Covenant Biotics
By Emeritus Antevekeda
Decades before the Council War, Par'Matsuri was a Banshee pilot who took an interest in the principles of gravity manipulation. He was accepted into the Brotherhood of the Thundering Thremaleons, a premier warrior fraternity for aspiring Sangheili Emeriti. After Par'Matsuri left active service, the Thundering Thremaleon alumni network found him a technical apprenticeship. Par'Matsuri's career advanced rapidly, and after a short time he was accepted as an Emeritus.
Emeritus Par'Matsuri had a fascination with element zero (eezo) and its potential applications in gravity manipulation. This was considered eccentric but harmless, and Par'Matsuri's experiments were indulged, if not funded. Par'Matsuri made himself into the Covenant's foremost expert on eezo. Before the Haivattan Gate opened, this was something like being the Covenant's foremost expert on petroleum. It was understood that eezo could be used to manipulate gravity or achieve superluminal travel and communication, but it was believed that only a less-developed society would ever have practical reason to do so.
In the Relay Ecumene, the Covenant discovered a collection of societies encompassing two-thirds of the galaxy that were in fact completely dependent on the exploitation of eezo. High Charity's first reaction was scorn. It felt the achievements of these societies must be primitive relative to the Forerunner-derived technologies of the Covenant, and this feeling of technological superiority was so powerful as to preclude any sense that the Citadel Council's considerable population and productive capacity might be a cause for caution. Covenant battleships dwarfed their Council counterparts, and Council shielding was not even designed to repel plasma blasts. The Covenant confidently invaded the Relay Ecumene in a war of conquest only a few years after the Haivattan Gate opened.
And yet the eezo-dependent Relay Ecumene possessed a few capabilities which the Covenant Emeriti would have previously thought impossible. It was through the exploitation of eezo that the mass effect relays allowed for rapid transit from one end of the galaxy to the other, the extranet allowed for a free flow of information on a scale unknown in the Covenant, and the Relay Ecumene's biotics accomplished their telekinesis. High Charity was particularly intrigued by this "new" field of biotics. And so, Emeritus Par'Matsuri was summoned to High Charity in his capacity as an expert on element zero; but he was asked not to study eezo applications in gravity manipulation, but rather the biotic potential of the classical Covenant species, with a special emphasis on investigating the viability of biotic Sangheili warriors.
The Prophets of Diligence, Intrepidity, and Sagacity pressed Emeritus Par'Matsuri to accept a partner, Doctor Valim. Doctor Valim was a Salarian scientist who originally hailed from Sur'Kesh but who had emigrated to the Terminus Systems so that he might market black-market surgeries intended to grant biotic ability to adults. Par'Matsuri wanted sole leadership of the Covenant's investigations into eezo and resented being paired with this unfamiliar amphibious alien. He was able to find solid and unselfish grounds for these resentments in no time at all.
Par'Matsuri showed that at the adult stage of development granting biotic ability to any species was impossible, and that Doctor Valim was effectively a snake-oil salesman. He argued that Doctor Valim should at least be excluded from the investigation and that he should preferably be beheaded and fed to Kig-Yar. Doctor Valim pleaded that he was a victim of the essential amorality of Relay Ecumene society, that study of Forerunner scriptures had taught him to recognize his own sinfulness, and that he was now repentant. The Hierarchs accepted Doctor Valim's confession and continued to press Par'Matsuri to take him as a partner. Par'Matsuri asked why the San'Shyuum Hierarchs were so intent on showing trust to an admitted hoaxer.
The Hierarchs confessed to Emeritus Par'Matsuri that they were broadly dissatisfied with the Sangheili system of Emeriti fraternities. Why, they asked, should High Charity's capacity for independent scientific advancement be entrusted to Sangheili who spent most of their youth not learning abstract scientific principles, but some mundane martial skill, such as Banshee piloting? The Sangheili Emeriti learned their craft almost by rote. They were capable of iteration, but not of great conceptual leaps. The other castes provided no better pedagogical model. Huragok were allowed to tinker as they pleased but were a congenitally aimless race. Yanme'e queens had real genius and were more than capable of invention; but were so jealous and secretive that they inevitably hoarded all their innovations for themselves. Jiralhanae systems of patronage produced very impressive explosions, but little else.
And so, the Prophets of Diligence, Intrepidity, and Sagacity had decided that the not-yet conquered Salarians would compose a new scientific caste, one with "universities." To this end, there would be Salarian representation in the Covenant's investigation into biotics. Par'Matsuri was enraged. He labeled this judgement an insult to the Brotherhood of Thundering Thremaleons and to all other Emeriti fraternities. "We cannot go on forever entrusting our understanding of physics to people who call themselves the Thundering Thremaleons," the Prophet of Intrepidity told him. Par'Matsuri was finally informed that the investigation might move on without him, but it would not move on without Doctor Valim.
Emeritus Par'Matsuri gritted his teeth and agreed to work together with Doctor Valim. Together the two exposed unborn or unhatched Sangheili, Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, Yanme'e, and Yonhet to element zero. Most of these subjects were collected through offers of payment to the subjects' mothers, although a few of the Sangheili and Jiralhanae subjects were the children of powerful warriors who hoped to have yet more powerful sons. Par'Matsuri and Valim found that the biotic potential of these subjects was real, but not remarkable (as is also the case in all species of the Relay Ecumene barring the Asari). While the investigation produced some biotic adepts, among them the future Witch-King of the Jiralhanae, it produced just as many null results and cancer victims within these species. Though these results were disappointing they took years to confirm, as it was necessary to allow the exposed young to develop to maturity.
Huragok are made rather than born and so could never be biotic. The biotic potential of San'Shyuum was never tested, as San'Shyuum lives were considered too valuable to be put at risk. This left the Lekgolo.
In all sapient vertebrates, as well as Huragok, Yanme'e, and the extinct Rachni, brain function is lateralized. "Left" and "right" hemispheres of the brain operate together and produce consciousness together. Even Hanar nerve nets are lateralized (probably due to an antecedent intervention in their evolution). Among known intelligent life, the Lekgolo alone depart from this pattern.
An individual Lekgolo eel is essentially an animal and is not even intelligent by the standards of the animal kingdom. Lekgolo eels can only achieve intelligence through union with one another. In achieving intelligence, do the Lekgolo eels also achieve consciousness as other peoples understand it? Despite millennia of Lekgolo participation in the Covenant, the question was never resolved to anyone's satisfaction. Indeed, that this blind spot was allowed to persist for so long was one reason the Hierarchs felt the Emeriti system was insufficiently dynamic, and that a Salarian university system had much to recommend it.
The conventional wisdom of the classical Covenant, first articulated by the Prophet of Audacity shortly after the Taming of the Hunters, was that the Mgalekgolo lineage possessed recognizable consciousness (ensoulment, in the Prophet of Audacity's language), but only the Mgalekgolo lineage. Not coincidentally, Mgalekgolo are the only lineage of Lekgolo which possess a form of lateralized cognition. A "left" Mgalekgolo and a "right" Mgalekgolo are in fact a single colony of Lekgolo eels. They think together, with each of the bondmates performing cognitive functions analogous to the hemisphere of a brain.
Mgalekgolo are also the only Lekgolo lineage known to engage in forms of artistic expression somewhat comprehensible to other peoples, most famously war poetry. As Mgalekgolo are by universal consensus among the mightiest warriors of known space, collections of their war poetry are widely purchased and displayed, even among such unartistic peoples as the Jiralhanae and Krogan. However, the poetry translates into alien languages even worse than other forms of Lekgolo communication, and so the poetry is far more often purchased for display than for reading.
What implications did all this hold for Lekgolo biotic potential? Emeritus Par'Matsuri and Doctor Valim could not agree.
"What we are trying to do is manipulate element zero through consciousness," argued Emeritus Par'Matsuri. "We can hardly do that with Lekgolo lineages that are at best questionably conscious! Great Journey Rationalism teaches us to trust in the judgements of our predecessors. As Forerunner scriptures are silent on the topic of biotic techniques, we must instead refer to ancient texts of Asari philosophy of consciousness, which stress the harmony of artistic and biotic expression. If any Lekgolo lineage possesses biotic potential, which remains to be seen, it must be the Mgalekgolo lineage, which is alone capable of self-awareness and poetry."
"I thought that by defecting to the Covenant I could finally escape this Asari hippie claptrap," said Doctor Valim. "I guess not. Listen, those people have absolutely no idea why they can do what they do. They are like you in that way. What counts here is charged neurochemical bonding. The more charged neurochemical bonds you have, the better. Asari have more than anyone except for Lekgolo, which is why we should have started with Lekgolo, but you didn't like that. Fine. But now that we are working with Lekgolo, we should jump straight to those giant Rhulolekgolo colonies. We can load their Scarab shells with biotic amplifiers weighing several tons. If it takes they'll be able to level city blocks purely through warp attack. It'll be spectacular."
Emeritus Par'Matsuri again appealed to the principles of Great Journey Rationalism. Doctor Valim argued that scientific experimentation should be based on empiricism rather than rationalism. Par'Matsuri called Valim a heretic and again appealed to the Hierarchs to have Valim executed. "How can Doctor Valim be the heretical one, when you are the person perusing the phony religious texts of the Asari?" asked the Prophet of Diligence.
Exhausted by the arguing of the scientists, the Hierarchs cut their project into two, allowing Par'Matsuri to experiment on Mgalekgolo while Valim experimented on Rhulolekgolo. The Hierarchs told them that they would reserve further grants for whichever scientist produced more useful results.
On one dozen different worlds Emeritus Par'Matsuri built facilities for the cultivation of biotic Mgalekgolo. The work moved more quickly than earlier experiments with other classical Covenant races, as Lekgolo colonies retain much of their parent colonies' memories and socialization. Initially the Mgalekgolo seemed enthusiastic to explore their biotic potential, which turned out to be more impressive than anticipated. Biotic techniques are roughly divided into telekinesis, kinetic fields, and spatial distortion. Par'Matsuri's subjects displayed proficiency in all three well in excess of his wildest expectations.
But Par'Matsuri could not have anticipated the effects of biotic power upon the Mgalekgolo psyche. Even his most well-adjusted subjects were quick to display a neurotic strain, composing poetry expressing depression and loneliness. Other subjects were flatly psychopathic. For the sake of the project Par'Matsuri ignored warning signs until one subject on the planet of Kinkura killed its own bond-mate. Mgalekgolo fratricide being a crime unheard of, Par'Matsuri was compelled to halt martial conditioning and investigate the psychological state of his subjects. He discovered that without exception eezo treatment had disturbed or even interrupted the bond-pairing processes of the Mgalekgolo biotics.
Without bicameral regulation, Par'Matsuri's biotic Mgalekgolo were prone to the berserk rages and other disorders normal to Mgalekgolo which lose their bond-mate in battle or accident. When his subjects became aware of this they revolted, not only on Kinkura but on Molzhure, Vel, and Inli-Dasvi as well. Par'Matsuri was compelled to cull subjects across all worlds participating in the investigation, and to call a halt to further biotic experimentation on Mgalekgolo. After this Emeritus Par'Matsuri saw no course but to take his own life, so as to bury his humiliation and die as a Sangheili.
When Doctor Valim heard of his rival's death, he openly laughed. In the honorless Salarian culture, to fall on one's sword is a sign of dysfunction. The disrespect Doctor Valim showed to the fallen Par'Matsuri offended both the Matsuri bloodline and the Brotherhood of Thundering Thremaleons, who justly proclaimed their joint intent to slay the villainous Doctor Valim. But what did the Hierarchs do? They protected Valim!
"Doctor Valim's Rhulolekgolo are wonder weapons," said the Prophet of Sagacity. "Through biotics, the offensive power of an ordinary Scarab can now be complimented by impenetrable kinetic fields. It may turn the tide of the Coreward Front. Valim has shown his value to the Covenant. He has shown that the Salarian system of universities and empiricism surpasses the Sangheili system of fraternities and rote repetition. Leave Valim be and let the Salarians assume the privileges as well as the responsibilities of their new caste, lest the Matsuris and the Thundering Thremaleons suffer the wrath of High Charity."
Doctor Valim was awarded all of Par'Matsuri's grant money and encouraged to experiment further with biotic Lekgolo. He announced that next he would extract Khantolekgolo colonies from Te and scatter them among the uninhabited eezo-rich moons of Danum Zojat, to create what he called a "Biotic Hypercolony." What happened at Danum Zojat is not known. All that is known is that Valim somehow perished, and that the moons of Danum Zojat were glassed. The government that wronged Emeritus Par'Matsuri and protected the oleaginous con artist Doctor Valim is no longer with us. It is possible that the governments of the Citadel Council do know something of what happened on Danum Zojat, but if so they will not admit it. All that can be said is that in the Relay Ecumene it is now highly illegal to expose any Lekgolo lineage to eezo, and that these laws are enforced with the same zeal as their strictures against synthetic intelligence.
Doctor Valim's biotic Rhulolekgolo were, it must be admitted, fearsome weapons capable of putting whole Turian battalions to rout. Regardless, one by one they were all lost. Today, the most enduring legacy of the Covenant's biotics program is no Lekgolo colony at all. It is, alas, the accursed Witch-King of the Jiralhanae.
This is a cautionary tale. Emeritus Par'Matsuri always acted with honor and intelligence, but he did do something wrong. He trusted in the San'Shyuum Hierarchs. This is no real discredit to him, for at the time most Sangheili trusted in the San'Shyuum Hierarchs, but in the life of Emeritus Par'Matsuri we can see why that was a mistake. Had he ignored High Charity and continued his work with gravity manipulation, he would have done the Sangheili and the galaxy real service. Instead, Par'Matsuri let the Hierarchs sidetrack him into their ill-considered schemes of making mutants. And how did the Hierarchs reward him? They threatened to replace the valorous Emeriti brotherhoods with a caste of frogs, they spat on Great Journey Rationalism, and at last- and this is what is unforgiveable- they denied Par'Matsuri's friends and family their right to express their love of him through bloodshed! They let Par'Matsuri lie insulted yet unavenged! However Doctor Valim died at Danum Zojat, it was not a proper answer to Valim's snickering!
The Sanghelios Covenant must never be what the High Charity Covenant became. It must never succumb to the temptation of giving power to those who want it most, for they inevitably will abuse it. We must instead reserve power for proven warriors, for though warriors are undesirous of power they are still the only people fit to have it, because they are undesirous of it. And scientific knowledge is power, so let the Emeriti Brotherhoods ensure that scientific knowledge always be held with the warriors just as all other forms of power are. And we shall hold to the narrow path of Great Journey Rationalism, never being led astray by the mad scientific gambles of the alien, in particular that infernal Witch-King, may his false Doisac Covenant fall as the false High Charity Covenant fell.