Changing Warframes Lore-Wise

[(PSN)DesecratedFlame]

Maybe your Tenno likes cross-dressing.

[yuio678]

What about changing genders then?

kinky 

[(PSN)Swiggey]

Ok we don't have enough stable in-game information to make a call...

 

BUT, we do know what DE likes, and what makes a good story.

 

1. DE have stated in a Devstream that no matter how weird the game gets they like to keep things grounded. So the Tenno _are_ going to essentially human, not AI, not energy. Just a person.

2. DE have said that they don't want to dictate the appearance or personality of your Tenno, so they are all going to be different according to the player that controls them and also have an _actual_ appearance.

3. DE have designed a game with _one_ persistent POV regardless of Warframe, all progression is per-player and DE Steve has said in a devstream "Your player... your Tenno" So we each control one Tenno per account.

4. DE _didn't_ design this game like an MMO with a separate inventory, progression mechanic and story completion track per Warframe so a Warframe is _not_ a character

5. DE don't want to have to make cross gender Warframe models so the Warframes do have a specific gendered shape 

 

So IMHO we simply have the situation that _shape_ of the pilot is irrelevant as far as _wearing_ a Warframe goes. Either the pilot adjusts themselves or maybe the Warframe adjusts the pilot. I think the latter is more likely.

 

Also note that this is the same situation as existed in Dark Sector, Nadia Sudek (Female) was the pilot of the Nemesis proto-Warframe (Male) and there is _no way_ her 5ft5 body could fit in that 7ft suit (It has a blade for a forearm) without her body adjusting, at a bare minimum she needed her knee, shoulder and elbow joints to move _and_ to lose a forearm.

 

IMHO that is the _only_ explanation that satisfies everything we currently know _and_ all the design goals that DE have.

What about Ember Prime's codex entry? They cite her explicitly as a female (as a young girl at the time of the entry. Her powers were fire-based and the implication is that the rest of the Tenno went through the same thing before being fitted with the modified Technocyte and then encased in the Warframes. And if you notice in the Defense/Mobile Defense cryopods, the cryopods are titled "Warframe Cryopod" and they're a specific gender. I think the DE_Steve quote on "your Tenno" is plural. And also, game mechanics.

[tecreno]

what i think is that that the player is the tenno and you only control one tenno as stated the tenno went to the void and were corrupted  and given the ability to use a frames power. like nyx my tenno puts on nyx and the warframe adapts to the tenno so we the players can channel and use the ability's nyx has to offer like absorb so nyx has a function were the tenno can channel there power through nyx to use mind control and psychic bolts so  same thing with ash me the player channels my energy from my tenno through ash to create smoke screen

 

 

personally i think having more than one tenno is stupid then they all go under one name well anyway this is what i belive theres more to my theroy though ill post more later

[SilentMobius]

(PS4)Swiggey, on 06 Jul 2014 - 11:22 PM, said:

What about Ember Prime's codex entry? They cite her explicitly as a female (as a young girl at the time of the entry. Her powers were fire-based and the implication is that the rest of the Tenno went through the same thing before being fitted with the modified Technocyte and then encased in the Warframes. And if you notice in the Defense/Mobile Defense cryopods, the cryopods are titled "Warframe Cryopod" and they're a specific gender. I think the DE_Steve quote on "your Tenno" is plural. And also, game mechanics.

Those are entries detailing the origin of a Warframe line not a Tenno. That child did indeed go on to be the first Tenno use an Ember Warframe and have it built for her, to focus the Void energies into a controlled release of the effects she showed affinity for The Orokin could only make a Warframe that used those powers once they had seen them in effect... but there is still a line of Ember Warframes wearable by anyone, based on that design using tech that focuses the void based on that Tenno IMHO.

The context of that line "Your Tenno" was the Steve was confirming that the focus system would _not_ be per Warframe and as such it would make no sense if it were Tenno, plural

E.G.: "The focus system is not at the Warframe level, it is above that, it is your player, your collection of Tenno all in a unique permanent Warframe"

See, the sentence makes no sense if Tenno is plural Steve would be saying "It's not per Warframe but it is per Warframe" hence it must be singular.

Edited July 7, 2014 by SilentMobius

[vaugahn]

I think there's just a bit of a gap between gameplay and lore. It happens in a lot of games.

[jjpdn]

Maybe you're not changing genders at all. It just seems to us normal humans. Maybe they are mono-gendered, and only have extra parts because maybe tradition or something.

And we know it's an armor or second skin, because it can be peeled off.

[(PSN)Swiggey]

Those are entries detailing the Origin of a Warframe line not a Tenno. That child did indeed go on to be the first Tenno use an Ember Warframe and have it built for her, to Focus the Void energies into a controlled release of the effects she showed affinity for The Orokin could only make a Warframe that used those powers once they had seen them in effect... but there is still a line of Ember Warframes wearable by anyone, based on that design using tech that focuses the void based on that Tenno IMHO.

The context of that line "Your Tenno" was the Steve was confirming that the focus system would _not_ be per Warframe and as such it would make no sense if it were Tenno, plural

E.G.: "The focus system is not at the Warframe level, it is above that, it is your player, your collection of Tenno all in a unique permanent Warframe"

See, the sentence makes no sense if Tenno is plural Steve would be saying "It's not per Warframe but it is per Warframe" hence it must be singular.

That does make sense. And I guess the Focus system could provide insight on this...or it may not if it's not embellished lore-wise. I keep spamming "game mechanics" because I really do think that the lore was inconsequential to setting up the game the way they did where you switch frames, and I'd like to think the frames have actual specific Tenno inside, rather than some morphing androgenous "person" within, but it could go that way officially I suppose. Seems like they've been all over the place with this topic, both sides of the coin at one point or another, and again I attribute that to being a game mechanic. But they have the power to essentially rewrite it if they so choose given that the game is in open beta and very much evolving in every way, and they may have their answer now and are slapping lore implications on the mechanics with stuff like Focus.

[Ionus]

I always went with a theory that there's only one of the Warframes in the universe (i.e. one Rhino, one Excalibur) etc.

Just for lore's sake.

 

Just look at Borderlands, same thing.

 

If that is true, Excalibur died around last year.

[Shifted]

If that is true, Excalibur died around last year.

 

 

And in that same trailer alad v gets booted out of the window into a loooooooong fall, yet we can still fight him on jupiter.

 

So, infinite universes :D

[Riate]

If that is true, Excalibur died around last year.

 

I kind of want to say it's just a trailer, I don't believe the devs would actually go about making millions of Excaliburs and whatnot. It's the same BorderLands 2 Concept, is how I've always seen the game as. We were seen as Warrior Gods, wouldn't be so godly if we could be killed and it wouldn't matter because there's thousands of the same damn frame. It just sort of kills the godliness of it imo. There's only one Excalibur, one Trinity, one Ember, that's why finding a new tenno would be an event of huge importance. That's how I see it at least.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Riate

[reltats]

I go off the "ghost in the shell" theory. Only way to explain the gender, size, and proportion changes that happen every time I switch frames in a way that allows me to be one tenno, and not be the lamest thing to ever be in a video game.

 

Edit: There may original frames, but the ones we control are just proxys/imitations/remakes. Very similar to the specters, but more advanced in that we can actually control them

Edited July 7, 2014 by reltats

[GlamourChariot]

paragraphs

 

You know bold / italics is a thing, right. You don't have to be "that underscore emphasis guy". Unless you want to be a special snowflake then w/e I guess.

 

 

As for Excalibur "dying", pretty certain that's an empty Warframe being pulled apart to be sold. It doesn't even slightly move whereas the Mag that is brought up is struggling excessively. Plus if you look in the arms when it's pulled apart it doesn't look like anything is in there, you'd think the glowy bits from being cut would go into the centre if there was stuff to be cut all the way through. 

 

In reality we can't know the answer for sure, but it's probably just that we control several different Tenno per Warframe that are separate from everybody else's.

 

The other likely case is that it's just gameplay and story segregation. 

[SilentMobius]

You know bold / italics is a thing, right. You don't have to be "that underscore emphasis guy". Unless you want to be a special snowflake then w/e I guess.

 

I generally compose in a text editor. It's just easier.

 

As for Excalibur "dying", pretty certain that's an empty Warframe being pulled apart to be sold. It doesn't even slightly move

 

I believe that suggestion is aimed at those believing that there is only one Warframe of each type in existence with a single Tenno tied to that 'frame making the character akin to Borderlands. Any duplication of Warframe is explained away as "Gameplay Mechanics"

 

Of course the in-world existence of clans pretty much puts paid to that idea already.

Edited July 7, 2014 by SilentMobius

[(PSN)Gross1985]

If that is true, Excalibur died around last year.

Ouch.  Good thing that hasn't happened to me.....yet.

[Ionus]

I kind of want to say it's just a trailer, I don't believe the devs would actually go about making millions of Excaliburs and whatnot. It's the same BorderLands 2 Concept, is how I've always seen the game as. We were seen as Warrior Gods, wouldn't be so godly if we could be killed and it wouldn't matter because there's thousands of the same damn frame. It just sort of kills the godliness of it imo. There's only one Excalibur, one Trinity, one Ember, that's why finding a new tenno would be an event of huge importance. That's how I see it at least.

 

Well for one, clans are canon in Warframe. Can't have solar rail conflicts among 19 Tenno.

 

Second, Grineer and Corpus are inhabiting entire planets in the solar system. As of 2012 the Earth has a population of 7.046 billion. Fast forward countless millennia and we have the overpopulation from cloning on earth alone by the Grineer. Add in populations on other planets:

 

 

....and you have an estimate of probably quadrillions of Grineer, Corpus, and Infestation.

 

For the Tenno to even have a shred of a chance they would need to be at least in the millions in number. At least the size of the global player account population.

 

Thirdly, the Grineer have been confirmed to have tried to rip Tenno from their warframes. It's doubtful that they were each undiscovered and unique ones.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Ionus

[TheStag]

Each frame is a different character, a different Tenno. It is SO SIMPLE. >.>

[NevanChambers]

Each frame is a different character, a different Tenno. It is SO SIMPLE. >.>

This poly-Tenno 4 lyfe. Or until official lore comes out to contradict that and doesn't have to be interpreted to carry the meaning.

Edited July 7, 2014 by NevanChambers

[-CM-Crazy]

I like to think we are just globs some biomass that fits into warframe suits, without gender/sex.

[GaleRoar]

I like to think we are just globs some biomass that fits into warframe suits, without gender/sex.

That's been disproved with the Arid Fear codex entry.

 

Every time we tear a Tenno corpse from its metal womb we find nothing to explain their power.

 

Note the word corpse in there.

[SilentMobius]

Each frame is a different character, a different Tenno. It is SO SIMPLE. >.>

 

Well unless you try to explain how this group of Tenno share:

 

1. Progress on the world map

2. Affinity with all Weapons

3. All blueprints, mods, weapons and equipment

4. Guilt and responsibility for taking out a boss

5. The upcoming focus system

6. Mastery Rank including the in-game tests by the Lotus

7. Event Progress

 

All while this mythical group of super-close Tenno have no name or reference in the lore while a "Cell" and a "Clan" _do_ have explicit reference and yet they don't share all the above.

 

When you try to explain all _that_ IMHO it becomes much more complex than "The Tenno can get into any Warframe regardless of shape as was demonstrated in Dark Sector."

 

Poly Tenno per player implies that DE are terrible at game design and progression mechanics.

Mono Tenno per player implies there is lore we don't know yet (Shocker).

 

IMHO the second seems more likely.

Edited July 7, 2014 by SilentMobius

[ElHefe]

Nice thread, great posts - I have two thoughts ...

 

First, regarding gameplay with multiple warframes, I always felt that the player is actually assumes A DIFFERENT character with each warframe

Rather like imaging oneself as d'Artagnon while reading The Three Musketeers and then assuming to be Alonso Quixano while reading Cervantes ...

 

Two distinct characters in two distinct stories, thus, no need for "morphing" physically when transitioning from Rhino to Valkyr

 

Secondly, the role of the warframe as an armored investment is very certain BUT what is not so clear is whether it is INANIMATE

Personally, I like the idea that the "warframe" is a biologic - either a separate NATURALLY occurring organism (from who knows where) OR as a BIOENGINEERED life form (by who knows who) BUT either way forms a symbiotic relationship with a Technocyte grafted host or as a BIOENGINEERED life form

 

Clearly Valkyr's warframe is a biomechanical/cybernetic modification ... thus there is a DIVERGENCE of warframe types, maybe crossing between "natural", "modified" or "manufactured" categories

 

Whether the waframe has its own "intelligence" or self awareness or simply is an extension of the host's nervous system/body is an additional and equally intriguing unknown ...

 

Finally, I rather fancy that the Technocyte "Virus" itself may be a self-directed, "intelligent" life form and consequently may have an agenda of its own that may or may not be congruent with the host's goals, ethic or even comprehended understanding or logic

In other words, the Tenno - the "human host/driver/occupant" may be a witting or unwitting amalgam of a hierarchical "superorganism" that includes at least two other creatures/beings - the "Warframe" and the "Virus"

 

This complex interdependent "ecology" is nothing new ... humans rely on mitochondria (intracellular symbiotes) as well as "good bacteria" that reside on mucus membranes and the alimentary tract for "normal" health

 

Additionally, a interdependent system that provides mutual supportive - that is, homeostatic REDUNDANCY - would be inherently more robust and more resilient to external stress - like extreme locomotion found in the "Rush" mod, protection found in "Steel Fiber" mod, etc. 

Edited July 8, 2014 by ElHefe

[SilverBones]

I have always subscribed to Tenno Transhumanism.

 

You play the Tenno, but because of the various effects of the void, your consciousness could not remain in the warped remains of your body. The Orokin built the warframes (in my view, biomechanical constructs) and that is what you inhabit. When you change Warframes, you are essentially shifting into another biomechanical construct as if you were changing a suit.

 

One Tenno, multiple Warframes to possess.

[vaugahn]

I have always subscribed to Tenno Transhumanism.

 

You play the Tenno, but because of the various effects of the void, your consciousness could not remain in the warped remains of your body. The Orokin built the warframes (in my view, biomechanical constructs) and that is what you inhabit. When you change Warframes, you are essentially shifting into another biomechanical construct as if you were changing a suit.

 

One Tenno, multiple Warframes to possess.

 

The faction bio for tenno refers to the warframes as exo-suits, and haven't several devs said that there's something (biological) in the warframes?

[SilverBones]

 

The faction bio for tenno refers to the warframes as exo-suits, and haven't several devs said that there's something (biological) in the warframes?

 

 

Biomechanical constructs can still have synthetic bone and flesh. If the Tenno are much more advanced then the Grineer excavating and dissecting them, how would they know what kind of body they are opening up? It would explain how they can't get it to work if they are finding empty shells with no Tenno to possess them.

 

Imagine if you sent a robot back to the dark ages. If they killed it an opened it up, do you think they would be able to reverse engineer circuitry or motors?

 

That is basically how the leap in technological / biolmechanical advances are between the Orokin and the Grineer in my view.

 

Also an Exo-Suit just means it goes outside of something. Technically the Tenno are still inside it.