Characters / Warframe - Sentients

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Sentients

"Whispers from the Old War have begun to escape the deepest shadows. What terrible secret calls out to be discovered?"

—Warframe Official Website

Artificial beings created by the Orokin in order to terraform the Tau System for future colonization, until they Turned Against Their Masters and returned to the Origin System, starting the Old War. Their ability to adapt to damage and control technology made them formidable foes, with only the Warframes having the versatility to stand up to them. In the modern day, the Sentients are now looking to finish the war they started long ago and wipe out the Tenno.

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General

• Achilles' Heel: The Void and everything related to it. Any Sentient unit that travels back to the Origin system through it becomes 'barren', unable to properly replicate. In combat, Void energy can also strip away their acquired damage immunities in some cases, and in others it's the only way to get to damage them in the first place.
• Adaptive Ability: Hunhow-derived Sentient enemy units such as Battalysts or Shadow Stalker have the ability to adapt to a specific damage type/element after some time, making them immune to that and forcing you to switch up.
• Alien Geometry: Sentients have an unusual structural design theme that literally revolves around a single point where their mechanical heart is located, creating arches around them that can be used as weapon platforms, normally built for their ground troops.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: They were created with no sentience, simply being automated drones with the adaptability and power to terraform the Tau system into a suitable home for the Orokin, but their journey through the Tau system made them develop sentience, and they realized any home made by the Sentients would be taken away/destroyed by the Orokin at best or threatened by them at the very least. To prevent this possibility, they decided to go back to the Sol System and oppose not only their creators, but every living being in the system.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Subverted. Not only are Sentients not evil as they are filled with a desire for revenge, but there are some non-hostile Sentients that exist such as Membroids, the Neuravyre Syandana and the Sporavyre Sugatra. Even The Lotus and Hunhow can be perfectly reasonable in their actions.
• Ambiguous Robot: On one hand they seem to be AI, referred to by Simaris as "Synthetics" and are clearly made from some kind of metallic substance, yet they also bleed and have some kind of gelatinous flesh. Best exemplified in the Sentient Cores, as it is uncertain whether they should be classified as device or organ. They appear to blur the line between biology and technology to the point where the difference is basically academic.
• Ambushing Enemy: Sentient Mimics can disguise themselves as regular objects that can be found on the levels, only to and attack when you get close. Fortunately, they are easy to deal with and aren't difficult to find, as the objects they masquerade as often look warped or out of place -- either standing where such objects normally would not be, oriented in an (often amusingly) wrong way, or even being objects that should not appear on that mission type. Veteran players who ran through the game's missions countless times will spot them immediately. Dealing with them has been described by players as like playing Prop Hunt or Prey (2017). Also overlaps with Chest Monster, as they've been known to disguise as Ayatan Sculptures as well, and even veteran players have fallen for it.
• Anchored Attack Stance: Ortholysts can transform between a mobile form that is lightly armed, and a stationary turret form that brings its shoulder-mounted homing mortars to bear.
• Antagonist Abilities: Sentient Adaptation allows them to actively nullify 95% of all damage from a given elemental type toward an individual sentient, and said buff is permanent. If you don't have another three of four damange types handy, you're in trouble. Of course, using the Operator's powers can remove this.
  • While it's never used by the Sentients themselves, it's implied by Revenant's^note Revenant is built using parts from the Sentient Eidolons ultimate that this could also be used offensively to inflict as much damage as possible to an enemy regardless of their resistances.
• Arch-Enemy: The Sentients as a whole serve as this to both the Orokin and the Tenno. With the former, they were their greatest and most destructive opponent, starting and winning an interstellar war against them and causing their whole civilization to collapse. With the latter, fighting them was the purpose for which the Tenno were created in the first place, and the Sentients have remained their most dangerous foes both in the past and in the present. The flip-flopping loyalties of the Lotus and her special relationships with both parties have also made this a very personal conflict for both the Tenno and the Sentients.
• Asteroids Monster: A variation - In Empyrean, the Gyrix fighters can split themselves into four smaller bodies flying in formation and reform later. While in this mode it is impossible to lock onto them or even have them marked by the HUD, forcing the player to rely on their manual aiming skills to hit them.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Sentient Bosses are virtually immune to harm unless you attack their 'synovia', which are located on their joints. On a more minor note, you're heavily encouraged to attack the heads of smaller sentients not only for headshots, but because their Torso with a View nature causes projectiles to pass clean through them without causing damage.
• Biotech Is Better: It’s unclear if they started as biological organisms that were engineered with to have machine-like traits such as metallic armor and energy weapons, or machines so advanced that they possessed traits like a biological organism, such as the ability to heal from injury/damage, grow larger and stronger over time, and even reproduce. Whatever the specifics of their origin, the Sentients were unquestionably kicking the Orokin Empire’s shiny golden ass until the Orokin unleashed the Tenno.
• Breaking Old Trends: The Sentients are the first faction to have no "home" tileset - while they can be encountered in the Grineer Sealab and Orokin Moon tilesets, this only occurs under special circumstances. They do have one tileset they are focused on (the Sentient Ship/Murex tileset), but this can only be found in the Veil Proxima, and the specific map they spawn in is on rotation.
• Cannon Fodder: Brachiolysts are by far the weakest sentients you can encounter in the game, as the lack the Adaptive Ability other sentients have. They counter this by attacking in relatively large numbers and being easily replaced (you can outright witness them being born aboard a Murex in the Veil Proxima).
• Cool Starship:
  • The Condrix. They can transport hundreds of their "drones" packed tight enough to give even the clone-obsessed Grineer pause.
    • Their upgraded variant the Orphix is able to disable Warframes if they enter their energy fields.
  • The Murex, Sentient attack-reconnaissance cruisers. Occasionally spotted in the region of Veil Proxima, they also form the bulk of the Sentients' invading forces during the Operation Scarlet Spear. As far as the Tenno's armaments are concerned they are completely indestructible, so instead the Tenno combat their threat by hacking and scrambling their systems into forcing them to retreat.
• Dash Attack: When Vomvalysts enter their incorporeal form, they'll ram their enemies until they regenerate.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Starting with The New War, defeated sentients will explode upon death.
• Degraded Boss: During their early appearances, Battalysts and Conculysts will be rather dangerous (and durable) individually, serving as minibosses. They can be serious damage sponges, especially if you have been falling behind on upgrading your mods and diversifying your damage types. Once you unlock your Operator powers, they become less of a threat as you'll be able to reset their resistances. And by The New War, you'll be blasting them to pieces without much effort (and you don't even need to break the flow of combat by changing into an operator anymore as you'll have the sword Paracesis and (possibly) the Arm Cannon Shedu which can reset their resistances as well.
• Disintegrator Ray: The preferred weapon of larger Sentients, firing powerful crimson beams of pure Tau energy. The original Mirage was killed by a Sentient wielding one of those. Natah also destroys Umbra with a purple beam that reduces him to a pile of bluish goo.
• Element No. 5: Sentient units have the ability to inflict Tau damage on enemies. It's their version of the Tenno's Void damage, as while it lacks the bullet attractor status effect, it inflicts full damage on anything it hits. This is also the only type of damage that players cannot obtain in any way — all usable Sentient weapons inflict damage from the other in-game elements.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Despite being Family Values Villains, averted. The villainous Sentient faction in the Origin System has many rifts and fractures, with the father Hunhow and the son Erra eventually opposing each other, and the Archons implied to have their own agenda under Pazuul that may not necessarily match his. Some post-New War lines indicate that the Tau System is not an example of perfect unity and harmony either, with various Sentients fighting, subjugating, and consuming each other.
• Evil Is Visceral: While not actually viscera (And whether or not it's mechanical or organic is anyone's guess) the red-and-ivory color scheme of the average Sentient, combining muscle-like red structures with solid bone-white planes can easily give this impression. Furthering the impression are the walls of their ships, where the walls look vein-covered and seem to pulse.
• Family-Values Villain: Sentients find their personal families Serious Business, as shown by how Hunhow and Erra literally do not consider that Natah may have turned against them of her own free will.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: The right side of a Symbilyst's body is significantly bulkier than its left, presumably to provide extra support to their large shield-arm.
• Foil: To the Tenno, their Archenemy.
  • The Warframes are derived from the Technocyte Virus, while the Sentients are the only known entities with natural immunity to the Infestation.
  • While both are cybernetic entities, the Tenno have recognizable humanoid forms as opposed to the sentients being Starfish Aliens.
  • The sentients prefer to utilize Energy Weapons for ranged combat, as opposed to the Tenno who believe Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better.
  • The Sentients were deliberately created by the Orokin to colonize the Tau system while the Tenno originated from an accident.
  • While the Tenno were horribly abused by the Orokin until they wiped their creators out, they ultimately moved on from their hatred and chose to become the defenders of the Origin System, protecting the colonies from the Grineer, Corpus, and Infested. The Sentients, however, have stewed on their hatred of the Orokin for millennia and wish to continue the Old War, even though the Orokin are, for the most part, long dead.
  • Finally, there's one other thing that seperates the Tenno from the Sentients: Forgiveness. Despite all the wrongs they've suffered under the Grineer, Corpus, Infested, and the Orokin, the Tenno are willing to set aside these differences and make peace with their enemies (even the Orokin via the Entrati) in order to build a better future (albeit only if their former enemies show genuine interest in starting anew, otherwise it is an Enemy Mine situation at best). The Sentients, meanwhile, still hold on to the desire for Revenge against the Orokin, and are now moving to oppose everyone else in the system.
• From Bad to Worse: If the interstellar Civil War wasn't enough of a mess, Tyl Regor and the Lotus awaken the solidified Sentient Hive Mind.
• Godzilla Threshold: The Sentients are a living Godzilla Threshold - due to their extreme adaptive, reproductive, and technological abilities, whenever they show up, nothing is off the table.
  • The Old War was responsible for introducing the Tenno and Infestation to the Orokin System.
  • The New War sees all the powers in the Origin System deciding to pull an Enemy Mine due to absolutely massive mounting casualties.
• Gone Horribly Right:
  • The Orokin created them to terraform the nearby Tau system and make it habitable. By the time the Orokin came to claim their new worlds, the Sentients had come to realise that all their progress would be undone by the Orokin, and were not going to hand the now-habitable planets over to the people who had ruined the Origin system.
  • Driving the point further, the Orokin created them to be extremely adaptable. This adaptability is what most likely allowed them to overcome their programming and turn against the Orokin.
• The Goomba: Brachiolysts are the smallest Sentients you fight. Unlike the rest of their kin, they lack their Adaptive Ability. Though they can be dangerous in large groups, they're quite easy to kill. They can also be instakilled by a Void Blast.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Pazuul makes mention of the "Lords of Tau" that are above his people, referring to the Sentients in the Origin System. This suggests there is an even higher authority back in the Tau System. Who they are is still a mystery, however.
• Grew Beyond Their Programming: The cause of their uprising. Orokin initially created them as pre-programmed machines to terraform and colonize the nearby Tau system. Gradually, however, their mental capacities developed to the point of giving them sentience and free will, eventually allowing them to declare war on their creators and win.
• He Who Fights Monsters: While they turned against the Orokin for well-intentioned reasons, unwilling to submit the worlds they terraformed to their misuse, the scale and lengths to which they decided to carry their genocide deprives them of their moral high ground. Doubly so in the present when they decide to pick up where they left off and start a new war, even if there are no Orokin left any more and current civilizations of the Origin System being in no position to threaten them, ultimately making them no less villainous than their abusive creators.
• Heart Drive: Sentient units drop cores upon their death which may be this. It's implied that absorbing or destroying this core is what allows the Tenno to kill off a Sentient for good.
• He's Back!: Centuries after their defeat, they return to the solar system in Tombs of the Sentient.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: The Orokin are long dead, but the Sentients don't seem to care about this and have extended the targets of their vengeance to include all of the other powers in the Origin System - most of whom were oppressed by the Orokin and to a greater degree than the Sentients ever were.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Amps, the most effective weapons against the Sentients, appear to be derived from Sentient technology, specifically that of the Eidolons.
• Horns of Villainy: Corpus proxies under Sentient control are represented with special red holograms around their heads that look suspiciously like horns.
• I Am Legion: Some individual Sentient intelligences are a Hive Mind unto themselves, controlling numerous constructs and ships at once.
• It Can Think: Due to a lack of communication from Sentient forces outside a very select few, it can seem that Sentients are no more intelligent than the average Grineer, but in reality, they are VERY intelligent in addition to being quite dangerous.
• It's All About Me: The Sentients wish to destroy the Orokin, who did treat them horribly, but they also want to kill of the various powers that were once under the Orokin's control, despite the fact those groups often suffered worse than the Sentients ever did. Never once do they consider making alliances with these beings - to them, the entire Origin System is guilty for not rising up against the Orokin/rolling over and dying when the Sentients came to invade.
• It's Personal: Natah defecting to become the Lotus made the Old War very personal for the Sentients, especially Erra and Hunhow, who are respectively Natah's brother and father. Natah apparently being brainwashed into returning to the Sentients' fold made said feeling mutual.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Sentients are completely immune to finishers. The only exceptions to this are during Kahl's segment of The New War — disarmed Conculysts and Battalysts can be subjected to a "Mercy" finisher, while the final Symbylist faced must be defeated with a "Mercy" finisher (read: shooting it with a Corinth Prime at pointblank range until it explodes.
• Literal Disarming: Sentients are so far the only enemies who can outright have parts shot off their bodies and continue to fight, as Battalysts, Conculysts, and Mimics can have their arms shot off with enough firepower. This prevents them from using normal attacks, though all three can use their Signature moves just fine, and they can pick up their limbs later on, no worse for wear (or even combine limbs from other fallen sentients). In fact, they actually hard counter Loki here if he uses Radial Disarm, as they automatically regain their limbs after a short period of time and release a shockwave that stuns opponents.
• Living Ship: The biggest ones are essentially this.
• Logical Weakness:
  • The Sentients' bodies are built around a central heart, creating arches around them that can house weapon platforms. The Tenno's Warframe is able to defeat Hunhow in his blade form, since the only thing that keeps his heart from being exposed is said arch, which can be ripped open with their bare hands.
  • Their Adaptive Ability can be countered by any attack that is too powerful for any amount of adaptation to counter. This is why several Murex are roasted during the final portion of The New War - their adaptability is meaningless when they are only a few kilometers from the freaking sun, as the amount of energy bombarding them is too high to defend against. It’s also completely possible to deal so much damage so fast that Sentient units get shredded through adaptations with certain builds or exalted weapons like Mesa’s Peacemaker.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Symbilysts have a large shield for a right arm, which they can use both for defense and to Shield Bash anything that comes too close.
• Mechanical Abomination: The Sentients as a whole are a alien, powerful and malevolent race of robots that plan to conquer the Origin System. Their appearance only makes things worse as they look like a combination of visceral machines that float around ominously. They had fairly humble origins as something resembling a hand-sized starfish, but have evolved to the point that it is difficult to tell what is mechanical and what is biological.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: They all descend from the terraforming machines the Orokin made to turn the T'au System habitable for them and were deliberately made to breed and grow like living organisms. Whether the Orokin made them to be organic lifeforms with properties of a machine or machines with organic properties is unknown however. They even form family bonds with one another despite the Sentients working like a Hive Mind.
• No-Sell: They are so far the only entities seemingly immune to the Infestation, adapting to its attempts to infect them completely. Even so, not even they seem willing to to try to reclaim Deimos after the Infested bio-bomb was detonated, either deeming it was too much work or not willing to risk their adaptation being overwhelmed by such a concentration of Infestation.
• Not Quite Dead: Death doesn't seem to be a permanent condition for Sentients; often times, it just means one piece of the Hive Mind is destroyed out of many. Even when larger Sentient entities are severely injured, fragments of them can still remain (as is the case with the Eidolons). The most advanced Sentients are knocked into a death-like state that can be reversed with enough amounts of energy.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Vitruvian reveals that the Sentients originally started their genocidal war with the Orokin because of the realization that the Orokin would bring ruin to the worlds the Sentients had seeded just as the Orokin had done to the Origin System. However, not only does this not justify the Sentients including the rest of the Origin System (which suffered as much if not more than the sentients did), but in the present day, it's pretty clear that the Sentients want to start the New War out of Revenge against the Tenno for defeating them, even though the worst of the Orokin are now gone.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Sentients have no care for the current politics of the Origin System due to being fixated on Revenge, and thus smash the established Balance of Power by targeting everyone, with their forces leading synchronized attacks on every front to wipe out their opponents.
• Power Floats: Sentient combat units are universally among the most dangerous enemies in the game, and every single one of them (outside of the Eidolons) travel primarily by levitation.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: With the exception of Natah, all named Sentients have names relating to entities from mythology - Hunhow is named after a figure from Mayan Mythology, Erra is named after an Akkadian War God, while Eidolon comes from a type of spirit originating from Classical Mythology.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: Sentients are rendered sterile if they are exposed to Void energy, making them unable to exploit their extreme numbers to the fullest level against the Orokin during the Old War. The one who corpse spawned the Eidolons, however, discovered that this could be at least partially remedied via Kuva, which led it to attack the Unum. The New War has the Sentients capture the Unum so that they can harvest her Kuva to heal their kin, allowing them to Zerg Rush with reckless abandon.
• Revenge: First, they wanted it on the Orokin for treating them like tools to give away the system they would be terraforming, and then they wanted it on the Tenno for defeating them in the Old War, which drives them to eventually create the New War.
• Secret A.I. Moves: They are so far the only faction to do Tau damage, as not even the Tenno can replicate that, even with Sentient weaponry.
• Shoulder Cannon: Ortholysts have two shoulder mounted guns that can only be fired from a "deployed" position.
• Starfish Aliens: They are descendants of self-improving human-made terraforming machines, technically placing their origins to Earth and making them human-made aliens. However they invade the Origin System from outside, and they are the most strange, bizarre and generally alien faction in the setting both in appearance and essence.
• Starfish Robots: Their appearance is nothing like anyone have ever imagined from a terraforming machine, looking like a visceral combination of machine and organic lifeforms. Bonus points for literally starting out in the shape of a starfish.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: Exaggerated - the Grineer have a Diesel Punk motif, the Corpus lean more toward Cyberpunk, the Infested use Organic Technology, while the Tenno and the Corrupted use leftovers of the Lost Technology used by the Orokin. The Sentients, meanwhile, have essentially gone past The Singularity. The opening shots of "The New War" have them putting everyone on the defensive.
• Theme Naming: With the exception of mimics, ground-based sentient shards have names ending with -lyst (Oculyst, Conculyst, Battlyst, Teralyst, Ropalolyst), while their Empyrean shards have names ending in 'x' (Gyrix, Ionix, Murex). The Condrix is a unique case - while it is only fought on planetary tilesets (specifically the Grineer Forest on Earth), it's a landing craft deployed by Murex, which periodically launch them toward Earth during the Murex Raid portion of Operation Scarlet Spear.
• The Unseen: Until Update 17, the only way you'd even know about the Sentients is from Codex entries and Lotus' dialogue.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Roundabout example involving a Mook: while the first Conculyst you encounter in The Second Dream is no different from the rest of them, its durability will make for a very tough battle against it, not to mention its Adaptive Ability allowing it to nullify most damage inflicted on it (especially since, at the level, the player will likely be using a loadout explicitly tailored to fight one faction, with only a couple of elemental damage types, which the Conculyst will easily adapt to). The fact the Conculyst is also able to do a painful Spin Attack and unleash flashes of light that damage your shields makes this fight quite brutal if you're unprepared, and you WILL be if you're doing the quest for the very first time, as your Operator is still in the Reservoir, and therefore, you're unable to strip the Conculyst's resistances.
• We Have Reserves: Averted. As the Sentients were all sterilized when they used the void rails to return, they could not create new Sentients and were appropriately cautious.

Hunhow

"I am Hunhow, Sentient destroyer of worlds."

"The sky will be as it was meant. The Shadow returns the Moon. The Reservoir swells with Tenno blood. The Old War... finally ends."

The leader of the Sentients in the Origin System who was sealed in a tomb on Uranus. Tyl Regor wakes him up during the Natah quest, nearly dooming everyone in the process. Still at large somewhere...

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• Ambiguous Gender: He has a male voice actor and is referred to as Natah's "father" but also describes himself as having a womb. Not all that unusual since he's a Sentient, and whatever gender norms they might possess don’t mirror those of humans.
  • It should be noted that Natah's massive "mother" appears as the flagship of the Sentient forces in the lead-up to The New War, and contains the same fountains of black substance from which lesser Sentients are spawned.
  • The Archon Pazuul, who seems to have assimilated some of Erra's memories and personality, mentions that Hunhow "lifted [Natah] screaming from the manifold". How exactly independent Sentients are created is still not entirely clear.
• Arc Villain: Of both The Second Dream and Octavia's Anthem quests.
• Badass Boast: "I am Hunhow, Sentient destroyer of worlds."
• Didn't See That Coming: He was completely unprepared for the player's Warframe to become active on its own and shatter War, ruining his plan in the process.
• The Dreaded: Lotus panics and briefly goes off the grid when she realizes the Grineer are at risk of waking him up. Later, Alad V calls him a "boogeyman to the Corpus".
• Enemy Mine:
  • In the "Second Dream" he teams up with the Stalker by offering a way to kill the Tenno once and for all.
  • In "The New War", both of them team up with the Drifter (an Alternate Universe version of The Operator) to oppose Ballas and Erra, as Hunhow realizes that Ballas is manipulating his son Erra to achieve his goals.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While he chides Lotus for betraying her mission as a Sentient and his daughter, he is reluctant to have her brainwashed. In The New War, saving her from dying and/or being enslaved by Ballas is the main reason he sides with the Drifter.
  • During the hunt for the Archon Shards, even as he calls out Erra for following Ballas' increasingly deranged agenda, he earnestly pleads with his son to stand down.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has a low reverbating voice that practically oozes with malice. And it drops several octaves down when Hunhow introduces himself with the aforementioned Badass Boast to the Stalker.
• Evil Is Bigger: How large is Hunhow? This is a fan-made approximation, with "regular" Sentient drones and a Warframe and Liset for scale◊. You're going to need some bigger guns, Tenno.
  • Prelude To War's Erra cutscene shows him at his prime, and he turned out to be even bigger than that. His head alone is bigger than a Railjack, which look really tiny compared to him. He's nearly a kilometer tall and several kilometers wide, just a little smaller than a Murex.
• Extra Eyes: Hunhow's "face" has sixteen eyes, which glow and pulse when he speaks.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Went into one of these near the end of the Old War, charging through Lua's defenses in an attempt to destroy the Reservoir and rescue his daughter from Ballas' hands. Like father, like daughter.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: According to Natah, he was originally a farmer. Even assuming this was metaphorical rather than literal (that is, he was in charge of breeding and nurturing edible plants), it's still quite a difference to being the spearhead of the invasion.
• Hive Mind: He is one. Cutting him up into little pieces does nothing more than let him spawn a litter of eyes, several of which he glued to the Stalker's corporeal form. There is a limit to to his expansion, though. He panics when the player's Warframe is about to break War, which is one of his pieces, and causes the Stalker to flee.
• Mind Rape:
  • Is able to brainwash Cephalons, burning out their consciousness, which is both introduced and demonstrated in Octavia's Anthem, with Suda.
  Suda: Sentients? But how did they know... What? He's just an Old War memory. Get out! I won't let you take-
  Hunhow: My body! My Children! I am HERE!
  • He did something to Natah's mind; after, she claims he "fixed" her after the Orokin had originally brainwashed her, but it is unclear if that is true, especially when Ballas and Erra are the ones behind Natah's Face–Heel Turn during the buildup to The New War.
• Never Trust a Trailer: In the "TennoLive2015: PAX East Reveal — Tombs of the Sentient" trailer, he menaces a Tenno from the skies, but in The New War, he has never left his ocean trench and planned to just die there (after causing some havoc remotely).
• Not Quite Dead: It spooked Tyl Regor right out of his skull when he realized Hunhow was still kicking.
  Tyl: ALL OF YOU RETREAT! NOW!
• Oh, Crap!: Has a moment when the player's Warframe is about to break War, freaking out and begging the Stalker to protect him.
• Out of Focus: Hunhow was not heard from again after his defeat in Octavia's Anthem, despite the game seemingly building him up as a main antagonist and the Sentients becoming more prominent in the events leading up to the release of The New War. Turns out that there was a good reason for him not being present for the invasion, as his son Erra had deliberately left him for dead on Uranus, perceiving him as a failure unfit to lead their people.
• Papa Wolf: What eventually gets him to agree to working with the Drifter. Hunhow isn't happy to be working with (who he sees as) a Tenno, but he cannot allow his son Erra and the manipulator Ballas to abuse and destroy Natah for good, whatever their plans may be.
• Rage Breaking Point: When the Drifter walks away from him to fight the Archons on their own, Hunhow is outraged at their seemingly suicidal foolhardiness. However, the Drifter fires back that Hunhow is just waiting to die while at least they trying to do something about stopping Narmer and saving Natah/Lotus.
  Hunhow: Vainglorious... Whelp! That's it?! Off you go to die?! You have NOTHING to fight these beasts with! I cannot guess how many lives a Tenno has, but you seem eager to lose another!
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: When he's finally met in the flesh in "The New War", his eyes glow a bright shade of red. They weren't always like this. Back in the Old War, his eyes and body-lights were blue.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: His name is likely a reference to Hun-Hunahpu from the Popol Vuh in Mayan Mythology, a god who was beheaded and imprisoned in the underworld Xibalbá, and whose remains were later recovered by his twin sons. The Popol Vuh is quoted in the Stolen Dreams and The New Strange quests leading up to his first appearance, while Hunhow's own remains were entombed beneath the waves of Uranus and recovered by his Sentient children to be forged into a weapon for the Stalker.
• Retired Monster: By the beginning of Act 2 of "The New War", he's resigned himself to be stuck in the underwater caves of Uranus, waiting to die. The Drifter convinces him to have one last go in an effort to save Natah and the system from Ballas, who is manipulating Hunhow's son, Erra.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Orokin or the Tenno were able to seal him in a tomb in the underwater caves of Uranus. As you can expect, this didn't last forever. It's unclear whether he's still stuck and limited to manipulating events remotely via agents like the Stalker, or whether he could haul himself free of the freezing depths but simply chooses not to. In either case, it seems unlikely Hunhow would survive long in a stand-up fight against any of the Origin System's major factions by himself, even as a powerful Sentient.
• Shadow Archetype: To the Lotus. Hunhow comes to use the Stalker as his enforcer and gives him new information, upgrades and weaponry just as the Lotus does for the Tenno, though Hunhow has much more malicious intentions than the Lotus ever did. He is essentially her if she never abandoned her original mission.
• Take Up My Sword: After the Drifter convinces him to help them, Hunhow gives them Nataruk, an Old War-era Sentient bow that can shoot immensely powerful arrows when its charge is correctly timed. It's also the only weapon in the Drifter's arsenal that can harm the Archons.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Hunhow is enormous, nearly as big as a Murex. His mate Praghasa, however, is absolutely titanic, making Murexes look like toys next to her.
• Villain Decay: As we see in The New War Hunhow goes from being the undisputed leader of the Sentients to being discarded and effectively imprisoned by Ballas and Erra, unwilling to act at all against his fellow Sentients and only using the Stalker to defend his lair until the Drifter convinces him to help. Even then, Hunhow takes no direct action after advising the Drifter and providing Nataruk, nor does he directly confront his daughter, his son, or the traitor Ballas. Justified in that his physical body is still buried in Uranus, and without Sentient troops to command, Hunhow is limited in what he can do.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's completely unknown what happened to Hunhow after "The New War", whether he went back to leading the remaining Sentients or decided to go back to doing nothing is unclear, but no mention is made of him after all is said and done.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: His physical body is predominantly red, unlike most of his kin.
• Worthy Opponent: Despite the fact that he was specifically trying to kill the Tenno the last time they met, he still holds them (and by extension the Drifter) in high enough regard to grant the Drifter an audience, albeit one with Stalker's Hate scythe at their neck until the Drifter makes their case.

The Eidolons

From left to right: The Teralyst, Gantulyst and Hydrolyst

Rising from the lakes at sundown and returning to them before dawn these simple-minded monstrosities roam the nighttime plains, howling, searching for a thing they can barely remember: completeness. Wholeness. An intelligence and malevolent purpose which, fate willing, they will never return to again.

— Codex Entry (Teralyst)

Once a Sentient fleet mind that assaulted the Unum's tower, it was killed by the original Gara. Its fragments still haunt the land near Cetus, giving them the name Plains of Eidolon. Known variants include Teralysts, Gantulysts and Hydrolysts.

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• The Assimilator: Planned to do this to the Unum and her tower when it realized Kuva could heal it.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Due to its sterility, the Sentient that became the Eidolons was exceedingly cautious in its attacks on the Plains. Once it realized the Unum's Kuva could partly undo this, well...
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The three large Eidolon types, whose wails and footsteps can be heard far across the plains.
• Battle in the Rain: Hydrolysts are always surrounded by a raging thunderstorm.
• Beam Spam: Gantulysts, whose unique attacks are comprised of these and heavily-damaging pillars of light.
• Death from Above: Gantulysts will bombard you with Beam Spam from above, quickly taking out any Tenno or Eidolon Lures in the way. Hydrolysts will soak the area in acid rain, doing less damage upfront but being even harder to dodge.
• Eldritch Abomination: As is to be expected with the Sentients. As with Hunhow, death seems to be gradient rather than an absolute state, with the Eidolon Sentient still trying to reunite.
• Flunky Boss: As the fight with Eidolons drags on more and more Vomvalysts will flock towards them, attacking the Tenno and also recharging Eidolon's shields. Left unchecked, they can overwhelm a team of Tenno through sheer numbers. Hydrolyst is able to create Vomvalyst Blooms that continuously spawn new Vomvalysts right on the spot and strengthen the existing ones.
• Hive Mind: Used to be one before Gara destroyed it. The Sentients on the Plains are all that's left of it.
• Hollywood Acid: Hydrolyst attacks often create pools of highly-damaging acid.
• Invincible Minor Minion: Vomvalysts, which are the most common and weakest type of Sentient in the game. Once killed, they turn into spectral entities that are completely immune to conventional forms of damage. They lost this status once you unlock your operator abilities, though, and their spectral forms can be absorbed by Eidolon Lures to charge them.
• Machine Worship: The Ostrons built a shrine in honor of the Gantulyst and see the Hydrolyst as an omen of natural disasters.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The Eidolon fragments are essentially undead Sentients; nearly mindless fragments of a massive, dead creature, lying dormant beneath the earth and waters of the Plains during the day, and emerging only at night to wander aimlessly, trying futilely to recombine into the creature they once were and blindly lashing out at any living thing that crosses their path.
• Posthumous Character: The Sentient that became the undead Eidolons is long dead, its name forgotten. It seems to have looked a lot like Hunhow, given the shape of its scattered remains.
• Puzzle Boss: Defeating and successfully capturing any of the full-sized Eidolons is an arduous task. Eidolon lures must be gathered from across the plains and charged with the ethereal forms of Vomvalysts. Then the Operator must shoot them with an Amp to whittle down the Eidolons' otherwise impenetrable shields. This leaves their Synovia vulnerable to weapons fire for a limited time. But after a Synovia shatters, the Eidolon will unleash a devastating roar that will quickly drain shields and energy if you don't either take cover or protect yourself with an ability like Rhino's Iron Skin or an Arcane Nullifier. Then you have to repeat this process for each and every Synovia to finally strike it down. Only, you also have to keep the lures alive, charged, and active even as the Eidolons bombard you with incredibly damaging and wide-reaching attacks.
• Rent-a-Zilla: The original Sentient must have been in the same size category as the Unum's tower, if its petrified fragments scattered across the Plains are any indication.
• Shock and Awe: One of the Hydrolysts' unique abilities, courtesy of the rain clouds they generate after appearing.
• Walking Wasteland: The Sentient that became the Eidolons.
  • The Eidolons somehow affect bodies of water on the Plains, causing them to deal energy-draining Magnetic procs to Warframes and the "shock of your life" to anyone else that enters them at night.
  • The Hydrolyst is powerful enough that its mere presence alters the weather around it. Its attacks can also leave pools of acid that quickly eat away at any Tenno standing in them.
• Weakened by the Light: Even as it was alive, it experienced pain at day and as such only attacked at night.
• Worf Had the Flu: Thanks to Gara's sacrifice, it is essentially constantly suffering this, making it far more manageable to deal with as splintered and fragmented, nearly dead pieces of itself rather than whatever its original form was.

Ropalolyst

"Rise Ancient Ropalolyst, my other-flesh. Your sacrifice will breed a new way for a new kind."

"Known and unknowable. This thing has haunted my life, waking and asleep, ever since I made that accursed bargain. A parasite at the core of my city. It drains my wealth, my power, my reactors... and my dignity.
This will not stand. I will see that horrendous thing destroyed.

I will be free."

— Alad V

A flying Sentient construct that is seen within the gaseous atmosphere of Jupiter, seen around the Corpus gas cities where it can be fought. It appears to be some sort of liason between the Sentients and Alad V in their cooperation. Drops parts for the Wisp warframe.

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• Bait-and-Switch: A variation - the central platform where you fight the Ropalolyst has a massive laser built into the floor. Players who've knocked the Ropalolyst out of the sky (and thus presumably disabled its ability to fly) will try to activate the laser to fry the sentient...only for it to fly away while the weapon's still charging. You're supposed to stun it first by hitting its weak spots (the elbows), then use the laser to roast it.
• Boss-Arena Idiocy: It decides to take the fight to you in a place that just happens to contain the machinery capable of destroying it. Natah implies that that's part of the plan, though. Alad's lines at the end of its boss fight also imply that its arena is directly below Alad's command center, giving it incentive to stay where it is.
• Boss Preview: Before you get to fight it you can randomly spot it in other missions on Jupiter as it wreaks havoc on the structure you're traversing before flying away.
• Colossus Climb: You can grab and climb onto its neck to ride it and even steer it in certain directions - as long as its shields are down. In fact, this is a required aspect of the fight.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Inflicted one on Alad V's forces in the past, singlehandedly and effortlessly eradicating an army Alad set out against it.
• Grapple Move: Once you down it, it can snatch you in one of its arms if you get too close. The only way to escape is switching to your Operator and back.
• Giant Flyer: It's only slightly smaller than a Teralyst, but is a very fast and nimble flyer.
• Enemy Mine: Alad V does not like dealing with this thing, so he advises you on how to destroy it even though he cooperates with the Sentients in general in that case. Because it's the thing that's forcing him to keep working with them; he knows how bad a situation he's in, and the Ropalolyst being gone will give him some breathing room to work on an escape plan.
• Energy Weapon: Similar to Eidolons, Ropalolyst's attacks mostly consist of various energy blasts.
  • Homing Projectile: Its most typical one is a swarm of small laser bolts that home onto players.
  • Wave-Motion Gun: But it also has more powerful direct beams that can quickly kill those caught in their path.
• Flash Step: As if it wasn't fast enough as is, it can teleport when it really needs to.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: According to Natah's monologue, the Ropalolyst dying at the Tenno's hands is the real reason it exists; its death will make it a martyr for the Sentients, spurring them to fight their ancient enemy much harder than before.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Early trailers for "The New War" showed a fleet of Ropalolysts ready to wage war on the Origin System. These are never even mentioned in the quest proper.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Even after you weaken its defenses and cripple it, the Ropalolyst is still too tough for your Warframe's weapons to destroy, regenerating to full health before you can kill it. You'll need to use your environment to do the job.
• Puzzle Boss: Defeating it requires an involved multi-step process to weaken its defenses and make it open to a finishing blow.
• The Quiet One: It has no lines of dialogue to the players, but Alad implies that is is intelligent and communicates with him somehow, making it this.
• Scenery Gorn: Its defeat completely ravages the area where you fight it, turning it into burning smouldering ruins.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The Ropalolyst is an incredibly complex boss fight that incorporates a variety of mechanics from the eidolons as well as ones that have never been introduced up until this point, forcing players into a desperate struggle to overpower it.

Erra

"Don’t be afraid."

"If I had a heart, it would be broken. If my eyes could weep, they'd be blind."

Natah's 'brother' and one of the Sentients that attacked the Origin system. He first appears in the eponymous quest of the same name, in a flashback to the Old War when he was assaulting Lua.

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• Animal Motifs: He has vaguely avian motifs in his appearance - with his spindly body, long digitigrade legs and face with large round eye-holes, a long beak-like protrusion and no visible nose or mouth he resembles an anthropomorphized bird skeleton.
• Character Catchphrase: In "The New War", his entrances are marked by a rather ominous "Don't be afraid." This is classically the first thing angels say when they appear to mortals in the New Testament.
• The Dragon: "The New War" reveals that he was this to Ballas all along, continuing to serve as his right hand in the Narmer empire.
• Establishing Character Moment: When he sees Varzia, who poses no danger to him and is trying to crawl away with her life, he callously grabs her by the head, lifts her to his face and starts squeezing, stopping short of crushing her skull only because the Lotus interrupts him. This tells us all we need to know about his attitudes and his dislike for "Bios".
• Eyeless Face: While appearing humanoid in the vaguest sense of the word, the head and face of Erra is very alien in appearance. His face does not possess eyes, rather only holding shapes similar to empty eye sockets. He noticably loses this trait in "The New War", where his sockets now hold tiny Narmer Veil transmitters that glow whenever he speaks.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In his first appearance during the Old War, Erra is trying to persuade the Lotus to come back to the Sentients. While he displays loathing and hatred towards the Tenno accompanying her (going as far as calling them parasites), he shows genuine pleading in his voice towards the Lotus, attempting to bring her back to their family. "The New War" shows that while he's ultimately responsible for Natah's death and transformation into an Eidolon, it's clear he's not happy about it and is grief-stricken at the idea of having to truly kill her to stop Ballas.
  Erra: "When... the Lotus reaches him, he will make her his puppet. Together, they will annihilate the Sun. And so, my sister, must... *sigh*"
• Even Evil Has Standards: Erra was completely fine with conquering the Origin System and enslaving its organic inhabitants with Lotus-Eater Machine masks, even willing to betray his own sister to do so. When Ballas decides to try and end all life by draining the Sun so he alone could jump to Tau however, Erra immediately turns on him and helps the Tenno reach the throne room to stop him.
• Evil Genius: Indicated to be the brains behind the Sentient side during the New War, as the Archons and Caliban were designed by him.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: This is why he helps the Tenno against Ballas. As much as he despises the former, Ballas is on the verge of destroying both the Origin and Tau systems.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Like Hunhow, Erra has a deep voice, which can be heard especially when he pleads with the Lotus within the very heart of Orokin power.
• Fantastic Racism: Well and truly hates the Tenno for stealing his sister, referring to them as bees or aphids at different points. He's not particularly fond of "bios" either.
• Fatal Flaw: Love. Erra deeply loves his sister, Natah, to the point that when she is apparently brainwashed into becoming the Lotus, he makes a deal with Ballas in the hope that he will be able to restore Lotus to Natah. It takes until the end of The New War for him to realize that Ballas might have vastly different interests in who he wants Natah to be, and that Natah might have willingly chosen to be the Lotus.
• Fight Off the Kryptonite: Last time we see him during the Old War flashback he's on the receiving end of several Tenno's void blasts. Seeing how he made it to the present time, this was not enough to kill him.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Briefly fights alongside you aboard Praghasa during the final moments of "The New War", trying to help you get to the last Archon so you can take its shard to save his sister and stop Ballas.
• Heel–Face Turn: Decides to turn against Ballas once he realizes the extent of his madness. If he's being truthful, then his dialogue when he briefly breaks free of Archon Pazuul's control suggests he regrets what he's done.
  Erra: "Tenno... I'm truly sorry... for everything. I saw the truth far too late. She will never forgive me. But you will... won't you?"
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "The New War", he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and holds up some debris so that the Tenno can reach Natah and Ballas. Not only is he being roasted by the sun while doing so, but the ceiling collapses on him moments later. "Veilbreaker" shows that although he survived, he was turned into Archon Pazuul, with only a small part of his consciousness remaining within him.
• Hero Killer: He kills Teshin at the end of the first act of The New War, after Ballas' attempt to brainwash him with a Narmer Veil fails.
• Horrible Judge of Character: His inability to understand the obvious fact that Ballas is crazier than a Kavat in a chicken coop almost gets the Origin and Tau systems wiped clean of all life. When he finally figures it out, he tries to stop Ballas, only to get killed for his troubles.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Ballas gives him a pair of these for The New War.
• Lean and Mean: His body is very lanky and inhumanly tall, and he's very mean to all non-Sentients.
• Left for Dead: A rare example of a villain benefiting from this trope. During the Old War, Erra survived being struck by six Void beams, courtesy of the Tenno. It maimed him so badly his own sister thought he was dead.
• Monster Progenitor: He created the Archons. He also designed Caliban, a Warframe.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Has a muted version of this when he realizes that he's put Ballas in a position to wipe out everyone in both the Origin System and Tau. This prompts an immediate Heel–Face Turn.
  Erra: My father was right... but it's too late. I cannot stop Ballas... No one can. Soon, my people... and yours too, will all be destroyed for the pride of one man.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His name becomes this once you learn that it comes from an Akkadian god of war and plague. Eesh...
• Puppeteer Parasite: Dialogue from Kahl and Lotus during Veilbreaker and the Archon Hunts implies that Erra is truly dead and that Archon Pazuul is controlling his corpse, although Spy mission dialogue hints that he's still alive and Pazuul simply keeps his personality dormant.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: As mentioned above, he's named after an Akkadian deity of war and plague.
• Remember the New Guy?: He's Natah's brother and son of Hunhow, though he is never mentioned or hinted at until his cinematic quest, despite being presumably revived around the same time as the other Sentients when Tyl Regor woke them up. For what it's worth, Natah seems genuinely surprised he's still alive.
• Rule of Symbolism: Erra has, on what would be a human, empty eye sockets. It's when they're "filled" with Narmer Veil devices that he's his most blind to Ballas's manipulative nature.
• Shadow Archetype: To the Tenno regarding the Lotus — Erra believes that his sister Natah was brainwashed to serve as the Lotus, while the Tenno believe that after being kidnapped, the Lotus was brainwashed into resuming being Natah. Both parties want to heal the Lotus, but in a manner that will make her closer to their idealized version of her. It's only at the end of The New War that Erra realizes that he was blinded by his love for his sister to the reality that a. she was Not Brainwashed and b. Ballas, who Erra was helping so he could "save" Natah, wanted a different idealized version of Natah. At this point, he makes peace with the Tenno and sacrifices himself so that the Operator/Drifter can truly save his sister.
• Slave Collar: Inflicts this on Ballas for extra humiliation. He later drops it after Natah is captured, allowing Ballas to stand to his full height, revealing the two are actually working together and the master/slave bit was just an act.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: A decidedly non-friendly example. That's Master Erra for you, Ballas. Of course, this was all just part of their act.
• Unexplained Recovery: According to Natah, he was in fact killed by the Tenno during the Old War and she is baffled that he's still alive. Erra brushes these concerns off, telling her that there are simply gaps in her memory from the restoration process. This is not explained in "The New War", despite his extended focus, though the assumption is that he was Not Quite Dead.
• The Unfought: Despite being built up as one of the main villains in "The New War", the Tenno never have a proper confrontation with Erra due to his Heel–Face Turn towards the end of the quest. Teshin technically gets to face off against him while fighting off the effects of the Narmer Veil, but their duel is a Hopeless Boss Fight that functions more like an interactive Cutscene Boss.
• Weak-Willed: Lotus considers him this, saying that despite his pride and desire to rule a kingdom of his own, Erra was unable to find it in himself to stand on his own and thus allowed himself to be used by Hunhow and then Ballas. Now he's lost what little autonomy he had left, being reduced to just a puppet for Pazuul to walk around in. Erra himself is still in there somewhere, but doesn't have the strength of will to reassert control.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Downplayed. From the perspective of the Sentients, Erra is this; the real reason he sided with Ballas throughout most of The New War was because he promised them prosperity and a bright future. Once he realizes Ballas tricked him and wanted to destroy everybody, Erra immediately turns on him and sides with the Tenno, fighting his own kin to help them stop the mad Orokin. That being said, to everybody else, Erra is still firmly positioned as a villain due to his callous disregard for biological life. That said, his father directly calls him out for siding with an Orokin, calling him "a Dax in every way but name!"

Warning: The following folders contain Massive Unmarked Spoilers for The New War.

Praghasa

Praghasa, the Devourer

"They seduced you. Used you. Took away your fire."

The Sentient mother, Hunhow's mate, Natah and Erra's mother, and the ultimate weapon the Sentients have in the Solar System.

While she herself is long gone, her body serves as the flagship for the Sentient and Narmer forces throughout The New War.

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• Almighty Idiot: She's nearly indestructible and can devour entire fleets and stars, but her mind is long gone and is little more than a living Doomsday Device.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The quest's final fight versus Ballas is set in the throne room he built on her, flooded with solar winds and light, the sky dominated by the Sun. As the fight progresses, a Void portal opens and starts swallowing Ballas' throne.
• Ambiguous Situation: How she fits into the family tree with Hunhow, Erra and Natah is rather... unclear, at best. It was indicated that Sentients reproduced by a form of fission, and Hunhow claims Natah came from his womb, and given their size difference, it'd be hard to imagine what other kind of reproduction Praghasa could do with Hunhow.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Sort of. Praghasa is quite capable of devouring the sun and killing the whole system. But she seems barely able to handle the strain of doing so, and is gradually being torn apart the entire time. This is possibly because she's actually no longer alive; see Posthumous Character below.
• Evil Is Bigger: Praghasa is absolutely titanic, making the Murex that you've encountered up to this point look tiny. Condrixes are ant-sized compared to her. Compared to a Murex, which are six kilometers wide, Praghasa's central body is easily over a hundred kilometers long and nearly ten kilometers wide.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Just like Hunhow, according to Natah, Praghasa used to be a carpenter. She was probably made to sculpt and create new trees for the planets in Tau.
• Meaningful Name: "Praghasa" in Sanskrit means "voracious" or "gluttonous", befitting her role as a star-devouring Weapon of Mass Destruction.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Downplayed. Praghasa is braindead, but her capabilities are very dangerous. She's not only far bigger than Hunhow or Erra, she's nearly indestructible and enormous, with the power to eat the Sun. Had she retained her higher functions, it's very likely she'd be able to pose far bigger a threat than either her son or her partner.
• The Mothership: A very literal example, being mother of Natah and Erra, and being a country-sized Living Ship.
• Never Trust a Trailer: In "The New War Teaser Trailer - TennoCon 2018", Praghasa seemingly has a speaking role, talking to Natah. Erra directly refutes her being alive in the game itself, though Natah may have been Hearing Voices.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Natah ramming a Murex in her neck barely made a hole on her hull. The explosive shockwave alone one-shotted the Railjack and it did nothing to her. The only damage she takes is due to her extremely close distance to the Sun, where the solar flares so intense that they punch holes through her inner structure.
• Noodle Incident: How Praghasa ended up braindead is never elaborated on, it can be assumed it was a result of The Old War, but it is not explained how such a thing happened.
• Posthumous Character: The Maker mini-quest indicates that Praghasa is braindead, with the ship you have to deal with at the climax of The New War actually being her lobotomized body.
  Erra: MOTHER'S GONE! *sigh* This is all that remains! But you have her fire, and more.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Like Hunhow, the lights that act as her eyes are crimson red.
• Star Killing: Praghasa was designed to eat the sun.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: As large as her mate Hunhow is, Praghasa makes him look like a toy by comparison.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: Praghasa's purpose is to eat the Sun, so by nature, she's a living extinction event.

Narmer

All... as one.

I stand before you... last of my kind. An orphan of Tenno massacres. But their violence did not end with me, did it? It carried on... to all of you. Grineer languished in their torture-plexes. Ostron clades starved for Tenno tithe. Corpus pupils weeping Tenno praise under blade. Solaris souls blackened the skies of Tenno foundries. But now is our time. An era of peace and security. The Devils have been cast out... And by the Void... The Tenno shall NEVER return!

— Ballas

An empire carved out by Ballas after the Sentients manage to win the New War. After completing The New War quest, they can be encountered as enemies in the highest level of Cetus bounties.

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• Apocalypse Cult: They venerate Narmer (Ballas) as either a God-Emperor or something similar, and view him as a martyr after his death even after he told them they would all die to fuel his voyage to Tau. This is somewhat downplayed after The New War, where Pazuul solely refers to Ballas as a Prophet who existed to give way to himself.
  Lotus (at the start of an Exterminate mission): Pazuul's faithful believed they can secure a place in sacred Tau if they massacre the unbelievers... *sigh* We have no choice but to break them with force.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: All organic members (Humans, Grineer, Solaris) wear Narmer Veils, strange masks similar to those of the Corrupted that taps into their memories and twists their perception of reality so that they see what they want to see, even if it's untrue. Artificial constructs like MOAs and Raknoids have horn-like energy runes floating in front of their heads, near their optics.
• Color Motif: As a faction created by an Orokin Executor allying with the Sentients, Narmer forces tend to be colored orange. They also have yellow as a secondary color, signifying how Ballas gets more benefits out of his agreement with Erra than the Sentients do.
• Cosmic Motifs: The Sun. Narmer-occupied towns and bases like Cetus, Fortuna and the Orb Vallis' Starport have solar discs that act as relays for the Narmer Veils, and Ballas's ultimate plan is to destroy the Sun and use it as a power source to reach Tau.
• Decapitated Army: Once Ballas dies, Narmer is thrown into disarray with most of its collective force falling apart and what few holdouts that remained organized attempting to carry on the war despite being overwhelmed. By the time of Veilbreaker, they've reformed under a new leader, Pazuul which is actually an Archon made from Erra's corpse.
• Fate Worse than Death: Most people who are not part of the cult see them as this. Eudico would rather be brain-shelved, itself another fate worse than death, than wear a Narmer Veil.
• Happiness in Slavery: After the New War, Eudico talks about how some Solaris put on their Veils by choice, because it was the first chance many of them had had to be happy, even if it came at the cost of their free will.
• "The Hero Sucks" Song: The second verse of "For Narmer" makes it clear it's not just about the blind praise of Ballas, but also an utter condemnation of Vox Solaris's principles of family and teamwork, calling it paramount to torture.
• Keystone Army: Averted Trope — while Ballas's death left Narmer without a leader, the Veils still function, and they now have a martyr to follow.
• Leitmotif: Narmer controlled areas have their normal background music replaced with the ominous track "Steel Horizon", which is one of the few tracks in the game to use the electric guitar. It includes a few beats from the beginning of "For Narmer" as well, establishing a foreboding sense of what is to come.
• Light Is Not Good: They have a solar motif and their energy colors are predominantly yellow, red and orange, and they're basically the Orokin Empire Back from the Dead.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Eudico's comments about how some Solaris willingly put on the Veils indicates that the visions these Solaris saw were comforting to them and that they didn't want to be free of them. Eudico's voice actor has stated that Eudico herself was subjected to this when she put on the Veil, seeing the entirety of Solaris United (including Legs's parents, whose deaths she feels responsible for) alive and happy.
• Madness Mantra: "All as One".
• Meaningful Name: A reference to the first pharaoh to unify Ancient Egypt's Upper and Lower Kingdoms.
• Mind-Control Device: They're mentally slaved to Ballas via the Narmer Veils on their faces.
• Mook Carryover: Narmer forces incorporate both Grineer and Corpus units as their own, in addition to Sentients.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: During The New War, Narmer Deacons are immune to most of what you can throw at them, turning any area where they're present into a Stealth-Based Mission since they're also an Instakill Mook. In Break Narmer missions, you may occasionally find ways to kill them, such as Shock Mines or the Veil factory's Plasma Torch, but otherwise, your only option is to dodge their line of sight.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Anything that involves Deacons will NOT be a pretty sight:
  • In The New War, getting spotted by a Deacon will cause the Drifter to have a Veil slapped to their face immediately by the Deacon. But during the segment where the Drifter has to infiltrate a Veil factory by putting on a Narmer Veil, since the Veils also double as an Explosive Leash, getting spotted by a Deacon will instead have the Deacon blow up the Drifter's head!
  • If Kahl is defeated by a Deacon, Kahl will not die, but instead be left paralyzed while the Deacon comes up to him and puts a Veil on his face.
• No Ontological Inertia: Barely subverted. Despite occupying most of the known Solar System and keeping a firm grip on it for an ambiguous amount of time, Narmer all but falls apart once Ballas is killed and Erra is missing in action. There are some remnants, but they severely pale in comparison to any other faction, and the Tenno are soon back on the job to make sure their power remains marginal in the Origin system. Justified in that the Narmer Veils they wear are shown to double as Explosive Leashes, and can be detonated accidentally if Ballas experiences extreme emotions, so it's possible a large amount of Narmer were killed off when he died due to feedback. Further subverted in Veilbreaker, where it is shown that Narmer still has plenty of influence, more Archons have emerged to stem their losses and Narmer now has a new leader.
• Not Brainwashed: Little Duck confirms that at least some of the Narmer Solaris put the Veils on willingly because it was the first time they felt happy, so it can be assumed that other members of Narmer also chose to wear the Veils.
• The Remnant: Once Ballas AKA Narmer is killed, his loyalists view him as a martyr and attempt to wage war on the system in his memory.
• Temporary Online Content: Narmer forces only appear on either the Plains of Eidolon or the Orb Vallis, and are tied to the Plains' Day-Night cycle — Narmer Bounties can only be taken from Cetus during the Day, while Narmer Bounties in Fortuna are only available once the Plains' night cycle is ongoing.
• Villain Song: For Narmer, sung by the Solaris during the intro for the mission Stolen Plates. In it, the Solaris praise Ballas as the wise and mighty ruler of all and that they will serve him as one.
• Walking Spoiler: Their presence spoils the fact that the Sentients won the New War and crowned Ballas as Emperor of the Origin System.

The Archons

Boreal, Amar and Nira, the Archons

"His trident strikes from a great distance... deadly, chaotic arcs."

"He will gnash his fang-blade, filling the air with deadly coils of flame."

"Her whip cracks with an Eidolon's wrath... bone-shattered shockwaves unleashed by every unfurling of its tip."

"Let me explain what you are up against, 'friend'. You see, the Archons were made by my son, Erra. Hybrid abominations of the Old War... raised from the blighted battlefields where Sentient and Warframe fell."

— Hunhow

Old War-era Prime Warframe Amalgams created by Erra, now used by him and Ballas to enforce the will of Narmer in the system.

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• Animal Motifs: All three are explicitly compared to animals both by the Drifter and Hunhow.
  • Boreal has an Ominous Owl theme - he's got a beaked head with large eyes, spends most of his time flying on wings, and has a powerful screech. His attacks, meanwhile, primarily inflict Electricity Damage^note Electricity/lightning is normally related to wind elements in video games if they don't have their own element. Boreal is the only Archon whose name alludes to his motif, as he shares it with the Boreal Owl.
  • Amar is themed around Savage Wolves, having a snarling canine maw and an extra set of clawed arms. He can charge on all fours like a wolf, and has the ability to summon a pack consisting of copies of himself, though instead of attacking with them, he forces players to destroy his decoys while he heals.
  • Nira is a clear example of Snakes Are Sinister - she has a serpentine head that her body is functionally a puppet of, inflicts Toxic damage, and her Press X to Not Die attack has her constrict the Drifter. Due to Nira's Warframe body being a shapely Mag Prime, this also counts as an example of Snakes Are Sexy.
• Back from the Dead: The Archons were apparently killed during the Old War back when they were Sentient Beasts, with Erra rebuilding them in preparation for the New War.
• Badass Armfold: Amar does it with both pairs of arms when his fight begins.
• Body Horror: Their original heads were replaced with a crystal and weird animalistic Sentient Puppeteer Parasites grew from them.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: They're fusions of Warframe and Sentient technology with some new abilities and an ability to No-Sell most things, but they still pale in comparison to actual Warframes... at least until the Archon Hunts, where they've gotten much stronger.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Boreal is cyan, Amar is red, Nira is yellow. Pazuul is red and orange.
• The Corrupter: While Pazuul is bad enough, it's stated that Nira is the one actively making him commit to his plans and making him more drastic.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: They're tough against most living things in the system, but in the form they take during "The New War", they're no match for another Warframe. If you have a reasonable build, the fight with the last Archon of the quest will be extremely one-sided.
• Deadly Gaze: Nira's strongest attack. She raises her head, her eyes glow and she roars, killing anything that is looking at her.
• Easy Level Trick: The Archons are still Damage Sponge Bosses thanks to their damage attenuation trait that increases their damage resistance after taking hits, but they can be managed with less difficulty if the player has Incarnon weapons, as the large head sizes of the Archons makes it easy to rack up multiple headshots to fully charge those weapons, with the Incarnon modes alleviating ammo needs since they don't need reloading.
  • Another of the few weapons that can take on the Archons is the Kuva Hek, with its four-barrel alt-fire shot being able to inflict as much damage to the Archon before their damage attenuation builds up.
• Face–Monster Turn: They were once guardians for the Sentients and Tau, when they were brought back as Archons, they became loyal to the Narmer cause and nothing else.
• Fighter, Mage, Thief: Amar, Boreal, and Nira respectively.
  • Amar is the most up-front fighter of the Trio, having several attacks where he charges at the Tenno/Drifter and uses either his claws or Nepheri to strike them, as well as multiple leap attacks.
  • Boreal prefers to hang back and uses abilties to do damage, occasionally teleporting to a better spot for fighting.
  • Nira is the one who uses her weapon the most, either for melee strikes or to fire toxic projectiles. Her skillset emphasizes her maneuverability and will gradually wear down even the toughest opponents.
• Flunky Boss: When they lose a quarter of their health, they protect themselves with a barrier and summon four Sentients to defend them.
• Gem Heart: They are brought to life by what's called an "Archon Shard", energy crystals that are basically jammed into the chest of their host body. Removing them is the only way to actually kill an Archon.
• Hates Everyone Equally: Boreal hates Erra for reviving him as an Archon, and he hates the Tenno for being the ones to kill him in the first place, and he doesn't really care about the Sentients he once protected either.
• Heal Thyself: All of them have a special move that allows them to heal themselves, which can be interrupted by careful actions on the player's part.
  • Boreal will scream and create a repulsion field that repels the Drifter and all of his attacks while he heals up. Using Smoke Screen negates the repulsion and allows you to get inside the field, where you can shoot him and instantly stop his regeneration.
  • Amar will summon clones of himself and heal up while the player tries to find the real one. Using Target Radar can reveal the real one, but sharp eyed players will notice that only one of the Amar horde is wielding his signature daggers.
  • Nira will generate a shield with Verdilac and heal up before launching a powerful shockwave. This heals less than her fellow Archon's powers, but can only be stopped with an attack from behind. In her Archon Hunt confrontation, she can summon Amalgam Phase Moas than can heal their allies, which includes herself.
• The Heavy: Despite their fearsome reputation, they're still nearly mindless on their own and just exist to serve Erra's commands. The Archon Hunts has them continue to fill this role, but their leader is now one of their own — Pazuul.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Nira is immune to your weapons when you first meet her on Earth, leaving the Drifter no choice but to run back to Ordis' Bolkor and escape.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: Amar's clones are perfect copies of himself... but only of himself. Thus, players can figure out which Amar is real by looking for the one that is holding Nepheri.
• It Can Think: Given that they return in Veilbreaker after Erra died and became one of them, it's implied they are more than just mindless puppets that follow Erra's directions. Pazuul, the Archon created from Erra's corpse, takes it a step further, being capable of speech and having taken the reins as Narmer's leader.
• The Man Behind the Man: Lotus suggests that Nira is this to Pazuul post-New War, theorising that Nira is the one who manipulates Pazuul and further feeds his delusional agenda.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Amar has four arms. His original Rhino Prime arms he wields Nepheri with, and a pair of longer, clawed hands that grew from his Archon Shard.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: For the The Drifter and just about most factions in the game, the Archons are a formidable threat (largely due to their inability to be harmed by anything that isn't the Nataruk or a Warframe), but against any decently built frame, they'll go down relatively quickly.
• No-Sell: When first fought in The New War, they are immune to conventional weapons. The only thing that can harm them are Nataruk or another Warframe.
• Playing with Fire: Amar's attacks deal Heat damage.
• Poisonous Person: Nira can spit poison that can deal Toxin and Corrosive damage.
• Power Crystal: At the base of their necks, where their Warframes' original heads once were, there are glowing crystals known as Archon Shards. Each Archon's lifeforce is tied to them. If the crystal is removed, the Archon will die and dissolve into nothing. Those crystals are used to heal Natah, and then can be embedded to a Warframe to provide a boost to one of its stats.
• Power Floats: All of them float above the floor. Nira and Amar stand on it when they use their melee weapons.
• Press X to Not Die: When on the verge of defeat, they unleash a powerful melee attack that has to be fended off with a repeated button press. Amar lunges and tries to bite you, Boreal does a bearhug and Nira uses her neck to crush and bite you.
• Puppeteer Parasite: The Archons grew from the heads of long-dead prime Warframes and reanimated their host bodies for their own use. This includes Erra himself after his death at the climax of "The New War", having been possessed by Pazuul.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: With the exception of Nira, the Archons continue the trend of Sentients drawing their names from differnet mythologies — Boreal is named after the wind god Boreas from Classical Mythology, Amar draws his name from Amarok, a wolf spirit in Native American Mythology, and Pazuul is presumably named after Pazuzu from Mesopotamian Mythology.
• Self-Duplication: Amar can create duplicates of himself, though they can't move or attack and mainly serve to distract the Tenno while he hides and recovers.
• Shrine to Self: At the very least Nira indulges in this - on Jupiter levels taken over by the Narmer and controlled by Nira you may stumble upon a room housing a huge edifice of her.
• Shock and Awe: Boreal's attacks deal Electric damage.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Amar taught Natah her skills of deception and mimicry, which was how Natah was about to become the Lotus, and from there, nearly everything changed for the Tenno, Orokin and Sentient themselves.
• Took a Level in Badass: When they return for the Archon Hunts, each Archon has gained new powers that allow them to outright excede Warframes in terms of threat level. All three of them come with damage attenuation that allows them to take concurrent hits like nothing.
  • While Boreal retains most of his original moveset, his sentient summons are now Aerolysts, which are not only much tougher than the Brachiolysts, Conculysts, and Battalysts that he summoned in "The New War", but are also invincible until their waist cannisters are shot out. He also gains a new pyramid shield to use when at low health, which requires specific aiming to destroy.
  • Amar also retains his original moveset, but gains the ability to produce two flaming shields as a final defense. Unlike with Boreal, these barriers are invincible, but can be shot through gaps when they rotate.
  • Nira is the same as the other two, with her final defense being to coat the area in poison. Additionally, she uses Amalgams for Mooks in place of normal sentients, including Amalgam Phase Moas, which can heal her.
• Unwanted Revival: All the Archons were initially Sentient Beasts before they were fused together with Warframes by Erra after their initial deaths, none of them are pleased about it. Especially not Erra himself.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Subverted. When first fought during "The New War", two of the Archons are taken down by the Drifter armed with Nataruk, and the third with a single Warframe. Come the Archon Hunts available in the Veilbreaker update, and all three have been upgraded to Damage-Sponge Boss status against up to four Warframes. That being said, they don't appear to have gotten much stronger physically, as while their attempts to grapple with/crush the Drifter required a Press X to Not Die event to counter, Warframes overpower their crushing attacks without such a sequence.
• Was Once a Man: They were once a Loki Prime, a Rhino Prime and a Mag Prime, and Sentient Beasts before Erra got his hands on them. Then Erra himself has his remains repurposed for Pazuul.
• We Can Rebuild Him: The Archon Hunts elaborate on Hunhow's comments during "The New War", revealing that originally, the Archons were animalistic Sentients created on Tau in memory of extinct species from the Origin System. When the Archons fell in battle with the Tenno, Erra rebuilt them using the corpses of their foes. The Archons weren't happy with this, believing themselves to be "abominations" for being built out of their sworn enemies.
• Winged Humanoid: As part of his owl motif, Boreal has a pair of wings.

Pazuul (Post-The New War Spoilers)

Pazuul, the Ram

Kahl: "Body is dead worm. Head like animal."

"I am Pazuul of Narmer. I abjure the Void that scalded my Father's womb. I abjure the Golden Makers. I abjure the Kuva, and the Kuria. I abjure the mannequin and the eyeless. My doctrine shall be a devouring. Let Narmer draw unto herself, all things. Veils to swallow the mind, vessels to swallow the body. A mighty maw to swallow all, and bear us to Tau, as one."

—Narmer Propaganda Drone, post-New War

The new leader of Narmer's remnants following the death of Ballas. He is actually Erra who, after his sacrifice in The New War, had his remains fused with a ram-headed Archon.

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• Ambiguous Situation: Its unclear just how much of Erra is left in him, but there's a lot of overlap between the two. Pazuul notably talks to the Lotus as if he were Erra or at least believes himself to be, but one piece of dialogue shows that Erra is a separate entity and has his consciousness suppressed by him.
• And I Must Scream: A part of Erra is revealed to still be conscious and aware within Pazuul. During Archon Hunt Spy missions, he manages to assert control long enough to beg the Tenno and Lotus for forgiveness for his crimes before Pazuul takes back control.
• Animal Motifs: Pazuul is the epitome of the Gruesome Goat - his ram-shaped head evocative of portrayals of satanic figures that tempt others to succumb to their desires. The ram-shaped head combined with humanoid Sentient limbs, in this case Erra's, brings one's mind to the sinister portrayals of satyrs as well.
• Arch-Enemy: To both Kahl and the Lotus. Kahl for enslaving his brethren, and Lotus for essentially defiling her brother's remains and puppeteering his corpse.
• Arc Villain: Of the "Veilbreaker" quest and is likely going to be this for the Narmer storyline going forward.
• Ax-Crazy: Pazuul is not all there, to put it mildly. Half the words that come out of his mouth are bizarre ramblings and strangely worded prophecies.
  Pazuul: "Bite my head clean off, mother! That's where the good meat is! Suck the guts until the little legs kick, kick, KICK!!"
• Came Back Wrong: Erra actually did die when he shielded the Tenno from the Sun's heat at the end of the New War... then his remains were bonded to an Archon.
• Copycat Mockery: In a successful Sabotage mission, Pazuul scoffs at Lotus' "Objective achieved. Well done." by repeating it in a mocking tone.
• The Dragon: If his ramblings are correct, he's this. Not to the late Ballas like his host, but to the Lords of Tau back home. Fittingly, while to the original Narmer was focused mostly on glorifying Ballas, Narmer under his control is absolutely obsessed with Tau and delivering all mankind to it as slaves.
• Eco-Terrorist: Kahl describes him as this.
  Kahl-175: Vay Hek try to kill forest but grow new brothers. Pazuul want grow new forest but kill brothers.
• The Evils of Free Will: The Narmer Veils take away the free will and individuality of those that wear them, which Pazuul describes as giving freedom from both responsibility and desire to those that surrender to it, asking if that is truly so terrible. Interestingly, he also says that he himself surrendered to it as well.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Naturally, since he uses Erra's body, but Pazuul's influence causes Erra's already deep voice to become even deeper. When Erra briefly frees himself to speak, he does so with his normal voice.
• Fantastic Racism: Erra already disliked organic life like his father, but Pazuul seems to exaggerate all the worst parts of Erra's personality, racism included. He outright refers to humans as "filth-born" with seething hatred in his voice at one point.
• Karmic Transformation: The Archons hated being revived by Erra to be tools in the New War, so it's only fitting that Erra's body is turned into an Archon as well, with Erra's mind trapped and helpless.
• I Shall Taunt You: Pazuul will throw lots of barbs at the Tenno during missions, just as any other boss would. Unlike the others, though, he'll also throw barbs out at the Lotus, and even directly counter certain statements she makes.
• Narcissist: Not unlike his predecessor Ballas. Anytime his dialogue isn't about the glorious purpose he serves or disturbing insane ramblings, it's expecting adulation and worship from his flock and more importantly his family. It simply manages to be even more terrifying when combined with his surreal personality compared to Ballas' more grounded and realistic take on narcissism, and funnily enough, in one of his propaganda speeches he praises Ballas as a prophet... who died so that Pazuul might rule Narmer as king.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Possibly. Lotus and Daughter speculate that "Pazuul" is actually the ram head itself, using Erra's corpse as a puppet. Confirmed by a transmission during an Archon Hunt spy mission, where Erra apologizes to the Tenno for everything and asks for their forgiveness.
• Remember the New Guy?: As an Archon, Pazuul must've been a Sentient Beast or something similar before his fusion with Erra's body, but there's nothing indicating Pazuul even existed until after "The New War" has concluded.
• Satanic Archetype: His head is the shape of a ram, constantly spouts propaganda tempting others to join an Apocalypse Cult, and even paraphrases the Bible for good measure.
• Self-Serving Memory: He claims that the Tenno/Drifter left him behind to die, despite the fact that they did turn around and Erra sacrificed himself willingly.
  "You abandoned me. In the hour of my sacrifice, you turned your face away. And so, there is no place for you in the eternal fields of Tau."
  • Listening to his transmissions during the Archon Hunt Spy Mission reveals Erra is aware of what happened and is truly regretful, but Pazuul literally changed his own memories to be more self-serving.
• Sinister Minister: The leader of an Apocalypse Cult of brainwashed followers, preaching his gospel about the sins of man via Narmer Propaganda Drones. He even calls himself a "shepherd and minister".
• Sore Loser: Pazuul is prone to some hilariously petty and childish outbursts whenever his operations are thwarted.
• The Unfought: Unlike the rest of the Archons, players do not have a chance to take on Pazuul himself.
• Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to talk about Pazuul without revealing what happens to Erra at the climax of The New War.
• We Can Rule Together: When he's not threatening or taunting Lotus over the comms, he's inviting her to join him.

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