Renegade Reinterpretations

Relations: Turian Hierarchy

"I served a tour on the Batarian Homeworld, you know. We all do, it seems like. It's considered a danger posting: whether from terrorism or from war with you Humans they never say. But when I went there, I didn't see enemies: I saw a race not too different from my own. The Human Soldiers I saw weren't out to counter-enslave the Batarians or kills as many as they could in a crackdown just to avenge their fathers… they were just soldiers doing their job, hoping things would change for the better. Just like we were."

–Garrus Vakarian

For expected reasons, relations between the Alliance and the Turian Heirarchy are the coldest of all the Human-Council relations. Memories of the Second Contact War in humans just stir memories and raw feelings of the First Contact War, while the permanent Turian presence on the Batarian Homeworld only reminds the Alliance of both. The Khar'shan DMZ, the line of the peninsula marking the border between the Alliance occupation zone and the Turian Hierarchy's enclave, is the most fortified border in the galaxy, and the most watched tripwire in ending the Armistice.

Human-Turian relations remain in a near-permanent deep freeze on many levels, and on both sides populists rail against the other as the gravest threat to galactic peace and order. Bitter acrimony over the Khar'shan Conflict linger in the minds of many who are old enough to remember, and none more notable than Councilor Valern who lost all of his children during the fighting on Khar'shan.

Even so, however, both societies have strong similarities in their militarization, views on the virtue of military order and strength, and even towards relations with others. When the Alliance found itself occupying the Batarian Hegemony and nearly as many Batarians as Humans, it looked to the only other notable multi-species empire in the galaxy for lessons on creating and maintaining a multi-species state. Alliance sociologists and scholars have for decades been the strongest ties between the Alliance and Hierarchy, studying the Hierarchy for lessons that can be used not only in terms of the ongoing occupation but also in the future reorganization of the Alliance as a truly galactic civilization rather than the ad-hoc war effort that it remains today. Two of the most notable policy adaptations include the Hierarchy's meritocratic tier system as a model for the Batarian occupation, as well as the adoption of many Turian military/occupation practices.

As it relates to the trilogy...

In a Xenonationalist playthrough, relations with the Turians stabilize. While no reparations or indemnities with the Alliance are ever going to follow, a mutual acceptance on both sides that their duties conflicted sets in. While the Turian presence on the Batarian Homeworld remains and the Alliance decides not to adopt Turian occupation/assimilation practices, the Heirarchy is actively helping the Alliance organize an orderly relocation of the Batarian population, and the Alliance is conducting training exercises with the Hierarchy at its own invitation. Councilor Valern is lauded for his ability to put his honor and duties as a Councilor before his anti-Human sentiments, and is rumored to be considering stepping down from his Council seat in order to make way for a new Turian Councilor.

In an Assimilation galaxy, relations with the Heirarchy are just a few steps short of war as both sides increasingly enter an arms race that makes the Batarian Homeworld a powder keg. The anti-Human hardliners gain new ascendancy within the Heirarchy, but for the moment the Heirarchy is relegated to trying to unite the other species behind it and against the Alliance rather than take it on alone. The Alliance is countering as it can with its position of being in control of the Council, and the wavering of the Volus is particularly notable. Despite these tensions, however, the two are more culturally alike then ever: with the decision to incorporate the Batarians into the Alliance and to remake the Council system to incorporate other species as well, the Alliance decides to adopt many of the Turian Hierarchy's own policy structures towards its reorganization and assimilation of other species.

Author Notes:

The irony of the Reinterpretation is that, in a lot of ways, Humans and Turians are too similar. The Alliance adopts a number of the Turian military practices (including their lack of distinction towards civilians on a battlefield), and yet plays them in a way that the Turians don't like. Likewise, the Batarian Occupation is greatly modeled after the Turian system, another cultural export that shames many Turians when comparisons are made.

Furthering this irony is that the similarities only increase the more hostile they are. To many anti-Human Turians, the Alliance may well be 'the evil twin,' that person who looks like a twisted mockery of what you stand for and value.