The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space
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DAEDALUS-SEVEN-NINE-TWO
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To the Three:
Asari psychology and social structure is baffling. I worked closely with the teams from Shadow in compiling this document, but be aware that understanding asari mindsets is akin to comprehending quantum physics – it is more of a matter of grasping principles than true understanding. Asari psychology is a mess of deviant sexuality, obsessions with social relationships, species-wide mind sharing, and an almost casual disregard for other races due to their long life spans via ours.
I'd also like to point out that Agent Cole's relationship with the asari called Sapphire is completely inappropriate.
Cerberus Thought for the Day: To withdraw in disgust is neither apathy nor cowardice, but prudence. One cannot find pearls among swine.
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ICARCUS-SIX-THREE-SEVEN
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Dr. Minsta ,
Agent Cole has had an unfortunate accident, along with his asari lover. We appreciate your attention to detail in ensuring none of the agents we use in infiltration and data gathering is .. compromised by their duties, however pleasant they may be.
The Iron General
Cerberus Thought for the Day: The rewards of tolerance of the alien are treachery and betrayal.
Asari Psychology:
If the basis of human psychology is the study of motivation, needs, and self-perception, then the best way to describe asari psychology – and how alien they are – is the study of relationships, desires, and posturing. Asari are not humans. This may seem like an obvious and silly thing to point out, but due to the near identical appearance of the asari to us, and their ability to comprehend and absorb information about races they have melded with, the point needs to be made, and made repeatedly.
Humans have a hierarchy of needs. While much of Maslow's work has come under question from deterministic researchers and sociopsychologists, the framework is sound enough to comprehend what drives humans – basic needs such as shelter, food, sex, followed by social needs such as family and acceptance, topped off by goals and self-actualization. Asari do not function anywhere close to this.
If one is to construct an asari 'hierarchy of needs', then the bottom layer could be termed hunter-like survivalist instinct. At the most primitive, asari are hunter-gatherers still, focused on individual achievement linked to furthering the clan. Thus, the basics are food and water, shelter, and clan identity and acceptance. Rogue asari who are rejected from their clans end up retaining this hunter-like mentality, rarely if ever rising above a sort of selfish and brutal outlook until they can establish their own clan structure, however flimsy it may be.
Above this tier is the powerful and overwhelming need for esteem, acceptance, and influence. Many researchers would put sex somewhere in these tiers, but for the asari, sexual contact is of astonishingly little importance or value. What matters is that a person is accepted, that they are part of the consensus, that they are trusted enough to be brought into bonds and melds and made part of the greater whole. There is no such concept in asari relations as fidelity in terms of sexual behavior, nor is there taboo about it – to the asari, casual sexuality is roughly on par with how humans view gossip.
After fulfilling needs of the body, clan, and being accepted, the third tier of asari behavior becomes something akin to human self-actualization. Asari who have achieved this stage begin to question the fundamental nature of who and what they are, and to work with others to build consensus, cooperation, and a tighter network of bonds and melds and the sharing of memories.
This urge is very deep seated, and is why the asari do not seem to have (with the exception of the ardat-yakshi) ever had any real intercene warfare, only minor skirmishes over hunting areas in their very early years. Conflict resolution is very high in the asari mindset, as is comprehension of what the other – the other being a rival clan, a personal foe, or an unknown entity – is thinking, feeling, and expecting.
Asari Psychology and Age
As asari age, their mindset and outlook on life changes. This is due to a host of physiological changes, the vast perspective and wisdom that living well over a thousand years brings, and the cumulative experiences of hundreds of melds with other asari or aliens.
Maiden psychology is one of exploration, lack of responsibility, and enjoyment. With the exception of the Thirty (who are held to higher standards by their families and public perception), most asari maidens are raised within clan and family until they are around 80 years old, at which time they are let free to roam. Maidens are intensely sexualized as a result of both cultural upbringing and evolution, which forced clans to push maidens into matron stages as soon as possible to boost birthrates. Maidens are often involved in what humans would see as horrific trades for the equivalent of young teenagers – prostitutes, exotic dancers, escorts, mercenaries. Something like 95% of asari end up in one or more of these occupations for the first hundred or so years of life, before moving into something less dangerous, often in asari corporations where they make up low-level positions and begin learning actual trade skills.
Asari maidens, psychologically, are simply not mature adults. They are prone to wild emotional swings, vulnerable to flattery, and quite capable of fixating on certain goals to the exclusion of all else. For most asari maidens, these goals are to have fun and live wildly, but there are maidens who have fixations on making money, acquiring art, studying music, history or other pursuits, and who take up these concepts with almost frightening focus.
At some point, usually after two to three centuries of life, asari begin feeling urges to have offspring. In earlier times, maidens were pushed into this as quickly as possible, but in modern times most maidens are allowed to indulge themselves until they are ready to become mothers. It is worth noting that the idea of not having children is utterly and completely alien to asari. While maidens do not think about it very often, if at all, we have not been able to find even a single instance of asari who are childless past five hundred years of age, either in historical records or after interviews. The staggering birthrate of the asari, combined with the fact that literally every single one of them (with the obvious exception of ardat-yakshi) will have at least one child, explains why they outnumber humanity four to one and boast over a hundred well-settled colony worlds.
Even the most timid and frigid of asari is likely to have melded with a few dozen asari and/or aliens by the time she reaches the matron stage and begins feeling urges to begin a family. The shift to matron from maiden brings about strong conservatism and concealment of emotions, focusing on the partner or partners with which children are to be brought about. (See physiological studies for further information – but in brief, remember that asari pregnancies can end up with both partners pregnant with the others child, or even circular pregnancy arrangements among three or more asari. Truly revolting.)
Matrons foremost priority is raising their children, and on providing for their children's future. Matrons are hardworking, quiet, focused on their family and clan and do not take risks or chances. Matrons that undergo the bond with a mate tend to settle down into a single relationship for the life of the mate, which in all cases but krogans, is only a small span of time. Even with the most advanced medical care genetic improvements, and cybernetics, a human can't live much past 140, most turians can't live past 180, and salarians rarely break 40. As such, matrons can afford to lavish attention and care on their bondmate.
Matron psychology focuses mostly on basic needs and is about the only time where sexual rampancy is dimmed. While many matrons become active again after the death of their bondmates, most are more hesitant to get involved on such a tight, personal level with aliens, and they begin non-childbearing relationships with other asari. These are rarely monogamous events, often being clan or regional connections that number in the dozens, more for comfort and friendship (and pleasure) than any lasting emotional bonds of what we could recognize as romantic. Again, romance and sex are utterly divided in the asari mindset.
Matrons are rarely seen in combative positions, preferring to take up more mediating and life-affirming pursuits, even after their children are grown. Matrons rarely get pregnant more than during one period in their life – they may have one child, or several children in a row, but almost never do they have a child at, say, three hundred and another at six hundred. (More can be found in the physiological section, but asari pregnancy is extremely untaxing due to physiological adaptations – asari can have upwards of eight offspring in a handful of years with no ill effects, and little pain.)
Once a matron has raised her child, she focuses more on reaching out to other matrons, building a network of social supporters and either following the teachings and guidance of a matriarch, or beginning to plan her own advancement to that state, depending on her level of self-confidence and social status. This part of asari psychology is poorly understood, but some asari seem naturally inclined to lead, and other to submit.
At around seven hundred years of age, sometimes later, a matron undergoes a physiological and mental shift. Most of the details can be found in the physiological section of this document, but the mental and psychological changes are profound. They gain a measure of mental strength and confidence that is stunning, while undergoing a complete psychological shift.
A Matriarch is an ancient creature, one who has ties to dozens, possibly hundreds or even thousands of other asari through linking and bonding. The mind of the asari shifts to encompass these memories on a conscious rather than unconscious level, and testing has confirmed the raw intellectual capacity increases by a factor of three for most matriarchs. The entire hierarchy of needs of an asari up to this point – survival, esteem, influence, consensus – fades, replaced by a single-minded desire to influence and control others. Matriarchs seemingly live to guide and lead other asari, often aiding in raising children, determining cultural influences, leading companies and participating in political and social leadership positions.
Matriarchs literally require a level of submission from those they lead. It is theorized that the asari mindset becomes so warped by linking and bonding and the influx of other memories that the original personality of the asari, over time, simply becomes an amalgam of various other linked personalities. The original asari becomes a semi-gestalt of what she has absorbed, changing her from a person to virtual group of persons operating with one viewpoint.
While this sounds ridiculous to the average human, for asari it makes sense. Early evolution would have put great stress on asari clans, and matriarchs acted as both natural leaders and living recording devices, incorporating the gestalt knowledge and personality of the clan or family unit they lead. In the modern era, however, this has slowly become a matter where many matriarchs lead tiny cults of personality, biotic groups, or even religions.
Truly grasping the psychology of a being such as a matriarch is nearly impossible. They have so many connections and submissive followers that concerns such as survival and esteem, or even self-actualization, must appear ridiculous to the asari. Matriarchs define success in a holistic, group based view, such as the success of the asari people, of their corporations or religious groups, or on a fixed long-term goal of staggering complexity.
Many matrons simply do not really become matriarchs. They age and die at around eight hundred years old, content and fulfilled with the lives they have lead. This explains why the asari population is about 10% adolescents, 30% maidens, 40% matrons, and only 20% matriarchs.
Asari Linking and Sexuality
One cannot divorce the asari from their overly sexualized presentation and reputation. That is because asari have a viewpoint on sex alien to almost every other known species in Citadel space.
Batarians, turians, volus, and drell sexuality is almost identical to human sexuality – attractions between two people, be it physical, mental, hormonal or situational, leading to a relationship of a sexual nature combined with some level of romantic affection, and a formal bond relationship that leads to children and a longer-term relationship involving living together. Salarians do not present this due to their method of reproduction and rapidly shifting emotional states, and krogan cannot presently afford such things, although there is evidence they fell into this model before the genophage. The mating rituals of the hanar do not allow for such, and elcor have communal mating that, while incorporating several partners, still results in the same effect.
Asari do not link sex with romantic feelings, or even the desire for children, in any way, shape, or form. For them, it is merely an activity, with no more significance than humans going out for a beer together, or turians going shooting together. Asari promiscuity is beyond staggering, trending into the truly ludicrous, as the average asari may have hundreds of casual sex partners in the years of being a maiden, and even after having children may take on dozens of further casual sex partners.
Since the asari have complete control over when they choose to become pregnant, and since it's very difficult for maidens to have the level of biotic control necessary to be able to induce a pregnancy, this casualness is to be expected to some degree. Additionally, since the asari sex act is not penetrative, at least among asari, it is of little concern.
One cannot approach asari culture and psychology without looking at sex, which is related to their methods of communication – linking, bonding, and melding. At the lightest level, linking is the practice of hooking the asari's own nervous system to that of their sex partner. This enhances the pleasure of the act, heightening sensitivity and even drawing out and intensifying the sensations. There is some light emotional transfer in such an act as well, but no exchanges of memories. Linking is apparently practice
for bonding, where an asari pushes the link deeper, binding together two beings on a mental level.
This allows for some exchanges of memories, of emotions, and for the asari to have a very deep understanding of the person she's engaged in the bond with. As such it is hardly a casual act, but one of a more romantic or emotional level.
The highest level of asari link is the Meld, where an asari tries to unify herself fully with the person she is linking to. The Meld is not something done lightly, nor is it reversible. Two sentient beings literally become one for the purposes of sentience while it is ongoing, and after there exists a low level bio-electrical link between the two, which allows for long distance transfer of emotions of a strong nature.
(This has been confirmed, see paired asari enhanced interrogation series VII). Melding is also required when asari wish to have children, as they claim to be able to use the partner's DNA to enhance the offspring.
The end result is that almost all sexual encounters with asari end up with linking at the very least, usually bonding if repeated. In the days before spaceflight, asari clans would trade maidens and sexual aggressiveness was used to bind and link groups together, to show there was no hostility. As breeding complications arose, either from trying to avoid the creation of ardat-yakshi or incompatibilities between seacoast and mountain or forest clans, casual sex for the purpose of entertainment and lowering tensions went from commonplace to almost required.
As populations grew more dense, the amount of linking between asari, and bonds, resulted in a nearly communal memory with clans and clan groupings. Social status was closely linked with the influence and control a bond-mate had over her partner (more commonly, partners) and the secrets and understanding they had of those who those partners had bonded with. The Thirty were the absolute masters at this technique, targeting those asari with liaisons who had wide networks of link and bond-mates and wielding disproportionate influence as a result.
Asari Outcasts: shorn from the clan
For whatever reason (research suggests recessive ardat-yakshi traits), some asari simply integrate poorly with other asari. These asari tend to lead solitary, depressed lives, unable to fit into asari culture. They recoil from melds and links, suppress their emotional states, and tend towards extremes, either focusing on some form of criminality or some esoteric method of study.
These outcasts usually end up gravitating to pastimes that give them no way out from the lives they live. They avoid their own kind when possible, and have an easier time mingling with aliens, although they remain awkward there as well. Unlike most asari, outcasts tend to value loyalty and sexual fidelity immensely, often taking only one mate their entire lives.
Outcast psychology is more understandable to humans than standard asari psychology is. They are lonely, vulnerable people, unable for whatever reason to participate in the crazed social maneuvering of their own kind and seeking some form of replacement for the clan. This makes them some of the most valuable targets for Cerberus infiltration operations, as they become more bitter and hateful of their own kind over time, and may even turn on them.
A high number of outcasts are those who are considered 'purebloods', offspring from the union of two asari rather than an asari and an alien. As such, they end up more likely than not to also pursue unions with another asari, usually to be rebuffed, and to cling to whoever ends up accepting them in whatever manner. Outcast asari place acceptance over even survival, being willing to risk their lives in almost suicidal situations if only to prove they are worthy.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : turians
Asari and turians have little in common at first glance. Turians are alien in chirality and shape, having few common features with asari, and their culture demands absolute loyalty among mates, places values on intangibles such as honor and tradition rather than virtues of the moment, and rejects more subtle political intrigue as weak.. As a result, the average asari finds the turians to be staid, rather boring and quite naive. Maidens find their aggression and valor attractive, but usually don't get involved with them due to their fixation on fidelity.
Turian and asari military methods clash, as the turians believe force answers all questions while asari see force as the stick used only when the carrot fails. Justice and law are also clashing ideals, with asari absolutism seen as repugnant to turian sensibilities, and the turian refusal to separate civilian from military assets seen as barbaric by asari. Turian art, music, and culture, all designed to enhance the glory of the Hierarchy and the ancestors, is seen as mind-crushingly boring by asari, while asari culture with it's rapidly shifting social links is seen as insane by the rank-obsessed meritocracy of the turians.
Asari are more than capable of manipulating the turian mindset, which is fixated on goals and patterns, the social demands of honor, and intense and truthful self-examination. While few of these concepts translate cleanly to the asari focus, asari find turians attractive due to the turian's natural acceptance of authority when demonstrate to be competent.
Asari outcasts, those who do not fit into traditional asari society, find turians fascinating, and literally every known asari outcast has taken up with turians as mates and business partners. This is understandable – an asari outcast, shorn of the comfort of clan and the race, needs someone utterly devoted to them and them alone. Turians mate for life and even the most disgraced turian would hesitate before ever betraying their mate.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : salarians
The asari attitude towards salarians can be described as disinterested amusement and collaboration. The two species are opposites in every way. Salarians prize inventiveness and change, while asari cling to conservatism. Salarians live for short spans of time and refuse to dwell in the moment, focusing on what lies ahead, asari cling to every second of existence as valuable and live for centuries. Salarians devalue sex as only for procreation, and that dependent on biological breeding values and at the control of the dalatrasses, asari see sex as communication and vital to understanding, and base breeding values on compatibility and emotional context.
Yet both races have strong submissive streaks towards the elder females, and both prize the resolution of conflict through methods other than force. Asari rarely take salarian mates, as sexuality is simply not something many salarians care about. Yet it does happen, most often with maidens, since salarians place zero value on fidelity much like asari do.
Salarian 'values', such as they are, provide a delicious counterpoint to asari subtle manipulations, and the two races have a deep respect for how the other manages to infiltrate and coopt other races and enemies. The military and combat guidelines for both races are also very similar, as are asari and salarian concepts of justice and law.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : batarians
Asari and batarians have never gotten along – the asari find the batarians to be repulsive, cruel, mindless and all to devoted to an utterly male viewpoint that they cannot understand. The batarian reliance on slaves, and their cavalier attitude towards crime, also repulses them.
Asari views on almost every cultural aspect clash with batarians. Asari are collectivist and strive for consensus, social submission, and understanding. Batarians prize individuality and posturing, care nothing for agreements, and don't want to understand others, feeling that other races are inferior. The batarian slaver's preference for the capture and rape of asari maidens is also a point of ugly contention between the two races.
Asari outcasts sometimes mingle with batarians, but even this is rare. On the whole, asari and batarians do not interact.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : hanar, volus, elcor, and drell
Asari's relationship with these highly alien races is usually limited. Some adventurous (and deviant) asari seek out relationships with the hanar for the purposes of sexual partnerships, but for the most part, the asari simply don't deign to bother with what they consider their lessers.
The asari have carefully manipulated the drell and volus in certain situations, raising tensions in the relationships between volus and turians, or drell and hanar, but this appears to be the moves of individual matriarchs. On some level, psychologically speaking, races that simply don't stand out much are not of much interest to asari.
While investigations of how asari culture clashes with other alien cultures could be performed, the lack of interaction makes it of value only in the sense of morbid curiosity.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : vorcha
Really? Hopefully, this isn't even worth researching, and the only results we had so far in interviews resulted in slapped faces.
It shouldn't need repeating, but the asari rarely bother with inferior races. A few have made efforts at raising child vorcha in hopes of altering their behavior, but this , again, appears to be the act of a few matriarchs, not the race.
Asari Psychology and Aliens : krogan
At the current time, no research has been completed. Anecdotal evidence implies that unions such as this are rare, and that the asari have written off the krogan as both dying and too stubborn to manipulate.
Krogan find some asari attractive in only that offspring are possible, even if said offspring are asari. Some asari have had krogan mates in the past, the lifespans of the two races being very long and thus conducive to long term relationships. This does not appear to be commonplace in modern times, however.
Asari Psychology and Humans:
The discovery of humanity was a large shock to the asari collective psyche, and even decades later it's effects are still being felt. Humans became, in short order, the asari race's collective obsession, with literally millions upon millions of asari taking human mates both male and female.
The bizarre asari psychology, their inability to link fidelity and emotional attachment to sex, and their disassociated, long-view way of looking at things has proven a barrier to them fully understanding human psychology in turn. However, asari clearly understand that their appearance, sexuality, mystery and biotic power makes them appealing and intriguing to humans, and have parlayed that into a series of advances into human society and industry that are worrying.
The attitude of most asari towards humans is equally confusing. Asari look down on all other races, seeing themselves unmatched in terms of knowledge, power, lifespan, wealth, achievement and destiny. Yet they also are hesitant around humans, fearful of the drive and energy of our race. Unlike salarians, who waste much of their energies in internal bickering or paranoid planning, humanity's focus on concrete goals meshes well with the asari focus on dominance.
Maidens are particularly enamored of humans, particularly those from Thessia. The unending push to mate with aliens and not their own kind has exhausted the well of xenophilia most asari feel, and humans (especially human females) are identical enough for natural urges and attractions to take over. The short lifespan and energy of humans is also attractive, and the primacy of sexual actions in human self-esteem and social standing gives the asari powerful tools to manipulate humans with.
Matrons find humans to be better parents than salarians and better matches than turians or krogan. Humans have, compared to other races, extremely strong protective instincts towards their children, and most, if satisfied emotionally and sexually, are unlikely to wander off. Matrons also find humans more stable than salarians, more flexible than turians, and less aggressive and hard to control than krogan mates.
Matriarchs seem equally fascinated with humanity as a whole, if not humans on the individual level. Many matriarchs have had considerable success in forming religious groups, biotic cults, and other organizations in human society, while others have gone on swathes of sexual conquests, practicing the tactics once used in their pre-history to influence and dominate key human government or business figures.
The inter-relation between humans and asari is complicated by the current cultural backlash in some asari circles towards asari-asari offspring. Humans are seen as alien enough to avoid that taboo, yet enough like asari to be fulfilling. As a rule, asari are faintly, if reliably, protective of humanity, albeit for their own purposes and manipulation.
Asari Mental Diseases and Conditions:
Despite their great mental strength, asari are not immune to psychological or mental breakdown. Younger asari are no more resilient than humans to mental breakdown. They resist torture poorly, especially if they have such torture inflicted on a link-mate at the same time, and while many can practice biotic arts to suppress nerve reactions, anti-biotic drugs can remove this impediment.
Matrons, and especially matriarchs, however, due to the long life experiences they have and the grounding effects of so many bonds and links, become increasingly resistant to mental trauma, shock, and psychosis. Even the most brutal torture or horrible events are born by matriarchs with little to no series mental stress, although they will certainly be emotionally affected. Torture to bond-mates, however, breaks them even more quickly than maidens, since there is appearance no defense against such close mind linkages.
Asari have a condition similar to schizophrenia, which is caused when maidens attempt to bond too deeply in their youth. This causes confusion of their core personality and can lead to madness in short order, which is why most asari shy away from such deep bonds in their youth. Asari can also suffer from depression, most often after the death of a bond-mate or exile from a clan.
Asari have the ability to 'force-bond' and suppress or eliminate memories in another, which is the prime tool by which asari mental health professionals use to combat depression. However, this method can fail in times of stress or when heavy bonding occurs again, with often devastating results to the mental health of the asari in question.
Finally, there is a form of cancer that afflicts some asari, which damages the portion of their brains that regulates emotional control. While eventually lethal, the early stages can be treated if caught, but the resulting irrationality remains. This does not incapacitate the asari in question – the leader of Eclipse, Jona Sederis, suffers from this ailment – but makes them difficult to predict or control, and can often result in criminal activities or worse.