I think one of the biggest missed opportunities of this quest was an interaction between Umbra and Stalker.

Wally showed up at the end to fulfil his part of the deal he made with the Operator. "I can save them. All of them." He wasn't talking about the people on the Zariman which the Operator most likely assumed (hence why they probably took the deal to begin with). He was talking about Ballas ripping a void hole in the centre of the sun, which would have literally killed everyone. We now owe him, *_big time_*

You do have 2-3 encounters with Wally saying "you owe me" "you're nothing without me" which would indicate that he'll come to collect at some point.

I still love the fact there's a picture of ballas with laser flash eyes in the zariman classroom

I'm of the mind that the lotus saw a literal Nothingness as the Void is a gap in perception, and to be perfectly blunt? That would be pretty damned terrifying.

you don't know how long i've been waiting for you to do this. I must've have watched your Orokin lore video a thousand times. Only youtuber I trust to go to about Warframe lore. Keep 'em coming please!💪

its so hilarious how people thought the sentients were stupid for letting themselves be manipulated and brainwashed into serving Ballas WHILE THEY let that same guy gaslight them into hating their mother figure with a single monologue. they literally listened to a character who is KNOWN for hating the tenno and were seriously going to kill their mother because of it.

Even if Ballas is a top-tier schemer that is able to hide his true motives 100% of the time, I still find it hard to believe that Erra willingly gave Ballas complete, utter control of the entire Sentient army. It paints Erra as a total moron and not as the threat we were teased. His unceremonious 'death' adds further salt to the wound; as if DE wanted to be rid of him and Ballas as soon as possible.

I have a theory on what Requiems might be. We were introduced to the requiem runes with kuva liches. we use a specific combination of this runes to be able to kill an inmortal being. I think DE based this mechanic on the concept of "true names" which appears in some mythologies. This concept says that every god has a secret true name and those who know that name will have total control above the being. In warframe, Requiem runes might be the true language, the language of the void. By drinking the kuva/becoming a Tenno you become inmortal, a god in sort way, but you are also getting that secret name, which is known by The Man In the Wall and that's how he can control you. This is also why once you know the liches' true name you can also control them and make them your ally or even kill them. I think that the Requiems spelled by The Man in the Wall might be your secret name, a reminder that you are part of his plan

And the LordD said “LET THERE BE LORE!!!”. Thus there was lore. And it was good.

Funny thing about drifter. I remember Erra's voice actor had a stream up on twitch to discuss the lore and he seemed really focused on the visual static that occurs when Ballas stabs your operator. Like... the dude didn't want to let that go, the point being that we've only ever seen that effect when Transference is broken or interrupted, making little sense to see it from our "true self" being hurt. Since he's worked with DE, I don't wanna doubt what he additionally said in that they're very deliberate in their use of effects as cues. With that in mind and seeing as the whole quest could be seen as a poetic reflection of the Second Dream, I'm under the impression that maybe rather than a failsafe, the Drifter has been the true "actor" in the story, this quests' "this is what you are," that maybe through some method learned from the void or Duviri, he had been spectating the Operator's timeline through them. It would explain why it seemed like he had a significantly personal stake in having the Lotus recover, despite the fact that through his timeline they never should have really met, why there's static when the Operator was stabbed when the perspective reference SHOULD have been the "true self" at that point, and possibly why the veil was showing him the operator's memory. Maybe instead of a sort of temporal dissonance, it's lack of potency was with the intensity of the drifter's rejection of the view it was putting on, going back to how personal this whole journey seems to be for him. And we've seen with Teshin that just sheer willpower could do the trick in resisting the veil, so there's room to doubt that an existential mismatch was what did the trick.

Ballas' ploy to drive a wedge between the Tenno and the Lotus was so effective, some players are still obscessed with/disappointed they didn't get to kill her. I have to assume Erra did die, or was put into an eidolon state, and was only restored by his archons. Wally says: I'll take your light. After the final encounter, Natah's hand can be seen smoking like a candle having been snuffed out. My guess is that he took something from her.

yoooo, great to see you back man! Can’t wait for your takes on all the new lore to come

God this is such a well done recap, I feel like DE could've done a bit of a better job conveying everything but then again that would take like 10 hours and I still have to respect this expansive story they've been able to convey in a nine year old free to play looter shooter

Ah yes, the most anticipated lore vid in the past few months

I thought the way they "showed" eternalism was really cool. When The Man in the Wall grabbed your hand and your body "split" into all those copies was really visually striking. There were a few parts of The New War that I thought felt a bit rushed or that weren't totally fleshed out, but overall, it was an amazing addition to the game. Oh, also, it's a really clever way of explaining how all the Tenno actually exist together in the game world. They seem to be slightly unbound to a hard timeline by their personal interaction with The Void via The Man in the Wall. The mission to claim Umbra showed this too; if you're killed your Tenno enters a sort of sleep state in The Void for a few seconds before being revived to attempt the capture of Umbra again, seemingly manipulating the course of time to go back and try again. Perhaps not even necessarily "going back in time," but collapsing a new timeline or entering a parallel line in which your success is yet to be determined. This stuff is just all so crazy. It seems, to me, that we ALL chose to interact with The Man in the Void in our own personal timeline prior to The New War and doing so gives us a special connection to The Void in which we all exist in the same reality because of the choice we made in what could be thought of as "sperate before times". Digital Extremes really is getting philosophical giving us all this deep stuff to think about! Also, thanks for the explanation on how the Narmer Veils work on The Drifter. Since we currently can't go back to replay this quest there was a bunch of stuff I missed since I have memory problems. Your work really is indispensable!

When I first completed the quest, I interpreted my Tenno's question to her as "What did you see at the end (of your life, when Ballas killed you)?". Since Sentients have an artificial soul, they would have no afterlife, so she was saying she saw "nothing" as opposed to how humans claimed to see a "light at the end of a tunnel". And "what did you see" is a common trope question directed at people who have come back to life after being declared dead, as Natah/Lotus did through the events of the quest. I didn't even consider the question as the "end" referring to the end of the conflict with Ballas until others started referring to it that way.

Theory for the Tenno, in each of our perspectives we make the deal with the man in the wall in one universe which becomes the primary reality where we the Tenno become the main character who accomplishes all these story feats, but we also have become, like you said, a multi-versal being that exists across realities meaning each other player is a Tenno who is active like you as the main character in their own reality but also active as just another Tenno operative in yours. This is also why one Tenno makes the deal yet all get powers. As for Rell, I believe he is an exceptional case where he realised the nature of what happened and made the decision to act in a similar manner across all realities rejecting the role the man in the wall gave him which is why he attracted his gaze, but we, across all realities, simultaneously put Rell to rest leading to Rell's death across all realities which is why his death is permanent since there is no other reality to anchor to and from.

Teshin’s death was too abrupt. They could’ve made it more dramatic, for example it could have been the tenno getting held in the head by erra. Then teshin comes in saving us and THEN dying in the process

Ooh, I'm even more happy to have choosen Natah at the end, I hope she end up talking about the Void one day, especially the details of the first voyage of the Sentient to Tau

Thanks for answering a lot of the questions the quest left me with. It's going to make the eventual replay of the quest a lot more interesting. The concept of Eternalism really opens a lot of avenues for where the story could go in the future. It reminds me of how Final Fantasy 14 handled it's rebirth, maintaining player/character agency across a relaunch/timeskip, while simultaneously introducing other parties with different outcomes from the same initiating event. One thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how the player actions made "you" more important that all other Tenno, bearing all of the responsibility, truly being the hero of one's own story (12:55). I liked when the story driven operations, like Scarlet Spear, were collaborative with all Tenno/Players on equal footing in terms of importance. However, Eternalism once again affords your Tenno to be of more importance than others, falling back on the fact that through infinite realities and timelines, each Tenno is able to be the hero of their own story while simultaneously a pawn in another's reality. This allows for the events of the quest (and even those of previous quests) to be experienced by the player from a "main character" point of view, for each and every player, beautifully melding the game's need for a "player one" while maintaining the story's lore-based foundation. But this makes me wonder, in the case of the Man in the Wall, is he Extra-eternal? Is the man in the wall that is encountered by both the operator and the drifter singular in his existence across realities and timelines? Or does he too follow the rules of Eternalism, existing innumerably infinitely? The story we are given seems to point to the former, which makes him truly terrifying! Lastly, just wanted to say that 10:12 - 10:27 was beautifully written.

"...locked within a temporal prison of some kind, in an island of reality within the void..." 12:22 With the hand of Natah... This is days after Tennocon 2022 I'm watching, now having seen the gameplay of Duviri... You're too good at this...

The eternalism has a lot of potential as a plot device. Look at what the new spider-man movie did with all three onscreen. I hope de finds a good formula for manufacturing story. Mabe like gw2 or eso having events and quests that lead to expansion level events. Love having you back always watch your videos if i need a refresher on the lore

Huh, some things i actually would've missed without this explanation. This actually helps a hell of a lot of things. This makes a lot more sense now with some of the stuff in the quest.

Fun fact: Narmer was the name of the first pharao that united lower and upper egypt under one crown around 3000BC.

Just the sheer encapsulation of a myriad potential interpretations into well thought and concise explication renders this, our Loremaster, eternal.

"This new quest baffles me so much. I wish everything was clearer" *Watches a quest recap and explanation* "This is a masterpiece of storytelling"

THE RETURN OF THE KING! 👑

This is extremely well done and explains the story very well, 100% deserves a like from everyone

13:36 I believe that at least after The War Within quest, the identity of the Tenno became exposed to all of the Origin System (but probably not the fact many are still in Reservoirs). So, even currently, while possibly every other Tenno is still in the Second Dream, they've at least learned that. And I think they may be a lot better off in Reservoirs; because if my speculation is correct that our Operator's the only one to have Ordis, and an Orbiter, then the other Tenno have no Somatic Link where their bodies can stay.

Thanks StallordD for explaining everything so well as always, I feel like I didn't understand or just plain know like 50% of the things that happened during the quest, trailers, mini quests. :P I feel like DE could do better at telling the story more straightforward, so dumb people like me could understand it.

YES! Been waiting ages for this one!

Bruh, I never even considered that Ballas is a man driven made by the lack of Love that he once had. On a very surface level, he just appears as someone who just wants power, and will do anything to be the top of every chain possible. These videos are amazing!

Erra's motivation to give ballas full control is kinda justified if u think abt it. For starters, unlike his father or natah. He is not a fighter, he is an engineer, a scientist (evident by how he made the archons and caliban) he is simply the nerd of the familly who tries to prove his worth. After his father's failure and natah's betryal, he was left broken, desperate for any chance of victory. And so he gave ballas everyrhing. The sentients followed naturally since erra was the heir at that point

6:00 I don't think there were any leftover remains of the Tenno for Ballas to fight. We know all Tenno "left" without a word at once, as explained by Nora Night. Considering that the deal is directly related to you, getting banished can easily affect other Tenno. The stabbing by Paracesis also glitches out the screen transference-style. It might be that Paracesis was always secretly designed to be able to banish all Tenno into the void simultaneously. 7:20 Additionally, the Deacons are a core mechanic to keep someone veiled. They weaken a target before veiling them if needed, and the disappearance of Deacons post Ballas's death clearly led to a large chunk of Grineer and Corpus freeing themselves. 23:32 I don't think Lotus being possessed is too unlikely. She's unique- she has the Tenno's touch (the void), she has seen the walls other face, she "survived" being thrown into the void, and she's called, "The queen of the aphids, with her eye in the void." In the quest completion screen, ber suspicious smirk while holding up the same hand that was smoking after the wall disappeared is also very telling.

Through my gameplay, the Void, Man in the Wall and now Elder Gods never appeared to me as a threat or an enemy to be confronted. It always felt more of a neutral force that even Orokin never understood. There are so many ways that the Void manipulates the world of Warframe that it could have easily had more of an impact. But it chooses to probe, show here and there. The biggest example is the Reliquary Drive and how it's freely being used by our Operator. It does not seem to me that the physical part of the Drive was taken by force - more likely a some sort of a contract, deal that was made at some point. Similar to the deal the Operator makes with the Void to survive the Zariman incident.

Fantastic content, I really love this game's lore and in my sincerely opinion your videos are the most clarifying ones. Good to see that you are back, I used to watch all of your deep and rich lore videos a few years ago, hope to see more of this incredible job of yours soon.

I know people wanted a bigger ending for the quest, but i gotta say the dialogue in the last scene really hit home for me. Especially Ballas I've seen people say "uh hes such a crybaby, damn simp" but thats what makes his character, or rather the situation we find ourselves in so great. At some point, he was the defacto ruler of the first "human" spacefaring civilization, some years later AGAIN, with even more control. But the fact that Margulis left him *FOR US* made him so bitter that he would cast all life in our solar system into the fire. Some years ago I saw a great drama/horrorfilm that had that exact same premise, only with a normal family. The parents live a happy rural life, until their triplets are born. The mother turns all her affection towards the kids, sending the father out every night to gather more firewood so her precious special kinds are always warm. The lack of affection scorns the father, who feels left alone, robbed of his paradise out in the wilderness. He becomes so jealous of the kids that he tries to eat them, turning into a feral wolfmonster. After years of assault and being hunted by their father, the family tries to confront him, and while the mothers warm touch turns him back into a more manlike state, he declares that they can be togheter now and will be warm and happy forever. After which he sets the house on fire. I'll have to look into the name again though, its a pretty old russian film. Sorry for the wall of text, but that quest and the connections I made kept me up for like 3 nights after I finished TNW :D

Super enjoyed this. Thank you! Hope to see more when Duviri Paradox launches in 2027.

Don't leave is again Starlord, BNP was about to take over the lore. Could you imagine XD

Fantastic work! Your accentuation and general speech is perfect, keeping the pressure or anticipation of what the end may bring is giving me goosebumps. Please keep on creating these story explanations ♥️

I've been waiting for this video since your TNW run! Nice job! Looking forward for the next pieces of lore brake down by you!

Well done! DE left us with a ton of stuff to discuss and you, sir, are leading the discussion wonderfully!!!

Your warframe lore videos are the thing that keeps me going! Gorgeous choice of words and beautifully drawn stories! Keep it up man you make warframe stand out as far more than a simple game.

The lore king has returned! Glad to have you back man. Great video. I am curious what the significance of the staff was. We kept it as an orbiter decoration so I wonder if it wasn't just purely ornamental. I have a feeling we're going to see Hunhow and his boy again too.

I haven't played Warframe in a while so this video really makes enjoying the lore easy and insightful

Man I really needed this, thank you. I'm probably not the only one that had some trouble when The New War hit remembering everything in the past and putting it all together. Not to mention this Eternalism and Quantum Reality

I finished this quest yesterday and seeing all the information layout like this was really nice to see, ty for the video!!

I'm sad cuz it's the first time i can't cope after a stallord video but on the other hand this video is a banger and you're finally back that's cool af

Been looking forwards to you views and lore video on The New War ever since I played it. I had some ideas myself but it was good to think about them as you spoke about the lore. Awesome work again mate :)

Well worth the wait. I hoped ur video on it would one day grace my feed

so happy you made another vid ! your lore and story quest videos were so fun i had to watch them again ! glad ur back

After watching this, you’ve highlited so many things I missed or didn’t understand. The fact “Wally” uses natah’s severed hand to seal the pact which then gets transported to duvhiri giving the drifter our abilities in duvhiri. The fact the Vitruvian statue is the man in the wall since it’s missing its finger, which is currently in the back of our railjack, like so many dots are being connected in my mind.

Thank you for this! A lot of the stuff in the quest is oddly vague and somewhat appears out of nowhere. This all condenses it in a way that makes sense.

First video KZfaq recommends from your channel, very well explained, everything makes sense. Helped me tie some loose threads in the story.

It’s finally here. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I love your videos

It is absolutely awesome that everything I theorized about Ballas was not only confirmed but almost spot on by the New War quest but yours and Dseige's lore videos.

Thank you for making the quest clearer!! I needed that closure!

I got so excited when I saw this upload! The cephalon interpretation of the void is one we haven’t seen much of and I wish we could have seen our operator talk to Cy or ordis about it. Also I wonder what will happen to motivate us to investigate the void further in the duviri paradox

Excellent clear and simple explanation thank you! I was so confused after doing the quest but now it all makes sense

Having watched your playthrough of the new war you are so different than I thought lol, it was really fun though and i love these lore videos, this is such a convoluted story and im glad you can make sense of it and explain it very well, i cant wait for more

Been waiting for you to do this ! Thank you !

Great to have a new story for you to return, and help us enjoy more of the Warframe Lore

2022 is trully a good year welcome back John Prodman!

Ballas revives Erra using Kuva. Nobody seems to point out he has large, obviously new red orbs on his body lol.

This was a great recap/summarization

Ah the legend is back, was waiting for you to make a video on the quest after watching your stream. You do sound very professional in lore videos as I had known, but the stream was a casual guy playing and I loved it. Thanks man.

Thank you so much for this video, it was invaluable & helped me to piece together some crucial story details.

A worthy addition to your illuminating collection. A tribute to your legendary reputation!

Amazing analysis and outstanding presentation. Great video!

Great explanation of the (at least for me) super confusing New War quest. Ty StallordD.

Man you are so nostalgic to me, thank you so much for these! 🤗

Absolutely love the content. Glad you're back

I'm really curious as to what the life cycle of the sentients is. Do they slowly grow from batallyst, to the size of the lotus and erra, to the size of hunhow, then finally to ship?

You deserve more love man, you make this confusing game digestible. Even if some of it is still up for speculation.

Your videos are always amazing and i'm so happy your back! Your new editor did a great job btw very smooth!

starlordd i miss your channel man now im gonna enjoy this bedtime story

Thank you! This video cleared up all the confusion in this quest for me.

man, the void always made me uneasy ever since i've touched that damn finger on my railjack, and now that it shows how much of an existential threat i fear for what's to come, and rell's sacrifice feels a lot heavier, great video btw

I've literally been waiting since the new war for this video my guy

Welcome back! missed your videos alot

This is excellent. With the paradox coming out soon, I have to show this to other players.

Thank you so much. The video I've been waiting for🖤🖤🖤

This was very well done, I quite enjoyed it!

At the end of the quest I choose Lotus to stay as the Lotus because it was the only identity she choose herself. She was constructed as Natah, with the porpouse of infiltrating the Orokin she transformed into Margulis, but it was her new found love for the Tenno who made her becoming the Lotus. She always was what everyone else wanted her to be, a spy, a lover, a sister, a weapon... Only the Lotus was her choice.

Nice to see you still have the passion to dive into Warframe lore. :)

When the Man in the Wall came out while Natha was trying to close the void, it felt like he was peering through a hole. We are now aware he's there but he's always known about us. I think it was more to visualise him looking through a magnifying glass at us but not nessasarily him trying to escape.

Finally... I am so happy to see you back with Warframe lore... I hope you will address Ballass as well :)

all i have to say is that the story of warframe is tragic but then at the new war is so satifying at the end and ties up alot of things that needed explaining, i am proud to be apart of this community on the whole. I chose lotus out of not knowing if i choose her the events in the diveri paradox will move plus ive gotten so used to her that im like no natah and margialus arent her.

A video i have been anticipating for sooo long, lets goooo

When the portal to the void opened and the man came through, I'm under my personal opinion he left and then closed it because it just vanishes. Like a God intervened. I'm also under the impression that Wally, as he's referred too... sent the drifter the moment he felt something happen. Like, he's neither good nor evil in my eyes, just a deity who wants order and he does deliver order, albeit a tad distorted. Like, there is an end game for this entity and apparently the destruction of the origin system isn't apart of that plan. Only time will tell. But my favourite part was the Unum speaking, calling us dreamers and then displaying power like you haven't seen power before. It was glorious, but a little saddening because she was being defiled this entire time. Kinda broke me.

Couldn’t wait for you to have a new video out

Thank you for your great work 👏 I enjoyed watching your video as if I was playing the quest once more but this time with many more questions and answers this time... In the End, thank you 🙌

You're back! Thank you!

your content is so rare dude. It feels like a raindrop hitting your tongue after almost dying from the heat in a dessert.

yessss... you're back!! i've been waiting for this!!!

it’s so good to see you back

25:19 I’d say Quill Onkko seems pretty aware.

Aw hell yeah. Ive been waiting for another one of these for a while now

Good to see you back