Throughout missions, the Lotus will advise the Tenno of incoming enemy units and their awareness of the Tenno presence at the start of a mission, as well as upon an enemy alerting the rest by using a control console. She will also advise the Tenno of heavy units when they are nearby such as the Infested Ancients, CorpusShockwave MOAs, and various heavy Grineer.
Occasionally, during a mission the Lotus will command a Tenno to ignore their original task and will issue a new one. For example, during a Spy mission, the Lotus may order to instead eliminate all enemy units and the objective will become Extermination. Any objects related to the old mission type will become obsolete and no longer needed to complete the mission.
Backstory
“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”
The following article/section contains spoilers.
In the Natah quest it becomes known that Lotus is a Sentient, that her old name is "Natah" and that she was in some way responsible for the fall of the Orokin Empire. But with the Empire in ruins and the war over, she refused to complete the final sequence of her mission: destroy the Tenno. She instead chose to become their "mother" after she had become sterile during the crossing to the Origin system, hiding the Tenno "in the second dream" to preserve them.
In conversation with Teshin, the Lotus later claims to have destroyed whatever parts of her were Natah. Before the Tomb on Uranus is sealed, Hunhow, the Sentient claiming to be the Lotus' progenitor warns her that the others of its kin have not taken kindly to her betrayal, and will attempt to bring her back into the fold.
Trivia
The Lotus is voiced by Rebecca Ford, the Community Manager of Digital Extremes.
Earlier builds of Warframe implied that The Lotus was an organization rather than an individual;
The voice often referred to as the Lotus would say, "Good work Tenno, the Lotus will be pleased." at the end of some missions, hinting that the Lotus may be an organization rather than a single entity. This has been changed to "I am pleased", stating the Lotus is in fact the speaker herself.
Furthermore, the Natah quest confirms her being an individual.
In Update 10.6 (2013-10-30), the Lotus's profile image changed to resemble a vampire for Halloween, featuring scarlet clothing, pale skin, and a trickle of blood running from her mouth.
In earlier versions, the Lotus seemed to be human based on her speech patterns, like making informal statements such as: "That's it, now get the hell out of there." These lines have since been revised with a
The Lotus' Halloween Skin.
more formal tone.
Her pronunciation of "Orokin" changed when her voice was overhauled in Update 11.0 (2013-11-20); prior to that she pronounced it as "Or-o-kin" but from Update 11 onwards she now pronounces it as "ORO-kin".
The Lotus has stated that she has crafted the Dex Furis and the Dex Dakra in the Anniversary e-mail sent to players, implying she is capable of engineering feats.
The Lotus' convictions may be religious. This is shown when she contacts you in assassinating Alad V. She says: "Alad V sees the power of the Tenno and thinks he can take it for himself. That power is sacred. His blasphemy must end now." She also refers to the Reservoir as a sacred place.
The fact that she had memories of speaking to Mirage while she fought the Sentients indicates that the Lotus has been present hundreds of years before the current timeline.
