A/N: Updated to fix some things 11-9-14

The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space

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DAEDALUS-SEVEN-NINE-TWO

ACKNOWLEDGMENT HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED

To the Three:

It is with sadness that I have to report Dr. Uraj was killed in his duties of gathering information for this document. Shadow Cell and Iron Cell operatives neutralized at least one of Night-Wind assassin bitches that killed, him, but not before they were able to free several captives, and escape. Without the force to pursue, we have since relocated from Panji to Illum, although we have not managed to obtain enough operating space to allow Iron Cell reinforcements to arrive.

The move to Illum is perhaps useful, as it is a study of the rapacious and incestuous nature of asari culture in a microcosm. Our research thus far has garnered some significant side benefits, and I'm sure our researches here will be no less fruitful.

Asari culture is inseparable from the asari clan system, both of which are throwbacks to the asari prehistoric period. For humans a gulf of fifty thousand years is beyond comprehension – something on the order of twenty-five hundred generations. The span of all of human history would, in the measure of asari, be akin to the difference between the modern day and the late 20th century. When lifespans are measured in centuries, a great deal of very old ways of interacting becomes apparent in asari culture.

This is probably why , despite leading the galaxy in technological prowess, economy, and influence, the asari are so terrified of humanity. We are free of the chains of social stigmas, of the stupid jockeying for position of the salarians or the mindless adoration of the past of the turians. In the span of a few asari generations we have come further and faster than any other species they know of, and while they desire to subjugate us and place us as their slaves at their feet, their disgusting mindset means they think we wish the same.

We , thanks to your guidance, do not.

Cerberus Thought for the Day: Reason begets doubt. Doubt begets mercy, mercy begets hesitation, hesitation begets a damned alien bullet through your head. Reason with your rifle, never with your mouth, when you face the alien.

Asari Cultural Basics

Human cultures are defined by four things – locale, language, ethnic groups, and customs. The difference between a young black male raised in the San Angelos Arcology group is utterly alien to a Hindu woman raised in the Calcutta Arcology. They think in different languages, with different foci. Their homelands are different, and the history therein. While humanity has moved beyond thinking there is any statistically important difference in race, we acknowledge that they have an effect on mindsets and the customs embraced by each ethnic group.

But the beauty of human society is that we are individuals and prize individuality even while being strongly drawn to our cultural backgrounds. We do not embrace the wonder of a home-cooked meal , or cry at the old national anthems , or smile helplessly at the laughter of a child merely because others do, but because it speaks to us as humans, as people. There is no independent nation of France, nor a French Foreign Legion any longer, yet soldiers still cry at the yearly parades at Cambrone. There is no longer a Swahili nation, yet millions each year still take up the language and the practices of that culture. One cannot find the empire of Rome on a map, or Carthage, but thousands of years after they died, do you not thrill at the name of Hannibal, or Caesar? The loss of Jerusalem has not destroyed the Jewish faith, and no matter how advanced humanity may get, baseball is still here, the sonatas of Mozart are still here, the beauty of zen poetry remains.

Put all of this out of your mind when dealing with asari, for they feel and embrace nothing of it.

Asari culture is enshrined and upheld by a single, overriding, overwhelming concept – that all must be one. Siari, the asari religion, states this no less strongly than the old Athame religious concepts did. Every trait of their biology, from their increasingly homogenous appearance to their linking of memories and emotions in sex forces this. Every aspect of their history has shown when one rises above others without the support of all the entire race suffers. Their psychology cannot even embrace the idea of the lone ruler without the understanding that a ruler without subjects and allies and partners is alone.

Asari culture is based on the blending of ideas, on the consensus of culture, on the de-emphasis of the differences and the comfort of the identical. Unlike humanity, asari identify as asari first, then by clan, then by citystate, then by family, and finally by self. Asari art is the expression of many artists, it's music designed to bring about the state of mind that all are as one, it's cultural norms and even myths reinforcing that, over and over.

A human is his own or her own unit, but before everything else is family, then ethnic culture, then nation. A human only embraces 'humanity' as an intellectual concept when every other aspect of life lines up with it. There very simply is no such thing as an asari traitor to the race.

Asari culture is not rich in the way of human culture. There is only one language, although it has evolved over time, because these beings who share innermost emotions and thoughts in their casual sex do so with the frequency you or I might engage in gossip over morning coffee. An asari sees their 'nation' as nothing less than all other asari, and it comes before all other considerations – before family, before personal desires, before city-state and certainly before any alien.

The asari see neither value nor beauty in diversity among themselves, although they prize it and cherish it in those around them. They see the myriad cultures of other races as interesting, finding different viewpoints and opportunities to manipulate and hold. They appreciate it in the same way a pimp might appreciate the beauty of his prostitutes, or the banker the gleam of his gold. It is beauty in that it represents that which they seek to profit from and control, not out of any aesthetic tastes.

Asari Social Structures

Asari culture, for all it's unity, is also highly stratified. This stratification is based neither on merit nor solely on bloodline, but rather on the ability to manipulate, convince, cajole or unify, which should surprise no one.

Atop this structure are the Thirty, the powerful clans that claim descent from Athame herself. The Thirty themselves are divided into ranks, with High Houses, Greater Houses, and Guardian Houses forming those ranks. Below the Houses Proper are the Lesser Houses, related cousin clans that provide additional members and allies.

Below that are the extant Asari Clans, which are picky about their membership and the activities undertaken by them. The Clans each oversee certain aspects of asari business, culture, or governance, but most take their guidance from the Thirty, either directly at the hands of the Republic, or indirectly via influence and manipulation.

Below the Clans , acting as the common people are the clanless, who form the bulk of the asari population.

Social standing is fluid , both upwards and downwards, and has no real absolutes. A commoner clanless can, with hard work and talent, find membership in one of the Clans. The clans can provide contact and influence with the Lesser Houses, and a Clan member of sufficient skill, talent and above all else poise and the ability to manipulate can be inducted into their ranks via bonding. The offspring of such a union are considered fully a part of the House, and with time can impress the members of a Full House enough to be inducted into their ranks. Indeed, Matriarch Lidanya T'Armal, one of the most powerful matriarchs in asari space, began life as a clanless orphan on the streets of Serrice, and now stands at the right hand of the most powerful and noble house in all of Thessia.

This freedom of social status , however, is hardly achieved by the average asari, who usually sublimate personal ambitions for group aims. An asari too focused on her own achievements is seen as gauche at best, and dangerous at worst, by her associates , and finds herself locked out of the asari network of commingling that provides them with so much of their cultural unity.

Asari Clans

In ancestral times, all asari were organized into clans, the most basic social grouping that asari have devised. The nuclear family – mother, father, children – is something utterly alien in many ways to asari until recent times, and only then is it found mostly in those asari who have , by dint of being cut off from other asari by work or location, been forced to assimilate more heavily with aliens.

Asari clans were the real grouping and remain that way. Clans are usually formed of anywhere from four to ten matriarchs, who will each have between two and as many as eight offspring each. These matrons will be equally fertile and press for as many possible offspring as they can. Once the original matriarchs die and the matrons ascend, the clan grows, until such time that either internal strife causes some matriarchs to leave to form a new clan or the clan becomes a formal bloodline.

Asari in pre-historical times would intermingle extremely heavily. An asari matron would have an offspring with one 'father', then turn around and impregnate the 'father'. Her own offspring might then sleep with said father, or with other clan mates. Given the high amount of control over DNA anomalies their physiology and mating methods allows, 'inbreeding' was not a clearly taboo concept.

However, such close concentrations of genetic traits were not desired, and as such usually clans would try to intermix and intermingle from the separate matriarch lines as heavily as possible. By four or five generations of breeding later, literally everyone in the clan would be distantly related to others. As this point a clan would begin making matches with other nearby clans. Eventually , even religion played a part in this, with their mythical god Janis taking a portfolio embracing law, travel and sex, as clan negotiations became so byzantine that courts of adjudication became necessary, and swaps might include journeys of many months between dozens of neighboring clans.

These matches would be for supplies, hunting areas, or for desirable mates. As society evolved, they became more a matter of the quality and depth of bloodlines involved in each clan. In modern times, most such clan interchanges are to boost the clan's genetic diversity, and to push for traits the clan desires. A clan of strongly biotic asari might mingle with a clan known for the agility of it's members, or with a wealthy clan for positions in their corporation. Some asari clans even barter themselves on public exchanges! (Truly, there is no end to the foulness of these alien women.)

Clan structure is fluid, and based on social maneuvering and perceptions of both sensuality and control. Many asari relationships are dominant/submissive in nature, with one asari being in charge and one submitting. As such, usually the clan is controlled by two or three dominant matriarchs, who lay out the course of the clan's activities and goals.

Clans that reach a sufficient size and stability, that can last for more than a handful of generations, become more permanent fixtures. These trace their ancestry back to a powerful figure or figures, usually powerful matriarchs, and this is called a Bloodline. Clans mingle bloodlines to form a nexus of possible traits in offspring, which is connected to the prestige and influence of the bloodline as a whole.

In the modern era, the clans also have varying dedicate focus areas. These include (listed roughly in order of importance to asari society, from highest to lowest):

the Moondance Clans: the most ancient clan structure, the Moondance clans are the ancient religious clans that once worshiped Athame and now focus on the practice of siari. They are philosophers, mediators, diplomats and priestesses rolled into one. Moondance clans oversee rituals of bonding and burial, the creation of new clans and Houses, and work with the Hearthwatch clans in mediating interclan discussions as well as reaching out to aliens. They are also what passes as an informal civil court, with powers by law to mediate disputes between asari and handle minor transgressions. While their numbers are small – there are only sixteen clans in this group, numbering barely a half-million asari – their influence on society and the Thirty is massive.

The Clan of the Justicars – This is not really a 'clan' for the purposes of sex and relationship so much as for social structure and comraderie. The Justicar Clan contains the members of the Order of Justicars, the terrifying elite police that enforce the ban upon the Ardat-yakshi and ensure asari society is well served by it's leaders and clans. Justicars have absolute , utter authority on any asari world – the least of them could execute every matriarch of House T'Armal with not a whisper of protest – and even on asari-dominated worlds with aliens, such as Illum and Cyone, their power is not to be underestimated or gainsaid. There are less than a thousand of these elite asari warriors, but the clan also includes biotic instructors, support personnel, builders – anyone who supports the order severs all other clan and family ties to focus solely on the Order and it's code. All told, the clan numbers well under ten thousand souls, and joining it even in the most peripheral fashion is considered one of the highest honors in asari society. (Strangely, these justicars are about the only trustworthy asari around, as they eschew the asari mindset in favor of a cold-blooded, implacable destruction of anything and everything that violates their code. Almost admirable.)

the Hearthwatch clans : The Heathwatch clans were originally a series of settlers on the dangerous plains between the coastal clans and the Thirty, and the mountain and forest clans. They often acted as the only conduit for trade, news, and diplomacy between the two. In the modern era, they continue this – they are lawyers, mediators, news reporters, investigators, and they make up the bulk of the judiciary, the police, and travel agencies. The Hearthwatch clans , above all other asari, prize racial unity and clan cooperation, and they are also the most in-tune with the constant social linkages and shading of memory and emotions that occurs between the various relationships that link the clans. With their ear to the pulse of all of asari society, the Hearthwatch are the most critical component of the asari mindset of racial unity. They are numerous, boasting over four hundred clans and over a hundred million members.

the Lifeshaper Clans : In the ancient times, the Lifeshapers were the crude version of farmer-scientists, struggling to bring forth crops, tending to fishing areas, and ensuring the forests were not overcut. In the modern era, these clans run the large agricultural communes on Thessia and other life-giving worlds, as well as most of the hospitals, biological research centers, doctors and other medical facilities. They are additionally responsible for the schools and colleges, the local libraries, and the maintenance of the Asari e-democracy network of voting and information networks. They ensure there are no famines, and regularly inspect food and water for impurities, fight disease outbreaks, and work to improve asari birthrates (as if the bitches don't breed fast enough). There are roughly one hundred and forty such clans throughout asari space, totaling around fifty million members.

the Skywatch Clans : The Skywatch Clans are the old inventor clans, updated for the modern era. They work closely with the Steelshape and Lifeshaper clans, but their focus is on science , research, and exploration. Skywatch clans make up the researchers in colleges, scientists and astronomers, as well as scouts and explorers. The Skywatch clans also spearhead and produce ship designs for the asari fleets , and are the caretakers of asari knowledge of the Protheans and other ancient lore. The Skywatch are not numerous in clan strength – there are only ten such clans – but each clan is staggeringly huge in size, with over fifty million asari among the ten.

the Steelshape Clans : the first of the 'newer' industrial clans to arise, the Steelshape Clans focus on industrial work, construction, and infrastructure, as well as building and supporting colonies. They are more businesslike than all the other clans, parlaying their Clans' duties into profit and influence, but are also very traditional and spiritual, attempting to infuse siari and grace into everything the asari build, fly, or create. They are also very specialized, with many clans only doing one or two kinds of work – one clan may only do interior decoration, another only automotive work, etc. That explains why there are a staggering six thousand Steelshape clans, but their numbers are barely 300 million.

The Shoreside and Skyside Clans : The Shoreside and Skyside Clans are what remained of the ancient hunting, fishing, and gathering clans after the clans began to fall apart in modern times. Traditionalist to the core, they refuse to assimlate into the more modern societal functions, and thus cling to very ancient jobs , albeit ones updated for the modern era. Mining , cooking (including most restaurants), fishing, hunting , eezo gathering, and not least of all bodyguard duties are what this clan focuses it's efforts on. The Eclipse mercenary group is the most successful (and independent) of the many mercenary companies that are part of the Shoreside and Skyside Clans. These clans also act as domestic servants, often fill posts in the asari military, and undertake aspects of asari culture that no one else wants – the maintenance of graveyards, handing and caring for the insane, and the like. They are neither numerous nor powerful, barely twenty such clans remaining, numbering only a few hundred thousand, but their numbers have rapidly grown in the past twenty years as more and more asari become disenchanted with modern life and seek older, simpler times.

Two other clan structures exist – the Thirty Families, and the clanless.

The Thirty – princesses and queens of Thessia

The Thirty Families are the clans originally designed by Athame to rule the Asari, according to history, lore, and myth. Certainly there is considerable historical and paleoarcheological evidence to back their claims. The Thirty breed only within their clan and their affiliated descendant lesser houses, with no known exceptions until the advent of alien contact, and since then, even given the taboo nature of asari-asari breeding leading to ardat-yakshi and the imprimatur to avoid such, the Thirty have pureblood offspring at nine hundred times the frequency of the lesser clans.

The Thirty are physical larger, stronger, smarter and far more biotically powerful than lesser asari. The average asari is around 5'2 or 5'4, the average member of the Thirty is 5'10, with some topping six feet. The Thirty have sharper eyesight, stronger levels of eezo, even more robust immune systems.

The Thirty also developed many technological innovations far ahead of other asari. They were forging iron when other asari were still using stone, and the Silent Queen's innovations were rumored only to be possible because she had studied in her youth with the Thirty's innovators and scientists. Even today, something like 85% of all discoveries and research papers come from the ranks of the Thirty, rather than asari society in general.

Regular asari defer to the Thirty almost instinctual, hesitant and almost worshipful. The Thirty, in turn, are by turns both arrogant and brutally protective of lesser asari. The Thirty see themselves as the guardians of Thessia, the guidance of the race as a whole, and lesser asari simply have no problems or jealousy at this.

The culture of the Thirty is even more twisted and sickening than standard asari fare, with each Family jockeying for position , prestige, and power. Unlike most asari, who focus on building their clans and families first and then only on their position, a member of the Thirty lives or dies by manipulating the emotions and perceptions of others. The most inept and shy of the Thirty is capable of reducing most living beings to mere cats paws wrapped around their finger.

Each family of the Thirty has one House Matriarch, who is undisputed leader of the house, and usually between two and (depending on the size) up to fifty lesser matriarch, with a strict line of ascension that is constantly fluctuating dependent on social maneuvering that would make even Machiavelli weep. The matriarch's offspring are formally styled as "shlantha", a word that roughly translates to "princess" in English. Unless a princess is somehow disgraced or shunned, they will become the new House Matriarch upon her mother's death.

The Thirty are divided into two 'bloodlines' – the line of T'An, and the line of Vaas. T'An and Vaas were the semi-mythological figures that received the wisdom of Athame directly (and as fitting asari whoredom, by of course, having sex with her. Studying the asari makes one long for a hot shower sometimes). The descendants of T'An all prefix their house names with a T, such as T'Armal, T'Soni, T'Chath, etc. The descendants of Vaan all start their house names with a V, such as Vasir, Vabo, etc. The main difference appears to be interaction – the T'An line is more aggressive, the Vaas more passive. New adoptees into a house are given a slightly alterered name - for example, the asari ambassador is addressed as Te'Shora rather than T'Shora, as she is a recent member adopted from a lesser house, or Urala S'Vasir, who was adopted from the Clans.

The Thirty have had to replace houses only thrice. Since these Houses do not directly descend from Athame, but rather from interbreeding and absorbing the remnants of shattered Houses, they take names that do not start with V or T. House Chansai was the first of these, replacing the fallen House T'Urna, which was utterly destroyed by the Silent Queen in the War of the Queens. Chansai was obliterated in the asteroid strike that lead to the asari space age, and was folded into a new house, House Eala. The other replacement house, House Devir, was cobbled together from smashed Paladins of Athame and a handful of lesser family members, to replace House T'Curth, annihilated by plague just prior to the War of Queens.

The undoubted primary Family of the Thirty is House T'Armal, boasting over five thousand clan members and over half a million descendants in lesser clans. As the so called "First Among Equals", the members of T'Armal are unwaveringly arrogant, prideful, and vengeful. (Aria T'Loak, the warlord of the Traverse, is a T'Armal princess hurled from her Family due to youthful indiscretions that shamed the House. That's what just ONE of them can achieve – the conquest of the entire damned Terminus.)

Below the might of House T'Armal are the two greater houses, House T'Vaan (boasting four Spectres and half owner of the Serrice manufactory corporation) and House T'Shora (boasting several dozen massive corporations and owning a third of Illum.) While conceivably the three are almost always at odds, this infighting is strangely complacent, mostly revolving around keeping the other houses from ascending to challenge T'Armal. These houses are still massive, boasting well over two thousand members each, as well as at least a hundred thousand relatives in lesser clans.

Together, the three form the so-called "House of Storm", the high houses of Thessia, and between them they control most of the actions of the Asari Republic.

Below these are the 'greater houses' – T'Mal, Vallia, T'Suon, Vabo, and T'Rome. The "group of five" are heavily involved in the primary 'first landing' colonies that the asari settled heavily prior to their discovery of the Citadel, and as such, wield great strength in the galactic community but little on Thessia itself. House Vallia, in particular, is the most outspoken of the Thirty in calls for moving more and more asari from Thessia to mingle with the galactic community as a whole, to 'lead' them. They are much smaller than the main Families, each having between 300 and 500 members, with ten or twenty thousand relatives.

The remaining twenty two houses are much smaller than the Greater or High Houses. Known as the Guardian Houses, many of these had their ancestry in the Paladins of Athame. They rank in varying strengths. The larger houses, boasting between 100 and 200 members each, are Vakas, Vael, T'Yana, T'Sael, T'Moinda, T'Purice, T'Chmath, Vhira, T'Koro, T'Baela, and Vakassa.

The smaller Guardian houses, mostly focused on one or two areas of interest, include T'Soni, Devir, Vasir, Vathan, T'Zeli, T'Serrice, T'Cathus, Vurth, T'Appa, T'Benna, and Eala. These have very few members – usually between only a few dozen to about seventy actual members, with one or two matriarchs. They are constantly absorbing other lesser clans to boost their numbers, but most of these lesser clans end up spinning off again in a few centuries to lead House endeavors elsewhere.

Some of these families used to be highly placed. In ancient times, House T'Serrice and House T'Soni were High Houses, boasting thousands of members, and House Devir was so powerful at one point that there was serious discussion about breeding in with House T'Armal and honoring Devir by renaming them T'Devir. However, these houses have fallen on hard times, as they were conservative, clinging to power on Thessia, and missed out on the vast wealth and influence available in the first colony waves.

The Lesser Houses

Associated with the Thirty are the so-called 'Lesser Houses', although they style themselves as Families rather than true Houses. Each Family is associated with a given House, and modify their name accordingly. They are basically groups of associated clans that follow the House's lead.

Some of the larger, and more famous, Lesser Houses include Family Zeli'a, Family Devir'a, and Family Vathana'a. These lesser Houses are actually larger and more powerful than the House they answer to, and have been repeatedly tapped for the ability to rejuvenate the ranks of their superiors.

The lesser houses primarily serve as new members and allies of the greater houses, but are also the link to the lesser clans and the clanless. As such, each of the Families is seen as a filter, allowing only the best and brightest asari to ascend to the top of asari society , while retaining many of the most talented asari in a small, contained social environment for the use and profit of the Thirty.

The Clanless

After the War of Queens, many small clans simply fell apart , unable to support themselves and moving to the rapidly growing cities. With society moving from a hunter-gatherer, agriculture supported existence to industrially focused, the need for tight self-sufficient groups was less.

While many existing clans continued to exist, focused around their duties, many of the old hunting clans simply had nothing keeping them together in a coherent form. As a result, these clan members still associated with one another, but drifted apart, moving to support individual matriarchs rather than clan councils.

Over time, the majority of the asari population either joined the existing clans, or became clanless. Facial markings, once used to indicate clan membership, became instead expressions of personal beliefs, and the rise of siari further pushed the concept of 'race as clan'. The loss of clan control over breeding led to a marked increase in rampant sexual contacts and rapid-fire relationships or multiple relationships. As they migrated from clan to clan, taking new jobs and skills, their disassociation became more and more complete. Finally, with the exception of a few diehards, the old hunting and gathering clans were dead.

As it happened, this evolution occurred near the time many advances in technology occurred, making city life preferable to a hand-to-mouth clan existence in the wilderness. As asari have moved into the modern era, many asari see the clans as ridiculous cultural throwbacks, and work hard to build industries, businesses, and the like answerable only to the Asari Republic.

On the other hand, many of the clanless understand that without clan structures it becomes much harder to achieve any lasting permanence in the game of social standing and alliances. There are many rich and powerful asari who, by lack of clan support, have to go their own way, carefully trying to build alliances with other independent asari who may or may not betray them for personal gain. The lack of unity in the clanless is a major reason why the Thirty approve of this structure, for lacking personal clans any longer, many of the clanless instead aspire to positions in the Lesser Houses, or in the ranks of the many matriarchal groups that follow influential leaders in the Thirty.