An Analysis on Sentients
cuz why not, they’re my favorite bad guy faction cuz they’re so alien and interesting. granted some of the shit we find out sorta demystifies them, but i still like em
so back in the very start, a given Archimedian, which i think is an Orokin term for scientist, named Perintol created a type of terraforming machine, its base form was a black star-shaped entity, no bigger than a hand. it looked rather simple, seamless, and matte. its insides looked gelatinous and glossy. its designed with the ability to change its physical properties on a level microscopic if not molecular. this would be useful because they were to be used to reach and Terraform Tau, the journey to which is described as perilous.
the Terraforming Machines would collectively travel the path, adapting and propogating environment around them as they go, with the specific purpose of not only making the Tau system habitable for the Orokin, or rather, the humans, but they would also build an interstellar rail with which the humans would travel to Tau.
based on the Mag Prime lore, we know that the Terraforming Machines at least finished the interstellar rail. and the Terraforming machines adapted to such an extent that they evolved...and they evolved to such an extent that they literally became sentient, self aware, thinking machines.
and whats especially remarkable is the fact that they are, in some odd form, alive. they went from being dynamic adaptive machines to thinking and living machines, quite comparable to the potential positive outcome of the Geth in Mass Effect 3.
the machinery that makes Sentients function is exactly the same as when they were simple Terraforming machines, the only difference is the forms they take. they are physically diverse and regulated by a unique life force. considering the terminology Hunhow uses, each distinct unit is considered a piece of a full Sentient body. but at the same time, that body is commanded as though the individual units are drones and thus require direction by a host or “regent” of sorts.
every Sentient unit is linked to a regent. and every regent is linked to a singular master regent, which im assuming is the Sentient Mother that Natah mentions. Hunhow is the regent to all that comprises his body, including Natah, who is a regent herself. because of this, he can invade her thoughts. however because of Natah’s own regent status, i dont think her mind can be overriden indirectly, specifically indirectly. then again, it could simply require a powerful regent to perform such a thing.
its not very easy to know all the things a Sentient can possibly do, but one thing they absolutely cannot do is adapt to the properties of the Void. Archimedian Perintol put in this flaw as a safety measure, because he knew that such an adaptive machine could evolve to intelligence, which is something that the Orokin forbade. so no matter how hard they try, the Void would always compromise their structures. but whats interesting about this is that not only is the void poison to Sentients, it also makes them sterile, incapable of further propogating. for beings that can travel the Cephalon Weave(which is the digital network of the Cephalons), this is a very odd flaw to have.
so at some point during their Sentient status, they learned that the Orokin were responsible for the bad state of the Origin System, whatever that be. and they concluded that the Orokin would bring ruin to the Tau System as well, the place that the Sentients call their home. it is unknown if a prior conflict transpired, but either way, the Sentients went to war with the Orokin. its likely that they attacked first. and seeing that they now have to fight, the Sentient regents reconfigured their bodies for war.
speaking of which, thats how Sentients carry out tasks. they reconfigure themselves to be fit for such tasks; a Battalyst cannot do the things a Conculyst can. and there might be constraints to what configurations regents can conjure up. for example, there is yet no evidence suggesting that Hunhow knows how to configure Mimics or Teralysts, not to mention the form of the dead tower-size regent outside the plains. this is not to say that he is incapable of learning.
so the Sentients are at war with the Orokin. they sent their regents through the rail into the Origin System to battle, this unfortunately rendered them sterile. but they continued to slaughter the human forces. then the scales tilted in the favor of the Orokin when they unleashed the Tenno.
as revealed in The Sacrifice, Ballas had been conspiring with Hunhow, who was likely leading the other regents in the war. Hunhow knew about the secret of the Tenno. so he forms a plan to use the Tenno to destroy the Orokin, and then the Tenno. he used one of his offspring, a Mimic specialist named Natah to infiltrate the Orokin ranks, likely with help from Ballas. she is reconfigured not only in form, but identity as well. she becomes the Lotus, guide to the Tenno. she was placed somewhere in Lua.
Hunhow allowed himself and his forces to be destroyed, to give the Orokin a false sense of victory, a sense that the threat was over. considering that he could neither recover nor replace the fragments he lost due to his sterility, this was a very hefty sacrifice, even for them. his remains were sealed in a tomb in the oceans of Uranus. however he only feigned death; his life force was never completely destroyed, and there was enough living mass left of him.
System are either all destroyed or driven out back to Tau. and humanity celebrates. but Lotus, still following her original directive, gets the Tenno to kill off the Orokin for good. she was supposed to then silence the Tenno as well, but i guess her Lotus identity compromised the identity of Natah, and she betrayed her race as a consequence.
so the Lotus recalls the Tenno faction while another regent drops down on Earth to decimate Orokin establishments, resulting in a conflict with Gara and the Unum, from the telling of this story, we the players learn that Sentients are weak to sunlight and radiation, and that kuva can make sterile Sentients fertile.
this regent attempts to consume the kuva of the Unum but Gara sacrifices herself to destroy the regent’s mind. all of its body falls upon the plains, the material properties of which being altered by the terraforming attributes of the pieces.
even though the regent is dead, his life force is still present within the pieces of his body. a given warframe was assigned to stand guard and make sure this life force doesnt arise again, but it overwhelmed the warframe and consumed it, turning it into Revenant. and with Revenant out of the picture, the life force was free to manifest, reanimating a broken Teralyst corpse and a bunch of supporting Vomvalysts. these are ghosts...zombies...shadows of what they once were, and are thus dubbed Eidolons.
one thing that ive noted about the Teralyst variants at least is that, while they are autonamous, they are not actually aware. unlike the Teralysts, the Vomvalysts actually can attack you directly with intent. none of the Teralyst’s attacks are direct, except for homing-based ones. its a brain-dead entity swiping at flies. its able to perform its given functions, but it’s not coordinated at all. it wanders with no specific destination, and it attacks no specific target. its missing its regent. it doesnt know that, but it does feel that something is missing. compare that to the Ropalolyst, who knows what its trying to kill, who knows that it exists to watch over the gas city.
i wonder though, is it possible for one regent to claim the remnants of another. could Hunhow perhaps link up with and become a host to the wandering Eidolons? it would be an interesting idea.
so time passes and the events of the game happen. being that as a Sentient, Hunhow can configure his body parts to whatever is necessary, he forges armor and a sword for the Stalker, not only granting him Sentient abilities but also allowing Hunhow to speak to him via the sword so they can do their tenno murdering together. its implied that Hunhow’s mind is housed in the sword itself, which is peculiar since the Stalker, with Hunhow, was in the void. but also, when the warframe broke the War, Hunhow disappeared for a time.
by Octavia’s Anthem, it’s revealed that he hid within the Cephalon Weave. i find this rather odd; if it is so that his mind was completely separate from his body, then that brings Sentient meta into question. if a regent can move his mind anywhere else, even if it contradicts proximity, then there’s something to the Sentients we just dont know yet, it implies that their links are metaphysical. Hunhow, while being directly in the Weave, used a cephalon to protect his fragments...who were in the friggin Void, the interdimensional hellspace of the story...he was even able to manipulate the Weave such that he made Datalysts. its known that Sentients can control technology, but this is overpowered as hell. the whole linking aspect is one thing, but they can link to Sentients IN THE VOID FROM WARFRAME CYBERSPACE.
we know Hunhow is purged from the Weave but we currently dont know if he’s alive or dead. but Natah, that’s a weird one. she was in Lua, which she had(as Lotus) moved to the Void. we dont know if her chamber had some sort of protective aspect that kept her alive, or if Lua simply had properties that didnt follow the rules. but either way Natah, as Lotus, remained unharmed for some reason.
but more than that, she is a Mimic-based regent. her particular form was such that it could imitate the likeness of humans. now whether or not this was on a molecular level is worthy of debate, but its clear that she had the spitting image of Margulis. that is extremely efficient. what if Natah had the power to assimilate Warframes and Tenno? that would be very scary. she tricked the Tenno, Ballas, and Alad already. what more is she capable of?
well i guess she is capable of turning organic matter into Sentient matter, as evidenced by Ballas’s current state. and not only that, the Sentient part of Ballas obeys Natah’s command, and so she uses Ballas as a watcher and seeing through his eyes. Natah also partnered with Alad V to create the hybrid Amalgams, a possible future for the Sentient race, one that is unburdened by the weakness to the Void. if it isnt clear already, Sentients are dangerous.
and to add to that, the master regent, the Mother that Natah mentions, is a living ship outpost that can consume debris and probably convert it into more Sentient mass. so the Mother is not only a ship, its a factory. one of the things it has built is the Ropalolist. and it was likely through Natah’s knowledge of the Tenno and warframes that it was configured to negate warframe abilities. thats insane. whats even more insane is that the Ropalolist that we fight is only a means for Natah to assess our threat level. there are probably worse things to look forward to in Tau, such as Teralysts that ARENT Eidolons.
so to summarize, Sentients are a mistake. its a shame that the only Sentient that was on our side is now against us. unless we can unite the factions or perhaps even get Man in the Wall to help us, we’re probably fucked when The New War drops.
