The first time I played through HZD, I almost missed Brin entirely.
As a minor npc in the middle of nowhere, his quests are surprisingly out of character for a game that prided itself on sticking to hard sci-fi instead of blurring the lines with fantasy.
A Banuk shaman who was cast out for his strange (and dangerous) predilections, Brin can be found in a self-made graveyard of machines that we learn he has been drinking from.
Literally drinking from.
As in, the oil or whatever futuristic compound the machines have running through them, he’s ingesting it. On purpose.
When Aloy meets him in his little machine-strewn shack for the first time, he explains what he does and why.
Brin receives “visions” of the machines when he drinks their “blood.”
He asks Aloy to procure him special varieties he hasn’t been able to get on his own, promising to share his visions with her if she does.
The things he relates were confusing to me, so I decided to break them down and see what I could make sense of.
These are his visions by the machine he drank from, in the order they are given during the quest “Acquired Taste,” with my thoughts.
Sawtooth Vision
“Before the time of the Sawtooth, the machines ran as one pack.”
Obviously referencing the machines, pre-derangement, before Hephaestus broke away from Gaia at the onset of the “extinction signal” and began acting without her oversight. Sawtooths and other combat-class machines were only manufactured after the subordinate functions were released.
The “one pack” that’s referenced here is likely the cohesion Gaia supplied amongst and between the other functions under her guidance, but also how all machines prior to her death were acting under the same set of orders to avoid human casualties at any cost and make the planet hospitable to them.
“Metal drumming on metal, keeping pace out to the lightning’s edge.“
This continues the theme of cohesion, but I’m not sure what’s meant by the “lightning’s edge.” “Light,” though not necessarily “lightning,” is sort of synonymous with the “animus” of the machines, as is referenced by the Banuk in Frozen Wilds, so that might be what Brin means here; the collective soul of the machines.
But what does he mean by its “edge”? As in, the end of Gaia and the machines’ reach? By the inclusion of atmospheric regulators like Stormbirds, that would mean space.
Or, considering the extrasolar antagonists in Forbidden West, is this edge less a literal boundary, and more of an ideological one? The difference between the Zeniths and the Zero Dawn initiative? Gaia’s machines for the good of the planet vs the Specters built for the convenience of the Zeniths.
“The rumble of low storms, that’s them in motion.”
This isn’t so much a deeper look as it is an appreciation on my part, but the machines, even the smallest of them, have this wonderful weight and heft to their movements. I tend to forget about that as the game goes on and I’m shooting off disc launchers from Thunderjaws.
“And then—a confusion. Something has changed.”
That something is what we now know to be the extinction signal and Gaia’s subsequent self-destruction from it.
“The great direction breaks, splits off like a dead branch! They’re tumbling now.”
The symbolism here makes the programming of the machines feel like a migration. Fitting, considering they all have to visit the cauldrons at times for maintenance, like animals returning to a breeding ground.
The “dead branch” simile feels different, like something pruned for the health of the whole, except that something is the entirety of the machines. Hephaestus and their programming is what has fallen away from Gaia (like the rest of the subfunctions), leaving only a dead trunk, devoid of use and function.
The “tumbling” feels like a reeling, a shock from the sudden freedom that’s left the machines (or Hephaestus) unsure of what to do about it.
“When they recover, violence is what they know.”
The Derangement, plain and simple.
“Now metal screeches on metal.”
As opposed to the drum beats. Where once there was a rhythm and cohesion, now there is disorder. This also implies that there is some kind of resistance within the machines or Hephaestus themselves, which as of yet we haven’t seen or heard of.
“A death dance, learned from wars before our eyes learned to see.”
I can’t imagine this referencing anything other than the Faro Swarm or possibly just the Old World remote warfare. This implies that Hephaestus both had access to Old World data and implemented it into the machines of Aloy’s time.
“The Sawtooth, the Ravager, they hunt in the long shadows of others. Jagged shapes, old shapes, with bloody eyes.”
The combat class machines were made with either the Old World machines in mind or inspired by the forms of the Faro Swarm. “Jagged” suggests the Swarm, to me at least.
“And the machines no longer rise and swell as one thing, an all-thing.”
This is confusing because as far as we know and have seen, the machines do still act as one. They move in herds, they defend each other, and they act as a hive mind.
So there are two options here; either there is some kind of resistance within the machines, within the Hephaestus subfunction, or that “all-thing” was Gaia while whole.
I lean toward the latter because of Gaia’s name by the Nora, All-Mother, but I think there’s a case for the former because the “metal screeching on metal” already implies it.
Sawtooth Vision Analysis
To me, the vision seems like an explanation of the Derangement, both its origin and how it functions.
There’s possibly an implication of a secondary programming within the machines that is fighting Hephaestus, but it’s not a cut-and-dry revelation.
Corruptor Vision
“These Corruptors never belonged to the herds.”
Obviously. They’re Faro machines that ended the world over a thousand years ago.
“They crawled. From beneath desert or rust, from the bones of old machines.”
How they are being excavated, particularly in the Shadow Carja desert, from beneath the Old World tanks and fighter jets that they fell beneath during the war.
“Sickness to spread. That’s how they came.”
This could either be describing the original “glitch” that caused the Swarm to rebel and eat up the world’s biomass (thereby causing sickness as well), or Hades’ corruption that is leashing them to their control.
“Cold metal runs hot, buckles with thorn-cuts and tail-stings. A fever of obedience.”
Both the Corruptors coming back online, and their tendency to overheat.
However, “buckles with thorn-cuts and tail-stings” is less clear. “Buckles” could either be bending under the influence of something or strapping down. “With thorn-cuts” I’m less sure of. “Tail-stings” are the Corruptor’s signature move, so that would imply the thorn-cuts are another.
The “fever of obedience,” like a fever from a sickness, and that sickness being Hades’ influence, spreads from the Corruptors to the machines they leash to their purpose.
“My ears are ringing. I grasp at my tongue—an ingot falls out, stamped with circles and lines!”
Binary code on a piece of metal, falling from the source of communication. When the Corruptors leash another machine, they are speaking with it to some degree.
“Directions. Instructions. To break a machine’s will—I heard the metal screaming, huntress!”
Same as the last, the Corrupters are “hacking” the machines to enslave them, essentially. The “metal screaming” implies that the machines are trying to fight back, though, or are at least opposed to the directions they receive.
“I leave the ingot where it falls. This isn’t for us to know.”
This feels like both a commentary on the destruction wrought by the Faro Plague through these means, but also how current humans aren’t even trying to learn the secrets of the world (at least not in the way Aloy and Sylens are).
“Corruptor after Corruptor tramples it in their greedy tread.”
Corruptors trampling code that leashes machines, or their metaphorical ability to do so. I’m reaching, but this feels like the Faro Plague’s “glitch” again, the way the programming overran the world.
Corruptor Vision Analysis
Really just a commentary on how the Faro Plague, specifically the Corruptors, works. No new insights as far as I can tell.
Stalker Vision
“A Stalker, watching us. Watched by us! In red eyes I thought to see ourselves reflected! No—they were dull, and set.”
A lack of humanity Brin doesn’t prescribe to other machines. Even the Corruptor feels more alive than this description.
“Set with a purpose precise from their machine-mother foundries.”
Does he mean the cauldrons instilled them with this purpose, or that their purpose is separate from the cauldrons? I lean toward the latter considering the inhumanity of the entire vision, but that begs the question: who is making them this way if not Hephaestus, the subfunction of the cauldrons?
“They prey. They will not flinch. They are indifferent to the wild, they are… final.”
I understand that the combat class machines were made (or retrofitted, in the case of machines like Stormbirds) to kill humans, but to be so wholly separate from the rest of the machines feels beyond the incremental evolution hinted at within the games.
This makes the Stalkers feel like a different kind of beast altogether. As if being born without Gaia’s influence has made them less . . . alive somehow.
Indifferent to the wild the machines were originally made to support feels . . . alien.
And to be called “final” is chilling. Is this being of death and death alone the final providence of all machines? The last function to which they will be programmed?
“They are weapons, that’s all. My heart drops. Why look for understanding in the ax the moment before it splits your skull?”
Same as above. Does this mean that even if Hephaustus is brought back into Gaia, the Stalkers can never serve a purpose other than what they were made for?
“No. No, there is more. The ax does not remember its smelting. These machines do, and pine for the Metal World.”
This is . . . the only personality Brin gives these machines and it’s to long for a world they and their creator never knew (considering the Metal World was at its end by the time Zero Dawn was even initiated), a world of death, destruction, and utter annihilation.
This would make them just as great a threat as the Faro Plague, if not more so.
Stalker Vision Analysis
This vision was honestly haunting. The implications here could mean that the threat of the Derangement could continue even if Hephaestus is brought back into the fold because the machines they created will pursue death beyond the limits of their programming.
And that, somehow, they yearn for it.
Thunderjaw Vision
“I followed red trails through a green world.”
Given the violence of the machine in question, those are definitely blood trails.
“Thunderjaw, striding, with the majesty of an old god.”
True, but also reminiscent of the Stalkers in that they have that touch or influence of the Old World on them.
“These wicked parts, fashioned to kill men—this great whole, made to haunt the sleep of children.”
Bred for death, mother of nightmares.
“And I realize: it is a young beast.”
Literally Aloy’s age as her gestation began at the same time of Hephaestus’ flight.
“It was not there to see the first strange birds roost upon a metal skull!”
Metal skull is likely a downed machine, and the strange birds “roosting” upon it could be the humans that took it down for parts or glory.
“It came because of us. Hunters. I saw many, of tribes gone and yet to come.”
We know Hephaestus made the combat class machines in response to human predation, but how has a relatively young machine seen extinct tribes, let alone future ones?
“I even saw you there, fiery-haired, fierce, bared—”
Aloy interjects here but doesn’t say anything interesting.
“Bared of metal, huntress! Bared of what we tore from their hides to be strong like them, savage like them.”
Bared as in uncovered, stripped of her metal armor, maybe? Debased into animalistic behavior, but why? What causes humans to fall this way? Is it the enhanced aggression implemented by Hephaestus?
“We built our world in the machines’ shadow. Called them out with every strike of rock and hammer.”
The human’s limited technological advancements are built upon the backs of hunted machines. Without them, most of their tech would be irreplicable.
And that predation is what led to Hephaestus turning the machines against humanity.
Thunderjaw Vision Analysis
To me, this vision feels like a warning or threat. If Hephaestus is not reclaimed and humans continue their machine hunting, it sounds like something will happen that keeps humans from harvesting materials from machines. But it feels like that “something” is more than just enhanced aggression and death.
Even if Hephaestus could make a machine that couldn’t be brought down by humans, other machines still break down in the field all the time. That’s the whole point of acquisition class machines like Scrappers and Glinthawks.
So what could possibly happen to keep humans from using machine parts? The only answer I can think of is a complete drawback of machines from the world or pushed to places humans cannot survive in.
Stormbird Vision
“They must know how the orbit slows, fades, falls, decays. And yet, returns to more than zero.”
Brin says this before he drinks the blood, but it feels influenced by prior visions.
Considering the blood in his hands is from an aerial machine, I’m wondering if he’s talking about a satellite or structure that they are keeping in orbit/maintaining.
Also, I don’t do math or anything close to it, but thematically, to say something “returns to more than zero” in a game named Horizon Zero Dawn feels deliberate.
If the Zero Dawn initiative was meant to restore humanity from the point of no return, yet this orbit (cycle?) returns to more than zero, does that mean humanity is continually facing and defying extinction-level events?
That sums up both games’ storylines. Coming close to the brink (with Hades machinations and the biosphere out of wack), and prevailing. There isn’t a fallback plan like Zero Dawn anymore, Aloy has to save the world or there’s no hope.
“But no more stories of the past—all told! All done! Future stories.”
So the last four were all mostly explanations of how things worked or happened, meaning this vision could be a hazy blueprint for future mechanics (or storylines).
“I saw an onrushing storm. The future comes hungry, for man and machine.”
This could either be hinting at the literal storms in Forbidden West, or it could be the Zeniths/Nemesis rushing toward Earth. The “future” (very much the futuristic Zeniths/Nemesis) “hungry for man and machine” feels like a sense of destruction. As if they/it wanted to obliterate both.
Except that wasn’t the goal of the Zeniths, as we now know. They couldn’t have cared less for anything other than the resources on Earth. It was just a pit stop.
Extinction wasn’t their goal. But it does seem like it’s Nemesis’.
But what could it want with the machines? Unless it intends to use them for said extinction?
“It will catch me, I expect. Catch us all!”
That’s . . . terrifying to think about if this is talking about Nemesis. Is it really going to catch the entire Earth in its claws just to wipe out the already destroyed Zeniths? We know it’s coming, we know it’s bad, but we don’t know what will happen when it finds its prey already dead.
“So enough hunts, enough visions. I’ll run—chase that teasing sun to the Forbidden West.”
The second game took place in the Forbidden West, and it’s unlikely the third game will too, so this sounds like the vision is only about the second game—except for one thing.
In Forbidden West, we meet the Quen, a previously unknown tribe from across the sea to the west. I may be grasping at straws here, but if you continue to chase the sun west, you’re going to end up in Asia where the Quen are hinted at coming from (specifically China).
As far as I know, that is the only other area mentioned in HFW, just like the Forbidden West was mentioned in HZD.
(When asked if Aloy should fear what is coming, Brin continues.)
“Ohhh. Yes. Jungle on fire. Machine-blue light dying out in the eddies of ashes.”
Now, I don’t remember anything like this in FW. The jungle area around the Memorial Grove did see the last battle against Regalla, but I don’t remember a jungle on fire or machines dying in eddies of ash. The final battle of FW didn’t take place in a jungle either.
Something about the visual of “eddies of ash” feels like a nuclear attack, but maybe that’s just me playing too much Fallout.
“You, fallen, pale as snow-flash… eyes staring open.”
This also hasn’t happened yet. Aloy had some close calls, especially in the Hades Proving Grounds in Latopolis, but nothing reminiscent of this visual.
This makes me think it’s for the next game, and while that’s worrisome for our protagonist, let’s not forget that there are multiple clones of Elizabet Sobeck out there now.
There’s also another way this might not be Aloy herself. We know Nemesis is the combined minds of all the Zeniths, but what are the chances that Beta wasn’t Tilda’s first attempt at remaking Elizabet? Could a piece of her (potentially a very flawed piece) be contained in Nemesis as well?
“The Metal World, but not the one I sought! The future is a frightful dream, huntress!”
The Metal World, as in the Old World of the time before the Faro Plague? Or a Metal World, a vision of a potential future with humanity given access to Apollo and allowed to partake in the rebuilding and reintroduction of the planet?
Or is this a vision of the Zeniths and Nemesis? Their technology so advanced that the closest comparison is the Old World?
Considering the “frightful” quality of this “dream,” I lean towards the latter.
Stormbird Vision Analysis
The most confusing and speculative of the visions, this one is definitely hinting at Forbbiden West, but most of the visuals relayed are not in the game, or else greatly changed in the development of it.
This could simply be a change of direction in the five years between games, or it could be hinting at things even further away, in the last Horizon game.
It also has some worrying implications for Aloy and the world if that’s the case, but not without some hope of a sci-fi reversal—ala more Sobeck clones.