Guiding light to the newly-awakened Tenno, the Lotus is a mysterious companion and mentor who works from an unknown remote location. Her past is rich with storied history, and her knowledge of the known universe, past and present, rivals even the most studious Cephalon intelligence. Her reach is far, her allies are many, but her ultimate intentions are of dubious propriety.
—Lotus Fragment
I am the Lotus. Your friend and guide.
—Lotus
The Lotus is a mysterious figure who guides the Tenno during their operations throughout the Origin System.
Throughout missions, the Lotus will advise the Tenno of incoming enemy units and their awareness of the Tenno presence at the start of a mission, as well as upon an enemy alerting the rest by using a control console. She will also advise the Tenno of heavy units when they are nearby such as the Infested Ancients, CorpusShockwave MOAs, and various heavy Grineer.
Occasionally, during a mission the Lotus will command a Tenno to ignore their original task and will issue a new one. For example, during a Spy mission, the Lotus may order to instead eliminate all enemy units and the objective will become Extermination. Any objects related to the old mission type will become obsolete and no longer needed to complete the mission.
Lore
“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”
The following article/section contains spoilers.
The Lotus acts as the guide to the Tenno in nearly all Missions, Events, Quests and Comics of WARFRAME, making her the most ubiquitous character of the game. For this reason, the lore section of this article will only cover the events where Lotus plays a major role.
It is revealed that Lotus is a Sentient formerly named "Natah", and in some way responsible for the fall of the Orokin Empire. With the Empire in ruins and the Old War over, she refused to complete the final sequence of her mission: destroy the Tenno. She instead chose to become their "mother" after she had become sterile during the crossing to the Origin system, hiding the Tenno in the "second dream" to preserve them and betraying her father Hunhow.
In conversation with Teshin, the Lotus later claims to have destroyed whatever parts of her were Natah. Before the Tomb on Uranus is sealed, Hunhow warns her that the others of its kind have not taken kindly to her betrayal, and will attempt to bring her back into the fold.
Hunhow teams up with the Stalker to destroy the Reservoir, the weakness of the Tenno, so the Lotus forms a truce with Alad V to stop them. It is revealed that the Reservoir is hidden on Lua which the Lotus placed into the Void, shocking Alad V as Lua was previously thought to have been destroyed.
At the Reservoir, the Tenno discovers a figure in a jumpsuit, which the Lotus calls the "Operator". She urges them to return to the Orbiter, but are ambushed by the Shadow Stalker. Before being repelled, Hunhow discovers the figure in the jumpsuit is actually the true Tenno that pilots the Warframes. The Lotus then appears before the Tenno, explaining what they truly are and asks what they remember.
Palladino refers to the Lotus as the Great Sentient Queen and states that she created her personality from the dreams and memories of Tenno, copying Margulis' image, to explain how the Lotus is unable to recall anything related to Rell - a fact that the Lotus expresses in disbelief.
The Operator meets the Lotus on Lua, but before they can speak, Ballas suddenly appears and promises not to abandon "Margulis" again. The Lotus removes her helmet and holds his hand without question, and the pair vanish before the Operator. The Operator, now confused and alone, collects Lotus' helmet. With her absence, Ordis synthesizes her mission directives until they can figure out her whereabouts.
The Operator searches for the now missing Lotus. They hear a voice in their Orbiter's personal quarters, which shows them a vision of Excalibur Umbra being confronted by Ballas, a pack of SentientMimic who are subsequently destroyed by Umbra, and an unusual and unique type of Sentient who kills Umbra.
It is later revealed that the unusual Sentient who vaporizes Umbra is none other than the Lotus herself, now in her true Sentient form, descending from the sky to rescue Ballas after he was fatally wounded by the Operator and Umbra. Shocked and confused, the Operator asks the Lotus what Ballas did to her, but the Lotus replies saying that Ballas did nothing as this is what she is before blasting off into the sky leaving behind a confused and troubled Operator.
Following The Man in The Wall to Lua and falling into the same chamber where the Operator encountered the Lotus and Ballas in the Apostasy Prologue, the Operator enters a portal where they discover Ballas, now Sentient-turned, cursing the Lotus for her deception, by stealing his perfect death. As the Operator overhears his rambling, his eye suddenly glows, which he implies it to be the Lotus's vision. He eventually relinquishes his sword Paracesis, which he calls the "Sentient slayer", to the Tenno in preparation for war with the Sentients. As the Tenno grabs the sword, Ballas abruptly turns to face them and the Lotus's whisper calling for the Tenno can be heard.
The Jovian Concord
Natah formed an unlikely partnership with Alad V, instructing him to create the Amalgams, Grineer/Corpus hybridized with Sentient powers. These new units, along with their combat data against the Tenno, would further serve the Sentients in their preparation for The New War.
During the mission to kill the Ropalolyst, Natah informs the Tenno them that the belief that she spared them as an act of mercy was false: rather that she was forced into doing so by the Orokin, and that they were both "imprisoned in Lua's belly", shedding light on the events of the Apostasy Prologue as a result. Natah also addresses that she "has seen the wall's other face", implying that during her time in her chambers on Lua, that the Void affected her as well with The Man in The Wall. Furthermore, she establishes the Tenno as the evil entity for the "destruction of my people" following the Ropalolyst's defeat, and foreshadows the events to come in The New War.
A flashback of the Old War shows Natah's original defection against the Sentients, and introduces for the first time Natah's own brother: Erra. He is shown attacking a wounded female Dax soldier in a huge cave full of Reservoirs under the surface of Lua, when Natah herself, already turned into the Lotus, intervenes with a group of Tenno (among which there is the Operator) ordering him to stop. Erra shows anger and sadness seeing how the "Makers" have made Natah turn against her own family, blaming them for what happened, and then urges her to choose between her true family and the parasites, the Tenno. She, however, states that she is not Natah but the Lotus, and then proceeds to make the Tenno attack Erra with their Void Beams.
The Operator is then brought back in the present, finding themselves inside of the Sentient mothership. In a situation similar to Chimera Prologue, the operator assists to a dialogue between Natah, now returned to her original Sentient form, and Erra himself, who has apparently taken the lead of the Sentient army and keeps the Sentient-turned Ballas on a leash. It is shown how Natah is suffering from memory lapses, still believing the Orokin to be alive and to be during the Old War. Erra makes Ballas confirm that the Orokin are indeed dead, the "bios" (presumably Grineer/Corpus) are divided and only the Tenno remain a threat. Natah identifies the Tenno as the enemy and blames Ballas for creating them in order to face the Sentients. Erra however, points out how Natah now has "something our people never had before" and to be "stained by their wickedness". Natah reveals to be aware that the Operator is listening to their conversation, but both Sentients show not to be concerned by it. Erra then asks Natah to "sing" for all Sentients, calling them home and Natah proceeds to do so, calling reinforcements for the upcoming New War.
Trivia
The Lotus is voiced by Rebecca Ford, the Community Manager of Digital Extremes.
Earlier builds of Warframe implied that The Lotus was an organization rather than an individual;
The voice often referred to as the Lotus would say, "Good work Tenno, the Lotus will be pleased." at the end of some missions, hinting that the Lotus may be an organization rather than a single entity. This has been changed to "I am pleased", stating the Lotus is in fact the speaker herself.
Furthermore, the Natah quest confirms her being an individual.
In Update 10.6 (2013-10-30), the Lotus's profile image changed to resemble a vampire for Halloween, featuring scarlet clothing, pale skin, and a trickle of blood running from her mouth.
In earlier versions, the Lotus seemed to be human based on her speech patterns, like making informal statements such as: "That's it, now get the hell out of there." These lines have since been revised with a
The Lotus' Halloween Skin.
more formal tone.
Her pronunciation of "Orokin" changed when her voice was overhauled in Update 11.0 (2013-11-20); prior to that she pronounced it as "Or-o-kin" but from Update 11 onwards she now pronounces it as "ORO-kin".
The Lotus has stated that she has crafted the Dex Furis, the Dex Dakra, the Dex Sybaris, and the Dex Nouchali Syandana in Anniversary e-mails sent to players, implying she is capable of engineering feats.
The Lotus' convictions may be religious. This is shown when she contacts you in assassinating Alad V. She says: "Alad V sees the power of the Tenno and thinks he can take it for himself. That power is sacred. His blasphemy must end now." She also refers to the Reservoir as a sacred place.
The fact that she had memories of speaking to Mirage while she fought the Sentients indicates that the Lotus has been present hundreds of years before the current timeline.
Since the Orokin Derelict is about millennia old, the Lotus should be, at least, roughly of the same age.
Oddly, since the Lotus herself is the Sentient, who was originally tasked to infiltrate and ultimately destroy the Orokin, including Tenno, there is no explanation why she sided with Tenno during the Sentient War.
It is later revealed in the Ropalolyst boss fight that she was possibly captured or tricked into being "reprogrammed", and was told that she hesitated to immediately killing the Tenno.
A flashback of the Old War during Erra quest shows how Natah betrayed the Sentients and her brother, Erra, apparently confirming her claims to have been reprogrammed by the Orokins to turn against her own race.
During The Second Dream quest, the Lotus suggested that Hunhow can invade her mind as he has ability to access/interfere with any part of himself, implying that somehow she is still the part of him.
Palladino refers to the Lotus as Great Sentient Queen during Chains of Harrow.
Erra, a Sentient warlord and a brother of Natah, stated that his sister is a "god" and a "queen".
The Lotus is nicknamed Space Mom by Digital Extremes developers and the WARFRAME community, due to the fact that she acts like a surrogate mother to the Tenno. This was later honored in the game with several lines during the Natah quest saying that she is now "the mother".
Changed Lotus transmissions to reduce chatter: added delay to Mobile Defense reminders, Heavy Unit transmissions now have a 2 minute cool-down and can occur at most 3 times per mission.
Fixed enemy warning transmissions playing when spawning turrets & cameras (the Lotus would say “Robots approaching!” when it was just cameras).
Excalibur Umbra being confronted by Ballas, a pack of Sentient Mimic who are subsequently destroyed by Umbra, and an unusual and unique type of Sentient who kills Umbra.
Paracesis, which he calls the "Sentient slayer", to the Tenno in preparation for war with the Sentients. As the Tenno grabs the sword, Ballas abruptly turns to face them and the Lotus's whisper calling for the Tenno can be heard.
