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Due to the complex nature of Warframe lore and its scattered nature, I've prepared a focused overview of relevant points.
WARNING: MAJOR WARFRAME SPOILERS. Some of these are well-kept secrets by the fandom, out of respect for new players. If you plan on playing, skip to the "Spoiler-Safe History" cut, which covers events of quests from the Introduction to Natah. There's still spoilers in there, but not as major.
---MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW---
As humans left Earth and expanded across the Origin System, the Orokin Empire dominated in technological development and military might. They built elegant and miraculous devices, advanced artificial intelligence, reshaped their bodies for extreme longevity and novel aesthetics, and they even began creating outposts within a mysterious other dimension known as the Void, which allowed limited faster-than-light travel. But they were also coldly unconcerned with who their lifestyle hurt, cruel in the application of their laws, and perpetuated a caste system of genetic modification and physical alteration.
The lowest among these castes were the Grineer slaves. Designed to be heavy laborers of all kinds, these male and female clones were physically strong but deliberately stunted in mental capacity and conditioned to follow Orokin orders. They were mass-produced without care, because so many of them were destined to die in industrial accidents and from the extreme physical toll of their work.
But the Orokin way of life was not sustainable: they became increasingly aware that the Origin System would not support them forever. A suitable candidate was found in the Tau System, with multiple planets that seemed to support terraforming. With Void travel requiring pre-established space stations to guide their ships, the system was out of reach. The extreme demands of the project made it infeasible to use Grineer or other lower-caste humans to construct them.
Instead, the Orokin created the Sentients: self-replicating, semi-organic constructs that could withstand the journey, build the stations, and begin the terraforming process. Despite being programmed like the Grineer with obedience and flaws to undermine their independence, The Sentients mutated beyond control in their long years of isolation in the Tau System. Recognizing the Orokin as an existential threat to their new home, the Sentients returned in force to the Origin System. All Orokin technology was their kin, and thus they knew how to subvert, deactivate, or control Orokin defenses.
The Orokin's best weaponry was useless, their elite soldier castes cut down faster than they could be produced, resurrected bioweapons projects creating horrifying Infested monsters, and their new Warframe techno-organic constructs rampaging out of control on the battlefield. Faced with certain destruction, the Orokin began to take desperate measures. Grineer soldiers went into production, their templates selected from grineer who had survived Sentient attacks. They were given slightly more intelligence to respond to complex orders, but were ultimately disposable and mass-produced, issued primitive weapons the Sentients could not control, and designed to die by the millions to buy the Orokin more time.
Another project was seen as their last hope: By chance, young survivors of Void exposure were found to be able to mentally interface with Warframes, bringing them under control and enhancing their capabilities still further. These "Tenno"-operated Warframes pushed back the Sentients beyond the Outer Terminus of the Origin System and destroying them, or so it seemed.
Either the Sentients subverted the Tenno, or their connection to the traumatized and maddened Warframes caused a shift in their thinking. But when the Tenno returned triumphant, they soon set about slaughtering the Orokin. Caught by surprise, the Orokin Executor Council was broken, and the last remnants of the Empire began to fall.
At the same time, the Grineer broke free. Their slowly developing culture and sloppy nature of their indoctrination had finally permitted them the means with which to comprehend the wrongness of their treatment, and the splintering of the Empire gave them an opening to rise up. Grineer workers led the way by capturing high-ranking Orokin, using them to unlock the computers of ships and colonies so that they could take control of their own production, and spread rebellion across the system.
In the midst of this, a Grineer force captured a pair of Orokin twins. Twins were reviled by other Orokin as too clone-like, thus these women had grown contemptuous of their own kind. The Grineer instead saw something like a perfected version of themselves: unblemished forms, unrestricted intelligence, and a deep connection between the sisters. The women became spiritually significant to the Grineer who saw them, naming them the Twin Queens. .
---SPOILER HISTORY ENDS HERE---
---SPOILER-SAFE HISTORY STARTS HERE---
With the implacable Sentient invaders defeated, the Orokin destroyed and their Empire in ruins, the Tenno and their Warframes mysteriously vanished. Centuries went by without a sighting, and knowledge of what the Tenno even were was lost. The Origin System became divided, with various independent colonies struggling to survive. Two factions eventually arose: the Corpus, a corporatist and kleptocratic group that claimed direct lineage from the Orokin, and the Grineer sect that followed the Twin Queens.
Sadly, the Grineer rebellion's promise of freedom had not lasted. The Queens programmed their cloned Grineer to be utterly loyal to them alone. They governed according to the ways of the Orokin, which they mixed with spite for the former empire, the Grineer they now commanded, and the Grineer bodies they were eventually forced to adopt as their own grew old and weak.
The Grineer themselves had advanced in many ways, but could not escape the confines of their genetics: deliberately designed to be the lowest of the low, their templates remained limited, and over centuries of copying developed new errors that resisted all attempts to fix them. Through their own engineering and through trade with others, they were able to design cybernetic replacements for their failing limbs and organs, extending Grineer lifespan and capability. But a cure eluded them.
The Grineer Empire was now powerful, an independent culture with its own language, aesthetics, and solidly-built technology, but their time was limited.
Thus, Admiral Vor began seeking out Orokin relics that might hold the cure. This included the fabled Tenno Warframes, now remembered as treacherous agents of chaos, full of the mysterious light of the Void. Vor's search was the catalyst for the reawakening of the Tenno by a shadowy figure known only as The Lotus. In the ensuing conflict, Vor was shamed, demoted, and defeated, leaving a power vacuum in the Grineer hierarchy that came just as hundreds of Warframes began to flood the Origin System, acting under the Lotus' direction.
Tyl Regor was one of those who seized control. A military commander and lead researcher in Grineer genetics, Tyl was a deviant grineer with strength, smarts, and speed, which he augmented with cybernetic parts of his own design. He had only passing interest in the Tenno. His scientific prowess set him on a path towards forging a new kind of Grineer, one that would be stronger, smarter, more vicious. A force that could overtake the Origin System, leaving only Grineer. And he had the perfect template to work from: Himself.
It's never directly stated what his methods entailed, but we see enough of his experimental subjects to make an educated guess: Regor had likely been working on a way to harness the dreaded Infestation, taming it to a degree no one had managed since the Orokin era. He had a handful of working prototypes, utterly mad but sufficiently loyal enough to fight for him. And deeper in his secret labs, his army was growing.
This, obviously, did not go as planned. With the aid of concerned Corpus executives, the Tenno infiltrated Regor's laboratories and destroyed his creations. This was a major embarrassment: Tyl's obsession with secrecy had left his labs relatively undefended, and thus his facilities became the first known Grineer cloning lab to be rooted out and sabotaged. His research notes were now in the hands of a Corpus bigwig, turned against their intended cause. Enraged at the loss of his beloved prototypes and years of work, he directly challenged the Tenno in combat, tearing open his own undersea base in his attempts to bring them down.
This didn't go as planned either. Defeated but not done, Regor continued his work, now with a special hatred for the Tenno and the Lotus. In the process, his attention turned towards other questions: ex-Admiral Vor, the Queens, all of them were obsessed with the Orokin and the Warframes they created. But what of the mysterious Sentients? Their invasion freed the Grineer, their technology was just as at least as the Orokin's. What secrets did their relics hide? Could they help cure the Grineer? Smash the Tenno? Kill the Lotus?
Who knows! But he had a new project to occupy himself with. Predictably, the Lotus sent Tenno to stop him cracking open a Sentient tomb. Not fast enough. With the tomb broken open, Tyl entered with his troops, within minutes discovering ancient and powerful technology for self-manipulation of the body. However--predictably, let's be honest--the Sentients within the tomb were less dead than everyone had hoped. With the Sentients awakening, the Tenno managed to permanently seal it shut. Tyl escaped, but he was denied the wondrous technology he'd glimpsed. Faced with yet another setback, Regor's anger got the better of him: he directly challenged the Tenno again, and was defeated.
And that's where his story ends for now. It's unclear if he's dead or not, but hey, he's a Grineer! Vor literally got cut in half, another high official is just a screaming head in a giant robot parrot, and that hasn't stopped either of them! Still, that's the last time Regor has been addressed by the plot. Sadface.
WARNING: MAJOR WARFRAME SPOILERS. Some of these are well-kept secrets by the fandom, out of respect for new players. If you plan on playing, skip to the "Spoiler-Safe History" cut, which covers events of quests from the Introduction to Natah. There's still spoilers in there, but not as major.
---MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW---
As humans left Earth and expanded across the Origin System, the Orokin Empire dominated in technological development and military might. They built elegant and miraculous devices, advanced artificial intelligence, reshaped their bodies for extreme longevity and novel aesthetics, and they even began creating outposts within a mysterious other dimension known as the Void, which allowed limited faster-than-light travel. But they were also coldly unconcerned with who their lifestyle hurt, cruel in the application of their laws, and perpetuated a caste system of genetic modification and physical alteration.
The lowest among these castes were the Grineer slaves. Designed to be heavy laborers of all kinds, these male and female clones were physically strong but deliberately stunted in mental capacity and conditioned to follow Orokin orders. They were mass-produced without care, because so many of them were destined to die in industrial accidents and from the extreme physical toll of their work.
But the Orokin way of life was not sustainable: they became increasingly aware that the Origin System would not support them forever. A suitable candidate was found in the Tau System, with multiple planets that seemed to support terraforming. With Void travel requiring pre-established space stations to guide their ships, the system was out of reach. The extreme demands of the project made it infeasible to use Grineer or other lower-caste humans to construct them.
Instead, the Orokin created the Sentients: self-replicating, semi-organic constructs that could withstand the journey, build the stations, and begin the terraforming process. Despite being programmed like the Grineer with obedience and flaws to undermine their independence, The Sentients mutated beyond control in their long years of isolation in the Tau System. Recognizing the Orokin as an existential threat to their new home, the Sentients returned in force to the Origin System. All Orokin technology was their kin, and thus they knew how to subvert, deactivate, or control Orokin defenses.
The Orokin's best weaponry was useless, their elite soldier castes cut down faster than they could be produced, resurrected bioweapons projects creating horrifying Infested monsters, and their new Warframe techno-organic constructs rampaging out of control on the battlefield. Faced with certain destruction, the Orokin began to take desperate measures. Grineer soldiers went into production, their templates selected from grineer who had survived Sentient attacks. They were given slightly more intelligence to respond to complex orders, but were ultimately disposable and mass-produced, issued primitive weapons the Sentients could not control, and designed to die by the millions to buy the Orokin more time.
Another project was seen as their last hope: By chance, young survivors of Void exposure were found to be able to mentally interface with Warframes, bringing them under control and enhancing their capabilities still further. These "Tenno"-operated Warframes pushed back the Sentients beyond the Outer Terminus of the Origin System and destroying them, or so it seemed.
Either the Sentients subverted the Tenno, or their connection to the traumatized and maddened Warframes caused a shift in their thinking. But when the Tenno returned triumphant, they soon set about slaughtering the Orokin. Caught by surprise, the Orokin Executor Council was broken, and the last remnants of the Empire began to fall.
At the same time, the Grineer broke free. Their slowly developing culture and sloppy nature of their indoctrination had finally permitted them the means with which to comprehend the wrongness of their treatment, and the splintering of the Empire gave them an opening to rise up. Grineer workers led the way by capturing high-ranking Orokin, using them to unlock the computers of ships and colonies so that they could take control of their own production, and spread rebellion across the system.
In the midst of this, a Grineer force captured a pair of Orokin twins. Twins were reviled by other Orokin as too clone-like, thus these women had grown contemptuous of their own kind. The Grineer instead saw something like a perfected version of themselves: unblemished forms, unrestricted intelligence, and a deep connection between the sisters. The women became spiritually significant to the Grineer who saw them, naming them the Twin Queens. .
---SPOILER HISTORY ENDS HERE---
---SPOILER-SAFE HISTORY STARTS HERE---
With the implacable Sentient invaders defeated, the Orokin destroyed and their Empire in ruins, the Tenno and their Warframes mysteriously vanished. Centuries went by without a sighting, and knowledge of what the Tenno even were was lost. The Origin System became divided, with various independent colonies struggling to survive. Two factions eventually arose: the Corpus, a corporatist and kleptocratic group that claimed direct lineage from the Orokin, and the Grineer sect that followed the Twin Queens.
Sadly, the Grineer rebellion's promise of freedom had not lasted. The Queens programmed their cloned Grineer to be utterly loyal to them alone. They governed according to the ways of the Orokin, which they mixed with spite for the former empire, the Grineer they now commanded, and the Grineer bodies they were eventually forced to adopt as their own grew old and weak.
The Grineer themselves had advanced in many ways, but could not escape the confines of their genetics: deliberately designed to be the lowest of the low, their templates remained limited, and over centuries of copying developed new errors that resisted all attempts to fix them. Through their own engineering and through trade with others, they were able to design cybernetic replacements for their failing limbs and organs, extending Grineer lifespan and capability. But a cure eluded them.
The Grineer Empire was now powerful, an independent culture with its own language, aesthetics, and solidly-built technology, but their time was limited.
Thus, Admiral Vor began seeking out Orokin relics that might hold the cure. This included the fabled Tenno Warframes, now remembered as treacherous agents of chaos, full of the mysterious light of the Void. Vor's search was the catalyst for the reawakening of the Tenno by a shadowy figure known only as The Lotus. In the ensuing conflict, Vor was shamed, demoted, and defeated, leaving a power vacuum in the Grineer hierarchy that came just as hundreds of Warframes began to flood the Origin System, acting under the Lotus' direction.
Tyl Regor was one of those who seized control. A military commander and lead researcher in Grineer genetics, Tyl was a deviant grineer with strength, smarts, and speed, which he augmented with cybernetic parts of his own design. He had only passing interest in the Tenno. His scientific prowess set him on a path towards forging a new kind of Grineer, one that would be stronger, smarter, more vicious. A force that could overtake the Origin System, leaving only Grineer. And he had the perfect template to work from: Himself.
It's never directly stated what his methods entailed, but we see enough of his experimental subjects to make an educated guess: Regor had likely been working on a way to harness the dreaded Infestation, taming it to a degree no one had managed since the Orokin era. He had a handful of working prototypes, utterly mad but sufficiently loyal enough to fight for him. And deeper in his secret labs, his army was growing.
This, obviously, did not go as planned. With the aid of concerned Corpus executives, the Tenno infiltrated Regor's laboratories and destroyed his creations. This was a major embarrassment: Tyl's obsession with secrecy had left his labs relatively undefended, and thus his facilities became the first known Grineer cloning lab to be rooted out and sabotaged. His research notes were now in the hands of a Corpus bigwig, turned against their intended cause. Enraged at the loss of his beloved prototypes and years of work, he directly challenged the Tenno in combat, tearing open his own undersea base in his attempts to bring them down.
This didn't go as planned either. Defeated but not done, Regor continued his work, now with a special hatred for the Tenno and the Lotus. In the process, his attention turned towards other questions: ex-Admiral Vor, the Queens, all of them were obsessed with the Orokin and the Warframes they created. But what of the mysterious Sentients? Their invasion freed the Grineer, their technology was just as at least as the Orokin's. What secrets did their relics hide? Could they help cure the Grineer? Smash the Tenno? Kill the Lotus?
Who knows! But he had a new project to occupy himself with. Predictably, the Lotus sent Tenno to stop him cracking open a Sentient tomb. Not fast enough. With the tomb broken open, Tyl entered with his troops, within minutes discovering ancient and powerful technology for self-manipulation of the body. However--predictably, let's be honest--the Sentients within the tomb were less dead than everyone had hoped. With the Sentients awakening, the Tenno managed to permanently seal it shut. Tyl escaped, but he was denied the wondrous technology he'd glimpsed. Faced with yet another setback, Regor's anger got the better of him: he directly challenged the Tenno again, and was defeated.
And that's where his story ends for now. It's unclear if he's dead or not, but hey, he's a Grineer! Vor literally got cut in half, another high official is just a screaming head in a giant robot parrot, and that hasn't stopped either of them! Still, that's the last time Regor has been addressed by the plot. Sadface.
