What We Know Warframe Lore - Whispers in the Wall, the Cavia, and the Indifference 

Fun fact, the eyes in the walls follow the camera around, not your warframe. so they are directly looking at you, the player.

I do appreciate how DE didn't just make Albrecht a good guy. He's still very much an Orokin as shown by his actions.

I feel like one of the most important thing we often miss when we think about Albrecht's initial meeting with the void is that up until to that point Albrecht was an Orokin, with all the sins, hubris and decadence that comes with it. He had performed continuity before the bell experiment, he had chosen a young and beautiful child among hundreds, mayhaps thousands, and said to himself, "Yes, this body will be my next". He had consciously and maliciously decided to end a life, a child's at that, in a celebration of supremacy of the Orokin. He was a highly functional psychopathic man child, like nearly every other manchild Orokin that ruled over their golden empire. It wasn't until his brush with a nigh incomprehensible death that he had changed. This monstrous man, filled with malice and catharsis, with power and prestige and vindication fueling his dreams was the very first thing that the Indifference came into contact with. Is there any wonder why Wally specifically chose children for giving them the deal, any wonder why He feels such delight in watching our torment, any wonder why the supposed Indifference laughs at us, taunts us, eggs us, the Tenno, on throughout our journey? Loid was right, the Indifference we faced during the Kalymos sequence was Albrecht's monster. In every way it mattered.

I love that while the void is represented as the "great indifference", that is entirely Albrecht's doing, since before a conscious observer entered the void unprotected, it *was* nothing. It's a great & unique way to explain how a quantum/fourth dimensional being such as the Man in the Wall, could become reality in a universe such as Warframe.

It premieres in 12 hours, this... is what we know

I really really love how whisper in the walls is tying everything together in an almost beautiful way, how the father comes to understand the genius of his daughter by experiencing her work manifested first hand but is also unable to stop her from following his own mistakes as she tries to live up to his shadow is both beautiful and tragic.

That final moment between the Vessels was just so heartbreaking. DE really did a beautiful job on the facial animation in that scene. The pain, sorrow, relief, confusion...you can see it written all over the Vessel's face when we simply reach out and gently touch its check. I'm not too proud to admit it made me cry a little. As a person who has, and continues to go through, some serious trauma a lot of the story of Warframe hits me in a way it might not for other people. Being a kid trying to make sense of things happening to you that you have no control over and didn't ask for to begin with, much like the Operator. Even the Drifter, essentially our adult form, carries the trauma with them. Though there are bright spots, victories, and moments of healing...the trauma is always there, a viper in the grass waiting for the perfect time to strike. It's never truly and fully destroyed. I think DE tells this story so beautifully even if it is covered in a thick coat of sci-fi woo woo weirdness; it never feels like trauma is mishandled or tossed casually around to be shocking. It's handled with respect, it's held gently, and for players like me it works damn hard to avoid triggers and slipping into fatalistic doom. For as awful as the world of Warframe is there are things with fighting for. And sometimes that's enough to help me keep pushing forward in my real life.

I wonder if the Void's copying of what comes into contact with it will be the ultimate meaning behind the alignment compass we still have no clue about for story quests. Albrect reacted to the void with terror and fear and a nature otherwise filled with indifference, so it became hostile and vicious. In the end, perhaps when we finally meet it proper, what choices we've made about the personality for our character will decide whether it copies us as something good, neutral, or evil - spelling salvation, continuation, or doom for the system. Until then, this is what we know.

I think Mara might actually mean Demon as the name comes from two different sources. The first source is the Buddhist Mara who's a demonic being of anti-enlightenment and his adversarial role to Buddha's teachings is comparable to the Christian Devil's adversarial role to God. The second source is the Germanic Mara AKA Mare which is a malevolent spirit said to bring nightmares to those it rides on top while they sleep similar to succubi/incubi. The Operator seems to play both roles but the original roles of those Maras are twisted. For the Buddhist Mara, they play a key role in causing the collapse of the evil Orokin empire by turning the warframes against them, rebelling against the enlightenment of the Orokin. For the Germanic Mara, they were able to tame Excalibur Umbra by tapping into his memory turned nightmare and bring a sense of empathy and understanding that takes his pain away from that burning memory, essentially soothing the nightmare. There are other factors, such as the fact that the Operator is referred to as the Void Demon by the Helminth. Not to mention that Ballas calls them the Devil and says in The New War that he can't kill the Devil but send it back to Hell (the void in this context). All of this adds credibility to the idea that "Mara" means "Demon" so "Mara Lohk" does indeed translate to "Void Demon".

I do like how you've interpreted the Indifference. It existed in a manner before Albrecht, but because it absorbs what enters, his presence allowed it to exist and think in a way it never could before. And I like how you noted that it "feigned" aloofness. It's definitely not as indifferent as its name implies. And yeah, gaining an awareness it wasn't meant to have definitely hurt it, and with how strong it is, it couldn't figure out what was happening without hurting others. It was met with hostility, and so now it dishes it out in return Ultimately I think the Tenno will end up pacifying it. Not only does it line up with the story, but it's a good way to end the threat while keeping the Void powers. If the Indifference becomes a proper ally. Plus, the idea of an eldritch abomination becoming docile could be interesting

It's crazy that when you think about it, Albrecht is the single most important and central figure to the entire story of Warframe, without his actions none of the events so far would have happened the way we experienced them, from the Zariman to the Lotus to Ballas to the warframes to Rell, all of it.

All this talk about time made me think and look back about where I was around a year ago. I was just looking at playing a game about cool looking space ninjas, and now here I am, contemplating the possibility of healing the pain of an eldritch being that was forced into reality.

It kind of reminds me of the story of CLU and Kevin Flynn in Tron: Legacy. Flynn creates CLU to create the perfect system but at the time he didn't understand that there is no such thing. CLU is angry because he had been delegated this task. Its all he knows. Like the Void all it got from Albrecht is his coldness. It isn't even given a directive to follow. Its not until we commandeer the vessel and gently caress the void controlled vessel that it defuses the confrontation. I feel that the ending confrontation of will require Albrecht possibly sacrificing himself. That running from it only makes it stronger and more determined to consume everything. Of course, time will tell what path the story will take but I do see some parallels. "We End As We Began." Thank You for another awesome look into the lore, StallordD.

This part of the lore is going to be wild

Would it be possible to assume that what we call "The Void Entity" / "The man in the wall" was partly created back in that 1999 by the very decision of Albrecht to return to that year, in which, with our help of course, in some possible future quest, the Old Entrati manages to entrap it into nothingness again, by sacrificing himself. And then, in that new time thread, leading somehow to the possible future of the Orokin civilization, it will be rediscovered and uleashed by the young Albrecht, still experimenting with the Void in his laboratory, repeating the story again and again for eternity? Could it be that the stories of the Quills of Cetus for the Old Gods long forgotten (Quill Onko and Gara quest) , are referring to that time in the past when the Void entity was somehow able to catch up to Albrecht in 1999, leaving enough signs for the present people in that era to create and tell stories, which were able to reach even the Quills in modern post Orokin era? Could it be that the words "We End As We Began" are related to a never ending cycle of unleashing and entrapment of this entity by Albrecht for eternity, and with every repeated cycle it gains more power to bend the laws of Time and Continuity, but with these constant eternal boring repetitions, hidden among nothingness for most of its existance, longing for any type of encounter, it innevitably turns into the "Indifference" itself?

Bro.. There are a lot of warframe lore guys but I believe you deserve the most views. Been following you for a long time (8 years) and your lore videos are the most accurate to my understanding of what the warframe lore is. You deserve way more recognition. Will like and share with friends.

The king is back! And he has brought 45 minutes of lore galore! Thanks for the upload, the effort, the quality content. Much love!

Timing couldnt be better. Literally just rolled a green cig warmed up a bowl of gumbo and came on YT for something to watch and saw this🎉.

I think one small tidbit that is worth mentioning is that the reason why the Kalymos Sequence was activated in the first place is because of the massive Void portal Ballas recklessly opened up at the end of The New War. As noted on Albrecht's computer next to Loid in the Sanctum Anatomica, this gave the Indifference a lot more room to express its influence in the material realm, essentially ringing a massive alarm bell that forced the Kalymos Sequence to be enacted before it is too late.

It could also be that Albrecht did not land in 1999, but far earlier, and the Orokin script became a way for him and possible associates to communicate in secret, as a form of cypher.

Im still certain its a Link to "Dark Sector" now. Even if they vehemently said that it ISNT linked to Dark Sector, Arthur basically confirms it by beeing Excalibur same as Hayden Tenno was. Its not the EXACT Dark Sector, but similarily enough!

Fun fact, most of the orokin towers in the void were meant to shelter people from sentients during the war and fall of the empire

Albrecht's skin color is odd. It's clearly blue when he touches Loid's face, but it looks less blue at other times.

I'd like to believe that the titans of albrecht's labs were designed just to go out and throw hands towards a formed indifference and it's fragmented tides Just a whole lotta gigantic guys and perhaps too much anger to contain

Warframe loremaster at it again 🔥

Thank you. I didn't even know 1/10th of all that stuff. This is coming from someone that's 8.5k+ hours into this game. Also I think that 1999 is at least partially designed to let DE 'reclaim' Dark Sector. If you search around it's not clear who actually owns Dark Sector. Is it D3? Is it ND Games? Is it DE? You won't be able to find a clear answer. But by redoing the events of Dark Sector via 1999, DS would just become one of the many strands of Eternalism while allowing those basic events to be a prequel to Warframe. That's my theory anyways. Thank you again dude!

Saying the plague year is 1999 makes me question: how far is waframe in the future and why did we winded up back to 1999? I prefer to believe that this 1999 is in fact our 1999, and that the scriptures are just how the tenno percieve the writting, not actual orokin writting.

Always look forward to your videos. I'm very happy that you've continued to be interested in this story and share your thoughts about it in a cool way. This one was no exception. Thank you!

Thank you for this. A lot of the deeper connections and symbolism eluded me while playing through the Whispers in the Wall content, and this cleared up a lot of the questions I had. Like why it ended the way it did.

thank you for tying things toghether. its sometimes hard to feel confident in one's own interpretation of the quests and what they try to convey so having it layed out and explained so cohessively is honestly a blessing

This deserves my subscription! Excellent work!

Thanks for the somewhat succinct and eloquent overview of the recent lore!

Always looking forward to your lore videos, amazing

Once again an absolute banger, there is no other warframe lore channel that I turn notifications on and actuvely wait for the premiere of videos

Thank you very much for continuing to make these lore summary videos. I've been watching alot of TheDsEIGE recently and its so annoying how much he rambles about meaningless nonsense and then ends his videos without ever actually saying anything and frequently misunderstanding directly stated information. It just feels good to finally have good lore videos again.

I'm not sure where the appelation "World of Dust" came from, but damn is that a cool way to describe the physical realm

This video is exactly what I've been looking for. Thank you 😁

I love your videos i cant wait for a full recap tbh when we know everything

Excellent! Now I finally fully understand what's going on with the whole Albrecht-Void-Tenno situation. Welcome back Stallord!

Heyyy I was waiting to listen to this. Good to see you're still in the game and I love your lore episodes. Hope you're having fun making them as much as I have fun listening. Thanks a lot for those

One tiny note: Netra does say 'digits" plural on the floor of the lab. But Wally in New War only has one finger missing so not sure which is the truth.

My best guess so far is that Albrecht as the first being ever to enter the void was the one that gave it some sense of form, something that it had never known before. If we look at how the void acts, it does share a lot of similarities with the younger Albrecht. It is eager, greedy, seeks to conquer and to explore. Same as Albrecht did everything he could to harness the void for his (the Orokin's) benefit, the void in return now does the same with the world of dust. The only being (so far) ever to merit the voids attention as much as Albrecht, is the operator we control. Though I am nor yet certain whether we are simply a tool for it, a means to sneak further into our reality, or if our Tenno, same as Albrecht, has imprinted parts of itself onto the void, altering its being into a mix of both Albrecht and us. It is also possible, that the void is shaped by everything from our reality it comes into contact with and we are only a tiny part of that. Gotta say, I love the WF lore, but the eternalism and indifference parts do erode some of my enjoyment. The more I learn about the void, the less I feel I understand the lore, and the more likely it seems to me that the only conclusion that they will be able to have at the end will be something so vague or complex that it will not make for a satisfying conclusion to this wild journey. WF lore for me lives a lit through never knowing everything that is going on, same as a good TV series, but in the end there always is a conclusion and the more mind-breakingly twisted the story has become before that, the more likely the conclusion will be unsatisfying. At least in my experience so far. One solution would be to never explain everything fully, leaving some stuff open for interpretation in the best case, or simply not putting in a conclusion in the worst case. I'm not sure if I like either. It's a paradox that I both somehow want to understand it all, and yet know that I will like WF less once I do, because the mystery has finally been solved. Everything will end eventually, even a mghty long-living game like WF. I hope we are still long away from that point and I do trust that DE will manage to continue their track record of twisting my brain with their lore. I just hope that in the end I will be able to look at decades of playing WF and enjoying the lore and feel contended. Great video, you should do way more like these. It is truly a pleasure to listen to you, even if it's just tiny lore tidbids here and there about minor characters or irrelevant content pieces. Super awesome, I hope you continue these so I can always come back and get your interpretation of the latest WF lore bites

The MR. Stall D himself

The Man in the Wall's appearance in the New War is based on the blueprints for the Vessels, and the giant finger in the Zariman Reliquary probably matches one of the Vessels- severed from the Man in the Wall before the project even properly began. Each railjack uses a cloned finger from a vessel, imbued with the energies from the original finger. Wally shouldn't be asking where his finger-bones are, he should be asking NE KHRA NOMA ELU RA KAH, MARA LOHK?

Hey want to say goodjob on the video, been watching you for many years, i come back to warframe every now and again. Find that my meta stuff still works in Netracell and enjoy story but dont play long anymore to get those collectibles. So out of the kindness of my heart thank you.

Okay, I had to stop watching about 10 minutes before the end because I only just finished the opening quest last night, but this was an awesome video! I can't wait to come back to this video after I play more missions and unlock stuff, as well as check out your other content.

The 'what I expected' to 'what I got' from this game is *WILD* Incredible video. I don't usually have the time to grind for every bit of information, so I miss a lot of the weird, but deep lore of Warframe. Instant like

Was holding Elie Wiesels book "Night" when you quoted him. Got paranoid for a second. Nice video, thanks for the work 👍

I simply don't buy DE is not slowly canonizing Dark Sector. Like, ain't no way they just choose year 1999 just cause, a close year to Dark Sector's setting and then add Great Plague to the setting, just as homage to the series. Like, it's just lines up perfectly that Great Plague didn't just start out of nowhere, but it's continuation of what we saw in Dark Sector. Could it be that after ending of the game, Hayden Tenno being recovered by US military from scuffle with USSR, he started to mutate further OR US intelligence started to experiment on him to weaponize infestation which then spiralled out of control, thus Hayden becoming source and Patient Zero and cause of 1999 Great Plague? Would explain how Ballas found that perfect Helminth strain that creates Warframes, it's from OG himself. Like it simply fits.

you make me apreciate the fumbled way warframe lore is told through the game and media just so I can be spoon fed it's lore by you

So, in 1999 when the New Years Eve was happening, the Y2K was not just a technological global crash but was the Infestation Virus taking over the world?

Dude i want to go to sleep but then you pop up you sir are a good reason to stay up

45 minutes, great! I know what I'm watching tomorrow while having my morning coffee. Cheers!

Amazing as always

oh fuk the Jahu Gargoyle is a chimera of all the Cavia animals sent to the void lol

Warframe motivated me to start studying harder than ever, because the nonsense garbage random big words and 40 hours of cutscenes genuinely makes less sense than my university level physiology classes, its easier to get a job in academia than it is to get to archon quests while trying to know whats going on.

Fantastic work as always stallord ❤

Brilliant, been playing 6 years and only learning now

A lot of what is mentioned here is what I was assuming atm (assuming as I had no idea there were also the readable passages, being too occupied grinding for stuff) My wild guess atm at the question posed by the Indifference, is that we as Tenno are not the original children of the Zariman. we are in fact beings just like the Indifference. Void given flesh. for a easy analogy, take Alex Mercer from the Prototype series. We are the Blacklight Virus (void beings), but are unaware of it due to our personality and memories being copies of the original Children of the Zariman.

We must all remember that Albrecht is still an Orokin. Orokin==asshole. Once he first entered the void, it copied him and took on all it could, therefore also becoming an asshole. So what would have happened if someone that wasn't as morally bankrupt as an Orokin entered the void first? Say, an honorable Dax? A caring mother or even a child?

The audio logs in duviri describe Albrecht as "wearing his like a bunch of snakes" which lines up the the paintings and depictions we see pre-wispers. Maybe he just reneged on his plan not to do continuity anymore.

Albrecht the type of guy to influence the past enough so we have Technology advanced ninjas but not computers that support date formats past the year 1999

Haven’t seen a Warframe lore video in ages

I was waiting for this.

This was a great video. There were some details I had missed. I like that, at this point, even though Albrecht is shown to be an extremely intelligent and insightful guy, his many flaws always keep him from seeing the big picture. I hope that they keep this dynamic going forward and don't make him a guy who has read the script. One thing that wasn't touched on was his tone on the vessels fragments. While he has his goals and plans when creating the vessels, once again we see him being struck by the same hubris. He needs an operator, but to him the operator is a tool. Albrecht is the one who will figure it out, he's the guy playing 4d chess with the chthonic void entity. Even though he learned a lesson from Euleria's stories in Duviri, he hasn't stopped thinking of himself as the only one who can do anything about the MitW. I hope his arrogance plays a big role in 1999 when it comes out.

Thank you!

Great vid bro.😺

love these videos

Good to hear you again, Stall.

the lore master is back!

Honestly I feel bad for the Cavia who lost its mate, seeing the creatures reaction made me nearly shed a tear.

I'm thinking 1999 may be drawing on inspirations from Dark Sector. Not that they are the same timeline, but that these two games are finally converging in some small way.

New video on prime day❤

Something I would like to point out about when we reach the epiloge .Is that when introduced void version of Albright shows up our void self stops smiling This might imply that each instance of an individual exposed completely to avoid creates a whole new void entity

Its time to deep-dive into warframe lore again yes honey

You know, Imma be real mad if the MitW's void tongue question is just "you mad at me, kiddo?"

You know it could make sense why the infestation in our orbiter knows so much about

Can i argue against the human depiction of Albrecht by saying that our wallter clone is of how we looked when we were exposed to the void in it's entirety. Pair that with Albrecht being a lower tier member of the caste society at the time, he wouldn't have access to the augments that we see Neil De'glass Tyson and Ballas. So, i believe that the 'human' Albrecht is merely Wallter's mimicry of him when his void diving bell broke, and as such, has manipulated Loid into bringing them into "the one place he cannot reach", furthering Wallter's conquest, hence Albrecht's ominous and Wallter-like smile when he arrives

I loved when we got to play as Hayden Tenno from Dark Sector!

4:23 I always wondered how we had so many fingers (multiple locations, every Railjack, every Void-ready Spaceship), if only 1 was cut off. Good to know!

Can’t wait!

Man, I thought Wispers In The Walls WAS 1999. Glad it isn’t!

I think the reason Albrecht doesn't look as Orokin as he does in his portrait, is that he intentionally scaled back his augmentations in order to blend in with 1999. As to the orokin script in 1999, I think this is filtered through the Tenno's perception, making any writing only look like orokin script to the Tenno.

lets gooo new vid!

It should be noted that Dark Sectors, a game made previously buy Digital Extremes. Was set in the year 1999.

wait a minute where's that finger I never saw that 😳, I must admit this the best lore Video I've seen thus far. thank you

I feel like I need a "what we know" video explaining this "what we know" video.

HE'S BACK BABY

Mara meaning kiddo makes a bit too much sense. I like that

I think maybe Albrecht's grand plan might be aiming at going back and preventing his initial encounter with Wall-E, essentially snuffing out the spark of the Void's hunger for the Origin System before his past self had the potential to even begin lighting it

THE WF LORE guy is back baby!!!!!

The first thing to enter the void should have been a golden retriever

Oh boi, this Is gonna be good.

Though the gameplay is already completely burnout for me, the lore and story of this game continues to surprise me. Someone in DE really put all their love and soul into this grand fictional world.

It does make me curious of what Seriglass is since apparently it could shield someone from the void.

The way The Man In The Wall came to be reminds me of the lore of the League of Legends void and The Watchers who were awoken because of reality existing. A simplistic version but interesting nonetheless in how reality could be corrupted by the void but the void could be corrupted by reality which is how Bel'veth came to be and how The Watchers were able to take on form and invade reality in the first place. I've see some parallels in Warhammer 40k with the Immaterium/The Warp as a realm of thought. It's interesting how all have a similarity in that all are quite literally a void in dual sense. If it is truly nothing then it is also everything in a way. Probably not completely but an useful way to think of it. Kind of reminds me of some sayings about the Dao in Daoism such it being like water or air in that it takes shape based on the form it inhabits or molds around.

A potential translation idea for TMITW’s question: Voull ne xata vok Mara lohk? What/which truth do you want/seek void orphan/child/demon? Given that the question is repeated multiple times as if trying to get a decisive answer on top of syllable matching in the words, it seems the void is asking us what we want or why we’re fighting it

Gentleman it's time to gather for the Lord of lore has returned

That was so good

Regarding his appearance, he says that one is simply his final continuity and he won't do it anymore, that vessel was his last. Pretty sure that also meant he did not wish to continue with the Orokin tradition of extreme body modification.