As many of you know, I have a thing for Warframe, but I also have a thing for Dark Sector. Dark Sector was inexplicably one of the worst, but best games I played in years when it came to pandemic type titles. Little had I known it is what inspired Warframe, I wouldn’t have had as much interest as I do now, and that is where this first entry in our monthly “Theory Craft” series stars today. The first one is a two part series discussing and explaining the Warframe and Dark Sector history and Part 2 will explain how they come together in some plausible way.
In Warframe, our universe has a very diluted story. For those unfamiliar, Warframe takes place a universe that was recently explained to us through Update 18, where we learn the truth about who Lotus, or rather both the Orookin and the Tenno’s were and are before we can begin closing the gap and linking Dark Sector into the whole thing. Please note, however, none of this is confirmed by DE and is a direct theory created by me.
In the new and first cinematic quest line we begin to learn more about the Lotus and her Sentient name “Natah”. In this latest piece of lore we find out about what has really happened in the warframe universe thus far. Please note, however, there are also no solid dates or timeline, just an idea of what is going on. In the story we learn that the Oro are partially sentient, a creature created from possibly energy. This gives us the founding idea that the Oro could possibly create a symbiotic relationship with whom they bind to, this would give us the idea that the sentient beings such as Hunhow and Natah are possibly immortal and can not age, but also how they gained their abilities to control the special powers the way they do.
Under the guise of a better future, we learn that the Orokin elite, human civilization was capable of spanning throughout the solar system. They were able to inhabit other planets, further technology advancement, and even go to the extent of entering a golden age. One that places the Orokin minority at the height of this new human empire. In turn, with this age of expansion the Orokin created two lesser and more subservient “races” or perhaps these races were already in place and the Orokin utilized them a bit better. The Grineer, meant to be manual laborers and a war machine, while the Corpus were meant to be administrators, scientists, and bureaucrats. This giving the Corpus the delegation of government, and such with the guidance of the Orokin themselves.
Over the centuries, they would begin to enter a decline, and the Orokin Empire would approach itself becoming near collapse as the resources of the Origin system began to stretch thin. With this happening, discontent would brew across both Orokin and the subservient races they created. This causing the Orokin to head to the nearby Tau system where they would have constructs we know as Solar Rails be placed in so they could instantly travel between the systems. Over time the plan to travel to the Tau system would begin, the Orokin would begin terraforming (or so we think) and allow this system to become inhabitable. While in the process of this, they would also begin to achieve their own form of sentience in order to evolve past what the Orokin had predicted (This assumption is based upon the order that Shadow Stalker stepped before when he met Hunhow). In turn, the Orokin would travel from the Tau System to the Rail at Pluto, here they would make contact with things that they believed were just machines and discover the newest race; Sentients.
In view of how the Orokin saw things, the Sentients were probably considered abberations, and in turn, a war wold be started as Orokin’s would force their superiority upon the Sentients, and attempt to wipe them out singlehande. To this efect, the Orokin have taken off more than they could possibly manage as the Old War begins to flare up. In turn, the Sentients would begin to overwhelm their enemy forces by subverting higher levels of technology in order to combat their new enemy. Here we can assume that the Sentients would possibly have used proxies to fight, machines that were designed for specific combat (Warframes?). This is also where it would be safe to assume that the Orokin would discover that Grineer, their slave race, would make great warriors. Here they would begin to clone them, weaponize them with lower tech weapons than what the corpos would have, and sent them to combat the Sentients who are holding down their grasp fairly well in this war.
As the Orokin begin to find their low tech soldiers futility rather low, the Orokin would design a new form of life, the virus known as “technocyte virus”. Rather they would weaponize a virus that had been found on Earth after it had been unleashed. The results of weaponizing the virus ended up being unleashed upon the corpus, where in turn, thousands of troops would be created. The result was not greater than the outcome they had hoped for. The infestation itself would begin to spread like a wild fire, and in turn it would assume a mind of its own, much like it did in Dark Sector. Here it would allow itself to grow as it became obvious in its current stage that the virus would not subvert machines, and so the Sentients themselves were not directly affected. With the Sentient advance barely slowed, the Orokin would grow desperate and would seek to exploit the void. In the story “The Second Dream” we learn that the void energy would leave the Sentients poisoned and they would be unable to enter it. While having put some of their own ships that were designed to expos them to void energy, they accidentally would recreate something that was discovered. This corruption in some way hurt the Oro, allowing the resulting Tenno to channel their raw void energies. The warframes in turn would be built as conduits for them as Tenno weapons.
In turn, the Tenno would be revealed to be extremely efficient killing machines, and in turn they would be able to push back the Sentient threat as they began to put them on the edge of defeat. Here they would also almost capture the Outer terminus, but in turn, the Sentients would have one last trick. They would sent their own through the void. In turn they send some of their own through the void. Here we learn that Natah is a sentient who was created to subert the Tenno themselves, and likely through the use of Warframes. Here she would arrive to the Origin system, but was not able to prevent the Orokin forces from recapturing and crippling or even destroying Outer Terminus. Here, they would lose contact witht he Tau System and the Orokin would take this as a victory.
Over time we learn Natah would grow to gain control of the Tenno, and with this, she would bring them back to the Orokin rulers. There she would order the Tenno to cut all the Orokin down. With that chaos would be unleashed allowing the Grineer to rebel and the Corpus to flee on their own. With the Infestation out of control, the Orokin, Grineer, and Corpus would remain unchecked. Balance would be lost. Without the forces needed and them being hunted by Natah’s Tenno, the Grineer, Corpus and Orokin would disappear for some time. The Origin System as we now know it would be in chaos. There is no ruler, but the Sentients and Orokin have been reduced to nothing. With Natah now barren from having traveled through Void travel using the Solar Rails, she would fail to execute her fina command and would allow the Tenno to live in their dreams. Here she would dawn the crown of the Lotus and would become the voice to the Tenno.
As their leader, she would gain a foothold on the Origin system by maintaining order. During this time, she would soon realize that her Tenno, rather her children as she sees them, would be doomed. They would die and she would have no way to make more of these Tenno due to the absence of the Orokin. In turn, she must prepare for the inevitable return of the Sentients, thus she hides her children in “The Second Dream” where they would believe they awoke inside their Warframes (the games introduction).
As centuries pass, the Tenno and the Orokin have barely been remembered as the Old War becomes history among the stars. Over time, the Grineer were able to take the Origin System through ruthless domination. Though with it they also had found themselves disfigured and damaged through over cloning, while the Corpus themselves were able to carve a spot in the system through commerce and technology. With some attrition between the two, a war has not been heavily present. Over time the Grineer and the Corpus would begin to discover Orokin artifacts. With these artifacts they would also find small remnants of the Tenno. With this happening, Lotus would realize it’s time for her to awaken her children as the Grineer and Corpus would surely use the Tenno for their own reasons. With the Origin system in a more stable situation, the Tenno would act as infiltrators, but also assassin’s to the Lotus herself. They would complete their objectives without fer of retaliation from either side.
During this time, The Corpus have begun to rebuild the Outer Terminus while the researcher of the Grineer, Tyl Regor, would find and break into the vault where a Sentient has been resting. Thus the story of the Second Dream had taken place. But there are a few things that do seem to need answered within the Warframe story arch now that it’s theorized and laid out. During the Hidden Messages quest, players will find that during the transitional timeframe where the Tenno were already following Lotus they were still fighting for the Orokin as they would oppose the ancients. This presents that it’s likely that Lotus was sent to directly infiltrate the Orokin, but not to subvert more Tenno to her secret army. This is also backed by the idea that Hunhow, the Sentient, tells his daughter Natah (Lotus) that “We crossed the gap, wombs in ruin, to bring and end to this. We servered the worlds, let them destroy me, why is the sequence not complete?”
This quote hints at the idea that Natah, rather Lotus, was an insider to the Orokin Empire, there she would take her time to control the Tenno and build an army for the Sentients. This however, also gives the idea that this was used to preserve the Tau System from a Tenno invasion in case their first plan failed. Or… The more possible answer, both of these were possible, and she was to prepare the Tenno for two separate missions at once. The last possibility is a common theory among many. The Lotus wasn’t a Sentient and the infiltration was even more subtle. However, this means she would’ve been an agent from somewhere else and the Lotus’ control over the Tenno would be to see how the best course to fight the Sentients would’ve been taken. But how would this play into Dark Sector, if at all?
In Dark Sector players take the role of Hayden Tenno. An operative who has been discharged from his military service dishonorably, but also a man that works now as a secret agent, and one that does the dirty work for others in turn. Over the course of his story, we witness our protagonist become infected with the technocyte virus by a mysterious creature wearing the Nemesis warframe design we now see on Nyx within Warframe. We in turn through the game take on soldiers using biosuits, high powered weapons, and even the infestation as the virus has begun to run rampant after a failed test that was meant to be contained. As the game goes through, we witness Hayden begin to change. Thanks to his bonding with the virus and not going mad due to congenital analgesia, he was unable to feel pain, therefore the virus didn’t make him go mad during his search for a nanotechnology specialist. With the virus only affecting his right arm, somehow the virus allowed him to create the weapon we have come to know as “Glaive”.
As players moved through the story, we learn that Hayden’s suit of armor at the end of the game is not caused by the virus, but rather a unique “Warframe” that would enhance his combat abilities and keep him safe. This suit in Warframe would be later named Excalibur and would become an idealistic design for those wanting a close range Warframe. A trademark that carried over with this was also the fact that the Lotus logo could be seen on his left shoulder throughout the game. This hint is possible that Sentients later on could have been created by humans on Earth using biotechnology or even nano-technology to transcend past the virus as it would run rampant through the world rather quickly due to Mezner’s insanity and Hayden’s inability to contain the virus.
A early stage Jackal before the Corpus made them?
The game also foreshadowed Nemesis as a cross between both the Rhino and Nyx Warframes due to the overall appearance. Another nod towards Dark Sector is the enemy created by the virus known as “Stalker”. Our assumption that this Stalker could also be the one from the game would also give a nod towards the fact that our current Shadow Stalker is maddened by something that happened to him. Rather the fact he was driven mad by either not entering the dream or having been in it to long. Both ideas could be explained at a later date as the story expands.
But how would this link the two games together? Stay tuned for Part 2 coming this week.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.