There are a lot of things that I didn’t really get in the New War. After all, it was a very large quest with a huge amount of stuff going on. But there is one character that I don’t get at all. Despite featuring many times in the cinematics pre-New War, Erra makes no damn sense.

If anything, I’d say he’s one of the weirdest characters around.

Warning, spoilers ahead! Turn back now if you don’t wish to be spoiled.

Claiming to be Natah’s brother, Erra is a bit of a warlord, looking to finish what the Sentients had started. They want to kill anything and any one related to old Orokin rule, and that means killing pretty much everyone.

Pre-New War

Before the New War, we get to see Erra in action, both in the past and the present. In the past, during the Old War, Erra and his army attacked Lua but weren’t successful. During this conflict,  Erra is seen taking a laser to the face. In the earlier New War teaser cinematics, Erra is seen to be the being in charge of the Sentients, and also using a Sentient Mothership. Erra’s plan is quite clear: erase anything Orokin. If they can’t erase it, then they absorb it. But basically, everything needed to be taken over by the Sentients.

During the New War

However, as the New War starts, Erra is seen in a completely different role. For some strangle reason, he is playing second fiddle to Ballas himself. Why? Who knows! But for some reason, Erra seems to go along with all of Ballas’s plans. While Ballas makes everyone mindlessly follow him via a Narmer Veil, Erra is behind the scenes, forcing more resistant people to wear the veils.

But the thing is, WHY is Erra now serving Ballas? It’s clearly not an equal relationship. For reasons unknown, Erra blindly follows Ballas, despite his own father’s words, that he is being tricked and deceived. It’s only when Ballas plans to kill everyone that Erra realizes he was deceived. In a bid to save his Kin, his fellow Sentients, Erras defects right at the last minute. Sure, killing everyone else is fine, but killing Sentients is bad.

It’s a rather hollow defection as well. He wants to protect his kind. But even then, both the player and Erra fight through the Praghasa, killing other Sentients. This suggests that the Sentients (or at least the ones on board) were just as docile and mind-controlled as anyone wearing a Narmer Veil.

No need to explain, he’s dead

Sadly, Erra doesn’t seem to survive the New War. Being a complete backwards character, Erra manages to die. He does so by helping you and Natah get to where Ballas is, within the massive Praghasa, a sun-eating mothership.  Well, I assume he’s dead, because a bunch of rubble fell on him.

Then again, I’m not even sure why all this rubble would kill Erra. Our Necramechs should have held the roof up, and Sentients are known to be tough to kill.

But was Erra even alive in the first place?

There is something else that bothers me, and also bothered Lotus/Natah. During the Old War, Lotus believes that Erra was killed. She has memories about, and we see as much in the cinematic shots. The Lotus and a group of Tenno zap Erra to death with lasers, after he tries to convince her to be a Sentient again.

The problem is, no one aside from Lotus mentions it ever again. And when Natah DOES mention it again, she gets thrown into some sort of magical war-starting device. At the same time, Erra drops Ballas’s leash, proof that they are working together. But no one can guarantee that the Erras we see in the New War is the same as the Erras we see in the Old War.

Is he? Maybe, perhaps even probably. But for all we know, Ballas went and made a clone of Erra, just to make Natah more subservient to him.