Category: Fanworks

Part 6 of Mass Effect: Introduction

Canon stuff:

• Mass Effect Wiki is great for looking up anything about characters, places and events from the games. But their book and comic summaries are questionable, and the science often inaccurate.
• The most reliable source of information is the Codex, which consists of ingame encyclopedic entries.
• The official ME site is good for pictures, news, and ads.
• Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 as movies. It’s a male Shepard with a different background from what I play and write and possibly very different choices during important missions, but it’s more than illustrative. Probably the best way to learn about ME short of playing the games themselves.
• An enlightening interview with the voice actors (especially part 2 and what Fred Tatasciore – who played Saren – has to say about the character).

Continue reading Further Reading

Part 5 of Mass Effect: Introduction

Mass Effect 2 and 3

The stories about Saren and Nihlus are all conveniently set before the beginning of the first game (well, with the exception of Ghost in the Machine), and therefore only loosely constrained by the actual events enacted in the second and third. These focus exclusively on the adventures of Commander Shepard as she strives to postpone and eventually repel the Reaper invasion. I won’t summarize the games here; suffice it to say that the basic assumption behind Mass Effect 1 and 2 is that the Council refuses to believe the Reapers are real and the invasion imminent, so when they do appear in force in Mass Effect 3, the galaxy is far from ready and, to make things worse, fragmented by internal conflicts.

Continue reading What Remains

Part 4 of Mass Effect: Introduction

There isn’t much we know about Saren and Nihlus from canon, and even less about their relationship, other than Saren’s declaration that “Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend,” and the deceptively relaxed tone of their encounter on Eden Prime before the fateful shot.

Continue reading Saren/Nihlus

Part 3 of Mass Effect: Introduction

The first game in the series begins by explaining that a decorated Space Marine with the Earth Systems Alliance, a certain Lieutenant Commander Shepard, is to be promoted into a position of special authority and become a Council Spectre.

Continue reading The Story

Part 2 of Mass Effect: Introduction

Asari

Asari are the most developed spacefaring society. They were the first to discover space travel and reach the Citadel. All asari are biotics, presumably because their home planet, Thessia, is extremely rich in eezo.

Continue reading Places and Races