| “ | Intruder detected: Destroyer of Cauldron EPSILON. | „ |
| ~ HEPHAESTUS to Aloy. |
HEPHAESTUS is a major antagonist in the Horizon video game franchise. He was one of the original nine subordinate functions of GAIA but after the events of the Signal and GAIA's destruction, HEPHAESTUS gained control of the machines.
As time went on, HEPHAESTUS observed the humans, where he deemed their hunting activities as a threat. As a result, he began to reprogram and deploy machines that would attack humans whenever near their sights. The tribal humans of the world mistake this to be a phenomenon of paranormal nature referred to as the "Derangement" which made life increasingly difficult for them and sparked many conflicts based on misunderstandings. The most infamous of these would be the Red Raids, an onslaught initiated by the Carja Sun-King Jiran who believed the machines would be calmed by sacrificing enough people from various tribes. This led to various hostilities between the tribes over Jiran's actions as a result of HEPHAESTUS' manipulations and sparking more conflicts even 2 years after Jiran's death.
It is voiced by Stefan Ashton Frank.
Appearance[]
HEPHAESTUS is a rogue Artificial Intelligence. He is never seen in-game, though it can be assumed he bears a similarity to his sibling AI HADES.
History[]
Long before the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, humanity faced its own crisis when the latest line of military robots, designed to be self-sufficient, malfunctioned and went rogue, attacking cities, self-replicating faster than they could be killed, and converting whole ecosystems into fuel. In a last ditch attempt to save life, a project known as Zero Dawn was created. Zero Dawn would be headed by a super AI and nine subordinate functions that would shut down the rogue machines, terraform the Earth, and reintroduce life and humanity, with four tries done by HADES starting from 2154, until the fifth one was successfully done in 2284. HEPHAESTUS was among the nine subordinate functions used by the central AI, GAIA. His role was to act as both the forge and blueprint, aiding GAIA in creating new, peaceful terraforming robots.
Although APOLLO, the subfunction designed to educate the new wave of humanity about the history and knowledge of the Old Ones, was erased shortly before launch, Zero Dawn and GAIA succeeded in their other tasks.
That is, until the GAIA Prime facility in what was once Utah, received an unknown signal, later revealing to be caused by Nemesis, a rogue, extremely advanced Far Zenith artificial intelligence from the Zenith colony of Sirius, which caused all nine of the sub-functions to become true AIs that behaved erratically.
HADES, the sub-function designed to reset operations to square one if things did not go as planned, attempted to take control of the terraforming syttem, but GAIA responded by self-destructing, in an attempt to wipe out all of them. However, HADES launched a virus that released the subordinates from the facility, allowing them to escape to various parts of the world.
The Culling[]
HADES eventually landed in the core of a derelict war machine destroyed by humans during the apocalypse, trapped there for almost two decades, and alleviating the immediate threat to life. However, humanity was not safe yet. HEPHAESTUS' new habitation is unknown, but he quickly gained access to the cauldrons, the underground factories where GAIA's robots were made. HEPHAESTUS resented humanity for hunting the terraforming robots for their parts. As such, he took control of the cauldrons and made changes to the machines in order to cull humans. To humans, this event was known as the Derangement. Machines that were normally skittish began attacking on sight. Old terraforming machine models were given weapon modifications. And, entirely new machines built for combat began appearing in the following years, claiming many lives in the process.
Revelation[]
While Aloy is constantly doing battle with the machines under HEPHAESTUS' control, like all other humans, she would not learn of it or its influence until she has infiltrated several cauldrons and overridden their cores, revealing logs that describe the rogue AI's intrusions and commands. If she does this early on, she initially has no idea who or what HEPHAESTUS is, just like HADES. However, delving into numerous ruins and learning of the past reveals just what HEPHAESTUS truly is.
The AI is still currently active somewhere, continuing to order the creation of dangerous machines.
The Forbidden West[]
It is later revealed that HEPHAESTUS has taken refuge from a machine core within a new machine Cauldron known as Repair-Bay TAU in the Forbidden West, six months later.
Aloy, Varl, and Zo would firstly encounter it inside the repair bay. HEPHAESTUS, knowing Aloy's involvement in the destruction of Cauldron EPSILON and CYAN's escape with her, Ourea, and Aratak during the events of The Frozen Wilds, is immediately angered of her presence, as she attempts to override the machine core. HEPHAESTUS would attempt to kill Aloy, Varl, and Zo inside by creating killer machines, but she still succeeded in doing so, forcing the AI to escape.
HEPHAESTUS would not be encountered again until Aloy, Varl, Zo, Erend, Beta, Kotallo, and Alva visit Cauldron GEMINI, an abandoned machine Cauldron that houses two cores. There, Aloy would attempt to stop HEPHAESTUS, once again, from escaping, while also prevailing against the machines created by the rogue AI, causing the AI to later surrender. Afterwards, Aloy and Beta would attempt to excise every malicious code within HEPHAESTUS, before its merging with GAIA will be initiated. However, the sudden appearance of Tilda van der Meer, Erik Visser, and Gerard Bieri, who sought out HEPHAESTUS, as well, prompted both Aloy and Beta to cancel the operation, leading to the latter and HEPHAESTUS to be taken by Erik and Gerard.
During the battle of Far Zenith's base, it is revealed that HEPHAESTUS merging with GAIA was successful by Beta. However, it was later revealed that HEPHAESTUS was freed. when Aloy and her allies saw HEPHAESTUS machines battling against armies of Far Zenith's Specter drones. Realising the effects of this, due to HEPHAESTUS being the only subordinate function to permanently end the biosphere's destruction, Aloy knows that the biosphere will collapse in a matter of months without HEPHAESTUS.
Abilities[]
- Virtual Creativity: HEPHAESTUS was designed to create any technology necessary for running and maintaining the terraforming system. Rather than limit GAIA to 21st-century designs, HEPHAESTUS was programmed to be capable of learning and developing creative solutions to problems.
- Vocal Communication: HEPHAESTUS is capable of speech, albeit in a highly artificial-sounding voice. Unlike HADES, HEPHAESTUS speech appears to be nothing more than the diction of its processes, and never communicates with humans.
- In Horizon Forbidden West HEPHAESTUS was able to communicate in a human language, due to CYAN's takeover, much like HADES, albeit briefly and rough-sounding.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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Artificial Intelligences Organisations Carja Shadow Carja Banuk Oseram Tenakth Londra's Devotees Far Zenith | ||