A/N: As the Cerberus Files are mostly geared towards providing an understanding of asari, they are light on many aspects of asari culture. I do not want people to think the asari culture is blandly sexualized – that's merely the rather hide-bound take of Dr. Minsta. The following is some out-of-character (neutral tone) notes on asari that didn't fit anywhere else properly.

I'm already working on the salarian history, but I wanted to get this out of the way first.

The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space : Out of character notes: Asari

Asari Social Interactions

Asari are very much creatures of ritual and habit, and they practice a wide array of social interactions that are unique to them. Introductions are very important, as are times and places for asari to meet that are deliberately shorn of social politics.

When two asari of equal social stature meet for the first time, they introduce themselves. Clanless will state their bloodline and mother, members of the Clans will state their Clan affiliation, and lesser Houses will state their family. A member of the Thirty will state their House, their mother, and the key figure of their ancestry. For example, Liara T'Soni would announce herself as Liara, chatelane of House T'Soni, daughter of Benezia, scion of the Line of Nathess T'Soni, who slew the Silent Queen.

If the introduction is in a formal setting, they will partake of an alkaline tea called chathesi. The chathesi ceremony is simple, pouring each other the drink and taking turns sipping while the other person defines themselves by achievement. The ceremony usually has several formalized topics – one asks about one's bondmate, their matriarch, their sisters, and their pursuits.

When two asari of unequal stature meet, the senior introduces themselves first. Depending on the gulf, chathesi may or may not be partaken. If the gulf is large – a member of the Thirty introducing herself to a clanless, for example – offering chathesi to her lesser would be a tremendous complement. Otherwise, after the introduction, the lesser is expected to withdraw.

Asari coming together for social interactions often prefer to eat before any other activity, usually small finger foods and light drinks. Maidens are not held to high standards of behavior, most of them being obsessed with pleasure, entertainment, excitement, or their own fixations. Matrons will usually talk about their families. Matriarchs, when they participate in such things, will usually talk about their pasts and what they have learned from them, and otherwise remain calm and watch their younger peers enjoy themselves.

Asari have a love of the dramatic, and storytelling with a certain level of embellishment is a fine art among asari parties. Asari are particularly enraptured by the cold and dangerous Justicars, who have enormous followings among the maidens of Thessia. The Justicars, of course, find this ridiculous to the extreme, but there are magazines, fan clubs, action figures, books, even movies about the Justicars and their achievements.

Matriarchs

The asari matriarch is a powerful force in asari society. Even a clanless matriarch has the respect of the highest, for surviving so long and maintaining herself. Typically, matriarchs will have an idea, concept, or motivating goal, one they've had all their life, and move towards this as they age. Often times, this concept attracts the attention of others, and these become followers of the matriarch.

Some matriarchs have enormous responsibilities , such as duties to the temple or running corporations. They do not let this interfere with their duty to act as guides for their people, and matriarchs are highly respected in whatever they turn their hands to. However, most matriarchs end up setting rather modest goals and , as such, their followings are rather small.

Matriarchs (especially on Thessia) continue to gain biotic power from absorbing eezo as they age, and thus are some of the most frightening biotic figures in known space. A clanless matriarch who has not paid much attention to focusing her biotics is still capable of overmatching a trained turian cabalist or even an STG biotic specialist just by dint of sheer biotic force. Fighting a civilian matriarch is difficult enough, as her barriers are about as strong as that of a MAKO and her biotics throws hit with about 1400 to 1700 N (stronger than most humans biotic charges can hit). A trained matriarch, or worse, one who has studied the teachings of Athame and thus the ancient and mysterious abilities of the Protheans, is even more deadly.

Matriarchs are not invulnerable. Despite everything they are very old, and as time goes by , while they don't age as humans do, they do become slower. The lithe movements and extreme flexibility of a maiden are gone for the vast majority of them. Also, matriarchs have gotten so used to having plenty of time to determine and react to events that they can be taken by surprise.

As a daughter matures, she often links with her matriarch for guidance. In the houses, this is done by the House Matriarch, in the clans, by the Clan Matriarch. In clanless, they often form informal family groups where two or three matriarchs provide guidance. Almost no asari venture, from fire deparments to dancing troupes, is lead by anything but a matriarch.

Asari Titles and Formality

The asari are big on formality, especially in social settings involving the Thirty. That being said, titles like 'princess', 'queen', or even 'matriarch' have human overtones that are not exactly correct. The best translation of shlantha , for example, is something like 'daughter-of-they-who-fell-from-Athame's-blood-respected'. Asari 'royalty' does not wear pink dresses and jewelery, nor do they ride around on massive estates. These titles are used to indicate a level of deference and even fear of the lower asari towards the Thirty.

Other titles are used as markers of respect. The asari prefer to use titles only during formal introductions. Liara would be introduced as a princess of the House T'Soni, but no one would call her 'Princess Liara' – princess , for the asari, is a title of her status, not her position. She would be called Lady Liara, or perhaps (in a truly stuffy formal setting) Chatelaine Liara.

Formality among the Clans is even more strict, as each Clan has it's own byzantine hierarchy where titles are used whenever discussing Clan business. Clan titles depend on one's position and social standing in the clans.

The clanless do not put much stock in the use of the ritualized titles. They are more casual in introductions, at least in that respect.

The Thirty and Asari Society

In the eyes of the average asari, the Thirty are directly descended from Athame, making each one of them divine. Their larger size and power only reinforces this. While many asari no longer worship Athame solely, preferring to focus more on siari, this is not due to dwindling believe in the Goddess, but the slow infusion of awe leading to most asari feeling that the Thirty should be an intercessor between Athame and the asari people.

The Thirty's beliefs range from acceptance and mania to tired and quiet unconcern. Most are used to the concept of being divine, and tend to take themselves a bit too seriously. This leads to accusations that the asari are 'elitist' or 'stuck-up'.

Asari Foods and Drinks

Asari foods cover a wide variety of fish, seaweed, fruits, and leafy vegetables. The most common asari food is pancres, a light sweet breadlike wafer filled with a mix of seaweeds and spices. Asari love all forms of seafood, prizing salarian blackfin and terran sea bass above even some asari fish, and prefer seedless fruits from the flame-tree, which are round, sweet, and pale grey in color, tasting somewhat like a mix between a pear and grapes.

Asari usually prefer small serving sizes, but as all asari are biotic and burn a lot of waste heat , they have very high calorie diets. As their bodies have measures to prevent arterial blockages, they consume a great deal of fatty meats and sugars, without gaining much weight. Rather than set mealtimes like humans have, they tend towards snacking when hungry.

Asari drinks include those fermented from fruit and a very strong, powerful series of drinks based on animal extracts. Some of these are potent enough to intoxicate krogan. Asari also brew a wide variety of seaweed and fruit-based teas, although some of these are seasoned quite bizarrely for human tastes, including salt, cinnamon, or even chocolate.

Asari delight in salarian cuisine, and have become very fond of human whiskey and gin. They obviously cannot partake of turian dishes but oddly enough turian cooks, with their meticulous eye for detail, are quite popular in asari space. Asari discovered chocolate five years after humans came on the galactic scene and now purchase and consume six times more than humanity does.

Asari Romance

The asari concept of romance is much different than that of humans. Asari have a belief that being with one person limits both them and the lover to a narrow range of experiences, so asari are free with their dalliances. That being said, as asari move out of the maiden state, they begin to desire some form of stability, and even wish for the devotion of someone to them.

Given the asari are about the only race that widely dallies with other races, they've gotten very good at figuring out what makes alien hearts beat faster. With turians, they focus on fidelity (however stupid that seems) and on their own ancestors – turians are immensely impressed by being introduced to a matriarch. With salarians they focus on the here and now, with krogan they tend to become more rambunctious and even combative.

Asari romances with humans are complicated, as asari don't really get humans. This ends up with both partners being emotionally hurt, sometimes quite badly. The more emotionally hurt an asari gets, the more she is likely to cling and try to fix the problem, which only excacerbates the breakdown. Humans are insanely jealous and even the most jaded can't handle the utterly open relationships asari often enter into. The number of suicides for broken relationships of this nature is sadly quite high.

Asari clanless have begun, with the seeping into the general asari psyche of bond-death, to take on more casual relationships, sometimes not even going beyond linking and melding to the true bond. The wild nature of many maidens means they're unlikely to do so in any case, but some asari are experimenting with red-sand and other biotic drugs to aid them in achieving a nervous system energy to achieve pregnancy without the bond.

Asari Literature

The asari genres of literature have some overlap with humanity – they have romance dramas, historical thrillers, etc. Two genres specific to the asari are echas and kalthos.

Echas, roughly "seeking", is a mix of asari philosophy and autobiography, written by asari who have lost a bondmate. Echas novels are searing emotional manifestos, laced with poetry , art, rambling discourses and even stories of the relationship. They are often read by teary-eyed maidens who promise themselves their own relationships will be different. Aliens find them touchingly sad – the ever famous Nekkia Corridor was based on one of the earliest, near mythological Echas sagas.

Kalthos , meaning "to grasp" , is asari poetry written by matriarchs, tied into the wisdom they have gained, and arranged around essays defining what each poem and piece of wisdom means. These books are immensely popular, but are almost impenetrable to outsiders.

Asari of course have a full range of literature, but epics, sagas, and memory-chants make up the largest part. The Code of the Justicars is one such chant, composed of many sutras, but longest of all is the Long Dirge, sung upon the destruction of one of the Houses of the Thirty, literally cataloging all the long honors, victories, and joys of the House.

Relationships between the Asari Clanless, Clans, and Houses

Asari society is not divided by economic status but by social standing, and as such, it's hard to define the relationships of the asari in a way that makes sense to humans. The easiest way to envision it is if the clanless were the lower class working poor, the clans were the upper middle class, and the Houses were the filthy rich.

The Clanless are focused mostly on their own lives, families, and friends. Few if any have aspirations higher than being successful in their work, raising their children, and being one with their peers. They tend to look at the Clans as backwards and yet elitist, since some jobs and professions are closed to those who aren't a member of the Clans. In turn, the Clans look upon the clanless as mostly unskilled commoners, unable to sacrifice to achieve the sort of focus the Clans have achieved. But the Clans are also jealous in a way of the Clanless, who have no social control over their lives, or who they mate with, etc.

The Clanless look upon the Thirty fearfully and with awe, often having been raised to utter a short phrase of blessing after even saying the words "The Thirty". Most Clanless do not understand the Thirty or what it is that they do, only knowing them as the mighty. Some outcast Clanless resent them for the fact that as clanless they rarely if ever will rise to such heights of power, even though this resentment is mixed with a grudging admiration. The Thirty, for their part, look upon the clanless as helpless children, needing of guidance and protection. The Thirty feel it is their responsibility to protect the clanless, even while it's their right and privilege to guide them.

The relationship between the Clans and the Thirty are complicated and vary from Clan to Clan, but for the most part the Clans, being traditionalists, are even more subservient and respectful of the Thirty than the clanless are.

Purebloods and Asari-asari offspring taboos

Among the clanless, purebloods are seen as disgusting throwbacks, and distrusted as being possible latent ardat-yakshi. The taboo is very strong the poorer the asari go, with the offworld clanless being even more opposed. That being said, the clanless also embrace relationships with other asari more often, and many , after a short-lived life with their alien mate, return to asari for comfort. But comfort is not having children, and the clanless almost never indulge in such. Those who do often do so out of emotional instability. Samara ended up having children with her childhood friend because both of them had alien bond-mates die on them before they could have children with them and were extremely traumatized.

The Clans are even more restrictive – asari having offspring with another asari are ejected from the Clan forever. While clanless merely look down on the purebloods, the Clans reject them utterly.

It is only the Thirty that are known to do such things. Even there, purebloods are not seen with any favor, and most will not be popular as House Matriarch. But such joinings happen, especially with smaller houses who seek to link their favor to larger ones. Benezia's and Aethlya's relationship was the scandal of the century for many asari, but it was intended to heal the vicious breach between House T'Soni and House Vasir. It ended up only making it worse when the two split up.

Purebloods who are not ardat-yakshi are usually biotically stronger than other asari, meaning that a Pureblood of the Thirty is often a match for whatever she may encounter. But the stigma against such in the Houses is very strong, and most such Purebloods end up mere plays in the politics of House relationships, shunted aside to less important positions or even sent to the Citadel.

Asari religious practices

About 7% of the asari follow the tenets of Athame , not counting the ranks of the Moondance clans. About 32% of asari are devoted to siari, while another 51% at least follow it's tenets. The remaining ten percent usually follow siari mixed with some other alien religion – salarian wheel rites, turian ancestor worship, or more recently, human zen Buddhism. Human Christianity and Islam, fixiated on concepts of sin and submission, have not made any real inroads into asari society, nor has hanar worship of the Enkindlers.

Asari Morals and Ethics

Asari morality is scaled and set different than human morality in some ways. They cherish life and see murder, rape, theft, and slavery as mortal sins, but they do not attach morality to relationships, sex, or friendships. Asari morality is more about why an act was committed than the act itself , but even then, most asari are forgiving of trespasses against the individual, and hard on those who go against the asari race.

Asari ethics are also mostly based on cooperative natures and consensus. Unethical acts for asari include deliberately injuring a person's emotional or mental state to gain advantage, the misuse of public funds in any capacity, or serving outside influences before the needs of the asari. Human ethics, with it's focus on fair play, is strange to asari, who will angle for every benefit and advantage they can without doing any permanent harm.