Mass Effect category

Concepts

28 entries tagged Concepts, 28 of them long reads. The rest of the wiki points here most often at Genophage and Element zero.

Justicars: the asari order that answers only to the CodeJusticars were asari who gave up family, property and everything but weapons and armour to wander asari space enforcing a code of more than five thousand sutras. The Code admitted no moral grey and commonly prescribed death, which made justicars both revered and feared by the governments that tolerated them.
Treaty of Farixen: the dreadnought ratio that held Citadel spaceThe Treaty of Farixen fixed how many dreadnoughts each Citadel power was permitted to build, placing the turian navy at the top of a five to three to one pyramid. Signing it was the price of an embassy on the Citadel, and the species who never signed, or who stopped caring, are the ones who reshaped the balance.
Background Races: the vanished civilizations known only from ruinsAcross billions of years, countless races rose to sentience in the Milky Way and Andromeda, forged civilizations, explored the depths of space, and became extinct. The contemporary galaxy knew most of them only through ruins, wreckage, and artifacts, from the crypt builders of Armeni to the nameless dead entombed in the clouds of Anjea.
Broker Terminal: the Shadow Broker's window on a galaxy at warIn a cabin aboard the Normandy SR-2, a single message terminal carried the intercepted traffic of the Shadow Broker's network through the darkest months of the Reaper War. Its files ran from progress reports on the war's last superweapon and smuggler manifests to private letters that were never meant to be read.
Drugs: the narcotics and medicines of the galaxyDrugs were chemical substances that altered the normal bodily functions of an organism, and the galactic market for them was lucrative enough that criminal enterprises produced, sold, and smuggled them despite legal restrictions. They ranged from lifesaving antibiotics to red sand, a narcotic refined from element zero that granted brief biotic power, and to suppressants engineered to strip a biotic of that power entirely.
M-3 Predator: Heavy PistolThe M-3 Predator was a heavy pistol manufactured by Elanus Risk Control, valued as a powerful, deadly, and relatively inexpensive sidearm. Rarely issued by professional militaries, it was very popular in the Terminus Systems, where it armed everyone from Blood Pack troopers to Commander Shepard on the day the Reapers reached Earth.
M-98 Widow: Anti-Materiel Sniper RifleThe M-98 Widow was a 39 kilogram anti-materiel sniper rifle built to destroy armored vehicles and krogan, so violent in its recoil that no ordinary human could fire it without shattering an arm. Long the preserve of synthetics and augmented specialists, it reached the open galactic market only after a ruinously expensive redesign.
BioticsBiotics 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.
Blasto: The First Hanar SpectreBlasto 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.
Citadel ConventionsThe 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.
Element zeroElement 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.
Entertainment: Culture and amusement across the galaxyThe 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.
Executioner PistolThe 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.
FTL travelFTL 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.
GenophageThe 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.
IndoctrinationIndoctrination 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.
InusannonThe 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.
Kinetic barriersKinetic 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.
LOKI MechThe 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.
M-15 Vindicator: Mercenary Battle RifleThe 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.
M-23 Katana: Common Mercenary ShotgunThe 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.
M-29 Incisor: Burst-Fire Sniper RifleThe 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.
M-76 Revenant: Warlord's Machine GunThe 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.
M-92 MantisThe 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.
M-96 Mattock: Semi-Automatic Marksman RifleThe 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.
M-97 Viper: Rapid-Fire Sniper RifleThe 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.
Omni-toolThe 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.
Weapons: Mass accelerator firearms of the galaxyMost 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.