The Tenno Are Programmable Organics, Lotus Is A Hivemind, And Why Stalker Caused The Whole Game

[Harrob]

From what we know in the lore, the Tenno are ancient warriors come back to fight every faction in the entire solar system. They are preserved through stasis, and though they forget their memories, they never forget their mastery of combat.

They are fiercely loyal to their fellow Tenno, to the point that they literally cannot hurt them, though they can allow them to come to harm indirectly (i.e: setting off an explosive barrel next to them, pulling an enemy near them, swapping places with them while surrounded by enemies, refusing to heal them, etc.). They also are unquestioning of Lotus, to the point that they will never disobey even on the most morally questionable of missions, for instance the killing of Tyl Regor, whose research into gene repair could have improved the lives of billions. They are also willing to exterminate entire ships, sometimes literally hundreds of people, all for an artifact which may or may not be of significant value.

What this says to me is that the Tenno are not humanoid in their minds. They have been programmed to forget memories of previous wars as they are unnecessary baggage, but always retain their mastery of weaponry and their warframe powers. And even their mastery is to the point of absurdity. Not only are these Tenno capable of being accomplished acrobats, they also know how to operate any weapon in the solar system simply by looking at it, and can command their warframe powers within minutes of being awakened. This is not mere muscle memory.

So either the Tenno are simply regular space ninjas who have many copies, cannot make moral decisions for themselves, and conspicuously forget absolutely everything of previous wars and lives, yet know how to operate even the most obscure weapon in the solar system with 100% efficiency, or...

The Tenno are programmed.

Now, I'm not saying they are robots. The Corpus have robots, the Grineer have clones, the Infested have bio-weapons, the Tenno have something of a mix of all three. Like the Corpus, they are programmed with laws in their brain of what they can and cannot do (for example, they cannot harm another Tenno and cannot question Lotus), like the Grineer they employ cloning or the usage of identical genes (so there can be many Excalibur or many Volts who are exact copies), and like the Infested they use biological forces at their disposal, only instead of corrupting creatures into infested, the Tenno use(d) it to create more Tenno based upon identical genes.

Now that it is established that the Tenno are programmed, this opens many possibilities.

For one thing, infighting is completely inconceivable as the Tenno do not make political or moral choices for themselves. They are completely continuous in all of their decisions. A Tenno does not simply disobey Lotus.

Which brings me to the second part of the title. Lotus is a hivemind.

There is no way Lotus is able to mysteriously be observing every mission at once giving directions, and somehow reach every Tenno in the entire solar system. So what if Lotus wasn't connecting to the Tenno at all, and rather Lotus is an on-warframe program constantly running which observes the nearby environment with modules in the warframe suit, and makes decisions on what the Tenno needs to do next, then informs them as they go. So if the suit detects that the nearby gates have gone into lockdown, they will tell the Tenno that and direct them to the nearest possible command console. Local Lotuses also will communicate things to others, such as the position of the other Tenno in a ship (even through walls!), and if one needs reviving or not.

And how does Lotus figure out what missions around the solar system need doing? The warframes create a continuous network of information going to Lotus to Lotus. This information forms a sort of hivemind, as each Lotus is the same and thus will make the same decision, giving each Tenno a mission, alerting them to special missions which need doing, all the things you see from the mission completion screen. Lotus is not a single entity, but rather a massive network of identical entities making decisions as you go. Lotus simply appears in her human-like picture to allow the Tenno to more easily identify with Lotus, allowing them to more easily interact with Lotus. After all, would you rather obey an army of computers calculating the perfect next move, or a mission operator who appears relatively similar to you.

This then brings up the question of how is it even possible that a Tenno could disobey the two rules of the Tenno (A Tenno may not harm another Tenno, and a Tenno may not disobey Lotus). I think that the solution is that Stalker, the only Tenno to ever become a free agent from the hivemind that is Lotus, was not revived by Lotus. Stalker was discovered by another faction, most likely the Corpus or Grineer, and was revived by them and put to work as a hitman for them.

The reason the Tenno are just now awakening is because they are afraid. They are afraid that after Stalker the enemy factions will learn how to revive more Tenno for their own usage, and worse still how to make their own or reprogram them. The only solution is to capture absolutely every Orokin artifact they can get their hands on, and defend the Cyropods at all costs. The Tenno must retake the solar system before the solar system takes them.

And that is where the story begins, and your player organic robot awakens.

Well there's my theory at least, I hope you like it. Feel free to comment, criticize, question, etc.

Edited April 9, 2013 by KisaruBandit

[SolluxCaptorTA]

This is the single most coherent Lotus is evil thread I have ever read.

You had the bloody most genius idea I've read on hear yet.

[Ravin]

Seems Legit.

I believe that statement, 'One of us' Comes to mind. :3

[DeepbloodEclipse]

If you have played dark sector, you will know that the Tenno actually have a genetic disease which might be the thing that gives them their superhuman powers, the warframe suits as you may call them might just be catalysts or something to keep their genetic mutation in check, kinda like Haydens in Dark Sector.

Edited April 9, 2013 by DeepbloodEclipse

[Marijan]

I think it crossed everyone's mind that Lotus and the Tenno might be similar to Cortana and the Spartans (since she says "Upload me..." in specific missions), but there are many logical flaws in your theory. For example the part, in which you try to explain why Lotus appears with a humanoid face, when she is actually a programm, since that would make the Tenno more likely to obey her, because it resembles their own appearance - if the Tenno are actually programmed as well, that doesn't make any sense. Neither if they are literally running programs, nor if they can be simply programmed to obey, because Lotus doesn't need this kind of "disguise" then.

Furthermore if you are trying to take features like the visibility of allies through walls or the fact that friendly-fire is disabled in this coop-game into consideration for your theory, you might want to pay attention to the role the "Stalker" is playing as well. He can easily be taken down by a single player and is no match for a squad at all - to lift this kind of enemy up to such an important role doesn't seem to be appropiate imo, since he is no threat to the Tenno as whole at all.

"Ember" and "Excalibur" aren't Tenno btw, but warframes, suits basically, which everyone can wear. The fact that there can be multiple Tenno wearing the same suit doesn't seem to be important to me. We don't know how long the Tenno are "awake", until they start training with Lotus, but the fact that they have to "train" and increase their mastery rank proves, that they aren't capable of doing everything from the beginning. To use a weapon isn't difficult at all, since you simply have to pull the trigger in most cases or make the sharp end hit your opponent, but mastering it requires training - and that's exactly the point of this game. Same goes for their warframes.

Yes, the Tenno we are playing currently blindly follow orders from Lotus, but we neither know who exactly she is nor how those decisions were made, because the game is still in its beta and the lore is lacking - there are many things we simply don't know yet, but assuming that the Tenno "are not humanoid in their minds" (they are at least organic, since they were brought back to life from cryostasis), because they blindly follow Lotus' partly questionable commands, is a bit overhasty imo. We are warriors in a war after a all and soldiers rely on the chain of command. They have to obey, because questioning your superior, who usually has a better overview of a war than a grunt, might cause you to fail a mission or cause greater harm in the future (for example Grineer who overcame their bodily decay and are a threat to the current superiority of the Tenno).

Edited April 9, 2013 by Marijan

[Harrob]

I think it crossed everyone's mind that Lotus and the Tenno might be similar to Cortana and the Spartans (since she says "Upload me..." in specific missions), but there are many logical flaws in your theory. For example the part, in which you try to explain why Lotus appears with a humanoid face, when she is actually a programm, since that would make the Tenno more likely to obey her, because it resembles their own appearance - if the Tenno are actually programmed as well, that doesn't make any sense. Neither if they are literally running programs, nor if they can be simply programmed to obey, because Lotus doesn't need this kind of "disguise" then.

Furthermore if you are trying to take features like the visibility of allies through walls or the fact that friendly-fire is disabled in this coop-game into consideration for your theory, you might want to pay attention to the role the "Stalker" is playing as well. He can easily be taken down by a single player and is no match for a squad at all - to lift this kind of enemy up to such an important role doesn't seem to be appropiate imo, since he is no threat to the Tenno as whole at all.

"Ember" and "Excalibur" aren't Tenno btw, but warframes, suits basically, which everyone can wear. The fact that there can be multiple Tenno wearing the same suit doesn't seem to be important to me. We don't know how long the Tenno are "awake", until they start training with Lotus, but the fact that they have to "train" and increase their mastery rank proves, that they aren't capable of doing everything from the beginning. To use a weapon isn't difficult at all, since you simply have to pull the trigger in most cases or make the sharp end hit your opponent, but mastering it requires training - and that's exactly the point of this game. Same goes for their warframes.

Yes, the Tenno we are playing currently blindly follow orders from Lotus, but we neither know who exactly she is nor how those decisions were made, because the game is still in its beta and the lore is lacking - there are many things we simply don't know yet, but assuming that the Tenno "are not humanoid in their minds" (they are at least organic, since they were brought back to life from cryostasis), because they blindly follow Lotus' partly questionable commands, is a bit overhasty imo. We are warriors in a war after a all and soldiers rely on the chain of command. They have to obey, because questioning your superior, who usually has a better overview of a war than a grunt, might cause you to fail a mission or cause greater harm in the future (for example Grineer who overcame their bodily decay and are a threat to the current superiority of the Tenno).

The Tenno could be programmed to be able to easily connect with the hivemind, that is true, but it is more simple to have the Tenno be programmed to communicate person-person rather than person-hivemind and person-person. It simply is a manner of requiring the Tenno to not have to know as much. The Lotus does not need this disguise, but it makes things easier for the Tenno in the field. Also, the disguise is not just its appearance, but also its voice, the way it talks, the whole package.

What I mean by programming isn't like programs running on a computer. If you have read I, Robot, in the book the robots can think, but they have certain skills or knowledge as well as the three laws of robotics imprinted upon their brain. Basic information and basic restraints for the robots pre-programmed onto them. If they don't have all of the laws imprinted, they become unstable and may commit amoral acts.

Stalker in itself is not extremely dangerous. The fact that Stalker can exist is dangerous. It is one thing to have a lone rogue agent, another to have the Grineer mass producing a Tenno clone army in the near future. That would be the killing blow to the Tenno if the Grineer could resurrect Tenno and reprogram them to obey Grineer commanders and generals.

As for the suits, I assume that they are in fact separate entities due to the fact that the suits are often different sizes and even genders, meaning that either the Tenno can change their proportions for whatever suit they are wearing and have arbitrary genders on each suit for no particular reason, or that the wearers of the suits are in fact separate entities, who also are the same size and proportions (clones).

Guns and swords are not that easy to use at all. Swords require lots of training to use competently, even more to be able to say, slice an enemy in half while sliding and cycling between weapons. As for "point and shoot", that couldn't be farther from the truth. To be able to hit an enemy with perfect accuracy while flying through mid air from a slide is inconceivable. Also, it should be noted that even if their skill is not enough to convince you, the Tenno do not vary their techniques as they would if they had been self-taught sword/gun masters. They automatically have mastered firing from specific positions with specific grips and specific techniques, exactly what would be the case if they were mass-programmed with this knowledge.

You do have a point though in that the game is still very early in its lore, and that it could simply be the case that the Tenno are very disciplined, as would be the case if they had their own code of honor.

[DerpyPug]

This is what i have thought too, but i'm sort of confused on how the lotus took control over the tenno in the first place before she cloned them.

[Harrob]

This is what i have thought too, but i'm sort of confused on how the lotus took control over the tenno in the first place before she cloned them.

Lotus isn't a person. Lotus is a program which connects with copies of itself to make a network.

Lotus has been there most likely since a time after the Tenno clans broke apart, but before the Tenno all went into stasis.

I imagine at least one Lotus must have been observing the universe from the shadows for a very long time, so that when crisis struck they would be able to respond by awakening all of the other Tenno.

With the creation of Stalker, there is great potential for a crisis if more of these rogue Tenno could be made and controlled, so Lotus woke all Tenno she could up, then sent them on missions which would help secure even more cyropods.

[SilverBones]

If you have played dark sector, you will know that the Tenno actually have a genetic disease which might be the thing that gives them their superhuman powers, the warframe suits as you may call them might just be catalysts or something to keep their genetic mutation in check, kinda like Haydens in Dark Sector.

Hate to say it, but this is all speculation as there is no official tie to darkSector. It is not a true prequel, just an earlier game that shared an original concept that was then re-realized with Warframe.

[Marijan]

The Tenno could be programmed to be able to easily connect with the hivemind, that is true, but it is more simple to have the Tenno be programmed to communicate person-person rather than person-hivemind and person-person. It simply is a manner of requiring the Tenno to not have to know as much. The Lotus does not need this disguise, but it makes things easier for the Tenno in the field. Also, the disguise is not just its appearance, but also its voice, the way it talks, the whole package.

What I mean by programming isn't like programs running on a computer. If you have read I, Robot, in the book the robots can think, but they have certain skills or knowledge as well as the three laws of robotics imprinted upon their brain. Basic information and basic restraints for the robots pre-programmed onto them. If they don't have all of the laws imprinted, they become unstable and may commit amoral acts.

I got what you are trying to say, but someone who is programmed to obey certain rules doesn't need Lotus to look like a humanoid at all, if she was a programm. It's like I already mentioned more likely to be similar to the Spartans and their AIs, like Cortana, but I honestly don't even see any evidence supporting that kind of idea, since Lotus could as well be simply a human. Friendly-fire is disabled because it's a coop-game, but you can still hurt your fellow players indirectly, because it's an unpolished beta. Being able to see your fellow players through wall is simply a necessary feature and is nothing that would have to be coordinated by an AI (for example integrated Motion-Capture in their suits which is simply converted to a visual image and send to their squad members). She might be an AI, but there is no way to prove or disprove this currently, because the lore is still lacking.

Stalker in itself is not extremely dangerous. The fact that Stalker can exist is dangerous. It is one thing to have a lone rogue agent, another to have the Grineer mass producing a Tenno clone army in the near future. That would be the killing blow to the Tenno if the Grineer could resurrect Tenno and reprogram them to obey Grineer commanders and generals.

Well, it's not even confirmed that Stalker is or was a Tenno at any time. Furthermore the Grineer are trying to exploit Orokin artifacts of any kind, but there is no reason to assume that they are trying to wake up more Tenno from cryostasis, instead of simply gaining knowledge etc. to be able to create and use their own warframes to overcome their inferiority in the future or to find a cure to their bodily decay. The Grineer seized control of the system through sheer numbers (and thereby pose a threat to anyone else anyway) and I doubt that a few twisted Tenno, like Stalker might be, have much value to them, since they are still inferior to the Tenno, which are trained by Lotus and that training is required to master their equipment etc.. They seem to prefer quantity over quality, which suggests that they would rather be trying to exploit Orokin artifacts to improve their army in general, by equipping them with something similar to warframes to compensate for their genetic deterioration, or to find a cure to it. One of the few things we know about the Grineer for sure is that they support "an ideology of hate and discrimination towards the Tenno", which doesn't make it sound like they would have any intention of "converting" or "reprogramming" any of them.

As for the suits, I assume that they are in fact separate entities due to the fact that the suits are often different sizes and even genders, meaning that either the Tenno can change their proportions for whatever suit they are wearing and have arbitrary genders on each suit for no particular reason, or that the wearers of the suits are in fact separate entities, who also are the same size and proportions (clones).

The Tenno are described as "descendants of an ancient and mystical civilization of lost warriors from the Orokin era on Earth", they have to be at least organic since they were "preserved in cryopods for centuries" and their warframes are described as "exo-armor" and the point of an armor is to protect what is inside of it. I highly doubt that they are arbitary clones, who are small enough to fit in any warframe (since you have to use the smallest part of any warframe and combine them in order to get a human that is able to fit into all of them), since that would be ridiculous and make them as big as childs I guess. They might be cloned or a product of genetic engineering or improvement, like the Spartans, since the Grineer "rediscovered cloning-technology" etc., but I think that the warframes simply have different shapes and genders, because they didn't want all of them to look the same or to be exclusively male, because that could be considered as kind of sexist. There would be no reason for arbitary clones to put boobs in front of their exo-armor.

Guns and swords are not that easy to use at all. Swords require lots of training to use competently, even more to be able to say, slice an enemy in half while sliding and cycling between weapons. As for "point and shoot", that couldn't be farther from the truth. To be able to hit an enemy with perfect accuracy while flying through mid air from a slide is inconceivable. Also, it should be noted that even if their skill is not enough to convince you, the Tenno do not vary their techniques as they would if they had been self-taught sword/gun masters. They automatically have mastered firing from specific positions with specific grips and specific techniques, exactly what would be the case if they were mass-programmed with this knowledge.

They are easy to use, but hard to master as I already said. Training is required and that's the whole point of the game, since their memory has faded and they need to regain their skill with the different weapons and warframes as well. It's not like they are beginners either, since they are elite warrior from another era and therefore already meet all the physical requirements etc.. Who said the Tenno are "self-taught"? They are descendants of a warrior civilization from the Orokin era. They could've been standardized training for all of them back then and the weapons you can obtain ingame are mostly "new" ones and not from Tenno origin. They were created by the comparably primitive Grineer or Corpus and shouldn't be difficult for the Tenno to handle. If you are able to shoot properly with a single rifle, you are kind of able to handle another one already. You still need training to master it of course, but it's not like the fact that all Tenno are able to use a Braton and a Gorgon or a Skaana and a Scindo would prove that they have to be clones or something like that. They don't "vary" in their techniques, because every player is supposed to have access to all weapons and all players share the same animations (Yes, they move exactly the same, but that's no reason to assume anything. Soldiers in Call of Duty move exactly the same and can use the same weapons etc. as well and aren't some sort of clones, as far as I can tell ...), because they are perfectly fine and creating more of them would be a ton of unnecessary work.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Marijan

[KillerKanka]

I'm more interested in stalker existence in this theory, rather tennos being computers as LotusOS. Why he exists if tennos brainwashed or programmed? If he came to his senses why he could not find lotus "center" and kill it entire tenno intelligence net, why hunt mere grunts? Why he "avenges" infested (he came for me after i killed phorid)? He's not mercenary or "hero of justice" since infestation are just monsters. He's maybe have some mental disorder (like schizophrenia with obsessive ideas and imperative hallucinations) or he's warframe got damaged and he's TCV strain (since tennos are like hayden and bosses in dark sector - infected with controllable TCV stamm) mutated when contacted with "wild" (or "primal" which ever you prefer) strain driving him insane. It could explain why other infected did not attack.

[Marijan]

I'm more interested in stalker existence in this theory, rather tennos being computers as LotusOS. Why he exists if tennos brainwashed or programmed? If he came to his senses why he could not find lotus "center" and kill it entire tenno intelligence net, why hunt mere grunts? Why he "avenges" infested (he came for me after i killed phorid)? He's not mercenary or "hero of justice" since infestation are just monsters. He's maybe have some mental disorder (like schizophrenia with obsessive ideas and imperative hallucinations) or he's warframe got damaged and he's TCV strain (since tennos are like hayden and bosses in dark sector - infected with controllable TCV stamm) mutated when contacted with "wild" (or "primal" which ever you prefer) strain driving him insane. It could explain why other infected did not attack.

Who says he is a Tenno? The fact that he appears to wear an unusual Excalibur-warframe, doesn't make him a Tenno. Even if we assume that he once was a Tenno, why would a single one be able to kill Lotus or destroy her "center", if you keep clinging to the AI-theory? Keep in mind that there are plenty of other Tenno who are currently receiving orders from her and that virtually each of them can kick the Stalker's &#!. He doesn't hunt random grunts, but only a specific player of a squad as result of him/her killing a random boss. That he appears to avenge Infested bosses as well, simply seems to be another unpolished part of the game - although we have no idea what the infestation actually is, but it seems to be a form of sentient life at least. There are reports of the Stalker being attacked and eventually killed by Infested (since he ignores everyone except for the player he is after), so your little theory of him being assigned to the "Infested"-faction doesn't seem to make sense, especially since he avenges bosses from other factions, Grineer for example as well. The most reasonable theory I heard about him yet, is that he is simply a rouge Tenno who is working as a mercenary for basically everyone who pays him, but the lore is still lacking as I already mentioned, so we can only make assumptions.

Edited April 9, 2013 by Marijan

[Col_Helghan]

My 2 cents :)

Still think Tenno were brainwashed at some point, and I strongly believe they are just a mere tool being snatched by some other " mysterious " organization. So far there is Lotus, which we know nothing about, and Stalker seems to be working for some other " mysterious " organization judging by his quotes in game.

Tenno could have been working for the same employer Stalker works for, hence why he says:

" *Name*, you can´t run from your past. "

" The murder of *Name* will not go unpunished "

" The blood of *Name* is on your hands. Did you really think there would be no repercussions? "

Which makes me think, Tenno were just mercenaries for the same person or organization Stalker works for, something more sinister than the Lotus.Then they went rogue/were brainwashed by the Lotus and now fight against the goal of their primary employer and that is why Stalker speaks of revenge all the time. Even in real life, if you decide to betray your boss, be it criminal....they will send someone after you to silence you or just for revenge.

Maybe Tenno were the bad guys, everything points to that direction and, now Lotus controls them, for what purpose, nobody knows yet.

Just my imagination. ^^

[ValhaHazred]

I think this fits in very well with my all-Warframes/Tenno-are-clones-of-a-Prime-unit hypothesis. I like the idea, but games rarely present something this morally ambiguous. Kudos if they do something close though. We'll just have to wait untill the next trailer to find out.

[weker]

Just wanted to add in for contemplation that in Dark Sector Mezner the villain who retained is sanity with the Technocyte Virus was able to mentally control the infected so maybe some comparisons to Lotus could be made.

Hayden ofc uses a suit almost identical to Excalibur, so I think that the Tenno use Hayden Tenno's genes or mutated virus to allow them to use frames, it's also possible judging from Nadia using the Nemesis frame that the warframe doesn't specify gender, the shape of the female shaped warframes make this hard to believe but judging from the cryo frozen Tenno even with a bit of extra fat on their bodies they could still fit in the likes of Nyx and Banshee.

Who knows maybe Stalker IS Hayden dun dun duuun!

Also It is known as the Technocyte plague, or simply as the "infestation". - Warframe, Planet descriptions

Edited April 12, 2013 by weker

[dyuxi]

Well put sir, I'm convinced.

Heck, we might even get a story line that  in the end gives Tenno their personal redemption from their purgatory that is the Warframe itself.

Edited April 23, 2013 by dyuxi