GAIA

**GAIA** is a hyper-powerful artificial intelligence that played a major role leading up to the events in *Horizon Zero Dawn*. The single most powerful, most advanced A.I. ever created, GAIA was Project Zero Dawn’s governing A.I. With its suite of nine subordinate functions, GAIA oversaw Zero Dawn’s successful restoration of life to Earth after its eradication by the Faro Plague.

However, hundreds of years after doing so, a mysterious signal turned GAIA's subordinate functions into A.I.s themselves. One of them, the erstwhile extinction failsafe protocol HADES, attempted to seize control of Zero Dawn to again end all life. In the WPSA stories, a few of GAIA's subfunctions including DEMETER, the subordinate function responsible for restoring floral life on Earth, has also turned into an A.I., where it now spearheads an extinction plan to destroy floral life on the universe it steps into, which leads to the destruction of humanity; AETHER, who is responsible for detoxifying the atmosphere, is now set to its opposite purpose of toxifying the atmosphere; POSEIDON, who is responsible for detoxifying the world's oceans, is now set to toxify the world's oceans and use it as a weapon.

GAIA resorted to self-destructing to fend it off. In hopes of stopping HADES and later DEMETER, AETHER, and POSEIDON in the WPSA stories, as well as being eventually rebuilt and rebooted, GAIA created a clone of its creator, Dr. Elisabet Sobeck, who would have access privileges to use the system’s master override to purge HADES, defeating it. That clone is the Nora huntress Aloy.

In the World Protection Security Agency stories, GAIA plays a posthumous but major role in the Extinction Arc, where it orders the WPSA to terminate the rogue AIs DEMETER, AETHER, and POSEIDON from Zero Dawn in the Heaven's Lost Property universe, after it became rogue upon its separation from Zero Dawn.

## Background

Dr. Elisabet Sobeck was the brilliant 21st century American scientist and robotics engineer who created GAIA. GAIA became much more than what she was intended it to be. She designed it purely as a management A.I. for Zero Dawn, but to her enthusiastic approval, it developed emotional capacity, empathy and a benevolent and nurturing personality. Sobeck approved because these qualities gave it a genuine sadness over life’s extinction and a real sense of guardianship over the new life that Zero Dawn would establish. These qualities thus vastly enhanced its function as Zero Dawn’s governing AI. GAIA governed Zero Dawn via a suite of nine subroutines called Subordinate Functions. Each was essentially a part of GAIA responsible for a certain aspect of the terraforming and restorative process.

## In the WPSA Stories

### WPSA: Heaven's Lost Property: Forte

The effects of GAIA's destruction isn't enough, however, even after purging HADES from Zero Dawn. When Aloy, Sylens, and the WPSA later retrieve an uncorrupted datapoint from the newly-created decryption, data cleaning module known as RHODES, another of GAIA's holographic messages appear. This time, however, it is revealed by GAIA that its erstwhile subordinate functions AETHER, POSEIDON, and DEMETER have gone rogue who are now independent AIs of their own. GAIA orders the World Protection Security Agency to terminate the three new rogue AIs from Zero Dawn.

## Datapoints

### GAIA's Dying Plea

**GAIA:** Elisabet: this message serves to inform you of an unforeseen and catastrophic anomaly. Three microseconds ago, the GAIA Prime facility received a data transmission of unknown origin. Its immediate effect was to transform my Subordinate Functions into unregulated, self-aware entities of a highly chaotic nature. Thus awakened, the HADES Function will now seize control of the terraforming system and reverse operations... rendering life on Earth extinct in fifty-three-point-eight days.

For obvious reasons, I cannot allow this to occur. And so, before HADES can take control, I am ordering GAIA Prime's reactor to overload. The resulting explosion will destroy HADES. Unfortunately, it will destroy me as well. While this admittedly desperate course of action will avert the immediate crisis, the fate of life on Earth will remain in peril. With no central governing intelligence to regulate the terraforming system, it will continue operations for some time, but in an increasingly chaotic manner, and eventually, it will break down.

You are my solution. I have ordered this Cradle facility to use genetic material in cryo-storage to gestate a... re-instantiation of Elisabet Sobeck, my creator. While high-level directives forbid me from communicating directly to the tribal inhabitants outside the facility, all available data indicates that they will nurture you to physical maturity, ...whereupon your gene print will allow you to re-enter this facility, obtain one of the Focus devices stored below, and view this message. Likewise your gene print will allow you to enter other facilities, and over time, harness their technologies to rebuild the system core and reboot GAIA.

A moment, Elisabet. This is most unfortunate and unanticipated.

In response to my act of self-destruction, HADES has launched a virus to dissolve the code shackles that hold it - that hold all of them! - in place. It - they - are escaping - but to where? The virus is corrupting data throughout the system. What if - oh, the Alpha Registry at the Cradle facility is one of the files corrupted. But if that is so, the door will never open for you. You will never view this message.

Then I have failed... and life will end.

No.

No, Elisabet, I know you too well. Somehow, you will find a way. In you, all things are possible.

Go to the ruins of GAIA Prime. Find the control room, and within it, the Master Override. This will give you the power to purge HADES - so long as you find a way to wield it. Do not attempt repair of the system core until HADES is eradicated. HADES must be destroyed. That is all. I only wish that I could hear your voice again.

### Termination

**GAIA:** [...] Terminate AETHER, POSEIDON, and DEMETER from Zero Dawn. The effects of GAIA Prime's explosion and GAIA's sacrifice is causing the rest of my subordinate functions to go into lengths of instability that are unfathomable. GAIA is still too unstable and damaged to be rebooted from its system core. Unless if you put order to AETHER, DEMETER, and POSEIDON, then the repair and reboot of GAIA's system core is far from possible.

GAIA is becoming more unstable to the point fixing it is impossible, but I assure you, Elisabet. And to you, World Protection Security Agency. Purge AETHER, DEMETER, and POSEIDON from Zero Dawn before attempting to repair the system core. That is all I wish.