Ballas

Ballas was an Orokin Executor prior to the fall of the Orokin Empire. Romantically obsessed with Archimedean Margulis, he attempted to convince her to renounce the Tenno she was working to save rather than stand in the way of the Orokin, an act which ultimately proved futile. Ballas is also believed to be the Orokin primarily responsible for the development and creation of the Warframes.
A man of extreme narcissism, egomania, and megalomania, Ballas desires to control and bend others to subservience; despite claiming to love Margulis, Ballas only treated her with abuse as if she were his trophy. A master manipulator and a natural liar, Ballas weaves deceitful acts and tales to trick everyone around him into playing into his hand. He also harbors a deep hatred for the Tenno, blaming them for taking Margulis' love away from him.
==Lore==
===General===
Ballas and other high-ranking Orokin appear to be undying, as elaborated in the Fragments. It is currently unknown whether the exact process of Continuity – the transference of an Orokin mind into a new body – is simply their method to remain immortal or additionally their method of cheating sudden death"How simple and pure you are, you idiot beast. We have died countless times! Yet remain eternal!"-Ballas, in the Neptune Cephalon Fragment.
===Cephalon Fragments===
Cephalon Fragments recovered throughout the system secretly reveal Ballas' involvement in the creation of Cephalon Ordis, who he created from the mind of a mercenary warrior named Ordan Karris, bound to servitude with suppressed memories and an altered persona as punishment for the latter's attempt at killing the Orokin.
===Synthesis===
Ballas puts Archimedean Perintol on trial for violating The Seven Principles in creating machines that could adapt and reproduce, for the Orokin feared they might eventually become sentient and turn on their creators. While Ballas vehemently attempts to sentence the Archimedean to the Jade Light, these machines were the last resort to fulfill "The Plan" - the only remaining means to successfully survive the journey to Tau through normal space. Perintol ultimately convinces the other Executors to have his creation to reach and terraform Tau while embedded with a weakness to the Void as contingency, overturning Ballas's decision.
As Perintol was being escorted out, Ballas personally confronts the Archimedean, revealing his actions were all an act to manipulate the other Executors into approving the project out of desperation and their flaw.
===The Seven Crimes of Kullervo===
 attempted to gain Ballas' favor by killing an Orokin, but instead he earned his first crime of Murder. Ballas would then continue to charge Kullervo with additional crimes: Cowardice, Flight from Custody, Treason, Espionage, a second count of Treason, and finally Kullervo made an attempt on Ballas' life but ultimately failed and earned his final crime of Attempted Regicide. He was then sentenced with the Executor's eternal vengeance.
Kullervo would then arrive in Duviri, his guilt causing Conceptual Embodiment to form a prison island for each of his seven crimes and The Warden, who bears a striking resemblance to Ballas, as his jailer.
===Jade's Promise===
Before becoming Warframes, and Sorren were engaged in an unsanctioned relationship and sired a child, which was a violation of Orokin laws. Ballas caught the pair and forcibly converted Jade into a Warframe during her pregnancy and mother "only ashes and oblivion" as she was used to channel the Jade Light executions. Sorren became Stalker who attempted to repent by becoming an Orokin lapdog, with Ballas dangling the promise of family over his head.
After The Collapse, Jade encountered Stalker, who did not recognize her, and spirited him away. Recalling Ballas's taunts that her unborn child may move if she laid still, Jade spent the remainder of her life channeling all her energy into her pregnancy. By the events of Jade Shadows, she eventually succeeds at giving birth and passes away.
===The Second Dream===
Dialogue during The Second Dream states that Ballas held the rank of Executor, and was romantically obsessed with the Archimedean Margulis. She had been protecting the survivors of Zariman Ten Zero, whom she is later ordered to renounce. Margulis refuses and is ultimately executed, with Ballas participating as Executor. After this, Ballas would bastardize Margulis' Transference therapy, instead using it to integrate outside minds with his then-defunct Frames of War, so they could function as remotely operated war platforms.
===Apostasy Prologue===
Ballas officially makes his first appearance in Apostasy Prologue, seemingly interrupting the Operator when they meet the Lotus in person. The Orokin apologizes in advance, which left the Lotus to question what he is sorry for, remarking that she is not Margulis. Ballas remarks that she is— imprisoned, just as she was— before waving his hand, releasing an energy wave that disconnects the Lotus from her own pod.
This causes a burst of Transference static to hit the Operator and causing them to wince in pain. The Lotus then seems briefly surprised and calls out his name. He vows never to abandon her again while offering his hand. The Lotus, no longer protesting, takes off her helmet before taking his hand. The two then walk together into a blinding light before disappearing from sight. Neither visibly react to the Operator, suggesting that they are witnessing a vision of the recent past.
===The Sacrifice===
Ballas is shown cooperating with Sentients as they battle a defiant Warframe, who Ballas completely subdues and orders to be destroyed. This vision is shown to the Operator through the Lotus' helmet. The Operator begins searching for the location in the vision, believing it will lead them closer to finding the Lotus. They successfully locate the scene on Earth and find a weapon and Warframe components belonging to a never-before-seen Warframe. After detecting traces that originate from Lua on the recovered weapon, and subsequently recovering Ballas' Vitruvian from the ruins of prison on Pavlov, the Operator rebuilds the Warframe that was destroyed by Ballas in hopes that it will bring them closer to finding the Lotus.
The Operator discovers that Excalibur Umbra is unstable and learns through his memories that he was originally an Orokin Dax soldier who was transformed into a Warframe after being injected with the Helminth, a hybrid culture of the Infestation, under the guise of treatment. This was punishment for the Dax spying on Ballas during his betrayal of the Orokin. While being controlled by Ballas through a unique Transference Bolt, he was forced to kill his son, Isaah, and that memory was made to replay endlessly, driving him mad. The Vitruvian also reveals that Warframes were intended to be used as autonomous bio-drones against the Sentients in the Old War. At first, the Warframes were successful, seemingly unaffected by the infested madness; however, they eventually succumbed to the deleterious effects the infestation has on the mind. They became uncontrollable, leaving them a failure until the discovery of the Tenno and the creation of Transference by Archimedean Margulis. The Vitruvian also reveals that Ballas was the one who exposed the weakness of the Tenno and their Warframes to Hunhow as part of a deal in his betrayal of the Orokin Empire and defection to the Sentients.
After the Operator takes away the pain of Excalibur Umbra, they confront Ballas together. In his hubris, Ballas fails to realize that he no longer has absolute control over Umbra due to the Operator, and suffers a seemingly fatal stab to his abdomen as a result. 
Lotus, now in the form of Natah, suddenly arrives and retrieves Ballas, much to the Operator's disbelief and confusion.
===Chimera Prologue===
After chasing The Man in The Wall through Lua and dropping down into the shaft inside the Reservoir into the same chamber during the Apostasy Prologue and the Second Dream, the Operator enters a portal and spots Ballas. The Orokin is revealed to be Sentient-turned and is mourning for the loss of his "beautiful" Orokin body all while cursing Natah for her deception by stealing his perfect death. As he rambles, his eye suddenly glows, which he claims to be Natah's vision. He eventually offers his sword , which he calls the "Sentient slayer", to the Tenno in preparation for war with the Sentients. As they grab the sword, Ballas abruptly turns to face them as Natah's whisper for the Tenno can be heard.
===Erra===
Ballas was leashed by Erra while the Sentient was discussing the war with his sister. He confirmed that the Orokin are truly gone, the Corpus and Grineer are at war against each other, and the Tenno are her enemy.
===The Maker===
As Erra urges Natah to provide a spark from the Mother's fire within her to re-ignite the one aboard the ship, she refuses out of concern for the Mother. She then shows doubts in Erra's counters and remembers him supposedly being killed by the Lotus and the Tenno. Erra objects and states that she remembers wrong and will need time to completely heal from what the Makers had done to her. Natah is not convinced and points at leashed Ballas asking if he is one of the Makers.
Before she can further question them, Erra suddenly grabs and throws Natah at the pedestal behind him, where she is trapped in a field of energy, thereby burning her up entirely instead of only providing the spark. Erra tells her to "finish the war" and drops Ballas' leash. Revealing that his imprisonment, as well as his monologue in Chimera Prologue, was a deceptive act, Ballas stands as he and Erra silently watch Natah.
===The New War===
Ballas forces the burned and weak Natah to watch Teshin succumb to the effects of a Narmer Veil as he fights Erra, revealing his plan to brainwash the masses. Once the Operator arrives, they look on in horror at their weakened mother figure as Ballas kisses her and steals what appears to be the last of her power/life essence. A Void portal then opens and drags in Natah's body; as the Operator tries to hold on to the rest of her, Ballas steals their and uses it to cut off her hand and stab the Operator, dragging both into the portal where the Tenno is imprisoned within their own history.
Without the Tenno, the Sentients take over the Origin System with Ballas as the de-facto leader of Narmer, using the Veils to defame the Tenno and twist the truth into his favor. The Drifter works against Narmer, teaming up with Hunhow to destroy Erra's Archons and use their power over restoration to revive the Lotus, while also bringing back the Operator in the process.
Ballas learns of the restoration of Lotus and is enraged, his fury overloading and remotely detonating the veils on his nearby Narmer Deacons. Erra attempts to placate him, stating that he has won and that every living thing in the Origin System, biological or not, worships him. Ballas however, sees this as hollow victory, as he believes that all beings in the System wished to be controlled. Knowing that he cannot control the Tenno, Ballas orders Erra to recall the Sentient fleet and plots to lure and reclaim the Lotus. Ballas then uses the Sentient Mothership Praghasa to feed on the sun, revealing his twisted plan to destroy the Origin System and sacrifice his Narmer empire to fuel his escape to the Tau System. Erra, realizing that Ballas intends to doom the Sentients as well, defects and sacrifices himself to guide the Tenno to the third and final Archon.
The Operator and the Lotus confront Ballas. As Ballas targets the Lotus, the Operator push her out of the way and intercept the hit, allowing Ballas to steal and absorb the final Archon shard before commanding her to kill the Tenno. After a long battle, and wrenching the Lotus out of Ballas' control, Ballas steals the Operator's Paracesis and stabs the Lotus. As Ballas appears to gain the upper hand, the Operator jumps him and forces a Narmer Veil on him, deluding him into kissing "Margulis" and allowing the Lotus to retake her power, putting an end to Ballas once and for all. His death destabilizes the Narmer threat and allows the Origin System to slowly recover, yet loyalists remain eager to fill the power vacuum left behind by their martyred leader.
==Trivia==
*Ballas is voiced by Max Howarth.
*Ballas is the narrator of Prime Warframe introduction trailers.
**In introduction, his dialogue indicates that he developed Saryn as a means to fight the Infestation, as Margulis loved the natural environments of Old Earth, which had become overrun by infested.
**In introduction, it is indicated Vauban was created to fight the Corpus. The narration also confirms that the ancestors of the current Corpus faction were active during the Orokin Era, and that they may have at one point had a hostile relationship with the Orokin.
**In introduction, Ballas seems to directly address his fellow high-ranking Orokin, stating, "Your graces, we who are beyond death, have forgotten the simple power of fear."
**In introduction, it is indicated that Prime Warframes— if not Warframes in general— were made to be individuals who were much more unique and capable than the mass-produced and withering Grineer.
**In introduction, Ballas mourns the loss of the animalistic aspects the Orokin tossed away for their immortality and beauty. He warns that the Warframes, which retain a primal nature, should be feared. Even though they are Tenno-controlled, they are merely biding their time to eventually strike at their Orokin masters.
***Thus far, this is the only trailer to not mention the name of the Warframe being showcased.
**In introduction, Ballas talks about the dangers of greed, as the greedy ignore the consequences of their actions, evident in the Grineer who often plunder and poison the forests of Earth. Thus, Ballas delivers forth Oberon as an avenger of the Gray Mother, the one who will place judgment on the Grineer who have contaminated her greenery for too long. And through the blood of these defilers will the forest grow stronger.
**In introduction, Ballas recognizes that the personality and affect of the individual used to create the original Warframes are capable of altering the intended outcome of the Warframe. He states that while others "writhed and raged in the vice," Mirage "laughed at [him]" and "played the fool," her "sanguine trick" ultimately resulting in Ballas' design becoming "distorted".
*** The introduction ends with Ballas stating no one is laughing anymore, except Mirage. This line suggests Mirage proved to be an effective killer, which is reflected in solo battle against an army of Sentients in Hidden Messages. 
***Considering that Mirage, as we know her, is the result of a Warframe's design becoming distorted by the progenitor of the original Warframe, it's possible that the individual that became Mirage Prime was a harlequin or entertainer prior to their transfiguration.
**In introduction, Ballas uses fear as concept, turned into a weapon. He considers fear to be "the greatest of faith", stating that those that gaze upon Orokin Towers hold still the "old fears," and thus, he created Hydroid as a means to "give to fear a form," striking from the depths to remind his victims who their creators are.
**In introduction, Ballas states that, after they were created, the Warframes needed something to forget the torture they had been put through, and thus Octavia came to be— with "songs" to harmonize their tortured screams and "anthems" to elevate their wrath, but they were "owed" their struggle, as the Orokin were owed entertainment.
**In introduction, it is revealed that the woman who would become Gara knew the truth of the Warframes and willingly volunteered to be turned into one. Nihil demanded that she instead must be glassed for her arrogance. Ballas then "crystallized" her seemingly to spite Nihil.
**In introduction, Nidus is confirmed to be an Orokin creation sent off on into the unknown for unstated purposes.
**In introduction, it's suggested that Ballas created Khora and Venari to honor his late love Margulis, while also referencing how she is, in a way, still alive within another's form. Hence the duality of "mistress" and "monster" (Khora and Venari/Margulis and Natah).
**In introduction, Ballas expresses his disbelief over the fact that Revenant Prime, a Warframe he had no hand in creating, simply appeared from the Void, as if to mock Ballas.
***Given the design of Revenant Prime's helmet, and the purpose and ultimate fate of The Warden of the Eidolon, it's likely the Unum herself is responsible for the conception of this "fatherless" Warframe.
**In introduction, Ballas says he intends to keep Hildryn to guard against "enemies within" (perhaps the other Orokin). He addresses Hunhow, asking the Sentient to spare the Operator of Hildryn when he attacks the Reservoir.
**In introduction, Ballas says that he dreamt of a "new Earth" and breathed life into its caretaker, Wisp. However, she "slipped" from him, so he cast her in (perhaps an Operator's) flesh to let her be 'real'.
**In introduction, it's revealed that Grendel was created by Ballas to mock those who complained that his other Warframes were too elegant.
**In introduction, it is revealed that Gauss was created to be the "lightning to [Grendel's] gastric thunder" so that there would be "no more talk of defeat" between the "unspeakable" (Grendel) and the "inescapable" (Gauss).
***Gauss Prime's dual introduction is the first to include another Warframe, as his introduction is the second half of Grendel Prime's introduction.
***The Grendel Prime and Gauss Prime Double Feature is a re-enactment of Gauss and Grendel's Assault on Riddah, except the roles have been reversed. In Riddah‚ Gauss cleared Grendel a path to the city gates, then Grendel confronted and consumed Executor Karishh. This time‚ Grendel consumes part of the Corpus Directory, clearing Gauss a path to the Corpus figurehead.
**Both Ballas and Parvos Granum narrate introduction. In it, Granum conceived the design for the time-manipulating Warframe to "violate" the Entrati's research, which Ballas reluctantly obliges to this "child of two fathers".
*Ballas' Sentient-hybrid transformation, in Chimera Prologue, foreshadows a new kind of enemy, the Sentient/Corpus Amalgams, which was revealed during Devstream 124.
**In Chimera Prologue, Ballas still has his left leg attached to his knee, but it is gone in the Erra Prologue. However he later gains it back, as well as a prosthesis for symmetry, in his Narmer outfit.
*Ballas is the second introduced Orokin that has been defeated in the playable WARFRAME universe, the first being the Elder Grineer Queen, and the third being Nihil.
*In concept art for TennoCon 2021, Ballas gained a new outfit, as well as some of his lost Orokin symmetry by gaining a prosthetic right leg. This design would ultimately be used for his appearance as the ruler of Narmer.
==Media==
Ballas.jpg|Ballas Concept Art
Ballas Sword.png|The Paracesis, Ballas' Sword
Ballus.png|Ballas, after his resurrection as an Orokin-Sentient hybrid.
Ballas Chimera Model.jpg|Ballas Chimera game model
Hybrid Ballas.png|Hybrid Ballas concept art
Hybrid New War.png|Ballas New War concept art
es:Ballas
fr:Ballas
Category:Update 18
Category:Characters
Category:Orokin
Category:Lore
Category:Boss
Category:Enemies With No Drops
Category:Narmer