Potential Explanation Of Multiple Warframes: Clans? (Bonus, Honor!)

[MagpieOAO]

One possible explanation of the multiple warframes of a single type (Albeit different individuals) is that there are clans based around each particular "way". As Tenno are freed from their cryopods, they are taken in by their respective clans and taught the necessities of their new life.

While tenno are free to operate however they choose (Allying with w/e side they want in a conflict, helping darvo) they are taught to obey and respect the commands of the Lotus.

 

In her own words "Today, honor dictates that you fight alongside the corpus."  (IIRC)

 

Which means that even their "honor" can be bent to suit the needs of the moment. Their fluid "honor" is often alluded to by the other factions as well, calling them base mercenaries and asking "Where is your honor?". Though debatably, honor is often the first thing to go in situations of survival throughout human history, and the exact codes of honor have been fluid and ever changing to suit those who dictate said code.

 

One interesting tiddbit btw is that it seems certain missions give a numerical reward next to XP with a elaborate symbol that has been hinted at being "honor" though we've no use or counter for it just yet.

[SilentMobius]

Or we play a single Tenno with many Warframes. and the Warframes aren't unique. Sure the first model of each line was custom made for a single Tenno but I doubt the Tenno won the Sentients war with a handful of unique Tenno-Warframe combinations.

 

No, IMHO there are definitely Warframe "lines" that existed during the war and our Tenno goes out and discovers blueprints for sections of them. That's why there is nothing odd about finding other Tenno wearing similar Warframes, they just did the same as your Tenno.

Edited December 13, 2013 by SilentMobius

[MagpieOAO]

Or we play a single Tenno with many Warframes. and the Warframes aren't unique. Sure the first model of each line was custom made for a single Tenno but I doubt the Tenno won the Sentients war with a handful of unique Tenno-Warframe combinations.

 

No, IMHO there are definitely Warframe "lines" that existed during the war and our Tenno goes out and discovers blueprints for sections of them. That's why there is nothing odd about finding other Tenno wearing similar Warframes, they just did the same as your Tenno.

Can't be a single person considering A: Tenno are warriors who were cast into the void and had the suits custom made to contain and focus their powers. Their suits are unique to their affliction from the void, and the power comes from the wearer, not the suit.. And B:Gender :P

Edited December 13, 2013 by Kriegson

[-..-]

One interesting tiddbit btw is that it seems certain missions give a numerical reward next to XP with a elaborate symbol that has been hinted at being "honor" though we've no use or counter for it just yet.

 

That symbol is from the Survival event from a few months ago. It's supposed to tell you how many seconds you lasted, but it bugs out sometimes.

 

In regards to the other things, I like to think of it as each Warframe is a unique "character". In Maplestory, there are certain classes where you play as a specific character with a special storyline (ie Mercedes, Aran, Evan, Mihile etc). In Vindictus, the characters actually have their own names (ie Lann, Fiona, Evie etc). Just because multiple people are playing as them and you can see more than one at a time, doesn't mean DE didn't mean for them to be Characters.

Edited December 13, 2013 by -..-

[Silvershadow66]

Can't be a single person considering A: Tenno are warriors who were cast into the void and had the suits custom made to contain and focus their powers. Their suits are unique to their affliction from the void, and the power comes from the wearer, not the suit.. And B:Gender :P

 

Not an issue.

 

The original Tenno came from the few that returned from the void. The suits that were made were not stated as being unique custom suits so there is nothing in the Lore that says that there was only 1 of each suit type originally.

 

Nothing in the lore says that one Tenno only has 4 unique powers from the void, equally valid is the idea that a warframe only amplifies and focuses 4 latent powers to a controllable level. The power a Tenno has could be much wider but latent unless focused by a warframe.

 

What Gender? There is nothing to say that Tenno have a gender any more. All we have is a suit shape and that could be nothing more than nod to the Gender of the first person fitted with that frame by the Orokin.

 

Personally I think that all the frames a player has are the same Tenno inside the same Warframe. Both use the same biotechnology apparent in the Technocyte plague to change shape. That is what the BPs are for and why no one else can build warframes, you don't build a brand new frame using the BPs you build the additional items needed for an existing Warframe to "learn" to take that form and focus those new powers. This provides a logical explanation why Rank and Weapon masteries are shared across all frames but frame mastery is individual.

 

Also gives an explanation why Tenno can't become infested, we are already "infested" with a more powerful and controllable form of the virus.

[MagpieOAO]

Not an issue.

 

The original Tenno came from the few that returned from the void. The suits that were made were not stated as being unique custom suits so there is nothing in the Lore that says that there was only 1 of each suit type originally.

 

Nothing in the lore says that one Tenno only has 4 unique powers from the void, equally valid is the idea that a warframe only amplifies and focuses 4 latent powers to a controllable level. The power a Tenno has could be much wider but latent unless focused by a warframe.

 

What Gender? There is nothing to say that Tenno have a gender any more. All we have is a suit shape and that could be nothing more than nod to the Gender of the first person fitted with that frame by the Orokin.

 

Personally I think that all the frames a player has are the same Tenno inside the same Warframe. Both use the same biotechnology apparent in the Technocyte plague to change shape. That is what the BPs are for and why no one else can build warframes, you don't build a brand new frame using the BPs you build the additional items needed for an existing Warframe to "learn" to take that form and focus those new powers. This provides a logical explanation why Rank and Weapon masteries are shared across all frames but frame mastery is individual.

 

Also gives an explanation why Tenno can't become infested, we are already "infested" with a more powerful and controllable form of the virus.

Imo you're taking the game mechanics far too literally. For instance, in the PS4 vid we see the rhino punching robots in the face without any kind of melee weapon. In the game we are limited to stomp, charge, etc. But in "reality" his power is simply his sheer strength. They are not limited to 4 abilities, but for game balance and mechanics, that is how it is portrayed.

 

That being said, there is far more evidence that the suit is tied specifically to their abilities rather than any tenno being able to use any suit and obtain the abilities of said suit ("We built frames around them, a conduit of their affliction"). As for mastery/mods for the weapon it can also be explained in that you (The player) is in essence something of a third party (Lotus?) creating a stable of Tenno. These weapons are what you have trained them to use and modified to make more powerful, or the dojo/clan explanation as earlier mentioned.

 

Ultimately though, there isn't a lot to go off of. But what little we do have points to the Tenno having been given powers and suits specifically to focus them. Which implies they need the suit they were given suits specifically based on their affliction to use (or strengthen) their abilities.

And yes, we already know Tenno are infested with the technocyte plague. It first appeared in dark sector and mostly drove people insane and mutated them uncontrollably, the few that could control it (Tenno himself for instance) found it gave them enhanced abilities. We are the few exposed to the void, corrupted by the plague, and able to control the abilities gifted to us.

 

Not all who were exposed were so lucky.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Kriegson

[Wiegraf]

Considering that we actually build the "Warframe" from blueprints and resources and that a few components are actually Infested in nature, my guess is that a newly saved Tenno is actually unsuited but recruited to your dojo nonetheless. Later on, when you have built a Warframe, one of these Tenno is made to bond with the frame itself permanently, being assigned that 'role' for his lifetime.

 

So while you have several Warframes ready to be used, it's likely that each one house a separate Tenno; the Warframe itself is replicable through crafting as it is technology and surely the process of crafting it also endows the user with the abilities of the original concept of that Warframe when he initially bonds with it.

 

It's not entirely specified how a Warframe and Tenno symbiosis works and it could be several things in fact; while Tenno were originally human, there's no real way to know how human they have remained. While we can sometime rescue a Tenno from a cryopod and that Tenno isn't suited leaves the assumption that some candidates never got to get suited in the first place but put on ice in case they'd be needed.

 

Much like how the "barracks" in the Dojo are actually cryo-chambers : seemingly, we don't sleep when we're off duty, we're preserved until needed. That or the barrack houses those rescued cryopods so that when a Warframe is built, a Tenno is twawed and invited to bond permanently with the frame.

 

Besides, since the original Tenno were recovered from the Void, nothing says that later Tenno where artificially sent through a similar process to make bonding with a Warframe possible. In fact, the Tenno (and the Orokin by extension) might be the only ones aware of how it happens and managed to make the process completely doable without tossing people randomly through a Void portal.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Wiegraf

[NevanChambers]

It's stated the frames are a conduit of their affliction but a conduit doesn't inherently imply only providing direction but also can provide the shape. I like the idea of individual Tenno being much like batteries full of raw potential but incapable of properly directing it. The warframes take that power and shapes it and projects it as something useful, or at the very least destructive.

I once read a suggestion that the suits reflect the personalities of the first Tenno to wear them and that the powers suited those personalities in some way. The example used was that the first ember was firey and hot headed quick to sudden and rash action. Further Tenno who would choose to use that frame would then use some auto-hypnosis (the original word used was trance) to align themselves with that. I like this cause it brings an air or warrior mysticism to the proceedings that I quite enjoy.

[SilentMobius]

The Stalker accuses you of the last bosses death regardless of the Warframe you're wearing, that is story dialogue, not a mechanic.

 

And yes, the Excalibur codex entry is talking about the first few Tenno. By the end of the Sentient war there were enough Tenno to wipe out the Orokin, no way they had enough lucky void survivors with useful abilities for that to work.

 

No, IMHO there are a limited few progenitor Tenno, each with a custom Warframe, cultured from their own Technocyte infected body, which enhances _their_ abilities. Later warframes were cultured from the first Warframes and given to newly created Tenno who didn't have these powers, the interface with the progenitors infection passes on a little of their powers and personality while it is worn.

 

If the Warframes were truly unique the Tenno versions of the Primes wouldn't exist, there would be no point redesigning a Warframe when it's only good for a single specific Tenno. It only makes sense when the Tenno needed to make more Warframes in the same line without access to Orokin production facilities.

[Brasten]

Imo you're taking the game mechanics far too literally. For instance, in the PS4 vid we see the rhino punching robots in the face without any kind of melee weapon.

He was supposed to be using the Furax fist weapons. They didn't just get the cinema quality model done in time for the final render. That's why he's CASTING FIST at everything.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Brasten

[MagpieOAO]

While the number of Tenno created from the exposure to the void was numbered as "Few" consider this is in comparison to the essentially limitless numbers of the endlessly cloned grineer and constantly manufactured corpus (And their indoctrinated slave armies).

I think the Prime frames are possibly either frames designed for high ranking tenno, Ceremonial frames, or possibly as the name implies the first and most powerful of said frames.

Though that wouldn't explain why there can be multiple primes running around =/ Maybe some kind of limited production run for the most powerful/highest members of Tenno society?

 

That said, I don't think we manufacturer new frames. It has been explicitly stated they were made by the tenno, and we hardly even remember anything beyond how to fight, much less how to produce frames. We don't research them in our labs, we buy the blueprints from another source.

I could see this being explained in a few ways, in that we are trading the resources used for a captive tenno still encased in their pod (As the corpus will trade and presumably grineer will ransom) or for the location of one. I don't think anyone actually knows how to build frames, much less harness the powers of the void.

 

While I like the idea of the player being a single entity that performs a ritual and takes on the aspect of the original tenno after which the suit was designed for, it doesn't seem very feasible to me. In most eastern culture (of which the game is heavily influenced) weapons are considered to be an extension of the body, in almost a literal sense. Losing your sword is like losing your arm, and it's probably an heirloom or something in the first place. Weapons in most stories and media tend to be very personal things.

In western culture, a weapon is a means to an end. Lost your sword? Get a new one. Grab a gun, heck pick up whatever the other guy dropped, doesn't matter.

 

This seems to reflect the two sides of the argument here. In one we have "Warframes are interchangeable. Just a suit that gives you power" wheras I'm in the camp of "The warframe is an extension of your body, a part of who you are. You don't just change that like you would changing your gun."

 

As for the STALKER pointing out the last person you killed, yes that is a game mechanic. Consider that the lotus still says "There's a force coming, it's the grineer" on corpus and infested missions. The system isn't perfect, and the STALKER still has reason to go after you regardless via his lore. He holds all tenno accountable for the slaughter of the Orokan.