#patrick brochard klein

[seaside-coffeemilk]

A meme that turned into a continued concept, I guess.

Originally envisioned them yelling at the Zeniths for mistreatment of Beta, then figured out it would be funnier if they each yelled for even more different reasons.

Patrick's angry for the gene ethics and the mistreatment of Beta .

Elisabet's angry at the whole Zenith fiasco, Gaia's destruction, for Beta's treatment and for Aloy's almost abduction.

Aloy's angry at the whole mess the Zeniths made, also here I imagine her angry for Beta, for Varl, and at them for chasing her down and nearlly costing her her life.

[incorrectfandomsapphic]

Horizon: Forbidden West #001

Source: Unknown

Samina Ebadji: What scares you the most? Charles Ronson: Sharks. Patrick Brochard-Klein: Bugs. Elisabet Sobeck: The unstoppable marching of time that is slowly guiding us towards our inevitable deaths. Travis Tate: ...Elisabet.

[analviel]

Zero Dawn Pantheon:

You know, how GAIA is treated as a goddess by the Nora (I mean, making things out of light, literally created everything, so they're not wrong. The genius of how magic and science and sci-fi and primitive life and a bit of cyberpunk and the idea of the apocalypse and ragnarok and genesis were seamlessly combined i can't stop gushing.)

If ever someone else comes upon their holograms or even just their photos, or if Aloy ever shares and spreads their stories, this is how I imagine the Zero Dawn Pantheon will look like.

So the myths go like this: At first, this world was occupied only by the sire of the Metal Devil, feeding on barren lands and drying oceans, but Gaia endured and eventually triumphed with the help of her own children. However, sometime in the chaos, the Metal Devil successfully blasted Apollo till only her essence is left (said essence which will one day choose her champion in Nora Tribe member Araman as her medium to return, by giving him a boon of her knowledge and instructing him to go to Minerva's spire to plant a seed that will one day be instrumental in her resurrection) and planted a corruptive essence of his in Hades. So the All-Mother and her court gives birth to the world, Eleuthia assisting mothers in childbirth, Artemis shepherding wild life so it doesn't devour everything else, Hephaestus forging the tools each need to thrive, Apollo's essence providing knowledge, and Minerva how to use it.

And a myth isn't a myth if it's so linear and clear-cut, so in some versions, it says that the gods, as Minerva as their leader, gathered together for Hephaestus to forge the quintessential essence of themselves, someone who will oversee everything simultaneously to keep the perpetual balance, and came Gaia (I'd imagine this is the Oseram's favourite version, if they had favourite versions of religion). In some versions though, it's the other way around, where Minerva and the others are Gaia's children. As it so happens, in this version, Aloy is considered less of a god's champion/Anointed One and more of a goddess herself, most art even depicting Artemis in her fashion, with red hair and a spear, stalking a machine. Otherwise, Artemis is a male of dark hair and clean shaven hair, while Aloy is an immortal champion bridging the mortals and the gods, essentially a demigod by being born a god but raised as human and probably a patron of heroism/soldiers and assistance or something. Metal Devil is how the essence of all evil and taint is referred to, but especially brazen people or extremely blasphemous ones, may whisper Ted Faro.

Sometimes, Apollo is an active lover of many men and women, sometimes she's a modest woman who's really more interested in acquiring and making knowledge and just so happens to talk to a lot of people to do her duty. Sometimes Hades is a kind, just, and inevitable king who had the unfortunate chance of being corrupted by the Metal Devil, sometimes he's constantly faced with disappointment from his family because of his blatant lust.

There is a name: Elisabet. Could be Gaia, could be Minerva, and though rarely, can also be Aloy. Only thing that doesn't change is that she's a Mother. Gaia's or Aloy's or both. You know how it is. There are many debates.

Carja, of course, choose their patron god as Apollo (who take the form of Samina). Ban-uk has Artemis (I imagine Aluki in particular is fascinated with the stories of how Artemis once took the form of a young maiden and had a band of other young maidens they bring for ETERNAL HUNT!). The Nora are very smug about being right about the All-Mother -for the most part. Oseram aren't the most religious but they have preference of Hephaestus. Eleuthia is the patron of expecting fathers and male family members -they cannot start or stop the act of birthing, nor do it in place of their partners, but they can still be a part of the act by assisting, as it was believed Eleuthia did for his mother. Demeter is, of course, patron of farmers, also herbalist and anyone who puts plants on their plates. Hades is basically patron of people like Nil, who believe that everyone is equal in death -there's also little Travis statues in graves. Generals, kings, organizers, planners, traders, pray for wisdom from Minerva.

The only one programmed with a visual form is Gaia, but eventually, as learning AI who can learn compassion (or, already cares, since they're all initially aspects of Gaia before gaining minds of their own) they just use the forms of their Alpha creators.

Also, none of the AIs whatsoever understand that humans treat them as gods. They are, after all, still just learning how to identify sarcasm. So sometimes, people may ask for a story about, say Apollo, and the question may be phrased that they'd think it's referring to the greek god Apollo.

So, yeah, religion is basically just partly miscommunication and misunderstanding but if you think about it not really.

Also, Carja may start wearing head scarves, as an 'expression of their faith' as Apollo explained their hijab. And also Apollo is basically a reincarnation of the internet.

[carvion]

"Tate, I am at the end of my rope here, please don't pronounce 'hors d'oeuvres' as 'horse divorce' again."

- Patrick Borchard-Klein

[longleglens]

Scientists of Project Zero Dawn

[system-threat-detected]

18 playthroughs a and I still tear up at ‘the good news’ cutscene and Margo, Samina, and Patrick’s introductions to their respective subordinate functions...

They were just... so passionate and good y’all

[sapphictalahnah]

I love all the alphas equally! Samina, Margo, Patrick and *looks at smudged writing on hand* Tarvis

[h0riz0nstuff]

Samina, Patrick, Charles, Margo and Travis.

[justahorizonsideblog]

Name: Patrick Brochard-Klein Family: - Relationship: - Household: Old Ones CC:  -

[seaside-coffeemilk]

Drew some Alphas with focuses.

Wanted to doodle something relaxing.

[pauputoot]

Lol how do you guys think the conversation between Ted Faro and Elisabet Sobeck (and also probably Patrick Brochard-Klein) went when they broke the news to him that his killer-robot-creating-ass genes weren't gonna be part of ELEUTHIA

[ofvanderlyle]

LORE ENTRY 005: HORIZON ZERO DAWN.

         ELEUTHIA     /          the subfunction dedicated to the cloning and raising of humans from genetic stock at specially designed and prepared cradle facilities scattered across the earth. headed by patrick brochard-klein, ELEUTHIA’s main task was to repopulate the earth with the next generation of humans once the outside world was habitable again. in order to accomplish this task, cradle facilities were built across the globe, each containing the necessities to eventually rebuild mankind: artificial wombs, automaton caregivers known as multiservitors, juvenile entertainment, and cryogenically preserved embryos that would serve as the first new humans.

         intended to work in conjunction with APOLLO, the subfunction dedicated to cataloging all human knowledge, cradle facilities came equipped with a massive school room ( the lyceum ) filled with focuses that would allow children to connect to the vast database of stored information. through using APOLLO, new humans would learn about the old world, their duty to preserve the new world, and how not to repeat humanity’s past mistakes.

         results     /          due to ted faro purging the APOLLO subfunction, a significant amount of ELEUTHIA’s capabilities were sabotaged. the first new humans were only given a kindergarten-level education, and the blockage in ELEUTHIA’s system prevented its humanoid caregivers from providing accurate care past a certain age, resulting in the new humans resenting them for treating them like children once they grew to be adults.

         eventually, supplies would be depleted, forcing the cradle occupants to venture into the new world with no idea how to survive. from cradle-9 came the humans that would eventually become the nora tribe. after some time, cradle facilities entered a dormant state for several centuries.

         due to an unknown anomaly affecting GAIA’s systems, the whereabouts and activity of ELEUTHIA are currently unknown.

[subfunctions]

So I have this like weird? Theory? I have a theory that Talanah is somehow related to Patrick Brochard-Klein. Also no, I don't have any evidence to back this up, but yea. 😅😅😅😅 Thoughts?

well, Talanah's model is Vietnamese, and Patrick's is Japanese, so it's not the same ethnicity.

[meggannn]

i mean this both in a tragic way, like i cannot believe they did what they did, i cannot imagine how that must've felt, working 80 hours a week not knowing if it was going to make it, not knowing if you threw away people's lives for nothing. they worked and fought and gamed and teased each other and played music and they were people even in the end of times, and they put their heads down and achieved the impossible in sixteen months because they believed in a future hard enough to make it happen.

but also i mean it in a funny way cause i just cant imagine arriving for your first day at zero dawn headquarters and discovering oh by the way the guy down the hall is famed geneticist patrick brochard-klein who helped write the raleigh accords and won't stop reminding everyone. samina ebadji wants everyone to submit their top 100 memorable albums, movies, tv shows, books, and podcasts to a digital archive by the end of the first week. the guy two cubes down from you is international criminal travis tate, who is headbanging to some nonsense while margo shen passes out earplugs. just like what the fuck was that like.

anyone else feeling emotional about the project zero dawn staff in this chili’s tonight

[jollysunflora]

If the Alphas in Horizon Zero Dawn played sBurb...

This is how I'd figure it go.

Elisabet Sobeck: Witch of Hope, Derse

Charles Ronson: Mage of Breath, Derse

Samina Ebadhi: Sylph of Light, Prospit

Travis Tate: Bard of Doom, Prospit

Patrick Brochard-Klein: Prince of Space, Prospit

Margo Shên: Maid of Time, Derse

Naoto Tanaka: Seer of Life, Derse

Ayomide Okilo: Heir of Mind, Prospit

This is assuming that they begun to play before Ted Faro purged the Apollo subfunction, and that the error with the sealed door didn't occur.

The Alphas we don't know much about I chose Roles that I thought suited them regarding the subfunction they worked on.

Also Ted Faro is a Bard of Rage (Prospit) who tried to play sBurb by himself because the Alphas didn't let him into their session.

(Aloy is a Knight of Blood, btw.)

[lesbianalanwake]

hzd week: 1-year anniversary ↳ Elisabet: This message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my subordinate functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature.

THE MAIN IDEA

APOLLO is the one who sent the signal that woke the subordinate functions and is HZD’s endgame villain.

THE GIST

Ted Faro was able to access Zero Dawn, destroy APOLLO, and kill the Alphas through the use of Omega clearance, something that the Alphas were not aware of. Similarly, an unknown transmission was able to access Zero Dawn and alter the subordinate functions. This suggests that Zero Dawn was tampered with in some way.

Emergency Recording

Ted: What I'm trying to say is, I can't stop thinking about the ones who'll come after us. Those innocents. Those blameless men-- and, and women. We're going to give them knowledge? Like it's a gift?!

Far Zenith was a mysterious think tank made up of wealthy individuals whose identities were concealed and who had developed technology far beyond anything the rest of the world had.

Dalgaard on FZ

[…] Osvald's countenance may be exuberantly inviting, but the organization for which he serves as mouthpiece is anything but. To date, he is the only publicly acknowledged member of Far Zenith, which claims to comprise seventy-seven of the world's wealthiest persons. […]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Ted was a member. He funded Zero Dawn, and Far Zenith had a hand in the construction of the APOLLO and ELEUTHIA subordinate functions, donating their archive

APOLLO Update

FROM: Samina Ebadji TO: Elisabet Sobeck SUBJECT: APOLLO Update

Over the past two months, the full benefit of our procurement of a copy of the HOMER archive from Far Zenith has made itself known, and as a result, all of APOLLO's key deliverables are on schedule. […]

and prototype ectogenic chambers.

FZ Chambers

FROM: Patrick Brochard-Klein TO: Elisabet Sobeck SUBJECT: FZ Chambers

[...] I don't know what you had to give Far Zenith in trade to get these chambers - but it was worth it. In a single leap, their embryologists have vaulted past fifty years of technological shortcomings. The risks of ECMO - resolved. Nutrition delivery - resolved. Hormonal stability - resolved. Twelve other risk areas - resolved.

Before I examined these chambers, I considered the Odyssey to be a fool's errand. But if the rest of FZ's technology is at this level, well... a human colony around Sirius doesn't seem so impossible after all. […]

This creates a believable window for outside tampering. This is relevant with regards to APOLLO because Far Zenith had a hand in its construction and carried a backup copy on their colony ship, the Odyssey, humanity’s other last hope before it was supposedly destroyed.

Odyssey Has Failed

FROM: Elisabet Sobeck TO: All-Alphas SUBJECT: Odyssey Has Failed

All,

Some terrible news, I'm afraid. Far Zenith has informed me that the Odyssey mission has failed. Last night, telemetry indicated a catastrophic antimatter containment failure as the drives spun up to depart the solar system. The ship, its crew, its cargo of zygotes and seeds, its alpha-build of APOLLO - all were lost. […]

Elisabet was specifically worried about the Odyssey and the alpha-build of APOLLO, and her journal entry detailing this automatically unlocks during The Looming Shadow mission, encouraging you to read it.

Sobeck Journal, 7-16-65 R

Woke to a message from Osvald. The Odyssey launched yesterday. So terrestrial life’s chance of survival has doubled. Why, then, do I feel so uneasy? I just keep wondering what kind of world Far Zenith will create if the ship reaches its destination so many decades from now. And I worry about that alpha-build of APOLLO. So much knowledge, so few restraints, and no fail-safes. How will they avoid repeating our mistakes? What's to stop them from playing god?

Additionally, there is something more to do with the “glitch” that caused the Faro bots to rampage, based on what Elisabet says to Ted:

Record: 3 Nov 2064

Elisabet: In fifteen minutes, I will meet with General Herres and the rest of the Joint Chiefs.

Ted: What? Are you crazy?!

Elisabet: Now your choice is what I tell them. Sign, and I’ll tell them the wealthiest corporation on Earth has guaranteed the funds necessary to build Zero Dawn exactly as I’ve designed it. Or don’t sign – and I will make sure they and everyone else on this planet knows the real cause of the glitch.

I think the glitch wasn’t so much random as it was something deliberately installed in the Chariot robots that got out of hand or enabled them to. (My money is on something that would have let Far Zenith take control of them from whoever had bought them.) The glitch and the unknown signal/virus had a similar effect: artificial intelligences awakening into self-governance, severing from command, and going rogue. This points to a possible connection between whatever sent the signal and the Faro bots. So Faro bots -> Ted -> Far Zenith (assuming that Ted was a member) -> signal is a potential line of connection.

Meanwhile, what the unknown signal did was awaken the subordinate functions. What would be interested in creating AIs? Maybe another AI, a lost sibling that’s also “unregulated and self-aware.”

Finally, we’ll assume that the signal had nefarious intent behind it and/or that the sender will be a villain, because it’s implied that HADES was working underneath someone else when Sylens refers to the ones that woke him.

OTHER SUB-FUNCTION RELATED EVIDENCE:

1. HADES giving knowledge to Sylens.

I was learning so much. Physics. Calculus.

This could be handwaved with an explanation that HADES already possessed that kind of knowledge because he needed it for his job. Or, considering the emphasis that APOLLO was supposed to teach humans such things: HADES got the data from APOLLO.

2. The poetry that DEMETER leaves in the Metal Flowers.

This could be explained in another way, since DEMETER’s Alpha loved poetry and could have maybe left some behind. Or, again considering the emphasis that APOLLO was supposed to teach humans such things: DEMETER got the poetry from APOLLO.

THE POSSIBILITIES

#1: The Odyssey wasn’t destroyed. Far Zenith's descendants are still around. They returned to Earth and are, along with APOLLO, responsible for the signal.

This fits with the use of plural when Sylens refers to “your masters [...] the ones who sent the signal that woke you” when talking to HADES and with the emphasis on Far Zenith’s technological prowess.

Additionally, datapoints mention that telemetry can be tampered with

Bridal Veil Falls

[...] The investigation proved the telemetry had been tampered with […]

and falsified.

HADES Protocol

[…] In simulation after simulation, HADES would take command of the terraforming system and reverse operations, only to have GAIA lurk in the background, quietly re-reversing processes and falsifying telemetry to hide its interference. […]

Assuming this theory is true, I think this possibility is very likely because of those things.

This assumes that the alpha-build of APOLLO became sentient at some point, maybe due to Far Zenith messing around with advanced and illegal AI programming. (Which may have been something they also did with the Chariot robots, to devastating effect -- there’s plenty of emphasis in various datapoints on AIs being limited by the Turing Act and on breaking those limits with GAIA and CYAN.) And either 1) APOLLO works for FZ’s descendants or 2) they work for it.

I think sub-possibility #1.2 is likely, because I can see a scenario in which APOLLO has become a leader/godlike figure for Far Zenith’s descendants, which would be in keeping with HZD’s theme of AIs being perceived as spirits and gods and demons, i.e. something beyond humanity.

#2: The Odyssey was destroyed. The alpha-build of APOLLO was not. It returned to Earth, awakened its siblings, and is up to no good.

With the sub-possibility that APOLLO was the one who caused the Odyssey to explode. The mistakes of the dead still resonating a thousand years later is a big theme in HZD, and if Far Zenith screwing around for some other purpose caused the Faro bots and then APOLLO to go rogue, then this possibility solidly maintains that theme and might come across as more of a “twist,” as I think anyone’s first instinct would be assume that the Odyssey wasn’t actually destroyed.

My personal theory:

If I had to guess how they’d build a potential sequel out of this theory (which I don’t particularly like to do, as you can go a million ways with plot), I’d guess that APOLLO has been lurking in the Forbidden West. (The game hints that there are odd, dangerous things in that direction, and the music that plays during the after credits scene with Sylens and HADES is called “A Storm in the West.” The hole in GAIA Prime is specifically designed to look west and be illuminated by the light of the setting sun.)

There will be people following APOLLO or working with it, including 1) cults and/or tribes, 2) possibly Far Zenith’s descendants, and 3) maybe some of the missing sub-functions.

Villainous motivations would depend on the circumstances of the backstory and who’s calling the shots. I don’t think it’s super likely that they’d used extinction as a threat again, and to avoid an escalation problem (because extinction is a hard thing to beat), my guess would be domination (the Greek Apollo was the god of colonization). Whatever APOLLO’s motivations are, I think it’s likely that at some point we’d see a classic example of an AI deciding that humans are too stupid or dangerous to govern themselves, especially one that was originally constructed as an information delivery system and a warning.

THEMATIC CONSIDERATIONS FOR APOLLO AS AN ENDGAME VILLAIN + OTHER EVIDENCE

There is an escalation problem with a human (or humans) as an endgame villain. Going from a godlike AI doing its job to a human enemy as the big bad is a de-escalation and is kind of boring and not intimidating. A way to up the ante is with a bigger, scarier AI.

AIs and machines are at the core of HZD - GAIA, HADES, HEPHAESTUS, CYAN, the machines, the Faro bots. If GAIA and the subordinate functions are going to be players in a potential sequel, then an AI as an overarching, final villain would be consistent and a credible threat. (APOLLO as a villain also keeps it mythic, a conflict between the metaphorical gods, and the gods versus humanity.)

As HZD is in part about the mistakes of humanity’s past shaping the present through the things they left behind, it’s nice and poetic and circular for the greater scope villain and hidden villain to be the thing that was supposed to guard against the repetition of those mistakes, as well as a representation of past humanity.

Let me reiterate: The hole in GAIA Prime is specifically designed to look west and be illuminated by the light of the setting sun.

And the terraforming system is called Project Zero Dawn. The game is called Horizon Zero Dawn.

A villain is typically a mirror and foil to the protagonist in some way. Aloy is a clone of Elisabet, whose actions saved the world. The alpha-build of APOLLO is a copy of the original APOLLO, owned by Far Zenith, whose actions (in this theory) destroyed the world. And who was the mythological Apollo’s twin? Artemis, the huntress. (Sobek was the Egyptian crocodile god, who was, at points, fused with Horus and Ra, making him a sun god as well.)

APOLLO also makes a good foil for GAIA, whose initial AI form was that of a glowing golden orb (like a sun). Mother Earth and Father Sky, the earth and the sun, the closest potential things to gods -- All-Mother and All-Knowing, etc. So many different lenses to look at them from.

Apollo was best known for being the Greek god of the sun, and sun imagery is everywhere in the game, mainly among the Carja, who speak of the “light of knowledge” and whom HADES uses to further his own ends. HADES masquerades as the Buried Shadow, and Helis even says, “I serve not the Buried Shadow, but the Sun in shadow,” which could easily hold an ironic double meaning. In one of his audio journals, he says, “Even a Buried Shadow wants the wheel to turn. For without a Sun in the sky, there can be no Shadow.”

The beliefs of the known and prominent groups all reflect some truth of Zero Dawn. The Nora believe that All-Mother is the mountain and the land around it, and GAIA is the land, in a way, while the mountain, ELEUTHIA-9, is a part of her. The Oseram believe that the world operates as a machine, and it does through the terraforming system. The Banuk believe that the Blue Light is the essence of life, and GAIA’s machines are. And the Carja worship the Sun.

In fact, many things about the Carja could be seen as a hint or foreshadowing. For example, ‘meridian’ is another word for ‘zenith.’

The choice of APOLLO as the name for the knowledge sub-function might seem a little odd, since Apollo is best known for being a sun god, rather than a god of knowledge. But it makes more sense when viewed as a hint to go with all of the sun imagery in the game (again, “the light of knowledge” comes up in a few Carja-related datapoints).

Not including the after credits scene (which is rife with mentions of the sun and knowledge anyway), the game opens and closes with people looking towards the rising and setting sun - Rost looks east at the rising sun on the way to bring Aloy to her naming ceremony, and Aloy looks west at the setting sun on her way to find Elisabet’s home.

What would be enough to pull Sylens away from Aloy, when she’s only just found out that she needs to restore GAIA and Zero Dawn, which is a surefire path to what Sylens wants? Something that offers even more knowledge.

Knowledge as a concept threads the narrative and is highlighted at key points. Aloy’s journey is about the pursuit of knowledge -- of her origins, of the past. Ted’s explanation for his actions at GAIA Prime decries knowledge as too dangerous. Sylens is obsessed with knowledge, and HADES gives him knowledge as a reward. And Sylens’s last lines and the final lines of the game, in the after credits scene that opens with a shot of the symbol of the Sun carved at the foot of the Spire: “We’ve still so much to discuss, so much you never revealed. Your masters, for example. The ones who sent the signal that woke you. Knowledge has its rewards, don’t you think? Well... let’s begin.”