The Derangement is a phenomenon that occurred a few years before the events ofHorizon Zero Dawn. It was brought about by a drastic change in GAIA’s system. Though existing tribes would have no way of knowing that this was the case, they were the ones who experienced the consequences of this change.
InHorizon Zero Dawn, Aloy first hears about the Derangement in the Proving and is wholly unaware of the shift, given how Rost shielded her from the dangers outside the Embrace. However, as she ventures out into foreign lands, she sees firsthand the deadly machines that were born from the mechanical phenomenon. She also finds out how and why it happened.
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The Derangement in Horizon Zero Dawn
When the new generation of humans repopulated the world, the land was filled with animals to hunt and plants to gather. It was also home tomachines of immense strength and stature. Though these machines towered over humans, they were docile and immediately ran away should anyone come too close. Eventually, people began hunting these machines and harvesting their components to craft useful tools, like weapons or armor.
However, this skittish behavior changed around 20 years before Aloy ran the Proving. The smaller machines that roamed the world, such as Watchers, Striders, and Broadheads, became more likely to attack if provoked. Meanwhile,the much bigger machines inHorizon Zero Dawn, like Behemoths, Bellowbacks, and Rockbreakers, grew more hostile. They started attacking even oblivious travelers who meant them no harm.
The Derangement also brought new machines with it. After the shift in behavior, people across tribes began to encounter more fearsome machines —the Sawtooth being the first of many. Next came Ravagers, Stalkers, and hulking Thunderjaws. These new machines were even deadlier than their predecessors, and the latter were equipped with powerful ranged weapons that could easily target unsuspecting humans.
There are even more new machines to be found in the snowy region of The Cut, and they’re capable of harnessing elemental energy for their attacks.Scorchers and Fireclaws utilize firein both their ranged and melee attacks. Meanwhile, Frostclaws make use of frost for their ranged and melee attacks. Much like their predecessors, these machines are also hostile to humans, signaling that there’s a growing arsenal of powerful machines being built to face off against them.
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How the Tribes Dealt with the Derangement
Following the Derangement of machines, each of the tribes attempted to explain away the shift in behavior. Most notable was the Mad Sun-King Jiran’s solution —the infamous Red Raids. Jiran believed that the machines’ anger was a punishment from the sun, and the only way to appease their god was through human sacrifice. This led to a decade of tribal raids led by Carja troops, which only ended when Jiran’s sun usurped the throne. Unsurprisingly, the human sacrifice did nothing to placate the machine’s hostility.
Later, some people would come to believe that the machines were angry at humankind for hunting them. To which, others question why animals aren’t doing the same. The Banuk, on the other hand, speak of a change in the “machine spirits” and their “machine songs,” which is what’s causing such heightened hostility. Meanwhile,the Carja and Oseramtook a more scientific approach to the inquiry. Tinkerers inspected the fallen machines and their components, trying to see if there was anything different in their construction. They found no such change.
Eventually, Aloy uncovers the truth of the Derangement. This happens during the events of The Frozen Wilds DLC. It also paints a more complete picture of GAIA’s fate and the effects of the strange signal.
The Roles of GAIA and HEPHAESTUS
When all life on Earth perished after the Faro Plague, GAIA remained to end the swarm of hostile robots and reseed the land. GAIA ultimately succeeded in that regard with help from the system’s subfunctions —one of which was HEPHAESTUS. HEPHAESTUS was in charge of manufacturing machines based on GAIA’s specifications. This allowed for the creation of pre-Derangement machines, all of which served a purpose to cleanse the Earth. For instance, Snapmaws are known to detoxify water sources, while Stormbirds do the same for the air.
However, after GAIA released the new generation of humans from their facilities, a signal of unknown origin interfered with the system. This caused all of GAIA’s subfunctions to become sentient and subsequently break off from the main system.Following GAIA’s self-destruction, HEPHAESTUS escaped to an unknown location. When it realized that humans were hunting its machines, the now AI deemed humankind a threat and began altering its creations to become more aggressive against them. After, HEPHAESTUS began manufacturing new machines — ones that were made specifically for combat against humans.
This was when the Derangement began. Though things only got worse much later, when HEPHAESTUS found an old-world research facility known as Firebreak. Located in the in-game region known as The Cut (accessible through The Frozen Wilds DLC), this facility housed an ancient project that sought to stabilize the supervolcano found in Yellowstone National Park. The facility housed a wealth of natural resources, and HEPHAESTUS knew that these could be utilized in manufacturing machines.
From a remote location, HEPHAESTUS enslaved the facility’s governing AI, CYAN, and then turned the facility into a research and development cauldron. Here, the rogue AI managed to createmuch more dangerous machines, such as the aforementioned Scorchclaws, Fireclaws, and Frostclaws. It also managed to augment existing machines in a way that was similar to HADES’s corruption but much more powerful. The Banuk in the region referred to machines affected by this augmentation as Daemonic Machines.
Fortunately, Aloy was able to override HEPHAESTUS’s access and free CYAN with help from the Banuk. CYAN then ordered the facility to self-destruct, ridding the rogue AI of its research and development facility. HEPHAESTUS, however, is still somewhere in the world as it was never in said facility but only controlling it remotely through CYAN. Thus, the Derangement is still very much active across the world ofHorizon Zero Dawn. HEPHAESTUS, and perhaps GAIA’s other subfunctions, will likelymake another appearance inHorizon Forbidden West.
Horizon Zero Dawnis available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.
