Lore Speculation: Natah, the Lotus, Margulis and Their Relation, Also Some Other Thoughts.

[ant99999]

First of all this idea started here

And I greatly thank (PS4)Silverback73 for opening my eyes on that great theory.

This is by no means supported by official lore entries or the Developers' words but I find it to be the most reasonable version, simply but nicely tying important facts and events of the Old War together.

Many of you may already know this or have a better explanation, but this post is for those who like me had one particular question about the Old War lore not answered: "what is the Lotus?"

I've seen generally two points of view.

First: the Lotus is Sentient Natah cleverly playing a role: the mother of the Tenno and the supreme commander of their army.

Second: the Lotus is a fusion between the minds of Natah and Archimedian Margulis which was the result of Margulis' personality slowly corrupting the mind and precepts of Natah. This is what I believed till a certain moment.

But in reality the Lotus is neither of these. To understand it better let's look closer on the Sentient.

What is a Sentient? An ever-evolving hartless and cold intelligent machine. But what is their society?

In many ways the civilization ov the Sentient resembles a colony of social insects: like ants or bees or thermites. With only one difference: while insects pretty much always follow instincts or certain strict patterns in their behavior, the Sentient are fully aware of what they are doing and it is their intellect which defines their actions.

With their great adaptation and as a result evolution capabilities the Sentient soon enough came to creation of a highly specialized society where each individual strives to achieve perfection in their live's purpose. Inside their homeworld there is a perfect Eden where everyone knows precisely what their role is and any violence is strictly prohibited, but outside there are Sentient soldiers: limitlessly loyal to the Mother, untiring, flawless, ready to sacrifice themselves at once. Perfect warriors... or spies.

So are both of the Sentient known to us: Hunhow, the destroyer of worlds, and his daughter Natah, the mimic queen.

And now we came again to our original question: how the Lotus came into existence. Natah's purpose was to be a spy, perfect spy. So perfect that their detection is almost impossible. What was the idea the Mother came up with when sending her daughter through the poisonous, scorching Void canal? Since the beginning of the war the Sentient closely examined the highest Orokin society and found a weakness inside it. Its name was Margulis, an Archimedian closely familiar with the Tenno, the Warframes and finally the love of Ballas, the creator of both Warframes and the Sentient. So the Mother was waiting for an opportunity, and finally it came: the death of Margulis.

It was the execution of Margulis when Orokin signed their own death sentence. As Transference project started almost immediately Natah was sent into the Origin System.

The Mother chose wisely: what Natah would become is a person with face of Margulis outside but inside - endless love towards the Tenno and endless hate towards the Orokin. Her origins must be unknown to her, she would be just a human with no doubt about her true nature. This woman would be known as the Lotus. With this in mind Natah and the Mother created a helmet and the bonds. The helmet (practically another Sentient being) had to supress the personality of Natah herself to a degree of non-existence and replace it with the new one: the one of the helmet, the one of the Lotus. The helmet was meant to cover the face of the person Natah would mimic so much that only the ones truly familiar with that face could recognise Margulis. And what are the bonds for? They were designed to be severed in time.

When Natah arrived she put the helmet on, erased her personality and became the Lotus. No hiding, no playing roles, detection was practically impossible.

They considered everyithing: every action of the Lotus since her birth to the end of her mission was planned beforehand, her very step was calculated although she herself didn't know about it. The Lotus was the finest tuned instrument to bring victory to the Sentient. But every calculation has a flaw and nothing can be predicted precisely, so they left a safeguard: they knew for sure, Ballas will come sooner or later, chasing for this phantom possibility of bringing Margulis back. He will come and sever the bonds so that Natah will become herself again.

How the Lotus became the head of the Tenno? What she knew of herself was that she was an Archimedian closely worked on the Transference project. So she worked on the creation of new warframes or something else connected to the Tenno and soon her outstanding strategic capabilities became known to high command. When she was sent to command a Tenno squad something almost forgotten came into the Tenno's minds, a memory of a former mentor, of a mother. And the Lotus discovered her unnatural love for these Void-injured beings. Since then the Lotus becoming supreme commander was a matter of time. When she became one she finally let her hatred towards the Orokin speak. The order of extermination was sent across the entire system.

And what about Hunhow? He was a perfect warrior: merciless, brutal, inexhaustable. But unfortunately for him not very intelligent. He was defeated by the Tenno under the Lotus command without hesitation for he was her enemy. Hunhow was used all along as a pawn, to draw attention of the Orokin fleet so that Natah can safely arrive. Of course he wasn't told about the plan as he could easily let it out to an enemy being not very cautious in his speach. Was this a betrayal? Not really. At least he wouldn't mind it if he knew as he was always endlessly loyal to the Mother and always ready to sacrifice himself in her name. What was not predicted is his sudden awakening thousand years after. Not understanding what's going on but recognising his daughter leading the Tenno he decided she was corrupt or 'riven' as he named it and wanted to help, unknowingly nearly ruining his daughter plan.

So, what was the Collapse? A grand play led by the Mother where the central role was the Lotus sincerely believing in who she was and what she was doing. Now as wee see the safeguard worked, Natah is free and her mission is complete. What will be next is the final phase.

Thank you for managing coming through this wall of text.