A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής prōtagōnistḗs 'one who plays the first part, chief actor') is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot , primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot , or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist.
61-427: Aloy is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the video game series Horizon . In the games' post-apocalyptic tribal setting, she is born in 3021, raised as an outcast, and trains as a warrior in order to win a ritual competition to discover her mother's identity. After narrowly evading an assassination attempt, she embarks on a journey to stop a cult that worships an artificial intelligence bent on
122-407: A gulag camp. Leo Tolstoy 's War and Peace depicts fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war. Though many people equate protagonists with the term hero and possessing heroic qualities, it is not necessary, as even villainous characters can be protagonists. For example Michael Corleone from The Godfather (1972–1990) film series (1978–1983). In some cases, the protagonist
183-422: A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) protagonist is typically admired for their achievements and noble qualities. Heroes are lauded for their strength, courage, virtuousness, and honor, and are considered to be the "good guys" of the narrative. Examples include DC Comics' Superman (hero) and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (heroine). An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine
244-507: A "hunter's respect". She also has a gritty personality, disliking "comforts or ease", and tends to be "very forthright and blunt, sometimes even confrontational" in how she addresses issues. Guerrilla Games always envisioned the game as starring a strong female character , with game director Mathijs de Jonge citing Sarah Connor from Terminator , Ellen Ripley from Alien , and Ygritte from Game of Thrones as influences. Sony decided to do rigorous market testing, believing that adding
305-656: A depth of 10,000 m (33,000 ft; 6.2 mi) in the Mariana Trench , the deepest spot in the Earth's oceans. In fact, single-celled life forms have been found in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, by the Challenger Deep , at depths of 11,034 m (36,201 ft; 6.856 mi). Other researchers reported related studies that microorganisms thrive inside rocks up to 580 m (1,900 ft; 0.36 mi) below
366-565: A female lead might be a "risk", but approved her as the lead role. The developers were aware of the strong female character cliche and tried to make a more human character with a more interesting personality. Aloy's physical likeness was based on the Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra . Aloy is first introduced as an infant who has been entrusted to Rost's care, a man who has been cast out by the Nora tribe. Six years later, while exploring on her own, she falls into
427-454: A forbidden bunker that was created by ancient humans. While trying to escape from the destroyed facility, she discovers an augmented reality device known as a Focus before being rescued by Rost. Despite his misgivings, Rost allows her to keep the Focus, which she soon develops an affinity for. The next morning, while learning to hunt with Rost, she uses the Focus to rescue Teb, an injured member of
488-449: A man named Sylens, who reveals that the older woman is Dr. Elisabet Sobeck. Her genetic profile allows her to access the headquarters of Faro Automated Solutions, where she sees that Elisabet was a skilled scientist who was called in to try to stop a rogue swarm of self-replicating combat robots that used biomass as fuel and ultimately consumed all life on Earth thanks to the company's CEO, Ted Faro, refusing to allow any backdoor access into
549-423: A poet named Thespis introduced the idea of one actor stepping out and engaging in a dialogue with the chorus. This was the invention of tragedy, and occurred about 536 B.C. Then the poet Aeschylus , in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that included a third actor. A description of the protagonist's origin cited that during
610-450: A process of biopoiesis (life created naturally from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds) or biogenesis (life created from living matter), at least some 3.5 billion years ago. In a general sense, biospheres are any closed, self-regulating systems containing ecosystems. This includes artificial biospheres such as Biosphere 2 and BIOS-3 , and potentially ones on other planets or moons . The term "biosphere"
671-559: A supporting protagonist appears, the story is told from the perspective of a character who appears to be minor. This character may be more peripheral from the events of the story and are not as involved within the "main action" of the plot. The supporting protagonist may be telling the story while viewing another character as the main influence of the plot. One example is Nick in The Great Gatsby . Euripides ' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists, though one at
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#1732876069521732-432: A time. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play. In Henrik Ibsen 's play The Master Builder , the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist. In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet , Romeo
793-510: A way to recapture HEPHAESTUS. The game's story follows Ryas, a former Shadow Carja rebel who is sentenced to atone for his crimes by joining an expedition sent to investigate a new threat to the Sundom. During his journey, Ryas meets numerous new and returning characters, including franchise protagonist Aloy. Aloy has appeared in other media outside of the Horizon games. She was a playable character in
854-586: Is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage, and morality. Examples include Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye , Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind , Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby , and Walter White from Breaking Bad . A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy. Examples include Oedipus from Oedipus Rex and Prince Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet . The protagonist
915-436: Is an open system, with photosynthesis capturing solar energy at a rate of around 100 terawatts . By the most general biophysiological definition, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere , cryosphere , hydrosphere , and atmosphere . The biosphere is postulated to have evolved , beginning with
976-488: Is his own antagonist). Sometimes, a work will have a false protagonist , who may seem to be the protagonist, but then may disappear unexpectedly. The character Marion in Alfred Hitchcock 's film Psycho (1960) is an example. A novel may contain a number of narratives, each with its own protagonist. Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's The First Circle , for example, depicts a variety of characters imprisoned and living in
1037-471: Is not a human: in Richard Adams ' novel Watership Down , a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home. Biosphere The biosphere (from Ancient Greek βίος ( bíos ) 'life' and σφαῖρα ( sphaîra ) 'sphere'), also called
1098-476: Is not always conventionally good. Contrasting the hero protagonist, a villain protagonist is a protagonist who is a villain , driving the story forward regardless of the evil qualities the main character has. These traits can include being cruel, malicious, and wicked. Examples include Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Richard III in the eponymous play by William Shakespeare . When
1159-554: Is only available to players that own a PlayStation 5 . but can be used across all consoles when unlocked. In September 2021, Aloy was given out as a free collaboration character for PS4 and PS5 players of the game Genshin Impact , while players on other platforms received her for free in limited time in October 2021. In the game, she is a Bow user of the Cryo element; she is however considered one of
1220-464: Is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist . The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. The term protagonist comes from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής ( prōtagōnistḗs ) 'actor who plays
1281-419: Is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet , Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist is the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many ways, Hamlet
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#17328760695211342-485: The Nuvvuagittuq Belt of Quebec, Canada that were as old as 4.28 billion years, the oldest record of life on earth, suggesting "an almost instantaneous emergence of life" after ocean formation 4.4 billion years ago , and not long after the formation of the Earth 4.54 billion years ago. According to biologist Stephen Blair Hedges , "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in
1403-418: The ecosphere (from Ancient Greek οἶκος ( oîkos ) 'settlement, house' and σφαῖρα ( sphaîra ) 'sphere'), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems . It can also be termed the zone of life on Earth . The biosphere (which is technically a spherical shell ) is virtually a closed system with regard to matter , with minimal inputs and outputs. Regarding energy , it
1464-404: The universe ." Every part of the planet, from the polar ice caps to the equator , features life of some kind. Recent advances in microbiology have demonstrated that microbes live deep beneath the Earth's terrestrial surface and that the total mass of microbial life in so-called "uninhabitable zones" may, in biomass , exceed all animal and plant life on the surface. The actual thickness of
1525-525: The 35th Golden Joystick Awards . She thanked the developers, saying that playing the character made her a "braver and stronger woman", and that she hoped Aloy would be inspiring to other women. The writing, design, and vocal/motion-capture performance of Aloy has been nominated for " Outstanding Achievement in Character " twice at the D.I.C.E. Awards , one each for Zero Dawn in 2018 and Forbidden West in 2023 . Main protagonist The protagonist
1586-558: The Banuk. He then bids her with a respectful farewell. Horizon Forbidden West continues the story of Aloy half a year after the events of Zero Dawn . Due to the rapid collapse of Earth's biosphere , causing plant life to turn red and toxic, Aloy decides to journey to the "Forbidden West" (the West Coast ) in order to find a backup copy of the now-destroyed GAIA and bring her back online. She succeeds in doing so, but also comes into conflict with
1647-406: The Earth's biosphere, including soil , hot springs , inside rocks at least 19 km (12 mi) deep underground, and at least 64 km (40 mi) high in the atmosphere. Marine life under many forms has been found in the deepest reaches of the world ocean while much of the deep sea remains to be explored. Under certain test conditions, microorganisms have been observed to survive
1708-470: The Earth's crust. The rate at which the temperature increases depends on many factors, including the type of crust (continental vs. oceanic), rock type, geographic location, etc. The greatest known temperature at which microbial life can exist is 122 °C (252 °F) ( Methanopyrus kandleri Strain 116). It is likely that the limit of life in the " deep biosphere " is defined by temperature rather than absolute depth. On 20 August 2014, scientists confirmed
1769-524: The Firebreak facility to free the "Spirit". Later, Aloy discovers that HEPHAESTUS, one of GAIA's sub-functions, took control of the facility from an unknown remote location, enslaving the previous governing AI, CYAN, who Ourea earlier deemed as the voice of the "Spirit". After Aloy, Ourea and Aratak defeat the enemy, they head to the facility's core. Ourea sacrifices herself to finish the override, with Aloy later consoling Aratak for his loss. They quickly flee from
1830-502: The Nora tribe who has recklessly fallen into the path of machines. Aloy expresses the desire to learn the identity of her mother, and Rost suggests training to compete in the Proving, a coming-of-age ritual that would not only allow her entry into the Nora, but give her the answers she seeks as a boon if she wins. The game skips forwards twelve years to when she has become a skilled warrior and huntress due to her intensive training. She attends
1891-558: The PlayStation 4 version of Monster Hunter: World and makes a cameo appearance in Astro's Playroom . Aloy was added to Fortnite Battle Royale on April 15, 2021, for the Chapter 2, Season 6 "Primal" event. A limited time "Aloy Cup" was available to PlayStation players, while a "Team Up!" mode with Lara Croft from Tomb Raider was added. She also got an extra style called Ice Hunter, which
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1952-414: The Proving, winning the competition and being declared a Nora. Before she can ask about her parents, the tribe is attacked by a group of cultists led by the fanatical Helis, who seeks to kill Aloy. Most of her fellow warriors are murdered, but Helis hesitates when stabbing Aloy and is attacked by Rost, who then sacrifices himself to protect her from a blast. When she comes to inside All-Mother Mountain, one of
2013-456: The Zeniths end up kidnapping GAIA, HEPHAESTUS, and Beta to serve their plans. During Aloy's final assault on the Zeniths' base, she and Beta work together to release HEPHAESTUS into their systems, sacrificing their chance to capture it, but allowing it to create a machine army that kills most of the Zeniths and their robot servitors. Arriving at their control room, she discovers the hidden truth that
2074-533: The Zeniths merely meant to steal GAIA and escape; a berserk gestalt intelligence known as Nemesis, created by the Zeniths as a failed experiment into digital immortality , had actually destroyed both their colony and GAIA, seeking vengeance on humanity, and is now en route to Earth. The last surviving Zenith, Tilda, attempts to "save" Aloy against her will, due to her former relationship with Sobeck, but Aloy defeats and kills her. Aloy decides to stay on Earth, working together with Sylens and Beta to stop Nemesis and find
2135-479: The Zeniths, immortal space colonists who returned to Earth after the failure of their colony and seemingly sent the mysterious signal in order to wipe all life from Earth's surface and start anew. The Zeniths have been using a second clone of Sobeck, named Beta, to access secure installations. Aloy rescues the traumatized Beta, who slowly begins to trust her. After restoring most of GAIA's component functions, Aloy and her allies try to reintegrate HEPHAESTUS with GAIA, but
2196-569: The Zero Dawn facility, Aloy also learns that Dr. Sobeck sacrificed herself to close a malfunctioning vent and save the project from the encroaching all-consuming robots. Upon realizing this, Aloy sets out to find the Master Override that can shut down HADES. With the help of Sylens, she obtains the Override and confronts HADES, shutting it down in the nick of time. In an ending scene, she is seen finding
2257-405: The best new game characters of 2017. TheGamer also included Aloy on their "Iconic Video Game Characters", stating that "Aloy is one of the best protagonists of the last decade, of which there are many to choose from, mostly because of her strong-willed nature and ability to act strong in difficult situations." Ashly Burch , the voice actress for Aloy, won an award for "best gaming performance" at
2318-444: The biosphere is but one of four separate components of the geochemical model, the other three being geosphere , hydrosphere , and atmosphere . When these four component spheres are combined into one system, it is known as the ecosphere . This term was coined during the 1960s and encompasses both biological and physical components of the planet. The Second International Conference on Closed Life Systems defined biospherics as
2379-835: The biosphere on Earth is difficult to measure. Birds typically fly at altitudes as high as 1,800 m (5,900 ft; 1.1 mi) and fish live as much as 8,372 m (27,467 ft; 5.202 mi) underwater in the Puerto Rico Trench . There are more extreme examples for life on the planet: Rüppell's vulture has been found at altitudes of 11,300 metres (37,100 feet; 7.0 miles); bar-headed geese migrate at altitudes of at least 8,300 m (27,200 ft; 5.2 mi); yaks live at elevations as high as 5,400 m (17,700 ft; 3.4 mi) above sea level; mountain goats live up to 3,050 m (10,010 ft; 1.90 mi). Herbivorous animals at these elevations depend on lichens, grasses, and herbs. Life forms live in every part of
2440-506: The body of Dr. Sobeck and getting closure in the search for her origins. Intrigued by rumors of a new wave of dangerous machines at the edge of the Banuk land, Aloy took a detour from her mission to explore the Cut. After learning more about the "Spirit" from Ourea, Aloy attempts to fulfil her request by saving the mysterious entity. Soon afterwards, she teams up with Ourea's brother, Aratak. Subsequently, they head to an ancient ruin at Thunder's Drum,
2501-556: The character of Aloy, finding the scene where Aloy talks to her father's grave moving in part due to how "real" their relationship felt and how it shows how things have changed for Aloy since her childhood. Malindy Hetfield of Polygon praised Aloy as "inspiring and captivating", but also called her "not particularly relatable" compared to the game's other female characters due to her "flawlessness". Aloy's story about her origins resonated with Sam Loveridge of GamesRadar+ and inspired her to seek out her own birth parents. Lucas Sullivan of
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2562-552: The chief or first part', combined of πρῶτος ( prôtos , 'first') and ἀγωνιστής ( agōnistḗs , 'actor, competitor'), which stems from ἀγών ( agṓn , 'contest') via ἀγωνίζομαι ( agōnízomai , 'I contend for a prize'). The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece . At first, dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. Then in Poetics , Aristotle describes how
2623-427: The collapsing facility, leaving Ourea's body behind. After a successful escape, Aloy and Aratak meet again at Ourea's Retreat to discuss matters with CYAN. Prior to finishing the last mission at the Cut, Aloy attempts to converse with Aratak, who requests for her help to eliminate the remaining threats caused by HEPHAESTUS. After finishing the mission, Aloy returns to Ourea's apprentice Naltuk, who thanks her for assisting
2684-423: The defunct "Lightkeeper Protocol", predicting that her genes would cause her to become the world's savior once again. Aloy was brought outside the facility by a robot, leading the elders to believe she had mysteriously appeared there. Reaching the entrance to GAIA Prime, Aloy witnesses a series of significant damages caused by GAIA's self-destruction and is skeptical that GAIA could ever be repaired. While exploring
2745-466: The early period of Greek drama, the protagonist served as the author, the director, and the actor and that these roles were only separated and allocated to different individuals later. There is also a claim that the poet did not assign or create the protagonist as well as other terms for actors such as deuteragonist and tritagonist primarily because he only gave actors their appropriate part. However, these actors were assigned their specific areas at
2806-460: The existence of microorganisms living 800 m (2,600 ft; 0.50 mi) below the ice of Antarctica . Earth's biosphere is divided into several biomes , inhabited by fairly similar flora and fauna . On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude . Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life. In contrast, most of
2867-426: The machines. She then sets out to discover what Elisabet had planned to do, what was referred to as "Project Zero Dawn." Eventually, Aloy discovers that Zero Dawn was a terraforming system whose development involved deceiving the global human populace into sacrificing itself in a futile attempt to stop the swarm to provide time to complete it. The system would restore the human species and other life after shutting down
2928-524: The more populous biomes lie near the equator . Experimental biospheres, also called closed ecological systems , have been created to study ecosystems and the potential for supporting life outside the Earth. These include spacecraft and the following terrestrial laboratories: No biospheres have been detected beyond the Earth; therefore, the existence of extraterrestrial biospheres remains hypothetical. The rare Earth hypothesis suggests they should be very rare, save ones composed of microbial life only. On
2989-562: The other hand, Earth analogs may be quite numerous, at least in the Milky Way galaxy , given the large number of planets. Three of the planets discovered orbiting TRAPPIST-1 could possibly contain biospheres. Given limited understanding of abiogenesis , it is currently unknown what percentage of these planets actually develop biospheres. Based on observations by the Kepler Space Telescope team, it has been calculated that provided
3050-519: The same site called her "one of gaming's greatest female leads". She was ranked as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s by Polygon staff by Colin Campbell praising the character by stating that "She's pragmatic but compassionate, iron-willed but open-minded. In a 31st-century world with its own norms and taboos, particularly around gender, Aloy refuses to let anyone else tell her how to live." Paste magazine writer Holly Green included Aloy as
3111-433: The science and technology of analogs and models of Earth's biosphere; i.e., artificial Earth-like biospheres. Others may include the creation of artificial non-Earth biospheres—for example, human-centered biospheres or a native Martian biosphere—as part of the topic of biospherics. Currently, the total number of living cells on the Earth is estimated to be 10 ; the total number since the beginning of Earth, as 10 , and
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#17328760695213172-415: The science of the biosphere. It is an interdisciplinary concept for integrating astronomy , geophysics , meteorology , biogeography , evolution , geology , geochemistry , hydrology and, generally speaking, all life and Earth sciences. Geochemists define the biosphere as being the total sum of living organisms (the " biomass " or " biota " as referred to by biologists and ecologists). In this sense,
3233-570: The sea floor under 2,590 m (8,500 ft; 1.61 mi) of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States , as well as 2,400 m (7,900 ft; 1.5 mi) beneath the seabed off Japan. Culturable thermophilic microbes have been extracted from cores drilled more than 5,000 m (16,000 ft; 3.1 mi) into the Earth's crust in Sweden , from rocks between 65–75 °C (149–167 °F). Temperature increases with increasing depth into
3294-419: The stage with the protagonist always entering from the middle door or that the dwelling of the deuteragonist (second most important character) should be on the right hand, and the tritagonist (third most important character), the left. In Ancient Greece, the protagonist is distinguished from the term "hero", which was used to refer to a human who became a semi-divine being in the narrative. In literary terms,
3355-401: The swarm. However, a mysterious signal attacked Zero Dawn's AI, GAIA, forcing her to self-destruct and unshackling her component processes. With nothing to protect humanity from the rogue AI of HADES, initially created as an emergency "reset switch" for the planet, GAIA was forced to order ELEUTHIA, a sub-function tasked with maintaining the artificial wombs, to clone Elisabet using DNA stored for
3416-1058: The total number for the entire time of a habitable planet Earth as 10 . This is much larger than the total number of estimated stars (and Earth-like planets) in the observable universe as 10 , a number which is more than all the grains of beach sand on planet Earth; but less than the total number of atoms estimated in the observable universe as 10 ; and the estimated total number of stars in an inflationary universe (observed and unobserved), as 10 . The earliest evidence for life on Earth includes biogenic graphite found in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks from Western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone from Western Australia . More recently, in 2015, "remains of biotic life " were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. In 2017, putative fossilized microorganisms (or microfossils ) were announced to have been discovered in hydrothermal vent precipitates in
3477-413: The tribe's elders explains that Aloy was actually found in front of another bunker inside the mountain, and their disagreement over whether she was a good or evil omen led to her exile. However, her Focus reveals that Helis was given orders along with a picture of an older woman who looks just like her. Aloy is declared a Seeker and sets out to avenge the attack on the tribe. Eventually, she is contacted by
3538-449: The vacuum of outer space . The total amount of soil and subsurface bacterial carbon is estimated as 5 × 10 g. The mass of prokaryote microorganisms—which includes bacteria and archaea, but not the nucleated eukaryote microorganisms —may be as much as 0.8 trillion tons of carbon (of the total biosphere mass , estimated at between 1 and 4 trillion tons). Barophilic marine microbes have been found at more than
3599-529: The weakest characters in the game due to lack of Constellation which strengthens the character as well as having the limited time, meaning the players will not obtain her again after 23 November 2021. When asked about an appearance in Super Smash Bros. due to the release of Lego Horizon Adventures on Nintendo Switch , Guerilla responded, "That'd be nice. If you speak to Nintendo and they want to invite us let me know." Peter Tieryas of Kotaku praised
3660-425: The world's destruction, while also hunting zoomorphic robots that have grown hostile to humans. She has been critically praised for her design and characterization. She is voiced by American voice actress Ashly Burch and model after Dutch actress Hannah Hoekstra . Aloy was created as a character who could provide many tactical options in battle. As a "hunter at heart", she has little compassion for machines beyond
3721-497: Was coined in 1875 by geologist Eduard Suess , who defined it as the place on Earth's surface where life dwells. While the concept has a geological origin, it is an indication of the effect of both Charles Darwin and Matthew F. Maury on the Earth sciences . The biosphere's ecological context comes from the 1920s (see Vladimir I. Vernadsky ), preceding the 1935 introduction of the term " ecosystem " by Sir Arthur Tansley (see ecology history ). Vernadsky defined ecology as
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