Slight nitpick regarding Valkyr, lore, and the Jupiter Junction.

[EmptyDevil]

The Valkyr Specter located in the Jupiter Junction and in the Orokin codex section should be using the Gersemi Valkyr skin. It would be fitting for that Valkyr to have it's original form intact, especially since it's before the Zanuka Project and Alad mutilation. One could even surmise that Alad collected an injured Valkyr Specter to experiment on.

"Before Alad V, before the experiments, there was the Gersemi Valkyr."

 

 

Edited July 24, 2016 by EmptyDevil

[Hemmo67]

ooor the spectre on the junction (tinfoil mode) could have been a valkyr that alad v took, experimented on and placed there to hunt us? :|

[Lactamid]

Wish the tail was optional on that skin.

[artemisfortune]

58 minutes ago, Lactamid said:

Wish the tail was optional on that skin.

I love the buttplug tail.

[Lactamid]

Just now, JSharpie said:

I love the buttplug tail.

Well, that's why I wished it was optional. If someone wants it they could keep it, I just feel that it doesn't belong there. But just my opinion, others are free to have their own.

[Madame_Werewolf]

It's not clear what Specters of the Rail actually are. Are they normal Tenno that force the player to prove themselves worth? Are they controlled by someone? We don't know, unless I missed some lore. So that Valkyr could be the "original" one, saved from Alad V, or just a puppet. Who knows?

[artemisfortune]

1 hour ago, Lactamid said:

Well, that's why I wished it was optional. If someone wants it they could keep it, I just feel that it doesn't belong there. But just my opinion, others are free to have their own.

I just wanted to make a buttplug joke.

[EmptyDevil]

1 hour ago, Hemmo67 said:

ooor the spectre on the junction (tinfoil mode) could have been a valkyr that alad v took, experimented on and placed there to hunt us? :|

No. That would be really dumb. None of the Specters have anything to do with Alad.

1 hour ago, wolfsongcry said:

It's not clear what Specters of the Rail actually are. Are they normal Tenno that force the player to prove themselves worth? Are they controlled by someone? We don't know, unless I missed some lore. So that Valkyr could be the "original" one, saved from Alad V, or just a puppet. Who knows?

Seems like you're thinking way too much into it. I think it's pretty clear that it is a put there specifically to guard the Solar Rails and to repel the unworthy. They aren't controlled by anyone, they were tasked to do their job by the Orokin, however long ago - listen to their dialog.

Also, no. The default Valkyr is not the original Valkyr. Did you not read the description of the Gersemi Valkyr Skin? DE themselves has said the skin is Valkyr's appearance before she was experimented on. The skin is Valkyr's original appearance. Again, none of the Specters have nothing to do with Alad.

[Hemmo67]

1 minute ago, EmptyDevil said:

No. That would be really dumb. None of the Specters have anything to do with Alad.

thats why it was tinfoil mode :P

[EmptyDevil]

Just now, Hemmo67 said:

thats why it was tinfoil mode :P

Please...

But seriously from a storyline POV, it makes sense for the Specter to be using the skin.

[Madame_Werewolf]

I believe you're right... maybe the DE didn't think about it.

[Vohim]

i just wish we had  more tails 

 

[Sloan441]

5 hours ago, Lactamid said:

Wish the tail was optional on that skin.

Well, it is only held on by a couple of bolts.

Probably a proprietary fastener, though.../wave at GM.

[Yrveth]

I like OP's idea, it would certainly make more sense with the current known lore.

Though if they are indeed Orokin specters, I would love to see them using prime versions. Perhaps one day in November we will wake up and find Gersemi Prime guarding the Jupiter Junction :")

[Brachion]

The rails don't appear to be Orokin in nature though; they have Tenno-style architecture. This would imply that the specters were put there long after the Orokin empire fell.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Brachion

[Yrveth]

Yeah I agree the Junctions don't look Orokin, it was mostly in response to this

On 7/24/2016 at 2:08 PM, EmptyDevil said:

they were tasked to do their job by the Orokin, however long ago - listen to their dialog

which seems to be rather popular reading of said dialogues.

At any rate that Valkyr specter is a bit of a headache, like most lore-centric Valkyr matters. For example, it's still unconfirmed whether Alad's experiments altered the warframe's functions at all. If not, then why should he get any credit for Valkyr, and why [lore-wise] do we still need to replicate a broken Gersemi, having access to (at the very least) a good replica of the original? What would a Gersemi specter with regular Valkyr abilities say about this? 

[Madame_Werewolf]

Maybe the Specters are just normal Tenno that puts on trial those of them who wants to try to activate the ancient solar rail. Tenno are loyal only to each other but the follow strict rules of honor, I believe these can involve killing in rare cases... but I don't know, it's still lore breaking. In theory Tenno are rare, they do everything they can to awake others of their kind from cryostasis and defend each other to death, so kill a Tenno just because they want to activate the solar rail, which would help them in travels and help their cause... it doesn't sound right. 

[ShadowMark25]

Frankly speaking; it seems to me that there's a lot more to the specters (lore-wise) than DE has revealed already, that or they made a HUGE error in the design of the whole rails (and the Specters themselves). [Which, for a 4 GB update, seems pretty unlikely].

 

WARNING: Some spoilers from 'Hidden Messages' and 'Second Dream' quests are mentioned below.

On one hand, the faction of the rails is said to be Orokin, and the dialog says they 'test' weather you are worthy to use the rail. [Weather it was meant to kill us is another story altogether, since the Lotus mentioned the 'Revive' system as a legit system with a fixed range in 'Hidden Messages' Quest. I don't know if DE ever mentioned how it teleports 'dead' Tenno back to the ship, though, or why Tenno use Landing Crafts most of the time instead] [Dead here could mean damaged to the point that the 'Surrogate' can no longer continue functioning].

But then, the architecture is strictly Tenno in nature, not Orokin. There's also post - Alad V Valkyr on the Jupiter Junction.

Lastly, the Radio Scanner aboard the Orbiter mentioned that the Tenno would gate-crash through Grineer and Corpus owned Solar Rails (see Radio Transmissions list) to get from one planet to another, prior to Specters of the Rail (As of writing this, the Transmissions list is not updated yet). No idea if this dialog is still being mentioned, but this would imply that at one point Tenno had no access to their own Solar Rails to begin with.

[Fun fact: For a simple space probe to go from Earth to Mars one way, it takes in between 5 to 8 months, yet traveling to Pluto takes between 9 to 12 years].

So then, what are the Specters? Where did the Solar Rails come from? And why are the Rails marked Orokin, when they look like they were made by Tenno in the first place?

 

My Current Guesses:

1. Specters made by Tenshin to test weather Tenno have the ability to 'survive' in higher level planets in the first place, while the Rails were commissioned by the Lotus once enough resources were gathered. (No idea how the Orokin are tied in, though).

2. Umbra are involved (and I have no idea how, or why)

Edited August 4, 2016 by ShadowMark25
Grammar Improvement.