This article contains spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West.Horizon Forbidden West presents a larger world than its predecessor, expanding on the lore of both the old world and the modern-day of Aloy’s time by introducing new characters, machines, ruins, and tribes. The Quen is the first tribe that Aloy encounters that operates from beyond continental America, and the first tribe known to have access to shipping capable of crossing an Ocean.
The Quen have a lot of knowledge of the old world and have been able to create a large catalog of this information, much of it has helped them advance much further than the other tribes. However, they have been heavily affected by the Red Blight that Aloy is attempting to stop in Horizon Forbidden West, which is why they have set up a base in the ruins of San Francisco.
The Quen
With their immense knowledge of the highly advanced old-world humans, the Quen were able to cross the Pacific Ocean and make landfall on the Western shore of the Forbidden West. In their quest to protect the tribe, they are seeking more knowledge of the old-world, particularly data on agriculture to help feed the tribe.
Much of the knowledge the Quen gathered came in part from the use of the Faro Focus, which the Quen believed was entrusted to them by the old ones. The focus coupled with the belief that they were chosen by the old ones convinced them to seek out knowledge from different figureheads of the old worlds such as Ted Faro and Erik Visser, and the detailed knowledge they were able to uncover from them gave them formidable battle prowess and unrivaled knowledge of technology and machines.
Upcoming Threat: NEMESIS
Following the events of Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy and her friends find themselves needing to prepare for yet another threat to their world as an A.I. created by the Far Zenith, one of the antagonist groups in Horizon Forbidden West, is finding its way to Earth. The A.I., known as NEMESIS, is thought to be the reason for the separation of GAIA’s sub-functions and is on a singular mission to destroy humankind.
NEMESIS presents a threat that ties the two Horizon games together as it was responsible for giving HADES artificial intelligence and programmed it to destroy the biosphere, which is what set Aloy out on her first quest. NEMESIS is also made up of some of the brightest minds of the Far Zenith project that desired to find digital immortality, which means that NEMESIS itself is extremely advanced compared to the A.I. seen in Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Zero Dawn.
For Aloy to successfully fight off such a dangerous threat, she will need knowledge of the old world that only the Quen possess. So, it is likely that Aloy could sail across the pacific with the Quen to find as much knowledge of the old world as she can to help defend the planet from NEMESIS. Using their large catalog, Aloy may be able to find some failed project of the old ones or a variant of the Faro Plague, that would be used as a weapon to combat NEMESIS and the new machines it is certain to introduce in the follow-up to Horizon Forbidden West.
The Horizon franchise has always been able to create insightful lore for all the factions it introduces to players. With the Quen being shrouded in mystery and having the immense technological advancement of the old ones, they could become one of Aloy’s greatest allies in the fight against NEMESIS. Whatever the case may be, exploring the lands of the Quen seems to be the right step for Aloy as her quest to protect the planet has always led to her requiring more knowledge of the old ones, making the trip across the pacific much more feasible for future installments in the franchise.
Horizon Forbidden West is available on PS4 and PS5.
