Horizon 0 Dawn's Nora Tribe's Legends

You know what’s kinda neat?  The fact that the simplistic perspective of the Nora tribe’s legends actually makes sense for once.

See, there’s this thing that kind of annoys me in RPGs.  And a lot of other media, really, but RPGs are definitely 1 of the more frequent offenders in this regard.  There’s a common storytelling trope in which some legend, or fairy tale, or foundational religious text, or whatever, will describe the events of long ago in a way that is essentially accurate, but dumbed-down, non-specific, needlessly mystical, and/or filled with unnecessary metaphors.  Like, say you’re playing an RPG that takes place on the planet Gaia,* a world which had some thriving, technologically advanced civilization in the distant past which, 1000 years ago, was mostly wiped out by some kind of alien invaders, who in turn were only stopped by some surviving communications technician having figured out how to, I dunno, simulate a “Get the fuck back here and take out the garbage before you start going around conquering worlds; you have responsibilities dammit” signal from the invaders’ home planet, causing the invaders to go back home so their mom will get off their case.

Almost invariably, the story of these events of 1000 years ago will, in present times, be relayed something like this: the Ancient Ones (the advanced human civilization) were been great and powerful wizards, and yet were helpless when some terrible demon (the aliens) descended from the skies to smite them, until 1 hero (the comm tech) stood atop a holy ziggurat (the radio tower, which he never actually stood on) to banish the demon with some great holy light (that little red light at the top of the radio tower blinked a couple times during the broadcast), after which the hero mysteriously vanished, never to be seen by those he had saved again (decided rebuilding civilization would be a pain in the ass and opted to just hang out in his little communications bunker with his porn collection instead).  It’s always some grand, overblown affair that’s metaphorically correct enough, but simplistic and vague and mystical.

And 4 times out of 5, it doesn’t make goddamn sense.  Why are these misleading, simplistic religious analogies always the only historical perspectives to be found in RPG cultures?  Were the only living observers of past cataclysms all 5 years old?  The RPG civilizations themselves might have been knocked back technologically, but why would their survivors also be knocked back mentally, to some previous cultural standard of cave paintings and fireside stories?  What, no one who survived the cataclysm in the past was capable of leaving any kind of more extensive, thorough record than some misleading analogies printed in runes along a simplistic wall-scroll?  Not a single individual involved with the rekindling of civilization knew how to write a full 3 pages of basic records in a book?  There wasn’t a soul alive who could artistically depict the great calamity with greater accuracy than some blurry, mean-looking eye up in the air with dark scribbles coming out of it?

And hell, even when the civilizations of the past weren’t especially advanced, they also were pretty much never, like, at a tribal stage of development, either.**  At most, they were at a quasi-medieval fantasy world development stage comparable to the world’s current state.  They still had enough advancements in communication and the arts, not to mention presumably basic historical record-keeping, that they should’ve been able to do better than a kindergartner’s 3-minute summary.

Yeah, okay, you can explain SOME of this away to a degree as a process of facts becoming myths over time, stories being tweaked by the tellers to be more interesting, less advanced cultures not having enough understanding of the specifics to really get it, and, of course, good old-fashioned falsifying records for the benefit of those in power, but come ON  The degree and the frequency to which these history-to-magical-myth scenarios occur in RPGs is way, way too great to be reasonable.

Horizon 0 Dawn, however, actually does this in a way that makes sense!  At least, in the case of the Nora tribe.  The Nora’s legends of the All-Mother, the Metal Devil, and the Old Ones are your standard RPG fare in that they’re more or less accurate to the actual history of the world, but in a very symbolic and simplified way.  Here’s the thing, though: the originators of these stories were people whose mental advancement, in terms of culture, was held back at a preschool level.

The people creating the Nora tribe’s legends were the new generation of humans that GAIA had created, according to the plan of Zero Dawn to return humanity to the world after the Faro Plague.  Originally planned to be raised by a couple of simple, nurturing robots/holograms until of an age to be educated by the APOLLO program on their heritage of culture and history, this new generation of human beings were denied the legacy of their species thanks to that mewling fucktard Ted Faro, and so the new generation of humanity just lived its whole childhood being raised by caretakers who were only designed to engage with charges at the mental level of 4 - 6 years old or so.  The parental programs clearly did tell the children they raised some simple version of the fall of humanity, as evidenced by the wall-paintings found in the Cradle facility within which they were raised--but of course, the version of this history that was told to the new human race was simplified, and incomplete.  After all, that’s what you do when you explain a very complicated and difficult concept to a child: you simplify it, keep the essence of the matter but leave the harder stuff for a later time when the kid’s developed to a point of being able to understand it, or just use easier analogies for certain details.  It’s a process that results in an essentially identical type of narrative editing that you encounter with all these dumbed-down, mystified RPG legends and histories.

So no wonder that’s how the Nora’s legends came to exist in the form they do--because they originated as stories intended for small children.  Not only that, but the people hearing these stories did so first at an appropriately young age, so their take-aways of this already simplified history would also be that much more limited.  Granted, these people were kept in their virtual playpen well into young adulthood, but they’d still be approaching this story with minds stunted by a lack of any more mature or critical an approach to culture than what they themselves could invent, and no second perspective.  So yeah, it’s completely reasonable that the religious beliefs of the Nora tribe which intersect with the truth of the world’s history would take on this classic RPG legend form; you can actually see the bedrock of these legends, and the reason for a lack of anything more accurate and straightforward.

Even the parts that deviate from or add to what we can reasonably assume the caretaker programs’ story to have been are sensible!  Raised as they were by a perpetually nurturing female program and a forever disciplinary male program, it’s clear which parent-figure the humans of the Cradle would better love, and fixate upon after being exiled out into the world on their own.  That solitary figure of nurturing guidance and the loss of her, when combined with any simplified story of the fall and rebirth of humanity (which would have to include either GAIA or Elizabet Sobeck, both females, as its central figure), would quite naturally lead to the Nora tribe’s concept of the All-Mother goddess.

The creators of Horizon 0 Dawn actually designed a way for this whole simplistic, mystical legend-as-history situation to make sense, and I really think that’s a neat bit of effort worth recognition.  This trope is such a knee-jerk plot tool that no one, author or audience, seems to even question whether it seems realistic that practically every damn RPG’s got some fundamentally accurate but vague and metaphorical legend describing the world’s actual history.  But H0D’s creators didn’t just employ the cliche and call it a day, they actually carefully crafted a scenario in which the elementary nature of the Nora tribe’s legends was a reasonable result.  It’s a small piece of the great narrative craftsmanship of Horizon 0 Dawn, but the many major ways in which the game is excellent are well-observed and appropriately lauded, so I thought it would be nice to point out a detail that I haven’t seen appreciated previously.  Kudos to Guerrilla Games for their care and dedication to even small details like this one!












* Hey, if RPG writers don’t feel the need to take the 0.75 seconds necessary to think of an original name for their fantasy planets, why the hell should I?  Gaia and Terra are like the RPG planetary name equivalents to Aiden and -aiden variants in the last decade.


** Which still wouldn’t be much of an excuse, really.  Even our real-world examples of very early records/stories often have pretty specific information to share.  The Old Testament, for example, is so enthusiastic about constantly and meticulously mapping out the genealogies of its characters that one could be forgiven for wondering whether the whole thing was just an elaborate advertisement for 23andMe.  If the Bible can fixate on who begat who like it was some fanboy explaining the lore of his Fire Emblem/Game of Thrones crossover headcanon, then surely a little more basic, informative content is not so unreasonable an expectation to have of these countless RPG actually-historical legends.

Horizon 0 Dawn's Expansion

Well, I finally got around to, and finished, playing Horizon 0 Dawn, and while the setting didn’t initially wow me, which made its first third seem kinda slow, it turned out to be a really great RPG once the story really started to unfold itself and its themes started to line up.  I can definitely see why it was successful and lauded.  But of course, with even the slightest whiff of monetary reward comes the inevitable extra cash-ins, and so, H0D has a downloadable expansion.  The quality of the original game makes me hopeful that its add-on would be good, too, but of course, past experience has proven conclusively that that doesn’t mean much.  Let’s see how H0D’s shakes out.



The Frozen Wilds: This expansion sees Aloy traveling into Banuk territory, and exploring Yellowstone National Park as she sorts out a matter of aggressive, “possessed” machines separate from the main game’s events.  There’s a main quest, and several sidequests, errands, and exploration...basically, The Frozen Wilds is like a smaller iteration of the game as a whole.

The main story is...well...it’s alright, I guess.  I mean...a lot of it is sort of a retread of Horizon 0 Dawn’s main narrative, with the whole malevolent-outside-entity-taking-control-of-and-creating-an-aggressive-army-of-machines thing.  And honestly, it does have a bit of a weakness in that the 2 major entities who drive the plot of The Frozen Wilds forward, Aratak and Ourea, aren’t all that interesting.  They’re not boring, mind you, but the best personalities of this adventure are all relegated to sidequests.  Likewise, of the stories of the Old Ones’ you find in the vocal and log entries, the ones connected to the main quest left the least impact on me.  Again, none of it’s bad (and that’s an accomplishment for an add-on right there, sadly), but only the very ending of The Frozen Wilds’s main story (being able to speak to CYAN) really held my attention.

With that said, the surrounding elements of The Frozen Wilds are really good!  The sidequests have a lot of compelling characters who are fun to interact with--the hunting trio’s name gimmick was quite amusing, the conversations with the painter and the pipe-player were cool, the stories of Ikrie and Inatut are interesting glimpses into the Banuk culture, the payoff for finding the animal figurines is fun, the story of Concrete Beach Party was really touching and easily the equal of even some of Fallout’s best examples of posthumous log-entry storytelling, and I just absolutely loved Gildun.  Getting to hang out with Gildun probably makes The Forbidden Wilds worth it all by itself.  If there is any justice and joy in this world, we’ll see more of Gildun in Horizon Forbidden West, because he is honestly just great, a laugh-a-minute character who’s thoroughly, gently endearing.

I also like the fact that you can talk to CYAN at the end not only about the events of The Frozen Wilds’s main story, but also about the content of its sidequests, and even about major elements of the main game’s plot.  CYAN’s conversations are a great little way to acknowledge the side content of the expansion as relevant and important to its whole, and I really appreciate that they deepen the lore of the game, and tie The Frozen Wilds more significantly to it.  It reminds me of some other really great add-ons, like Fallout: New Vegas’s Lonesome Road, in that way.  Likewise, the fact that once you’ve completed the main quest of The Frozen Wilds, Aratak will show up as an ally during the finale of the main game, is a good way of making TFW seem like more than just a disconnected side story to the game--while still maintaining enough distance that H0D doesn’t feel incomplete without it, which is important (screw you and your Dragon Age 2 Exiled Prince, Bioware).

Finally, there’s an element to The Frozen Wilds that I appreciate, which wasn’t really present so much in the main game: the Fallout Americana approach.  1 of my favorite parts of the Fallout series is that 1 of its core focuses is an examination, analysis, critique, and celebration of the culture, history, and soul of The United States.  Each major Fallout title (besides that worthless festering colostomy bag 76) shows off the region in which it takes place, doing its best to capture the physical and emotional essence of that part of the USA, and I really love that.  This isn’t something that Horizon 0 Dawn does to any great degree, past portrayal of basic ecosystems and certain similarities of its tribes to indigenous North American tribes of the past.  And don’t get me wrong, that’s not to the game’s discredit; H0D isn’t Fallout, and it isn’t intended to be.  It’s its own thing.

Still, it’s kind of neat that The Frozen Wilds represents a Fallout-esque treatment of Yellowstone National Park!  While not nearly as in-depth as a Fallout title would get, TFW seems to be taking a similar approach in its portrayal of and appreciation for Yellowstone--the posthumous logs are specifically related to the setting, the area is clearly designed with an intent to show some appreciation for North America’s wilderness, the main quest and some of the sidequests are founded on the signature geology, fauna, and physical ecosystem of the area, the most notable new machines of the expansion are based on arguably the most iconic animal of the North American wilderness, the bear...

Hell, even the choice to use the Banuk as the focal tribe of this expansion is thematically tied to the heart of Yellowstone National Park.  The Banuk, after all, are largely defined by their spiritual respect for the machine creatures of their world, and the machines in H0D are sort of the stand-ins for natural animal life.  As the predators, primary vehicles of ecosystem recovery, and prey to be hunted in Horizon 0 Dawn, the machines are thematically far more the animals of the world than the actual flesh-and-blood critters you encounter.  So the fact that the Banuk are the stars of The Frozen Wilds is, I would say, a neat thematic tie to the setting, because the Banuk’s philosophies and beliefs of reverence for the machines are, ultimately, similar to the very foundational idea of Yellowstone National Park--conservation of and appreciation for the natural wildlife of North America.

So, The Frozen Wilds feels like a light, but very artful and elegant, tribute to and celebration of Yellowstone National Park and the spirit behind its existence, and I really like that.  If Fallout: New Vegas's Honest Hearts DLC (which featured the Grand Canyon) had been much better, I think it would've looked quite a bit like this.  Really, this expansion is like I got a tiny nugget of some of Fallout’s best qualities, and it’s a precious gift in these times of Bethesda bungling.  I kind of hope we’ll see more of this approach in the upcoming sequel.

Oh, yeah, 1 other thing that I applaud this expansion for?  It’s more of a personal thing, but I’m really happy to finally see some major piece of media actually paying some attention to the Yellowstone Caldera.  Because, like, it is just me, or should we really be more concerned with the fact that there is a supervolcano hanging out a few feet under the middle of the USA, just waiting to blow, that could goddamn END OUR CIVILIZATION?  How the hell doesn’t this come up more frequently in pop culture?  All we have to do to avoid like 60% of apocalypse scenarios is just make the choice NOT to be giant dicks to each other, but by all means, writers of various mediums, keep focusing on nuclear wars and genetically engineered virus outbreaks and so on, and ignore the seething ash-and-arson armageddon currently bubbling beneath our toes that we’re doing basically goddamn nothing about!

Anyway.  The Frozen Wilds is a solid, high-quality expansion, and even if its main event isn’t especially anything to write home about, the sum of its total parts is a respectable piece of work.  Now, originally it was, to my understanding, sold for $20, and I do take a bit of issue with that, because I’m pretty sure you’re only gonna get about half of that many hours out of it, maybe 15.  You should never be expected to spend more dollars than you’ll get hours out of an add-on, in my opinion...but The Frozen Wilds is good enough that one could reasonably argue that it’d still be worth that much.  And it’s an irrelevant concern nowadays anyway, because as of this moment, it is, to my understanding, sold for $10 if you buy it through the Playstation store (and it’s automatically included with H0D if you buy the game for the PC, or buy the game new altogether through Playstation).  $10 is definitely a fair price, so The Frozen Wilds gets an enthusiastic thumbs-up from me.



Well, that was nice!  It’s an all-too-uncommon treat to find a high caliber add-on, and one that’s actually priced appropriately.  This was just the sort of pleasant change of pace I needed after the crap of the last couple games with Downloadable Content (Deus Ex 4 and Fire Emblem 16) I played.  I’ll be sure to savor this experience for as long as I can...

...because my next add-on rant will be about the DLCs for Pokemon Generation 8.

Fuck.