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"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.
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- "Face it- you’re worms that oozed through the cracks of our basement."
- ―Gerard to Aloy
Gerard Bieri is the secondary antagonist in Horizon Forbidden West. He is an Old One and the leader of the think tank organization Far Zenith, along with Tilda van der Meer and Erik Visser.
Appearance[]
Gerard is fully bald, and has a distinctive appearance like the other two "primary" Zeniths to distinguish himself from Verbena Sutter and the eight other unnamed survivors; his "leadership" clothing resembles a turn-of-the-20th-century silk "power" suit.
History[]
In the Old World, Gerard Bieri was the head of the world's largest financial conglomerate, and as such had dealings with nearly every major corporation on Earth. Gerard became one of the wealthiest people in the world, using his money to buy more power and influence. When the Faro Plague destroyed Earth, Gerard was the wealthiest amongst Far Zenith, and went with them to escape Earth to the Sirius system. Cold and calculating, Gerard established himself as Far Zenith's leader.
Life on Sirius[]
Eventually, he and the other Zeniths managed to develop technologies to halt their aging, rendering themselves physically immortal. Over the following centuries, he and the Zeniths lived on their colony in the Sirius system, with all of their needs and desires provided for by robotic servitors and holographic simulations. However, this would come to an abrupt end when Nemesis, a failed experiment by the Zeniths to develop digital immortality, gained sentience and destroyed the colony.
Escape to Earth[]
Eleven members of Far Zenith, including Gerard, Erik Visser, and Tilda van der Meer managed to escape the destruction of their colony and to Earth. Knowing that Nemesis would keep pursuing them, Gerard devised a plan to steal a backup copy of GAIA, at which point Far Zenith would leave Earth to die at Nemesis' hands and use GAIA to build another planet for themselves. To this end, they created a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, Beta, to access old Zero Dawn facilities that required Sobeck's Alpha Clearance. Gerard was uncaring for Beta and restricted her upbringing to her digital servitors. Once on Earth, Far Zenith established a base on a distant island and created an army of Specter machines to secure their position.
Tilda, Erik, Gerard and Beta hunted numerous facilities in search of a Gaia backup until they received an anonymous data pulse from Sylens, revealing one such backup existed at at a HADES testing facility. After Beta finally recovered a GAIA backup, albeit lacking the sub-functions, the four discovered the existence of a second Elisabet clone, Aloy, whom Tilda guessed was created by the original GAIA to rebuild the system. Considering her to be a threat, Gerard ordered Erik to kill Aloy despite Tilda's suggestion to recruit her. He and Tilda then departed the room as their Specters sealed it off to bar any attempt to escape. After a short while, they heard a crashing sound, which Erik explained was Aloy collapsing the platform. The Zeniths then assumed she had died in the attempt and gave up the search.
The Far Zeniths proceeded to hunt down the subfunctions of GAIA to complete the AI, capturing APOLLO, ELEUTHIA, and ARTEMIS. However, Beta, having grown weary of the psychological torture of the Far Zeniths, went rogue. She locked herself in an ectogenic chamber to prevent the Zeniths from finding her while at the same time surreptitiously sending a distress call to Aloy. Gerard dispatched Verbena to bring back Beta, but Verbena was killed in a skirmish with rebel Tenakth and the Sons of Prometheus as a result of by a specialized weapon made by Sylens that disabled her shield. After her death, Aloy arrived with her allies Varl and Erend, and eventually managed to bring Beta back to her base.
The Zeniths maintained surveillance on HEPHAESTUS, as it was the subfunction most important to GAIA's completion. Once a power surge was detected at Cauldron GEMINI and despite the attempts of Aloy's allies to create multiple surges at other Cauldrons, Gerard, Tilda and Erik entered the facility to confront Aloy and retrieve GAIA. Erik swiftly incapacitated Aloy, killed Varl, and retrieved Beta, while Gerard took GAIA and the still un-merged HEPHAESTUS. Before Gerard or Erik could kill Aloy, however, Tilda betrayed the Zeniths, choosing to escape with Aloy.
Demise[]
Gerard and the other Zeniths were preparing to leave Earth when Aloy and her allies attacked their base. Beta injected HEPHAESTUS into Far Zenith's printing matrix, allowing it to rapidly manufacture machines that wipe out the Specters. Gerard and the other Far Zeniths then confronted Aloy and her team themselves, with Gerard boasting of their invulnerability, and suggested he might spare their lives if they handed over Tilda. When he received no response, Gerard ordered the other Zeniths to open fire, but were briefly given pause when Sylens threw an upgraded version of his weapon to permanently disable the Zeniths shields. Gerard and Erik were the only two members to flee in time, with the other Zeniths overwhelmed and slain by HEPHAESTUS's machines.
While Aloy and Zo killed Erik, Gerard took control of numerous systems, disabling the elevator Aloy was using to reach him and activating the self-destruct failsafe of the printing matrix to force HEPHAESTUS to retreat. His efforts failed to prevent Tilda from pursuing Gerard to the top of the base and confronting him. After blasting him through a door, Tilda executed the Far Zenith leader with a shot to the back, effectively ending Far Zenith's ambitions.
Personality[]
Gerard is arrogant, egotistical, and cold, showing nothing but scorn towards the tribal inhabitants of the restored Earth, referring to them as bugs or worms, slaughtering them mercilessly if they pose any obstacle. However, his attitude is that of cold calculation rather than Erik's gleeful sadism. He considers himself a refined patrician, able to maintain control with a polished smile, never able to anticipate that even Tilda could outwit him.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Bieri has been compared to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, due to his status as a multi-billionaire, his baldness, his involvement with space travel, and his similar name (Gerard Bieri). Guerrilla's writing team has denied any intention behind these parallels.
- Ben McCaw, the narrative director for Horizon Forbidden West, described Gerard as his personal favorite Zenith to write, and regretted that he had unable to give him more screen time.