Mass Effect Primer
Story:
In the 22nd century, Humankind is a member of a massive galactic community composed of multiple species. Element Zero is responsible for technology allowing faster than light travel, hyper advanced weaponry, and countless other advances.
The galactic community at large owes its prosperity and size to the technology of the mass relays. These massive constructs are capable of catapulting nearly any vessel across hundreds of light years almost instantaneously.
At the heart of the relay network lies the citadel, a colossal space station in which the various races of the galaxy have seated their government. The head of these governments is the Citadel Council, a ruling body comprised of a representative from each of the dominant military and socioeconomic powers in citadel space.
The Citadel and mass relays are believed to have been left behind by the Protheans, a hyper advanced civilization that mysteriously vanished about 50,000 years ago.
In truth, the citadel and its relay network were forged by a race of sentient starships known as the Reapers (the actual cause of the Prothean extinction). The Citadel itself is actually a massive relay designed to pull the reapers from dark space (the space between galaxies.) where they wait for galactic civilization to grow and expand upon their mass transit network. The Reapers harvest galactic civilization every 50,000 years for some unknown purpose and are due to return again.
Technology:
Most of the galactic community bases its tech on element zero, a substance that can be used to alter the mass of an object with an electrical current. This allows for faster than light travel, easy storage, hyper advanced weapons, and much more.
Most weaponry utilizes this effect to propel projectiles at sub-luminal velocities. Clips for light arms tend to consist of solid metal sticks which the weapon shaves to make ammunition as necessary. Such construction allows the user to fire thousands of rounds before reloading.
Thermal clips have recently been integrated into weapons to eliminate the all-too-common problem of overheating. These serve as disposable heat-sinks and are reloaded in much the same fashion as a standard clip.
Mass effect fields, or kinetic barriers, are used for personal defense in firefights, shields on star ships, force fields, and many other applications.
Omni-Tools are multi-purpose devices that allow for various computing tasks, tech based attacks and the fabrication of objects via the use of omni-gel.
Biotics:
Biotics are individual who are exposed to large concentrations of element zero while in the womb. While this exposure is often fatal or damaging, some individuals not only survive the exposure, but are graced with large nodules of the element throughout their nervous system. Such persons are able to use bio-electrical currents to generate Mass-effect fields with the aid of specialized implants and amplifiers. Biotics can use these fields to perform telekinetics and molecular reorganization or barrier formation.
Races / Cultures:
Mass Effect's Galactic community is comprised if several different sentient species. Most are simply part of the community in general, but some hold significant political and/or military power. The most notable of these are Turians, Asari, Salarians and Humans.
Major Races
Turians:
-Biology: Tall, strong, resilient
-Culture: Large emphasis on duty, laws permit high levels of freedom, for the most part inhibiting only that which interferes with the proper execution of obligations, jobs etc.
-Galactic influence: Council race, Strongest military in citadel space
-Notes of interest: First species to make contact with humans (first contact war)
Asari:
-Biology: Human like in appearance, barring their scalp; 1,000 year average life span; All-female race, reproduce by 'psychically' copying the 'Father's' genetic material for fertilization. All Asari are biotics
-Culture: Largely peaceful, often seen as the mediators of the galaxy. Go through three-phased life cycles, Maiden, Matron, Matriarch
-Galactic influence: Citadel race, diplomatic arm of the citadel council
-Notes of interest: Oldest race in the Galactic community, first to find the citadel
Salarians:
-Biology: Short lived, 40 year average lifespan, super high metabolism; exceptionally intelligent
-Culture: High emphasis on intelligence and scientific study; breeding is a carefully orchestrated affair and pair bonds are exceedingly rare
-Galactic influence: Council race, serves mostly as intelligence and 'brains'
-Notes of interest: very short lifespan as result of hyper-fast metabolism, very active and intelligent, engineered Genophage to keep Krogan population in check
Humans:
-Biology: Diverse, average 120+ year lifespan
-Culture: Exceedingly diverse
-Galactic influence: Newest council race
-Notes of interest: none
Quarians:
-Biology: Severely weakened immune system due to sterile nature of ship life, tough and resilient otherwise
-Culture: Extremely close family bonds, rely on each other for survival
-Galactic influence: effectively galactic misfits since the creation of the Geth, the quarians travel through space in a migrating star fleet consisting of thousands of vessels
-Notes of interest: Reputed to be the best mechanics and AI techs in the galaxy, created the Geth as domestic servants, but were driven from their worlds when the machine race attained sentience
Krogan:
-Biology: Obscenely resilient, redundant organs/systems, rapid tissue regeneration; terrifyingly strong; Salarian genophage greatly reduced their prolific birthrate
-Culture: Martial, clans compete for land and members
-Galactic influence: Destroyed the Rachni during the Rachni wars, became too aggressive and were summarily suppressed with salarian bio-weapon
-Notes of interest: Incredibly vital, krogan are the go-to mercenaries when extra muscle is needed
Geth:
-"Biology": Machine race; intelligence is gained as multiple individuals link
-"Culture": Collective reasoning to build consensus, decide on matters unanimously or not at all
-Galactic influence: Seen as galactic boogeymen since driving the Quarians from their homeworld, feared and hated
-Notes of interest: Created by the quarians 300 years ago, were attacked by their masters and defended themselves, driving them out.
