Faction lore.

[GhostXIII]

Tenno

Long ago during the Orokin Age the world leader, Saku Tenno, worked tirelessly to find a way to give peace to the Old Earth. He tried everything but violence, and still nothing worked. One day when Saku Was reading an old book from the 20th century. It described a type Assassin that worked in the shadows. They had the mastery of the sword. They were loyal to their leader. They were called "Ninja". The term fascinated him. He then turned all his attention to finding all that he could about the ninja. But much was lost in the past 13 ages. Saku then put all of the past training and mixed it with the modern ways. Thus the art of the Tenno was born. The Tenno were more effective than the current military, the Grineer, and soon replaced them. The Tenno drove the people of the Old Earth into a new era, the era of Eternal Peace. The Tenno were highly skilled. They were train by all the leaders of the Old Earth. But they were still incomplete, they lacked Armor. So Saku put his best scien$* to work. After 10 years of hard work and billions of credits, they created a bio-mechanical exo-armor that only worked for one person and a child that DNA was the closest match to the first wearer. Thus began the passing of training from Tenno to their child. Two years after the creation of the exo-armor Saku died. And with his death the Tenno unanimously agreed that they to must go. All the Tenno and thei children put themselvs into cryostasis. Three ages passed to what is noe the Age of War. The Tenno were all forgotten, their teachings lost and the way of the Tenno was no more. Until now that is.....

This is my way of explaining things for the Tenno. Let me know what you think and make up your own. Be it Grineer, Corpus, or Tenno.

[ShelbyTrooper]

beautiful story

Someone can explain why the infestation is based on corpus?

[GhostXIII]

My guess is that based on my Infestation lore is that the Corpus are trying to reclame their fourmula and perfect it.

[ShelbyTrooper]

lol

[Ced23Ric]

Ninjas were spies - the black clothed sword-wielding shadow-huggers never existed. It's a thing from their time period's equivalent of comicbooks. Ninja would dress up as beggars and infiltrate hostile settlements, work as concubines to poison beverages and food, or stab people in the silence of the night, under the guise of a house employee. They were assassins alright, but not the kind we associate with the term nowadays. Think more Mata Hari and less Highlander. ;)

But because that wasn't really that cool, artists started depicting them as these warrior-monkesque shadow figures in black clothes with hidden faces, to make them more scary. In all actuality, by law, if they would've been caught with a Katana and Wakizashi, they'd be put to death for impersonating Samurai. So ... that part is certainly neither realistic, nor really feasible.

Also, "Tenno" is the title of the Emperor of Japan. Just like Caesar in Rome or Kaiser in Germany, or King in England, it is a title for a (supreme) ruler of a country/nation. It's not a lastname, unless chosen by happenstance or to relate to that title, and given the strong asian ties of the game, I highly doubt that it is because of someone named "Peter Tenno", but much rather, that the "Tenno" are "Empyrean Warriors", or "Rulers of the Battlefield", in that sense.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Ced23Ric

[Sealgaire]

Aren't the Tenno supposed to a race of people that were hunted almost to extinction by the Grineer? And the Grineer are supposed to be a decaying empire like the late roman empire I think. The basics of the story that we know of remind of of the game Homeworld's quite a bit, which is a very good thing.

[Ced23Ric]

Well, yes and yes.

But that is the superficial stuff, what we can get right from the surface. It tells us only the situation as of now, what is known now. But to piece it all together, we'd need a timeline of events and a correlated faction overview. Do the Grineer fight the Corpus? Is the Corpus trading with everyone? Can the Infested be reasoned with (they can communicate, at least...)? Also, we need a bit more about the Orokin.

To me, they don't seem like different races, really - they all appear to be humans. The Corpus technized themselves, the Infested compleated their evolution into a bioadaptable corner and the Grineer mutated their genepool. The Tenno, it seems, are still the closest to present-day humans, ignoring their combat prowess.

If you read the descriptions of planets, you learn that the Grineer have their HQ on Earth, which is both "desolate" and "ruined". One reason could be that humanity bombed itself out, with nuclear or viral weaponry, and then, set to the stars. The Grineer sticking to Cloning to make up for the declining manpower. Yet, it is said that their Cloning made them win their war - against who? The Orokin? They are guarding Mercury, where the last Orokin towers are standing - apparently, these towers are frightening enough to dispatch an army and keep a lid on it. As you go through their other stuff, it is either repairing the damage they did or training their troops - spread all over the Sol system, which does imply a situation of trust or peace with the Corpus.

You also learn that the Corpus have their HQ on/around Neptune, with indoctrination temples (Technocratic government, see Machinepriests for crossreferences.) and Warframe R&D. As in, these guys research and build Warframes. They also search Orokin ruins on Mars, salvage technology from there and they work on the large Solar Rail Networ on/around Pluto. Their manufacturing is on Venus - so they are spread across the universe, without direct connections between their individual strongholds and projects, which would lead to the assumption that they are not at war with the Grineer.

Jupiter is, safe for a few ships orbiting the other planets, entirely Infested. The description says, "Intel is limited" and "overrun by the technocyte plague". Also, the material loot around Jupiter is "Salvage, circuits and neural sensors". All of this kind of implies that the Infested are actually not a merely biological infestation, but a techno-integrated mutation. If you look at their units, they use former Grineer and Corpus, which hints at conversion - through infection or willingly? But then again, their large numbers point more so at infection, if not epidemic conversion of entire ships. The spores in the air add to that. Yet, Tenno seem to be immune to infection.

Another thing is the special abilities of their units, which hints at a connection between all four factions.

Grineer Commander: Loki Teleport

Grineer Flameblade: Ash Teleport

Grineer Heavies: Rhino Stomp

Grineer Boss: Volt Electric Shield, Trinity Link

Corpus Boss: Loki Invisibility

Ancient Healer: Trinity Blessing

Ancient Disrupter: Mag Shield Polarize

Etc. - they all use abilities Frames have, too. There seems to be a connection between them. And that is what makes it so interesting.

[Destro6677]

Nice ideas GhostXIII and Ced23Ric. Beautiful. :)

Edited February 18, 2013 by Destro6677