[Theorycrafting] White Plants of the Orokin

[-NR-Dabears]

Welcome to this thread, Tenno.

So I've had a theory involving the white plants which appear in the Void, on the Orokin Moon, or in the Orokin derelicts. I had all that stuff on my mind for a quite a long time now, but after my talk with @Tactical_Fatty during the 72-hour stream recently I thought I should finally share my thoughts with you.


In case you still haven't understood what I'm talking about, then take a look at these screenshots:
 

 

These are the plants I'm talking about. These plants are spread all over the Void, the Orokin Moon (LUA), and the Orokin Derelict. They also appear in the Orbiter compartment behind the operator seat and in several other places spread across places to which the Orokin have been (or where they have been around).

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If you know any further information related to these plants, feel free to tell me. So, let's make a list of what we know and what they could be:

-The white plants appear in the Orokin Void, Orokin Derelicts, on the Orokin Moon, behind the seat of our operator, in the Orbiter compartment, in the dojo, and in our entire landing craft.
-They can act as a conduit for information or data. (X1)
-They emit a cloud of parasitical spores to infect lifeforms. (X2)
-They can act as a conduit for void energy or energy in general. (X3)
-They help maintaining a symbiotic link between the Operator and the Warframe. (X4)
-They are biological plants which can be infected by the infestation virus. (X5)
-Orokin botanist specters take care of these plants to keep them growing or to improve them. (X6)

I will be explaining the unconfirmed points from above one by one. If I have ideas regarding new points I will update this thread.

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To X1 "They can act as a conduit for information or data":

The reason why I think these white plants can act as a conduit for information and data is this:

These plants are located around the spy vaults of the Orokin moon. Let's take a closer look:
 

As you can see there is a consant flow of energy, and the plant is surrounded by Orokin letters which also flow into one direction. The energy around this plant also makes that the floor around it is drained by the teal energy. But let's get to the point of energy in (X3) later.
So, based on these screenshots I would say they can act as a conduit for information and data, considering the fact that these are located around the spy vaults on the Orokin moon.

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To X2 "They emit a cloud of parasitical spores to infect lifeforms":

Why would I come to that conclusion? Well, DE heavily tends to create content based on cultures, happenings, and such. For example, Excalibur is based on Excalibur (thanks Captain Obvious!), the nodes of the Dark Sectors are named after wastelands and ancient cities, and so on.

So, let's assume that the white plants were made based on so called "Cordyceps". Cordyceps are parasitoids which are, by definition, "an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship where the host is ultimately killed". There are kinds of cordyceps/parasitoids which have the ability to control their host after some time, which allows the parasitoids to bring the host to a place from where the parasitoids can spread more effectively.
Now, let's think the Orokin would kinda alter such a virus, but without of the part of killing the host. I guess you might already have noticed where this is going now.
This virus is spreading with the clouds that are being emitted by the white plant, which you are able to see here:

So, thinking of this I came to the conclusion: These white plants produce clouds of spores to spread a virus in the lifeforms. This virus then starts controlling the lifeform, resulting in the lifeforms fighting for the Orokin and to defend the location they were actually supposed to attack.

I also think that these clouds are not only around these plants, but also fill the entire rooms with it. This may just look like specks of dust, but what if those actually are the spores?

That would also explain the defensive system called the "Neural Sentry" in the Orokin towers which were mentioned by the Lotus.

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To X3 "They can act as a conduit for void energy or energy in general":

As you are able to see on the screenshots below the white plant is attached to the Operator's seat, which means that it most likely powers something in that area. The plant is also spread around the orbiter compartment, which could mean that the transfered energy also powers things such as the foundry.

I also think that the white plants can access the energy from the void, and that they do exactly this right behind the operator's seat. This would kinda explain why there is this Void-like projection in the back of the ship.

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To X4 "They help maintaining a symbiotic link between the Operator and the Warframe":

Why a symbiotic link? Well, there are many hints that the Warframe could be an actual entity of its own instead of a controllable war drone. The reason why I came to that conclusion was this:

Quote

 

REASON FOREIGN CARRIER DETECTED. ORIGIN UNKNOWN. SUSPECTION TRAPPING SIGNAL.

REINITIATING DIPOLAR CONNECTION IN NOVEL CARRIER. BIO IN STANDBY FOR CHECK AND SYNC

 MOTION COMPENSATION COMPLETE

 SELENIC LENSING LOCKED.

 SOMATIC CONTROL ESTABLISHED.

 MARGULIS IMPLANTATION INTACT.

 evn STATUS NOMINAL

 WAR PLATFORM AWAITING SYNC.

INITIALIZING SOMATIC OVERLAY...

 

This is the translated version of the Orokin text that appears in the loading screens from time to time.
In a short talk with @TheRoaringLion and @Tactical_Fatty someone mentioned a symbiosis in which the Warframe is an actual enitity which requires the void energy to survive, while the operator needs the Warframe's protection to survive. In relation to that and "Margulis' implantation" it would not only explain why the Warframe acted by itself during the time when the Stalker was about to kill the operator in the Second Dream, but also explain why things such as the infested collar from Alad V works, and how the Twin Queens were able to interrupt the connection between the Warframe and the operator.
Margulis' name is based on Lynn Margulis who studied endosymbiosis and symbiosis in general. In Warframe Margulis is a Archimedean of the Orokin Era who had an heavy impact on the survival of the Tenno and the development of the Tenno.

So, if the white plant really harvests the energy of the void to provide the Warframe with it, then this could confirm the theory that the Operator and Warframe act in a symbiosis.

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To X5 "They are biological plants which can be infected by the infestation virus":

Taking a closer look at the Orokin derelict, it looks like our small infestation nano-cells right here are able to infect that white plant.

And it also looks like the infestation also makes use of it to spread more efficient.
But this opens another question which could not be answered right now: If the infestation virus was made by the Orokin against the enemies, how could it backfire that much? Did the Orokin miss out the fact that it could infect the white plants, resulting in many deaths of Tenno and Warframes? Check out the codex entry to the Ether Swords:
 

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To X6 "Orokin botanist specters take care of these plants to keep them growing or to improve them":

Someone has to take care of the plants and alter their properties, right? So, I thought that the Orokin specters in one of the Orokin moon rooms are actually specters of botanists who used to take care of these plants, so that they can grow in the best way possible.
This is the room I'm talking about:
 

And those are the specters I'm talking about:
 

 

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So, that's it. If I have any other ideas and alike I will edit this post.
What do you think? Do you have any further information? Make sure to drop a comment if that's the case!

[TARINunit9]

I don't think ALL the white plants spread parasitic spores. They certainly grow out of control if not gardened, but the technocyte that makes up Helminth and the "clean" plants in your Zariman Kid Chamber are pretty distinct from each other. Now I do like you idea of one strand being used to keep the Neural Sentry running, though I'm curious how you mean to concile the plant theory and the "mind control" crowns that Corrupted units wear

[-NR-Dabears]

2 minutes ago, TARINunit9 said:

I don't think ALL the white plants spread parasitic spores. They certainly grow out of control if not gardened, but the technocyte that makes up Helminth and the "clean" plants in your Zariman Kid Chamber are pretty distinct from each other. Now I do like you idea of one strand being used to keep the Neural Sentry running, though I'm curious how you mean to concile the plant theory and the "mind control" crowns that Corrupted units wear

To your first point: I think there are different types of this white plant. For example, one type dedicated on spreading the mind-control spores, one type dedicated to transfer energy, one for data transfer, etc.

To your second point: To be honest I don't know what you mean with "concile the plant theory".

To your third point: The fungus which controls the insects in real life usually try to bring the host on a certain position right before their death, so that it can spread more efficient. The Orokin may have altered such a function so that the infected enemies start going to a certain point in the tower and to equip such a "mind control crown". Maybe this "crown" is also involved in regulating the infection inside the host or to take over for a total mind-control which does not result in the death of the host.

[ironfirefist]

As far as data transfer goes: I am pretty sure the plants are mainly for this.

Maybe later on these plants evolved to be a symbol of knowledge and prosperity, but also an infinite lifespan.

Knowing the orokin, they would surround themselves with symbols reflecting their way of life.

Maybe the plants originally were used as some kind of living fibre-cables, gentically desgined to transfer data in a optical-fiber way.

This would also mean the plants never can rot, and don't need much maintenance.

Therefore i doubt theory X6. These "ghosts" might be reflections of the past, of the orokin, as we can hear margulis talk during the second dream quest.

I also doubt the spores. the specks you see are from a gameperspective some intresting fx, but lorewise it might as well be moondust, reflecting in the halls with glowing walls (rhyme not intended).

It is of course confirmed that the orokin can turn almost any lifeform to fight for their own, thus creating the corrupted. The known exceptions to these are sentients, some capture targets and of course, the tenno and operators.

Pre-second dream it was assumed the neural sentry did this, that's why many corrupted carry some kind of "brace" on their head, being controlled by the tower's potential AI.

Now we have a ruptured void, and fissures corrupting other beings. The corrupted brought in are a rough form of a void portal, in wich the already corrupted spread out to the world. But the most intresting thing is that these fissures also corrupt others around them. I don't think this is any form of spores, more the innate power of the void uniting forces, like a pre-existing defence mechanic, effecting everything around them. This is not something the orokin invented, but just used as their tool, and learned how to control it. The "braces" might be a device linking the innate corruption to the orokin towers, or the neural sentry active in these places.

As for the operator room in the orbiter, the projections i always assumed as some kind of transference antenna, linking the operator via the seat to the warframe, linking/broadcasting both. We can still see these "cables", but i doubt the moving bits are plants themselves. In the war within quest we see these dissapear when the link is interrupted.

^all speculation^ thanks for theorizing :)

[-NR-Dabears]

13 minutes ago, ironfirefist said:

This would also mean the plants never can rot, and don't need much maintenance.

Therefore i doubt theory X6. These "ghosts" might be reflections of the past, of the orokin, as we can hear margulis talk during the second dream quest.

 

I mainly meant that there were specters taking care of these plants during the Orokin Era. My explanations kinda sound not they way they should at some points since I'm not a native English speaker^^

But yeah, the ghosts that we are able to see there would kinda be the "leftovers" of what we can see of the botanist specters.

And I also kinda missed out the point of the Void Fissures, but yea, they would require more thinking as they don't have any kind of spores involved at that point. Still, the Orokin might have developed an defensive way to mind-control enemies (spores), and an offensive way (energy coming trough the fissure).

 

[Vedlom]

They're a strand of Technocyte, most likely the same strand as your warframes, designed as power/data conduits/capacitators and ornaments really. There isn't much else to it.

[Xsoskeleton]

Maybe these crowned Corrupted Enemies spawned by Fissures corrupts other enemies near the fissure? Their crown thing helped to corrupt enemies but not perfect corruption the Neural Sentry did to them.

[-NR-Dabears]

6 minutes ago, Xsoskeleton said:

Maybe these crowned Corrupted Enemies spawned by Fissures corrupts other enemies near the fissure? Their crown thing helped to corrupt enemies but not perfect corruption the Neural Sentry did to them.

That also sounds interesting, like as if they act as something like a relay for the mind-control.

[ironfirefist]

On 19-2-2017 at 8:34 PM, -NR-Dabears1337 said:

I mainly meant that there were specters taking care of these plants during the Orokin Era. My explanations kinda sound not they way they should at some points since I'm not a native English speaker^^

But yeah, the ghosts that we are able to see there would kinda be the "leftovers" of what we can see of the botanist specters.

 

hmmm, intresting theory, but to me it seems un-orokin to have constant maintenance crew running around, the orokin considered themselves the best of the best, immortal and such, even their orokin towers, now "abandoned" -not counting the corrupted- still shine bright to this day.

The only exceptions to orokin technology/biologic decay is the grineer, wich were engineered to be this way and the infestation virus.

They would do anything to show their eternal superiority. I doubt they'd like some "gardeners" walking amongst them, the dax were one thing, but that's for "protection" to keep the "savage tribes" to not straight up attack them.

The ghost could definately be botanists/scientists, but i figure it's more a transference-based thing since the whole moon held the tenno in the "womb in the sky".