Tenno Time to Explain #3: Remaining Questions Heading into Jade Shadows: Constellations

The wait is nearly over. 

Tomorrow marks the launch of Jade Shadows: Constellations and the continuation of a narrative beat in Warframe that is two years in the making. With the introduction of of the two new twin son frames Orion & Sirius, as well as two new protoframes Ryoku and Vena, the return of railjack as a re-energized game mode, and a host of other quality of life updates, what will be in store for the Origin System's first naturally born Warframes? And what role will our Tenno play in a feud between brothers that, thanks to what I’m assuming is the result of eternalism, spans multiple realities? 

As we eagerly wait to find out, here are some other questions I still have heading into tomorrow’s big update. 

How sentient will Orion and Sirius be, both narratively and in their mechanics? Is the scene that we’re seeing in the trailer the two of them being controlled by two different operators? Or are they fully sentient there? Will they be fully sentient when we build them?

Based on what we’ve seen in the last devstream we know some of the answers to these questions already. As part of their moveset, Orion and Sirius can swap places, kicking each other out of frame–yes, pun intended–changing which character you are controlling in the process. And while you are controlling one of the sons, the other one is moving around freely, seemingly fully sentient.

But to what extent we don’t really know. DE has confirmed we’re building them, which seems to also confirm that these are helminth-crafted copies and not the same versions we will encounter in the narrative quest. So are they just like Umbra then, or something different? 

We know one of the frames will remain sentient while we control the other, but what happens when our Tenno uses transference to hop out of the frame we’re controlling? Will that mean there are now two sentient frames moving around the map? Or does the primary frame freeze in place like our other frames do? And if one or both are sentient, will they use our ammo and energy resources? 

Which then leads to other questions: with Orion and Sirius following in Umbra’s lead as sentient frames, in a future update will we finally see the return of the Echoes of Umbra feature that DE piloted years ago, allowing all frames to be sentient with the right resource unlocked? 

And what does this mean for the child version of Orion/Sirius in our present day Origin System? Is he destined to grow into one of his future versions depending on what name we chose? Or does he become something entirely different?

We know the frames from Constellations are alternate versions of Orion/Sirius from futures yet to pass, so what does this mean for the baby version in the present day Origin System? Will they still become the account’s “primary” warframe or something completely different? 

Could the child version of Orion/Sirius still be the path to a modular warframe? 

When modular weapons were added years ago in the form of primary and secondary kitguns and zaws as melee weapons, there began to be some discussion in the community about whether we’d see the idea of a modular warframe fully realized. And when Orion/Sirius were revealed two years ago, I thought they might just grow up to be the answer to a modular warframe. However, with future versions of Orion and Sirius coming in this update, I'd assume that the idea of them as a modular frame is no longer possible. But as I’ve mentioned in the previous question, is our present day version of the child even going to grow up to become one of these versions? And if not, could they still become DE’s answer to the modular frame?

Is the child still possibly our path to Tau? Will this update even have narrative relevance to Tau in the first place?

Will we see any narrative groundwork laid in this update to set up the much larger Tau update seemingly coming at the end of the year? We know we’re helping the Lotus/Margulis/Natah look for a path to Tau. Given the events from the end of The Old Peace, it would seem that the answer lies in something related to the Sentients; more specifically and more likely, it would seem it has something to do with our connection to Adis—how he was a new, unique form of Sentient, unlike any we’ve seen before, and how he used his power to bring our Tenno back from the brink of death, sacrificing his life in the process. Did he pass some new latent power on to the Tenno in this final act? At the end of Jade Shadows Part 1, we did something sort of similar to help deliver Orion/Sirius from a fading Jade into the world. Is it possible we passed on a similar power to them, which could be one of the pieces of the puzzle that unlocks passage to Tau?

I’m inclined to believe that this quest will most likely stand on its own and be a separate narrative branch from the larger Tau story, but with Hunhow serving as a surrogate grandfather to the twin sons, and also being featured prominently in the trailer for Constellations, anything could be possible.

Will this quest have any more implications or revelations about Stalker/Soren? 

The end of Jade Shadows Part 1 brought new revelations about Stalker/Soren, namely–yes, again, pun intended–that his real name is Soren. But there is still so much more to know about him. Everything we’ve learned so far about this update leads us to believe it will be focused on these alternate future versions of his sons, their mentors Ryoku and Vena, and maybe, possibly Hunhow. But maybe we’ll get to see more development for our friendly neighborhood Stalker in the process too.

So there we have it. These are just some of the many, many unanswered questions I've been thinking about as we head into tomorrow’s update. Will we get answers to all these questions? Doubtful. But I’m excited to jump in tomorrow and find out. 

See you there, Tenno.