Horizon Forbidden West: Outside the fortress
After cleaning up the mess in Chainscrape, draining Petra’s strategic beer reserves, and smashing our knees on the rocks of the Daunt while Jenny provided running commentary, we finally gathered enough courage to crawl out of Barren Light.
Nothing managed to stop Aloy before — not the Eclipse, not HEPHAESTUS and his demonic Fireclaws — but apparently some guy named Nozar decided that he would be the one to hold the line.
Bold strategy.
Unfortunately for him, Aloy isn’t exactly known for respecting bureaucratic obstacles.
Luckily for Nozar, Varl shows up just in time, still stubbornly following Aloy across half the world, and manages to wake up a half-drunk Erend in the process. Together they basically save Nozar from experiencing Aloy’s version of “diplomacy”.
In the end, the most reasonable person in the entire crowd turns out to be Vuadis. A studious man, after all. Clearly had a bad feeling about the whole situation.
Turns out his instincts were spot on.
Fate caught up with him pretty quickly — and pretty accurately — in the form of an arrow to the backside.
The Embassy
The ceremony at the border is supposed to symbolize peace between the Carja and the Tenakth.
In practice it turns into about an hour and a half of diplomatic small talk, while Fashav calmly tells the story of his life and everyone else pretends to be deeply fascinated.
At some point Regalla apparently reaches her limit.
She decides that the entire gathering of Carja gift enthusiasts and professional bootlickers has gone on long enough. Honestly, we should probably thank her. If she hadn’t stepped in, Aloy might have eventually done it herself.
Seems to run in the family.
Avad is exactly the same kind of noble bore. Which probably explains why Aloy keeps politely dodging him.
When Diplomacy Ends
The moment Regalla appears, the ceremony collapses into what Horizon does best: absolute chaos.
Rebels. Machines. People running everywhere.
Classic frontier diplomacy.
And that’s when something interesting becomes obvious.
Regalla’s rebels are riding Bristlebacks and Clawstriders, which strongly suggests that our favorite troublemaker Sylens has already been here, leaving his intellectual fingerprints all over the place.
Normally that wouldn’t be such a problem.
Except Sylens’ students don’t carry notebooks and pencils.
They carry cleavers and shield generators.
Final Exam
One of those enthusiastic students ends up taking his final exam with Aloy personally.
His name is Grudda.
The guy clearly studied for the test. Shield generator, loud speeches, sky-high confidence — the full package.
Unfortunately none of it helps.
The shield generator fails, and Grudda receives a very short note in his academic record: “failed”.
There will be no retake.
By the time the dust settles, his entire brief and rather unimpressive career serves exactly one purpose — he drops the Shieldwing.
Sometimes life is extremely pragmatic like that.
Westward
After that diplomatic disaster, one thing becomes clear:
The Forbidden West is open.
Ahead of us lie the deserts, the spreading red blight, half-finished business with the Sons of Prometheus, Regalla’s rebels, acid-spitting machines, and Jenny’s ever-present sarcasm, which seems to thrive in situations like this.
But first we make one more stop in Chainscrape.
Oseram Politics
Back in Chainscrape the local corporate drama is still in full swing.
Ulvund is running his usual shady operations, while Javad slowly realizes that the whole Oseram industrial miracle smells worse than a barrel of spoiled ale.
Javad, for the record, doesn’t even like ale.
But giving Ulvund a well-deserved kick briefly brings some light into his otherwise miserable workday.
Meanwhile our old friend ends up with a surprisingly decent promotion.
Chainscrape might not become a model of justice overnight, but at least the place should breathe a little easier now.
What Comes Next
The real Forbidden West lies ahead.
Unknown lands. Strange machines. Regalla’s rebellion. And a growing list of unanswered questions.
The most interesting one being just how deep Sylens has buried himself in this whole mess.
If we’re being honest, it’s probably not just his nose in the mud.
At this point it’s the entire beard.
And somewhere out there in the desert our old acquaintance HADES is still hiding.
Which means the real trouble hasn’t even started yet.