Vemana, An Aztec Sacrificial Warframe Idea

[Mezzals]

Vemana - the sacrifice warframe

express version of idea:
sacrificial Aztec warrior,
colourful with feathery headdress styled helmet,
string enemies behind in a speed based attack
sacrifice shields to restore health of your self or allies, or steal tethered enemies health instead
get a blessing of sorts as your kill streak turns into extra armour and speed
if surrounded on low health, release rope darts in all directions that very rapidly steals life from your enemies and turns it into health and overshield

Background:

Vemana is an Aztec Nahuatl word meaning sacrifice, or "to offer to all" and it perfectly captures the theme of this frame. The suits artistic inspiration comes from the same place as it's name, the Aztecs. The Aztecs are known for not just sacrifices but also great warriors. It is for this reason why i feel vemana fits so well in this world, because its not just the theme of sacrifice, but a culture of fighting style as well. I believe that the concept of this warframe is unique, mostly because the focus is not on blood or death like the common idea of vampires or the reaper frame nekros, but the idea of sacrificing for the good of the mission. plus Aztec culture offers interesting design ideas. it is also a tiny bit healer focused in how he is used, but is used more as a way of dealing damage.


design:

I tried my hand at designing the helmet for this frame, but i am personally not used to digital art. The important areas of the helmet i wanted to emphasize is the headdresses that Aztec warriors wore. this first style is more about the feathery appendages of the headdress, but alternative designs could include the jaguar and eagle helm the Aztecs wore. The default colours of this frame would be a dark green and have a dark red as it's secondary colour. The green is a nod to the tropical colourful designs the original warriors used, and the red is not only a complementary colour to red but is the colour of blood sacrifices. The trim colours are navy blue/purple and ivory. The blue/purple is used for obsidian styled embellishments and the creamy ivory is for the teeth and some pin striping. The energy in this frame is a brighter red for similar reasons to the dark red existing. Also in the picture is an odd shaped emblem, this is a stylised heart from where the abilities will be tied to.

i have learned in a second batch of research that the red pigment for fabrics was very rare in europe until they came and discovered the Aztecs used a bug called a cochineal beetle for easy red dye. further reason for the red secondary and energy colour.
i have not done the body, but most of the eagle and shorn warriors use a feathery styled fabric over some lighter armour for better mobility. whats nice about a feathered style armour is that it can also be a nod to the Aztec god quetzalcoatl the feathered snake.

image:
As i said, I'm not really good at digital art but here is sort of the design i believe would work. it has tendrils on the back to represent the feathered headdress, and a simple design for what the "heart" of the warframe looks like.

i have, since the first rendition, added a body to the frame. continuing along the idea of Quetzalcoatl and the nature of Aztec adornments, i've added feathers and leopard spots in honor of the warriors this frame is based on, but the feathered shoulder and the sort of snake-like patterning of the frame is also reminiscent of the Aztec god. i have also added some shielding on him as part of what Aztecs warriors would wear, which was more about the gauntlet and breast area.
 

 

as you can see however I'm not too good at this art thing, i'd describe myself as someone who "get's by" but no i'm not exactly talented. but i hope you can see what i want to convey through this frame.

Purpose:

new purpose
The original idea was a fairly weak frame that survives by stealing life, but that was a bit too vampiric and impractical, this new version still takes part in the same field but has more stats to reflect the status of Aztec warrior more than sacrificing priest. first of all Aztec warriors were known for being highly acrobatic, even in armour, its the whole reason why i believed they would fit into the warframe world. at the same time, their mobility was due to lighter armour which is why his is lower, among some other ability related reasons. as such this warframe still has undertones of being able to withstand damage with some of the abilities, but the more important aspect is mobility, especially with the new first and third ability that i gave him. all in all, this warframe is about guerrilla warfare (which is actually Spanish) and being a scary warrior that charges quickly into battle with a powerful macuahuitl in hand. aka speedy pseudo-tank- avoids damage but can take it when he gets it.

in terms of crafting, he would probably be heavily focused on the organic components, the worst they could do is say that he seems like a foreign warframe, lets make the the foreign component of tellurium a piece of his crafting

old description

so what is the purpose of a sacrifice frame, and how useful would it be? In this sense vemana is like a healer but The basic inspiration for this frame is a risk vs reward play-style, self sacrifice for the good of the team. but don't worry, how i designed the abilities means it is catered towards solo play as well. Vemana is a odd coupling of a tank healer, he wants to take damage, because his thing is sacrificing himself to help others. but he can also use the enemies to sacrifice instead. in terms of his tankyness, he would still be more casting focused, or how i imagined, channeling. so more about high health so not so good armour or shields. one of the abilities he has is about using damage to regain energy, so the lower energy level might be more pertinent, especially given the nature of channeling abilities.

stats (at30)

Health:400
shields: 150
Armor: 90
Power: 150
Stamina: 125
Speed: 1.2
polarity for health

New abilities
i removed the abilities that directly harmed or required the need of low health in this rendition, and focused more on the actual Aztec warrior aspect of his initial theme. too much sacrifice and health manipulation for a warrior in the first rendition. these new ideas are more for unlocking combat strategies and not just healing, although healing is still what makes him who he is. also i considered what might be fun to use as well and beneficial. many of these abilities revolve around the heart piece of vemana, as the heart is a very important symbol in sacrifice (which is why some people may see love as something worth sacrificing for i might think)

tether (new/different version): vemana throws a rope dart to hit an enemy and take them for a ride as well as do a bit of viral damage for the duration of the tethers connection. this might sound like rip chord but valkyr is about pulling enemies or herself whereas this is about capturing enemies in a rope, for later sacrifice if you will. this ability is influenced by the fact that eagle and jaguar warriors preferred to capture the enemies and save for later sacrifice as well as the fact that many warriors were highly educated ad knows about herbal remedies and poisons (hence the toxin damage) . there is a bit of that in this ability as unlike mags pull where it is about pulling out of cover, this attack actually ragdolls and tethers the enemy to the warframe. the purpose for this is a bit of control, of a single enemy, but who doesn't want to drag an ancient along the ground as they get hurt. the damage dealt can be increased as a fact about poisons is that poisons are known to act faster the more you move about, so after stringing an enemy, the poison can have a multiplier based on the current movement speed of vemana. half if standing still, base damage if walking, and a multiplier if running. this encourages a more acrobatic play-style for vemana, like the scouts in aztec military. this is actually closer to the Aztec activityDanza de los Voladores than the older one.
cost:20
duration:15 seconds
base toxin damage:60 per second
max tethers: 2/3/4/5
multiplier when sprinting:1.25/1.5/1.75/2
max damage unmodded and sprinting all the time is 120*15=1800, but requires constant stamina drain aka running

sacrifice: similar to the sacrifice of the old version, in that something of yourself is sacrificed, but this time is more helpful. it only sacrifices the shield of the frame, similar to valkyrs paralysis, but it converts shield to health and not health to energy. but this ability has two other uses, it any enemies are connected via tether, their health/shield is stolen instead, and if targeting another player what ever is sacrificed is given to them instead. a very versatile ability if a bit simple and will be the only true healer part of his move-set, to allow room to be a warrior too. the amount drained and amount absorbed is 1:1 ratio, so if enemies are tethered it does not an effective killing device, its more for healing.
cost:25
amount drained:25/50/100/150

 

Dance of flyers: throws out tethers to all enemies in range and pulls them all towards himself. this takes the idea, as well as name of danza de los voladores and turns it into a nice crowd control, one that benefits an explosive weapon, such as the atlatl weapon i designed for vemana, with link to the post of the Aztec weapons at the bottom at the bottom (shameless plug). this ability can be used in the air in order to maximize crowd control, want to get those people behind cover. it also has a limited stun time after the pulling action in order to increase the effectiveness of this ability.

cost 50

stun duration: 5 seconds

range:25/30/35/40

enemies pulled: as many that are in range, but most likely a 8-12 range otherwise

Heart of the warrior : the major reason for sacrifice in Aztec culture is to appease the gods and in return the people are given blessings of rain, good fortune, and victory in battle. it adds a sort of buff to vemana that grows with the amount of people killed. the buff will increase damage dealt as well as his speed rating per each enemy killed. the damage multiplier will not just affect the weapons vemana uses but the damage done to enemies that are tethered too, further inspiring a very motive play style.

as a design note, the heart of the warframe, and indeed all the energy ports of the warframe, will pulse faster and faster, the more enemies you kill, indicating how full the "sacrifice meter" is
cost:100
duration 10/12/15/18 seconds

base multiplier for both: 1.25/ 1.5/1.75/2

the following multipliers are added to the base for each kill during activation
speed multiplier p/kill: 0.125/0.25/0.375/0.5
damage multiplier p/kill: 0.25/0.5/.75/2


old abilities:

Tether: inspired by the aztec activityDanza de los Voladores teather creates a connection to an enemy or ally from where he can absorb or share health respectively by using some of his other abilities, the tether is invisible to other players or in general to reduce annoyance. the tethers come from a heart compartment located where you might expect it to be, an initial design is featured with the helmet. The tether has limited range and so it should be able to bhe seen in case the connection is prematurely severed. it is hit-scan like nekros' punch or limbos banish, but only when in range. it does do a tiny amount of damage, but that is not its purpose.
cost:10 energy
strength:100/175/250/325
range:I'm not too good with distance, but if standing in the centre of a medium sized room he should connect with everyone, at top rank, if someone could help me figure that range out i'd be grateful
amount:it will not be unlimited so: 3/6/9/12 (3 for friends 9 for enemies potentially)

Ritual Sacrifice:This ability is when the true risk versus reward plays in vemana inflicts pain on himself as a sacrifice. this ability is inspired by mayan bloodletting when activated, vemana stabs a sacrificial dagger in his heart piece and start to bleed and for a duration of time a portion of health lost via bleeding or enemy damage is converted into energy for his abilities. the percent gained in this manner is one quarter or more, so it is not energy efficient to use outside of getting shot at, and requires a certain level of threat on him.
cost:25
percent damage converted 5/10/20/30
duration:5/10/20/30 seconds

so at level 30, if he were to lose 500 health is the only way to get his full 150 back, and he could die before he recieves that boon

Hearts desire: This is a channelled ability, like banshees ultimate, where all teathered enemies are rapidly drained of health and shield and a portion is evenly shared amongst yourself and teathered allies. if nobody is teathered, vemana's shield is drained to fill up any lost health. otherwise, it just doesnt activate. the percent damage absorbed as health is 3 percent, so it can be resonably damaging, but still not be too overpowered in terms of healing. it is also very costly, but that is helped later on.
cost: an initial 50 but to maintain it just needs 5 energy per second, if none then same cost but drains shield for health at 100 percent efficiency. in other words immediately turns 100 shield worth into 100 health
Strength: 15/30/45/60 per second

some quick maths you can skip
damage at 30+ full energy=60/s damage over 21 seconds= 1260
absorbtion at level 30, all teathers are on enemies= 12*(60*.03)*21= 453.6 health in total, but he has terrible armour anyway and this eats the entire store of energy

that is why he could be considered a tank

Penitence: This ultimate is final essence of sacrifice and risk versus reward, each ability was designed to help each other directly or not, and this one is not different. this ability imbues vemana with strength to overcome hardships, in other words he obtains a boost in armour and damage the lower his health is. this ability does have an unfortunate similarity to hysteria in that it gives a damage boost but i feel that due to it requiring sacrifice, and it would apply to all weapon damage, not just a unique weapon, like valkyrs claws or mesas pacemaker.
cost:100
damage multipliers: extra damage percentages of 50/100/150/200/ (1.5/2/2.5/3) and percentage of this that is used is calculated via health
at 200% but health is 200 out of 400 is only 50 so damage is =100 which is a 2 time multiplier not 3
at 100 health it becomes
armour multipliers: same story 50/100/150/200 so that the max, when at basically one health you get 195 armour, 5 more than rhino, but still a very risky position

Lore/basis:
This is a warframe used to get around the battle ground and remove the larger enemies from the equation. it is equipped with an arsenal of abilities that give it an edge, when cornered or in open terrain. the ability to heal and preserve itself gives vemana the time to think and act according to his situation, and be an excellent tactition as he can scout the areas.

final thoughts:
all in all, i've seen many people make blood based/vampiric warframes and get lost in those areas and themes. I merely thought it would be a cool idea to include different types of warrior styles from more exotic places and not fall into the cliche of some mystical creature. so rather i thought about Aztec warriors, the actual fighters, and the sacrifice part came second as i considered the culture. as for usefulness in a place where ninjas play free, he's a distraction. hes supposed to take the heat so that others may continue on fine. and from this idea i hope that DE could make it so that if one person is detected, ONLY that person is detected, so those who like to sneak behind enemy lines and stealth kill can, but i think that would be a different forum post.

but hey if they do consider using this frame, the classic macuahuitl sword should be designed too and included too, and that thing is awesome. also as i have done some more research now, a macuahuitl could be brought in and designed as a machete or could be accompanied by a chimalli, an round Aztec shield to accompany the silva and aegis and be a sword and shield combination as well. another Aztec weapon, the atlatl, is a slingshot javelin that has been remarked by military researchers as being much more powerful than a bow, but with less range. you could also say that the atlatl doesn't have to be drawn for maximum hit strength, but to balance that fact it does take a bit more time to reload. also to fit with the new idea that this is slightly capture frame that the atlatl could have a timed detonation property if they hit a non enemy object.
there is a primary, and a melee to accompany this warframe.

i have made a post outlining some ideas for how the weapons could function and relate to this warframe. i named them the ocelotl/chimalli and cauahtl

Edited July 8, 2015 by Mezzals

[Khorndemon]

[Mezzals]

may i ask why the exasperated jean luc facepalm, for if it is the fact that this is a warframe that eats its own health in a game that can be difficult for even rhino primes to survive sometimes, then i am well aware of the potential grievance of having a warframe that will be in bleedout a lot if used wrong.

but mostly i just used initial ideas that i had at the time. the abilities were more on a whim when i got sort of obssessed with the sacrifice theme and lost the real part i wanted to focus on. i do feel that a sacrifice warframe could be done, but maybe i should have focused more on the aztec side of his theme rather than the sacrificial.

 

wow for a comment that literally no value in terms of constructive critisicm, it certainly gave me plenty to reconsider, especially the health for energy part, but the teather and drain aspect i still feel is a probable ability, but instead of two different abilities it could be one single ultimate ability, leaving the first three as potential more aztec warrior focused abilities

 

thanks jean luc picard,

however i feel there might be more than just what i realised now, but isnt the point of a forum to give tangible criticism to improve later design. i'm actually quite new to the world of forums in general.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Mezzals

[Burnthesteak87]

Initially I read "Vegana, sacrifice Warframe" and thought it was going to sacrify its animal protein and fat diet, then I read it again. ;)

It's really nice seeing how much knowledge of the Aztec culture you know and tried to fit in.

Imho the sacrifice shouldn't be on himself -it doesn't fit well with the theme- but on its victims.
Theater sounds a bit combersome... The same reason why Limbo's Heaven is underused, it's hard to pick up a single teammate or opponent in the fight. I would imagine that it may be uncomfortable when your target is nearby an enemy or an ally.
Ritual Sacrifice is nice, but it remembers me something masochistic or more Voodoo than Aztec. (Correct me if I'm wrong)
I really like Hearts Desire, it's sadic and in my opinion it fits a Vampiric theme better than what people did with all other concepts.
Penitence is essentially Chroma's Vex Armor.

+1 for all the effort you put in.

PS: Usually a Forum Environment isn't something healthy, the Warframe community isn't that bad, still there are some exceptions. Mainly don't give too much attention to non-constructive people. Have a good laugh and keep what's more useful for yourself.

Edited July 5, 2015 by Burnthesteak87

[Mezzals]

thanks for the tips, and insight i'd like to say i have not really looked into chroma at all, i'm still trying to get mesa, so i was unaware of his abilities and similarities to penitance. as for the other parts, i am thinking of combining teather and hearts desire together into a single ultimate ability to replace penitance anyway, so it works out those kinks,

now my quandry is finding 3 new abilities that fit more into the aztec warrior style and ritual sacrifice for the non ultimates.

 

as for the unhealthy forum environment, for me personally i just need one good soul or comment and everything becomes worthwhile. i'm optimistic that way, if a little naive.

[Mezzals]

I've made a few modifications and thought a bit more clearly about what i want to get out of this frame and how i can use the theme of Aztec warriors to create that ideal.

 

the abilities are reworked so he still maintains a slight base of a sacrificing frame, but upon doing more research into the Aztec battle plan, i found that they had a tendency to capture their enemies to sacrifice and by sacrificing they thought to receive blessings from the gods. the first three abilities convey that aspect of sacrifice. tether now actually tethers enemies to vemana, and harms them for their duration, the pulling and dragging part was inspired by how aggravating ancient infested are and i want that specific ability just for the sake of revenge

the second ability is a bit sacrifice, but i changed it to be less stupid and more helpful, and you can sacrifice enemies instead if you happen to be dragging some along

 

i also mentioned some potential weapons he could use, a new sword and shield based on what the Aztec warriors used, macuahuitl and chimalli. and a weapon that uses the arrow ammo, that isn't a bow and arrow, the atlatl, heavy damage, less range

Edited July 8, 2015 by Mezzals

[Mezzals]

i'm actually trying to return to a program i used to mess with called blender, as I have realised I'm not that good with drawn proportions. but I'm practicing with the weapons i designed first before the tough project of a body.