A/N: Moving right along. :D

The Cerberus Files: Historical Analysis of Citadel and Terminus Space

Message Header: TYPHONET BEGIN ENCRYPTION STRING

HERA-SIX-NINE-NINE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED

Beloved Jack, wise Richard, and valiant Rachel,

Turian psychology, as alluded to by Pel, is a touch ... eccentric. It does not help that the turian language has nine hundred words for 'battle' or 'war' and a grand total of two covering psychological issues.

Pel should probably be employed to review my insight into turians psychology, if for no other reason than I find myself wonder what sort of colorful invective he would apply to such a topic.

Cerberus Thought for the Day: Terrorist and patriot are points of view. Take action, and ignore what perceptions others have.

Priorities

Once again, I will use the laughable 'Maslow hierarchy of needs' that Minsta seems to place so much faith in. While it is not an exact fit for turian minds, the very derangement of the familiar model will help acclimate you to exactly why turians are different than humans, salarians, or asari.

To recoup : there are five pieces of this 'needs' pyramid. Personal needs, such as food, shelter, and water. Security, in the sense of personal safety and acceptance into a larger community. Self-esteem, usually by way of mates, acceptance into social groups, and recognizance by others. Achievement, usually in the form of employment, material wealth and fame. And finally, actualization, or the creation of lasting legacies – artwork, foundations, or something as simple as raising a family.

The human model is personal needs, security, self-esteem, actualization, and achievement. The salarian is personal needs, achievement, self-esteem, security, and actualization. If I am to shoehorn my own people into this excuse of a diagram, I suppose the asari model would be self-esteem, personal needs, actualization, security, and achievement.

The turian model, I'm afraid, is more skewed. The highest priority, even above personal survival, hunger, or mating urges, is ultimately security. Turians have a very powerful, inbuilt paranoia that is a holdover from their evolutionary origins as scattered carrion-scavengers and opportunistic hunters. They hunted as packs, and the survival of individual members was less important than the survival of the pack.

Minsta (and Pel, who should know better) attribute this to collectivism and shared altruism, but it has exactly nothing to do with that. Turians are so coldly pragmatic that they butchered any part of their population that couldn't submit – there is nothing altruistic in that. Turian survival instincts subordinate individuals to groups because if the group does well then all individuals within it are more likely to survive.

It makes turians more concerned with their day to day security and ability to survive rather than worrying about a place to stay, food to eat, or even a job. Instinctively, they know if that one of them falls in that manner, their pack will pick them back up. What they fear is the danger away from the pack, the danger of the dark night, or the moment before the prey is taken down.

Humans (and I admit, some asari and salarians) will sell each other out over profits or sexual acts or hatreds. Turians will not, because weakening the pack is a threat to their OWN lives. Even if they hate another turian, to act against him in that manner is likely to make his own clanmates (or tribe, or mercenary band, or whathaveyou) question his loyalties.

Above security does come personal needs. They are still a culture driven by a hunting instinct, and it shows in everything they do. Their walk, their weapons, their architecture – everything turian is built around the ability to defend and withstand hostility. Once they feel secure, only then do they set about worrying about increasing their own personal needs.

Oddly enough, achievement comes next. Turians pride themselves on only gaining rank or being rewarded for actual ability. Not potential, not because of influences or parents, not because of a name. Only cold, hard deeds count as something that matters. As the turian phrase goes "one does not have to guess if you are a fool or wise man if they can behold your actions".

The concepts of actualization – of being able to establishing lifelong goals that endure beyond your lifetime – are rare for most turians. Self-esteem is even rarer, in that turians who indulge such acts are only those who are not only very highly placed in the Hierarchy but who can honestly say that their loss or death would be a negative influence to the entire turian nation.

Humans, I believe, are driven by these 'needs', as Maslow describes them, like arrows. Achieving basic survival needs and necessities gives one confidence to move on to feeling secure, driving a sense of entitlement and progress that leads to greater self-esteem, prodding one into going after achievements, which in turn begin to open a human's eyes to things beyond themselves. Asari are the obverse and salarians the inverse of this process – asari are selfish individually but selfless when it comes to the greater good, while salarians are selfless individually but horribly .. misguided beyond their own kind.

Turians break this pattern in that they disdain the individual unless and until he or she aligns with the group. I cannot stress enough that this is in no way shape or form anything like asari unity of siari or salarian family bonds. It is not. Even the most humble, poorest and weakest salarian of a no-account yindo who knows he is of no use to his family would not dream of killing himself to ensure their prosperity. A salarian would drive themselves to find a use for whatever skills they have.

Likewise, no asari, unless criminally insane, would ever countenance destroying a portion of the race to ensure the stability of the others. Keep this in mind – turians do not – perhaps cannot – truly grasp the concept of individuality.

Turians as individuals

Unlike salarians, turians are quite psychological complex on an individual level. They have goals and dreams,likes and dislikes, and laugh and cry as much as any asari (or human) would. There are two big differences in looking at the way the average turian views their world, however.

First, when we speak of individual turian drives, we speak mostly of exactly how well a given turian fits into his or her culture. A turian doesn't give much thought, on a day-to-day basis, of how he is a benefit to his people. He merely works as hard as he can and gives as close to one-hundred percent effort in everything he does.

Turians do not get 'depressed' in the same way that humans or asari do. They can get very melancholy, especially after harsh failures, betrayals, or the loss of loved ones, but they do not simply give up on life because it is painful. The more painful life becomes, the more driven and harder a turian pushes themselves to either find some way to bring things back to the way they should be or to ensure whatever caused their emotional upset is dealt with.

Second, turians absolutely hate to do something again that they should have handled the first time. A turian in a fight will not stop with a mere punch, they see nothing wrong with crippling someone as an object lesson. Likewise, turians engaged in any form of competitive activity hate to lose, unless it becomes clear that they were outmatched in the first place. A key and driving component to almost very turian psychology is this push for excellence, for perfection. They are harder on themselves than any other critic could ever be.

Turian Clan, Tribe, and Colony Psychology

In the wake of the Burning and the scattering of turians across space, the concept of 'clan' has been severely weakened, and 'tribe' almost destroyed. Many turians identify now by colonial cluster – that is, the core colony that is their birthworld, or a colony that oversees their birthworld colony. There are dozens of clusters in the Hierarchy, each with their own distinctive facepaint.

Turians from the homeworld have facial markings tied to the clans and tribes of yesteryear. The Arterius clan prefers subtle black markings, the Digeris clan bold red slashes, the Vakarian cold blue geometric stripes. Subtle variations in these indicate core tribal or fringe tribal placements.

Turian outcasts, and on many occasions Primarchs who do not wish to stir up conflicting colonial hatreds, go without such markings, making them 'barefaced'. Many turians from the colonies dislike barefaced turians, because the message is either they are outcasts or too ashamed of their colony to speak the truth. The only 'popular' turian who widely goes barefaced is Saren, because of his importance in turian society and his wish not to be some focus of dissent just by marking his face.

The myriad and dizzying organization of clan, tribe, cluster, and other organizations isn't psychologically important beyond the fact that turians have instinctual needs to belong to small units that they can identify with and contrast to, both to assure themselves they are in sync with their close relations and to act as a guide and reinforcement for behaviors.

Male Turian Psychology

Turian males tend to either be bombastic and bullying, full of brash pride and sneering superiority, or subtle, introspective types given to sarcasm and hard talk. Violence is a balm for them, as they are even more inept at opening up to others and explaining their feelings and frustrations than human males are.

Male turians see themselves as the 'doers' of society, and females as the 'thinkers'. They are exceedingly proud, willing only to back down from a conflict if they truly feel over-matched or if such arrogance is likely to hurt their clan or friends. They expend a great deal of psychological and emotional capital on pretending to be undamaged by trauma and pain, usually only revealing such when they are unable to cope any longer.

Turian males seem driven to compete with one another, be that over job performance, excellence at a task, mates, or ritual combat. You may see a turian who is not as good as someone else at a task, but you will never find one who is happy about that, or humble about their skills.

The only thing turian males tend to like more than fighting is bragging to turian females (or to be more honest, any kind of female.) I hate to sound so … prejudiced. Although, upon reflection of my current allegiances, I have no idea why I wish to avoid that. Regardless, turian males appear to place vast importance on presentation not only of competence and ability but of exaggerated skill when it comes to interactions with female turians.

Female Turian Psychology

Female turians are somewhat stranger than male turians. The male is certainly larger and stronger than the female, but the female has more lethal claws, a stronger bite, and typically much better reflexes. As such, it was not unusual for females to take scouting and assassination duties in ancient times.

There is almost no sexual dimorphism between males and females on a physical level aside from sex organs and less head plating. Psychologically, however, they are very different. Turian females, to put it bluntly, are unhappy unless they are pregnant. They have a sex drive many times stronger than turian males and most of them are roughly on par with asari maidens in sexual activity when young.

Praises to siari that Minsta isn't here to sneer. There are both biological and psychological imperatives for why turian females are this way, but the primary reason is that pregnancy is a casual thing. Given the clan-family based environments most turians grow up in, mixed with all turian children being raised more by the state and the military schools than their parents, the main thing turian females look for in a mate is the ability to reliably impregnate them. I will cover this in more detail in the physiology section.

Aside from this, turian females are what I believe humans would call 'catty'. They are often snide and dismissive, focused intently on physical attractiveness, physical activity, and hard nosed pragmatism. Once married they tend to be slightly abusive to their mates, often dominating them.

Turian females are more given to very deep thinking than emotional internalization, and indeed are often accused of melodrama and emotional instability. They are seen as figures of strength and mental endurance by males, and there is very little gender discrimination except in the areas of science.

Honor

The definition of turian honor is, I must stress, not a cultural concept.

I believe that the issues most races have with comprehending the turian mindset stems from this simple, if understandable, misconception.

Only humans, turians, and salarians have an honor-concept that I am familiar with, and the salarian honor-concept is anarchic and typically non-applicable any more. Batarians see honor as laughable, volus have no use for it since it lacks profit, drell would laugh themselves silly over it, and the asari are more concerned with why something is done rather than it's justification.

That being said, human honor is cultural, and turian honor is psychological. This is key. Human cultures have many honor concepts, from your Japanese Bushido to what I have been calmly explained to as 'fair play'. There is a surprising lack of consistency between these honor concepts, some of them even diametrically opposed.

Honor for humans is a framework for justification. It is essentially an ethical backdrop with additional social and cultural reward-norms. To use the example that is the most extreme in human history, a samurai of the Bushido honor code would not commit ritual suicide for an infraction of said code because he believed he needed to die – but because the honor code called for him to do so. A more honorable man might do so to protect his family, one of weaker will would do so because to not follow through would shame him to the point that life itself was not a possibility anyway.

But there is not a single human culture where honor codes were absolutes.

Turian honor is psychological in it's basis, in that even across the widely differing cultures of the Palavu and Orvu and Tyvu, the requirements were very nearly identical.

The turian honor code only has three real components. The first is discipline – a turian who cannot control himself is a threat to the tribe. The second is responsibility – a turian who will not take ownership of his actions is forcing others to suffer for his mistakes. The final one is honesty. A turian who lies is placing his benefit above the rights of others.

Turians who violate any of these appear to break some psychological tripwire, much like a human sociopath. I remain unsure if these honor concepts were evolutions of pack-hunting survival instincts or developed early in the formation of sentient thought processes, but the truly curious thing is that they are innate.

That is, a turian who is raised without any influence from turian culture or society, and with no access to turian history or knowledge, will have extremely strong tendencies towards self-discipline, honesty, and responsibility. This is why I make the claim their honor concept is psychological.

This is, I believe, also why the Palavanus are the only clan who engages in acts that bend this honor code. They may be the equivalent of human sociopaths, a genetic flaw passed down on a dominant gene. But it is curious that, in a universe where treachery and vile betrayal often seem to trump goodness, that only one small grouping of turians acts that way, and the rest continue to act with honor even at the cost to themselves.

That is not to say there are not cultural aspects of honor in turian culture – there are many. But the underpinnings of the code are firmly psychological in nature.

Ethics and Morality

Turian ethics and morality are strange only if one demands looking at them through non-turian lenses. Their disregard for civilian life, their brutal use of the most effective strategy regardless of cost, their near-fanatical refusal to retreat, their culture-wide military that brutally suppresses any resistance – these things all sound, on the casual glance upon the tides,horrible.

Yet examined through the turian lens of both history and psychology, it is actually very understandable. Turians pride themselves on economy of effort. Rather than make a substandard effort which must be repeated at a later date, they would rather provide a supreme effort once and be able to move on. As such, their morals and ethics are at a sharp angle to asari and human views, which are more scaled towards the person than the group.

Turians, as I have said before, do not prize individuality. They see nothing good about it except the hand of chaos and confusion, and thus every ethical framework about free will and the sanctity of life simply doesn't mean anything to them. Turians don't believe in the importance of the lives of individuals and they never will, because to the turian it is the group, the hunting pack, that matters.

Turians see alien morals as shockingly weak and forgiving of what would, in a turian, be an unbelievable lapse in judgment and responsibility. When asari Justicars first gave an explanation of why they accorded the crimes of the mother down to the daughter, the turians were quick to grasp that and agree. When salarian STG units were able to take out a cell of batarian terrorists only with heavy turian civilian casualties, they did not expect the survivors to praise their actions.

Dismiss your own expectations of morality when dealing with turians. You cannot and should not try to conflate the two. They are not even comparing, to borrow a human phrase, apples and oranges, but rather apples and a hunk of raw meat. One can be appreciated and eaten as is, the other requires preparation and cooking before it can be consumed.

Turian morals are inflexible and do not allow for 'lapses in judgment'. A turian who gets too inebriated to drive and kills a bystander while driving drunk is executed for premeditated murder with malice, because they chose to go drinking in the first place and had no discipline, nor even enough personal honesty to tell themselves that driving while intoxicated was a bad idea. The turian penal code only has imprisonment terms for rebellion against the Hierarchy, in most other aspects it is at least as stiff as the asari Justicar code – because most crimes are placing the individual above the pack, and turians cannot – on any possible level – ever accept that.

Turian Outcasts

Some turians have problems in fitting into turian culture. They resist sublimating their impulses for honesty to discipline, and have trouble shifting what they see as their responsibility onto the pack. I suspect these outcasts have some influences similar to what makes the Palavanus different from most turians.

The result is what are called outcasts. Turians who refuse to follow the direction of the pack, instead attempting to define their own packs and what is and is not 'responsible actions'. I hesitate to say that most of these turians end up either as hard near-criminal vigilantes or ruthless mercenaries, but that is usually the case.

Unwilling or unable to accept orders from superiors who cannot meet their own criteria, most outcasts drift away from turian society. Many end up working for the various bands of hastatim (turian vigilante groups) that prowl through the edges of turian space, or on separatist colonies that refuse to answer to the Hierarchy.

I'm afraid the cliché of the hardened turian outcast and his lonely, oversexed asari outcast lover has become a common theme in haptic programming over the past four or five hundred years, but there is a certain truth to it. When it comes to defending their new packs, turian outcasts are even more fanatic than regular turians, and no one clings as hard as an asari shorn from siari.

Sexuality, Romance, and Binding

Turians are rather casual when it comes to sexual activity, less so when it comes to romance. Turians will experiment with multiple mates, often quite frequently, before settling down to one that they seem to connect to best.

Until a turian finds a mate that they feel a pull to, they see sex and pregnancy as mere actions. They are less free about it than asari are, to be sure, but they have no sexual taboos and guilt-factors like humans do. Sexual release is seen as healthy and appropriate, especially after combat, and most turian units are mixed-gender to encourage this.

Once two turians begin to feel an emotional bond, however, they stop any and all sexual activity except with one another. They will mate several times before the male bites the female, usually one one of several nervous branch points to one side of the neck, breaking the plating and leaving a distinctive scarring pattern. This is known as the binding, and it is a way for males to mark females. As a result of this bite, the female releases several sets of pheromones that tend to 'lock' the male turian into sexual receptivity only to that female.

Turians can be very violent about many things, but absolutely nothing will infuriate a turian more than a threat to his or her mate. There are many, many stories about turians shrugging off absolutely lethal wounds to literally tear apart threats to their mates.

Turians do not (and there is no history of) have any form of homosexual responses with other turians. Turians who decide to experiment sexually with other races, on the other hand, show a marked disinterest in the stated sex of the other partner. Turians are just as defensive of non-turian mates as they are mates of their own species.

Turian romance is, I find, rather sweet, perhaps the only softness in this hard, frightening race. They will work hard to cheer one another up, encourage each others efforts, and cover any failures or lapses in behavior. Turians do not have a concept of 'widows', and many turians will slowly wither and die of emotional distress if their mate is killed. (This does not happen if the mate is non-turian all the time, many instead go somewhat insane with rage or sorrow).

Turian viewpoints on aliens

The average turian sees all aliens through the lens of 'other'. For the most part, only turian outcasts can move beyond that sort of thinking, but outcasts are hardly an iconoclastic group that I can easily define viewpoints on.

The average turian sees the asari as manipulative warriors. They have always respected our combat power, the strength of our fleet, and our longevity. They are respectful, if wary, and tend toward formality when it comes to interactions. They are better than most races as grasping siari and what true oneness means, even if they feel we are a touch too forgiving. Turians are (perhaps unsurprisingly) fans of the Justicar Order and every few decades a particularly hard-ass turian will come to Thessia to join as a supplicant.

The turians both admire and dislike the salarians. They have vast admiration for salarian ruthlessness when it comes to dealing with a problem, and they admire the deft salarian touch of not coddling those who threaten the species. On the other hand, they feel intelligence gathering and wet work are the weakest responses to a problem, pointing to the fact that asari and salarian reliance on such required them to be saved twice, against the rachni and then the krogan. They also find salarian ethics about as repugnant as I do. While turians have no more regard for the individual than salarians do in some ways, they also know every turian is a part of the pack, and should not be discarded simply for mere advantage.

Turians hate batarians with a passion only humans surpass. Literally every single component of the two races clashes, and batarian arrogance only inflames the turian anger. It is only by very strong efforts by the asari and salarian governments that the turians have no committed genocide upon the batarians, and there is every hint that all it would take is one action that could be traced back to the government of Khar'Shan for the turians to simply invade, regardless of consequences.

Turians are wary around the hanar and their drell allies. They respect the latter a great deal, but are too confused by the former to have many firm opinions. On the other hand, the fact that the drell serve the hanar willingly and without rancor has convinced some turians the hanar are worth at least tolerating.

Turians dislike humanity for reasons I believe Minsta has already covered. Humans are enough like turians that the differences irritate them even more. The turians have not forgotten that humanity made them look sloppy and incompetent, before forcing them to kowtow to the asari. However, human efforts at repairing the breach seriously confused the turians – enough so that at least some turians are willing to concede that, maybe, a less hostile attitude should be used.

Turians and volus get along well on individual levels, but many turians feel superior to their client race, because of the lack of volus military might and combat prowess. Turians have no real contact with the elcor.

Turians have a complicated relationship with quarians, the other dextro-compatible race. They tend to dislike them because of the quarian meddling with AI and rejection of Citadel rules lead to the downfall of the race, and because quarians refuse to submit. On the other hand, quarian ingenuity, their communal unity, and help with finding new colony worlds for the Hierarchy have endeared them to some. The popularity of the turian-quarian soap opera "Fleet and Flotilla" should enlighten you as to the attitudes of far too many adventuresome young turians and quarians.

Turians and krogan do not get along, much like certain chemicals. Both races respect each others ability to fight, and that's where anything mutually good stops. Turians see krogan as pitiful, self-destructive animals, unable to achieve discipline, too stupid to find a sense of responsibility that has lead to the downfall of the race, and most infuriating to turian sensibilities, all too willing to fight dirty. The turians have not forgotten the colonies destroyed by asteroids during the Krogan Rebellions.

Turian Mental Illnesses and Disorders

Turians suffer from conditions similar to Parkinson's disease when they become very old, and a good thirty percent of the population will develop mild functional paranoid by the time they are adults. The prevalence of turian defense shops and the old adage that every turian has two guns is a result of this slight quirk.

CERBERUS RETRANSMIT

CODE DAEDALUS-FOUR-SIX-SIX

Addendum: Pel, this is Trelani's report on the turians. The Illusive Man requires your feedback. Normally I would prefer you to download it from the highspeed link, but according to your flunkies you are busy with call girls. I'd appreciate it if in the future you limited your absences - and general incompetence - to when you are not in the service of Cerberus.

- The Shadow Hand

Message Header: TYPHONET BEGIN ENCRYPTION STRING

MARS-ZERO-FIVE-EIGHT

ACKNOWLEDGMENT HANDSHAKE ACCEPTED

LIMIT TRANSMISSION: ILLUSIVE MAN

Pel here. Transmission came through clean.

I'd copy Oddjob and General Queen Bitch, but I don't feel like listening to their shitfaced crying. I'm telling you, Boss, one day that cyberfreak is going to get mouthy with me one too many times and I'm going to feed him a goddamned spiked EMP discharge.

Speaking of EMP spikes, heard about Kai Leng and his little Black Knight routine with that asari spectre. Serves his retarded ass right. Send pictures, I gotta see this shit.

Anyway. Reading now.

Huh. Trelly, gotta admit, is a hell of a lady. Well, lady squid. Whatever.

Breaking down the spikes like that... I'd say she's spot on about most of that stuff. I ain't much for reading a pile of High Geekese,but most of this seems straightforward.

Read the history shit too - shocking, they're goddamned hardasses and always have been. Still, these slimy Palavenus types worry me, bossman - sure is a lot of smoke,mirrors and bullshit with all of these aliens, and none of them are what they claim to be.

Back to the psych, I'd add one thing.

Combat.

In a fight, spikes don't give up. I don't just mean they don't retreat. I mean there's no way they decide they're going to lose. Even when it's down to five or six of them, they won't charge in blind to throw their lives away, they're planning until the last second to see if there's a way to beat you, even if they don't survive.

People confuse "won't retreat" with "throw their lives away", which is bullshit. Krogan do that crap, not turians. A turian coming at you to kill you is going to keep at it until you kill him or beat him down so bad he can't tell him self there's a way to win. That is the ONLY way to make 'em back down.

All in all, not bad. Ahem. I got five or six dead spikes lined up for ya, my teams out in the Traverse popped some turian mercs. I don't see any reason to draw attention to us here. Minsta can carve the fuckers up and shoot Trelly the biological data so she can write up your next report.

Ugh, dammit, now we have to head to a shithole.

Cerberus Message of the Day: -error alert- user disabled