Lack of weapon mythos

[Xolot]

With how powerful Tenno are as warriors, the fact that they are part of the cultural mythos of many populations around the whole galaxy doesn't surprise anyone, but it might be because of this fact that the weapons they use are overlooked. The galaxy is full of stories about the Tenno, but there are none about the powerfull weapons that they wield, not even prime weapons with special functions, like Pyrana Prime or Skiajati.

It might seem like it is a worthless detail, but weapons have been the focus of many myths in human history, and I'm sure many will have heard, if only the name of legendary weapons like Excalibur, Durandal, Gae Bolg, Masamune, Gram or Tyrfing among many others. Maybe its because of how awesome Tenno are by themselves that the weapons they wield never managed to achieve any fame, but it's weird that there isn't anything like some legend about ancient Tenno/Orokin weapons lost to time or war, as much as that trope has already been used in many RPGs.

Why aren't there any legends about the weapons, and only about the wielders? Is it only because of the Tenno prowess or is there any hidden motive?

[aligatorno]

There are quite a lot of weapons, it would be hard to make a mythos for every one of them and also a little limiting in terms of story. Even in other games, only a handful of them actually have a backstory. 

Edited August 24, 2018 by aligatorno

[Firetempest]

The Tenno are the weapons of myth. I don't feel they are really seen in the same light as legendary figures, but as awe inspiring weapons.

[Omega-Shadowblade]

There is some slight history for some weapons but you'll never get a full bio on them. The skiajati is made from excalibur umbra's flesh, and the Quanta is a mining tool that has been "repurposed" Stuff like that is what you'll get.

[Dhrekr]

7 minutes ago, Xolot said:

if only the name of legendary weapons like Excalibur, Durandal, Gae Bolg, Masamune, Gram or Tyrfing among many others

You're mixing single weapons with mass-produced ordinance guns.

Having a legend about the Braton is like having a legend about the Kalashnikov. There's a million copies of that weapon. It's very non legendary.

 

The only somewhat story-based weapons are things like the Broken War, the War, the Broken Sceptre, the Skiajati and extremely few others - that is to say, the ones we see the legend unfold before our eyes. The rest? Mass-produced copies.

 

8 minutes ago, Xolot said:

Why aren't there any legends about the weapons, and only about the wielders? Is it only because of the Tenno prowess or is there any hidden motive?

No other reason than "there's hundreds of them holy cow how is DE supposed to give them a backstory".

Edited August 24, 2018 by Dhrekr

[Sintag]

Although giving the legend of the Sibear and why shoving some ice on the head of a mace runs 30K Cryotic?

That'd be a helluva tale.

[SneakyErvin]

The weapons simply arent special on a level near that of Gungnir, Mjölner, Gram, Tyrfing, Excalibur, Gae Bolg or Masamune. The weapons in WF are pretty "normal" weapons when you put the in contrast to the bigger picture of the very technically advanced universe.

The weapons mentioned had myhtological power that couldnt be explained. Most of the weapons in WF can be explained through the science of the WF universe, this makes them regular weapons. Pretty much like a lightsaber in SW is just a lightsaber, there are no mystical properties to them really, it is just genius level technology. Even (Broken) War and Broken Scepter are just regular weapons, the only story behind them is that the War version are used by the Stalker, just like Dread, Despair and so on, similar to how Darth Vader's LS is just an ordinary LS.

[BoomyGordo]

because guns, which every faction has access to, and melee weapons. are not unique. The War and broken war swords are the only stand outs because lore wise there  is only one and they are made from the bones of one of the most feared and well known sentients.

Beyond those two weapons, nothing really has any form of noteriety compared to the mythical god like status of warframes (not tenno). Warframes are individuals that can slaughter entire ships of highly trained and heavily armed foes. And keep in mind that most people in the game think tenno are the warframes. they dont know the truth behind them

[rune_me]

2 minutes ago, SneakyErvin said:

the only story behind them is that the War version are used by the Stalker

To be fair, War is not a good example because it actually do have a story (it's Hunhow, or a part of him).

[OptimumBow0]

I'd say anything that is primed deserves some backstory/elaboration on how they came to be, their reputation, or something quirky. Especially if they have a perk; it would be cool to allude to how it came to be, how it was discovered, or simply how the orokin/enemies reacted to its discovery (pyrana/ballistica prime especially).

But, other than that, I agree with the others, the vast majority of weapons in the game are simple, mass-manufactured tools. 

[BoomyGordo]

1 minute ago, OptimumBow0 said:

I'd say anything that is primed deserves some backstory/elaboration on how they came to be, their reputation, or something quirky. Especially if they have a perk; it would be cool to allude to how it came to be, how it was discovered, or simply how the orokin/enemies reacted to its discovery (pyrana/ballistica prime especially).

But, other than that, I agree with the others, the vast majority of weapons in the game are simple, mass-manufactured tools. 

the orokin didnt discover the primes they made the primes. Prime weapons were simply the ornamental and decorative weapons made for show along side the primed warframes. they were too expensive to mass produce

 

[Loza03]

I'd appreciate it for more of the supposedly rare weapons, like Primes, something like Destiny 2's Lore tabs.

The mass produced ones have enough with their descriptions, but I think anything that's prominently featured alongside a Warframe should get a lore tab. So, basically, things like AkZani, Lesion (it's on Inaros's statues, so it's more than just a weapon bundled with him) and Primes and so forth.

For example, a tale of the first Tenno to wield a Tigris Prime and the power trip it gave them, an account of one of the battles of the Gara legend on Astilla or a look into Tenno training methods on the Nikana Prime.

More lore is always nice.

Also, maybe Prisma weapons could have ridiculous marketing pitches written by Baro 

[Evanescent]

I'd like weapon lore tabs to come back tbh. They add a nice bit of flavour and depth to the world.

 

[(XBOX)GearsMatrix301]

A lot of weapons would fall under “made by -this faction- to kill efficently”

Even the prime weapons would fall under that.

Edited August 24, 2018 by (XB1)GearsMatrix301

[OptimumBow0]

3 hours ago, --Laughing-Soul-- said:

the orokin didnt discover the primes they made the primes.

 

"How they came to be" meant to imply "How they were designed", not "How they were discovered". Furthermore, the primes are the original designs the Orokin made, not embellished versions of the common weapons (although they appear to be). Source: http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Prime

What we have now are copies that seek to emulate the glorious orokin originals. And I'm sure there could be stories behind those originals.

So going back to what I suggested, lore on how each weapon was thought up, the niche they filled, or elaboration on how they chose certain primes to have crazy magic built into them would be sufficiently cool. That is all.

[Xolot]

There are many kinds of legends around weapons, but most could classify as one of these.

1. Weapon wielded by X, the heroic warrior that managed to defeat Y, this could easily be adapted to some weapons, not mass produced, but maybe somewhat related to said warframe, like Revenant's sword.

2. Weapons imbued by the power of some supernatural being, that also gives these weapons some kind of supernatural power

3. Weapons that were crafted by a powerful entinty, these seem to have supernatural effect by virtue of who made them and how they did

There are too many weapons in Warframe that could be part of these, not the mass produced ones, but some special ones related to warframes or crafted by the orokin. I wouldn't be surprised if the Void itself had a quite wide array of weapons to write legends about...

Edited August 26, 2018 by Xolot

[beol]

Whatever possessed someone to bolt together a whole stack of weed whackers and put the thing on a chain to swing around must have been a heck of a story. 

.. and the flamethrower sword on a rope .. 

.. and I can see "My giant scissors became infested!" as a tabloid headline. The hygiene involved must have been terrifying. 

 

[(PSN)robotwars7]

On ‎24‎/‎08‎/‎2018 at 4:55 PM, Dhrekr said:

Having a legend about the Braton is like having a legend about the Kalashnikov. There's a million copies of that weapon. It's very non legendary.

it's not mythical in the ways of Excalibur or Gae Bolg, but it is an Icon of our time. people who know nothing about guns still know what a Kalashnikov is. there aren't really any weapons in warframe shown in this kind of way: as the "go-to weapon" for terrorists, irregular troops and criminals. closest would be the Karak, but it's strictly a Grineer weapon. perhaps many, many thousands of years into the future, when today's guns are obsolete, people will tell tales of how men killed each other with guns made of wood and steel, and not whatever sci-fi stuff they have in their time... but knowing the AK, it'll probably still be around in a thousand years. I'm willing to bet the first laser rifle will just be an AK that fires lasers XD.

on topic, there's a lot of weapons in Warframe, going back to give in depth lore to each one would take forever. we still get some snippets though: Mara Detron was carried by Orokin-Era Smugglers, Karyst and Pangolin Sword were used by old Tenno clans, Tonbo was used heavily during the old war.. etc. Quest weapons like War/Broken War, Broken Sceptre and Skiajati have a story that you actually get to experience first hand, that counts for something.

Edited August 26, 2018 by (PS4)robotwars7

[Loza03]

10 minutes ago, (PS4)robotwars7 said:

it's not mythical in the ways of Excalibur or Gae Bolg, but it is an Icon of our time. people who know nothing about guns still know what a Kalashnikov is. there aren't really any weapons in warframe shown in this kind of way: as the "go-to weapon" for terrorists, irregular troops and criminals. closest would be the Karak, but it's strictly a Grineer weapon. perhaps many, many thousands of years into the future, when today's guns are obsolete, people will tell tales of how men killed each other with guns made of wood and steel, and not whatever sci-fi stuff they have in their time... but knowing the AK, it'll probably still be around in a thousand years. I'm willing to bet the first laser rifle will just be an AK that fires lasers XD.

on topic, there's a lot of weapons in Warframe, going back to give in depth lore to each one would take forever. we still get some snippets though: Mara Detron was carried by Orokin-Era Smugglers, Karyst and Pangolin Sword were used by old Tenno clans, Tonbo was used heavily during the old war.. etc. Quest weapons like War/Broken War, Broken Sceptre and Skiajati have a story that you actually get to experience first hand, that counts for something.

First off, I didn't actually know what a Kalashnikov was... until I looked it up and saw "AK-47". Yeah, that just about cuts it as an 'Infamous brand'. Another example from a fictional universe would be from Star Wars: The Tenloss Sniper Rifles. Not the most iconic, but those that know about these nasty little disintegrator snipers loved them so much that they jumped from Expanded Universe 'Legends' to Disney's canon, albeit through an anti-droid ion variant. And even then by one of the characters looking at it and recoiling, telling another who was unfamiliar that they 'don't want to know what it does to a person'. It's not even used, and you respect it. So there's definitely a benefit to adding mythos to a weapon series as well as individual guns. 

To that end, I'll amend my original suggestion to all 'Upgraded' weapons (Prime, Wraith, Vandal and so on) and a few of the most iconic weapons. That'd include weapons that have a direct lore connection to a Warframe that uses it (Phantasma would be the most recent example), and things like the Grakata, since that is the iconic weapon of the Grineer, meaning it'd probably strike fear into people just out of connections to them.

Tl;Dr Lore can be more than just about the specific weapon. It can be about the line it comes from, the group it's associated with, the damage the previous two are responsible for or the feelings it's evoked.

[Dhrekr]

6 hours ago, (PS4)robotwars7 said:

it's not mythical in the ways of Excalibur or Gae Bolg, but it is an Icon of our time. people who know nothing about guns still know what a Kalashnikov is

"know what it is"?

You are lowering the bar enormously. Is "legendary" really equal to "known"?

By lowering the bar this much, now ironically many weapons in Warframe should make you happy. Supra? People know what it is. Annoying Corpus techs use it. Legendary? Meeeeh.

[(PSN)IroncladBomber]

The Grakata! True weapon of the Workers who rose up to overthrow the oppressive royalty that abused them and bring about a glorious empire of soldiers and workers!