Talk:Lotus/@comment-24839811-20190608033338/@comment-170.249.153.179-20191221054552

I'm under the impression the Lotus's mask contains an imprint/recreation of Margulis' personality, which Ballas gave to Natah as part of his deal with Hunhow. The latter meant for Natah to use it as a basis for a sleeper agent persona she could use to get behind enemy lines, earn the trust of the Tenno, and turn them against the Orokin, while the former had hoped feeding a Sentient Mimic Queen a data copy of his waifu would override its mind with hers to bring her back, and together they'd overthrow the current Orokin rulership and usurp the empire for themselves.

Unfortunately, the resulting gestalt fulfilled neither of their expectations. Like Natah, she saw the Orokin as a threat and intended to turn the Tenno against them, but unlike Natah she saw no need to see the rest of the Origin System wiped out so long as it did not pose the threat to itself or Tau that the Orokin did. Like Margulis, she had the trust and affection of the Tenno and grew to care for them in turn, but she was not truly Margulis and was not quite as loyal to Ballas as he would have liked. Both sides, however, had the common ground in a desire for children they could not have of their own, which the Tenno became surrogates for.

When Ballas returned to take the Lotus away, he had expected the figure beneath the mask to have become the Margulis he so desired, but it was not to be. The figure was instead the Sentient Queen Natah, and after she had doubtless been restored to a shade of her former glory by his gift of Kuva, she was able to return to her Mother's side and rejoin the fold of the Sentient collective. Meanwhile the Margulis he desired- the Lotus we knew and loved- remained confined within the discarded mask now resting on a pedestal in a Tenno Orbiter's living quarters.

The only question that remains, then, is whether Natah was indeed a prisoner within her own mind and body during her time as the Lotus, helplessly playing host to the shade of Margulis forced upon her by Ballas, or if perhaps this account of events is tainted by the influence of her Mother, unaware of Ballas and Hunhow's deal and unwilling to accept the possibility that her daughter could have willingly gone against her desires, and perhaps is using her abilities as the center of the Sentient collective to project this viewpoint upon her daughter in a manner not unlike what she claims Ballas had done?