Mass Effect

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Matriarch Aethyta

Matriarch Aethyta was an unconventional, free-spirited asari matriarch who tended bar on Illium. Of mixed krogan and asari parentage, she was the absent father of Liara T'Soni and watched over her daughter from a distance.

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Alliance Navy: Humanity's Fleet

The Alliance Navy was the space combat branch of the Systems Alliance military, charged with defending Earth and its colonies. Numbering several thousand ships across multiple fleets, it was one of the greater naval forces in Citadel space and bore the brunt of the fighting during the Reaper War.

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Amanda Kenson: Scientist of the Bahak System

Doctor Amanda Kenson was a human scientist whose research suggested the mass relays predated the Protheans. Investigating evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion in a batarian system, she was indoctrinated by a Reaper artifact and turned against the very Commander Shepard sent to rescue her.

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Anax Therion: Drell Analyst of the Keelah Si'yah

Anax Therion was a drell analyst and former data dealer who travelled to Andromeda aboard the ark Keelah Si'yah. Clinical, guarded, and quietly lethal, she had spent her life trading in secrets, and when a plague began killing the ark's sleepers she turned her investigator's mind to uncovering the cause.

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Angara

The angara were the only known living sapient race native to the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda galaxy. After a catastrophe called the Scourge shattered their ancient civilization, they rebuilt only to face the invading kett, against whom they waged a decades-long resistance.

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Arcturus Station

Arcturus Station was a five kilometer space station that served as the military and political capital of the Systems Alliance from the First Contact War onward, guarding the mass relay to Earth. During the Reaper War it was abandoned and destroyed, becoming a grave for the 45,000 people aboard.

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Aria T'Loak: The Pirate Queen of Omega

Aria T'Loak was the de facto ruler of the space station Omega, an asari of centuries' experience who governed the lawless heart of the Terminus Systems with an iron grip. Driven from her throne by Cerberus, she fought beside Commander Shepard to retake it during the Reaper War.

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Armando-Owen Bailey

Armando-Owen Bailey was a human officer of Citadel Security stationed in the Zakera Ward, a no-nonsense lawman who rose from a neglected beat officer to a Commander overseeing security for the Citadel Embassies during the Reaper War.

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Asari Commandos

Asari commandos, also called huntresses, were powerful asari biotics who formed the elite of their species' military. Fighting in small guerrilla bands during the maiden stage of their long lives, they ranked among the finest individual warriors in the galaxy.

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Asari Republics

The Asari Republics were the loose, consensus-driven government of the asari, the most influential species in the galaxy. As the first contemporary race to settle the Citadel, the asari were instrumental in founding the Citadel Council and remained at the heart of galactic society.

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Asari

The asari, native to Thessia, were among the most influential species in the galaxy, renowned for their elegance, biotic talent, and millennium-long lifespans. A mono-gender people able to reproduce with a partner of any species, they founded the Citadel Council and stood at the heart of galactic society for two thousand years.

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Ashley Williams

Ashley Williams was a human Systems Alliance soldier and the sole survivor of her unit on Eden Prime, who went on to serve aboard the Normandy under Commander Shepard and later rose to become one of the first human Spectres.

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Atlas

The Atlas was a large piloted combat mech fielded by Cerberus during the Reaper War. Heavily armed and armored, it was developed as a larger and more powerful successor to the YMIR mech and carried a living operator inside an armored canopy.

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August Bradley

August Bradley was a former Alliance officer who led the third wave of settlers in the Andromeda Initiative and became the first mayor of Prodromos, the first successful Initiative outpost in the Heleus Cluster, founded on the world of Eos.

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Urdnot Bakara (Eve)

Urdnot Bakara, called Eve by her salarian doctor, was a female krogan shaman and the sole survivor of Maelon's genophage experiments. She became a symbol of hope for her people and a voice for unity during the war against the Reapers.

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Ka'hairal Balak

Ka'hairal Balak was a batarian terrorist who attempted to crash Asteroid X57 into the human colony of Terra Nova in 2183. Driven by hatred of human expansion into the Skyllian Verge, he survived to resurface during the Reaper War, where his fate and allegiances hinged entirely on his earlier encounter with Commander Shepard.

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Banshee

Banshees were synthetic organic monstrosities created by the Reapers from asari who carried the Ardat-Yakshi gene. Intelligent and grotesquely biotic, they teleported across the battlefield in glowing surges and impaled their prey, and they were most often found leading a Reaper strike force.

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Batarian Hegemony

The Batarian Hegemony was the oppressive, isolationist government of the batarians, native to Khar'shan. A rogue state hostile to the Systems Alliance, it sponsored deniable piracy and slaving across the Terminus Systems before the Reapers overran it.

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Batarian

The batarians were a four-eyed species native to Khar'shan whose insular government, the Batarian Hegemony, withdrew from the galactic community and became infamous for slavery, piracy, and hostility toward humanity before the Reapers overran their space.

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Battle of the Citadel

The Battle of the Citadel was the climactic engagement of 2183 in which the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius, guided by the Reaper Sovereign, attempted to seize the Citadel and open a path for the Reaper invasion. Commander Shepard and the Citadel and Alliance fleets stopped the attack at great cost, and its outcome shaped galactic politics for years afterward.

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Bekenstein

Bekenstein was an early human colony founded as Earth's off-planet manufacturing base, which prospered by producing high quality luxury goods for nearby markets and became known as the humans' Illium. It was bombarded from orbit by the Reapers late in the war.

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Matriarch Benezia

Matriarch Benezia was a powerful asari biotic and revered spiritual leader, mother to the archaeologist Liara T'Soni. When she was found allied with Saren Arterius, those who knew her were stunned, until it emerged that she had been enslaved by the indoctrinating power of the Reaper Sovereign.

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Biotics

Biotics was the ability of certain lifeforms to generate mass effect fields using element zero nodules grown through their bodies. Channelled through surgical implants and physical gestures, it let a wielder lift, hurl, and crush objects at a distance or raise protective barriers.

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Blasto: The First Hanar Spectre

Blasto was a fictional action hero who starred in a long run of popular films across the galaxy, billed as the Milky Way's first hanar Spectre. A gun-toting jellyfish with a lover in every port, he became a cultural fixture whose movies ran from the 2180s into the era of the Andromeda settlements.

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Blood Pack

The Blood Pack was a brutal mercenary group built around krogan muscle and vorcha cannon fodder, founded by the exiled Battlemaster Ganar Wrang and based in the Terminus Systems. Banned from Citadel space, they took the contracts no other gang would touch, favoring overwhelming violence over discretion.

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Blue Suns

The Blue Suns were one of the galaxy's largest mercenary organizations, a private security outfit turned criminal empire operating out of the Skyllian Verge and the Terminus Systems. Founded by Zaeed Massani and Vido Santiago, they grew into a fearsome force spanning dozens of systems before crossing paths with Commander Shepard.

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Borbala Ferank

Borbala Ferank was the retired matriarch of a powerful batarian crime family who joined the Andromeda Initiative and crossed to a new galaxy aboard the ark Keelah Si'yah. Listed as a former security officer, the old smuggler served on a maintenance crew that periodically woke during the long voyage to keep the ship running.

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Brute

Brutes were synthetic organic creatures the Reapers fashioned by fusing krogan and turian bodies and remaking them with their technology. Towering and heavily armored, they filled the heavy melee role in Reaper ground assaults, charging into the enemy line to crush smaller troops.

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Calix Corvannis: Leader of the Nexus Uprising

Calix Corvannis was the turian chief life support technician of the Nexus and the reluctant leader of the mutiny that nearly tore the station apart in the Andromeda Initiative's first desperate months. Talented and fiercely loyal to his crew, he turned against a leadership he no longer trusted.

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Cerberus

Cerberus was a clandestine, human-supremacist paramilitary organization led by the Illusive Man, willing to use any means to advance humanity's place in the galaxy. Branded a terrorist group by both the Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council, it was ultimately destroyed during the Reaper War.

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Chloe Michel: Citadel Physician

Dr. Chloe Michel was a human physician who ran a medical clinic in the Upper Wards of the Citadel. Drawn into the hunt for Saren after treating a fugitive quarian, she crossed paths with Commander Shepard and later served the war effort against the Reapers.

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Citadel Conventions

The Citadel Conventions were diplomatic accords drawn up after the Krogan Rebellions to regulate weapons of mass destruction. They forbade their use on habitable garden worlds and graded such weapons into tiers of concern, though many militaries kept stockpiles anyway.

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Citadel Council

The Citadel Council was the executive committee that governed Citadel space from the Citadel Tower, composed of representatives of the asari, salarians, and turians, and was the ultimate authority over Council law, interspecies disputes, and the covert Spectre agents.

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Citadel Security Services: C-Sec

Citadel Security Services, known as C-Sec, was the volunteer police force responsible for law enforcement aboard the Citadel. Answering to the Citadel Council and led by an Executor, its constables kept order across the station's vast, crowded wards and the space around it.

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Citadel

The Citadel was a colossal deep-space station in the Serpent Nebula that served as the political and cultural heart of Citadel space and the seat of the Council. Long believed to be a Prothean relic, it was in truth a Reaper construction and a dormant trap at the center of galactic civilization.

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Collector Cruiser

The Collector Cruiser was the only known vessel type used by the Collectors, an immense hybrid of organic growth and metal superstructure. A single cruiser could carry enough troops, creatures, and stasis pods to abduct an entire human colony, and one such ship destroyed the original Normandy in 2183.

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Collectors

The Collectors were an enigmatic insectoid race dwelling beyond the Omega 4 Relay, long dismissed as myth. In truth they were the last of the Protheans, genetically rewritten and cybernetically enslaved by the Reapers, who used them to abduct human colonies and build a Human-Reaper.

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Commander Shepard

Commander Shepard was a Systems Alliance N7 marine who became the first human Spectre, exposed the rogue agent Saren Arterius, and led the galaxy's resistance against the Reapers. Shepard's gender, history, and many of the choices that shaped the war were never fixed, and the final fate of the cycle turned on the Commander's own decisions.

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Conrad Verner

Conrad Verner was an enthusiastic, self-proclaimed admirer of Commander Shepard whose hapless attempts to follow in the Commander's footsteps recurred across the galaxy, from the Citadel to Illium and back again.

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Cora Harper: Asari-Trained Vanguard of the Andromeda Initiative

Cora Harper was a human biotic and former asari commando who served as the Pathfinder team's second in command aboard the Tempest. Trained among the asari huntresses of Talein's Daughters, she brought elite biotic skill and rigid discipline to the Andromeda Initiative's expedition into the Heleus Cluster.

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The Crucible

The Crucible was an ancient superweapon of unknown origin, refined across countless cycles by species hoping to stop the Reapers. Rediscovered during the Reaper invasion and built by a united galaxy, it became the last hope of organic life, completed only by joining it with the Citadel.

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Daro'Xen vas Moreh: Quarian Admiral and Geth Researcher

Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh sat on the quarian Admiralty Board and led its Special Projects group. A coldly brilliant scientist, she viewed the geth as machines to be studied and controlled rather than enemies or equals.

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David Anderson

David Anderson was a decorated Systems Alliance officer, the first captain of the Normandy, and a mentor to Commander Shepard. When the Reapers invaded Earth, he stayed behind to lead its resistance, and he stood at Shepard's side in the final hours of the war.

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Diana Allers: Alliance War Correspondent

Diana Allers was a human war correspondent for the Alliance News Network and a regular presence on its program Battlespace. Originally from the colony of Bekenstein, she sought to report the war against the Reapers from the front lines and could embed aboard the Normandy to chronicle the conflict firsthand.

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Donnel Udina

Donnel Udina was humanity's ambassador to the Citadel Council and, in some accounts, its first Councilor. A cautious political operator obsessed with human advancement, he ended his career as a traitor in a Cerberus coup.

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Drell

The drell were a reptile-like species rescued from their dying homeworld of Rakhana by the hanar, to whom they remained bound by a tradition of service called the Compact. They were known for their eidetic memory and deep religious belief in the separation of body and soul.

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Eclipse

Eclipse was a mercenary corporation founded by the asari commando Jona Sederis, prized for cutting-edge equipment, heavy use of biotics, and a willingness to take any contract a client could afford. It blended security work with a vast smuggling operation and counted among the three rival syndicates that ruled Omega's underworld.

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Eden Prime War

The Eden Prime War was the conflict between the Systems Alliance and the geth that began with a surprise attack on the human colony of Eden Prime in 2183 CE. Secretly directed by the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius and the Reaper Sovereign, the war ranged across the galaxy before culminating in the Battle of the Citadel.

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Eden Prime

Eden Prime was one of the first human colonies founded beyond the Charon mass relay, an idyllic agrarian paradise whose Prothean ruins made it the opening battleground of the war against the Reapers.

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EDI

EDI was the artificial intelligence built by Cerberus and installed aboard the Normandy SR-2. Freed of her behavioral shackles during the fight against the Collectors, she grew from a ship's defensive system into a self-aware being who took a mobile body and joined Commander Shepard's crew in the war on the Reapers.

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Elaaden: Desert Moon of the Heleus Cluster

Elaaden was a scorching, tidally locked desert moon in the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda galaxy. Brutally hot and starved of water, it nonetheless became home to the krogan colony of New Tuchanka and to scavengers and exiles living on its sands.

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Elcor

The elcor were a massive, four-legged Citadel species from the high-gravity world of Dekuuna, whose cautious psychology and ponderous, emotionless speech reflected an environment where a single fall could be fatal. Slow but immensely strong, they were nicknamed living tanks by their enemies.

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Element zero

Element zero, nicknamed eezo, was a rare material that released dark energy when subjected to an electrical current, letting it raise or lower the mass of everything in the resulting field. It underpinned faster-than-light travel, artificial gravity, and the biotic abilities of living beings.

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Entertainment: Culture and amusement across the galaxy

The peoples of the Milky Way produced a vast and varied culture of films, plays, books, magazines, music, sports, and games for their own amusement. From an all-elcor staging of Hamlet to the hanar action hero Blasto and the beloved romance Fleet and Flotilla, entertainment crossed species lines and revealed how each race saw itself and its neighbors.

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Eos: Desert World of Radiation Storms

Eos was a resource-rich desert world in the Heleus Cluster, long catalogued as unsettleable because of the lethal radiation storms that scoured its surface. After two colonies failed, the reactivation of its Remnant vault drove back the radiation and allowed the Andromeda Initiative's first lasting outpost to take root there.

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Essex: Biotic Marine of Delta Squad

Essex was a gifted and brash human biotic of the Systems Alliance, a member of the special forces unit Delta Squad. He fought in the defense of the colony Fehl Prime against the Blood Pack and later the Collectors, and died covering his squad's escape.

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Executioner Pistol

The Executioner Pistol was a heavy hand cannon devised by Blood Pack weapons experts, first improvised from scrap during a territory dispute on Omega. It fired a single high-impact, armor-piercing slug at a time, favored by those who lived by the one shot, one kill creed.

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Feros

Feros was a dust-choked world buried under Prothean ruins, home to the ExoGeni colony of Zhu's Hope and the ancient plant intelligence called the Thorian, the target of a geth assault in 2183.

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First Contact War

The First Contact War, known to the turians as the Relay 314 Incident, was a brief, low-intensity conflict between the human Systems Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy in 2157 CE. It began when turians fired on human ships reactivating a dormant mass relay, escalated into the occupation and liberation of the colony Shanxi, and ended with Council mediation that revealed the wider galaxy to humanity.

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FTL travel

FTL travel was faster-than-light movement achieved without a mass relay, using a drive core to lower a starship's mass so it could exceed lightspeed. It let vessels cross local space at high speed but accumulated a dangerous static charge that had to be regularly discharged.

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Garm

Garm was a krogan Battlemaster who led the Blood Pack on Omega and was notorious for a regenerative resilience even greater than that of most krogan. He joined a three-way alliance of mercenary leaders to destroy the vigilante Archangel, and died in the assault on the turian's stronghold.

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Garrus Vakarian

Garrus Vakarian was a turian former C-Sec investigator who left the law behind to chase justice his own way. He fought beside Commander Shepard against Saren, waged a one-man war on Omega as the vigilante Archangel, and helped coordinate the turian fleets during the Reaper War.

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Genophage

The genophage was a genetic weapon deployed against the krogan during the Krogan Rebellions, drastically lowering the chance of viable births and consigning the species to a slow decline. Developed by the salarians and unleashed by the turians, it haunted galactic politics for over a thousand years.

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Geth Plasma Shotgun: Arcing Cluster Weapon

The Geth Plasma Shotgun was a three-barreled geth weapon that fired clusters of superconducting projectiles. On impact the rounds fragmented and arced with electricity, flash-converting the surrounding air into conductive plasma to overload shields and barriers and inflict massive trauma on the unarmored.

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Geth Prime

Geth Primes were the largest and most powerful geth infantry platforms, heavy units that served as command and control nodes on the battlefield. Sheathed in armor and heavy shielding, a Prime carried a punishing pulse weapon and a combat intelligence that sharpened the fire of every geth around it.

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Geth Rocket Trooper

Geth Rocket Troopers were geth support platforms that wielded rocket launchers, accompanying other geth into battle and striking from a distance. Specialized for heavy firepower against grouped enemies, they were marked out by their distinctive armor coloring.

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Geth Trooper

Geth Troopers were the standard infantry of the geth, lightly equipped platforms that formed the bulk of the synthetics' ground forces. They fought in groups, supported by heavier and more specialized geth units.

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Geth

The geth were a race of networked artificial intelligences built by the quarians as laborers. When they gained sentience and questioned their makers, the quarians tried to exterminate them; the geth won the resulting Morning War and withdrew behind the Perseus Veil to build their own future.

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Greg Adams: Normandy Chief Engineer

Gregory Adams was a Systems Alliance engineer hand-picked to serve as chief engineer of the Normandy. Calm, even-tempered, and a firm believer in the rights of synthetic life, he kept the ship's drive core running through two of its incarnations and the war against the Reapers.

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Grenades: Infantry Explosive Charges

Grenades were hand-tossed explosive charges used by infantry across the galaxy. The Systems Alliance fielded the Mark 14, a fin-stabilized grenade that could be thrown like a discus or lobbed over cover, stuck to surfaces as a makeshift mine, and loaded with everything from incendiary paste to salted micro-nukes.

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Grissom Academy

The Jon Grissom Academy was a Systems Alliance space station and elite school for gifted human students, best known for the Ascension Project that trained young biotics. During the Reaper War it became the target of a Cerberus raid to capture its biotic students.

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Grunt

Grunt was a genetically engineered krogan warrior, bred and educated within a tank to embody the best traits of his species, who fought alongside Commander Shepard and later commanded an elite krogan company in the Reaper War.

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Hanar

The hanar were a jellyfish-like Citadel species from the ocean world of Kahje, among the few non-bipedal races in galactic society. They were renowned for their scrupulous politeness, their two-name custom of face and soul names, and their fervent worship of the Protheans, whom they called the Enkindlers.

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Han'Gerrel vas Neema: Quarian Admiral of the Heavy Fleet

Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema sat on the quarian Admiralty Board and commanded the Heavy Fleet. A lifelong hawk, he pressed for the reclamation of the homeworld and for war against the geth, often at reckless cost.

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Harbinger

Harbinger was the first Reaper ever created, forged from the Leviathans and serving as the template for every Reaper that followed. It directed the Collectors from dark space, possessing them to fight in person, and later led the assault on Earth as the oldest and largest of its kind.

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Heleus Cluster: The Initiative's New Frontier

The Heleus Cluster was a resource-rich region of star systems on the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy, chosen by the Andromeda Initiative as its foothold in the new galaxy. Centered on a massive black hole and seeded with abundant Element Zero, it held the worlds the Initiative hoped to settle.

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Horizon

Horizon was a temperate human colony on the galactic frontier that suffered a devastating Collector raid in 2185 and later became the site of the secret Cerberus husk facility known as Sanctuary.

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Human-Reaper: The Proto-Reaper of the Collector Base

The Human-Reaper was an incomplete Reaper under construction by the Collectors at their base beyond the Omega 4 Relay. Built from the liquefied remains of abducted human colonists, the larval being was meant to become a new Reaper in the image of humanity before Commander Shepard destroyed it.

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Humans

Humans were the newest sentient species of note to enter galactic affairs, and also the most rapidly expanding. After discovering a Prothean data cache on Mars and unlocking the mass relay network, they rose within decades from isolated newcomers to a power whose ambition and military strength unsettled the older Council races.

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Husk

Husks were synthetic-organic creatures made from the bodies of organic beings, their flesh converted into cybernetic material by Reaper technology. Mindless and aggressive, they served the Reapers and their agents as shock troops and as a weapon of terror against the living.

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Illium

Illium was a hot garden world colonized by asari corporate interests as a trade hub between the Terminus Systems and the Asari Republics, where relaxed customs laws made almost any good available. During the Reaper War its wealthy, well armed leaders mounted a fierce defense that slowed the invaders.

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The Illusive Man

The Illusive Man was the secretive, well-informed leader of Cerberus, a human whose true identity as Jack Harper was forgotten by most. For decades he bent his vast network and resources toward a single goal, the ascension of humanity, before his obsession with controlling the Reapers led to his downfall.

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Ilos

Ilos was a ruined Prothean colony hidden behind the secret Mu Relay, home to the Conduit and the buried truth of the Reaper cycle, reached by Commander Shepard in the race to stop Saren Arterius.

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Indoctrination

Indoctrination was the mind-altering effect that Reapers and their technology exerted on organic beings. Through a subtle signal or field, the Reapers eroded a victim's will until only an obedient slave remained, turning influential individuals into the instruments of the galaxy's own destruction.

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Inusannon

The inusannon were an ancient spacefaring race that existed at least 127,000 years ago and were wiped out by the Reapers. Tens of thousands of years later, the ruins of their civilization gave the Protheans the knowledge to develop mass effect technology.

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Irit Non: Volus Design Engineer of the Keelah Si'yah

Irit Non was a volus design engineer aboard the Andromeda Initiative ark Keelah Si'yah, a celebrated maker of custom environmental suits who left a thriving career in the Milky Way to follow her dissident father to a new galaxy. Quick to take offense yet a consummate professional, she served on the ark's Sleepwalker crew during the plague that swept its sleepers.

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Jaal Ama Darav: Angaran Resistance Fighter

Jaal Ama Darav was an angaran native of Havarl and a high-ranking member of the Angaran Resistance against the kett. Sent to observe the newly arrived Andromeda Initiative, he joined the human Pathfinder's crew aboard the Tempest and became one of its most loyal members.

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Jack

Jack, known to Cerberus as Subject Zero, was among the most powerful human biotics alive, forged by years of brutal experimentation she answered with a violent and bloody life. Recruited by Commander Shepard, she sought closure at the facility that had made her and later found purpose teaching young biotics.

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Jacob Taylor

Jacob Taylor was a human biotic and former Alliance Marine who became the armory officer of the Normandy SR-2, serving as a steady voice of reason during Commander Shepard's mission against the Collectors. Disillusioned with both the Alliance and Cerberus, he eventually broke with the pro-human group to fight the Reapers on his own terms.

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Jalosk Dal'Virra: Batarian Sleepwalker of the Keelah Si'yah

Jalosk Dal'Virra was a batarian weapons dealer and member of the Sleepwalker crew aboard the Andromeda Initiative ark Keelah Si'yah. Born into the lowest caste of batarian society and dismissed by his betters as a lout, he proved unexpectedly insightful even as he became one of the first victims of the plague that struck the ark.

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James Vega

Lieutenant James Vega was a hardened Systems Alliance marine who joined Commander Shepard's crew during the Reaper War, a brave soldier haunted by a costly command decision who came to see Shepard as both mentor and role model.

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Jarun Tann: Director of the Andromeda Initiative

Jarun Tann was a salarian bureaucrat who became Director of the Andromeda Initiative after the deaths of every leader above him. Self-important and insecure yet broadly well-meaning, he steered the Nexus through famine, mutiny, and the search for a habitable home in the Heleus Cluster.

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Javik

Javik was the only known survivor of the ancient Prothean race, an Avatar of Vengeance preserved in stasis for over fifty thousand years, who was revived during the Reaper War to wage one final campaign against the enemy that had exterminated his people.

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Jeff "Joker" Moreau

Jeff "Joker" Moreau was the Flight Lieutenant and helmsman of both the SSV Normandy and the Normandy SR-2, a brilliant pilot whose brittle bones never kept him from the cockpit. He flew Commander Shepard through every campaign of the Reaper War and formed a close bond with the ship's artificial intelligence.

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Jondum Bau

Jondum Bau was a salarian Spectre and Special Tasks Group agent who investigated the possible indoctrination of hanar officials during the Reaper War, enlisting Commander Shepard to root out an indoctrinated diplomat on the Citadel.

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Kadara: Haven of Exiles and Pirates

Kadara was a mountainous world in the Heleus Cluster, first settled by the angara and later overrun by exiles and pirates who fled the Nexus. Its waters ran toxic with sulphides until a Remnant vault was reactivated, after which the Andromeda Initiative was able to plant an outpost there.

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Kahlee Sanders

Kahlee Sanders was a human Systems Alliance officer counted among its finest computer specialists and a recognized authority on synthetic intelligence. The daughter of Admiral Jon Grissom, she was drawn repeatedly into events surrounding rogue AI research, Cerberus, and the Reaper threat, and she devoted much of her life to the children of the Ascension Project.

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Kai Leng

Kai Leng was the Illusive Man's most trusted assassin, a cybernetically enhanced former Alliance marine turned Cerberus operative. He hunted Commander Shepard across the Reaper War before dying at the Commander's hand.

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Kaidan Alenko

Kaidan Alenko was a human biotic and Systems Alliance marine who served aboard the Normandy under Commander Shepard, carried the burden of the experimental L2 implants of his youth, and rose during the Reaper War to command an elite biotic unit.

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Karin Chakwas

Dr. Karin Chakwas was the human physician of the Normandy across both of its incarnations, a calm and devoted Alliance major who stayed at her post out of loyalty to the soldiers she treated. She regarded the crew as her family and counted Commander Shepard and the pilot Joker among the truest friends she ever had.

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Kasumi Goto

Kasumi Goto was the galaxy's most enigmatic master thief, a peerless infiltrator and stealth expert whose face few of her many enemies could ever name. Driven by the murder of her partner and the recovery of his stolen memories, she lent her talents to Commander Shepard's mission against the Collectors.

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Keelah Si'yah

The Keelah Si'yah was an Andromeda Initiative ark, a quarian vessel uniquely engineered to carry six different species across the 600-year void between galaxies. Bearing some twenty thousand colonists in cryosleep, it survived a catastrophic plague during its long voyage toward a new home in the Heleus Cluster.

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Keepers

The keepers were a docile, bio-engineered insectoid race found only aboard the Citadel, where they tended the station's systems in total silence. Long assumed to be Prothean servants, they were in truth a relic of the Reapers, repurposed by the cycle to keep the great station ready for its next inhabitants.

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Kelly Chambers

Kelly Chambers was the yeoman aboard the Normandy SR-2 during the Collector crisis, a Cerberus recruit and trained psychologist who monitored the crew's morale and whose conscience eventually drove her from the organization.

Long read · joe

Kenneth Donnelly: Normandy Engineer

Kenneth Donnelly was a Scottish engineer who served in the Systems Alliance and later aboard the Normandy SR-2. A gifted technician with little patience for the chain of command, he worked the engine room alongside his close friend Gabriella Daniels through the war against the Reapers.

Long read · joe

Kett: Conquerors of Heleus

The kett were a hostile, militaristic species encountered by the Andromeda Initiative in the Heleus Cluster. Unable to breed by natural means, they expanded their ranks and their empire through exaltation, a process that converted captured members of other species into obedient kett.

Long read · joe

Khalisah al-Jilani: Westerlund News Reporter

Khalisah Bint Sinan al-Jilani was a human reporter for Westerlund News known for confrontational, agenda-driven interviews. She repeatedly sought out Commander Shepard on the Citadel, pressing hostile questions in the name of human independence.

Long read · joe

Khar'shan: The Batarian Homeworld

Khar'shan was the homeworld of the batarians, the center of an empire whose boastful propaganda masked a state hollowed out by Citadel sanctions. The Reapers struck it early in their invasion, severing its communications and likely dealing the empire a death blow.

Long read · joe

Kinetic barriers

Kinetic barriers, commonly called shields, were repulsive mass effect fields projected from small emitters to deflect fast-moving objects. They protected starships and infantry alike from mass accelerator fire while leaving slow movement and ordinary contact untouched.

Long read · joe

Kirrahe

Captain Kirrahe was a salarian Special Tasks Group officer whose covert regiment uncovered Saren Arterius' breeding facility on Virmire, a brave and inspiring commander remembered for the speech he gave his men before a near-suicidal assault.

Long read · joe

UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle

The UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle was a rugged personnel carrier capable of planetary flight and limited FTL travel. Nicknamed the Combat Cockroach for its durability, it ferried Commander Shepard's ground teams aboard the Normandy SR-2 throughout the campaigns of 2185 and 2186.

Long read · joe

Krogan Rebellions

The Krogan Rebellions were a decades-long war between the krogan and the Citadel Council that began around 700 CE, sparked by unchecked krogan expansion onto worlds claimed by other races. The conflict ended with the deployment of the salarian-engineered genophage, the surrender of the krogan, and a Council seat awarded to the turians.

Long read · joe

Krogan

The krogan were a hardy, long-lived reptilian species from the brutal world of Tuchanka, uplifted by the salarians to win the Rachni Wars before their explosive growth made them a threat in turn. The turian-deployed genophage crippled their fertility and left them a scattered, fatalistic people.

Long read · joe

Legion

Legion was the name taken by a gestalt of over a thousand geth programs housed in a unique mobile platform, sent beyond the Perseus Veil to find Commander Shepard and the first of its kind to speak and reason as an individual.

Long read · joe

Leviathan

The Leviathans were an ancient aquatic species that ruled the galaxy before the Reapers, dominating lesser races through a power akin to indoctrination. After their own creation turned against them and built the first Reaper from their flesh, the survivors went into hiding for hundreds of millions of years.

Long read · joe

Lexi T'Perro: Physician of the Tempest

Lexi T'Perro was an asari doctor who served as the medical officer of the scout ship Tempest during the Andromeda Initiative's settlement of the Heleus Cluster. A specialist in alien biology, she tended the Pathfinder's crew and served as both their physician and a trusted advisor.

Long read · joe

Liam Kosta

Liam Kosta was a human security and response specialist who joined the Andromeda Initiative and served aboard the Tempest as part of the Pathfinder team. Upbeat, idealistic, and quick to speak his mind, he threw himself into making the Heleus Cluster a home and winning the trust of its native angara.

Long read · joe

Liara T'Soni: Asari Researcher and Shadow Broker

Liara T'Soni was an asari archaeologist and expert on the Protheans who joined Commander Shepard's crew in 2183. Driven by the loss of her mother and the betrayal of a friend, she later seized control of the Shadow Broker's network and turned it against the Reapers.

Long read · joe

LOKI Mech

The LOKI Mech was a cheap bipedal security robot built by Hahne-Kedar, deployed in large numbers by colonies, corporations, and criminal outfits alike as expendable guards. Simple and easily hacked, it relied on numbers rather than skill on the battlefield.

Long read · joe

M-15 Vindicator: Mercenary Battle Rifle

The M-15 Vindicator was a battle rifle manufactured by Elanus Risk Control Services for the Blue Suns mercenary group. Favored by assassins and elite mercenaries for its accuracy and stopping power, it fired in tight bursts and spread rapidly through the Terminus Systems.

Long read · joe

M-23 Katana: Common Mercenary Shotgun

The M-23 Katana was a common military shotgun manufactured by Ariake Technologies. Deadly at short range and widely carried by mercenaries, it saw heavy use on frontier colonies plagued by varren and remained in service among Milky Way settlers, soldiers, and criminals for decades.

Long read · joe

M-27 Scimitar: Ariake Assault Shotgun

The M-27 Scimitar was an assault shotgun manufactured by Ariake Technologies, built around twin mass effect generators that gave it an unusually rapid rate of fire. Developed for the Eclipse, it grew popular across the mercenary bands of the Terminus.

Long read · joe

M-29 Incisor: Burst-Fire Sniper Rifle

The M-29 Incisor was a burst-fire sniper rifle built to overload active defenses such as kinetic shields. Each pull of the trigger sent three rounds downrange in a burst so rapid that all three struck before the barrel could climb, and its report was no louder than a single shot.

Long read · joe

M-300 Claymore

The M-300 Claymore was a heavy shotgun of human design used almost exclusively by the krogan, since the kickback from a single shot carried enough force to break a human's arm. Devastating at short range, it was protected against reproduction and prohibitively expensive.

Long read · joe

M-37 Falcon: Alliance Grenade Launcher Rifle

The M-37 Falcon was a Systems Alliance assault rifle that launched 25 millimeter mini-grenades instead of conventional rounds. Lighter and more accurate than most grenade launchers, it relied on a field fabrication kit to produce its specialized ammunition, leaving thermal clips as its only real constraint.

Long read · joe

M-6 Carnifex: Heavy Pistol

The M-6 Carnifex was a heavy pistol prized as a highly accurate and lethal sidearm. Expensive but powerful and especially effective against armor, it was a favored weapon of mercenary leaders and Eclipse tech specialists across the Milky Way.

Long read · joe

M-76 Revenant: Warlord's Machine Gun

The M-76 Revenant was a custom-built heavy assault rifle that unleashed a storm of high-velocity slugs from an unusually large magazine. Protected against copying by sophisticated rights-management technology and exorbitantly expensive, it was a weapon only the wealthiest and most powerful warlords could afford.

Long read · joe

M-8 Avenger: Elkoss Combine Assault Rifle

The M-8 Avenger was a common, versatile, military-grade assault rifle manufactured by the Elkoss Combine. Tough, reliable, and inexpensive, it was a favorite of military groups and mercenaries across the Milky Way, and stocks of it were later carried to Andromeda.

Long read · joe

M-92 Mantis

The M-92 Mantis was a powerful single-shot sniper rifle built by Devlon Industries, prized for its accuracy and its ability to drop most targets with one round. Favored by police and planetary militias, it saw heaviest use in the lawless Terminus Systems.

Long read · joe

M-920 Cain: The Nuke Launcher

The M-920 Cain was a heavy weapon nicknamed the Nuke Launcher, a portable particle accelerator that hurled a high-explosive round capable of raising a mushroom cloud on impact. Despite the spectacle, its detonations produced no fallout.

Long read · joe

M-96 Mattock: Semi-Automatic Marksman Rifle

The M-96 Mattock was a semi-automatic assault rifle that blended the low heat output of a standard rifle with the stopping power of a sniper weapon. Marksmen favored its punch over ordinary assault rifles, and its deliberate lack of a full-auto setting was sold as a virtue rather than a flaw.

Long read · joe

M-97 Viper: Rapid-Fire Sniper Rifle

The M-97 Viper was a rapid-fire military sniper rifle developed by Rosenkov Materials in answer to the spread of kinetic barriers. Accurate and deadly at long range, its high rate of fire let it bring down almost any target regardless of its defenses, making it a favorite of infiltrators and assassins.

Long read · joe

Maelon Heplorn

Maelon Heplorn was a salarian geneticist, former Special Tasks Group operative, and student of Mordin Solus who helped modify the genophage. Consumed by guilt over what he came to see as cultural genocide, he later defected to the krogan and pursued a cure through increasingly brutal experiments.

Long read · joe

M35 Mako

The M35 Mako was a Systems Alliance infantry fighting vehicle designed for rapid deployment from frigates onto any world. Compact, environmentally sealed, and famously rugged, it served as Commander Shepard's groundside transport during the hunt for Saren.

Long read · joe

Mass relay

Mass relays were colossal transit devices scattered across the Milky Way that flung starships across thousands of light years in moments. Long credited to the Protheans, they were in truth built by the Reapers as part of a trap meant to shape and harvest galactic civilization.

Long read · joe

Maya Brooks

Maya Brooks was a former Cerberus operative and master of infiltration who worked under a long string of aliases. She compiled the dossiers for Commander Shepard's gravest missions before turning against Cerberus and the Commander alike.

Long read · joe

Migrant Fleet

Known to its people as the Flotilla, the Migrant Fleet was the vast collection of starships that became home to the quarians after the geth drove them from their world. Some fifty thousand vessels carried seventeen million quarians across the galaxy in a centuries-long exile.

Long read · joe

Milque

Milque was a human sniper of the Systems Alliance special forces unit Delta Squad, stationed on the colony of Fehl Prime. Cynical and self-deprecating yet fiercely loyal, he fought through both the Blood Pack assault on the colony and the later Collector attack that followed.

Long read · joe

Miranda Lawson

Miranda Lawson was a genetically engineered Cerberus officer who led the Lazarus Project that brought Commander Shepard back from death. Brilliant and driven yet haunted by her father's control, she served as Shepard's second in command before breaking with Cerberus.

Long read · joe

Mordin Solus

Mordin Solus was a salarian geneticist and former Special Tasks Group operative who helped modify the krogan genophage and later sought to undo it. Recruited by Commander Shepard against the Collectors, he wrestled with the consequences of his work until the end.

Long read · joe

Morinth

Morinth was an Ardat-Yakshi, an asari afflicted with a rare genetic disorder that killed her partners when she joined minds with them and made her stronger with each death. Addicted to the act, she fled asari justice for centuries while her own mother, the justicar Samara, hunted her across the stars.

Long read · joe

Morning War

The Morning War, known to most of the galaxy as the Geth War, was the conflict that erupted when the newly sapient geth turned on the quarians who had created them. The geth won within a year, all but exterminating the quarians and driving the survivors into a centuries-long exile aboard the Migrant Fleet.

Long read · joe

Moshae Sjefa: Angaran Scholar of the Remnant

Moshae Sjefa was a revered angaran elder and scientist, regarded as the foremost expert on Remnant technology in the Heleus Cluster. Captured and tortured by the kett, she was rescued by the Andromeda Initiative's Pathfinder and went on to help unlock the secrets of the Remnant.

Long read · joe

N7 Eagle: Alliance Automatic Pistol

The N7 Eagle was a compact, fully automatic pistol developed by the Systems Alliance as a redesign of the Phalanx handgun. Accurate and rapid firing, it was produced under the Alliance's Offensive Handgun Project and named after a classic Earth pistol, the Desert Eagle.

Long read · joe

N7 Hurricane: Submachine Gun

The N7 Hurricane was a fully automatic submachine gun valued for its rapid rate of fire and suppressive power. Though some militaries passed it over for its lower accuracy, the Systems Alliance embraced it, making it standard issue for many of its squadrons.

Long read · joe

N7 Piranha

The N7 Piranha was an assault shotgun developed for the Reaper war, designed to give the lighter-bodied species of the resistance a low-recoil weapon with a wide spread for cutting down husks at close range.

Long read · joe

Nakmor Drack: The Old Krogan of Clan Nakmor

Nakmor Drack was an aged krogan veteran who had spent more than 1,400 years as a soldier, mercenary, and pirate in the Milky Way before joining his clan on the voyage to Andromeda. Kept alive by extensive cybernetics, he became a steadfast member of a Pathfinder's crew in the Heleus Cluster.

Long read · joe

Nexus: Heart of the Andromeda Initiative

The Nexus was the headquarters of the Andromeda Initiative, a vast space station built to anchor the arriving arks, process resources, and shelter colonists in the Heleus Cluster. Modeled on the Citadel, it survived disaster and rebellion to become the seat of the colonization effort.

Long read · joe

Nihlus Kryik

Nihlus Kryik was one of the Citadel Council's most decorated turian Spectres and the agent who nominated Commander Shepard for the order. He died on Eden Prime, shot in the back by his former mentor Saren Arterius.

Long read · joe

SSV Normandy SR-1

The SSV Normandy SR-1 was a Systems Alliance prototype deep-scout frigate, the first of the Normandy class, co-developed with the Turian Hierarchy under Council sponsorship. She served as Commander Shepard's flagship until her destruction in a surprise attack in 2185.

Long read · joe

Normandy SR-2

The Normandy SR-2 was an advanced stealth frigate built as the successor to the original Normandy and served as Commander Shepard's base of operations against the Collectors and, later, the Reapers. Built by Cerberus and later turned over to the Systems Alliance, she became one of the most storied warships of her era.

Long read · joe

Noveria

Noveria was a frozen world chartered for research too dangerous to perform elsewhere, where Commander Shepard tracked Matriarch Benezia, uncovered a revived rachni queen, and recovered the lost Mu Relay coordinates.

Long read · joe

Nyreen Kandros: Leader of the Talons

Nyreen Kandros was a turian biotic and the leader of the Talons mercenary organization on Omega. A former soldier with a strong moral code, she transformed the Talons from a lawless gang into a disciplined force that protected Omega's civilians, and she fought beside Aria T'Loak to free the station from Cerberus.

Long read · joe

Oleg Petrovsky

Oleg Petrovsky was a Cerberus general regarded as a formidable military strategist and a classical scholar of war. A veteran of the First Contact War who came to side with Cerberus over the Alliance, he led the conquest of Omega and its later defense against Aria T'Loak's bid to reclaim the station.

Long read · joe

Omega

Omega was a sprawling space station built in the hollowed husk of an asteroid in the Terminus Systems, a haven for criminals and outcasts ruled by the asari warlord Aria T'Loak. Often called the dark counterpart to the Citadel, it had no central government and changed hands only through violence.

Long read · joe

Omni-tool

The omni-tool was a forearm-mounted multipurpose device combining a computer, diagnostic scanner, and miniature fabricator. Projected as an orange hologram, it handled hacking, repair, medicine, and manufacturing, and could be reshaped into improvised weapons in the field.

Long read · joe

Padok Wiks

Padok Wiks was a salarian Special Tasks Group scientist who commanded the research base on Sur'Kesh and devoted himself to curing the genophage, driven by a conviction that his people had wronged the krogan by manipulating their evolution.

Long read · joe

Palaven

Palaven was the homeworld of the turians, a silver-hued world whose martial culture shaped everything from its architecture to its politics. Long unconquered, it endured its first invasion when the Reapers brought overwhelming force against it in the war of 2186.

Long read · joe

Paul Grayson: The Cerberus Operative Who Turned

Paul Grayson was a Cerberus operative and red sand addict who raised the biotic girl Gillian as his daughter. After turning against Cerberus to save her, he was captured and made into a Reaper-controlled weapon, dying at the hands of the assassin Kai Leng.

Long read · joe

Pelessaria B'Sayle: Asari Remnant Researcher

Pelessaria B'Sayle, known as Peebee, was a young asari adventurer who came to the Heleus Cluster with the Andromeda Initiative. A restless lone wolf with a gift for studying Remnant technology, she left the Nexus to explore on her own before joining the crew of the Tempest.

Long read · joe

Praetorian

The Praetorian was a slow-moving aerial construct fielded by the Collectors, built from dozens of deformed human husks fused into a single armored body. It was armed with twin particle beams and shielded by a regenerating biotic barrier, and it served as one of the deadliest guardians of the Collectors' operations.

Long read · joe

Prodromos

Prodromos was the first lasting outpost the Andromeda Initiative established in the Heleus Cluster, founded on the world of Eos after two earlier settlements failed. It became possible only once a Remnant terraforming vault was reset to drive back the radiation that had made the planet uninhabitable.

Long read · joe

Prothean Beacon

Prothean Beacons were rare relics of a vanished galactic empire, built to transmit messages directly into a recipient's mind. One unearthed on Eden Prime imprinted a fractured warning about the Reapers on Commander Shepard, setting the hunt for Saren in motion.

Long read · joe

Prothean

The Protheans were an ancient race who ruled a galaxy-wide empire before mysteriously vanishing some fifty thousand years ago, harvested by the Reapers. Long credited with building the Citadel and mass relays, they secretly nurtured younger species, leaving ruins and technology that shaped the modern galaxy.

Long read · joe

Qetsi'Olam vas Keelah Si'yah: captain of the quarian ark

Captain Qetsi'Olam vas Keelah Si'yah commanded the quarian ark Keelah Si'yah on its 600-year voyage to Andromeda. A charismatic radical who dreamed of a new home where quarians would lead, she secretly engineered the bioweapon that became the Fortinbras Plague, and gave her own life trying to undo it.

Long read · joe

Quarian

The quarians were a nomadic, technologically gifted species exiled from their homeworld Rannoch after their created servants, the geth, gained sentience and drove them out. For generations they wandered the galaxy aboard the Migrant Fleet, a vast flotilla of salvaged ships.

Long read · joe

Rachni Queen

The rachni queens are the towering, telepathic matriarchs of the hive-minded rachni species. One such queen, hatched in captivity centuries after her kind was thought extinct, became a pivotal figure in the age of Commander Shepard.

Long read · joe

Rachni Wars

The Rachni Wars were a series of conflicts beginning around 1 CE, after a Citadel expedition opened a dormant mass relay into the territory of the rachni, a hostile hive-minded insect species. The Council races fought a losing war for nearly a century until the salarians uplifted the krogan, whose numbers turned the tide and drove the rachni to extinction.

Long read · joe

Rachni

The rachni were a spacefaring, hive-minded insectoid species from the planet Suen whose expansion ignited the Rachni Wars roughly two thousand years before Commander Shepard's era. Driven to apparent extinction by the krogan, a single surviving queen would later place the fate of the entire species in Shepard's hands.

Long read · joe

Rael'Zorah: Quarian Admiral and Tali's Father

Admiral Rael'Zorah sat on the quarian Admiralty Board and was the father of Tali'Zorah. Driven to reclaim the homeworld, he conducted forbidden geth experiments aboard the Alarei that cost him his life and nearly ruined his daughter.

Long read · joe

Raloi

The raloi were an avian, feathered species from the planet Turvess who made first contact with the asari in 2184 after their first space telescope spotted an asari cruiser. Newly welcomed to galactic society, they withdrew and isolated themselves at the onset of the Reaper War.

Long read · joe

Rannoch

Rannoch was the arid homeworld of the quarians, a walled garden of rivers and deserts lost to the geth in the war that drove its people into exile. For generations it lay watched over by a vast swarm of geth space stations.

Long read · joe

Ravager

Ravagers were synthetic-organic creatures the Reapers fashioned from captured rachni, deployed during the Reaper War as mobile artillery that bombarded enemy positions from afar and spawned swarms of smaller creatures to harry their foes.

Long read · joe

Reaper War

The Reaper War was the galaxy-wide conflict that began in 2186 when the Reapers emerged from dark space to harvest all advanced organic life. It saw the fall of Earth, Palaven, and Thessia, the forging of unlikely alliances, and a final battle over Earth that decided the fate of every species.

Long read · joe

Reaper

The Reapers were an ancient race of synthetic-organic starships that hibernated in dark space and returned once every fifty thousand years to harvest the galaxy's advanced life. They built the Citadel and the mass relay network to guide civilization down a predictable path, then reaped it to preserve organic life from synthetic destruction.

Long read · joe

Reegar Carbine: Quarian Electrical Shotgun

The Reegar Carbine was a quarian electrical shotgun that projected a sustained high amperage current rather than a stream of slugs. Devastating against kinetic shields and biotic barriers at very short range, it was named in honor of the Reegar family, whose marines fought with distinction against the geth.

Long read · joe

Reyes Vidal

Reyes Vidal was a smuggler and intelligence broker who rose to prominence in the underworld of Kadara in the Heleus Cluster. Behind his easy charm he was the Charlatan, the secret head of the Collective, and he maneuvered to seize control of Kadara Port from the Outcasts.

Long read · joe

Salarian Union

The Salarian Union was the labyrinthine, matrilineal government of the salarians, the second species to join the Citadel Council. Masters of espionage and bleeding-edge technology, the salarians shaped the krogan, the genophage, and the founding of the Spectres.

Long read · joe

Salarian

The salarians of Sur'Kesh were warm-blooded amphibians with a hyperactive metabolism, fast-thinking and short-lived, renowned for invention, espionage, and non-linear reasoning. The second species to join the Citadel, they uplifted the krogan and later engineered the genophage.

Long read · joe

Doctor Saleon

Doctor Saleon was a salarian geneticist who used the bodies of his own employees as living incubators for cloned organs, growing and harvesting them for the Citadel black market. His crimes drew the attention of C-Sec officer Garrus Vakarian, whose pursuit of the doctor carried over into Commander Shepard's hunt for Saren.

Long read · joe

SAM: Simulated Adaptive Matrix

SAM, the Simulated Adaptive Matrix, was an artificial intelligence created by Alec Ryder to serve the Andromeda Initiative's Pathfinders. Linked directly to a Pathfinder's nervous system through a neural implant, SAM shared its host's senses and lent them analysis and enhancement far beyond ordinary limits.

Long read · joe

Samantha Traynor

Specialist Samantha Traynor was the communications specialist aboard the Alliance retrofit of the Normandy SR-2 during the Reaper War, a brilliant technician whose analytical mind repeatedly turned signal traffic into decisive leads for Commander Shepard.

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Samara

Samara was a nearly thousand-year-old asari justicar, a member of an ancient monastic order bound by a strict honor code, who hunted her own murderous daughter across the galaxy and lent her formidable biotics to Commander Shepard's cause.

Long read · joe

Saren Arterius

Saren Arterius was the longest-serving turian Spectre of the Citadel Council and a feared agent of galactic order, until he fell under the influence of the Reaper Sovereign. As Sovereign's indoctrinated agent he led the geth against the Citadel, and his defeat fell to Commander Shepard.

Long read · joe

Scion: Fused Husk Artillery

Scions were a heavy variant of Husk built from three human Husks fused together and grafted around a single mass effect weapon. Slow and heavily armored, they hung back from the front line and rained ranged fire and shockwaves on their targets while lesser Husks rushed ahead.

Long read · joe

Scorpion: Salarian STG Heavy Pistol

The Scorpion was a heavy pistol originally issued to the salarian Special Tasks Group so small units could hold off far larger forces. It fired low-velocity, squash-head projectiles that stuck to whatever they hit and, when planted on a surface, turned into proximity mines.

Long read · joe

Senna'Nir vas Keelah Si'yah: First Officer of the Quarian Ark

Senna'Nir vas Keelah Si'yah was a quarian engineer and the first officer of the Andromeda Initiative ark Keelah Si'yah. Unusually drawn to machines and artificial intelligence, he led the maintenance crew that fought to save the ark when a hidden plague struck its sleeping passengers during the long voyage between galaxies.

Long read · joe

Shadow Broker

The Shadow Broker was an enigmatic figure at the head of a vast organization that trafficked in information, always selling to the highest bidder. By ensuring no client ever gained a lasting advantage, the Broker kept the galaxy trading secrets and itself in business, its true identity hidden for decades.

Long read · joe

Shala'Raan vas Tonbay: The Quarian Admiral

Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay was a member of the quarian Admiralty Board and a long-time friend of the Zorah family, known to Tali'Zorah as Auntie Raan. She presided over Tali's treason trial and served as a quarian envoy during the war to reclaim the homeworld of Rannoch.

Long read · joe

Shala'Raan vas Tonbay: Quarian Admiral and Tali's Auntie Raan

Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay sat on the quarian Admiralty Board and was a longtime friend of the Zorah family. A measured voice amid the board's hawks, she moderated Tali'Zorah's trial and helped guide her people toward Rannoch.

Long read · joe

Skyllian Blitz

The Skyllian Blitz was a massed pirate and slaver assault on the human colony of Elysium in 2176 CE, partly funded by batarian financiers in reprisal for human expansion into the Skyllian Verge. The colony's defenders held off the attackers until Alliance reinforcements arrived, and the Blitz later prompted a major Alliance offensive against batarian pirate bases on Torfan.

Long read · joe

Sloane Kelly: The Outcast Queen of Kadara

Sloane Kelly was the leader of the Outcasts, the criminal faction that seized Kadara Port in the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda galaxy. A former Alliance soldier and Nexus security chief, she was exiled after the Nexus uprising and carved out a brutal fiefdom on Kadara through force of will.

Long read · joe

Sovereign

Sovereign was a Reaper that posed as the flagship of the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius. Left behind in the galaxy as the Reapers' vanguard, it spent fifty thousand years waiting to summon its kind from dark space, and in 2183 it launched the assault on the Citadel that ended in its destruction.

Long read · joe

Special Tasks Group

The Special Tasks Group was the salarian espionage organization, deployed by the Citadel Council or the Salarian Union for counterterrorism, infiltration, and assassination. Its wartime effectiveness provided the template for the Council's Spectre program.

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Spectre

Spectres were agents entrusted by the Citadel Council with extraordinary authority, including the power of life and death over the galaxy's people. Operating outside the law to preserve galactic stability, they were drawn from the finest operatives of the Council races and answered to no one but the Council itself.

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Spectres

The Spectres were an elite corps of agents granted extraordinary authority by the Citadel Council, charged with preserving galactic stability by any means necessary. Officially above the law and answerable to no one but the Council, they were hand-picked for exceptional ability from across the species of the galaxy.

Long read · joe

SSV Normandy

The SSV Normandy SR-1 was a prototype deep scout frigate of the Systems Alliance, co-developed with the Turian Hierarchy and famed for its experimental stealth systems. She served as Commander Shepard's first command and base of operations before being destroyed by a Collector attack in 2183.

Long read · joe

Steve Cortez

Lieutenant Steve Cortez was the Alliance pilot who flew the Normandy SR-2's Kodiak shuttle during the Reaper War, ferrying Commander Shepard's squad into battle while carrying the grief of a husband lost to the Collectors.

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Steven Hackett

Steven Hackett was a top-ranking admiral of the Systems Alliance Navy who rose from enlisted man to commander of the Fifth Fleet. He helped make Commander Shepard the first human Spectre and led the assembled fleets in the final battle against the Reapers.

Long read · joe

Sur'Kesh: The Salarian Homeworld

Sur'Kesh was the lush, jungle-covered homeworld of the salarians, the seat of their breeding rules and government, and the site of a secret STG base raided by Cerberus during the search for a genophage cure.

Long read · joe

Suvi Anwar: Science Officer of the Tempest

Dr. Suvi Anwar was a member of the Nexus science team and the science officer of the scout ship Tempest during the Andromeda Initiative's settlement of the Heleus Cluster. Holding advanced degrees in astrophysics and molecular biology, she was at once a woman of science and a woman of faith.

Long read · joe

Systems Alliance

The Systems Alliance was the supranational government of Earth and its colonies, acting as humanity's military, exploratory, and economic arm in Citadel space. Within decades of its founding it won humanity a Council seat and led the galaxy's defense during the Reaper War.

Long read · joe

Tali'Zorah: Quarian Engineer of the Migrant Fleet

Tali'Zorah was a quarian mechanical prodigy who left the Migrant Fleet on her Pilgrimage and uncovered the first hard evidence of the Reapers. She joined Commander Shepard's crew, rose to admiral, and helped decide the fate of her people on their lost homeworld of Rannoch.

Long read · joe

Tela Vasir

Tela Vasir was an asari Spectre and powerful biotic whose decades of service to the Citadel Council masked a long-standing arrangement with the Shadow Broker. When her loyalties were exposed during Liara T'Soni's hunt for the Broker, she turned on Commander Shepard and died in the pursuit that followed.

Long read · joe

Tempest: The Pathfinder's Scout Ship

The Tempest was the survey ship of the Andromeda Initiative's Pathfinder team, a state of the art scout vessel used to explore the worlds of the Heleus Cluster in search of new homes for Milky Way colonists. After its sister ships were lost, it became the one of a kind home and base of the human Pathfinder.

Long read · joe

Terminus Systems

The Terminus Systems were a vast, ungoverned region beyond Citadel space, home to a loose affiliation of minor species united only in refusing the Council's authority. A haven for piracy, the slave trade, and mercenary gangs, the Terminus centered on the trade hub of Omega.

Long read · joe

Terra Nova

Terra Nova was the second human extrasolar colony and the first settled beyond the Charon mass relay, a garden world whose platinum deposits drew a rush of immigrants. Once the most populous Alliance colony, it later suffered batarian raids and a Reaper landing during the war.

Long read · joe

Tevos

Tevos was the asari representative on the Citadel Council during the era of Commander Shepard, a diplomat and compromiser who nonetheless placed the welfare of asari space above the interests of her allies.

Long read · joe

Thane Krios

Thane Krios was a drell assassin, reputed to be among the most skilled in the galaxy, a deeply spiritual man dying of an incurable disease who joined Commander Shepard's campaign against the Collectors as an act of penance.

Long read · joe

Thanix Cannon

The Thanix was a line of turian-designed ship weapons reverse-engineered from the salvaged main gun of the Reaper Sovereign. Its molten-metal slug could pierce virtually any shield or armor, giving even small warships firepower to rival a cruiser.

Long read · joe

The Illusive Man

The Illusive Man was the secretive and immensely well-connected leader of Cerberus, a pro-human organization devoted to securing humanity's dominance in the galaxy. He rebuilt Commander Shepard to fight the Collectors, then turned to mastering Reaper technology, a pursuit that ended in his own indoctrination.

Long read · joe

Thessia

Thessia was the homeworld of the asari, a wealthy and stable world rich in element zero that was long regarded as one of the most prosperous in the galaxy. Its peaceful republics were shattered by the Reaper assault during the war of 2186.

Long read · joe

Thorian

The Thorian, also called Species 37, was an ancient sentient plant on Feros, at least fifty thousand years old. It controlled the minds of those who inhaled its spores, turning them into thralls, and held an entire colony in its grip until Commander Shepard destroyed it in 2183.

Long read · joe

Thresher Maw

Thresher maws were enormous, burrowing carnivores that erupted from the ground without warning to devour anything in reach. Spread across the galaxy by spores robust enough to survive deep space, they became a deadly hazard from the colony of Akuze to the wastelands of Tuchanka.

Long read · joe

Tiran Kandros: Leader of the Nexus Militia

Tiran Kandros was a turian who founded and led the volunteer militia that took over station security aboard the Nexus in the Heleus Cluster. He also directed the APEX strike teams that protected Andromeda Initiative interests, and though technically a civilian he was counted among the Nexus leadership.

Long read · joe

Treeya Nuwani: Asari Anthropologist of Fehl Prime

Treeya Nuwani was an asari anthropologist and archaeologist who lived and worked on the human colony of Fehl Prime. A pacifist absorbed in her research, she was drawn into the Collectors' attack on the colony and uncovered the truth of what they had done to the Protheans.

Long read · joe

Tuchanka

Tuchanka was the homeworld of the krogan, a harsh and irradiated world scarred by the nuclear wars its people waged upon themselves. Once a fertile world teeming with fierce life, it became a wasteland of craters, ash, and predatory survivors.

Long read · joe

Turian Hierarchy

The Turian Hierarchy was the government of the turian people, a regimented meritocracy built around military and public service. It earned a Citadel Council seat for its role in the Krogan Rebellions and contributed the largest share of the Citadel Fleet.

Long read · joe

Turian

The turians of Palaven were a militaristic, disciplined species who earned a Citadel Council seat by defeating the krogan in the Krogan Rebellions and unleashing the genophage. Famed for their public service ethic and their contributions to the Citadel Fleet, they filled the galaxy's peacekeeping role for centuries.

Long read · joe

Urdnot Wrex

Urdnot Wrex was a centuries-old krogan battlemaster, mercenary, and one of the few of his kind who planned for a krogan future after the genophage. He fought beside Commander Shepard against Saren and later united the krogan clans to fight the Reapers and reclaim his people's fertility.

Long read · joe

Venom Shotgun: Salarian STG Weapon

The Venom Shotgun was a salarian weapon developed by the Special Tasks Group to meet the unpredictable needs of operatives in hostile territory. Firing explosive rounds and clusters of microgrenades, it was designed to force an exit during extraction operations.

Long read · joe

Vetra Nyx

Vetra Nyx was a turian smuggler and fixer who left the Milky Way with the Andromeda Initiative to give her younger sister a fresh start. Resourceful and fiercely protective, she served a Pathfinder team in the Heleus Cluster as its jack of all trades, brokering deals between the lawful and the lawless alike.

Long read · joe

Virmire

Virmire was a lush, tropical frontier world in the Terminus reaches where Saren Arterius built a secret research base, and where Commander Shepard learned the true purpose of the Reapers before destroying it.

Long read · joe

Voeld: Frozen Angaran World

Voeld was an angaran world in the grip of an ice age, set in the Heleus Cluster of the Andromeda galaxy. Once dense with cities, it had become a frozen battleground where scattered angaran settlements and a resistance held out against the occupying kett.

Long read · joe

Volus

The volus were a suited, ammonia-breathing species from the high-pressure world of Irune, a Citadel associate race and client of the Turian Hierarchy. Masters of trade and finance, they authored the galaxy's banking standards yet were never granted a seat on the Council.

Long read · joe

Vorcha

The vorcha were a short-lived, savagely aggressive species from the depleted world of Heshtok, regarded across the galaxy as pests and scavengers. Their unique cellular biology let them adapt rapidly to any environment, making them prized as mercenary muscle by the krogan Blood Pack.

Long read · joe

Wards

The Wards were the five great arms of the Citadel, residential districts each home to millions and dense as the cities of old Earth. Sealed against vacuum and tended by the keepers, they could be closed to fold the station into an impenetrable cylinder.

Long read · joe

Weapons: Mass accelerator firearms of the galaxy

Most personal weapons in the galaxy were micro-scaled mass accelerators that shaved tiny slugs from a metal block and flung them at lethal speed using mass effect fields. For decades waste heat was the only true limit on their fire, until the geth introduced detachable thermal clips that reshaped how every army fought.

Long read · joe

Urdnot Wreav

Urdnot Wreav was the broodbrother of Urdnot Wrex and a hardline traditionalist krogan. In some accounts he led Clan Urdnot, favoring conquest and intimidation over the unity his brother preached.

Long read · joe

Yahg

The yahg were a towering, violently aggressive species native to Parnack, consummate predators with eight eyes and unrivaled perceptiveness. After they massacred a Citadel delegation in 2125, the Council barred them from galactic society, though one yahg would secretly rise to become the Shadow Broker.

Long read · joe

YMIR Mech: Hahne-Kedar Heavy Combat Mech

The YMIR Mech was a massive armored combat walker manufactured by Hahne-Kedar for anti-infantry warfare. Heavily shielded and armed with twin mass accelerator cannons and a rocket launcher, it served as fire support for mercenary bands and as heavy security on the frontier.

Long read · joe

Yorrik: Elcor Doctor of the Keelah Si'yah

Yorrik was an elcor doctor and devoted student of Shakespeare who travelled to Andromeda aboard the ark Keelah Si'yah. A reluctant physician with an ear for Hamlet, he was thrust into the fight against a deadly plague that swept the ark, and he gave his life to engineer its cure.

Long read · joe

Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib: Quarian Admiral and Geth Sympathizer

Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib sat on the quarian Admiralty Board and led the Civilian Fleet. Outspoken in his belief that the sentient geth had a right to exist, he opposed both reclaiming the homeworld and the war that followed.

Long read · joe

Zaeed Massani

Zaeed Massani was one of the most feared bounty hunters and mercenary soldiers in the galaxy, a co-founder of the Blue Suns who survived a point-blank betrayal and spent decades rebuilding his name. Hired by Cerberus to aid Commander Shepard, he carried a long grudge and an even longer rifle into the war against the Reapers.