While we were able to find solid and legitimate supporting evidence for essentially the whole story as it is written, it comes from a variety of sources and each of those pieces of information were likely written by a number of different people. This article strives to be more than a simple compendium of disaparate lore tidbits. We took in all of the various bits of lore information and documented them in a chronological and readable way to produce the most complete story possible.
There has also been much debate and talk from the developers and Warframe community as to whether or not Dark Sector is canonically part of the Warframe universe. The developers have said it both is and is not. As most of what we know of the lore for Warframe ties perfectly into the Dark Sector story, this article includes some information and references to it and how it relates to Warframe lore.
This page and the story will be updated as the developers, Digital Extremes, release more information.
The Story/History of Warframe
Dark Sector Era
WARNING: This section contains Dark Sector spoilers!
- This section has been intentionally abridged at the request of the Warframe Wiki's administrator. If you would like the full story on Dark Sector, buy and play the game or read its wiki here.
On Earth during the cold war, the United States invented something called the Technocyte virus. It remained unused and largely untested for a number of decades until 'The Agency' sent a submarine with infected aboard it to the Russian island of Lasaria. A supposedly rogue member of The Agency named Robert Mezner, a specialist in 'nanotechnology as it applies to bioenhancement' was sent to Lasaria secretly to test and propagate the virus amongst its citizens.
Another Agency agent named Hayden Tenno was sent to Lasaria to kill Mezner and was quickly attacked by Nemesis, essentially a prototype Warframe made of Technocyte or a similar nanotechnology that looks like a mix between Rhino and Nyx. It was worn by a woman who was working with Mezner. Nemesis infected Hayden with the same modified strain of the Technocyte virus that Mezner used on himself.
At this point, most of the game of Dark Sector plays out. Hayden reacted uniquely to the virus as it only mutated his right arm/shoulder visibly as well as spawning a Glaive from his techno-organic flesh. For other humans and animals, the pain quickly drove them to insanity and they mutated into horrible monsters with techno-organic parts or entire bodies. Hayden's congenital analgesia made him not feel pain, something that was likely the reason the virus did not drive him mad.
At the end of the story, Hayden acquired another prototype Warframe (that uses the same character model as Excalibur), defeated Nemesis and Mezner (who was driven mad by the virus) and survived the traitorous Agency. Even so, the Technocyte virus ended up being released into the world either through Mezner's efforts or intentionally by the Agency.
While the virus itself was not airborn it still spread over the planet Earth and consumed most fauna, either killing creatures or turning them into monsters. Humanity survived and managed to colonize other planets and cosmic entities in our solar system. Hayden Tenno is the only one known to have assimilated and adapted to the Technocyte virus at this time. It is unknown if he had children of his own.
Orokin Era
Flash forward a few thousand years (or potentially more), and the solar system is run by a race called the Orokin. They were either robots/AIs created by humanity, transhumans, or a totally alien race that showed up in our solar system. For a time, the Orokin ruled the solar system and spent a great deal of time building large outposts and experimenting on genetic samples of creatures found on Earth. From this point, we know that a war erupted between the Orokin and 'the Sentients', humans that lived in the solar system. Excalibur's codex information provides some of the most detail on the time period:
The Tenno were unique among the humanoid races in that they possessed the ability to interface with technology due to their ability to assimilate the Technocyte virus. As Hayden Tenno was "the first Tenno" and the first to successfully assimilate the virus, either his lineage or humans genetically modified with similar genes were given title of 'Tenno'. The Orokin created Warframes for the Tenno to use, body armor made from Technocyte material that gave them various abilities and physical enhancements. Excalibur was the first Warframe created during this time, based heavily on the proto-Warframe worn by Hayden Tenno.
From here things get a bit less specific. It is most likely the the Tenno are responsible for the fall of the Orokin via the events known and referred to as the Old War. It is for this reason the Corpus frequently refer to the Tenno as 'the Betrayers', as the Corpus worship the Orokin and the technology they can salvage from them. The Warframes were created for the Tenno for the purpose of fighting the sentients yet according to the Stalker's codex entry (see below), we know they ended up siding with the Sentients against the Orokin.
After the Great War came The Collapse, when humanity split in five major directions. Some of humanity stayed (more or less) the same, populating many of the planets and astral bodies in our solar system. The Tenno went into cryosleep for unknown reasons. The Technocyte virus was either still present from its ancient days on earth or was re-released when the Orokins were defeated as those infected and mutated by it came to be known collectively as the Infested. It is also possible that the Orokin re-released a Technocyte virus similar to the one that originally ravaged earth in an attempt to combat 'The Sentients' during the Old War as the codex entry for the Ether Sword says it was used by Tenno to kill (presumably human) allies that had become infested. Some of the humans took to cloning themselves to create armies and due to gene deterioration caused by the cloning process, they adapted mechanical enhancements and became the Grineer. The Corpus were certainly the most tech-savvy of the humans and became a 'Merchant Cult' that worshiped money and relics from the Old War and Orokin.
Warframe Era
Flash forward a few hundred to a few thousand years. The Corpus control most of the resources, shipping and commerce in the solar system via trade routes known as Solar Rails. The Grineer both fight with the Corpus for power and buy technology from them to support their constantly degrading bodies. The infested spread to a number of different locations on numerous planets. All that is left of the Orokin are towers in a dangerous area of space known as the Orokin Void.
It is now that the game of Warframe takes place. The Tenno are being woken up by a group known as The Lotus and subsequently, other Tenno. Most Tenno acquire or build Warframes and go to work for the Lotus, acting against the other three factions in the solar system. Presumably as a byproduct of the freezing or revival process, the Tenno that are awoken have little to no memory of the past.
The Lotus is an organization that leads and organizes the revived Tenno, mostly through a female entity also known as Lotus. It is possible that The Lotus is/are AI and descendants of or related to the Orokin. The Lotus emblem also adorns most Warframes (such as on top of Excalibur's helmet) meaning the Lotus had to exist during the Orokin era when the Warframes were created.
References and Evidence
Technocyte
The events of the game Dark Sector can be read about on the Dark Sector wiki or learned by playing the game. The developers have stated that Hayden Tenno was 'the first Tenno' and that Excalibur was the first Warframe, based on ancient designs (the Excalibur proto-Warframe from Dark Sector). It is possible that the virus also resides in the Void somehow, though how and to what end is unknown. Technocyte is what afflicts the humans-turned-infested and what enables Tenno to use Warframes. It or a similar substance may also be what Warframes are made of.
Technocyte is a virus that afflicts living tissue and mutates it, often giving it mechanical properties. The extreme pain the transformation causes makes the victims go mad and become mindless killing machines. As of Warframe, it appears that some afflicted entities retain some intelligence as they are capable of communicating with Tenno and possibly other races.
Orokin as Genetic Manipulators
Orokin genetic experimentation was mentioned specifically during Livesteam 11. "When Earth got totally screwed over and the Orokin started using DNA to rebuild different animals that suited them, some of that stuff went wrong..." referring to the creation of the Sand Skate (sting ray/skate) enemies that appear in the Grineer settlement tileset. Their DNA rebuilding and manipulating was possibly responsible for the Tenno, as we are unsure if Hayden Tenno had any offspring and Orokin genetic manipulation/experiments could have included breeding/changing humans to have.
Official lore for the Tenno states that they are descended from a 'mystical' race on earth (Hayden Tenno and humans like him breeding technocyte-adaptable humans). It also states that this was during the Orokin Era, long after a great deal of humans were killed or transformed by Technocyte. In addition, it says specifically that it was the Orokin that created the Warframes and numerous sources in-game and otherwise confirmed that the Tenno are the only ones capable of using the Warframes. The Grineer have tried and the Corpus trade the ones they collect but can not/do not use them with the exception of the rogue Alad V and his Zanuka project to create weapons similar to Warframes. The Tenno, related to Hayden Tenno or his ancestors genetically are the only living creatures adapted to Technocyte and so they are the only creatures that can control the Technocyte-based Warframes.
There is a reference by the Infested boss J3-Golem that the Tenno exist in bodies not entirely unlike the assimilated bodies of the Infested.
J3-Golem to the player.
He will call out to the player, "Why do you destroy us? We are your flesh.", asserting a connection between the virus that afflicts the Infested and the Tenno themselves. This further confirms the notion that both the Tenno and the Infested are both products of the Orokin Era. J3 could also be referring to the Tenno flesh metaphorically, meaning their Warframes. J3-Golem has since been removed from the game but his taunts and quotes can still be heard from Phorid and Lephantis, the other Infested bosses.
The opening message from Councilor Vay Hek regarding the Cicero Crisis also specifically mentions 'Orokin engineered super-weeds' on Earth that make most of the planet uninhabitable due to their penchant for destroying artificial buildings. The Grineer planned to poison the plants so they could better control the planet but were stopped by the Tenno.
Orokin as AI/Robots
They referred to their enemies in the Old War (humans) as 'the Sentients'. This would imply that they themselves are not 'sentient' (or at least not traditionally so) yet they are intelligent enough to create advanced technology and to describe their enemies as sentient. Them being a 'non-sentient' intelligence supporse the notion that they possess artificial intelligence or are an alien race so far removed from what we know as sentient that they would not consider themselves sentient by our definition.
Additionally, the Orokin towers we invade in the Void are filled with hapless Infested, Corpus and Grineer that entered the tower and had a computer chip-like device implanted in them which allows an entity known as the Neural Sentry in each tower to control them and use them to defend the tower and its secrets. The Corrupted are both biological (Grineer and Corpus troops) and mechanical/technological (MOAs), showing advanced knowledge of both neural science and technology. It is unknown if the Orokin Drones are corrupted Shield Ospreys or an original Orokin creation.
The Orokin also have no fear of the Technocyte virus as they experimented with it and possibly creatures infected by it. The only reasonable way they would not fear technocyte, a virus that can afflict living creatures, is if they themselves were not living creatures.
In Livestream 11 the developers also discussed future missions in production that would take place in 'virtual space' in the Orokin mainframes. There you will do battle Tron-style with the artificial intelligence controlling it, presumably the Neural Sentry, meaning the Orokin were at least able to develop incredibly sophisticated AIs.
One lore element that brings this theory into question is the Stalker's codex entry (see below). It states directly that at the end of the Old War, the Tenno beat their victory drums and on the ninth beat, they slew people and blood filled the stadium. Whether they killed actual Orokin, proxy bodies used and created by the Orokin, humans/Tenno that were still loyal to the Orokin or whether the Stalker was using hyperbole is not stated. We know that there are currently humans that worship the the Orokin (the Corpus) and it is entirely possible such loyalists existed during the Great War as well.
The End of the Orokin
The Corpus are described as worshiping the Orokin and their technology in a number of places and they refer to the Tenno as 'the Betrayers' many places in the game. Due to the Warframes being Orokin creations, it stands to reason that the Tenno betrayed the Orokin. We know that the Tenno were created by the Orokin to combat 'the Sentients' (humans) and that in the end, it was they that killed the Orokin. The betrayal would be what ended the Old War (which ended the Orokin Era and the Orokin) and started period of time known as The Collapse.
The Stalker's codex entry further confirms the notion that the Tenno fought with the Sentients against the Orokin:
It is unknown whether all Orokin were killed/destroyed or whether some escaped execution and still exist.
Lotus as an Entity/AI Relation
In Livestream 11 the devs describe a future mission in which the player will escort 'the Lotus' (the entity) which exists inside of a kind of floating robotic drone. The drone and mission are described as you personally escorting 'the Lotus herself' and that she inhabiting the drone puts her in jeopardy.
This would later be the Mobile Defence mission. When players insert their datamass into the target computer terminal, the Lotus would say something to the effect of "You have managed to insert me into their terminal. Defend, while I hack into the Grineer network", suggesting the Lotus to be some kind of program.
The Lotus herself says in game at the end of some missions, "Great work. I am pleased with your performance,", which heavily hints that the Lotus is an entity.
Warframes
Warframes are suits of armor that can be wielded by Tenno and created by the Orokin in order to take advantage of the technocyte-adapted Tenno's ability to interface with technology and enhace their powers. They are made up of 'nanotechnology' according to Grineer engineers and may even be technocyte or a similar material. They have a security system called 'reactive dissolution' that triggers when experimented on to hide the technological secrets from the human races (namely the Corpus and Grineer). Alad V recently (see The Gravidus Dilemma) found some way of manipulating Warframes and experimenting on them without activating their self-destruct mechanisms. His use of Warframe components to create the hybrid Zanuka is the first time any non-Orokin is known to have any success with modifying Orokin Warframes.
Warframes may have been based on the proto-Warframes Excalibur and Nemesis from the Dark Sector Era.
Speculation
Infested Speculation
The game lore specifically mentions that the Infested come from a plague that was remarkably similar to the one from Earth's history, the technocyte outbreak that started at the end of Dark Sector. It is likely that the Infested are the same virus or strain of technocyte that existed on Earth in the ancient days. It is also possible that the Orokin re-released the technocyte virus on the solar system during the Old War in an attempt to stop the Sentients by using infected creatures to their advantage. Another possibility is that after the Old War, the technocyte experiments the Orokin were running managed to spread on their own now that the Orokin were no longer there to control them, eventually creating the Infested.
Orokin reengineering of the technocyte virus from Earth seems very likely as the infested are composed more of flesh than their mostly metallic counterparts in Dark Sector.
Tenno Speculation
We now know that humans still exist in the Warframe universe and that the Tenno are essentially a subspecies of humanity. The human-looking men and women rescued during Warframe's Rescue missions are Tenno without warframes on. As of updated 12, they can also be seen in the cryopods.during defense missions and some mobile defense missions.
Many 'Tenno-made' weapons also bear the Lotus symbol.
Tenno, Orokin and the Lotus
Despite it not exactly being clear what the relationship between these three groups are, evidence in Warframe clearly indicates that they all share some kind of connection. First, we know that the Orokin created the Warframes for the Tenno, as the Tenno are the only ones who can use them. Second, most Warframes contain a Lotus symbol on them. It is possible that the symbols were added after their revival from the cryopods but that seems unlikely as in the Warframe trailer, we get a clear shot of the newly-revived Excalibur's helmet and it has the Lotus symbol on it, meaning it had to have been there since the end of the Orokin era, when the Tenno entered cryostasis. This heavily implies that the Lotus has been around since at least the Orokin era and given that it survived and is closely related to the Tenno, we know that it sided with 'the Sentients' (the humans) in the Old War. Third, we know that the Lotus is interested in reviving and directing the Tenno against the other three factions that control the solar system. It is also worth noting that, in the old tutorial, the player is revived in what looks to be an overrun, possibly Infested Orokin outpost, which Lotus has access to, along with holograms and energy dispensers. While it's not impossible for others to breach Orokin Security (see Sling-stone and Dragon Keys ), there have only been two cases in Warframe where any current entity had any success at all interfacing with Orokin technology (see Zanuka and the Seer).
Sadly, with this being the only solid information we have at the moment, it is difficult to draw any legitimate conclusions about the relationship between the three groups. What seems most likely is that the Lotus was responsible for the Tenno in some way during the Orokin era and that it now attempts to direct them again to, as she puts it, "protect the balance". Lotus transmissions have purported that most actions the Tenno are directed to take are to maintain the balance of power within the solar system but it is impossible to know the Lotus's real motives or plans.
One final thing to note about the Lotus is that her emblem appears in places in Dark Sector. It is so far not known why or how this relates to things in the Warframe Era.
See examples of Warframes with the Lotus symbol here:
.JPG "Mag 1( no Circles).JPG (18 KB)")
.JPG "Rhino 2 (no circles).JPG (15 KB)")
Corpus Speculation
Recently we learned of project Tethra from Frohd Bek during the mission where the Tenno rescue Darvo. In Irish mythology, Tethra was a ruler of the fomorians, a group of godlike beings that was was killed in battle. It is possible that project Tethra is a Grineer offensive using the Fomorian ships or that it is a Corpus plot to strike down the Grineer fomoroians as Frohd Bek described it simply as a "death blow" and did not state to which side.