Warframe Lore 101: The Man in the Wall

Your local loremaster-in-training talks about potentially the largest threat in the game Warframe, The Man in the Wall

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[breadlord]

shout out to incomprehensible beings who make shady deals involving unfathomable power
gotta be one of my favourite genders

[justarandomstick]

still can't believe that it was an actual man in the wall

[gramfero]

before new war: wall might mean a metaphorical wall between the void and the rest of the universe...
after new war: literal man in the literal wall

[whatsnewbois]

At the Zariman 10-0
Wally: "I can save them from the crazy adults that are trying to kill you, all of them..."
Your Tenno: "So what's the cat-"
Wally: "except you, you are going to die in every oher timeline with only two remaining"

[pixel]

DE: oh ya we got Crossplay for ya...just had to whip out the whole summoning the devil thing for it
Us:what
DE:what

[slenderminion]

Ballas definitely needs his own video. Our abusive space uncle is probably the most important villain in the game next to Wally and actually has his story completed, unlike most other villains.

[theGreatKingofSpiders]

Wally took the word "I'm inside your walls" into another level

[discountdisco]

"My name is Wally and I'm here to party!" - Mr Stuck in Wall

[StillActuallyCharlie]

6:39 The devs confirmed the Vitruvian Man carving form the Man in the Wall takes is just like any other form it takes, a facade for the purpose of intimidating or unsettling its audience, but it seems to be a "general form, " as you can also see its face overlooking the Sanctum Anatomica from beyond the broken in wall ledge, and beneath the Void Angel mindspace arena in one corner, observing.

[Drakhesh]

As players, we know for certain of the location of two of Wally fingers. Both located in Reliquary Drives - on the players Railjack and on the Zariman Ten-Zero, the latter best seen during Void Armageddon missions.
Now, during talks between Cavalero and Archimedean Yonta onboard Zariman, they discuss the 'finger-relics', wondering how many are left - and Yonta says: "Fewer than there used to be. So long as the originals are safely sealed away of course."
Which would imply Orokin somehow learned to copy the cut off fingers in order to create Reliquary Drives for more than just a few ships - makes sense, the Orokin Empire hardly operated on only 5 ships. Which opens interesting questions.
Is either Zariman or Railjack finger the original? Wally seemed very interested in the finger aboard the Railjack, and in multiple voicelines implied player-Tenno can give the finger back to him, but it seems odd for something this important to be located on a random Railjack. On the other hand, it would make sense for original finger to be aboard Zariman - it was a massively important project for the Orokin, and assumption genuine fingers are more potent than copies and thus neccesary for a ship of this size is not far-fetched, and the Reliquary of Zariman is endlessly assaulted by Void Angels. But then, why pay any interest to the finger inside the Railjack.
That, in my view, gives us three distinct possibilities.
First - one is genuine, and the interest in the other is a bluff.
Second - Neither of the fingers is the original, and Wally trying to get them is a bluff distracting us while He is searching for genuine article.
Third, and my preferred - all of them are genuine. The copy-fingers were created utilizing the Void phenomenon of conceptual embodiment, by which new fingers that are just as 'rea'l as the originals may exist. As such, Wally - a creature born of conceptual embodiment himself - just need a finger, any finger, and it will work. Whether or not it would collapse the 'concept' of the finger in physical reality and other copies would cease to exist or regaining the finger would allow Him to pinpoint the copies so he can destroy them, fully and utterly unanchoring himself from linear time, one can only guess.

[scalyclaygaming]

From how the Wally acts and talks, seems like just a scientist that discovers a new element. You want to pick and prod at, study the very limits of what you can do to it. See all its reactions and of course not destroy any of it you can't recover. However for Wally having these fingers in our realm ties him to time, like nailing down a kite in a tornado. Sure the kite may fly off and the string snaps but hat string left on that nail tells of where the kite was and always would've been. So that also means somewhere around 1999 is when Wally first got trapped in time unable to go back or forward beyond Rell and the Labs.

[theowlspirit]

“He’s just one finger away from flipping us all off” is what I thought you were gonna say lolol

[rampantapart]

"I SAVED THEM. ALL OF THEM. NEVER SAID I'D SAVE YOU."

[agd]

My favorite interpretation/theory about Wally's actions & behavior is actually Birb 3's, from the Cavia syndicate. I can't find text for it anywhere (or I haven't looked in the right places) but at one point I got a line of dialogue from them saying that they thought Wally was like a very big, powerful child that just wants to play with the other kids but doesn't know *how*.

Given that Wally's first interaction (that we know of) with anyone in the origin system consisted of him mimicking Albrecht Entrati's appearance, smiling creepily at him, and then trying to follow him back out of the void and getting his finger(s) chopped off for his efforts, and the rest of his subsequent appearances have been him trying to interact with people and leave the void, I think Bird 3's theory isn't that far off from the truth.

That on top of the cutscene at the end of the whispers in the walls update, with Wally expressing frustration about how the Tenno aren't upholding their end of their bargain with him, kinda makes me think Wally's intentions were innocent at first (or at least not outright malicious), and the constant rejection afterwards + losing his fingers didn't leave him with a great impression of the folks in the Origin system.

[corgthemighty]

This took a bit to put together but hope you guys enjoy! Next up is the Every Warframe Lore 101 which I'm currently aiming to release on May 1st.

[Maverick]

I wouldn't be too quick to differentiate the "great indifference" as a place separate from Wally just yet... I wouldn't put it past an eldritch entity to also *be* the place as well. Kinda like how the meaty lattice of flesh shared across all the infested lifeforms is all part of a single hive-minded body of sorts, so is probably Wally's alien realm also a sort of manifestation of his physical body, with all the little murmur creatures being his antibodies and white cells.

That's probably why he couldn't physically manifest and take over the Origin System before all the things that weakened his shackles in the void started happening through the story: _his actual physical form is unfathomably gigantic and alien, _ so much that we can just walk and parkour inside it like we're Osmosis Jones. Wally is having trouble forcing all of himself into the Origin System because it's like trying to push a big plush toy through the tiny neck of a water bottle.

Edit: Of note is how Corrupted Vor now has a dialogue line about how "a wall of *bone* awaits his joining" when fighting him in the Undercroft, which is part of what makes me see Wally that way. You know all those oddly-colored stone structures and sand in that eldritch realm that is slowly taking over Albrecht's laboratories? Yeah, that's probably not just stone and sand...

[everfinn]

One thing about Wally's interactions with the world that i find interesting is the fact that the infestation is not only aware of it, but is afraid and actively attempts to hide from it. I feel like even the (potentially) solar system wide hive mind being afraid of something is a good indicator of just how dangerous it is.

[umbral]

Honestly whats incredible and scary is that, you dont see devs out there have a baddie in the making that actually influences your gameplay at every step of the way by involving in the crucial process of the gameplay development itself. Its like the devs also made a deal with Wally to let him into our universe as well!

[ultrametalsonic]

Our railjack is powered by a finger for hyperspace jumps through the void to get to various proxima missions, I'm concerned..

[MorningLightMtn]

I think Wally heard his name as "The Man in the Wall" as a deep metaphor for his nature from these funny bipedal mortals, and immediately told himself "It would be really funny and freak them out if I showed myself to them as an actual Man half stuck in a Wall". To which the Tenno Wally would immediately agree as he is that much of a gremlin.