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Characters of the Mass Effect series
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==Characters in ''Mass Effect''== ===Squad members=== ''Mass Effect'' has six characters that the player can recruit over the course of the game. Decisions the player makes can affect if a squad member is recruited at all, and can also lead to a squad member's death. Players can also pursue different romance storylines with certain characters. ====Ashley Williams==== A 25-year-old human Alliance Marine who enlisted straight out of high school, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams is a competent [[non-commissioned officer]]. She joins the party during the first mission, replacing Corporal Richard L. Jenkins (who was killed in action). Ashley is a pure soldier, skilled with weapons and heavy armor but unable to use advanced tech abilities or biotics. She is a possible romance interest for a male Commander Shepard. She hails from a military family: her great-grandmother, grandfather, and father all served in the Alliance Navy. Her family suffers from the dubious service history of her grandfather, however, as he was the only human officer to ever surrender to an alien force, specifically the turian fleet at the colony of Shanxi. Ashley says that she and her father have been passed over for many a promotion because of the stigma her grandfather still holds among the Alliance brass. Her mother raised Ash and her three younger sisters on various colonial worlds while her father was on duty. Williams is highly religious, though her precise faith and denomination are never elaborated upon, except for her belief in [[Judgment Day]]. She also occasionally expresses "human-centric" views, as a result of her grandfather having been disgraced in the First Contact War against the turians.<ref name="Mass Effect game dialogue">''Mass Effect'' game dialogue</ref> Late in the game, on the planet Virmire, Ashley is one of two characters who can opt to assist a salarian commando unit in their assault on Saren's lab complex. During the assault, the player is confronted with a choice that may result in Ashley being killed when a nuclear warhead is detonated. Williams is noted as voiced by [[Kimberly Brooks]], although many believe that she is voiced by Mila Kunis, both for the resemblance in voice and the presence of her Family Guy co-actor Seth Green.. Ashley appears in ''Mass Effect 2'', provided she lived through the first game. The Illusive Man, using Ashley's connection to Shepard as bait, lured the Collectors to Horizon. She is first seen defending a colony against a swarm of paralyzing Collector "seekers," but ultimately is overwhelmed and paralyzed by a bug. Upon being rescued, she voices disapproval towards Shepard's alliance with Cerberus. Should there have been a romance between Shepard and Ashley, she will send him an email after her encounter with him on Horizon. In the email she apologizes for her behavior, and expresses her desire to be with him once more. It has been rumored that Ashley will make an appearance in Mass Effect 3 and players that keep her as a romance interest (as indicated by her portrait on Shepard's desk not being face down) in Mass Effect 2 will be rewarded. ====Liara T'Soni==== A 106-year-old asari companion who has a passion for studying and working with Prothean technology, Dr. Liara T'Soni is an expert in the field of Prothean archaeology, specifically evidence concerning the Protheans' demise. She is, in fact, found in a Prothean ruin, trapped in a kinetic bubble prison. Liara is a possible romance interest for both male and female Shepards.<ref>{{cite web| title = Bisexual extraterrestrials steaming up ''Mass Effect''| url = http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=25928388&sid=6179029&om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;5| publisher = Gamespot}}</ref> The asari have only one gender, and can reproduce with any gender or species.<ref>{{cite web| title=''Mass Effect'' Community-Female Romance Options| url = http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=598972&forum=123| publisher = BioWare}}</ref> Liara's class is unique to her as an Asari Scientist, skilled mainly in biotics, but unable to build skills in weapons and tech abilities. Unlike the human equivalent Adept, however, Liara can learn "Electronic" skills. Liara is the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, a well-respected and powerful asari biotic. It is unknown precisely who Liara's other parent is, except that she was another asari. There is a certain social stigma attached to this, as the asari believe that for them to improve themselves, they should mate with other species to gain new genetic properties. If two asari mate as Liara's parents did, then it is believed that nothing is gained from the relationship. The term "Pureblood" is used as a cruel insult for children born of two asari. When asked about her second parent, Liara is only able to speculate that her parents were possibly embarrassed by the union, but she does not know for certain. Her face and body is modelled on actress [[Jillian Murray]], and she is voiced by [[Ali Hillis]]. In ''Mass Effect 2'', Liara has a radically changed personality. Acting much more like her mother Benezia, Liara has become an information broker on Illum in direct rivalry to the Shadow Broker. Having improved as a biotic, she uses death threats and other intimidation tactics to extort information. If the player imported a Shepard from the original Mass Effect that romanced Liara, she greets Shepard with a kiss. Liara assigns Shepard an optional quest to assist her in hunting down an agent of the Shadow Broker spying on her, known as the Observer. Liara's anger at the Broker stems from when he recovered Shepard's body and was prepared to sell it to the Collectors during the events of [[Mass Effect: Redemption]]. After certain dialogue choices, it is possible to break through her shell and reveal the real Liara, revealing that her darker personality is nothing more than a facade. Liara took Shepard's body from the Broker and gave it to Cerberus so they could bring Shepard back to life. Liara knew that Cerberus would use Shepard for their own uses, but still gave them Shepard's body as she cares for Shepard and could not let the Commander go. She feared that Shepard would hate her for this, and apologizes. She declines Shepard's offer to join the team to continue her quest for revenge against the Shadow Broker, although expresses regret that she cannot join Shepard's squad. However, she makes a new appearance in the Mass effect 2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker and joins your crew temporary as Shepard decides to help her hunt down the Shadow Broker. Shepard gradually breaks her hardened shell when he lectures her about mindlessly running into battles, but at the same time she states that she won't stop "to enjoy the scenery" until she's done. As the Shadow Broker is killed Liara sees an opportunity to take his place and takes it. She says she will use her newly bestowed powers to help Shepard in his ongoing mission. In this DLC, Liara also tells Shepard about her hand in bringing his dead body to Cerberus and that she hade been worried that he would be angry at her for doing so. It has been rumored that Liara will make an appearance in ''Mass Effect 3'' and players that keep her as a romance interest in ''Mass Effect 2'' will be rewarded. ====Kaidan Alenko==== A 32-year-old human male who accompanies Shepard from the very beginning of the game, Alliance Navy Lt. Kaidan Alenko serves as a possible love interest for a female Commander Shepard. In game, he is what is known as a Sentinel, a soldier highly skilled in both tech skills and [[Mass Effect#Synopsis|biotics]], though with little in the way of actual combat ability. Alenko has had a troubled relationship with his biotic abilities - he is one of the rare users of the controversial L2 implants, which have since been discontinued due to the long list of horrible side-effects discovered after their initial creation. Kaidan is regarded as "one of the lucky ones" as he only suffers from migraines, though many others suffer from crippling physical pain or insanity. If questioned by Shepard, Kaidan reveals that as a teenager he killed an instructor, a brutal Turian mercenary, at the biotics training facility he attended, during biotics training by breaking his neck with a full-force biotic kick. The death had been an accident, as Kaidan was enraged when the instructor injured a girl he admired. Late in the game, on the planet Virmire, Kaidan is one of two characters who can opt to assist a Salarian commando unit in their assault on Saren's lab complex. If Ashley is selected to lead the unit, Kaidan is the primary technician for activating a bomb that destroys the facility. During the assault, the player is confronted with a choice that may result in Kaidan being left behind when the nuke is detonated.<ref name="Mass Effect game dialogue"/> He is voiced by [[Raphael Sbarge]]. Kaidan also plays a role in ''Mass Effect 2'', provided that he survived in the first game. If the player have not played the first game Kaidan will be alive by default. Since the first game's events, Kaidan had been promoted and was stationed on the planet Horizon to help protect a human colony from the Collectors. The Illusive Man, using Kaidan's connection to Shepard as bait, lured the Collectors to Horizon. The Collectors attacked the colony and Kaidan was stung by a Collector Swarm, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Shepard soon learns that Kaidan was sent to the colony to install a network of defense cannons to safeguard against future Collector attacks. After multiple firefights with the Collectors and Harbinger, Kaidan is ultimately rescued by Shepard. The two reunite with a handshake (or a warm embrace if the player chose to import a Shepard from ''Mass Effect'' that had pursued a romantic relationship with Kaidan) and Shepard tells Kaidan that s/he has been dead for two years. However, upon learning that Shepard is working with Cerberus, Kaidan grows suspicious and refuses to join Shepard on his/her mission. Later on, if Shepard romanced Kaidan in the first game, he will send her an apology letter stating that his earlier behavior was a result of his concern and worry for her and that he would still like to be romantically involved after the Collectors have been defeated. It has been rumored that Kaidan will make an appearance in ''Mass Effect 3'' and players that keep him as a romance interest in ''Mass Effect 2'' will be rewarded. ====Garrus Vakarian==== A male turian, Garrus is a member of the Citadel Security force (C-Sec). He has never liked or trusted Saren and was investigating his activities, but wasn't able to prove any blatant acts of treason. He chafes under the red tape, rules and regulations of Citadel Security and had become unsatisfied with his role there. He believes in using any means necessary to either prevent or solve crimes, almost seemingly regardless of the consequences; this is a direct result of a case he was involved with that came to an unsatisfactory conclusion. During his investigations, Garrus came across a case in which a salarian named Doctor Saleon had sold many organs through the black market. When his employees were questioned they were found to also be Dr. Saleon's test subjects as they were growing the cloned organs inside their own bodies, in many cases resulting in traumatic physical and psychological injuries. Unfortunately, the doctor escaped C-Sec custody and fled the Citadel, and Garrus felt that it was the hesitation and regulations governing C-Sec that allowed Dr. Saleon to escape. Garrus was at one point targeted as a Spectre candidate, but was dissuaded against it by his father, a C-Sec officer who was strictly "by the book" out of personal fear that Garrus would end up like Saren. When given the opportunity to pursue Saren alongside Shepard - who is not bound by rules and operates outside the law - he is happy to accept. He is a turian Agent, skilled at both weapons and engineering, similar to an Infiltrator class. Depending on Shepard's advice and actions, Garrus may at one point apply for the Spectre program, with or without re-applying for C-Sec in the process. Garrus is voiced by [[Brandon Keener]]. Garrus also appears in Mass Effect 2 as "Archangel". He had come to Omega a few months before the game's beginning and started causing all sorts of trouble, leading a team of vigilantes. In response, the local mercenary groups teamed up to try to take him down. When Shepard arrives at Omega, Garrus has already been under siege for days with just a sniper rifle at his side. Shepard pretends to be a freelance mercenary to get transportation to Garrus's location, but then turns on his mercenary allies. He meets Archangel, who proceeds to remove his helmet and reveals himself to Shepard. Shepard helps Garrus escape (while decimating the mercenary groups) and Garrus rejoins the team. After joining the team, female Shepard can pursue a relationship with Garrus. ====Urdnot Wrex==== Wrex is among the last of the krogan Battle Masters. They are rare individuals who can combine biotic abilities with advanced weaponry. Wrex quickly gained fame for his battle powers and became a leader of one of the smaller Urdnot tribes at a very young age. To date, Wrex is the youngest krogan to be granted the honor in 1,000 years. Following the krogan genophage (a Salarian bioweapon which causes a genetic mutation that causes [[stillbirth]] in 99.9% of the krogan population), Wrex realized that his people had degenerated from the honor-bound people they once were and had become senselessly violent, preferring death in battle rather than saving their culture through peaceful means. Wrex turned his back on his people when his father, a krogan warlord who wanted to resume the war, betrayed and attempted to kill him. Wrex escaped, though not before taking his father's life in retaliation. During the past three centuries, Wrex has worked as a bodyguard, mercenary, soldier and a bounty hunter. One operation as a mercenary was with Saren Arterius as his employer, though Wrex immediately sensed something very troubling about the turian and left the contract without even waiting to get paid. His instincts were right: every other mercenary on the ship they were on turned up dead within a week. Despite his menacing appearance, Wrex rarely loses his temper. Likewise, Wrex doesn't voice his thoughts very often. But when he does, people are more than willing to listen. The mere threat of his anger is enough to ensure that.<ref>{{cite web| title = Galactic Codex - Krogan Series Part 3: Wrex, Krogan Battle Master | url = http://masseffect.bioware.com/me1/galacticcodex/krogan_wrex.html | publisher = BioWare}}</ref> Late in the game, at the planet Virmire, Wrex learns that Saren is developing a cure for the krogan genophage to create an army of krogan soldiers. Uncertain as to who he should listen to now, Wrex has an angry confrontation with Shepard over whether or not the facility should be destroyed. Depending on the player's choices, Wrex can be killed by either Shepard or Ashley, or he may survive. Wrex is voiced by [[Steve Barr (actor)|Steve Barr]]. Wrex returns in ''Mass Effect 2'', provided he lived through the first game.<ref name="IGN Video Preview">{{Cite web|url = http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14235013/mass-effect-2/videos/masseffect2_vdp_110409.html|title = Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360 Series - Video Preview|publisher = IGN}}</ref> If Wrex survived, he is encountered on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, where he has united the various krogan clans under Clan Urdnot to strengthen his ailing race in the face of the genophage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.giantbomb.com/news/mass-effect-2-the-truth-about-the-first-90-minutes/1803/ |title=Mass Effect 2: The Truth About the First 90 Minutes |last=Shoemaker |first=Brad |date=2009-12-18 |accessdate=2009-12-18 |publisher=Giant Bomb}}</ref> He introduces many sweeping reforms to Krogan society, but faces fierce opposition against more traditionalist clans. ====Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya==== A 22-year-old female quarian party member, Tali'Zorah is introduced as a person who possesses information that can implicate Saren in the destruction of the human colony of Eden Prime. Saren himself sends assassins after her, and once Shepard rescues her, she joins the player's party. Tali is on a "Pilgrimage," which is a quarian coming-of-age rite in which a young quarian leaves the home fleet and finds something valuable, which is brought back to the fleet to prove their willingness to contribute to the community. She has some trouble adjusting to the quiet atmosphere of the ''Normandy'' because the ships she lived on at her home were all rather loud and clunky, and silence usually meant an air filter or some other important component had broken. Later on in the game, it is revealed that her father serves on the fleet Admiralty board making him a prominent figure amongst the quarians. This puts Tali under more pressure than most to ensure that she finds something important during her pilgrimage. Later in the game, either on Feros or in the main geth base in the Armstrong Nebula (in an optional side quest), Shepard can find information on the geth that can be given to Tali so she can complete her Pilgrimage. In Mass Effect 2, Tali is again encountered on the human colony of Freedom's Progress, where it is revealed that she had completed her Pilgrimage. She is not seen again until a good deal later in the game, where she is recruited on the planet Haestrom. Her loyalty mission involves her being charged with treason by the Migrant Fleet due to her father repairing and activating broken geth parts that Tali had sent to him. A male Shepard may also pursue a relationship with Tali after she is recruited. She is voiced by [[Liz Sroka]]. ===Antagonists=== ====Saren Arterius==== [[File:Saren.jpg|thumb|Saren Arterius]] Saren Arterius is a former turian Spectre and the main antagonist of the first game. He is known for 'getting results' by any means necessary. More often than not, this meant he killed everyone and everything in range—the target, any witnesses, and innocent bystanders as well. In the novel ''[[Mass Effect: Revelation]]'', he tortures and kills his victims mercilessly, rarely having any regards for sentient life or the lives of anyone in his way from getting the job done, even deliberately killing innocent bystanders and witnesses (after he had extracted key information from them). Saren himself does not consider his methods harsh; for example, when he brutally tortures a batarian in the novel until he has been exhausted of information, Saren snaps the batarian's neck while he is unconscious and claims that it was an act of mercy and that he isn't "a monster." His seething hatred for humans is speculated by other characters in the novel to stem from the loss of his brother in the First Contact War. After the events described in the novel, and before the start of the first ''Mass Effect'' video game, Saren takes command of an army of geth through the use of a mysterious artifact known as ''Sovereign'', an ancient ship that supposedly predates the [[List of races in the Mass Effect universe#Protheans|Protheans]]. With a machine army at his command, he uses them to both do his bidding and oppose the efforts and actions of the player across the story of the ''Mass Effect'' video game. One of his main goals at first appears to be to unleash the genocidal Reapers upon the galaxy once again to take revenge on humanity. In reality, he is merely assisting ''Sovereign'' in bringing the rest of the Reapers into the galaxy to prove that organics are worth enslaving, rather than exterminating. In the game it is revealed that Saren had known about the Reaper threat and had independently tried to discover a means to stop it. It is unknown how Saren found ''Sovereign'', however, ''Sovereign'' slowly began to [[indoctrination|manipulate]] Saren through subtle subliminal messages into helping him into bringing back the Reaper threat. During the Geth invasion of the Citadel, Saren uses the Prothean Conduit to gain access to the Citadel to allow ''Sovereign'' to activate the Citadel Mass Relay. The player can then either attempt to kill Saren before he can activate the relay or appeal to Saren to fight his indoctrination, prompting him to commit [[suicide]]. Either way, Shepard later has one of his/her crew members shoot Saren a final time in the head to make sure he's dead, but he is still revived and controlled by ''Sovereign'' through his grafted cybernetics, transforming him into a powerful enemy who engages Shepard and his crew in one final battle. Upon defeating the ''Sovereign''-manipulated Saren, ''Sovereign'' itself loses its defenses, allowing the Citadel Fleet and the Alliance Navy to destroy it. Saren is voiced by [[Fred Tatasciore]]. ====Matriarch Benezia==== An asari matriarch who is in league with Saren. She is also the mother of Liara T'Soni. During the course of conversation, Liara speculates that Benezia was ashamed of mating with another Asari, but is not entirely certain if that was the case. She is enslaved by ''Sovereign'' into finding the location of the Mu Mass Relay. She is killed by the player after revealing this fact and (if Liara is present in the shore party) making peace with her daughter. She is a master of Biotics. She is voiced by [[Marina Sirtis]]. ====''Sovereign''==== A member of the race labelled by Protheans as The [[The Reapers|Reapers]], who was left behind as a vanguard and espionage unit for the next Reaper invasion, ''Sovereign'' was tasked with monitoring organic evolution and to hence activate the Citadel relay once organic advancement had reached a critical point. It is a massive (2 km), artificially intelligent starship, far larger in size and power than any dreadnought hitherto created by the presently known organic species; Sovereign is the largest ship capable of landing on a planet's surface and is believed to have a massive element zero core, whether all Reapers are of a similar manifestation is unclear, though Vigil implies that this is the case, referring to "Reaper ''fleets''." ''Sovereign'' possesses a power known by organic species as ''indoctrination'', which enables the Reaper to gradually assume control of the minds of organic beings; though the details of this method of mind control have yet to be elucidated, Vigil explains that the ability is common to all Reapers, who utilise their organic slaves as spies and infiltrators, increasing the efficiency of their genocidal scheme. During Shepard's discourse with ''Sovereign'' in Saren's laboratory on Virmire, Shepard makes the discovery that what they assumed to be an ancient Reaper warship is, in point of fact, a Reaper; aside from claiming that organic beings are of an inherently limited [[epistemology]], such that they are utterly unable to understand the actions of the Reapers, ''Sovereign'' also demonstrates arrogance in its assessment of the threat posed by the organic species. Sovereign tries to intimidate Shepard by saying that "organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident" and by also calling itself "the vanguard of your destruction" and saying the Reapers will "darken the sky of every world". Subsequent to Saren's death, ''Sovereign'' possesses Saren's corpse through cybernetic implants, transforming him into a robotic adversary for Shepard. The Reaper itself, after being rendered defenceless seemingly by Shepard's defeating the possessed Saren, is destroyed at the end of the game by the Alliance Fleet. In ''Mass Effect 2'', it is revealed that the council tried to make the rest of the galaxy believe that Sovereign is nothing more than a geth Warship. It is implied that most of its remains were claimed by "unauthorized salvage." The geth platform known as Legion also reveals that ''Sovereign'' originally identified itself as ''Nazara'', and that the name ''Sovereign'' was in fact coined by Saren. This contradicts the fact that ''Sovereign'' introduced himself by that name to Commander Shepard, though it could be that it simply chose to introduce himself as such for convenience's sake or because it took a liking to the name, or that ''Nazara'' translates into ''Sovereign'' in the Reaper language. ''Sovereign'' is voiced by [[Peter Jessop]] in a similar fashion to [[Frank Welker]]'s "[[Dr. Claw]] voice".
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