How does the mail work?

[chuckdm]

This is a question I've asked in many games I play.  For example, in WoW, there's actually explanations for this (fun fact: all Alliance mail is delivered by Gnomish Teleporters!)  A lot of games don't put much thought into their mail system, but I have to assume Warframe does.

We've got two kinds of mail, obviously: messages with attachments and messages with no attachments.  I have questions for each.

For the mail with no attachments, how do individuals like Vay Hek have access to it?  If the mail system is Tenno controlled, would we not naturally block messages from enemy leaders?  Does Ordis filter this stuff for us?  Is Vey Hek sending us tons and tons of spam and what we see are just the select few messages Ordis lets through?  Or do you mean to tell me that Vay Hek actually respects the sanctity of our inboxes under normal circumstances?

For the parcels (mail with physical attachments, like weapons or catalysts, attached) how are these items transported?  Is there a network of rail agents that just deliver packages?  Are these individuals Tenno aligned or independent?  Are they like Maroo?  Assuming they are like Maroo, what guarantee do we have that the Corpus or Grineer don't decide to mail us a bomb?  Also, are these items actually prebuilt, or does Ordis just receive a blueprint and auto-fabricate them for us?  In theory, couldn't one of these bad guys send us a defective gun blueprint and Ordis could manufacture us something that would blow up in our faces when we try to shoot it?

Anyhow, just figured I'd ask.  Would love to see this addressed on a stream at some point.

[Loza03]

I would assume that for unattached mail, there's three systems. The real-time communication channel that Tenno have (the mission radio and I'd assume this is the Wattsonian explanation for in-mission chat), the ship's real-time communication for more global chat access (kind of like how the internet needs more power than a phone call), as well as access to certain more specially communication lines such as the direct syndicate lines and the market, and lastly the non-urgent line, which is basically email.

I would assume the non-urgent goes via a relay, which might be why they're called that? I would assume, then that they're checked for security. I'd guess that, yeah, Rail agents are involved, especially since several of the Solaris on board canonically are rail agents, not part of the Fortuna crew (You can tell by some of the dialogue!) There's some lore that suggests that one of Ordis's duties is to maintain the ship since the Tenno (being hormonal teens who are also presumably not actually trained in this to keep them under control) will not buy petty things like 'life support'. So, presumably, either the Lotus has agents that she can direct to cloaked Tenno Orbiters, or they canonically pick them up when they visit a Dojo or Relay, and the system is streamlined because it'd be a pain in the Frame to have to go to a relay every time you get an inbox reward.

[BiancaRoughfin]

In Warframe, Mail comes through the Void and arrives directly to your Orbiter.

Spam gets left behind in the void to never be seen again but only makes the Man in the Wall more angered.