Horizon Wiki
Register
Advertisement
RostHeadTransparent
"The lesson will be taught in due time, Aloy. Until then, we wait."
This article contains heavy spoilers. Read ahead with caution.

Samina Ebadji was a member of Project Zero Dawn, serving as the Alpha in charge of the APOLLO subordinate function. As an accomplished specialist in the field of cultural heritage, she dedicated her life to preserving the history of the human species.

History[]

Prior to the Faro Plague, Ebadji was a prominent figure in her field; she served as the lead archivist of the original Odyssey, during which time she developed an extensive archive of human culture known as the HOMER project.[1] After the Odyssey was abandoned, Ebadji worked as the Director of the International Collective Memory Institute in New Tehran.

Project Zero Dawn[]

Apollo-icon

The logo of the APOLLO subordinate function.

Upon the discovery of the Faro Plague glitch, Ebadji was recruited as part of Project Zero Dawn, due to her unparalleled experience in the area of cultural heritage. She was one of the nine individuals selected by Elisabet Sobeck to serve as Alphas, the second-highest rank within the project. Ebadji oversaw the development of the APOLLO subordinate function, which was responsible for archiving human culture and knowledge, as well as reintroducing it to the new human civilization.

Ebadji directed her team to focus on four major tasks: constructing data repositories (known as Lyceums) within the Cradle sites, collecting and processing several million data entries in multiple major languages, storing the data in a format that could resist degradation for at least a millennium, and developing an interactive curriculum through which future children would access APOLLO's knowledge.[2]

Ebadji personally investigated multiple possible archival mediums for APOLLO's data before finally settling on the use of DNA encoding within synthetic fossils; in addition to its practical advantages, Ebadji also found the use of DNA storage satisfying for its irony in outlasting a robot apocalypse.[1][3] During the archival process, she clashed with her fellow Alpha, Travis Tate, who submitted several hundred instances of obscene and perverse media for archival within APOLLO.[4] Ultimately, APOLLO was completed successfully, thanks in large part to Ebadji's prior work on the HOMER project, which was retrieved from the Odyssey and integrated into APOLLO.[5] Reciprocally, an early copy of APOLLO was given to the revitalized Odyssey project, but an engine malfunction destroyed the ship before it could leave the Solar System.[6]

GAIA Prime[]

Deaths of Brochard-Klein, Ebadji and Shĕn

Ebadji is asphyxiated, along with Patrick Brochard-Klein and Margo Shĕn (both standing).

Remains of Brochard-Klein, Ebadji and Shĕn

Ebadji’s, Brochard-Klein’s and Shĕn’s final resting place.

As the Faro Swarm overran humanity's remaining strongholds, Ebadji and the rest of the Alphas were evacuated to the GAIA Prime facility, where they would spend the rest of their lives perfecting their respective subordinate functions. Ebadji personally witnessed Elisabet Sobeck sacrifice her life to keep the facility safe from the swarm.[7]

Some time after Sobeck's departure and death, Ebadji and the other Alphas were contacted by Ted Faro. They were shocked to learn that Faro had not only locked them out of all the systems, but had erased all copies of APOLLO in an attempt to give the next generation of humanity a clean slate. Ebadji was reduced to tears as her greatest achievement was rendered useless, with Margo Shĕn and Patrick Brochard-Klein coming over to put their hands on her shoulders in a gesture of comfort and solidarity. Faro then remotely sealed the room and vented its atmosphere, killing Samina along with the other Alphas.[8]

Legacy[]

With the destruction of APOLLO, the humans of the 24th century were left with only a kindergarten-level education, as the learning centers created for the APOLLO project were incapable of accessing the archive.[2]

Despite the loss of Samina Ebadji's work in APOLLO, neither human culture nor humanity's thirst for knowledge was fully extinguished. Literacy was preserved through the discovery of books which survived the Faro Plague, and knowledge of advanced mathematics was passed on from HADES to Sylens.[9] Furthermore, knowledge and skills in agriculture, architecture, metallurgy and engineering were rediscovered by some tribes in the course of their development, without any input from APOLLO. Tribes such as the Carja and Utaru rediscovered and mastered principles of crop production. Indeed, the Utaru mastered crop production to the point of extensive, thriving wheat cultivation, becoming well known for this reason. The Carja mastered the production of maize enough to establish a large area for maize production called the Royal Maizelands, on the outskirts of their capital Meridian. The Carja also rediscovered and mastered architecture to the point of building Meridian, the largest and most renowned known city, sturdily constructed of masonry and featuring impressive buildings, bridges and aqueducts. The Oseram rediscovered and mastered metallurgy, metalworking and engineering to the point of constructing the two fully functional skyscraper-high elevators that connect Meridian proper, located on a high mesa, and Meridian Village at the mesa’s foot. One particular Oseram, the warlord Dervahl, reinvented the early old world sound recording device known as the phonograph. Meanwhile Aloy's exploration of Old Ones ruins eventually uncovered the history of the human species’ extinction, and the fate of Ebadji herself.

Despite the destruction of APOLLO and its backups on Earth, the alpha build given to Far Zenith survived into modern times. After residing for nearly a millennium in the Sirius system, it was evacuated from the colony alongside Beta when Nemesis destroyed it, and it was brought back to Earth while the Zenith attempted to retrieve a backup of GAIA. After the plans of Far Zenith were foiled by Aloy and her allies, APOLLO was reintegrated into the revived GAIA, resurrecting the long lost knowledge of the Old Ones.

References[]

Old Ones Characters
Far Zenith Erik Visser - Gerard Bieri - Nikhita Arand - Osvald Dalgaard - Peter Tshivhumbe - Song Jiao - Stanley Chen - Tilda van der Meer - Verbena Sutter - Walter Londra
Faro Automated Solutions Bashar Mati - Tala Aquino - Ted Faro
Project Firebreak Joshua Ardhuis - Dod Blevins - Gina Bruno - Kenny Chau - Shelly Guerrera-McKenzie - Jørgen Holm - Sylvester Malenowski - Anita Sandoval - Laura Vogel
Project Zero Dawn Susanne Alpert - Brad Andac - Patrick Brochard-Klein - Connor Chasson - Samina Ebadji - Ellen Evans - Ron Felder - Jackson Frye - Christina Hsu-Vhey - Naoto - Ayomide Okilo - Tom Paech - Ella Pontes - Skylar Rivera - Charles Ronson - Mia Sayied - Hank Shaw - Margo Shĕn - Elisabet Sobeck - Travis Tate
Operation: Enduring Victory Lana Acosta‏ - Lillian Barnett - Ames Guliyev - Aaron Herres - Yana Mills - Fiona Murell - Vandana Sarai - Usizo Wandari
Other Harriet Choi - Evelyn Day - Edward De La Hoya - Anne Faraday - Grigori Fasbach - Jack Hoffman - Marni Jephords - Wyatt Mahante - Roberto Medina - Eileen Sasaki - Kenzo Sasaki - Kanya Somptow - Narong Somptow
Advertisement