"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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Dowager Queen Nasadi is a minor character in Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. She is the Queen Consort and widow of the late 13th Carja Sun-King Jiran, and the mother of his youngest son Itamen.
She and Itamen were taken to Sunfall by Jiran’s champion Helis after the Carja capital Meridian fell to Avad’s liberating army, where they were forced to remain as the Shadow Carja figurehead royal family. Eventually they defected to the Carja with the help of the Carja spy Vanasha and the Nora huntress Aloy.
Background[]
Nasadi was the wife of His Radiance Jiran, 13th in the Line of Luminance, and the mother of his youngest son Itamen. She has two stepsons: the late Prince Kadaman and current Sun-King Avad, born to Jiran by another wife, whose status is never touched upon.
History[]
Taken to Sunfall[]
During the Liberation of Meridian, when Jiran realized the battle was lost, he ordered his champion Helis to take Itamen and Nasadi to his summer residence at Sunfall. Helis fanatically obeyed, also taking with him Jiran’s loyal Sun-Priests, military and civilian loyalists and their slaves and servants. At Sunfall, Helis and the High Sun-Priest Bahavas organized these civilians into a Carja splinter tribe known as the Shadow Carja. They declared Itamen their monarch and the one true Sun-King, though he is but a child. Indeed, he was only a figurehead; Helis and Bahavas were the tribe’s de facto rulers.
Life at Sunfall[]
Instead of being honored with deference, Nasadi and Itamen were guarded like prisoners in the Citadel, the palace at Sunfall. Nasadi feared for her son, and particularly feared the influences of men like Helis on him. Indeed, every time Helis tried to train Itamen to follow Jiran’s example, she would intervene. Once when Helis had Itamen observe a human sacrifice in the Sun-Ring, a practice that Jiran had instituted and extensively engaged in, he averted his gaze and Nasadi came and shielded him from the sight, much to Helis’ annoyed consternation.[1] Some time later, they both appeared before an assemblage of bounty hunters called by Bahavas to track down and kill the falsely accused Shadow Carja army captain Uthid, whom Bahavas had accused of trying to kill Itamen to cover up his own crimes. After Itamen “commanded” Bahavas to speak on his behalf, she embraced and comforted him as he sat and lay his head on her breast, their sadness and fear plainly evident.
However, despite her sadness over her situation and fear for Itamen, Nasadi sympathized with the suffering of the Shadow Carja underclass, who lived in squalor in Shadowside, the tent city around the Citadel. She frequently had some of the food from her table distributed to the destitute children of Shadowside.
Defection to the Carja[]
Nasadi eventually got the opportunity to defect to the Carja, which she took. The opportunity came in the form of the Carja spy Vanasha. Vanasha had long been undercover at Sunfall in service to the Carja Sun-King Avad, and had become Nasadi’s handmaiden. They became so close that Nasadi trusted her enough to confide in her that she wanted to defect to the Carja with Itamen. Presumably after extended observation, Vanasha revealed herself to Nasadi and offered to help her defect, and Nasadi accepted. Eventually Bahavas was killed by Uthid when he tried to see Uthid killed by the bounty hunters. This afforded Vanasha the opportunity to enact the defection by spiriting Nasadi and Itamen out of the Citadel in the resulting chaos. She escorted them from Sunfall on a route through a gorge to the Branded Shore, where a barge waited to take them across the lake Daybrink to the Carja settlement Brightmarket. To eliminate expected complications such as pursuit, she had asked the Nora huntress Aloy to clear the route before their arrival. Indeed, complications arose, first in the form of a Rockbreaker that prowled the gorge, then pursuit, first by Kestrels and then Eclipse cultists with Corrupted machines. However between Vanasha and Aloy, all these complications were eliminated. Nasadi and Itamen were ultimately taken across the lake between the Branded Shore and Brightmarket, where they were welcomed by Avad and brought to Meridian.
Aloy's Return[]
Six months after the Battle of the Alight, Nasadi was with Avad and Itamen to greet Aloy at the Spire. The Dowager Queen was forced to hush her son when Itamen spoiled that they had planned to provide the Savior with gifts. Later, Aloy privately spoke with Nasadi and Itamen. Nasadi then urged Itamen to formally thank Aloy for rescuing them both from Sunfall and for defending Meridian against the Eclipse. When Nasadi took issue with Itamen directly asking Aloy for archery lessons, the huntress humbly admitted she had an important mission to undertake, but promised to return and teach him. In bidding her farewell, Nasadi assured Aloy that they would remain forever in her debt.
Personality[]
While Nasadi is seen but a few times, all evidence indicates that she is kind-hearted, considerate, loves her son dearly and wishes to steer him clear of any influence that would induce him to become like his father. Thus it may be presumed that she was opposed to Jiran’s brutality and cruelty. She is mindful of the suffering of others and will help them if she can, as evinced by her feeding the destitute children of Shadowside from her own table.