What About Space Mum?

On December 21st 2017, Space Mum disappeared. A hidden quest, Apostasy Prologue, led us to a shiny orb in our brand new Personal Quarters. This orb took us to Lua and to the Reservoir where we found out who we really were. But then we were taken further, deep underground, into the lair of the Lotus herself. We expected a warm greeting but were instead left with confusion and anger as we heard Margulis’s last words and watched as Ballas took the Lotus away. We returned to our ships, cradling the helmet of the one we perceived to be our mother.

Space Mum was missing. She had been taken from us.

It is now April of 2019. Since that horrific vision struck us. Since then though, we have seen twists and turns. We’ve had other people to help, other people to lead, other things to do. In the absence of the Lotus, we carried on, desperately attempting to keep the balance. A lot of people are upset about the whole situation. Lotus is gone. Maybe forever. But there’s also a lot of other, less… lovable emotions flying around.

Up until July of 2018 though, almost everyone was sad and confused. It clearly looked like that nasty Ballas had done something horrible to our dear Lotus. He had done something to her mind and caused her to abandon us!

On June 15th 2018, the Sacrifice came out, a quest that… altered people’s thoughts about Lotus. You see, most of the quest is about Excalibur Umbra, the horrors he saw and all the horrible shit that Ballas did. At the end of the quest though, just as you help Excalibur Umbra stab nasty Ballas through the stomach, a large, purple Sentient comes down and snatches Ballas away. This Sentient is the Lotus. Or rather, she is Natah, Lotus’s old Sentient self. Natah gets her Sentient allies to attack you, then cries that she is returning home.

So basically, our beloved Lotus attacked us and then abandoned us. Again. A lot of Tenno were not happy about that at all, but there was still a lot of confusion whether this was the Lotus we knew, willingly doing this, or if Ballas was still using her. After all, Ballas had secretly worked with the Sentients, giving away Orokin secrets and has had a hand in with the Sentients for millenia, maybe that was how he broke the Lotus in the first place…

October 12th 2018 though turned even more heads with the Chimera quest.

The Chimera quest revealed something horrible. That the Lotus may not have been all that she seemed. We find ourselves running through the same horrible places we saw in the Apostasy Prologue quest, but this time we are guided by the Man in the Wall and are attacked by horrible black Lotus zombie things. This is of course just a dream sequence, but things get weirder when you follow Ballas’s footsteps.

Basically, Ballas tells you that the Lotus was nothing more than a user, a manipulator, giving us what we wanted so we would do anything for her. Ballas claims she manipulated us, twisted us, broke us. That she was lying all along, to both us and him.

The question is, do we believe Ballas? He clearly thinks he has been manipulated by the Lotus. In fact, he laments the fact that he’s even still alive! He wanted to die by the hands of the Tenno and Umbra. That was his perfect death and Natah ruined it. Ballas has been a threat to our existence for a while, but he also gives us the perfect weapon to kill Sentients with. Whether he is being self-serving or genuine, we have no idea.

As for the Lotus? She’s gone, as far as we’re concerned. There are plenty of people who are hoping that the Lotus has been kidnapped, that she’s still in there somewhere, that Space Mum will come back and return to her best self. But there’s a HUGE amount of doubt surrounding the Lotus now. Is she a monster? Or is she tainted?

What makes matters worse is the New War. If what we saw in the New War teaser is true, then Space Mum is coming to murder us, under the command of her own mother. Is Natah willing here? Or is she just doing as she’s told? Who knows?

We don’t know. Right now though, I’m erring towards the side of caution though. It’s not like the Lotus has always been honest with us, and frankly I don’t think things are going to turn out great for us.