Tennolive 2026 Thoughts on Tau Preview
I couldn't sleep so I instead spent two hours writing together a bunch of details I noticed during a rewatch of the 30 minute Tennocon Tau Preview. I got a Scene-for-Scene and then two bits about what I dislike and what I like
Scene-for-Scene
Opening
Same or Similar guitar in background music as in 1999? Coincidence?
"When the Black Rain falls, everything you buried will come clutching back up" spoken by "The Hunra", fka Adis
Lotus Section
Lotus taking the Moon into the Void
Ballas: "Your people are persistent and have not forgiven us" -> This feels like the War had been going on again for a while after the Old Peace, which is supported by the fact we have the Lotus (Margulis dead, Natah forced into being Margulis' copy, has now taken the name Lotus)
Lotus draws the power of the Orokin Tower into her, the somatic strands going dark as she burns
Wally shows up speaking voidtongue.
Possible phrase: GITHLI OTH MU IVBOK, YARA LOHK
Word for Word: WELCOME GIFT/GIVE/OFFER [LIFE/CONTINUITY?] SUBMIT, BEHOLD VOID
Possible translation: Welcome, I offer you life, Void-Seer
The VT translation would fit the deal he offers right after: "You can die. Or you can watch over them forever. That's what you want most, isn't it?"
Are all baby mimics shaped like this or is this just Baby Natah
-> Is this a representation of the fact that Natah has been forced to become Margulis?
Operator and Loid in the background. We got what sounded like confirmation from Meg that playing Operator or Drifter is likely a Choice we make, so curious as to why Drifter was chosen here... my personal biases against Drifter aside, is this bc the Deal Drifter and Operator made is different? Is it just a simple "choose your favorite?", is it just a technical reason for the preview? who knows. I'd certainly like to
Travel to Tau
In the Tennocon 2026 Relay we see a Vessel from the Sanctum delivered, probably a guide or help to get us to Tau? We get to choose between the two named Vessels and dye them
An active Murex
An Orokin Tower? A relay? we know what this is, it's just 4 am and I don't feel like looking for exactly what
Then past most of the planets etc
First full look at the Tau system
A Sentient Ring-City named Fornax
Brysko Section
Albrecht ain't looking so hot, using Sentient metallics to fix himself? or better himself? Or stop his decline? We will see
Also used as tools, like that manipulator arm
First look at Brysko, a Noir-Detective style warframe cobbled together from warframe parts and sentient parts, powered by a Sentient Core that holds his personality and such -> He's a Chimera
"None of your kin remain functional" -> the only working warframe in the City? or the only type Albrecht made in this manner, specifically (he is probably the Last living warframe around Tau as far as Albrecht knows, I'm just wondering if the differences between my interpretations matters)
Brysko has no voice (but wants one), we hear his inner monologue, noir-detective style
Everything goes monochrome when we hear Brysko's thoughts, noir-detective once more being evoked (okay I'll try not to say this too much but there are 21 minutes left in this showcase so expect it a lot)
Brysko smokes
"Bloom Addiction" is brought up and shown a lot later on, though the color doesn't match for that. What is Brysko smoking and WHY? If he has been given the means to in- and exhale, surely Albrecht wanted that for something
"The Hunra" is a powerful figure (later revealed to be Eidolon-Adis with altered memories by Wally) -> Prefix "Hun" seems to be meaning some form of power or high standing, given the Hunhullus and Hunhow. Since Adis likely took that form long after Wally's visit to him, Hunra could be a play on the void-tongue word "Ra", meaning "Out of", since Adis' weak, damaged form is piloting a bigger, imposing body, he is Powerful through that body, maybe? Just an errand thought
Many of the various Sentient forms we see are addicted to Bloom, I reckon it's a drug either named as an attempt to recreate the Blooms killed in the Old Peace or maybe a derivative? the weaker forms are addicted to it. It has mind-altering capabilities of bliss, and turns their lights a teal-ish green hue. Bloom can also seemingly grow on addicts.
Are these bubbles giant Sentient Cores? We see a lot of them in various shapes and sizes, probably just Lamps but What If
Brysko's idle is similar to how Loid stands (but also just emulates noir detectives)
The Neolysts are Sentient children, all with glitchy voices. Brysko pities them
Brysko has a Corecracker Revolver (concept art shown during Tennolive) Exalted weapon
Brysko points out how on "the old battlefields" of the Tau system, Sentients and Warframes mindlessly come back to life again and again to fight endless wars -> Perita most definitely one of those
"... here the rain brings nightmares and even the dead wake up howling" -> undead warframes and sentients
"Lockbox" Sentient seems to be basically gambling for gear, maybe also buffs? Brysko gets the upcoming new shotgun from it
The Twins Jeldrin and Zoff are pretty well done design-wise
The Hunra brings his bit with Wally up once more, saying how there are rumors he made a Deal with the Devil but he didn't make a deal, he tore out his heart and burned it, which is what he does to Liars
Even the seemingly not Bloom-addicted Sentients are often having frequent voice glitches to a degree we haven't heard in the few other talking Sentients we have met
Brysko and the Casino Singer Larynde have backstory, she says she misses him
Her design fits really well
The Indifference has altered Adis' memory of his death
New Card Minigame -> Hunra wagers secrets about Brysko etc
Ending Sequence
Albrecht grabbing what is likely the Finger, placing it into the matching index finger of what looks to be the arm of a Vessel
Grievances
This section is things I personally dislike about this preview, and recent warframe as a whole. I added this section purely to try and keep my own biases somewhat separate from my thoughts and theories on things shown. I don't doubt that my thoughts on a lot of these will change as we get more info, or as I play the Update when it drops
From what we see, there is a choice between Operator and Drifter here, which... I don't like personally. This should be an Operator thing, especially with how much they've been pushed aside in favor of the Drifter in a lot of the more recent content
As cool as a lot of this is, many design choices and wording choices show something that most of the more recent updates - with the exception of the Tau part of The Old Peace - all have in common: We have lost all the Poetry the world of Warframe once had.
Characters swearing in real-world ways when they frankly should be speaking like they used do in-universe
Real-Life gambling stand-ins that make no sense for what little we know about Sentient Society
Warframe used to have Separation, where if something was taken from the real world it was Warframe First and Translation Second, and recent warframe and this update especially feels more like Translation First, thin coat of paint to make it look warframe over it at most (the language, the gambling, the playing cards being labelled like our real life ones instead of a new system that fits in-universe (like Orokin for example), the fact we have a Sentient Blade Runner city in Warframe at all is pretty dope but the way it is done as a Capitalist BladeRunner Hellhole doesn't feel very Warframe)
Why are the Sentients emulating a Human Life they could not possibly know?
The Good Stuff
VA is consistently really good
Visual Design is incredibly well done
The Blade Runner and Noir aesthetics DE is going for are done mostly well
Audio and Music is phenomenal, DE once more following the "We are a music studio with a game attached" joke perfectly
the character design? gods that is so good
All the sentients look visually interesting, no matter if they're Crowd, Enemy or Character they all have so much cool shit about them man I could probably look at all the new characters for hours and just get character traits from their designs. How they emulate the noir tropes etc and how certain character tropes are done through for example Raspos or how Larynde simultaneously feels very Blade Runner and almost stereotypically "human"-style of Sex-Appeal, marrying a vaguely humanoid shape with her obvious sentient design to fit the Role she has etc, how The Hunra is obviously Adis and his broken form is wrapped in a big one? speaking of big ones look at those guards? It's peak
Final Thoughts
As we are nearing the end of the Void War arc, I am obviously excited to see this part of the Warframe story, but I am unfortunately skeptical about the Writing. Recent updates like some 1999-related stuff, most everything regarding Roathe, how the Drifter became almost a Non-Character while simultaneously having all focus on them, with the Operator narratively being pushed aside more often than not, and just a Lot of things about Jade Shadows: Constellations have all aided in making me lose faith in the narrative direction of warframe as a universe. A lot of it has reached a point where it is very fun moment to moment, but as soon as I pull the curtain back a bit and look at things / think about Lore etc. it all just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Which is a shame, because both DE and the community are putting So much Love into this game and this world. Hell, it's easily my favorite Game and among my favorite Universes.
I want to trust DE to deliver absolute Peak upon us for such an important part of the current story, but I don't know if I can find it in me. Despite that, I am curious to see how things go on and will continue to dig into everything we get.
