Aloy tells them about her life as an outcast simply for being born. About her foster father, Rost. About how when she was a little girl, she fell into a cave that led her into the ruins of the Metal World. About how she removed a focus from a corpse that helped lead her out of that place.

"This is not the original by the way," Aloy said as she points to it. "The original was destroyed."

"They sound like Sheikah Slates," Paya mused.

Aloy goes on to explain about how after she acquired it, she found her way out and met up with Rost. Then on their way back, they saw a brave fall off a brave trail. She next saw the trails the machines used through her focus and stalked through the grass to avoid machines in the attempt to get to the brave. Upon reaching him, she led him back to safety. Then how the brave's father had shown up, angry at him for speaking to her.

"When we returned to our home," Aloy said, "Rost told me about the Proving. It's an annual event that the tribe held for braves to take their proper place in the tribe. It involves racing to hunting grounds, hunting the machines there, then racing to a finish line with a trophy of a machine's head. The first brave to reach the finish line would be granted a boon from the High Matriarchs. I decided to take part in the Proving and learn about my mother and what had happened to her and why I got banished. So, I spent the next thirteen years training for that day."

Aloy continues on. She explains about how on the eve of the Proving, Rost led her up to Mother's Heart. He next explained that he would have to leave her if she was going to be reaccepted back into the tribe, since his own banishment would not end. Then how she was going to go track him down afterwards. She explains how she entered Mother's Heart, the main village of the Nora. About how she encountered an old friend she had rescued. She next encountered envoys from the Carja: a sun priest and his Oseram companions. About how a riot nearly happened because the Carja's presence and his bodyguard calming the rioters.

"Why did they want to hurt that sun priest?" Paya asked.

"Because of something called the Red Raids," Aloy answered. "It was back when the Carja were ruled by a Sun-King named Jiran. He believed that if he kept sacrificing enough people to the machines, they would be appeased and the Derangement would end."

"That's horrible!" Paya gasped.

"Fortunately, he got overthrown by his son Avad because he couldn't stand his father's atrocities any longer," Aloy answered. "Avad went about making amends of what his father had done. Anyway, when the crowd got calmed, the sun priest continued. But I got distracted by another Oseram nearby who was wearing a focus of his own."

Aloy explains how she went over to question him about his focus, and his wincing with pain all of a sudden. Then how that Oseram bodyguard came over and introduced himself as Erend and engaged in small talk up until she went to enter the Proving Ceremony, and afterwards encountered Olin again and confronted him about his focus.

"He said his malfunctioned sometimes and that he found it while scavenging ruins," Aloy said. "But I could tell that he was lying to me. I would later learn why."

Aloy next tells them about her partaking in the Proving itself, up to the part about winning it.

"That's wonderful!" Paya gasped. "So were you able to ask the High Matriarchs about your mother?"

"Sadly, it didn't go the way I expected it to."

Aloy tells them about how it was attacked by outsiders they had never seen before. About how almost everyone was slaughtered and that she managed to fight and kill the attackers. Then how she discovered a focus on one of them. Then how their leader showed up and tried to kill her, and how Rost saved her in time, only to lose to him. How Rost then crawled over to her and told her to live, then threw her off the cliff.

"As I fell, I watched as the explosion engulfed him," Aloy sighed as she looks downward.

"Oh, Aloy," Paya gasped empathetically. "At least he saved your life."

"Yes . . . Yes he did. Anyway, when I regained consciousness, I was inside the Sacred Mountain, a place forbidden to anyone not a High Matriarch. My gear, including my focus was removed, and I went to look for it. That is when I noticed that it was just like the place where I first found my focus."

Aloy goes on to tell them about after locating her gear and focus, she took out the other focus and examined it to discover the recorded image of their leader giving out orders to abandon escavations and sneak into the Sacred Lands and avoid contact with the Nora, but to kill any they might encounter. Then up came the map they were to follow, along with the image of herself talking to Olin, and finally another image alongside her own.

"The word, terminate, appeared over us," Aloy continued. "The woman looked like me. Too much like me to be a mere stranger. That is when Teersa, one of the High Matriarchs, showed up."

Aloy continues on with how she was led to the heart of the lodge, up to where she was shown a metal door that she was said to have been found in front of. Then how she walked up to that door and a female voice told her that a corruption had occurred and that it had to be cleared.

"The High Matriarchs made me a Seeker. Someone who could go beyond the Sacred Lands with impunity. The Nora are forbidden to leave the Sacred Lands. That is when my adventure to discover the truth about my world began. The first thing I wanted to do was to go and find Olin. It was through him that the Proving Massacre happened."

Aloy tells them about her encounter with another machine, one that could corrupt other machines. How aftering helping to destroy it, she removed a part from it that gave it control over other machines, then attached it to the end of her spear to use against other machines. Then how she went to rescue the Nora war chief, Sona, and avenge the Proving Massacre. Then afterwards made her way to Meridian, the city of the Carja in search of Olin. But not before having to destroy another corrupter and its corrupted machines before being allowed in through Daytower.

"Once I arrived at Meridian, I met up with Erend."

She tells them what she had told Erend about Olin. About how he was at first skeptical and then begrudgingly agreed to let her search his house. Once inside, they discovered proof that he was working with the killers.

"They forced Olin to work for him by holding his family hostage and threatening to kill them if he refused them."

"Were they rescued in the end?" Paya asked fretfully.

"Eventually," Aloy answered.

Aloy goes on to explain how she tracked them down, then about a mysterious man who spoke with her through her focus and disabled the enemy's focuses for a time so that she could get to work killing off the attackers and destroying the machines under their control.

"I was finally able to corner Olin and demand answers from him," Aloy said. "He told me that they were the Shadow Carja and were part of a cult called the Eclipse. Their leader was Helis, the one who tried to kill me but Rost stopped. They served a machine called Hades who spoke with a terrible voice: a cold awful jangle that scrapes your bones and hollows your guts as he had put it. The Shadow Carja learned that Olin was a scrounger and forced him to reveal the ruins where the machines of the Metal World were located. War machines. He told me that they would attach a device to those machines so that Hades could awaken them and make them do its bidding."

"Was he able to tell you why they wanted to kill you?" Impa asked.

"He did," Aloy answered. "It was Hades who wanted me dead because it believed me to be a threat, and that I looked like that woman I saw."

"So what did you do to him?" Paya asked nervously.

"I spared him," she answered softly. "I mean . . . they kidnapped his family and threatened to kill them if he didn't do their bidding."

"One must forgive those who were forced to do evil's bidding," Impa said.

"He told me to go to a place called Maker's End to find my answers, and so I went. It was as I was arriving that my mysterious benefactor spoke to me through my focus once again. Telling me that the woman I saw on that focus was named Elisabet Sobeck."

She tells them about how she reached the place, having to fight off more Shadow Carja, and then a deathbringer, another one of the machines of the Metal World. She explains how after the battle, she picked up another focus from a dead Shadow Carja and examined it. Then how she had met Hades.

"Olin was right," Aloy said distantly. "It spoke with a terrible voice. It discovered that I was still alive and got upset, then destroyed that focus. Afterwards, I walked up to the huge metal door and it opened for me, as a woman's voice from seemingly nowhere calling me Elisabet Sobeck. I entered those ruins and the voice called me Elisabet Sobeck once again and then said that I was over three hundred and fifty-five thousand days overdue for my appointment with someone named Ted Faro."

"But that's hundreds of years ago," Paya winced. "And how could it mistook you for this Elisabet Sobeck?"

"Paya," Impa chided gently. "Let Aloy reveal what had happened to her the way it had happened to her."

"Thank you, Impa," Aloy quipped. "Anyway . . . As I made my way through the building, I encountered information about the Faro machines."

"You mean their ability to consume lifeforms and make more of themselves?" Paya asked.

"Yes, along with information about Elisabet Sobeck and Ted Faro."

Aloy continues to tell them about how Elisabet used to work for Ted, but did not approve of his creating machines for war and left him to create machines for peaceful purposes. About how she managed to reach the office of Ted Faro, and it was there that she recovered data and learned that a glitch occurred in the Faro machines, causing them to disobey their creators and act on their own, replicating and devoured lifeforms relentlessly. According to Elisabet, in just fifteen months all life would be destroyed, down to plants. Then how Elisabet next forced Ted to fund something called Project Zero Dawn. He didn't want to at first, but she threatened to ruin his name if he did not, and so he agreed to fund Project Zero Dawn.

"After learning what I could, I turned to leave," Aloy continued. "That was when my mysterious benefactor spoke to me through my focus once again. I got fed up with his secrecy and demanded that he reveal himself to me, so he did. His name was Sylens. After a brief talk, my next stop was a place called the Grave Hoard, where I was going to learn more about what had happened in Ted Faro's office."

Aloy talks about having arrived at the Grave Hoard and needing to fight off more Shadow Carja. How she made her way deeper in and had to fight another Deathbringer, then going into a large meeting room where she watched a recorded image of Elisabet meeting with the other generals. About Operation: Enduring Victory. Then after leaving the place, Sylens appeared to her and told her to go to a place called the Orbital Launch Site where Project Zero Dawn had been carried out.

"The problem was that it was located under Sunfall," Aloy explained. "A city that belonged to the Shadow Carja and each of their commanders were wearing a focus. So whatever they saw, Hades would end up seeing. And if it ever saw me again, it would immediately issue a kill order and all of Sunfall would be after me. So their focus network had to be disabled."

Aloy goes on to explain how Sylens gave her a destination to go to so that she could meet with him for further instructions. Once there, she was contacted by Sylens, who told her that she was at the Eclipse headquarters and to enter during the night under the cover of darkness to destroy their focus network.

"I infiltrated the place with instructions on finding a machine called a tallneck, a machine with very long legs and neck with a disk on top that relays information to other machines, that Eclipse had dissembled in order to make their focus network. I found it and was about to disable it when Hades finally showed up as a dark red ball of energy to confront me. I destroyed the network and escaped with the whole base in an uproar. Once outside, Sylens contacted me again and I accused him of knowing that Hades was in there; of which he did not deny, but kept it to himself for fear that I might not want to go through with it."

"And you were able to return to Sunfall and infiltrate that place?" Paya asked.

"Yes," Aloy verified. "I entered the Orbital Launch Site, and it was there that I finally learned the truth about Operation: Enduring Victory and Project Zero Dawn."

Aloy tells them about the recorded message from General Harres.

"So these Faro machines destroyed all life in your world and even rendered it unfit to live in," Paya said with confusion. "But yet you exist, along with the rest of life in your world . . . How is that even possible?"

"That answer was in the form of a recording from Elisabet Sobeck," Aloy answered.

Paya and Impa listen with amazement over what Aloy tells them about it.

"That's amazing!" Paya exclaimed with wonder. "First all life was exterminated, and then the Faro machines were finally shut off by another machine named Gaia. Then Gaia went about cleansing your world so that it could resurrect all life using the seeds of each lifeform, up to your people!"

"I don't think the Sheikah could have ever created such a god-like feat of engineering," Impa said with a subtle tone of awe.

"We're these Old Ones gods?!" Paya asked Aloy incredulously.

"No, they were human beings like myself. The only difference was that they had accumulated the knowledge to know how to do those things."

"But your story is not finished, right Aloy?" Impa said. "Because there is the part as to why your people became oblivious to their true origin. Or even your origin for that matter."

"That's right," Aloy answered. "And it involved having to go further into the Orbital Launch Site to learn about Gaia."

Aloy explains about how she made her way to Elisabet Sobeck's office and watched recordings about Elisabet interacting with Gaia and even downloading the Alpha Registry onto her focus so that she would enable her to enter the Sacred Mountain.

"Unfortunately, the Shadow Carja showed up," Aloy explained. "Helis was with them and he threw a bomb at me and I got knocked out. When I came to, I was in the Sun-Ring."

She then goes on to explain how Helis taunted her, telling her that she was meant to be killed in the Sun-Ring.

"He next picked up my original focus and crushed it between his fingers," Aloy explained. "Then he told me that before the focus network was destroyed, he had ordered his followers to go and kill off the Nora. That is when he released me into the ring to be killed by machines."

Aloy goes on to explain how she managed to use the behemoth to destroy the platform and get her weapons back. Then how she managed to destroy it, but Helis sent in more corruptors to kill her, only for Sylens to come to her rescue with three broadbacks in tow and two ravagers to attack the corruptors. They both made their getaway and when they got far enough, he gave her a new focus and they parted ways for a time.

"That is when I had to return to the Sacred Mountain," Aloy next said.

Aloy tells them about how when she returned, the Eclipse along with Faro machines were attacking the Sacred Land. How she helped to defeat them and went into the Sacred Mountain and was finally able to go through that door. Once inside, she discovered it to be empty and full of glass tanks. That there were cribs and play centers in there. She checked out what she could find and was shown images of when the first people were children and being watched over by machines in the form of people. How they fussed and flustered. About how their rebelliousness grew as they got older, made all the more so by not being able to enter a part of the mountain that was permanently denied to them. And about how they were told they had to leave because there was no more food. Never to return.

"That is so sad," Paya sighed. "All those parentless children, raised by machines and forced to live in what they came to view as a prison. Then having to fend for themselves when they got older because they ran out of food."

"And yet they survived and prospered," Impa said. "Or else Aloy would not be here."

"I managed to gain access to the area that had been denied to them," Aloy said. "It was where the Apollo program was located. I tried accessing it, but there wasn't anything to access."

"Then that means all of the knowledge of the Old Ones was gone," Impa deduced.

"That's right. I next found the message that Gaia had left behind."

Aloy tells them about the message.

"A machine," Paya gasped in slow awe. "An actual machine cared so much about life that it willfully sacrificed itself to preserve it!"

"That machine was also one of my mothers," Aloy said. "The other was Elisabet Sobeck, who was already hundreds of years dead by the time I was born."

"Gaia developed you to stop Hades, Aloy," Paya gasped. "You truly were meant to be a hero."

"Yeah . . . I guess I was." Aloy's tone soft and doubtful. "Of course, things changed completely when I emerged from that door. Those who hated me now begged for my forgiveness. They called me, Annointed . . . I was so angry."

"Why? They knew they made a mistake." Paya said.

"Paya," Impa said. "All her life, Aloy was scorned and treated with contempt simply for her existence. It is difficult for one to let go of this in a day. It takes time . . . So what did you do after that, Aloy?"

"I next had to go to Gaia Prime, the place that Gaia blew up in order to stop Hades from taking over. It was there that I had to find a device that would help me overwhelm Hades and destroy it."

Aloy tells them about how she made it there and went to Elisabet Sobeck's office, where she learned about her fate.

"Sh-She sacrificed her life to save everyone and everything inside," Paya croaked as she looks to be on the verge of crying.

"If that makes you sad, then what I have to say next is going to make you angry," Aloy said.

Aloy tells them about finally reaching the place where the Alphas were located, then entered to find them all dead. And ultimately why that happened.

"Th-That's horrible!" Paya gasped with a look of outrage. "Not only did this Ted Faro cause the destruction of your world, but he also destroyed all of its knowledge and murdered everyone involved! And all because he thought he was saving those yet to come?!"

"It seemed like Ted Faro was more concerned about his own honor than about the ones who were to follow," Impa said in a disapproving tone.

"That . . . makes a lot of sense," Aloy mused. "Anyway, I found the master override in the Alpha room and made my way to Sylens' workshop."

Aloy explains about how she met up with Sylens personally once again. He told her about how Hades and the Shadow Carja came to be.

"He's responsible for Hades and the cult that worshipped it?!" Paya exclaimed.

"He found Hades within the wreckage of a mountain-sized war machine with massive metal tentacles," Aloy corrected. "It was because Hades was giving off a signal. Of course, Hades promised him knowledge in exchange for his help. But Hades doublecrossed him in the end and Sylens had to escape. Before he left, he gave me his spear and told me to end Hades with it."

Aloy goes on to tell them about how she arrived at Meridian since that is where Hades was going to attack.

"What did Hades want there?" Paya asked.

"It wanted to reach the Spire," Aloy answered. "A very tall pole that was a part of Gaia. Originally, it sent out a message that shut off the Faro machines. But Hades wanted to seize it and send out another message to awaken the Faro machines so that they could continue to destroy all life like they did hundreds of years ago."

"Just like the Calamity Ganon!" Paya gasped.

"But of course that never happened," Impa said.

Aloy goes on to explain about the battle where she had to fight off the Shadow Carja, and then Helis.

"I killed Helis, ending him once and for all. Then the real battle began."

Aloy goes on to explain about how with the use of an Oseram cannon she had to help fight off waves of corruptors, deathbringers, and other corrupted machines.

"A deathbringer knocked me down and I saw it drag Hades itself into the city behind it. I came to and chased it all the way up to the Spire. There, we fought off the other machines that protected it. Finally, I went up to Hades and stabbed Sylen's spear into it, destroying it and saving the world."

"Hurray!" Paya trumpeted.

"Sometime after the battle for Meridian was over, I managed to find Elisabet's home. It was there that I found her corpse, encased in a protective suit and sitting on a stone bench. She had been sitting there for hundreds of years undisturbed. I found a machine to dig a hole so that I could give her a proper burial. I sat on that bench for a rest, then had that vision and . . . well . . . here I am."