Faro Automated Solutions logo.
Faro Automated Solutions is an old Earth corporation that manufactured robots in the mid-21st century. FAS is single-handedly responsible for the Faro Plague and the downfall of life on Earth.
History[]
The Faro Automated Solutions campus, as seen in November 2064.
Faro Automated Solutions was founded by Ted Faro in 2033.[1] In its early years, the company was successful with its popular lines of personal servitors and bodyguard-bots, but it was overshadowed by then-industry giants such as General Synthetics and RECorp.[1] During the climate crisis of the 2040s "Claw-back," FAS made its greatest success with the introduction of green robots and its environmental cleanup and detoxification efforts led by Dr. Elisabet Sobeck.[1][2] By 2049, FAS was widely credited for solving the climate crisis and became the world's wealthiest corporation, with a record market capitalization of over $23 trillion.[1]
But by the end of the 2040s, Faro decided to shift the company's focus on green robotics to the military-industrial complex, and opened FAS's military defense branch, effectively turning FAS into a military contractor.[1] The pinnacle of the company’s achievement was the development of the Chariot line of combat robots, whose development Ted Faro himself conceived of and oversaw. These robots operated as groups called swarms, similar to some insects. The company's change of stance significantly alienated Dr. Sobeck, who quit FAS and founded Miriam Technologies.[2] By 2055, FAS controlled 61% of the market share for automated military platforms, holding contracts with 353 nations, trans-governmental organizations, and corporate entities.[1]
Despite the company's successes and reputation, FAS did not hesitate to increase its profits through unethical methods. FAS willingly sold their combat platforms to clients on opposing sides and discreetly encouraged, if not outright instigated, conflicts between them, which in turn led their clients to buy more FAS technologies.[3]
The Faro Plague[]
- Ted Faro: "There's... a glitch, in the Chariot line."
- Elisabet Sobeck: "Are you telling me that a swarm has gone rogue, Ted?"
- Ted Faro: "... It's worse than that."
Faro’s Chariot robots were an all-out success on the military market. But in 2064, a swarm experienced a glitch that caused it to cease responding to chain of command protocols, attack its owner’s personnel and act like an entity in its own right, serving only itself. Defaulting to its formerly emergency fuel generation process of consuming biomass, and able to self-replicate, the swarm began replicating on a massive scale and consuming entire ecosystems (including human populations) to fuel themselves. Ted Faro ordered the swarm shut down, but due to security protocols he himself had insisted on, the Swarm (which would come to be known as the Faro Plague) was essentially unhackable.[4]
In October 2064, Ted Faro contacted Elisabet Sobeck for a quick fix before the press got word of the event, but by then it was already too late.[5] Projected models and equations showed that the Swarm had reached critical mass, and was capable of replicating and repairing faster than it could be destroyed. It was inevitable: the complete obliteration of Earth's biosphere would occur within a mere 15 months. Every single species and all organic matter, including humans, would be consumed, leaving the planet lifeless and sterile.[6]
Role in Operation Enduring Victory and Project Zero Dawn[]
While stopping the Faro Swarm was now impossible, a plan was established to hold it off for long enough to complete Project Zero Dawn; a top-secret reseeding and terraforming project that would repair and repopulate the Earth after the Swarm had wiped it out. Sobeck offered Ted Faro an ultimatum: either fund the creation of Project Zero Dawn or she would let all of humanity know that it was Faro himself who was responsible for the Plague. Faro accepted the former, but did so to save face rather than out of the goodness of his heart.[7]
Fortunately, the project was completed, and Earth was restored many years after the Swarm had devoured everything on Earth. Life on Earth had been given another chance.
Legacy[]
Ted Faro and his company are long gone as of Aloy's time, but their mark is forever ingrained upon the world. Many records were left, in spite of Faro's efforts to wipe them clean (and thus try to hide his guilt for the omnicide of all life on Earth) of his and Faro Automated Solution's involvement in the end of the Old Ones' world. Faro combat machines terrorized the land in the form of Deathbringers, Corruptors, and the corpses of the mighty Metal Devils sprawled across the terrain. Even with all the machines shut down, the threat of the Metal Devils possibly being awakened may still loom in the future. On the other hand, the Focus devices created by FAS have allowed a number of modern humans (most notably Aloy and Sylens) to better access and understand the mysteries of both the old world and the new.
The ruins of FAS' corporate headquarters came to be known as Maker's End by the civilizations of the new world.
Product Line[]
Domestic[]
- Focus
- Runner
- @lfred
Service/Industrial[]
- Various specialized servitors
- Multiservitors
- Construction bots
- Hestia-class firefighting robot[8]
Aerospace[]
- Space exploration probes
- Seeker/Extractor (asteroid prospecting & mining robot, effectively a spacecraft in its own right)
- Heavy launch vehicles
- Vertical Takeoff or Landing (VTOL) vehicles for various sectors and applications, commonly known as 'Verts'
Security/Law Enforcement[]
- Bodyguard bots
- Sec-Drones
- Police bots
- SWATbots
- Thrashers
- Sniffers
- Aerial security drones
Military[]
- FAS-ACA3 Scarab
- FAS-BOR7 Horus
- FAS-FSP5 Khopesh
- Aerial combat drones
- Manned combat vehicles such as tanks and APCs (post-glitch, part of Operation: Enduring Victory)[9]
- Various infantry weapons & munitions (post-glitch, part of Operation: Enduring Victory)
- UltraWeave Mk7.1 infantry power armor (designed and readied for emergency mass production involving numerous manufacturers including FAS by the U.S.R.C)
Environmental[]
- Environmental recovery automatons AKA 'Green Robots'
- Project Firebreak (Major contractor and sponsor)
Other[]
Notable Employees[]
- Stacy Anders - Vice-President, Public Relations
- Tala Aquino
- Dodger "Dod" Blevins
- Ted Faro
- Jay Friedkin - Senior Vice-President, Sales
- Bashar Mati (formerly Vantage Project)
- Gordon Nakata - Associate General Counsel
- Robert Rescher
- Paula Vassara
- Gina Ziermann
Former Employees[]
- Brad Andac
- Marjane Nahfisi
- Margo Shĕn
- Elisabet Sobeck
Trivia[]
- Many elements relating to FAS have names inspired by Ancient Egypt.
- The name "Faro" is a homonym for pharaoh, the title for Ancient Egyptian monarchs.
- The name "Scarab" refers to the scarab beetle, which was revered by the Egyptians.
- The "Khopesh" are named after a curved sword used up until 1300 BC.
- "Horus" refers to the Egyptian deity Horus, who was often depicted as king of the gods.
- The private bunker Faro built for himself for post-Zero Day is buried beneath the Transamerica Pyramid and is nicknamed "Thebes". In ancient Egypt, Thebes was a prominent and venerated city.
- Elisabet Sobeck's last name refers to Sobek, a military and fertility deity associated with the Nile River.
- The name "Faro Plague" may be a reference to the ten plagues of Egypt, which occur in the book of Exodus.
- The name "Latopolis" is taken from the ancient Egyptian city of the same name, now known as Esna.
Gallery[]
