Naberus

Naberus

It's Naberus! You... do know what that is, right? The ancient Orokin festival of death, darkness and deviance? The happiest time of the entire year? I've dug out all the old family decorations! Take a look. One of them even tells a story...

—Daughter

Naberus is an Orokin festival that celebrates immortality by dressing up as the dead, as if mocking death. It takes place once a year at night.

Folktale

Whispering Naberus Mobile

Main article: Nights of Naberus

Players can purchase an interactable Whispering Naberus Mobile Orbiter Decoration for 100  Mother Tokens from Daughter during the Nights of Naberus event. After placing the decoration, the Whispering Naberus Mobile has a prompt to "Listen", triggering a cutscene where an ancient folktale is narrated by Grandmother.

Whispering Naberus Mobile Tale ▾▾

Would you like to hear a story for Naberus? One that I told my grandchildren when they were small? Very well!

Long ago, in the Orokin days, a golden people lived in spoiled luxury. If a body wore out, why, they would take a new one as easily as plucking a Maprico. Such was the mystery of the Kuva.

So what became of death and disease? Oh, they were abundant, but not for the Orokin. They were above petty death. Such was their contempt that they decreed a special day on which to make fun of it.

On Naberus, the night of memory, the shining people laughed at death. They dressed in costumes that recalled the old days. Of mortality. Skulls grinned. Hallways guttered with demon-lights. For one night, beauty was banished. Rot and monstrosity held sway.

Now on one very special Naberus, three pretty Orokin were bored, as Orokin so often were. Naberus no longer holds its magic for me, sighed one. Masks and costumes are for children, grumbled another. Why follow the crowd, mused the third? Are we not the very elite of the elite? Haha! Up, my kissingtons, my luscious loves; send for blue Kuva and hot lights; I have a sport that will mend all! And in the corridor, behind a curtain, a solitary, silent girl heard them and said nothing.

Then the three were very wicked, for what do you think they did? Down into the streets, they went, and they caught three poor Ostrons and bore them back to their gilded halls. One, they peeled like a fruit and decked out with glassy splinters, and his naked jaws went chitter-chatter-snap, and it echoed all around. Scarlet footprints he left. Another's limbs they twisted, and wretched his neck, and made a bundle of him, until he scuttled upsy-downsy like a horrid crab, with his sockets all empty and his stretched-out nose snuffling. The third they pulled thin in hand and foot. She walked spindly-wise on long tiptoes like a spider, and her entrails hung delicately down. She whispered, split-tongued and hissing, as she went.

Fine costumes we've made, chortled the three Orokin. Let us now try them on, and visit our friends! What shrieking there will be! Oh! Our names will live forever in the Court, for such a prank as this! Now. The silent girl brought them their blue Kuva, so they could take on these twisted bodies for only a short time before returning to their own. They drank and slept and woke in their three. Horrid. Forms. Off they went, down the stairs, out the door, into the city, into the night of banners and masks and wild hilarity. Chitter-chatter-snap, scuttle-buttle, whispery-hisspery. As you can imagine, there were many screams and laughs. Such cleverness. Such wit!

But in a high room of the tower, the silent girl looked at the faces of the three sleeping Orokin. She went and opened a little ivory door that she was not supposed to know about, and drew forth a flask that she would have been glassed for even looking at. A flask of crimson Kuva. The scarlet seal upon Continuity. Permanent.

And she tipped it. Down three. Cruel. Throats.

With a little laugh, she went skating away, never to return. There were many screams that Naberus night. But when the sun came up, none screamed so loud as the three who found they were trapped in the hideous bodies that they themselves had fashioned.

Forever and ever.

So listen carefully, Tenno, and beware. For you may hear them coming tonight. Whispery-hisspery on long stalking bones. Scuttle-buttle with his eyes all empty. And skinless, dripping-handed, chitter-chatter-snap.

Happy Naberus!

—Grandmother

Disfigured Ostron bodies used as costumes according to Grandmother's story

The Orokin's rituals of Continuity and Kuva allowed them to cheat death by transferring their consciousness out from their old, rotten bodies into younger, healthier ones. Considering death beneath them, the Orokin decreed a day to make fun of it by masquerading as the dead. This day was known as Naberus.

On one eventful Naberus, three Orokin grew bored of the festival. One of them had an idea to reinvigorate their spirits: they kidnapped three Ostrons and mutilated their bodies, and then used Blue Kuva to temporarily transfer their consciousness into these mangled corpses to be used as costumes for the night.

However, a servant girl approached the three Orokin's original unconscious bodies. Taking a flask of Crimson Kuva, the permanent seal of Continuity, she tipped it down their throats. The girl vanished thereafter, and when Naberus ended, none shrieked more loudly and were more terrified than the three Orokin who found themselves permanently trapped in the Ostron corpses.

Dagath's Hollow

This section is transcluded from Dagath/Main § Lore. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.

Dagath's Hollow Tale ▾▾

There once was a Dax cavalarywoman, the lover of an Orokin couple named Corphel and Irilia. What was her name? We do not know, for they never used it. They called her by many pet names, though, for an exotic pet she was to them. Little Sweetness. Tender Petal. Wild Rider. Had a mere Dax been known to be engaging in relations with her betters, she would have been executed on the spot. But the couple's power and influence were such that the affair would never be publicly addressed.

Still they feared to use her name, for names have power. Many gifts they gave her. Fine armor. Rubedo rings. And a horse of her own, on the condition that she never, ever named it. Names were for people, not possessions. So long as it remained a mere nameless thing, she would never love it more than them. But the rider could not bear to deny her friend the simple kindness of a name. So she whispered into its ear: you are Rakhali, freshness-after-rain.

And just as the couple had feared, she came to love the horse so dearly. This was intolerable to them. The horse had to go. An accidental impalement was arranged. But fate played a cruel trick, and both rider and horse were impaled. Corphel and Irilia hastened to her side. Ignoring the dying horse, they fretted over their lover as she coughed blood. Continuity was out of the question. In desperation, they turned to a certain... expert, and pleaded with him to let her live forever. He returned the rider to them, transformed to a warrior of living steel. Her sweet and pretty face looked upon them with a smile that would never fade.

For all their talk of 'forever', they wearied of her immediately. Now that the relationship was no longer taboo, they abandoned it. Parties became awkward when the rider stood vacantly by, useless as an abandoned doll. She had to go, they agreed. So arrangements were made with a master of industry, and the rider - all unknowing - accompanied the couple to a facility. She lay down obediently when instructed, showed no emotion when the restraints clamped her limbs, and made not a sound when the full force of the dissolution beam blazed through her head and out of the back of her steel skull. The couple were satisfied. Their sentimental mistake was dead, and furthermore, the smiling doll's face was erased. Now they could erase it from memory.

I doubt I need to tell you what faceless thing clambered jerkily from the facility's waste disposal heap, in the still of a Naberus night. How she sought for her Dax Nikana, and found only the overseer's whip-blade. Confused, vacant, she wandered. Why was she alone? Where was her loyal Rakhali? She reached deep into despair and memory, and summoned up a ghost-horse to run alongside her on the night winds. Now, at least, she was no longer alone. She groped for other memories, came up with hands overflowing with betrayal. When the morning sun rose on Corphel and Irilia, they were faceless too, and quite still.

After that, she wandered without purpose, and the legends of the hollow rider grew. And so we come to my part in her story. You must understand, dear, that it is terribly bad luck to be out on Naberus with no gift to give a reveler. And yet that was my plight as I stood, my old bones aching, before the dreadful figure on the road, many years ago. 'I have no face,' the figure before me seemed to say, in a whispering voice that spoke in my mind. 'I have no name. Only a need. And you come before me empty-handed this Naberus night?'

'I do have one thing to give, if it pleases, you' I said to her. 'My name. When you ride away, you shall be Dagath. And I shall be only Grandmother.' And that is the story of how I lost my name, and kept my head, though many others have since lost theirs. For with her name came a new purpose. Dagath, you see, means 'the mirror that accuses'. They say that none now can look into the gulf where once her face was, without their own sins rising to accuse them, and a swift, sharp sentence following.

A happy Naberus to you all!

—Grandmother

Dagath's story is told in a Naberus tale narrated by Grandmother. The story cutscene can be accessed in Dagath's Hollow at the shrine located near her resting place.

The Warframe known as Dagath was originally a Dax cavalrywoman, who served an  Orokin couple named Corphel and Irilia, and was secretly their lover. The couple never used the cavalrywoman's original name, instead calling her by pet names, for names have great power. Among other gifts, the couple gave her a horse, on the one condition that she never named it, for she would love the horse more than the couple. Unable to bear the sadness of not giving it a name, the Dax named the horse after all, giving it the name Rakhali, meaning "freshness-after-rain". As the couple's fears came to pass, they arranged for the horse's 'accidental' death. However, the rider was accidentally mortally injured as well. As she coughed up blood, the couple pleaded with Ballas to allow her to live forever. He complied, and after some time, returned the rider to the couple, now a Warframe of living steel, with a smiling face that would never fade.

However, the rider was not the same. Vacant of emotion, she would simply stand idly by, like a nonliving doll, staring at them with her perpetual smile. The couple quickly tired of their lover, and since she was no longer a Dax, their relationship was abandoned. They made a deal with an unknown master of industry, and took the rider to his facility. There, she was secured with restraints, and killed via a disintegration beam to the face, which burned a hole clean through her head.

However, the Warframe survived, and clambered out of the facility's trash heap. Still believing herself to be a Dax, the rider sought for her Nikana, but only found the whip-blade of the facility's overseer. She would remember what her masters had done to her, and with a head full of despair and betrayal, the renegade summoned a ghostly Rakhali to her side. Before the following sunrise, she took revenge on Corphel and Irilia, leaving them as faceless as she was.

On a lonesome Naberus night, wandering without purpose, she later encountered Grandmother, and as per Naberus tradition, demanded a gift. But the old woman had nothing to give but her name. So the Warframe rode away, now named Dagath, meaning "the mirror that accuses". And Grandmother was then only known as Grandmother.

With Dagath's name came her new purpose: she would ride throughout the land, her empty face acting as a mirror to show others their sins – and always ready to deliver the sentence thereafter.

Wild Hunt Totem

Main article: Nights of Naberus

Players can purchase an interactable Wild Hunt Totem Orbiter Decoration for 100  Mother Tokens from Daughter during the Nights of Naberus event. After placing the decoration, the Whispering Naberus Mobile has a prompt to "Listen", triggering a cutscene where an ancient folktale is narrated by Grandmother.

Wild Hunt Totem ▾▾

Fear. Such a delightful word. It teaches us to beware the dark and all the things within it that go snippity-snap, eager to rend your innards from your belly, to stuff their own hungry guts. Ooh! This puts me in mind of one of my favorite tales. For there is one legend older than all the rest, one that, as civility beat back the wild, as centuries turned into millenia, has evolved along with us. The fear of fangs, of shadows, of teeth that flash in the dark. The story of a wolf waiting in the shadows - ready to rip out our throats.

It was on one fateful Naberus night that a hapless Grineer soldier discovered that one should not wander off into the deep woods alone... for alone, you may not be. A howl split the darkness that sent a shiver down the spine. Though all the horrors of war that this Grineer had seen in all his years... there was something about the sound. It tapped into the very thing that is born as we are born, sputtering and mewling into this uncaring world. Fear.

He was alone. He was being hunted. And he. Was. Afraid. Into the night the Grineer soldier ran, over stump and through darkened glade. With the sound of the beast growing closer, louder, howling, jaw slather-snapping - A misplaced foot, an ill-timed step, and the ground came rushing up to meet him. Rolling onto his back he sought to defend himself, at last catching sight of his pursuer.

Primal terror had come for him. A twisted shape, bulbous, stinking, fetid... jaws drooling with ooze and ire - an infected kubrodon. Lifting his marelok, his shaking hand took aim. Bang! A single shot killed the beast dead. He laughed at his own foolishness! He, a mighty soldier, afraid of a single sad and infested kubrodon!

Hubris - my dear Tenno - is responsible for more tragedy than this world than any other inclination we may have. Remember that, and someday it may save you. For notice he did not that the slain beast's family had encircled him. The creatures descended, sinking teeth into flesh, peeling sinew from bone, spreading their infested blood into him. How he screamed, fighting off the monsters as best he could. Fists pounded into fur as he fought like the beasts around him. It was all he had left. One heartbeat would be all that one could spare him from the grave.

In the end, he survived. Torn and shredded, bleeding and bitten, but alive. He thought that his arduous saga had come to an end. Until he heard that dreadful howl once more. Though... this time? ...It came from him. Flesh twisting, bones snapping, the noises that left his agonized form were bestial. Wild. Feral. Soon, it was he who stalked the night. It was he who tasted blood upon his fangs. It was he who inspired the fear of the hunt.

Oh Fret not, though, dearheart - for even the hunters can be hunted. The beast can be felled, and trophies can be made of those who were brought low. But mark me, Tenno. For perhaps, this Naberus night, when you think yourself the pinnacle of the hunt... You had best be wary of the eyes peering at you from the dark. Lest you be next.

Happy Naberus...

—Grandmother

On one lonesome Naberus, a Grineer found himself lost in the deep woods alone. Overcome by fear from a piercing howl, the Grineer was hunted by a ferocious monster. Upon catching sight of the creature - an Infested Kubrodon - the Grineer dispatched it with a single shot from his  Marelok.

As the Grineer indulged in his hubris, he realized too late that he was surrounded by the Kubrodon's pack, who proceeded to tore into him. The Grineer fought back like the beasts around him.

Ultimately, the Grineer miraculously survived the encounter, only to let out the same piercing howl the Kubrodons had made. Having turned feral, the hunted had become the hunter and continued to inspire fear.

Naberus Treats

This section is transcluded from Nights of Naberus § Naberus Treats. To change it, please edit the transcluded page.

Daughter sells Naberus Treats in exchange for  Mother Tokens during Nights of Naberus.

Naberus Ephemera
(45  Mother Token)

 Gram Day of the Dead Skin
(90  Mother Token)

 Basmu Day of the Dead Skin
(90  Mother Token)

 Basmu Blueprint
(125  Mother Token)

 Ceti Lacera Blueprint
(125  Mother Token)

Ballroom Simulacrum
(55  Mother Token)

Stinkeye Naberus Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Rotting Naberus Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Grapeskull Naberus Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Hallow's Eve Color Palette
(125  Mother Token)

Voidrig Day of the Dead Skin
(100  Mother Token)

Grim Grin Naberus Sigil
(5  Mother Token)

Noggle Statue - Stalker
(25  Mother Token)

Whispering Naberus Mobile
(100  Mother Token)

Spinneret Ephemera
(150  Mother Token)

Nyctalus Ephemera
(200  Mother Token)

 Sheev Blueprint
(125  Mother Token)

Revenant Vania Helmet Blueprint
(25  Mother Token)

Keratose Sugatra
(35  Mother Token)

Revenant In Action Glyph
(25  Mother Token)

Haunted Interior Decorations
(100  Mother Token)

Jack o'Naut Statue
(25  Mother Token)

 Sheev Hilt
(25  Mother Token)

 Sheev Blade
(25  Mother Token)

 Sheev Heatsink
(25  Mother Token)

 Gammacor Day of the Dead Skin
(90  Mother Token)

Lua Nights Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Frightening Flock Emblem
(5  Mother Token)

Taunting Tamm Emblem
(5  Mother Token)

Hounding Kubrow Sigil
(5  Mother Token)

Somber Stalker Sigil
(5  Mother Token)

Arlo's Flame Decoration
(40  Mother Token)

Noggle Statue - Arlo
(25  Mother Token)

Noggle Statue - Male Devotee
(25  Mother Token)

Noggle Statue - Female Devotee
(25  Mother Token)

 Vile Discharge
(50  Mother Token)

 Sentient Surge
(50  Mother Token)

Dagath Emblem
(5  Mother Token)

Dagath Grins Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Dagath Accuser Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Daughter Naberus Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Harrow Conjuring Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

Xaku Spellcast Glyph
(20  Mother Token)

 Ignis Day of the Dead Skin
(90  Mother Token)

Wild Hunt Totem
(100  Mother Token)

Plague Akwin Blueprint
(75  Mother Token)

Plague Keewar Blueprint
(75  Mother Token)

Plague Bokwin Blueprint
(25  Mother Token)

Plague Kripath Blueprint
(25  Mother Token)

 Exodia Contagion
(50  Mother Token)

 Exodia Epidemic
(50  Mother Token)

• To buy all event-exclusive (or at the very least time-exclusive) items at least once, players need 1,950 Mother Tokens.

The Whispering Naberus Mobile and Wild Hunt Totems are Orbiter Decoration that, once placed, can be interacted with to "Listen" to a Naberus Folktale narrated by Grandmother.

Media

Whispering Naberus Mobile
Handcrafted by Grandmother, this macabre ornament tells a special story for Naberus Night. Get comfortable and listen...

Naberus Armor
Strike fear into the hearts of your enemies by cladding your Warframe in this ancient battle attire. (Time-limited Halloween armor)

Warframe Nights of Naberus Trailer

Warframe Nights of Naberus Grandmother Story and Cutscene

Trivia

• Naberus (Naberius) is the name of a demon mentioned in demonologist Johann Weyer's works.