Asari

The asari, native to the planet Thessia, were often considered the most influential and respected sentient species in the galaxy, prized for their elegance, diplomacy, and biotic aptitude. They were among the earliest races to achieve interstellar flight after the Protheans, the first to discover and settle the Citadel, and the species most instrumental in proposing and founding the Citadel Council. Favoring compromise over conflict, they remained at the center of galactic affairs for millennia, working alongside the salarians who became their earliest partners.

Biology and reproduction#

The asari resembled humans in basic skeletal structure, with five digits on each hand and relatively straight feet, a similarity that allowed them to wear human armor. A typical asari had a blue to purple complexion, and in place of head hair possessed semi-flexible, cartilage-based scalp crests. Some, such as Matriarch Benezia and Liara T'Soni, bore unique colored facial markings. Their blood was purple, and they could perceive ultraviolet light. A robust cellular regenerative system let them reach more than a thousand years of age, a lifespan rivaled only by the krogan.

The asari were a mono-gender species with no concept of gender difference; one of their number remarked that "male and female have no real meaning for us." To other species they appeared female, and most were referred to with feminine titles such as huntress and matriarch. They reproduced through a form of parthenogenesis: an asari provided two copies of her own genes, the second altered through a process called melding, also known as the joining or the union. During melding she attuned her nervous system to her partner's, briefly becoming one shared consciousness in which memories and feelings passed between them. A common phrase spoken beforehand was "embrace eternity." The offspring was always an asari, regardless of the partner's species, as no DNA was taken from the partner.

A rare and dangerous genetic defect, the Ardat-Yakshi, caused an asari to destroy her partner's nervous system during melding. The condition appeared almost exclusively among purebloods, those whose parents were both asari, which contributed to the cultural taboo against asari conceiving together. Melding could also be used solely to transfer thoughts without reproduction, a practice reserved for moments of deep connection.

The three life stages#

Asari passed through three climacteric stages marked by biochemical and physiological change. The Maiden stage began at puberty and was defined by curiosity and the drive to explore; many young asari spent these years traveling, dancing, or working as mercenaries. The Matron stage began around the age of 350, bringing a desire to settle and raise children. The Matriarch stage began around 700 years of age, when an asari became a sage and councilor, dispensing wisdom drawn from centuries of experience. Though each stage carried strong biological tendencies, individuals could begin a new stage whenever they felt they had reached the appropriate maturity, and some defied the pattern entirely.

History and the Citadel#

The asari arose on Thessia, a world rich in element zero that caused much of its life to exhibit biotic tendencies. Their early development was secretly accelerated by the Protheans, who crafted the guise of the goddess Athame and genetically altered the asari to grant them biotic capability. When the Protheans departed they left a single beacon on Thessia, around which the asari later built a temple devoted to Athame. The beacon contained the Prothean virtual intelligence Vendetta and became the hidden source of countless advances, its existence kept a closely guarded state secret so that the asari might appear to have risen on their own merit.

The asari were the first contemporary race to achieve spaceflight and discover the mass relay network. They found the Citadel in 580 BCE and, with the mute assistance of the keepers, quickly learned to operate its systems. Sixty years later the salarians made first contact, and together the two species founded the Citadel Council in 500 BCE, a governing body that would come to unite dozens of races. As the diplomatic arm of the Council, the asari went on to welcome many other species into the galactic community.

The Reaper War#

During the Reaper invasion of 2186 CE, the asari at first refrained from supporting the other races, reluctant to divert resources from the defense of their own worlds. Their hit-and-run tactics slowed the Reaper advance but could not stop it. In desperation, the asari government authorized their Councilor to reveal the existence of the Prothean beacon in the Temple of Athame to Commander Shepard, hoping its data would help complete the Crucible, the galaxy's only means of defeating the Reapers. Thessia was assaulted and swiftly fell, the first time the asari homeworld had been attacked since the Rachni Wars. Out of options, the asari finally joined the Allied effort, providing resources to bolster the fleets and fighting alongside the other races in the final confrontation over Earth.

Culture and government#

Because of their long lifespans, the asari held a patient "long view" of events, comfortable with extended observation and untroubled that an investment might not pay off for decades or centuries. Traditionally they spread their influence not through conquest but through cultural domination and intellectual superiority, inviting promising new species into the galactic community in the knowledge that asari ideals would inevitably take root. Their religion, siari, held that the universe itself was a single consciousness, and that death returned one's spiritual energy to the greater whole.

The asari governed themselves through the Asari Republics, a broad and loose structure that had grown from confederacies of independent city-states resembling the ancient Mediterranean. Apart from their Council representative they had no politicians or elections, instead conducting an all-inclusive electronic democracy in which any citizen could participate at will, with the greatest weight given to the opinions of any Matriarchs present.

The huntresses#

The asari military resembled a collection of tribal warrior bands rather than a national force, each community organizing and electing its own units. Its soldiers, the huntresses or commandos, were full-time professionals, most still in their Maiden stage, who devoted decades to mastering the martial arts. A huntress combined profound tactical insight with a dancer's grace, and asari units specialized in ambush, infiltration, and assassination rather than conventional warfare. As a turian saying held, "The asari are the finest warriors in the galaxy. Fortunately, there are not many of them." The asari also possessed one of the most powerful navies in the galaxy, including the dreadnought Destiny Ascension, flagship of the Citadel Fleet, though they favored nimble swarms of frigates and fighters over slower formations of capital ships.