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Setting and Character History
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 the start of Natah. There's still spoilers in there, but not as major. Then, things dip back into major spoiler territory. Kahl's entire history is contained within this back third of the story, so again: if you want to play the game for yourself, do not engage with this character! Go play it! It's fun!
---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 combined with Orokin self-interest 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. 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. Rather than the uprising beginning with the Grineer soldiers, the long-ignored 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 were sterile, requiring the continuing use of cloning facilities to maintain their unique culture. Over centuries of copying, these templates developed 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.
Several others seized control, including the brilliant scientist, Tyl Regor (who, coincidentally, I also play). Tyl's insatiable curiosity led him to investigate the tomb of a long-dead Sentient, precipitating a chain reaction of events that would doom the system to a new war.
---SPOILER-SAFE HISTORY ENDS HERE---
---MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW---
It's no great surprise that the Sentients weren't really dead. Reactivating them sent word back to the Tau System, calling for another invasion. But this time, things went differently. With Sentient leadership crippled and divided, a surviving Orokin Executor managed to fully hijack the invasion force. The resulting amalgamation of Sentient and Orokin designs overran the system. Even with the Grineer, Corpus, and Tenno presenting a united front, they were completely unable to stop the invasion. Many of them were captured and subjugated through mind-controlling Veils, bolstering the enemy ranks. The Orokin named this new force after the historical Pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt: Narmer. Through them, he settled centuries of petty grievances and obsessions, an abusive tyrant who changed history at a whim, demanding and scorning love from his mind-controlled subjects.
Eventually, a lone Tenno managed to reach the Orokin Executor and kill him with the help of Sentient leaders and a mysterious force from the Void. Without the Orokin, the Narmer forces lost their purpose. Still mind-controlled, but merely following orders that were no longer a part of any plan.
However, word began spreading of some animating force still driving the Narmer. Still seeking to subjugate all under the Veils. Investigations began, discovering a distress signal broadcasting from within a Narmer ship.
This is where Kahl-175 finally manages to force his way into the spotlight.
Kahl-175 was a grineer soldier. While his armor marked him out as having proved himself exceptionally capable, he was still one of millions, with no power to decide his fate. All he had was his squad, until they were assigned to the defense of Earth during the Sentient invasion. Kahl was wounded, losing an eye, but his brothers all perished. With no one else to turn to, he suggested to his superior that he could sacrifice himself to destroy a Sentient troop teleporter. He was given enthusiastic approval and lauded for the idea, that he should sacrifice himself For the Queens. Kahl fought his way across the battlefield, finally arriving at the foot of the teleporter, wounded and exhausted. He activated the bomb, proclaiming that he this act was for my brothers.
The bomb failed to detonate, deactivated by the Sentients. Kahl was one of the first grineer captured and placed in a Veil, remaining under Narmer control for the entirety of the New War, the occupation, and beyond. Conscious of the passage of time and the events around him, but unable to resist the Veil. The device eventually failed, leaving him stranded on a Narmer ship. His distress call was picked up by a surviving Orokin allied with the Tenno, who immediately dismissed him as a "vat rat".
Kahl was not about to let the rest of the System ignore the plight of the Veiled, however. He used the Orokin's own prejudices against her, stringing her along with a promise to tell her about the new Narmer leader. In exchange, he needed help to free all the surviving Veiled on the ship. They were all his brothers now, whether Grineer or not. His Queens and his superiors had abandoned him, leaving nobody to fight for but the forgotten.
Through a combination of the Orokin's technological superiority and his own acumen, all the Veiled on the ship were freed, and evacuated on a Tenno ship. The Tenno provided Kahl with a place to set up camp. From there, he could carry out his goals: Find brothers. Break veils. Kill Narmer.
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 the start of Natah. There's still spoilers in there, but not as major. Then, things dip back into major spoiler territory. Kahl's entire history is contained within this back third of the story, so again: if you want to play the game for yourself, do not engage with this character! Go play it! It's fun!
---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 combined with Orokin self-interest 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. 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. Rather than the uprising beginning with the Grineer soldiers, the long-ignored 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 were sterile, requiring the continuing use of cloning facilities to maintain their unique culture. Over centuries of copying, these templates developed 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.
Several others seized control, including the brilliant scientist, Tyl Regor (who, coincidentally, I also play). Tyl's insatiable curiosity led him to investigate the tomb of a long-dead Sentient, precipitating a chain reaction of events that would doom the system to a new war.
---SPOILER-SAFE HISTORY ENDS HERE---
---MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW---
It's no great surprise that the Sentients weren't really dead. Reactivating them sent word back to the Tau System, calling for another invasion. But this time, things went differently. With Sentient leadership crippled and divided, a surviving Orokin Executor managed to fully hijack the invasion force. The resulting amalgamation of Sentient and Orokin designs overran the system. Even with the Grineer, Corpus, and Tenno presenting a united front, they were completely unable to stop the invasion. Many of them were captured and subjugated through mind-controlling Veils, bolstering the enemy ranks. The Orokin named this new force after the historical Pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt: Narmer. Through them, he settled centuries of petty grievances and obsessions, an abusive tyrant who changed history at a whim, demanding and scorning love from his mind-controlled subjects.
Eventually, a lone Tenno managed to reach the Orokin Executor and kill him with the help of Sentient leaders and a mysterious force from the Void. Without the Orokin, the Narmer forces lost their purpose. Still mind-controlled, but merely following orders that were no longer a part of any plan.
However, word began spreading of some animating force still driving the Narmer. Still seeking to subjugate all under the Veils. Investigations began, discovering a distress signal broadcasting from within a Narmer ship.
This is where Kahl-175 finally manages to force his way into the spotlight.
Kahl-175 was a grineer soldier. While his armor marked him out as having proved himself exceptionally capable, he was still one of millions, with no power to decide his fate. All he had was his squad, until they were assigned to the defense of Earth during the Sentient invasion. Kahl was wounded, losing an eye, but his brothers all perished. With no one else to turn to, he suggested to his superior that he could sacrifice himself to destroy a Sentient troop teleporter. He was given enthusiastic approval and lauded for the idea, that he should sacrifice himself For the Queens. Kahl fought his way across the battlefield, finally arriving at the foot of the teleporter, wounded and exhausted. He activated the bomb, proclaiming that he this act was for my brothers.
The bomb failed to detonate, deactivated by the Sentients. Kahl was one of the first grineer captured and placed in a Veil, remaining under Narmer control for the entirety of the New War, the occupation, and beyond. Conscious of the passage of time and the events around him, but unable to resist the Veil. The device eventually failed, leaving him stranded on a Narmer ship. His distress call was picked up by a surviving Orokin allied with the Tenno, who immediately dismissed him as a "vat rat".
Kahl was not about to let the rest of the System ignore the plight of the Veiled, however. He used the Orokin's own prejudices against her, stringing her along with a promise to tell her about the new Narmer leader. In exchange, he needed help to free all the surviving Veiled on the ship. They were all his brothers now, whether Grineer or not. His Queens and his superiors had abandoned him, leaving nobody to fight for but the forgotten.
Through a combination of the Orokin's technological superiority and his own acumen, all the Veiled on the ship were freed, and evacuated on a Tenno ship. The Tenno provided Kahl with a place to set up camp. From there, he could carry out his goals: Find brothers. Break veils. Kill Narmer.