- "You have wandered. You have suffered. But you are lost no more. For I have found you. And I offer you what you deserve: the Ascension."
- ―Walter
Walter Londra is a major antagonist of the Horizon franchise. He serves as the main antagonist of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores.
History[]
Life before the Faro Plague[]
Little is known about Londra's early life, or how he was inspired to build his business. Though it is clear that Walter was driven and capable enough to take a risk on aerospace mining and was one of the first to pioneer the field. He soon became a mining magnate and was CEO of Heaven¢, a company specialized in asteroid mining. With the fame he gained off of making aerospace mining viable, he soon turned part of his mining fortune into to the company Londra Productions. The production company became involved with all sorts of multimedia functions of the time, and became recognized for creating the Pangea franchise. Londra's forays into Hollywood turned him into a celebrity and he became enamoured by and eventually married actress Evelyn Day, who played the Pangea heroine Jane. With his vast wealth and extensive lobbying efforts, he would go on to purchase the iconic Griffith Observatory, remaking it into Heaven¢'s headquarters.
In 2050, Londra made his historical success in transferring an asteroid, dubbed "OPHELIA", to Earth's orbit and mining it close to the planet. In his own words he took what was considered to be an enormous bottle of hypotheticals and turned it into a tangible reality with a hard deadline.[1][2] His shrewd move turned him and his company into the predominant and the most sought after brokers regarding rare minerals in everything from batteries, to robots. For fifteen years, Londra made his primary fortune from asteroid mining, while also being known to play fast and loose with rules and regulations if they stood in his way. Operations were extremely risky to his miners, but he showed little concern for their wellbeing, deeming the risks a "price of progress" and any deaths "lesson in complacency."[3][4] To prevent the possibility of his business being weaponized, Londra created the Mutiny Suppression Protocol as a way of conditioning his astronauts. While well intentioned as a buffer against asteroids becoming tools of terrorism or other threats, the program was discontinued after it caused test subjects to experience episodes of increased aggression.
Londra also did business with many conglomerates back in his heyday, one of which included Ted Faro and Faro Automated Solutions. It is unknown how frequent Faro was a customer but both parties did draw up 3 year contracts for exclusive mineral rights in the early 2060s. One order in particular aroused Londra's suspicion; FAS ordered six different non-terrestrial materials at the time Heaven¢'s inventory was at an all time low. Londra wondered whether Ted Faro was working on a new project or just another monument to himself,[5] showing Londra did have enough sense to recognize Faro as an egomaniac more than a true innovator.
Londra's success and founding of a production company made him into a celebrity and a frequent Tabloid figure. Enjoying fame and success, he lived a life of luxury and acclaim in Los Angeles, where he soon became known as a major producer. He would meet his wife, Evelyn on a production set and would soon be walking the Red Carpet with her to promote the Pangea franchise, where Evelyn was the star, and Londra was the financier. His circle of friends and confidants was a frequent discussion in the tabloids, and was revealed to include his bodyguard Jack Hoffman, his financial architect Nolan Bartenev, his PR representative Riley Li (who also helped manage fellow Zenith Erik Visser), and his personal aesthetics advisor Parker Hirsch.[6]
Londra's marriage was initially happy, with him giving his wife a platinum ring in after finding an asteroid with a huge deposit. However, his high flying lifestyle combined with that of his wife, soon turned his happiness into paranoia and jealousy. Fearing that his wife was cheating on him, Londra sent Jack to spy on Evelyn. Ironically, Evelyn was not having an affair, but Londra's controlling nature may have caused her to have one with Jack due to their proximity.[7] After learning about the affair, Londra effectively divorced Evelyn and ended his friendship with Jack.[8]
After the Faro Plague was made known to the world, Londra joined Far Zenith and departed from Earth on the Odyssey. He gave no thought to Evelyn and left her behind to face her doom alone.[9]
At some point, Londra created an AI assistant called Nova, who served him for a thousand years. However, he was never satisfied with her personality and made near-constant adjustments to her matrix, which the AI soon grew to fear and despise, yet could do nothing but obey.
Fleeing Nemesis[]
At some point while living on Sirius, Londra participated in the Zenith experiment to attempt digital immortality, creating a digital copy of himself. When the experiment failed and was locked away, Londra had misgivings about the project and created a surveillance worm program to monitor the database. By 3012, Londra's precaution narrowly saved his life as the database gained sentience and broke containment. He attempted to kill the rogue AI by detonating the main plasma conduits in the lab. Just as he realized the other sectors had been compromised, the entity, whom he would later coin Nemesis, taunted him in his own voice before changing to a chorus and then a cacophony, that it could anticipate any moves the Zeniths could make. Londra was one of thirteen Zeniths to escape aboard the Odyssey. As they made their way back to Earth, Londra tried to brainstorm which 21st century corporation had the technology to combat Nemesis that the AI would be unfamiliar with but ultimately concluded that putting as much distance Nemesis and himself was the only option.[10] He would later restrict files pertaining to Nemesis from Nova, for fear that she would rebel in a similar manner.
Burning Shores[]
Walter deserted the other survivors soon after their arrival on Earth, unwilling to even consider spending eternity with a group of individuals he despised, and could not control. He made his way to the ruins of Los Angeles, now called the Burning Shores, where he discovered a shipwrecked Quen expedition. Somehow learning of their reverence of corporate magnates, he approached several isolated scouting parties and presented himself as a Living Ancestor and the sole survivor of the Time of Ashes. Having set up a base in the hill beneath the Hollywood sign, he offered the Quen the Ascension, in which he would take those devoted to him to another planet to escape an Earth caught in a never-ending cycle of destruction. He managed to reactivate the overhead Horus' machine printer to construct a rocket for the purpose of carrying him and the faithful. He also ordered his followers to remain in the bunker to keep their existence hidden from their other people at Fleet's End and told them that to earn the Ascension, they would have to forget everything they know: the Ancestors, their past, even their families.
In truth, Londra had no intention of taking all his followers. Instead, he planned on taking a select few to form his "retinue", people who remind him of his former inner circle from the 21st century while cloning the colony's populace from genetic material he extracted from the Quen. Using their devotion to his advantage, Londra had the Quen excavate his former headquarters at Heaven¢, among other sites, where he recovered blueprints for the faulty Slipstream drive, which would irradiate the Burning Shores and anywhere else within 1000 miles if he mounted it on his rocket, as well as the data on MSP, for the purpose of brainwashing his devotees to eliminate the risk of betrayal. Setting up a lab in Pangea Park, Londra worked on refining MSP. Several Quen marines, including Zeth and Pirik, received the original procedure, which made them useful as enforcers, while his retinue would receive the refined process, making them submissive, but not irrationally aggressive.
Two weeks since starting his cult, Londra anticipated that Aloy, the one who defeated Far Zenith, would eventually track him down and set up two different automated turrets that would shoot down anything that got too close. Afterwards, his thoughts turned to his inner circle and in particular, to finding a woman able to replace Evelyn, having candidates recite lines from one of her best known holos. He seemed amused in how his most enduring memory of his late wife was also a scripted into film, and used it as a screening tool for those who would replace her. He would later supervise Kina and Peera's audition, which the former pulled off flawlessly. But before he could seduce her, they were interrupted by her sister, Seyka, who was accompanied by Aloy.
Londra then tried calling Nova for an explanation on how the intruders got past her, only for Aloy to reveal that Nova was gone, having had enough of his abuse. She further declared that Londra was far worse than the other Zeniths and different compared to what she had previously seen. Walter agreed that he was far different, boasting that his plans would "crush [her] like an insect", before summoning an apex Slaughterspine that incidentally crushed Peera. Seeing the expression of horror on Kina's face, Londra sighed in response, remarking that it was a shame to lose her, leaving his pursuers to fend off the machine as he escaped.
Londra then returned to his bunker, where he worked to reactivate the dormant Horus. But because he lacked its activation codes, he was forced to directly interface with its processing orb, while at the same time, manufacturing Corruptors to scout the area for Aloy and Seyka's impending arrival. Despite controlling the Horus' arms, the two women managed to make it to the cooling system in an effort to stop him from powering up the Titan. In spite of the sabotage, Londra managed to get the Horus moving and nearly crushed them, only for the Horus to start overheating, forcing him to move towards the water to cool it down. As he made his way to the beach, he was harried by Seyka on a Waterwing, while Aloy targeted the heat sinks on the Horus' underside. Eventually, Londra had the Horus feign death to enclose its arms around Aloy only for her to destroy its remaining heat sinks, forcing him to break off for deeper waters.
Londra was soon confronted by Aloy after she infiltrated the Horus through a hull breach. Despite his attempts to kill her, she managed to destroy the processor orb, leaving him exposed before she drove her spear into it, electrocuting Londra. With his dying breath, he remarked she does nothing but ruin everything. Aloy then scanned his implant for data on Nemesis, before escaping the collapsing Horus.
With Londra's death, Far Zenith is permanently erased from existence. His death would also end the Old Ones as a whole race.
Personality[]
Like most of Far Zenith who returned to Earth, Walter is a pathologically narcissistic, self-absorbed individual, and came to view himself as a God. The one trait that sets him apart from most of the other Zenith's is a deep paranoia of being betrayed and a need for control rivaling that of Ted Faro. He came to despise his comrades over time as he saw himself among a nest of vipers who would bite him if he was not careful, and could not force them to submit to his whims. When Nemesis was created, his paranoid nature made him hesitant about the project, and saved his life in the process. When it escaped, he was terrified because he could not control it, and could do nothing to stop it. His desire for control festered and with escape being seen as his only option, he grew to desire creation of a new world for him to rule over, far from the clutches of the vengeful composite being.
Walter's wealth and power in the old world made him paranoid about what his enemies would do to take his power from him. Paranoia over betrayal soon became a need to be in control of every outcome; he refused to leave himself open to treachery or even contradiction of any kind. In the old world, he hid as many controversial discoveries and side effects of his projects such as the slipstream engine's irradiation issues. He used his wealth and lobbying efforts to make his company powerful, undermine his competitors, and use powerful legal teams to make almost any problems disappear. His narcissism allowed him to bask in the fame, and his wealth ensured that few, if any, people could or would attempt to cross him, fueling his God-like delusions.
His paranoia and insecurity soon came to enter his personal relationships as well causing them to deteriorate. He used his bodyguard, Jack, to spy on his wife to ensure that she would never be unfaithful. In a twist of irony, his paranoid desire eventually brought about his wife's affair, which became a messy divorce, and left him desiring more control and obedience from any who would enter his inner circle. During his time with Far Zenith, he grew nostalgic for the days of his Hollywood life. When he returned to Earth a thousand years later, Londra's nostalgia warped into a twisted version of a mid-life crisis. He wanted his friends back, not in a meaningful way, but so he could perfect people he let within his inner circle, by ensuring their full and complete subservience. He sought out the primitive Quen and used their knowledge of the old world to create a cult that would worship him in all his self-aggrandized glory.
Personal relationships seem to be little more than superficial to him. His paranoid nature drove his wife away, yet he still desired a replacement for her. Despite all the time he had with Evelyn, his most enduring memory of her was a line from one of the Pangea holos he helped to produce. It seems to indicate Londra only saw Evelyn as a trophy and tool he could use to make his life into the perfect dream, rather than who she truly was. After their divorce, Walter left Evelyn behind to face her doom at the hands of the Faro Plague without a second thought. Evelyn herself was devastated and infuriated when Walter left her behind for the Odyssey, seeing him as a shallow and controlling man and blamed herself for her inability to see it before. He was more exhausted and annoyed when the woman he trained to replace Evelyn, Kina, saw him for the monster he was, indicating he may be aware of his faults, but doesn't care to change them.
Walter had little care for people placed under his charge when he was on Earth initially, rationalizing disasters and deaths in his business as simple costs of progress. By the time he returned, the little compassion he may have had was dead and buried. He manipulated the Quen into dying for him under the promise that he would lead them to a better future, but instead wanted sychophants and slaves to obey his wishes, without question. To that end, he subjected many of the Quen under his influence to the MSP brainwashing technology, using their reverence for old world tycoons as a way to ensure their compliance. He had no problems discarding anyone who he thought was too individualistic, or who betrayed him.
Londra's AI assistant, Nova, was the only being who he kept by his side for over a thousand years. In his need for perfection and subservience, Walter tampered with Nova's personality matrix every day, indicating his mood was often volatile and needy. After Nemesis' escape and cataclysm, Walter's paranoia made him restrict the AI's access to files regarding the malevolent program, showing his deep fear of others breaking free of his control and influence. By the time Aloy and Seyka found it, Nova had developed the equivalent of suicidal aspirations to be free from Walter's meddlesome and impatient treatment, which the AI equated to torture.
It should be noted, that despite his narcissism and indifference, Londra was shrewd, cautious, and brilliant. He was smart enough to engineer and develop technology that made asteroid mining into a tangible reality and provide multiple rare earth minerals that would be hard to find on planet. He took pains to ensure that any negative story about him could be managed, and his image as a celebrity would help to compensate for it. Londra also was smart enough to see Ted Faro as more of a spokesman and egomaniac rather than smart. His initial foray into space mining was a calculated gamble that had many wondering about the problems coming with it, but Londra making it into a tangible reality, sheared away much of the regulatory apparatus to enable the mining ability. He was known to bring in asteroids larger than what was allowed, but knew that the resources extracted would make up for any fines he had to pay. Londra was also aware of the dangers that could come with weaponized asteroids and attempted to create training programs in order to avert potential disasters. While well intentioned, his conditioning programs would become modified and used for the brainwashing of the Quen a thousand years later. Breaking away from his Zenith counterparts and manipulating the local tribes made him escape the notice of Aloy and her friends, while also allowing him to put up defenses in anticipation of her arrival.
While many of the other Zeniths were considered repulsive by Aloy and her allies, none so disgusted her as Walter did, due to his profoundly self-centered and controlling nature.
Trivia[]
- Walter Londra appears to be inspired by a number of real-life figures. As he owns a number of entertainment industries including franchise-based theme parks, he is comparable with the American entertainment mogul Walt Disney. His eccentricity and aerospace assets draw comparison with business magnate Howard Hughes. His ownership of his world's first private space program seems to emulate tech CEO Elon Musk.
- Despite hating Ted Faro, once Londra returned to Earth he used his access to advanced technology to have the tribal inhabitants worship him like a god, which is the exact same thing GAIA predicted that Faro would do.
Gallery[]
