HEPHAESTUS

In my mind, given that Hephaestus has taken control over some Cauldrons but having failed to control others, due to humans destroying machines essential to ZD would lead to Hephaestus deeming humans a threat to the survival of the Terraforming System, brief connection with the other Subordinate Functions alongside GIAI and the FZ Printing Matrix could have led to to discover NEMESIS or it could independently discover its existence, maybe by using the global distribution of Tallnecks data monitoring tools to detect NEMESIS entering the solar system

That could lead to Heph coming to the conclusion that NEMESIS would ultimately be the bigger threat to Earth and the Terraforming System, as whilst the occasional human would destroy its machines and individuals having a small impact on the overall survival of the Terraforming System, NEMESIS would seek to destroy everything without exception, possibly leading to Heph becoming something of a reluctant antagonistic morally ambiguous ally to Aloy, in that while Heph maybe in the latter part of any fight against NEMESIS it would still seek to remain independent of GIAI,

With the possibility that in the absence of Heph it would lead Aloy, both before and after any hypothetical alliance between Heph and Aloy against NEMESIS, as it was suggested during its escape from FZ, that Heph’s functionality could be replicated in some form, with the possibility that Beta would go through different ZD facilities to find the original code for Heph and create her own version of it, maybe named Vulcan after Hephaestus’s mythology Roman counterpart, maybe even with such missions resulting in sections of Horizon 3 where Beta would be playable in some capacity,

In addition given that according to CYAN, of the some Cauldrons in the global network had not fallen under Hephaestus‘s control due to their cyber defences being so strong that Heph was unable to break through, could mean that there might be some areas of the world that have not yet experienced any significant threat of the Derangement and its machines still functioning as before NEMESIS sent its signal, with the possibility that if NEMESIS was capable of breaking through the unaffected cyber defences of those Cauldrons to produce its own machines, with its capabilities to print new machines being greater than Heph and in a digital battle for control of the world’s Cauldrons, if Aloy could not prevent both AI’s from having control over them, and that an alternative AI had not been created, she might be forced to reluctantly accept allowing Hephaestus having control over the entire network, if only to deny NEMESIS control over them and with Heph being compared to the technology of FZ slightly less powerful and more within the range of most peoples ability to handle, with Heph capacity to create new machines being substantially less than the ability of a printer of FZ and NEMESIS,

In my mind given that FZ in the form of Specters that were composed of nanotechnology that where capable of via the Regeneration Unit to obtain damaged nano plates, in addition to having come into contact with the FZ Printing Matrix that is faster and more efficient than a Cauldron, and possibly even becoming aware of the protective shielding used by FZ, I could see the following happening:

Instead of having machines that would be created from the single source of Cauldrons, I could imagine HEPH deploying a series of Printing Matrix or possibly creating a type of machine that internally processes a Printing Matrix or a combination of both, that would allow for the rapid deployment of new machines closer to the source of an attack and responding with different types of machines that would better combat the problem, with the destruction of a printing matrix being a key factor of a fight,

Maybe with the addition aspect that machines produced from a printing matrix would each have unique override codes, that could render overriding less effective or to obtain the help of a machine it to be created from a friendly cauldron, maybe even from the repair bay underneath The Base in the third game or other local Cauldrons after they had been overridden,

With another aspect being that HEPH would integrate the personal shielding of FZ into its designs and that the anti shield weapon would need to become an everyday aspect of hunting, with the possibility that HEPH being aware that such a countermeasure exists and not fully believing it’s inability to be bypassed fully would instead of having a singular level would create a multi level armour that would individually protect different aspects of the individual machine from being attacked, with a unique arrow or other weapon being created with a small scale version of the anti shield weapon that would temporarily remove it,

What do you think?

In my mind a possibility could be that in addition to needing to deal with NEMESIS trying to completely destroy the planet, that both in the lead up to and during the game, given that HADES at full power could reset the biosphere in over 50 days and if unchecked by the lack of HEPH, that the biosphere would in different ways and locations would more and more rapidly become inhospitable and potentially part of the story, before any hypothetical recapturing of HEPH, would be to ensure that at least some places would remain habitable like the core regions of the different tribes, with the areas outside slowly becoming less and less accessible and easily navigable.

With the potential that red blight, super storms and other events would become commonplace even further them in HFW and make a tangible impact on gameplay, with super storms potentially changing the physics of how arrows work in combat from potentially super challenging them by adding energy or pushing the arrow of course and hitting something else or even hitting the player,

With potential addition storyline’s could be trying to make old bunkers habitable again to enable them to be useable again to protect others.

What do you think?

Hello, I have thought of the following ideas, any comments and feedback is welcome.

In my mind in the case of Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West a possible storyline for the next game could be that I think that it would be possible given Alloy origins as a clone and the technology used to create her came from the half abandoned Lightkeeper Program that also stored copies DNA of the high level Zero Dawn personal and the ability exists as seen by Alloy for clones during the events of the game to be created, that either after the events of Alloy's birth and the other former Subordinate Functions of ZD like Eleuthera would lacking governance would act on its default orders and create new humans though with the possibility that only the DNA of the other leaders of ZD exist would clone them at other Cradle facilities with if there there 10 Cradles and Alloy was born at the 9th with the other clones being born at the remaining Cradles across the world with some if not all gaining a possibility flawed though advanced education with limited access to knowledge of the old world as well as living among the tribes of the world with there experiences possibly making them either an ally or enermy of Alloy with levels of authority over different aspects of the system second only to her own and that when Ted Faro learnt of what would become of himself would create a clone failsafe that would become active during either the events of HFW believing the actions that would affect himself to be a tragedy requiring the clone or during the event that lead to Alloys birth with the clone being activated to "protect and save" the new world from a potential second extinction event and would be a force in the next game with the possibility that given his lack of knowledge of the system combined it's current state could possibly resulting in multiple clones with each having different behaviours and motivation as one version of him destroyed the world and what could several versions of him do, what do you think, given that several of the subordinate functions where not directly captured by Alloy what do you think there action in the last 20 years could have been doing and the further role of cloning in the storyline?

Another theory I have is that given that NEMESIS has the power to inhabit any from biological or mechanically and as a potential storyline and contrast with Aloy and Elisabeth, people who did everything they could to save the world, is that in order for the AI if it does have such a large size to have a human presence in the story and to gain access to the Terraforming System would create a clone of Elisabeth to inhabit and would be a dark reflection of Aloy, who would need to in effect flight a version of herself to save the world, with the possibility that Aloy would seek to free the clone thinking she was forced against her will only for the dark clone to have gained an Agent Smith like mentality due to having shared her mind with the most evil beings for all her life, and although the rest of FZ has been destroyed if the AI has any purely logical mindset it could see Beta and by extension Aloy due to them being identical clones as being the last members of FZ discounting the fact that Beta was an unwilling participant of FZ and would continue its mission to destroy Earth based on them being alive or something similar, what do you think?

As for the upcoming TV Show I think, I think that given the working title of Horizon 2074, almost 10 years after the end of the Old Ones that part of the show will take place in Elysium, with the bunker acting somewhat like the island from Lost as a self contained location and show the final days of the bunker with the possibility that any flashbacks could be from Aloy discovering holograms and data and learn it's fate as a framing devise to inform the watcher and Aloy of those events, with the events involving Aloy could be in the beginning and end of each episode, maybe using each discovery to learn of ways to defeat NEMESIS or another threat in the show, with it building towards such a battle that could have threated both eras.

Other ideas I have is that Aloy & Co could use Minerva to create a false signal of a high tech cauldron and turn it into a AI version of Pandora's Box to trap it and then using the FZ ship send it into the sun, use HEPHAESTUS to create machines or weapons and armour to combat or stalemate NEMESIS to the point where it cannot cause harm, HEPHAESTUS could given that Aloy has defeated him twice and captured him once could maybe create a Terminator style machine possibly in her image to defeat her and maybe it to damage her reputation, Use Vast Silver as a vires to infect NEMESIS and destroy it from within.

So, while we know that GAIA based their robot in animal morphologies, we can also see that she did not do a one to one copy. Some machines seem more "inspired" by animal morphologies than an exact replica of said animal in machine form. Not only that but some machines kinda look like a combination of various types of animals.

The Stalker is obviously inspired in jaguars and pumas, but also depict some reptilian attributes. The Rollerback resembles a pangolin but also resembles an Ankylosaurus with its "hammer" tail. This got me thinking in the Slaugherspine, clearly inspired by the Spinosaurus (my favorite dinosaur) and how its depiction is outdated. If I recall correctly, the spinosaurus in JP3 was build with parts of a baryonix and at the time paleontologist didn't have the entire skeleton of the spinosaurus aegyptiacus. We now do and understand that its completely different from other therapod dinosaurs... which kinda doesn't fit the Slaughterspine if it was a one to one recreation from Hephaestus.

But Hephaestus could easily just mix parts of all dinosaurs of the known spinosauridea family, having this hybrid similar to JP3. It makes more sense that the Slaughterspine is more specialized for combat in the ground since not a lot of humans have developed the ability to travel oceans or in very deep deltas and rivers.

All of this just to say that the Slaughterspine is even more similar to the Spinosaurus from JP3 than we knew about. Possibly even having the same explanation of being a "hybrid" after more knowledge on Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus is discovered.

Guys, I woke up today with the craziest crackhead theory.

Imagine this: In Horizon: The Great Sea/what ever the next game is, the "Main Quest" section is split into two questlines: The Hephaestus line, and the Nemesis line.

The Haephestus Line is about Aloy and her friends searching for a way to apprehend Hephaestus, leading to them fixing the biosphere and ending The Derangement once and for all. The Nemesis line is about Aloy and her friends resolving the threat regarding the rogue Zenith AI, Nemesis. Both could have an interesting final boss, and perhaps you could gain an ally for one final fight after completing the other one.

Overall, the chances of this happening are low, but I would love to see it. Tell me what you think!

In the datapoint HEPHAESTUS Revisited, Beta says that HEPHAESTUS' contact with the Far Zenith network would give it access to more advanced technologies. That got me thinking: what if HEPHAESTUS starts creating Specter-like variants of the preexisting machines, and then it makes new machines. Also, Guerilla PLEASE give us Sawtooth in third game because I miss it and HZD is outdated so I'm not gonna play that again.

Since the slaughter spine is based on spinenosaurs can in life it was able to swim or go into water is it to heavy or it just can't swim which is a bad move on Hephaestus part.

When checking recommended level differences between Behemoth and Frostclaw for my “Who would win?” poll, I realized Daemonic machines are probably an early version of Apex machines. HEPHAESTUS has been busy…

What if CYAN hadn't accepted HEPHAESTUS's signal?

I kinda feel bad for Hephaestus. At first he was just trying to do his job but then the stupid primitive monkeys kept destroying all his creations..... And no matter how he tried to compensate they just come up with new ways to kill them. Even when he started diverting energy from his main task to create machines specifically to deal with the pests they would just kill those too.... It's almost like dealing with the bed bug infestation where eventually you just get so frustrated you decide to burn the entire bloody House down.

Now if you think about it Aloy never tried to properly communicate with Hephaestus.

Minerva was unsure and scared to become part of Gaia again but in the end, she understood that it needed to be done.

Demeter, Aether and Poseidon were happy to return to Gaia. I loved how they referred to her as "mother".

Hephaestus was never evil, his main priority was building machines and keeping the terraforming system stable while Gaia was absent. He only became angry after he saw humans destroying his creations, by doing so Hephaestus deemed humans as a threat.

I believe if Aloy applied logic and tried to explain the situation to Hephaestus he might have accepted to return to Gaia

It might be just a gameplay element but when you scan a machine, focus reveals everything about it, including weakpoints. Which is weird, because Focus is not created for doing this, it is basicly a phone. So, who is changing the User interface of focus for doing this? My guess is Hephaestus, but I do not think that he did this on purpose. He probably used the system for a reason (maybe he just didn't want to make a new system because it is not such a easy thing, it takes time), and somehow he managed to upload everything to focus network, maybe by an accident. So, what do you think?

Since Aloy has been in so many HEPHAESTUS must have some new defenses like new machines and puzzles. Like the shell- snapper Talanha encounters near a cauldron in the comics. What else do you think there will be?

Do you think that the Shell-Walker have a Better AI than the others HZD machines? Not only is created by Hephaestus but in the base game it is the only one with hands and the only one that when the crate holders are destroyed it take back his crate.