Horizon Forbidden West continues expanding upon the tribes that were met in Zero Dawn and introduce players to two primary new tribes with, the Utaru and Tenakth. However, as Horizon Forbidden West proceeds towards its climax, Aloy meets another tribe, the Quen, who have set up camp in the ruins of San Francisco. Hailing from across the ocean, the Quen showcase that other tribes still exist across the globe, opening the door for potential spinoffs in the Horizon franchise to explore the state of other people on Earth.
The Quen sailed across the Pacific Ocean from their homeland, called "the Great Delta." While presumably located in mainland China, several deltas in Asia within the present could localize their home; however, the world of Horizon has been altered by Aloy's time, leaving some uncertainty. The Quen has had access to outdated Focuses for at least thirteen generations, safeguarding their knowledge against other local tribes they view as barbarians.
What the Quen Represent in Horizon
While the bulk of tribes introduced throughout the series all originate from Horizon's Cradle called ELEUTHIA-9, located in Colorado, it can be ascertained that the Quen do not come from here. Instead, it's more than likely they originated from ELEUTHIA-1, which, according to records, was built around the Xinjiang province in northwest China. With the games mainly focusing on the descendants of ELEUTHIA-9, the introduction of the Quen spotlights and proves to players that other groups of humans exist around the globe.
This is elaborated through Horizon Forbidden West's Quen culture, as Alva informs Aloy about their advanced empire, with information obtained from their Focuses being restricted to the Empire and the Diviners - with even the Diviners having limitations to the entire cache of knowledge. This is done not only to control the general Quen population but to prevent information from ending up in the hands of other tribes around the Quen, who are seen as barbarians. Alva further elaborates that back home, other tribes mean the Quen harm, which they were told would be true across the ocean.
This information is pivotal in understanding that ELEUTHIA-9 was not the only Cradle that successfully gestated humans from Zero Dawn. However, it also highlights that despite GAIA's subordinate function, Apollo being purged, other tribes, such as the Quen, were able to discover technology and remnants of the Old World, indicating that not every tribe reverted fully to primitive states like the Nora, for example. With the location of only one other Cradle being known, ELEUTHIA-2 in Mount Namuli in Mozambique, there's an entire world of people for Horizon to explore who may hail from ELEUTHIA-3 through ELEUTHIA-8.
The Derangement of Horizon's Machines Is Most Likely Felt Across the Globe
Horizon's Derangement of the machines began roughly twenty years prior when GAIA self-destructed after receiving the extinction protocol that gave sentience to her subordinate functions, including HADES. While the Horizon games have documented what happened among the tribes and locations players have come to know, how the rest of the world dealt with it remains a mystery. Even the Quen hasn't mentioned it entirely, though they acknowledge the deadliness of the machines.
Spinoffs in the Horizon world can flesh out not only other tribes with their different levels of knowledge and technology but even set their material during the Derangement. The maingames have highlighted Horizon's Red Raids as a significant reaction to the Derangement. Still, it would be interesting to learn if other tribes followed similarly or, due to their levels of technological understanding, responded quite differently. The potential ideas and avenues are nearly limitless.
Horizon Forbidden West is available now for PS4 and PS5.
