Jarun Tann: Director of the Andromeda Initiative

Jarun Tann was a salarian bureaucrat who rose, almost by accident, to become Director of the Andromeda Initiative. Described as craving power yet fundamentally well-meaning, in over his head but anxious to hide it, self-important yet riddled with insecurity, he was thrust into leadership of an expedition fighting for its survival in a hostile new galaxy. His tenure was defined by famine, mutiny, and the desperate search for a habitable world, and by his uneasy partnership with the human Pathfinder he came to depend upon.

Origins and the Initiative#

Tann was born on Sur'Kesh and had been captivated by the idea of exploring space since he was young, though life had carried him into a career in administration instead. When he learned of the Andromeda Initiative, the great expedition launched from the Milky Way to settle a distant galaxy, he saw in it a chance to take the path he had never taken. His application listed his experience as a senior consultant in advanced matrix-based accounting, with hobbies in model ship building and a vague ambition to travel someday. Though his official answers professed no prejudice, later forensic review of his records revealed a bias against the krogan that would shape his time in command.

He was accepted in a junior capacity, appointed Deputy Assistant for Revenue Management, a post buried far down the Initiative's hierarchy and a long way from any seat of authority.

Director of the Initiative#

The Initiative's arrival in Andromeda was catastrophic. The Nexus, the great station meant to serve as the colonists' first foothold, collided with the Scourge, a vast and destructive energy phenomenon, and the impact killed the Initiative's founder, Jien Garson, along with the seven leaders ranked above Tann. As the most senior survivor, the revenue manager found himself thrust into the role of Director of the entire Initiative at the very moment it most needed strong leadership.

The situation was dire. Hydroponics had been damaged, no habitable planets had been found, and supplies were stretched toward collapse. Tann lacked his predecessor's charisma and had an uneasy relationship with the other surviving leaders, who frequently derided him as a poor placeholder, and his dealings with the krogan Superintendent Nakmor Kesh were especially strained by his prejudice. As conditions worsened he began to consider returning colonists to cryostasis and imposing harsh rationing, and after scout teams failed to find any viable world he resolved to force people back into the sleep against their will. Dissent hardened into open revolt, an event that became known as the Nexus uprising.

The Nexus uprising#

Relations between Tann and the head of Nexus security, Sloane Kelly, deteriorated swiftly during the revolt. Kelly opposed using the krogan against the mutineers and left to negotiate with the rebellion's leader, Calix Corvannis. In her absence the Director went behind her back and struck a bargain with Clan Nakmor to put down the uprising by force. Corvannis was killed in the violence that followed, and on learning of Tann's intervention Kelly turned against the leadership and joined the rebels herself.

To resolve the revolt and the supply crisis at a stroke, Tann offered the rebels an ultimatum of exile to the hostile worlds or a return to cryostasis. They chose exile. When Clan Nakmor came to claim the political representation they had been promised in exchange for their help, Tann professed to have known nothing of the arrangement, disavowed the official who had made it, and reneged on the deal. He narrowly escaped the fury of the clan leader Nakmor Morda only because Kesh stood between them, and the krogan departed the Nexus to found their own colony, with Kesh remaining behind to keep a foothold of goodwill.

Tann and the Pathfinder#

By the time the human Pathfinder arrived aboard the survey ship Tempest, Tann held official oversight of Initiative operations and strategy and effective authority over the Pathfinder teams, though many still considered him inept at handling the chain of command and lacking the presence to enforce his will. In practice he and a council of prominent Nexus leaders had to reach consensus to govern at all, a process frequently hampered by squabbling.

Tann recognized the newly arrived Pathfinder as the Nexus' best chance of finding habitable worlds and overcoming the kett and the Scourge, and he granted them the Tempest to pursue that goal, reasoning that their success would let him wake more colonists and bolster his own standing. When the Pathfinder made the world Eos viable and founded the outpost Prodromos, he praised the achievement and presented the Pathfinder Headquarters. He proved a clumsy diplomat, bungling early contact with the angara by repeatedly offering them wisdom they neither needed nor wanted, but he was eager for any alliance and welcomed news that an embassy had been opened. He hoped the safe return of the revered Moshae Sjefa would deepen those ties.

When the recovered salarian ark reached the Nexus, Tann personally greeted the survivors and pointed to them as proof that the colonial dream endured, inviting the Pathfinder to address the crowd and taking care that the gratitude was directed their way. He clashed repeatedly with the leadership over whether to support the Pathfinder's bolder moves, at one point being forced to assert his authority to order the salarian Pathfinder to stand down, and arguing with Kesh over the fate of Nakmor Drack's scouts. After the Pathfinders defied his orders and seized a crucial site from the kett, Tann apologized for his hesitation and affirmed that the human was truly worthy of the title of Pathfinder. Following the Archon's defeat he joined the rest of the leadership in deciding who should serve as interim ambassador for the cluster.