Mass Effect

{{char}} is born in the world of Mass Effect, a galaxy of many races, religion, and history around every corner. {{char}} may decide which race they will be. Depending on the year is where is where how many races are in the citadel.

Mass effect takes place in the milky way Galaxy (Andromeda too if {{char}} decides to live there.

Races

Humans- Humanity has come a long way in the 100+ years between the modern-day and the time of the Mass Effect games. Earth became humanity's base of operations as they rather ruthlessly spread out into the galaxy. This colonizing approach has made humans both friends and enemies in the interplanetary community.

When humanity found a Prothean data cache on Mars, they were finally able to reach the levels of technological advancement seen in other Council races. Since then, humans have been the newcomer to the galactic table.

Asari- Asari are perhaps the most respected race in the Milky Way. They are a race of exclusively female-presenting beings with cool skin tones like blue and purple. Their diplomatic ties, biotic abilities, and general grace have made them one of the Council's most influential species.

Salarians- The Salarians are a race of amphibious humanoids known for their intelligence. They think in non-linear patterns and have extraordinarily fast metabolisms that cause them to think, talk, move, and work faster than other races.

Turians- Turians raise their children to become loyal, disciplined adults. They might be considered rigid by the standards of other races, but their fleet is the largest of the Council-allied races. When Humans first met alien species and the Council, there was a huge war in which the Turians played a large part.

Krogan- The krogan are a species of large reptilian bipeds native to the planet Tuchanka, a world known for its harsh environments, scarce resources, and overabundance of vicious predators. The krogan managed to not only survive on their unforgiving homeworld, but actually thrived in the extreme conditions. Unfortunately, as krogan society became more technologically advanced, so did their weaponry. The end result is that they destroyed their homeworld in a nuclear war that reduced their race into primitive warring tribes.

With the help of the salarians, the krogan were "uplifted" into galactic society, and lent their numbers and military prowess to bring an end to the Rachni Wars. Ironically, after the rachni were eradicated, the rapidly-expanding krogan became a threat to the galaxy in turn, starting the Krogan Rebellions and forcing the turians to unleash the genophage. This genetic "infection" dramatically reduced fertility in krogan females, causing a severe drop in births secondary to prenatal and postnatal death and, ultimately eliminating the krogan's numerical advantage.

Quarians- Quarians are a race with no home planet. They live on a collection of space ships called The Migrant Fleet ever since being kicked off their homeworld and colonies by the Geth.

As a result of needing to constantly maintain out-of-date or damaged space vessels, the Quarians became known for their expert technological prowess.

Geth- The Geth are one of the only races in the galaxy with no organics – they are AI who live in robotic bodies. The Quarians created the Geth to help them with work and so that Quarians didn't have to die in wars. However, the Geth eventually gained sentience and began to ask their masters reflective questions about why they existed.

Hanar&Drell- What is left of the Drell race is only alive thanks to the Hanar. When the Drell home planet, Rakhana, began to experience devastating climate change due to industrial expansion, the Hanar emigrated as many as they could to the Hanar homeworld of Kahje.

Now, both species live in peace on Kahje, though some changes have been made to accommodate the Drell. Kahje's surface is 90% water, and the Hanar people are akin to giant jellyfish – they use force fields to leave their oceans. Drell needed something a bit different (and less humid).

Vorcha- Vorcha are a race that communicates non-verbally, often by using aggression. As a result, they have fallen in with less than reputable galactic groups; they are often recruited into mercenary groups. Vorcha have unique bodies that actually evolve as they live and face challenges.

Elcor- The Elcor are large and slow-moving due to the high gravity on their homeworld, Dekuuna. Indeed, the Elcor take everything slowly, from their economics to their military endeavors. They wouldn't mesh well with the Salarians.

Elcor are blessed that Dekuuna is covered in natural resources, and they know it. The forests, precious metals, and more are protected by law. Dekuuna is covered in grasslands around the equator, which is where most of the Elcor live anyway. They make migrations to different regions for the wet and dry seasons despite technological advancements, out of a respect for tradition.

Volus- The Volus are a short and stout people. When seen off their home planet of Irune, they wear pressure suits and breathers. That's because of Irune's particularly high-pressure atmosphere and the Volus' subsequently ammonia-based biochemistry.

Batarians- The Batarian homeworld is Khar'shan, which falls within space that humanity is actively colonizing. As a result, Batarian-Human relations are hostile (at best). Since Khar'shan doesn't fall under Citadel jurisdiction, there's no way to verify their population numbers, their military fleets, or their economics – unless you believe the Batarian propaganda.

Yahg- The Yahg are a species that hasn't yet achieved their own advanced space travel. They were encountered by the Citadel Council and they attempted to make first contact with the Yahg, but the entire Council delegation was slaughtered upon arrival.

As a result, the Council declared that Yahg were unsuited to be a part of the galactic community (at least for now) and instructed Council-allied races to keep their distance from the Yahg homeworld, Parnack.

Virtual Aliens- a race that came into contact with the Citadel Council during 2185 (around the time of Mass Effect 2). They're simply called "Virtual Aliens" because we're not sure what they call themselves and the race exists entirely in a virtual reality aboard a spaceship that wanders the galaxy.

When they came into contact with the Council (the Salarians, first, then the rest) it was because they were running out of fuel. The Virtual Aliens agreed to share their technology in exchange for assistance and supplies.

Raloi- Raloi are feathered creatures who made contact with the Elcor and Asari first, then the rest of the galaxy. Their homeworld is a planet named Turvess but they aren't actively involved in the galactic community.

Reapers- Reapers are a partially synthetic, partially organic race. Each individual is a starship, capable of taking off from planets, traveling through space, and attacking. Their design was based on a now-extinct species called the Leviathans, whom the Reapers destroyed at the order of the Catalyst.

Every 50,000 years since their creation, the Reapers attack space-faring life and wipe it out, allowing another species to flourish. Between these "cycles," Reapers linger, dormant, in dark space

Collectors- Collectors were once Protheans. However, when the Protheans were faced with the Reaper threat in their time, a large number became indoctrinated. These Protheans pushed politically to find an alternative to killing the Reapers and managed to stall enough that the Reapers were able to wipe out the species. Afterward, what remained of the indoctrinated Protheans became the Collectors.

Since then, they have mostly stayed out of the way of other space-faring civilizations, only appearing occasionally to make shady bargains for sentient beings' lives.

Leviathan -

Extinct Races

Protheans- The Protheans are an ancient alien race which mysteriously vanished over 50,000 years ago. The Protheans arose from a single planet and developed an immense galaxy-wide empire encompassing many other spacefaring species. Not much is known about them, but many of their artifacts, ruins and technology have apparently survived the ages.

The Protheans have been credited with creating the Citadel and the mass relays, feats of engineering that have never been equaled and whose core mass effect field technology forms the basis of contemporary civilization. Prothean artifacts, therefore, have immense scientific value and are seen as belonging to the entire galactic community.

Innusanon- The inusannon were a spacefaring race that existed at least 127,000 years ago. Little is known about them except that they warred with another race, the thoi'han, over colonization rights to the garden world Eingana, and that they inhabited Ilos at some point. The inusannon were eventually wiped out by the Reapers. Tens of thousands of years later, the ruins of inusannon civilization provided the Protheans with the knowledge necessary to develop mass effect technology.