History Characters / WarframeOrokin

* GoldenAge: Deconstructed. The Orokin era ''was'' a golden age of scientific progress, where humanity broke new ground in various fields, terraformed planets, discovered a means of immortality, created Cephalons, forged beautiful technological and scientific marvels, and uncovered [[HyperSpaceIsAScaryPlace a bizarre extradimensional world known as the Void]]. It was also a dark age of human rights. Elites were freely allowed to MindRape children into empty shells so they could steal their bodies. An entire subspecies of humanity was engineered as dumb labor, and those amazingly-powerful Cephalons [[WasOnceAMan used to be humans]], not all of whom volunteered for their new existence. Personal merit came in last place, with physical beauty coming in first. The Executors, the Empire's leaders, were both brilliant scientists and vain, oppressive sociopaths. Present-day humanity largely still views the Orokin era as a golden age, since the Sol system is currently torn between a fascistic empire of [[CloneDegeneration decaying clones]], a MegaCorp that worships the concept of profit, and a horde of ravenous synthetic mutants. Only the Tenno, individuals who were alive back then, and historians like Drusus know what utter monsters the Orokin really were. Drusus ''still'' views it as preferable to the atrocities that followed the Empire's fall.

* TheAnticipator: When you sneak upon him in "Chimera Prologue" he seems to be monologuing to himself, unaware of your presence, and you even have to dash around to avoid his gaze... but then at the end he suddenly speaks directly to your Operator. [[spoiler:The New War all but makes it explicit that his monologues were nothing but him putting on a theater for the Operator, acting as if he was aiming to defy the Sentients as a slave when he was still leading them, and the Paracesis was only made so that he could kill Natah should she defy him.]]

* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler: His ultimate plan in The New War is to have Praghasa eat the sun to power his travel towards the Tau system, not only completely uncaring that this would spell the death of every living thing in the Origin System, but outright ''broadcasts it'' during the final act of the quest, saying how his Narmer subjects should be proud of being sacrifices for his great voyage.]]

* WalkingSpoiler: Who Albrecht is, his discoveries on the Void and the Man in the Wall, as well as the vital role he plays in ''Warframe''[='=]s post-The New War narrative arc make it very difficult to discuss him without revealing important plot details.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: In a game in which named characters rarely die permanently, including villains, Ballas has the honor of being most definetly and utterly ''dead'' by the end of the New War - and unlike Erra, there's no indication that he will be brought back in some other form any time soon.]]

[[center: [-[[Characters/{{Warframe}} Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/WarframeTenno Tenno]] ([[Characters/WarframeTennoWarframesAToM Warframes A-M]], [[Characters/WarframeTennoWarframesNToZ Warframes N-Z]]) | [[Characters/WarframeGrineer Grineer]] | [[Characters/WarframeCorpus Corpus]] | [[Characters/WarframeInfested Infested]] | [[Characters/WarframeSyndicates Syndicates]] | '''Orokin''' | [[Characters/WarframeColonies Colonies]] | [[Characters/WarframeSentients Sentients]] | [[Characters/WarframeVoid Void]] | [[Characters/WarframeOthers Others]]]]-]

Once, the Origin System was ruled by the Orokin, a race of seemingly immaculate posthuman immortals armed with advanced technology that has yet to be surpassed or even just replicated.

* MrExposition: He is the one who narrates the trailers for Prime frames.

* CutsceneBoss: In "The Sacrifice", where the final fight is against Ballas' Sentient cohorts while he stands safely behind a shield. The actual confrontation with Ballas is entirely in a cutscene. He later gets a proper boss fight in "The New War".

* SlaveCollar: Courtesy of Erra after his transformation.

* TokenGoodTeammate: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, especially compared to his progeny and sister-in-law, but unlike the vast majority of the Orokin, Albrecht has a functioning moral compass and was able to recognize that some of his actions ''demanded'' atonement, hence his efforts to oppose the Man in the Wall. The biggest hint to this is the fact that his daughter, who he appears to have raised mostly by himself, is capable of genuine empathy and at least has [[JerkassHasAPoint completely reasonable justifications for some of her more immoral and cowardly actions]], indicating that he was able to impart some healthy morality onto her.

* KickTheDog: Kullervo assassinated an Orokin to gain Ballas's favor, and while charging him with murder was appropriate enough (if only to cover his true intentions), charging him with five other crimes was over the top, and haunted Kullervo all the way until his appearance in the Duviri.

* ManipulativeBastard: Ballas is a master manipulator, able to get his "friends" and enemies to do what he wants, when he wants, how he wants with surprising ease. He was able to convince the Council to spare Perintol, the Archimedean who created the Sentients ''while publicly calling for said Archimedean's death'' (and having secretly coached Perintol on how to behave to make this plan work), and pretended to be on the side of the Orokin while secretly aiding the Sentients in defeating the empire. [[spoiler:He even manages to pull this off against the Operator -- when he is found in the "Chimera Prologue", Ballas appears to hate his new amalgam form and offers the Tenno the Paracesis as a means of opposing the Sentients, with Erra heavily implying this is his way of rebelling against the titular Sentient after being functionally enslaved. The Maker and "The New War" reveal that Erra and Ballas are actually working as equals, and that he gave the Paracesis schematic to the Operator so that he would have a way to dispose of Natah if she didn't meet his standards. This also means that [[BatmanGambit one of his plans hinged entirely on you knowing how much of a Narcissist he is and would take his attempt to betray Erra at face value]], ''and it worked flawlessly'']].

* NeverMyFault: In "Chimera Prologue", he is understandably bitter at being transformed into a freakish Orokin-Sentient creature, but puts all the blame for it on Natah, painting her as a vile deceiver who tricked him and caused this to happen to him, ignoring that it saved his life, and conveniently forgetting how his cooperation with the Sentients in general and his decision to treat Lotus as someone else came of his own volition. [[spoiler: Taken even further in "The New War", where he blames his killing of Margulis on how [[IfICantHaveYou she dared share her love with the Tenno]]. Even going so far as to blame the Lotus' defiance of him for driving him to destroy the sun.]]

* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler:As the FinalBoss of "The New War", Ballas is probably the strongest opponent in the game from a lore stance. Not only are all his attacks able to knock the Operator/Drifter out of their warframe (something that is impossible for any other enemy to do), but he also has an unbreakable barrier similar to those possessed by the Twin Queens, ''but can still attack while it is up''. '''''[[InvincibleVillain You never actually defeat him in combat]]''''', with the Tenno having to resort to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard covering his face with a Narmer Veil]], allowing Lotus to exploit his veil-induced stupidity to give him a KissOfDeath. Also, keep in mind he's unaffected by walking through open space ''right next to the sun'', which continuously saps health from your Operator while they are active and is visibly demolishing the scenery]].

* UnreliableNarrator: Almost ''everything'' that Ballas ever says is a lie or an attempt to manipulate others if he's not outright voicing his contempt for them.

* TheAnticipator: When you sneak upon him in "Chimera Prologue" he seems to be monologuing to himself, unaware of your presence, and you even have to dash around to avoid his gaze... but then at the end he suddenly speaks directly to your Operator.

* NobleDemon: At first he seems to play this straight, apparently being legions less corrupt, deluded, or just plain cruel as other Orokin had been... and then, starting with "The Sacrifice", he [[SubvertedTrope subverts]] this trope, ''HARD'' - his [[ToThePain treatment of]] [[TragicMonster the Dax who will become Excalibur Umbra]] shows him to be just as callous and cruel as the rest of the Orokin, if not even '''worse.''' There's also the fact he sold out the Orokin to the Sentients, [[PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery condemning quite possibly everyone in the Origin System to die because he was forced to kill Margulis]]. [[spoiler: In "The New War" any pretense of nobility is totally demolished as he seizes control of the system and brainwashes everyone into an ApocalypseCult to worship him, then trying to destroy the Sun with Praghasa and use it as fuel to reach Tau, and the brutal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown he gives to the Lotus when she tries to stop him. With all of that horror, Ballas proved Margulis was wrong: He wasn't just like other Orokin, he was '''WORSE.''']]

* ChangedMyJumper: Deliberately ''averted'' - his outfit when travelling back to 1999 wouldn't look too out-of-place during that time period.

* TokenGoodTeammate: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, especially compared to his progeny and sister-in-law, but unlike the vast majority of the Orokin, Albrecht has a functioning moral compass and was able to recognize that some of his actions ''demanded'' atonement, hence his efforts to oppose the Man In The Wall. The biggest hint to this is the fact that his daughter, who he appears to have raised mostly by himself, is capable of genuine empathy and at least has [[JerkassHasAPoint completely reasonable justifications for some of her more immoral and cowardly actions]], indicating that he was able to impart a functioning moral compass onto her.

* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: She erased some memories from the Zariman survivors, in part to seal some of the powers they couldn't handle and in part to protect them from the trauma of those memories. "Chains of Harrow" heavily implies that she also did this at least partially to protect them from The Man In The Wall's influence.

** Granted, Ballas had absolutely no way of knowing this, but him severing Natah's hand in "The New War" causes it to fall into the Void. It ends up in the kingdom of Duviri and gives the Drifter the power he needs to free himself from Dominus Thrax's grasp, [[spoiler: who goes on to play a vital part in Ballas' downfall]]. Also, allowing Erra to snap Teshin's neck (and presumably throw the body into the void portal) also ends up resulting in Teshin becoming the Drifter's mentor in Duviri. One can only wonder if The Man In The Wall deliberately set things up so Ballas' own actions would come back to bite him in the ass.

* TokenGoodTeammate: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, especially compared to his progeny and sister-in-law, but unlike the vast majority of the Orokin, Albrect has a functioning moral compass and was able to recognize that some of his actions ''demanded'' atonement, hence his efforts to oppose The Man In The Wall. The biggest hint to this is the fact that his daughter, who he appears to have raised mostly by himself, is capable of genuine empathy and at least has [[JerkassHasAPoint completely reasonable justifications for some of her more immoral and cowardly actions]], indicating that he was able to impart a functioning moral compass onto her.

* TokenGoodTeammate: {{Downplayed|Trope}}, especially compared to his progeny and sister-in-law, but unlike the vast majority of the Orokin, Albrect has a functioning moral compass and was able to recognize that some of his actions ''demanded'' atonement, hence his efforts to oppose The Man In The Wall. The biggest hint to this is the fact that his granddaughter, who he appears to have raised mostly by himself, is capable of genuine empathy and at least has [[JerkassHasAPoint completely reasonable justifications for some of her more immoral and cowardly actions]], indicating that he was able to impart a functioning moral compass onto her.

* SchizoTech: Much of the technology in his lab is controlled via old tower computers apparently lifted from 1999, complete with black-and-white CRT montiors. On top of that, he also made use of an old-style pager, and a cell phone that looks suspiciously similar ''Nokia 3310'' can be found on his desk.