What Happened to Garrus's Family in Mass Effect?

Garrus Vakarian's father and his sister Solana were stuck on Palaven when the Reapers invaded the turian homeworld in Mass Effect 3. Partway through the war Garrus hears that Solana has broken her leg, and later that both of them got off the planet. His mother was seriously ill before the war, and the games never say what became of her. (Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker; Mass Effect 3)

Garrus's father#

In the first game Garrus tells Shepard about his father, a well-known C-Sec investigator who believed in doing things properly or not doing them at all. Garrus had once been picked as a possible Spectre candidate, and his father blocked it because he hated the idea of agents above the law. Their clashes over rules shape Garrus's whole story. (Mass Effect)

By Mass Effect 2 Garrus has lost his squad on Omega, and he admits he should have listened to what his father tried to teach him about having the strength to do the right thing even when it's hard. (Mass Effect 2)

The trilogy never gives the father a name. Mass Effect: Andromeda does. In one of Alec Ryder's memories, Alec Ryder gets a call from his old friend Castis Vakarian, who passes on what Garrus has said about Shepard and the Reapers. (Mass Effect: Andromeda)

The Mass Effect: Homeworlds comic adds a childhood scene of Castis teaching Garrus to shoot on Palaven, and has Garrus call his father during his last stand as Archangel. Castis gives him advice and tells him to come home afterwards. (Mass Effect: Homeworlds)

His mother and sister#

The clearest picture of the rest of the family is in the Shadow Broker's files, which Shepard can read after the Lair of the Shadow Broker add-on. One is a text chat between Garrus and his sister Solana just before the jump through the Omega 4 Relay. Garrus asks how their mother is, and Solana says the last round of treatments didn't go well and the family may try salarian doctors off-world, which they can't really afford. Garrus offers to pay, and Solana snaps at him for being away. They make up before he signs off. (Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker)

The same file holds a message from a medical institute thanking Garrus for anonymous donations, including Collector tissue samples. It answers his concern about Corpalis Syndrome, a rare disease that destroys the nervous system, and offers free places on a treatment trial. The game doesn't spell it out, but the obvious reading is that this is his mother's illness. That's interpretation. (Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker)

The Homeworlds comic also shows Garrus's mother hurt in a hit-and-run accident while Castis was working on the Citadel. (Mass Effect: Homeworlds)

The Reaper War#

After the suicide mission, if Garrus survived it, he went to his father and told him everything, from Saren to the Collectors. To his surprise, his father believed him and helped him get a small Reaper task force set up on Palaven. That's where Shepard finds him when Mass Effect 3 begins, on the moon Menae. (Mass Effect 3)

The Reapers hit Palaven hard. On Menae, Garrus points out a huge fire on the planet below where he says he was born, and tells Shepard his dad and Solana are trapped down there. He spends much of the war not knowing whether his family is alive. After Shepard's mission to rescue Admiral Zaal'Koris, he gets a connection to his father, who is still on Palaven trying to reach the evacuation shuttles. Solana has broken her leg, though it isn't life-threatening. Then the line goes dead. (Mass Effect 3)

After the mission on Thessia, Garrus learns his father and sister made it off-world. It comes with a bitter edge: he has just advised Primarch Victus to pull the turian fleet back and stake everything on the Crucible. (Mass Effect 3)

That's the last word on them. None of the endings shows what happened to Castis or Solana, and no line in Mass Effect 3 settles what became of Garrus's mother. (Mass Effect 3)

Read more: the full Garrus Vakarian biography, and Palaven, the world they were trying to leave. (Mass Effect 3)