Goat_Libraian

The implication is that for every major alignment choice the operator makes, there is a paradox alternative timeline where the other option is picked. And, consequently, when the operator is equally likely to have picked any option multiple timelines can be created. The reason both Sirius and Orion have adult forms is because both names were canonically picked by different versions of the operator (because multiplayer). So there is the timeline you the player play in, the timeline where you (other players) chose the other option, and then multiple terminated timelines where you didn't choose each.

And the strangest thing is that naming Sirius and Orion isn't a major alignment choice. Nothing major, hypothetically, changes by choosing either name. But they still pulled out the alignment choice menu at the end of Jade Shadows. So this makes me think. For every alignment choice you make, there is an equal amount of paradox fuckery happening. And this may be the entire reason that the operator was given the abilities they were.

Imagine how many doomed timelines the collective alignment choices have created if this one binary choice created two. A lot of the alignment choices have three outcomes (sun, neutral, moon). Many have the neutral choice resulting in someone else making the choice and therefore become binary, like the naming. But just imagine. We know of one specifical choice that has led to a festering doomed timeline: Duviri. And that was just a handshake.

But what happens to all these paradoxes? Why don't we see more consequences? Simple answer. We do, but it's all just the murmur. The murmur is this force that collapses possibility. It is an entropic entity in an infinite void. It feeds on these paradoxes. And so it benefits from the operator making them. Which means that Sirius and Orion were in a converging paradox being fed on by the murmur. Their timelines were doomed because of the operator's interference, which is explicitly stated. And the longer their conflict went on, as in the older the choice became, the more it was reaffirmed. One choice became more and more dominant. Collectively, the players would have eventually forced a single canonical choice via majority. And the paradox would have collapsed on it own with one of them being consumed entirely by the murmur.

And this makes me think about the final segment of the quest. What Hunhow does, implicitly, is traverse the void. He says it like he's trading something with a willing entity, but he isn't dealing with the murmur directly. What he's doing is ripping the paradox out of the void before it collapses fully. The consequence is that by traveling through the void at all his mind and body deteriorate significantly due to the flaw built into sentients.

And it makes sense how Sirius and Orion specifically were able to push out of a paradox and become a problem for the main timeline. It's because of the Helminth strain. Sirius and Orion are, as far as the game is concerned, the ONLY natural born warframes. They are a completely different species of being, something created by what were once humans that exists from the start as a being in harmony with the helminth technocyte inside it. And we know the helminth inside of warframes is connected to that vast technocyte consciousness, but the connection is largely suppressed. But the Helminth itself retains all memories and knowledge across timelines and resets. It knows the operator's alignment and is canonically the only being that responds to it. So it makes sense that Sirius and Orion, who are very likely much closer to the helminth biologically, are capable of connecting to something beyond their limited doomed timeline.

So, ultimately, what this means is that for every alignment choice the operator makes, there's a whole collapsing alternative timeline out in the void occuring (possibly several). And not only are they out there, they are visitable. Some are probably considered wrapped up in Duviri as part of the undercroft, but not all of them. There are explicitly other spaces in the void where things are happening. And just like Duviri, they can be navigated to through the void. If you know how to find something in the void you can go to it, just like how Lotus sends Drifter a hand and Hunhow pulls Sirius and Orion's whole forces into the main timeline and anchors them there.

Less central, but I also find the mention of Cephalon Parvos interesring. Part of the doomed future timeline involves a plague and a cephalon version of Parvos Granum. And that's weird. It's weird that a plague becomes a serious problem in the future, right? Because there's already the technocyte plague. So this is a whole new plague in the most traditional sense, or the technocyte just win. But I'm inclined to believe the former specifically because it is a situation where Parvos would willingly become a cephalon to avoid biological weakness. So that means it was a new thing, purely biological, and so bad that the wealthiest character in the game and the one with ostensibly infinite resources, chose to not be a biological entity anymore. And, sure, there's a chance that that isn't what happened. There's a chance I have it backwards and it's something akin to, Nef Anyo convinces the board to take back power by killing Parvos while still preserving his knowledge and in retaliation the cephalon unleashes a plague on the system. Either way it could be interesting foreshadowing.