Sentients, Reproduction, Natah's "Mother"

[IntheCoconut]

We don't know much about Sentients, but I wanted to share some theories on Sentient behavior, reproduction, and how this leads to the Lotus betraying the Tenno. She does betray us, but I think her actions are not entirely voluntary, given what Hunhow has said in the past and from what is revealed in The New War Trailer:

"You betrayed us. As I awake, so will they. They will say you're riven and want to reclaim you. I will not be able to stop them." - Hunhow, during Natah

"The Tenno hive has corrupted your precepts. With love, I will destroy them, and make you right again." - Hunhow, during The Second Dream

The way Hunhow talks about Natah breaking free of her precepts makes me thing that there is a collective thought, or a network of ideas, shared among the Sentients in a sort of "hive mind." I don't think that Sentients work the way that machines, or computers on a network do, but rather the way that cells in an organism communicate and reproduce. Sentients are artificially made, extremely adaptive, and can even break off fragments of themselves that seemingly retain complete functionality.

"The Orokin crafted them with the ability to adapt to any sort of damage that they would encounter as well as the ability to replicate from damaged components." - Warframe Wiki

I think this last part of information is particularly relevant as it seems to suggest one way in which a Sentient can reproduce. Through a form of Mitosis, a sentient can break of parts of itself to create an identical copy. This is further supported by the Lotus:

"The Grineer expedition has uncovered pieces of Hunhow. Fragments of his body. For Hunhow, every part of him is connected to his singular mind. Is this how he's invading my mind?" - Lotus, during The Second Dream

This statement by the Lotus seems to have other implications as well. Hunhow refers to Natah as being of his seed, the last of his womb, his own daughter. She says that each fragment of Hunhow is still connected to his mind, and then begins to question if this is how he is able to read her mind as well. Would this imply that Natah is an exact replica of Hunhow himself? Is she nothing more than a fragment of Hunhow? Or perhaps Sentients can also reproduce through Meiosis, in which Natah has both a mother and father as would be implied in both The New War trailer and during The Sacrifice where Natah mentions "mother." Whether through Mitosis or Meiosis, the specifics of how Natah was "born" isn't as important as the simple fact that her mind is connected to Hunhow's.

I don't think that it would be a far leap to suggest that Natah's mind can be controlled. If her father Hunhow can access her mind, then the same would hold true to her mother. I think what we see in The New War trailer is Natah being brought back into the fold of the Sentient hive mind.

A simple analogy would be to think of Sentients as white blood cells. They work together to obtain the same, single-minded purpose and objective. They adapt and build up their immunity and work together to wipe out the infection or disease. If the Sentients are the white blood cells and the solar system is the body they inhabit, then the Tenno are the infection.

[ant99999]

In short yes, my thoughts are the same.

The idea of fragments remaining self-conscious yet connected to the mind of the mother body hints that every sentient is in fact a fragment of the very first one which Perintol presented to the Orokin executors.

As for Natah having both father and mother, this is incredibly uncertain. This can mean anything from the Mother being the ultimate procreator of the Sentients (judging by the size) to a central body of a Sentient being created from parts of a pair of parents as a specific kind of recombination process similar to how our genes work.

[rand0mname]

Hmm. Neat theory. But before DE will decide to toss next scrap of lore in our direction, there is no way to test it :(.

But we can speculate!

I think there is a difference between a Battalyst and Natah. One is a remotely controlled body part. Another is a child. 

Sentients can disagree on something. Hunhow do not wish for Natah to be reclaimed, others will. Does not sound like a classic hive mind to me?

If Natah mind is connected to other Sentients, why Hunhow would recruit Stalker to set up the events of Second Dream? Would Natah been even able to think about not killing Tenno without Dad (ok, could be playing dead) or Eidolon (who was attacking Unum tower after the Tenno betrayal if I got it right) noticing it?

We have no idea what exactly “reclamation” entail. Not a mind control: Hunhow wants to protect Natah by “destroying her precepts and making her right again” (sounds like brainwashing). So it is probably something else. Total memory wipe and assimilation of “hardware” maybe?

And New War conversation follows DE tradition of keeping things open to interpretation. As usual.

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

I'm thinking that they are some form of von Neumann machines, instead of the organic link suggested by mitosis and meiosis although it's totally possible that it's a mixture of the two. 

I have an inkling that a lot of what we see as Orokin mysteries are linked to nanotechnology. I suspect that kuva's description is a bit of a hint towards this. Perhaps void energies damage or disrupt their function. This would explain why those little zaps erase sentient immunity to damage. It would also explain why travel through the void would make the self replicating sentients, "sterile". 

So yes Natah may be the last of his "womb". 

 

Regarding mother and father, well that could be a reference to the first von Neumann machine (mother) and the next generation (father) with what we think of as gender pronouns being used in alternating generations. Or it could refer to the individual "parent"-father and the collective-mother but I don't know how it would work with Hunhow's "they". Or it could be an individual sentient that is making the design for production by individual sentients. 

 

 

[Dabluechimp]

Finnaly
someone who sees the facts,
and dosen't just instantly jump on the "the lotus betrayed us lets kill her" bandwagon