On April 4th, 3021, 996 years from now, in post-apocalyptic Colorado, a woman who would come to be known by many names, such as the Savior of Meridian, Champion of the Tenakth, and the Living Ancestor was born. For most Horizon fans, this woman is known as Aloy. The main protagonist of the landmark PlayStation franchise Horizon, Aloy has quickly become one of the most popular female video game leads since debuting in 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn. While Aloy has only appeared in five Horizon games so far, Aloy has proven herself to be a strong, intelligent, and intriguing video game lead among a swath of AAA RPGs. With an announcement of a new Horizon game expected to appear later in 2025, here’s an in-depth look at Aloy’s life, impact, and potential future.
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The Mysterious Origins and Early Life of the Nora Aloy
The Horizon games take place in the early 31st century in the post-apocalyptic western United States, filled with gigantic, animalistic machines and various human tribes who struggle to survive and form civilizations in a reborn world. While most humans are simply born into the society of their home tribe, Aloy’s life began like no other with near instantaneous disdain from the local populace. Aloy wasn’t naturally born but rather was cloned from the DNA of Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, the leader of the global terraforming initiative Project Zero Dawn. This project was designed to reseed all life on Earth after the robotic apocalypse known as the Faro Plague nearly exterminated all life on the planet in the late 21st century.
Sobeck designed an artificial intelligence named GAIA to oversee the Project’s millennia-long implementation and, in 3021, GAIA detected a signal that unleashed one of its subordinate A.I.’s HADES to begin destroying life once more. Powerless to stop HADES on her own, GAIA created an infant clone of Sobeck in the hope that she might one day stop HADES and reestablish Project Zero Dawn’s systems. Aloy was “born” at the cradle facility ELEUTHIA-9, otherwise known as All-Mother Mountain to the nearby isolationist Nora tribe. Believed to be a curse of the Metal Devil in the eyes of Nora Matriarchs, Aloy was sent to be raised by the outcast Rost and live in exile on the outskirts of Nora territory.
Aloy’s Explorative Drive and Training for the Nora Proving Explained
By the age of six, Rost taught Aloy how to live off the land and avoid being seen by dangerous machines and discriminatory Nora tribesmen. One day, however, Aloy fell into the ruins of a 21st facility where she discovered a small augmented reality device known as a Focus. This device allowed Aloy to scan new and ancient technology, playback audio logs, and display holographic text and videos. Motivated by the desire to learn about the world, her “birth”, and become inducted into the tribe, Aloy eventually participates in the coming-of-age ritual known as the Proving at the age of 18. While Aloy won the Proving and became an official Nora, the ritual was cut short by an attack from Eclipse cultists who subsequently killed Rost defending Aloy.
Aloy’s name is suspected to be based on the word alloy, which suggests how metal-centric the post-apocalyptic world of Horizon is, as well as her blend of past and present role models.
Aloy’s Heroic Journey to Save the World From Destructive Machines and Tribes
From this difficult childhood, Aloy would be sent off into the world as a Nora Seeker to discover a way to enter ELEUTHIA-9, stop the Eclipse, and prevent the machines’ further derangement. On this journey, Aloy would encounter numerous types of machines and tribes, with some being enemies and others proving to be resourceful allies and friends. These tribes include the monarchal Carja, forging Oseram, and shamanistic Banuk. One particular ally who helped Aloy defeat both the Eclipse and HADES was the tech-savvy archaeologist Sylens, who taught Aloy more about the Old World and gave her technology to override the rogue A.I. While Aloy was successful in uniting the four tribes to thwart the Eclipse and their revived 21st century war machines, HADES’s defeat was only the beginning of Aloy’s story.
During her journey to stop HADES, Aloy learned the nature of her origins and how Project Zero Dawn shaped the world as she knows it. Here, she learned that HADES was only one of nine other GAIA subordinate functions to become self-aware and go rogue, save for APOLLO, which had been destroyed by Ted Faro in the early stages of Zero Dawn’s implementation. These other A.I.s include:
- AETHER
- ARTEMIS
- DEMETER
- ELEUTHIA
- HEPHAESTUS
- MINERVA
- POSEIDON
With Zero Dawn still in limbo in GAIA’s absence, Aloy immediately set off on a journey into the Forbidden West to recover a copy of GAIA and reunite her with the rogue subordinate functions to reactivate Zero Dawn, heal the planet’s rapidly deteriorating environment, and placate the animalistic machines.
Aloy’s Defeat of Regalla’s Rebels and the Alien Far Zenith
In Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy and her close friends Erend and Varl made allies with several new tribes, including the battle-hardened Tenakth, choral Utaru, and seafaring Quen. Together, Aloy and her companions were able to recover a copy of GAIA and all remaining subroutines save for HEPHAESTUS and defeat the warmongering Tenakth rebel Regalla. However, they additionally encountered the millenia-old Far Zenith aliens who sought to use another clone of Sobeck called Beta to acquire GAIA and terraform another world. While the Far Zenith were defeated, Varl was slain and Aloy discovered that the Far Zenith were actually fleeing from a planet-destroying A.I. known as Nemesis, who initially caused the subroutines to go rogue.
Aloy’s Potential Future and Impact on the Horizon Franchise
Since the release of Horizon Forbidden West’s 2023 DLC Buring Shores, the story of Aloy has remained relatively stagnant with no games or expanded medium moving the story forward beyond the discovery of Nemesis. 2023’s virtual reality game Horizon Call of the Mountain takes place during the events of Zero Dawn and only features Aloy in a brief cameo. Meanwhile, 2024’s LEGO Horizon Adventures is only a retelling of Zero Dawn’s narrative. While all of these games showcase the versatility of Aloy and Horizon’s world, the Nora Seeker is expected to have her story continued soon in upcoming spinoff games. It’s rumored that a narrative-driven Horizon multiplayer game may release within a year or two alongside a Horizon MMO with Horizon 3 still years away.
Given that some future Horizon games will be multiplayer-focused, Aloy may not be the center of these games’ plots, but she could stillmake a cameo or aid players in these games as an NPC similar to her role in Call of the Mountain. These games could showcase Aloy as an emerging leader among the seven tribes in their inevitable conflict against Nemesis and the still at large HEPHAESTUS as well as potential new human threats. This could bring Aloy’s character arc full circle by having her go from being a downtrodden outcast to a revered savior and leader of the known world. Aloy will likely have her mainline narrative concluded in Horizon 3, but she could still appear in future spinoffs set before her story’s end.
The Impact of Aloy on the Horizon Franchise and Beyond
Robotic dinosaurs and other large animals assuredly grabbed many players’ attention when Horizon was first revealed in 2015, but it was Aloy’s character and story that truly made Zero Dawn and its successors a monumental triumph. In just eight years, Aloy has quickly made Horizon one of PlayStation’s most successful and critically acclaimed franchises, showcasing that single-player, narrative-driven games can still be profitable and well-received in the modern gaming world. She further exemplified how female game protagonists can be just as successful and enthusiastically embraced just as well, if not more so than many modern male game protagonists. While Aloy’s journey may soon come to an end in the inevitable Horizon 3, her story will forever remain one of the best and most intriguing of the early 21st century gaming landscape.
- Released
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October 31, 2024
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment