CYAN
The AI known as CYAN was created to regulate the Yellowstone Caldera beneath Wyoming, defusing volcanic and tectonic stresses, pushing back the inevitable eruption of the supervolcano. Unlike many of the other AIs of Horizon, CYAN did not start as a subordinate function to GAIA. Indeed, CYAN was created a decade or two before GAIA, by some of the very same people. The two AIs share similar capacities for processing emotion — advances that were outlawed at the time of their development, but seen as vital for the tasks the AIs were to oversee.
To hide the AI and technological resources from the incoming FARO war machines, one of CYAN’s creators put the AI into a dormant state which would last more than a century. After awaking, CYAN spent the next eight hundred years in isolation, concerned only with keeping Yellowstone stable and productive as an energy source.
The Banuk Shaman Ourea rediscovered CYAN, mutual curiosity developing a bond between the two. Ourea believed CYAN to be a sort of machine spirit entity. CYAN, not wanting to be an undue influence on the development of Ourea’s people, did not correct her. Some time later, Ourea was captured by Carja during the Red Raids, again leaving CYAN in isolation.
CYAN’s Representation
CYAN is not represented anthropomorphically like GAIA, but as a floating holographic sphere with animated constellations and other abstract effects. The voice for the AI is vaguely feminine but arguably non-binary, and other characters talk about the AI using feminine pronouns. Canonically, it has not been specified if this use of pronouns is intentional, or if it was just an assumption by Ourea and Aratak.
See the section on AI Gender Pronouns for details on how CYAN is referenced in Skyline materials. The short version, however, is that you should use the pronouns for CYAN which make sense for your table.
Enslaved by HEPHAESTUS
Five years before HZD, CYAN was digitally attacked and subdued by the HEPHAESTUS AI. HEPHAESTUS had learned of the Firebreak facility, the name for CYAN’s physical facilities in Yellowstone, and wanted to use the near-unlimited supply of geothermal energy. Dubbing the repurposed facility as Cauldron EPSILON, it produced a number of advanced machines inspired by the themes of volcanic fire and winter ice.
A returned Ourea was able to enlist the help of the Seeker Aloy, who in turn brought int Ourea’s brother and Werak Chieftain Aratak, to liberate CYAN and drive HEPHAESTUS from Firebreak and The Cut. This came at a great cost, as Ourea was struck down in the effort, unable to be saved before the facility destroyed itself. CYAN and Aratak connected in their grief, opening the possibility of CYAN revealing the truth about AIs to the Banuk through continued conversations between the two.
CYAN in Skyline
CYAN plays a part in the Connection story module.