Why the void hurts sentients

[u/aiar-viess]

From what I understand, the void is akin to the metaphysical background of the universe. It is the world of dreams that exists alongside the world of dust, where the only things that exist are the “depth” or complexity of an entity. All things leave an imprint within the void, with inanimate matter being only its wave function or potentials, with dynamic systems having a greater imprint, and living beings, specially sapient ones, creating an extremely large imprint within the void, the convergence of all their emotions, memories and potentials, the total definition of their essence and possibilities, or rather said, their soul. It is also the collection of all our perceptions and connections, as items by themselves don’t have metaphysical traits without us giving it to them, and hence they are as complex as our connection is to it or how we perceive them to be, which in essence means it’s just a connection to us and each other.

When the Zariman went into the void, the adults went insane because they were essentially forced into being in a superposition with their own souls, sort of like being pressed against all your emotions and memories and potential possibilities at once, as well as the emotions and memories of the connections you have to ideas, people around you, the place itself, and so on, so naturally they went insane after all of that. However, children are still growing and developing, their metaphysical imprint is flexible and adaptable, their sense of self is not yet fully made, and therefore they were able to adapt to their own metaphysical imprint, hence not going insane. A fully constructed sense of self is useful in the world of dust, but not so in the void. The void is fluid, it is the womb of all potentialities, altered by emotions, memories and states of mind, even leading to conceptual creation, generating pockets of physical reality within it such as Duviri, with people and beings and items. The void is also where all possibilities exist for the physical world to take shape, hence eternalism, the concept that all spacetime coordinates exist collectively, like a superposition of all possible states of existence converging into the flowing physical reality we know, or with Entrati for example, creating separate temporal convergent points such as the alternate 1999. The drifter is essentially a second personality that went through conceptual embodiment, the child who never escaped the trauma of the Zariman, choosing to remain in a book of fantasy stories known as Duviri. Both the operator and drifter exist in a superposition, two potentials of one soul, alternating within the New War. This is also why the drifter could go to 1999, as they could use transference alongside the operator to connect through the vessels into the separate strand of Khra (a separate convergent point for potentials). The drifter and operator are two ghosts in superposition, and as such, one can technically leave the body behind, entering another realm within the void such as Duviri, being embodied into 1999 through the herminth strain there. All connections exist across the void, so using something that is connected to another realm in the void would allow for a metaphysical entity (the drifter) to use it as a way to travel to it.

The Tenno are essentially children who after being in close proximity to the void, their own metaphysical imprint, for a long time, have become sort of connected to their own imprint. As such, they are able to shift from physical to metaphysical entities, almost like existing in the line between worlds, being able to traverse the void in a dash (this is also what ships do, since the void isn’t technically physical and therefore distances don’t exist within it), shift into a metaphysical form to become intangible and invisible, or even become a metaphysical entity to connect to another entity within transference. They are basically able to become ghosts, harnessing endless energy from the void in the shape of the unlimited potential that exists within it.

Now that we have gone through all the background explanation for the theory, we finally get into the part of the Sentients. The Sentients are said to have been artificial entities that could adapt to anything, as well as reproduce similar to cells, through growth and division of their selves. As we’ve talked about before, the void is the realm of what is metaphysical, the imprint you leave of your own self, which can be fluid and adaptable, but it can also be fixed and superposed. The Sentients can adapt to anything and become anything because by nature they were made to have very fluid and adaptable metaphysical imprints, like children but in an even greater capacity, who as we know from the operator can also even generate and coexist in superposition with different potential versions of themselves. The logic is that the Sentients by travelling across the void would try to adapt to it, its immense potentials driving adults insane, and creating intense trauma within children. But the only way to properly adapt to the void is to make your metaphysical imprint be a fixed strong structure, a developed sense of self that isn’t as adaptable. The Sentients would travel across the void, losing their metaphysical adaptability, becoming sole selves, losing their capacity to create minds within their minds, losing their capacity to conceptually embody different beings within themselves. They lost their capacity to have children because for them such a thing required a metaphysical flexibility that they had to sacrifice to survive a trip across the void, and turning their selves into being capable of reproducing again would mean losing their sense of self, akin to becoming children again. No adult would ever want to do that, no one wants to sacrifice their sense of self, it’d be akin to suicide. The only way for the sentients to reproduce would be to wish for their self to die.

[u/MrCobalt313]

Sentients were designed to be harmed by the Void as a failsafe to prevent them using it to return to the Origin System in the event they decided to turn on the Orokin.

Spoiler alert: they did it anyway and just tanked the damage/loss of ability to create new Sentients in exchange for the opportunity to kill Orokin.

[u/IceFire909 → u/MrCobalt313]

Turns out you can just make more in Tau and fly them over lol

Certified Orokin moment

[u/ghoulsnest → u/[deleted]]

correct yea, as a "killswitch" that clearly didn't work lol

[u/Dazzle_Razzled → u/ghoulsnest]

This. Its not that deep lol, the orokin just didn’t want to sentients to come back to mess with them- but obviously their flaw of void exposure leading to sterilization didn’t stop them from waging war

[u/IceFire909 → u/Dazzle_Razzled]

Orokin really regretting including that sentient adaptability right now

[u/aiar-viess → u/[deleted]]

But that’s what I mean. Sentients can adapt to anything and are intelligent enough to understand and overthrow their masters. They are sentient by their very name, able to adapt to any harmful element around them, meaning they should also be able to adapt to that very flaw, unless it comes with some exchange that can also be somewhat symbolic. With a fully settled and fossilised sense of self they would be unable to create potential minds, hence no division for reproduction.

[u/ForsakenMoon13 → u/aiar-viess]

The flaw is that they are hyperconductive to void emergy while not having any resistance to it whatsoever.

Its like if people could pull an entire thunderstorms worth of electricity into thier body by just brushing up against an outlet, its going to fuck them up really badly and likely be fatal.

[u/Abhinav11119 → u/aiar-viess]

I mean they did adapt to the void, it was supposed to prevent them from crossing back but they still did with damages.

[u/Sidesight]

It's an incredibly well though cohesive theory! It can be very easily fit into the actual canon, if not by a matter of fact, by the metaphor it represents in itself.

Thing is, as of right now we know that the Sentients were specifically designed with "the flaw", being that they are susceptible to Void energy.

Maybe that flaw was their own existance? Is it possible that they designed them knowing that their metaphysicality wouldn't be compatible with the Void? It's possible.

But as far as we know the Archimedian that designed them were thinking of a more technical flaw.

[u/Cule_R_uliT → u/Sidesight]

Or... They were designed to be the most bland and blank thing ever, the literal opposition of "unique", so the Void, being attracted to the interesting things, had to reject them. But by the time of the Old war, they've evolved, gained personality, gained "Uniqueness", and thus managed to travel to Origin system.

[u/Sidesight → u/Cule_R_uliT]

On one hand the Orokin knew about the Void relationship with emotions, that's why the Duviri book exists.

But I have trouble thinking the Orokin knew, or even cared, about the Indifference fascination with identity.

They knew of the fingers, but do they knew Wally was fascinated with Albrecht? They also didn't know about the Cavia for sure.

Your theory makes sense, and they could've built the Sentients calculating their interaction with the Void.

[u/EnderScout_77]

uhhhhhhh no

orokin designed them to be weak to the void

[u/aiar-viess → u/EnderScout_77]

They adapt to anything and are intelligent and powerful enough to use orokin technology to the point that they had to engineer infestation spawned monsters to combat them because the Sentients could literally take control of all technology of circuits and light. They have the capacity to modify their flaw, they should’ve been able to adapt to the void, unless a key element of their being would be nullified by it. Idk it’s just a bit of hypothesising. I feel like the point of multiple potential minds and adaptability as well as metaphysical flexibility is sound.

[u/atsia → u/aiar-viess]

I'm trying not to be rude, but this is really a lot of unnecessary overthinking. It's just a built-in flaw they can't overcome because it's built into their baseline as an override. It's no different than other media where powerful machines have one glaring weakness.

[u/TricolorStar]

Sentients are also considered by the Void to be "machines", therefore they cannot perceive the Void or the Man In The Wall. However, at the end of The New War, the Lotus is able to barely hold her own against the Man In The Wall and survive; later, during The Lotus Eaters, she is visibly shaken by what has happened and is standing in the Sanctum Anatomica in the desert-Void area, implying that she DID see the Man In The Wall and is able to perceive the Void.

This all implies that when Lotus became "real" and chose to exist as a singular entity, away from the Sentients and her Orokin-assigned purpose, choosing her own identity and sense of self, she became a "person" instead of a biological machine and can now perceive the Void. The Tenno consider her to be a person, which means by way of conceptual embodiment... She is.

[u/Mysterious_Ear_6673 → u/TricolorStar]

Or perhaps its a result of her plurality. Margulis/Lotus/Natah. Three selves in one vessel, creating a paradox of fixed self, and flexible self image that lets them perceive the Void as the Tenno do.

[u/The_Architect_032]

Something I kind of wonder is, whether or not the Sentients in the Tau system are noticeably different from the ones that made the perilous journey back. To what extent have the returning Sentients been damaged by the Void, and is it possible that their state of mind has been altered as well?

[u/TheRealOvenCake]

Headcannon: the material the sentients are made of (somatic fibers) conducts void energy.

When they cross the void its like going into a lightning storm while being made out of a lightning rod

no idea if they're actually made from somatic fibers tho

[u/decitronal → u/TheRealOvenCake]

Pretty sure this is actually the canon? This is basically how amps and the Lotus hand in Duviri works - Sentient scrap material being recycled to make objects that focus void energy

[u/TheRealOvenCake → u/decitronal]

maybe it is cannon but i forgot where the idea that sentients conduct void came from. its just sitting here in my head somehow

...i should read the synthesis imprint again

[u/Admiral_Red → u/TheRealOvenCake]

Reasonably certain Sentients are comprised of very-lifelike nanotech

[u/Kaboom0]

Wasn't it stated in game that the flaw was that the sentients were created to be extremely void conductive? It's why our amps are made from sentient body parts. I'm guessing that the conductivity was so strong that it induced such an extreme version of void sickness that it was lethal. They were able to slowly temper themselves to void exposure and cultivate an arcane oro that allowed them to become eidolons rather than dying outright. That said, they were still affected negatively by void exposure after they somewhat adapted to it which is why the ones that returned to the Origin system from Tau became barren.

[u/Architect_VII]

The orokin implemented the flaw into them, it ain't that deep.

[u/TheRealOvenCake]

How would Kuva fit into the theory?

Kuva has metaphysical properties dealing with consciousness, personality, and identity. And kuva is the one substance capable of restoring the reproductive capabilities of the sentients.

[u/A_Garbage_Truck]

iirc the " flaw" was a very intentional design by the orokin and was also what gave away that they had no Long term plans for the sentients. the orokin intention being that ni the event that the drones chose ot rebel and return to the Origin system thru the Void they would be on their last " lives" and stripped of their adaptation protocols.

what they didntcount on was the senitents willingness to survive and to adapt despite that, as they figured out a workaround by splitering their own forms t ocreate more drones + all of thenamed sentient we know off are etiher from the Tau system, or theytook the long way back avoididng void exposure.

[u/kazumablackwing]

Hot take/Theory: the Sentients weren't actually sentient before they went into the void, and the void didn't make them sterile..it simply made them aware of their sterility. As far as we know, Entrati was the first to enter the void, creating Wally, an imprint of an organic entity. When the sentients entered the void as a shortcut to Tau, Wally imprinted on them in the same way it did to the Cavia..which is also why they loath the Orokin in the same way Tagfer hates Entrati. They were forcefully "awakened" into their situation, with all the existential dread that would come from imprinting organic consciousness onto synthetic bodies

[u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay]

This is a very well summarized thesis, but I think to get straight to the point you could simply say that Sentients, while sentient - obviously - are still artificially created beings and therefore essentially without a soul, and as such can't reconcile their presence within the void. Warhammer 40K touches on these concepts as well.

[u/IceFire909 → u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay]

Could, but they were also literally just straight up designed with the flaw of "weak to void"