Thane Krios

Thane Krios was a drell assassin, rumored to be the most skilled killer in the galaxy. Unlike most of his trade, he preferred to close with his targets and end them personally, blending stealth, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and biotics. A spiritual man who prayed before and after every kill, he was recruited into Commander Shepard's mission against the Collectors while dying of an incurable illness.

Origins and training#

Thane was born in 2146. At the age of six his parents gave him to the hanar to be trained as an assassin, part of the Compact between the drell and the species that had once saved them from a dying homeworld. Concepts such as honor and free will meant little to him; he was molded into what the hanar required, enduring grueling discipline, and made his first kill at the age of twelve. Over the years he became proficient at killing many close targets at once, describing the state as his soul having gone to sleep while his body carried on.

Irikah#

That state held until Thane was sent to assassinate an old salarian war criminal. A stranger stepped into his line of fire to protect the target, a woman named Irikah whose intervention defied all reason. For the first time unfamiliar emotions surged through him. Unable to make the kill, he sought her out, and after a rocky first meeting the two grew close. Thane petitioned the hanar handler who controlled his Compact for release, and was granted his freedom with the hanar's blessing. He wed Irikah, and she gave him a coin to rub whenever he felt restless.

With no civilian skills, Thane drifted through menial work before returning to freelance assassination. Irikah supported him, but his contracts drew him farther and farther from home, and he felt his conscious mind slipping away once more. After one job in which he killed batarian slavers preying on hanar colonies, the survivors paid the Shadow Broker for his identity and murdered Irikah in retaliation. Thane hunted down everyone responsible, abandoning his usual clean kills for brutal retribution, and afterward cast Irikah's coin into the sea and resolved to follow his given path to its end. He left their son, Kolyat, in the care of relatives.

Faith and philosophy#

Unusual among the drell, Thane followed the old polytheistic religion of his species rather than the faiths of the hanar or asari. He prayed to Amonkira, lord of hunters, to find a target; to Arashu, goddess of motherhood and protection, when defending another; and to Kalahira, goddess of oceans and the afterlife, after taking a life. He held that body and soul were separate, regarding his body as a mere vessel through which others chose to commit murder, much as a gun is wielded. Yet the eidetic memory native to the drell meant he could perfectly recall every act of killing, and that perfect recall weighed heavily on his conscience.

Service with Shepard#

Commander Shepard first encountered Thane on Illium, where he had been based for two years, in the act of assassinating Nassana Dantius. Dropping from the ceiling, he cut down her guards and killed her with a single shot before pausing to pray. He revealed that he was slowly dying of Kepral's Syndrome, a drell affliction, and had half hoped the mission would be his last. Combined with his guilt, his impending death compelled him to join Shepard's campaign against the Collectors as a gesture of penance.

Solitary by nature, Thane had few interests beyond his work and his reading, and observed that no one would mourn him when he died. He came to consider Shepard the only friend he had made in years. He confided his worry over Kolyat, who had taken up contract killing on the Citadel, and with Shepard's help he found and turned his son from that path before he could commit murder. Depending on Shepard's choices, Thane could grow close to the Commander, and could find peace or remain unsettled as the suicide mission approached.

The Reaper War#

Should he have survived the mission against the Collectors, Thane made his way to the Citadel to manage his condition, residing at Huerta Memorial Hospital under an assumed name. By then his doctors had given him a terminal prognosis, and he declined to rejoin the Normandy crew, reasoning that his daily treatments and failing health would only be a liability. He found a measure of peace in his reconnection with Kolyat, and pledged his protection to Shepard's injured comrade sharing the hospital with him.

When Cerberus attacked the Citadel and moved to seize the Council, Thane alerted Shepard to the assault. He managed to slip behind the assassin Kai Leng, who had been sent to kill the salarian councillor, and held his own despite his illness, even throwing the killer off with biotics, but was run through during the duel. The councillor was saved; Thane was rushed to surgery but had reached the final stages of his disease. In his last moments, with Kolyat at his side, he spoke a drell prayer of redemption, not for himself but for Shepard, before passing away. His name was added to the Normandy's memorial wall, and Shepard later avenged him in a final reckoning with Kai Leng.