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Colonies of the Origin System
Even though the Grineer and Corpus rule the majority of the Origin System, there are still independent colonies of humans living throughout the system. Small and usually defenseless, the colonists must rely on the Syndicates or the Tenno for protection should the Grineer or the Corpus decide the colonies have something they want. Colonies in general
- Badass Normal: Anyone that can fight alongside Tenno in the frighteningly hostile Origin System would have to be this.
- Hufflepuff House: Colonies were this for most of the game's life, with many players not even knowing that there were independent humans between the Corpus and Grineer factions during the Gradivus Dilemma event.
- Schizo Tech: Colonists deeply vary in tech level across the system. The Ostrons and Sand People live a somewhat primitive existence in arid areas, with the former having access to the mind-bogglingly advanced technology of the Orokin while still using melee weapons and hot air balloons. Meanwhile, the Solaris people are posthumans who live in disposable Cyborg bodies doing manual labor.
- Word of God: The official position of DE is that there are relatively advanced colonies that exist in moderate comfort all over the system, but they're safer without Tenno interacting with them.
Sand People
Sand People
"Hmph, oh my. You can feel the filth and grit in every breath. This desolate rock is the former colony of the backward-thinking "Sky Worshipers". Their stories are worth about as much as the sand around you: nothing. The Grineer took "pity" on their miserable existence years ago, returning this so-called civilization to the sand."
—Baro Ki'Teer
The Sand People were a group living on Mars* who worshipped Inaros as their protector; unfortunately, he eventually disappeared, and they were wiped out by the Grineer.
- Guardian Entity: Inaros is, ultimately, their only means of protection. He prevented the Orokin from abducting their children. He created a sandstorm to kill the Infestation. When he fell in battle, they were left defenseless, and the Grineer slaughtered them all.
- Hope Springs Eternal: Even though their protector is gone, they still hope for survival. It's unsuccessful.
- Sole Survivor: The Grineer killed all of them. For living space. They have only one survivor: Baro Ki'teer.
The Storyteller
"Hush, my little dune. You don't need to be scared. There, there, that's right, shake out the sand, but remember, not all of it, and I'll tell you the story."
A mysterious woman who tells the story of Inaros to her child.
- Good Parents: Dialogue from her as well as Baro indicates that she was nothing but loving and kind to her child.
- Missing Mom: She's Baro Ki'Teer's mother, and long dead by the time you show up.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: How she's able to manifest as The Voice is unexplained throughout the quest, though it's hinted that Inaros had some hand in it.
- The Voice: Never makes an appearance in person since she's dead, only appearing as a voice narrating the story of Inaros to her son.
- Wham Line: "Don't make a sound, Baro." That line alone reveals who her son is, and why Baro Ki'Teer hates the Sand People so much.
Mycona
Mycona
A group of people immune to the Infested technocyte virus who make their living harvesting and selling Infested tissue. Their immunity comes from their Triuna. They have a good association with the Perrin Sequence, and Ergo Glast calls upon the Tenno to help the colony when Nef Anyo kidnaps their children and steals their Triuna.
- Back from the Brink: At the beginning of The Glast Gambit, they stand close to being wiped out: their children are being kidnapped, the doors that protect their colony were left wide open, and the Triuna which protects them is completely gone, leaving only their Hunters to protect them. Ultimately, the Tenno return their children and restore their defenses. However, they may have their lives permanently changed if the Tenno decides to cure Neewa, leaving them unsafe from the Infestation and destroying their economy.
- Barrier Maiden: The Triuna is a child embued with a prick on the finger, theorized to be a weakened strain of the technocyte virus, that renders the Infested docile and fearful of the Myconians. This comes with a heavily shortened lifespan, to the point that the Triuna mostly die as children. The tradition can either be upheld by sending Neewa back, cut short by curing Neewa, or continued for the rest of Neewa's lifespan but ended once she's gone if she is given the choice.
- Blessed with Suck: They have protection from the Infestation due to the Triuna, and the aid of the Perrin Sequence. These are the reasons that Nef Anyo destroys their defenses and kidnaps their children. This is also what the Triuna does. It grants the colony protection from the Infestation due to their fear of hybrids, but drastically reduces their life span. However, the bearers consider it an honor.
- Half-Human Hybrid: The Triuna. Certain children of the Myconians gets a finger prick infection of Infestation that grows quasi-infestation. They're still human beside having a few tell-tale signs that they're hosts to the infestation, but it's enough to set off warning signs to the Infested and they avoid the Triuna altogether. Ergo Glast theorizes the Myconians have either an ancestral resistance to the infestation or that they're propagating a neutered strain of the technocyte virus.
- Sadistic Choice: Subject of one at the end of the Glast Gambit and the Tenno finally gets Neewa back from Nef. While each one works out for Neewa in the end, it does change the ultimate fate of Mycona. Of the three choices:
- Neewa is cured. Her life isn't on a timer anymore, but Mycona will need to swiftly adapt, as their main traditions and chief source of income is gone, though they are now under the Lotus's protection. Neewa is currently separated from her people as she recovers from her cure, though it's not entirely clear if she'll ever be going back. Glast had disagreed with this course of action, since it involved change brought upon by the Myconians by a powerful outsider who was convinced that they knew better. The subtext implied was that though their motives were much more selfless, the Tenno weren't much better than the Corpus in this regard.
- Neewa is sent back to her people with no treatment. The Myconians continue on as before, their economy and traditions intact, though it's not clear if this is the best fate for them. Neewa remains the Triuna and her lifespan is much shorter.
- Allow Neewa to decide. Neewa is given the freedom to choose for her own fate and her own people. She refuses treatment, but decides that she will be the last Triuna, and that it's time for the Mycona to develop new traditions. She's hailed as wise and a hero by her people.
Mycona Hunters
The Mycona's group of hunters, ordinary people who venture into the infested parts of the Corpus Ship they live on for materials they trade with other colonies as well as the Perrin Sequence.
- Badass Normal: They're wholly capable of fighting their way through waves of Infested and surviving, and they don't have Void Powers or Warframes like the Tenno, nor do they have the advantage of having Neewa's Half-Human Hybrid status.
- Escort Mission: You have to ensure that the Hunters close the doors leading into the infested areas of the ship, which is no easy task since they're buffeted by large groups of Infested while they work the console. You have the advantage of having a few other Hunters giving you firing support unless all but one die, however.
Neewa
A Mycona child kidnapped by Nef Anyo whom Ergo Glast feels is especially important for the Tenno to free, enough to bet his entire fortune on her in the Index.
- Deadpan Snarker: Some of her letters get quite sardonic.
- Defiant Captive: It's hinted at that she doesn't take any crap from Nef Anyo or his Corpus lackeys while she's in their captivity.
- The Dreaded: No human fears her, but the Infested are terrified of her much in the same way that they're scared of Warframes: due to her being partially of Infested origin and yet being completely immune to their control.
- Half-Human Hybrid: She's the Mycona's Triuna, a person who is half-human, half-Infested. It's through her that the Infestation leaves the rest of the colony alone, but her infection means that she has a drastically shortened lifespan.
- Heroic Sacrifice: If given the choice, she does not cure herself, but she still plans on ending the Triuna tradition.
- Horrifying the Horror: Her immunity to the Infestation bred from her Hybridization is one of the few things that truly scares the Infested, since they fear what they cannot control. Only one other entity scares the Infested like this: the Warframes of the Tenno.
- Mark of the Supernatural: One of her eyes is blue, the other is red. This hints at her unusual nature as the Triuna.
- Mirror Character: From the Tenno and their Warframes. Like the Tenno, she's a human gifted with awesome powers through a process that also has awful drawbacksnote , and like the Tenno's Warframes, she's something of Infested origin that the Infestation can't control, which both pisses them off and horrifies them.
- Plucky Girl: She never wavers from being a brave, if snarky, kid while in Nef's captivity, as shown through the messages she relays to the Perrin Sequence (and, by extension, to the Tenno) during her captivity.
- Take a Third Option: Letting her choose what to do about the Triuna has her send back a message that reveals she's ending the tradition after herself. This stops several children having their lives cut short, but also allows the Myconians time to prepare to move on from their Infested harvesting ways, as opposed to curing her and throwing the Myconians into the frying pan. The only downside is that she'll still die in due time.
- Walking Spoiler:A lot of what we know about her is irreconcilably tied to what we know about the Mycona's Triuna, as she and it are one and the same.
Cetus
Cetus in General
Swazdo-lah, surah!
"...From that day forward, it would be known as Cetus: Landless, of no one clade, home to any who are blown as dust on the wind."
—"The Tale of the Woman of the Earth and the Husband of the Sea", as translated by Onkko
An Earth settlement created by the Ostron people, it rests on the beach at the edge of the Eidolon Plains, in the shadow of the Orokin Tower of The Unum. The Unum, the prophetic intelligence of the tower, provides them with protection and directs their harvesting of her tower-body for materials to trade or meat to live off of.
- Aerith and Bob: Saya is a real japanese name, but every other name in Cetus is fictional.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: Cetus' marketplace, which takes up a majority of the settlement itself, is full of not only meat harvested from the nearby Orokin Tower, but also bits and pieces of Orokin Technology that they occasionally find within the Tower itself, odd medicines, and even some consumables that a sales lady has to clarify are legal - but not in all jurisdictions. It's also where Tenno Agents can acquire fishing and mining gear, color palettes for their pets (as well as some more Exotic pets in the form of caged Kuakas and Condrocs), Design-It-Yourself Equipment, and Cool Masks for their Operators, should they so wish.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: They are excellent and accomplished merchants, having possibly been running their market on Earth since even before the Orokin fell, but despite the long time, they have done little to actually expand their territory, and the people themselves are very laid back, especially Konzu (who at one point will comment that he can take an early lunch when the Tenno accepts one of his bounties). A major part of this, however, is justified, since Earth is still a hostile planet and the people do not want to expand their settlement out of the reach of the Unum, which is among the only things protecting the settlement from outside forces until the Tenno come along.
- The Faceless: Every single Ostron child seen wears a mask, including Nakak. She takes it off during Mask of the Revenant, but only while she is your Mission Control. From the cutscenes and various activities and lore, the masks are apparently a sort of respect paid to the Warframes and other ancient warriors who protected Cetus in the past.
- Foil: To the Corpus. Both are tightly-knit groups with a focus on a market economy of trading and bartering (to the point that a good portion of Cetus is dedicated solely to housing market stalls) Cetus is much more community-oriented and willing to help out a stranger, even if there is no immediate benefit, and as a result are generally received more positively by the Origin System as a whole. Contrast this with the Corpus, who are essentially a shining example of what happens when bad people get their hands on capitalism and run it roughshod over the local populace with no consideration for anything but the profit it turns, and whom sees charity as a deadly sin.
- Future Slang: They pepper a few words of their own language into their dialogue. Terms like "Surah" ("friend"), "utz" (Adjective roughly equivalent to "very"), "Swazdo-lah" ("Hello"), and "Doh-ga" ("Hurry") are favorites among traders in the Market.
- Genius Loci: The Unum is an Orokin Tower that has an organic and feminine intelligence. She instructs the Ostrons where to harvest her body so that they have an ever-replenishing supply of food, and also sometimes gives them some of the Lost Technology found within her body to sell. The New War confirms that the Unum is indeed a sapient entity, and she directly aids the Tenno in reaching the final confrontation with Ballas.
- Love Triangle: The one with an amiable resolution occured in the past between Konzu, Saya and Onkko. Both Konzu and Onkko competed for Saya's affection, and while she also thought well of Konzu, in the end she picked Onkko. Despite that, all three managed to keep their friendship afterwards, animosities between them appearing only decades later, after Onkko's death.
- Proud Merchant Race: They've been trading and selling rare and fine goods since before the Orokin fell, if Onkko's translations are any indication.
- Scavenger World: Cetus is a downplayed example — most of the town's external wealth comes from collecting Orokin artifacts within the Unum and selling it to offworlders, and they do have a notably "primitive" aesthetic. But they also make their own cybernetics (mentioned in the description of one of the Nosam Cutters), understand and use spaceships even if they don't build them (seeing how Ostrons can be found on relays and in Fortuna), and at the very least understand how to use radio communications or something similar, since Konzu can contact you during bounties. Since the Unum can disable any technology that could be used to harm it, the low-tech lifestyle of the Ostrons probably isn't forced by necessity, but is an active choice on their part.
- Time Master: Once the Tenno free the Unum from Narmer Control during The New War, she relays them by slowing time so that they can safely board the Murex that Natah has hijacked.
- Truce Zone: Cetus is a no-weapons zone protected by the power and authority of the Unum. Anyone approaching the settlement with hostile intentions (such as the Grineer) will find their vehicles, weapons and communications malfunctioning and rendered useless. Corpus trading ships can also be observed coming in and out of the port.
- World of Snark: Every single named Ostron you meet in Cetus has some level of dry wit to them. Not even Nakak, the nicest person you meet in Cetus, is above making a quick, dry quip. The only exception to this is Onkko, who, by the time you meet him, is a member of the mysterious Quills and was apparently The Stoic even before he associated with them.
Konzu
Konzu
"Job board's filling up, offworlder! Help Konzu clear the slate, eh?"
Voiced by: Artie Widgery
"Swazdo-lah, offworlder! Interested in working for me? Gotta prove yourself first. Head out on the Plains and show me what you can do."
Konzu is an elderly Ostron who acts as the chief of Cetus. He offers Bounties to the Tenno, limited-time missions out in the Plains of Eidolon which can be accomplished to earn Ostron Standing, and other rewards as provided in the bounty rewards.
- Cool Old Guy: He's very jovial to the player no matter what their ranking with the Ostron is.
- Mission Control: If there is a mission, quest, or bounty in the Plains of Eidolon, he usually serves as this for that task.
- Patriotic Fervor: It's a little hidden, but it's there. Largely seen in this quote:Konzu: "You know, Konzu doesn't get emotional. But this place? Cetus is more than our home, Tenno. It is the center of our universe. My uncle, he died protecting his. And you, you fought to protect ours. My uncle's voice still echos a warning. But this place? Our voice? Will echo forever. As a welcome. A beacon to anyone who needs a home. Okay, a little emotional, maybe. The Unum chose well when she sent you to us. Dah-dup! Now, get back to work."
- Quest Giver: He functions as this for players looking to complete bounties.
- Secret-Keeper: It is obvious that Konzu knows that Onkko is not only alive but is in fact stays inside Cetus. But he can't tell that to Saya, and always evades her questions no matter how hard she presses him, most likely out of some sort of obligation to Onkko.
Hok
Hok
"I will not be attending your poetry recital. Hok would rather get a plate in his head and collect magnets."
Voiced by: Adin Rudd
"Ah-ha! You desire the Zaw weapons Hok is so famous for! Allow Hok - I am Hok - to sell you blueprints for weapon parts, forge them in your foundry, and then return here, so that Hok may construct a fine weapon for you."
Hok is a middle-aged Ostron blacksmith who runs Hok's Anvil in Cetus. He mainly sells the parts to create Zaws, modular weapons which can be assembled and gilded at his anvil, and Exodia arcanes which can be used to enhance a Zaw even further. He also offers a daily special product to his customers in the form of a randomized, gilded Zaw for a sum of Platinum.
- Bling of War: If you made it to Rank 5 of the Ostron syndicate, an armor set with gold accents will be made available in Hok's shop for 125,000 standing.
- Curse Cut Short: When admonishing Pedlek.
"PEDLEK! Did your mother jump around whilst pregnant?! Those aren't pets, they're carnivorous as fffff... far as I know. Hello there, how may Hok serve?"
- Deadpan Snarker: In a lot of his idle interactions.
"Oof, that last customer? Nice guy, but couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat. What do you need?"
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much to set him off; not even the player- a potential customer- is safe.
- Awesome Ego: He's very sure of himself and his wares; though admittedly, the fact that the Tenno are willing to use his weapons even over more modern tech is a point in his favour.
"[sigh] I am a bright star surrounded by an accretion disk of cretins and ding-dongs."
- Mean Boss: To his apprentice Pedlek; though some of his ire is justified, assuming Hok isn't exaggerating about Pedlek's antics.
- Say My Name: He likes to refer to himself in the third-person.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: Hok is a subdued example. He is not a recluse, has a rather... outspoken personality, and zaws made by him do not possess any real supernatural or high-tech quality. But despite their low-tech status zaws can perform better than even Prime weapons - Hok is just that good of a weaponsmith that he can make better weapons than most of his Orokin precursors did, with only two others in the system (one of whom is a virtually immortal Orokin himself) that can match him.
Old Man Suumbaat
Suumbaat
"The trick to doing the impossible is to get out there and bloody well do it."
Voiced by: ???
"Name's Suumbaat. If you want to draw wealth from the cliff face, then I've got what you need to do it here. Mining tools, scanning gear, ah, that kind of stuff."
Old Man Suumbaat is a late-aged Ostron miner in Cetus. Suumbaat mainly provides Mining tools and the blueprints associated with the minerals and metals mined from the plains, as well as selling some of his refined gems for a small sum of Platinum, whose stock changes daily. He also accepts unrefined gems from the field for a number of Ostron Standing depending on their rarity.
- Grumpy Old Man: Although he provides a mild example, this trait is most evident when the player disengages an interaction from his store without making any purchases.
Fisher Hai-Luk
Hai-Luk
"A bad day fishing's better than a good day working!"
Voiced by: Louise Samuels
"Different fish need different bait. And Fisher Hai-luk is your one stop shop. Swazdo-lah, stranger."
Fisher Hai-Luk is a middle-aged Ostron fisher in Cetus. Hai-Luk mainly provides Fishing tools, baits and utility, as well as the blueprints which the Tenno can use to craft decorative trophies to showcase their catch. She also sells some of her fishing byproducts for a small sum of Platinum, whose stock changes daily. She also provides a fish cutting service to extract their byproducts, which can be used for many other blueprints that the other vendors in Cetus offer.
- Irony: Although it's intended as a humorous sidenote to her personality and role as a fish-tack vendor, there's implication based on some of her commentary that she probably suffers from thalassophobia and/or ichthyophobia - both of which would be pressing obstacles for anyone whose vocation is associated with marine life AND large bodies of water. This might explain why she relegates herself to selling tack in spite of her knowledgeability and enthusiasm for fishing.
- Nice Girl: She (like most of the Ostrons) has a friendly and laid-back demeanour whenever the player interacts with her. She also accepts donations of fish found in the plains in exchange for Ostron Standing, which she uses to supplement food stocks for the local residents.
Master Teasonai
Master Teasonai
"An honor to groom the beasts that serve the Tenno. Master Teasonai is forever at your service."
Voiced by: Emma Martello
"I have lived upon the Eidolon-Moh all my life. Nurturing and culling go hand in hand. Live here long enough, you will understand that also."
Master Teasonai is a local Ostron beastmaster in Cetus, located on the right side of the market, directly across of "Hok's Anvil" which is just across the gate to the Plains of Eidolon. He primarily sells Companion cosmetics which can be used to change how a Tenno's Kavat and Kubrow looks, as well as provide decorative wildlife which can be placed in the Orbiter for plains resources. He also sells Conservation tools used to capture the local fauna alive for preservation at the behest of The Business.
- Foil: Unlike The Business on Venus or The Son on Deimos, Master Teasonai laments the loss of life rather than rage at the player's actions.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Conservation on the Plains remains mechanically identical for the player as Conservation on Orb Vallis or Conservation on Cambion Drift.
- Values Dissonance: Teasonai makes a point he does not fully agree with The Business's conservation methods and sees the wildlife as a hunt.
Nakak
Nakok
"Free advice with or without purchase, surah. I'm here to help!"
Voiced by: Maya Aoki Tuttle
"Ha-hey, friend! You look like a traveler of distinction and taste! Behold! A fine array of masks, curiosities, and masterfully woven carpets; all locally made!"
Nakak is a young saleswoman of "Masks and Oddities" in Cetus. She sells masks in the likeness of various Warframes and the Grineer, and Fosfors, scavenged Grineer flares. Instead of selling items for Standing or Platinum, Nakak trades her wares for resources from the Plains. Nakak offers varied advice, information and anecdotes interspersed into her conversation without asking for anything in return.
- Ambiguous Gender: A player would be forgiven with the mask, name, and general behavior, for not knowing Nakak is female.
- Irony: Despite Nakak mentioning repeatedly that she has rugs for sale, and the game actually having Ostron rugs available as decorations, you can't purchase them from her — they can only be bought in the market using platinum.
- Secret-Keeper: Like Konzu, Nakak is also aware that Onkko is one of the Quills, and openly refers to him by name during the Mask of the Revenant quest.
Saya
Saya
"You always told me I should try following my heart... instead of my head."
Voiced by: ???
Konzu:"And just like old times, Saya's about to do something rash. Tsk, talk to her, eh? "
Saya is an elderly Ostron who lives in the outskirts of Cetus, distraught over the loss of her husband Onkko for five years.
- Demoted to Extra: She has a pretty prominent role in Cetus' first quest and the game's first quest overall. Once it's complete, though, the player will only see her standing besides Konzu when they go to obtain bounties.
- Determinator: Konzu mentions multiple times that "headstrong" and she is prone to doing something "rash". This is evident in your interactions with her, as even though five years have passed, Saya spurs to action at the mere mention that there might be evidence that Onkko is alive.
- The Lost Lenore: Her husband, Onkko, disappeared five years before the start of the game and she never really got over it. Even though she begins a relationship with Konzu, she acknowledges she will always still have some feelings for Onkko.
- Satellite Love Interest: Literally. You only interact with her because of Konzu and after you complete her quest, she is only seen next to Konzu for the rest of the game.
- Second Love: After the events of the Saya's Vigil quest when they mend the rift between them, Saya and Konzu get together. And even if Saya still longs for Onkko, apart from that it seems they are both happy with each other.
Onkko (Spoilers for Saya's Vigil and The War Within)
Quill Onkko Primary
"You were anticipated. Our interaction begins."
Voiced by: ???
"I am Quill Onkko Primary. We have, and shall have a long association, Tenno."
A former Ostron historian and archivist once responsible for lorekeeping, he is now the current representative of The Quills on the Plains of Eidolon and in Cetus.
- Ambiguously Human: One of his lines is "Tenno separating from simple nexus at Quill Onkko Primary", which points to him having become something more than human. And then there's the fact that trying to ground himself in the present to speak of the life he left behind causes him something like actual pain, or at least great frustration.
- Butterfly of Doom: He foresaw that Cetus and its people would be doomed if he didn't fake his death and join The Quills.
- Faking the Dead: He faked his death to join The Quills in order to save his wife Saya, and all of Cetus.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Onkko had to abandon Saya and fake his death to join the Quills because it would prevent some sort of future disaster to Cetus (that would affect everyone, Saya included), resulting in the best possible outcome for them. From his words it is clear that "Cetus's good" and "Saya's good" are equally important in his eyes.
- Multiple-Choice Future: His conversations with the Operator indicate that shortly before his "disappearance", he gained a constant awareness of the outcomes of branching timelines and the events of parallel timelines, with the "Primary" part of his title designating that he's from the core timeline; he's also overheard muttering to himself, implied to be having conversations with his incarnations in other timelines. Given that the Unum the Ostrons build their lives around is stated to be aware of all possible futures, it's unclear whether he has been turned into a Seer himself by the Unum, is being mentally fed this information by it, or something else entirely.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to discuss The Quills' Representative without revealing that Onkko is alive and among their ranks.
Fortuna
Fortuna in General
Stay warm, friend!
This: the song of sons and daughters,
Hide the heart of who we are.
Making peace to build our future,
Strong, united, working 'till we fall.
Hide the heart of who we are.
Making peace to build our future,
Strong, united, working 'till we fall.
—"We All Lift Together"
, the Fortuna's denizens' working song
, the Fortuna's denizens' working songA subterranean Corpus "debt-internment colony" located under the Orb Vallis region on Venus, Fortuna is a settlement made of (primarily) the Solaris people. Enslaved by Nef Anyo and the Corpus, they are forced to work to repay their debts by harvesting coolant for terraforming purposes. The rebels of the Solaris United movement have a strong underground presence here, working to overthrow the Corpus and give their people back their freedom and their future.
- Artful Dodger: The Ventkids, the orphan children of Fortuna who ganged up together after the deaths of their parents. They seem to be cheerful and content with their lives, spending their time racing on K-drives and generally having fun. They also happen to be skilled at sneaking into Corpus facilities to salvage parts for their boards, which proves key to the Tenno getting their hands on a Gravimag to take down the Profit-Taker Orb, so even they do their own part in the resistance effort.
- Artificial Limbs: Solaris people mortgage their body parts to repay their debts. Many of them are seen with crude mechanical replacements for their limbs and even heads.
- An Arm and a Leg: If a Solaris person does not have enough mechanical augmentations, Taxmen repo squad can take their organic parts as well. Apparently, there is a market for that too, according to one of Fortuna's residents, Thursby. Thursby himself initially is one such person with no augmentations. So when Taxmen come after him after you've assisted him, his organic parts are exactly what they take.
- And I Must Scream: "Brain-shelving" is the worst punishment the Corpus can inflict on their Solaris slaves. It involves taking the central processing unit of the affected Solaris from their rig and shelving them, effectively depriving the human mind stored on that unit of any sort of consciousness or sensation for the rest of their lives, or until someone else is willing and able to pay off their debts and buy them a replacement body. Since the Corpus twist the rules to trap the Solaris in inescapable cycles of debt, this can take a Solaris decades of honest work to free a loved one, by which time someone on the brain-shelf can lose all sense of self and all memory of their past. Ticker knows this all too well.
- Brain Uploading: Subverted. Initially it was believed that this was a standard part of cyborg modifications for the Solaris once they enter the workforce, given that all adults have artificial 'heads,' but eventually it is revealed that their original heads are still there. They've just been moved down inside their chests. Explains why they all have thick armor over their torsos.
- Cyborg: Every resident of Fortuna is this. Solaris are heavily augmented to a point that it's genuinely hard to tell if some of them are robots or not while a few seem to have completely natural bodies except for the cybernetic head and a heavy, technological apron of some sort. All Solaris are basically a disembodied head installed into the torso of a transhuman body; each biological bodypart is a minor luxury, and that fact will be used against Solaris that displease Nef.
- The mass-augmentation is also justified due to the location of Fortuna. Solaris agents within the Vallis will comment that the extreme climate of Venus makes organic parts a liability. Manual labor around the canals essentially requires a "rig" just to do the heavy lifting around old Orokin tech — which the Corpus take advantage of, supplying rigs at a price to the Solaris to add to their debts. More debts mean more work to pay them off, more work needs a better rig, and a better rig means more debt...
- Death of Personality: If a Solaris is brain-shelved for long enough, they forget who they were and are, for all intents and purposes, a new person.
- Determined Defeatist: Their song, "We All Lift Together", succinctly summarizes their situation and attitude - they are doomed to be worked to death to try and repay their debts, debts that grow faster than they work them off. They refuse to simply lay down and die, banding together and struggling for as long as they can last, for the sake of their camaraderie, to preserve their humanity and what they believe in, even if they accept that they will die on their feet, drudging till their last moments, and never see freedom. And then there's the fact that they secretly fight back, covering for the guerilla fighters of Solaris United, showing that they are not so defeatist after all.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The people of Solaris started showing up across the Tenno relays during the Relay Restoration event, before Fortuna itself had been made accessible to the Tenno.
- Foil: To Cetus on Earth. Whereas Cetus is handily resisting Grineer occupation amidst an arid natural landscape resembling "high desert" regions, Fortuna is wholly under Corpus control on a frozen environment maintained only by terraforming technology.
- Fate Worse than Death: Bad as they all have it, literally selling off their body parts to pay off debt to Anyo Corp, it's possible for it to get worse by being "brain-shelved" - leaving the mind unit from a "rig" alone, outside a body, with no sensation.
- Future Slang: The Solaris have their own slang used by no one else in the story. For instance, "The business" is "wetworks", while "[giving someone] the business" is equivalent to "give 'em hell". "Taxin' the taxmen" is "stealing from the Corpus". "Mucking" is equivalent to "damn" or "fucking". On the same note, "Mucker" is often an accusative term equivalent to "bastard", but it can also be used affectionately, as Eudico does with Legs, or simply as a substitute for "guy".
- Good Counterpart: To Corpus Crewmen; like Crewmen, they're Slave Mook grunts in the Corpus' corporate machine, but unlike Crewmen take great issue with this and actively support attempts to strike back against their uncaring bosses.
- Ignored Expert: Their engineers told Nef Anyo that the Orokin terraforming tower wasn't ready, and would overheat if turned on. Nef Anyo turned it on, it overheated, and he immediately blamed the Solaris.
- Indentured Servitude: What the Solaris' situation is on paper: they owe a debt to Nef Anyo, and work in Fortuna until they've paid him off until they can own their bodies and their future. In reality, Nef is quite willing to use whatever dirty tricks he can think of to make sure they stay in debt to him, crippling interest rates just being the standard practice. The basic scam is that they need augmentations to survive and work on Venus, and then they need to work harder to pay for those, which requires even more augmentations to keep up, and so on...
- Ironic Name: The colony of "Fortuna" is populated by slaves working non-stop to pay off their debts.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever happened at Deck 12. We don't know the exact details, but this was most likely the Corpus crackdown on Solaris United that saw many people of Fortuna killed, including six of Rude Zuud's sisters and Thursby's parents. The Exploiter Orb fight sheds a little more detail on the crackdown itself: namely, that the crackdown entailed siccing an Orb Mother on the facility as well as flooding the facility itself with Thermia.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Many names of the Fortuna denizens' we have seen so far sound like nicknames they have adopted after they came here - such as Rude Zuud, Boon or The Business.
- Penal Colony: All of the occupants of Fortuna are slaves imprisoned for being in debt to Nef Anyo, and are supposedly working off their debts to him; naturally, Nef has numerous ways of keeping them in debt (including charging a fee for the privilege of laboring to work off their debt), meaning there is no chance of legal freedom. Hence, the existence of Solaris United.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: They seem to be aware the Warframes are remotely-piloted by teenagers without ever disclosing it to the Tenno until the Vox Solaris syndicate can be accessed. Bringing Yareli to the Ventkids' hideout will have Roky comment on the player bringing her even though no one else is around, while reaching rank 5 with Solaris United will have Legs quip about his face in a way that only makes sense if he were to know what the Tenno actually are.
- Terraforming: The coolant they harvest is instrumental for keeping Venus in its current barely habitable state.
- Underground City: Fortuna is located under the surface of the planet, away from the deathly frigid weather that holds on Venus in Warframe's era.
- You Are Number 6: The Corpus ignore the Fortuna denizens' names and know them by official designations that sound more like serial numbers or product codes, such as HR-67, HSE-85, U-2278 (Thursby), FB-9 (Eudico) etc. The letters in their designations indicate their job. For example, FB stands for "Floor Boss", while GS stands for "Gunsmith".
Eudico
Eudico / Vox Solaris
"Outworlder. We gonna do this?"
Voiced by: Tamara Fritz
"Well then, Sparky. Looks like SU is back. Only a matter of time. If it wasn't me, someone else woulda done it. Meanwhile, see me anytime. Solaris United's got plenty of work for you."
Once, Eudico was Vox Solaris, the proud leader of Solaris United. She stood for the Solaris whenever injustice threatened them, and fought Nef Anyo at every step.
Not so much anymore. After Deck 12, all Eudico wants is to keep the Solaris out of trouble. But, with the arrival of the Tenno inadvertently causing trouble, and Nef threatening the Solaris more than ever before, she finds herself taking up the mantle of a resistance fighter once more.
- Affectionate Nickname: She calls the Tenno "Sparky" because of the glitz and glamour of their Warframes.
- An Arm and a Leg: Her left leg is missing below the knee, instead having a crude prosthetic in its place.
- The Cracker: She's well-acquainted with Corpus security systems and is the one to hack into their surveillance drones and databases with your help.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The exact circumstances haven't been clarified, but apparently Eudico was a ventkid, meaning something happened to her parents. For a time, she led Solaris United, until Nef used the Exploiter Orb to totally demolish Solaris United at Deck 12. After all this, her cynicism is rather understandable.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: She's a cynic distrustful of outworlders when you first meet her, first trying to chase you off so you don't get the other Solaris in trouble. She's also irritated with you for wasting her time if you don't take a bounty, while referring to you as "Outworlder". But as your standing with Solaris United grows, she grows more and more open with you. Her nickname for you, "Sparky", becomes an Affectionate Nickname, and she's delighted to see you and singing your praises when you take a bounty by the time you reach the "Old Mate" rank. She doesn't hold it against you for not taking a bounty anymore either.
- Despair Event Horizon: Most Solaris qualify for this, but Eudico deserves special mention for how thoroughly Deck 12 broke her. After that trauma, Eudico gave special care to keeping Nef appeased. It's only watching Thursby's limbs get ripped off, and Nef threatening to brain-shelve fifty Solaris and repossess their Rig parts that shocks her out of this. Seeing her while you are at least Rank 4 with her Syndicate after completing The New War shows that even she was not safe from the Narmer veils...and she wasn't happy about it, especially with the number of Solaris who willingly wear the veil.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: When she isn't working as Fortuna's floor boss or leading an insurgency against the Solaris' enslavers, she hangs out with Zuud for girls' night.
- Mission Control: She's the head of Solaris United and Vox Solaris. You go to her to access Fortuna's bounties and heists, and she is the one who directs you on how to best sabotage Nef Anyo.
- Mole in Charge: Eudico is the "floor boss" of Fortuna, making sure work progresses smoothly and relaying Nef's orders. She's also the leader of the Solaris United movement and their main contact for the Tenno.
- Parental Abandonment: "The Deadlock Protocol" reveals that she was a ventkid, implying her parents are either dead or brain shelved.
- Quest Giver: She functions as this for players looking to complete bounties.
- Rage Breaking Point: When the players first meet Eudico she just wants to keep Nef appeased, even telling The Business to not use a K-Bomb to fight back after Thursby's limbs are repossessed. However, after Nef foolishly activates a coolant tower well before it's ready, Eudico sends the Tenno to get coolant for it to keep it from exploding and Nef orders her to send 50 of the Solaris to be cruelly punished anyway, she finally takes up the fight again.The Business: Hey, where's my K-Bomb...?
- She's Back: Once she takes up the mantle of Vox Solaris once more.
- Team Mom: Eudico plays this part for the whole population of Fortuna - she is extremely protective of everyone, doing everything she can to make sure that the work progresses smoothly so that the people of Fortuna will not come to harm from the Corpus.
- Verbal Tic: Pronounces the word "schedule" with a soft "ch" (as in "change.")
- Vocal Evolution: Her voice is much deeper in the post-New War bounties against the Narmer.
- Voice of the Resistance: As Vox Solaris, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask of Nef Anyo and threatening him.
- What the Hell, Hero?: If you carelessly shoot a Coildrive that Eudico is trying to extract information from, she'll give you an earful about what you're doing.
The Business
The Business
"Eyes and ears to the wind, friend."
Voiced by: Mark LaPointe
On the surface, The Business is a well-meaning conservationist. It's never explained what he was before that - he displays great expertise in organizing Solaris United, building bombs, conservation, and the strategic deletion of life.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- The Business now may be a Nature Lover who found his calling in conservation of the Orb Vallis' animal life, but before that he was quite proficient in "strategic deletion of life". During the Vox Solaris quest he is the one who keeps pushing Eudico to return to active resistance, and when a need to eliminate the leader of a Corpus repo squad arises, his first choice of how to do this is a bomb.
- The Business was also the narrator for the ARG that preceded the launch of the Fortuna update. If we take it as being a part of canon, then it was The Business who arranged the Tenno's contact and arrival to Fortuna. Which he did by sneaking in to a Corpus outpost and hacking a transmitter, all without being noticed.
- Berserk Button: For all his implied dangerousness, Biz is very mellow and laid back... until you accidentally kill a Vallis animal you've lured out. It's the only time The Business raises his voice in dialogue, and it's suitably terrifying to hear.
"Track-and-tranq! TRANQ! Do you understand?!"
- The Chessmaster: It is all but stated in the Orb Vallis Fragments that The Business arranged Thursby's injury to manipulate Eudico into once again becoming a resistance leader, though he is shown to regret that Thursby had to come to harm for his plan to work."A small price to pay. A young man's body. An old man's soul."
- Cool Old Guy: The Business is nothing but polite and friendly to those who have earned his trust. In addition to his love of the Orb Vallis' wildlife, he's a Cultured Badass who was infamous in his heyday as an operative of Vox Solaris.
- Deadly Euphemism: Before coming to Fortuna, he was an expert in "the strategic deletion of life."
- Determinator: Seemingly the only Solaris that didn't hit the Despair Event Horizon at full speed. Even before the release of Fortuna he was trying to support the downtrodden Solaris, asking the players for help. And, during the Vox Solaris quest, he's almost constantly advocating violence against Nef as a solution.
- Department of Redundancy Department: He tends to reiterate his lines quite often while engaging in conservation after you catch your target.
- Determined Defeatist: He's well aware that fighting against Nef will hurt a lot of people. However, he's also aware that the alternative is far worse.
- Disarm, Disassemble, Destroy: During his earlier days when he just settled in Fortuna a ventkid tried robbing him on gunpoint. The Business managed to unload the kid's kitgun before he even drew it, and without him noticing that. Afterwards they talked a little bit, and while nobody but the two of them knows what exactly was said, the kid in question swore weapons off completely after that.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Eudico calls him "Biz". He doesn't sound like he's fond of it.
- Hidden Depths: It's implied that on top of all his other, shadier talents, The Business is also very good at sewing, having made the Floofs (plush versions of the Vallis animals) himself.
- Mysterious Past: Whatever he did in the past has apparently made him an expert when it comes to wetworks, and Eudico mentions he's not native to Fortuna either, or any other location she knows. His fragments don't give any further details as to who he actually is - rather, they talk about how he went from being one of Solaris United's top field agents to being a conservationist and fishing gear salesman.
- Nature Lover: Decided to preserve as many native species of the Venus's surface before the Corpus drive them to extinction. He is clearly passionate about it too.
- Nice Guy: A friendly Solaris with a particular love of animals who will usually have a kind word and some good advice for the Tenno he aids. However, if it hasn't already been made clear, he is not someone you would want to be on the bad side of.
- Number Two: He's this to Eudico as the top brass of Solaris United, Vox Solaris. He and Eudico are always seen at the planning table where you get your heists, and he delivers just as much information and exposition as she does. As Eudico puts it, without Biz, there would be no Solaris U.
- Red Baron: A fridge case. In Solaris vernacular, "the business" seems to be used in the meaning of "wetworks", "covert operations", "sabotage", or less specifically "a hostile action" - in her transmissions Eudico often tells you to "give [Corpus] the business" in the same way as someone would say "give 'em hell". With that in mind, for The Business to be known as such would suggest that he was an extremely competent field operative.
- Retired Badass: Mysterious Past aside, he seems to be happy with a quiet life conserving animals and selling fishing supplies at the moment. That said, when Solaris United springs back into action, he's already making plans to defeat the Orb Mothers.
- Spell My Name with a "The": His name is "The Business", with a capital T.
- Token Minority: Yet another thing that sets him apart from other people in Fortuna. When you finally see their real faces, the other Solaris all have Caucasian features, but The Business more resembles a Native American. Justified as he's not native to Fortuna.
- What the Hell, Hero?: If you kill any of the animals Biz has tasked you with preserving, he will verbally - and quite loudly - chew you out over it.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: In-Universe example - Eudico can't place just what his accent is. It's definitely not Solaris, Corpus, or Ostron, that's for sure.
Thursby / Legs
Thursby / Legs
Click here to see him as Legs.
"Ah, whatever. Please tell me you wanna buy something. I need this."
"If ya need scrap in a snap, just talk to your junkyard diplomat! That'd be me, Thursby. Thunderstruck, short on his pluck, down on his luck."
A (seemingly) young, peppy, idealistic Solaris that's taken on his parents debt, and struggles to make ends meet. When Eudico directs a Tenno towards him, Thursby strikes on the idea to hire the Tenno to steal some goods from the Corpus.
After the quest, he serves as the MOA vendor.
- An Arm and a Leg: Loses all his limbs after contracting the Tenno to steal from the Taxmen. He takes it pretty well, all things considered. Luckily, he gets a pair of replacement legs... MOA legs specifically, considering he had so many MOA parts from the stolen Corpus shipment.
- Cyborg: While all Solaris count, Thursby is an extreme example. After Corpus repo men were done with him, he lost nearly all of his previously almost-fully-organic body, with his new one repaired out of whatever spare parts The Business and Eudico could get their hands on before whatever was left of him expired. He now has a fully mechanical torso, no arms, and legs from a MOA.
- The Call Put Me on Hold/I Just Want to Be Badass: His memory fragments show him lamenting how he can't belong with any of the Fortuna's various rebel groups and contribute to the Solaris people's fight for freedom in any meaningful way. He's an orphan, but he's too old to be a Ventkid and his body is incapable of navigating the vents too. He can't be a field agent with his body either, and neither Eudico nor The Business wish to teach him any of their craft or involve him into their activities in some other way - to keep him out of unnecessary danger, but to him this just feels like condescension.
- Didn't Think This Through: Downplayed — Thursby evidently did not consider that Nef might be listening in to his comms in Fortuna, but it's also made clear he's already facing Brain-Shelving, so it's possible he knew how reckless he was being and just did not want to face the alternative.
- The Dog Bites Back: Nothing yet has come of it, but he's made note of how easily he could sneak some of his MOAs into Nef Anyo's army of them...
- Friendless Background: He has no friends his age and only has the other former members of Deck 12 and his MOAs for company, though he's particularly close to Eudico and Zuud and outright calls them his family.
- Gadgeteer Genius: The blueprints he sells allow the Tenno to create MOA companions that can do everything from put up stasis fields that weaken and slow enemy projectiles, hack into almost any console, and manipulate gravity in an area around them, among other things. This is especially impressive as he has no arms left when he does this. He's also able to assemble Hounds for you from parts you get from a Sister of Parvos.
- The Heart: While he's not very useful on actual missions, he is nonetheless highly valued by Eudico for his contagious enthusiasm.Eudico: The most valuable person in your squad ain't the crack shot, it's the kid who keeps your spirits up. That's Legs. The rhymin's a bit much, but can that little mucker make me hoot.
- Inheritance Backlash: His parents died in the Deck 12 incident, and as their only child he was left to pay their debts. He's drowning in it by the time you meet him and is basically begging you to buy something to help him pay it off.
- Meaningful Rename: After the Solaris quest, he chooses to go by "Legs" instead of "Thursby", reflecting his new appreciation for life following the loss of his limbs, his new robotic legs and his new business selling MOAs.
- Robot Buddy: He sells components to build your very own custom MOA buddies. While they lack the breadth of abilities of Kubrows and Kavats or the ability to stick close to you the way Sentinels can, his MOAs have a variety of useful utility powers, such as a Tractor Beam to help you extend your airtime (helpful for Riven challenges) or the ability to hack a console for you.Legs: Look around. Now, don't be shy. Good friends, good buddy, ain't hard to buy.
- He can also assemble Hounds for you from the parts you collect from a Sister of Parvos.
- Parental Abandonment: Both of his parents died during the Deck 12 incident. In his Mem Logs, he notes that he would have liked to have become a Ventkid, but his new body prevents him from fitting in the vents or balancing on a K-Drive. After hearing him sing along to their Skeg music, they include him anyway.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Part of his sales gimmick. If a player chooses not to buy anything, he'll glumly and rhetorically state "It was the rhyming, wasn't it?"
- Sacrificial Lamb: It's the forceful repo of Thursby's limbs and Nef Anyo's threat to brain-shelve fifty Solaris that finally enrages Eudico enough to become Vox Solaris again. He's ultimately a subversion though, as Thursby survives, with the other Solaris ptiching in to at least give him a pair of MOA legs to stand on.
- Sad Clown: He's a chipper jokester who keeps up the spirits of the other Solaris, with Eudico regarding him as The Heart of Deck 7 because of this. But Thursby's fear of the repo men is evident in his desperation to get people to buy something from him, to the point of hiring the Tenno to steal some Corpus tech for him to resell.
- Secret-Keeper: Reaching Rank 5 with Solaris United implies he knows the Tenno are humans that are biologically around his age, as he quips that he just got lucky with the natural beauty of his real face and the player is "beautiful just the way [they] are."
- Vague Age: He's old enough to remember the Deck 12 incident and be treated like a kid by Eudico and The Business, but too old to be a ventkid, implying that he's somewhere in his mid to late teens.
- Theme Naming: All of the MOA models (heads) that Legs sells are named after dinosaurs - the three ranged heads (Oloro, Lambeo, Para) are named are hadrosaurs (Olorotitan, Lameboesaurus, and Parasaurolophus), while the sole melee one, Nychus, is named after a dromaeosaur (Deinonychus). All three also vaguely resemble the head of the dinosaur they are named after.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Really wishes Eudico would stop blaming herself for the deaths of his parents in the Deck 12 incident, though he's never really gotten a chance to say it.
Rude Zuud
Rude Zuud
"Great! Top choice! Woo hoo! Balloons fall from the ceiling shove over lemme get this done."
"Kitguns! Get mastercrafted Kitguns! Better than you ding-dongs deserve! Kitguns!"
A gunsmith of unparalleled skill that can make Kitguns, some of the most damaging sidearms in the system. Unfortunately, she's not all there in the Rig.
- Deadpan Snarker: When she's not arguing with Chatter, she's snarking off at everything and everyone she meets, including her Tenno customers.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Much like Hok and his Zaws, Zuud's sheer skill as a gunsmith is such that she is capable of creating firearms that can stand up to and even outperform ancient Orokin Lost Technology.
- Hearing Voices: Seems to have multiple personalities who she constantly argues with out loud. She refers to them as "Chatter". Unusually for the trope, the player actually hears the Chatter as electronic chittering with emotional overtones.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: She hangs out with Eudico after work, though the Tenno doesn't get to see it.
- Hidden Depths: Her Old Mate dialogue reveals that she has a soft spot for the Ventkids and loves their Skeg music.
- It's Personal: She has a personal stake in the destruction of the Exploiter Orb, as it killed her sisters on Deck 12.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rude Zuud didn't get her nickname for nothing, but she still cares about her people. For example, she's extremely angry with Little Duck; not for leaving Fortuna, but for emotionally devastating The Business in the process.
- Mind Hive: The chatter is what happens when a Hive Mind loses all but one of its bodies.Zuud: (Referring to the Thermia Condenser) This is... the last thing... we made together. Seven minds. All thoughts communal. Before we were reduced to ONE!
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For all of her complaining about Chatter's incessant chattering, Zuud doesn't like it when Chatter stops talking. This generally only happens when Smokefinger comes around, or when someone starts discussing Deck 12. When you go to Deck 12 yourself and fight the Exploiter Orb, Chatter goes dead silent until Exploiter's breathed her last.
- Whenever you gild a kitgun, Zuud drops her usual snarky, bitter tone and instead displays an uncommon degree of awe and appreciation—perhaps a glimpse into what she used to be like before Deck 12.
- Scatterbrained Senior: She is described as old, and she's not all there.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: She is of advancing age, and she's pretty cranky. Subverted in that her rudeness is not really due to her age nor to her traumatic past, as far as we can tell she's just, well, rude like that.
- Sole Survivor: She lost six of her sisters at Deck 12. She herself doesn't know about this, but Chatter does, being the vestiges of their connection. However, she does acknowledge "The Zuud" when you undertake the Exploiter Heist, implying she's actively repressing the memory.
- Spell My Name with a "The": The hivemind that comprised her and her sisters was known as "The Zuud".
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Zuud is abrasive, impatient, and, well, rude at the best of times, though she slowly warms up to the player as they build a closer relationship to Solaris.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: Gunsmith in this case, but Zuud can produce firearms that can outmatch Orokin ones, and like Hok, this is not due to using exotic materials or magic, but raw skill. Only Father of the Entrati can match her here.
- You Are Number 6: GS-44, according to the Corpus.
Smokefinger
Smokefinger
"Good, good. Rag up, and I'll see you when you get back."
""I possess tools of pedology and mineralogy. Pursuits to make a person very wealthy indeed. Wealth of intellect and pocket. Treasures of curiosity, treasures of coin."
A prim-and-proper Solaris who sells mining equipment and Captura scenes. He's obsessed with the study of minerals and their uses, seeing no finer vocation than quarrying and prospecting.
- Cool Old Guy: A scholarly old prospector who loves his craft even if the Corpus will do whatever they can to limit it and who, even in his advanced age, still contributes his part to Solaris United. He even appreciates the Skeg music the Ventkids put on every night, even if he complains about the noise.
- Dramatic Irony: Sometimes rambles on about a theory that gallium was a vital Dax and Warframe component. There isn't any proof for the former, but idly shuffling through the Foundry proves the latter in spades with him none the wiser.
- Feeling Their Age: He admits that he's too old to provide any real assistance to Solaris United even with the enhanced lifespan provided by his cybernetic enhancements.
- Forgets to Eat: Ticker mentions that she has to bring him nutrient packs from time to time, as he can spend weeks doing nothing but study minerals.
- Gentleman and a Scholar: Speaks with the sort of high-class accent you'd expect of a proper gentleman and is an expert geologist. He even has a genteel muttonstache and optical cybernetics of some sort that invoke gentleman's glasses.
- Hidden Depths: His fragments reveal that he was one of Sigor Savah's assistants in his youth.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: He was just as instrumental to Sigor Savah escaping from Venus to Cetus as Venari was, having been tasked with aiding Savah's escape by Venari herself. Savah is completely unaware of his aid, much like the Player prior to scanning Smokefinger's fragments.
- Serious Business: Smokefinger is very fond of mineralogy.
- Sophisticated as Hell:
- In his memory fragment, he explicates at length why he finds Corpus' philosophy despicable, ending with "To be blunt: To Hell with the Corpus".
- He also waxes poetic on the complexities of the Ventkids' skeg music before finishing with a complaint about how he will "never get any mucking sleep!"
Ticker
Ticker
"Check back in a little bit. New merchandise all the time... all the damn time."
Voiced by: Guy Cunningham
"Don't matter to Nef one whit if you're an engineer or a lowly thrower. You owe, you go. That's where Ticker comes in, ray of sunshine that she is."
A Solaris who works by brokering the buying off other Solaris' debts. Also sells the services of Railjack crew to Tenno who need their assistance.
- Affectionate Nickname: She refers to the player as "Stardust".
- Call to Adventure: Ticker provides this for those who're wanting a... different way out of their debts, by being the person from whom Tenno can hire Railjack crew.
- Cool Old Lady: Her deep voice and weary personal experience with the struggles of the Solaris imply that she's getting on in the years, making her possibly as old as Zuud. But she's also charming, well-spoken, and tirelessly devoted to helping others escape their debts. She also looks out for Smokefinger, ensuring that he eats something every now and then lest he starve to death.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Defied.Ticker:: Modification's a strange bird, Stardust. It happens, and you think you've lost yourself. I was my arms, I was my legs, I was that person. But, live with it long enough, truth is the only thing you didn't really lose was precisely who you are. Ain't nothin' left but what's behind your eyes. So you make sure that's beautiful. And Ticker... mmm mmm. She loves her some beauty.
- Day in the Limelight: She's the host of the Star Days event, trading debt bonds for Valentine's Day-themed cosmetics and even the blueprints for rare weapons like the Snipetron and Ignis Wraith. She also gets a lot of dialogue for the occasion, where she exposits on the nature of love.
- Evil Stole My Faith: Justified given the Solaris regularly deal with a Scam Religion, but Ticker is particularly vocal about her disdain all the same.Ticker: I've never met a priest who could tell you anything about Heaven, but they knew every square inch of Hell.They should. They built it.
- Hero of Another Story: Discussed. She refuses to call the people she's helping "victims", instead calling them people who simply need help and heroes for trying to make the best of what little they have. Though, as she herself notes, these heroes are often the subjects of Void-damned tragedies.
- Honest John's Dealership: Inverted. Ticker seems to be running a questionable shop on a Fortuna rooftop, but is actually using it as a cover for her illegal debt bonds trading business to save lives.
- She has a cover as an used equipment merchant, selling tools and goods that happen to double as orbiter decorations; but her real line of work is brokering the paying off of the debts of other Solaris, an illegal humanitarian enterprise for people who work under the threat of body repo and brain shelving. When browsing her shop, she'll even quip that she has no real idea what she's supposed to be selling.
- Since the Corpus "officially discourages" charity in favor of donating those credits to the temple for blessings from the Void, her humanitarian work has to be concealed. Buying out Solaris debts with credits and trade goods earns you hardcopies of debt bonds, which serve as legal tender for the Solaris's secondary economy of favors and goods which the Tenno deal in.
- Large Ham: She's unashamedly flamboyant in her mannerisms and speech, with her dialogue being some of the most emotive and flowery in the game.
- The Lost Lenore: Her fragments go into detail about how badly Brain-Shelving can affect a Solaris, speaking of a love she had that was Brain-Shelved for years and suffered a Death of Personality as a result. Said love now works the coolant canals, completely unaware of their past with Ticker. One of the lines from the Ticker Floof reveals his name was Volan.
- Love Freak: Downplayed. She's not overbearing about it, but she's prone to talking about love and relationships in conversation, especially during the Valentine's Day-themed Star Days event.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: Ticker's mother was on her deathbed and could feel herself slipping away, asking Ticker to be there at 12:00 before she passed. Ticker arrived at 12:02, by which point her mother was long dead. This is why Ticker always makes time for Zuud, despite the latter's crankiness.
- Nice Girl: Generally a genial, friendly, and kind Solaris who fights for Solaris United on a different front - saving debt-bound Solaris from their otherwise-inevitable fates.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Ticker freely admits that what she's doing is forbidden by the Temple of Profit and that if she's ever caught, it will lead to her being Repossessed or Brain-Shelved. But she does it anyway because she knows it's the right thing to do.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: She had a lover who got brain-shelved with their body fully repossessed. She worked to the bones in order to buy their body out, having to eventually sell her own body piece by piece. It took her decades to earn enough credits to buy new bodies for herself and her love - but in that time, their personality completely eroded during their brain-shelving, leaving a new person who remembered nothing of Ticker.
- Third-Person Person: Generally - but not always - refers to herself using the third-person. Justified case, since her manner of speaking makes it damn clear what her pronouns are.
- Trans Nature: Has a low, masculine voice and head but uses female pronouns and feminine mannerisms. Word of God confirms that Ticker is a transgender woman, and the matter is made simpler by the fact that the transhuman Solaris can switch bodies with relative ease, provided they have a spare.
Little Duck
Little Duck
"Ready to dance on some faces?"
Voiced by: Claire Vousden
"I'm not from around here. But I got a fast tractor and know how to jump a rail, so a new friend in Cetus set me up with all this. Name's Little Duck: fortune hunter, rail agent, and the girl your Mumsie warned you about."
A Solaris United operative originally hailing from Phobos and former protege of The Business. She sells the wares of Vox Solaris and also has an undefined relation with The Quills.
- Big Damn Heroes: She shows up during the final phase of the final battle against the Profit-Taker Orb to provide fire support from a nearby mountaintop. She fires at Corpus enemies with a sniper rifle, in an attempt to give the Tenno some breathing room.
- Canon Immigrant: She first appeared in the WARFRAME: Ghouls graphic novel series; one of her greetings to Tenno Operators is a Call-Back to its events.
- Collective Identity: She shares the role of Voice of the Resistance with The Business and Eudico.
- Dark and Troubled Past: In 'WARFRAME: Ghouls'', it's revealed that her father was brain-shelved.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Little Duck first appeared in WARFRAME: Ghouls before she was introduced in game as the representative for the Vox Solaris.
- Extreme Doormat: Downplayed. While by no means a pushover, she tends to roll with however the rest of the group's feeling, even if this means costing them vital information like the satellite movements maintaining the Profit-Taker Orb's shield.
- Fantastic Racism: While not outright hostile and probably to serve as part of her connection to The Quills, Little Duck refuses to deal with the player in their Warframe, only opening up her shop for the player when they're playing as the Operator."I deal with people, not machines, mate.""Can't say I like the way you look, if you catch my drift.""You wanna deal with me? Lose the rig. Know what I mean?"
- Fluffy the Terrible: One of Solaris United's top operatives, renowned throughout the Origin System, respected by the Lotus, able to go toe-to-toe with entire squads of Grineer, and the official liaison between Vox Solaris and the Tenno is known as... Little Duck.
- Friendly Sniper: For the most part, Little Duck is genial towards the player (with the exception of the Warframe specifically, but even then), teasing them if they're idle too long. While the Tenno deal with the Directors in the Enrichment Labs, Little Duck takes up a position on a nearby mountaintop to provide support with her Lanka.
- I Call It "Vera": Played with. Like with most customizeable weapons, you can name the Amp you create with her. However, from a few of her quotes, it sounds like it something that she's not used to."Onkko said some of you like to name these things? Any requests?""So, is that, like, a regular name where you come from?"
- Gun Nut: Likes high-powered rifles. When in the back room of Vox Solaris, she has a Buzlok assault rifle laid up right next to her, which is an assault rifle with decent accuracy.Little Duck: I'd stick with the old Buzlok. Give me homing rounds and a crap eatin' grin any day.
- But in the Profit-Taker Orb fight, she uses a Lanka, a sniper rifle. The Lanka is also laid up next to her in the Scarlet Spear Flotilla Relay during the Operation: Scarlet Spear event.
- Ignored Expert: In the Operation: Scarlet Spear event, Little Duck mentions how she tried to warn Teshin that the glut of Sentient artifacts on the market were too dangerous. He ignored her until the New War started, and then immediately asked her for help.
- In the Hood: Part of her outfit has her wearing a hood over her head.
- Mission Control: Serves as one for the Disruption missions (outside of Jupiter). She also served as this for the Operation: Scarlet Spear event.
- Prodigal Hero: Little Duck was The Business's protege and his most talented student, until they had a falling out because of their differences in worldview and she left Fortuna, becoming a freelance agent. However, once she learns of the danger threatening Fortuna that was tied to Nef's Orb Mothers, she decides to return and bring warning to them, getting there somewhere around slightly before the Tenno's arrival to Fortuna.
- Team-Up Series: She teams up with Mag and Mitsuki in WARFRAME: Ghouls to recover an Orokin medical device and keep it out of Grineer hands.
- Values Dissonance: What is the reason why her and Biz had a falling out.
- Voice of the Resistance: She is one of three individuals that form the Collective Identity of Vox Solaris.
