Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores takes Aloy to the ruins of Los Angeles. The result is a dangerous archipelago populated by deadly machines. Within these islands, large settlements of Quen are fighting for their survival.
Spoiler alert: Please note that this article may contain spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West and its story.
State of The Quen
Aloy first encountered the tribe in Horizon Forbidden West while searching for one of GAIA’s subordinate functions. “The Kuen are a tribe of seafarers who came across the Pacific,” explains Guerrilla lead his writer Annie Kitan. “Unlike other tribes Aloy has encountered, the Quen have built their society around the ability to use focus that allows them to access and read ancient data. This technological superiority. It gave them an edge over other tribes on their homeland in the Great Delta, but it also shaped their culture in interesting ways.”
“Knowledge from antiquity has allowed the Quen to build an impressive empire. They rely solely on the knowledge they unearth to facilitate their progress, and as a result, an important part of their culture is to protect the few foci that the tribe possesses and the valuables these devices reveal. It revolves around strictly controlling who has access to sensitive information.”
“For that reason, fortunetellers play a special role in the tribe. As a highly respected class of Quen, only Diviners are allowed to read data using their Focus. It’s about finding and recording potentially profitable ancient knowledge and keeping it out of the hands of outsiders.”
However, Quen’s view of the Old World is distorted. Unlike Aloy’s Focus, playing Horizon Forbidden West reveals that the device used by Quen can only display information up to a certain point in history, and cannot be read beyond that point. This limitation led them to misinterpret much of the data they discovered. Over time, they came to worship his pantheon of old-world exemplars of 21st-century CEOs and business tycoons.
eastern expedition
Much like the land of the Forbidden West, the home of Quen has suffered from environmental decay over the past two decades. Desperate to find a solution, Kuen came to believe that data from San Francisco’s ancient tech hub might be the key to saving their land.
“Unfortunately, the expedition faced many difficulties,” points out Annie. “Early on, they lost half their fleet in a violent storm. Then, after the rest of the ships landed in San Francisco, their search for data stalled and they were unable to return home in triumph.” didn’t seem very good to them… until Aloy came along.
On her mission to retrieve Demeter from the ruins of an ancient Pharo research facility, Aloy meets one of the expedition’s seers. “Bright and curious, her Alva is the first her Quen Aloy can call her friend,” she says. “The two bonded through exploring Old World ruins and discovering their ancient past. During the adventure, Aloy helped Alba discover mountains of data that could help her people.” In return, Alba helped Aloy with missions and even joined the growing crew of fellows on the base.”
“At the end of the Forbidden West, Alba chose to stay behind with a handful of soldiers while the rest of the expedition sailed home. With a new understanding, and a new threat to life on Earth approaching, she is determined to do all she can.
to the scorching shore
When asked what players should know about this tribe before diving into Burning Shores, Annie replied: We’ve only scratched the surface of Forbidden West, so get ready to discover more about them and how the tribal’s rigid hierarchy affects the new characters you meet!”
Having made it to Burning Shores, Quen lived here for some time, and although survival was a constant challenge, he was able to establish an impressive settlement that was a lot of fun to explore. You can meet new characters such as Gerrit. “We meet him early in the story,” explains Annie. “He’s a very good commander in the Quen Navy and the leader of this Quen group. He’s responsible for keeping things together even in dire circumstances.”
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores key art shows Aloy accompanied by Seyka, a new companion who can be recognized by her Quen outfit. An ambitious Marine who stepped up to help people survive. will be
“Confident, compassionate, and ferocious, Seika is unlike anyone Aloy has ever met and will play a key role in the next chapter of Aloy’s journey.”
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is available for pre-order on PlayStation 5 and launches on April 19th. Follow Guerrilla’s team on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to learn more about the next chapter in Aloy’s journey!
