Theory - What are the Warframes, really?

[Lady_Viper]

Actually we don't get a timeline for how long it was missing. Only that it was days between Kaleen closing and reopening the case again. We don't know for how long the investigation was. 

[Achaix]

1 minute ago, DeltaPhantom said:

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

Did we all miss something?

???

Dev inconsistency? Or wiki shenanigans?

[Genitive]

5 minutes ago, motorfirebox said:

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.

Yeah, kind of... Maybe. Nevertheless, there is more to the old woman. Like, why would they put children on a military ship. Maybe the children were the crew, but reverted back to their younger selves because of the void, or the Zariman was some kind of an experiment from the beginning.

 

2 minutes ago, DeltaPhantom said:

Hold on a second. YEARS?

Ember Prime's codex entry says DAYS.

 

Where is everyone getting years from?

The codex entry doesn't say for how long the ship was missing. It only says the case was reopened a few days later.

[Lady_Viper]

Just now, Genitive said:

The codex entry doesn't say for how long the ship was missing. It only says the case was reopened a few days later.

I literally just said that.

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

Warframes are surrogate bodies made using technocyte yes, and at first, they probably are just mindless husks, more a tamed animal or pet, but as we use them over time they probably do develop what we'd call a soul, since we're pretty much transferring our brain via transference. So when our frame broke War, it was probably like a pet defending it's master/ friend

[LycusStratus]

I like to believe that the warframes are people or creature from the past that at one point were infected but not completely taken over just like what happened to Hayden Tenno in Dark Sector. The Orokin collected these warriors some how and then used the infestation to turn them into the warframes they needed killing the soul of those warriors but leaving  their modified husks as to be filled by the power of the tenno. The deluxe skins are representations of what they used to be which is why Excalibur's deluxe is identical to what Hayden Tenno looked like during most of the game, because somehow Excalibur was made from Hayden. So when the warframe moved independent of the operator it was what little remained of the soul of the warrior used to make the warframe.

 

Also on the point that if they were more than just power suits then why could we build multiple of them I believe that is just a disconnect between game mechanics and lore. 

[Cray]

17 minutes ago, Lady_Viper said:

Actually we don't get a timeline for how long it was missing. Only that it was days between Kaleen closing and reopening the case again. We don't know for how long the investigation was. 

Sure, but where did we get years from?

Did something actually state this, or is it speculation?

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

3 minutes ago, LycusStratus said:

I like to believe that the warframes are people or creature from the past that at one point were infected but not completely taken over just like what happened to Hayden Tenno in Dark Sector. The Orokin collected these warriors some how and then used the infestation to turn them into the warframes they needed killing the soul of those warriors but leaving  their modified husks as to be filled by the power of the tenno. The deluxe skins are representations of what they used to be which is why Excalibur's deluxe is identical to what Hayden Tenno looked like during most of the game, because somehow Excalibur was made from Hayden. So when the warframe moved independent of the operator it was what little remained of the soul of the warrior used to make the warframe.

 

Also on the point that if they were more than just power suits then why could we build multiple of them I believe that is just a disconnect between game mechanics and lore. 

Or those deluxe skins are literally in the game because DE also made darkSector. That's the disconnect between game and lore. The fact that multiple frames can exist at once is actually lore. The only exception would seem to be Limbo, Chroma, and Mirage

[Serafim_94]

Just now, 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4 said:

Or those deluxe skins are literally in the game because DE also made darkSector. That's the disconnect between game and lore. The fact that multiple frames can exist at once is actually lore. The only exception would seem to be Limbo, Chroma, and Mirage

I think that's explainable. Looking how each different frame has its own "personality" and that Mirage lore says she was the only one, it's safe to say that at some point each frame was unique, belonging to some specific Tenno. Considering how Valkyr got tortured, I'd say it's only after awakening when tenno started to mass produce frames, and switch between multiple ones. Or we are in dire need of some retcons :P

[Tsoe]

i am sorry...

but it doesn't sound solid...

I would accept the idea of biomechanical suit gaining sentient ability cause prolonged saumatique link...

 

 

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

6 minutes ago, Serafim_94 said:

I think that's explainable. Looking how each different frame has its own "personality" and that Mirage lore says she was the only one, it's safe to say that at some point each frame was unique, belonging to some specific Tenno. Considering how Valkyr got tortured, I'd say it's only after awakening when tenno started to mass produce frames, and switch between multiple ones. Or we are in dire need of some retcons :P

That's probably the case, since DE never really specifies on it. You just know that there are more Tenno, not what they use.

[LycusStratus]

6 minutes ago, 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4 said:

Or those deluxe skins are literally in the game because DE also made darkSector. That's the disconnect between game and lore. The fact that multiple frames can exist at once is actually lore. The only exception would seem to be Limbo, Chroma, and Mirage

That's but seeing as there is no npc tenno or warframe that you interact with other than stalker it's impossible to know how many of a particular frame exist and if they have any differences. The mass produced may be different from the originals. I'm going to stick to my head cannon cause it can add more meaning to the names of the frames and their deluxe appearances. Plus it adds some personality to the frames while setting up some more lore about the Orokin. But that's just a head cannon that I enjoy.

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

1 minute ago, LycusStratus said:

That's but seeing as there is no npc tenno or warframe that you interact with other than stalker it's impossible to know how many of a particular frame exist and if they have any differences. The mass produced may be different from the originals. I'm going to stick to my head cannon cause it can add more meaning to the names of the frames and their deluxe appearances. Plus it adds some personality to the frames while setting up some more lore about the Orokin. But that's just a head cannon that I enjoy.

Except your head cannon kinda doesn't make sense? Why would the Orokin bother, when they can literally just build whatever they want? They were stupidly advanced compared to anyone at that point, they even made the Sentients as they are with their adaption mechanic. Deluxe skins are just that, deluxe skins to make your own frame look unique.

[Senketsu_]

I think they are corpses with the technocytvirus and a frame built around them, or the frame is made from the technocyte virus.

[(PSN)BlitzKeir]

I think "parents" might be stretching it. You can cite mechanics vs lore, but there is a lot of evidence against it.

However, I do think there is a person inside the suit. Warframes bleed and die, and as shown in Second Dream, they can act autonomously. (I don't buy the theory that Lotus was controlling it, we have no evidence that frames can be controlled by means other than Transference or physically occupying them.) The Corrupted Ancient imprint demonstrates a technology similar to Transference used by individuals called Lorists, who operated as a duo: the source, and the amp. If our relationship with our frames is the same, then it's a much more masochistic. The imprint indicates Lorist amps retained their individuality. Our frames seem to be almost completely reliant on us, yet still loyal.

There are too many unanswered questions for any theories to feel solid. I even doubt my own. Maybe TWW will bring some answers?

[Urlan]

From what we have so far:

Warframe are infested bio-organisms created from Orokin low caste subjects to fight the Sentient. Tenno are children that survived void exposure and exude raw void energy now with it seeming to spike with emotions or stress. Tenno can push their awareness into others through void transference. It is possible that the Orokin Scientists responsible for the Infested Bio-form research decided to use the Tenno as the minds and control for their bio-weapon research and make use of these children for their own ends. Telling the majority of the Orokin Empire that the warframes were exosuits that the Tenno - great warriors - wore probably helped with morale as warrior caste like Teshin who seem to have some void exposure of a sort were used to train the young Children controlling lobotomized infested creatures as extensions or replacements of themselves. It is possible that some Tenno and the warrior caste training them didn't even know this as the Lotus - the Tenno handler - kept this information close to her chest as she did with her purpose - elimination of those that could stop the Sentient.

At some point near the end of the Sentient War, it seemed the Tenno and the Orokin Empires forces pushed back the Sentient and destroyed the Solar Rail on Pluto to keep reinforcements out. Hunhow, the Sentient seemingly in charge was defeated and fell to Uranus where parts of it remain to this day. This was however part of the plan. Hunhow had decided to strike on two fronts using the battle as a means of victory or distraction; it allowed itself to be defeated to allow its daughter Natah as the Lotus, to order the Tenno to eliminate the Orokin Elite when the Orokin Empire had its guard down and afterward Natah was to eliminate the Tenno themselves. Natah ultimately embraced her Lotus personae but did have us kill off the Orokin Elite according to both Hunhow and the Stalker Instead she put the Tenno into stasis and hid the Moon - where the Tenno themselves were hidden into the void. The Corpus and Grineer both remember these days to an extent. The Corpus think of us as the Betrayers and the Grineer think of the Sentient as 'liberating them' according to Tyl Regor. It seems the rest of the story though will come with War Within and what the Grineer Queens know of us and remember of the Orokin Empire.

[(PSN)xKAIOWAx]

Sincerely , im prefer old conception , without operator, i like this idea about cybersuits afters long years of battle creat conscious 

[(PSN)KillerDemon365]

I think that the reason the frame awoke was either of these Four possibilities:

1) The Technolyte Virus (which is not out of control) fought for the child, though i don't know why the virus would but it is possible.

2) The Technology in the Frame had an emergency feature that activated the frame when the Operator was in serious danger.

3) The Lotus somehow controlled the Frame (This is a possibility because she is Sentient and we don't know much about her) to save the Operator while staying in her maximum safety room.

4) The Operator somehow wirelessly controlled the Frame by mentally sending his power to control it while he was awake (Remember that we don't know the extent of the powers the Tenno hold because we have never seen a limit to them) also (when the Frame activated he was staring at it the whole time.)

These are just possible theory but i think they make the most sense.

What do you think Tenno.

[Urlan]

The Lotus was able to sense void echos from within Hidden Messages of the last operator of that particular Mirage user. It might be possible that our warframes or belongings build up said void echo after prolonged use. This could give an imprint of what we are and might be able to influence the warframe. Either that, or perhaps the infested tissues of the warframe are not so soulless as both we, the infested, and Hunhow believe.

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

3 hours ago, (PS4)Solomon__Grundy9 said:

Honestly the idea that, for some reason, the warframes are "empty shells" doesn't hold up in the least bit for several reasons:

1. The "Breaking of War" scene

2. the Acolyte quotes (especially the dialogue that is revealed when you reverse their background noises)

3. If you go to the warframe descriptions, and the saryn prime trailer, the warframes are SPECIFICALLY referred to as "he's" and "she's," and not "it's
 which alone I believe proves that they were once people.

4. It wouldn't make for an interesting story, why would DE put in something like the "Breaking of War" scene but then not build anything from it?

You forgot to mention any of the quotes from the Infestation bosses such as Phorid, Lephantis, and the clearly infested Jordas, who quite literally call our frame empty shells.. Considering all the Infested S#&$ we shove into our frames, they can't mean that our Warframes are literally empty, more that we have no purpose they can identify with (Aren't part of the Infested hive mind?). It's even said the Orokin literally made the Infestation as a bioweapon against the Sentients, which didn't work because they could adapt. The Infestation mutated and grew out of control none the less, eating up whoever. Now it isn't really clear on the timeline what happened first, the advent of the Infestation, or the creation of the Warframes, but I believe the Warframes were made first, based on some of the flavor text given to some syandanas, (Being guardians to the Orokin High Council, etc.) and the fact that the Mire's description even says it was made during the Great Plague, which may have happened after if not during the Old War with the Sentients.

Foreword aside:

1. Think of the Warframe as a flesh puppet, like a leaper or charger, but without a hivemind or outside influence to guide it. It'll just wander or sit still and not do much until something pokes it or nudges it, etc. Considering Warframes do bleed blood (via slash procs) it probably does feel pain. Consider too that Warframes are partially, if not mostly robotic, no doubt when the Shadow Stalker ran War through our frame, it tried to help itself like a wounded animal, breaking War and Hunhow's control over the Stalker.
2. Remind me of those again?
3. Your reasoning is really vague there. Ever seen a movie like Chappie or Wall-e? It's the same principle, actions speak louder than words. Warframes are just hollow shells, but to some people they are heroes, no matter if they are just being controlled. There were actually people outside of the Orokin douchebag council who liked the Tenno, cared for them after the "incident", since technically their families were gone.
4. DE is DE, take from it what you will really. It's much easier to them as developers to just leave it up to us players to craft lore, kinda like we're doing now.

I just fail to see how turning people into Warframes makes any sense whatsoever considering the lore we are already provided. Sure, I wish there was more and maybe a better timeline, but if you use your head it's not that far fetched to think that the frames are just that, frames, while our Operators use them to interact with the outside world and that overtime, those frames pick up their own personalities, even if they are just mimicking their operators. The best analogy I can think of is this: The Operator is the brain, the Warframe is the entire body. The body needs the brain to know what to do, and the brain needs the body, in this case because the brain can inadvertently kill everyone else on accident just by sneezing. The body does still have a motor cortex of course.

Don't try to get something more if there isn't anymore to get out of it

Edited June 29, 2016 by 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4
Edited by 1tsyB1tsyN1nj4

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

27 minutes ago, (PS4)Solomon__Grundy9 said:

1. Saying that the Warframe broke war just because it felt pain doesn't make sense, if it did, it would not have left most of the sword still in its own body, the Warframe specifically broke war in order to stop the Stalker and save the operator, not out of a need to relieve itself.

2. The acolytes actually say things like "You cannot see" and "You are puppets, like us" when you reverse the background noises, although for some reason this revelation has not been noticed that much by the community, there was only one small thread where the reversed noises were posted.

3. My reasoning is crystal clear, if the Warframes were just hollow shells of infested growth, why would codex entries, which seem to be speaking to the player/operator, continue to refer to the Warframes as hes and shes if referring to them by those pronouns was just something to make them more relateable to the Orokin society?

4. I really don't like the idea that the story of Warframe is some kind of open-ended thing where every player decides the cannon, this isn't a game based around your own decisions as a player, it follows a set storyline. Besides, this wouldn't make sense, if DE was just leaving the lore up to us, they would have never done Second Dream, because that is establishing official cannon.

 

Also, sure Jordas specifically says "useless hollow shells," but im pretty sure he isn't speaking here literally. The infested bosses are clearly trying to appeal to the warframes so that they can be assimilated. Jordas could easily be saying this to awake some anger within the warframes, claiming that under the control of the Operators they ARE just hollow shells, and that freeing themselves from those Operators and joining the Infested would make them "whole". Also, none of the other infested bosses i've seen actually refer to the warframes as shells either, they only refer to them as "their flesh."

1. Probably went in the wrong direction with my initial statement. Once I start typing I just kinda go lol. Anyway.. it more than likely was to save the Operator, but think of it more as an pet attack dog saving its owner
2. Because the Acolytes are, I don't know, insane? You can write off the ramblings of a madman, because most of the time they are just that, the ramblings of a madman
3. Pretty much to make them more relateable. Most of Orokin society either didn't think they actually existed, and the part that knew of them (Orokin High Council) hated them, with a minority that did know and directly interact with them i.e. Margullis actually liking them. Remember too that a lot of their codex entries were written before the Second Dream quest. Think of it this way, when a Warframe is made, it's just an "it". But overtime as you use it, it grows on you because you like using it. At that point it stops being just another frame and becomes something like, I don't know, that badass punk chick Ember who can torch Infestation. That's just off the top of my head.
4. Can't really say I know exactly what the folks over at DE are thinking, but aside from content that was added in along with the Second Dream quest, they probably decided it was about time to unify everything that was already in the game

[Yotan]

I was part of another thread that also was talking about it here.

I also posted or added on to IBro156 Theory he/she had.  It is a good read if you are interest as many of you are here.

I personally feel that the Warframes are more like a bio-mechanical symbiote pet. Per say.

[Hydrostat]

Read the lore for Excalibur, it states that the warframes are actually people, corrupt and broken by the void. The humans were close to defeat from the sentients, so the humans took the few who had survived the void, and built a frame around them. This means that perhaps the human inside is able to control the frame, but has to give power to the operator if the operator desires it? This would also explain why we were able to move freely until those few scenes in the second dream.

[1tsyB1tsyN1nj4]

17 minutes ago, Hydrostat said:

Read the lore for Excalibur, it states that the warframes are actually people, corrupt and broken by the void. The humans were close to defeat from the sentients, so the humans took the few who had survived the void, and built a frame around them. This means that perhaps the human inside is able to control the frame, but has to give power to the operator if the operator desires it? This would also explain why we were able to move freely until those few scenes in the second dream.

Except Excalibur's codex entry was written before the Second Dream, and then never changed or updated. I don't really remember whose codex entry it was, but I'm pretty sure there's a typo in one of 'em

[Azathoth0013]

I actually like this theory, and if I may, I think I have some explanations for a few of the holes.

First off, for the sake of argument, let's say, Excalibur's codex entry predates the zarimon incident. That could imply Warframe Prime tech existed long before our Tenno were born, Perhaps the damage sustained to an adult body going into the void practically destroys, and leaves it disfigured, and unable to function, say to the first explorers, UNTIL technocyte reinforcement is added, Later down the line, The Zarimon parents get the treatment, while the kids, go into training to become the Operators, As time goes on Warframe Tech becomes more widely used, we see The Orokin create The Guardians (I'd speculate basically technocyte enhanced clones, conditioned for absolute loyalty to the empire, sans void powers). Then the sentients show up, Warframes start dying off, but they're genetic data is on record, so they start cloning. Eventually, once the Operators were ready, The Orokin develope the technology that The Corpus eventually derive their Proxy controls from (Essentially making Warframes a combination of Genetic Technocyte bonding, Pre-Corpus proxy tech, and Orokin modified Grineer cloning methods, after all, according to the Lancer Sanctuary entry, The Orokin created them as a working class, and converted them to soldiers for the Sentient War), only configured for Warframes, Obviously, this ROYALLY pisses off the Survivors (namely The Primes), and the Tenno rebellion ensues, the Grineer are left to their own devices (turns out SO well), the remnants of The Orokin Empire eventually become The Corpus, and other factions. and, obviously, widespread use, and loss of the technology, leads to Technocyte Infestation. 

By all means, find me some holes to discuss. :)

Edited July 6, 2016 by Azathoth0013
better idea.