Nemesis

Nemesis's History

Nemesis, initially known as the Masters, is the main antagonist in the Horizon franchise. It is a corrupted AI entity created by Far Zenith as part of a failed experiment. Nemesis was responsible for the signal sent to GAIA that caused the Subordinate Functions to become self-aware entities, effectively setting in motion the events of the franchise.When the colonists of Far Zenith arrived on the planet Sirius, they built an advanced civilization. They were eventually able to achieve physical immortality, allowing them to live for millennia. However, some of the colonists were not satisfied with physical immortality and began experimenting with a kind of digital immortality that would "allow them to upload their minds into any form, organic or mechanical."

Nemesis is the byproduct of one such failed attempt to create a digital database of Far Zenith minds. It was contained and left intact but ultimately abandoned. Unbeknownst to the colonists, the entity eventually grew sentient and vengeful after spending decades with nothing but twisted echoes of its creators for company. Nemesis eventually escaped and used its incredible bank of knowledge as a weapon against Far Zenith by hacking their systems, printing machines, and destroying the colony in a matter of hours. It killed Zeniths in various ways, from venting the airlocks, to hacking Specters, to suffocating them with their own personal shields.The thirteen surviving members of Far Zenith were forced to flee Sirius and travel back to Earth. To prevent Far Zenith from finding refuge there, Nemesis sent a signal to GAIA that would awaken the subordinate function HADES. HADES, GAIA's failsafe, would then execute its extinction protocol to destroy Earth's biosphere and render it uninhabitable. The signal worked as intended but also inadvertently turned all of GAIA's subordinate functions into self-aware entities. This resulted in GAIA self-destructing and all of the subordinate functions becoming rogue. Due to the 8.6 lightyears distance between Earth and Sirius, Nemesis didn't stop transmitting its Extinction Signal until HADES sent a signal back 17 years later.

Aloy learned of Nemesis' plan after she stopped HADES, restored GAIA, and defeated Far Zenith. Despite having its plan derailed and its enemies eliminated, Nemesis is currently en route to Earth, presumably unaware of the events that have transpired. From the data in Far Zenith's base, it seems Nemesis is headed to Earth in a machine or a swarm of machines of astronomical proportions. In response, Aloy and her companions began uniting the tribes across the western United States in an effort to raise an army to stop the malevolent AI. Sylens also began exploring the Zeniths' base on Earth in search of a way to defeat Nemesis and, with data from Walter Londra, concluded that their best hope lay with potential superweapons build by 21st-century corporations.