Archaic Weapons

The Old War found humanity facing a technologically superior force, and their own weapons were turned against them. Melee and ballistic weapons, inspired by primitive counterparts, became part of the Tenno arsenal to circumvent the Sentient interference of more technologically-involved weaponry.

Ceres

Ceres is the extreme example of the Grineer’s utilitarian ignorance of the natural landscape. Their expanding shipyard operations pollute and shroud the planet in smog and industrial waste as they manufacture machines of war. These foundries are scattered across the Origin System, giving them near-limitless reach with their fleets.

Citizens

While the major warring factions combat each other across the Origin System, non-militant organizations and civilian merchants populate the many regional Tenno Relays. Travelling merchant collectors that offer rare goods, mentors that offer training and knowledge, and convictional syndicates that preach their own rituals and doctrine.

Corpus

Lead by innovatory and elusive industrialists, and claiming to be descendants of Orokin lineage, the Corpus are dedicated to the accumulation of wealth. This elite ruling class operates an insular trade organization using humans and robotics for labour and security, and have been condemned by the Seven as a merchant cult.

Corpus Crew

Predominantly a merchant guild, Corpus labour and security forces are composed mostly of purpose-bred humanoid crewmen, and animal-like robots; both equally indoctrinated into a ritualized and propagandist devotion to labour and work.

Corpus Weapons

Weapons research and manufacturing is a large component of Corpus industry. Their designs are clean and precisely engineered, and they are the largest supplier of energy-based weapons in the Origin System. These cunning profiteers prefer to avoid conflict in times of war, dealing arms indiscriminately to any side that can afford the price.

Dojo

Newly awakened, and with no permanent location to call home, Tenno warriors have aligned to construct secret temples of their own. The architecture within is distinctly Tenno in origin, but these hidden palaces of bonding, training and meditation are undeniably influenced by Orokin architecture.

Earth

Earth has been long abandoned due to its toxic atmosphere. It is now overgrown with mutated jungle structures that have devoured most of the prior signs of civilization. Infestation and roaming wildlife still inhabit its surface but anything of value was stripped by scavengers generations ago.

Earth Settlements

Like most living organisms, the Grineer require water to survive. Beneath Earth’s towering forest canopy are rich reserves of fresh water that the Grineer have fought hard to maintain for many years. Evidence of their long-standing occupation is found among their many outposts that have been taken hold by giant roots, moss, and other layers of vegetation over time.

Eris

There are no longer any active military or research campaigns in the Eris region – it is overrun. Long evacuated Corpus and Grineer vessels drift aimlessly in orbit, slowly being devoured by the techno-organic parasite known as the “Infestation”. What remains is a twisted graveyard of partially-digested ships that are disfigured versions of their original forms… Abandoned, but not unoccupied.

Europa

The icy moon of Jupiter, known as Europa, is home to one of the largest crash sites of the modern war. The scattered remains of a vast Corpus Obelisk litters the snowy landscape while the battle above wages on. On the otherwise lifeless surface, Corpus crew work to recover lost assets, tunneling their way through the glacial interior and restoring any and all salvageable items until financial losses are recouped.

Europa Landscape

Living conditions are harsh on Europa. The surface of Jupiter’s moon is flat and desolate, with a horizon of hard compacted snow that appears endless. The jagged forms of a crashed Corpus Obelisk are the only real observable landmarks above ground. Underground are caverns and tunnels of opaque ice, and crystal lakes that may have formed naturally or from the residual heat of the crashsite.

Grineer

The sprawling military ranks of the Grineer empire are formed of rotting hordes of simpleton clones, bent on consuming everything that remains of the Origin System. They live short, violent lives, much of it an inheritance of their genetic stunting by their former Orokin masters.

Grineer Labour

Strict laws on organic engineering impose severe mental and physical health limitations on the Grineer labour force. Whatever standard human stock they were originally derived from has been lost. Compliant and high-performing variants are often technically augmented to extend their lifespans beyond the few decades they can normally expect in operation.

Grineer Leadership

Grineer are all clones from a genetic pool of ‘Originals’. They are able to extend their lifespans with recycled cloned parts, but their genetic material has degraded over time, and haphazard repairs have made many of them look oddly deformed and susceptible to skin diseases. Through decades of service, many of the Grineer elite can cover the expense to have flawed organic parts replaced with cybernetic augmentations.

Grineer Technology

Unlike the Corpus, the Grineer are not celebrated for their ingenuity and craftsmanship. Their notoriety is steeped in violence and military proficiency. However, the Grineer have proven quite inventive and capable of developing their own technologies throughout history. Hiding beneath scrap metal plates, fading paint, and recycled components are qualified devices used for research, manufacturing, and warfare.

Infestation

The Infestation spreads across the Origin System – a techno-organic parasite that attaches itself to natural and synthetic forms, slowly digesting the host subject and transforming it on a molecular level. Organic materials morph into new homogeneous organisms while harder, inorganic materials, like metals, will change structurally into a pseudo-organic substance that holds the characteristics of its previous forms.

Infested

Infestation of a living natural organism and the transformation of its molecular structure happens much more rapidly than with large synthetic ships or machinery. Infested nanites quickly break down organic tissue and begin to evolve the existing specimen into a new organism with characteristics and functions ideal for survival and self-defense. In many cases, visible traces of the victim's original form are still visible in the new mutated form – a stark and horrifying memorial.

Jupiter

It is not impossible to mine a star. Rich with liquid metallic resources, the gas-giant Jupiter challenges harvesters with increased gravity, intense magnetic fields, and extreme temperatures. Only the most tenacious profiteers would dare operate here. Prevailing science of Corpus industry thrives in the clouds of Jupiter’s outer atmosphere.

Landing Craft

Warframe operative insertion craft come in many designs, but they are all commonly classified as short-range stealth aircraft. Fuselage insertion stingers will torpedo the Warframe into the hull of the target undetected, and the landing craft will re-position at the extraction point. Between engagements, the landing craft is latched to its sister component, an Orbiter.

Lephantis

Functioning agents of the Infestation appear in a variety of horrific forms. While some infested organisms take the relative shape and physical properties of a newly acquired host, older entities have taken unique and transformative shapes of their own, adapting to their environment over time, and absorbing new victims to feed their evolution.

Lotus

Guiding light to the newly-awakened Tenno, the Lotus is a mysterious companion and mentor who works from an unknown remote location. Her past is rich with storied history, and her knowledge of the known universe, past and present, rivals even the most studious Cephalon intelligence. Her reach is far, her allies are many, but her ultimate intentions are of dubious propriety.

Phobos

Phobos has always been a highly contested area. Skirmishes between the tireless Grineer and Corpus factions occur in orbit and on the Martian moon surface. Unanswered questions about this natural satellite still remain as all research is endlessly delayed by war.

Mercury

Galleon fleets keep watch over the Grineer mining operations that penetrate Mercury’s asteroid field. Cavernous rooms and twisting metal corridors mark where labourers have stripped the region for crucial resources, transforming the natural landscape to support Grineer occupancy.

Lua

Gold rings circle and encapsulate the desolate moonscape – lavish architecture signifying the Orokin mastery over all things natural and technological during their reign. The opalescent halls stitching together what the enemy destroyed have been vacated since that era came to an end.

Neptune

The Corpus have perfected automated manufacturing and continue to demonstrate maximum efficiency producing the robotic proxies they build to serve them. Immaculate production lines and flawless technical engineering ensure that the production of robotics and intelligent, synthetic machines continues in perpetuity.

Orbiter

Tenno operatives are a highly mobile strike force, and their property must be equally itinerant. Smaller landing crafts dock with the larger Orbiter shuttle where transient warriors can house their arsenal, foundry, and research systems.

Orokin

The highly revered Orokin civilization built sovereignty on a culture of art, technology and architecture. To prove oneself worthy of elevated social status, one must face Orokin trials in the golden and majestic Halls of Ascension. At one time a utopian society of omniscient leadership, the great Orokin Era ended in a divine realization of their own ignorance.

Orokin Derelict

Even the most culturally and technologically advanced civilization in history could not contain the menace of the Infestation. After an unknown cataclysmic event propelled them from the Void, Orokin vessels were left adrift, becoming uninhabited and overgrown. The tireless force of probing infested tendrils penetrate and dislodge the once majestic and opulent halls of these Orokin vessels.

Mars

A primitive and devout civilization was carved into the dust-filled canyons of Mars. These aging and severely eroded habitations miraculously remain intact, regardless of how much Grineer machinery has been fastened to it. Rusty metal and oil-soaked sand mark the territory of its new proprietors.

Mars Settlement

The Grineer have reclaimed the abandoned dwellings of an ancient society which sprung up around a massive Orokin terra-forming device. Content to make use of the existing structures, Mars’ current occupants have established a base of military operations in one of the few regions that has a habitable climate moderated by Orokin technology.

Pluto

Pluto is small and cold, and organic tissue does not fare well in its extreme climate. But the merchant spacemen always seek opportunity for profit in regions where others dare not travel. Robotic proxies act as security in the largely un-manned manufacturing facilities that operate in the area.

Robotics

Computing devices, weapons, ship parts and robotics – the Corpus are on the bleeding edge of high-technology development. Precisely machined metals and flexible synthetic composites are signature to the animalistic robots that the Corpus have built as their proxies. Artificial intelligence in these robotics is robust, but intentionally restricted, ensuring a capable but subservient workforce.

Saturn

The historically well-travelled merchant shipping lanes of Saturn are now dominated by Grineer blockades. Heavy military influence populates this area where Grineer Commanders believe they have a strategic foothold on travel throughout the System. Under the safeguard of patrolling Galleons, the Grineer ceaselessly train their expanding forces, making the region nigh impossible to overtake.

Sedna

If there are new discoveries to make or ancient tools of war yet to be excavated, the Grineer want to be there first — at the frontier of space exploration. Always seeking the upper-hand against their foes, they have numerous deployments that border the known reaches of our Origin System, poised to enter brave new territory and unexplored space on command.

Sentinels

On the border of charted space, an enclave of small, strange, seemingly intelligent creatures was discovered by Tenno explorers. They are mechanical entities, almost organic in appearance, with a precarious resemblance to the fearsome Sentients that had decimated human civilization. However, these small creatures showed no signs of aggression, and they immediately began carrying out helpful tasks in peculiar alliance with the Tenno.

The Collapse

On the heels of the Tenno’s victory against the Sentients, the end of the Old War, the golden structures of Orokin civilization collapsed. The absolute cause of this ruination is unknown, but speculation has pointed to natural disaster, political uprising and universal warfare as potential agents of cataclysm. Archived details for this event have never been recovered.

Uranus

Submerged deep below Uranus’ oceanic surface, and hidden from prying eyes, is a research facility for cloning and reproduction. Water pressure at these extreme depths put massive strain on the glass and steel structures housing these operations, but as freshly sprung leaks remind of the impending crushing force surrounding them, the Grineer forge ahead with their experiments.

Venus

Hidden and entrenched in the mountainous peaks of Venus, the Corpus practice their industrious craft. The superstructures built here are a testament to the inventive Corpus engineers that have settled in regions where lingering Orokin technology still moderates surface temperatures.

Void

Originally we studied Void occurrences from afar, observing and cataloguing the distribution of galaxies and refining cosmological evolution models. We are in a new age of cosmic exploration. Advancements in space travel partnered with determined curiosity have brought us closer to our object of study, and with it, revelation.

Warframe Technology

A mysterious weaponized armor controlled solely by the Tenno. Through the Warframe, Tenno can cheat death, channel the forbidden Void energies and face scores of enemies without fatigue. Due to apparent resistances of their Bio-Metal exoskeletons, Warframes can be safely deployed to Infestation Outbreaks, should they occur. In-depth information of the Warframe mandate is forbidden to all but the Seven.

Warframes

The true nature of the Warframes and their Tenno connection is a secret lost to the Old War. Together, they represent our best hope in turning the tide of the machine war. Warframes are unique from Dax and other Infantry, deploying dangerous and esoteric Void energy and equipped with often mundane physical weapons – this is key to fighting an enemy that had turned our technology against us.

Wildlife

Most of the wildlife observed today can be traced back to creatures of Earth. In the Orokin age, organic manipulation was used to modify earth lifeforms to a purpose: war, agriculture, pets. Long after their Orokin masters perished, some of these species managed to survive through adaptation, and can be found roaming in natural environments.