[Story + Artwork] Excalibur's Origin

[Vallerian]

The Lore of Warframe has been pretty ambiguous and there's just plain old not a lot of it.

 

So here I give you my fan-written interpretation of Excalibur, the first Warframe. It's a bit of a long read, but I hope you guys like it. If you do, I'll keep updating this story, if not I'll just keep quiet :P

 

 

 

CHAPTER 1:

Illustration: 

(Original Painting. I'm working on improving.)

 

Text:

“Tenno, we who gather here today do hereby acknowledge your unwavering bravery, your inspiring dedication to all that is good, and above all we recognize your insurmountable sacrifice as you tread boldly unto the darkness with no guarantee of survival, for the sake of the Orokin”

 

Sacrifice.

If only you knew the meaning of it, Prime Life Worker.

 

To die was no sacrifice for Arthur; On the contrary, to be granted Life was his sacrifice. Artificially birthed into bondage and servitude, Arthur and his batch-siblings were constructed in Orokin labs from the finest genetic material the innumerable generations of Orokin had to offer. Perfected in every way, mentally, physically, emotionally, Arthur and his batch-siblings spent their chemically accelerated eight years of childhood studying every detail of warfare, honing their bodies, and bearing the mantle of responsibility for the future of the Orokin. Through all his conditioning and training, Arthur had but one thought clear in his mind: though the same blood flowed through his veins and the same body defined his features, the Tenno were not Orokin - the Tenno were merely the tools of the Orokin, no more indispensable in the Orokin-Sentient War than a Dogfighter or a Supply Relay.

 

What would I be leaving behind? Arthur had no family, no friends, no connections - and no name for that matter. Bestowed the unceremonious title of “Two-Four-Six-Oh-One” upon hatching, Arthur had garnished himself his name from a peculiar fairy tale he had grown an affinity towards during his brief and dangerously unsanctioned stint with archaic fictional literature - and for no arbitrary reason; Arthur of the Tenno and Arthur of the Round Table were one and the same, forever burdened with the responsibility of protecting the meek, yet never understood, never appreciated, never loved. Arthur would march into the field of battle and forever onwards towards his inevitable death in a blaze of glory for the sake of a People who could care none the less about the man underneath the shining armor of their salvation. Pathetically enough, Arthur even shared his namesake’s emotional disjunction with his twelve knights. Arthur was undeniably different from the other Tenno. As his batch-siblings meshed seamlessly into the perfect cut cogs of the Orokin war machine, Arthur could only fake matching the machine cold perfectionism of his peers. Whether or not he liked it, this distinction clear, it was Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, not the thirteen knights of Camelot.

 

“Please step towards the Portal, Two-Four-Six-Oh-One”

 

Arthur’s eye twitched from minor annoyance as he silently glided down the deserted laboratory main floor towards the monolithic brushed steel halo. The Prime Life Worker’s voice was suave, charismatic, powerful, and commanding, as the Orokin had surgically engineered it to be. All research and minor adjustment of the Prime Life Worker’s every feature from his impeccably clean haircut down to the piercing and steely grey clint of his eyes and to the sharp gilded accents of his outfit had been tailored towards the ideal commanding figure for the Tenno, yet Arthur inexplicably despised every facet of the Life Worker. His hollow expression, his scraggly voice, and his perfectionism’s dissonance with every intention nature professed. Though Arthur could not deny the Life Worker’s authentic compassion for the Tenno, there was no covering that the Prime Life Worker regarded the Tenno more as prized garden creations than fellow Orokins.

 

“Initiate the Power sequence”

 

The Void was not to be toyed with. Both inexplicably bizarre and incomprehensibly dangerous, decades of research into the Void had yielded utterly fruitless as the dark space phenomenon denied all aspects of known science and even common sense. Yet, here the Orokin stood, offering up fleshy morsels to the creature in hopes of borrowing a spigot of the Void’s infinite power. 

 

The Orokin-Sentient war must have taken a foul turn of events thought Arthur as he chuckled internally at the absurd degree of understatement he had conjured. Propaganda or not, even from underneath a rock it was easy to tell the Orokin were losing the war - and now to be throwing their precious Tenno into the unknown darkness like a boy tossing his favorite pebbles into a lake expecting to win the stone-skipping competition affirmed Arthur’s suspicions that the Orokin were burning on the last throes of their life.

 

Arthur craned his neck to behold the entirety of the maw of the behemoth roaring to life before him as he contemplated the countless Tenno before himself that this beast had consumed before him. The jaws of the machine shuddered and the atmosphere in the lab crackled with ear-breeching intensity as the Void bared its unsightly grin through the ring. Arthur took a moment to archive his surroundings - this is Life, the great journey I've ventured, and at the end of my service to my Kingdom, I will finally be laid to rest. Tenno super soldiers far more disciplined and honed than himself had tread with utmost confidence into the Void portal, and mere seconds later were spat back out a blackened mess of smoldering organic materials arching off violent sparks of Void energy, barely bundled together by angel-hair-thin strands of muscle and ligament. The machine peaked its critical value, and through the gateway, the Void merged with normal space - distorting the light, swallowing the atmosphere, and the deafening parade of sparks flying and machines whirring were silenced by the sonata of the Void. To Arthur, the stench of void violated Tenno was the worst of the whole ordeal.

 

“Step forth into the Void, Tenno”

 

 

CHAPTER 2:

Disclaimer, this part is a little weird to read.

 

Illustration: Work in Progress

 

Text:

 

I have fought for my kingdom, and I have defended my people. My path is complete, and with a quieted mind do I go. Arthur fumbled in his mind. I fear no death, I am a Tenno.

 

As his step crossed the event horizon between normal space and the Void, Arthur felt time distort and his perception blur - his body and mind fell onto disjoint timelines. Arthur’s head rushed with a million thoughts, yet his body felt encased in a pool of viscous jelly, heavy, burdened, and unresponsive - as might an unborn child slowly drift within the womb of its mother. Try as he might, Arthur could not will his body to accelerate - he resigned himself to perceiving his body from the third person: unable to withdraw the neural commands he sent to his muscles at a time which seemed like an eternity ago.

 

Long drawn out seconds passed by. Or was it minutes? Hours? It's not too late to turn back, is it?

No. I am a Tenno. I am honor bound. I will finish my mortal toil, and return eternal peace.

 

Something’s wrong. Arthur mind snapped violently back into clarity as the nervous signals sent by his toes finally snaked their way back to his brain: he could feel distinctly the cross section between the portion of his body within the void and the portion still mid-stride in normal space. The Void felt cold, but not unbearably so, like the first few moments slipping into a winter bed on Neptune. “It’s cold, you can share a bed with me, Two-Four-Six-Oh-One”, Arthur’s batch-mate had offered him; He had long since forgotten her designation number, but she had a warm inviting smile and a voice like authentic honey, qualities rare among Tenno. Arthur regretted not accepting her invitation. Arthur felt the normal space. It was warm, reminding Arthur of the pleasant summer days he spent on Earth running with the Kubrows, back when the Prime Life Worker was happy - before the last stages of the Orokin-Sentient war, before his hope had died. Back then, he was a real Father to his Tenno-batch. 

 

The void felt uncomfortably cold - like the dark side of Earths moon where Arthur and his Tenno spent three months stark naked, building endurance to the elements as part of the Life Worker’s regimen for the formation of what he called “Indomitable tacticians” - what he strived to mold the Tenno into. The Prime Life Worker’s voice now carried the weight of hatred, he had lost his home and his family to a Sentient attack while he and his Tenno-batch were “goofing off in the gardens of Earth”. Arthur could taste the seething contempt in the Life Worker’s voice. He doesn’t blame us does he? It’s not our fault. Normal space was hot, like the boiling tears that rolled down Arthur’s face five years ago aboard underbelly of his Liset. The droplets fell down towards the surface of Titan, reflecting the rays of the Sun in a brilliant light show strung from the Liset down to the icy moon as if to guide the soul of the warm-smiled, honey-voiced Tenno away from her shrapnel-riddled body and back aboard the ever distancing Liset. Arthur recalled feeling no sadness.

 

The void was mind-numbingly freezing - Arthur panicked. Visions of pluto flashed in his mind’s eye, the frozen death, the stinging smell of frosted plasma charred bodies. Blood flash freezes in fascinating ways. Normal space was burning. I’m on fire. "Ordis! We’re hit! There’s fire in the main compartment, initiate protocol … " “OPERATOR, you are in critical danger, recommend mission abort *glitch* WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE”. Darkness. Ordis? No. It’s too cold, I’m on Titan. "Listen to me, my visor is damaged, it’s too cold, it’s fogging up. I can’t get a clear shot. We need to extract." I am always strong. "Forget the damned mission, we are LEAVING! ALECIA!" Was that her name? "EXTRACT!" My face is wet, is it my blood? I DID ALL I COULD. It's not my fault. Tethys is gone. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FAILURE ON TITAN. This is your first live-fire weapon, Tenno. You don’t want the Life Worker to be mad, do you? He is our Father after all. I want to make him proud. My family is dead. Make us proud Tenno. It’s not our fault, Father! "I am trying as hard as I can." I am the ultimate weapon. We all lost someone to the war. Why are you all so BLIND. I am not afraid. You are a Tenno. I am a Tenno. You must be strong. I am strong. Always, strong. Always.

 

...

...

...

 

I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to go into the void. Prime Life Worker can find another Tenno, he NEVER LOVED me. I don’t OWE the OROKIN ANYTHING. THEY OWE ME. I’M GOING BACK, I HAVE NOTHING to do WITH THE Orokin I WILL JOIN THE SENTIENTS DAMN IT THEY WON’T SEND ME IN HERE THEY WERE ALWAYS THE ONES WHO CARED FOR ME.

 

Arthur tried to backpedal, but his legs were unresponsive. GO BACK, DAMMIT, Arthurs legs continued to walk forward into the void. I WILL CUT YOU OFF DAMMIT GO BACK.

 

Arthur’s senses clicked back to reality as the rest of his body finally crossed the event horizon into the void. Time restored, and the frantic backpedalling his brain had issued his legs all caught up simultaneously, inducing violent spasming in his limbs - enough to crack his femur and hips - the sound of which radiated through Arthur’s blood and flesh into his mind at the same time the pain of the Void settled into his senses. 

 

All the injuries and burns and wounds Arthur had experienced in his time as an Orokin soldier paled in comparison to the void - the pain was indefinable and unimaginably intense. Arthur couldn’t distinguish if his skin were completely lit ablaze or rather utterly frosted over - every inch of his body the Void came in contact with pierced with an unquantifiable degree of pain and each pinprick of agony triggered intense muscle tremors which tore his tendons from bone, snapped his skeleton like dry kindling, pierced his lungs, hemorrhaged his eyes, snapped his neck,  ripped apart his skin, and all the while the deafening roar of the void filled his mind with nothing but a prayer for death. Arthur cried out, but no air escaped his lungs. He reached out for air, but his arms were shattered. 

 

Hallucinations came to Arthur - but like none other he had ever heard of, not even from the most severe of schizophrenics. Arthur's eyes twitched back and forth frantically attempting to redirect his gaze at something, anything other than the horrific visions which flashed across his mind. I know everything about you, Tenno. He clenched shut what was left of his eyelids, but the maleficent visions were in his head. You betrayed your friends. These were not visions of monsters, or skeletons, or death, or decay, those Arthur could deal with - but these were something far worse: strange, complicated, and indescribable geometric patterns which twitched, whirled, pulsed, and vibrated, invoked inexplicable horror from the Tenno. You could have saved his family. The hallucinations flickered and changed at a rapid yet undeterminable pace - something completely random yet utterly logical. You could have saved Alecia. These visions were not caused by any worldly entity, they were beyond any natural fear. Whatever caused these visions understood the inner workings of the Orokin mind. You failed. It understood the programming of worldly creatures. These geometric patterns invoked the most primal of fear responses set in place by whatever created life in the first place. Arthur had previously stood steadfast on his stance that nothing in the universe was good or bad - all in life happens for a reason, all events have motivation. You are no Tenno, imposter. But the void was not part of the universe - this is not for a reason. This is inexplicable, this is illogical - this is nothing but evil. You are afraid.

 

The void is not a part of this universe. It is not natural. It is not logical. This cannot be from our plane of existance, is this ... Hell? Am I here to sign away my soul? For the Orokin? How can I have a soul? I am a laboratory creation, I am no different from any Drone. Do I even die? I am a Tenno. 

 

You are no Tenno.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Vallerian

[-FrostByte-]

please continue to write more

[Nikodemos]

This is glorious. I need more!