And now, another guest chapter from The Poarter. Originally this was going to be on a different topic, but he decided to take on a bigger issue with his article, and I thought it was pretty cool. Please keep in mind that this is an in-universe entry with two different flavors of bias on it, so facts presented are not necessarily accurate or true. Sifting through the propaganda and lies is, again, your job.
Also, since there where several people who wrote in with the same general concerns about the last chapter, I am writing a special story chapter that will explain the whole Leviathan situation more in-depth, and go into why the Council and SolForce are acting the way they are. It will probably be up some time next week.
Special shout out to EffervescentNova, who managed to write 7 reviews for different chapters in about two days. Check your messages, dude, I've got answers for most of the concerns you had. Those of you whose reviews have still gone unanswered, please be patient. I'm still catching up. Want to write a guest chapter? Just let me know the topic and send me a draft.
Element Zero, Mass Relays and the Asari Influence
"Why did the Orion races develop such a different path of technology? Why is our technology so heterogeneous instead of as homogeneous as the rest of the Citadel races? Yet paradoxically, why do the races in the Orion Arm have such similar ideas regarding warfare, when Citadel Races as a whole are a very diverse lot? I talked to the human author, Matthew Tang, and found his ideas, though somewhat radical, to be rather interesting and well thought out."
-Tarka Ambassador Vas'Avan
"Solforce is not a xenophobic organization. We accept, tolerate and support multiculturalism and all forms of alien in our society. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of a few extremists."
-Attributed to the Governor of New Shuzin
Generically speaking some degree of xenophobia will always be prevalent in some form in any society. It is a fool's dream to believe otherwise. However the degree, prevalence and sheer openness of speciesism varies among different alien races.
The Citadel races are, generally speaking, more tolerant of other species living among them. This is often attributed to three factors. The first is the long-standing peaceful relations the Citadel races have with one another, with certain notable exceptions. The second can be attributed to Asari influence in Citadel culture. Being a mono-gendered race that can reproduce with any species with a central electric nervous system, they have been very open and supporting of most Asari-alien pairings, with a few exceptions.
The third and final factor is the willingness to absolve and attempt to mitigate existing differences. Many of these factors are explored in the e-book "Element Zero, Mass Relays and the Asari Influence" written by Matthew Tang. This controversial book was both critically acclaimed and despised throughout Council space, and goes into great detail about how the Mass Relays have caused a truly lopsided situation for the various Citadel Races.
The book was considered to be controversial by critics, especially among the asari, and made several poorly supported conclusions about the Protheans, such as theorizing they ruled a galactic spanning empire that enslaved other races. Despite these problems, the book raised many interesting points and is considered to be an excellent summary of many more complex points of galactic history and anthropology. It is currently considered one of the more popular pieces of scientific literature, seeing widespread publication in Orion, Citadel and Terminus space, despite panning by more serious historians and scientists for its many wild assumptions.
The major points of the book can be easily summarized. His first point was the mass relays themselves. Comparing the situation between that of the mass relay extensive galaxy and the large dead zone in the Orion Arm, Matthew Tang went into great detail into how it affected the societies of various races throughout the galaxy.
Mass relays are considered to be an extremely restrictive form of faster than light travel, in comparison to technology such as hyper-drives or stutter-warp. Travel is only possible from one relay to another, narrowing travel routes to very specific lanes. This brings the races utilizing this technology into direct conflict with one another, forcing them into one of two opposing stances. Either cooperates with other races to share the relays, or subjugate and obliterate all other users, securing a monopoly. Controlled wars for territory are not viable in the long term. This conflict is escalated by the fact that mass effect drives, themselves a derivative of relay technology, allow for only a limited window of travel before they must be discharged. This severely limits the number of habitable worlds available. For most advanced species, especially fast breeding species such as the Krogan or Rachni, total wars are the only option to prevent overcrowding.
Thus, unlike other FTL drives, using the mass relays forces various races to inhabit only a small portion of the galaxy compared to the possible infinite, unmapped mass relay dead zones. This is reflected in the two galactic groups. The Citadel races have a history of long periods of peace punctuated by short wars of extermination for limited resources, such as the Krogan Rebellions. Total cooperation or total subjugation is key for relay dependent civilizations, as it generally allows the maximum yield and efficiency in order to maintain substantial populations. Other methods of coexistence would inevitably lead to failure as different races began to expand.
In turn, this means that periods of peace are long and very solid. In fact there have been very few instances of anything more than brush fire wars between minor warlords or mercenary groups in Citadel space. In these long periods, treaties are signed and held together by tradition and mutual benefit. In turn this means that the xenophobia that would normally be prevalent between two groups of aliens is considerably lessened.
In contrast, the Orion races experience frequent wars, but at a generally smaller scale. Most conflicts remain quarantined to small geographic region of space, and are often called off when they are no longer profitable. Each of the six major race in the Orion Arm, with the exception of the Morrigi and Liir, have gone to war with each other at least once for various reasons. Internal struggle is common, with the Tarkasian Empire and Hiver Imperium having both experienced centuries long periods of civil strife. Wars on several fronts against multiple enemies are also common, as evidenced by the Hiver-Tarka Wars. Altogether, the Orion Arm is a violent place with dynamically changing diplomatic situations. Races can be at peace for years, trying to annihilate each other a decade after, and then united in alliance several years immediately afterward.
This level of conflict and political chaos can be attributed the plentiful supply of colonized planets, instead of the lack of it. The prevalence of unrestricted FTL allows races to expand around each other, rather than through, giving them much more space to expand. Wars of extermination are unnecessary, instead being replaced by opportunistic wars of greed. However, this casual approach to violence makes more Orion races easily provoked in comparison to their Citadel counterparts, with violence often sparking over comparatively minor incidents.
Each Orion Race has been subjugated or attacked by another alien species with expansionist tendencies. The best examples are the Liir and humanity. The Liir were enslaved by another alien race with expansionist tendencies while humanity rose out of the ashes of an attack by a rogue Hiver nesting fleet.
Once again this can be attributed to the idea that there is a plentiful supply of planets. Different species race to claim the abundant resources, but there are enough that total cooperation or extermination is not required. While many scholars disagree, the fact that very few of the major powers in the Orion Arm have been eliminated despite almost a century of wars and hostile interactions, credits Tang's theory. In the Orion Arm, unified alliances are temporary and rare, and total wars are the exception, not the rule.
Tang cynically believes that the Protheans created Mass Relays around habitable worlds that could produce intelligent life, thus producing future slaves. As a result most Mass Relays usually lead to habitable worlds. As stated before, this causes an extreme version of Subjugation or Cooperation scenario.
However, without this scenario, new races are often swept into conflicts far before they are ready. Expansionist predecessors force any race originating in areas without mass relays to adapt, expand and outperform their competition in a form of galactic natural selection. It also leads to a very paranoid and trigger-happy approach to first contact situations. Anything that can give them an edge over their rivals is taken with haste, under the auspices of self-defense. Each race seeks easy prey to exploit, while they fear encountering a race more powerful that would subjugate them in turn. This paranoia is often justified in their own minds as races who survive violent first contact with extra-terrestrial empires gain a group solid group mentality of "us vs. them". In turn this fuels exceptional technological growth, expansion in an attempt to combat this new threat. In the process, they create new enemies who rise to prominence, repeating the cycle.
However, Tang maintains that large empires are rare in the Orion Arm because such an empire generally splinters, regressing after reaching their apex. Then they are challenged by a new, more motivated power, sparking new conflict. While the latter part of Tan's theory is credible, with humanity serving as a prime example, the first part is controversial to say the least. Tan lists the Morrigi as the primary support for this theory, but Morrigi experts have been quick to challenge these claims. Nevertheless the commonality of aggressive expansions means that many technologically inept races suffer the predations of those more advanced, and many minor races in the Orion Arm have been subject to assimilation or displacement before they could develop enough to defend themselves.
Without the Mass Relays to act as a bottleneck, the cycle of violence and expansion continues and chaos reigns. Thousands of underdeveloped and less technologically adapted species are easily trampled into the void under the logic of "us versus them" combined with "self-defense". The Uttuku and the Kaeru are both examples of victims to this aggressive expansion. Both races were only beginning their development when their planets were annexed by other powers. Though the Kaeru have integrated fully with the Tarkasian Empire, the Uttuku were known to violently fight human colonization efforts to the bitter end. Thus they earned the nickname Stranglers for their preferred method of attack.
The second reason why Citadel Races are far more peaceful and their societies are less xenophobic and violent to other species as a whole is Element Zero. Element Zero is considered the founding block of Citadel civilization. It was once believed, before contact with the Orion Arm, that FTL and galactic civilization was impossible without it. However Element Zero acts as another bottleneck which forces various races to either choose Cooperation and Trade or Subjugation and Extinction.
The simplicity of refining and applying Element Zero makes interstellar travel remarkable easily. The ability of Element Zero to cause changes in mass makes it a remarkable and universally applicable resource. However other elements and technologies, such as Element X, the element responsible for anti-gravity technology, can be used to duplicate its effects. The difference is the difficulty.
Practically, usage and creation of Element Zero based FTL is much easier and takes a much shorter time to develop than any other form. In fact most races find mass effect drives very easy to create, requiring less than a hundred years to develop in most cases. Experimentation with this amazing resource can create very beneficial results with very few tests. For other forms of FTL require enormous amounts of research and millions of stimulations, often involving much personal risk. A notable example of this is Blasky Yao-Hsiang, the creator of the Node Drive, who was killed during the first successful test of his new drive system.
Although research into alternate means of FTL is more frustrating and time consuming, it also means that the mindset of the Orion races is more dynamic. Frustration and personal adversary are key to the culture of each Orion race. While it would take exceedingly high amounts of trials to produce viable FTL results, it does allow newer properties to be discovered and new theories to be formed from tampering with other technology. This in turn encourages growth, exploration and expansion while discouraging stagnation. As a result the Orion Races are phenomenally more advanced than their Citadel counterparts in many fields.
To construct a functioning mass effect drive, very little is required beyond a small amount of Element Zero. An FTL generator used by any Orion Arm race is dozens of times more complex, made up of various parts and requires a full knowledge of at least half a dozen fields in science to fully grasp and understand.
The third and final point put forward by Matthew Tang is Asari Influence. Due to the freedom allowed by their FTL, most Orion governments have been independently governing their colonies for decades or centuries prior to contact with one another. In the time that they were in contact, they have generally engaged in loose trade treaties, cold wars and active conflicts with one another for various reasons. This largely discourages serious cross-cultural interaction. Beliefs and values that blossomed on their initial planets are still traded among races, but the comparative difficulty of developing Orion FTL ships and constant political tension often prevents casual cultural exchange.
Ultimately this has forged deep cultural and racial identities that cannot be easily displaced. On the other hand, the various races of the Citadel explore a much more asari-like approach when it comes to foreign matters and beliefs. Most governments of Citadel races are militarily stagnant, pursuing civilian expenditure instead of military investment. The salarians, who with their enormous birth rates, should face a similar dilemma to the krogan, in a more diluted form, yet this is not the case, due to the large amount of time and money they were able to invest in this problem.
However there are exceptions, as demonstrated with the turians. This can be attributed to the long-standing leadership of the Turian Hierarchy which is similar to that of SolForce. The Hierarchy can easily trace its collective government as far back their Iron Age, establishing a longstanding president that is not easily changed. The turians still have a larger military budget than any known stellar nation.
Despite this, asari influence has shaped Citadel culture, encouraging a civilian focus to governmental spending to a limited extent. Tang maintains that as a long-lived species, asari take the long view to conflicts, asserting their influence subtly into arts, fashion, and other media, with the goal of creating a specific image in galactic society. In essence, nothing is truly "alien" to an asari, encouraging the Cooperation in the previous dilemma.
They want to be the Chancellor rather than the King, ruling from the shadows, consulted for their advice and respected for their wisdom. The more interbreeding that occurs, the more influence they acquire. Tang reminds that there are legions of stories in the mythology various species that tell of a leader who fell in love with an individual from a different culture, who then used his or her new power to help her people. Tang states that the asari desire to be this individual in galactic politics.
The primary source of conflict between the asari and the Orion races is that by asari standards, Orion races are hasty. Tang points out that while the turians are militaristic; they are conservative, so they aren't a threat to asari dominance. Orion races are also militaristic, but are very progressive, which once again can be attributed to the nature of their location.
The lack of Mass Relays encourages occasional competition and various frivolous wars for expansion, as most Orion Race colonies are comparatively close to one another, on a galactic scale. This in turn encourages rampant technological growth. Speed and decisive action have immediate rewards in such a setting, while Relay travel encourages conservative action, to prevent sparking another war of extermination.
This is further pointed out that the volus have not achieved a Council seat in the hundreds of years they have been associated with the Citadel, despite their massive economic power. The volus and hanar have culturally pursued a more peaceful and/or asari-like approach to situations, preferring to use diplomacy rather than force.
In contrast the Liir, who have a pacifistic society similar to that of the hanar or asari, when provoked readily wiped out the Batarians despite enormous protests from the other Citadel and Orion races. Tang indicated that this indicates that many minor races are slowly being assimilated into the asari mindset unknowingly, because the asari are the dominant power.
Moreover the asari are a peaceful superpower that has achieved astounding feats with the aid of the Salarians and other allies. Why wouldn't less successful races want to conform to their ideals in an attempt to emulate their success?
Without a historical or cultural catalyst to make cultural identity a massive part of a race, new races are generally uplifted and brought into fold quite easily. However there are exceptions.
This is especially demonstrated in two races; the turians and the batarians. Prior to contact with the asari, both governments had extensive histories in governing their own interstellar nations. Tang claims that this means that when coming into contact with the asari, the turians and the batarians did not conform as much as other species. Their success with governing their various colonies meant there was little need to assimilate to the standards of an asari galactic government.
While other races, such as the volus, maintained their own interstellar nations at the time of first contact, these were much smaller in scope than that of species like the Turians. They were also less technologically adept than the asari or salarians and much less militarily inclined, explaining their willingness to adapt to the galactic norm.
In essence this is a similar manner to when a young individual is taken "under the wing" of an older one. Without a strong pre-existing belief system, the younger individual is often easily shaped by the elder, intentionally or not.
Orion races, like the turians and batarians, maintain a strong cultural identity, though the reasons vary between different cultures. Batarians maintained their cultural identity through isolation. Humanity does the same to a lesser extent. Turians and Hivers maintain theirs through a strong tradition of service and duty. Liir culture is too alien to easily to relate to the culture of others. Interestingly, Tarka have been surprisingly accepting of other cultures, and participate heavily in many different walks of life throughout Citadel space.
Whether or not Tang's theories hold true is controversial to this day. The bias against the asari is obvious in the text, and many of the facts brought forth by Tang are unproven or heavily contested. Another controversy surrounding Tang's book is his implication that military power is more important than economic power. Collectively, the Orion Arm's estimated military power rivals that of the Council. Meanwhile, the Citadel's economic strength easily eclipses that of the Orion Races.
In worst case simulations, a war between a united Orion Arm and the Council would drag on for decades, costing billions of lives with no clear winner. However many racial divisions, xenophobia and values dissonance, as well as technological differences makes such an alliance unlikely. It was only the fear of complete annihilation from the Turians that forged the Orion races into their original alliance. Due to their pragmatic galactic perspective, the Orion races are more likely to turn on themselves to gain advantage than to unite against the Council.
Despite this, many of Tang's points make logical sense, and the book remains extremely popular. Though the differences between the Orion Arm and the rest of Citadel space have been explored before, Element Zero, Mass Relays and the Asari Influence approaches the topic in a much more down-to-earth manner, instead of an academic one, which resonates well with audiences. The book remained in heavy circulation throughout known space up until the Battle of Thessia, when it was temporarily pulled from distribution, allegedly for editing purposes.