φ aliens.

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ALIENS

COUNCIL RACES

asari

Natives of the planet Thessia, they are considered to be the most powerful and respected sentient species in the known galaxy. They were the first race - after the Protheans - to achieve interstellar flight and discover and inhabit the Citadel. They are mono-gendered, known for their elegance, diplomacy and biotic talent, and have the longest lifespan of any known race in the galaxy. They are also the only race that can mate with any other species - though all of their offspring emerge as asari no matter what other species' DNA is involved.

salarian

The second species to join the Citadel, they are warm-blooded amphibians hailing from the planet Sur'Kesh. Due to their hyperactive metabolism, they do things differently from other races. They think, talk and move much more quickly than others, and as a result tend to think other races are slow and dull-witted. This gives them their penchant for experimentation - thus the reason for so many Salarian scientists - and it is generally accepted that they always know more than they're letting on.

turian

A very militaristic and disciplined race, the turians were the third to join the Council. They are the cause of the krogan genophage - a plague which causes thousands of stillbirths and makes breeding among the krogan very difficult. Originally from Palaven, they are well-known for their military origin, and are often seen as imperialistic and rigid by other races. They were first to propose the creation of C-Sec, and due to the turian role in the First Contact War, some animosity still remains between them and the humans.

human

Originating on planet Earth, humans are the newest sentient species to enter the galactic stage and are very rapidly developing and expanding. In 2148, they independently discovered a Prothean data cache on Mars, and the mass relay networks shortly after. While they are more than likely the youngest species in the galaxy, they are working hard to define themselves as an attribute and prove themselves worthy of the respect of others within the Council as a whole.

NON-COUNCIL RACES

batarian

Coming from the planet of Khar'shan, the batarians are a race of four-eyed bipeds that have pretty much chosen to isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy. They've been stereotyped as pirates and thugs, and the fact that there are many slaving rings and pirate gangs throughout the Terminus Systems doesn't help their case any. (This does not, however, describe the average batarian citizen -- who are not allowed to leave batarian space due to their omnipresent and paranoid government.) They have a reputation for being shrewd businessmen and merchants, and much prefer drug running or slave driving as opposed to warfare -- and when it all boils down to it, they're nothing but ugly fucks that hold you at gunpoint when you're trying to negotiate.

drell

Rescued from their dying homeworld by the hanar, the drell are reptile-like species that have the uncanny ability to recall every single event of their lifetime with crystal clarity. This ability - called eidetic memory - ingrains every memory a drell has ever had whether they want to remember it or not, and any external stimuli may trigger an episode regardless of whether or not it is intentional. Most drell are very religious, operating under the belief that their soul is a separate entity from their physical body, and that death is merely a departure from the latter.

elcor

Coming from the high-gravity world of Dekuuna, the elcor are massive in size - comparable to Earth's gorilla in both mass and physique. They move very slowly, an evolutionary response to an environment where a fall can be lethal. This has also colored their psychology, making them more conservative and deliberate in nature. Their manner of speaking comes across as monotonous, due to the fact that among their own species they rely more on body language and their olfactory senses to communicate. As such, when speaking with other species, they have adapted the penchant for prefixes to their dialogue to clarify emotive statements.

geth

Their name translates into "Servant of the People" in Khelish, and they are a network of artificial intelligences that originally resided beyond the Perseus Veil. Created by the quarians as a means of expendable manual labor and tools of war, they eventually evolved and became sentient. Began questioning their creators and ultimately revolted against them. The resulting conflict between the two of them ended in the quarians being chased from their home - and the history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers regarding artificial intelligence. The geth were once networked to one another, operating more efficiently when in large groups than individually, but during the Reaper War the geth achieve true individual consciousness.

hanar

These fine and noble creatures resemble Earth's jellyfish, and are one of the few Citadel races that are not bipedal. They have a very, very particular way of speaking, in that they are very polite in every conversation they have, and they are very religious when it comes to their beliefs regarding the Protheans, which they refer to as "The Enkindlers." It is unknown whether the hanar have more than one gender, or are asexual as some species of jellyfish are, and despite having evolved in water, they are also able to breathe air. The most notable hanar is a fictional character named Blasto, who appears in many films and is referred to as the galaxy's first hanar spectre. (He's kind of a big deal.) Despite his popularity, however, the films have been the object of criticism of many anti-defamation groups due to its use of the term "jellyfish," which many hanar perceive to be a racial slur.

krogan

A large, reptilian species native to Tuchanka, the krogan are a race of warriors. The extreme conditions of their homeworld - a harsh environment paired with an overabundance of predators - have shaped the krogan into a fearless, ruthless group. Thousands of years ago, a full-scale global war came to pass as a result of battles carried out to claim small territories capable of sustaining life, and the resulting nuclear weapons unleashed turned the planet into a wasteland, thus forcing the krogan to learn how to survive their own downfall. Ultimately, they were uplifted by the Salarians some centuries later, and have since shown that they are more than capable of holding their own. Up until a cure was formulated, the genophage assaulted the krogan and made breeding virtually impossible -- and let's not forget the fact that they eradicated an entire species, the rachni, that threatened the entire galaxy. Ask a krogan about that sometime. They'll tell you all about it.

quarian

A humanoid, nomadic species known for their skill with technology synthetic intelligence. Until their homeworld, Rannoch, was reclaimed, they lived among the Migrant Fleet, which was nothing more than a collection of starships. The quarians were the ones to invent the geth as a means of efficient manual labor - though they never expected the machines to become sentient and ultimately cause them to flee. Due to centuries of having to live among sterile environments, the result is a very weak immune system - and because of that, all quarians are made to wear environmental suits in order to keep from getting sick or even dying.

volus

A client race of the turians from the planet Irune, the volus are a proud and rather difficult-to-deal-with species. Like the quarians, they must also wear environmental suits, but for a completely different reason - their planet possesses a high-pressure greenhouse atmosphere that is able to sustain an ammonia-based biochemistry. As a result, when dealing with other species, they must wear the suits as well as breathers. They may not be as physically adept as other species - how can they be, as rotund as they are? - but they certainly make up for it in the area of biotics. (They aren't called biotic gods for nothing, thank you very much.) They are also skilled in the areas of trade and commerce, basically the Ferengi of Mass Effect, and will not stop until they have a seat on the Council.

vorcha

As a very primitive race, the vorcha live in the darker and more dangerous parts of the galaxy - such as Omega. Their nature is very aggressive, to say the very least, and as such many of them are trained as soldiers for the Blood Pack mercenary group. Despite how useful they may be when you want someone killed, the general consensus is that they're nothing more than pests and scavengers. (Just don't let one of them hear you say that.)

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