The Shadowgrapher theory: who's Follie and what does Nitokh has to do with the "therapy"? And is it really The Operator who was a subject of these sessions?
In previous post (well.. its tags...) about The Shadowgrapher I've mentioned that I think that Follie is the one whose voice we hear during Follie's Hunt but it seems that I was wrong as the fourth Kozai's letter implies that she herself is not an antagonistic force and was changed (probably warframed) to serve the Orokin in the way this "therapy" requires. There are some voicelines in the Hunt that point to the fact that there were warframes used in these session because I assume that the brushes and ink cannot exactly be "non gentle" and the other two lines may refer to the transference and it's specifics. Most probably the warframe used there is Follie herself as the transference lines mention brush.
So, Follie either was a painter and an art therapist who was turned into warframe to serve specifically as a Tenno's implement during these session or she was a conscious warframe like Dante and was corrupted during the "therapy". Or both. Either way, I assume that her behavior during the Hunt and the lines we hear are the information that remained in her "RAM" with her "hunting" the Tenno as a result of transference disturbance due to the Tenno's trauma and inability to calm her conscience because of that.
But why is Nitokh mentioned? Her images can be found during the mission and there's her statue on current operation's market. She seems to be important for this whole deal
The voice seems to encourage the patient to give in to their negative emotions and it seems like this person is satisfied with the tenno exhibiting cruelty. "Understanding" the meaning of the paintings may refer to finding a way to use the said cruelty.
My theory is that while Margulis held her Tenno project with Ballas as her superviser, Nitokh had her own plans to use the tenno's powers for her own goals. Thus, the voice we hear may belong to the Archimedean who worked with her or Nitokh herself. Which I highly doubt as she was probably too busy bathing in blood to interrogate some kids herself but I think it's worth mentioning as there are multiple lines referring to the authority of the speaker. Also the speaker seems to be not quite professional in some phrases which of course may be explained by the whole mission being a metaphor for punitive psychiatry but I think it's interesting. A trained Archimedean, even the one working under Nitokh, probably wouldn't behave like that. Or would.
As for the subject of these session, some lines imply that the tenno in the "therapy" is the specific one. The speaker displays annoyance with having to deal with multiple kids. Also, the one she is referring to can be described as not quite typical. I don't have screenshots for those, but there are lines addressed to the tenno which clearly refer to them stimming, such as chewing on brushes instead of using them, which I'd say is not commonly observed in ~14y.o.'s behavior.
This and the fact that there was a tenno outcasted from the Margulis' programme (and the fact that the player has to complete Chains of Harrow in order to access the mission) leads me to the theory that the tenno going through this therapy is, in fact, Rell. I think that there are some more evidence pointing to that fact but what comes after this paragraph is purely my speculation based on the quest that was released almost 9 years ago.
Who are the Red Veil? Where do they originate from? What we know about them is that they believe in sudden and violent changes, their motto is "no cost is too great, no blood is too precious" which as uh. Quite easily can be associated with Nitokh and her plans for the Empire!
They honor Rell as a religious figure, but they are quite aware that he is, in some way, piloting Harrow, which is not quite common among the general public of The Origin System, especially considering that Rell most probably been occupying Harrow from before The Collapse and the fact that Tenno and Warframes were separate beings was kept secret. Also, Rell's and the Red Veil's temple is located in the Orokin Derelict tileset, and considering that his Harrow had to be chained up there, I assume that the temple itself was there during the Empire Era which is strange.
Which leads me to the theory that the Red Veil are descendants of Nitokh's servants, and her personal urge to rule the system was collectively transformed into the Red Veil's desire to cleanse the system from corruption. This game's timeline is quite messy so all these facts can be just a coincidence, but I really wanted to share this thought I had.
Speaking of Warframe's writing, I think it tends to expand on some of its plot points like it was with Natah whose decision to take the form of the Lotus and side with the tenno turned out to partially be the result of Ballas messing with her digital brains, so it's quite possible that we will hear more about Rell in the future considering that he's mentioned in the Duviri fragments and The Devil's Triad KIMs. These seem like some kind of teaser to me
