Skyline

Nora

The humans released from the ELEUTHIA-9 Cradle facility on March 16, 2326 would survive to become the Nora, the tribe from which all others in the American northwest would begin. Their experiences inside ELEUTHIA-9 were forgotten over time, twisting into resentment and eventually fear of machines, technology, and all things having to do with the accursed Old Ones. Oral renditions of their history would also change, morphing the memory of a preferred “motherly” multiservitor robot into the myth of a life-giving Earth goddess referred to as the All-Mother. This would push the Nora to become a superstitious and fundamentalist matriarchal society, eventually driving the more progressive factions out to become their own tribes.

It is generally accepted the Nora got their name from NORAD, the U.S. government organization whose facility was synonymous with Cheyenne Mountain, which would later become All-Mother Mountain to the Nora.

Culture

The Nora are a hunter-gatherer society, with only limited evidence of formal agriculture, of which they are aware, but see no driving need. They are fiercely anti-technology, especially that of the Old Ones, though they see nothing wrong with using the parts harvested from their machine kills to better their weapons, armor, and tools. This reliance on hunting lends itself to martial defense of their lands — small roaming parties of Nora Braves protect the border of their Sacred Lands from machines and invading tribes. A teenage rite of passage called The Proving marks the formal transition to adulthood, while also providing the opportunity for exiled members to earn their way back into the tribe’s good graces.

Nora crime is generally low, in part because of the heavy reliance on each other for survival, but also because the penalties are high: most non-trivial crimes result in exile from the tribe. As Nora are raised to be self-sufficient and hardy, exile is not a death sentence even in the mountains, leading Nora Matriarchs to apply the punishment liberally, and almost as many exiles as not. A single High Matriarch is the final arbiter of law, though this position tends to delegate other powers, such as War Chief, to other members of the tribe.

As leaving the Sacred Lands is considered an offense worthy of exile, most Nora have never traveled beyond its borders.

The Seeker

Twenty years ago, an infant girl was found outside the door in All-Mother Mountain. As she was born without a mother, she was seen as an aberration by at least some of the Nora Matriarchs. High Matriarch Teersa, believing the child to be a gift of the All-Mother, put the infant into the care of one of her most trusted, the voluntary exile named Rost. Rost named the girl Aloy and raised her to be strong, intelligent, and independent, but he kept from her the truth of her birth, believing it to not be his secret to tell.

As a child, Aloy fell into a ruins of the Old Ones, discovering a Focus device. This device not only taught her how to read, it also gave her insight into the technologies and at least some small bits of the history of the Old Ones. Such insight served her well, as she grew up without the fear of technology common to all Nora, but also something of an understanding of and kinship with the machines.

Wanting to learn the truth of her birth, Aloy trained to compete in the Proving when she came of age. She bested the other competitors, earning a place in the tribe that had exiled her, but the victory was cut short by an attack of a doomsday cult: the Eclipse. The cult killed almost every Nora present, and though Aloy managed to defeat most of her attackers, their leader Helis got the best of her. He’d been given orders from HADES to kill Aloy, and would have succeeded if not for Rost sacrificing himself to break her free.

To exact revenge on behalf of the Nora, and to further earn the truth of her birth, Aloy was tasked by the Matriarchs with hunting down the Eclipse and bringing them to justice, for whatever that might mean. Aloy became what the Nora called a Seeker, given rare leeway and liberties, and allowed to travel beyond the borders of the Sacred Lands, all in the service of completing her assigned task. Once again, she was set apart from the Nora, and told she must endure further trials to earn what she desired.

Aloy completed her task, but not before the Eclipse, Helis, HADES, and reactivated FARO war machines were able to raze a great deal of Nora lands and settlements. She got her truth, and was welcomed back into the tribe, but on terms that were still uncomfortable and imbalanced. Instead, Aloy departed for lands unknown, determined to discover more of the Old Ones and the world around her.

Seekers in Skyline

Narrators choosing to use the title of Seeker in their world should keep in mind that the job comes with a task. That task may be impossible or unending, but it is still the driving force behind the Seeker’s warrant to go beyond the Sacred Lands, and to use means forbidden to other Nora. The Matriarchs then become something like patrons to their Seekers, and would likely revoke the title and rights of Seekers who failed or got too far off their tasks. Similarly, Seekers may be driven by the promise of a boon from the Matriarchs — some benefit worthy of the potentially dubious and debasing deeds required to complete their tasks.

This does not mean the Seeker is a paragon of Nora society. While Rost was made a Seeker because he was an exemplar of Nora virtues, Aloy was made a Seeker despite living her entire life to that point in exile from the tribe. The Seeker is a tool for the Matriarchs to get what they want, no more.

Nora in Skyline

Nora population and infrastructure were significantly reduced by the Eclipse attacks. Entire villages were razed and abandoned. Canonically, only a few dozen Nora survivors are seen in HZD in the events leading up to the Battle of the Spire. Skyline chooses to be optimistic about these numbers, presuming that most were in hiding or away aiding in recovery efforts.

As touched upon in the IASO and Connection story modules, Nora culture must face what they have learned about the Old Ones, the entity they believe is the All-Mother, and the clearly human-built facility inside their sacred mountain. Skyline sticks with the game’s presentation of Aloy as being cautious and circumspect about what she was willing to reveal, and therefore how much she was willing to disrupt Nora beliefs. It is presumed that Aloy did not so much consider the truth a secret, but nor did she scream it from the mountaintops. Most people don’t know, and of those who do know, most probably don’t have enough knowledge of the Old Ones to put the truth into any semblance of a meaningful context.

The Nora Matriarchs in Skyline have made the decision to open their borders for the first time in living memory. This is not an entirely unanimous nor altruistic decision, but it was deemed necessary both to confront the shame they feel at how they treated Aloy only to have her save the tribe from oblivion, but also with the hope of regrowing their numbers via incoming refugees.

Just as there are some within the Nora who think this is going too far, some would see it go farther, and have begun to question the Nora fear of the technology and ruins of the Old Ones, which proved to be so vital in overcoming HADES and the Eclipse cult. Both factions are relatively quiet for now, following the lead of their Matriarchs, waiting to see how the new open border policy affects the tribe.

Nora Characters in Skyline

Given their fundamentalist and hunter-gatherer leanings, it might be tempting to present Nora characters with a “noble savage” trope. This characterization is not just problematic, it is incorrect. Nora are just as cultured, intelligent, and accomplished as the more “advanced” tribes like the Carja and Oseram. Similarly, Nora people are just as human: while some can be noble, honorable, and “in touch with the land”, just as many others can be greedy, devious, and oblivious to their environment.

Nora have made a choice about how much technology and outside influence they allow in their lives. This does not mean they don’t understand it, or can’t, only that they choose to reject it.