Being a Nidus fan, Ballas' dialogue in his Prime trailer certainly intrigued me, but I never thought much beyond its cryptic phrases. That is until yesterday when a friend and I got into a lore discussion about a few of the primed frames. This led me down a little bit of a rabbit hole, and I became fixated on really breaking down what Ballas had said, and what I ended up with is well beyond what I had ever expected it to be. While it may not be 100% lore accurate, I tried to make it fairly plausible based on the lore/information I do know. Overall, I enjoyed writing it, and my friend also really enjoyed reading it, and so I thought I'd share it here to in hopes that others may enjoy it too!
~~~It was not long after the first sentients began their rebellion, there was tale of a young orokin man whose name had since been erased from all records. A prideful thing he was, revered for his unusual radiance and beauty. But rumor had it, that one day his pride pushed him too far. Some say he slandered The Seven and Emperors in the vilest of ways. Others say he bedded the wrong women among other scandalous atrocities. Whatever the reasons were, the executors were furious at such displays of arrogance; they knew just what they would do to put this dog back in his place. A brief trial was held, where a unanimous vote had been cast. His fate was sealed as they banished him to a distant place in the outer reaches of the solar system. It was a diseased, horrible, abandoned place. A place that would strip him of his pride and perfect beauty, and soon after, his mind. Without that, he was nothing, they thought. But they were wrong.
This disease, this infestation took hold quickly and began to warp him into a hideous malformed thing. But something was different. It did not consume him like it had all the others that were left to fester in this hell. His mind remained intact... Mostly. The whispers of a thousand voices clouded his every thought and sense, but try as they might, they could not subdue him. There was no sense of time in this place, this endless labyrinth of contorted flesh, but he endured, long enough to understand those ravening whispers, and eventually his mind boldly whispered back. And they listened. The revelation was clear as day. No one had ever been able to command this infestation before. He bent this plague to his will, but also nurtured it, bonded with it, and allowed it to flourish. In return, it gave him a strength his limbs had never known, his skin became hard as steel. He could manipulate hideous flesh to ensnare others and feed upon their very energy to fuel his own rampant mutation. He had become a great twisted thing of beauty. And he sought to share that beauty with those who had cast him out, to show them just how wrong they were.
He let the infestation peer into his memories, show them where he had come from, where the new seeds shall be sewn to spread. Through their hivemind connections, he could detect several small abandoned spacecrafts that had long since been overtaken by infested growth. He approached the most space-worthy vessel of the bunch and linked his own infestation to the overgrowth. Before long, his strain had corrupted and overtaken that of the ship's and was able to command it to do his bidding. The diseased ship obliged and its engines roared to life. With all systems ready, the craft shot into the black of space, and facing the radiant light of the distant sun, the master had given his command. Navigation Set Course -Destination: Earth.
The journey would have its risks, however. Any crafts near his path likely would not ignore the threat of a ship-sized infested mass hurtling through space straight towards colonized regions. Should he encounter any other ships, he would have no other choice but to try and flee, as the weapon systems were damaged, having long since fallen into disrepair. Most of the voyage he was lucky; he managed to make it near Mars before patrol ships inevitably engaged with the infested aberration. The writhing ship was fast and managed to out-maneuver most of the artillery, but one well-placed shot took out one of the seething engines and the injured ship became dangerously slow. He couldn't afford to fail now, not when he was so close to Earth, and so through his link, he funneled his strength into the ship to supply the needed energy to repair itself and resume function. It was enough to continue avoiding most of the gunfire, but even when repaired his ship was not fast enough to outrun his attackers. But soon it wouldn't matter, the blue globe loomed before him, his voyage was nearly complete. At this moment, Orokin sentry ships joined the patrol ships that were still in hot pursuit, where they engaged in a final attempt to stop this monstrous ball of diseased flesh from tainting the planet any further. The ship buckled with every shot it took, showering him in its blood and screeching in agony, as he continued to pour his strength into pushing the failing vessel with all their combined might. Just as his vessel breached Earth's atmosphere, a coordinated series of shots destroyed all engines at once. The flames spread to the outer hull as the dying vessel careened towards the planet's surface. His strength was nearly spent; there was nothing more he could do to sustain the ship, nothing for him to do now but brace for impact.
The sun had barely crept over the horizon in the lavished city of the Orokin. The Seven received word of the panic that had spread throughout their golden city. Whispers of this flaming plague star screaming directly towards them, threatening to taint them with its corruption. A few of The Seven, Ballas among them, stepped outside to just in time to witness the burning seething mass plunge into the soft earth of the courtyard before them, tearing open a trench as the strange mass came to a halt. Dax soldiers poured in to surround the fallen ship, the air eerily silent of all but the inferno that had consumed the doomed vessel. To their horror, a twisted figure began to emerge amidst the settling dust and flames. One of the seven barked out an order, demanding this malformed thing to identify itself. In a terrible twisted voice, it spoke, "I am that which you cast out, reborn and more beautiful than ever". Their eyes widened. Even when hideously mutated and deformed, they knew that voice, they knew that arrogance. The golden lords screamed their commands, and the obedient dax flocked in to subdue this monstrosity so that their lords could cleanse him from their perfect city once and for all. But to their surprise, this beast fought back with surprising speed and agility that even the dax struggled to match. Virulent infestation flung from his fingertips and ensnared several opponents, pulling them into a hideous mass of entangled bodies, and at his command the infestation ruptured from the very ground, impaling dax flesh, siphoning away their life force to feed its master. But it was not enough. Sustaining the ship and surviving the crash had depleted him of all his strength, and the dax numbers were simply too great for him to fend off for long. The dax had him subdued and restrained, while the very eyes of judgement cast their gaze upon him.
"Glass him!" Nihil screamed. "It's the only way to contain this disease". But a seed had been planted in Ballas' mind. Mesmerized by what he had just witnessed, he formulated a bold plan. "No, we can use this. Leave him to me.", he said to his fellow executors. The others agreed with Ballas and cast their vote in his favor. Ballas had him escorted into one of his laboratories and placed within a cryo chamber. "Incredible", Ballas thought to himself, "he's managed to do that which we could not: to tame and control the infestation". He took some samples of this thing, this nidus (meaning source of infestation in this instance), and began experiments, trying to learn the secrets that this former orokin seemed to have unlocked. Astonishingly, this strain seemed less chaotic than the known strains of the outer rim, it did not mindlessly infect and warp everything it came into contact with, unusually eager to obey its master's command. Ballas began tests on other subjects to see if he could recreate this strange gift that had plummeted down from the heavens. "If this works, this would be a weapon that even the sentients would fear", Ballas thought. But the tests? They were all failures. Humans were warped with this new strain, warped from torment and agonizing pain, while the infestation drove them into madness. They would not submit to Ballas; their master lies dormant and sealed away. But the more Ballas experimented, the more he tightened his control, refined the strain, and soon the perfect solution was found: the rejected survivors of Zariman 10-0. Somehow, beyond Ballas' own comprehension, they were able to see inside and heal the hurts of the tormented person inside and calm the fury of their infested blood. Finally, his frames of war were now complete.
A great many warframes had been created before Ballas reflected back to the source of it all. With all of the his success, he felt confident enough to go back and attempt adding the master of infestation himself to the warframe's ranks. Pulling him from the cryo chamber he'd long been contained in, Ballas ensured that enough drugs were pumped into his system to keep him unconscious and subdued, and Ballas wasted no time in beginning his work. The procedure went perfectly as planned, this once insolent brat now king amongst warframes and infestation alike, was now Ballas' to command. "My festering demigod. My Nidus." ~~~
Ballas Dialogue in Nidus Prime Trailer for reference:
~We cast our shining child adrift on strange seas. For with time, these starless currents black as mourning may work a sea-change. And if, one grisly dawn, the skies should hurl you, herald-like, back to Earth, remind us, foundling, of what we immaculate ones have lost. What succulent riches disease's kiss may bring. My festering demigod. My Nidus~
Main points of inspiration for creating this interpretation:
- Nidus being portrayed as originally being some young prideful orokin man fits the whole description of "shining child", even if a more literal one. This is where the initial idea for the interpretation stemmed from, the whole idea of "Sure it probably means whatever prototype frame nidus was before becoming infested, but what if its taken more literally during a pre-warframe era". The implications of that route just seemed way more interesting to me and so that's what I rolled with.
- there needed to be a plausible reason for why they would cast him out into space, and later, a reason as to why he would go back. To me, the idea of sending someone off into space, leaving them to the mercy of the elements and 'abandoning' them, seemed more indicative of some form of punishment rather than an experiment of some kind (that said, there probably wasnt much difference between the two in terms of Orokin cruelty either way lol). A punishment to ruin a person's sense of pride/beauty that had slandered them or something would feel pretty in character for the Orokin and also would easily be reason enough for him to be referred to as a 'foundling' (meaning 'abandoned child') in the PA trailer.
- a nidus that had been left to feed and mutate completely unchecked for an undetermined amount of time (and more notably without current warframe limitations) would likely be quite the force to be reckoned with. if the dax/orokin were going to easily overpower him, he'd likely need to be severely weakened by the time he reached earth, hence the whole infested ship bit with him siphoning his strength(stacks) into it to keep it going + surviving the crash
- i tried to construct this interpretation so that it still fits with the whole "excal is the first warframe to be created" thing, as nidus in this interpretation was never really "created" by ballas in the first place, and was later modified into being a warframe on once the program was a sure success.
- fits in with the original context of Helminth referring to Nidus in-game as "master" as this interpretation means that the original Nidus Prime was the source of the first helminth strain that was used to create warframes, which also fits well with Ballas' line of "what succulent riches disease's kiss may bring". To further note, it was never specifically stated exactly how the helminth strain came to be created (to my knowledge) other than vague lines from the Vitruvian, to which this interpretation could easily fit into.
- further helminth elaboration: when nidus first released, he was the only frame who could open the door to the Helminth Infirmary, presumably via his command of the infestation. We know that the helminth refers to operators as 'demons' (particularly pre-deimos lines before helminth system was expanded), which means that originally helminth saying 'master' was in reference to Nidus. The helminth virus/cyst system was never finished, and because people were demanding a way to get rid of the cyst, a quick fix was added in to allow other frames into the room to cure it, but the voice lines were left untouched. This why Ordis freaking out when you cure a frame doesn't make sense, because the dialogue are for Nidus intentionally sitting in the chair and infecting himself and fully awaking helminth. It's also what helminth's line of "Forgive me, my sting, Master" initially referenced.
- the theme of twisted beauty fits right along with Helminth being like "why do you reject my beauty?" when you get cysts removed
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/Warframe/comments/ygxyhr/my_interpretation_of_nidus_primes_trailer/
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