Warframe heads to the Tau system at last
Warframe is finally exploring one of its most mysterious locations in its next big update, The Old Peace. Launching on December 10, this update takes players to the long teased Tau system, a place that has been part of Warframe lore for over a decade but never properly explored in game.
Instead of a simple content drop, The Old Peace is built around a heavy story about a failed ceasefire in an interstellar war. Players will step into their Operator’s own buried memories, reliving a disastrous attempt at peace between the Orokin empire and their Sentient creations. The tone is darker, more grounded, and very much inspired by World War I trench warfare.
According to Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford, the whole concept clicked into place from two words: Trench Warframe. That idea became the foundation for a multi year direction for the game, mixing grim battlefield imagery with Warframe’s usual over the top sci fi style.
A personal war story for your Operator
The core of The Old Peace is a new cinematic style quest that focuses more directly on the player character than most past updates. The story centers on two children on opposite sides of treaty negotiations that we already know are doomed. That tragedy becomes the missing piece of the Operator’s backstory, leaning into the idea that Warframe’s heroes were once child soldiers fighting a war they barely understood.
Ford explains that the team had avoided this kind of emotional story for years because the Operators simply were not expressive enough. The character models and facial animations were too dated to convincingly sell those moments. The Old Peace changes that with a full Operator art remaster.
With the remaster, your Operator gets updated visuals and expressions that can support much stronger storytelling. This lets Digital Extremes explore the relationship between the player’s Tenno and their forgotten Sentient friend Adis. Scenes like trying to help Adis pass a quiz or sharing small moments of innocence in the middle of a brutal war are meant to land much harder now that your character can actually show what they are feeling.
The Perita Rebellion, the conflict at the heart of the update, is directly influenced by World War I. The Tenno are thrown into a grim battlefield where Dax and Grineer bodies pile up for inches of progress. Digital Extremes took inspiration from things like the famous In Flanders Fields poem and stories about the Angels of Mons, where soldiers claimed to see phantom protectors on the battlefield. In Warframe terms, a Warframe landing in the trenches would feel like one of those mythic angels arriving to turn the tide.
The result is a battlefield that feels more alive and more horrifying, with the goal of making the war itself a character you are constantly reacting to rather than just a backdrop for shooting enemies.
Meet Uriel, Warframe’s demon of war
A new Warframe is arriving alongside the quest, and it fits the theme perfectly. Uriel is the game’s sixty third Warframe, a demonic commander that embodies the idea that war is hell. Uriel sports a devilish look with a forked tail and is supported by a trio of conscripted fiendish allies that fight at their command.
Uriel also introduces a brand new weapon category. Their signature gear, the Vinquibus, is both a rifle and a bayonet in one. It functions as a primary weapon and a melee weapon at the same time, opening the door to hybrid combat styles that could shake up how players build and mod their loadouts. For gameplay focused Tenno, this is likely to be one of the most exciting changes in the update.
Interestingly, Uriel was originally planned to be the star of the first TennoCon reveal for The Old Peace. Early versions of the presentation would have opened on a scene that looked like pure demonic evil, only for a child to climb out of the warframe and pick a flower for their friend Adis. That contrast between horror and innocence is exactly what the update is trying to capture. Although Excalibur Prime eventually replaced Uriel in the reveal trailer for fan service reasons, Ford confirms that Uriel still has a critical moment in the quest that the team built much of the story around.
More systems changes and what players can expect
The Old Peace is not only about storytelling. It also brings a large rework and expansion of the Focus school system, which controls many of the Operator’s progression options. Details are still being fleshed out, but players can expect more depth, more choices, and mechanics that better connect the Operator to the action instead of leaving them as an occasional side tool.
On top of that, there is a Uriel focused side story that features a pair of future French space Catholics, leaning into Warframe’s oddball religious and cultural mashups. This kind of strange but memorable worldbuilding has always been one of Warframe’s strengths, and The Old Peace looks set to continue that tradition.
Behind the scenes, Ford credits former creative director and current Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair with the breakthrough that made all of this possible. In a move compared to James Cameron famously pitching Aliens by writing ALIEN with a dollar sign, Sinclair simply wrote Trench Warframe on a whiteboard. From there, everything from WW1 inspiration to angels of battle to devil themed frames started to click.
For Warframe players, The Old Peace promises a mix of heavy narrative, new systems, and a stylish war demon frame that should appeal to both lore fans and gameplay focused grinders. With a long awaited visit to the Tau system and a deeper look at the Operator’s past, this update is aiming to be one of the most significant chapters in Warframe’s ongoing story.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-person-shooter/warframes-next-big-wwi-inspired-story-update-happened-because-a-developer-wrote-the-words-trench-warframe-on-a-whiteboard/
