Avad

Avad, also known as 14th Sun-King Avad, is a major character in the 2017 video game Horizon Zero Dawn and a minor character in its 2022 sequel Horizon Forbidden West.
He is the current Sun-King of Meridian, whose benevolent, diplomatic-focused ruling is starkly contrasted by his tyrannical father, the previous Sun-King Jiran, who would be soon repulsed by his father's incessant atrocities during the Red Raids.
He would soon initiate the Liberation of Meridian within the 21st year of Jiran's ruling, where he would join forces with the Oseram vanguard known as Erend Vanguardsman and his older sister Ersa, causing most of his father's devoted followers, including Helis and Bahavas, to be sent to Sunfall, as well as with him forcing to kill his own father, albeit with Ersa dealing the killing blow to Jiran, thus ending his father's two-decades rule of tyranny.
After taking up the mantle of the Sun-King, Avad would soon reform the entire Carja tribe by abolishing the policies his father had placed. Later on, he was an attempted victim during Dervahl's attempted genocide of Meridian, before Aloy would save him and the rest of the Carja from extinction.
When the devastating Battle of the Alight was averted by joint forces of various tribes, which caused the deaths of Helis, as well as the defeat of the Eclipse and Nasadi and Itamen's rescue from the Shadow Carja, Avad would soon offer an amnesty to the Shadow Carja commoners, which in return would soon cause the commoners to revolt against the remnants of the splinter tribe, causing Avad to reunify the Carja as one, ending the twelve-year Carja Civil War.
He is voiced by Josh Keaton and motion-captured by Kirk Newmann.
==Appearance==
Avad is a male, no older than late-20s, who has a tan-coloured skin. Despite his height, his physique is not exceptionally bulky. Avad has brown eyes and black or dark brown facial hair. Although Avad doesn't always wear a robe that covers his shoulders, he never wears a shirt during the whole game. Additionally, he is dressed in white pants with a red waistband.
Wrist bands are among the items he is wearing, where it is mostly red and white hues that make up his attire. He is donning a headgear with what seems to be machine parts or cloth that is intricately adorned with a central piece and an upper portion that resembles a crown. Avad's hair can be quite short due to the fact that he always wears his headgear.
==Personality==
Avad is a kind man at heart who spent his early years studying history, music, and poetry because he lacked the physical ability to engage in physical endeavours. In contrast to his older brother, he had a charm based on keen observation, emotional intelligence, and empathy, which ultimately served him as king more effectively than he had ever imagined. In contrast to his father, who would lash out in blood at every affront, Avad will give diplomacy every chance to succeed before using force, if any other option was considered negligible.
He aspires to establish positive ties with all of the tribes who are close to the Sundom and believes in peaceful cohabitation with other tribes based on mutual respect. He leads in accordance with his reasonableness, progressivism, adaptability, and dislike of conflict. Although he possessed the military might to fully destroy the Shadow Carja, his character and philosophical outlook prevented him from acting in such a callous manner. He is credited for liberating the Carja from Jiran's cruel rule in the Sun-Kings' historical records. In fact, he is referred to as The Liberator in the annals.
==Background==
===Past and the Red Raids===
Although nothing is known about Avad's mother, it is assumed that she also gave birth to Avad's older brother, Kadaman, who is the second of Jiran's three sons. The younger half-brother of Avad, Itamen, was born to Jiran's second wife, Nasadi.
Avad showed more interest in history and the arts than Kadaman did, who was chosen as an heir because of his skill and bravery in battle. Avad only trained in battle when it was absolutely necessary. Avad didn't aim to become the Sun-King at any point in his life, and nothing about his early years was prophetic of his future.
Avad and Kadaman witnessed their father's transformation from a revered leader into a vicious tyrant as they grew up in the Palace of the Sun in Meridian, the Carja nation's capital.
The Oseram warrior Ersa was taken in a raid and placed into the Sun-Ring four years after Jiran's Red Raids got underway. Jiran "rewarded" her for surviving by making her a slave in the palace, where Avad made friends with her. He disguised her as a Carja noblewoman to assist her in obtaining crucial information and assist her escape back to the Claim (although he had to similarly disguise himself to gain her cooperation).
Like many other Carja, Kadaman and Avad detested the raids and the sacrifice of human beings, seeing them as senseless acts of violence. They were able to express their opinions to Jiran directly, unlike other dissidents, though. As Jiran's eldest son and heir, Kadaman likely and mistakenly thought that Jiran would consent if he requested their end. But as soon as he did, Jiran retaliated by also sacrificing him. Jiran's reaction convinced Avad that Jiran was irrational and that the crimes could only be stopped by toppling him. The members of his honour guard concurred to one.
Avad and his honour guard left Meridian after night on the day of Kadaman's death and made their way to The Claim in an effort to gather an army of allied tribes to overthrow Jiran. When Jiran learned, he labelled them as traitors. Avad ran across Ersa once again in The Claim, who had made links with the Oseram freebooters who battled the raiders together with her brother Erend. The siblings assisted Avad in uniting these factions with his soldiers to create the army he required. Avad also got support from Meridian in the shape of Marad, Jiran's spymaster and adviser. Marad once admitted to Aloy that he "served" Jiran "to his opponents," therefore it is assumed that his help was subversive even though its precise form is unknown.
===The Liberation of Meridian===
The liberators entered Meridian after months of planning. Any Carja troops they met ran back to the city, put down their weapons, or joined them as they made their way deeper into the Sundom. When they arrived to the city's walls, they encountered Jiran's devoted Kestrels and Carja warriors. The defenders had dug in, but the newly created Oseram Cannons used by the liberators prevented a protracted siege and rapidly overcame the city's fortifications.
In order to minimise harm to the city, Avad rigorously regulated their usage. The liberators defeated the defenders by carrying out the three-pronged attack that Avad had outlined and securing the city. The majority of the Sun-Priests and nobles, who made up Jiran's supporters among the civilian population, evacuated the city, leaving largely the now-freed slaves and other Carja underclass members who all sided with Avad.
Jiran was aware of his defeat, yet he insisted on fighting on, just as Avad had anticipated. While he waited to face Avad in his Solarium, he instructed his champion, the Kestrel commander Helis, to transport his queen Nasadi and his youngest son Itamen out of the city to his summer home at Sunfall. Officially, Avad begged his father to give up, and when he refused, he regretfully killed Jiran. Ersa really delivered the fatal blow, advancing as Avad hesitated.
According to Carja belief, if a Sun-King were killed, the world would go dark and the sun would lose its brightness. When Jiran's death prevented this from occurring, the Carja saw this as evidence that the Sun had never approved of Jiran's crimes and had abandoned him as its preferred conduit in favour of Avad. Their faith was bolstered by the fact that Avad himself belonged to the Radiant Line. This avoided a full-scale conflict, as Avad had intended.
Even though Avad had triumphed, Jiran's supporters weren't completely vanquished. They split off into a separate tribe known as the Shadow Carja under the leadership of their de facto leaders Helis and the High Sun-Priest Bahavas. Avad would subsequently present itself as the Eclipse, a military cult established by Helis and Bahavas in devotion to the antiquated artificial intelligence HADES after being duped by it, giving them the chance to try to regain the Sundom and dethrone and murder Avad.
===Post-Liberation===
After completing his Liberation, Avad immediately got to work repairing the social and political harm Jiran had caused the tribe. Slavery, which was first practised by his ancestor Hivas and had gained widespread acceptance under Jiran, was prohibited by him. In addition to opening the military to the same groups, he ordered the Carja Hunters Lodge to lift its prohibitions against non-Carja, women, and low-born people. He allowed guests from any tribe to visit Meridian, which had hitherto been absolutely off-limits to non-Carja. He halted the Red Raids militarily and dismissed the participating troops and officers from the army, though some, like the officer Zaid, were able to stay by lying about their participation.
Additionally, he started a diplomatic outreach and repentance campaign for the tribes his father had oppressed. He worked especially hard to mend trade and friendly ties with the Nora, whose country borders the Sundom to the east. He appointed a commander called Balahn, an army captain who had served in the liberating army and who firmly believed in his reforms and was resolved to do everything in his power to repair ties with the Nora, to the Carja border village Daytower.
Avad also upheld and deepened relations with the Oseram, partly due to Ersa's special ability to persuade the frequently divergent Oseram ealdormen to work with one another and the Sundom. In appreciation for their crucial help and as a peace offering to the Oseram, he commissioned the freebooters who fought with him into an elite force known as the Vanguard and named Ersa its leader. Although they fell in love, neither the Carja nor the Oseram would let them to explore their feelings in public.
===Dervahl's Genocide===
During the Red Raids, Dervahl was one of the Oseram leading the charge against the Carja. Jiran's wife and daughter were kidnapped and sacrificed in the Sun-Ring as payback, inciting in him a murderous hate towards the Carja. He also loathed Ersa because he thought they were dating and not just because she withdrew from him to aid Avad when she saw what he had become into. Because he himself wanted her, but she turned down his advances.
With the aid of a terrorist attack of Meridian, he devised a plot to murder all three of them simultaneously while also destroying the Carja and killing all of Avad's people. Ersa was successfully killed by him. Though not before he had succeeded in killing Ersa, Aloy discovered his intentions for Avad and Meridian and thwarted him, leading to his incarceration. Avad later discussed his thoughts for Ersa and his sorrow over her passing with Aloy. He saw Aloy to be similar to Ersa and was drawn to her as a result of his sadness. Aloy, however, turned down his approaches.
===Itamen and Nasadi's rescue===
When Aloy helped Jiran's widow Queen Nasadi and their son Itamen, Avad's half-brother, successfully defect from Sunfall, Avad once more bumped into Aloy. Vanasha, a Carja spy that Marad had long since planted in Sunfall, had long since devised a scheme for the eager Nasadi to desert with Itamen.
Itamen was declared by Helis and Bahavas to be the sole legitimate Sun-King and Jiran's chosen heir, making the Shadow Carja the genuine Carja tribe. These assertions would be refuted by his defection to the Carja and acceptance of Avad as Sun-King. Vanasha and Aloy collaborated to carry out the defection. When his stepmother and half-brother arrived, Avad welcomed them and expressed his gratitude to Aloy once more for her assistance.
===Battle of the Alight===
Later, Aloy would return to Meridian to inform Avad of a new and more threatening danger: the Eclipse was getting ready to attack Meridian and seize the Spire for HADES. In order to reactivate innumerable antiquated technologies and hasten the end of life on Earth, HADES would need to exploit the Spire.
Avad instantly put the Carja army on a war posture despite not fully comprehending the nature of the HADES threat. In order to protect Meridian and the route to the Alight, he ordered the city guard and the Vanguard reinforce the western slope. He also put out a call for help to every part of the Sundom. Warriors from the Nora, Oseram, and Banuk joined the Carja in supporting the cause; many of them came to the city's defence out of admiration for Aloy after having interacted with her.
Avad greeted all of them, with the exception of the Nora delegation (who rejected a royal audience). Avad and Marad participated in the victory celebration from the palace balcony after the war. He impulsively hugged a shocked soldier, demonstrating his attitude for his subjects in the process.
From there, Avad was there that evening as the city rejoiced in their win, while Marad stood by his side silently observing everyone.
===End of the Civil War and Reunification===
Avad was finally able to bring about the calm conclusion of the civil war he had planned for with the leadership of the Shadow Carja in ruins. Avad motivated the residents of Shadowside to retake the Citadel for Meridian by promising amnesty to everyone who had returned. This helped to bring the Carja tribe back together and put an end to the 12-year-long conflict.
A few weeks later, Avad paid a visit to the Hunters Lodge to speak with Talanah Khane Padish. In appreciation for her successful and forward-thinking management of the Lodge, Avad offered her a post as Special Advisor to the Council for the Restoration of Meridian. Erend Vanguardsman was another among those Avad chose to serve on the council in addition to Talanah.
===Six Months Later===
After discovering that Aloy had returned six months after the Battle of the Alight, Avad headed his royal court to the Spire. Avad noted that she departed in such a hurry that he never got the chance to officially thank her for her bravery after being reunited with the Savior. Itamen's hasty suggestion of presents was stopped by Nasadi, and Avad affirmed that they did indeed have gifts to present. He also said that while propriety demanded a ceremony, he believed Aloy would prefer a more relaxed atmosphere. Avad then declared that the new spear and tiara that Uthid and Vanasha had given to Aloy will always serve as a symbol of the Sundom's appreciation.
Soon later, Avad had an opportunity to meet with Aloy alone. He indicated the statue of Aloy and said that the artist intended to double its size and embellish it with gold and gems. Avad informed her of the forthcoming Embassy, in which the Tenakth will exchange back his cousin Fashav, who was kidnapped five years ago, when he learned that Aloy was about to leave for the Forbidden West while claiming that Meridian is still in danger.
He asked Aloy to inform Fashav that he is waiting for him in Meridian, his rightful home. He said that he intended to give the kingdom to Itamen when he reaches adulthood in order to free himself up to travel and maybe join Aloy as a companion. Avad asked Aloy if she could stay longer in Meridian so that they could get to know one another after Aloy's task was finished as she turned to leave.
==Trivia==
*While Avad's name is listed within the datapoint "The Sun-Kings", most of his acts during his current term was left blank.
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