At the height of their Empire's reign, the Orokin became embroiled in a war with the Sentients: a creation of theirs long ago sent to the Tau System to prepare for colonization, whose advanced technologies allowed them to quickly adapt to every attempt by the Orokin to defeat them. Each attempt by the Orokin to defeat the Sentients failed, so they turned in desperation to their last hope: the Tenno.
The Tenno were created in an incident long before the war, during the so-called "Void Era", when a ship called the Zariman Ten Zero became involved in a void-jump accident that sent it lost in the chaotic sub-dimensional space known as the Void. The ship reemerged from the Void and was recovered only days later, completely intact, but the only survivors found were children, whose exposure to the Void's energies had twisted and changed them, giving them inexplicable powers and abilities. Feared and reviled, the survivors of the Zariman nonetheless were of great interest to the Orokin.
Initial experiments on how to harness the children's powers though led to several fatal accidents, which showed the danger their uncontrolled powers could wreak both on themselves and on others. It was the work of an Orokin researcher named Margulis that led to a breakthrough; through dreams, the children could focus and control their powers. However, this research would then be taken from her after she was executed for trying to protect the children, and used to create a process known as Transference; the children's consciousnesses and powers could be remotely channeled through a surrogate body called a Warframe: a specially-made techno-organic humanoid battle frame designed to enhance and focus the children's powers, using a device known as a Somatic Link. The survivors would be placed in Somatic Link pods in a facility known as the Reservoir located on the Moon, to control their surrogate bodies in a secure location away from their enemies.
These operators, newly christened as the "Tenno", were taught the ways of war. With the combination of advanced technologies and esoteric powers, the Tenno began to turn the tide against the Sentients, allowing them to vanquish the Orokin's enemies across many battles.
A life among the Zariman was... interesting to say the least. People kept their distance. Children had no trust for the child of an Orokin knight. And looking in as an outsider, it made sense. Orokin knights were taught to smother the voices of those against them. Orokin knights were to report outliers... But, when you aren't one anymore, they don't believe you. It was the last moments, the day that split that soul into two, that left his family fighting for them to survive as the Zariman devoured itself from the inside out.
The story goes as easily as this: the knight protected his family until the end. The story he spoke, carrying his son's feeble body, leg broken and messily splinted, bruises lining his face and arms, was one of a Prince leading a world into a higher plane of existance, allowhing him to bring love and protection to that of his people, hoping they would grow and grow... And as he left him in the cradle, he leaves a message for him to find when things are safe again that one day they'd meet again on better terms to say goodbye properly this time.
Here... Here lies fear. Fear of being alive. Fear of what lay outside his door. Fear if the other children didn't trust him. Wounded, he fought. Wounded, he pushed the others to evacuation pods, only to see them all leave without him. But it's what his father would have wanted him to do-- to fight like the knights of his homeland. To fight like his father had time and time again. And with that glowing blade in hand and fury in his eyes, he fought to the cradle, leaving his own blade deep within the chest of the knight he adored. Only to sleep shortly, awakened back into the horrors of his own mind, the Zariman rusting, and the ghosts of the ever floating ship.
THE DRIFTER. Titles: Warlord, DRIFTER, The Dragon, The Knight.