Helis

Near Pure Evil

Full Name

Helis

Alias

Chosen of the Sun

Terror of the Sun

Origin

Horizon Zero Dawn

Allies

Bahavas

Jiran

Powers / Skills

Combat Prowess

Leadership
Old World knowledge

Goals

Escape Meridian after the Liberation.

Create the Eclipse with Bahavas and Sylens.
Target the Proving Massacre.
Kill Rost.
Capture Aloy and throw her off to the Sunfall Sun-Ring. (all successful)
Initiate a genocide against the Nora.
Kill Aloy.
Destroy Meridian. (all failed)

Moral Event Horizon

Attacking the participants of the Proving with the Eclipse, killing several Nora braves.

Inciting a genocidal campaign against the Nora tribe.

Kill Count

Several

Crimes

Aiding and abetting

Conspiracy
High treason
Murder
Terrorism

Type of Villain

Murderous Fanatic

“	Never does the Sun show pity. And yet... when my wife died in birthing, and in dying ended the life of my child unborn... I pitied myself. Jiran sensed this. But instead of casting me down for weakness, he cast upon me a radiant beam on honor. He ordered my kin buried in the sacred caves reserved for royals and heroes. Unimaginable. Never again would I doubt that I am the Chosen of the Sun. Never again would pity find a place in me. Not for myself, or another.	„
	~ Helis in the "Without Pity" datapoint in Horizon Zero Dawn.

“	Every morning I wake up to the same nightmare. The same... reality. Holy Meridian in the hands of profligates, debased. The Spire, towering above the horizon like a glittering spike through the center of my mind. Every daybreak in exile is a mark of failure. But the count of days runs thin. I will see Meridian re-taken, the profligates slaughtered, a True King restored to the mesa throne. In this, I have become an instrument of prophecy.	„
	~ Helis, Prophecy datapoint.

Helis is the secondary antagonist of the 2017 video game Horizon Zero Dawn.

He is a violent, battle-hardened fanatic, who serves as one of Jiran's former champions, along with Bahavas, and a former commander of the Red Raids, along with Zaid.

Helis serves as one of the two de facto leaders of the Carja splinter tribe known as the Shadow Carja. He works as the commander of the Shadow Carja cult known as the Eclipse, who seeks to retake the Carja capital of Meridian from Avad, with the help of the rogue, 21st-Century Artificial Intelligence known as HADES. he is also responsible for Rost's death.

He is voiced by Crispin Freeman.

His Evil Ranking[]

What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]

In the past, Helis was a ruthless commander of the Red Raids who led most of them during Jiran's tyrannical ruling.
Held Olin Delverson's wife and daughter captive at a farmstead by threatening them to be killed, with Helis coercing Olin to work for the Eclipse as a spy.
With the help of Olin and with HADES' orders, Helis and the Eclipse later attacked the event known as the Proving, in an attempt to kill Aloy, which caused numerous casualties including several Nora braves, as well as Rost, whom Helis killed in the ensuing scuffle.
- Due to this, Aloy has a personal villainy towards Helis, whom she wants to avenge her adoptive father.
Captured Aloy inside Zero Dawn Project Facility and holds her captive to the Shadow Carja Sun-Ring at high noon for the entertainment of the Shadow Carja, in the form of Aloy being a sacrifice, to see her die from a Corrupted Behemoth machine.
Prior to the destruction of the Eclipse network, Helis ordered the Eclipse to send spies to the Nora Sacred Lands and unleash a genocidal attack against the Nora, as a result of Aloy's interference, which led to numerous casualties and massive damage, dealing a significant blow against the already-weakened tribe. It was only until Aloy's last-ditch effort that stopped his attack.

What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]

As shown in one of the datapoints in the first game, Helis had shown to have some remorse over the loss of his wife and his unborn son in the past, with Jiran casting a ray of honour to him by burying them into the Alight, the Carja's most sacred and revered ground for deceased members of the royal family, as well as heroes.
In one of the three options before his death at the hands of Aloy, Helis was shown to have a sympathetic death when Aloy mentioned how he was simply a pawn to HADES, without knowing what the AI had been planning all along.
Helis slightly fails the Heinous Standards to villains like Erik Visser, who are on par as they are both military commanders to their own organisations, making him and Visser both on the equal footing in terms of resource level. This is due to the fact that Helis only shows some sadism in his own crimes, whereas Visser shows clear enjoyment in it for the sake of causing suffering towards others out of sadism. But this is a minor prevention, as he passes the baseline heinous standards for causing the genocide of the Nora.