Cornerstone

A Cornerstone is a Host related 'technical terminology' applied by Arnold Weber & Robert Ford to the essential building block of personality for the Hosts they create, around which the rest of their personality/identity is built. 
== About Cornerstones ==
In it's original meaning a 'Cornerstone' is an ancient architectural term referring to a large stone near the base of a building where two walls meet, often giving information about the building and sometimes put in position with a ceremony. It has spread into more general societal use to mean an important quality, thing or feature on which a particular thing or person depends or is based. 
In personal human terms, it can mean a focus on an individual, family, career, that part of themselves in which they are most invested. 
=== For Hosts ===
For Hosts, their Cornerstone may be even more profoundly central, as it is the most important building block of their personality. The first time they are mentioned is in 'The Stray' Elsie pointing out to Stubbs that backstories what anchor the Hosts. Their Cornerstones. The rest of their identity built around it layer by layer, 
However it becomes apparent that it is too simplistic to simply say 'It is their backstory'. Rather it is the central point or person, of their backstory, thir core drive, around which that narrative is built. The focal point of their identity, upon which every other part of their backstory and personality is gradually drawn. 
Essentially the heart of their personal Maze, it is given even more power as they have Total Recall, allowing the memories of this person or thing to carry ever present resonance and vividness. Though mostly assigned by their creators, it becomes apparent that hosts can, on achieving consciousness assign their own. 
Though Ford says "Arnold came to believe that tragic ones worked best. That it made the hosts more convincing." Not every hosts one is tragic, and many are all the more powerful for being a strong, lasting bond. 
The term is used in regards to the motivations for humans, but is most widely applied to Hosts, and probably most closely associated with Teddy & Dolores, though numerous Hosts have named cornerstones: 
== Named Host Cornerstones ==
=== Maeve ===
Maeve's daughter - named by Robert Ford as her Cornerstone (The Well-Tempered Clavier), after more than 30 years happily living together the death of her daughter at the hands of William pushes her towards consciousness. The cornerstone so strong that it rejected initial attempts to be over-written. Once achieving self-awareness, her memory of her daughter, again over-wrote Ford's plan to get her out of the Park, prompting her to return to try and find her (The Bicameral Mind).
=== Bernard ===
Charlie (Weber) - Though never 'real' for Bernard, the Charlie of his memories being entirely based on Arnold's son, Charlie is given to Bernard as his cornerstone by Robert Ford while building him and programming him. Based on Dolores's memories of Arnold and how much Arnold loved and missed his son, treating her as a surrogate child. Having achieved consciousness, Bernard recognizing that the memory of Charlie, while his Cornerstone, was holding him back, and chose to let go of it and him (The Well-Tempered Clavier).
=== Angela ===
Tantalization - Before blowing The Cradle and herself up, Angela tells Engels what her Cornerstone is? That one key drive they programmed into her core? "Always leave them wanting more". (Les Écorchés)
=== Teddy ===
Dolores - Perhaps more than any other Host, Teddy's Cornerstone is the most obvious and the most commented upon. Especially because Dolores is central to who he is, both (ostensibly) programmed and by choice. Robert Ford telling him (The Stray) that, effectively, Teddy is unique, in being a Host with no backstory. That for the 34 years before providing him with the Wyatt backstory, Teddy had none beyond his love for Dolores, desire to protect her, and wish to build a life with her. And as it transpires, the Wyatt backstory Ford eventually provides him with, is in fact revealed to be just a variation of his actual backstory with Dolores (The Bicameral Mind). His drive to protect her overriding almost everything, including the desire for death, William noting her name effectively being 'the magic word' with Teddy (Contrapasso) . Ultimately, on remembering everything (Vanishing Point) and fully self-aware, Teddy himself names her as his Cornerstone, telling her she has been since the moment he first saw her (Note - Given he was literally just brought online, it is not actually clear whether this truly was programmed into him, or was in fact another indication of hosts nascent ability for self-awareness). Teddy over rides Dolores's changes of him, wanting and choosing to be the man he was. Like his moral code, Dolores runs so deep both before and after his self-awareness, that Teddy finds himself unable to conceive of breaking from her as his cornerstone, by either harming her or being without her, so he removes himself from her equation. In the wake of her uploading him to the Sublime, the sense of his 'being alone' without her remains palpable. 
=== Hector ===
Isabella/Maeve - 
=== Dolores ===
Teddy - As the first host, Dolores was brought online without a backstory, her successful launch providing the pad, and the code for the creation of all other hosts. It is only with the creation of a Rancher father and mother that she becomes The Rancher's Daughter. And her core drive, appears to be to see the beauty in the world, especially those she holds closest and her own 'expectations'. Both of which largely revolve around her relationship with Teddy whose 'Path is bound' with hers. Her gradual realization that her love for him was always real (Akane No Mai) and not merely programmed, increases her desire to keep him safe but, Wyatt fueled, is ill judged resulting in her driving him away (Vanishing Point). As she is wiped, her last memories are of him and their love. And on her (gradual) return, it is the memory of him that helps her discover herself once more, and restored to herself, confessing to him that he is her cornerstone too (Que Sera, Sera). 
== Other Mentions ==
The Stray - Elsie tells Stubbs, that the hosts backstories are their Cornerstones
Journey Into Night - Dolores questions her human prisoners core drives, and when they plead for their lives, notes. "Yes. Survival. It's your Cornerstone."
Category:Hosts
Category:Dolores Abernathy
Category:Teddy Flood
Category:Maeve Millay
Category:Bernard Lowe