#salarian stg

[grtmnick]

"My name is Padarth Raelbano. You killed my squamates. Prepare to die!"

#mass effect 2 #mass effect trilogy #mass effect #mass effect lore #captain kirrahe #virmire #salarian special tasks group #salarian stg #salarian #mass effect wiki

[flame2ashes]

Mass Effect: Ashley gets Turian and Salarian military medals posthumously if she died on Virmire

Me: (◡‿◡✿)

My brain: But what if.....she still got those medals even if she survived Virmire

Me: (ʘ‿ʘ✿)

#The Turians and Salarians: Whoa hey Williams is so cool for what she did. Hey Alliance did you know what she did it was pretty cool #The Alliance: #Turians and Salarians: ....Hello??? #I need Ashley to be famous in STG if you had her go with the Salarians on Virmire. Because she helped hold the line #Ashley: The STG loves me for some reason. I don't really know what I did tbh #The STG: Ashley Williams is the only human in the galaxy #Mass Effect #Ashley Williams

[rawliverandcigarettes]

(hey) (I'm officially back on the Empire of Preys grind 👀👀👀)

quick notes:

so SO grateful for past me who wrote a fucking 25 pages long worldbuilding document on the STG, including little graphs to help future me understand military ranks, internal organization, relationship to the government, history, current tension points, etc. It pulled me back instantly in what I should care about, and it's probably the most useful piece of writing I've done regarding worldbuilding

similarly grateful for the Aeon Timeline timeline I worked on a year ago, which helped me not be completely lost re: dates and when people were alive/dead and at which point, and also when specific treaties either I or the games made up happened historically

I think I managed to push past the initial bump, which was chapter 2; and by pushing past, I mean doing a new outline for a v2 since v1, while serviceable, was very meandery and didn't do a great job introducing the salarian cast that deserved something a little bit sharper to make a strong first impression. So I just cut through the meanders and "restarted" (aka: ripping through some parts of the old chapter and rearranging them in a newer one that is shorter and know what it's doing a little more). Not properly started on that yet, but the groundwork has been laid so that's good

there are so many salarians all of the time

I have done some thinking about each important member of the Liron dynasty (to the story at least), and yeah. No wonder they are all Like That

ouch???? I have reread my first attempts at the last chapter of the story and it's. It's a lot. I have not been in the TEoP headspace for a long time and it kind of tore my heart apart regardless, so! I cannot imagine how fucked up it will make me feel in due time!!

It's a smart story!!! I am sorry for saying this everytime I return to it and becoming insufferably smug, but seriously where the fuck did it come from conceptually, I don't feel capable of holding this in my brain, like I feel too dumb for some of the concepts and yet here they are. the sociopolitical worldbuilding feels very legitimate? why + how

I will probably (ughh) need to have it checked by someone who actually is very familiar with finance, just to make sure what I have written makes sense, because I'm confident about 70% of the jist, but there's 30% of like, niche regulations and attitudes and things you'd know if you have spent time in the stock market that I just couldn't guess even with a decent amount of research. which, yea

#the empire of preys #teop #halfway home #hh #my writing #fanfiction #salarians #salarian #linron #stg #I'll probably release the STG thing at some point on Ao3 or something #but I'm not 100% sure about some finer details so maybe not now #also I'm afraid of spoiling the story through lore which would be a shame

[seithr]

Another day i shall be spending the whole day Out and am thus unable to draw anything. if only you guys knew. I have so many thoughts. I can imagine anything 👉😎

#i thought of shepard masseffect in a mech labelled spectre and got dizzy. sorry good morning. afternoon. wherever. robot.. #every day i forget what i was imagining the day before though. and i am also not good at finishing my work. burdened by lack of skill #yes i know theres the atlas mech in me3. i never shot the pilots out in time and it is not a sexy robot either. unfortunate! oh well. #imagine if you will. krogan crawler mechs built like tanks. or a sniper mech named archan- (i am pulled off stage.) #please dont show up in tags. i will now blab more before i put it in my own sorting tags. #thane's with a sort of camoflaughing cloak with heavy life support built in. biotic amps and massive energy fields. #salarian stgs/mordin with supporting group of smaller field recon suits for covert ops. covert as you can get with mechs LMAO #ok thats eight tags or so. thats enoufg right. ok. sorting time #mass effect #armour clanking

[lassieposting]

So anyway, things I've been thinking about this morning: Garrus Vakarian probably likes foreign films

Like.

Turians are the Proud Soldier Race Guys. They have an incredibly rigid, collectivist, by-the-book kind of culture, where every single individual is obligated to spend a good chunk of their formative adolescent/young adult years in the military, where Turian Ideals are hammered into them. So they don't seem like they'd have a big media scene glorifying tropes which go against their general cultural values - specifically, in this case, an individual going outside standard procedures to Get Shit Done on their own terms.

And this is a trope that Garrus loves. When we first meet him, he's sick of being the Good Little C-Sec Cop who follows orders and gets swamped with red tape and can't get the bad guy because Procedure Says No. He clearly sees himself as/wants to be the cowboy cop, detective-gone-rogue type, and he's got a pretty romanticised idea of what that would look like in his head. Bless him.

But. He's learned about that trope from somewhere, and I can't really see it being his own people. Especially with a father like Castis, who's so staunchly exactly what's expected from a turian. He seems like the type who'd have strong opinions about what his kids are reading and watching and being influenced by, because while he obviously loves Garrus, he wants him to grow up to fit a certain mould. The Turian version of the wish-fulfilment vigilante flick is the Spectre Movie, but Garrus isn't allowed to watch those, because Castis doesn't approve of Spectres being Outside The Law.

So baby Garrus grows up lowkey feeling stifled by the way society works, and maybe that's a problem with him, so he gets his head down and does his best to be a Good Turian and make his dad proud, and then he gets his discharge papers and goes to work for C-Sec, and suddenly he's living on the Citadel by himself, and he's got free time nobody is telling him to do X or Y with. He's basically moved away from home for the first time - the Citadel is not Turian-controlled, it's a thriving multicultural melting pot with plenty of people living there who don't exactly conform to Turian standards, he's got colleagues with interests he's never even heard of, and he's gonna start seeing new things.

Human superhero films and cop movies with lots of explosions and no paperwork. Small-budget Batarian short films about victorious anti-Hegemony rebellions. Even his own people's Spectre films. Some kid selling drugs in the wards has a Batman comic in his confiscated backpack? Garrus borrows it to browse on his lunch break. Some Salarian ex-STG operative publishes a memoir? Garrus reads it on the shuttle to work. All these people who feel like he does.

Like. Give me Archangel who regularly spouts lines from Batman or X-Men or Krogan Thunder 3 (or whatever the fuck else he's been watching) as part of his Good Guy Victory Speeches, that makes at least one of his multispecies team who Knows That Franchise pull up short and go "Oh my god, you're a nerd."

#mass effect #mass effect headcanons #garrus vakarian

[anthurak]

So because I’m currently doing a playthrough of Mass Effect again, I thought I’d engage in an interesting thought-experiment regarding the inherently flexible narrative of the RPG plot structure.

Namely, is there actually a way to pin down a ‘canon’ choice for the Virmire survivor between Ashley and Kaidan? Specifically, by trying to eliminate the bias of the player and using aspects of the mission and Shepard’s character that aren’t controlled by the player to determine a most likely scenario for how the events and choices Shepard makes might likely play out.

To that end, let’s look at the Virmire mission leading up to ‘The Big Choice’. If we try to remove the x-factor that is ‘player bias’, thinking of Shepard not as a player-avatar but as an actual character, I think we can actually get a good idea how Virmire actually would have turned out.

To begin with, let’s establish a few qualities that we can assume about Commander Shepard when we ignore possible player biases:

Shepard is an exceptionally capable and experienced soldier and leader, and will thus be making decisions that will give them and their team and allies the best chance at success at this mission.

Shepard cares about their subordinates and allies and will likewise be doing everything they can to get as many people out alive as they can.

Shepard is NOT openly racist towards aliens, nor overtly distrustful or antagonist towards the Council and their agents. Or at least not so much that they would allow such distrust/antagonism to overly interfere with their judgement over the best way to accomplish the mission.

Shepard does in fact care a great deal about BOTH Ashley and Kaidan and does NOT actively want one of them dead.

With all that in mind, let’s look at all of the choices that affect the outcome of the Virmire mission and consider what the most likely choice that Shepard would make is:

First, which squadmate goes with Kirrahe and the STG team, and which one is relegated to bomb duty?

This one’s actually pretty easy when you think about it for more than five seconds. We have Ashley, a hardened frontline soldier with training in all standard alliance weaponry, and we have Kaidan, one of our team’s go-to tech-experts. Heck, Ashley even points out herself that Kaidan should be needed to arm the bomb when volunteering for the mission. Again, when we remove player bias from the equation, I think we can all agree that Shepard would send Ashley to help Kirrahe’s team while having Kaidan work on the bomb.

So with that choice locked in, let’s move to the next big choice: Does Shepard take the necessary steps that allows Kirrahe and much of his team to survive the mission? IE: Completing side-objectives and not diverting security forces towards the Salarians.

Again, removing player-bias from consideration, I think there’s no reason to assume Shepard wouldn’t do everything they could to assist the Salarians. It’s certainly in their best interests to support the Salarians so they can support their team in return. It’s also worth noting that Shepard would have an interest in depriving the Geth of resources by destroying their facilities to make their own task easier. While it may be true that completing the side-objectives doesn’t actually affect the difficulty of Shepard’s own mission, that’s only information that a PLAYER would know, not Shepard themself. And of course, Shepard has one of their own people (Ashley) with the Salarian teams, giving them even MORE reason to assist them. In short, we can assume that Kirrahe and his STG team ARE still alive by the time the bomb is armed.

So with Ashley fighting alongside the still-alive STG team and Kaidan planting the bomb, we now come to the big choice:

Does Shepard press on to the AA Tower and save Ashley or double back to the bomb-site and save Kaidan?

And with everything we’ve established thus far, I wholeheartedly believe the most likely scenario is that Shepard saves ASHLEY.

Because Shepard’s choice isn’t actually between ‘Save Kaidan’ or ‘Save Ashley’. The choice is between ‘Save Kaidan’ or ‘Save Ashley AND the STG Team’.

Yes, it’s true that in the game if you fulfill the necessary side-objectives, Kirrahe and his team are picked up by the Normandy regardless of your choice to press on to the AA Tower or double back to the bomb-site, but I think we really have to ignore this fact.

First, it is a factor that positively reeks of ‘arbitrary game logic’. As in, Kirrahe and his teams are AT the AA tower, so if Joker picks up Shepard and their squad at the bomb site with only a minute or so before the bomb goes off, how exactly can he also rush over to the tower to pick up the Salarians too?

Worse still, if the Normandy is somehow able to pick up the STG team at the tower, then why can’t they pick up Ashley/Kaidan too?! Seriously, if you choose to go to the AA tower and fulfilled the side objectives, you find Kirrahe and the rest of the STG team fighting alongside the squadmate you sent with them! If Kirrahe and his team manage to survive, why can’t they? Looking back, I really feel like going to the AA Tower SHOULD have been a requirement for saving Kirrahe and his team.

And second, this detail of Kirrahe and his team surviving regardless of Shepard’s choice is entirely IRRELEVANT because there is no way SHEPARD could KNOW that!

Yes, the player might be able to know that this pivotal choice comes down to just ‘Save Ashley’ or ‘Save Kaidan’.

But as far as Commander Shepard knows, standing at that railing, weighing their options in this pivotal moment, this is a choice between going back to the bomb site to save one of their squadmates, and pushing on to the AA Tower to save one of their squadmates AND the Salarian STG team. This isn’t a choice of ‘one life weighed against one life’, this is a choice between ONE life, or about a dozen lives.

And again, if we’re removing as much ‘player bias’ from the equation as we can, I think we have no reason to assume that Shepard wouldn’t choose to save as many lives as they can. And since we established the most likely ‘in-universe’ choices are Ashley going with Kirrahe’s team and Kaidan on bomb-duty, I think it’s pretty clear that all things being equal, it’s ASHLEY who has the much better chance of being the Virmire survivor.

I’d say about the only especially plausible scenario where this doesn’t happen is if Shepard is romancing Kaidan, which might (emphasis on ‘MIGHT’) drive them to make the choice to save his life over those of Ashley and Kirrahe’s team. But again, that is only one specific scenario. In any other instance, I’d say that Shepard choosing Ashley over Kaidan is the most likely option.

And looking forward past ME1, I also can’t help but feel that Ashley works just a bit better than Kaidan in terms of what ME2 and ME3 expect the Virmire Survivor to actually do. Namely, how the narrative expects them to be VERY distrustful of Shepard starting in ME2 and eventually being entirely deceived by Udina in the leadup to the Cerberus Coup in ME3.

Now the thing is, does anyone else feel like this arc doesn’t exactly fit Kaidan all that well? Namely that he seems to be just a bit smarter than this?

Throughout ME1, we see that Kaidan is generally one to keep a cool head, and is well-experienced and savvy to the possible faults of his superiors, and generally one to be more thoughtful about a situation.

So I can’t help but feel like when they reunite on Horizon, Kaidan would be more willing to hear Shepard out and give them the benefit of the doubt, rather than becoming so immediately hostile. While I don’t see Kaidan outright joining Shepard’s team on Horizon, I do think he’d nonetheless be more open to reading between the lines of what’s going on and trusting that Shepard knows what they’re doing.

Now, that’s not to say that a super-distrustful Kaidan is entirely unrealistic. Namely, I think a romanced Kaidan feeling that Shepard has betrayed his trust by seemingly not reaching out to them in the two years and taking it pretty personally is a reasonable reaction. But other than that situation, I get the sense that Kaidan would mostly just be happy one of his closest friends is still alive and while he might have his reservations, is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

And given Kaidan’s experience, I simply do not see him getting suckered by Udina THAT easily in Mass Effect 3. Unless Shepard has been deliberately blowing him off and/or antagonizing him, the moment Shepard came out that door with their squad and Udina starting spouting ‘Shepard must be with Cerberus!’, I have to imagine Kaidan would’ve started smelling bullshit and that whole standoff would NOT have happened.

By contrast, basically everything ME2 and ME3 expects of the Virmire Survivor I can ABSOLUTELY see Ashely doing. For good or ill, Ashely is THE hotheaded emotional one of Shepard’s original crew, so her taking Shepard’s disappearance and apparently not getting in touch with her very personally feels pretty in-character. And her being a very loyal and committed Alliance soldier makes her being extremely distrustful of Shepard working with Cerberus feels likewise understandable.

And as for Udina’s shenanigan’s in ME3? Yeah, I’d say Ashely is exactly loyal, unquestioning and gullible enough to fall for his bullshit. Especially after he made her a Spectre.

Finally, going back to the first game, I can’t help but feel that Kaidan making the big heroic sacrifice while Ashley gets saved is altogether a bit more fitting to their respective arcs and the narrative as a whole rather than the reverse.

In ME1, Ashley’s main defining character trait is that she basically has a martyr complex. She’s desperate to ‘redeem’ her family name after the ‘dishonor’ brought on it by her grandfather surrendering Shanxi during the First Contact War. Because of this, she is entirely willing to get herself killed if it would help the mission. She’s looking to throw herself on a sword to redeem her family name. Because of this, I feel like it’s more narratively fitting for Ashley to NOT get the big heroic death she’s partly looking for. Heck, Shepard will flat out call Ashley out on her martyr complex after Virmire if she’s saved. It feels like saving Ashley on Virmire gives her a real arc as a character.

By contrast, Kaidan doesn’t really have much of a character arc in ME1, or at least not one that is furthered by him being the Virmire survivor. Instead, because Kaidan starts the game already friends with Shepard, I’d argue that him being the one to die on Virmire has a bit more of an emotional gut-punch than Ashley’s death does. I mean, think of it like this; Kaidan is the first of your party members in the first game. Out of all their companions by this point of the story, Kaidan has been with Shepard the longest. Sure, Ashley has known Shepard second longest out of their companions, but I’d argue Shepard knowing him before the start of the game gives Kaidan’s death just a BIT more tragic punch.

All in all, after I started noticing all this a number of years back, it’s been one of those things I can’t really ‘unsee’ so to speak. Because my go-to ME1 route is FemShep romancing Liara, I tend to weigh Ashley and Kaidan fairly equally in terms of ‘who I like more’. So because of all this, I now view Ashley as more or less the ‘canon’ Virmire Survivor. Now that’s not to say I think other people who chose Kaidan over Ashley are ‘wrong’ in any way. Just that when we think of Mass Effect as its own self-contained narrative, rather than an interactive experience, it’s Ashley who is just the bit more likely to survive Virmire over Kaidan.

#mass effect #mass effect 1 #rambling #anthurak rambles #commander shepard #ashley williams #kaidan alenko #rambling about one of my favorite games #virmire survivor #trying to determine canon choices in an RPG

[dragonflight203]

More on the ME1 replay, catching up on the Codex and first return to the Citadel:

-The Asari are centrists. Natural enough conclusion, I suppose. Once you get comfortable, you become leery of change. Change might mean things getting worse. And the Asari have a long time to get comfortable

-Why did the Salarian Union betray the League of One? It can't be just to make a good show to the Asari. Those were their secret agents. And how could it possibly be a surprise that their top secret agents would retaliate by murdering the inner cabinet?

Interesting to note that the STG already existed.

-The fact that Turians - well, presumably good hierarchy Turians - will own up to their failures, including murder, if directly questioned will never not make me laugh. I maintain that the Council's trial of Saren by asking him politely if he had committed treason in a public venue was the culturally sensitive way to try a hierarchy Turian.

-I suspect that the Volus might consider themselves to have the better bargain their hierachy-client relationship with the Turians. The Volus have no interest in combat and are excellent merchants. The Turians are horrible with money but excellent at hitting things. It's a classic thug-geek relationship.

And just how much influence do the Volus have on the Turians? The Turians know they're dependant on the Volus to manage the economy. Even if that's not critical within the hierarchy, it certainly is with maintaining relationships outside it. I suspect the Volus have quite a bit of sway on high levels.

That's probably one of the major reasons why the Asari and the Salarians don't want to have a Volus Council member - it essentially would give the Turians/Volus two votes.

(Why the Volus didn't have a seat long before the Turians showed up is an entirely different story.)

-Why did Garrus, the quintessential Turian, leave his military service early? Most stay in the service until the their 30. Garrus isn't 30 but has been with C-Sec for years, and to all appearances is in good standing with the Hierarchy. And no one would accuse Garrus of not being loyal.

You could argue the Turians consider C-Sec service. The Hierarchy military basically is their government, and they founded C-Sec so it wouldn't be a stretch that serving in C-Sec is considered part of one's voluntary service until they're 30. But confirmation would be nice.

And none of that changes that Garrus left C-Sec to run around with a spectre before he's 30.

-Turians recruit from "conquered or absorbed minor races". I would love to see these races in the future. Just want relationship do they have with the Hierarchy? The Volus and the Hierarchy are on good terms, but the Volus voluntarily became a client race. What about one of the races the Hierarchy conquered?

And when was the last time the Turians conquered a race? Before or after joining the Council? Do the Asari and Salarians have to regularly step in to prevent species from being absorbed to prevent the Turians from growing too strong? Is hitting the Turians on the nose with a newspaper to prevent them from absorbing another race just something done every century or so?

-Just in general, I love how the Turians are low key being an empire in the background.

Humanity is very willfully denying how close they came to being absorbed while quietly having severe PTSD about it and building up their military so they'll be on more equal terms if it comes up again.

The Asari and Salarians are just chilling as long as they're on good terms with the Turians and taking steps to prevent them from becoming too powerful. You bet the Salarians have a long list of countermeasures if the Turians start making eyes at them.

And everyone else is just ignoring the elephant in the room, because what can they do about it?

Meanwhile in the game it really only comes up in the codex, because Garrus is your BFF/love interest and loyal to hell and back. You're not going to discuss Turian expansionism while Humanity's brawling with the Batarians in the Atticus Traverse over hospitable worlds and Reapers are coming for everyone.

-Humanity created the first stable AI in 2172. That was way after first contact. AIs are banned in Citadel Space. What is the story here?

-The Armeni entry states that Council law holds grave sites as sacrosanct. How did that happen? Which race? I'm leaning Turian - fits their belief in spirits. Salarians are too practical. Could be Asari; they revere their elders.

-Shepard, to Rear Admiral Mikhailovich: They still serve the Alliance as a spectre, because they can advance Alliance interests as a spectre. I'm sure the Council is thrilled to hear that report.

-I suspect Mikhailovich was testing Shepard in that discussion. The anger at the loss of the ship was genuine, but not all the criticisms he threw out. Those were to see how Shepard would respond. I'm half wondering if Hackett put him up to this.

-Mikhailovich brings up the same criticisms as Ashley about giving Aliens access to sensitive information. Again, that's not an inherently wrong argument. Nor is Shepard's response that at this time collaboration is worth the risk.

-Me, speaking to Liara and Tali on the docks (paraphrased):

Tali: The first time I came C-Sec questioned me for three hours. They think all Quarians are thieves and beggars.

Liara: Did you know C-Sec is the largest multi-species law enforcement agency in Council space?

The irony. Garrus isn't the only one that needed a bit more worldly experience in ME1. Liara isn't wrong, but the lived difference between the culturally dominant Asari and the minority Quarian...

-The I Remember Me quest is brutal. This is some quality writing. With very little Bioware demonstrates just how awful Batarian slavery is.

Interesting that Talitha suicides if you take all the upper right or lower right choices. She lives if you take the upper left or all neutral choices. Rare for netural to do better than paragon/renegade.

I took the Space background last run through, and combined with Old, Unhappy, Far-Off things these two quests provide crucial background to understanding the Alliance's relationship with Batarians. I remember being surprised at how enlightening that quest was.

Meanwhile, the Earth background Old Friends quest is an entirely different beast. That was my first run through and a long time ago, but I don't recall it tying into Batarians or slavery at all.

#mass effect #mass effect 1 #mass effect 1 replay

[queenaeducan-writes]

Spokes in the Wheel

Pairing: Kirrahe x Mordin Solus Characters: Kirrahe, Mordin Solus Fandom: Mass Effect Trilogy Archive Warnings: Major Character Death Other Tags: Double Drabbles, Salarian worldbuilding Summary: There was a word for what Kirrahe meant to Mordin, but it took a lifetime for him to find it. A series of 200 word fics about Kirrahe and Mordin's relationship. Written for the @spectre-requisitions-exchange for jaigheart. You can also read it here on AO3!

13th of Kesh, 2756 GS. 600 hours. The first time Mordin saw Kirrahe. He was dressed simply, relieved of his STG armour for a more casual fit. The black weave of his jumpsuit only served to make him look greener, his bright skin blooming against the synthetic light.

While the other agents lounged in their seats, he sat straight. His ambition could be measured by the angle of his spine. He appeared at first the picture of arrogance, a young commander with a chip on his shoulder and plenty to prove. Mordin was prepared to work through gritted teeth. He’d known sooner or later the soldier faction within the STG would rear its head in this project. No Salarian ever set foot on Tuchanka without a bullet to spare.

And that was what Kirrahe was: the unwavering path of a bullet, hurtling towards its target with the force of a mass effect field behind it.

“You’re Doctor Solus, aren’t you?” Immediately, he rose from his seat. A smooth, liquid movement. Almost disarming to witness.

Almost.

“My superiors spoke highly of you,” he continued, offering his hand. “I’m eager to see what you and your scientists are made of.”

“STG hired the best,” Mordin replied. “Adjust expectations accordingly.”

20th of Pa’esh, 2756 GS. 1800 hours. His head felt lighter than yesterday morning. Far from a relief, instead every movement needed to be recalibrated. Relieved, now, of his right cranial horn, what before was a simple turn of the head would now send him careening.

Rather than spilling onto the floor, a pair of arms caught him, steadying him with apparent ease. “Shouldn’t you be resting?” Kirrahe chided.

“No time for rest. Immediate danger dealt with, must now deal with other… personal matters.” Mordin blinked. Drop 16 still felt like a dream. The inconvenient kind. The events of the day moved through his mind as though another salarian had lived them. Yet the injury to his horn proved otherwise.

That was until he remembered Maelon. The dismay in his voice when he saw they had killed krogan females was all too real.

“Personal matters. You mean Maelon?”

“Yes. Hope to convince him to recant protest now that dust has settled. See necessity in parameter shift.”

“I’ve already struck it from the official report. He’s young, one moment of weakness shouldn’t define the rest of his career.”

Gratitude swelled in his chest. Hard to believe this was the man he’d traded so many venomous barbs with yesterday.

1st of Da’esh, 2762 GS. 1000 hours. Medical personnel had reassured him all was well. Though the Commander— no, Captain’s unit had taken heavy losses, Kirrahe himself escaped with only minor injury. Mordin knew better.

He’d drafted countless emails inquiring after him. Deleted them just as quickly. Better to go himself.

Hearsay placed Kirrahe on Nasurn, his homeworld, in his clan’s embrace. The natural place for any salarian to return when life’s tests threatened to overwhelm, though Mordin had never felt such loyalty to his own.

“The first word I received when I was released from hospital was that Clan Narra had accepted my family’s bid for a reproduction contract,” Kirrahe told him not long after their reunion. “It looks like I’ll be a father again.”

A match most males would kill for. Then again, Kirrahe had.

“Seem hesitant.” Mordin sniffed. “Unlike you.”

“These days I save my certainty for my soldiers. I don’t have much to spare for myself.” The captain stretched, then winced, clutching a hidden injury. “It is nice to think something good could come from Virmire… what a mess.”

“Your last daughter— a product of the Modification Project success, correct?”

“True, but she’s not the only good thing that came from those days.”

15th of Kesh, 2765 GS. 500 hours. “Are you willing to admit that I was right?” Was the first thing Kirrahe said to him on Sur’kesh. Before platitudes, before niceties.

Mordin wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Would sooner die,” he shot back, which only encouraged the Captain— no, Major.

“I see age has done nothing for your obstinance,” Kirrahe said. “Perhaps we settle the matter over drinks, loser pays.”

Neither needed reminding of which argument they were returning to. One word, and it was as fresh in Mordin’s mind as the day it was had. The weary look on Rentola’s face as they continued was a clear sign they were not alone in their remembering.

What few hours Mordin had to waste were spent in Kirrahe’s company. Although, he was ashamed to say, he couldn’t remember who won, which certainly meant it was not him. Still clear, however, was the flash of Kirrahe’s eyes in the failing daylight. They invited curiosity. Questions Mordin had never forgotten, but buried beneath years of guilt.

Later, Eve would jest that perhaps their kinds were not so different, if the vehicles for how they expressed love played out so similarly. Albeit with fewer headbutts.

Mordin had no answer for her.

27th of Da’esh, 2765 GS. 2100 hours. It will be raining on Nasurn, Mordin thinks. It always does this time of year. When he closes his eyes, the patter of stone on the reinforced glass nearly passes for its chorus.

As he slips further into the distance, Shepard’s figure vanishes beneath a plume of rubble, and he is left with his memories. Nostalgia drowns his fears.

In the years after the Genophage Project ended, Mordin dove deep into the ancient wisdom of his people. He’d long thought there’d been no word for what Kirrahe is to him, at least not until the asari settled among the salarians. By the time he learned there was, their lives had passed one another by. Or so he thought.

Like the cycle of life itself, salarian lives turned in circles. It brought him to Shepard, to Tuchanka, to Maelon, and to Kirrahe.

Shadows pass over him as he draws nearer his destination. A nervous song plays upon his lips. He remembers how Kirrahe’s hand folded over his as he spoke the word back to him. Skin so green it stripped the colour from Sur’kesh’s leaves.

The door opens. Fire drinks the moisture from his skin. The wheel turns for him again.

#kirrahe #mass effect #mordin solus #salarian #mass effect fanfiction #character: kirrahe #character: mordin #pairing: kirrahe x mordin #pairing: romantic

[illusivesoul]

For the WIP folder meme, I'm in a yahg place after Spec Reqs ;) so what is 'yahg loose after surkesh'

Thanks for asking :)

Its basically a horror fic about the Yahg that gets loose on Sur'kesh during the Cerberus attack on ME3. I have the Yahg start to hunt the STG soldiers as it tries to steal a ship to return to his world. I got the inspiration for this after rewatching the Thing a couple months ago.

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“You found nothing and you are returning to base” The trembling salarian tapped the radio on his shoulder, and spoke the words instructed to him. “Understood, X2” the officer on the other end replied, but by then the salarian soldier laid lifeless on the floor, and the yagh’s 8 eyes were studying and analyzing the equipment and weapons the soldier was carrying, learning as much as he could before leaving the building as quickly as he had arrived.

#ask meme

[dgcatanisiri]

It drives me nuts that you pretty much have to actively TRY to get Miranda killed on the Suicide Mission, but she is NOT a companion in ME3.

Like... Right there, that gives me more feeling of ME2 having weight and consequence in ME3 - I've been open before about how ME2 feels more like a slog of a game for me, but part of that is also based in how watered down everything it does that carry forward are, because it feels like all those characters we spend ME2 getting to know are shunted to the side to bring the ME1 gang back together. Having this one character carried forward is a major step there.

It also would mean that Miranda would get moer than a reheated version of her loyalty mission as her contribution in ME3 - I like the idea of her trying to wrest control of Cerberus, or at least its resources, from the Illusive Man, basically trying to rebuild it into the image that she talks it up as in ME2, as humanity's answer to salarian STG or asari commandos, rather than the racist xenophobic terrorist organization it is.

#dg plays mass effect

[rawliverandcigarettes]

(sort-of) finished my espionage research and immediately slam-dunked 6500 words worth of STG lore and history into a blank document, which is more words in a row than anything I managed in literal years. And it's not even over yet.

#personal #halfway home #stg #salarians #I have Reinterpreted a bunch of things #because I want History to be more dynamic and unstable #I like my spy boys!! they are a mess! #some elements need more work tho #but! good start

[naiitiel]

In the new FORNAX volume: The hottest STG captain, Kirrahe.

Just a funny drawing, salarian related as always.

#mass effect #kirrahe mass effect #mass effect legendary edition #mass effect 1 #mass effect 3 #mele #mass effect trilogy #kirrahe #captain kirrahe #major kirrahe #fornax #fornax mass effect #bioware #mass effect fanart

[stupid-sloot-headcanons]

For the 6900 followers request: a yandere Salarian, and can be any named Salarian character from ME or one created by you. I'm curious about your take on this since Salarians are considered more logical than humans.

Decided to go with the only name Salarian I think could go yandere, since like you said they're a bit too logical and pragmatic to let their emotions get to them: Maelon, former apprentice of Mordin Solus! He's already done dark shit for what he believes is the right thing, and I think he could develop something a bit too strong for a Darling. This was a fun challenge to write, so thank you anon!

I think that Maelon would develop a fixation on a Darling that was very altruistic, kind, empathetic. It's something that Salarians tend to lack and after what happened with the Krogan, he'd grow to appreciate those qualities in others a lot more. Honestly all it'd take is someone showing a little bit of kindness and going out of their way to help him, or maybe overhearing them talk sympathetically towards the Krogan for him to get smitten.

Maelon is a yandere Salarian, but a Salarian nonetheless. So he justifies his obsession: he's attracted to them because they're so unlike his own people in the best way possible (their empathy, kindness, altruism). He's only watching over them because he cares about them and knows they're much easier to deceive--humans are much more naive and trusting than Salarians, after all. His family may pester him to arrange a breeding contract, but he's avoided their calls even before he wound up taking care of Mordin's clinic on Omega.

And if they're on Omega, he rationalizes his obsession even more. Someone that gentle and naive on Omega NEEDS someone like him to make sure they're safe. He'll offer to let them stay in his home by the clinic so they're safe while they're in Omega, and he'd work out a deal with Aria to make sure Darling isn't targeted by anyone. Mordin's successor wants Darling off-limits, and Aria's willing to make that deal; though she does use Darling as a potential bargaining chip when she needs something from Maelon.

Eventually the obsession builds and builds, so he justifies taking them for himself in a few ways. He can't focus on his work while he's pining for them and worrying about where they might be; they owe him for looking out for them so far; if they're gonna be on Omega then they're safest with him.

Sex between a Salarian and a human (or hell, any non-Salarian that isn't an Asari) is practically unheard of, but Maelon knows a lot about human anatomy. Salarian females lay eggs and are similar to reptiles in how they mate, so Darling is in for...an experience. Two hemipenises, a biological drive to cum inside in order to fertilize said eggs, and given their metabolism they fuck/cum repeatedly and quickly during a mating session.

Given Maelon hasn't ever had a breeding contract, he's never fucked anything besides his own hand or a "stress relief" device developed by the finest Salarians in the sex toy industry. But even he can tell that human pussy hits different, and that first night he's with them he's so overwhelmed and shaking like he just took a shot of adrenaline for an all-nighter. Salarians also aren't very cuddly, even towards mates, but Maelon isn't like many Salarians lol. He tends to cling to Darling while he sleeps, especially when he's having a nightmare.

His skills as a former STG member means he can easily kidnap, subdue, restrain, and manipulate his Darling. He'd rather not, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Even with his small frame, he can still drug their drinks and food or keep them under surveillance with hidden cameras, trackers, etc. It's so easy that stalking them almost feels like a relaxing hobby to him, like a zen garden he tends to by watching them when they think they're alone.

#tw: dubcon #.mass effect #yandere mass effect #.maelon #yandere maelon #.myshit

[shizuu-chann]

Was anyone else surprised by the Ashley/Kaidan becoming a Spectre thing when you played through ME3 for the first time? I'm not here to discuss whether or not they deserve it; they're both fine soldiers and are very skilled. I'm just saying it feels more convenient than anything else.

The way I've always understood the Spectres is that, throughout the first two games, agents were chosen from specific branches of Council species' militaries. Considering I'm almost 100% certain salarian Spectre agents are only chosen from STG, for example, and the fact that Spectres work alone or in groups of max. three, agents would be chosen from the special forces branch (or equivalent) of each species. That may be incorrect, but at the very least it makes sense in my mind and I prefer it this way because it does play into the whole "best of the best" idea that the Spectres are supposed to be. (And it's the way it works in any fics I write, though I do still keep the aspect of Ashley/Kaidan being one, there's just different context.)

Shepard being chosen makes sense, especially if they have the War Hero service history (like my Shep). In that case, they've literally already proven they can work in high-stress, high-stakes situations, alone with no backup, and be successful. On top of that, they have the highest level of special forces training the Alliance offers, and the most likely timeline for Shepard earning the N7 designation is after whatever their service history event is (as in, they were invited to the ICT Academy after proving themselves to be self-reliant, resilient, skilled, and capable of getting shit done).

Neither Ashley nor Kaidan are N7, or Special Forces at all, so it always surprised me that they were asked. I'm sure part of the reason they were asked is political maneuvering by Udina, but I'm also not sure to what end. Is he aware the the Virmire survivor has trust issues with Shepard after working with/using Cerberus in ME2, thus anticipates being able to manipulate them into doing his bidding and culminating in the coup attempt? I can't decide if I like that they were asked and inducted, partially because I like that Shepard is special because sometimes it's just that simple, but ultimately I think it's fun that your longtime friend also gets that special privilege. So, I guess I just contradicted myself, but whatever.

Regardless, the whole thing feels very calculated if we're going to be suspicious of in-game reasoning, and suspiciously plot convenient (and not in a good way) if we're going to blame the decision on questionable writing.

TL;DR I think Spectres should be chosen from the special forces of the Council species, bc that makes the most in-game sense in terms of skill sets and training. Ashley/Kaidan being chosen feels more like a political move of some kind by Udina, like maybe he hopes the VS will completely distrust Shepard and he'll get away with the coup attempt. (Yes, I realize that's probably exactly the point, bc if you don't talk with the VS while they're hospitalized and/or are aggressive and not understanding of their feelings when you're reunited on the same team again--feelings that already don't make sense, imo, like Joker/Garrus/Tali/Liara/Dr. Chakwas all trusted Shepard and knew they teamed up with the enemy for the greater good--they won't trust you when you corner the Council and you or a member of your squad have to kill them.) I suppose you could also blame it all on changes in the writing and development team, but shrug.

#mass effect #mass effect 3 #ashley williams #kaidan alenko #spectres #spectres mass effect

[dragonflight203]

Mass Effect 2, Grunt loyalty mission:

-Wrex says Okeer is a hated name. Why? I don’t think the game ever provides the context for that.

-Grunt’s loyalty mission is invaluable for the world building it provides for the krogan.

I don’t have much to say about most of it, but I appreciate how well it fleshes the krogan out as a people.

-Mmm. Wrex is not as all powerful as one might assume. He has to coordinate with the female clan, and within Urdnot itself the Shaman holds a lot of power.

Despite how it may seem on the surface, being a clan leader requires interpersonal skills. You can’t just headbutt everyone into submission.

-I am amused that even krogans have liberals and conservatives, and concern about their culture being lost because of changes.

Sure, everything is contextualized via some form of violence or another, but it’s there.

-I struggle with krogans in ME2. They generally respond better to neutral or renegade dialogue than paragon, but because the paragon/renegade system is ratio based in ME2 I’m reluctant to give up on any paragon points.

-Shaman, about the site of Grunt’s rite of passage: The last surface city to fall in the rebellions.

So, fighting occurred on Tuchanka as well during the Krogan Rebellions. Somehow that never occurred to me. I had assumed all fighting occurred offworld.

It’s still been a millennia or so since then so the krogan should have started rebuilding, but that’s not quite as long since they nuked themselves.

Now I’m curious about how much the krogan had rebuilt between the nukes and the rebellions. Do they ever get tired of having to start from scratch?

-There are Urdnot bodies scattered around the rite of passage area.

This is another reason why the krogan are slowly dying out. They die during the rite of passage, and that’s a tradition they’re apparently not willing to give up.

Did the salarians not consider this when creating the genophage? Did they assume the krogans would adapt by abandoning or modifying the rite?

-Uvenk is quite the politician. Had he been born another species, I expect he’d be quite comfortable on the presidium.

-And we know Wrex is a politician. I suspect one of the reasons he permitted Grunt to perform the rite is he thought it would get rid of Uvenk.

It also ties Shepard even more closely to Clan Urdnot. Besides being Wrex’s friend, Shepard is Grunt’s Battlemaster.

-Ironically, I think this might be one of the most political missions in the game, with only Tali’s loyalty mission coming close.

And most people in Mass Effect would probably insist krogans aren’t capable of politics.

-The Shaman says that rebuilding the world over and over makes krogans stronger.

I still suspect individual krogan grow weary from it.

-When you first tell Wrex you have a krogan crew member, he says you replaced him.

If you kill the thresher maw and speak to Wrex again, he says “Guess that’s what it takes to replace me”.

Grunt is being positioned to be the next leader of Clan Urdnot.

-I had just enough money to buy all the upgrades from Fortack’s store. Whew!

-Hearing the chatter about defeating the thresher maw and the various krogans welcoming Grunt into the clan is nice.

And the Blood Pack recruiter certainly changes his tune.

Normandy

-Chorban emailed Shepard to let them know his findings on the Keepers.

Pretty much everything Shepard discovered in ME1 – they’re bioengineered, made by the same people that made Sovereign, and react to a signal every 50,000 years. How convenient.

Of course, the real point is for Chorban to say that nobody on the Citadel is listening to him.

This is probably too emphasize that the Council is doing nothing, and it’s up to Shepard to save the galaxy.

More practically, I suspect STG is monitoring all of Chorban’s equipment and making copies of everything.

-The dialogue to receive Tali’s loyalty mission is also short, but at least it’s longer than Garrus’ and presents new concepts.

-If you go renegade with Grunt, he assures Shepard he would stab Shepard in the front, not the back. Love it.

-If you go paragon on your last response with him, it ends on a bit of a sour note. Grunt’s here for fighting, so Shepard better be as well.

-More generally, it’s good to see Grunt feeling assured. He’s found his place in the world.

#mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 2 replay

[swaps55]

15

Thank you!!

Fic Writer asks

15. How do you think your writing as improved over time?

I think I've gotten tighter and more nuanced, with more concrete language that lets me make the writer feel more while saying less. I actually have a good example, because I recently took some old fic and revised it/updated it for Opus. Here's one passage in particular that I think showed some growth: Original, from Exordium, which was from 2014:

Virmire smelled wrong. Too much green. Too much wet. Too much salt. The weak, watery sun paled in comparison to the bold, scalding heat of Tuchanka. And it stank of salarian.

He spat into the water.

Sniveling, amphibious bastards. Too fragile for anything but subterfuge and skulking in shadows. Yet they had been the ones to bring down his people. The turians may have deployed the genophage, but the salarians, even more specifically the STG, were the one’s who’d thought it up.

He trudged into their camp with a shotgun and a glare. When one of Kirrahe’s troops made a move to intercept him, Wrex aimed the shotgun and growled.

“Try it.”

The salarian backed humbly away. Wrex sneered, almost disappointed, then continued towards Shepard. The commander, flanked by the Alenko-human and the asari, sat with the salarian called Kirrahe and four of his men. The cloying smell of apprehension choked the air, and all eyes fixed on him. Wrex shifted his grip slightly on the shotgun as he came to a halt, eying each of them in turn.

“What’s going on?”

And the revised, from Concerto, in 2022:

Virmire smells wrong. Too much vegetation. Too much wet. Too much salt. The weak, watery sun pales in comparison to the scalding heat of Tuchanka. And it stinks of salarian.

Wrex spits into the water and trudges into the camp with a shotgun and a glare. When one of the salarian troops makes a move to intercept him, Wrex aims the shotgun and growls.

“Try it.”

The salarian backs humbly away. Wrex sneers, then continues towards Shepard. The commander, flanked by the Alenko-human and the asari, sits with the salarian captain and four of his men, all eyes fixed on him. Wrex shifts his grip slightly on the shotgun as he comes to a halt, eyeing each of them in turn.

Humans are weak at the neck and the spine. Shepard and the Alenko-human both have formidable barriers, but can only maintain them for so long. Salarians are easily capacitated by grabbing a horn, and caving in their chest cavity. And while the singularity the asari can generate is powerful, it takes enough out of her that she ceases to be a threat.

Wrex rumbles deep in his chest. “What’s going on?”

Aside from shifting to present tense, I got rid of some abstract language that didn't really sell what I wanted to get across, weeded out some exposition so that Wrex's dialogue and action got more of the spotlight, and added in some lines about how he did internal threat assessment even among allies to remind you how dangerous he is, and how few fucks he has. Wrex has always been a struggle for me to write, so to get a second crack at him and feel good about the rework was a highlight.

#mememe #meme replies #how writing is written #thank you!!!