#kavor defector

[chronicler-of-narrative]

Man, Bailey (not an oc, but the chad known officially as Bailif Defector) really seems like the type to be super cheesy.

Like just imagine you summon him during a defection and he comes in with something like "your bailif, here to give out punishment!" Or smth like that.

(Yes, im thinking he would be a cool-ass failsafe for defection missions)

Also thank you @goldenboikuvasauce for helping me come up with the idea of him as a summonable.

Would ya'll like to play defection more if you could summon old Bailey charging into the tile and knocking back the infested for the sake of his Kavor brothers and sisters?

[robomythos]

WF OCs so far

Rees Fayne: Operator. She strives to be kind despite the cruelty she's faced, but she can also be efficient in a fight. She has fears of abandonment which makes her clingy to her loved ones.

Alden Thale: Limbo Graxx. A slightly grumpy, old mathematician, once respected for calculating the coordinates for void travel. As Rees's adoptive father, he does what he can to protect her.

Roch: Harrow Graxx. Reconstructed by the Queen from his former self's ashes. He has faint memories of his time as a mercenary for the Red Veil. He regrets failing his mission to protect Rell.

Tima: Wisp Graxx. A legend whispered among the Kavor survivors was of a ghostly Warframe who freed them before their captors could dissect them. She is a guardian to all defectors searching for peace, and even adopted their look.

Amanita: Saryn. A stranded Warframe on Sedna surviving through pure force of will. She has complicated feelings towards the Lotus and loathes Grineer. She has no memory of her old self.

[muracasardis]

Inktober 2018 - Day 7 Post-Execution by a Pacifist

[incorrectwarframequotes]

Kavor Defector: You're my hero!

Equinox: No, no, no, that, I ain't.

Equinox: Nope. Never will be. I'm just a bad guy who gets paid to mess up worse guys.

[martianjellyfish]

Got this AI bug during The Pacifism Defect earlier today. Stupid little Grineer dog, get your arse outta here before I kill you myself.

(It's apparently been fixed now. Maybe.)

[dr-ducttape]

Grineer Creativity - Songs and the Tal Hymn

Creativity is discouraged among the Grineer rank and file, but singing has found its place as an accepted form of expression, mostly because it promotes unity among the troops, and can serve to keep everyone working in rhythm with each other, similar to sea shanties.

The two groups of Grineer that sing the most without worrying about being caught and punished are the plains Grineer, since nobody who would care can hear them out on the plains anyway, and the Defectors - be they Meridian or Kavor.  All Grineer sing to some degree, and it’s said that hearing an engine room that doesn’t have singing coming out of it on a Galleon is either a sign of a Tenno attack or a surprise inspection.

Most Grineer songs are stories, of sorts - Grineer history converted into song form, and you can generally figure out where a Grineer came from by which oral histories through songs they know.  There are a few songs that just about every Grineer knows, and even the youngest learn them quickly, and new songs are rare to come across, unless some sort of significant event happens.

This song-based oral tradition is part of the Steel Meridian and Kavor, of course, but they are far more open with their songs than any other group of Grineer.  New songs are far more common among them, of course.

The most famous of the defectors’ songs is known as the Tal Hymn - Tal being a Grineer suffix used to denote a defective clone, also used to indicate defectors, some of whom have embraced it and wear it as a badge.

The Tal Hymn starts almost identically to a loyalist Grineer song written to praise the Twin Queens, before modulating into a minor key and beginning to tell the story of a defector - usually implied to be the singer (or at least the original songwriter).  The song ends modulating back to a major key and the last line of the song is “Praise the Glory of Free Choice”

Rumors in the Iron Wake say that as time goes on and more Defectors tell their stories, the Tal Hymn has gotten longer as more parts are added, and some feel that the Tal Hymn tells the story of all defectors, not just the original songwriter.

Some Meridian Grineer don’t consider someone a true defector until they sing the Tal Hymn (exceptions are made for selectively mute, mute, or deaf Grineer who cannot sing, of course, but there has been a serious effort to translate it into Grineer sign language so even the Grineer who can’t hear or speak will have a chance to learn it) and the first time someone leads the Tal Hymn is considered a rite of passage among many defectors.

[tauforged]

honestly though there’s just really something to be said for kahl and veso’s parts in the new war, seeing loyalists to their respective factions that we normally wouldn’t bat an eye at mowing down, but SEEING them slowly begin to doubt the intentions of those commanding them and eventually turn and act for the sake of others… throughout the mission, kahl’s ‘for the queens’ becomes more hesitant, quieter, more uncertain, until he finally drops it all together to say what he really means— queens be damned, all that matters to him is that his brothers, some of them, any of them, live to see another day. veso, too, goes from verbally groveling at alad’s feet to defying him entirely, knowing full and damn well it’ll get him killed, because he’ll be damned if he’s going to take the coward’s way out, even if he can take out one ship in his last act, it’ll be one less for the rest of the system to contend with. kahl, too, is the one who SUGGESTS taking the bomb to the orphix, even though grineer lancers are meant to be unthinking drones. it really casts a humanizing light on the two factions that makes me emotional. hell, i’d be willing to argue that this is proof that the grineer ‘defective gene’ isn’t actually REAL- the queens and their officers explain it away, sometimes a lancer just comes out wrong, they’re just broken, don’t bother listening to them, they can’t help themselves. theyre beyond help, there’s no reasoning with them- it’s better to gather them up, melt them down, and make a new batch. and nobody WANTS to be singled out as broken, so anyone who WOULD be predisposed to listen, they’re scared into silence. what if they think i’m defective too, they think. what if i fail them? what else could i possibly be good for, if not to serve the queens? and this is why we have characters like ruk who double down to the extreme on finding and punishing defectors, even pacifists like the kavor, because if they’re allowed to live at all, word might start to spread that there’s fundamentally NO DIFFERENCE between them and their loyalist brothers. there’s no genetic predisposition that makes a grineer inherently disobedient, it’s just that some make a conscious choice to reject the queens that made them, to defy their purpose— and THAT would be the real threat to the empire, wouldn’t it? if the many loyal, mindless dogs were to suddenly turn on their handlers in droves, bite the hands that keep them collared and feast on the bones of their few, cruel masters?

[thegreatthreeteratosimp]

The war is over, we've won. That's what they all say at least

That's what you hear in transmissions from your orbiter radio, what Nora says at nighttime, that everyone is still here and alive.

But you know, you helped Lotus with the count, alongside so many tenno and Suda. Even Simaris joined in every now and then. You heard Cressa's report, how the defectors went up, but it was the kavor. So many Grineer are tired of the fighting after it.

You saw Paladinno being sworn in, you were by Cressa's side, because both wished you to, being a Meridian General, and the tenno hero.

The Arbiters are a bit more empty, seats left unfilled, just like how Suda's data scape is a bit dimmer, how Perrin got less monitors and people, New Loka has more plants for their falllen too. Even Simaris is a bit more respectful to everyone.

And oh, Teshin's room... You were there with Varzia, both of you knowing the rites to be made for a warrior who fell in combat. The Orvius you have was used as a stand in for his, in honor of the one who fought, time and time again, and fell on his feet against an unsurmountable foe. Every Tenno is a bit more quiet around it, and it always has flowers.

Most haven't noticed, but even the tenno are changed. They spent years doing guerrilla fights solo, the ones who brought down empires had no choice but to lay low and pick their fights. They all walk now, no more running much less bullet jumping. Tenno were always silent, but now you can't even hear a Rhino's footstep in a silent relay. each step is weighted and every tenno knows it's to leave as soft of a trail as possible.

Every one now has a kitgun, the pax charger arcane being the default, and although they do not use it in the relays, the tenno always keep at least a kitgun and a dagger with them, their usual weapons during the war, for their reliability, power and stealth. The last time you saw then without weapons was at the post war meeting, when you and Lotus got off from your orbiter at am abandoned dojo you had personally scouted shortly before.

Albeit a Tenno protocol breach, every leader from every allied faction was there, from the ostrons and quills to the entrati and even Loid.

You knew the numbers already, you were the one who went over them with the Lotus, holding each other, a mother and her child comforting each other at the sheer size of the numbers.

Civilian casualties were well over 60% of the last know size of them, not counting the missing. Allied factions were well below 50% of their size, with defectors and deaths. But the worst was the tenno casualties. Every death was always greatly felt since all Tenno were family. But this? Well over a few hundred deaths, to the ones who were only in their thousands since the Zariman. A bloodier battle than the old war, knowing how many were gone, and how many decided to retire. Only you and lotus would and had ever known about the ones who retired for their safety, and even among the death count the retired tenno were.

The ones too bruised and broken from war were almost 40% of the tenno death toll, numbers spread amongst the years, and even more names added to your wall, each just as painful as the first.

Even outcasts were invited, and peace brokered. All well beyond tired from the war, Little Duck and Onkko especially, being the ones responsible after local resistances alongside tenno, fighting Tau with void and fear with hope, but you knew.

From the ashes you'd rise, just as the Lotus was reborn from the heat of the sun, you'd make sure they all were. Your trips were more frequent, bringing materials to all factions, and gathering all dog tags you could find along the way. Being there with Lotus, going over numbers of enemies and through allies meetings, even Konzu's early lunch every now and then.

The work was sure to be long and tiring but you were ready. Years in cryo sleep after the Zariman, then the war, Naga Drums and the second dream. All Tenno were fighters by trade, but they all also we're resilient and patient by trade.

[wondermumbles]

things I learned reading NPC quotes on the wiki

long, long post mild spoilers for The War Within, spoiler for a key plot point in Sands of Inaros, significant Natah spoilers, and a moderate but not super important spoiler for The Second Dream

"'I'm doing a great job. I am a valued member of this functional and productive Kuva team.' Does this describe you? If so, I'd love to have some [laughs] face time with you! Just pull out the synergy pin of your service collar and count to four!" - Worm Queen in an announcement aboard the Kuva Fortress

Service collar huh? I've always thought there have to be some extra things the Grineer (and Corpus) are doing to keep their soldiers, workers, and crews from panicking and/or surrendering when warframes show up, beyond the obvious things like desertion punishments, controlling their livelihoods, knowing where their families live (for those who have families, we'll revisit that in another quote), and being in some cases the only way of life those people can imagine. All of that can't always stop someone from making an impulsive decision based on fear and desperation, or stop them from failing to act.

We know the Grineer are genetically loyal to the Queens and defectors like Steel Meridian and the Kavor are the results of genetic errors. So there's that, of course, and that's huge. But on top of that they have explosive collars, apparently. This might just be a Kuva Fortress thing, as it's the most important and sensitive operation in the entire Grineer dominion (capital D?).

Synergy pin is an interesting term. Synergy with what?

There's one other use of that word in Warframe that I can find: the Hunter Synergy mod.

The Continuity mod's name and function directly relate to the lore. The Orokin called their process of bodysnatching to cheat death "Continuity" (and the Queens still call it that). So maybe there's something to this. Something to do with the Link function a bunch of companion mods have.

"Tenno bones will be the foundation of Grineer homes!" - Vay Hek during The Cicero Crisis event

Grineer, at least some of them, have homes. They aren't all forced to spend their whole lives bunking in their workplaces like domestik drones on standby. Maybe they have tours of duty and time off (when they survive long enough).

"Ronrer grat hus for rhunner?" | "Wonder what is for dinner?" "Grat a dovely day." | "What a lovely day." "Hu sroudr kas kle rhufe." | "I should call the wife." - Drahk Master patrolling/idle lines

Oh great. They have spouses. I'm never going to be able to fill a Drahk Master full of warcrime projectiles quite the same way again.

Even worse:

"Out redkhung kle rog." | "Out walking the dog."

:(

And now back to Councilor Vay Hek!

"Earth is for settlements! Settlements! Settlements!" "We deserve more than a cold, dark asteroid! Earth for the Grineer! Earth for our Queens!" - propaganda broadcasts via a Regulator drone during The Cicero Crisis

Speaking of homes, they really want to have homes on Earth, or at least Vay Hek does.

"Tenno? TENNO?! Ooh, is it my birth interval?! Such a gift! But, I have a surprise for you, you GREASY METAL MAGGOT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" - Vay Hek during Saya's Vigil quest

Grineer have some concept of a birthday celebration. Don't know whether the average Grineer pays attention to their birth interval or celebrates it or if it's just upper-class Grineer like Vay Hek, but then again, with clone rot and all the dangers of the Origin system, maybe the least powerful Grineer individuals would value, all the more, each birth interval they live to see.

"Grineer, my sons, prepare the reinforcements. We need that Tenno." - Vor during the Vor's Prize quest "You have murdered my sons and disgraced me before my Queens. But soon the Ascaris will complete its task and bring you to me." "We Grineer are millions strong, but with a flaw. We are...diseased. Rotten. Sterile. But now, we have you! I did this for my love, my Queens. They will forgive my insubordination when I deliver you to them. Our love will be reborn as we feed on your divine blood. Our children will flourish without disease. And I will die, at last, at peace. Father. Grandfather."

Some people probably remember a lot of the Vor's Prize lines, but it can be hard to pay attention while learning the game, and for some it's been a long time since then. So I guess it's justifiable to include these.

First of all, he says the Grineer are millions strong. Only millions? That's not a large population considering the current population of Earth in real life is estimated to be 7.8-7.9 billion. The Corpus also represent some percentage of the human population, and we know there are relatively independent settlements out there like Cetus, the Mycona Colony, and the name-unknown colony/civilization Baro Ki'teer came from which existed on Mars until the Grineer destroyed it. Against all that, the Grineer are mere millions.

They seem to be able to maintain their population at that level with their cloning. The Tenno slaughtering Grineer by the shipfull certainly doesn't help. This brings us back to Vor's mention that the Grineer are sterile. This the kind of foundational fact you pick up in brief summaries of Warframe's factions: the Grineer reproduce only through cloning and their lifespans are short even when a violent death doesn't befall them. But they still have marriage. Whether Grineer marriages are usually for love or for some other form of partnership, I don't know. It's nice to think that even in the midst of their horrible, imperialist, militarist society ruled by shameless despots, Grineer probably have zero qualms about homosexuality, asexuality, and aromanticism, because there's zero pressure for individuals to form reproductive partnerships. Probably no delineated gender roles either as far as social matters go, though the consistent sexes of Scorpions and Ballistas and such suggest the sex of a clone is part of the template of genes, job, and equipment.

Anyway, Vor gives us our first example of Warframe's recurring theme of family. He's driven by the wish to be a father and a grandfather. He's motivated by love for the Queens, too, but he doesn't want to live forever as their consort or anything quite like that, he just wants to die someday in peace knowing he had children and his children had children.

He calls his troops his sons. I wonder how many Grineer captains and commanders feel this way? Worth mentioning that the Grineer all call each other brothers—which, considering the significant number of female soldiers they have, has probably become an effectively gender-neutral term in their culture. Are they brothers under fatherly commanding officers as a general rule? Are there just a few COs who take the metaphor that far? Vay Hek even calls the ghouls his children, and I don't think he's not serious about that.

There's also Tyl Regor:

"The Lotus...barking at you. Always so calm, always in control... She doesn't care about you, Tenno. She doesn't love you. Not like I loved the Tubemen you murdered."

That's rough, buddy.

Bonus:

"Attack me? My science? Maybe you thought you were dealing with that legless parrot? No, I'm no Hek. You give me a Fomorian fleet and you get a different outcome. Hellish outcome."

Hey, Tyl Regor thinks Vay Hek looks like a bird, too!

And here's what Tyl Regor thinks of the Sentients:

"The Sentient. The destroyer? The liberator? Depends on who you ask, but this, THIS thing is certain: I will have its secret!"

"So...the Sentient. Nasty thing. Came from where? Who cares...they smashed the Orokin. Freed us! How? How'd they do that? I want to know."

He has an interesting view of Teshin and the presumably the Dax in general:

"Is that...Teshin? So, [laughs] the pseudo-Tenno lives! Still drunk on your own honor? Shocked it hasn't rotted you through yet."

Let's recall that Forma and Exilus Adapters are part of the lore and Exilus Adapters were (re?)discovered by Tyl Regor in Hunhow's "tomb" during the Natah quest:

"Look! Exilus... Some primordial Forma? An engine for self-manipulation. What will it do for me?"

An engine for self-manipulation is very in line with what you'd expect to find in Sentient technology.

I wouldn't be surprised if, in a future update, it turns out Exilus tech has more history than that. The Tenno were fighting the Sentients in the Old War for who-knows-how-long. Almost seems unlikely that the Tenno and/or the Orokin never captured and studied any Exilus tech. But it could very easily have been lost after the Orokin empire fell and the Tenno retreated to Lua, and it evidently was.

Yet another line from Tyl Regor in the Natah quest brings us to another topic:

"Destroy this tomb? Destroy our history? Vandals!"

The Lotus is later accused again of tampering with history, by Alad V in The Second Dream:

"Sweet profit, the Moon exists! It-it was in the Void all along! I knew the Lotus was powerful, but this, she erased history! We thought it was destroyed all this time! Huh, my, my, Lotus, you make a fine villain."

Alad V has a ton of lines! He's been involved in a list of events and quests a mile long! So this is a good place to end this post and say I'll make another one and then never do that because ADHD.

[preposterous-birb]

So this is a weird hot take I had and I’m not sure how to fully verbalize it.

Grineer Manic are one of my favorite enemies in warframe hands down. Their designs are cool, and the way they function is interesting to me. But I feel there is a strange significance in where they pop up and why.

Grineer Manic can pop up in both Clem survival and Defection missions. You know. Missions with defective Grineer. Something else I picked up on is that it feels like most of the Steel Meridian missions that take place on Uranus are spy or rescue missions. This implies something, I feel. Tyl has something that Cressa wants, and the Defectors have something Tyl wants. I do not believe that Grineer Manic are actually sent to kill defectors, rather it seems more that Tyl wants information from them, most likely manic are sent to capture them. Specifically, I think, he wants to study their genetic makeup. Find what makes them different from a normal Grineer, what allows them to defect so freely. What he wants to do with this information is unclear. He could use it to his advantage, to create clones that are free thinking, or he could use the information to make sure NONE of his clones ever defect. It all depends how you view his actions I suppose.

In summary, Tyl has a strange fascination with studying Grineer Defectors, and has lots of data stored about them that Cressa tries to get out of his hands, while also trying to capture steel meridian and kavor for more data.

[nek-ros]

im starting to confuse my own headcanons with canon at this point. like i headcanon that the helminth infestation can only be transmitted via bloodstream bc the helminth chair has spines for injecting, and regular infestation only seems to spread through airborne spores (clouds on infested tilesets + kavor defectors coughing and choking in defection missions) but i forgot that helminth one is not exactly canon

[outerworldss]

Kavor Defector: trust tenno skoom? Hmm... if we must.

Analytical side of me: It shows how despite turning away from the violence of the grineer, the Queen's propaganda is still hard-wired into their head, making them naturally aversive to the tenno, and not easily trusting. They also probably know the destruction a single tenno can cause, taking out hundreds of grineer (which perhaps could have included a close friend to a defector) in a single run. Although the Grineer soldiers had not necessarily done anything wrong, the ambition of their Queens had the tenno mark all Grineer for death, even the workers. It is natural for defectors to be distrusting of their greatest nightmares.

Also Me: BIYCH u callin me tenno skoom? IM SAVING UR LIFE WHAY THE FCK I'm leaving I didn't come here for this

[muracasardis]

God that drawing really makes me feel sorry for the kavor defector

Aw thank you~! I think their stories and reality don’t get explored enough. Maybe we can have them in the future assisting in certain things again.

[tenebris-metallum]

Oops new oc His name is Chrobak Tal and he has right side weakness after a head injury. He's a Kavor defector and a big sweetheart who likes bugs, even though he's only seen pictures. (His name, Chrobăk, is what Google translate said is the Slovakian word for beetle)

[incorrectwarframequotes]

I thought I’d try writing a short thingo based on Warframe

The Kavor ran. They could hear the Grineer shouting as they gave chase, hunting down the defects, the runts of the litter. It was this very violence that had led the Kavor to abandon their faction. They ran, but where? Who would take them? Who would trust them? 

They had heard about the deadly fighting force known as the Tenno, and the brave (or foolish) among them had suggested seeking refuge with them. But everyone knew the Tenno and Grineer were at war. 

The Kavor ran through the Grineer Galleon, holding on to a faint glimmer of hope, that they would be found, that they would be rescued, but they could hear the Grineer catching up, and they knew they were done for. They slowed, and the Grineer behind them slowed too, savouring the moment before the kill. One Trooper lifted his Grakata, and the Kavor braced for the shot. 

But it never came. Instead of a gunshot, there was a loud clang. A red axe had become embedded into the ground in between the Kavor and the Grineer, and both sides looked equally confused. Then there was a golden flash, and something appeared that was neither Kavor nor Grineer. It stood, clad in armour, a disc with symbols engraved upon it rotating on its back. A deadly warrior, painted red, black and gold, lifted the axe and readied a second one, facing the Grineer. 

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?" 

The Kavor stood, stunned, as this thing, that could only be a Tenno, flung one axe at the nearest Trooper, who was quicker and dodged it. The Tenno cocked his head slightly, and then, faster than a blink, appeared next to the Trooper, grabbing onto the axe and swinging it around to chop into his spine, slicing him in two. He then spun, throwing one of his axes one way, and the other one in the complete opposite direction. He blinked to one of them, seemingly floating in mid air, and pulled out his pistol, firing three shots. He then grabbed onto the axe and threw it at the Kavor Defectors, and blinked over to the second axe, firing another three shots in the air, and grabbing the second axe. Finally, he blinked over to the first axe and caught it just before it split the Defector in half as it had done to the Grineer. All of this happened in a split second, and the Kavor stood in awe of this Tenno. They had heard stories, but nothing- NOTHING compared to this.

[dr-ducttape]

People allowed to make fun of the Grineer for being stinky: Defectors (the Kavor and Meridian), Darvo, Zola, Baro Ki'Teer

People not allowed to make fun of the Grineer for being stinky: literally anyone else