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| “ | I am a righteous man. Chosen of the Sun. But in times of need, the powers of shadow can accomplish what the Sun alone cannot. | „ |
| ~ Bahavas. |
| “ | I had to come here myself! To end you suffering, Uthid-- and mine. The outlanders led us here. And now that they are dead, their price is most affordable. But enough with needles. It’s time for blades. Remove them from the Sun’s sight. |
„ |
| ~ Bahavas gloating at Uthid. |
| “ | I had to-- I had to! Prune the weak, or all the Carja in Shadow are doomed! | „ |
| ~ Bahavas' last words, before he is killed by Uthid. |
Lucent Bahavas, also known as High Priest Bahavas, is a supporting antagonist in the 2017 video game Horizon Zero Dawn. Jiran's high priest as well as a personal advisor, Bahavas would later escape Meridian after Avad, Jiran's second son, overthrew his own father, forcing him and the rest of Jiran's loyalists to escape Sunfall. He is the co-founder of the Shadow Carja cult known as Eclipse, along with Helis.
Bahavas is, in reality, one of the two de facto leaders of the Shadow Carja, along with Helis, as their figurehead Sun-King Itamen is the tribe's puppet leader. He serves as the arch-enemy of Uthid and Vanasha.
Bahavas was voiced by Anthony Howell, who also voiced Dervahl in the same game.
Appearance
Bahavas is a middle-aged man with a dark brown skin and brown eyes. He is often seeing wearing the usual Carja Sun-Priest robes.
Personality
Bahavas is dishonorable, corrupt, and self-righteous, as he uses his own power to justify his criminality, including the Red Raids that his former superior Jiran had orchestrated. He goes so far in attempting to murder Uthid and Itamen to justify his own reasons.
Bahavas is also arrogant and has a superiority complex towards those he deems "weak", who sees commoners, including ill people, the elderly, and even children as nothing more than hindrances for the Shadow Carja, which is exemplified when he placed a bounty on Uthid for uncovering a refugee culling in an attempt to cover up his crimes.
Background
Past
Bahavas had a position of prominence among Sun-Priests before the Liberation of Meridian. Believing Jiran to be the Sun's appointed spokesperson, Bahavas saw the Sun-rule King's as absolute and infallible, which led him to support the notorious Red Raids.
Jiran's wife Nasadi and son Itamen, as well as Jiran's elite Kestrel troops, the Carja who were loyal to Jiran, and their attendants, were taken with Bahavas and Helis when Jiran was ousted by his middle son Avad during the Liberation from Meridian to the royal summer residence in Sunfall. He and Helis split off a group of these individuals and gave them the name "Carja in Shadow" (although the other tribes would refer to them as the Shadow Carja). Even though they possessed de facto control, the two men installed Itamen as their figurehead ruler.
Although he and the other Sun-Priests and nobles lived comfortably in Jiran's Citadel, which was guarded by the Kestrels, the majority of the Shadow Carja underclass lived in squalor in the tent city of Shadowside, which was situated around the Citadel. Bahavas had repeatedly promised the Carja tribespeople who had accompanied them that Meridian and the Sundom would eventually be retaken.
Bahavas and Helis remained at Sunfall because they lacked the resources and military force to recover the Sundom. Until they were contacted by a mysterious man named Sylens, who wanted them to see someone who would give them the authority to retake Meridian and Sundom, Bahavas and Helis remained there. He and Helis arrived at the designated spot with a Kestrel squad. There, they were given their first introduction to what they were told was the Buried Shadow, the Carja religion's Devil. The "Shadow" was actually HADES, a rogue AI from the 21st-Century, who was looking for a way to wipe out all life on Earth.
It assumed the Buried Shadow identity at Sylens' suggestion and used the two men's religious convictions to coerce them into founding a cult that served it, offering Meridian and the Sundom as payment. Bahavas accepted the proposition without hesitation, persuading the wary Helis that aiding the Buried Shadow would help to restore the natural cycle that Jiran's death had disrupted. Thus, as HADES and Sylens had planned, the two men had been deceived and had founded the Eclipse cult.
Helis took care of the Eclipse, and Bahavas focused on running the Shadow Carja. As vicious and remorseless as Helis or his former ally Jiran, Bahavas concluded that the Shadow Carja's old and weak, and in certain cases, the young, were incapable of fighting for the cause and needed to be eliminated for the good of the tribe. He hired an assassin in secret to silently poison such tribespeople in Shadowside at night in order to achieve this goal. But Uthid, a reputable and respectable Shadow Carja Captain, learned about the killings.
Uthid captured the murderer after looking into the killings. He took the assassin before Bahavas, who publicly praised them for their assistance before secretly ordering the assassin's release. Bahavas turned the Kestrels on Uthid and his soldiers in anticipation that doing so would reveal him as the one who gave the order for the culling. Uthid fled to a distant area known as the Greenclimb in the hopes of meeting a more dignified end after all of his soldiers perished. Uthid was suspected of plotting to kill Itamen in retribution, and Bahavas summoned a meeting of bounty hunters in the Sunfall palace and offered them a reward of 500 Shards for finding Uthid and killing him.
Horizon Zero Dawn
A Carja agent working at Sunfall, Vanasha, was aware of Uthid's innocence. She convinced Aloy, a Nora huntress she had spotted at Sunfall, during her mission to reach the ruins of the Zero Dawn facility, that Uthid was innocent and begged her to accompany him to the Greenclimb to help him fight the bounty hunters. Aloy accepted and complied.
She and Uthid engaged in combat and eliminated all of the approaching bounty seekers. To secure Uthid's demise, Bahavas then showed up with his personal guard as a backup plan. He saw them assault Aloy and Uthid, but they too were defeated by the pair. Lacking protection, Bahavas attempted to convince Uthid of the justification for his culling order. He was fatally murdered by Uthid with contempt as he sought retribution for his slain soldiers.
Death
When Bahavas died, several Sun-Priests competed for his position, causing chaos within the Priesthood. The Shadow Carja lost their final vestige of legitimacy when Vanasha smuggled Itamen and Nasadi to Meridian during the ensuing panic, and later after the Shadow Carja's poor revolted against the last traces of the splinter tribe's leadership.
Trivia
- In the credits for "Horizon Zero Dawn," Bahavas is incorrectly mentioned twice: once as "Bahavas" and once as "Lucent Bahavas."
External Links
- Bahavas on the Pure Evil Wiki
 Villains
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Artificial Intelligences Organisations Carja Shadow Carja Banuk Oseram Tenakth Londra's Devotees Far Zenith | ||