Honestly just my rambling notes from the other week when I thought about the citadel species and what they could/should be. Mostly if I was ever going to write something myself. LP suggested it be posted here.

There’s so much that Bioware got exactly right. The basic setting? The gist of the characters, the emotional beats in their stories, the high space opera stakes and the camaraderie of a rag-tag bunch of misfit heroes facing off against Space Cthulhu and their (somehow equally important) personal hang-ups? An entire living galaxy that seems to exist and move around you, without you even noticing, unless you deliberately stop and pay attention to all those little details? Brilliant. Don’t care in the slightest for all its flaws when it’s hitting all those points at once in the midst of gameplay. Suspect it’s the same for most of you, or none of us would be here.

But there’s so much more there that’s just hinted at but never fully developed or allowed to flower to its full potential. Every species and major part of the Mass Effect lore has at least some of that problem present. Most of the people here on this forum have touched upon it at some point. Again, it’s a love-hate relationship you have with any work of art that moves you. So here are some thoughts…most of the species jottings are from when I thought of doing some ME writing myself, but that isn’t happening so why not put them here?

1) Asari
It’s easy to dismiss the Asari as Bioware’s deconstruction of the Green-Skinned Alien Space Babe of classic era sci-fi (so half of Star Trek et al, then), and in a way that’s true. What would a ‘female’ – at least as humans see it – mono-gender species actually look like and live like if taken seriously as science fiction? Not just arse-shaking sex fantasy or gimmick? (Pretty sure you mentioned that in an introduction somewhere LP?). Likewise with any other kind of mono-gender species, though we don’t really get to see that. The Codex talks about all that cultural and political and economic power, but we never actually get to see it and the way they fall apart in ME3 is just weak writing. This annoys me, since Asari should be far, far more impressive and ultimately far more dangerous than canon suggests.

Social skills. It’s so easy to overlook this or think that it doesn’t matter compared to tech levels and fleet size but sit back and think about it. We saw this in the Discerning but imagine how it applies to Asari as a whole. Every single one of them lives for centuries. Their culture is already highly social and places a great deal of value upon relationship building and investing resources in social interaction. Most Asari take alien mates (again, Bioware, Jesus – if there was such a taboo against same-species paring then how did Asari even successfully evolve as a species?!); easy to dismiss it as a momentary fetish but it does mean that your average Asari has literally centuries of experience in interacting with alien beings and alien cultures. Think about that and the implications. They’d know every single social requirement and cultural quirk. They’d probably be better at interacting with most species than most members of that actual species. They’d know exactly how to stimulate a Salarian mind at a research conference or business meeting, or comfort Turians on an emotional rollercoaster after making a tough call in their Hierarchical duties and flatter their sense of valour, or make witty and engaging small talk with humans at a cocktail party.

Your average Asari would probably be a social chameleon who’d be seen as quite engaging and charming by the vast majority of beings of any species who met her and spent time with her…so your average member of the Thirty would be downright beguiling, fully capable of mesmerising and manipulating almost everyone around her. I doubt they’d even need something like the Discerning. Asari would perform the exact same function simply by existing. It’d be embarrassingly easy for them to infiltrate and compromise human operations. It’s scary and interesting all at once. Think of every stupid decision you’ve ever made under the influence of something you know you shouldn’t be influenced by…but you did it anyway. Every bad decision you ever made out of love, lust or just wanting to do something crazy or stupid to impress someone, even yourself, or just to feel more alive. We’re social creatures, and the best and worst moments of our lives tend to revolve around social events and relationships. Births, deaths, friendships and romances beginning and ending, work colleagues, children, etc. Imagine someone freakishly good at engineering those social encounters and relationships. That’s what I think the threat Asari would pose would really look like. It could easily win more wars than all the battle fleets in the galaxy, simply because the war would never even begin since they’ve already won. You’d already agree to everything they say before it’s even said, and you’d be grateful for it.

2) Salarian
Salarians = science-science-science-Mordin!Speak-just.here.for.intellignce.support? No. Bioware keeps giving us a glimpse of the rest of Salarian culture and society, just like they do with every other species. And the bits we do get to see of that are great, yeah. Just like Asari and Turians they keep hinting at everything else that’s there. We never really see what Salarian culture and society is like, yet the parts we’re teased with are so interesting. They’re presented as eminently cool and logical, yet deeply committed to their extended family clutches and capable of surprisingly deep emotional responses (even if it’s over a short period of time). What would it truly be like to experience your existence as a Salarian would? To be aware, profoundly aware, of every moment you’re occupying in space and time and every word and look that others give you, and that you give them? You don’t just talk to your sister via FTL comm drone, no, you see and feel and process each other’s minutely affected vocal tones and facial reactions; you sense her fierce satisfaction in outwitting a rival dalatrass for a breeding contract and she senses your crowing pride at your mercenary band’s latest triumph on the battlefield and you both instantly understanding the logical implications of this for six moves ahead. You understand this, and you understand each other without a word being said. What would it be like to live every moment like that? Being so fully and quickly aware of everything?

In a sense, being a Salarian would make you free from so many of the things that make you a human being. You’d be disassociated from the moral implications of most of your actions. You’d process the emotional events in your life with a freakish speed and clarity. Your messy personal issues and dilemmas would be erased by a cool and hyper-focused utilitarian logic. The truly personal things, the ones that you really care about, like art and family, are things that are kept close to you and fiercely guarded against intrusions by outsiders, so you don’t have to worry about them being discovered and turned against you. Because you’re a Salarian. You know that the few things you care about could one day be turned against you, so you guard against this by giving the impression that you don’t care about anything at all.

3) Turian
Go on, Tv Tropes. Tell me they’re Space!Romans one more time. I dare you. Just like with Asari, we see a tantalising sliver of what could be, and then we get nothing. There is a fair bit of Space Romanisation though. Fair do. The client states and the citizenship tiers and (later on in Roman history) militarism and the Dignitas and the glorification of their mighty achievements – all Space Roman-y. But I’d argue that that’s an equally egregious anthropomorphism. It deliberately avoids any depth or complexity. The Turian Hierarchy and Meritocracy are fascinating: there’s no real human equivalent in practise – sure, we like to say that we’re aiming for a world where humans are rewarded based on the value of their skills and contributions, but come on.

You can admire the goals of such a thing but in practise for humans it seems to be a statist fantasy: the best of us rule, and they get to continue to rule because they’re the best of us and the worst of us respect that because it works perfectly despite everything we know about human nature. A society where that really did function, more or less? So cool to think about and the collective/communal aspect is another intriguing angle – what if we really did treat each other as a member of our extended family? At least until the other had proven unworthy of being afforded that treatment. Again, as humans we’d like to aspire to treat each other as we would like to be treated…but that’s pretty damn rare in practise. Picture a world where Turians really do that without even trying – it’s just an instinct, unless the other Turian is hostile or an outcast. Need work? A place to stay? Food, money, protection? I don’t have much to spare but you can take what I do have. I’ll help you to stand on your own talons, and you’ll help me. Combine that with a species that displays a surprising capacity for individual needs and desires, hopes and fears, snark – ur-example: Garrus – and the result is a fully realised fictional invention.

That’s it.

If this doesn’t qualify me for a cameo as Aish Ashland’s long-suffering brother than nothing does.