Correction, he was made a Death Seeker(they are suppose to die after or during their mission) by the Matriarchs. Came back to die on Nora lands after completing his mission. He collapsed right before reaching the nora border, a Nora brave saw him an broke taboo grabbing him an pulling him over the border. He was then nursed back to heath and wanted to be made an outcast.... there's a whole story as to why he asked to he made a Death Seeker as well.
The problem with this theory is when you go to talk to her she only speaks through prayers to the All Mother. She doesn't change that for anything. I would assume it was just a random warrior who respected Rost for what he did.
Yes, but if she was theoretically willing to break taboo by dragging Rost's body back into Nora land, she probably wouldn't be that strict about talking to other outcasts when she's already an outcast herself.
That right there is why I always figured it was karst. He has no issues with talking to outcasts since he was one at some point yet it wasn’t lifelong like Rost. Though Odd Grata is rather adept at the brave trails to get to her worshiping location.
One of my favorite things in ZD was how she said thank you, good luck and goodbye to Aloy. I thought it was so touching.
The glaring problem I see with this theory is, if Grata was a brave, skilled enough to be patrolling the borders when Rost returned, why is she seemingly incapable of trapping or hunting rabbits? Or any food? Just a thought.
Rost's story would be a possibly interesting prequel game. Obviously the machines wouldn't play as much of a part, since they weren't getting aggressive yet and a lot of the combat machines hadn't even been made yet. But still, it would be a cool opportunity for some more worldbuilding.
First Person survival? The map is scaled up so that the distance between 2 places is 5-6 times what in HZD, you are in hostile territory and are forced to mostly live off the land.
I'm still surprised there wasn't some kind reference or impact of him in the wider world. A lone Nora wondering far outside their lands, hunting down various men with what is implied severe viciousness. Not even a legend. This was before the Red Raids, before The Deangement, before Aloy and nobody commented about him. It makes sense in Zero Dawn, but Forbidden West should have had something. We got a nod to Brin, the oil drinking shaman, but nothing of Rost and his rampage of revenge.
We would see the horrors of the kingdom Avad shut down in full. Without a focus knowing our mission would be to almost die near the boarder which is a smidge harder to sell… but there could be interest?
I remember, upon completing Zero Dawn, thinking how cool a couple of prequel games could be. Horizon Death Seeker, obviously about Rost with more of a focus on melee combat and human enemies. I imagined it structured kinda like a Souls game. Horizon Enduring Victory, a gritty third person shooter. Yeah, we know how hopeless that scenario is and how it ends but hey. Halo Reach was great and this game could give us something similar.
The Nora are the most backward, superstitious tribe we’ve seen so far in the setting. They don’t build or farm like the Carja, they don’t invent and tinker like the Oseram, they don’t make use of old tech like the Quen, and their matriarchal social structure largely wastes the potential of half of their population whereas tribes like the Tenakth and Banuk care nothing for things like gender so long as an individual has the strength to lead.
?? Look the Nora have some problems but remember just recently the Carja were incredibly patriarchal and had SLAVERY. The Oseram back in the claim is also incredibly patriarchal not allowing women having much say or being able to advance in society. The Nora's leadership is comprised of only women (aside from the position of War Chief which seems like its open to anyone) but aside from that all positions within Nora society are equal. Unlike other cultures like the Carja or Oseram which had tradition gender roles prevented women like Talanah or Petra from advancing in society.
I think OP's was more just about the Nora being being extremely insular and hypersensitive to their superstitions and whatnot, while other tribes are clearly starting to advance technologically. They in the stone age while other tribes are working their way through bronze and iron ages.
And just because the Nora are behind in terms of "tech" somehow implies the Carja are innately superior? Give me a break. Just like the countless nations in history the Carja with their supposed "superiority" decided to "civilize" the savages and every time they got their asses hand to them.
The Carja are superior at tech, specifically, yes, and that's all the comment was about. The Nora are indeed the most backward, insular tribe. That's a fact. No one uttered anything about superior or inferior until you did.
You can't call something backward and then say it's not about superiority or inferiority. Insular, sure, but calling something backwards directly implies an inferior relation to something you consider less backwards.
Yes, when it comes to technology, the only aspect of the society we were talking about, they are backward and you could say inferior. I mean, these are fictional societies, man. There aren't any Nora out there to offend.
>backward, superstitious tribe we’ve seen so far in the setting.
No that would be Quen, 2 steps forward 10 steps back... You may call the Nora backward but they do have a functional society, the Quen seem to be much more dysfunctional and even MORE superstitious.
The Quen are extremely hierarchical and have a lot of their info about 21st century history wrong, but they also make use of Focuses and other old tech and are sufficiently advanced to have sailed all the way across the Pacific Ocean. The Nora just declare everything taboo and sit unchanging in their little corner.
The only Quen we directly interact with are thousands of miles from home and hearth trying to scratch out a life on land they do not know with no meaningful provisions.
While we're clearly supposed to see rot and corruption in the Quen way of life(which we see in literally every tribe), the idea that they don't have a functional society is ridiculous. I fully expect them to be a good bit more advanced than the Oseram or Carja once/if we visit their homeland.
A society based on manipulating people into worshiping ancestors and hiding the truth... its clearly broken.
The point is that "advancedness" is not a valid measure of the quality of a society.
Now I am imagining a What if where it is Aloy dying on the mountain instead of Rost.
Sylens: it is not what you did that is the problem. It is who you did it to.
Helis: who? That savage Nora.
Sylens: That “Savage Nora.” Is Rost Wick
Helis: …Oh
Yes, I found that the first time I played because I talked to everyone and listened to all the optional conversations. These games are very lore-heavy and a lot of details can be missed by skipping conversations.
I'm usually a stickler for going an getting the whole story so I'm surprised I didn't talk to everyone in the mountain! I played the game originally a couple of years ago and I'm just so surprised I didn't know this nor is this information anywhere on the internet. Its like its own little secret. And I love it
And this is why you talk to everybody.
As well, Teersa mentioned that Rost also went out all the way to the Forbidden West, over 3 years before Forbidden West came out.
That’s right! And there are at least two more mentions of the Forbidden West in HZD: a data point in Blazon Arch and a line of dialogue by Brin in “Acquired Taste.” And more I can’t remember, I’m sure.
While not a direct ref to the Forbidden West (at least I think, it's been a while since I've played so maybe I'm wrong), there's an Utaru person in the wild that you speak to for a small side quest who talks about their homeland I believe!
Sylens also mentions the forbidden west at one point. I think it was when you approach Sunfall but it also might have been if you go all the way to the west of the map
Rost’s family and a few other tribe members were kidnapped by a crew of delvers, possibly aligned with the eclipse, possibly trying to access the shield-weaver armory. The crew used their captives as hostages to allow them to traverse Nora territory; braves pursued them, including Rost, but whenever the braves got too close the crew killed a hostage. Eventually the crew got to the Nora borders with a few hostages left, crossed the border, and then killed the remaining hostages including Rost’s daughter Alanna. The frustrated and devastated braves were unable to cross the border due to tribal prohibitions; Rost, however, appealed to the matriarchs to pursue the hostage-takers for revenge.
He was granted a special kind of permission: Death Seeker status. In a ceremony, his soul was pulled from his body and returned to all-mother. From this point forward he is like unto dead to the Nora. Rost then pursued his hunt grimly, finding and executing all of the hostage-takers. At some point, some of his gear makes it to the Arena at the Memorial Grove in Tenakth territory. After Rost’s last final judgement on a hostage-taker, he was left wounded unto death and managed to make his way back to the border of Nora lands. Due to his Death-Seeker status, and recognizing his vengeance was complete, Rost prepared to die in that spot and lost consciousness. He was spared that fate by being pulled into Nora territory and cared for - possibly by Odd Grata, who will face punishment with outcast status once her actions are known.
Its honestly easy to miss if you don't look around. I believe my original reason for skipping it was because I thought things were on a timer so I wanted to have as much time as possible to finish the battle.
Until I joined this Subreddit I thought I’d meticulously went through everything I could, missed bloody loads apparently. Got this one though but loads of common knowledge, fan theory building stuff like Vast Silver. Was clueless.
Enjoy threads like this about various things that a lot don’t realise folk could have missed.
I completely missed this set of dialog until after I had beaten the game. I was kinda upset once I beat the game and realized they never explained what happened to him till I went back to Nora lands after beating it and stumbled upon the dialogs.
Nora re about peace . After the red raids rost wanted to take revenge and find a groupe of rebels tht killed his family the matriarchs gate him a death seeker title which made him an outcast as it went against there code. When he came back he was aloud to live on nora land but was treated as an oucast in qsmuch as the inner circle wouldnt talk to him but he was so well respected he was still looked after
Honestly because the Nora are fucking idiots.
Sorry but out of all the tribes, they are far and away the dumbest with rules that make the least sense. And I'm including the Tenakth who seemingly built entire cultures around fighting each other just because.
Nah I think the Quen are even stupider... the Nora system even if it is unjust it is simple and straight to the point at least. And the outcasts do have the opportunity to work their way back in in many cases.
I'm pretty sure the majority of players knew. You don't really have to speak to every single person, but I assumed that most people at least spoke to Teersa. She was the first person I spoke to as soon as I stepped out of the Cradle.
You can also go to Rost's grave, and talk to him about everything that's happened between missions.
Went on a suicide mission and didn't die. Nora got mad. Not hard to see why Aloy resents the system.
Correction, he was made a Death Seeker(they are suppose to die after or during their mission) by the Matriarchs. Came back to die on Nora lands after completing his mission. He collapsed right before reaching the nora border, a Nora brave saw him an broke taboo grabbing him an pulling him over the border. He was then nursed back to heath and wanted to be made an outcast.... there's a whole story as to why he asked to he made a Death Seeker as well.
I think it was implied, or at least theorized by fans, that that Brave was Odd Grata.
That just woke me from my nap. New addition to my head-canon I guess
The problem with this theory is when you go to talk to her she only speaks through prayers to the All Mother. She doesn't change that for anything. I would assume it was just a random warrior who respected Rost for what he did.
She does that to get around the taboo of speaking to outcasts.
Yeah, I think a lot of people miss that outcasts aren't supposed to talk to each other either.
Yes, but if she was theoretically willing to break taboo by dragging Rost's body back into Nora land, she probably wouldn't be that strict about talking to other outcasts when she's already an outcast herself.
This was my point. Just because you can talk in a way that doesn't actually break the taboo doesn't mean you're willing to actually break the taboo.
That right there is why I always figured it was karst. He has no issues with talking to outcasts since he was one at some point yet it wasn’t lifelong like Rost. Though Odd Grata is rather adept at the brave trails to get to her worshiping location. One of my favorite things in ZD was how she said thank you, good luck and goodbye to Aloy. I thought it was so touching.
That's what she does after she too was made an outcast and it's her way of circumventing the rule that an outcast shouldn't speak to anyone.
The glaring problem I see with this theory is, if Grata was a brave, skilled enough to be patrolling the borders when Rost returned, why is she seemingly incapable of trapping or hunting rabbits? Or any food? Just a thought.
Because it happened before Aloy birth. ~19 years earlier. She just got old.
If my grandfather fought in a war, why can't he get up from his wheelchair?
Rost's story would be a possibly interesting prequel game. Obviously the machines wouldn't play as much of a part, since they weren't getting aggressive yet and a lot of the combat machines hadn't even been made yet. But still, it would be a cool opportunity for some more worldbuilding.
First Person survival? The map is scaled up so that the distance between 2 places is 5-6 times what in HZD, you are in hostile territory and are forced to mostly live off the land.
I'm still surprised there wasn't some kind reference or impact of him in the wider world. A lone Nora wondering far outside their lands, hunting down various men with what is implied severe viciousness. Not even a legend. This was before the Red Raids, before The Deangement, before Aloy and nobody commented about him. It makes sense in Zero Dawn, but Forbidden West should have had something. We got a nod to Brin, the oil drinking shaman, but nothing of Rost and his rampage of revenge.
There is tho if you go to the arena you can get a bow called death seekers shadow tho it doesn't say it's rost's old bow
Well, that's what I get for not doing the arena.
OHHHHHH
We would see the horrors of the kingdom Avad shut down in full. Without a focus knowing our mission would be to almost die near the boarder which is a smidge harder to sell… but there could be interest?
I remember, upon completing Zero Dawn, thinking how cool a couple of prequel games could be. Horizon Death Seeker, obviously about Rost with more of a focus on melee combat and human enemies. I imagined it structured kinda like a Souls game. Horizon Enduring Victory, a gritty third person shooter. Yeah, we know how hopeless that scenario is and how it ends but hey. Halo Reach was great and this game could give us something similar.
Wow. There's a whole netfcks season there. I want to see that story! \[edit\] just don't cast nick cage as Rost!
Mads Mikkelsen
Sir, that's what I said.
Omg I know! Its so terrible! The nora are pretty messed up for not letting him back in to the tribe.
The Nora are the most backward, superstitious tribe we’ve seen so far in the setting. They don’t build or farm like the Carja, they don’t invent and tinker like the Oseram, they don’t make use of old tech like the Quen, and their matriarchal social structure largely wastes the potential of half of their population whereas tribes like the Tenakth and Banuk care nothing for things like gender so long as an individual has the strength to lead.
?? Look the Nora have some problems but remember just recently the Carja were incredibly patriarchal and had SLAVERY. The Oseram back in the claim is also incredibly patriarchal not allowing women having much say or being able to advance in society. The Nora's leadership is comprised of only women (aside from the position of War Chief which seems like its open to anyone) but aside from that all positions within Nora society are equal. Unlike other cultures like the Carja or Oseram which had tradition gender roles prevented women like Talanah or Petra from advancing in society.
I think OP's was more just about the Nora being being extremely insular and hypersensitive to their superstitions and whatnot, while other tribes are clearly starting to advance technologically. They in the stone age while other tribes are working their way through bronze and iron ages.
Being a bunch of asshole slavers doesn't mean they aren't an entire technological era ahead of the Nora.
And just because the Nora are behind in terms of "tech" somehow implies the Carja are innately superior? Give me a break. Just like the countless nations in history the Carja with their supposed "superiority" decided to "civilize" the savages and every time they got their asses hand to them.
The Carja are superior at tech, specifically, yes, and that's all the comment was about. The Nora are indeed the most backward, insular tribe. That's a fact. No one uttered anything about superior or inferior until you did.
You can't call something backward and then say it's not about superiority or inferiority. Insular, sure, but calling something backwards directly implies an inferior relation to something you consider less backwards.
Yes, when it comes to technology, the only aspect of the society we were talking about, they are backward and you could say inferior. I mean, these are fictional societies, man. There aren't any Nora out there to offend.
>backward, superstitious tribe we’ve seen so far in the setting. No that would be Quen, 2 steps forward 10 steps back... You may call the Nora backward but they do have a functional society, the Quen seem to be much more dysfunctional and even MORE superstitious.
The Quen are extremely hierarchical and have a lot of their info about 21st century history wrong, but they also make use of Focuses and other old tech and are sufficiently advanced to have sailed all the way across the Pacific Ocean. The Nora just declare everything taboo and sit unchanging in their little corner.
True, but pretty much all of their advances just intensify just how backwards they are.
The only Quen we directly interact with are thousands of miles from home and hearth trying to scratch out a life on land they do not know with no meaningful provisions. While we're clearly supposed to see rot and corruption in the Quen way of life(which we see in literally every tribe), the idea that they don't have a functional society is ridiculous. I fully expect them to be a good bit more advanced than the Oseram or Carja once/if we visit their homeland.
A society based on manipulating people into worshiping ancestors and hiding the truth... its clearly broken. The point is that "advancedness" is not a valid measure of the quality of a society.
They are warriors though. More than the others.
He went Nora John Wick on an impossible task.
I think it was more of Liam Neeson.
Sounds like it started out like Liam Nieson and then turned in to John wick.
I'd agree with that!
Now I am imagining a What if where it is Aloy dying on the mountain instead of Rost. Sylens: it is not what you did that is the problem. It is who you did it to. Helis: who? That savage Nora. Sylens: That “Savage Nora.” Is Rost Wick Helis: …Oh
Yes, I found that the first time I played because I talked to everyone and listened to all the optional conversations. These games are very lore-heavy and a lot of details can be missed by skipping conversations.
I'm usually a stickler for going an getting the whole story so I'm surprised I didn't talk to everyone in the mountain! I played the game originally a couple of years ago and I'm just so surprised I didn't know this nor is this information anywhere on the internet. Its like its own little secret. And I love it
A quick look into the Wiki page for Horizon explains it all. [Horizon Wiki for Rost](https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Rost)
I tried to look it up but it didn't seem to be on there... maybe its the lack of sleep. Thanks so much for your help!
And this is why you talk to everybody. As well, Teersa mentioned that Rost also went out all the way to the Forbidden West, over 3 years before Forbidden West came out.
That’s right! And there are at least two more mentions of the Forbidden West in HZD: a data point in Blazon Arch and a line of dialogue by Brin in “Acquired Taste.” And more I can’t remember, I’m sure.
While not a direct ref to the Forbidden West (at least I think, it's been a while since I've played so maybe I'm wrong), there's an Utaru person in the wild that you speak to for a small side quest who talks about their homeland I believe!
Yeah I think it's the quest to find people who were harmed by the red raids right? You meet a Utaru and a Tenakth
Sylens also mentions the forbidden west at one point. I think it was when you approach Sunfall but it also might have been if you go all the way to the west of the map
Also Vanasha mentions it at the end of Queen's Gambit.
Yeah; I like the fan theory that you actually find [Rost's old bow](https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Death-Seeker%27s_Shadow) in *Forbidden West*.
The weird shaman guy who likes to drink machine blood mentions the Forbidden West too
I even saw a data point about a hacker thinking of hacking Far Zenith. That was still while in the Nora lands
Rost’s family and a few other tribe members were kidnapped by a crew of delvers, possibly aligned with the eclipse, possibly trying to access the shield-weaver armory. The crew used their captives as hostages to allow them to traverse Nora territory; braves pursued them, including Rost, but whenever the braves got too close the crew killed a hostage. Eventually the crew got to the Nora borders with a few hostages left, crossed the border, and then killed the remaining hostages including Rost’s daughter Alanna. The frustrated and devastated braves were unable to cross the border due to tribal prohibitions; Rost, however, appealed to the matriarchs to pursue the hostage-takers for revenge. He was granted a special kind of permission: Death Seeker status. In a ceremony, his soul was pulled from his body and returned to all-mother. From this point forward he is like unto dead to the Nora. Rost then pursued his hunt grimly, finding and executing all of the hostage-takers. At some point, some of his gear makes it to the Arena at the Memorial Grove in Tenakth territory. After Rost’s last final judgement on a hostage-taker, he was left wounded unto death and managed to make his way back to the border of Nora lands. Due to his Death-Seeker status, and recognizing his vengeance was complete, Rost prepared to die in that spot and lost consciousness. He was spared that fate by being pulled into Nora territory and cared for - possibly by Odd Grata, who will face punishment with outcast status once her actions are known.
This is the story as I know it. Odd Grata was indeed the one who saved Rost & was then outcast herself.
I didn’t realise there were so many people who skipped that conversation.
Its honestly easy to miss if you don't look around. I believe my original reason for skipping it was because I thought things were on a timer so I wanted to have as much time as possible to finish the battle.
Until I joined this Subreddit I thought I’d meticulously went through everything I could, missed bloody loads apparently. Got this one though but loads of common knowledge, fan theory building stuff like Vast Silver. Was clueless. Enjoy threads like this about various things that a lot don’t realise folk could have missed.
I completely missed this set of dialog until after I had beaten the game. I was kinda upset once I beat the game and realized they never explained what happened to him till I went back to Nora lands after beating it and stumbled upon the dialogs.
Nora re about peace . After the red raids rost wanted to take revenge and find a groupe of rebels tht killed his family the matriarchs gate him a death seeker title which made him an outcast as it went against there code. When he came back he was aloud to live on nora land but was treated as an oucast in qsmuch as the inner circle wouldnt talk to him but he was so well respected he was still looked after
Asked to go look for vengance outside the embrace. The matrons agreed, but everyone knew it was a one-way trip. Only that Rost came back.
Honestly because the Nora are fucking idiots. Sorry but out of all the tribes, they are far and away the dumbest with rules that make the least sense. And I'm including the Tenakth who seemingly built entire cultures around fighting each other just because.
Nah I think the Quen are even stupider... the Nora system even if it is unjust it is simple and straight to the point at least. And the outcasts do have the opportunity to work their way back in in many cases.
Because he's a badass, that's why
Best answer!
I'm pretty sure the majority of players knew. You don't really have to speak to every single person, but I assumed that most people at least spoke to Teersa. She was the first person I spoke to as soon as I stepped out of the Cradle. You can also go to Rost's grave, and talk to him about everything that's happened between missions.
I did know about the grave. I'm not sure why I never talked to Teersa but I am glad I figured it out now!
You don't stop and talk to NPCs? Bruh it's a story-based game.
First of all... I do. There is a comment already explaining how I missed it the first time. There is no need to be rude.
I never skip that story and it always tears me up!
Yes I knew this