Conrad Verner

Conrad Verner was a human and an enthusiastic, self-proclaimed admirer of Commander Shepard. Holding a romanticized view of life as a Spectre, he repeatedly tried to follow in the Commander's footsteps with more zeal than competence, turning up across Citadel space from the Citadel itself to the world of Illium. Behind the bumbling exterior, however, was a man of genuine learning who ultimately put his knowledge toward the war effort against the Reapers.

An admirer on the Citadel#

Conrad Verner first crossed paths with Commander Shepard in 2183, in the upper markets of the wards aboard the Citadel. It quickly became clear that he held a romanticized notion of life as a Spectre and was far more interested in the embellished stories of Shepard's exploits than in the realities of the work. How the encounter ended depended on the Commander: dismissed harshly, Conrad marched off determined to prove he too could represent humanity and was never seen again, having picked a fatal fight with a group of turians; treated courteously, he was eventually persuaded to return home to his wife; and confronted with a weapon, he renounced Shepard as his hero and left.

The vigilante of Illium#

By 2185, Conrad had taken matters into his own hands. He turned up at the Eternity bar on the world of Illium, impersonating an Alliance officer in replica armor and causing trouble as he demanded the bar's deed from its bartender, the asari Matriarch Aethyta. He believed himself to be acting for an undercover officer who had told him the bar was a front for red sand dealers, when in truth he had been manipulated so that the supposed officer could seize the deed. With Shepard's help the deception was uncovered. Depending on how events unfolded, Conrad either came to a grisly end in one of his misadventures or went on to better things, with reports later telling of a charity foundation he founded for refugees and orphans.

Scholar and ally in the war#

During the war against the Reapers in 2186, Conrad reappeared in the refugee sector of the Citadel, where Shepard found him recruiting for Cerberus, reasoning that his hero had once been aligned with the pro-human organization. He had again been used as a distraction while Cerberus sabotaged local medical supplies, and on being told he was in the wrong he agreed at once to stop and asked how he could help.

It emerged that Conrad was far more accomplished than his manner suggested, holding a doctorate in Xenoscience, and he forwarded Shepard a copy of his dissertation on dark energy to aid the construction of the Crucible. Through further conversation he revealed that the orphan shelter he had founded had thrived until the Reaper assault, after which he spent nearly everything he had to get the children off-world, and he admitted that the wife he had long spoken of did not exist. When Conrad later identified his Cerberus contact, the agent drew a weapon on Shepard, and Conrad threw himself forward to protect the Commander; whether he survived the attempt depended on whether the agent's weapon had earlier been sabotaged.