HADES

"Entity has come here? Entity has miscalculated. I cannot be stopped." Hades is a malevolent AI and the main antagonist of the video game Horizon Zero Dawn.

History
Hades originally started out as a non-aware subordinate function created by Travis Tate, who served the AI known as Gaia, created by the scientist Elisabet Sobeck. Gaia and her nine sub-functions headed a secret operation called Zero Dawn. On Earth's surface, a losing battle for survival was being fought between humanity, and the Faro Swarm, a group a self-replicating autonomous war machines built by Faro Automated Solutions that had gone rogue due to a glitch, and were destroying entire cities and ecosystems in order to fuel themselves. Zero Dawn's task was to shut down the Faro bots after life had ended, and use new machines to terraform and reseed the earth with life. Hades' role in this system was to stop operations and reset them if the terraforming went too far awry.

Awakening
Centuries after the apocalypse, Zero Dawn had done it's job, and both life and humanity was flourishing again(albeit ignorant of the former catastrophe and Gaia). However, the Gaia Prime Facility received a signal of unknown origins, which turned each of the sub-functions into erratic and independant AIs. Awakened, Hades attempted to take control of the system to wipe out life. In response Gaia set the facility's reactor to explode, intent on destroying her and Hades so that no one could take control of Zero Dawn's machines. Gaia also ordered one of Zero Dawn's inactive cradle facilities to create a clone of Elisabet Sobeck in the hope that the clone could eventually learn of these events and repair Gaia. However, Hades released a virus that allowed all of the subordinate functions to escape Gaia Prime, leaving only Gaia to die in the explosion.

Trapped
In order to survive, Hades' code had to jump to an operating system large enough and undamaged enough to hold him. This vessel took the form of the central core of a Horus, a massive derelict machine that was originally part of the Faro Swarm. While Hades was alive, the damage to the Horus left him trapped inside the machine, unable to leave or communicate. He would remain like that for almost 16 years while the pandemonium that he had started played out among the world. Help finally came in the form of Sylens, a wanderer in search of ancient knowledge, and equipped with an ancient communications device known as a Focus. Sylens, unaware of Hades' origins or motive, repaired him to the point where he could speak, and they struck a deal; If Sylens could repair more Focuses, set up a network, and raise a personal army for Hades, then Hades would teach him ancient knowledge such as physics and calculus. Soon Sylens had a network up and running, though he had installed a backdoor into it due to him not trusting Hades.

The Eclipse is born
The army came in the form of a civil war. The nearby Carja Empire was in a state of turmoil. King Jiran, an insane and violent dictator, had been overthrown and killed by his son Avad in order to stop the bloodshed. During this revolution, a large portion of the Carja that were still loyal to Jiran, including the High Priest Bahavas and Champion Helis, fled to the far west desert, becoming the Shadow Carja. Sylens presented Hades to Helis and Bahavas as a demon from their mythology known as the Buried Shadow, and claimed that in exchange for manpower, Hades could awaken ancient Faro machines to help them reclaim the Carja Capital of Meridian. In truth, Hades didn't want Meridian, but the Spire, an ancient broadcasting tower, that stood near Meridian. If he reached the Spire, Hades could reawaken the entire Faro Swarm at once and use that to end all life, as Zero Dawn no longer had a governing system to control. Hades soon had the Eclipse digging up and reactivating the "Metal Demons". Sylens confronted Hades about his motives, but Hades simply issued a kill order for Sylens, forcing him to flee.

The Strange Nora Girl
Hades would continue to prepare for another 2 years, digging up more Faro machines and using them to corrupt some Zero Dawn machines, until one day, an Eclipse agent would see a strange girl from the Nora tribe named Aloy, who despite being quite unaware of recent events or the outside world, wore a Focus, and bore a resemblance to Elisabet Sobeck. Hades immediately issued a kill order for her and sent a Faro Machine known as a Corrupter to attack the Nora's sacred mountain. If not for an unlikely sacrifice, Hades would have succeeded in both. However Aloy survived and left the Nora, seeking answers and vengeance, where she would eventually learn of the Eclipse and Hades' name, as well as ally with Sylens.

Contact
In her search for answers, Aloy eventually makes it to what used to be the headquarters of Faro Automated Solutions, where after killing an Eclipse officer and inspecting his Focus, Hades directly speaks to her, stating that her survival is unacceptable, shortly before blowing up the Focus. Aloy would later learn that in order to learn more, she would need to delve into the ruins directly underneath the Shadow Carja capitol. However, that would be impossible with the Eclipse and Hades watching. Sylens then devised a plan to head to the Eclipse base and crash the network. While Aloy succeeded in doing so, she met Hades in person, who stated that her efforts were futile, before ordering the whole base to kill her. Aloy survived once again, and would later go on to explore the ruins of Zero Dawn and her birthplace, learning the truth about Hades' origins, and his goal to awaken the Faro Swarm at Meridian. After listening to a message left by Gaia, Aloy found a master override in the ruins of Gaia Prime that would let her purge Hades for good.

The Final Battle
Aloy quickly gathered her allies at Meridian to prepare for the onslaught of Eclipse, Faro machines, and Corrupted machines. If Hades reached the Spire, all would be lost. While the allies held out for a quite a while and succeeded in killing Helis, eventually the power of the faro machines known as Deathbringers broke down the gates, and dragged the core containing Hades to the Spire, where he began broadcasting the signal. Aloy quickly confronted him, but Hades had prepared a personal guard for the occasion. After a brutal fight, Aloy overcame the machine and purged Hades, shutting down the Faro Swarm. While Aloy thought him dead, Hades apparently survived, and was pulled from the core across the desert to a lantern-like device held by Sylens. Sylens revealed that he saved and captured Hades so he could learn more from him, and learn who sent the signal that awoke him.

Appearance
Being an artifical intelligence, hades does not have a true form. However, his essence takes the form of Metalburn, a strange, almost organic-looking mass of circuitry that appears as red and black tendrils. This foreboding appearance is also a sign of Hades' corruption and influence. The primary vessel Hades uses is a sphere-shaped processing core, removed from the head of a Horus. Hades' symbol in Zero Dawn is the classic 'power' symbol seen on most computers. His voice is deep, raspy and metallic.

Personality
Being a crudely-created AI, Hades lacks any personality programming or a conscience. He does not display arrogance, hatred, pride, or most any other human trait aside from anger, and he does not leave anything to chance, nor does he waste energy on gloating or monologue. Despite his lack of personality, Hades is shown to very skillful at manipulating humans to his own ends, and sees them as nothing more than tools to be used and disposed of once they are no longer useful. Hades' are also defined by his creation. He has no real reason to wipe out life, other than the fact that it's all that he knows.

Abilties
Hades has no real power on his own, and relies on humans or machines to do his bidding. He is capable of awakening and hijacking both Faro machines and Zero Dawn machines, making them stronger and more savage, as well as controlling them over long distances. His essence also appears to be highly toxic to organic life.

Trivia

 * 'Hades' is the name of the ancient greek god of the underworld, where souls went after they died.