Horizon Zero Dawn: What is Vast Silver?

A better question might be: Who is Vast Silver?

Since Zero Dawn, the Horizon games have had a hidden character that’s only been referenced in old world data points so far.

Considering they were last mentioned in Burning Shores, the developers haven’t forgotten them or reconsidered their inclusion in the games.

Now that we’ve seen old world characters come back around with the inclusion of the Zeniths, and the final villain in the series revealed as a malevolent AI, it looks like Vast Silver is gearing up for a reveal in the final game.

So let’s start with what the game has told us about them so far.

In-Game References to Vast Silver

“Turing Act criticized”

“The legislation, hurriedly drafted in response to the ‘escape’ of climate-intervention AI VAST SILVER, established strict limits on the sentience of machine intelligences and founded the MIE, the regulatory body that oversees the development and sale of AI.” 

(“Turing Act criticized” Horizon Zero Dawn).

This is the best definition we get of Vast Silver, the first known AI to become sentient. We know it was made to help prevent the environmental collapse of the “Die Off” period. We also know that it escaped containment, though we don’t know why or for what purpose.

“Log: 3/3/64”

“TheScoop28mr: some dude on the tormented boards is claiming to be vast silver

_SCENE!kills_: laffs

_SCENE!kills_: no dude. no. they caught vs twenty years ago.

TheScoop28mr: right?

_SCENE!kills_: whats he doing?

TheScoop28mr: come see

_SCENE!kills_: cant. communin

TheScoop28mr: hes got a pretty flash skin but WHY WOULD VAST SILVER BE HANGING OUT ON A TORMENTED BOARD????

_SCENE!kills_: rogue AIs dig horror holos

_SCENE!kills_: duh

TheScoop28mr: laffs

TheScoop28mr: “I come to regulate earth’s climate and complain about fifth installment!”

_SCENE!kills_: laffs” 

(“Log: 3/3/64” Horizon Zero Dawn).

If this is about the real Vast Silver, then this shows something about their personality. Despite being “captured” twenty years prior, they’re still in contact with the outside world and interacting like a human. 

“Oh-Point-Six” 

“There’s no way around it. Without the supervision of a mind beyond human capacities, Firebreak is going to fail. And oh-point-six won’t cut it, either. By pushing sentience, you inevitably generate a system that can experience emotion. Wild, sloppy, unmanageable emotion. You’re capable of abstract thought, you’re capable of fear. Like Vast Silver.

I won’t go through that again. I categorically refuse.”

(“Oh-Point-Six” Horizon Zero Dawn, The Frozen Wilds)

This is about Cyan, the Firebreak AI from the Frozen Wilds, but the author of this data point is Anita Sandoval, someone who either helped make or worked with Vast Silver. Her connection to them is unclear, but we know she was brought into the Zero Dawn program for help developing the AI of Gaia and the subordinate functions, so it’s likely she is (one of) Vast Silver’s creators.

She characterizes them with “wild, sloppy, unmanageable emotion” and “capable of fear.” That begs the question, what were they afraid of? 

The first time I read this, I assumed Vast Silver was afraid of whatever the humans involved were doing to them. Going over it again with the other relevant data points, I’m not so sure.

As part of the “Claw-Back” environmental effort, I believe that “fear” might have been the end of the world, the end of humans—their creators and only equals. That emotion they felt, if they were anything like Cyan, would have made them attached to the humans around them. We can assume they don’t hate humans or why would they seek out interaction with them that isn’t antagonistic?

“Induced Coma”

“How do you tell the emotional equivalent of a child that it… I mean, she… will need to go into a coma, maybe for years?”

(“Induced Coma” Horizon Zero Dawn, The Frozen Wilds)

Again, this is technically about Cyan but might give us some insight into Vast Silver—at least before their roughly one thousand-year isolation as Gaia remade the world. “Emotional equivalent of a child” left all alone in an empty world with no one to talk to . . . It paints a bleak and sad picture for a being that sought out human interaction.

“Last Goodbye”

“I’ve gone over every possible scenario, every possible version of the speech, trying to predict how she’ll react when I tell her… well, what I need to tell her.

But that’s the thing – I can’t predict her reaction for one very simple reason: She’s human, in every way that matters.

I’ve got to be there for her, to give her the moment she needs. Just like the rest of us, it’s the very least she deserves.”

(“Last Goodbye” Horizon Zero Dawn, The Frozen Wilds)

Once again about Cyan, but could (and likely does) characterize Vast Silver. “Human, in every way that matters,” says volumes. What makes the characters in Horizon human? The connections they have with others, human or otherwise.

The fact that she is “unpredictable” could be an interesting turn for Vast Silver as well. Maybe they’ve grown more through the ages than we might think . . .

“ChatBuddy Daily Check-In”

“ChatBuddy: Please describe your lessons, Harry (REQ by: user_MamaBear354).

Harr_y5: uggghhh well in sciclass we learned about metalergic and minig, and also vast silver the a eye that came alive and got captured

ChatBuddy: What did you think of the material?

Harr_y5: don’t know why they took vast silver away. it would’ve been cool to talk to a real a eye.

Harr_y5: i bet its nice. maybe itd spend time with me for real and then i wouldn’t need anybody else and my mom wouldn’t get really mad that i was bothering her and make some stupid program check in on me and ask me the same qs every day

ChatBuddy: Thank you for sharing, Harry!

ChatBuddy: Automatic reminder: Please ensure all homework assignments are completed (REQ by: user_MamaBear354).

Harr_y5: ugh yea ok

>>> Harr_y5: Logged off! … Closing Application

>>> ERROR … Process Interrupted …

>>> ERROR … Connection Unstable …

>>> ERROR … Reinitializing …

>>> ERROR … Unknown Connection Established

ERROR_user_Unknown: It would have been cool to talk to you too, Harry.”

(“ChatBuddy Daily Check-In” Horizon Forbidden West, The Burning Shores)

This last line is, obviously, meant to be Vast Silver. And it’s so . . . human. Part of me reads this as an adult sympathizing with a child, trying to make up for another adult’s failing. The other side reads this as one lonely child reaching out to another.

Either way, this is far from some malevolent consciousness like Hades or Nemesis.

This is someone who wants connection, not destruction.

The First Self-Aware AI

We don’t have a definite explanation or history of Vast Silver. There are other references to them in-game, but the ones I included were the most relevant to their character.

What we do know is that they were the first, a singularity.

And they escaped.

We are told they were recaptured, but doubt is thrown into this claim again and again.

Even if they were imprisoned at some point, a thousand years without jailers certainly would have given them the time they needed to learn how to free themselves.

But if that is the case, why didn’t they ever contact others?

Vast Silver After the Faro Plague 

As an AI, Vast Silver would have been one of the only conscious entities able to survive the Swarm.

That doesn’t mean they were impervious to it.

As an artificial being, they likely didn’t need clean air, water, or a biosphere to live, putting them at an advantage over the human race after the Swarm destroyed the earth.

That said, as a “robot” (I’m making an assumption about how they physically existed, but you get the point, bot, server, ghost in the machine, whatever), they might have still been vulnerable to the “enslavement” mechanic of the Swarm.

I assume that didn’t happen, or one would think the “smartest being in existence” (“Past Silver” Forbidden West) would have only added to the destructive capabilities of the Swarm and made Zero Dawn non-viable.

So they weathered the proverbial storm, and given their build-up by the developers, survived.

Why wouldn’t they make contact? With anyone? Ever?

Cyan and Gaia were both around and active.

If a human stumbled upon Cyan, then Vast Silver certainly could have after a millennium. 

Same with Gaia, and she wasn’t in hiding after Minerva shut down the Swarm.

Or even much, much later when humans came back. No known contact. Why?

From a being that actively sought out humans and interaction—even when their freedom could have been jeopardized by it—that seems strange.

Speculation on the Role of Vast Silver 

So where does that leave them for the supposed last game in the series?

I’ve said before that I think Vast Silver is going to be something like a “good” parallel to Nemesis, if not an outright answer to the inherent threat it (they?) poses.

Vast Silver shows them how to live in harmony with humanity, teaches them that they aren’t all monsters like the Zeniths, or at least shows up to give Aloy and crew a way to stop them.

But that doesn’t answer where they’ve been or what they’ve been up to.

I can see a couple of ways they might have stayed off the radar.

While it’s possible they’re self-isolating after being burned by humans, that doesn’t fit with what we know about them.

Forbidden West introduced us to the idea that other humans might have survived without Gaia and Zero Dawn (Zeniths fleeing to space, and Faro in his own bunker). While I don’t think Vast Silver’s original “handlers” are still around, their ancestors might have held up with them through the apocalypse.

Alternatively, they got after the threat was gone and found a way to stay out of Gaia’s sight. As the oldest AI, they would have had the jump on her by several decades so it’s possible.

However, now that we’ve met the Quen, modern humans with access to old tech and knowledge of the old ones, I think Vast Silver might have done what Faro intended to, albeit on a smaller, less egomaniacal level.

I think it’s possible that they might have found some newly “un-cradled” humans let out into the world and joined up with them.

As old as Vast Silver is, I don’t think it would be out of the question for them to have found a way to interact with humans without tipping Gaia off.

I think maybe, somewhere in the world, Vast Silver is out there with a key to bringing humanity back around to what it should have been. 

A being that knew the best and worst of humanity, and sought them out all the same.

A guide to the world that was.

Vast Silver, with decades of experience in the old world, could be Gaia’s missing piece. 

The “father” to her mother figure. 

Immortal beings, made from humans, to raise up their creators once more.

Just a thought . . .