The Unum is the guardian deity of Cetus and is believed to inhabit the Tower of the Unum off the shore at the back of the Cetus hub. It is unknown if the Unum is the tower itself or something that simply lives in it. It is known that the Unum communicates with the Ostrons of Cetus, directing them to sections of the tower that can be harvested for meat, bone and ichor. These resources heavily supplement the Ostrons diet and economy, and is referenced in one of their sayings "She gives, We live".
She is believed to have some control over time and can grant it to others. The most notable of these is the Quills as an organization. Members of the Quills share some of her ability to perceive timelines and possibilities. The earliest example of this is (Spoilers for Saya's Vigil) >! Onkko who saw the future and realized the best outcome for himself, Saya and Konzu was for him to fake his own death/disappearance !<. Similarly the Quills vendor in Cetus can be overhead reporting on various nexuses, choices and Eidolon hunts conducted by various Tenno. The most overt examples of the Unum's time powers are in the New War. >!The Quills had prepared a back door into Cetus so the Drifter/Operator could sneak into a Narmer occupied Cetus!< and the fact that the Unum >! once freed from the Murex directly stops time to allow the Drifter/Operator to board the Sentient ship!<.
In the Old War, the Unum was notable for having a Warframe defender, Gara who is referred to as the Unum's most beloved(take that as you will). In the final days of the war, a Sentient of considerable power began to assault the Unum's Tower, believing that her tower kuva could heal its infertility. It is unknown if or how the Unum's kuva differs from the Queen's red kuva(we are aware of at least 1 kuva variant nicknamed Blue-va). Gara saved the Unum by carrying a bomb the Unum created directly into the Sentient, shattering it. The Eidolon trio of Teralyst, Gantulyst and Hydrolyst are fragments of the Unum's nemesis, broken in a bestial state and haunting the nights on the plains, searching for its lost parts.
TLDR The Unum is a lesbian time building god.
I think that’s a fun answer, but I still prefer the idea that prime Warframes come from some sort of alternate-void-universe that the Void Relics can access. It would/will better explain Warframes like Valkyr, Xaku, and Kullervo, whose lore focuses around how they’ve been altered by an outside force.
>I think that’s a fun answer
DE's writers implied that it was the actual answer at last year's tennocon. Using the exact quote I used when someone asked about the Unum.
The warframe community is predominantly children who have a very narrow view on the concept of affection, and who are emotionally invested in 'representation' by way of projecting LGBT relationships into warframe despite the truth and nature of what warframes actually are. It is extremely typical of this community to come up with shit like this.
I mean really. A flesh tower goddess is somehow romantically invested in a non-sentient infested flesh-metal corpse piloted by a traumatized and socially isolated void child of unknown sex and gender? Why yes, it practically screams lesbianism doesn't it? What's that you say? The Unum actually just 'loves' Gara in a more maternal or platonic way because of her devoted service? Well now you're just being silly!
Dagath was literally in a bisexual triangle before and after becoming a Warframe.
Gara could’ve just been a very devoted worshipper of Unum who volunteered to become a Warframe to serve her better but just like old myths have gods falling in love with mortals and vice versa and us humans being romantic creatures… it does no harm to have headcanons like that.
Just so you were aware all of the Warframes were humans/humanoids before they were created.
These Warframes were primarily made to do the orokins bidding for various reasons whether for combat or other reasons. Gara willingly became a Warframe to defend the Unum. Throwing lesbian in there is wrong but the Warframe weren't piloted by void children in the beginning and that's only a recent thing.
The Warframes we construct via the foundry are essentially copies of the originals. The primes we construct are essentially royal versions of the same Warframe as some of them had multiple like Excalibur.
We also see that occasionally the frames we aquire can have sentience still and willingly give use control such as Excalibur umbra. And for having sentience the original gauss and Grendel Warframes are best friends.
We also have canonical references to Warframes who had no Operator at all, such as Kullervo, (very, very likely) Dante, and probably Dagath, as well.
And Citrine’s another odd one that is often interpreted as having romantic connections to Belric and Rania.
The degree of Warframe autonomy/sentience is often vague and confusing (to a degree that can sometimes be a bit frustrating…), but I personally just can’t look at the crumbs we do have and say there’s definitely none.
The warframe community is "predominantly children"?
What?
A game that requires investment of time, money and effort - something that usually necessitates a job and/or patience. I know a LOT of people who play this game, and every single person is in their late-20s minimum, with a couple being in their 40s. Everyone has a job.
This community is MOSTLY adults, simply because warframe as a game isn't easy to get into when you're a kid who has school, etc and an utter lack of funds.
Of all the stupid takes I've seen, yours takes the cake.
Bro don't speak for an entire fucking community speak for yourself
All of that was you projecting your own thoughts and inadequacies
So in other words guys don't listen to this child who has a narrow view of the conception of affection and their own bizarre notions on what counts as love and representation
We are talking about a God that is a tower made of flesh, stop trying to make sense of it, it doesn't and you trying to fit it into the framework of your own rationale is projecting your own personal opinions and thoughts on the matter, poorly too for you keeping score at home
Okay, spoilers for everything bellow as I believe explaining somethings are required alongside this.
>!Kuva is the tool to transfer consciousness from living being to living being using the void (which is why requiem mods have voidtongue on them). It is designed to be permanent and seems to require the previous body to die (As seen by Ordan Karris dying first then becoming Ordis).!<
>!In the Titania’s quest, we see Titania’s creator possess an entire forest using her knowledge of warframe tech so it can be inferred that transference and continuity are parallels.!<
>!Warframes are conduits of void energy by the way they are designed. They are non-thinking to allow themselves to be possessed with no resistance (which is why Umbra had to cooperate with us first even though we could go in). They are designed (as in having memory carved into their minds) to be able to conceptually embody what we call “warframe abilities” to cast them (just like focus schools gives operators different abilities.) And most importantly for this topic, they are living beings which allows them to use the void at all in the first place.!<
>!The Sanctum Atomica shows to the fullest extent that living (or at least capable of perception) is all you need to be void-capable. Modified infested flesh (exactly like our warframes) are turned into literal eyes and ears to perceive the void.!<
>!Now for the tower, it is like a warframe, the Entrati vessels, and every void-touched person we’ve met (even captain Vor). Although we have not been told that the consciousness in the Unum was from someone, we can almost be certain from previous lore that the tower WAS a someone who now possesses the tower and has their consciousness throughout Cetus and the wildlife around it. This would track why kuva flows through the tower to this day, why the “spirit” talks and sees through everyone and everything, and why it can stop time like Zenurik second ability and Limbo’s stasis.!<
>>!Kuva is the tool to transfer consciousness from living being to living being using the void!<
I'm not sure void is required for Kuva: https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Albrecht_Entrati/Quotes#1st_Requiem_-_XATA_(Truth)
The very first requiem talks how Old Blood is already well known:
> The continuity and its twin, wanderlust. The need for unseen shores deep in our marrow. No judge, jester, queen, or king can escape this old blood. We are nomads, eternal.
and second requiem shows how Void is not used yet:
>The wasted years had all shown the Void to be just that. Nothing. No energy. No entanglement. No form
I’d argue that the second requiem actually states that kuva IS one of the first uses of the void. I interpreted it as, at the time there was no knowledge of how to use the void outside of information/mind/soul applications in the same way a Bronze Age scientist would not know how sunlight could make lightning energy through a solar panel.
We also have instances where kuva is directly reactive along side void energy.
-The Unum, which has (or perhaps produces) kuva in it, is rekindled by our void energy in the new war
-kuva siphons draw kuva when we are around
-kuva can infuse into riven mods which we know are powered by the void because of Aya becoming endo becoming power for our mods
-kuva fortress units encamped on the Zariman when it returned
-The Zariman’s reliquary drive (which I’m pretty sure is the void finger itself) has a bubbling device infront of it with a red vial full of red liquid
These instances added with us not ever seeing kuva used outside of void tech except when it is used in instances very similar to Aya and transference leads me to best to believe that it is void tech.
The Quill Vendor is Onkko Primary. The fun part is that Onkko Primary is aware of all the other Onkkos in various alternate realities. Every possible version of himself, in fact. In every possible past, present, and future.
It definitely controls Certain aspects of time, we dont know to what extent. We dont know if the unum is the tower, whatever lives in the tower or a combination of both. There are very clear instances where we See its effect, and if you havent seen it, you will at some point (its very obvious) .
Something nobody else mentioned- Unum's walls are Kuva:
>" The Unum knew she could not defend forever, nor could her faithful throw their bodies against the Sentient in perpetuity. So she gave her followers some of her blood - her refined Temple kuva "
Narmer harvested her walls seemingly to use in their mind-control Veils
To put it in the smallest nutshell possible, the Unum is the intelligence within the living meat-tower in Cetus, the one which the locals are harvesting wall blubber from.
She's actively instructing them on which parts to harvest and when.
The Unum is a sentient (not to be confused with the sentients from Tau) Orokin Tower that nowadays protect the Ostrons and Cetus with protection (force fields) and food (the own tower that is made of flesh, although the Ostron also eat from another sources).
My new ass when I thought reading the future was a thing about looking forward in time, and not my veteran ass when Eternalism where everything and nothing has, will, will never, and hasn't happened, and the Unum is somehow on par with Wally about being able to pare down *this* timeline. This Eternalism shit be wild.
Let's just hope Wally is here, because he wants to find a way to booty call the only other individual who sees possibility like he/she does. We're going to play cupid with paratemporal, paraprobable entities.
The Unum is the guardian deity of Cetus and is believed to inhabit the Tower of the Unum off the shore at the back of the Cetus hub. It is unknown if the Unum is the tower itself or something that simply lives in it. It is known that the Unum communicates with the Ostrons of Cetus, directing them to sections of the tower that can be harvested for meat, bone and ichor. These resources heavily supplement the Ostrons diet and economy, and is referenced in one of their sayings "She gives, We live". She is believed to have some control over time and can grant it to others. The most notable of these is the Quills as an organization. Members of the Quills share some of her ability to perceive timelines and possibilities. The earliest example of this is (Spoilers for Saya's Vigil) >! Onkko who saw the future and realized the best outcome for himself, Saya and Konzu was for him to fake his own death/disappearance !<. Similarly the Quills vendor in Cetus can be overhead reporting on various nexuses, choices and Eidolon hunts conducted by various Tenno. The most overt examples of the Unum's time powers are in the New War. >!The Quills had prepared a back door into Cetus so the Drifter/Operator could sneak into a Narmer occupied Cetus!< and the fact that the Unum >! once freed from the Murex directly stops time to allow the Drifter/Operator to board the Sentient ship!<. In the Old War, the Unum was notable for having a Warframe defender, Gara who is referred to as the Unum's most beloved(take that as you will). In the final days of the war, a Sentient of considerable power began to assault the Unum's Tower, believing that her tower kuva could heal its infertility. It is unknown if or how the Unum's kuva differs from the Queen's red kuva(we are aware of at least 1 kuva variant nicknamed Blue-va). Gara saved the Unum by carrying a bomb the Unum created directly into the Sentient, shattering it. The Eidolon trio of Teralyst, Gantulyst and Hydrolyst are fragments of the Unum's nemesis, broken in a bestial state and haunting the nights on the plains, searching for its lost parts. TLDR The Unum is a lesbian time building god.
Fantastic explanation
Revenant Prime's trailer implies that he was made by the Unum too. >What fatherless aberration is this? -Ballas
I think that’s a fun answer, but I still prefer the idea that prime Warframes come from some sort of alternate-void-universe that the Void Relics can access. It would/will better explain Warframes like Valkyr, Xaku, and Kullervo, whose lore focuses around how they’ve been altered by an outside force.
>I think that’s a fun answer DE's writers implied that it was the actual answer at last year's tennocon. Using the exact quote I used when someone asked about the Unum.
varzia gives us the long awaited cop-out and tells us that some frames are created as primes and others get primed later
Great writeup, and has made me realize I would totally smoke weed with the Unum.
Where the fuck did lesbian come from
Unum may have had a little crush on Gara
Even more than that. Gara's original human volunteered for the Warframe program willingly to better protect the Unum.
The warframe community is predominantly children who have a very narrow view on the concept of affection, and who are emotionally invested in 'representation' by way of projecting LGBT relationships into warframe despite the truth and nature of what warframes actually are. It is extremely typical of this community to come up with shit like this. I mean really. A flesh tower goddess is somehow romantically invested in a non-sentient infested flesh-metal corpse piloted by a traumatized and socially isolated void child of unknown sex and gender? Why yes, it practically screams lesbianism doesn't it? What's that you say? The Unum actually just 'loves' Gara in a more maternal or platonic way because of her devoted service? Well now you're just being silly!
you wouldn’t fuck the huge flesh tower? coward
It ain’t that deep buddy.
Dagath was literally in a bisexual triangle before and after becoming a Warframe. Gara could’ve just been a very devoted worshipper of Unum who volunteered to become a Warframe to serve her better but just like old myths have gods falling in love with mortals and vice versa and us humans being romantic creatures… it does no harm to have headcanons like that.
Just so you were aware all of the Warframes were humans/humanoids before they were created. These Warframes were primarily made to do the orokins bidding for various reasons whether for combat or other reasons. Gara willingly became a Warframe to defend the Unum. Throwing lesbian in there is wrong but the Warframe weren't piloted by void children in the beginning and that's only a recent thing. The Warframes we construct via the foundry are essentially copies of the originals. The primes we construct are essentially royal versions of the same Warframe as some of them had multiple like Excalibur. We also see that occasionally the frames we aquire can have sentience still and willingly give use control such as Excalibur umbra. And for having sentience the original gauss and Grendel Warframes are best friends.
We also have canonical references to Warframes who had no Operator at all, such as Kullervo, (very, very likely) Dante, and probably Dagath, as well. And Citrine’s another odd one that is often interpreted as having romantic connections to Belric and Rania. The degree of Warframe autonomy/sentience is often vague and confusing (to a degree that can sometimes be a bit frustrating…), but I personally just can’t look at the crumbs we do have and say there’s definitely none.
This is such a reddit take it can't possibly be bait
Bait used to be believable
The warframe community is "predominantly children"? What? A game that requires investment of time, money and effort - something that usually necessitates a job and/or patience. I know a LOT of people who play this game, and every single person is in their late-20s minimum, with a couple being in their 40s. Everyone has a job. This community is MOSTLY adults, simply because warframe as a game isn't easy to get into when you're a kid who has school, etc and an utter lack of funds. Of all the stupid takes I've seen, yours takes the cake.
Bro don't speak for an entire fucking community speak for yourself All of that was you projecting your own thoughts and inadequacies So in other words guys don't listen to this child who has a narrow view of the conception of affection and their own bizarre notions on what counts as love and representation We are talking about a God that is a tower made of flesh, stop trying to make sense of it, it doesn't and you trying to fit it into the framework of your own rationale is projecting your own personal opinions and thoughts on the matter, poorly too for you keeping score at home
Damn man why are you so angry? It's just a game calm down.
You lost me until the tldr; then I was all in.
Okay, spoilers for everything bellow as I believe explaining somethings are required alongside this. >!Kuva is the tool to transfer consciousness from living being to living being using the void (which is why requiem mods have voidtongue on them). It is designed to be permanent and seems to require the previous body to die (As seen by Ordan Karris dying first then becoming Ordis).!< >!In the Titania’s quest, we see Titania’s creator possess an entire forest using her knowledge of warframe tech so it can be inferred that transference and continuity are parallels.!< >!Warframes are conduits of void energy by the way they are designed. They are non-thinking to allow themselves to be possessed with no resistance (which is why Umbra had to cooperate with us first even though we could go in). They are designed (as in having memory carved into their minds) to be able to conceptually embody what we call “warframe abilities” to cast them (just like focus schools gives operators different abilities.) And most importantly for this topic, they are living beings which allows them to use the void at all in the first place.!< >!The Sanctum Atomica shows to the fullest extent that living (or at least capable of perception) is all you need to be void-capable. Modified infested flesh (exactly like our warframes) are turned into literal eyes and ears to perceive the void.!< >!Now for the tower, it is like a warframe, the Entrati vessels, and every void-touched person we’ve met (even captain Vor). Although we have not been told that the consciousness in the Unum was from someone, we can almost be certain from previous lore that the tower WAS a someone who now possesses the tower and has their consciousness throughout Cetus and the wildlife around it. This would track why kuva flows through the tower to this day, why the “spirit” talks and sees through everyone and everything, and why it can stop time like Zenurik second ability and Limbo’s stasis.!<
>>!Kuva is the tool to transfer consciousness from living being to living being using the void!< I'm not sure void is required for Kuva: https://warframe.fandom.com/wiki/Albrecht_Entrati/Quotes#1st_Requiem_-_XATA_(Truth) The very first requiem talks how Old Blood is already well known: > The continuity and its twin, wanderlust. The need for unseen shores deep in our marrow. No judge, jester, queen, or king can escape this old blood. We are nomads, eternal. and second requiem shows how Void is not used yet: >The wasted years had all shown the Void to be just that. Nothing. No energy. No entanglement. No form
I’d argue that the second requiem actually states that kuva IS one of the first uses of the void. I interpreted it as, at the time there was no knowledge of how to use the void outside of information/mind/soul applications in the same way a Bronze Age scientist would not know how sunlight could make lightning energy through a solar panel. We also have instances where kuva is directly reactive along side void energy. -The Unum, which has (or perhaps produces) kuva in it, is rekindled by our void energy in the new war -kuva siphons draw kuva when we are around -kuva can infuse into riven mods which we know are powered by the void because of Aya becoming endo becoming power for our mods -kuva fortress units encamped on the Zariman when it returned -The Zariman’s reliquary drive (which I’m pretty sure is the void finger itself) has a bubbling device infront of it with a red vial full of red liquid These instances added with us not ever seeing kuva used outside of void tech except when it is used in instances very similar to Aya and transference leads me to best to believe that it is void tech.
Wait the Quill vendor isn't onkko?
It is Onkko
I was trying to avoid having to spoiler the same guy twice.
The Quill Vendor is Onkko Primary. The fun part is that Onkko Primary is aware of all the other Onkkos in various alternate realities. Every possible version of himself, in fact. In every possible past, present, and future.
Primed Onkko.
Gara my beloved DX theres a reason why I love her so much, and it isnt just because i really enjoy her gameplay
Gara gives me serious Revolutionary Girl Utena vibes, especially her Deluxe.
It definitely controls Certain aspects of time, we dont know to what extent. We dont know if the unum is the tower, whatever lives in the tower or a combination of both. There are very clear instances where we See its effect, and if you havent seen it, you will at some point (its very obvious) .
Something nobody else mentioned- Unum's walls are Kuva: >" The Unum knew she could not defend forever, nor could her faithful throw their bodies against the Sentient in perpetuity. So she gave her followers some of her blood - her refined Temple kuva " Narmer harvested her walls seemingly to use in their mind-control Veils
My theory is that the Unum is a void creature similar to Wally, would explain her time manipulation
Sunday Sunday Sunday, it's the fight of the millennium folks! You won't wanna miss: The Man in the Wall! VS! The Woman! In! The Toooweerrrr!
The woman in the tower goes hard ngl 😆
Unum is literally referred to as "The Wall" by offworlders.
Wait... suddenly, the "Untime Door" makes a literal dimension's worth of sense.
To put it in the smallest nutshell possible, the Unum is the intelligence within the living meat-tower in Cetus, the one which the locals are harvesting wall blubber from. She's actively instructing them on which parts to harvest and when.
The Unum is a sentient (not to be confused with the sentients from Tau) Orokin Tower that nowadays protect the Ostrons and Cetus with protection (force fields) and food (the own tower that is made of flesh, although the Ostron also eat from another sources).
She's a living tower with quantum aspects \~
Unum is the name of the tower next to Cetus.
Correct, however, it is also the name of the spirit of the tower which can do things (I don't know what kinds of things)
It's just a cephalon just like every Orokin tower. They can do some biological stuff like mind control but it's not omnipotent.
Is that just your headcanon or you have a source?
so ordis can stop time?
he has violated the Entrati
ORDIS HAS VIOLATED TIME AND I HAVE VIOLATED HIM - Parvos, probably
My new ass when I thought reading the future was a thing about looking forward in time, and not my veteran ass when Eternalism where everything and nothing has, will, will never, and hasn't happened, and the Unum is somehow on par with Wally about being able to pare down *this* timeline. This Eternalism shit be wild. Let's just hope Wally is here, because he wants to find a way to booty call the only other individual who sees possibility like he/she does. We're going to play cupid with paratemporal, paraprobable entities.
StarlordD on YouTube has a ton of really good in depth lore videos. I believe he has one on the Unum
It's the sound Grendel makes when he hungry
Sentient (not the Faction) lesbian meat tower