Noveria

Noveria was a small, frozen world privately chartered by the Noveria Development Corporation, which leased its laboratories to those wishing to pursue research too dangerous or controversial to conduct elsewhere. Its secrecy bred endless conspiracy theories, and in 2183 it became the place where Commander Shepard pursued Matriarch Benezia, the ally of the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius.

A world of secrets#

Noveria was a small, frozen terrestrial world, barely habitable by conventional standards and held under private charter by the Noveria Development Corporation. The corporation leased its facilities to companies and researchers wishing to carry out work that was too dangerous or too controversial to be permitted elsewhere, and the world's unusual independence made it the source of countless wild conspiracy theories. Its terrain included the Skadi Mountains, home to the isolated laboratory of Peak 15, and the Aleutsk Valley, a pass linking the main settlement of Port Hanshan to that distant lab. A resort near the equator catered to those seeking leisure, and among the native lifeforms were creatures known as nathak.

Benezia and Peak 15#

In 2183 Shepard came to Noveria following leads on Saren's ally, Matriarch Benezia. Benezia and Saren were both investors in the Binary Helix corporation, which operated the lab at Peak 15, and the matriarch had traveled there on business. The lab had since issued a Code Omega distress signal, and a blizzard had cut off shuttle access. After dealing with the world's administrator, Shepard secured passage and drove up to the facility.

The rachni queen#

Peak 15 was found all but deserted, overrun by geth and by strange creatures that proved to be rachni, a species thought extinct since the ancient Rachni Wars. Binary Helix had discovered a rachni egg that hatched into a queen and had tried to breed an army from her brood, only for the rachni to turn on them. Deep in the labs, Shepard found Benezia with the Rachni Queen. The matriarch, controlled by Saren through indoctrination, attacked, but in a moment of clarity she revealed the truth: Saren had sent her to draw the location of the lost Mu Relay from the queen's inherited genetic memory. She handed the coordinates to Shepard before the indoctrination reclaimed her, and the encounter ended with her death. Shepard was left to decide the fate of the captive Rachni Queen.

A key to Ilos#

The coordinates recovered on Noveria proved decisive. The Mu Relay lay in the Terminus Systems and was the only route to Ilos, the dead Prothean world where Saren sought the Conduit. With Benezia's data in hand, Shepard held a vital piece of the larger puzzle. In the years that followed, Noveria's status as a hub of advanced galactic research kept it significant; during the Reaper war its position near the salarian border and its proximity to the Exodus Cluster made it both a target for Cerberus and a place the salarians were expected to defend fiercely.