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---> '''Mordin:''' Advantage of being salarian. Turians, krogan, vorcha, all obvious threats. Never see me coming.
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---> '''Mordin:''' Advantage of being salarian. Turians, krogan, vorcha, all obvious threats. ([[VerbalTic sharp inhale]]) Never see me coming.
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* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army in the galaxy [[spoiler: until the Reapers arrive]]. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Humans Are The Real Monsters]] ).
to:
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch of course, there are many a significant number of exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army in the galaxy [[spoiler: until the Reapers arrive]]. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish This selfishess also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Humans Are The Real Monsters]] ).
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Changed line(s) 293 (click to see context) from:
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Humans Are The Real Monsters]] ).
to:
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or in the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution.galaxy [[spoiler: until the Reapers arrive]]. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Humans Are The Real Monsters]] ).
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Changed line(s) 293 (click to see context) from:
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]] ).
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* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProestTooMuch ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Humans Are The Real Monsters]] ).
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Changed line(s) 293 (click to see context) from:
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe]] selfish than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProesstTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]]).
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* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe]] selfish [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProesstTooMuch ([[MySpeciesDothProestTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]]).[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]] ).
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* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view.
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* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view. Though the problem is more that humans are [[NeverMyFault more]] [[ItsAllAboutMe]] selfish than the other races in the galaxy ([[MySpeciesDothProesstTooMuch of course, there are many exceptions to that]]). After being newly integrated into the galactic community, humanity demanded equal power and privileges to the Council races even though they hadn't done anything to earn it yet (they hadn't made any accomplishments to equal the power of the Council races, such as the Turians having the mightiest army or the Salarian homeworld being free of poverty or pollution. Even the non-council race, the Volus, had a better economy). Appearing selfish also gave the impression that humanity would abuse that power if they got it (with the other races concerns not completely unjustified, see [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters]]).
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* PlanetOfHats: What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] to other races (whose concern's about humanity aren't completely unjustified), and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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* PlanetOfHats: What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] to other races (whose concern's about humanity aren't completely unjustified), and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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Way too much HFY in there.
Changed line(s) 300 (click to see context) from:
* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as a warning. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] to other races (whose concern's about humanity aren't completely unjustified), and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as a warning. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] to other races (whose concern's about humanity aren't completely unjustified), and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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Changed line(s) 300 (click to see context) from:
* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as a warning. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very selfish and self-centered to other races, and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as a warning. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition, defiance, and individuality. This makes them seem very selfish and self-centered [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] to other races, races (whose concern's about humanity aren't completely unjustified), and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well]].
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* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as an example. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition and defiance.
** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[NeverMyFault flaw of being an especially]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[NeverMyFault flaw of being an especially]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
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* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as an example. a warning. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition ambition, defiance, and defiance.
** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[NeverMyFault flaw of being an especially]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtueindividuality. This makes them seem very selfish and flaw in real-life self-centered to other races, and [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch often other humans as well.well]].
** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[NeverMyFault flaw of being an especially]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue
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** The "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC for the second game implies that they have human-standard equipment between their legs; Liara notes that "Azure" is asari slang for their genitalia.
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** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[ NeverMyFault flaw of being a]] [[ ItsAllAboutMe selfish ]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
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** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[ NeverMyFault [[NeverMyFault flaw of being a]] [[ ItsAllAboutMe selfish ]] an especially]] [[ItsAllAboutMe selfish]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
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** Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[ NeverMyFault flaw of being a]] [[ ItsAllAboutMe selfish ]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
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**Technically, humanity does have a hat; individuality. It gives us the virtue of being versatile (see JackOfAllStats above), though it also gives us the [[ NeverMyFault flaw of being a]] [[ ItsAllAboutMe selfish ]] species. In fact, according to several studies of human nature, the human race has the same virtue and flaw in real-life as well.
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** Although, this can be given as the reason for their overall success as well, since they defy becoming a PlanetOfHats like the other races. Being average across the board allows humans to adopt or discard as many different hats depending on the needs of the situation, until they find one that works.
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** Although, this can be given as the reason for their overall success as well, since they defy becoming a PlanetOfHats like the other races. Being average across the board allows humans to adopt or discard as many different hats depending on the needs of the situation, until they find one that works.
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** Although, this can be given as the reason for their overall success as well, since they defy becoming a PlanetOfHats like the other races. Being average across the board allows humans to adopt or discard as many different hats depending on the needs of the situation, until they find one that works.
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** Their role on the Council is seen as this, trying to solve problems by [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talking them to death]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost, pretty much refusing the call ''twice''. Granted, while they lacked a cipher, they were still able to successfully data-mine the beacon for centuries, but unfortunately the asari only unlocked enough to stay ahead of the curve, causing them to become reliant of the beacon for breakthroughs as their own technology stagnated]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost, pretty much refusing the call ''twice''. Granted, while they lacked a cipher, they were still able to successfully data-mine the beacon for centuries, but unfortunately the asari only unlocked enough to stay ahead of the curve, causing them to become reliant of on the beacon for breakthroughs as their own technology stagnated]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost, pretty much refusing the call ''twice''. Granted, while they lacked a cipher, they were still able to successfully data-mine the beacon for centuries, but unlocked only enough to stay ahead of the curve, causing them to become technologically stagnant]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost, pretty much refusing the call ''twice''. Granted, while they lacked a cipher, they were still able to successfully data-mine the beacon for centuries, but unfortunately the asari only unlocked only enough to stay ahead of the curve, causing them to become technologically stagnant]].reliant of the beacon for breakthroughs as their own technology stagnated]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost. So they pretty much refused the call twice. Granted, without a cipher, the thing couldn't be accessed at will, so getting information out of it wasn't exactly easy]].
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* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost. So they lost, pretty much refused refusing the call twice. ''twice''. Granted, without while they lacked a cipher, they were still able to successfully data-mine the thing couldn't be accessed at will, so getting information out beacon for centuries, but unlocked only enough to stay ahead of it wasn't exactly easy]].the curve, causing them to become technologically stagnant]].
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** Javik is [[DidntSeeThatComing highly surprised]] to learn that they evolved ''at all'', let alone became one of the dominant species in the current Cycle.
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** UnitedEurope: It's mentioned that Europe is also politically active, apparently having become one Nation-State.
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** UnitedEurope: It's mentioned that Europe is also politically active, apparently having become one Nation-State.Nation-State, although the United Kingdom is also mentioned, leaving it ambiguous whether it's a constituent member or a [[WithEuropeButNotOfIt separate entity]].
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** This was also something humans were ''doing'' in ignorance during the First Contact War. They fought the turian forces deployed to Shanxi to a standstill and were gaining ground. However, the turian military was orders of magnitude bigger than humanity's (not that humans knew that at the time) and were preparing to route considerable reinforcements to the Shanxi theater when the Citadel Council intervened and prevented the war from escalating.
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** This was also something humans were ''doing'' in ignorance during the First Contact War. They fought the turian forces deployed to Shanxi to a standstill and were gaining ground. However, the turian military was orders of magnitude bigger than humanity's (not that humans knew that at the time) and were preparing to route considerable reinforcements to the Shanxi theater when the Citadel Council intervened and prevented the war from escalating. A recording of two turian soldiers interrogating a human POW from the Citadel Archives even suggests that they may have been considering mounting an invasion of ''Earth'' before the ceasefire was called.
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*** This even counts for the numerous Turian criminals and {{ArcVillain}}s. None of them will outright lie about their agenda, but they certainly don't mind half-truths and FromACertainPointOfView verbal tactics. It also makes them prone to {{MotiveRant}}s when things come to a head.
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*** This even counts for the numerous Turian criminals and {{ArcVillain}}s.{{Arc Villain}}s. None of them will outright lie about their agenda, but they certainly don't mind half-truths and FromACertainPointOfView verbal tactics. It also makes them prone to {{MotiveRant}}s {{Motive Rant}}s when things come to a head.
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*** This even counts for the numerous Turian criminals and ArcVillains. None of them will outright lie about their agenda, but they certainly don't mind half-truths and FromACertainPointOfView verbal tactics. It also makes them prone to MotiveRants when things come to a head.
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*** This even counts for the numerous Turian criminals and ArcVillains.{{ArcVillain}}s. None of them will outright lie about their agenda, but they certainly don't mind half-truths and FromACertainPointOfView verbal tactics. It also makes them prone to MotiveRants {{MotiveRant}}s when things come to a head.
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*** This even counts for the numerous Turian criminals and ArcVillains. None of them will outright lie about their agenda, but they certainly don't mind half-truths and FromACertainPointOfView verbal tactics. It also makes them prone to MotiveRants when things come to a head.
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* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of other races have this impression of asari. Justified to some degree considering that it's pretty common for those in their maiden years to either become mercenaries or dancers/prostitutes. Their reproduction habits and concepts about sexuality don't help either. This is actually a rather severe problem in their society--Aethyta, in ''2'', comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their youths table-dancing. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in ''3'' when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]], noting that things might have gone better for them if they had more commandos and less strippers.
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* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of other races have this impression of asari. Justified to some degree considering that it's pretty common for those in their maiden years to either become mercenaries or dancers/prostitutes. Their reproduction habits and concepts about sexuality don't help either. This is actually a rather severe problem in their society--Aethyta, in ''2'', comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their youths table-dancing. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this on the subject in ''3'' when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]], noting that things might have gone better for them if they had more commandos and less strippers.
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* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of other races have this impression of asari. Justified to some degree considering that it's pretty common for those in their maiden years to either become mercenaries or dancers/prostitutes. Their reproduction habits and concepts about sexuality don't help either.
** Actually, this is a rather severe problem in their society. Aethyta, in [[MassEffect2 2]], comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their maiden stage. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in [[MassEffect3 3]] when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]].
** Actually, this is a rather severe problem in their society. Aethyta, in [[MassEffect2 2]], comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their maiden stage. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in [[MassEffect3 3]] when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]].
to:
* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of other races have this impression of asari. Justified to some degree considering that it's pretty common for those in their maiden years to either become mercenaries or dancers/prostitutes. Their reproduction habits and concepts about sexuality don't help either.
** Actually, thiseither. This is actually a rather severe problem in their society. Aethyta, society--Aethyta, in [[MassEffect2 2]], ''2'', comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their maiden stage. youths table-dancing. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in [[MassEffect3 3]] ''3'' when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]].Reapers]], noting that things might have gone better for them if they had more commandos and less strippers.
** Actually, this
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* AllWomenAreLustful: Most of other races have this impression of asari. Justified to some degree considering that it's pretty common for those in their maiden years to either become mercenaries or dancers/prostitutes. Their reproduction habits and concepts about sexuality don't help either.
** Actually, this is a rather severe problem in their society. Aethyta, in [[MassEffect2 2]], comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their maiden stage. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in [[MassEffect3 3]] when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]].
** Actually, this is a rather severe problem in their society. Aethyta, in [[MassEffect2 2]], comments that asari maidens should be doing productive jobs instead of wasting their maiden stage. Joker gets a rather cruel remark of this in [[MassEffect3 3]] when [[spoiler:Thessia is destroyed by the Reapers]].
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This page is for listing the tropes related to the Citadel Council species in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' universe, [[PlanetOfHats each with their own]] ([[AvertedTrope often averted]]) tropes.
For the pages listing tropes related to specific characters in the trilogy, see the [[Characters/MassEffect Mass Effect Character Index]].
This page includes ''significant'' spoilers, and some are by their nature unmarked. Read at your own discretion.
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Turians]]
!! Turians
[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turians_codex_image_3287.jpg]]
->''If you want a problem [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy shot]], ask a turian...''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Palaven
The third race to join the Citadel Council. The Turian Hierarchy is a very organized and militant society. Every physically and mentally-sound turian is either a soldier, a retired soldier or training to be a soldier. This has resulted in the Turian Hierarchy having the largest military force in the galaxy. Turians were the first alien species that humanity encountered. Unfortunately, this encounter took the form of the First Contact War. Although the other two Council Races managed to end the war diplomatically, human-turian relations are still rocky.
Turians are available for multiplayer, and can use the [[TheRedMage Sentinel]] and [[WalkingArmory Soldier]] classes. The Retaliation DLC also adds [[StealthExpert Ghost Infiltrators]], [[JetPack Havoc Soldiers]], and Saboteur Engineers. The Reckoning DLC adds [[SheFu Cabal]] [[PoisonousPerson Vanguards]].
----
* AlienBlood: Blue.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Their homeworld, Palaven, has a weak geomagnetic field, meaning it gets bombarded by more solar radiation than comparable planets like Earth or Thessia. How did Palaven's life adapt? It evolved a semi-metallic carapace.
** The amino-acids on which life on their planet are based are incompatible with those of most other species. Alcoholic beverages that would merely seem strong to most races would in fact kill a turian. They also have allergic reactions to most non-turian food due to the amino-acid incompatibility.
* BadassArmy: They have extremely disciplined armies, the largest fleet of warships (well over 10,000), the most dreadnoughts (39), and a proud military tradition. They also have by far the largest military in the known galaxy, except for maybe the geth.
** They were able to hold their own against the krogan empires in a decades-long war of attrition at a time before the genophage when the krogan were actually breeding faster than the other races. They also managed to take down the fleets of krogan dreadnoughts with cruisers and frigates, which required a lot of expertise and production capability.
** "Reaper troop transports have dumped hordes of husk to capture Palaven's inhabitants, but met with little success. Reaper capital ships are destroying city after city. But much of the turian fleet is still operable, and the citizenry is heavily armed. [[DoNotGoGentle The turians refuse to be intimidated]]." To put this perspective, the turians are holding their own (even if it's just barely) against the largest part of the Reaper fleet assigned to any individual planet, which they sent in knowing the power of the turian fleet. They even managed to destroy a few Sovereign-class capital ships in the opening attack (contrast the humans and asari who got completely curbstomped in a few hours once the Reapers committed their forces.) They are the only race who actually manage to fight the Reapers on even terms (even if it was still a HopelessWar); the Reaper attacks on Earth and Thessia [[CurbStompBattle quickly turn into routs.]]
** Of note is that every turian who is of age and is of sound mental capability is a soldier. Military service is mandatory across the entirety of their space. If that turian can walk and talk, that turian is trained to fight.
** Of particular note is the Armiger Legion. Every member has a PowerFist, consumable packs that grant borderline invincibility, the best weapons in the empire, and a ''jetpack''.
* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Though many aliens seem to have trouble with human metaphors, turians in particular struggle with the concept fullstop. Even Garrus has a problem with 'em. Although they are intrigued by how humans have a way with words.
** This actually leads to some rather clever [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge Brilliance]] when you consider that they are primarily a military-based culture, so making sure that their orders were given clearly is the best way a turian can count on their subordinates to properly do their job. In comparison, humans have a tendency to give orders while using slang, shorthand and metaphor whilst on the battlefield, which would naturally be ''very'' confusing for an outsider try to figure out. Add to the fact that humans seem to be the ''only'' culture in the setting who developed non-verbal hand signals to give commands, you could argue that the turians have every ''right'' to believe the way humans communicate is completely insane!
* BottledHeroicResolve: The DLC turian classes have a "Stimulant Pack" power that boosts shields and weapon damage.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Humans and turians fought a war that led to humanity's entering the greater galactic population. Humans call it the First Contact War. Turians call it the Relay 314 Incident. Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as well, [[WorthyOpponent as the turians admit that it was the only true military opposition they had faced in over a millennium.]]
** If Shepard takes actions to help out turians in trouble in [=ME1=], the news in [=ME2=] will indicate that the turians are starting to make overtures for a better diplomatic relationship with humanity by [[TheAtoner atoning more fully]] for the above incident.
* ColonyDrop: The turians frequently employ this tactic as a solution to deal with ground-forces, notably seen in the First Contact War and casually suggested by Garrus to take out the enemy geth on Rannoch, much to Tali's horror.
** They were also frequently the victims of this during the Krogan Rebellions. The krogan had a habit of smashing moons into turian planets. [[TheDeterminator It just made the turians angry.]]
* CombatByChampion: One of the traditional ways turians can resolve large-scale conflicts: a duel between chosen representatives of each party. Parodied during a certain CerberusDailyNews story covering the War on Taetrus. A turian general and a leader of the rebel group Facinus got into a sword fight to decide the fate of Taetrus. When the rebel leader lost, very obviously photo-shopped images started surfacing the next day showing the general cheating in the duel. Facinus used these images as an excuse to declare war anyway.
* CombatPragmatist: In a way. In their culture, every turian serves in the army for a while after they reach puberty. Therefore, any population center with adults is considered a military installation. They are... reluctant to abandon this mindset when facing other species. To give an example, during their siege of Shanxi, the turian fleets bombed entire city blocks [[ColonyDrop from orbit]] simply to take out ''individual fireteams.''
** As revealed in the third game, they also hid a massive bomb on Tuchanka as a backup plan in case the genophage didn't work.
* {{Conscription}}: At 15, turians begin a compulsory term of military service for an unknown length of time, at the end of which they decide whether to remain with the military or become a civil servant.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: The turians absorb any conquered enemies (both turians and other races) into their ranks as supplementary units. While these units are rarely treated as anything more than infantry or cavalry, at the conclusion of a successful term of service, they are then granted full turian citizenship, with all rights and responsibilities thereof.
* {{Determinator}}: A popular saying goes: "[[BadassBoast You will only see a turian's back when he's dead]]."
** [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness This is why their retreat from Palaven near the end of the game shows how serious the situation is against the Reapers.]]
* DoNotGoGentle: They take this attitude more than any other race in the Reaper War.
* TheEmpire: Some random turians even call it TheEmpire by name, but it's far more benevolent than usual.
* FacialMarkings: See TribalFacePaint.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: They're about halfway between space Prussians and space Romans with some Confucianism thrown in for flavor.
** Literally in this last case - since making peace with the humans, a small but growing number of turians have ''taken up Confucianism''.
* FighterMageThief: They're the fighter to the asari mage and the salarian thief.
* FourStarBadass: ''Many'' examples. The Cerberus Daily News brought turian General Partinax to the fore, who dueled Facinus leader Kihilix Tanus. His record is surviving seven duels, 5 to first blood and 2 to the death. The codex also references Admiral Coronati, who managed to defeat the ''Reapers'' in a fight above Palaven using relatively primitive dreadnoughts by using the Reapers' massive size against them.
-->'''Codex:''' Knowing that the Reapers' weapons had a longer effective range than any of his own, Coronati made a short, daring FTL jump--landing his dreadnoughts in the middle of the Reaper fleet. The dreadnoughts then turned to line up their main guns on the Reapers, which also needed to turn to fire on the turians. This ploy used the Reapers' size against them--because they could turn faster, and their concentrated firepower downed several Reaper capital ships.
* GodzillaThreshold: ''Mass Effect 3'' reveals that their use of the genophage was this; despite all the military might of the turian empire, the krogans were ''winning'' the war, having pushed the line all the way to one of Pavalen's moons.
* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: Turian biotics are subject to much [[FantasticRacism suspicion and mistrust]] by other turians and are taken out of normal military service and placed into special cabals. As a result of this stigma in society, some biotics decide to opt out of continuing to serve in the military after their mandatory service period has ended, to become mercenaries where their talents can be better appreciated and utilised.
* HonorBeforeReason: Turians are noted to have very heavy social stigma against avoiding personal responsibility. A turian may choose not to advertise that they committed a crime, but would likely admit to it if directly questioned.
** WillNotTellALie
* HoverTank: They have one, the Jiris. It can traverse any terrain, has powerful kinetic barriers, and has a cannon that shoots homing missiles accurately for over 20 kilometers. Unfortunately, it never comes up in the game, only being referenced in Cerberus Daily News. It saw heavy use during the War on Taetrus.
* HumanoidAliens
* HumorlessAliens:
** Compared to most other species, anyway. Turians take discipline and protocol very seriously. Most of the funnier turians (like Garrus) are considered atypical of the species. The fact that turians are uptight fighting machines is one of the reasons the First Contact War was considered one of the ''worst'' ways for the human race to become introduced to Council Space.
** Although they are just as likely to be [[TheComicallySerious Comically Serious]] {{Deadpan Snarker}}s. There's a reason why [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWYUiVfZo9k a certain dancing turian]] is so hilarious and memorable. And they ''do'' have jokes.
---> ''"[[LightbulbJoke How many humans does it take to activate a Mass Relay?]]"''
** Wrex once said, regarding Garrus, that [[SarcasmMode it was just his luck]] he happened to know the one turian in the galaxy who thinks he's funny.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Turians take the most direct approach to a problem. They won't hesitate to shoot someone or commit genocide if that's what it takes to end a threat ''permanently''.
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Averted. The turian government is an interplanetary empire, yet it's not evil at all and is a well respected ally of many republics.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Often come across as this. Despite all their friction with humanity, after Earth is invaded by the Reapers, they are the first to step up in ''3'' to offer military aid.
** And the first willing to end the genophage, despite them being the ones who ultimately decided to use it.
* LawfulStupid: In-Universe, their adherence to following rules lead to their brief war with humanity. Part of the resentment felt by humans is because, while they understand that they were simply enforcing galactic law, the turians never bothered to fire a warning shot or even explain that activating dormant Mass Relays was a felony, before they opened fire on them and proceeded to occupy one of their colonies.
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: Perhaps to [[{{Foil}} give them contrast]] with species like the [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]], the turians tend to favor more straight lines in the TheAestheticsOfTechnology, their ships and weapons being particularly angular. Even the turians themselves have a kind of "edged" look to them, with their thin frames and semi-rigid plates on their skin. Yes, even the females, as shown in the third game's Omega DLC. In their case, they don't have long fringes; instead, their faceplates have more elaborate edges.
* TheMcCoy: To the [[TheKirk asari Kirk]] and [[TheSpock salarian Spock]].
* MirrorChemistry: The majority of the galaxy is based on levo-amino acids, whatever other differences they have. The turians and quarians are the only ones with dextro-amino-based biology. This caused them a lot of trouble during the First Contact War. Since the food on the human colonies they conquered were levo-amino-based, they had to ship in their supplies from the Hierarchy, eventually making their position untenable.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Turian philosophy is entirely based around this. The turian species as a whole always comes before the turian individual.
* NotSoDifferent: Fought a war with humanity when the two species first met and were the most anti-human of the three council races, but compare the stories of how the two races got their council seats...
* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Species]]: During the Reaper invasion, they're the only ones who aren't unhelpful [[spoiler: (asari and salarians)]], fighting one another ([[spoiler:quarians and geth, krogan with themselves]]), hindering the war effort ([[spoiler:hanar, the salarian government]]), or decimated ([[spoiler:asari, batarians, rachni]]).
** And it makes perfect sense given their strong militaristic culture mixed with incredible discipline in contrast with the krogan's strong warrior culture with no discipline.
** That said, [[spoiler:they keep a bomb in Tuchanka secret and send in a squad to discreetly remove it rather than face krogan backlash. If Shepard doesn't do the mission to remove it, krogan war assets take a significant hit]].
* PlanetOfHats: Turians are renowned for and proud of their strict adherence to duty and protocol, and the fact that ''every'' member of their species has once served in the military. However, some turians are outliers. Some turians are funny, laid back, pacifists, hate red tape, and everything in between.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Inverted. They're the most militaristic Council race by far, but they place heavy emphasis on discipline, so it's more accurate to call turians a Proud ''Soldier'' Race. It offers a {{Deconstruction}} of the trope as well: the much more proud, physically dangerous and violent krogan were defeated by the much-better organized, no-nonsense turians. It also provides an extra nuance to the issue of the genophage: if it wasn't deployed, the turians would've had to commit genocide.
** Their national anthem, fittingly enough, is entitled "''Die For The Cause''".
* PuttingOnTheReich: Subverted, most of the societal values and attitudes detailed for turians seem to be based off old school Prussian values rather than Nazi influence.
* ReligiousBruiser: They named the standard assault rifle of their military the Phaeston, after the turian spirit of creation.
* ShootTheDog: The salarians developed the genophage, but struggled with the moral dilemma of whether to use it to end the Krogan Rebellions. The turians unleashed the genophage instead, ending the Rebellions.
* SpacePolice: The fact that they have the largest fleet in the galaxy (that includes the geth) make them the official peacekeepers of Council Space.
* SpaceRomans: Even their names sound Roman.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Apparently turians are poor swimmers, according to Garrus in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. Makes sense considering the metal skin and apparent lack of body fat.
--> '''Garrus:''' It's a lot of flailing and screaming punctuated by brief moments of drowning.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: See a ColonyDrop as a perfectly legitimate form of warfare. Humanity vehemently disagrees.
* TribalFacepaint: The markings on turian's faces are worn to signify the home colony that s/he is descended from, a tradition that began in the aftermath of the [[CivilWar Unification War]], when several colonial chieftains decided to break away from the Hierarchy to wage a particularly bloody war between themselves, shortly after their race ventured into space. While the Hierarchy restored the peace, many turians chose to adorn themselves with their colonial markings out of nationalistic pride.
** On a more lighthearted note, the term "barefaced" has entered turian vernacular to mean someone who is untrustworthy. As such, it's typically used to refer to ''[[AcceptableTargets politicians]]''.
* VitriolicBestBuds: While there is still some tension with humanity due to the First Contact War, both races seem to actually get on with each other far better than they do with the salarians or asari. Both governments also are mentioned as having worked together quite well when building the original ''Normandy'', and nowadays the turians see humans as [[WorthyOpponent worthy opponents]] (see below), despite the fact that only 3% of their eligible population serve in the Alliance Navy. The turians know that if more humans served in the military, they'd be practically unstoppable.
** Potentially become this with the krogan in the ''3'', though the krogan are naturally still bitter about the genophage. Primarch Victus hopes that the Reaper War will make them FireForgedFriends; the odds of this happening are better if Wrex is still alive.
* WorthyOpponent: What they (grudgingly) consider the humans. The First Contact War (which they refer to as [[ButForMeItWasTuesday the Relay 314 Incident]]) gained the respect of the turians due to the resourcefulness and unconventional tactics of humanity. This has become FriendlyEnemy with some TeethClenchedTeamwork by the time of VideoGame/MassEffect1, and by VideoGame/MassEffect3 the two races are basically VitriolicBestBuds.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Asari]]
!! Asari
[[quoteright:229:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Asari-001_8964.png]]
->''....if you want a problem [[ProudScholarRaceGuy talked to death]], ask an asari....''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Thessia
One of the two founding races of Citadel Space alongside the salarians and the most powerful and widespread race in the galaxy, the asari often take the role of diplomats. They are a long lived (lifespans generally covering a millennium) mono-gendered race, but are seen as female by other species. Asari reproduce by linking their nervous system to another sentient being of any race. The linking helps to randomize the asari's DNA while encouraging positive traits from the "father" species to manifest in the offspring (supposedly), which is always another asari. Partnerships of two asari are looked down upon by most of the species now as they believe it restricts genetic diversity (not to mention that asari born from such a relationship can be Ardat-Yakshi, a very dangerous mutation). Their government is a loose federation of nation-states collectively known as the Asari Republics. All asari have biotic ability, but require training to use it effectively.
Asari are available for multiplayer in 3, and can use the [[SquishyWizard Adept]] and [[MagicKnight Vanguard]] classes. The Resurgence pack adds the [[BarrierWarrior Justicar Adept]] class, and the Retaliation DLC adds [[StealthExpert Huntress Infiltrators]] and Valkyrie Sentinels.
----
* AbsoluteCleavage: Matriarchs like Benezia and Samara seem to enjoy showing off their... assets.
* AlienBlood: Bluish purple.
* AlienHair: They object to anyone (but themselves) referring to it as "tentacle-hair."
--> '''Liara:''' They're semi-flexible, cartilage-based scalp-crests that grow into shape--and they don't "flop around."
* AmazonBrigade: Any asari force, by virtue of all its members looking female.
* BadassArmy: The asari commandos are widely considered to be some of the most dangerous warriors in the galaxy. Even the codex notes that getting into a one-on-one fight with one is practically suicide. Their navy is also the third most powerful in the galaxy, behind the turians and geth. There's a turian saying: "The asari are the finest warriors in the galaxy. Fortunately, there are not many of them."
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Subverted with most asari: asari eyes turn black when they "meld," an act that merges their nervous system with anothers that is also how asari reproduce. With [[OutWithABang Ardat-Yakshi]], though, it's played straight.
* BoldlyComing: ''[[JustifiedTrope Justified]]''. Asari can mate with any other species, and it's encouraged that they do so. Relations between two asari are considered taboo because the child has a small chance of being born an Ardat-Yakshi. This unfortunately leads to some in-universe UnfortunateImplications about asari promiscuity.
* BoobsOfSteel: As asari age, their chests seem to grow larger -- and [[AbsoluteCleavage they seem to show off their assets as they get older as well.]]
* CantArgueWithElves: Asari have played themselves as this for ''millennia'' and gotten away with it. [[spoiler:It's actually very simple to pull off if you were given a cheat sheet by the most advanced race of the previous [[EternalRecurrence extinction cycle.]]]]
* TheChessmaster: Matriarchs, the oldest asari, are said to make plans that are so complicated (often spanning decades or centuries) that most other beings find them incomprehensible. When you have centuries of life left, you don't really mind waiting a decade or two for a plan to pay off.
* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler:The Protheans cultivated early asari civilisation and left them an intact Beacon, having chosen them as the most likely race to defeat the Reapers in the next Cycle. However, they didn't plan on the asari keeping their Beacon a secret even from their own people, so that they (and the rest of the galaxy, by extension) were left woefully underprepared when the Reapers came]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: Their ground forces. The asari military's focus on elite biotic commandos and light infantry instead of a professional, mechanized standing army means that the turians are relied upon as the heavy hitters in any ground conflict. [[spoiler: When the Reapers attack Thessia while the turians are bogged down fighting another Reaper force on their own home front, Thessia falls swiftly once the Reapers win in space because of the lack of a large, standing ground army]].
** They do seem to have some fairly effective air support of their own, but those don't survive for long against the Reapers.
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The dominant aesthetic of the asari culture. Even some of their weapons conform to it in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', being smooth, white and elegantly curved.
* DoomedHometown: In the third game, some of their worlds burn. [[spoiler:Specifically, their homeworld, Thessia]].
* EliteMooks: Their entire military is made of up these. While they are [[OneManArmy effective to say the least]], this by consequence makes their military relatively small and unable to wage an effective drawn out war (keep in mind, this is all relative; their actual military is still one of the most powerful in the galaxy), instead relying on the turians for protection. To put it in perspective, you hear two separate accounts of a commando dueling a krogan veteran. In the first case, the battle lasted for ''days'', blew up a space station, and ended in a draw (Wrex vs. an unseen asari, but heavily implied in-game to be Aria.) In the second case, the two of them killed ''each other'' (Matriarch Aethyta's parents, and by extension [[spoiler:Liara's grandparents]].)
** EliteArmy: This applies to their warships as well. Note that the flagship of the Citadel's defense force is an asari dreadnought, the ''Destiny Ascension''.
** The turians have a saying, "Asari commandos are the deadliest warriors in the galaxy. Luckily there aren't very many of them."
* ExoticEquipment: They are renowned for being able to mate (and produce viable offspring) with either gender of any species in existence, due to the unusual nature of their nervous system and reproductive methodology. This does not, however, address the messy issue of where parts...go exactly, since asari presumably don't have any use for sex organs.
* FacialMarkings: Most (but not all) asari have some kinds of marking on their faces, ranging from subtle (Liara) to not-so-subtle (Councillor Tevos). What significance they have, or even if they're natural or artificial, has not been explained.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Of the ancient Greek city-states, apparently.
* TheFederation
* FighterMageThief: The mage in the asari-turian-salarian Trio.
* FlashStep: Asari multiplayer characters do a short-range version of this instead of [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll rolling]].
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: They look like human women wearing [[RubberForeheadAliens rubber headpieces]] and blue makeup, just "other" enough to be exotic but still attractive to humans. [[BoldlyComing And everyone else.]]
* TheHecateSisters: A species-wide example. Their life goes as such: once they mature, they spend two hundred years in a state of perpetual wanderlust and thrill-seeking, tending to be mercenaries, explorers, and strippers; a life phase they call the "Maiden" years. Once they hit three hundred or so, they feel the need to settle down and raise a family; the "Matron" phase. Once they tip over the seven hundred point, they retire to become Matriarchs, using their experience and power to lead and advise (politicians, spiritual leaders, and bartenders) -- though a very few number of them become [[KnightTemplar Justicars]].
** One of their religions involves worshiping a goddess who vacillates between the three stages as well.
* HomosexualReproduction: [[OneGenderRace Naturally]]. Their unique reproductive method, which is closest to a strange form of parthenogenesis, only requires the partner to have an advanced nervous system to produce offspring.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:They claim that the asari are the most advanced race in the galaxy due to inherent virtues, but they actually have the ''only'' intact Prothean Beacon in the ''galaxy'']].
** DoubleStandard: The penalties for withholding Prothean technology from the galaxy at large are among the most severe the Citadel enforces. [[spoiler:The asari have secretly used that beacon to become one of the most powerful races in the galaxy - they only admit to Shepard that "something important" is on Thessia ''after it is attacked'']]. Even worse: The asari were the first to discover the Citadel [[spoiler:because of the technological edge gained from the beacon]] and founded the Citadel Council, so they were the ones who created the rule.
** HidingBehindReligion: [[spoiler:The Beacon ''again''. The asari government hid the beacon in their oldest religious site, disguising the knowledge gained from it as "messages from the goddess." They even disguised ''one of the last living Protheans'' as a messiah figure. It's practically a retread of Franchise/AssassinsCreed. InSpace]]
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Averted. They start to leave childhood at the age of forty, and are legally considered adults at eighty. That's ''forty years of puberty''.
* ImmortalProcreationClause: The ability to choose when to get pregnant means that the asari population stays fairly stable. Apparently there is also no age restriction on fertility, either, since both of Liara's parents were well into their Matriach phases by the time she was born.
* KnightTemplar: The Justicar order, who are generally kept away from other species to avoid a diplomatic incident brought on by their very strict code.
* LadyOfWar: Averted, mostly, with asari commandos -- who are as hard-nosed and physical as most other soldiers in the galaxy. Played straight however, with justicars, if Samara is any indication. Even in the midst of battle, she is very lady-like, maintaining grace and perfect serenity while snapping people's necks.
--> '''Samara:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Find peace in the embrace of the goddess.]]
* MagicKnight: Again, asari commandos. Or anyone serving in the asari military.
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: Asari architecture and technology is usually very sleek and curved. For example, compare the Disciple shotgun to every other weapon of its type. They also tend to be lightweight, which makes sense given that heavy weapons make it harder to use biotics frequently.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: How asari relationships with any other species that isn't asari or krogan tend to turn out. This is a major factor in the asari worldview; asari know that they will outlive several mates, but rather than getting depressed about it, they accept it and enjoy the time they have with them.
* MemeticSexGod: An in-universe example. Everyone seems to want the asari, regardless of race or gender. Humans, turians, salarians, hanar... [[spoiler:According to Javik, the asari were the ''only'' "primitive" race the Protheans dated. The rest they conquered and enslaved. Or ate.]] The reasons for it are discussed by NPC's in ''Mass Effect 2'', where a few bar patrons (each one of a different race) wonder why they're all attracted to an asari dancer and wonder whether it's genuine attraction or if there's some sort of subtle mental manipulation going on.
* MindOverMatter: They are the only species with natural biotics. [[spoiler: In actually, the Protheans altered their entire species to give them all biotics]]. The trope is even an occasional battle-cry in the second game.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's revealed in the third game that [[spoiler:the Protheans aided in developing their early culture, deeming them the ones most likely to stop the Reapers in the next Cycle. To this end, the Protheans made significant enhancements to the asari - science, politics, universal biotics, even a working Prothean beacon that could be used to prepare the races of the galaxy against the Reapers. Unfortunately, the Protheans didn't count on the asari leadership keeping the beacon under wraps so they could claim to be superior to everyone else. They only send Shepard to retrieve the beacon when the Reapers were kicking down their front door]].
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: Their government is technically a direct democracy, but in practice they usually defer to any matriarchs (the oldest members of the species) involved.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Apparently, this is one of their hats, in addition to BoldlyComing.
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* OneGenderRace
* OneWomanArmy: Asari commandos are considered to be the deadliest fighters in the galaxy. This is perfectly summed up by the War Assets entry for the Serrice Guard, a unit of asari commandos. After a space battle with a Blood Pack ship, they and the Blood Pack were forced to crash land on a planet. [[CurbStompBattle Over the course of nine days, the Blood Pack suffered over a hundred casualties from traps, ambushes, and night assaults.]] When the Blood Pack gave up and finally surrendered, they found out that they had only been fighting ''five'' asari commandos. They're like the alien equivalents of {{Rambo}}.
* OurElvesAreBetter: Either subverted or double subverted, depending on how much truth you read into Javik's words to Liara.
** ScrewYouElves: Gianna Parasini from the first and second game seems to really enjoy bringing asari in for their crimes, and she's apparently not the only one who enjoys rubbing it in when the asari screw up, including one of their own Matriarchs, Aethyta, who says that the asari on Thessia mocked her for suggesting that they get their daughters working in their maidan years instead of running around as strippers or mercenaries and "laughed the blue off [her] ass" when she suggested that asari should build their own Mass Relays.
---> '''Gianna Parasini:''' I love nailing asari. So ageless and superior -- then you get them, and they squeal like schoolgirls.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The Ardat-Yakshi. They're asari with a genetic mutation that impairs their ability to MindMeld. In the most extreme cases of the syndrome, this "burns out" their partner's neuro-nervous system, which also allows the Ardat-Yakshi to consume the victim's memories. This is a narcotic experience, and boosts the Ardat-Yakshi's PsychicPowers, so they invariably become addicted to the process. This is why any Ardat-Yakshi is either carefully secluded and monitored, or executed for refusing to submit to the former.
* OutWithABang: The Ardat-Yakshi again.
* PlanetOfHats: BoldlyComing [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Blue Skinned Space Babes]] mixed with SpaceElves. Asari can mate with anything, and it's apparent that both their culture ''and'' biology encourage them to, and because of their longevity, they also tend to be patient and very willing to learn. However, some asari are not promiscuous (either mating for life or not mating at all), some hate politics, and some are flat out worse {{Blood Knight}}s than the krogan.
* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost. So they pretty much refused the call twice. Granted, without a cipher, the thing couldn't be accessed at will, so getting information out of it wasn't exactly easy]].
* RubberForeheadAliens: They look almost exactly like human women, just with fleshy tendrils (they're cartilage-based crests and semi-flexible, according to Liara in the third game) on top of the scalp, skin that is implied to be scaly in texture by the game's graphics, and natural skin-colors being varying shades of blue or purple. The game designers knew early on that they would have to make the asari the most human-like of the alien species so that they would still be attractive to players.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted with their shotgun, the Disciple. It doesn't do as much damage as shorter ranged shotguns like the Claymore, but it's very accurate and light. That doesn't mean that it's weak, however.
* SpaceElves
* StrongerWithAge: One of the reasons Matriarchs are so respected. If they get irritated with you, congratulations, you have one of the galaxy's most powerful and patient [[MindOverMatter biotics]] getting medieval on your ass, and she probably has the connections and intelligence to ruin your life a thousand times over.
* TheKirk: To the [[TheMcCoy turian McCoy]] and [[TheSpock salarian Spock]].
* {{Utopia}}: Just as the turians are a right-wing, militaristic utopia, the asari are a left-wing socialist one. They have a direct e-democracy and local councils as government (their main governing body is called the Asari ''Republics''), are notably non-militaristic, place great emphasis on art and education, and are multicultural to the extreme. Their society is the most technological and culturally advanced (not to mention the richest) society in space.
* WarriorMonk: The Justicars, with a side-order of KnightErrant.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Salarians]]
!!Salarians
[[quoteright:209:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Salarian-001_6518.png]]
->''...if you want a [[NiceJobBreakingItHero NEW problem]], ask a salarian....''
-->'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Sur'kesh
The second race to discover the Citadel and one of the two founding members of the Citadel Council. Their metabolism is much faster than those of other species; on the one hand, this means they're the second shortest-lived sentient beings in the galaxy after the vorcha. On the other, they waste a ''lot'' less of their lives sleeping. They also have "reproduction contracts" instead of marriages (which Mordin attributes to an inability to sustain courtship emotions). Similar to the asari, the salarian government is collection of clans, families, fiefdoms and duchies collectively referred to as the "Salarian Union". The Council based the Spectre program off the salarian Special Tasks Group, although the Spectres aren't as well-funded -- you don't see STG operatives buying their own weapons.
Despite being outnumbered nine-to-one by the males, female salarian "dalatrasses" (clan[=/=]family leaders) wield the most political power on their home-world.
Salarians are available for multiplayer, and can use the [[TheEngineer Engineer]] and [[StealthExpert Infiltrator]] classes.
----=
* AlienBlood: Green.
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Averted. The salarians have a nasty habit of trying to groom primitive races as quick fixes for their problems, which they call "uplifting". This leads Mordin and Padok to argue they should have such a rule, but they seem to be in the minority - see NiceJobBreakingItHero.
-->'''James:''' These lizards like playing God, huh?\\
'''EDI:''' The salarians appear to have learned nothing from the Krogan Rebellions.
* {{Asexuality}}: Most of them are asexual, except in regards to the asari. As for how a species can survive despite being mostly asexual, it's because they're a haploid species. Unfertilized eggs laid by their dalatrasses (read: family matriarchs) are born as males. Fertilized eggs are born as females. Siring them is dealt with in a business/political agreement fashion ("Reproduction Negotiations"). As such, the majority of the population are males.
* BadassArmy: The salarian military is basically the [[CombatPragmatist pragmatic]] in the galaxy, with loads of dreadnoughts and the best stealth technology. Of particular note is the Salarian Special Task Group, a special forces organization so badass that they are what inspired the Spectres. Their doctrine is actually very similar to humanity's, albeit larger and more advanced: a relatively small volunteer force that relies on crippling the enemy before the war begins instead of slugging it out (humans cripple the enemy ''during'' the war; salarians would rather ensure the war doesn't happen).
* CombatPragmatist: They consider declarations of war to be superfluous and stupid. When they attack, it is without warning and after as much time as feasible gathering intelligence and undermining the enemy.
** They also consider very few measures to be out-of-bounds. One of their research facilities in the third game shows that they were researching altering varren ([[DeathWorld Tuchanka]] wolves) to be ''even more'' powerful, violent, and fast-breeding so they could be dropped onto enemy planets to completely wreck the ecosystem and attack civilian populations. A throwaway note on one planet suggests they're observing certain areas in the Terminus Systems, and any individuals who have the idea of uniting the warring pirates and slaving bands always die mysterious and untimely deaths.
** Their reliance on their intelligence networks turned out to be a devastating weakness when the Reapers attacked, as the salarians' entire doctrine lay in destroying the enemy before conflict even began. Since they didn't virtually own the Reapers' communications network nor could prepare for or target their weaknesses prior to the unexpected attack, the salarian military was left at a severe disadvantage. However, none of that changes the fact that the salarians still do have one of the largest and most advanced navies in the galaxy.
** Basically, they are all about ''avoiding'' having to actually fight the enemy unless necessary, though they are capable fighters when it comes down to it thanks to their huge military, advanced technology, and super power status.
* ExplosiveBreeder: It goes unremarked, but, as the [[AllThereInTheManual in-game codex]] notes, they are "haplo-diploid oviparous amphibians". In other words, female salarians lay dozens of eggs automatically once a year, and they don't need sex to make them hatch; sex merely determines whether or not the eggs will hatch into more females, who will lay more eggs. Salarian worlds are invariably densely populated as a result -- theoretically, salarians can actually ''outbreed the krogan''. This may explain why the salarian homeworld has much more people than the turian or asari ones, even though the salarians have managed to spread out their population into the colonies; there's just that many of them.
* FatalFlaw: For all their intelligence the salarians' relatively short lifespans appear to make them very shortsighted when it comes to decision making on a galactic scale. Uplifting the krogan without taking into account the long term consequences of their birth rate, especially when freed from the natural mortality rate of Tuchanka. Creating the genophage but not expecting the turians to use it without their permission. Worse still it seems they feel the [[spoiler: yahg]] are a great new prospect for uplifting into galactic society. Anyone familiar with this race can see the glaring flaws in that strategy a mile away.
** For those who ''don't'' know the yahg? We see only two specimens. One manages to escape in the midst of a Cerberus attack, slaughtering better armed, trained, and equipped soldiers with nothing but its bare hands. The other managed to [[spoiler: take over the job of Shadow Broker and has been running the gig from behind the scenes for years... and still manages to be a very difficult fight, despite [[GeniusBruiser being an intellectual.]]]]
* TheFederation
* FighterMageThief: The thief in the asari-turian-salarian trio.
* ForScience: Practically the salarians [[PlanetOfHats hat]], though it's heavily lampshaded that this ''often'' [[IdiotBall doesn't turn out so well.]]
* FrogsAndToads: In the same family, though they have more in common with newts or salamanders. Warm-blooded, intelligent, bipedal, upright-standing ones.
-->'''Javik:''' The lizard people evolved?\\
'''Liara:''' I believe they're amphibian.\\
'''Javik:''' They used to eat flies...
* GenderRarityValue: Females are rare, influential, and extremely well-protected, due to the reasons listed under {{Asexuality}}. You will never see a salarian female in a combat role unless things are ''very'' dire.
* TheGreys: Or at least the closest equivalent in the Mass Effect setting.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Justified, since males vastly outnumber females, and due to GenderRarityValue and simple statistics male salarians are far more likely to be casualties in combat.
* MotorMouth: A few of them. At the very least they talk faster than most other species.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: One of their hats, apparently. Since salarians are hyper-active and have shorter lifespans, they think more for the short term (in contrast to the asari, who think so long-term that they sometimes seem complacent or wishy-washy).
** Case in point, the first few thousand years of galactic war were continuously their fault. They activated the relay which brought the rachni to the universe and started the Rachni Wars; they then uplifted the krogan to defeat the rachni; then they sterilized the krogan in order to stop the Krogan Rebellions. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' then shows that [[spoiler:they were planning to ''secretly'' uplift the ''yahg''. There is ''absolutely no way'' that could possibly have ended well.]]
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* NotSoDifferent: The basis of salarian civilization; males compete for the right to sire progeny on females, and females barter breeding rights as the source of their authority. Doesn't that sound ''just like post-genophage krogan?''
** Hell, as noted above, salarians are just as much {{Explosive Breeder}}s as the krogan were before being infected with the genophage.
*** Except they aren't nearly as hard to kill as the krogan and have much shorter lifespans even if they aren't as reckless as krogan.
* OverlyLongName: Salarians always introduce themselves shorthand. A salarian's full name includes their personal name, family name, and the city, district, country, planet, star system, and star cluster of their birth.
* PhotographicMemory: As well as bolstering their skill as spies, it helps them keep track of their enormous extended families.
* PlanetOfHats: Salarians aren't very durable or long-lived, but they are expert at covert operations and intelligence gathering. They also tend to be [[PragmaticHero strictly pragmatic]] and amoral. But Mordin and Maelon alone are perfect examples of how widely this can change and vary.
* TheSpock: To the [[TheMcCoy turian McCoy]] and [[TheKirk asari Kirk.]]
* StealthInSpace: All salarian ships are equipped with the same stealth technology as the Normandy, even their dreadnoughts.
* StickyBomb: They manufacture a pistol for their special forces called the Scorpion that shoots blue sticky grenades. Salarian Infiltrators in multiplayer are also fond of them.
* UnderestimatingBadassery:
** Other species tend to do this. As Mordin points out, while the salarians aren't physically imposing as the other races, their sheer aptitude for stealth and subterfuge, combined with their reputation as "easily dismissable", means that ''no-one'' ever sees them coming.
---> '''Mordin:''' Advantage of being salarian. Turians, krogan, vorcha, all obvious threats. Never see me coming.
** It is also worth pointing out that the salarians were the ones who began the Citadel's Spectre program and formed its first operatives, with the structure of the Spectres being based on a looser pattern of the salarian STG. Those who underestimate the salarians clearly have no knowledge of Citadel history.
** Indeed, the Citadel Archives reveal that the first Spectre was a salarian operative, [[RecruitingTheCriminal recruited from prison]], due to using 30 civilians as live bait in order to flush out the assassin they were chasing.
* WeakButSkilled: Salarians are hardly the strongest or toughest species out there. However, thanks to their accelerated metabolism, they can be quite quick in combat, described as "like a cat" by David Anderson who witnessed a salarian Spectre in a BarBrawl. They extend this to strategic doctrine in warfare as well; the salarians will hit their enemy hard in the places they are most vulnerable before an opponent has an opportunity to respond because they have spent that much time and effort [[AwesomenessByAnalysis analyzing them first]].
* WeAreAsMayflies: With a lifespan of around 40 years, they are shortest-lived of the powerful species.
* TheWorfEffect: The STG is said (and in the first game, shown) to be a BadassArmy with some of the best technology and training in the galaxy, comparable to the Spectres (except they ''don't'' have to buy their own gear). However, by the time of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Cerberus manages to sneak onto Sur'Kesh undetected and surprise and stomp out an entire base of STG guards with only moderate casualties, with only Shepard being able to help repel them. Campbell even says that, due to Cerberus' technology, the salarians may as well have been throwing rocks.
** WorfHadTheFlu: However, this is due to the salarian preference to end a war before their enemy even knows that it has begun. They were completely blindsided by the Reapers, meaning most of their traditional tactics didn't apply and they didn't expect Cerberus to suddenly get a major technological advantage [[spoiler: due to being augmented by salvaged Reaper tech from the Collector Base]].
** Also, the STG may be good... but they aren't ''frontline'' soldiers. The scene where they attack Saren's base on Virmire in [=ME1=] was noted to be extremely unusual for them. Also, take into consideration that Cerberus has the schematics for the original ''Normandy SR-1'' and the ''Normandy SR-2'' which were highly advanced stealth vessels. It's not out of the question that such tech was used to sneak in.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Humans]]
!! Humans
[[quoteright:219:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Human-001_6644.png]]
->''....But if you want a problem ''[[HumansAreSpecial fixed]]'', ask a human.''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Earth
The most recent species to enter the galactic scene. Humans are a bipedal race originated from Earth. They are the most culturally and genetically diverse of all of the species in the series. On Earth itself, humanity is still very much divided, with major powers including the [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica The United North American States]], [[ToGetRichIsGlorious The People's Federation of China]], and the [[UnitedEurope European Union]], but they all agree to project themselves as one faction to the galaxy through the Systems Alliance. They have advanced in galactic politics more quickly than other races, leading to a belief that humans are all impatient bullies. This advancement coupled with humanity's penchant for devising innovative ideas has led to humanity being considered to be something of a WildCard; they are going to change the galaxy, but no one is certain how so.
Humans are one of the races available for multiplayer, and are the only one with access to all the classes and a customizable gender. The Rebellion Pack DLC adds the [[WhipItGood Ex-Cerberus Vanguard and Adept]], and the Earth Pack adds N7 special forces characters for all of the classes, each with unique movesets and abilities. Additionally, the Reckoning Pack adds the [[TheStraightAndArrowPath Talon]] [[HiredGuns Mercenary]] [[TrickArrow Engineer]].
----
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Well, space aircraft carrier. The Alliance was the first known military in galactic history to deploy carriers. They quickly became popular among other races after their introduction.
* TheAlliance: The Systems Alliance, of course.
* AmbitionIsEvil: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Humanity's hat is hyper-ambition. A lot of the aliens you meet don't seem to appreciate the fact that they've been grabbing all the power on the galactic stage in the last forty years, when most other races take ''centuries'' to do so.
* AppealToTradition: [[BerserkButton DO NOT]] [[DefiedTrope try this on humans]]. Humanity is unconcerned with how long you've been here, how many generations you've done this, or whose "turn" it is to get their due. All humanity cares about is: how can we get this done, or tell us who won't let us do it, so we can kick their ass.
* ArchEnemy: With the batarians. The Hegemony and the Alliance have been engaged in a proxy war for years in the Skyllian Verge, with Alliance Marines facing off against batarian paramilitaries (like Balak's group), with various warlords and pirate bands being backed by both sides to fight the other. The batarian pirates who attacked Mindoir are an example of a Hegemony-backed band, whereas Lord Darius's gang is an example of an Alliance-backed band. VideoGame/MassEffect2 also reveals that the Hegemony is just itching for an excuse to start a war with humanity. As of the third game, this would have probably already happened after the destruction of one of their mass relays and the resultant death of over 300,000 batarians, if they weren't unfortunate enough to end up as the Reapers' first victims.
* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: Other races are quietly terrified that this might happen, given that the humans were able to gain the full attention of the turians, having never fought them before, with such a small percentage of humanity's population in the military. Many say that if the turians and humans ever got into a long war with each other, it would wreck a significant portion of the galaxy.
** Used as a BatmanGambit by Udina's predecessor, Ambassador Goyle, in the book ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation''. When an illegal Alliance operation is uncovered, the Citadel Council prepares to sanction humanity back into the Stone Age. Realizing that this would doom humankind to a fate much like the quarians or the krogan (the entire species reduced to a punchline and unable to do anything significant in Council Space for hundreds--if not ''thousands'' of years), Goyle boldly states that if the Council does this, the Systems Alliance will declare war on all Citadel Space. She was aware that humanity wouldn't ever win such a suicidal war, but that if humanity devoted a lot of their resources towards militarization they could inflict enough damage on Council space that the Council just wouldn't see fighting them as worth it.
** This was also something humans were ''doing'' in ignorance during the First Contact War. They fought the turian forces deployed to Shanxi to a standstill and were gaining ground. However, the turian military was orders of magnitude bigger than humanity's (not that humans knew that at the time) and were preparing to route considerable reinforcements to the Shanxi theater when the Citadel Council intervened and prevented the war from escalating.
* BadassArmy: The Alliance military is very small, both on the ground and in space, compared to the other Council races, but an emphasis on maneuver warfare, flexibility, and innovative tactics and technology enable them to match larger and more established militaries, like the Batarian Hegemony.
* BerserkButton: After an asari witnesses Shepard's angry reaction to "Indentured Servants" being sold on Illium, it's heavily implied that humans are well known for having a no-tolerance approach to slavery. Most races seem to be under the impression this is due to the batarian slave-raids on their colonies, apparently unaware that the majority of [[HumansAreBastards human]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast history]] has given them strong reasons to [[TheAtoner hate slavery]].
** Though this reaction could also be particularly understandable for Shepard if s/he has the [[DoomedHometown right background.]]
* BizarreBabyBoom: Biotic abilities in humans only began to manifest after several starship "accidents" in the 2150s accidentally exposed pregnant women to Element Zero ''in-utero''. As such, most of the first generation of human biotics are only around 30 years old.
* BullyingADragon: The Batarian Hegemony's paramilitary attacks on the Alliance are seen as this by some, but in truth the higher military officials know that a war with the batarians is risky for both sides. More specifically, both sides know that humanity would almost definitely win, but it would be incredibly costly.
* CombatPragmatist: The war doctrine of the Alliance is to quickly cut behind the enemy and destroy key installations, supply lines, and command centers. They're very big on offense; colonies only get token garrisons, but anyone who attacks will have the force of the galaxy's sixth largest navy coming down right on their heads.
** Likewise, their defense strategy boils down to having their Fleets positioned at key nexus points in the Relay Network, so should one of their colonies get attacked, TheCavalry will never be more than a jump or two away.
* {{Determinator}}: Lampshaded by the various races, that despite overwhelming odds, humans ''never'' give up. Turians are excessively disciplined and krogan are outright stubborn, but humans have an uncanny ability to pull off the impossible.
* TheEmpire: Subverted. Aliens fear this from the humans as a whole, but it never really gets as far as they think.
* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: The United States has been expanded and renamed the United North American States. It now also encompasses Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.
** UnitedEurope: It's mentioned that Europe is also politically active, apparently having become one Nation-State.
* FacelessGoons: The standard uniform in the Alliance includes a helmet that completely obscures the wearer's face. Justified in that all Alliance soldiers wear PowerArmor and are expected to be able to fight in hostile environments.
* TheFederation: Back on Earth, there's the United North American States and [[UnitedEurope the European Union.]] There's also the Chinese People's Federation, but it's not clear if they really are a federation or just a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny.
* FantasticRankSystem: The ranking system of the Systems Alliance differs slightly from any modern one. While the Marines are no longer independent of the Navy, they like to keep some of their own ranks out of tradition.
** Several ranks may ''look'' like real-world equivalents, but they really are not. For instance, Kaidan Alenko goes from "Staff Lieutenant", which in US military equivalent ranks would be O-3 (at most), second lowest of the six commissioned officer ranks. to "Major", which is O-4 in USA ranks. Except it isn't in Mass Effect: it's essentially what Colonel is today (O-6).
* GuileHero: Another one of Humanity's many hats. When faced with a problem, Humans tend to use every trick in the book in their favour to succeed. If that doesn't work, they will simply throw the rulebook away and invent some new ones.
* HumanityIsInfectious: While there are naturally some exceptions, for the most part, humanity has easily adapted to the galactic scene, showing great enthusiasm and expressing a desire for a deeper role in galactic politics and in protecting it from threats.
* HumanityIsSuperior: Averted early in the series, discussed in the middle, then thoroughly subverted at the end. Starting out, humanity is a middle power in Franchise/MassEffect; they impressively outclass several pre-established powers militarily, economically, and population-wise, such as the batarians and hanar. However, they aren't even in the same league as the other three Council races. [[spoiler:After the first game, humanity becomes a lot more involved in interstellar politics and appears to be on their way to forming a human-centric regime. However, after Earth is attacked, humanity desperately has to seek allies from the other species, with most of the final war assets coming from those species]].
* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: Humanity had access to mass effect technology for only seven years and only a few colonies before making disastrous first contact with the Turian Heirarchy. Despite this early misstep, they continued on to become a major political force in the galaxy and subsequently gained a seat on the Council, only ''26 years'' from initial first contact. To put the extent of this achievement into perspective, it often takes ''centuries'' for most races to even reach a lesser status. This comparatively absurd advancement speed with little sign of slowing is part of the reason most races are quietly terrified of the potential of humanity.
* HumansAreAverage:
** Physically, humans are the middle ground in almost every way compared to other species, which has proven to be an advantage of sorts. Thane's dossier reveals humans are generally easier to assassinate than asari or turians, and Grunt counts them as less hardy than quarians, which may or may not be because of the quarians' environment suits. In fact, in multiplayer, humans are the only species that can play ''any'' class.
** Mordin reveals in the second game that humans have the most genetic variability in the Galaxy, meaning it's nearly ''impossible'' to predict where they can fall on the the biological bell-curve, compared to those of other species. If it weren't highly unethical, this would make them wonderfully valuable as a test group for medical experiments.
---> '''Mordin:''' Biotic abilties, intelligence levels. Can look at random asari, krogan, make reasonable guess. Humans too variable to judge. Outliers in all species, of course. Geniuses, idiots. But human probability curve offers greater variability.
** [[spoiler: Turns out, the Reapers ''agree'']].
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The most despicable and feared terrorist organization in the galaxy (Cerberus) and the largest NGOSuperpower criminal empire (Blue Suns) are both human organizations (though the Suns have some major batarian influence as well). It puts a bit of a drain on their reputation, especially since Cerberus was formerly an Alliance black ops organization.
* HumansAreLeaders: This is how they see ''themselves'', anyway. And it's embodied by [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Ambassador Udina]] and the [[KnightTemplar Illusive Man]] in the negative sense, and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Admiral Hackett and David Anderson]] in the positive sense, and Commander Shepard can fall anywhere between them on the scale.
** Although should Shepard have done everything right, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHIAibDr3yM the arrival of the Sword-Fleet]], with ''Normandy'' leading the charge to retake Earth, makes it hard to argue that humanity doesn't honestly deserve this reputation.
** [[RunningGag See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.]]
* HumansAreSpecial: Played straight early on, [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] later. In the context of the series, humanity did gain political power rather quick, but that's mostly due to [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]] being [[TheMessiah Shepard.]]
* HumansAreWarriors: Human military tactics are considered rather unpredictable by the standards of the other races. Pound-for-pound, humans rival the batarians in might, but lack the sheer brute force of the krogan, the discipline and power of the turian navy, the skill of the asari, or the savvy of the salarians. However, humans are unmatched in maneuverability, flexibility, VI and drone support, and individual initiative. Human tactics are focused around [[VictoryByEndurance striking high-priority targets and supply lines]] rather than wars of attrition. In short, humans are well-known for achieving more with less.
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view.
* JackOfAllStats: According to various comments from other races. They are also the only species able to use every class in the VideoGame/MassEffect3 multiplayer.
** Actually averted on a grand scale. Humanity is not good at everything and terrible at nothing; there are some things that humanity is obviously terrible at when compared to other races (their economy is one of the weakest in Citadel Space, for example) and some things they are better at.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold[=/=]JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Depending on the ending in the first game. [[spoiler: Despite being, for better or worse, an ambitious and warlike race, humans come to the rescue of the Citadel and prevent a return of the [[OmnicidalManiac Reapers]]. Whether this means saving the entirely alien Council from the jaws of certain death and becoming a part of the wider community, or sacrificing them in favor of fighting Sovereign, is entirely up to Shepard]].
* MechaMooks: The codex says that the Alliance makes heavy use of drones to compensate for their lack of numbers compared to other species, ranging from flying tripod machine gun turrets to eight foot tall [[MiniMecha YMIR Mechs]] with a machine gun and rocket launcher combo to the anti-tank rocket drones to VI-piloted deep space fighters. In the various Alliance bases gone wrong that Shepard has to come to clean up, there are ''always'' huge amounts of mechs and drones there to defend it. [[AIIsACrapshoot In some cases, the mechs and drones are what killed everyone in the base.]]
* MoralMyopia: Some humans express outrage over the Council not intervening to help them, whereas, as Bethany points out in the third game, they would likely abandon Thessia if it were being invaded by the Reapers.
* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as an example. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition and defiance.
* SemperFi: The Marines have completely replaced the army.
* SuperSoldier: By our standards, every Alliance soldier is this. They wear power armor, have deflector shields, receive cybernetic implants and gene therapy, and carry automatic coil guns and rocket launchers, both of which have unlimited ammo. But in the galaxy of Mass Effect, this is just standard stuff.
** The Alliance has their own even-more-super soldiers in the case of the N7 classes. Not exceptionally skilled normal soldiers that become N7s, like Shepard or the base multiplayer characters, but the specialized ultra-elite units that are only playable in multiplayer. They include a biotic ninja who can explode things ''incredibly'' rapidly and teleport, an invisible cyborg with a monomolecular blade that can shoot lasers, a human tank equipped with very heavy PowerArmor which includes a shoulder mounted missile launcher, a wrist mounted grenade launcher, and enhancements for whatever weapon he happens to be holding, and more.
* TankGoodness: The Mako is called a tank by marines, despite technically being an Infantry Fighting Vehicle. But naming aside, it is a fine piece of work; a powerful cannon, a coaxial machine gun, great speed, powerful shields that recharge, room for an equipped fireteam, and it can be dropped from hundreds of meters in the air on to a planet. Plus, like all Mass Effect weaponry, it has effectively unlimited ammo.
* UnusualEuphemism: Relative to other races. Humans have a tendency to talk in a ''lot'' of slang, shorthand, as well as use metaphors. This leads to some BluntMetaphorsTrauma from fellow races like the turians, who are utterly perplexed by their manner of speaking and use of bizarre idioms.
--> '''James:''' Like shooting fish in a barrel!\\
'''Garrus:''' What?\\
'''James:''' Old human saying! Like fish! In a! Barrel!\\
\\
'''Javik:''' Though I do not understand why [Zaeed] keeps [[VerbalTic "damning" his god.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: With the turians. There might be tension, but these two societies have more in common with each other than with the salarians or the asari. They even co-designed the ''Normandy'' with the turians. And when the Reapers hit, the turians are the first of any species to offer military aid to humanity.
* WeAreAsMayflies: Humans in this setting are lucky to break one century, but can reasonably live for as long as a hundred and fifty years. The trope is played straight with asari and krogan, who both live to be over 1,000 years. It's averted with most other species, who have similar lifespans, and with the salarians, whose fast metabolisms gives them maximum lifespans of just 40 years. Even worse are the vorcha, who can count themselves lucky to see 20.
* WildCard: Given the relative newness of humanity on the galactic stage, most races aren't really sure how to predict human behavior.
[[/folder]]
For the pages listing tropes related to specific characters in the trilogy, see the [[Characters/MassEffect Mass Effect Character Index]].
This page includes ''significant'' spoilers, and some are by their nature unmarked. Read at your own discretion.
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Turians]]
!! Turians
[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turians_codex_image_3287.jpg]]
->''If you want a problem [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy shot]], ask a turian...''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Palaven
The third race to join the Citadel Council. The Turian Hierarchy is a very organized and militant society. Every physically and mentally-sound turian is either a soldier, a retired soldier or training to be a soldier. This has resulted in the Turian Hierarchy having the largest military force in the galaxy. Turians were the first alien species that humanity encountered. Unfortunately, this encounter took the form of the First Contact War. Although the other two Council Races managed to end the war diplomatically, human-turian relations are still rocky.
Turians are available for multiplayer, and can use the [[TheRedMage Sentinel]] and [[WalkingArmory Soldier]] classes. The Retaliation DLC also adds [[StealthExpert Ghost Infiltrators]], [[JetPack Havoc Soldiers]], and Saboteur Engineers. The Reckoning DLC adds [[SheFu Cabal]] [[PoisonousPerson Vanguards]].
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* AlienBlood: Blue.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Their homeworld, Palaven, has a weak geomagnetic field, meaning it gets bombarded by more solar radiation than comparable planets like Earth or Thessia. How did Palaven's life adapt? It evolved a semi-metallic carapace.
** The amino-acids on which life on their planet are based are incompatible with those of most other species. Alcoholic beverages that would merely seem strong to most races would in fact kill a turian. They also have allergic reactions to most non-turian food due to the amino-acid incompatibility.
* BadassArmy: They have extremely disciplined armies, the largest fleet of warships (well over 10,000), the most dreadnoughts (39), and a proud military tradition. They also have by far the largest military in the known galaxy, except for maybe the geth.
** They were able to hold their own against the krogan empires in a decades-long war of attrition at a time before the genophage when the krogan were actually breeding faster than the other races. They also managed to take down the fleets of krogan dreadnoughts with cruisers and frigates, which required a lot of expertise and production capability.
** "Reaper troop transports have dumped hordes of husk to capture Palaven's inhabitants, but met with little success. Reaper capital ships are destroying city after city. But much of the turian fleet is still operable, and the citizenry is heavily armed. [[DoNotGoGentle The turians refuse to be intimidated]]." To put this perspective, the turians are holding their own (even if it's just barely) against the largest part of the Reaper fleet assigned to any individual planet, which they sent in knowing the power of the turian fleet. They even managed to destroy a few Sovereign-class capital ships in the opening attack (contrast the humans and asari who got completely curbstomped in a few hours once the Reapers committed their forces.) They are the only race who actually manage to fight the Reapers on even terms (even if it was still a HopelessWar); the Reaper attacks on Earth and Thessia [[CurbStompBattle quickly turn into routs.]]
** Of note is that every turian who is of age and is of sound mental capability is a soldier. Military service is mandatory across the entirety of their space. If that turian can walk and talk, that turian is trained to fight.
** Of particular note is the Armiger Legion. Every member has a PowerFist, consumable packs that grant borderline invincibility, the best weapons in the empire, and a ''jetpack''.
* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: Though many aliens seem to have trouble with human metaphors, turians in particular struggle with the concept fullstop. Even Garrus has a problem with 'em. Although they are intrigued by how humans have a way with words.
** This actually leads to some rather clever [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge Brilliance]] when you consider that they are primarily a military-based culture, so making sure that their orders were given clearly is the best way a turian can count on their subordinates to properly do their job. In comparison, humans have a tendency to give orders while using slang, shorthand and metaphor whilst on the battlefield, which would naturally be ''very'' confusing for an outsider try to figure out. Add to the fact that humans seem to be the ''only'' culture in the setting who developed non-verbal hand signals to give commands, you could argue that the turians have every ''right'' to believe the way humans communicate is completely insane!
* BottledHeroicResolve: The DLC turian classes have a "Stimulant Pack" power that boosts shields and weapon damage.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Humans and turians fought a war that led to humanity's entering the greater galactic population. Humans call it the First Contact War. Turians call it the Relay 314 Incident. Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as well, [[WorthyOpponent as the turians admit that it was the only true military opposition they had faced in over a millennium.]]
** If Shepard takes actions to help out turians in trouble in [=ME1=], the news in [=ME2=] will indicate that the turians are starting to make overtures for a better diplomatic relationship with humanity by [[TheAtoner atoning more fully]] for the above incident.
* ColonyDrop: The turians frequently employ this tactic as a solution to deal with ground-forces, notably seen in the First Contact War and casually suggested by Garrus to take out the enemy geth on Rannoch, much to Tali's horror.
** They were also frequently the victims of this during the Krogan Rebellions. The krogan had a habit of smashing moons into turian planets. [[TheDeterminator It just made the turians angry.]]
* CombatByChampion: One of the traditional ways turians can resolve large-scale conflicts: a duel between chosen representatives of each party. Parodied during a certain CerberusDailyNews story covering the War on Taetrus. A turian general and a leader of the rebel group Facinus got into a sword fight to decide the fate of Taetrus. When the rebel leader lost, very obviously photo-shopped images started surfacing the next day showing the general cheating in the duel. Facinus used these images as an excuse to declare war anyway.
* CombatPragmatist: In a way. In their culture, every turian serves in the army for a while after they reach puberty. Therefore, any population center with adults is considered a military installation. They are... reluctant to abandon this mindset when facing other species. To give an example, during their siege of Shanxi, the turian fleets bombed entire city blocks [[ColonyDrop from orbit]] simply to take out ''individual fireteams.''
** As revealed in the third game, they also hid a massive bomb on Tuchanka as a backup plan in case the genophage didn't work.
* {{Conscription}}: At 15, turians begin a compulsory term of military service for an unknown length of time, at the end of which they decide whether to remain with the military or become a civil servant.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: The turians absorb any conquered enemies (both turians and other races) into their ranks as supplementary units. While these units are rarely treated as anything more than infantry or cavalry, at the conclusion of a successful term of service, they are then granted full turian citizenship, with all rights and responsibilities thereof.
* {{Determinator}}: A popular saying goes: "[[BadassBoast You will only see a turian's back when he's dead]]."
** [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness This is why their retreat from Palaven near the end of the game shows how serious the situation is against the Reapers.]]
* DoNotGoGentle: They take this attitude more than any other race in the Reaper War.
* TheEmpire: Some random turians even call it TheEmpire by name, but it's far more benevolent than usual.
* FacialMarkings: See TribalFacePaint.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: They're about halfway between space Prussians and space Romans with some Confucianism thrown in for flavor.
** Literally in this last case - since making peace with the humans, a small but growing number of turians have ''taken up Confucianism''.
* FighterMageThief: They're the fighter to the asari mage and the salarian thief.
* FourStarBadass: ''Many'' examples. The Cerberus Daily News brought turian General Partinax to the fore, who dueled Facinus leader Kihilix Tanus. His record is surviving seven duels, 5 to first blood and 2 to the death. The codex also references Admiral Coronati, who managed to defeat the ''Reapers'' in a fight above Palaven using relatively primitive dreadnoughts by using the Reapers' massive size against them.
-->'''Codex:''' Knowing that the Reapers' weapons had a longer effective range than any of his own, Coronati made a short, daring FTL jump--landing his dreadnoughts in the middle of the Reaper fleet. The dreadnoughts then turned to line up their main guns on the Reapers, which also needed to turn to fire on the turians. This ploy used the Reapers' size against them--because they could turn faster, and their concentrated firepower downed several Reaper capital ships.
* GodzillaThreshold: ''Mass Effect 3'' reveals that their use of the genophage was this; despite all the military might of the turian empire, the krogans were ''winning'' the war, having pushed the line all the way to one of Pavalen's moons.
* HaveYouTriedNotBeingAMonster: Turian biotics are subject to much [[FantasticRacism suspicion and mistrust]] by other turians and are taken out of normal military service and placed into special cabals. As a result of this stigma in society, some biotics decide to opt out of continuing to serve in the military after their mandatory service period has ended, to become mercenaries where their talents can be better appreciated and utilised.
* HonorBeforeReason: Turians are noted to have very heavy social stigma against avoiding personal responsibility. A turian may choose not to advertise that they committed a crime, but would likely admit to it if directly questioned.
** WillNotTellALie
* HoverTank: They have one, the Jiris. It can traverse any terrain, has powerful kinetic barriers, and has a cannon that shoots homing missiles accurately for over 20 kilometers. Unfortunately, it never comes up in the game, only being referenced in Cerberus Daily News. It saw heavy use during the War on Taetrus.
* HumanoidAliens
* HumorlessAliens:
** Compared to most other species, anyway. Turians take discipline and protocol very seriously. Most of the funnier turians (like Garrus) are considered atypical of the species. The fact that turians are uptight fighting machines is one of the reasons the First Contact War was considered one of the ''worst'' ways for the human race to become introduced to Council Space.
** Although they are just as likely to be [[TheComicallySerious Comically Serious]] {{Deadpan Snarker}}s. There's a reason why [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWYUiVfZo9k a certain dancing turian]] is so hilarious and memorable. And they ''do'' have jokes.
---> ''"[[LightbulbJoke How many humans does it take to activate a Mass Relay?]]"''
** Wrex once said, regarding Garrus, that [[SarcasmMode it was just his luck]] he happened to know the one turian in the galaxy who thinks he's funny.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Turians take the most direct approach to a problem. They won't hesitate to shoot someone or commit genocide if that's what it takes to end a threat ''permanently''.
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* GoodRepublicEvilEmpire: Averted. The turian government is an interplanetary empire, yet it's not evil at all and is a well respected ally of many republics.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Often come across as this. Despite all their friction with humanity, after Earth is invaded by the Reapers, they are the first to step up in ''3'' to offer military aid.
** And the first willing to end the genophage, despite them being the ones who ultimately decided to use it.
* LawfulStupid: In-Universe, their adherence to following rules lead to their brief war with humanity. Part of the resentment felt by humans is because, while they understand that they were simply enforcing galactic law, the turians never bothered to fire a warning shot or even explain that activating dormant Mass Relays was a felony, before they opened fire on them and proceeded to occupy one of their colonies.
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: Perhaps to [[{{Foil}} give them contrast]] with species like the [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe asari]], the turians tend to favor more straight lines in the TheAestheticsOfTechnology, their ships and weapons being particularly angular. Even the turians themselves have a kind of "edged" look to them, with their thin frames and semi-rigid plates on their skin. Yes, even the females, as shown in the third game's Omega DLC. In their case, they don't have long fringes; instead, their faceplates have more elaborate edges.
* TheMcCoy: To the [[TheKirk asari Kirk]] and [[TheSpock salarian Spock]].
* MirrorChemistry: The majority of the galaxy is based on levo-amino acids, whatever other differences they have. The turians and quarians are the only ones with dextro-amino-based biology. This caused them a lot of trouble during the First Contact War. Since the food on the human colonies they conquered were levo-amino-based, they had to ship in their supplies from the Hierarchy, eventually making their position untenable.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Turian philosophy is entirely based around this. The turian species as a whole always comes before the turian individual.
* NotSoDifferent: Fought a war with humanity when the two species first met and were the most anti-human of the three council races, but compare the stories of how the two races got their council seats...
* [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Species]]: During the Reaper invasion, they're the only ones who aren't unhelpful [[spoiler: (asari and salarians)]], fighting one another ([[spoiler:quarians and geth, krogan with themselves]]), hindering the war effort ([[spoiler:hanar, the salarian government]]), or decimated ([[spoiler:asari, batarians, rachni]]).
** And it makes perfect sense given their strong militaristic culture mixed with incredible discipline in contrast with the krogan's strong warrior culture with no discipline.
** That said, [[spoiler:they keep a bomb in Tuchanka secret and send in a squad to discreetly remove it rather than face krogan backlash. If Shepard doesn't do the mission to remove it, krogan war assets take a significant hit]].
* PlanetOfHats: Turians are renowned for and proud of their strict adherence to duty and protocol, and the fact that ''every'' member of their species has once served in the military. However, some turians are outliers. Some turians are funny, laid back, pacifists, hate red tape, and everything in between.
* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: Inverted. They're the most militaristic Council race by far, but they place heavy emphasis on discipline, so it's more accurate to call turians a Proud ''Soldier'' Race. It offers a {{Deconstruction}} of the trope as well: the much more proud, physically dangerous and violent krogan were defeated by the much-better organized, no-nonsense turians. It also provides an extra nuance to the issue of the genophage: if it wasn't deployed, the turians would've had to commit genocide.
** Their national anthem, fittingly enough, is entitled "''Die For The Cause''".
* PuttingOnTheReich: Subverted, most of the societal values and attitudes detailed for turians seem to be based off old school Prussian values rather than Nazi influence.
* ReligiousBruiser: They named the standard assault rifle of their military the Phaeston, after the turian spirit of creation.
* ShootTheDog: The salarians developed the genophage, but struggled with the moral dilemma of whether to use it to end the Krogan Rebellions. The turians unleashed the genophage instead, ending the Rebellions.
* SpacePolice: The fact that they have the largest fleet in the galaxy (that includes the geth) make them the official peacekeepers of Council Space.
* SpaceRomans: Even their names sound Roman.
* SuperDrowningSkills: Apparently turians are poor swimmers, according to Garrus in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. Makes sense considering the metal skin and apparent lack of body fat.
--> '''Garrus:''' It's a lot of flailing and screaming punctuated by brief moments of drowning.
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: See a ColonyDrop as a perfectly legitimate form of warfare. Humanity vehemently disagrees.
* TribalFacepaint: The markings on turian's faces are worn to signify the home colony that s/he is descended from, a tradition that began in the aftermath of the [[CivilWar Unification War]], when several colonial chieftains decided to break away from the Hierarchy to wage a particularly bloody war between themselves, shortly after their race ventured into space. While the Hierarchy restored the peace, many turians chose to adorn themselves with their colonial markings out of nationalistic pride.
** On a more lighthearted note, the term "barefaced" has entered turian vernacular to mean someone who is untrustworthy. As such, it's typically used to refer to ''[[AcceptableTargets politicians]]''.
* VitriolicBestBuds: While there is still some tension with humanity due to the First Contact War, both races seem to actually get on with each other far better than they do with the salarians or asari. Both governments also are mentioned as having worked together quite well when building the original ''Normandy'', and nowadays the turians see humans as [[WorthyOpponent worthy opponents]] (see below), despite the fact that only 3% of their eligible population serve in the Alliance Navy. The turians know that if more humans served in the military, they'd be practically unstoppable.
** Potentially become this with the krogan in the ''3'', though the krogan are naturally still bitter about the genophage. Primarch Victus hopes that the Reaper War will make them FireForgedFriends; the odds of this happening are better if Wrex is still alive.
* WorthyOpponent: What they (grudgingly) consider the humans. The First Contact War (which they refer to as [[ButForMeItWasTuesday the Relay 314 Incident]]) gained the respect of the turians due to the resourcefulness and unconventional tactics of humanity. This has become FriendlyEnemy with some TeethClenchedTeamwork by the time of VideoGame/MassEffect1, and by VideoGame/MassEffect3 the two races are basically VitriolicBestBuds.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Asari]]
!! Asari
[[quoteright:229:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Asari-001_8964.png]]
->''....if you want a problem [[ProudScholarRaceGuy talked to death]], ask an asari....''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Thessia
One of the two founding races of Citadel Space alongside the salarians and the most powerful and widespread race in the galaxy, the asari often take the role of diplomats. They are a long lived (lifespans generally covering a millennium) mono-gendered race, but are seen as female by other species. Asari reproduce by linking their nervous system to another sentient being of any race. The linking helps to randomize the asari's DNA while encouraging positive traits from the "father" species to manifest in the offspring (supposedly), which is always another asari. Partnerships of two asari are looked down upon by most of the species now as they believe it restricts genetic diversity (not to mention that asari born from such a relationship can be Ardat-Yakshi, a very dangerous mutation). Their government is a loose federation of nation-states collectively known as the Asari Republics. All asari have biotic ability, but require training to use it effectively.
Asari are available for multiplayer in 3, and can use the [[SquishyWizard Adept]] and [[MagicKnight Vanguard]] classes. The Resurgence pack adds the [[BarrierWarrior Justicar Adept]] class, and the Retaliation DLC adds [[StealthExpert Huntress Infiltrators]] and Valkyrie Sentinels.
----
* AbsoluteCleavage: Matriarchs like Benezia and Samara seem to enjoy showing off their... assets.
* AlienBlood: Bluish purple.
* AlienHair: They object to anyone (but themselves) referring to it as "tentacle-hair."
--> '''Liara:''' They're semi-flexible, cartilage-based scalp-crests that grow into shape--and they don't "flop around."
* AmazonBrigade: Any asari force, by virtue of all its members looking female.
* BadassArmy: The asari commandos are widely considered to be some of the most dangerous warriors in the galaxy. Even the codex notes that getting into a one-on-one fight with one is practically suicide. Their navy is also the third most powerful in the galaxy, behind the turians and geth. There's a turian saying: "The asari are the finest warriors in the galaxy. Fortunately, there are not many of them."
* BlackEyesOfEvil: Subverted with most asari: asari eyes turn black when they "meld," an act that merges their nervous system with anothers that is also how asari reproduce. With [[OutWithABang Ardat-Yakshi]], though, it's played straight.
* BoldlyComing: ''[[JustifiedTrope Justified]]''. Asari can mate with any other species, and it's encouraged that they do so. Relations between two asari are considered taboo because the child has a small chance of being born an Ardat-Yakshi. This unfortunately leads to some in-universe UnfortunateImplications about asari promiscuity.
* BoobsOfSteel: As asari age, their chests seem to grow larger -- and [[AbsoluteCleavage they seem to show off their assets as they get older as well.]]
* CantArgueWithElves: Asari have played themselves as this for ''millennia'' and gotten away with it. [[spoiler:It's actually very simple to pull off if you were given a cheat sheet by the most advanced race of the previous [[EternalRecurrence extinction cycle.]]]]
* TheChessmaster: Matriarchs, the oldest asari, are said to make plans that are so complicated (often spanning decades or centuries) that most other beings find them incomprehensible. When you have centuries of life left, you don't really mind waiting a decade or two for a plan to pay off.
* TheChosenOne: [[spoiler:The Protheans cultivated early asari civilisation and left them an intact Beacon, having chosen them as the most likely race to defeat the Reapers in the next Cycle. However, they didn't plan on the asari keeping their Beacon a secret even from their own people, so that they (and the rest of the galaxy, by extension) were left woefully underprepared when the Reapers came]].
* CripplingOverspecialization: Their ground forces. The asari military's focus on elite biotic commandos and light infantry instead of a professional, mechanized standing army means that the turians are relied upon as the heavy hitters in any ground conflict. [[spoiler: When the Reapers attack Thessia while the turians are bogged down fighting another Reaper force on their own home front, Thessia falls swiftly once the Reapers win in space because of the lack of a large, standing ground army]].
** They do seem to have some fairly effective air support of their own, but those don't survive for long against the Reapers.
* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: The dominant aesthetic of the asari culture. Even some of their weapons conform to it in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', being smooth, white and elegantly curved.
* DoomedHometown: In the third game, some of their worlds burn. [[spoiler:Specifically, their homeworld, Thessia]].
* EliteMooks: Their entire military is made of up these. While they are [[OneManArmy effective to say the least]], this by consequence makes their military relatively small and unable to wage an effective drawn out war (keep in mind, this is all relative; their actual military is still one of the most powerful in the galaxy), instead relying on the turians for protection. To put it in perspective, you hear two separate accounts of a commando dueling a krogan veteran. In the first case, the battle lasted for ''days'', blew up a space station, and ended in a draw (Wrex vs. an unseen asari, but heavily implied in-game to be Aria.) In the second case, the two of them killed ''each other'' (Matriarch Aethyta's parents, and by extension [[spoiler:Liara's grandparents]].)
** EliteArmy: This applies to their warships as well. Note that the flagship of the Citadel's defense force is an asari dreadnought, the ''Destiny Ascension''.
** The turians have a saying, "Asari commandos are the deadliest warriors in the galaxy. Luckily there aren't very many of them."
* ExoticEquipment: They are renowned for being able to mate (and produce viable offspring) with either gender of any species in existence, due to the unusual nature of their nervous system and reproductive methodology. This does not, however, address the messy issue of where parts...go exactly, since asari presumably don't have any use for sex organs.
* FacialMarkings: Most (but not all) asari have some kinds of marking on their faces, ranging from subtle (Liara) to not-so-subtle (Councillor Tevos). What significance they have, or even if they're natural or artificial, has not been explained.
* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Of the ancient Greek city-states, apparently.
* TheFederation
* FighterMageThief: The mage in the asari-turian-salarian Trio.
* FlashStep: Asari multiplayer characters do a short-range version of this instead of [[UnnecessaryCombatRoll rolling]].
* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: They look like human women wearing [[RubberForeheadAliens rubber headpieces]] and blue makeup, just "other" enough to be exotic but still attractive to humans. [[BoldlyComing And everyone else.]]
* TheHecateSisters: A species-wide example. Their life goes as such: once they mature, they spend two hundred years in a state of perpetual wanderlust and thrill-seeking, tending to be mercenaries, explorers, and strippers; a life phase they call the "Maiden" years. Once they hit three hundred or so, they feel the need to settle down and raise a family; the "Matron" phase. Once they tip over the seven hundred point, they retire to become Matriarchs, using their experience and power to lead and advise (politicians, spiritual leaders, and bartenders) -- though a very few number of them become [[KnightTemplar Justicars]].
** One of their religions involves worshiping a goddess who vacillates between the three stages as well.
* HomosexualReproduction: [[OneGenderRace Naturally]]. Their unique reproductive method, which is closest to a strange form of parthenogenesis, only requires the partner to have an advanced nervous system to produce offspring.
* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler:They claim that the asari are the most advanced race in the galaxy due to inherent virtues, but they actually have the ''only'' intact Prothean Beacon in the ''galaxy'']].
** DoubleStandard: The penalties for withholding Prothean technology from the galaxy at large are among the most severe the Citadel enforces. [[spoiler:The asari have secretly used that beacon to become one of the most powerful races in the galaxy - they only admit to Shepard that "something important" is on Thessia ''after it is attacked'']]. Even worse: The asari were the first to discover the Citadel [[spoiler:because of the technological edge gained from the beacon]] and founded the Citadel Council, so they were the ones who created the rule.
** HidingBehindReligion: [[spoiler:The Beacon ''again''. The asari government hid the beacon in their oldest religious site, disguising the knowledge gained from it as "messages from the goddess." They even disguised ''one of the last living Protheans'' as a messiah figure. It's practically a retread of Franchise/AssassinsCreed. InSpace]]
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Averted. They start to leave childhood at the age of forty, and are legally considered adults at eighty. That's ''forty years of puberty''.
* ImmortalProcreationClause: The ability to choose when to get pregnant means that the asari population stays fairly stable. Apparently there is also no age restriction on fertility, either, since both of Liara's parents were well into their Matriach phases by the time she was born.
* KnightTemplar: The Justicar order, who are generally kept away from other species to avoid a diplomatic incident brought on by their very strict code.
* LadyOfWar: Averted, mostly, with asari commandos -- who are as hard-nosed and physical as most other soldiers in the galaxy. Played straight however, with justicars, if Samara is any indication. Even in the midst of battle, she is very lady-like, maintaining grace and perfect serenity while snapping people's necks.
--> '''Samara:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Find peace in the embrace of the goddess.]]
* MagicKnight: Again, asari commandos. Or anyone serving in the asari military.
* MasculineLinesFeminineCurves: Asari architecture and technology is usually very sleek and curved. For example, compare the Disciple shotgun to every other weapon of its type. They also tend to be lightweight, which makes sense given that heavy weapons make it harder to use biotics frequently.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: How asari relationships with any other species that isn't asari or krogan tend to turn out. This is a major factor in the asari worldview; asari know that they will outlive several mates, but rather than getting depressed about it, they accept it and enjoy the time they have with them.
* MemeticSexGod: An in-universe example. Everyone seems to want the asari, regardless of race or gender. Humans, turians, salarians, hanar... [[spoiler:According to Javik, the asari were the ''only'' "primitive" race the Protheans dated. The rest they conquered and enslaved. Or ate.]] The reasons for it are discussed by NPC's in ''Mass Effect 2'', where a few bar patrons (each one of a different race) wonder why they're all attracted to an asari dancer and wonder whether it's genuine attraction or if there's some sort of subtle mental manipulation going on.
* MindOverMatter: They are the only species with natural biotics. [[spoiler: In actually, the Protheans altered their entire species to give them all biotics]]. The trope is even an occasional battle-cry in the second game.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: It's revealed in the third game that [[spoiler:the Protheans aided in developing their early culture, deeming them the ones most likely to stop the Reapers in the next Cycle. To this end, the Protheans made significant enhancements to the asari - science, politics, universal biotics, even a working Prothean beacon that could be used to prepare the races of the galaxy against the Reapers. Unfortunately, the Protheans didn't count on the asari leadership keeping the beacon under wraps so they could claim to be superior to everyone else. They only send Shepard to retrieve the beacon when the Reapers were kicking down their front door]].
* NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering: Their government is technically a direct democracy, but in practice they usually defer to any matriarchs (the oldest members of the species) involved.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Apparently, this is one of their hats, in addition to BoldlyComing.
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* OneGenderRace
* OneWomanArmy: Asari commandos are considered to be the deadliest fighters in the galaxy. This is perfectly summed up by the War Assets entry for the Serrice Guard, a unit of asari commandos. After a space battle with a Blood Pack ship, they and the Blood Pack were forced to crash land on a planet. [[CurbStompBattle Over the course of nine days, the Blood Pack suffered over a hundred casualties from traps, ambushes, and night assaults.]] When the Blood Pack gave up and finally surrendered, they found out that they had only been fighting ''five'' asari commandos. They're like the alien equivalents of {{Rambo}}.
* OurElvesAreBetter: Either subverted or double subverted, depending on how much truth you read into Javik's words to Liara.
** ScrewYouElves: Gianna Parasini from the first and second game seems to really enjoy bringing asari in for their crimes, and she's apparently not the only one who enjoys rubbing it in when the asari screw up, including one of their own Matriarchs, Aethyta, who says that the asari on Thessia mocked her for suggesting that they get their daughters working in their maidan years instead of running around as strippers or mercenaries and "laughed the blue off [her] ass" when she suggested that asari should build their own Mass Relays.
---> '''Gianna Parasini:''' I love nailing asari. So ageless and superior -- then you get them, and they squeal like schoolgirls.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The Ardat-Yakshi. They're asari with a genetic mutation that impairs their ability to MindMeld. In the most extreme cases of the syndrome, this "burns out" their partner's neuro-nervous system, which also allows the Ardat-Yakshi to consume the victim's memories. This is a narcotic experience, and boosts the Ardat-Yakshi's PsychicPowers, so they invariably become addicted to the process. This is why any Ardat-Yakshi is either carefully secluded and monitored, or executed for refusing to submit to the former.
* OutWithABang: The Ardat-Yakshi again.
* PlanetOfHats: BoldlyComing [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Blue Skinned Space Babes]] mixed with SpaceElves. Asari can mate with anything, and it's apparent that both their culture ''and'' biology encourage them to, and because of their longevity, they also tend to be patient and very willing to learn. However, some asari are not promiscuous (either mating for life or not mating at all), some hate politics, and some are flat out worse {{Blood Knight}}s than the krogan.
* RefusalOfTheCall: [[spoiler: The Protheans left them a beacon and influenced their early civilisation, intending for them to lead the Galaxy against the Reapers in the next Cycle. Instead they kept the Beacon a secret and didn't reveal its secrets until the homeworld was almost lost. So they pretty much refused the call twice. Granted, without a cipher, the thing couldn't be accessed at will, so getting information out of it wasn't exactly easy]].
* RubberForeheadAliens: They look almost exactly like human women, just with fleshy tendrils (they're cartilage-based crests and semi-flexible, according to Liara in the third game) on top of the scalp, skin that is implied to be scaly in texture by the game's graphics, and natural skin-colors being varying shades of blue or purple. The game designers knew early on that they would have to make the asari the most human-like of the alien species so that they would still be attractive to players.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted with their shotgun, the Disciple. It doesn't do as much damage as shorter ranged shotguns like the Claymore, but it's very accurate and light. That doesn't mean that it's weak, however.
* SpaceElves
* StrongerWithAge: One of the reasons Matriarchs are so respected. If they get irritated with you, congratulations, you have one of the galaxy's most powerful and patient [[MindOverMatter biotics]] getting medieval on your ass, and she probably has the connections and intelligence to ruin your life a thousand times over.
* TheKirk: To the [[TheMcCoy turian McCoy]] and [[TheSpock salarian Spock]].
* {{Utopia}}: Just as the turians are a right-wing, militaristic utopia, the asari are a left-wing socialist one. They have a direct e-democracy and local councils as government (their main governing body is called the Asari ''Republics''), are notably non-militaristic, place great emphasis on art and education, and are multicultural to the extreme. Their society is the most technological and culturally advanced (not to mention the richest) society in space.
* WarriorMonk: The Justicars, with a side-order of KnightErrant.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Salarians]]
!!Salarians
[[quoteright:209:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Salarian-001_6518.png]]
->''...if you want a [[NiceJobBreakingItHero NEW problem]], ask a salarian....''
-->'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Sur'kesh
The second race to discover the Citadel and one of the two founding members of the Citadel Council. Their metabolism is much faster than those of other species; on the one hand, this means they're the second shortest-lived sentient beings in the galaxy after the vorcha. On the other, they waste a ''lot'' less of their lives sleeping. They also have "reproduction contracts" instead of marriages (which Mordin attributes to an inability to sustain courtship emotions). Similar to the asari, the salarian government is collection of clans, families, fiefdoms and duchies collectively referred to as the "Salarian Union". The Council based the Spectre program off the salarian Special Tasks Group, although the Spectres aren't as well-funded -- you don't see STG operatives buying their own weapons.
Despite being outnumbered nine-to-one by the males, female salarian "dalatrasses" (clan[=/=]family leaders) wield the most political power on their home-world.
Salarians are available for multiplayer, and can use the [[TheEngineer Engineer]] and [[StealthExpert Infiltrator]] classes.
----=
* AlienBlood: Green.
* AlienNonInterferenceClause: Averted. The salarians have a nasty habit of trying to groom primitive races as quick fixes for their problems, which they call "uplifting". This leads Mordin and Padok to argue they should have such a rule, but they seem to be in the minority - see NiceJobBreakingItHero.
-->'''James:''' These lizards like playing God, huh?\\
'''EDI:''' The salarians appear to have learned nothing from the Krogan Rebellions.
* {{Asexuality}}: Most of them are asexual, except in regards to the asari. As for how a species can survive despite being mostly asexual, it's because they're a haploid species. Unfertilized eggs laid by their dalatrasses (read: family matriarchs) are born as males. Fertilized eggs are born as females. Siring them is dealt with in a business/political agreement fashion ("Reproduction Negotiations"). As such, the majority of the population are males.
* BadassArmy: The salarian military is basically the [[CombatPragmatist pragmatic]] in the galaxy, with loads of dreadnoughts and the best stealth technology. Of particular note is the Salarian Special Task Group, a special forces organization so badass that they are what inspired the Spectres. Their doctrine is actually very similar to humanity's, albeit larger and more advanced: a relatively small volunteer force that relies on crippling the enemy before the war begins instead of slugging it out (humans cripple the enemy ''during'' the war; salarians would rather ensure the war doesn't happen).
* CombatPragmatist: They consider declarations of war to be superfluous and stupid. When they attack, it is without warning and after as much time as feasible gathering intelligence and undermining the enemy.
** They also consider very few measures to be out-of-bounds. One of their research facilities in the third game shows that they were researching altering varren ([[DeathWorld Tuchanka]] wolves) to be ''even more'' powerful, violent, and fast-breeding so they could be dropped onto enemy planets to completely wreck the ecosystem and attack civilian populations. A throwaway note on one planet suggests they're observing certain areas in the Terminus Systems, and any individuals who have the idea of uniting the warring pirates and slaving bands always die mysterious and untimely deaths.
** Their reliance on their intelligence networks turned out to be a devastating weakness when the Reapers attacked, as the salarians' entire doctrine lay in destroying the enemy before conflict even began. Since they didn't virtually own the Reapers' communications network nor could prepare for or target their weaknesses prior to the unexpected attack, the salarian military was left at a severe disadvantage. However, none of that changes the fact that the salarians still do have one of the largest and most advanced navies in the galaxy.
** Basically, they are all about ''avoiding'' having to actually fight the enemy unless necessary, though they are capable fighters when it comes down to it thanks to their huge military, advanced technology, and super power status.
* ExplosiveBreeder: It goes unremarked, but, as the [[AllThereInTheManual in-game codex]] notes, they are "haplo-diploid oviparous amphibians". In other words, female salarians lay dozens of eggs automatically once a year, and they don't need sex to make them hatch; sex merely determines whether or not the eggs will hatch into more females, who will lay more eggs. Salarian worlds are invariably densely populated as a result -- theoretically, salarians can actually ''outbreed the krogan''. This may explain why the salarian homeworld has much more people than the turian or asari ones, even though the salarians have managed to spread out their population into the colonies; there's just that many of them.
* FatalFlaw: For all their intelligence the salarians' relatively short lifespans appear to make them very shortsighted when it comes to decision making on a galactic scale. Uplifting the krogan without taking into account the long term consequences of their birth rate, especially when freed from the natural mortality rate of Tuchanka. Creating the genophage but not expecting the turians to use it without their permission. Worse still it seems they feel the [[spoiler: yahg]] are a great new prospect for uplifting into galactic society. Anyone familiar with this race can see the glaring flaws in that strategy a mile away.
** For those who ''don't'' know the yahg? We see only two specimens. One manages to escape in the midst of a Cerberus attack, slaughtering better armed, trained, and equipped soldiers with nothing but its bare hands. The other managed to [[spoiler: take over the job of Shadow Broker and has been running the gig from behind the scenes for years... and still manages to be a very difficult fight, despite [[GeniusBruiser being an intellectual.]]]]
* TheFederation
* FighterMageThief: The thief in the asari-turian-salarian trio.
* ForScience: Practically the salarians [[PlanetOfHats hat]], though it's heavily lampshaded that this ''often'' [[IdiotBall doesn't turn out so well.]]
* FrogsAndToads: In the same family, though they have more in common with newts or salamanders. Warm-blooded, intelligent, bipedal, upright-standing ones.
-->'''Javik:''' The lizard people evolved?\\
'''Liara:''' I believe they're amphibian.\\
'''Javik:''' They used to eat flies...
* GenderRarityValue: Females are rare, influential, and extremely well-protected, due to the reasons listed under {{Asexuality}}. You will never see a salarian female in a combat role unless things are ''very'' dire.
* TheGreys: Or at least the closest equivalent in the Mass Effect setting.
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Justified, since males vastly outnumber females, and due to GenderRarityValue and simple statistics male salarians are far more likely to be casualties in combat.
* MotorMouth: A few of them. At the very least they talk faster than most other species.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: One of their hats, apparently. Since salarians are hyper-active and have shorter lifespans, they think more for the short term (in contrast to the asari, who think so long-term that they sometimes seem complacent or wishy-washy).
** Case in point, the first few thousand years of galactic war were continuously their fault. They activated the relay which brought the rachni to the universe and started the Rachni Wars; they then uplifted the krogan to defeat the rachni; then they sterilized the krogan in order to stop the Krogan Rebellions. ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' then shows that [[spoiler:they were planning to ''secretly'' uplift the ''yahg''. There is ''absolutely no way'' that could possibly have ended well.]]
** See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.
* NotSoDifferent: The basis of salarian civilization; males compete for the right to sire progeny on females, and females barter breeding rights as the source of their authority. Doesn't that sound ''just like post-genophage krogan?''
** Hell, as noted above, salarians are just as much {{Explosive Breeder}}s as the krogan were before being infected with the genophage.
*** Except they aren't nearly as hard to kill as the krogan and have much shorter lifespans even if they aren't as reckless as krogan.
* OverlyLongName: Salarians always introduce themselves shorthand. A salarian's full name includes their personal name, family name, and the city, district, country, planet, star system, and star cluster of their birth.
* PhotographicMemory: As well as bolstering their skill as spies, it helps them keep track of their enormous extended families.
* PlanetOfHats: Salarians aren't very durable or long-lived, but they are expert at covert operations and intelligence gathering. They also tend to be [[PragmaticHero strictly pragmatic]] and amoral. But Mordin and Maelon alone are perfect examples of how widely this can change and vary.
* TheSpock: To the [[TheMcCoy turian McCoy]] and [[TheKirk asari Kirk.]]
* StealthInSpace: All salarian ships are equipped with the same stealth technology as the Normandy, even their dreadnoughts.
* StickyBomb: They manufacture a pistol for their special forces called the Scorpion that shoots blue sticky grenades. Salarian Infiltrators in multiplayer are also fond of them.
* UnderestimatingBadassery:
** Other species tend to do this. As Mordin points out, while the salarians aren't physically imposing as the other races, their sheer aptitude for stealth and subterfuge, combined with their reputation as "easily dismissable", means that ''no-one'' ever sees them coming.
---> '''Mordin:''' Advantage of being salarian. Turians, krogan, vorcha, all obvious threats. Never see me coming.
** It is also worth pointing out that the salarians were the ones who began the Citadel's Spectre program and formed its first operatives, with the structure of the Spectres being based on a looser pattern of the salarian STG. Those who underestimate the salarians clearly have no knowledge of Citadel history.
** Indeed, the Citadel Archives reveal that the first Spectre was a salarian operative, [[RecruitingTheCriminal recruited from prison]], due to using 30 civilians as live bait in order to flush out the assassin they were chasing.
* WeakButSkilled: Salarians are hardly the strongest or toughest species out there. However, thanks to their accelerated metabolism, they can be quite quick in combat, described as "like a cat" by David Anderson who witnessed a salarian Spectre in a BarBrawl. They extend this to strategic doctrine in warfare as well; the salarians will hit their enemy hard in the places they are most vulnerable before an opponent has an opportunity to respond because they have spent that much time and effort [[AwesomenessByAnalysis analyzing them first]].
* WeAreAsMayflies: With a lifespan of around 40 years, they are shortest-lived of the powerful species.
* TheWorfEffect: The STG is said (and in the first game, shown) to be a BadassArmy with some of the best technology and training in the galaxy, comparable to the Spectres (except they ''don't'' have to buy their own gear). However, by the time of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Cerberus manages to sneak onto Sur'Kesh undetected and surprise and stomp out an entire base of STG guards with only moderate casualties, with only Shepard being able to help repel them. Campbell even says that, due to Cerberus' technology, the salarians may as well have been throwing rocks.
** WorfHadTheFlu: However, this is due to the salarian preference to end a war before their enemy even knows that it has begun. They were completely blindsided by the Reapers, meaning most of their traditional tactics didn't apply and they didn't expect Cerberus to suddenly get a major technological advantage [[spoiler: due to being augmented by salvaged Reaper tech from the Collector Base]].
** Also, the STG may be good... but they aren't ''frontline'' soldiers. The scene where they attack Saren's base on Virmire in [=ME1=] was noted to be extremely unusual for them. Also, take into consideration that Cerberus has the schematics for the original ''Normandy SR-1'' and the ''Normandy SR-2'' which were highly advanced stealth vessels. It's not out of the question that such tech was used to sneak in.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Humans]]
!! Humans
[[quoteright:219:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Human-001_6644.png]]
->''....But if you want a problem ''[[HumansAreSpecial fixed]]'', ask a human.''
-->--'''Commander Shepard'''
'''Homeworld:''' Earth
The most recent species to enter the galactic scene. Humans are a bipedal race originated from Earth. They are the most culturally and genetically diverse of all of the species in the series. On Earth itself, humanity is still very much divided, with major powers including the [[ExpandedStatesOfAmerica The United North American States]], [[ToGetRichIsGlorious The People's Federation of China]], and the [[UnitedEurope European Union]], but they all agree to project themselves as one faction to the galaxy through the Systems Alliance. They have advanced in galactic politics more quickly than other races, leading to a belief that humans are all impatient bullies. This advancement coupled with humanity's penchant for devising innovative ideas has led to humanity being considered to be something of a WildCard; they are going to change the galaxy, but no one is certain how so.
Humans are one of the races available for multiplayer, and are the only one with access to all the classes and a customizable gender. The Rebellion Pack DLC adds the [[WhipItGood Ex-Cerberus Vanguard and Adept]], and the Earth Pack adds N7 special forces characters for all of the classes, each with unique movesets and abilities. Additionally, the Reckoning Pack adds the [[TheStraightAndArrowPath Talon]] [[HiredGuns Mercenary]] [[TrickArrow Engineer]].
----
* AirborneAircraftCarrier: Well, space aircraft carrier. The Alliance was the first known military in galactic history to deploy carriers. They quickly became popular among other races after their introduction.
* TheAlliance: The Systems Alliance, of course.
* AmbitionIsEvil: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Humanity's hat is hyper-ambition. A lot of the aliens you meet don't seem to appreciate the fact that they've been grabbing all the power on the galactic stage in the last forty years, when most other races take ''centuries'' to do so.
* AppealToTradition: [[BerserkButton DO NOT]] [[DefiedTrope try this on humans]]. Humanity is unconcerned with how long you've been here, how many generations you've done this, or whose "turn" it is to get their due. All humanity cares about is: how can we get this done, or tell us who won't let us do it, so we can kick their ass.
* ArchEnemy: With the batarians. The Hegemony and the Alliance have been engaged in a proxy war for years in the Skyllian Verge, with Alliance Marines facing off against batarian paramilitaries (like Balak's group), with various warlords and pirate bands being backed by both sides to fight the other. The batarian pirates who attacked Mindoir are an example of a Hegemony-backed band, whereas Lord Darius's gang is an example of an Alliance-backed band. VideoGame/MassEffect2 also reveals that the Hegemony is just itching for an excuse to start a war with humanity. As of the third game, this would have probably already happened after the destruction of one of their mass relays and the resultant death of over 300,000 batarians, if they weren't unfortunate enough to end up as the Reapers' first victims.
* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: Other races are quietly terrified that this might happen, given that the humans were able to gain the full attention of the turians, having never fought them before, with such a small percentage of humanity's population in the military. Many say that if the turians and humans ever got into a long war with each other, it would wreck a significant portion of the galaxy.
** Used as a BatmanGambit by Udina's predecessor, Ambassador Goyle, in the book ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation''. When an illegal Alliance operation is uncovered, the Citadel Council prepares to sanction humanity back into the Stone Age. Realizing that this would doom humankind to a fate much like the quarians or the krogan (the entire species reduced to a punchline and unable to do anything significant in Council Space for hundreds--if not ''thousands'' of years), Goyle boldly states that if the Council does this, the Systems Alliance will declare war on all Citadel Space. She was aware that humanity wouldn't ever win such a suicidal war, but that if humanity devoted a lot of their resources towards militarization they could inflict enough damage on Council space that the Council just wouldn't see fighting them as worth it.
** This was also something humans were ''doing'' in ignorance during the First Contact War. They fought the turian forces deployed to Shanxi to a standstill and were gaining ground. However, the turian military was orders of magnitude bigger than humanity's (not that humans knew that at the time) and were preparing to route considerable reinforcements to the Shanxi theater when the Citadel Council intervened and prevented the war from escalating.
* BadassArmy: The Alliance military is very small, both on the ground and in space, compared to the other Council races, but an emphasis on maneuver warfare, flexibility, and innovative tactics and technology enable them to match larger and more established militaries, like the Batarian Hegemony.
* BerserkButton: After an asari witnesses Shepard's angry reaction to "Indentured Servants" being sold on Illium, it's heavily implied that humans are well known for having a no-tolerance approach to slavery. Most races seem to be under the impression this is due to the batarian slave-raids on their colonies, apparently unaware that the majority of [[HumansAreBastards human]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast history]] has given them strong reasons to [[TheAtoner hate slavery]].
** Though this reaction could also be particularly understandable for Shepard if s/he has the [[DoomedHometown right background.]]
* BizarreBabyBoom: Biotic abilities in humans only began to manifest after several starship "accidents" in the 2150s accidentally exposed pregnant women to Element Zero ''in-utero''. As such, most of the first generation of human biotics are only around 30 years old.
* BullyingADragon: The Batarian Hegemony's paramilitary attacks on the Alliance are seen as this by some, but in truth the higher military officials know that a war with the batarians is risky for both sides. More specifically, both sides know that humanity would almost definitely win, but it would be incredibly costly.
* CombatPragmatist: The war doctrine of the Alliance is to quickly cut behind the enemy and destroy key installations, supply lines, and command centers. They're very big on offense; colonies only get token garrisons, but anyone who attacks will have the force of the galaxy's sixth largest navy coming down right on their heads.
** Likewise, their defense strategy boils down to having their Fleets positioned at key nexus points in the Relay Network, so should one of their colonies get attacked, TheCavalry will never be more than a jump or two away.
* {{Determinator}}: Lampshaded by the various races, that despite overwhelming odds, humans ''never'' give up. Turians are excessively disciplined and krogan are outright stubborn, but humans have an uncanny ability to pull off the impossible.
* TheEmpire: Subverted. Aliens fear this from the humans as a whole, but it never really gets as far as they think.
* ExpandedStatesOfAmerica: The United States has been expanded and renamed the United North American States. It now also encompasses Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.
** UnitedEurope: It's mentioned that Europe is also politically active, apparently having become one Nation-State.
* FacelessGoons: The standard uniform in the Alliance includes a helmet that completely obscures the wearer's face. Justified in that all Alliance soldiers wear PowerArmor and are expected to be able to fight in hostile environments.
* TheFederation: Back on Earth, there's the United North American States and [[UnitedEurope the European Union.]] There's also the Chinese People's Federation, but it's not clear if they really are a federation or just a PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny.
* FantasticRankSystem: The ranking system of the Systems Alliance differs slightly from any modern one. While the Marines are no longer independent of the Navy, they like to keep some of their own ranks out of tradition.
** Several ranks may ''look'' like real-world equivalents, but they really are not. For instance, Kaidan Alenko goes from "Staff Lieutenant", which in US military equivalent ranks would be O-3 (at most), second lowest of the six commissioned officer ranks. to "Major", which is O-4 in USA ranks. Except it isn't in Mass Effect: it's essentially what Colonel is today (O-6).
* GuileHero: Another one of Humanity's many hats. When faced with a problem, Humans tend to use every trick in the book in their favour to succeed. If that doesn't work, they will simply throw the rulebook away and invent some new ones.
* HumanityIsInfectious: While there are naturally some exceptions, for the most part, humanity has easily adapted to the galactic scene, showing great enthusiasm and expressing a desire for a deeper role in galactic politics and in protecting it from threats.
* HumanityIsSuperior: Averted early in the series, discussed in the middle, then thoroughly subverted at the end. Starting out, humanity is a middle power in Franchise/MassEffect; they impressively outclass several pre-established powers militarily, economically, and population-wise, such as the batarians and hanar. However, they aren't even in the same league as the other three Council races. [[spoiler:After the first game, humanity becomes a lot more involved in interstellar politics and appears to be on their way to forming a human-centric regime. However, after Earth is attacked, humanity desperately has to seek allies from the other species, with most of the final war assets coming from those species]].
* HumansAdvanceSwiftly: Humanity had access to mass effect technology for only seven years and only a few colonies before making disastrous first contact with the Turian Heirarchy. Despite this early misstep, they continued on to become a major political force in the galaxy and subsequently gained a seat on the Council, only ''26 years'' from initial first contact. To put the extent of this achievement into perspective, it often takes ''centuries'' for most races to even reach a lesser status. This comparatively absurd advancement speed with little sign of slowing is part of the reason most races are quietly terrified of the potential of humanity.
* HumansAreAverage:
** Physically, humans are the middle ground in almost every way compared to other species, which has proven to be an advantage of sorts. Thane's dossier reveals humans are generally easier to assassinate than asari or turians, and Grunt counts them as less hardy than quarians, which may or may not be because of the quarians' environment suits. In fact, in multiplayer, humans are the only species that can play ''any'' class.
** Mordin reveals in the second game that humans have the most genetic variability in the Galaxy, meaning it's nearly ''impossible'' to predict where they can fall on the the biological bell-curve, compared to those of other species. If it weren't highly unethical, this would make them wonderfully valuable as a test group for medical experiments.
---> '''Mordin:''' Biotic abilties, intelligence levels. Can look at random asari, krogan, make reasonable guess. Humans too variable to judge. Outliers in all species, of course. Geniuses, idiots. But human probability curve offers greater variability.
** [[spoiler: Turns out, the Reapers ''agree'']].
* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: The most despicable and feared terrorist organization in the galaxy (Cerberus) and the largest NGOSuperpower criminal empire (Blue Suns) are both human organizations (though the Suns have some major batarian influence as well). It puts a bit of a drain on their reputation, especially since Cerberus was formerly an Alliance black ops organization.
* HumansAreLeaders: This is how they see ''themselves'', anyway. And it's embodied by [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Ambassador Udina]] and the [[KnightTemplar Illusive Man]] in the negative sense, and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Admiral Hackett and David Anderson]] in the positive sense, and Commander Shepard can fall anywhere between them on the scale.
** Although should Shepard have done everything right, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHIAibDr3yM the arrival of the Sword-Fleet]], with ''Normandy'' leading the charge to retake Earth, makes it hard to argue that humanity doesn't honestly deserve this reputation.
** [[RunningGag See the running quote for Renegade Shepard's succinct view.]]
* HumansAreSpecial: Played straight early on, [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] later. In the context of the series, humanity did gain political power rather quick, but that's mostly due to [[PlayerCharacter Shepard]] being [[TheMessiah Shepard.]]
* HumansAreWarriors: Human military tactics are considered rather unpredictable by the standards of the other races. Pound-for-pound, humans rival the batarians in might, but lack the sheer brute force of the krogan, the discipline and power of the turian navy, the skill of the asari, or the savvy of the salarians. However, humans are unmatched in maneuverability, flexibility, VI and drone support, and individual initiative. Human tactics are focused around [[VictoryByEndurance striking high-priority targets and supply lines]] rather than wars of attrition. In short, humans are well-known for achieving more with less.
* HumanityIsInsane: Most of the other races tend to have this view.
* JackOfAllStats: According to various comments from other races. They are also the only species able to use every class in the VideoGame/MassEffect3 multiplayer.
** Actually averted on a grand scale. Humanity is not good at everything and terrible at nothing; there are some things that humanity is obviously terrible at when compared to other races (their economy is one of the weakest in Citadel Space, for example) and some things they are better at.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold[=/=]JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Depending on the ending in the first game. [[spoiler: Despite being, for better or worse, an ambitious and warlike race, humans come to the rescue of the Citadel and prevent a return of the [[OmnicidalManiac Reapers]]. Whether this means saving the entirely alien Council from the jaws of certain death and becoming a part of the wider community, or sacrificing them in favor of fighting Sovereign, is entirely up to Shepard]].
* MechaMooks: The codex says that the Alliance makes heavy use of drones to compensate for their lack of numbers compared to other species, ranging from flying tripod machine gun turrets to eight foot tall [[MiniMecha YMIR Mechs]] with a machine gun and rocket launcher combo to the anti-tank rocket drones to VI-piloted deep space fighters. In the various Alliance bases gone wrong that Shepard has to come to clean up, there are ''always'' huge amounts of mechs and drones there to defend it. [[AIIsACrapshoot In some cases, the mechs and drones are what killed everyone in the base.]]
* MoralMyopia: Some humans express outrage over the Council not intervening to help them, whereas, as Bethany points out in the third game, they would likely abandon Thessia if it were being invaded by the Reapers.
* PlanetOfHats: When the galaxy was handing out hats, not only did humans knock it to the ground and stomp over it, they then fired a mass accelerator round at the hat shop to serve as an example. What makes humans special is that they ''refuse'' to be marginalized or held back in any way, and that scares the races and makes them question the hats they've been wearing for centuries or even millennia. But this, of course, means that humanity's "pseudo-hats" are ambition and defiance.
* SemperFi: The Marines have completely replaced the army.
* SuperSoldier: By our standards, every Alliance soldier is this. They wear power armor, have deflector shields, receive cybernetic implants and gene therapy, and carry automatic coil guns and rocket launchers, both of which have unlimited ammo. But in the galaxy of Mass Effect, this is just standard stuff.
** The Alliance has their own even-more-super soldiers in the case of the N7 classes. Not exceptionally skilled normal soldiers that become N7s, like Shepard or the base multiplayer characters, but the specialized ultra-elite units that are only playable in multiplayer. They include a biotic ninja who can explode things ''incredibly'' rapidly and teleport, an invisible cyborg with a monomolecular blade that can shoot lasers, a human tank equipped with very heavy PowerArmor which includes a shoulder mounted missile launcher, a wrist mounted grenade launcher, and enhancements for whatever weapon he happens to be holding, and more.
* TankGoodness: The Mako is called a tank by marines, despite technically being an Infantry Fighting Vehicle. But naming aside, it is a fine piece of work; a powerful cannon, a coaxial machine gun, great speed, powerful shields that recharge, room for an equipped fireteam, and it can be dropped from hundreds of meters in the air on to a planet. Plus, like all Mass Effect weaponry, it has effectively unlimited ammo.
* UnusualEuphemism: Relative to other races. Humans have a tendency to talk in a ''lot'' of slang, shorthand, as well as use metaphors. This leads to some BluntMetaphorsTrauma from fellow races like the turians, who are utterly perplexed by their manner of speaking and use of bizarre idioms.
--> '''James:''' Like shooting fish in a barrel!\\
'''Garrus:''' What?\\
'''James:''' Old human saying! Like fish! In a! Barrel!\\
\\
'''Javik:''' Though I do not understand why [Zaeed] keeps [[VerbalTic "damning" his god.]]
* VitriolicBestBuds: With the turians. There might be tension, but these two societies have more in common with each other than with the salarians or the asari. They even co-designed the ''Normandy'' with the turians. And when the Reapers hit, the turians are the first of any species to offer military aid to humanity.
* WeAreAsMayflies: Humans in this setting are lucky to break one century, but can reasonably live for as long as a hundred and fifty years. The trope is played straight with asari and krogan, who both live to be over 1,000 years. It's averted with most other species, who have similar lifespans, and with the salarians, whose fast metabolisms gives them maximum lifespans of just 40 years. Even worse are the vorcha, who can count themselves lucky to see 20.
* WildCard: Given the relative newness of humanity on the galactic stage, most races aren't really sure how to predict human behavior.
[[/folder]]
