Ballas

Ballas was​ an Orokin Executor prior to the fall of the Orokin Empire. Suggested to be the lover of Margulis, whom he attempted to convince to destroy the Tenno for her own safety, an act which ultimately proved futile. He is also believed to be the Orokin primarily responsible for the development of Transference and the creation of the Warframes.

Lore
Dialogue during The Second Dream states that Ballas held the rank of Executor, and was implied to be romantically involved with Margulis. Once he discovers that Margulis was protecting the survivors of the Zariman Ten Zero (against the wishes of the Orokin), Ballas tries to convince Margulis to kill them instead, fearing that her actions would result in her execution. Margulis refuses to kill them, and is ultimately executed for her actions, much to Ballas' woe. Ballas would continue Margulis' work on Transference to develop the Warframes.

The Detron Crewman's Synthesis imprint also suggests that Ballas was involved with the creation of what would become the Sentients, a rather ironic action given that the Tenno would be created and deployed to fight the Sentients when the latter turned on the Orokin.

Fragments recovered throughout the system also reveal Ballas' involvement in the creation of Cephalon Ordis, who he created from the mind of a mercenary warrior named Ordan Karris, bound to servitude with modified memories as punishment for the latter's attempt at killing him.

Much like Corrupted Vor, who proclaims that he is "energy", an immortal being incapable of death, Ballas also apparently shares this same attribute, being supposedly undying as elaborated in the Fragments. This leads to the possibility that Ballas' immortality may be linked to an existing Void Key similar to Vor's Janus Key. As of The War Within, it's also quite possible that the immortality suggested is that of the process of Continuity; the transference of an Orokin mind into a new body.

During The Second Dream

 * "...What they need, Margulis, is to be destroyed! They're devils from that hell, not human anymore."
 * BallasSecDre1.ogg


 * "How can you defend these devils, Margulis, after what they've done to you?!"
 * BallasSecDre2.ogg


 * "Hush, my wilted love. I cannot protect you. Tomorrow you must renounce before the seven..."
 * BallasSecDre3.ogg


 * "Seven hands raised! For your apostasy, the judgement is... death. Margulis, why?"
 * BallasSecDre4.ogg


 * "...it's about the other rejects we consigned to Lua a few years ago. They're calling it... Transference."
 * BallasSecDre5.ogg


 * "...I know we are desperate, Executor, but these aren't Dax soldiers. These are golems possessed by devil minds."
 * BallasSecDre6.ogg

During the Saryn Prime Trailer

 * "Margulis, from your winter ashes, there has sprung a field of flowers. Conceived by me, germinated for deadly purpose. You used to dream of old Earth, didn't you? Bathed in gold and solemn blue. I intend to reclaim it now, from the spores, and the ruin. It came to me like a proverb: fight poison with poison.


 * Cure this sick horde with the greatest of plagues. I will call her... Saryn."
 * BallasSarynPrime.ogg

During the Vauban Prime Trailer

 * "Lust was my sin. But greed is the blight that weakens our steel. These industrialists have gorged on the harvest of our long war. Their mind drones; Their mechanizations, toil in foundries remote. For what purpose? We must set watch upon them. Baiting our snares with the worms of profit.


 * Those kneeling at the altar of commerce will be returned... to the Void.


 * For your consideration... Vauban."
 * BallasVaubanPrime.ogg

During the Nekros Prime Trailer

 * "Fear is a weed, snaking in the dark. It vines within the mind, corrupting it. It germinates within tribes... dividing them. Your graces, we who are beyond death, have forgotten the simple power of fear. Let us now remember.


 * You will find no greater power... than the simple thought of your own name... inscribed upon a grave.


 * Our harbinger. Our terror... Nekros."
 * BallasNekrosPrime.ogg

During the Banshee Prime Trailer

 * "These like-faced savages, these earth-worn mules, a vast violent ocean at our command. Yet they wither. Mired in massed steel and flesh, casting these hordes from gene molds and flock minds, we inspire nothing. Our demons of void womb must be different. Unusual. Singular. Crafted without caste, wrought of the finest ore, slender and queer.


 * Sight without eye. Wrath without sound.


 * Not a soldier, but a myth. Not a warrior... a spirit... Banshee."
 * BallasBansheePrime.ogg

During the Valkyr Prime Trailer

 * "Our long deathless winter has left us numb. Our wasted animal within, ugly and gaunt, hibernates beneath our shimmering beauty. Why do these Warframes stir us so? They burn with our lost desires, lost instincts. Tenno tamed, but only just. Cast and hunted as game. Trapped and tortured, yet they remain... animals. 


 * Less than their human seed, gnawing their limbs from the snare, devouring a banquet of suffering, obese with heat and acid... and rage.


 * That is why they will destroy us."
 * BallasValkyrPrime.ogg

During the Oberon Prime Trailer

 * "Greed and denial will seduce any destruction... even our own. We're blind to future consequence... casting our debts on those to come. But what if now, the Gray Mother sought revenge?


 * A brutal thorn... piercing the gushing ulcers of waste and industry.


 * A new green, sown upon sanguine ground. Fertilized with the the blood and bone of its defilers.
 * Oberon."
 * BallasOberonPrime.ogg

During the Umbra Teaser

 * "If you could trade, would you? Surely.


 * But all miracles require sacrifice.


 * For their life: yours."
 * BallasUmbraSacrifice.ogg

Trivia

 * So far, Ballas has been the narrator of the newest line of Prime introduction videos/trailers.
 * In Saryn Prime's introduction video, his dialogue indicates that he developed Saryn as a means to fight the Infestation.
 * In the Vauban Prime trailer, it is indicated Vauban was created to fight the Corpus. The narration also implies that the Corpus were active during Orokin times.
 * In Nekros Prime's intro video, Ballas seems to talk towards the Orokin as he talks about "Your graces, we who are beyond death, have forgotten the simple power of fear."
 * In the video for Banshee Prime, it is indicated that these Prime Warframes, if not Warframes in general, were made to create a set of units who are much more unique and capable than the mass-produced and decrepit Grineer.
 * In the Valkyr Prime's intro video, Ballas mourns the loss of animalistic aspects the Orokin tossed away for their immortality and beauty. Because of this, he warns that the Warframes themselves are to be feared even though they are Tenno controlled. That they're merely biding their time as they await to strike at their Tenno and Orokin masters.
 * Thus far, this is the only trailer to not mention the name of the Warframe being showcased.
 * In Oberon Prime's preview video, Ballas talks about the errors of greed, as the greedy do not think of the consequences, evident with the Grineer who often plunder the forests of Earth. Thus, Ballas talks of Oberon as the avenger of the forest, the one who will place judgement on the Grineer who have contaminated the greenery for too long. And through the blood of these defilers will the forest grow stronger.
 * In the teaser, The Sacrifice, Ballas mentions a trade of life for life, likely hinting at the nature of what an Umbra warframe is and how it functions.