Whats The Official Explanation For The Regular Variant Of A Warframe?

[Coryphaus]

The design of contemporary Warframes is alien and unsettling, but not exceedingly so.

 

The Orokin Warframe designs on the other hand are clad in gold, marble and silver, colors of the Orokin Empire, in order to visibly portray the Tenno as Orokin-owned and extensions of their power.

 

On the other hand the Orokin designs also display an inhumanity not found elsewhere in the universe, by binding the Warframes to consistent alien elements such as Cyclopean features and squid, octopoid and hydrocephalic heads from the deep benthos. We know these creatures exist, but nobody has ever seen one, and they remain frightening and unsettling to us in form, especially when seen up close. The speculum holding the "mouth" of Mag Prime's helmet open implies a very intrusive form of bondage.

 

I would not be surprised that the Tenno, changed as they are, decided to free themselves of these Orokin-imposed forms as soon as they could.

[izzatuw]

Well, from the bit at Odonata P lore. Doesn't it hint that normal ones are the originals and Primes are the new and improved versions?

[321agemo]

Well, from the bit at Odonata P lore. Doesn't it hint that normal ones are the originals and Primes are the new and improved versions?

Not quite. Odonata prime talks about a prototype, but doesnt refer to the odonata as THE prototype. I made the same mistake before, and forum peeps kindly corrected me on it.

[Sloan441]

There isn't one, really. Not official.

 

Good bet is the regular warframes are rationalized wartime production models. Primes are most likely the originals, possibly even garrison/parade ground type models. I wouldn't dismiss praetorian guard types, either.

[SilentMobius]

The problem is that we really don't know the timescales involved here.

 

I mean how much time passed _after_ the fall of the Orokin until the Tenno went into cryo? Was it soon after? Or did they spend hundreds of years cleaning up the infestation before sleeping? If there was a long period of "clean up" they you could understand that Tenno might slowly replace the Primes as they became more and more damaged and the Tenno ran low on Orokin-made resources (Like Orokin cells) 

 

How long did the war go on for, DE seems to suggest that the player Tenno count corresponds to the number on in-world Tenno. did the number ramp up over hundreds of years of War, or are we to believe that all Tenno came from the Zariman? If there were huge number of Tenno during the war, would there be rank stratification? We know that the Tenno-council were involved in the creation of Nova and she also has a prime. Perhaps the Tenno-as-a-group took over the production and maintenance of new Warframes during the War? The information we have about the War makes it seem like it didn't last very long after the Tenno became involved, but maybe that a bad assumption on our part.

[Morec0]

I was actually under the impression that the corrupted ancient lore takes place during the old war, given that the corrupted ancients also have the healing pulse.

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Well i remember a discussion a while ago (not sure how canon so don't quote me on it) that spoke about having perhaps a single prime warframe of each, and the vanilla frames were created from those, hence why there's serial numbers on our frames.

Similar to grineer cloning, i guess copying of the original must not translate over well.

Either that or making cheap knockoff means you can mass produce for a fraction of the price.

 

Well the Corrupted Ancient (and Ancient Healers) get their ability to do that from the Lorist they infected and mutated - Lorists being some kind of supernatural healer (likely using the same kind of energy the Tenno did, given her reactions in that Synthesis). The Corrupted Ancient Synthesis certainly takes place very close to the Old War, but given the talk of "betrayers" in reference to the Tenno I say the war is done over and the Tenno have attacked the Orokin by the time this happens. The Empire is falling apart and that's why things like the Infested experiments are going haywire.

 

I'd say this gives us our timeframe for the Great Plague as well (in conjunction with the Anti Moa lore), but that's a separate discussion.

[Kaokasalis]

Mabye it goes all the way back to the old war with the sentients. The Orokin or Tenno could have started making cheaper warframes due to war necessities. Currently we mostly use hit and run tactics on our enemies. Get in, do the mission and get out but how does Tenno fare in a prolonged constant state of warfare which im presuming we were in with the sentients? Frames might have been damaged or rendered completly functionless and the Tenno might not have had whatever resources the Orokin used to create Primes with on hand so they might have had to improvise.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Ory_Hara

[Xolot]

As the wikia describes them, Prime Warframes are made with Orokin technology, while normal Warframes are made with Tenno technology.

 

That means that while the Tenno worked for the Orokin, they all wore Orokin made Warframes, but something happened after the Orokin fall, and in that time interval between Orokin fall and cryostasis, the Tenno got their memory wiped and discarded prime equipment, that was dispersed among the towers under the control of the Neural Sentry, (altough these towers are in the void, I won't discard being able to go deeper into te void later and find other type of prime weapons or frames), after they left the Orokin Armor behind, they started making Tenno Warframes, inferior but with important traits of the past Orokin Warframes (Like powers or looks to some extent, looking at you ash prime), and after that, they went to cryostasis.

 

We haven't seen every Tenno, as we saw in some cryocapsules, some went to stasis without frames, so it's possible that Lotus is making new warframes right now for the frameless Tenno. On the other hand, it wouldn't be so surprising if there was a Tenno that got out of the cryostasis wearing a Prime Armour, the lack of info allows all posibilities in this topic.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Xolot

[DiabolicalHamSandwich]

It could all be as simple or as complex as you want it to be...kinda reminds me of DS lore. But my quick lore uneducated 2 cents would be~

 

The prime frames are the originals made by the orokin. The regular frames are purely tenno knock offs created at a date i'm not sure of. What could maybe make it all work is the fact that if you notice that all enemies in the void have the little mind control helmets so the neural sentry can control them. Some primes like frost, mag and even the upcoming ash have similar headgear designs (granted this is probably just by a simple design choice). But perhaps all primes and those who donned them were simply mind controlled. Something happened during or after the war and the tenno fought back. Now what could've broke the mind control could be many reasons but I kinda like to think perhaps the normal tenno tried to copy the original designs but of course couldn't fully do it perfectly so they look normal and not as powerful. The uprising begins but clearly outmatched they could've disrupted the mind control which then allowed fellow tenno in the prime frames to be freed and able to fightback against their former masters.

 

Now like the orokin created infested the sentry all seem to share a hive mind of sorts. So perhaps after the downfall maybe as a safety switch it shut down all prime frames causing the tenno to abandon them and either dawn their own created frames or just go none (as we see in the cryopods we have to protect in defense). If the whole orokin thing really did work on a sort of hive mind then perhaps after it was all said and done the portals leading to outside the void shut down which lead to the tenno to be stuck and therefore enter deep sleep. Now 3 could've made it out, namely mirage, limbo and chroma since unlike the others you can only gain their respective parts in a quest and not from bosses. I don't really think all frames were mass produced EXCEPT the 3 starter frame since everyone who awakens (players) has 1 of them already on, but the bp per frame could be copied. Perhaps all frames were trapped and only rediscovered and released by meddling corpus or grineer as with excal. Or maybe only a few were trapped.

 

Granted it's not perfect and i'm actually holding off on reading the lore for now so im probably wrong but just coming of the dome and how stories usually work I think I did pretty well. Plus I can literally think of just about everything atm xD~

[zavienh5]

DE we want lore for god's sake.

[CTanGod]

I guess they are cheaper versions that the Tenno who rebeled built and used. Or it could be that DE wanted to sell golden swag frames and items.

[unknow99]

They made it for the dreamy peasants...

 

Oh oh oh...

 

[Hypernaut1]

 

I guess they are cheaper versions that the Tenno who rebeled built and used. Or it could be that DE wanted to sell golden swag frames and items.

regular WFs being tenno rebel suits is an interesting theory. Could explain their darker  and grittier nature.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Hypernaut1

[Chroia]

Oh? What did it say before I don't recall that?

Haven't found it yet. Narrowed down to ~1k pics.

Will let you know if I do find it.

[Andaius]

I think, it's pretty much The primes being part of the "elite" core, and the normal frames as the rank and file. Mass production vs. high quality. It was a war after all.

[painovoimaton]

They're probably just modernized, cheaper to produce reiterations of the original primes.

[SOONYOUWILLDIE]

this.....no comment

[TheFalseEclipse]

Maybe because the prime frame was made by the Orokin (which has extinct because the tenno murder them instead saving them)... and the tenno doesnt actually possess Orokin knowledge, while the sentient danger still present, so the tenno attempt to replicate them self (just as the grinner does)

.. and with time the frame degenerate  and thus ... make the regular frame like it has?

[arch111]

I think it is a combination of mind control = conditioning of the first Tenno in the Sentient War, and Tenno produced warframes during the Orokin Civil War, otherwise known as The Collapse.

I think there were two Tenno-factions, not including Clans, who fought and killed each other after the Ceremony.

The first were Orokin Loyalists. The second being freedomfighters.

Even if they had opposite motivations, both Primes and regular might have been in both camps.

[Leavith]

I wanna suggest this not sure if it has suggested before ,but we know that although the the frame interprets our power the Tenno is the one with the power.

Yes Mesa is able to use power but we are informed is an empty shell.yes limbo and mirage were made from the original one.and chroma was made from an existing one.but for my idea we need to keep something in mind.were they were made.

Let's say a Tenno will never have to enter the void he does not need an armor that can be amplify with void energy so he would just use the basic Tenno armor.Now let say like the mag example that u do enter the void and leave the void then an armor that gets amplify from void energy would be best for u.althought like everything that encounter the void energy changes a bit this makes the frame in the void stronger.unlike frames that are bit design to be amplify by the void energy.u can say the armor are from were they fight not really which one came 1st I mean the sentient rapt some point fought Tenno in the void that would explain prime frames,but when they weren't in the void they would not need frames that get amplify by the void as prime do.