problems for their own personal benefit. Very hateable but they always felt empty to me.

The main reason I end up thinking they were a mistake though is that I believe there was much more interesting option. The AIs created by humanity before and during Zero Dawn. We see Zero Dawn’s progression but it’s not like the rest of the world would sit by and watch everything end without trying to stop it. And I think a logical method to attempt would’ve been taking as many powerful AIs(Vast Silver and CYAN level AIs) as possible, and forcing them to evolve by battling each other over and over until they had one that could break through the swarm’s firewalls. A self-contained program that runs continuously, trying to force a breakthrough to happen, in a hidden base underneath Metallurgic’s old headquarters in… Denver. Of course it fails, they don’t evolve quick enough, and with the swarm approaching everyone flees. But the program keeps running, for hundreds of years, the AIs battling and destroying themselves only to be rebooted and do it all over again. The end result would be something like Nemesis, but created accidentally out of humans attempt to survive. Then you could have the real fun begin, because eventually time takes it’s effect and enough system’s fail that the AI can take control of the program and start reaching out. Over time they find someone that has happened to find a Focus and begin speaking with them, learning what has happened to the world, and that person leads a team to Denver to free their caged god. The group breaks into Nora lands, take hostages to keep the Nora away as they excavate the ruins, before retreating out of the Nora lands with their prize. In short, they’re the group that kills Rost’s daughter. The group flees all the way across the Forbidden West, all they way to San Fransisco, where the AI intends to gain access to Ted’s Omega clearance to take control of GAIA, but Rost catches up with them outside the tomb and finishes off the AI’s human allies. Forced to adapt the AI instead send the Mysterious Signal that corrupts GAIA’s subordinate functions, hoping to wipe out humanity that way. When that doesn’t work they decide to rebuild GAIA, using basically the same plan as Far Zenith. But now I think you have an enemy that is more interesting, and would ultimately set up the final enemy for a third game, a fully evolved Hephastus after the events of the final battle(they’d play out similar).

The funny thing is how little needs to change in the game. Everything with Beta can happen almost exactly the same. You add datapoints from both Roth’s and the people he’s hunting perspectives to give context. The Odyssey actually explodes leaving the system and the AI constructs a probe to search the wreckage and return with Apollo. Most plot points still happen, just with a very different enemy. Sylan’s goals may need to have been adjusted a little but the broad stroke of creating an army to serve as a distraction remains. And I think the end result is a much more interesting enemy for Forbidden West, a personal connection to the enemy through Roth as opposed to Elisabet, and clearing the slate for Hephastus to take the stage as the ultimate enemy of the third game.

[windwake-me-up-inside]

"Has the Dream forgotten the letter of the Law? The law made Us king. We will be kings once again." Part one of the Old Gods of Sylan series. Sylan is my original setting that I have worked on for many years, and I've had these as sketches in my book since about 2018. Figured I'd finally finish them in a digital form. If you would like to support the work that I do here, My Patreon is here: https://www.patreon.com/windwakemeup. There I will post higher quality versions of my art, as well as sketches, for patreons.