Loremasters Unite!

[Cibi_Lumine]

Hello fellow lore buffs. I have created this thread to help use few get a discussion going about speculation, facts, and dialouge throughout the game. I understand that things may change and that we have little info but there is enough to make me wonder about a couple things. I love a limited naritive in favor of player speculation and fact finding. Gives me a Souls vibe and that is always good

Please post your findings and speculation and I will do the same.

To start us off I would like to give a little speculation...

The Golem, Surely you have met him. Boss of Themisto and pretty old infested. In one of his dialouges on your way up to him he says something along the lines (not 100% accurate) "Why do you wish to destroy us? We are your flesh." Which got me to wondering. I think we are not human or at least not fully human and (Thanks to Mortarion saying this somewhere on the forums) we are either a controled form of the virus or a controled infection of a human. The infection has been around for a while (hence the ancients) and the Tenno have been too. The Orokin era was a long time ago too and they had "Mystical" Tech. So maybe the "Technocyte" (Dark Sector) Virus could be a result of Orokin nano tech either running rampant or even been defective. This could also been the cause of the end of the Orokin era but I don't think so as Tenno are not affected by the virus and we were around at that time. Also look at the captive. I have said it a couple times in other threads that the Captive (play a rescue mission to see) is a Tenno with out a frame. He looks very wierd dosen't he (or it). That could be a bunch of Nano-bots collected to form a resemblance to a human or a human using nano-bots to enhance himself to Tenno levels of Badass. The first would also knock out two gameplay explainations with one stone. If we are a collection of nano-bots we would be able to seamlessly change form for our different frames. And no I do not believe that we are switching Tenno when we are switching framse as when we craft a frame we don't have to craft a Tenno to go in it hehe. He put the helmet, chasis, and the systems together and hop in.

"Side Note" Golem could also mean by "We are your flesh" that the Frames are our flesh seeing as we religiously wear them everywhere. Or that could be a double wammy to explain both the bio-tech nature of our frames and the captives looks. Lots of things here

"Side Note" I will not be using to much Dark Sector info when talking about lore as I think the two universes, while simular, are completly different until confirmed. Think Demon to Dark souls.

There are many other off the wall things I could speculate. Origins of the Corpus and the Grineer and the fall of the Orokin era to be a few. But this little speculations has a bit of info to back it up.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Scienta

[Lers]

This could also been the cause of the end of the Orokin era but I don't think so as Tenno are not affected by the virus and we were around at that time.

Actually it is plausible if we thorize, that the Tenno were in stasis by the time the Virus began spreading. OR it's also possible that the low number of Tenno weren't enough to stop the tides of infected back in the Orokin era, thus the fall, and us going into stasis. This would however bring up doubts about the rise of the Grineer seeing as how suspectible they still are to the infection.

Also on the "We are your flesh" note. It's completely possible that the Golem just lumps every organic being together and makes no distincion between Grineer or Tenno (basically saying that "why do you kill us? we are humans like you just with a twist of bloodlust and madness"). But yes i prefer to think too that there is some connection between them. Like the Virus being a newer product of the biosuit technology used in the Warframes, thus the Golem recognizing us as something similar as them without the actual knowledge of what we are.

EDIT: I'd also like to throw up an idea opposing your Tenno = nanomachines theory. What if the Tenno only exist within the Warframes onboard computers? Making the suit a bioengineered lifeform without an actual brain, and the Tenno being a full-blown AI or a virtualized human/orokin consciousness?

Edited January 18, 2013 by Lers

[Arkfall]

I approve of this thread, and I have been looking for somewhere to geek out about this game's lore...

First off, there is a lore thread that discuss darkSector's influence in this game, and if you watch (( https://warframe.com...s/dev-diary-1-0 )) you learn that DE was already working on creating Warframe when the Publisher's hand got in the way due to typical business risk aversion, kind of forced the game into becoming darkSector that now exist.

If we are going to build some lore, then it is best to start at the beginning... and I believe it starts in darkSector.

First off, the world seems fairly close to ours. So let's establish a timeline.

darkSector (Hence forth known as dS) has tech we can use to date... namely the SAT phone, which, scary enough, is a rather recent creation... Meaning the event in dS could be near future. If anything, the SAT phone he is using is recent, no less than 10 years old, putting the starting events of the game some time after Y2K.

Another important piece of tech is the ship at the very end of the game, the USS Alaska. The ship was scrapped in 1960. Alaska was pulled from service on 1947 and was used at the very end of WW2.

This is where the Lore starts. Although the US Gov told people the ship was decommissioned, it was actually set up as cover to transport something our people didn't understand.

We will call this "Mother". It is the source for the Technocyte plague and it was in the belly of the ship, which was dry docked and hidden away in the USSR. My best guess as to where Mother came from is the Nazi Super Solider research, as many doctors and scientists were used to help manufacture Mother. This also matches up with all the Cold War Era tech you find though out the game.

Mother, while being transported, managed to start infecting people somehow, S#&$ went sideways, and it got out. It was powerful enough to cause major global problems and forces the USA to closes off its borders.

During the course of the game, the rabies-like virus (possibly a starting point for Nazis) is explained in bits. Firstly, the most common infection is though the blood IE: Bites, scraps, fluids from an infected getting into someone else.

Shortly following this, the skin begins to harden and take on metallic qualities... the result being an unimaginable amount of pain, which typically leads the subject to have a complete breakdown of the psyche, triggering primitive, even primal level instincts, the need for food, shelter, prorogation, etc.

Hayden Tenno, Robert Mezner, and Nadia Sudek maintained their sanity due to the government "boosters" which where actually a form of gene therapy that was used to induce congenital analgesia (Which is a fancy way of saying you no longer feel/respond to pain.) This allowed them to let the plague run its course and maintain their sanity which i beleve has a dratic effect on the progress the plague takes.

Aside from the harden skin, the plague also seems to take the user's psyche into account when "upgrading" its new home. The plague can produce enhanced natural weapons and defenses such as:

• The glaives from both Tenno and Sudek.
  
• The “flipper shotguns” from the Infected.
  
• Size and strength rivaling construction equipment like Colossus, which looks a HELL of a lot like Rhino-Frame.
  
• A magnetic or gravimetric field strong enough to not only stop projectiles, but redirect them with the same force to a different location of the users choosing. *coughMag*
  
• Light-bending for optical stealth from the dog like creature Stalker. *LOcoughKI*
  
• Lastly, a local area communication network, based on low frequency sonar ala Mezner.
  

This Plague does indeed appear nearly mystical, but none of the above is actually beyond the reach of science. At best, I would consider it fringe science and even then, we are starting to bring those things into the fold. There is a company that developed a working prototype of light-bending cloth for the US military.

I think this is a good start, haha! One last tidbit…

If this set in the near future, at the very least 2025, and the ship was “Scrapped” in 1960, and locked in a vault with no resources at all, and managed to survive… the life support the plague gives is insane. Our lord and Master, Hayden Tenno, could very well still be alive…

Think about just how much of a badass he must be after all this time.

Rank 30… His dandruff would be rank 30… fully kited to solo Pluto. @,@

PRAISE THE SUN! FOR THE COVENANT! and LORE ON!

[Lers]

While the Dark Sector references are many and straight on... i have no idea how'd it ever fit in Warframe lore. For starters, Dark Sector puts the beggining of the technocyte virus to somewhere around the Cold War. Seeing how infectious the virus is, it is hard to imagine that humanity survived the initial outbrake on Earth, had time to build up a golden spacefaring era known here as the Orokin era, then go into decline, AND even after all this build up a succesful empire known as the Grineer.

It's just too much to assume that the virus was active all this time. This train of thought also pretty much exludes the theory that the Orokin fell to the infection, since the Tenno probably already existed back then. In Dark Sector a single half-infected fully suited man stopped the outbrake and the mastermind behind it in a fairly low-tech era compared to Warframe time. Now if the highly advanced Orokin even had a few dozens of Tenno the chances of them losing seems pretty low.

To be clear i'm not exluding Dark Sector lore... just struggling to find a plausible connection between the two time settings.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Lers

[sambarpowder]

Consider the first dev diary, where Steve states that the military/cold war element of the shooter was due to publisher pressure following the success of COD.

[Lers]

Consider the first dev diary, where Steve states that the military/cold war element of the shooter was due to publisher pressure following the success of COD.

Actually in dev diary #1 he only states that the Warframe concept was shelved back in 2004 when all the CoD boom began and the publisher wanted something more WW1 or badass military themed, and in recent times they had the opportunity to make good on the original concept with minor adjustments.

EDIT: also i probably missed the military/cold war elements in this game? I mean all three (and a half) factions pretty much are in full-blown war, and you as a Tenno are a badass cyber-space-ninja-samurai... thing (?) massacring hundreds of enemy's during a single mission?

Edited January 18, 2013 by Lers

[sambarpowder]

I referred to those elements in dS. The game did mutate with those influences.

[Lers]

Ahh right, sorry about that then.

In that case it's possibly safe to assume that while dS lore does apply in Warframe to some extent, the two storys aren't part of the same timeline?

[Cibi_Lumine]

Well obviously this is inspired by their past work but until all the connections are made then I will consider it as that, inspired. For now Warframe is Warframe and Ds Is Ds. Two different timelines, but not to say we can't use some of the core aspects from that lore. Like the nature of the TVC and how it is used to be beneficial. All of thise timeline nonsense with the cold war and the "mother" we can throw out the window until a little more is known.

I have been thinking about this. The TVC is most likely the result of Orokin tech, but they used it to create frames and possibly the Tenno. They obviously had control of it. They either had a docile form, Made it non-violent, or the TVC they created were not violent. This is what makes me believe that the Orokin era was not stoped by the TVC because they knew how to handle it. It might have been a schism some sort. One side could have created a violent TVC to use against the others but the Tenno would be able to through it. And where there is a schism there will be some who side with the others. Loki for example does not fit with most of the other Tenno because of his chaotic nature. Would be cool to think that Loki was a traitor but no longer knows it.

But this is wild speculation with no backing but looking at a model and seeing how infested missions play out.

EDIT: I'd also like to throw up an idea opposing your Tenno = nanomachines theory. What if the Tenno only exist within the Warframes onboard computers? Making the suit a bioengineered lifeform without an actual brain, and the Tenno being a full-blown AI or a virtualized human/orokin consciousness?

I like this as well but these are some thing we can't quite say as of yet.

I would also like to say something else. I participated in a lore related thread in the Fan Section about Lotus. Lotus is a trickey one because she knows a whole lot about what is going on and also is human. Not only that she says "The Lotus will be pleased with out performance" at the end of missions and she tells you to "let the lotus guide you" either she speaks in 3rd person (don't think so) or this means she is not the lotus.

Hear me out

The Lotus is the symbol of the Orokin right. putting two and two together I think that "The Lotus", the one who guides us, Is actually a group of Orokin survivors. They formed a war councel called The Lotus, The symbol of their civilisation as well as the only Orokin who are left of the great war. Makes sense to me. There could also be more Orokin than just those on the councel. Who operates the forge? Who Pilots the ships? Who keeps the space station clean? Certainly not the Tenno.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Scienta

[Lers]

Ye, info is quite a bit scarce at the moment to make any definitive conclusions, but it's still fun guessing.

I mostly agree on the Lotus part. They're the 4th side in this war, but i kind of get a old-school secret society vibe from them (well her mostly). We know next to nothing about them, including goals, members, alliances or origin. While the Orokin remnants theory sounds convincing, what would be their motive to fight with the Grineer? Even if a tad bit on the militaristic side, they do seem to be the least of the evils in the big picture when you consider a mindless horde of space zombies and a robotic techno-cult. I'm thinking more of a rogue Grineer splinter faction, somehow getting their hands on some Orokin tech including the Tenno.

Any theories about the Corpus? For me they seem to be the least known faction. I kind of do missed some boss conversations with them, and the ones I've paid attention to were mostly pointless taunts wihout any hint of useful info. At this point i'm not even sure if they're proper humans under those helmets or some nano infected/enhanced cyborgs. From Neptune's description it's kind of clear that they are some kind of religious cult, but the how or why of it is kind of unclear.

[Cibi_Lumine]

Ye, info is quite a bit scarce at the moment to make any definitive conclusions, but it's still fun guessing.

I mostly agree on the Lotus part. They're the 4th side in this war, but i kind of get a old-school secret society vibe from them (well her mostly). We know next to nothing about them, including goals, members, alliances or origin. While the Orokin remnants theory sounds convincing, what would be their motive to fight with the Grineer? Even if a tad bit on the militaristic side, they do seem to be the least of the evils in the big picture when you consider a mindless horde of space zombies and a robotic techno-cult. I'm thinking more of a rogue Grineer splinter faction, somehow getting their hands on some Orokin tech including the Tenno.

Any theories about the Corpus? For me they seem to be the least known faction. I kind of do missed some boss conversations with them, and the ones I've paid attention to were mostly pointless taunts wihout any hint of useful info. At this point i'm not even sure if they're proper humans under those helmets or some nano infected/enhanced cyborgs. From Neptune's description it's kind of clear that they are some kind of religious cult, but the how or why of it is kind of unclear.

Well they are Orokin wannabes. They are collectors one could say. They understand the Orokin are not a thing anymore and they know the Orokin had lots of tech so they intend on exploiting that tech. Which means kill Tenno (or capture) and loot Orokin sites. They will then puzzle out what these artifacts do. Luckily we have awoken to stop this from happening. They are trying to recreate the glory of the Orokin but for their own gain. You can see some of their attempts to. All of the bots have this bio-tech feeling to them. Fleshy synthmuscle on the moas and bosses

The only people who are at war are the Tenno. The Corpus and the Grineer don't openly fight, but sometimes fight when their agendas cross.

I don't think The Lotus is a Grineer splinter faction. And the motivation is while unknown could be something along these lines. There are two possibilities of what the Grineer could be. 1. A bastard child of the Orokin era. Humans who were left after the great war. 2. Enemies of the Orokin and possibly even the cause of this great war. 1 is possible and 2 is a long shot in my opinion. Reasons to out right despise the Grineer? Limited but the Grineer seek to exterminate them and that is enough for the Tenno. I believe the relationship between the Grineer and the Orokin go back quite a ways.

Also notice in the story section that the Grineer had to "reclaim" Earth first to spead it vile empire. From what?

Edited January 18, 2013 by Scienta

[KONAir]

If you are looking for references you cannot skip "The Many" from System Shock. They both work on cellular level, make use of nanomachines and their hivemind strongly defend their position of "better existance" and really don't understand why people would resist joining them.

Though I would love if it turns out it is a bio weapon used by Empire or Tenno... it would be nice for once not being the good guys and not having plain old "zombies".

[Cibi_Lumine]

If you are looking for references you cannot skip "The Many" from System Shock. They both work on cellular level, make use of nanomachines and their hivemind strongly defend their position of "better existance" and really don't understand why people would resist joining them.

Though I would love if it turns out it is a bio weapon used by Empire or Tenno... it would be nice for once not being the good guys and not having plain old "zombies".

I really need to play this game.

I doubt it is a bio weapon. I actually think it was a useful technology to the Orokin.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Scienta

[Lers]

Story section? I probably missed that, would you be so kind and point me in the way?

And if humans aka Grineer had to retake Earth from someone or thing, it probably was something non-human? Infected? Actually i dont think Ive ever specifically heard it anywhere that the Orokin were humans, just somewhat implied? And retaking Earth might also imply that it was uninhabitable and they reclaimed the dead planet, making it somewhat habitable again.

While not directly supporting my Grineer splinter theory, I find the Lotus' need of warframe and weapon blueprints kind of baffling if they really are Orokin. They have the means and the technology to manufacture them... but not the know-how? Also if the Tenno are something... artificially created (either manufactured, partially infected of bioengineerd) why wouldn't they make some more when the number of active units is so low? (assuming of course that the Tenno were in fact a result of the Orokin era)

I really need to play this game.

I doubt it is a bio weapon. I actually think it was a useful technology to the Orokin.

That you should! And maybe not a bioweapon by design just a malfunction. Or a weaponized version of a multi-faceted technology.

Edited January 18, 2013 by Lers

[KONAir]

That you should! And maybe not a bioweapon by design just a malfunction. Or a weaponized version of a multi-faceted technology.

Yeah, I know its far fetched but we get a lot of "change the course of ship" with infected onboard or sabotage to leave them drifting; we are practically making "Space Hulks". Though we might be preventing them from being a hazard too...

Darn just give us some fluff to read :p

Edited January 18, 2013 by KONAir

[Lers]

Darn just give us some fluff to read :p

This +100. Really, just add some non-story related codex entry's with semi-coherent technobabble and maybe history lessons and it would make quite a few people happy. :D

[KONAir]

This +100. Really, just add some non-story related codex entry's with semi-coherent technobabble and maybe history lessons and it would make quite a few people happy. :D

Currently Warframe reminds me E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy. Gameplay is addicting but nobody has any idea what the game is really about and what the hell is going on from start to finish...

...or does it even really end...

...or even does it begin where you think it does...

[Cibi_Lumine]

Story section? I probably missed that, would you be so kind and point me in the way?

And if humans aka Grineer had to retake Earth from someone or thing, it probably was something non-human? Infected? Actually i dont think Ive ever specifically heard it anywhere that the Orokin were humans, just somewhat implied? And retaking Earth might also imply that it was uninhabitable and they reclaimed the dead planet, making it somewhat habitable again.

While not directly supporting my Grineer splinter theory, I find the Lotus' need of warframe and weapon blueprints kind of baffling if they really are Orokin. They have the means and the technology to manufacture them... but not the know-how? Also if the Tenno are something... artificially created (either manufactured, partially infected of bioengineerd) why wouldn't they make some more when the number of active units is so low? (assuming of course that the Tenno were in fact a result of the Orokin era)

That you should! And maybe not a bioweapon by design just a malfunction. Or a weaponized version of a multi-faceted technology.

Good questions hehe.

Here is the "Story" sections.https://warframe.com/game

However limited if you read into it you get some pretty good info.

Thinks get lost over time. Knowledge is one of those things. The Orokin have been gone long enough for the Grineer to assimulate most humans into their Empire as well as degrade genetically to the brink of de-evolution as well as long enough for the Corpus to gain the 10% mark on total Orokin re-engineering. That could be thousand if not nigh millions of years. My guess is that the Orokin (I think they are human as they inhabited Earth as the center of their civilisation, could be wrong) that are left also went into stasis and there are quite a few still in stasis. They might not have the facilities either or the materials to create more Tenno either.

I doubt the Grineer are advanced enough to reclaim as in make it somewhat inhabitable. They can't even get cloning right.

Unrelated but I want to go to Earth surface and see if there is any desolate architecture. The architecture of the Orokin must be brilliant.

[Cibi_Lumine]

Currently Warframe reminds me E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy. Gameplay is addicting but nobody has any idea what the game is really about and what the hell is going on from start to finish...

...or does it even really end...

...or even does it begin where you think it does...

I love games like that with a limited naritive. Like the souls games for example (have E.Y.E but have neglected to play it.). It makes it a lore hunt instead of a long read which is cool. They have it set up nicely as well with the Tenno having amnesia

[Cleverbird]

I might as well ask this here, but does anybody have any idea who these "hostages" are? They look so... weird. Is that perhaps how the Tenno look wothout the suit?

[Cibi_Lumine]

I might as well ask this here, but does anybody have any idea who these "hostages" are? They look so... weird. Is that perhaps how the Tenno look wothout the suit?

I believe so. I have said a couple things about it in the thread.

[Maratropa]

I might as well ask this here, but does anybody have any idea who these "hostages" are? They look so... weird. Is that perhaps how the Tenno look wothout the suit?

Probably just a placeholder.

[Cleverbird]

They dont look like placeholders to me

[Ryme]

They dont look like placeholders to me

I doubt they are place holders, given that the Devs even went through the trouble of arming them.

The Corpus and the Grineer both look human under their suits. The Grineer clearly have some members with their faces exposed, and the capture missions all prominently feature a Corpus members with their helmet removed.

[sambarpowder]

The armament is a placeholder too, it's not a futuristic gun like all the others. It's actually a replica of a gun from dark sector, which was ages before the time of warframe.