Warframe: Infested Mysteries

Hello Internet! Today I was thinking infested thoughts, and I wanted to share it…

As some of you may have guessed I’m quite a fan of the infestation – even way back with Dark Sectors on Playstation I was fascinated with the “technocyte virus” and how these few humans could not only resist it but control it – ala Hayden Tenno.

Fast forward (well, not really – the universes aren’t linked) to the far future of Warframe and the infested just keep throwing us curveballs. The name “technocyte” carried over into the Warframe universe as a name for the virus, just like Dark Sector. This is where the similarities end, really.

What we do know is that, just as in Dark Sectors, the virus mutates any flesh it manages to infect and ‘blends’ it with any clothing, armor or equipment the afflicted may be wearing, resulting in such horrors as the Charger (which actually displays pieces of at least 2 distinct types of Grineer – just think about that) and the Leaper.

But let’s not stop there – we know from Cephalon Simaris’ Sanctuary Scans that Ancients (at least Healers, but by appearance this carries over to Distruptors and Toxics) are actually infested Orokin, or at least humans from that era (hence the name ‘Ancient’).

Ancients and Boilers in particular intrigue me – the back-mounted display looks remarkably similar in many ways to the Sentient bones on the Plains of Eidolon, although we know this can’t be true as Sentients apparently had an immunity to the Infestation. What makes this even more interesting, at least for the Boiler, is the concept artwork before they were released;

It was originally called a Pus Ancient, and the artwork itself shows a much clearer image of what was intended – it looks almost robotic, and almost certainly of Orokin nature. What I do love about this artwork is that it gives hope that the Ancient Healer, Disruptor and Toxic may well get their own unique model (leaving what we know as the Ancient to just 1 of those 3) – especially considering that the Brood Mother is also considered an ancient. Speaking of which;

Originally dubbed Diseased Ancient, the Brood Mother shares the same skeleton as other Ancients, just like the Boiler, however this one specifically mentions having “ribs”, now… we know that the technocyte virus reuses components from its host so I believe the Brood Mother was organic, rather than robotic. On top of this, doesn’t the long arm remind you of Ballas? I know his long arm is his own personal quirk, but I think this infested in particular is an Orokin-era human, more specifically an actual Orokin. We know that the Orokin themselves (remember, the Orokin are a caste, not a race – they’re all human) enjoyed an almost mastery over genetic alterations and bodily modifications to look how they wanted: it was almost considered a virtue to be able to mold their own bodies into how they perceived themselves… I’m getting distracted here – my point is that the wide variety of humanoid forms the Orokin gave themselves would lend to the infested having a lot of different bodies to “try out”.

The Boiler is still definitely one of my favorite mysteries though and I really hope we see the unaltered form of this enemy in game at some point (or is it already here?).

Lastly, but certainly not least: of Eidolons and Infested…

Do you remember DevStream #100?

I’m not going to say much about this, but it definitely doesn’t look pureblood Sentient. I appreciate since DevStream #100 the Gantulyst and Hydrolyst have been released but I refuse to believe that this creation was mocked up and then discarded in favor of upscaled recolors with some artistic tweaks.

The Infestation has adapted. The Infestation has consumed. The Infested Eidolon is coming, mark my words.

I am in no way confirming this is an Infested Sentient – purely wishful thinking and speculation from the infested side of my brain.

…

THANKS FOR READING!!

-Wheldrake.