Sentient



"The Sentients had won. They had turned our weapons, our technology, against us. The more advanced we became, the greater our losses."

- Orokin 'Warframe' Archive (from Excalibur Codex)


 * Not to be confused with Sentinels.

The Sentients are an artificial race from the Tau System that were the chief enemies of the Orokin during the Old War. Originally suspected to be a truly alien race (whereas the Orokin, Grineer, Corpus and Tenno all seem to be human or trans-human variations originating from Earth), memory imprints revealed by Cephalon Simaris seem to indicate they were originally created as terraforming drones bound for the Tau System. For this purpose, and against the misgivings of certain Orokin Executors, they were gifted with an extreme degree of adaptability and resilience, bordering on true self-determination. As the name Sentient suggests, they inadvertently gained Sentience. Coupled with their own innate abilities, they proved to be a formidable threat for the Orokin Empire.

History


The Detron Crewman's memory imprint seems to suggest that the Sentients were originally developed as terraforming tools bound for the Tau system. The Orokin crafted them with the ability to adapt to any sort of damage that they would encounter as well as the ability to replicate from damaged components, however the Void was "poison" to them, later revealed to interfere with their adaptation and replication. Theoretically, this would have left them stranded in the Tau system once they had finished their purpose.

However, the sentience they had gained also caused them to realize that their creators would lay waste to the Tau system as they did with Earth, and thus they returned to the Origin system to wage war with the Orokin. With their advanced adaptability they were taking over the most sophisticated Orokin technology, and gradually gaining powerful resistances even to the most advanced of Orokin weaponry. In desperation the Orokin utilized the survivors of the Zariman Ten-Zero incident, to whom the Void had gifted immense power, to fight back against the Sentient threat. They were trained in the old ways of battle and given conduits that could withstand, channel and amplify their power were created. With the use of the Tenno, the Orokin managed to turn the tide of battle.

However, the Orokin were betrayed by Ballas, who had grown vengeful over the death of his beloved Margulis. Using information provided to him by Ballas, Hunhow created the sentient Natah. Using her human appearance, Natah would serve as mole within the Origin System with the intention of destroying the Empire from within and exterminating every last one of the Tenno.

Natah completed Hunhow's main objective but he could not exterminate the Tenno. Instead, Natah's Margulis personality awakened and she chose to adopt them as her own children as her human predecessor did before. She hid the Reservoir in the Void (the Tenno's only weak point), keeping it safe from the retaliation of the Sentient. Denying her old identity, Natah took the name of the flower most beloved by Margulis, the Lotus and became the Tenno's custodian.

Although the majority of Sentient forces were driven back in what is now called the Old War, the Glass Shards encountered during Saya's Vigil tell of one massive Sentient that had managed to land on Earth. This powerful Sentient laid waste to all but one of the cities and Towers: the Tower of the Unum. The tower's defenses held firm with the help of its people and Gara, who stayed to help defend the tower while other Tenno had scattered. The Sentient, with its power waxing and waning with the dusk and dawn, would besiege the Unum's Tower by nightfall and retreat by morning. Gara would search for the Sentient's resting place during the daylight as the Unum had forbidden her from fighting the Sentient when it was at the height of its power. To aid Gara's search, the Unum gave her refined Temple Kuva to her followers, and instructed them to feed it to the local wildlife, connecting their consciousnesses to her own and allowing the Unum to discover the Sentient's refuge as the animals roamed.

The Unum's plan had unintended consequences however, as when the Sentient captured one of the infused animals for study, it discovered that Kuva could restore its lost ability to replicate. Emboldened by the hope of rebirth, it escalated its nightly attacks as a result. As the Sentient besieged the Unum, Gara chose to confront the threat, carrying a bomb to its core and falling in battle. As the vile Sentient descended upon the mortally wounded Gara, the bomb detonated, devastating the Sentient in the process and ending its threat on the Unum once and for all.

As testament of this final, climactic battle, the Sentient's fossilized wreckage is littered across the Plains of Eidolon, a peculiar landscape with potent and unique resources. The being's dark power still stains the ground, waxing with the fall of darkness and waning at the crack of dawn, altering the environment each night as the Eidolons, its now-mindless fragments, wander the land in an endless search for completeness.

Enemies

 * -|Oculyst=


 * -|Battalyst=


 * -|Conculyst=


 * -|Mimic=


 * -|Vomvalyst=


 * -|Teralyst=


 * -|Gantulyst=


 * -|Hydrolyst=

Trivia

 * Although the Sentients were mentioned occasionally in earlier builds of the game, it wasn't until  where more detailed information about them was revealed.
 * While it's never specified which Tau system that the Sentients were destined to go, the most likely candidate would be the Tau Ceti system, as it is a major candidate for extraterrestrial life to develop and possibly thrive, making it a reasonable choice for colonization.
 * One of the earlier Sentinel Cosmetics is called the "Hunhow Sentinel Mask" and not only does it share Hunhow's name, but its overall design is similar to the faces of the Battalyst and the Conculyst. It remains to be seen if this was a deliberate piece of foreshadowing however.
 * Hunhow refers to the Sentient enemies as his "Fragments", implying they, like the sword War, used to be part of Hunhow himself.
 * Update 22 released the new Sentient type of Eidolons, which consists of the Vomvalysts and the Teralysts.

Consciente