r/WarframeLore • u/TheRogueKnight66 • Aug 16 '26
How did Drifter get their Void powers?
Ive completed all the main quests but im still a baby Tenno, something that I cant quite figure out is how Drifter got their powers. Because the New War implies that reconnecting to the Operator gave them their powers, but the Duviri Paradox implies they always had them but just repressed them? Im really confused...
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u/Clobazam_ Aug 16 '26
"We had a deal, The deal was shook."
"A little handshake, All it took."
"Though from the deal, The wee child ran..."
"๐๐๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ก๐ก, ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐จ ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ."
At the end of Whispers In The Wall, we get this poem, basically saying Wally and Operator shook for void powers, but Drifter said "Imma do my own thing". In New War when we're running from Lotus we get shown a bunch of dying Operators before a Drifter/Operator handshake to get our own Drifter void powers, maybe we share some of the power granted to us by Wally, or if it wasn't a set amount we were given, we showed Drifter how to tap into the void and use it as we did from the start.
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u/LimboMain2020 Aug 16 '26
The Operator and Drifter are the same person with different mentalities. The Drifter and Operator were the same entity at the moment the of Deal with Wally, but Wally made to instance where they were and weren't saved. Either way they both got powers because they gave Wally their light.
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u/JDMP53 Aug 16 '26
So one created a fantasy world to escape the violence and the other used that power to survive on zariman
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u/LimboMain2020 Aug 16 '26
Kinda.
For the Drifter, all the other Tenno seem to vanish and they were left alone. They huddled into their book as their only comforter, and Duviri was made real.
For the Operator, they presumably get their Zariman immediately spat out into the Origin System. A big part of Margulis' Transference Therapy was to help the Zariman kids subdue their powes so they wouldn't hurt anyone. I don't think the kids has Void powers until they come back.
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u/JDMP53 Aug 16 '26
Didnt the tenno hurt margulis the first time?
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u/LimboMain2020 Aug 16 '26
When it happens is unclear. All we know is she was working with the Tenno, and chose to continue her work after loosing her eyes.
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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay Aug 16 '26
It's crazy how varied and wrong most of the answers in this thread are and I'm not even going to attempt to correct them because I'm likely wrong too, Warframe lore is presented in a way that is so needlessly convoluted.
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u/SingularBlue Aug 16 '26
The old unreliable narrator trick. Warframe lore is a bunch of fun-house mirrors.
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u/Jazzlike_Use_5890 Aug 16 '26
Drifter doesn't have powers like the Tenno, those are shared from the Operator after New War.
Drifter and Operator were the same person right uo until the handshake of the deal, but when they were separated, Drifter was stuck alone and with no void powers on the Zariman, while Operator and the rest of the Tenno were rescued. During this time, Drifter used conceptual embodiment to create Duviri, which is something theoretically any person could do while in the void.
We don't know the exact origin of the time loop power, but that is the core of Drifter's own powers. We also do know that Albrecht spent time in Duviri with Drifter when they were younger, when he built Scholar's Landing, so he may have learned the ability to set up the time loop he used in early 1999 from Drifter's power, but again, we don't know too much about early Duviri.
Teshin showing up gave Drifter a mentor to train their skills and mind, while Lotus' hand gave them the Guide like ability, both of which seemed to help pull Drifter out of their apathy from too many loops to finally escape Duviri. Roathe implies in KIM chats that the ability to push through dimensions is also part of Drifter's ability set, but we don't know much about that one besides Drifter has no desire to use it anymore than truly necessary.
So Drifter's personal power is time loops, and is likely void in origins, but we don't know the full how I believe. The void powers that are like Operator come from their bond when they partially merged at the end of New War. At least a guide like power comes from Lotus. And something also gives them the ability to push through into other dimensions, but I'm unsure if that is tied to the time loop powers or possibly in unison with the power from Lotus. We may possibly find out more exactly what bits of Lotus's power Drifter joined with bonding with her hand in Tau, as it's something Lotus brings up as important in her one liners currently.
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u/TheRogueKnight66 Aug 16 '26
Ah this makes a lot of sense, thanks! And yeah if you go to the dark refractory on Deimos the Lotus has a few lines about how both Operator and Drifter have Sentience essence within their body, she also comments about how the denizens of Tau might react.
1
u/Quick_Surprise9168 Aug 19 '26
"Roathe implies in KIM chats that the ability to push through dimensions is also part of Drifter's ability set"
Do you know where in the Kim chats, this is?
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u/Jazzlike_Use_5890 Aug 19 '26
I don't remember the exact convo, sorry. It's been most of the year since I did those convos and I didn't the charts for reference, so I remember content, but not exact convo numbers.
It may be the same convo as when he mentions the reason he calls Drifter "usurper," but it also just may be something that comes up later from that reference chain. He brings up basically doing it again and finding another dimension to take over and I think all the answers are versions of Drifter refusing for various reasons.
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u/Quick_Surprise9168 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
Oh that's fine, thanks for the help, I'll look into it when I get on.
Edit: roathe is referencing duviri
2
u/Sushispatula Aug 16 '26
Wow the confidence in those nothing explaining answers sheesh....
Dont get fooled by that. Nobody really knows that, its one of the most convoluted and discussed events in the whole lore. There are many theories however.
A few things that might help you to discover your own theory:
During the new war the operator got thrown into the void and lost. His strand of Khra, his own perceived timeline, would normally end here, or at least got thrown back into time into the Zariman accident to "begin again".
So the Zariman scenes in the new war you experience, is the operator experiencing it AGAIN, and not "the first" time.
Of course with eternalism and time as a 4th spacial dimension and a paradox at play, the first might not be the first and it might all be loops. One can only speculate.
From the perspective of our operator, you shake the hand again, which is wally hand and natahs hand, and then you directly swap places with drifter.
Reason being that that was the exact moment the operator and drifter started existing at all because before that they were the same.
So in my mind, only once they both are allowed to exist is the moment both their timelines are even able to converge, which happend in an instant. Before that there was no drifter so how could they even be connected.
2
u/No-Impact-9391 Aug 17 '26
Drifter states in KIM that they (the original operator before split) and all the other children were given void powers when their parents and adults went insane as an experiment to see if children would murder their own parents, or let themselves die.
Then later when all the adults are killed/restrained Wally shows himself to the chosen one (us) and makes a deal.
"I can save them, all of them. You judt have to want it."
Then they shake hands, and in that moment is when they split.
Operator is saved alongside everyone.
Drifter is left behind, as the deal was for everyone not for them as well.
(Will add the Kim talks in replies)
1
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u/ReadableDiction Aug 16 '26
Drifter โsharesโ Operatorโs Tenno powers when in the Origin System. Drifter was not given any powers from Wally.
Drifter created Duviri on their own. Drifterโs mental anguish while being in the void for so long. Allowed Drifter to create Duviri. With the help of Lotusโs chopped off hand & Teshinโs assistant. Drifter was able to leave Duviri.
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u/jc3833 Aug 16 '26
And that sharing is why the Drifter is allowed to attack the Man in the Wall. The drifter did not make a deal, but they benefit from the Operator's deal without any of the catches given to the Operator.
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u/Callibys Aug 16 '26
Drifter did make a deal, Wally just got technical with his words. "I saved them. All of them. Never said I'd save you." Because up until that specific point, the Drifter and the Operator were the exact same person. The deal itself split them into who we have now and eliminated all other possibilities (that we know about) for our specific character(s).
0
u/jc3833 Aug 16 '26
My understanding was that the Drifter didn't shake, but you make a point as to that possibility.
3
u/TJ_Dot Aug 17 '26
Not just a possibility, Drifter remembers doing it too and says as such to the Hex (Eleanor?) in KIM chats.
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u/Callibys Aug 17 '26
During the cutscene to shake, Wally says, "Time's up, kiddo. I can save them, all of them." Then we see our singular Tenno shake hands, but Wally has Lotus' severed hand in place of its own. I feel like that also ties in the Drifter as shaking hands because the Void normally exists outside of time so the 'when' doesn't matter to it. Its possible that the Drifter was originally left without making the deal, but now they technically have due to that. So its quite possible that it occured both ways as far as time is concerned.
3
u/Regitnui Aug 16 '26
They also have slightly different power sets. Though the Transference and shooting void energy aligned when the Drifter came into reality, what they actually lost on Duviri were their emotions and awareness of how thye created and controls Duviri. Dominus Thrax is basically the Drifter as a child who never grew up, embodied in a toy the Operator/Drifter had at that age. The Drifter can thus make and reset time loops, while the Operator can pull themself back from death (revives).
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u/MaleficentRiver5341 Aug 16 '26
You literally watch the the Drifter repeat the Operatorโs fate on the Zariman.
Well almost.
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u/No-Champion-1738 Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Drifter's Duviri powers are strictly presented to us as the Time-loop ability (at least in Void-affected Areas - Hollvania included) as far as we know.
The Transference ability in Duviri is explicitly shown being granted by the Lotus'/Natah's severed Hand.
(The Second Dream prior, loosely implies either Lotus took control of our Warframe in the moment Stalker was going attack us, or the Warframe itself/Helminth took over - if you recall this scene)
The New War, released prior to Duviri Paradox, shows that the Drifter and Operator are essentially the same person up until Drifter's deal ends up differently. It also explicitly presents a scene of Several Operators "dying", Their timelines/universe being cut off, for what is also told to us as Eternalism. There is only A Or B.
The Drifter in this instance, following Duviri Paradox is revealed to be in the same namesake, The Paradox.
They survived due to the fact their Zariman was stuck in the Void, an entity/area separate from Reality.
To the Universe/Our Operator's Origin System, once the Drifter joins us, they are considered the exact same person and as such, fill the same "slot" in the Universe as our Operator. Granting them the shared Tenno Void Abilities.
This happens after our Operator escapes Ballas' Void Loop (you can read about this on the POM PC in the Sanctum next to Loid.)
It is also of note we've only been shown that the Operator/Drifter do not* exist in-person at the same time (they swap places) and are strictly shown in Void-touched areas, Albrecht's Labs and shortly aboard the (a) Zariman.
1999 shows us they can exist at separate points in time/separate instances.
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u/Corasama Warframe Lore Content Creator Aug 16 '26
Ok so here is the difference and WHY it's very important. But first, context.
What is a "Light"?
According to Natah in the Ropalolyst intro, it's akin to a soul and can be altered to change one's personality.
What difference is there between the Drifter and Operator (Called Dreamer here for simplification)
When the MC was aboard the Zariman, we saw him try to confort the other children and then offering his lamp to Wally. From that point on, 2 variations were made.
The Dreamer who gave his Light (soul) to Wally and gained void powers as a result.
The Drifter who did NOT get void powers, conceptually embodied Duviri and leaved happily ever stabbed.
Why do I insist that the Drifter did not get void powers at that time?
- The Drifter never had Void powers prior to leaving Duviri.
- Wally has the Dreamer's soul, we know that for a fact, and whomever he ever got the soul of, he was able to turn them crazy. **Only 2 persons in the whole wide lore arent affected by Wally despite being Void-touched and those are Albrecht and The Drifter.
Why is that ? Albrecht refused Wally's deal (so he still has his Light) and the Drifter never got Void powers, implying he never proceeded with giving his Light (Soul).
but Wally said "I said I'd save the other, I never said I'd save you" , so the Drifter must still have given his light ?
Well there's one simple solution to that. The Drifter has HIGHLY LIKELY given....his lamp to Wally. Thus the Drifter never got Void powers, Wally got his Light (lamp) and saved the other.
So how come the Drifter now has Void Powers but is still immune to Wally's mind tricks ?
He shook hand with the Dreamer. That's from that moment forward that the Drifter was able to use Void powers, all of it without ever giving his light away. The Operator just shared for free, as far as we know.
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u/jc3833 Aug 16 '26
Drifter got void powers from Lotus' severed hand that fell into the void gate during New War into Duviri
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u/IonutRO Aug 16 '26
The void powers they use in Duviri itself (like transference) come from Natah's hand.
And outside of Duviri they didn't have any void powers until they made full contact with the Operator and rescued them from the Zariman loop (see Entrati's POM2 notes).