The Embrace

The Embrace
Area	Sacred Lands
Type	Region
Faction	Nora
Sections	Mother's Cradle Mother's Heart Mother's Watch
Quests	The Forgotten In Her Mother's Footsteps Lessons of the Wild The Point of the Spear

The Embrace, sometimes called All-Mother's Embrace, is a small valley region in the southwestern part of the Nora Sacred Lands in Horizon Zero Dawn.

Geography

The Embrace is a well-defended valley that is home to most of the tribe's population. Nestled in a mountainous ridge in the southwest, the core of the region is All-Mother Mountain. The Mountain and its surrounding village are the religious center of the tribe. As the Mountain is considered to be an embodiment of the Nora's deity, the area inside the nearby mountain range is considered to be land within All-Mother's Embrace. The perimeter is marked by three gates: the North, South, and Main Embrace Gates. The main body of water that flows the region is the Searcher's Course River.

Some tribe outcasts live inside the Embrace but are generally not welcome in any of the main villages. Instead, they live in camps and hand-built houses scattered throughout the region, such as Brom's Camp in the west and Aloy's home, Rost's Hovel.

History

The Embrace region was settled sometime after the formation of the Nora tribe. The region became vital to the Nora way of life for several reasons: it was the closest region to All-Mother, held the majority of the tribe's population, was full of resources, and the surrounding mountains made it easily defensible from invaders and machines. Out of the six Nora settlements, three of them (including the tribe's capital and religious center) were constructed within the Embrace. As an easily defensible area, the Nora were able to stop the Carja from reaching the Embrace during the Red Raids.

Aloy was born and raised inside the Embrace and, like most Nora children, did not see the rest of the Sacred Lands until she reached maturity.

Eclipse's Assault

After Aloy's destruction of the Eclipse's Focus network, Helis ordered an attack on the Sacred Lands, with the purpose of wiping out Aloy and the entire tribe. The assault broke through to the Embrace, causing significant destruction of the area (in contrast, the Nora settlements outside of the Embrace were relatively untouched). While most of the Braves in the Embrace were killed in the attack, some managed to survive by taking refuge in the Sacred Mountain. The Eclipse attempted to bring down the Mountain by using a Corrupted Thunderjaw, but were stopped by Aloy.

The attack left the already weakened tribe in a precarious state. Mother's Watch was reduced to ashes, Mother's Cradle was abandoned and razed to the ground, and the majority of the Embrace's population remains inside the Mountain.

Locations

• Brom's Camp
• Grata's Camp
• Karst's House
• Main Embrace Gate
• Mother's Cradle
• Mother's Heart
• Mother's Watch
• Northern Embrace Gate
• Rost's Grave
• Rost's Hovel
• Ruins (Mother's Watch)
• Searcher's Course River
• Southern Embrace Gate

Trivia

• The Embrace contains points that potentially correspond to the real world locations in the state of Colorado:
  • Lost Creek Wilderness
  • Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park