|
"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.
|
Samina Ebadji was a member of Project Zero Dawn, serving as the Alpha in charge of the APOLLO subordinate function.
History[]
Background[]
Prior to the Faro Plague, Ebadji was a prominent figure in her field; she served as the lead archivist of the original Odyssey, during which time she developed an extensive archive of human culture known as the HOMER project.[1]
After the Odyssey was abandoned, Ebadji worked as the Director of the International Collective Memory Institute in New Tehran.[2]
Project Zero Dawn[]
Samina Ebadji as seen in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Upon the discovery of the Faro Plague glitch, Ebadji was recruited as part of Project Zero Dawn, due to her unparalleled experience in the area of cultural heritage. She was selected by Elisabet Sobeck to serve as the Alpha of APOLLO, overseeing the development of the subordinate function, which was responsible for archiving human culture and knowledge, as well as reintroducing it to the new human civilization. Ebadji directed her team to focus on four major tasks: constructing data repositories (known as Lyceums) within the cradle sites, collecting and processing several million data entries in multiple major languages, storing the data in a format that could resist degradation for at least a millennium, and developing an interactive gamified curriculum through which future children would learn from APOLLO.[2] She also recorded a message of herself to greet the children on their first day of school and introduce them to their new life in the Lyceum and the new area in the cradle.[3]
Ebadji personally investigated multiple possible archival mediums for APOLLO's data before finally settling on the use of DNA encoding within synthetic fossils; in addition to its practical advantages, Ebadji also found the use of DNA storage satisfying for its irony in outlasting a robot apocalypse.[4] During the archival process, she clashed with her fellow Alpha, Travis Tate, who submitted several hundred instances of obscene and perverse media for archival within APOLLO, which Samina was unwilling to archive.[5] Ultimately, APOLLO was completed successfully, thanks in large part to Ebadji's prior work on the HOMER project, which was retrieved from the Odyssey and integrated into APOLLO.[6] Reciprocally, an early copy of APOLLO was given to Far Zenith, who were running the revitalized Odyssey project.[7]
Ebadji (far corner) witnessing Sobeck's sacrifice.
As the Faro Plague overran humanity's remaining strongholds before the subordinate functions were complete, Ebadji and the rest of the Alphas were evacuated to the GAIA Prime facility, where they would spend the rest of their lives perfecting their respective subordinate functions. When it was discovered that one of GAIA Prime's access port seals malfunctioned, risking the facility's exposure to the Faro Plague, the Alphas were debating among themselves who would sacrifice themselves to fix it. As Elisabet appeared via hologram, having sacrificed herself for them and Zero Dawn, Ebadji turned away in sadness.[8]
Ebadji (in the chair) while being asphyxiated alongside with Patrick Brochard-Klein and Margo Shĕn.
Some time later, Ebadji and the other Alphas were gathered into a meeting by Ted Faro. They were shocked to learn that Ted had not only locked them out of all the systems, but had purged all copies of the APOLLO database, believing it to be a disease that he wanted to keep from the new humans Zero Dawn would create. As Ebadji was driven to tears, Ted vented the room's atmosphere, killing Ebadji and the other Alphas.[9]
Legacy[]
Ebadji’s, Brochard-Klein’s and Shĕn’s final resting place.
With the purge of the APOLLO database, the humans birthed from ELEUTHIA were left with only a nursery-level education,[10] with the kindergarten education suffering multiple system failures.[11] As the Lyceums created for the APOLLO project were incapable of accessing the archive, no further education could take place, and the doors to Lyceum never opened for them.[12]
Despite the loss of APOLLO, neither human culture nor humanity's thirst for knowledge was fully extinguished. Literacy was preserved through the discovery of books which survived the Faro Plague,[13] and knowledge of advanced mathematics was passed on from HADES to Sylens.[14] Furthermore, knowledge and skills in agriculture, architecture, metallurgy and engineering were rediscovered by some tribes in the course of their development, without any input from APOLLO. The Carja and especially the Utaru rediscovered and mastered principles of crop production. Indeed, the Utaru mastered crop production to the point of extensive, thriving wheat cultivation, becoming well known for this reason. The Carja mastered the production of maize enough to establish a large area for maize production called the Royal Maizelands, on the outskirts of their capital Meridian. The Carja also rediscovered and mastered architecture to the point of building Meridian, the largest and most renowned known city in the New World, sturdily constructed of masonry and featuring impressive buildings, bridges and aqueducts. The Oseram rediscovered and mastered metallurgy, metalworking and engineering to the point of constructing the two fully functional skyscraper-high elevators that connect Meridian proper, located on a high mesa, and Meridian Village at the mesa’s foot. The Oseram warlord Dervahl reinvented the phonograph, an early Old World audio recording device.[15] Aloy, Sylens, and Diviners of the Quen tribe have rediscovered scraps of data stored in places outside of APOLLO, each of varying levels of corruption and origin, allowing them to rediscover various pieces of information about the Old World, with Aloy's exploration uncovering the true of the extinction of life on Earth, and the fate of Ebadji herself.[16]
Despite the purge of APOLLO and its backups on Earth, the alpha build given to Far Zenith was unaffected. This allowed Beta to learn from it as she grew up on the Odyssey.[17] After the plans of Far Zenith were foiled by Aloy and her allies, APOLLO was reintegrated into the second GAIA[18] and the database was retrieved from the Odyssey, resurrecting the long lost knowledge of the Old Ones.[19]
Associated Quests[]
Horizon Zero Dawn[]
- Deep Secrets of the Earth (holograms and datapoints only)
- The Heart of the Nora (hologram only; missable)
- The Mountain That Fell (holograms and datapoints only)
Horizon Forbidden West[]
- The Eye of the Earth (mentioned in a datapoint only)
Associated Datapoints[]
Horizon Zero Dawn[]
Hologram Datapoints[] |
Text Datapoints - Quests[]
|
Vantage Points[]
|
Horizon Forbidden West[]
Text Datapoints - Quests[]
- #10 The Subordinate Functions (mentioned only)
References[]
- ↑ As mentioned by Bashar Mati in the King's Peak datapoint.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 As mentioned by Samina Ebadji in a hologram in the Zero Dawn Project Facility.
- ↑ Welcome to the Lyceum
- ↑ Encapsulated DNA
- ↑ Archive Abuse
- ↑ APOLLO Update
- ↑ Zero Dawn Trade Agreement
- ↑ Elisabet Sobeck Memorial
- ↑ Emergency Recording
- ↑ [NURSERY-E9B1]
- ↑ [KINDERGARTEN-E9B1]
- ↑ As mentioned by Sylens during The Heart of the Nora.
- ↑ Founding Of Meridian
- ↑ As mentioned by Sylens during The Mountain That Fell.
- ↑ Recording Device
- ↑ The Mountain that Fell
- ↑ As mentioned by Beta after completing two of the following quests: The Kulrut, The Sea of Sands and Seeds of the Past.
- ↑ Singularity
- ↑ As mentioned by Sylens after completing Singularity.