Introduction

Greetings, one and all. I am Xenogelion (one of Warframe’s many, many partners). Recently, I was requested by DE to do a blog post for them and legitimately, I struggled to figure out what to write about. After days of uncertainty, I ultimately decided to write about the plot of Warframe but primarily, who we are as Tenno. Also, a small heads-up, I will be interweaving quests with past events because to me, they make sense in the order below. Lastly, I’m going to mention that my wording in this article is written this way on purpose; I wrote it from the perspective of someone experiencing the events as they happened rather than looking back and realising things could be interpreted differently.

Vor’s Prize

Some of you may be aware of is this, but Vor wasn’t always a Captain. He was, in fact, an Admiral before he disobeyed the orders of the Grineer Queens. Vor didn’t let his demotion phase his determination. As a word of warning, he was ordered not to continue his experiments on the Tenno, but he was still determined to do so.

Some time later, Lotus' voice beckoned us from sleep, calling on us to fight back against the Grineer forces of Captain Vor. Thus, our epic journey within the Origin System began. Vor hindered us with an Ascaris Bolt, placed on us while we were still dazed and confused.

During our escape from Ground Zero, we found ourselves greeted by Ordis, an old friend we never knew we had. Unfortunately, we quickly found ourselves being invaded by Vor. Like a parasite, he proceeded to use the Ascaris to break into our minds and take control of us. After befriending Darvo and fully refurbishing our Liset, we confronted Vor and defeated him. We freed ourselves from his control and removed the Ascaris bolt.

Once Awake

After the events of Vor’s Prize, we were guided by the Lotus to investigate the actions of a Grineer called “Dr. Tengus”. He is (or was) possibly one of the most unprofessional bioweapon engineers that the Origin System has ever had the misfortune of accommodating. Tengus proceeded to try and re-weaponise a virus used during the Orokin era. This weapon was used to fight against the Sentients and has since died out. This went as well as could be expected, and the Infestation was released across the Origin System once again.

Gradivus Dilemma

At this point in the plot, I like to refer to the events of the Gradivus Dilemma when we were introduced to both Sargus Ruk and, more importantly, Alad V. With Alad V’s introduction, we learn about some of our own forgotten history, and what unspeakable horrors the Corpus do with captive Tenno.

With our return to the Origin System, the tentative balance between the Grineer and Corpus has shattered, and Ruk makes a play for the Corpus controlled regions of Mars and, from there, the rest of the Solar System. While on Jupiter, Alad V made serious headway with his Zanuka Project (a weapon built from dissected Tenno).

The other Tenno within the Origin System had two choices to make: Either help Ruk and prevent Alad V from capturing more Tenno, but damning the colonists that would fall under the new rule of Grineer, or side with Alad and halt Ruk’s expansion at the cost of Tenno lives - deciding if we fight for family or for freedom. What ended up winning in the end (besides the Brakk) was family.

The Hunt for Alad V

After the Grineer gained majority control of the Origin System, Alad V went into hiding to escape from the Corpus board because of his monumental failure. Frohd Bek stepped onto the stage and was certainly unhappy (to say the least) with the actions of a certain unscrupulous entrepreneur. But, of course, Alad V didn’t want to make things easy for anyone. With Bek’s fleet making its way towards Jupiter, Alad V made a play for his survival by attracting the Infested towards Bek’s ships. Bek became desperate and introduced himself to us as one of the Corpus board members and enlisted our help to punish Alad for not only failing the board but also for the crimes against the Tenno kind.

Note: For this next section, I swapped Mag for Valkyr, because during Dev Stream #18ish Geoff stated that their intention was always to have Valkyr in the “for profit” trailer, but she wasn’t ready before the trailer was ready to be rendered.

As the Tenno fought the infestation back, they grew closer and closer to Themisto, Alad’s base of operations on Jupiter. There, he conducted auctions to sell off Warframes that had been processed through his chop-shop, and the crown jewel of the auction was Valkyr. Restrained to the dissection table and struggling to be free before her impending doom. However, a group of Tenno came to her rescue and Alad lost control of his Zanuka prototype. Valkyr escaped her shackle and in the heat of the moment, she used her Ripline to hurl Alad out into the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter.

Patient Zero

Months passed and after feeling we’d never hear from the insidious viper again, Alad returned. All twisted by the infestation, Alad made a declaration against the entire Origin System that the “Mutalist Empire” would become its new rulers. Here, the phrase “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” comes to mind, so Alad is continuing to use the tactics of commanding his forces far away from the frontline. While tracking him through Infested-occupied Eris, we eventually cornered him and laid waste to him and his plans of dominating the Origin System… or so we thought.

Tubemen of Regor

Seven months pass, and the Tenno come to a healthy conclusion that Alad is dead after being thrown into the inhospitable atmosphere of Jupiter. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and the treacherous possum was playing dead yet again.

Alad became aware of the research conducted by the mad genius Grineer, Tyl Regor. Regor’s work, as we discover, has been to improve and refine the cloning process used to strengthen the Grineer forces. As clearly indicated by Sargas Ruk and Clem, there are some serious drawbacks to the cloning process. Alad implores the Tenno to assist in making him whole again and curing him of his infestation. Regor’s research was the key to Alad’s salvation from the terrible choice he made. Before we began our noble quest, we were presented with a counter offer from Nef Anyo, a known cult leader conning colonists into worshiping the void by donating their much needed credits to him.

As it stood, Alad V wished us to copy Tyl Regor’s research, whereas Nef Anyo wanted us to destroy it. Ultimately, the Tenno chose to help Alad and provided him with his salvation (an alternate timeline exists on PS4, where the Tenno chose not to help Alad). All the while, Tyl Regor was extremely vexed from the Tenno impeding his research.

Natah

As we Tenno proceeded to perform our duties in dispatching Regor’s forces, and thus further disrupting his research, we encountered a strange new artificial life form we’ve not encountered since our awakening nearly 2.5 years prior. These beings of abstract design roamed the halls of Regor’s labs and appeared to scan the corpses of recently fallen Gineer.

Upon making our own scans, they reacted by fleeing the scene. Lotus, who was confused, began to analyse the data we captured of the beings and found matching signatures originating from Earth. Originally suspecting these “drones” to be of Corpus design, Lotus directed the Tenno to continue investigating until she released their true origin and suddenly terminated all contact.

In her absence, Teshin, the veteran of the Old War, stepped forward to provide assistance. Distrusting the Lotus as always, Teshin urges the Tenno to further investigate the origins of these drones. Teshin realised that these were sentient drones. However, his main concern was whether or not they were heralds of a more impending threat. After collecting the information he desired, he revealed to the Tenno that the Grineer have unearthed something extremely dangerous and they are trying to “awaken it”.

Teshin directed us forward still to try and investigate the actions of the Grineer, but the ever watchful Lotus steps out from the shadows and criticises Teshin’s actions, commenting about how he’s only putting us in danger. From there, we pushed further forward to learn the truth behind what Tyl Regor is searching for and the Lotus is keeping hidden from us.

As Regor explores the Tomb he had discovered at the bottom of the Uranus oceans, he discovers more than he bargained for and awoke a terrible ancient enemy. A single name is uttered, Natah. The long forgotten name of the Lotus and her hidden past. Lotus is a sentient and betrayed her kind and her father Hunhow during the Old War. Her mission was to use the Tenno to slay the Orokin and then destroy them, as they were the only threat left to the Sentients, but she couldn’t do it. As Natah, she longed for offspring of her own but in traveling from the Tau to the Origin System, she and her kind became barren. This is the very reason she couldn’t destroy the Tenno and instead hid them away from the Origin System and put them to sleep.

To be continued…

I’m afraid, fellow Tenno, that we’re going to have to come back to this because as it stands, this article is pretty long and we’ve already got some major long content coming up. So, apologies that it’s being cut short here, but part 2 will be coming soon enough!

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