Samina Ebadji

"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait." This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.

Samina Ebadji
Culture	Old Ones
Gender	Female
Eye color	Brown
Affiliation(s)	Project Zero Dawn
Position	Alpha of APOLLO
Portrayed by	Jaye Jacobs (voice) Kris Branch (model)

Samina Ebadji was a member of Project Zero Dawn, serving as the Alpha in charge of the APOLLO subordinate function.

History

Prior to the Faro Plague, Ebadji was a prominent figure in her field; she served as the lead archivist of the original Odyssey, during which time she developed an extensive archive of human culture known as the HOMER project.

After the Odyssey was abandoned, Ebadji worked as the Director of the International Collective Memory Institute in New Tehran.

Upon the discovery of the Faro Plague glitch, Ebadji was recruited as part of Project Zero Dawn, due to her unparalleled experience in the area of cultural heritage. She was one of the nine individuals selected by Elisabet Sobeck to serve as Alphas, the second-highest rank within the project. Ebadji oversaw the development of the APOLLO subordinate function, which was responsible for archiving human culture and knowledge, as well as reintroducing it to the new human civilization. Ebadji directed her team to focus on four major tasks: constructing data repositories (known as Lyceums) within the Cradle sites, collecting and processing several million data entries in multiple major languages, storing the data in a format that could resist degradation for at least a millennium, and developing an interactive curriculum through which future children would access APOLLO's knowledge.

Ebadji personally investigated multiple possible archival mediums for APOLLO's data before finally settling on the use of DNA encoding within synthetic fossils; in addition to its practical advantages, Ebadji also found the use of DNA storage satisfying for its irony in outlasting a robot apocalypse. During the archival process, she clashed with her fellow Alpha, Travis Tate, who submitted several hundred instances of obscene and perverse media for archival within APOLLO. Ultimately, APOLLO was completed successfully, thanks in large part to Ebadji's prior work on the HOMER project, which was retrieved from the Odyssey and integrated into APOLLO. Reciprocally, an early copy of APOLLO was given to Far Zenith, who were running the revitalized Odyssey project.

As the Faro Swarm overran humanity's remaining strongholds before the subordinate functions were complete, Ebadji and the rest of the Alphas were evacuated to the GAIA Prime facility, where they would spend the rest of their lives perfecting their respective subordinate functions. When it was discovered that one of GAIA Prime's access port seals malfunctioned, risking the facility's exposure to the Faro Plague, the Alphas were debating among themselves who would sacrifice themselves to fix it. As Elisabet appeared via hologram, having sacrificed herself for them and Zero Dawn, Ebadji turned away in sadness.

Ebadji (sitting) is asphyxiated, along with Patrick Brochard-Klein and Margo Shĕn (both standing).

Some time later, Ebadji and the other Alphas were gathered into a meeting by Ted Faro. They were shocked to learn that Ted had not only locked them out of all the systems, but had purged all copies of the APOLLO database, believing it to be a disease that he wanted to keep from the new humans Zero Dawn would create. As Ebadji was driven to tears, Ted vented the room's atmosphere, killing Ebadji, along with the other Alphas.

Legacy

Ebadji’s, Brochard-Klein’s and Shĕn’s final resting place.

With the destruction of APOLLO, the humans birthed from ELEUTHIA were left with only a kindergarten-level education, as the Lyceums created for the APOLLO project were incapable of accessing the archive, and the doors to Lyceum never opened for them.

Despite the loss of APOLLO, neither human culture nor humanity's thirst for knowledge was fully extinguished. Literacy was preserved through the discovery of books which survived the Faro Plague, and knowledge of advanced mathematics was passed on from HADES to Sylens. Furthermore, knowledge and skills in agriculture, architecture, metallurgy and engineering were rediscovered by some tribes in the course of their development, without any input from APOLLO. The Carja and Utaru rediscovered and mastered principles of crop production. Indeed, the Utaru mastered crop production to the point of extensive, thriving wheat cultivation, becoming well known for this reason. The Carja mastered the production of maize enough to establish a large area for maize production called the Royal Maizelands, on the outskirts of their capital Meridian. The Carja also rediscovered and mastered architecture to the point of building Meridian, the largest and most renowned known city, sturdily constructed of masonry and featuring impressive buildings, bridges and aqueducts. The Oseram rediscovered and mastered metallurgy, metalworking and engineering to the point of constructing the two fully functional skyscraper-high elevators that connect Meridian proper, located on a high mesa, and Meridian Village at the mesa’s foot. One particular Oseram, the warlord Dervahl, reinvented the early old world sound recording device known as the phonograph. Meanwhile, Aloy's exploration of Old Ones ruins eventually uncovered the history of the human species’ extinction, and the fate of Ebadji herself.

Despite the purge of APOLLO and its backups on Earth, the alpha build given to Far Zenith was unaffected. This allowed Beta to learn from it as she grew up on the Odyssey. After the plans of Far Zenith were foiled by Aloy and her allies, APOLLO was reintegrated into the revived GAIA, resurrecting the long lost knowledge of the Old Ones.