Had some more Inusannon questions, if you’ve got a moment.

1) Can you go into more detail about what strange aspects of the Inusannon were natural, and which they developed over time?
2) I’m sure this is a spoiler heavy question, but what’s going on with the weirdness of Ylana and her base? Some of her wording comes across as being controlled by the Inusannon, but the explicit mention of “Gift of Sight” sounds like what the Leviathans did.
3) Any interesting details about what’s going on with the biotic-reactive ruins of Gryt-III?

Thanks again for your willingness to answer questions, and happy thanksgiving to everyone!

I had some questions about the Protheans in an earlier forum posting that might be relevant to this, but they also might be too vague.

Vigil’s an unreliable narrator, which has made for some good layering in the mysteries of this fiction. I suspect Vigil has many false memories, and was likely “born” much later than he thinks, possibly even at the very very end of the Inusannon empire. I also suspect most of the description of the battles between them is not real, because the given body count by the Reapers is much shorter than even the original vanguard the Reapers sent, as is 30,000 years of preparations for over 1,000 ships. I would suggest the truth is only one battle on Eingana, while the rest of the race was diverted elsewhere.

I would imagine no species “modified” by previous races would believe they are anything but natural. That the Inusannon AND Thoi’han were both capable of resisting indoctrination and incapable of infesting the other suggested being modified, as that’s terribly unfair in the evolutionary lottery. I believe you also mentioned they were shielded by one of the Leviathan factions, and gifted with the insight to create the weapon (the Catalyst?).

Your reimagining of the Inusannon was one of my favorite parts when I first read this story, and I’m legit working on including them in a ME mod for Stellaris. But the more I think about them, the more I think they’re small fish in a big pond, and just more advanced tools for a greater faction. I also think they’d be entirely unsociable and galactically destabilizing if they were active now. They’re suspiciously absent in your 15,000 years later story, which suspects they’ll be a sacrifice or be destroyed around the ME4 time.

The above has been a little vague, but if I could write some questions:
1) To what extent does the Destiny Ascension being an Inusannon/Prothean flagship affect past/future events, or would have affected Sovereign’s attack on the Citadel if it were merely the most advanced contemporary technology based dreadnought? Does Vigil have any plans or control over it?
2) Did the Inusannon interact with humanity at all (I believe you mentioned some Inusannon tech being at the Mars Archives)?
3) To what extent does the lack of Inusannon visibility in 15,000 years also connected to the disappearance of the salarians, krogan, hanar, batarians, and elcor?

Thanks for the insight, and as always, thanks for being willing to answer questions.

Following up on my Prothean questions after reading your STG report on Uressa T’Shora.

So she’s clearly had some exposure to the Asari Prothean Beacon, right? If Shepard got a vision from a damaged, having no prior history of human contact Beacon on EP, I would imagine the Beacon on Thessia was explicitly designed with Asari physiology intact, and is thus capable of a gentler and more informative information exchange.

That the Asari have access to Prothean and Inusannon technology on their homeworld is nicely contrasted to what degree of technology is in the Mars Archives.

SUGGESTION: My head canon for the Mars Archives is the secondary base, mentioned in one of the tablets during the Priority: Mars mission in ME3, has something like 10,000 cylinders for genetic alterations. Stored in the archives is an alteration to the human genome to make us smarter, stronger, faster, biotically capable, etc etc super soldier.

This also drives a major conflict post ME3, to whether or not humanity uses this tech as an equalizer to the rest of the Our Elves are Better species of the galaxy, or if we’d lose something in the process. You could tie this into your future humari plans.

I close with a final question that is more on your author style than story content.

In writing in an established universe, there are limits to how far you can travel away from the existing story before you’re arguably just playing with tropes and you should be writing original fiction, the Stations of Canon, and all.

As an ME author, what is your thought process on the arguably just plain superior degree of alien species compared to humans, especially when gifted advanced tech right on their homeworld? How do you write without making humans uninteresting and insignificant?

*rereads OSABC chapter 107 & 8 on lunch break*

The Conduit goes BOTH WAYS?! And was built AFTER the Prothean empire collapse?!

I suppose the survival of Ilos “elsewhere” is linked to Vigil having atomic scale precision matter rearrangement capability, yet virtually everything on Ilos is decayed and in ruins? We must keep up appearances?

I see my error in thinking. The Inusannon don’t value the present cycle as more than fodder, which is why they’re willing to let indoctrinated forces use the Conduit. Some leftover Old Ones influence, in making Sovereign dock with the Citadel to battle the Catalyst?

Btw, I’ve mentioned it before, but I must tip my hat to your usage of unreliable narrator when it comes to the perspective of Vigil. Well crafted.