Feros
The Prothean Ruin-World
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.
Feros was a dust-fouled world whose surface was blanketed almost entirely by Prothean ruins, settled by the ExoGeni Corporation to study those ancient remains. Beneath its colony lay the Thorian, a parasitic plant intelligence, and in 2183 the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius sent a geth force to the world, drawing Commander Shepard into the fight for it. (Mass Effect)
A world of ruins#
Feros was an old and weathered world whose land mass was blanketed almost entirely by Prothean ruins, with ancient structures covering roughly two-thirds of its surface. Its atmosphere was fouled with dust, and travel across the ground was hampered by crumbled debris piled dozens of meters deep. Evidence suggested the world had once been far colder than in the modern era. Two large moons, the more distant Orcan and the nearer Vardet, circled it. (Mass Effect)
Zhu's Hope#
The ExoGeni Corporation founded a pilot colony on Feros, named Zhu's Hope, to explore and exploit the vast Prothean ruins that covered the world. The colonists lived among the towering ancient skyscrapers, reaching the corporation's facilities by way of the elevated Prothean Skyway. The settlement was small and exposed, its survival bound up with the strange ruins surrounding it. (Mass Effect)
The Thorian#
Concealed beneath the colony was the Thorian, an ancient parasitic plant intelligence. The creature exerted a controlling influence over living minds, and by 2183 it had taken hold of most of the colonists at Zhu's Hope, bending them to its will. Saren Arterius had already taken what he wanted from it, the Prothean Cipher, passed to him through the asari Shiala, and he dispatched a geth force to Feros to destroy the creature so that no one else could gain the same knowledge. (Mass Effect)
The geth assault#
When the geth attacked, Commander Shepard arrived to investigate and found the colony besieged and its people unnaturally controlled. Shepard fought through the geth occupation of the ExoGeni facility, learning from the corporation's records the truth about the Thorian project and the creature's grip on the colonists. The struggle culminated in a confrontation with the Thorian itself, ending its hold over Feros and the survivors of Zhu's Hope. (Mass Effect)
Frequently asked questions
- What is Feros in Mass Effect?
- Feros was a dust-fouled world whose surface was blanketed almost entirely by Prothean ruins, with ancient structures covering roughly two-thirds of its land mass. Travel across the ground was hampered by crumbled debris piled dozens of meters deep, and two large moons, Orcan and Vardet, circled it.
- What is Zhu's Hope on Feros?
- Zhu's Hope was a pilot colony founded on Feros by the ExoGeni Corporation to explore and exploit the vast Prothean ruins covering the world. The colonists lived among the towering ancient skyscrapers and reached the corporation's facilities by way of the elevated Prothean Skyway.
- What is the Thorian on Feros?
- The Thorian was an ancient parasitic plant intelligence concealed beneath the colony on Feros. It exerted a controlling influence over living minds, and by 2183 it had taken hold of most of the colonists at Zhu's Hope, bending them to its will.
- Why did Saren attack Feros?
- For reasons that were never made fully clear, the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius wanted the Thorian destroyed and dispatched a geth force to Feros to do it. Commander Shepard arrived to investigate, fought through the geth occupation of the ExoGeni facility, and confronted the Thorian, ending its hold over Feros and the survivors of Zhu's Hope.
Gallery
Images via Mass Effect Wiki
Sources
- GameMass Effect, BioWare, 2007
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mentioned in9 entries
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.
Drugs: the narcotics and medicines of the galaxy
Drugs 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.
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.
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.
Mass Effect Story Explained: Plot Summary and Ending of the First Game
The plot of the first Mass Effect in order, from the geth attack on Eden Prime to the Battle of the Citadel. Who Saren is, what Sovereign wants, and what each ending choice changes.
Mass Effect Story Explained: the Trilogy and Andromeda
The whole Mass Effect story in order, one game at a time. Shepard stops Saren, beats the Collectors and leads the galaxy against the Reapers, then Andromeda starts again 600 years later in another galaxy.
Mass Effect Timeline: every major event from the Leviathans to Andromeda
A dated history of the Mass Effect universe, from the Leviathans and the first Reaper harvests through the fall of the Protheans, the Council's wars, humanity's arrival and the Reaper War of 2186. It ends with the Andromeda Initiative reaching the Heleus Cluster in 2819, and runs oldest first in eras.
Shiala: the asari commando Saren traded to the Thorian
Shiala followed Matriarch Benezia for nearly two centuries, was handed to the Thorian on Feros so Saren could buy the Prothean Cipher, and gave the same Cipher to Shepard afterwards. She is the only person to shake off Sovereign.
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.
Get new articles in your inbox
No spam. New lore drops, canon conflicts, and deep dives only when they’re worth reading.
Some links on Lore Fortress are affiliate links. If you buy through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.