Warframe setting sanity check

[rhoenix]

So - approaching this whole thing from a new perspective here, and before I go straight to the endzone, here's a basic plot structure of the game's universe that I'll be working with. Please point out any plot or logic holes you see.

Plot Point 1: Lotus awakens the sleeping Tenno after millenia.
- not all Tenno can answer or are available. Some died during the Long Night, and others were taken by Corpus, Grineer, and even Infested troops before they awoke.
- heavily implied that all Tenno went to cryosleep at about the same time, though certainly not all in the same place.

Plot Point 2: While Grineer and Corpus do trade with one another, they are not allies.
- there are mentions of diplomats and such between the two, but their objectives mainly seem to treat diplomacy as another front of war. Assassinations of diplomats are mentioned in-game (regarding Counselor Vay Hek, and more recently, Alad V. on the Corpus side).

Plot Point 3: Lotus being somehow formerly affiliated with the Corpus.
- It is never mentioned how, or in what way Lotus was affiliated; this is inferred from Corpus named characters referring to the Tenno as the Betrayers, with Lotus as The Betrayer.
- Little else is known about the Lotus herself, other than she runs mission control for Tenno. She might be an actual living being, or an advanced AI - in either case though, she uses a human-like avatar to speak with others.

Plot Point 3: The Infested don't really have diplomats.
- The closest they get to diplomacy is when the Golem, or Phorid talks to you during their Assassination missions, expressing confusion as to why "you're killing your own flesh." This is a reference to the Technocyte virus that altered the Tenno from baseline human in a controlled fashion to that which could use the Warframes, versus the uncontrolled and "wild" version that gave rise to the Infested. The Infested aren't able to understand, or simply don't care about the distinction.

Plot Point 4: The old Orokin Towers don't like anyone.
- former Grineer, Corpus, and Infested troops are all seen within the Towers with that gold-hooped thing attached to their faces (or in the case of the Ancients, whatever passes for a face in their case). They no longer sound or act like themselves, and all work together in a coordinated fashion to repel any invaders, including Tenno.
- The Orokin Towers themselves are hidden within the Void, accessible only with Void Keys. Some of them have been untouched by the ravages of time, and others have become derelicts due to the Infested discovering them.

Plot Point 5: While the Grineer and Corpus have powerbases within the Sol System, the Infested have used the Void as their powerbase.
- with Alad V. pretty much booting the old Golem out of Jupiter, the only place left as a powerbase inside the Sol System for the Infested is Eris, where Phorid still hangs out.
- on the other hand, all the "derelict" Orokin Towers appear to be overrun with Infested, and one of those is where the huge Infested entity Lephantis makes its lair.

Plot Point 6: The newly-reawakened Tenno only have themselves, and abandoned Clan Dojos to their names.
- the Clan Dojo game mechanic is analgous to a reawakened Tenno finding one of them and unlocking it, and then using it as their home base. The game is very unclear as to how many of those there are, as it strongly suggests a more local mindset in which you and your Clan are some of the few who managed to band together and use an old Dojo as a home base.
- However, the Tenno still have no fleets, troops (other than themselves) or anything else to their names, resulting in the game mechanic of sneaking into Corpus/Grineer/Infested ships/outposts, and causing trouble of various sorts for fun & profit.

Plot Point 7: The Stalker thinks that though the Tenno don't remember what happened before the Long Night, not remembering is no excuse.
- there's this nice writeup in the Codex after you manage to scan the Stalker three times (heh, have fun with that given his current loadout), that goes as follows:

"Some have walked these desolate worlds while you have slept. Some like me. I remember what you did. I remember the day.

The Tenno appeared at the Terminus, gleaming and victorious. Our cold and gold Emperors, breathless, bathed you in savior's silk. Then came the sound. Across all our worlds, all at once, the ceremonial Naga drums. A royal salute to the honored Tenno. Ten solemn beats to declare the suffering was over. I watched from a distance, with the rest of the low Guardians. With each beat terror began to crush my throat. The Tenno were not stoic and silent. They were waiting. They were poised. I tried to call out but only a strangled whisper escaped.

When the ninth beat rang a torrent of blood filled the stadium, loosed by Tenno blades. The drums, the Empire, fell silent forever.

Now I hunt, dividing your numbers. Watching from that dark place, cataloging your sins, I am the ghost of retribution. You may forget but you are not innocent."

- so, apparently Tenno were responsible for ending the Orokin Empire right after a war in which the Tenno were instrumental to winning, if the Stalker is to be at least partially believed. If he is telling the truth, then he's a very old soldier; not a true Tenno, but a Guardian with similar capabilities to a Tenno, if not the same social status.
- It's an open question as to the Stalker's motivations, as the Tenno are just now waking up, with the Corpus, Grineer, and Infested running wild through the Sol system for quite a while before this. Whether it's an absolutist "Oh, showing your faces again? No matter what, I gotta put ya'll back to sleep, for good this time", or something more nuanced is unknown.
- It is at least shown that in-game, the Grineer, Corpus, and Infested will all attack the Stalker on sight if he appears, so he doesn't appear to be allied with any of them.

Plot Point 8: The Orokin, and the Long Night are things that happened "back there."
- It is unknown exactly who or what the Orokin are, except that they were at least partially synthetic in nature, and were responsible for the formation of the Tenno during the Orokin Empire. The Orokin used the Technocyte virus (the same that created the Infested) in a controlled manner on unmodified human beings to alter them enough so that they could bond with the Warframe suits, and use them essentially as a second skin.
- The Long Night is what the Tenno & the Lotus refer to the time that they were sleeping. During that time, the Orokin Empire fell, and the Grineer and Corpus factions arose out of a cloned army expanding and consolidating power (the Grineer), or the scientists and economists trying to create their version of an aristocracy (the Corpus). The Infested presumably managed to break loose from one of their containment cells, and escape into the solar system at large to begin om-nom-nom'ing.

Plot Point 9: The Technocyte Virus
- named as responsible for making the O.G. Tenno (Hayden Tenno, from the game Dark Sector) in a primal way, due to Hayden's sheer force of will (and random drugs)
- responsible for turning a normal human into a Tenno with enhanced physical attributes, capable of wearing and using the biomechanical Warframes
- also responsible for the Infested, which is described as an "uncontrolled strain" of the Technocyte virus

Plot Point 10: Tenno Don't Remember Shit
- either due to how they were awakened, or how long they've been asleep, a typical Tenno has severe memory loss, though retain their skills with guns and melee weapons
- whether this is by accident or design is unexplained

Unexplained Plot Points:
- The Solar Rail network. This is a high-speed travel network implied to connect all planets and major moons of the Sol system, control of which currently belongs to the Corpus. Since the Tenno have no real ships except their small infiltration shuttles, they must use the Solar Rail network to travel to various places within the solar system.
- Heavy terraforming & rearrangement of planetary entities went on in the past. This is shown by Phobos being a proper moon with an atmosphere, as opposed to the asteroid it is today, Europa being its own planet, and several other little touches. Other touches are the Void Keys, which trigger space to "bend", allowing ease of travel into specific locations within the Void.
- The Void is not explained. All that is shown is that anytime you're able to see into the Void itself (either when leaving a Tower, or through some of the windows), it looks... not at all normal for how space looks. It is also said in-game that the locations within the Void are not visible from "normal space," and that one must have a corresponding Void Key to access a given Void location.
- No real endgame envisioned. The Tenno wake up, wreak havoc on various Corpus/Grineer/Infested ships or bases, and then... profit? Other than exploring stuff, there is no real goal set in mind for the Tenno, whether of their own choosing, or at the Lotus' suggestion.

(edited with suggestions from Frogid, regarding the Orokin, the Orokin Towers, the Long Night, and the Grineer/Corpus/Infested factions.)

[frigidmagi]

Here's a question. If your suits are a 1,000 years old why are they so good that you can walk through enemy armies?

Did the technology plateau? Was there a dark age? Did someone divide by zero?

You haven't outlined the universe either to be honest. You given me a double handful of plot points filled with unexplained names.

What is the Long Night? What was before it? Is the Night over? What's replaced it? Who or what are the Grineer and the Corpus? What's an Orokin Tower? What's an Orokin? I am assuming it has no relation to a certain type of cookie despite the name.

Why do I ask? If you're writing Warframe fan fiction all well and good, but it might be a good idea to have sort of in story explanation for who these people are, what their relations are to each other and if you can why those relations are that way. Your fan fiction might be someone's first exposure to Warframe and while you don't have to give them a hand held tour of the universe you should at least give them a rough idea of the traffic laws are. Now honestly you can explain in a quick prologue burb or the fic version of a Star Wars crawl, but I tend to want people to work into the story if they can do it without killing the flow (looking at you Weber!). For extra credit explain in story without info-dumping. You don't even have to explain everything, your audience is smart and can wring alot information out of a half dozen lines of dialogue.

[rhoenix]

Good questions - I'll answer from the game's lore as best I can.

Here's a question. If your suits are a 1,000 years old why are they so good that you can walk through enemy armies?

It's strongly implied that despite the Grineer & Corpus' best efforts, they have not been able to duplicate more than rudimentary Warframe suit capabilities. The suits themselves are bio-mechanical in nature, and are able to regenerate, though the limits on this regeneration are not known.

Did the technology plateau? Was there a dark age? Did someone divide by zero?

Yes - the technology of the culture that gave rise to the Warframe suits was the old Orokin Empire, which used the Technocyte virus in a controlled manner on humans, who after this change were able to wear and use the Warframe suits. Since the Empire fell (the causes for which are unknown, though the Stalker implies that the Tenno themselves brought about the Empire's downfall), a technological dark age has appeared, with the Grineer and Corpus factions arising out of that dark age. They have reclaimed enough technology to make spaceships, but not enough to have much of an idea about all the nice toys left over from the Orokin Empire days.

You haven't outlined the universe either to be honest. You given me a double handful of plot points filled with unexplained names.

True enough - I'll expand and edit as I go.

What is the Long Night? What was before it? Is the Night over? What's replaced it? Who or what are the Grineer and the Corpus? What's an Orokin Tower? What's an Orokin? I am assuming it has no relation to a certain type of cookie despite the name.

All good points, and I'll copy my answer here to the OP above for ease of finding the info.

The Long Night is what the Tenno refer to the time between when they went to sleep (for unknown reasons), when the Orokin Empire was presumably still active, to the present, in which there are nothing but ruins of the Orokin Empire left.

A group of cloned soldiers calling themselves the Grineer spawned the Grineer Empire, which competes directly with the leftover economists/technologists that formed the Corpus Collective. The Infested are implied to have spawned after finding a way to get loose from whatever contained them prior to the Long Night.

What or who the Orokin were is unknown, except that it was their Empire that formed the "good ol' days" prior to the Long Night, and that they used the Technocyte Virus on selected humans to prepare them for the Warframe suits.

The Orokin Towers are places in the Void that have been left untouched by the events of the Long Night, and were used as either safehouses or vaults during the Empire.

Why do I ask? If you're writing Warframe fan fiction all well and good, but it might be a good idea to have sort of in story explanation for who these people are, what their relations are to each other and if you can why those relations are that way. Your fan fiction might be someone's first exposure to Warframe and while you don't have to give them a hand held tour of the universe you should at least give them a rough idea of the traffic laws are. Now honestly you can explain in a quick prologue burb or the fic version of a Star Wars crawl, but I tend to want people to work into the story if they can do it without killing the flow (looking at you Weber!). For extra credit explain in story without info-dumping. You don't even have to explain everything, your audience is smart and can wring alot information out of a half dozen lines of dialogue.

True enough - a big part of being able to do that is to get a better concept of the details I'll be working with, and your questions helped quite a bit with that.

I really don't want to infodump on people, so I'll likely just use context and implication to show the more fun parts, since few people like listening to infodump speeches (myself included). I'll be writing it for a reader who has not played the game, while still trying to make things interesting for those who have - and to that end, yes, I definitely have to have a better concept of the traffic laws at large.

[frigidmagi]

Okay this is what I got:

Long ago there was a thingy called the Orokin Empire, I don't know anything about expect it went boom and had really awesome toys, but that's okay because not everything has to be explained to the 53rd power. The resulting Dark Age is/was called the Long Night. Two successor factions have arisen, one the Grineer is made up of clone soldiers who were left isolated by the LN, I suppose they're like if a Roman Legion took over after the Empire collapsed in the west and made themselves a state? The other is the Corpus which was formed by the surviving scientists and businessmen? The Infested are monsters. Nobody likes each other and everyone is a fucking dick.

The Orokin left behind strongholds called towers. However for some reason the Orokin didn't want their strongholds to share so now they kill anyone who gets to close.

The Tenno (who were Orokin cool toys) were asleep for a thousand years, have woken up and don't remember anything? They are being hunted by a thingy named Stalker who was also a Orokin cool toy.

Is that about right?

[White Haven]

I can't help but imagine Orz-style **translation asterisks** around 'cool toy.'

[rhoenix]

Okay this is what I got:

Long ago there was a thingy called the Orokin Empire, I don't know anything about expect it went boom and had really awesome toys, but that's okay because not everything has to be explained to the 53rd power. The resulting Dark Age is/was called the Long Night. Two successor factions have arisen, one the Grineer is made up of clone soldiers who were left isolated by the LN, I suppose they're like if a Roman Legion took over after the Empire collapsed in the west and made themselves a state? The other is the Corpus which was formed by the surviving scientists and businessmen? The Infested are monsters. Nobody likes each other and everyone is a fucking dick.

Exactly right.

The Grineer evidently have cloned themselves so much that they can't reproduce naturally, and have to use cybernetic enhancements just to be mobile, let alone combat-effective. However, their cloning facilities are top-notch, and can churn out enough troops that they don't care.

The Corpus like experimenting on damn near everything, and like using robots as minions. Robots usually assist actual Corpus humans with support and additional firepower; the robotic troops greatly outnumber the human ones.

The Infested... well, they eat everyone. All Infested troops look like Corpus and Grineer troops that got... zergified.

The Orokin left behind strongholds called towers. However for some reason the Orokin didn't want their strongholds to share so now they kill anyone who gets to close.

Yes - automated defenses fully engage anyone who enters a tower, and presumably unlucky Infested, Grineer, and Corpus explorers who die within the Tower get "repurposed" by the tower as additional troops for defense.

According to the Codex, all the enemies found in an Orokin Tower are basically enemies from all three factions with a gold-hooped thing on their face, and with the gold-hooped thing on their face, the Orokin Tower's directing intelligence can move them around like troops in an RTS.

An example:

Spoiler: show

A normal Grineer Heavy Gunner (both normal and desert variety shown, for reference):


Now, a Corrupted Heavy Gunner that you'd find in an Orokin Tower:


That's what I mean by the "gold-hooped thing on their face," and all enemies you'll find in the tower have them.

The Tenno (who were Orokin cool toys) were asleep for a thousand years, have woken up and don't remember anything? They are being hunted by a thingy named Stalker who was also a Orokin cool toy.

Correct, and the lack of memory is a sticking point with me.

All Tenno wake up with their combat skills intact, but with hazy or no memories. Whether the memory loss was caused by the long time in cryosleep, or due to how they were woken up is unknown. It is known that the Lotus began waking them up, and is currently directing the awakened Tenno.

It's also an open question as to the Lotus' motives, and whether or not she was responsible for the memory loss. She is directing the surviving Tenno against all three factions, but her strategies and endgame for doing so is thus far unknown.

And yes - once a Tenno gets the Stalker's attention by assassinating a major figure of any of the three factions, the Stalker shows up shortly thereafter to fuck up that Tenno's Christmas. He's a giant asshole, capable of taking on multiple Tenno at once, and winning. This is likely because he never went to sleep over the Long Night like the Tenno did, and instead got more powerful. However, this strongly implies that the Stalker himself is rather old.

Is that about right?

Yes indeed - thank you for the questions, they do help me to articulate the concepts better.

[frigidmagi]

So... Are the Tenno human?

[rhoenix]

So... Are the Tenno human?

From the information I see on the official lore and unofficial wiki, the Tenno are considered enhanced humans - still appearing human, but gaining enhanced physical attributes (and longer lifespans) due to the controlled application of the Technocyte virus, as well as the ability to bond with and use the Warframe suits.

[rhoenix]

Additional plot points edited into the original post.

So, some plot points I noticed so far:
- The Tenno all went to sleep about the same time, which is at some point after striking down the Orokin leadership, if the Stalker is to be believed. The connection between those two occurrences is not explained, though is suspicious.

- The memory-loss issue. Either the memory loss was intentional (on the part of the Lotus, who woke them up), or it was accidental. Either case casts suspicion on the Lotus' motives.

- The Stalker's habit of hunting Tenno, if the Tenno have assassinated a fairly important character in any of the three factions. It's possible, though not likely, that the Stalker gets paid off by all three factions for doing this, but it is more likely that he's doing this either as direct spiteful retribution against the Tenno who gain his attention, or simply to prevent the Tenno from disrupting the power balance in the solar system between Grineer, Corpus, and Infested.