The Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises are owned by Bioware and EA. I own nothing but this nonprofit story, so please support the official release.
48,000 BCE: At the end of the Reaper War, the last of the Protheans gathered in secret to build the Crucible, a super weapon designed to finally destroy the dreaded Reapers and end their genocidal campaigns. During the final battle over the Citadel, the remaining Prothean fleet engaged the Reapers one last time to allow the Crucible to connect to the ancient space station. Through the Mass Relay network, a destructive wave was unleashed from the completed weapon, wiping out all synthetic life in the galaxy. While the last of the Protheans died off shortly after the battle, theirs was the cycle that ended the Reaper threat once and for all.
However, the wave unleashed by the Crucible inadvertently ripped a hole in the space-time continuum, exposing our dimension to the metaphysical dream realm known as the Fade in an event that would be known as the Conjunction of Infinite Worlds. While the anomaly began in the Sol system as a physical Breach in space, its magic quickly engulfed the entire galaxy.
The magic released allowed all life in the Milky Way to be connected to the Fade through dreams, giving the realm shape and form. In addition, magical portals called Rifts opened all over the galaxy, displacing many species into new environments and forever changing the course of evolution in many planets. Even magic itself changed aspects of the environments they touched. The most prominent of these environmental mutations would be the emergence of lyrium, a mineral that acted as physical conduits to the Fade itself, formed in more magically saturated locations. However, the effect of the Conjunction would be lessened the farther one was from the initial Breach, and the Rift phenomenon eventually ceased once the magic of the Fade stabilized.
48,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE: The Conjunction would affect the human race the most as the Breach occurred in their home system, bathing it with magical energies. As a result of this excess magic, Fade Rifts frequently occurred throughout the planet, transporting its human inhabitants into various worlds all over the modern day Thedas Sector.
The humans remaining in the homeworld would evolve to adapt to the magic that now radiated throughout their environment. They would become more lithe and their ears pointed, but most importantly, they became more sensitive to the magic of the Fade. These humans would become the elves, and they would name their homeworld- Arlathan.
In the wider sector, the human diaspora would result in the formation of different tribes, each with their own culture that adapted to the worlds in which they found themselves in. A more drastic change came to the humans who were displaced in the planet Orzammar. As its rocky surface was almost barren, these humans were forced to live underground in order to survive on the various fungi and animals living there. This lifestyle caused these humans to become short and stocky to adapt to their new subterranean home, and the planet's rich lyrium reserves would make these dwarves resistant to magic in order to survive the mineral's effects.
Another drastic evolution was with the humans of Par Vollen, a jungle world with unusually high populations of draconic species. When they arrived, the humans there struggled with the planet's harsh environment and many of them would fall victim to its various predators. The remaining humans were forced to band together to hunt the dragons in order to survive. This consumption of dragon meat and blood eventually changed these humans into something else. They became taller, more muscular and resilient, and many of them would grow horns and have more metallic colored skin tones. This new race would call themselves the kossith.
15,000 BCE to 13,000 BCE: Thanks to the power granted by the Breach, the elves created an advanced civilization on their homeworld that could rival that of any spacefaring race. According to legend, this civilization, Elvhenan, was a utopia that created many ancient wonders through powerful spells now lost to time. Elvhenan was eventually advanced enough to develop spaceflight capability through lyrium powered rocket ships that allowed the elves to explore and colonize their solar system.
13,000 BCE: During an expedition in the neighboring red planet, Elgar, elven explorers discovered Prothean ruins filled with the remnants of the old empire. Elvhenan's best and brightest quickly went to work in reverse engineering technology that seemed to be leagues above their own. In the process, the elves discovered the phenomenon known as the mass effect, the direct manipulation of mass through the use of eezo. This discovery greatly advanced elven civilization by several centuries, the elves were not only able to recreate the technology of the Protheans but also improve their designs thanks to the use of magic.
12,000 BCE: The elves eventually found a Mass Relay near the edge of the solar system, and they discovered that this ancient device was capable of instantly propelling ships across many lightyears. After the elves activated it, they sent their fleet to explore the wider Thedas Sector, establishing colonies in distant worlds and even discovering other Mass Relays to continue their expansion. In the succeeding centuries, the ancient elven empire would also observe the local humans from afar for reasons lost to history.
6000 BCE: At its height, Elvhenan became the dominant power throughout the Thedas Sector. However, archaeological evidence and elven mythology suggests that a civil war eventually broke out between two factions led by rival god-kings. One faction was led by the Evanuris, a pantheon of virtuous gods who are still worshipped by modern elves, while the other was led by the Forgotten Ones, who were remembered in legend as beings of darkness and chaos. While the facts were hard to come by, it is believed the war ended with the Evanuris securing their position as the reigning power in Elvhenan.
3000 BCE: The Breach mysteriously closed at this time, depriving the elves of their direct line into the Fade. As a result, they lost their immortality and much of their magical power was reduced. This loss of magic also caused most their technology to stop working, which led to the virtual collapse of elven civilization. Elvhenan was driven into chaos as their empire greatly regressed both culturally and technologically even after reclaiming spaceflight capability a few centuries later.
2500 BCE: Many human tribes and kingdoms began to develop spaceflight capability by reverse engineering technologies found in elven ruins. While these new nations took worlds and systems abandoned by the elves, the humans also waged war against one another relentlessly over the course of centuries. At the same time, the dwarves developed their own spaceflight technology and even discovered the mass effect phenomenon on their own. They developed an advanced empire, and thanks to the rich lyrium and eezo deposits on many of their planets, the dwarves began developing favorable trade relations with several human factions, trading lyrium for raw goods. While these younger races rose to power, Elvhenan resigned to isolationism.
850 BCE: In a human kingdom called Tevinter, its magisters began to receive visions from the Old Gods, ancient dragon deities who were believed to have created the stars themselves. The gods taught these mage lords the dark art known as blood magic, which granted them power greater than any other mage at the time. Thanks to this power, the magisters forcibly took control over their kingdom, along with its sister nation Qarinus, before launching a galaxy wide conquest.
600 BCE: By this time, the new Tevinter Imperium united every human kingdom under its rule. The new empire commanded a great military, and its magisters had access to a great number of slaves to build their empire's strength. Noticing this rising power, the dwarven kingdoms, under the rule of High King Endrin Stonehammer, sent ambassadors to negotiate with the Imperium rather than risk future aggression. This exchange ended with a mutually beneficial deal. Tevinter would have Orzammar as its loyal vassal, providing military and scientific support to the Imperium, and in return, the dwarves would enjoy favorable trade conditions, exclusion from slavery, and autonomy to manage its own affairs.
550 BCE: The Tevinter Imperium launched an invasion into the decaying remnants of Elvhenan, its last remaining rival in the sector. While the elves fought to the last to protect their home, their empire was no match against the vast fleets of Tevinter and the power of their blood mages. The magisters conquered all of their worlds and enslaved the remaining elves. As further insult to injury, Tevinter then moved its capital to the elven homeworld, which they renamed Terra, and built the city of Minrathous as their new seat of power.
500 BCE: By this time, Par Vollen would be divided into warring kossith states and kingdoms. Due to constant wars and reckless industrialization, much of the planet would become polluted and ruined as its warlike inhabitants killed each other for power and territory.
100 BCE: The Tevinter Imperium prospered for centuries in a golden age built on dark magic and the backs of slaves. At the height of the Imperium's hubris, seven of its magisters used a horrific blood ritual to physically enter the Fade with the purpose of traveling to the fabled Golden City and serving the Old Gods in person. But when they arrived, the mages found only chaos and corruption. This darkness corrupted these men and threw them back into the material galaxy as the first darkspawn, monsters born of the Blight.
The darkspawn arrived in a remote world in dwarven space, where they quickly consumed the indigenous lifeforms and multiplied at an extraordinary rate. The monsters tunneled deep into the earth and eventually discovered one of the Old Gods, Dumat, imprisoned in an ancient tomb. The darkspawn corrupted Dumat with their taint, which turned the deity into an Archdemon, an immortal and intelligent dragon that now led the growing horde.
Under the Archdemon's influence, the darkspawn mobilized for war. The now organized monsters built organic weapons powered by corrupted red lyrium and bred space beasts that served as their interstellar vessels. With the Archdemon at the tip of the spear, the darkspawn began their assault against the races of the Thedas Sector with the intent of despoiling it all with their corruption. This was the beginning of the First Blight.
100 BCE to 15 BCE: The darkspawn horde struck the dwarven kingdoms first. Despite their advanced technology, the horde's overwhelming numbers and diseases allowed them to advance through the Deep Roads (the name the dwarves have for their Mass Relays) and take all of their worlds save for Orzammar and Kal Sharok. The rest of the Imperium did not fair any better as the darkspawn purged many worlds and ruined them with their Blight. During this point of the war, the races of Thedas were nearing extinction as the darkspawn looked to expand to beyond the Thedas Sector.
20 CE: The dwarven smith, Caridin, created the first golem, a synthetic soldier with both the strength of a dozen dwarves and the flexibility of an organic soldier. When the first of these steel legions were created, Caridin's kingdom, Orzammar, was able to better support their front lines against the darkspawn hordes. Thanks to these powerful reinforcements, the dwarves were able to retake a few of their worlds and better defend themselves against darkspawn attacks.
15 BCE to 1 CE: In the darkest moments of the war, the Grey Warden Order was formed within the desert planet of Weisshaupt. They were men and women of every race- warriors and mages, barbarians and kings. These brave souls gathered to take in the darkspawn taint and use it against the monsters that threatened to destroy them all. With this power over the taint mastered, the Grey Wardens managed to rally the Imperium and lead a counterattack against the darkspawn. In the final battle, the Grey Wardens managed to destroy the immortal Archdemon and scatter the horde. While the Blight was over, the surviving darkspawn would retreat back through the Deep Roads, where they continue to threaten the dwarves even to this day. There would be three more Blights in the future, but thanks to the constant vigilance of the Grey Wardens, none were as terrible as the first.
13 CE: Caridin mysteriously disappears, taking the secret of the golems' creation with him. With their supply of golems permanently halted, the dwarves quickly lost most of the systems they reclaimed to the ever aggressive darkspawn and were brought to an even more vulnerable position.
1 CE to 18 CE: The Tevinter Imperium fell into chaos after it was drastically weakened by the darkspawn invasions with many factions vying for power and dominance. During this time, a mage named Andraste would be born among the Alamarri barbarians on a distant world within the fringes of Imperial space. She would be sold into slavery at a young age and bought by the ambitious General Claudius, who trained the young woman's powers and used her magical talents to further his political agenda. However, during a battle against Magister Hessarian in Anders space, General Claudius was killed. The chaos of the battle allowed Andraste to board a shuttle and escape, where she found her way back to her homeworld and her tribe.
20 CE: According to legend, Andraste began to have visions of the Golden City. One night, the former slave was guided through the Fade in her dreams, where she came across the divine city itself. It was there where she met the Maker, the one true god of this universe, and He offered her the chance to live with Him in Heaven as His Bride. However, Andraste managed to convince the Maker to help her rid the galaxy of Tevinter's corruption as His Prophet instead. He led Andraste's physical body to an ancient elven foundry, which gave the new Prophet the means to enact her crusade. The next day, Andraste went to her tribe, and through the Maker's grace, she persuaded them to take up arms against the Imperium.
21 CE to 34 CE: Andraste's Exalted March began to prepare for war. Using her faith as a rallying call against the Imperium's injustices, Andraste managed to unite the Alamarri tribes across their multiple star clusters under her banner. Thanks to the technology found in the elven foundry, the Alamarri's best and brightest were able to improve existing ship and vehicle designs as well as craft new weapons for their army. The most important of these new innovations, however, was the creation of the elite android soldiers known as the Steel Crusaders, who were equipped with a personality matrix based on Andraste's own brain patterns. While this makes them more expensive than the average mech, this matrix allowed the Steel Crusaders to be as intelligent and adaptable as any human soldier as well as loyal thanks to their thought processes being based on the Prophetess' own personality.
Once fully mobilized, the Exalted March began invading the Imperium's outlying territories and systems, quickly liberating them thanks to Tevinter's weakness and the Alamarri's more advanced technology. With each victory, support for the Prophetess grew as she brought order to each region she conquered. These victories allowed Andraste to gain new allies, most notably the elven slaves, as well as gain new converts to her faith. Over the course of a decade, Andraste's army managed to occupy every system outside the Tevinter core worlds.
30 CE: During this time, some of the more technologically advanced kossith kingdoms managed to achieve spaceflight capability. Their settlers began to settle on nearby planets in their solar system, initially to gain more resources. However, one of these nations, a kingdom of mages remembered today as the Raasari Empire, discovered ancient ruins in one of the moons orbiting around a gas giant. These ruins belonged to the Zha, who were almost as advanced as their Prothean rivals and had an unrivalled understanding in both cybernetics and artificial intelligence. Thanks to the technologies found in the ruins, the empire managed to overcome all resistance and unite the solar system under its rule.
35 CE: Fearing Andraste's power, a conspiracy was made among the magisters to have the Prophet's husband and general, Maferath, to hand over his own wife in exchange for keeping the worlds she conquered for himself. However, one of Andraste's disciples, Havard, discovered this betrayal and stopped the traitorous general before he could trick their Prophet. But instead of killing Maferath for his betrayal, Andraste merely exiled him for reasons only she could understand. With the threat to her life out of the way, Andraste prepared for the final push into the Imperium.
37 CE: After a long and grueling campaign, Andraste's forces managed to push back Tevinter until they only had the Sol system to hold on to. The Exalted March finally laid seige on Terra with the brunt of the fighting being focused on the capital city of Minrathous. The battle lasted for twenty four hours and heavy losses were sustained on both sides, but in the end, Archon Hessarian was forced to issue a surrender when it became clear that he was on the losing side. With that, control over the Imperium was handed over to the Prophet Andraste, who was now free to shape the galaxy as she sees fit.
38 CE: With the entire Thedas Sector under her control, Andraste restructured the military occupation of her Exalted March into a more legitimate government. Unlike the more imperialistic approach Tevinter used on its territories, Andraste's empire would have a more representative government that allowed the newly liberated kingdoms (even Tevinter) to have the autonomy to establish their own local governments while acknowledging the authority of the empire. To achieve this, the Thedosian Assembly, a legislative body made up of representatives from all the kingdoms, was formed with many of Andraste's closest allies being among the first representatives appointed to its seats.
At the same time, slavery was outlawed and non-mages were given more rights and opportunities, dismantling the hegemony enjoyed by the oppressive mage lords. As for the mages themselves, Andraste established the Circles of Magi as an institution meant to better help the common mage master their powers and establish more peaceful relations with the common people.
In recognition for their service during the Exalted March, Andraste granted the freed elves a group of star clusters that would be known as the Dales. After a long and arduous exodus from Tevinter, the elves settled on their new homeworld in the forest moon of Halamshiral before expanding their kingdom. Out of gratitude, the newly appointed King Shartan sent a representative to the Assembly and swore fealty to the empire.
The dwarves, who were neglected by Tevinter after the First Blight, were also invited to join the empire. After lengthy negotiations, High Queen Freya Aeducan agreed to become part of Andraste's empire in exchange for reinforcements against the darkspawn.
The most influential of Andraste's reforms, however, was the establishment of the Chantry, the organized religion that represented the Prophetess' faith in the Maker. The most faithful of Andraste's followers were anointed as priests, who were charged with guiding the faithful and preaching the Chant of Light. When Andraste named this new organization as the state religion of the empire, she appointed her most loyal follower, Justinia, as the Chantry's first Divine. While the Chantry would become the dominant religion in the Thedas Sector, Andraste tolerated every other faith practiced in her empire save for the worshippers of the Old Gods, who were persecuted by her Inquisition for their role in bringing the darkspawn into the galaxy.
When the governmental restructuring was completed, most Thedosians expected Andraste herself to become the ruler of this new empire by right of conquest. However, they were shocked when their Prophet named General Havard as the first Imperator of the newly christened Thedosian Star Imperium. Before she could be questioned for this decision, Andraste disappeared to let her followers look after the empire she created. The Chantry would later teach that the Prophetess ascended into Heaven to be with her Maker.
39 CE to 500 CE: Despite the loss of Andraste, her Imperium prospered thanks to the leadership of Imperator Havard and the spiritual guidance of Divine Justinia I. For the next few centuries, their successors would be responsible for rebuilding the infrastructure and economic strength of the Thedas Sector, allowing for most people in the Imperium's kingdoms to enjoy a period of security and technological advancement. The Imperium would even start to expand for the first time since the Blight, and the Chantry would continue grow in influence as more people converted to Andraste's religion. This era would be remembered by the modern Imperium as its greatest golden age.
68 CE: A great war would be waged among the kossith as their AI servants gained sentience and would rebel against their creators. Remembered as the Katabas, these synthetics began purging their complacent organic masters and waged war against the Raasari empire. The war would last for months with countless kossith being slaughtered by war crimes committed by both the Katabas and the Raasari mage-lords until the fighting ended when both sides tried to break the stalemate by launching nuclear weapons all over the solar system. What's left of kossith civilization was reduced to wastelands inhabited by savage tribes and malfunctioning machines.
205 CE: The dwarves managed to regain many of their old worlds and systems at this time thanks to the Imperium's reinforcements, even liberating Kal Sharok from a darkspawn blockade of their planet. However, the vast numbers of darkspawn along more distant Deep Roads ensures that a total reclamation of the dwarven empire would remain impossible. From this time to the modern day, the dwarven kingdoms would regain only a few more of their worlds after the Imperium's initial push.
500 CE: During an annual address within the Imperial Palace in Minrathous, a bomb was set off in the inner chambers, killing the Imperator and the Divine at the same time along with several representatives and heads of state. As a result, the Imperium fell into disarray as the perpetrators of this crime, the Venatori, took over the Tevinter capital world, Qarinus, along with neighboring star clusters in an effort to resurrect the Imperium of old and restore the worship of the Old Gods. Devoid of proper leadership, the Thedosian Star Imperium were forced to let the Venatori run amok as it scrambled to replace its lost leaders.
501 CE: With this unprecedented loss of leadership, the various factions and kingdoms within the Imperium bickered over who should become the next Imperator as the previous one died before he could name a successor. Ambrosia II would be elected as the next Divine, but she didn't have enough influence to quell the rancor that befell the Thedosian Star Imperium. With the threat of the Venatori looming over the Thedas Sector, the leader of the Imperial Inquisition, an elven mage named Ameridan, rallied everyone he could to stop the cultists before they could become a bigger threat.
502 CE: While the Inquisition managed to make headway into Venatori controlled space, the fighting dragged on to a stalemate as the cultists have been building up strength in secret before their attack. As a result, the Inquisition did not have enough manpower or ships to defeat the Venatori. Sensing an opportunity, the Circle of Magi sent reinforcements and used their influence to gather more allies to aid in Ameridan's crusade. Thanks to the mages' aid, the Inquisition managed to retake the Imperium's lost worlds and destroy the Venatori in the final battle in the city of Qarinus.
503 CE: With the Venatori gone, the Thedosian Star Imperium could fully focus on replacing the Imperator that they lost. Using the political clout gained by defeating the Venatori, the Circle of Magi began to consolidate their power within the Imperium. They began by moving their people and sympathizers to replace the leaders lost during the civil war, giving the mages a firm grip into Thedosian politics. Thanks to these puppets, the Circle of Magi managed to put Grand Enchanter Catherine de Chalons as the new Imperator of the Thedosian Star Imperium. Her first order of business was the legalization of slavery, initially using Venatori prisoners and criminals, as the empire was in need for a source of cheap labor to repair the damage caused by the uprising.
504 CE: Blaming the slow bureaucracy of the Thedosian Assembly as the reason why the Venatori managed to go as far as they did, Imperator de Chalons managed to gain enough support to establish a bicameral Imperial Senate made of both the Assembly and a reborn Magisterium as the upper house. This new Magisterium (conveniently made up of Circle mages appointed by the Imperator) would eventually be the only house that could draft laws and set policies for the Imperium as the Thedosian Assembly's power was stripped down into irrelevance.
To placate concerns of mage supremacy, the Magisterium passed a law requiring all mage children to be sent to the Circle, where they would be kept and trained until they complete their Harrowing, or rite of passage. The law was meant to keep the public safe from the dangers of magic, although this policy also served to indoctrinate future mages.
505 CE: Worried about the growing power of the Circle, the Inquisition tried to use its support in the Chantry to expand its role from simple enforcers to knights sanctioned with protecting the Imperium from the dangers of magic and heresy. With anti-magic powers derived from lyrium, the new Templar Order tried to curb the corruption that came with the Imperator's new reforms... but then Divine Ambrosia suddenly died in her sleep. Her replacement, Divine Faustine I, was more sympathetic to the mages, and her new position allowed her to form the Seekers of Truth, a similar organization meant to watch both the mages (the ones the Circle didn't like) and the Templars (mostly) for signs of corruption.
600 CE: A scholar named Ashkaari Koslun would rise in prominence among the kossith at this time. He would develop a radical new philosophy called the Qun meant to control the violent tendencies of his race through discipline and a drastic restructuring of society. Koslun would come to have a strong following in Par Vollen, where the chaos of past wars struck the hardest. His followers would come to call themselves the Qunari in honor of their new religion.
Koslun's nation would also come to see both artificial intelligence and magic as a threat to the natural order due to the destruction caused by the Katabas and Raasari respectively. As the Qunari worked to revitalize Par Vollen, their warriors began numerous expeditions to purge the Katabas and rogue mages from both their lands and beyond, earning the approval of neighboring tribes. Although the Qunari would allow mages to live under their rule in a subservient state, their extreme stance against artificial intelligence would remain, deeming the technology as an abomination and a threat to organic life.
800 CE: By this period in time, the mages have become the dominant power in the Thedas Sector after Lord Seeker Victor Cromwell led a Great Purge of all "traitors and heretics", causing the surviving dissidents to stay silent or hide out of fear. Both the Imperator's office and the Magisterium remained under the control of the mages with the previous Assembly being reduced to a ceremonial body meant to display the illusion of equal representation. Slavery was also on the rise as slaver guilds were free to roam and sell their stock in the light of day, improving economic performance at the expense of the ones they enslaved. This new Thedosian government began to resemble the old Imperium rather than the one founded by Andraste.
1000 CE: The Qunari would invent the mysterious substance known as gaatlok, a synthetic material capable of generating an immense amount of energy while maintaining relative stability. Using this gaatlok as their main power source, the Qunari were able to create powerful laser and plasma based weapons that could rival even the power of magic. Thanks to these new weapons, the Qunari were able to unite the entire kossith race in a manner of decades, allowing them to subject all to the absolute order of the Qun... whether they liked it or not.
1050 CE: Resistance to the Qun has been fully wiped out by this time with the remaining Katabas being fully exterminated. The Qunari would expand upon the technology of the Zha in an effort to perfect themselves and create their ideal utopia. Most Qunari are now bred in a laboratory in order to have greater control over the traits of future generations with sexual reproduction being limited and controlled by the tamassrans (priestesses). Cybernetic enhancements are now more widely available (and mandatory) to all Qunari, and it is also used to control their mages, who are now reduced to living weapons due to the belief that their power led to corruption if left unchecked. The Qunari have created a stable and efficient society but at the expense of personal freedom and identity, a worthwhile sacrifice to most of the former kossith.
1100 CE: The Qunari began expanding out of their home system, but due to an initial lack of Mass Relays, they were initially restricted to colonizing within their own star cluster. Once they found a Mass Relay within a distant system, however, the Qunari began an aggressive expansion across their region of space with the intent of subjecting the entire galaxy to the Qun.
1400 CE: As time went on, the Dales would become more disillusioned by the path that the Imperium set itself on. With the legalization of slavery, slavers were practically encouraged to prey on their people once again as most humans saw them as a lesser race. It doesn't help that the Chantry grew to be less tolerant of other religions, and that their voice in politics declined as their kingdom lacked a Circle of Magi. Eventually tensions rose enough for the elven kingdom to expell every human from its borders, declaring its secession from the Thedosian Star Imperium.
1401 CE: Imperator Crawford Howe did not take the Dales' secession well, and as a result, he convinced Divine Renata II to declare an Exalted March on the elven rebels. While the elves fought hard to defend their home, they were ultimately outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Imperial Legion. Their kingdom was destroyed, their systems taken by human lords, and their people were either enslaved or forced to settle on impoverished slums. The elves who escaped the Imperium's wrath were forced flee to the fringes of Imperial space to live as nomadic spacefarers. These elves would name themselves the Dalish after their lost home.
1420 CE: By this time, the Chantry finished its revisions to the Chant of Light to better fit the Imperium's new vision. They first struck the Canticle of Shartan from canon in retaliation of the elven rebellion, downplaying Shartan's role in the Exalted March and censoring elven history to fit the Chantry's narrative. The Chantry also altered Andraste's life story bit by bit over the years. According to the priests, Andraste was never a slave. Instead, she was an Alamarri orphan adopted by a fictional magister family. Instead of being General Claudius' servant, Andraste was his apprentice who was apparently like a second father to the enlightened barbarian. Thanks to the breadth of time since Andraste's disappearance, such an alteration was easy for the people to accept.
1700 CE: The Imperium began to expand into the outer reaches of Thedas Sector for more resources to fuel its ever insatiable industries. At the same time, the Qunari, who have established a sizable empire of their own, observed the Imperium from afar as it began to encroach on their territory. Deciding that the humans were too chaotic and in need of correction, the Qunari began to invade their systems without warning. Thanks to their unique technology and use of shock tactics, the Qunari were initially able to capture a number of worlds and subject the inhabitants to the Qun. However, the Imperium quickly regrouped and launched their counterattack.
1710 CE: As the war with the Qunari raged on, the Thedosian Star Imperium grew desperate to counter the many technological advancements that their alien foes possessed. While the Qunari managed to keep the formula for gaatlok a secret, the Imperium did manage to match the various cybernetic powers that their soldiers possessed.
With the help of Qunari deserters, the Tal-Vashoth, the Imperium's scientists discovered the secret to the Qunari's advanced cybernetics. Through the use of semi-organic nanomachines known as bioware, Imperial scientists discovered a way to fuse the organic body with both machinery and genetic material. Thanks to this innovation, the Imperium's knowledge of both genetic modification and cybernetics was advanced by centuries, opening up new avenues of science within the empire.
To prevent these enhancements from falling into the wrong hands, the Imperium heavily regulates bioware technology and limits their distribution to government sanctioned clinics and providers. Despite their best efforts, however, this technology eventually fell into the hands of the Imperium's criminal element through underground "butcher docs".
1769 CE: Queen Maria Theirin of Ferelden converted to the Qun and worked with the Qunari to help destabilize the home front from the inside. When the conspiracy was discovered, the Imperium allowed the Orlesian Empire to invade the neighboring kingdom. After a long campaign that ended in the siege of the capital city of Denerim, the Orlesian forces managed to capture and execute the rebel queen. Afterwards, Orlais was given permission to seize control of the kingdom to weed out any other collaborators. A puppet monarch from the Theirin bloodline was placed on the throne to placate the Fereldan people, but Orlais was mostly interested in abusing their position to drain as much resources from the rival kingdom as they could.
1800 CE: While the Thedosian Star Imperium managed to regain most of their lost worlds, the war eventually slowed down into a stalemate as both sides failed to gain any ground once the fighting intensified in the Seheron star cluster. Eventually, both empires were forced to agree into a ceasefire as the cost of the war became too high to sustain. For the next few centuries, relations between the two empires remained cold. While hostilities never escalated to open war, espionage between the two groups was common and skirmishes occasionally occur along the border.
2155 CE: The Orlesian occupation of Fereldan space grew increasingly unpopular among the people over time. While Imperial fears of Qunari infiltration initially kept the Orlesians in power, these concerns began to lose their urgency in this region of space as the years go by. Eventually, Queen Moira Theirin managed to appeal to Imperator Tamora Saturnine to end the Orlesian occupation and restore Ferelden's status as a kingdom within the Imperium. The Imperator granted this request and ordered Orlais to pull back their occupation force. Dissatisfied by this arrangement, the Orlesian emperor, Florian Valmont, secretly supported a rebellion within Ferelden calling for the downfall of the traitorous Theirin bloodline. Once Ferelden was restored as a kingdom, civil war gripped the nation as rebel lords, led by Bann Ceorlic, renounced the queen and began attacking her loyalists.
2156 CE: While Queen Moira would be assassinated during the war, her son, Maric, took up her cause and continued to oppose Bann Ceorlic's ambitions for the throne. With the help of his best friend and second-in-command, Loghain Mac Tir, Maric was able to corner the rebel lord and his fleet in the Dane system and destroyed his capital ship with the bann in it, ending the rebellion. Once the war was over, Maric officially became the King of Ferelden. While the kingdom prospered under his rule, its relationship with Orlais would become mutually cold and distrustful due to this history.
2157 CE: During a routine patrol along the frontier, an Orlesian patrol fleet stumbles across a group of alien ships coming out of a previously dormant Mass Relay.
First contact with the Citadel races has begun.
Codex
Thedosian Technology- Thedosian technology is loosely based on that of the Protheans, and their spacecraft require the use of mass effect fields through an eezo powered drive core to properly reach FTL speeds. The major difference between their technology and the technology used by the rest of the galaxy, however, is the fact that the former incorporated magic into their machines.
The root of this technology is lyrium, the physical manifestation of Fade energy in the physical world. Due to the mineral acting as a conduit to the near limitless energies of the Fade, the Thedosians use lyrium as a highly efficient energy source that could burn longer than conventional fuel sources once refined. While this substance naturally occurs in only a few areas in the entire galaxy, the dwarves discovered a process that allowed them to create synthetic lyrium by mutating element zero through artificial magic bombardment. However, the mass bending properties of element zero are lost once it is converted to lyrium. As a result, the nations of the Thedas Sector must always balance their supply of both lyrium and eezo in order to maintain their technology.
Additionally, these technologies are also enhanced by enchantments, the art of binding lyrium into objects to imbue them with certain spells. Thanks to this arcane practice, Thedosians can enhance their technology in ways that science could not. The hulls of ships could be hardened by physical resistance runes without extra weight, a generator could be given extra energy capacity through lightning runes, and so on. Even more recent digital runes can be used to directly interface magic to electronics for near limitless applications.
However, a downside to all these designs is the potential for demonic interference. As a lot of magical energies radiate out of these machines, there runs the risk of weakening the Veil to the point where demons could escape the Fade if enough energy is at play. In addition, curious spirits might be drawn to these machines and accidentally bond to them as they generate a presence in the Fade, creating abominations that could threaten anyone around them. While the Imperium and the Dalish developed ways to minimize the risk, the Qunari have deemed these technologies as too great of a risk to use. As a result, Qunari technology is based on gaatlok rather than lyrium.
In its refined form, gaatlok is able to produce as much energy as lyrium while maintaining relative stability when compared to its more volatile counterpart. Thanks to this material, the Qunari are able to power many of their technological innovations, most notably their laser and plasma based weapons. Due to the synthetic nature of gaatlok, the Qunari have effectively solved the issue of limited energy resources. As a result of these advantages, the Qunari religiously keep the gaatlok formula a secret from the rest of the galaxy to maintain this advantage.
Thedosian Star Imperium- The Thedosian Star Imperium is arguably the most powerful political entity within the Thedas Sector. It is a vast imperial oligarchy that rules over a dozen interstellar kingdoms each with their own unique cultures. The Imperium has one of the most robust economies in the entire galaxy along with a very powerful military, but it is also a deeply oppressive and divided nation, where power is confined to a privileged few and nonhumans are seen as lesser beings.
The Imperium is ruled by the Imperator, the empire's monarch, who rules with almost absolute power and for life. The Imperator commands the Imperium's legions, can issue decrees at their own discretion, and has the power to veto laws passed by the Senate. Second to the Imperator in political power is the Magisterium, the upper house of the Imperial Senate. Made up of magisters appointed by the Circles of Magi, the Magisterium is responsible for passing laws and policies along with electing the next Imperator from any Imperial citizen outside the Magisterium itself. While in theory any citizen could become the next Imperator, non-mages are rarely elected to this position as the magisters are keen to keep true power within the Circle. Additionally, as humans are the dominant race in the Imperium, no nonhuman has ever been appointed as the Imperator.
The lower house of the Imperial Senate is the Thedosian Assembly, which is made up of representatives appointed by the Imperium's kingdoms. Despite that honor, however, the Assembly has become mostly symbolic in modern times with their only real function being to pass bills to the Magisterium (which can be easily shot down with their vote) and collecting taxes from the kingdoms.
While the Imperial government in Minrathous is the dominant political force in the empire, the Chantry in Val Royeaux arguably is just as powerful. Made up of priestesses and clerics overseeing the religion in every kingdom of the Thedosian Star Imperium, the Chantry oversees the very soul of the Imperium. The priesthood is responsible for upholding the tenants of the Chant of Light, and their Divine can issue decrees that not even the Imperator could overrule. The Chantry even has its own military forces in the Templar Order and Seekers of Truth to protect the faith and hunt down heretics and maleficarum. While the Chantry does hold this much power over the Imperium, it is tempered by an oath every priest takes to never compromise the empire. The only times where the Chantry actively opposes Minrathous is if the Divine suspects them of corruption or heresy, which rarely happens (in their eyes at least).
While the Imperium's authority is absolute, its kingdoms enjoy a great degree of freedom to manage their own affairs. As the Thedosian Star Imperium is too vast for a central authority to manage on a day-to-day basis, the monarchs of these kingdoms are charged with managing their own affairs, paying their taxes to Minrathous, and obeying the laws of the Senate and Chantry. Within this arrangement, the kingdoms are allowed to have their own governments and titles based on their own traditions. They can even pass their own laws as long as they don't conflict with the ones passed by the Senate.
While this is a mutually beneficial relationship, the kingdoms are always reminded that they exist only because the Imperium allows it. If any kingdom were to ever try to undermine the Imperium's rule, a swift and terrible reprisal can be expected to follow from both its legions and rivals seeking to gain from their fall.
Although kings, priests, and politicians keep the Thedosian Star Imperium running, its armies are ones that actually keep the empire together. The Imperium's main military body is the Imperial Legion, which is made up of vast armies and the fleets that support them. The core of the Legion is made up of professional soldiers drawn from all over the Imperium, and hold a reputation for being one of the most disciplined and well equipped fighting forces in the empire. Supporting the main core of soldiers are mages from the Circle of Magi and the Templars, who provide the army with much needed magical and anti-magical support. During times of war, the Legion is also supported by auxiliary troops and ships supplied from the kingdoms' armies, bolstering their numbers as needed.
However, the spearhead of this lance are the Steel Crusaders, the elite android fighting force originally developed by Andraste herself. Created in special monasteries overseen by both the Legion and the specialized Chantry priests, the Steel Crusaders are designed to be the pinnacle soldier built in the likeness of Andraste herself. Thanks to their advanced personality matrix, these synthetics have an intelligence on par with any human along with a greater cognitive capacity that allows them to both think and learn faster. While this design is expensive and not compatible with mass production, the result is a synthetic soldier ingrained with Andraste's faith and her humanity. Equipped with the best arms and armor, the Steel Crusaders are often at the center of every conflict the Thedosian Star Imperium has ever fought.
Dwarves- While technically under the jurisdiction of the Thedosian Star Imperium, the dwarven kingdoms of Orzammar and Kal Sharok occupy a unique and privileged position within the empire, especially for nonhumans. As their space encompasses a number planets and asteroid belts rich with both eezo and lyrium, the dwarves are able to use the wealth gained by this trade to have a larger say in Imperial politics than what is usually afforded to nonhumans.
The dwarven kingdoms are able place ambassadors within the Magisterium despite their lack of magic, and the dwarves are able to practice their own religion without much hassle from the Chantry beyond the extra tax issued to practitioners of pagan religions. In addition, the dwarven kingdoms are famous throughout the Imperium for creating the most advanced technologies in the empire with dwarven craftsmanship being seen as cutting-edge and of excellent quality.
Dwarven society is very insular and divided into a rigid caste system, which determines everything from social status to occupation, income, and even marriage contracts. The entire system is led by the noble caste, who are the most privileged and powerful of the dwarves. It is from their ranks that a king or queen is elected by their Assembly, and from there, rule over the entire kingdom.
Social mobility is limited in this system as a dwarf is expected to live their entire lives within the caste and perform their societal functions. The only ways to move up in this system is to either marry into a higher caste and produce a child of a certain gender or perform a deed so incredible that the dwarf is made a Paragon, a venerated ancestor, and is moved up to the noble caste. Naturally, both these methods are not likely to bear fruit for an enterprising dwarf. Those without a caste are branded (both literally and figuratively) as casteless and live in impoverished slums, where they are often given the most menial of jobs if they're lucky.
Due to the confining nature of the caste system, many dwarves have left their homeworlds to seek opportunity in the greater Imperium. These dwarves are branded as surfacers by their homebound brethren and are often spoken in the same breath as the casteless despite their vital function in facilitating trade with the Imperium. Despite the contempt from their homeworlds, the surface dwarves as a community have thrived in Imperial space, integrating into human society easier than other nonhumans. While some of these surfacers band together in guilds to try to maintain some of their old culture, other dwarves are content to let go of tradition in favor of adopting the culture and religion of the humans around them.
Despite their shared roots, the dwarves of Orzammar and Kal Sharok have long since diverged from one another thanks to the centuries of separation during the First Blight. Orzammar is the more conservative of the two kingdoms with adherence to the caste system and ancestor worship being paramount in their society. Kal Sharok, while it still has a caste system, is not as keen in maintaining these traditions as their kingdom is more accessible to the darkspawn through the Deep Roads, causing these dwarves to prioritize more pragmatic policies. Power is more or less shared among Kal Sharok's castes, and they even have a different set of Paragons. If it wasn't for their common enemy in the darkspawn and the Imperium's laws, these differences would have caused both kingdoms to go to war with one another a long time ago.
Dalish Elves- The Dalish are a nomadic faction of elves formed after the fall of their second kingdom, the Dales. In order to oppose the culture and religion that the Imperium imposed on the rest of their race, the Dalish elves took to the stars in a diaspora of separate clan fleets in order to preserve their traditions in the fringes of Thedosian space.
Each clan fleet is usually centered around one ship of cruiser size or larger, where the majority of the clan reside. These live ships are supported by a few smaller ships meant for defense or the gathering of resources, though this arrangement may vary from clan to clan.
The clan itself is led by a keeper, a skilled mage whose guidance is greatly relied upon by their people. While the clan looks to the keeper for leadership, the Dalish are a generally egalitarian society, where all members have a voice but are also expected to contribute to the clan's survival and goals in one way or another. To that end, while the main live ship tends to roam around in a fixed space, its support craft often travel farther from the main fleet in search of resources vital to maintaining their way of life.
Although the Dalish generally treasure magic as a way to connect to their lost past, they are well aware of its dangers. As a result of their more vulnerable position in the galaxy, Dalish mages are generally instructed to never trust spirits due to the potential for demonic possession. The clan also generally tries to limit how many mages live in their fleet at any given time in order to reduce the damage that a potential abomination may bring. When the keeper feels the number of mages in their clan exceeds its capacity to care for them properly, any excess mages are either sent away or given to other clans in need of mages.
While all Dalish elves share a common culture and worship the Evanuris (whom they call the Creators), the clans have developed their own individual differences thanks to their diaspora. While all Dalish are suspicious of outsiders, especially humans, each clan's relations with them may vary from outright hostility to indifferent isolation and perhaps even open trade based on how hospitable the neighboring humans are or how bitter the clan is towards them. Even how the Dalish practice their culture may differ depending on how much of the old ways they preserved. Despite this separation, all the clans do meet each other in secret once every decade to exchange knowledge, relics, resources, and mages in a gathering known to them as Arlathvhen.
Despite their general lack of resources most of the time, the Dalish do have their own innovations when it comes to technology. As resources are scarce, the Dalish usually craft what they need by using a material known as ironbark, a strong composite substance forged by the magical binding of cheap materials such as wood. To keep their larger ships from consuming too much of their vital resources, the main Dalish live ship is actually powered by the halla, white stags that perpetually emit magical energy that the Dalish use for power. Kept in pens in their own deck of the live ship, the halla herds provide these ships with much needed energy without the need for constant refueling, making these animals sacred to the Dalish.
Qunari- The term, "Qunari", is actually a general term describing anyone who follows the philosophy of the Qun. While most Thedosians think of the Qunari as the horned giants native to Par Vollen, other races may convert to the Qun as well and thus become part of their society. Said society is deeply tied to the tenants of this philosophy, which assigns immutable roles to everything and everyone within in it for the sake of total order.
Qunari society is divided into three major braches: the army (the body), the craftsmen (the mind), and the priesthood (the soul). Once a Qunari reaches adulthood, they are assigned into one of these branches and are given a rank that replaces their name. The Qunari are expected to conform to these roles for life unless circumstances call for a Qunari to be promoted or demoted.
These roles are also strictly divided between the genders with the army only admitting males, the craftsmen only admitting females, and the priesthood having roles and ranks being exclusive to certain genders. This divide is mainly due to the belief that men and women are naturally more adept in different tasks and functions, although transgendered individuals are allowed to be in roles suitable to their chosen gender. Qunari society as a whole is ruled by a triumvirate of leaders that represents each of the three parts of society. However, the day-to-day administration is mainly given to the tamassran priestesses, who also raise young Qunari and assign them their roles when they come of age.
The Qunari people themselves are heavily enchanced by cybernetics once they are assigned their roles. The craftsmen responsible for these enhancements are charged with only giving their patients what their role and rank requires- no more, no less. The only cybernetic enhancement that all Qunari have in common are tracking chips in the backs of their skulls that allow the Ben-Hassrath (the secret police) to track them down in the event of a desertion.
While the Qunari prize their cutting-edge technology, they utterly despise artificial intelligence, destroying them on sight as they are seen as unnatural abominations destined to turn against their creators. In addition, the Qunari are also generally suspicious of all magic. Although they have their own mages, the Qunari treat them more as living bombs rather than people. To reduce the threat that their magic may bring, Qunari mages are always escorted by specialized warriors and are implanted with cybernetics that dampen their powers as necessary. As a last resort, the mages are also implanted with nano-bombs on their necks that is to be detonated in the event of demonic possession or desertion.
Ever since I read XCOM: Second Contact, I was fascinated by the idea of placing various versions of humanity into the Mass Effect universe and see how the timeline would change from there. Even after looking through a lot of these stories, I never lost my love for the concept as these stories are some of the most creative and fun fics that I've read. I can never get enough of them, so I've always wanted to try my hand on this concept. I love the Dragon Age games as much as I love Mass Effect, so updating the former by fusing its fantasy elements with sci-fi seems like the best move for me to do.
But of course, humanity won't be alone for the ride this time. They will be joined by elves, dwarves, Qunari, and even darkspawn, all of whom are receiving similar updates to their lore. I can't wait to get to the point where the aliens of Mass Effect look at this plethora of space fantasy and collectively say, "What the hell did I just look at?". It'll be fun, I just know it.
While my last two attempts at this crossover have ended so bad that it led to me to delete all my previous stories and drop out of the site for over a year, I am hopeful and determined to make this fic be the one I got right. Third time's the charm.
Wish me luck.