[The Space Mom Theories: Lotus And Natah [SPOILERS] [MUCH SPECULATION OF A SLEEP DEPRIVED NUB]]

Hey Kiddo, this is an amalgamation (heh suck it Alad) of lore and my own personal speculation that my very sleep deprived brain is trying to cobble together from the giant plot holes that all the Grineer galleons in existence with Corpus armadas, The Kuva fortress, The Tower Of The Unum, The Ropalolyst, All the Eidolons and Tenno relays stacked on top could fit through while the man in the wall laughs manically wondering what else he can fit through it that DE has left and as such it does contain spoilers for those who haven't completed the Natah, Second dream, War Within, Apostasy Prologue, The Sacrifice, Chimera Prologue And The Ropalolyst boss fight. so please heed the warnings and don't come crying to me saying i ruined the game for you. and im sorry in advance for said disjointed rambling about my theories on how Natah became lotus that probably doesn't make a lot of sense to those more awake then i am. ( I might delete this later and come up with a more detail oriented one that looks pretty and makes more sense) either way enjoy reading this train wreck.

 

Natah is a sentient mimic and the youngest daughter of the sentient Hunhow, The Orokins' enemy during the old war sent to infiltrate and destroy the Orokin empire from within with the help of Executor Ballas who it's revealed in The sacrifice quest had come to resent the Orokin and their laws that forced him to execute his lover Margulis and had defected to the side of the sentients.

Quote

"Yet you couldn't understand why I'd give my secrets to our enemy. How could I betray my own kind? But you have never had to sacrifice your love for faith. Imagine. To live, forever, with only one memory: seeing the one you love, die". - Ballas talking to Umbra and the operator through Excalibur Umbras' Memories

The Lotus was the persona she created from the memories of the Tenno children to carry out her mission. She mimicked Margulis dress, voice, personality and appearance to gain both the Orokins' and Tennos' trust while she bidded her time. However Natah reveals through dialogue in the lead up to the Ropalolyst boss fight that her transition to taking the mantle of the Lotus persona she adopted to destroy the orokin empire from within and her mercy towards the tenno she was meant to destroy with them was not entirely her choice, that she became a prisoner of the orokin like the tenno. She alludes to the Orokin having somehow found a way to imprison Natah and reprogram her to follow her role as the Tenno handler, suppressing or temporarily erasing her sentient personality and nature leaving Margulis memories.

Quote

"So the Golden wrath came. And after, I was born. A mimic, a spy. Conceived to burrow into nests and swallow the pitch-eggs of their war machine. The Tenno. But when I saw your tender faces, I took mercy. Or so we were told."

"But in truth, we were both imprisoned in Lua's belly. My light remade by the creators. I became a memory, a ghost. Reprogrammed to destroy my family, my people, my history."

Your great power, your great evil. The voice, the Void, within you. Our ancients still wither at its touch... but have you forgotten Lua? You were saved. But I... I was changed."

"I was changed. Now I learn. Now I deny." - Natah speaking to the Tenno

they possibly did this the same way Margulis used transference therapy to install a set of protocols that altered and suppressed the tenno childrens memories as made reference in a mysterious Orokin error message that sometimes appears post mission

the message reads as follows:

Void Link Severed

Reason foreign carrier detected. Origin unknown. Suspect tracking signal.
Reinitiating dipolar connection on novel carrier.
Bow in standby for sync check and sync.
Motion compensation complete.
Selenic lensing locked.
Somatic control established.
Margulis implantation intact.
EVM status nominal.
War platform awaiting sync.

Initilizing synaptic overlay... Good night, sweet angel.

During the Apostasy Prologue your operator follows various voices through the Tenno reservoir on Lua taken from Margulis' memories of her arguing with Ballas and the rest of the orokin council. At the end of the voices you see the Lotus' throne but before you can approach Lotus Ballas appears and unplugs her from her throne stating that "she was imprisoned just as Margulis was" and that he "would not fail her again" before Lotus removes her helmet and walks away with Ballas. Many things were imprisoned on Lua, unstable warframes ( like Umbra), the tenno children and apparently the lotus herself.  it is revealed earlier in the game the void is forbidden to sentients because it poisons them and weakens their abilities before disintegrating them and that is why as the lotus she chose to hide the tenno on Lua safe from any sentient fragments or people looking for the tenno because as far as everyone knew the moon had been destroyed in the fall of the Orokin empire. Natah doesn't return to the sentients until she is unplugged from her throne and removes her helmet. once her helmet is removed and her sentient personality begins to resurface natah changes completely and is set on the destruction of the tenno as Ballas laments his lost love in the chimera prologue

Quote

"We saw what we wanted, those devils and I.
A lover... a mother! But now I know.
She is neither. She's a hawk - calling with sparrow's song.

And the Lotus... just some cloud in the sky, just some shape they imagined.
Only the Sentient is real.

Only Natah" - Ballas talking to the operator/himself as he creates the Paracessis

 

So it is completely possible the orokin found a way to imprison Natah by placing her in a cell on Lua  insulated enough to stop her dying under the guise of protecting her charges as they slept and used the power of the void to slowly poison and weaken her for hundreds of years so that she could be reporgrammed more completely as the Lotus and have the helmet not only act as her her identity as the lotus and crown as "the great sentient queen" but as her restraints to keep her sentient personality repressed so she will diligently follow her role as lotus and continue guiding and protecting the tenno.  the helmet is "The Lotus" itself containing margulis' memories and the protocols used on the tenno.