Proceedings from the Document Academy Proceedings from the Document Academy
Volume 10
Issue 1
Proceedings from the 2023 FanLIS
Symposium
Article 7
2023
Data Lost, Forbidden or Controlled?: The Archivists of Horizon Data Lost, Forbidden or Controlled?: The Archivists of Horizon
Forbidden West Forbidden West
Ashley Lanni
University of Toronto
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Lanni, Ashley (2023) "Data Lost, Forbidden or Controlled?: The Archivists of Horizon Forbidden West,"
Proceedings from the Document Academy
: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35492/docam/10/1/7
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In post-apocalyptic fiction, ancient knowledge and materials are almost as valuable
as currency, if not currency outright. Given the way information moves in these
systems, how can science fiction help us understand the ethical quandaries and
responsibilities of information professionals? More specifically, how can the
information systems we find in these worlds help us think about the politics of
archiving and the responsibility information professionals have towards society?
By focusing on the different groups and their archival practices within the world of
Horizon Forbidden West, we can showcase how the most empowering and socially
responsible archival practices are tied to making archives both accessible and
diverse, providing the greatest social good through accountability and showing as
many people as possible the complex nature of humanity and the world.
For the uninitiated, Horizon Forbidden West is a video game that takes place
in a post-apocalyptic United States some 1000 years after an event called the Faro
Plague, an event wherein 21st century humans created machines that consumed all
organic species. The game’s protagonist, Aloy, is one of the few people aware of
the forces that shaped the current world due to her Focus, a wearable miniature
computer, which lets her interact with ancient technology and store records for
future use. In Horizon Forbidden West, Aloy's main goal is to restore Gaia, the AI
that once saved life on earth, it order to help recalibrate the planet’s ecosystems that
are slowly falling into disequilibrium, and in doing so thwart the members of Far
Zenith, a group of immortal billionaires from the 21st century that wish to destroy
the current Earth for their own gains, eliminate all life currently on it, and use their
own version of the AI to create a world that only they will dwell in (Horizon
Forbidden West, 2021).
What is different about Aloy versus other cultural groups, or “tribes” as they
are called in-game, is the way she interacts with the past and its technology. Many
in the world treat the ruins of the past as dangerous and do not attempt to understand
them or the past they represent, fearful of destructive or corruptive influences.
Some, like the Nora, banning their members outright from interacting with ancient
technologies. Aloy is exceptional because of her curiosity towards and use of
technology, in many ways seeking out information and records to improve her
understanding of the world. She is indiscriminate with her appraisal and keeping of
the information she finds, operating under a principle of scarcity not unlike early
archivists of antiquities and medieval records, wherein everything is of equal value
due to the difficulty of finding materials (Cook, 2011, p. 625). There is no
discarding of any information that she obtains about the old world, whether it is
audio recordings about Gaia’s construction or an ad for a popular Massive
Multiplayer Online Game (Horizon Forbidden West, 2021). It is through this
collector impulse that she can be viewed as an archivist in the first place, even if
her initial collection mentality does not go beyond this individualistic and
indiscriminate use.
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In many ways, Aloy initially functions as any personal collector would, in
that her records act more as a self-reflection of her interests mixed with items
relevant to her world-saving or community helping work. It is a record of her
personal journey through the world, treated thematically in-game as a reflection of
her curious nature and a practical means to revisit findings. Aloy dedicates time
and resources to go beyond her “institutional” world saving confines and
responsibilities to find new documents and information, in line with what Richard
J. Cox and Helen W. Samuels regard as improving the retention of documents of
value (1998, p. 41). She asks what information is missing and seeks out documents
or artifacts that might fill in that gap (Cox and Samuels, 1988, p. 31). At first, she
acts like others in her unwillingness to share these documents directly with others.
She keeps all this information to herself, skeptical about others interacting with the
information out of a distrust of their capacity to understand, and thus sharing only
that which is immediately relevant to others when performing joint tasks. Aloy’s
access approach changes as she gains companions to help her save the world.
Rather than limit their access and make herself sole controller of the documents,
she provides them with the means and training necessary to handle records
individually and add to them. It is this open access approach that allows Aloy’s
companions to grow, shaping their interactions with the world, its past and even
helping them develop ways to save it. Shared information about the past of the
Tenakth helps Varl, who initially views them as a violent and irrational group who
should be avoided, to approach and befriend Kotallo, another party member.
Discovered history about the human past even helps members of the group better
understand the values of the societies they were raised in, as these groups based
their ideologies on remnants of the pre-apocalyptic society. A society-saving
example can be found when Zo builds a code to reactivate the Plowhorns, a farming
machine crucial for the Utaru’s survival, which had broken down from years of
wear and tear that the Utaru had no prior means to fix (Horizon Forbidden West,
2021, The Second Verse quest). Ultimately, what comes to set Aloy and her allies
apart in Horizon Forbidden West is their willingness to share information with one
another and others, as well as educate an increasing number of people on how to
use the means needed to access their expanding record system.
In contrast, Tilda, who is a member of Far Zenith, is defined by her own art
archive, yet is an example of what can happen if an archivist never goes beyond the
personal. Tilda’s gallery, replete with famous paintings, sculptures and even
forgeries from the artistic Golden Age of her Dutch homeland, is meant more as a
microcosm of her personal history than as a vault for the preservation of great
historical works. While given to her by other museums with long-term preservation
in mind, it is evident in the way she ties each artwork to her own personal
achievements that she does not value these works for their historical contributions.
For example, she links one forgery with her 21st century deep fake identification
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software, a painting depicting Jeremiah at the fall of Jerusalem to herself witnessing
the earth’s destruction, and a Van de Velde boat painting to her venturing into the
unknowns of space (Horizon Forbidden West, 2021, All That Remains interlude
quest). Each piece clearly speaks to her own personal experiences while also
reflecting her own understanding of humanity’s weaknesses; she doesn’t educate
others on each painting’s full history or artistic relevance, despite seeming to have
such knowledge. In other words, she biasedly selected artworks for personal
enjoyment while working under the guise of preserving them for future humanity.
Tilda’s gallery is reminiscent of the self-reflection found in the predecessors
of museum spaces, such as the “Wunderkammern”, “studioli”, and other princely
galleries of the early-modern period (Jong, 2013, p. 73). As put by Steffi de Jong,
in these pre-museum spaces “the collected objects were arranged as miniature
representations of the [prince’s] world and as symbols of the prince’s power.” They
“symbolically claimed dominion over a world” that the owner, typically nobility,
presided over, “with [themselves] positioned at its center” (Jong, 2013, p. 74).
Collecting in these spaces was less about preserving art and more about ego and
self-aggrandizement. Tilda reflects this sentiment, as her collection was meant to
sit in a vault and be used only to impress Tilda’s inner circle. The artifacts therefore
act in service of Tilda’s idea of herself as a visionary, reflecting her own history
and not the world’s. Thus, her archive never goes beyond the personal and remains
a highly selective space unintended for the public despite its valuable collection. It
is a monument to herself rather than a true archive, with no social purpose or users
to serve.
In contrast, Aloy and her allies are an example of archivists who prioritize
social responsibility when dealing with the communities around them. Archives are
tasked with being trustworthy sources for ensuring accountability, memory, and
social justice, acting as both institutional record holders and functional resources
for their users. As Randall Jimerson states, archives’ responsibility is “to document
and serve all groups within society,” and, by doing so, also “represent [their] full
spectrum of opinion and experience” (2013, p. 339). When tied to serving the
general public, this mandate takes on a special importance as archivists have the
potential to hold their institutions accountable for their mistakes by keeping a paper
trail of activities for the public or auditors to access and do research with (Jimerson,
2013, p. 343). If an archival institution serves a cultural function, such as preserving
items that reflect the legal, economic or lived reality of a social group, then the
responsibility of an archivist is to ensure a balance in documentation, and therefore
diverse points of view that reflect lived reality. Aloy and her group are examples of
this balanced approach because they seek out documents that might provide
different perspectives from those they were socialized with. For example, during a
side quest to find information to help restart a flood-control system in the Quen
Empire, Aloy’s companion Alva discovers that one of her tribe’s revered and
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deified Ancestors was willing to sacrifice people’s lives for scientific progress.
Despite how that fact would upend her people’s worldview and lead to retribution,
she does not stop seeking out more information, unlike the Diviner archivist
previously assigned to the task. Out of fear of being punished for encountering
negative information about an Ancestor, he gave up on the mission and tries to
discourage others from picking up where he left off. He prioritizes the Quen’s
idealization of the past over the facts, however harmful, about the people who
shaped it. However, Alva does not shy away from new information or suggest
stopping the mission, instead she considers their findings valuable because they
show a different view of the person involved and complicate their history (Horizon
Forbidden West, 2021, Forbidden Legacy quest). Unlike other members of her tribe
who refuse to engage with this worldview-defying information, Alva keeps these
records and passes their information onto other Quen after the end of the game.
Holding the past and its people accountable, therefore, and including different
perspectives are as much a part of her work ethic as collection, unlike others
amongst her people.
However, accountability, diversity and memory are concepts not only about
what is preserved by an archive but how it is used. If an archive is meant to record
institutional information and act as a record of reality, it must also, by necessity, be
accessible for review. As put by the archivist Mark Greene, archivists “should do
everything [they] legally, ethically, and practically can do to promote, ease, and
sustain use by whomever [their] user groups happen to be” (2009, p. 34). In other
words, they must welcome use, as it is inquiry and engagement that makes the
archive valuable and powerful. Aloy and her allies, as amateur archivists, begin to
embody this principle increasingly more as the story progresses. By the game’s
conclusion, the group has returned to their different home tribes to spread the use
of Focus, and to begin teaching people how to decipher the documents and records
contained within their database. At different points in the game, Aloy even helps
bridge technological gaps she encounters to ensure others have greater access to
information. For example, she provides Alva, who has an older and technologically
weaker model of Focus, with software upgrades that allow her to access the same
quality and quantity of information as Aloy while out in the field (Horizon
Forbidden West, 2021, Seeds of the Past quest). Rather than keep the information
to themselves and act as experts and gatekeepers, Aloy and her group try to increase
their user base so that others might engage with the documents, artifacts and general
information they have collected.
Aloy’s celebration of information access is contrasted with the Quen’s, who
enforce strict control over what information can be accessed by users and what
records should be retained. The Quen empire, unlike most of the other tribes and
cultures seen in the game, are open to technology and encourage its use, using
whatever information is found to strengthen their dominion. Being able to use
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Focuses, the Quen have developed a more sophisticated view of the past, which
they call The Legacy, and its most famous scientific figures, whom they call the
Ancestors (Zanden, 2023). While they are more open to technology and its use in
improving agriculture, weaponry, transport, etc., their approach differs from Aloy’s
allies when it comes to general access. Only those who pass civil exams to become
Diviners are permitted to use a Focus and access the information it provides, so the
general population never knows the full details of the Legacy or even how to use
technology, outside of selected professional training. ("Horizon Forbidden West:
Story of Alva (Sodding Superhero, 2022, 30:00–30:43) Even amongst the
Diviners, there is no unlimited access to all collected information; instead,
knowledge is shared on a need-to-know basis. Furthermore, the state’s bureaucratic
Board of Overseers not only direct Diviner activities but determine what
information should be appraised and stored, and what information is “Forbidden”
1
and thus blocked from view (Sodding Superhero, 2022, 23:00–24:30).
The way in which information about the Legacy is treated by Diviners is
telling of the Quen’s mentality towards information. Knowledge is seen as
something attained through effort and must be deserved. For example, Alva
mentions that the Quen’s quest to reach Legacy’s Landfall, the post-apocalyptic
remnants of San Francisco, will allow the Diviners to “earn the knowledge [they]
need to save [their] people.” (Horizon Forbidden West, 2021, Seeds of the Past
Quest) Knowledge and documents are not only found through discovery, research,
and processing, but clearly earned through a Diviner’s service, trust and reliability.
Diviners are inoculated quickly to the idea that their role is of vital importance to
the empire’s survival; Alva mentions Diviners are tasked to “interpret the wisdom
of [the] Ancestors for the good of all. And to keep it safe.” (Horizon Forbidden
West, 2021, Seeds of the Past quest) Thus, their role is to preserve information that
is tied to the Legacy and ensure it is kept safely away from those who might
“misuse” it to the Quen’s detriment. This fits well with the idea that any information
found by a Diviner, and more importantly approved by the Board, is the only “truth”
found within the historical record. There is no room for nuance or information that
would complicate the Legacy, and certainly no documents to counter it. Therefore,
it is believed that Diviners only speak “truth” because they are trained with only
the Quen’s version of reality in mind, serving their vision of social and cultural
cohesion. As an arm of state control and record-keeping, it stands to reason that
anyone who attempts to use a Focus who is not a Diviner is labeled as dangerous
by the Empire’s law enforcers, as they cannot be controlled and are not taught with
those same Legacy-forward values. As seen with the DLC’s deuteragonist Seyka,
non-Diviner Focus users are not trusted to interpret the information according to
Imperial rules or keep it appropriately hidden from others. In fact, those who come
1
The term is one used by the Quen elite to refence materials that contradict the
government’s official narrative of the past.
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in contact with this information are picked up by the Compliance Board, the Quen’s
version of a secret police, and either killed or imprisoned as they pose a potential
risk to the empire. To that end, members of the Compliance Board are called “Risk
specialists” and tasked with monitoring people who are suspected of harboring non-
approved knowledge. The Quen elite seem generally to fear information falling into
the wrong hands and serving some “ill” purpose, likely because it could destabilize
the Quen’s hierarchy and dominance (Horizon Forbidden West, 2022, The Splinter
Within quest).
From the aforementioned information, we can see that Diviners act as
archivists within a rigid state hierarchy and preserve records according to its rules.
Their function is as state actors gathering and sorting information for government
purposes. In many ways, they reflect how archives function in a society where all
information is controlled by those at the top of the social order. Historians have
shown that archives’ institutional origins were directly tied to a similar legitimizing
of those in positions of power and effectively marginalized those outside of it
(Cook, 2011, p. 621). European imperial powers generally used records, from maps
to censuses to royal commission reports, to reinforce their own power by
controlling the definition, naming and categorizing of their subjects into a specific
social vision. They would classify the world according to their own assumptions
and values, promoting hierarchical structures through records organized in levels
of descending orders, with themselves on top (Cook, 2011, pp. 622–623). In much
the same way, the Quen rely on hierarchies and rigid control of documents to
legitimize the views of their own Imperial family and how their present world is
structured. The Board of Overseers does not let Diviners process information
unsupervised and punishes those who bring back incomplete or “Forbidden”
information. (Horizon Forbidden West, 2021, Expedition Protocol datapoint). They
act as both managers and a censorship board, who “verify” found information and
determine if a document is appropriate for accession depending on how it fits within
the State’s telling of events. If information is collected that contains negative
information about any foundational historical figures, then they are immediately
blocked from other Diviners and stricken from the record. For the elite, the social
good is defined by the narratives they have built. Such rigid control is reminiscent
of other governmental systems and their own archives, wherein documents that
counter the state’s definitions are censored or destroyed. Under Joseph Stalin, for
example, the Soviet Union created a secretive archival department for written
materials that were banned by the government. This department preserved the
material but severely restricted access to it, taking items out of public circulation
that contained stances that could be viewed as critical or counter to the political
beliefs of that regime. (Markwick, 2013, pp. 7–8) In the game, the Quen operate
under a similar principle. Through careful framing, the Quen reinforce their
position as inheritors of their Ancestral world of sanctified entrepreneurs and
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scientists, justifying their social dominance. With no documents to record the
misdeeds of the past, complicate the tools its people left behind or challenge Quen
hagiographic narratives, there is no way to counter the Quen ruler’s view of the past
or historical technologies they use.
To critique this control of information, the game glorifies Zero Dawn’s
APOLLO database as an idealized form of archiving, emphasizing how it was built
as an open access tool to democratize information and provide diverse records.
Containing 40 million digitized records, the database was designed to contain an
almost complete record of all human knowledge, from science to languages to
culture. The APOLLO archive is treated as a treasure within the game’s world,
envisioned as an opportunity to empower and equalize a nascent post-apocalyptic
humanity through education and limitless information. It was meant to be
accessible to all humans from a young age, with its knowledge shared according to
learning speed and not societal position (Horizon Zero Dawn, 2017, APOLLO
Update datapoint). As powerful spaces for accountability and knowledge, archives
require active engagement by archivists to shape these institutions for the
betterment of society (Jimerson, 2013, p. 343). The APOLLO archivists knew the
amount of work necessary to promote, ease, and sustain use for the humans who
came after them, their future users. They developed innovative ways to preserve
records for thousands of years and processed millions of recommended records to
determine what best reflected pre-apocalyptic human life for posterity (Horizon
Zero Dawn, 2017, Encapsulated DNA datapoint). In doing so, they promoted the
most social good, ensuring that their gargantuan effort to preserve these diverse
records made it into future human hands, aided in the reconstruction of life on earth
and the longevity of pre-apocalyptic humanity’s memory. They accomplished what
archivists are tasked with vis-à-vis their users, they “[created] an effective and
efficient connection to [their] holdings, so that [their] users, whoever they are, can
benefit from them to the fullest extent” (Greene, 2009, pp. 31–32). APOLLO
accomplishes this in spades by allowing the greatest database access with the
greatest variety of information to the greatest variety of users. While the APOLLO
archive was ultimately lost to the people who it was intended for, having been
destroyed by the CEO who created the earth-destroying machines to prevent
posterity from learning of his actions, it is held up by the game’s narrative as a
devastating loss for the good it missed providing.
I would argue that Aloy and her allies act as quasi-inheritors of the idealized
principles of the APOLLO archive mentioned above, where their collection of
diverse records, emphasis on greater archival access and educational aims serve the
greatest social good. By the game’s end, Aloy and her allies are trying to hold the
past to account and spread their knowledge to as many as they can, teaching others
how to use database tools (Focuses) and effectively taking charge in setting up an
entire system of information distribution. The game juxtaposes Aloy and her allies
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from the Quen with Tilda in terms of their transparency, their desire to share
knowledge and their interest in collecting documents outside of their personal
interests or self-empowerment. In this sense, they act like the APOLLO archivists
in aiming for the improvement and equalization of all of humanity through the
democratizing of archival use. They use their power as archivists to ensure the
betterment of the communities they serve. Given such, they act as examples for
real-life archivists to emulate and hopefully can help them think critically about
their own praxis.
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