I was looking for a revelation, not a revolution.

All my life, I've been fascinated with these mysterious, long-since extinct people called the Protheans. A mighty race, data recovered from their unearthed relics dating back over 50,000 years have painted a majestic picture of a civilization than had at one time span the galaxy. For their influence and culture to leave such a mark on history, their numbers would have had to be staggering, their technology hundreds of thousands of years in the making, their society adroit and colorful. I had made the oldest mistake a researcher ever could: assuming. For a century I romanticized these people, believing they lived under a similar sort of savoir-faire to ours wherein the Protheans were the prominent rulers of several smaller, less developed races in a diplomatic form of government. It would take meeting one of their own to curtail such fanciful notions and set me on the proper path of enlightenment - that the Protheans were a ruthless empire who gave lesser nations two options: surrender themselves to their rule or face extermination.

While this disclosure does not change the history we have uncovered, it does paint a much different picture. Instead of seeing lack of evidence supporting wars between species during the Prothean era to suggest peaceful colonization from system to system, it can now be deduced that this is the result of effective imperialization, unwavering dominance over the other races of the time period. All except for the Reapers, who we in these dark days of the present see as the ideal unconquerable adversary. The Prothean I have conspired with to write this piece, Javik, was born into the Reaper threat and spent his life dedicated to eradicating the massive sapient life forms that had already been present for over a century before his time. A soldier first and foremost, since his discovery Javik has been at our side fighting for the cause. Insistent that we focus our energy solely on the Reapers made persuading him to help pen a novel prior to their extermination very difficult, but well worth the effort. The reason I gave that changed his mind, and hopefully will do the same for any pessimists reading this, is that we need to spread the word. So little knowledge about the Reaper's exists to even the most privy, top level operatives, be it their harvesting patterns, methods, and so on that we're fighting a galactic killer almost completely blind. The best way I can think of to spread our knowledge is a novel, albeit it being a little rushed in our haste to begin circulation, comprised of everything we've learned about this formidable foe.

Though my greatest dreams have been realized, a real life Prothean standing before me, able to convey the knowledge of 50,000 years ago, it was at a very heavy cost. My entire life has been focused around these magnificent people and understanding them better, and yet somehow I do not feel the victory in our find. Javik is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but his discovery was only in lieu of the Reaper invasion. I was looking for information and understanding, not to relive their people's greatest nightmare.

It is my hope that this book will give you the tools you need to better fight our enemy. If even one life is saved, our endeavor will not have been in vain.

Goddess be with you all.