Theory - What are the Warframes, really?

[Achaix]

Spoilers for Natah/Second Dream quests

 

I know what you may be thinking: "Achaix, you silly goose. Warframes are suits that regulate and focus the raw power of Tenno!"

That's not what what I'm saying, but now you may think: "Achaix, you dumb goat. Warframe are constructs built at least partially with Technocyte and a mandatory Orokin cell/Argon crystal, but other than that they're just objects!"

And that is closer to what I propose, although I definitely object to the "just objects" part. @Lady_Viper actually suggested this to me a while back, I'm just posting it here.

Let's review what we know of the Tenno. The Zariman 10-0 was an Orokin ship, loaded up with supplies and families, supposed to be the first to colonize the Tau system because Origin was seriously screwed and the old Empire was slowly starting to crumble even then. Something went wrong with their Void tech, and the ship was seemingly lost forever to the Void. Fastforward a few [unspecified unit of time], the ship is found, and only the children seem to have survived.

This seemed rather iffy to me. Was the Void feeling sympathetic towards the rebellious kids and decided to destroy their parents while giving them hax powers? Unlikely. So what's the deal?

In the Second Dream's final section, the Stalker invades the Tenno's Orbiter and almost gets to kill the Operator. As he chokes the life out of the child, their Warframe, impaled by War, seems to wake up by itself, despite the Operator also being conscious (previously in the quest, we could see that as soon as the child awoke, the Warframe shut down immediately and could only be reactivated by direct contact). The Warframe then reaches for the sword's crossguard and, after a brief struggle and some really sweet background music, War is broken. Note that before this, the Warframe seemed like a limp doll but, once the Operator was in real physical danger, sprang into action and turned the tables on Hunhow.

What I suggest is that Warframes are the parents of the Operators.

It finally answers the mystery of what the Lotus was really talking about when she mentions Mirage smiling, or Limbo's exploits, or Inaros' vigilanteism. It makes the dialogue of Operators more meaningful - they're not just talking to themselves, they're trying to talk to their mother or father again. The breaking of War is not just defiance, it is a parent's desperate attempt to save their child. Warframe (the game) is pretty big on Family as a theme: Hunhow feels that his daughter has abandoned him. Natah sees the Operators as her children, just as Margulis did. Captain Vor sees his troops as his sons. Hell, Darvo's relationship with daddy Frohd Bek.

Granted, there is plenty to criticize about this theory - how come they can be built so easily, for example. And I admit that's a valid criticism, though we do have to keep in mind that there's a difference between game mechanics and lore.

To finish this post, I'd like to quote the Grineer Lancer Synthesis Imprint:

Quote

"MERELY FRAMED"

The rock shakes like never before. Gravel rains in the darkness. I choke on the dust and struggle to find my balance on the shifting ground. The voice booms again. It is in the air. It is in the rock. It is in my head.

"MERELY SHAPED THEY ARE CALLED"

My ears ring like sirens. Then I hear new smashing, it is coming from down the tunnel. Not rhythmic smashing, not the music, something else and I do not like it. There are other voices too, screaming voices. They make me think of the way we scream when there is an accident, when one of us gets caught in a sorter. There is much screaming. The voice grows louder.

"THERE WAS NO THEIR MOTHER"

Out of the darkness a new light rounds the distant corner and shines down the tunnel. Our lights do not look like this. It is apart of something big and it moves wildly. Running? Yes, running through our line. Our machines fly up and then slam back down. Miners are smashed and crushed into tiny pieces. I am scared.

I am angry. Why is this happening? Is that an Orokin? No, we serve the Orokin. The Orokin are golden. This is something else. I pick up my shovel.

"THERE WAS NO THEIR FATHER"

Ominous. What if...

Quote

"MERELY A FRAME"

"MERELY A SHAPE THEY ARE CALLED"

"THEY ARE NOT THEIR MOTHERS"

"THEY ARE NOT THEIR FATHERS"

Not their mothers, not their fathers. Not anymore?

Edited June 21, 2016 by Achaix
Not years, or days? Until Morec0 appears, I'm leaving a blank here

[Pepz]

"how mirrors can be realer if our eyes arent real"

 

- Jayden

Edited June 20, 2016 by Pepz

[Lady_Viper]

I see you actually credited me....nice? I thought about writing up a post about this myself when I first came up with it. But then I just started seeing the holes in it and...yeah lost interest.

[Achaix]

Just now, Lady_Viper said:

I see you actually credited me....nice? I thought about writing up a post about this myself when I first came up with it. But then I just started seeing the holes in it and...yeah lost interest.

Heretic.

The holes aren't so terribly bad. Justifies more things than it puts into question.

[AEP8FlyBoy]

I really think that the Warframes are just shells for souls/entities that are able to control them. Operators use them to funnel their powers through them, and that is what also powers the Warframes.

I'm definitely sure of the fact that there is more to them than it seems, as for what... I have no idea. There is a possibility that the souls within the Warframes are those of the Operator's parents... but I'm not so sure that is the case here.

I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the soldiers they experimented on at first and who most likely died in the process that led to Transference became those entities inhabiting the Warframes. We know for a fact that they can move on their own, but to what degree... Can they feel. Can they think and act on those feelings or instincts? Who knows? What drove the Warframe to break the War? What drives them to stray from their Operators, such as the Acolytes and the Stalker? Why do they bleed, why do they need air?

... I know they are more, so much more than just suits of armor. I do not have any credible evidence to stake that claim however. Perhaps the "War Within" quest will enlighten us further. I sure hope it does.

EDIT:

"how come they can be built so easily?" 
How can anything be created so easily? Sure you can slap a bunch of random parts together and in 3 days you have a Warframe, but are they any less complex than a human being? A baby?

Couldn't a soul bring itself into a crafted Warframe about the same way it works for us? When babies possess them as early as 2-3 weeks while developing? I don't think it is so far-fetched.

Edited June 20, 2016 by AEP8FlyBoy

[Lady_Viper]

I really don't think the Warframes strayed from their operators in the case of the stalker and his acolytes. More like their operators got severe mental breakdown. We see the Stalker hesitate when he first see the operator and how Hun How comments about him hating to imagining himself as that fragile little thing that is the operator we play.

[AEP8FlyBoy]

5 minutes ago, Lady_Viper said:

I really don't think the Warframes strayed from their operators in the case of the stalker and his acolytes. More like their operators got severe mental breakdown. We see the Stalker hesitate when he first see the operator and how Hun How comments about him hating to imagining himself as that fragile little thing that is the operator we play.

If you base the actions of the Operators in question on this claim, which is a valid one I might add, why do the Acolytes address us as if speaking to the Warframes and not the Operators controlling them? If the Stalker is indeed a Warframe without strings, a puppet no longer; he most likely dispatched his old form. What is keeping our Tenno from doing the same?

The Stalker's hesitation toward dispatching the heart behind the husk is merely a constituent of what little remains of his (or her) humanity. His hesitance led to the splitting of the War by the Operator's Warframe. Now what drove the Warframe to act on its own accord, without a link of any kind, to save its Operator?

Very interesting facts lay in our sight, but many of us are blind to what they mean.

Edited June 20, 2016 by AEP8FlyBoy

[Lady_Viper]

wow you sound really sure for someone who recently claimed to not have any idea. You really can't just imagining the operator behind the stalker having gone bananas? S/he never really entered that "sleep" that the others were put in, was awake the whole time, knew what s/he was ( which the lotus actually stated).

[TrinityPrime]

Can confirm, the Warframes are powersuits. But what lies within?

[Lady_Viper]

Just now, KnotOfMetal said:

Can confirm, the Warframes are powersuits. But what lies within?

"That is the question" 

[AEP8FlyBoy]

9 minutes ago, Lady_Viper said:

wow you sound really sure for someone who recently claimed to not have any idea. You really can't just imagining the operator behind the stalker having gone bananas? S/he never really entered that "sleep" that the others were put in, was awake the whole time, knew what s/he was ( which the lotus actually stated).

We're starting to walk in circles now. And I didn't say anything about the Operator for the Stalker not going mad-crazy from knowing what he/she really was. I'm not saying I know one way or the other either, as to what they are and why they either turn out like the Stalker did or as the Operators are now. (Crazy vs. Fine with it... maybe.)

I can say, I don't know what the Warframes are. But I can imagine what they most likely are. All of this is mere conjecture, and most likely doesn't matter. It is just cool to think about what could be.

This is a question I really hope gets answered legitimately by DE themselves one day: "What are the Warframes?" as generic as it may be. 

Edited June 20, 2016 by AEP8FlyBoy

[motorfirebox]

Yeah, I think it's definitely possible that the frames were built from the remains of the adults on the Z10-0. As I recall, it never said that the adults were missing. Just that the children were the only ones found alive.

[Lady_Viper]

Or at least the only ones still recognizable as humans.

[Lady_Viper]

Another sad/frightening thought. We know what happened to that officer who breached quarantine to go comforting the frightened children when they were found. Imagine the parents actually surviving whatever happened, the kids who gets affected by whatever happens gets scared and runs to their parents for comfort, or the parents try to comfort them. And then imagine what the children might have accidentally done to their parents with the powers they can't control. 

 

[Genoscythe]

7 minutes ago, motorfirebox said:

Yeah, I think it's definitely possible that the frames were built from the remains of the adults on the Z10-0. As I recall, it never said that the adults were missing. Just that the children were the only ones found alive.

So where do I farm the adults needed to build the frames?

 

And why did they tear the adults apart into 3 parts to let me build a prime or normal frame? And how Do I know that I am not putting together parts from different adults to create a... monstrosity?

 

Apart from that, Alad V already cut Warframes apart and said 

Spoiler

that what's in there does not make sense. I assume he did not find anything human-like. I guess he rather found a weird mix of tech and bio-material.

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by Genoscythe

[Genitive]

I doubt warframes are the Tenno parents. For one, we are able to build multiple copies from blueprints. If we assume there is million Tenno in total, there were around 2 million. What will happen if I decide to build Excalibur over and over, until I build 3 million Excaliburs? Do I copy one parent 3 million times, or download 3 million souls to a warframe?

The fact we can build warframes is also supported by the lore, so technically we can build as many warframes as we want and it will go along with the lore quite well.

 

Since warframes are organic, maybe they can act on their own to an extent. Like the breaking of War can be comparable to a human trying to swim to the surface when drowning. So the pulling out of the sword might have been a survival instinct, rather than some higher effort.

 

3 minutes ago, motorfirebox said:

 

Yeah, I think it's definitely possible that the frames were built from the remains of the adults on the Z10-0. As I recall, it never said that the adults were missing. Just that the children were the only ones found alive.

 

No, it actually says the crew was gone, apart from children hiding around the ship. http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Ember/Prime

 

[Serafim_94]

14 minutes ago, motorfirebox said:

Yeah, I think it's definitely possible that the frames were built from the remains of the adults on the Z10-0. As I recall, it never said that the adults were missing. Just that the children were the only ones found alive.

You know, before Second Dream I always believed that adults actually got turned into children by the Void.

As for warframes - you probably overthink it. If you want to know what the're made of - just look at resource requirements. THey are bio-robots, built to manipulate Void energy in one way or another, and remotely controleld by kids. They probably have some rudimentary AI for independant operations, as seen in Second Dream.

[Lady_Viper]

1 minute ago, Serafim_94 said:

You know, before Second Dream I always believed that adults actually got turned into children by the Void.

As for warframes - you probably overthink it. If you want to know what the're made of - just look at resource requirements. THey are bio-robots, built to manipulate Void energy in one way or another, and remotely controleld by kids. They probably have some rudimentary AI for independant operations, as seen in Second Dream.

Funny, I was thinking the same at first when trying to wrap my head around the "What was children doing on a military ship!" thing

[motorfirebox]

9 minutes ago, Genoscythe said:

So where do I farm the adults needed to build the frames?

 

And why did they tear the adults apart into 3 parts to let me build a prime or normal frame? And how Do I know that I am not putting together parts from different adults to create a... monstrosity?

 

Apart from that, Alad V already cut Warframes apart and said 

  Reveal hidden contents

that what's in there does not make sense. I assume he did not find anything human-like. I guess he rather found a weird mix of tech and bio-material.

 

My theory is that any human-derived components that go into a Warframe are probably created through a perfected version of Grineer cloning. As for Alad V, he was looking for the source of the Warframes' power and assuming that it was inside the frames. Given what the Second Dream revealed about that, finding nothing but twisted, nearly braindead humans inside the frames would indeed make no sense.

10 minutes ago, Genitive said:

No, it actually says the crew was gone, apart from children hiding around the ship. http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Ember/Prime

Well... the old woman said that the crew was gone. Kaileen said "Not exactly," and talked about finding the children alive. That might imply that the adults were gone, but could also be read to imply that the adults were "not exactly" gone.

 

[motorfirebox]

3 minutes ago, Serafim_94 said:

As for warframes - you probably overthink it. If you want to know what the're made of - just look at resource requirements. THey are bio-robots, built to manipulate Void energy in one way or another, and remotely controleld by kids. They probably have some rudimentary AI for independant operations, as seen in Second Dream.

I think if they were just suits, DE would say that they're just suits. No point in keeping things mysterious if there's no mystery.

[Lady_Viper]

Just now, motorfirebox said:

I think if they were just suits, DE would say that they're just suits. No point in keeping things mysterious if there's no mystery.

They could just be trolling us into seeing whats not there to keep their options open for future ideas without having to say "Yeah we changed that" 

[motorfirebox]

Just now, Lady_Viper said:

They could just be trolling us into seeing whats not there to keep their options open for future ideas without having to say "Yeah we changed that" 

That's possible, but considering that the Tenno kids were in the lore a full two years before they were fully revealed, I don't consider it likely.

[Cray]

1 hour ago, Achaix said:

Something went wrong with their Void tech, and the ship was seemingly lost forever to the Void. Fastforward a few years, the ship is found, and only the children seem to have survived.

Hold on a second. YEARS?

Ember Prime's codex entry says DAYS.

 

Where is everyone getting years from?

[Achaix]

1 minute ago, DeltaPhantom said:

Hold on a second. YEARS?

Ember Prime's codex entry says DAYS.

 

Where is everyone getting years from?

Whoops, fixing it now.

[Cray]

Just now, Achaix said:

Whoops, fixing it now.

The strange thing is, the page for [Tenno] says years as well.

Did we all miss something?