A tribe building their whole civilization around knowledge but only having limited knowledge is a fascinating concept to me

I hate to say it, but it was pretty brilliant how Londra used the Quen's own faith to manipulate them. "They say there are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true, the other is to refuse to believe what is." (Vigo Grimborn, Dragons: Race to the Edge) The Quen fooled themselves into thinking that they were superior to all the other tribes because of the Legacy. But the problem with that line of thinking is that by believing that you're better than everyone else and destined for something greater, you can be easily fooled by someone with greater knowledge than you, which is exactly what Londra did. This is why I hate the "Chosen One" trope. Take Kina for example. Kina was a skilled navigator and an imperial favorite ever since she was young. As a result, she was already use to receiving special treatment and prestige, which is how she was so easily fooled by Londra's lies. Kinda believed what wasn't true and she couldn't see through the ruse until Londra revealed his true callous nature. The whole thing reminded me a lot of how HADES used Helis and the Eclipse in the last game. Horizon sure loves their cults. 😇😈

Funny how the desire to stay close to the comfort of the "goddess" has kept the Nora so far behind compared to tribes like the Quen who venture out. Funny how comfort and safety can turn around and bite you when you're not willing to venture out and discover new things. The Quen are now my favorite tribe of our Horizon world. Their expertise in maritime transportation and societal structure has been most fascinating. Besides, their outfits are my favorite! Even the Carja don't have that much style. But, just like every other tribe, they misinterpreted the past and shaped their tribe into another lost civilisation of confused and lost humans. I hope Aloy and Beta will fix all this mess soon... Great video as always Sir!

I really hope Horizon 3 takes us to the Quen empire. I want to see more of them.

Personally, I think I like the look of the Quens' armour the best. The flowiness of the fabric and those little circular metal plates just do it for me. They even top the oseram's armour in my opinion

A prime example that technological advance doesn’t equate to sociopolitical advance. To the Quen their unique knowledge has made them a very broken tribe, would be easy to think it would push them to incredible technological advances. But their prejudice toward other tribes and subsequent mistrust in their own people has made the sharing of knowledge a highly politicized and even religious matter. And no tribe is perfect but to point at the other main tribe in the Forbidden West, the Tenakth despite the perception of being a savage/barbaric tribe, we are soon proven wrong and get to see their belief system, more focused towards resilience and honor and also thanks to Hekarro, have united as a tribe, a whole more open to change for the good of their people. They understood that unity is key to their survival and that meant making amends with former enemies, like other clans and then other tribes, like the Carja. Despite some black sheeps the message remains strong. Sorry if I’m so biased towards the Tenakth, some of my favorite characters and side-quests have come out of the tribe. I also felt Aloy found a tribe that receiver her and others more warmly and is the tribe most open to change.

Quen swords and spears that can be seen on hands of NPCs, on the Settlements or concept art seem to be inspired by shark tooth weapons of Polynesian cultures and Native Hawaiians. These weapons used a wooden shaped sword, dagger, lance, axe, club and had shark teeth attached to the edge of these wooden weapons by rope. In a similar fashion, the Quen Sword and Quen Spear have metal pieces to teeth attached to their wooden and metal weapons attached by rope. The Quen ship is also inspired by trimarans, which ultimately have their origins in Polynesian boats.

I love that you bring up that even the Imperials aren't allowed Focuses. Focuses are so overpowered, they're comparable to bringing gunpowder to pre-colonisation South America. Amazing that such a treasure isn't wider known, isn't it? Olin as a "lowly" Oseram Delver can walk around with such a marvel and people just laugh and think it's a jewel, and across the world, they're just about the most powerful tool a person could possess.

Interesting how modern corporations are often influenced by works such as "The Art of War" and empirical ideas of "conquest", and how the Quen were thus recreating Empire. Empires influencing companies influencing future empires.

Has there been anything released that shows the canonical ending to burning shores? I know the player is given the choice for aloys relationship but for the purpose of continuity in other titles and media there is going to be one option that is what was chosen. I really hope they decide to move forward with the relationship it was such an amazing story seeing it unfold, could tell from early on both were developing feelings and it felt so natural

Thank you for another great video! I've watched about every lore video you ever made and they allow me to enjoy my favorite game series even more. Always a pleasure seeing you uploaded a new one :)

Just as I’d been thinking I was missing the world of Horizon, a great video from RSQ! Good to have the two stories of the Quen woven together, I’m still a little on the fence about them but it does add some interesting lore 😊.

Yay! I so much needed my RSQ fix! Thank you so much for yet another great video!

Great video. I think Horizon 3 will take us to the Quen Lands and knowledge from Apollo will make the journey much quicker. Apart from the Horus, I found the Burning Shores rushed & underwhelming compared to Frozen Wilds.

Do you think it would be sad if Aloy went to another cradle facility and saw the exact same message with Gaia, and there was also another clone

LOVE these videos so much! Thank you!

I was waiting for this one! Nice video

I love the idea of the Quen. Given the fact that they are most likely from China and got their focuses there it makes sense that their civilization is a mostly authoritarian society. Hopefully we get more in the next game.

I cant wait to see where they are going next! It is simply a masterpiece straight through

Another phenomenal video by my fellow Banuk @RandomSideQuest

16:52 I like this guy's stache. It really catches my eye with how despicable he was.

I love how realistic relgious interpretation is in these games.

I would say that my favorite Quen are Alva and Seyka.

Music Background Used Information "Starlight Rise" by The Flight from Horizon Burning Shores

Just finished playing the DLC and as soon as I saw Londra's base being decorated with Quen stuff I knew where this story was going. I was curious as to why the Zeniths didn't do anything with the Quen as they would be easy targets to serve them. Of course, it was only a matter of time till one of the Zenith showed interest in basking in a tribe that holds them to a religious standard.

My guess is that in the next game we will sail accros the ocean and follow the quen

If the quen only could read info from the late 2040s to mid 2050s how did the ceo know that teds bunker would be in San Francisco?

I thought that the Quen were based off the yellow river delta, since Quen is similar to similar to Chinese phonetics, and while cradle facilities brought diverse backgrouds, information was still chinese centirc in nature, such knowledge central and large infrastructural societies such as Qin or Xin dynasties

Frankly speaking.... the way you describe the Quen, it really does sound like China. With the devine mandate, and the fear that dissent causes instability. Along with the tight control of information (for its population)... Great delta could describe many parts of Asia, anywhere between India, Bangladesh and into China, depending what they game designers do with the landscape.

Whats the name of the background music???

I like Aloy is basically Kratos from GOW, killing the Quen's Pantheon in one fell swoop in this game. Next up, we fight the devil themselves.

there civilisation in literally the embodiment of the phrase "knowledge is power".

Sir, what is the wine governing philosophy I think it’s legalism but you probably know the official philosophy

Fantastic summary as always, thank you! As outstanding as the lore and storytelling in Horizon is, the implications of Apollo's absence and the evolution of humanity aren't quite as logical. Even without Apollo, GAIA could have at least taught basic science. Why did she just leave the youngsters to their fate and not just leave Eleuthia open? They could have reconstructed the missing knowledge together with GAIA and the servitors. Why was she denied contact? Was it because of Ted? After all, the Focus were there, just not the knowledge. The Quen are doing something that probably would have happened if Apollo had not been deleted. Knowledge is censored and withheld from the normal people in order to exercise power. But even with the Focus, the Quen are not much further along in their development than the rest of the tribes. I think after 700 years they should basically be further ahead considering that there is still so much left of the old world.

It's kinda wild to me that people like the Carja and Queen refer to themselves as a tribe rather than like "our nation/our empire". Them thinking they're above anyone else is kinda part of their identity. So why use a term that implies there's like 20 of them in each of their cultures.

One thing really bugs me - why do Quen (Seika in particular) also call Horus "the Metal Devil"? It really clashes with their role as tech-savvy tribe, that must know things about the Faro robots (even if not about the Plague per se). And even if they don't know about it, how is their term is the exact same as the one used by technology-denying Nora? I would really appreciate your take.

👏👏👏👍

Its kind of a glaring error that language never seems to be a barrier of any consequence at any point. They can understand English a millennia in the future, have split into separate tribes long enough ago to have distinct cultures, but everyone still speaks English and English only.

From the start i vaguely assumed that the Birthing facility was in China but you just fucked me up. I dislike the implications that the Quen originated from Africa.

I dunno man; Columbus came too early with this one.

Aloy got a girlfriend now 👍

I really hope that they decide to course correct and not make the third game based around the Quen.... in fact I would be most happy if they weren't included at all. They were the most boring doll an uninspiring tribe of all of them. There were many women in many of the tribes that were of the lgbtq whatever the hell it is now community.... if they wanted her to hook up with a chick and have a sidekick they could have picked a female from any one of the other tribes. The way that the Quinn acted was akin to the way that Frey was in forspoken.... in fact almost every single one of the tribe members reminded me of her.. the entire tribe was unlikable in every way shape or form... Seka was just wasteful garbage inclusion that really didn't have anything in her background worth listening to or even exploring.... Alva has to be the most obnoxious character in the entire series thus far. I am very much looking forward to the third installment however I am not looking forward to needing to partake in anything more with this particular tribe hopefully they vanish Into Obscurity