The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space

A reaally long authors note:

I'm very pleased so far with the reaction to the asari. I apologize for not finishing the human history, but realized immediately that quite a bit of it would spoil things I have planned for OSABC, and had to put that part on hiatus.

There have been a lot of general questions about some of what has been written, and in general I'll probably end up addressing most of these via PM, but at least one I feel like I should address directly. Before I do that, I'd like to thank Michael1110 for the ridiculous hard work he does on the recap reviews. These are needed for me to measure where chapters are hitting or missing, and if everything I'm trying to say is actually making any kind of coherent sense.

Also thanks to Jaensa, because figuring out how the hell asari reproduction would actually work was impossible until she told me about framing protein shells in some forms of Proterozoic life forms.

Finally, I appreciate all the feedback I have gotten – I've replied to some with PM's and some via email. I do take it all into account. About 70% to 75% of what is written by me is already kinda set down in note form, but a lot of it ends up being adjusted on the fly. If you have a particular theory, insight, or question about a given race's culture, let me know – I can take a stab or we can work together to figure it out.

Now, some people are concerned about the relative strength of humanity vis a vis the asari, in that the asari are seemingly much stronger in the Premiseverse than in stock ME. That is true – the asari are about five to six times stronger , I'd say. And by comparison, the turians are about half as strong as in stock ME, and the System's Alliance is nearly twice as strong by weight of ships and soldiers.

But I feel the issue is more of "humanity should be equal to the other races". I simply can't buy that, and it's something that always bothered me so much about stock ME.

Let me get this straight, the asari have literally THOUSANDS of years on us, along with a beacon and being handcrafted by the Protheans, and yet humanity's technology is up to par with theirs to the point in less than 30 years, to the point that when ME3 rolls around the asari are helpless against the Reapers?

It makes for good story, but that sort of progression doesn't hold together logically, and there's no point in rewriting the whole thing in an AU if you're just gonna trope it all out and rely on Rule of Cool to explain away everything.

Yes, if you were to match the asari up against the humans in a straight fight, humanity would lose it's ass off. If you matched the rest of Citadel Space against the asari I'm not sure who would win, but I wouldn't bet against the asari. That is how it should be. In the Premiseverse, it's one of the key drivers of why everything is so nasty – the top dogs want to stay there, and the under-dogs are willing to use any trick they can to equal the odds.

That being said, yeah, the asari are the top dogs in the game. They're supposed to be , according to the Codex, but we never get to see any of it. We never see the unity. We never hear about siari. We never see this 'massive fleet' or 'huge economy' or anything but Illum, which is overrun by non-asari. Asari culture – a massive blank. Writers like PMC65 and Melaradark (yay! DE5! Go read it!) have created more asari culture than Bioware ever did.

Humanity Ain't No Punk : the triple threat

Humanity is dangerous because it looks at things in ways the asari don't – drop assault teams, penal legions, carriers, and the use of flexible tactics.

Also, please keep in mind – this document is written from the viewpoint of a Cerberus guy who's been thinking this whole time how badass humans are , getting an eyeful of just how badass aliens are. The guy has eaten up supremacist, propagandist bullshit all his life and is now seeing the truth, and it scares the shit out of him.

Humanity's primary strengths are simple. First, while our population is much smaller than other races, we grow very quickly. The vast number of colony worlds we have will explode over time, each driving more revenue and taxes to the SA. This growth is quadratic, while the other races, who rarely colonize these days, grow in a linear fashion. The human economy may never surpass the asari economy, but it will go from 2% of asari GDP at the start of ME1 to 24% by the end of ME2. Anyone familiar with economic growth can tell you how staggering that is.

Second, humanity has laid claim to many, many more worlds than the asari , salarians, or turians, and while our economy is smaller in terms of cash outlay, the human industrial complex is titanic, something that will be touched in the salarian and volus segments. Humans can bring a new dreadnaught online in seven months, compared to a year and a half for the turians and six years for asari.

Finally, humans have one advantage the asari simply can't match – independence and reactivity. The very asari mindset is one of collaboration, of follow the leader, and the asari are used to having plenty of time to decide and make up their minds on things. In the Reaper War, and after the Reaper War, that kind of hesitance will cost them again and again.

Asari and the Systems Alliance : the trolling of humanity

The asari are not blind to these advantages, nor to the fact that humans have a culture more steeped in political maneuvering and treachery than the gullible turians or self-obsessed salarians. But as with most things in life, the asari have a plan for everything, and the fate of humans is part of that plan.

As hinted and touched in the document, the asari have some big issues. They got tired of carefully crafted and controlled relationships back in the old days, where customs and clan politics and who was with who controlled who'd you could have kids with. A lot of asari found freedom when the Thirty steered the asari culture towards instead sleeping with aliens, instead of letting the clans control that aspect of life. This had the side effect of disrupting and destabilizing most of the clan structure, which was just a bonus for the Thirty.

For a long time, it worked. You didn't (and often couldn't) spend your whole life with the alien, just long enough to have kids by them. Then you could find yourself a nice asari and live out the rest of your life. But the asari didn't think about the long term, and given that it's the asari, long term is everything. You can't have a few thousand years of asari being bondmates with short-lived aliens, and having those bonds broken by death, and then spread all across the asari race, without some kind of backlash.

In the old days, bond-mates would usually follow each other into death, because both were asari. Now, you have the shadow of that bond-death trailing you for the rest of your life. A few are brave enough to try twice, but most can't. They still have relationships with other asari...and that bond-death leaches across the link. It enters that asari's memories, who passes that pain to another, and another.

If you're a maiden, and you link with an older asari who's lost a bond-mate, feeling that razor pain is the scariest thing in the universe. It's the literal death of siari, it's losing someone who you've made a part of you in such a fundamental way that it terrifies. Even the Thirty aren't immune to it. It makes you nervous when you think of it happening to you. Makes you reluctant to bond with an alien down the line.

Subconsciously, the asari as a race began to associate this feeling taking alien mates. It's already hard for asari to be as sexually attracted to an alien as it would be for them to do so with another asari. You may think Garrus or Thane are dead sexy, but that's your choice to do so. When it becomes driven down by custom, by gossip, by fiat of the Thirty... some asari rebel. (Doesn't help that the Thirty indulge in having pureblood kids whenever they like because they think they're too good to produce ardat-yakshi.)

Somewhere along the line, some asari decided they wanted something a bit closer to home, and humanity has fit that bill. The Thirty have decided to take a page out of the salarians book, to use an entire species as a tool. Humanity fills many of the weaknesses , such as they are, that the asari have. The Thirty plan to alter and change the very course of human culture.

They've started with biotic cults, because they feel that in a few more generations (ten, maybe twenty – not long to asari, after all) that humans may start manifesting biotics on a genetic level. They can't help but look down on people without biotics, as somehow lesser. And they see the cruelty of the SA government as their way in.

The Thirty , planning for the long haul, will eat away at the SA from within, starting siari cults on the outlying worlds the SA has not bothered to firm it's hold upon. The independent colonies. The average human is already in awe of the asari, and every human knows the asari were all that stopped the turians from declaring total war on humanity in the FCW. So their influence will be greeted with open arms.

The Thirty aren't worried about human supremacists, because the asari know that most humans only look down on what is different from them, and the asari are very much alike to humanity. Gazing on a galaxy full of things on dog-legs, with spikes and plates and tentacles and chlorine and four eyes, the asari might as well be kissing cousins to humans.

The Thirty know the SA expects an assault on their economy and political structures, and they have no intention of trying such. They will instead focus on the biotic leadership, the commissars that the SA uses to keep it's outlying leaders in line, the disgruntled L2's who are slowly being driven mad by their deliberately flawed implants. They will start charismatic cults and use their vast wealth on charity and winning hearts and minds. The hard-nosed men of the SA government are rich and isolated, divided from their own people. The Thirty will simply appeal to the base masses of humanity.

And , in fifty or a hundred years, when enough humans are enthralled with asari-led cults, when human biotics turn to the asari rather than their leaders for guidance, when the poor and isolated feel loyalty not to their cruel leaders but the graceful, gentle, loving asari – then , and only then, will the Thirty start playing dirty politics. By that time, however, the SA will be riddled with asari lovers itself.

The Thirty want to eventually make humanity a part of the asari race, a new caste at the feet of the asari race, providing comfort and energy, drive and protection, and all in a package that protects them from producing ardat-yakshi but is close enough to the asari form that it quiets the rebellious classes of asari clanless.

Above that, even, the asari think humans would make good replacements for the turians, who have begun to slowly pick their way through the manipulations and controls put upon them by the asari and salarians. The turians have served their purpose – pacifying the krogan , keeping the Terminus in line, and providing a stable base of power to keep the other races down. But it wouldn't take much to destabilize the Hierarchy, to send it spiraling into unending civil wars.

The Thirty plot, and they know what is coming...

The Thirty and the Beacon : Yeah, it's that bad

The Thirty have listened to the wisdom of Athame and her Beacon now for many long years. They know that their 'goddess' was in fact , an alien being. They discovered this a very long time ago, and the Thirty keep it a tightly controlled secret. Each House Matriarch knows. The Priestess of the Sun and the Moon know. The Priestess of the Unseen Star (who used to be Trellani) is in a position to know some but not all of it. The leader of the inventor clan, Clan Skywatch, knows bits and pieces as well.

Each one, when given the secret, is forced to practice mental walls that prevent anyone they bond with to know the truth, which is also why they prefer (and in recent millennia, only allow) House Matriarchs who have lost their bond-mates, since hiding such a thing from a bondmate is almost impossible.

Benezia knows. That knowledge , indeed, is what drove her to listen to Saren's insane rambling about Reapers, rather than have him dragged off and killed. The Thirty have heard the words, they have been told a Great Darkness is among the stars, and that some day it will return, and the asari must be strong. The asari have prepared. They mothball ships , they train their military, they expand their economy. They are convinced they have time, that the Returning is centuries away, that they can forge the Citadel races into swords and shields for the Asari and drive back whatever is coming.

But the Thirty does not realize the power of the Reapers. They think it but a few ships, not a rain of thousands. They do not connect yet, except for Benezia, the Fall of Black Leaves with the shape of Sovereign.

Benezia knows what the Thirty do not. The Remembrance has already stated the truth – a bit of lore they forgot in the chaos of the War of Queens. The Returning is now.

The Thirty , effectively, have technology they have never unleashed yet. Some of it would be put into effect quickly if they knew what was coming – proton rifles and regenerating metals. But the end-game was disrupted by the fall of the Empire. The Protheans that discovered the Crucible (from Inusannon ruins) had no time to build it completely. They hid what they could in the Mars Archive , icing the mass array to try to protect it, and scattering beacons to lead survivors to Ilos. If that failed, they made sure that the two races with the information – humans and asari – would be drawn to each other, by dint of looking almost identical.

The secret, the truth of Athame, has not dimmed the worship of her by the asari , or even by the Thirty. They genuinely believe Athame was god-touched, that they in turn are holy. The Thirty have lied to themselves for so long that when Trellani, the first Priestess of the Unseen Star who wasn't a member of the Thirty , panicked at what she discovered, they figured she'd get over it. Now that she's gone to Cerberus, the Thirty debate on how to .. react.

Liara T'Soni : I haz a sad

Liara's little problems stem from a number of events in her life that will be revealed in my main fic, Of Sheep and Battlechicken, and I'm not about to spoil it here. I will say that Liara was never big on religion, and never was very interested in Athame or her worship. Benezia encouraged Liara's Prothean studies for some time, convinced a better understanding (and fascination) with the Protheans would make Liara more accepting of the truth.

But events did not turn out that way, and Liara ended up a social cripple. She does not fit the pattern of asari described , or even that of an outcast, because Liara is wounded , mentally.

Liara's biotics are stronger than most because she is a pureblood of the Thirty with an ardat-yakshi index about half a point below the mark at which melding turns into mind-reaving. Liara is bigger and stronger than Telanya because Telanya is a clanless commoner, and the Thirty used the knowledge of the Beacon to breed themselves to be better than their inferiors in every way.

Liara isn't using Shepard, or manipulating her. But once Shepard dies, Liara will indeed begin to display many of the traits of the Thirty.

Other Mysteries

A few questions remain that I haven't figured out yet, and can't think of good answers to.

With the mental power and sensitivity of the asari, why is it that Saren , not Benezia, activates the Beacons?

Was Benezia really indoctrinated into doing all the things she did, or did she believe this was what was best for the asari race? Again, her entire belief system should have lead her to reject Saren and what he was pitching, and indoctrination is a slow process. At some point, she believed she could gentle Saren's impulses...or did she just tell herself that?

Given the advancement and advantages of the asari, why were they so woefully inefficient in ME canon?

Perhaps most importantly (and this has been bothering me for ages) , if the asari were the Prothean's chosen agents, did the Protheans perform their alterations the asari with the intent of the asari dominating other races as the Protheans did? If so, can the failure of the Citadel races to stand up to the Reapers be chalked up to the asari simply not being evil enough to want to rule everything?

Up Next: Salarians – ancient Greys

Seems like most people want to see the Salarians , so we are off to Mannovai after a short transitional piece. Enjoy.

The man in the center of the room folded his arms over his massive chest, frowning slightly. The tableau before him was not one he'd ever thought to see, and he clamped back on his anger, forcing his mind to think about the situation logically.

The Shadow Hand was, for a human, gigantic, topping seven feet and thick with muscle. His dark neo-French cut suit was made of black velvet, slashed with panels of silver down the sides and shoulders, open to reveal a silvery-white collarless shirt. His brown hair, tied back as always in a severe ponytail, was just starting to frost with gray at the temples, and the hard lines of his face were made more narrow and cruel looking by his eyes narrowing.

Matriarch Trellani barely came to the Shadow Hand's sternum, but the force of her presence was nonetheless there, like walking into the wind. She dressed demurely as always, so unlike the other asari whores he'd seen, wearing a long and elegant black gown belted with silver, and a sort of asari shawl of semi-transparent silk that was like smoke across her shoulders. Her only concession to her allegiance was a tiny Cerberus pin set against her collar, but it was enough – no other alien in the galaxy wore such a device. Her eyes were amused as she faced down the person seated across from her in the meeting room.

Dr. Minsta was a tall, lanky human, with long, spare, almost patrician features, limp iron grey hair, a long nose, and cool, almost arrogant gray eyes. He affected a thin goatee, which he liked to stroke, and his Cerberus uniform was immaculate under a white lab coat.

The Shadow Hand grimaced. "Doctor , she has a point. Sending your team into salarian space would be a red flag the STG is sure to spot. Humans are not common on Sur'kesh or Mannovai, and the STG would shadow you just out of curiosity as to what you were up to." He paused, grunted, and sighed. "Matriarch Trellani, you will conduct the direct investigative portions of the research. Minsta's team will perform electronic and curatorial intelligence gathering on the Citadel. I'll detail at least one person to go with her to Mannovai, but it will be one of the Operatives, not an agent."

Minsta rose, and with a stiff nod, left the conference room. The doors had barely closed behind him before the rich laughter of Trellani bubbled forth, the slender asari woman finally sitting down and glancing up at the huge figure before her. "You do not trust me, do you , Richard? I don't need anyone to go with me on a jaunt to salarian space."

The Shadow Hand grimaced again. How confident and brazen the witch was! "You are a resource , nothing more. Jack finds you valuable and interesting. I merely find you alien." He turned away, muscles in his shoulders tensing as he did so, glancing over the status reports and recovered artifacts from the asari excursion. "I don't have to trust you to realize you need us, as well. That's why I am agreeing to this. But Jack has an interest in you, and I don't want to send you off ... defenseless." He paused. "And yes , I do wonder why you would volunteer your services like this. It makes me wonder as to motive."

Trellani's voice was light, still amused. "My association with your band of outlaws is solely due to Jack's 'interest' in me, Shadow Hand. I am hardly defenseless, as the Night-wind discovered. And while I do appreciate your aid in avoiding my former associates, I am more driven by my own views and desire to not see humans become lapdogs under the rule of my kind than I am by any ulterior motives."

She smiled again, and he scowled back in return. Her voice was unperturbed, though, as she continued. "Your little group is admirably energetic, but about as subtle as krogan berzerkers in a show of antiquities. I do not wish to .. humiliate … the good doctor, but his conclusions and fixed biases make his analysis of any alien race less than accurate. Perhaps I wish merely to aid in your endeavor by giving a viewpoint less slanted by bigotry that serves no real purpose?"

The Shadow Hand half turned, snorting. "Bigotry? Truth! It took your kind an eon to do what took my kind a few hundred years to accomplish. Humanity has it's own strength, and as you do not need us, we do not 'need' you."

He turned to face her fully, folding his arms once more. "And while you worry that Dr. Minsta's slanted viewpoint will blind us to something vital, the point of sending a man like Dr. Minsta is that he is Systems Alliance trained, and his viewpoints are often those of the AIS investigators and their ilk. We cannot always trust that my overseers in the Systems Alliance will remain a constant factor in assuring Cerberus's survival. The insights he may have give me a good idea of how the Systems Alliance looks at these same issues."

She tilted her head at that, placing her elegant features into repose, and then nodded slowly. "I can see a certain value in that, save for the fact that you are still getting an invalid viewpoint on many things. Confirmation bias is the bane of any attempt to understand the enemy. And seeing as you have defined anything non-human as the enemy...it seems to me that you perhaps need an outside hand at interpreting this information."

Oh, the witch was clever. Despite himself, the Shadow Hand smiled. "And I suppose you feel your own nature is such that you would make a better filter of alien cultures than a man who's spent his life specializing in psychological historical analysis and xenopsychology?" Even as he said it, he saw her smile widen.

"Richard, Minsta has been doing this for about as long as I have been studying human art. Does that make me an expert at human art? The fact that 20 years is a long time for a human does not mean it is of any moment. I have been dealing with these aliens since your race was stabbing each other with pieces of sharpened metal."

She rose, with effortless grace, and he got the feeling it was all she could do not to laugh in his face. "But do not worry, as you said. Dr. Minsta can certainly review my findings and, if it turns out my more balanced approach doesn't give you the .. insights you need, well, you can always send in your teams to Sur'kesh once I am done." The smile widened. "The STG will probably take them apart and send you each one back in some charming fashion, like reduced to their base elements and mounted on a periodic table, but as you said … Minsta is an expert."

With that, the matriarch turned away, not even bothering to wait for any response, gliding from the room before he could recollect his thoughts. With a grunt of frustration, he tugged at his chin, before leaving the meeting room as well, stomping down the corridors of the base towards his office.

Once inside, he calmed a little, sitting at his desk to consider his options. Trellani had an undeniable point – Cerberus could not afford to underestimate or overestimate foes based on racism or feelings of human supremacy, even if such were clearly the case. He pulled up files from his work center, bringing up maps and projections of Minsta's original planning and timel ine for the salarian investigation.

Trellani would fare better in STG space with her own resources. Still, as much as it galled him, he couldn't afford to send her in alone. The asari Matriarchy was still looking for her, and anything that infuriated that pack of harpies brought a smile to his face. He'd have kept Trellani alive and well just to spite the Matriarchy, truth be told, even if she did nothing but sit around on Jack's arm and gossip. The fact that she was useful to their efforts – and shockingly non-judgmental – was a bonus.

He pulled up the files of his Operatives – independent operators with no known ties to Cerberus, used when they needed tasks done that couldn't be traced back to their organization. There was Pel, the clean up man, but while he had a good mix of military and espionage skills, he was usually sent out to eliminate loose ends, and Trellani would probably react poorly to that. Then there was Ekko, a brilliant financial saboteur. But Ekko was no good in a fight, despite her other skills...

The Shadow Hand grimaced. As much as he disliked it, he'd have to utilize someone with a touch of both class and ability, and most of them had at least a tangential connection to Cerberus. He brought up another profile, carefully reviewing the operations undertaken, looking thoughtfully at the picture of the agent, then nodded, tapping the comms link on his desk.

"Have Agent Lawson report to me. I have a request for the Illusive Cell."