Sixty5's Lore Dump [Updated 18/6 - Warframe Lore]

[Sixty5]

Just to preface, this is stuff I've had sitting around for awhile that I have added to irregularly. Most of it is extrapolations from the little we do know and fit with the current cannon. However these are still speculations for now, and will remain as such until DE release more lore to us.

 

This is also fro the most part pretty rough, I have not had the motivation to go back and tidy it up, but bullet points are pretty easy to read so meh.

 

Finally, I do realize that I am missing a fair bit here, so any lore questions that you ask I will answer to the best of my ability from the resources I have (both in-game and out). Hell if you guys are interested, I'm sure I could write out a lot more of this stuff. Regardless, enjoy, and feel free to reference or w/e

 

 

The Orokin

• Former humans who transcended their physical bodies through technology, becoming nearly godlike in the process.
• Many levels of higher level though. An Orokin entity could play multiple matches of chess at once, focussing on each, while at the same time reading a stack of books and holding a number of conversations.
• Still had physical bodies, kept in storage similar to Tenno cyropods, consciousness still linked to this body.
• With their greater technology and nearly limitless mental capacity the Orokin took full control of the Origin system , and soon began to take systems further out. However the huge distance scope required that the physical Orokin body be transferred to these systems (Limits of mental range and interface)
• Because their bodies remained in permanent stasis the Orokin were functionally immortal. Over time they lost their connection with the physical world and their old morality.
• Human lives to them became fleeting flashes of activity, mere specs in their infinite perception.
• Because of this the Orokin empire became one of Tyranny and oppression, prone to their individual obsessions and collective passions.
• Citizens within the Empire were subject to extensive mental conditioning leaving them under the control of the empire.
• Most of the Orokin moved their physical bodies to the void after its discovery as the nature of that space allowed for Zero width connections to the normal plane of reality, giving them nearly limitless mental scope (see point about bodies needing to be moved to other systems)
• Prompted the construction of the void towers.
• A number of the original Orokin believed that they no longer required their original bodies, choosing to discard them to "truly become immortal". This proved to be a mistake, as those who did so lost their sense of self. These self-less individuals coalesced into what is now referred to as the Neural Sentry, a presence that once pervaded all that the Orokin created. Since the collapse it has been confined to the Towers within the Void. It is incredibly hostile to all who enter, and seeks to destroy anything it cannot bend to its will.

The Sentients

• Another post-physical race hell bent on conquest. Their technology and ability was much beyond the Orokin, and so any forces deployed against them were either wiped out or taken over, ironically due to the mental conditioning imparted by the Orokin.
• First contact consisted of the Sentients completely sterilising an Orokin controlled system, and in the process the first true deaths of the Orokin race.
• System by system the Orokin forces, and their numbers fell. Many weapons were created, but none succeeded in slowing the tide of the Sentients. Around this time the Technocyte plague was weaponised and unleashed in the form of the Infestation, as a form of a scorched Earth policy.
• Some tried to escape into the void proper, taking with them whole colonies. The connections back on their former planets were simply severed, trapping there for eternity, left to face the terrible maelstrom of void energies. None were ever heard from again.
• Systems would quickly fall to the Sentients, but they would still take a "long" time to travel between systems. This passage of time was negligible for Post Physical beings such as the Orokin, but still meant that the conquest of their systems was over a period of nearly a century.

The Tenno, and the Lotus

• Orokin within the Origin System began a program to develop ships that could pass through the void and re-enter normal space without the need for anchor points, as a means of escaping the seemingly unstoppable sentients.
• Some of the data they received was that of a set of humans children sent into the void on a ship unshielded from the void, and what had become of them.
• The process was repeated in order to create super-powered soldiers capable of fighting off the Sentient advance and destroying them
• The first set of these warriors received the typical mental conditioning of the time, and the first time they were sent into battle they suffered the same fate as every previous attempt to fight back. The ones that had not been sent to fight were kept near where the Orokin were based, where a stronger mental link meant that they could resist the control of the Sentients. They became known as the Lower Guardians.
• A new set of warriors were commissioned, they were to be free of the Orokin control, the first in ages. Instead one of the Orokin was to preside over them personally. In doing so the presiding Orokin decided to return to her body, a rare, but not of unheard of occurrence.
• The Orokin had long passed the need for names, but the trainees who were to become Tenno gave their lady the name "The Lotus" because of the shape of her head-dress (needed to maintain connection to her expanded mentality). The Lotus liked this, and began to see the Tenno as her children. As their training went on and the Lotus spent more and more time in her physical body, thoughts and feelings long distant began to return, though the Tenno were a necessary for the fight against the Sentients, the thought of what had been done to mere children brought her unease.
• As time went on and more and more Tenno were trained, having proved that they were the first things the Orokin had sent against the sentients that could hold their own, slowing the advance and then halting it right outside the Origin system.
• The Orokin pushed for more Tenno, creating an army ten thousand strong their leaders elevated to near Orokin status, being given elaborately finished Warframes in the process.
• The army of Tenno pushed back, fighting the Sentients and destroying their fleet entirely. No more attacks came.
• About this time the Lotus had come to her final conclusion, her fellow Orokin were Tyrants, not the benevolant rulers that they had long believed themselves to be. They were just as bad as the sentients, they had to be stopped.
• The Tenno Appeared at the Terminus, and all the remaining Orokin returned to their Physical forms to give their thanks to their saviours.
• Before the return the Lotus had contacted each of the returning Tenno, a plan was formed, on the ninth beat of the Naga Drums, they would attack, and restore balance to the systems
• On the ninth beat the Tenno drew their blades and slaughtered the Orokin, their enhancements proving no match for the war hardened Tenno. The remaining lower guardians sprang to the aid of their masters, sluggish due to the lack of their link to the Orokin, they also proved no match.
• Within minutes the Orokin had fallen, but for the Lotus, who spoke to the onlooking citizens of the now former empire, informing them of their freedom, and promising that both she and her Tenno would return when they were once again needed. And with that they left. The Lotus retuned to the Void and the Tenno moved throughout the system routing out the last pockets of Orokin resistance, and then falling cryosleep, ready for when they were needed once again to bring peace and balance to the system.

 

Warframes

• Developed by the Orokin
• Began with a strain of Technocyte that would amplify the innate powers of those who would bear it and give them structure
• Sample was engineered from the tissue of Tenno, Hayden, whose body had long been kept in cryo for study.
• Strain of Virus was identified as the Tenno strain, this is where the name originates
• Simple T-Cyte armour worked well but was upgraded with electronics and additional plating.
• Building a Warframe:
  • Trainees showing void adaptions are exposed to Tenno-strain Technocyte in order to channel and amplify their "natural" powers
  • Systems are fitted later to trained Tenno, sensor suites, shielding, energy cells etc
  • Raw active Technocyte mass is then applied, meshes with both the systems and T-cyte of the Tenno, creates the neural interface
  • Armour plating is then bonded to areas of the suit to provide additional protection, this also bonds with the Tcyte
  • Finally the Tcyte mass is returned to a dormant state, locking in the currently held proporties. If damaged it will return to this state given time to regenerate.
  • Helmet designs are based on different interface systems that change certain aspects of a Warframe.
  • Due to the link between the suit and Tenno the warframe acts as a second skin, rather than a simple armoured suit. A warframe boosts a Tennos already increased physical traits, protects them and offers a greater ability to channel and focus their powers, whilst making them easier to use.
  • A tenno without their frame can still use some of their abilities, but at a much greater physical cost, and with less precision, and control over said powers. However without the suits restraints Tenno powers can reach truly awe inspiring levels. During the war with the sentients, a Nova nearly destroyed an entire planet when she converted half of an enemy attack force into antimatter. The unpredictability of their powers in this state is why many Tenno rarely fully remove their Warframes, lest an unconscious gesture do unthinkable damage.

The Void

• The very nature of the void prevents it from being truly accurately described, it exists outside of our perception, another plane of reality superimposed over the one we live in.
• It is a maelstrom of energy, and is perceived by human senses as an overload, blinding white light, insane pressure, deafening roaring etc.
• Unshielded from the raging energy within, matter will begin to decay, being ripped apart by the void storm. The amount of time this takes is dependent on what energies are acting upon the object in question. Energy distribution within the void is non-uniform, chaotic, and entirely unpredictable
• Objects that are shielded can however exist inside the void. For an object to be shielded it must exude a cloak of its own energies, stronger than those in the void that act upon it.
• Within the void there is no here or there, no location, no direction. Objects within it will begin to dimensionally degrade as well as materialistically degrade, shielding however keeps the order of the object intact.
• The void can be accessed by creating a "tear in reality", a hole in the fabric of spacetime. The larger the hole the more energy required to do so. Reality resists destruction upon any scale, hence void tears are quickly closed when depowered.
• An object that has entered the void cannot be found again unless it has been anchored to this reality somehow. This is done in most cases by having an anchor attuned to the object within the void, connected via a tear smaller than an atom. By focussing upon this frequency, an object can return to the anchorpoint. Conversely the anchorpoint can be used as a focus for a portal to be opened to that void location.
• Because location within the void is irrelevant interesting possibilities are opened. For instance a ship with an attuned anchorpoints in different locations can jump between them instantly using the void as intermediary, the only constraints being the energy needed to have said ship enter the void and then exit it.
• A second concequence of this is that a set of two paired generators opening connections to the void at the same time will connect with one another and form a passage within space-time. Again the larger the passage the more difficult it is to maintain.
• The Orokin upon discovery of the Void integrated it into a number of their technologies. Within the void they built towers, shielded from the storm within the void. These could be accessed via specialised keys attuned to the tower. The Orokin primarially used these as a base, the connections through the keys allowing the Orokin within to exist in many faraway places at once. The orokin also created the solar rails, great constructs that allowed for near instant travel throughout the systems. However, it was found that the rails were rather more limited in scope than towers and keys, as the larger the portal, the lesser the distance it could cover. An infintessimally small connection could span the distance between systems easily, but a larger connection, needed for individuals or ships to pass lessened in scope rather quickly. In many places within systems it was found that way-stations had to be constructed in order to facilitate transport, leading to the Solar Rails gaining their name.
• Formorians
  • The Formorian class of warship deployed by the Grineer represented such a major threat for the system not because of their size, or armaments. Instead the Formorians were the first ships since The Collapse capable of surviving perpetually within the Void. Their massive size was in most part was due to the machines needed to shield the ships from the void, and to transport them within. Because of this a fleet of Formorians, when ready, could disappear into the Void at will and strike anywhere at any time with only the barest hint of warning.
  • Thankfully each time the ships have neared deployment the Tenno have managed to take them down from within and prevent them from raining destruction upon all who oppose the Grineer.
  • Technology for the Formorians was unceremoniously torn from Orokin derelicts, and crudely repurposed. The resources required to do so were enormous, but with an empire the size of the Grineer's it is unsurprising that they managed to (apparently) accomplish such a feat.
  • As of now, no Formorian class warship has ever entered the Void.
• All factions have at some point discovered Void keys, and in most cases have activated them and sent scouts within. These scouts now defend the Orokin towers, having been corrupted by the Neural Sentry (See Orokin Section)
• All Warframes come equipped with a small Void generator, and rudimentary shielding from its energies. The purpose of which is to facilitate the Tenno entering the void on their own violition, and for storing ammo. The shielded pocket within the void is frequently used to hold captured targets, however using it as such has no guarantees for the survival of the subject within the pocket. The small void connection is also used tactically by a number of Tenno. Ash and Loki Warframes have the ability to turn a target at a distance into an anchor, allowing for teleportation.

Warframes

• Female Tenno seem to have a greater affinity for binding their powers to a specific aspect than their male counterparts.
• All tenno technically can use any ability, however training and the Warframe channel their energies towards a specific path, set out by the original individuals who showed affinity towards a specific aspect early on (read ember codex)
• Originally the Orokin believed that Tenno powers were focused upon one aspect or another, with some having powers that did not manifest according to any aspect.
• Exposed potentials were tested for these affinities, and then trained according to them, as well as having their Warframes based upon these ideals.
• Research on how these powers could be used however was done starting at around the 7th generation of Tenno. This lead to the creation of new Tenno with the same affinity, but a different skillset. Both Mag and Nova class Tenno had electromagnetic affinities, but different methods of training and augmentations made them very different Warframe classes.
• Initially it was felt that Males would make better physical front line soldiers, with Females providing support in the manner of superior firepower.
• Early tactics had the enemy engaged by the soldier class frames whilst the heavy hitting frames provided artillery support, protected from combat. This tactic seemed to work well, and with the Orokin unwilling to risk destruction , it was rarely deviated from

Edited June 18, 2014 by Sixty5

[Doughalo2]

sweet nice read thankyou :D

[PsychedelicSnake]

 

However these are still speculations for now

 Chance of people skipping over this part entirely: 100%

[Phoenix86]

 

DUN DUN DUNNNNNN............ :D

[Imaru]

You may want to put each section in spoilers to make it more reader friendly.

[Frostosti]

i skipped to the TL:DR part, then found out it didnt exist and now i am posting this comment without reading your post.

[bejuizb]

Hmmm...very intriguing perspective Sixty5

I have my own views on the universe's lore, which are similar, yet different.

[Sixty5]

You may want to put each section in spoilers to make it more reader friendly.

This is a dump. I copied and pasted it from notepad. Bullet points are enough.

 

i skipped to the TL:DR part, then found out it didnt exist and now i am posting this comment without reading your post.

Can we skip to the part where you get out of my thread?

[Rakosta_Kai]

That's an incredible job.

 

Even if it's possible that it's not all absolutely correct, I'd still like your version better.

 

It has the benefits of being concise, plausible, and objective.

 

My only question pertains to how you arrived at the conclusion that the Orokin transcended their physical bodies through technology.

[Maou]

Quite a good read, thanks for sharing. 

 

would like to know about the whole tenno culture and whatnot, and how fighting over rails is viable.

though speculation, I'd like to hear your thought about it.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Xuimma

[Sixty5]

That's an incredible job.

 

Even if it's possible that it's not all absolutely correct, I'd still like your version better.

 

It has the benefits of being concise, plausible, and objective.

 

My only question pertains to how you arrived at the conclusion that the Orokin transcended their physical bodies through technology.

 

Mostly by following the "Lotus is an Orokin" line of thought.

 

You know she has a body, DE have shown it

Most of the time you wouldn't go to that sort of effort with a simple AI pressence. Look at Mass Effect 2 EDI, or Halo's Cortana, their bodies are shown as a holographic projection or an avatar. the Lotus however is shown as a person. 

From there if you consider how the lotus is with all Tenno at once the expanded mentality thing starts to become clear. Sure the human brain is powerful, but it isn't THAT powerful. An AI could do it, or a person who has ascended to a post physical state also could. Taking anothe look at the Lotus's model you can see the cable things leading to her head, those seem to be the link.

Hence the Lotus should theoretically be a post physical (IE consciousness into a machine) being. 

Finally you can get the whole Lotus = Orokin thing by looking at the void, Lotus flowers everywhere. i'm guessing it was a symbol of their culture or something. As well as this, a speech line from a data-mine shows that she was present at the time that the Tenno went to sleep, and therefore during the Orokin age. It states something along the lines of "Sleep now Tenno, and forget the unpleasantness that has happened here, I will call upon you again when you are needed". I'd link the source but forum rules and all.

 

But regardless, that is where the whole post physical thing comes from.

 

 

Quite a good read, thanks for sharing. 

 

would like to know about the whole tenno culture and whatnot, and how fighting over rails is viable.

though speculation, I'd like to hear your thought about it.

 

Not sure if my thing on this is in the OP, but I have a theory behind that.

 

The rail conflicts exist for the purpose of practice. 

Think of it this way, we have these tenno-owned rails that can allow us to travel to otherwise unreachable nodes, said rail could also be used to transport a group of tenno deep into enemy territory in order to attack it and take out vital  targets. As of now the technology is being kept to ourselves, and currently we are practicing in their use against the infested, and hell, who are they gonna tell.

Furthermore we are also training to defend rails against aggressors as well as training in taking them down should the enemy deploy their own rails against us.

 

If it ever comes to an all-out war between the Tenno and the other factions, those rails will be our best asset in terms of dealing damage to enemy installations, as we are definitely outgunned ship-wise. 

[Enip]

Your vision of things is really interesting, but is it me or have you already post bits of it somewhere? I have the impression that I alreay read most of it.

 

Anyways, for the moment I find this is very solid. The post-human Orokin theory seems to work very well.

 

Yet I wonder what happened to Earth after the direct events of Dark Sector with the unleashment of the T-Cyte. Did the Orokin emerged from the chaos? Was humanity at the edge of extinction but was able to control/eradicate the plague? What happened to Hayden, what did he do? Etc...

[Sixty5]

Your vision of things is really interesting, but is it me or have you already post bits of it somewhere? I have the impression that I alreay read most of it.

 

Anyways, for the moment I find this is very solid. The post-human Orokin theory seems to work very well.

 

Yet I wonder what happened to Earth after the direct events of Dark Sector with the unleashment of the T-Cyte. Did the Orokin emerged from the chaos? Was humanity at the edge of extinction but was able to control/eradicate the plague? What happened to Hayden, what did he do? Etc...

In all honesty I haven't played Dark Sector and have no idea about what happened in it, but my line of thought is that sometime after the events there Hayden and the technocyte were contained. From there it was researched and was applied to may technologies. I would give specific examples, but as of yet I am still unsure on a number of things.

[KrashOmnis]

I can buy this version of things because of the amount of potential it leaves for content in-game.

 

My take is that the Lotus is very central to things, which can end up being unfortunate for those of us interested in lore because they can't give that much away unless there is still more beyond that to reveal, etc.

 

Personally, I'm of the school that thinks big lore reveals should be accompanied by big content updates.  So here's hoping for clarity and coherence soon.

[Sixty5]

I can buy this version of things because of the amount of potential it leaves for content in-game.

 

My take is that the Lotus is very central to things, which can end up being unfortunate for those of us interested in lore because they can't give that much away unless there is still more beyond that to reveal, etc.

 

Personally, I'm of the school that thinks big lore reveals should be accompanied by big content updates.  So here's hoping for clarity and coherence soon.

indeed. 

 

he thing is for the most part the game is being made and then the "lore" is fitted around it. 

 

The codex entries we have don't relate to gameplay at all, they are all backstory stuff. Which to be fair gives DE freedom to change anything, but then again makes things a bit boring.

Hell if DE want to go with this setup for the lore I'd love it, since it is an atypical sci-fi setting and leaves a bunch of stuff open. (plus it would mean that i am right =P)

[-SLX-J3tAc3]

I want a piece of white chocolate. I don't know why, but reading this made me want it.

Anyway, sounds pretty scifi to me - perhaps DE will adopt this or parts of it to help make the lore.

[SockBadger]

I like it all, my only input would be that the Sentients are not like the Orokin. Though idealogically similar in their will to dominate and expand. My take on the Sentients has been derived from their name that they are what the Corpus with their reliance on proxies may one day create; a sentient race of machines that will outmatch their organic counter parts.

 

Just my idea on them though.

[CBAROG]

Great read. Maybe you should write a book about Old Repub... I mean Orokin.

[zoboso]

-snip- already included nvm

Edited June 16, 2014 by zoboso

[Sixty5]

Update with more Lore, also added to OP

 

Warframes

• Female Tenno seem to have a greater affinity for binding their powers to a specific aspect than their male counterparts.
• All tenno technically can use any ability, however training and the Warframe channel their energies towards a specific path, set out by the original individuals who showed affinity towards a specific aspect early on (read ember codex)
• Originally the Orokin believed that Tenno powers were focused upon one aspect or another, with some having powers that did not manifest according to any aspect.
• Exposed potentials were tested for these affinities, and then trained according to them, as well as having their Warframes based upon these ideals.
• Research on how these powers could be used however was done starting at around the 7th generation of Tenno. This lead to the creation of new Tenno with the same affinity, but a different skillset. Both Mag and Nova class Tenno had electromagnetic affinities, but different methods of training and augmentations made them very different Warframe classes.
• Initially it was felt that Males would make better physical front line soldiers, with Females providing support in the manner of superior firepower.
• Early tactics had the enemy engaged by the soldier class frames whilst the heavy hitting frames provided artillery support, protected from combat. This tactic seemed to work well, and with the Orokin unwilling to risk destruction , it was rarely deviated from