Talk:Story and History/@comment-71.61.96.217-20140125114455

Seems to be a lot of speculation that the Lotus is a leftover Orokin controlling frames, a manipulator, etc. I prefer to think that the Lotus is the intelligence (be it an AI or a person) that sparked the Tenno betrayal of the Orokin.

Let's say, for arguement sake, that the Orokin were initially the "good guys" in the Old War. They create the Warframes, and put genetically engineered Tenno, with the Technocyte assimilated, into these frames, and sent them to war. When the war isn't going well, desperate times spark dark research and tactics. The virus is released, and as the Orokin begin to see victory, it is overshadowed by the rampant spread and unintended side effects of the virus. True, the sentients are being weakened or killed by the virus, but creatures across the system are being mutated horribly in the process.

So the Lotus, an intelligence working under Sentient influence, contacts a small group of Tenno that she believes, after extensive research, are dissatisfied with the tactics being used by the Orokin. These Tenno agree to follow the Lotus, and inscribe themselves with her emblem in a show of faith. Their betrayal finds them pitted against Tenno who have not sided with the Orokin, and against the Orokin themselves.

In the end, the Lotus's Tenno are victorious. But that's not to say they are the only Tenno to survive; the stalker wears a warframe that is very similar to the ones we wear, but which is not emblazoned with a Lotus emblem. While he might not be a surviving member of the Orokin Tenno, the warframe he's stolen (as well as its ability to neutralize the powers of rival warframes) is a good indication of civil war, and the possibility of other enemy warframes yet to be discovered.