Volus

The volus were an associate species on the Citadel with their own embassy and a client people of the Turian Hierarchy. They hailed from Irune, a high-pressure greenhouse world able to support an ammonia-based biochemistry, which forced them to wear pressure suits and breathers whenever they dealt with other species. Not physically adept, the volus exerted their influence through trade and commerce, building a long history on the Citadel, yet they were never invited to join the Council, a sore point for many of them. (Mass Effect)

Biology#

The volus homeworld of Irune had an ammonia-based ecology, a gravitational field one and a half times that of Earth, and a high-pressure atmosphere, all reflected in the physiology of the volus themselves. They could not survive unprotected in an atmosphere suited to humans and other carbon-based lifeforms, requiring protective suits that supplied the proper atmosphere and pressure; ordinary nitrogen-oxygen mixtures were poisonous to them, and in the low-pressure atmospheres tolerable to most species their flesh would split open. Because they were never seen out of their suits, little else was known of their appearance. Some volus could use biotics. Their genders were apparently a mystery; the volus themselves found the question intrusive and irrelevant, so others simply assigned an arbitrary gender based on how an individual sounded. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 3)

History#

The volus were the third race to post an embassy to the Citadel, after the asari and salarians, roughly 2,384 galactic standard years before the era of Commander Shepard. Their mercantile prowess made them instrumental in developing a stable galactic economy; they authored the Unified Banking Act that established the credit as the standard currency of interstellar trade, and they continued to monitor and balance the galactic economy thereafter. After first contact with the turians during the Krogan Rebellions in the first millennium CE, the volus petitioned for client status within the Turian Hierarchy. (Mass Effect)

Despite their contributions, the volus were never offered a seat on the Council, a source of anger for some, particularly the ambassador Din Korlack. Council races were expected to have provided some extraordinary service, such as the turians' military support during the Rebellions, and to be able to provide fleets, resources, and economic aid in case of disaster, none of which the volus could supply. Because of their outlier biology, setting up sealed environments for them in other races' residential areas was illegal on most planets and prohibitively expensive elsewhere, owing to the risks of explosive blowout and contamination. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 2)

The Reaper War#

During the Reaper invasion of 2186, the volus quickly came under attack as the Reapers overwhelmed the turian defense fleets. Reaper husks were deployed on Irune, endangering the many volus cities that had been built along opportune trade routes rather than at defensible positions, and refugees fled Irune for the relative safety of turian colonies. After the Miracle at Palaven, a joint turian and krogan force landed on Irune to attempt its liberation. Depending on Commander Shepard's actions, the volus could contribute a bombing fleet, the dreadnought Kwunu, fabrication units, and an engineering team to the allied war effort. (Mass Effect 3)

Culture and economy#

Volus culture was dominated by trade, whether of land, resources, or even tribe members, and they held a reputation as some of the best traders, merchants, and financial advisers in Citadel space. Not physically adept, they tended toward pacifism and could seem cowardly to more militant species; Irune had abolished warfare as an institution, settling disputes through social castigation, bargaining, or economic sanction rather than romanticized war. The volus held in high regard an artifact called the Book of Plenix, which called for charity and the forgiveness of debts should the volus ever go to war. They took two names but no family names, reasoning that a family name would amount to laying claim to one's offspring, and they tended to refer to other races by their source world rather than their species, calling humans "Earth-clan" and the homeless quarians "Migrant-clan" or "clanless." Their economy was vastly out of proportion to their modest resource base, and many of the galaxy's largest banks, holding corporations, and manufacturing cartels, such as the Elkoss Combine, were owned or managed by volus. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 3)

Government and military#

The volus government was the Vol Protectorate. Rather than a fully sovereign state, it was a client of the Turian Hierarchy: in return for the protective umbrella of the turian military, the volus paid a tax, deferred to the turians in all foreign policy, and provided auxiliary troops, while still maintaining a Citadel embassy that they shared with the elcor. In the entire history of volus civilization the Protectorate had issued only three writs of exile, two of them against a single political agitator. The volus were not cut out for combat and depended on the turians for defense, though their auxiliary troops used specially sealed armor and advanced power armor to offset their disadvantages. Their weaponry tended to be utilitarian, some manufacturers specializing in cheaper copies of expensive turian equipment, and they favored airpower, maintaining flotillas of heavy-bomber frigates. They produced only a single dreadnought, the Kwunu, an unusually well-armed ship funded by the Elkoss Combine and gifted jointly to the Vol Protectorate and the Turian Hierarchy. (Mass Effect; Mass Effect 3; Mass Effect: Andromeda: Annihilation)