Characters / Mass Effect 2 Non-Council Space NPCs

Mass Effect Main Character Index
Mass Effect: Commander Shepard | Party Members (Kaidan Alenko | Ashley Williams | Garrus Vakarian | Liara T'Soni | Tali'Zorah | Urdnot Wrex) | Antagonists | NPCs
Mass Effect 2: Early Party Members (Miranda Lawson | Jack) | Late Party Members | Secret Party Members | Main Antagonists | Secondary Antagonists | Normandy Crew | Council Space NPCs | Non-Council Space NPCs
Mass Effect 3: Party Members | Antagonists and NPCs | Multiplayer Characters
Mass Effect: Andromeda: Pathfinder Ryder | Party Members | Crew of the Tempest | The Andromeda Initiative | The Kett | The Angara | Other Characters | Multiplayer Characters

This page is for listing the tropes related to non player characters in non-Council space who first appeared in the second Mass Effect game.

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The Quarian Admiralty Board

The Quarian Admiralty Board

Keelah se'lai.

"This Conclave is brought to order..."

The current members that govern the quarian Migrant Fleet, composed of Rael'Zorah, Shala'Raan vas Tonbay, Han'Gerrel vas Neema, Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib, and Daro'Xen vas Moreh. They play major roles during Tali's loyalty mission, being the judges in her trial and each member has a unique outlook on the geth/quarian conflict.

They return in Mass Effect 3, leading a massive Migrant Fleet strike on the heart of geth territory at Rannoch, the quarian homeworld.

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The Admiralty in general

• The Faceless: Quarians, obviously.
• Four-Star Badass: While they're all admirals, special points go to Han'Gerrel. And even more special points go to Zaal'Koris in 3.
• Gray-and-Grey Morality: All of the Admirals seemingly have the best interests of the Migrant Fleet at heart, but all of them have their vices. In rough order from lighter to darker shades of gray:
  • Zaal'Koris is a Jerkass to Shepard and Tali in court, but is the sole admiral who wants to make peace with the geth (believing the other admirals are moving dangerously close to open war). Assuming Tali is acquitted and Shepard urges the Conclave to pursue peace with the geth, Koris warms up to the duo considerably.
  • Shala'Raan wants to avoid open war with the geth and is a Reasonable Authority Figure, but the other admirals imply that she is shy in expressing her opinions and just jumps on the bandwagon of the majority.
  • Rael'Zorah seemed to have been a strict officer and a clever fighter, but remained distant from his daughter Tali (though he still loves her dearly). Based on speaking to the other four admirals, Rael seemed to share Gerrel's opinion in driving the geth out of Rannoch. To that end Rael deliberately reprogrammed, captured or dismantled geth to perform experiments, in an effort to successfully hack their neural network. By experimenting on active geth, Rael not only violated sacred laws that predated the quarians' flight from the homeworld but got everyone on the Alarei killed and endangered the entire fleet.
  • Daro'Xen is determined to help the quarians regain control of the geth with minimum bloodshed... by mind raping them back into slavery. Tali's responses indicate that Xen has a Mad Scientist or god complex.
  • Han'Gerrel is a friendly and honorable man, but he believes total war against the geth (even with evidence they're not brainless murdering machines and that the geth who sided with the Reapers are heretics) is the only way to reclaim Rannoch.
• Just a Machine: Gerrel and Xen's views on the geth, while Raan doubts that "they have different factions" will convince people. Koris is an exception.
• Manipulative Bastard: The trial isn't about whether Tali really did endanger the Flotilla, but what course should the quarians take concerning the geth. Tali just got caught in the crossfire.

Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay

I am not giving you my opinion; I am merely telling you which way the wind is blowing.

"I was there when Tali was born; her mother and I had synced our suits so we could be in the same open-air room. I was sick for a week, but it was worth it."

Voiced by: Shohreh Aghdashloo

A close friend of Tali's mother, and flag officer of the Patrol Fleet. Her arm of the flotilla is responsible for picket lines, scouting, and extra-fleet escort duties. Stuck with the fairly thankless task of keeping the other admirals in line, she is sadly aware of the limits of her position and doesn't feel she can do much to change public opinion. If Tali dies in the Suicide Mission, Raan fills her place on Rannoch.

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• Always Save the Girl: She says her main priority in the trial is getting Tali acquitted.
  Raan: [angry] I don't give a vorcha's ass about the fleet! I was trying to protect you, Tali!
• Cruel to Be Kind: Her decision to not tell Tali about the circumstances behind her father going missing(and eventually being found dead) as a result of the attack on the Alarei and letting her find out about it during the trial causes Tali no small amount of anguish, but potentially helps prove that Tali had no idea what happened.
• Da Chief: One of the patrol fleet's main duties is internal fleet law enforcement; as an admiral, she's more police commissioner than soldier.
• Driven to Suicide: If Tali's dead and you save the geth over the quarians, she shoots herself in the head.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Shaala and Han Gerrel have this reaction if you choose to expose Rael's actions to the quarian public, appalled that her friend could do something so horrific.
• Honorary Uncle: Tali's "Auntie Raan". She and Tali's mother shared a clean room during Tali's birth; Raan was sick for a week, but it was worth it.
• Meaningful Rename: In the third game, if you've managed to help the quarians regain their homeworld, she sends you an email signed "Admiral Shala'Raan vas Rannoch".
• My Country, Right or Wrong: If Shepard experiences the geth consensus, Raan reads their account of seeing it and seems, at the least, taken aback by it and its evidence that there isn't malice on that side of the Robot War. She can tell Shepard that there was information there that she hadn't been aware of, but denies having second thoughts if Shepard inquires.
• Neutral No Longer: Initially was wishy-washy about her stance in the whole retaking-the-homeworld question, but once momentum started, she sided with Xen and Gerrel. While Xen wanted to test out all her new toys, and Gerrel was simply itchin' for a fight, Raan just wanted Rannoch reclaimed.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Cast the deciding vote that determined that the quarians would go to war against the geth, resulting in an entirely unnecessary conflict with numerous fatalities on both sides and creating a huge clusterfuck for Shepard to fix.
• Parental Substitute: Signs point to Raan becoming a surrogate mother to Tali after Tali's biological mother died in her youth. She's "Auntie Raan" to Tali.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She "wears holes in her suit" for Shepard and Tali's sake, has to keep Koris and Gerrel from bickering at each other in the middle of proceedings, and is the only Admiral not trying to push her personal agenda ahead of Tali's well-being.
• Rules Lawyer: Serves as one on the Admiralty Board during Tali's trial, so that she can ensure that quarian law is upheld — and that Tali is given a fair trial.
  Koris: Objection! This human has no business at a hearing involving such sensitive military matters!
  Raan: Then you should not have declared Tali crew of the Normandy, Admiral Koris. By right as Tali's Captain, Shepard must stay.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gets one from Tali and Paragon Shepard for not telling her about her father's (at the time) presumed death so her reaction would be more genuine.
  • Gives one herself towards the duo if the trial ends with Tali simply being exiled. Raan is livid that they wasted the opportunity after she "wore holes in her suit" to make it happen.
  • Gives one to Gerrel for firing on the geth dreadnought with Shepard, Tali/Xen and their squadmate(s) inside, although she does try to placate Shepard.

Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib

Once you build the galaxy's biggest hammer, someone will always start looking for nails.

"They are our children, Shepard. We have all done horrible things to each other, but it has to end — for both groups."

Voiced by: Martin Jarvis

An outspoken opponent of homeworld invasion plans, supporter of geth peace endeavours, and commander of the Civilian Fleet. He's responsible for the well-being of the majority of the fleet's ship numbers.

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• A Father to His Men: To the point that he has to be talked into being rescued rather than saving his troops. He'd rather die than let his crew get exterminated by the geth. Unfortunately, if you want the best possible outcome between the geth and quarians (something that Koris wants to achieve), you have to force him to sacrifice his crew. On his return, he quickly realizes he was desperately needed by the Civilian Fleet for leadership.
• Clothing Switch: Swaps out the pink-trimmed suit for one in all black before being shot down and crash-landing on Rannoch.
• Didn't Think This Through: He angrily objects to having Shepard - as a human - at a hearing involving a sensitive military matter like Tali's trial. This was after he voted to declare Tali part of the Normandy crew, which under the quarians' own laws would require Shepard, as her captain, to represent her. Raan calls him out on this.
• Embarrassing Last Name: While Koris is his family name, the name of the Qwib-Qwib, his home ship, gets him a lot of unwanted attention.
• The Extremist Was Right:
  • No-one takes his belief in brokering a peace with the geth feasible, mainly because the geth have maintained a shoot-on-sight policy for all organics for the last 300 years, and the only geth who've tried to contact organics since then have been Sovereign's genocidal minions. He's crucial in Mass Effect 3 should you choose to secure the peace, proving he was right after all.
  • If Shepard exposes Rael's criminal actions at the trial, Koris sounds incredibly calm when he demands that Rael be posthumously exiled.
• Heel–Face Turn: He goes from being the antagonist of Tali's loyalty mission in the second game to possibly an ally in the effort to achieve peace in the third game. Despite him trying to scapegoat Tali in her trial, the two may end up becoming political allies if Tali is promoted to Admiral herself, both casting the dissenting minority votes in the Admiralty's choice to invade Rannoch.
• Jerkass Has a Point: A lot of the things he says to you in 2 make sense (most especially if the player pursues peace in the next game), even if he's a jerk when he says them. Justified, since he espouses an unorthodox stance in regards to geth that opposes to the mainstream Quarian society forcing him to toughen up.
  • The Alarei was overrun by live geth; deactivated geth platforms hardly reactivate themselves, so something shady involving them must have gone down aboard it (and it turns out something did) whether or not Tali was knowingly abetting whatever it was.
  • He opines as well that the geth who killed the crew weren't homicidal machines; they were living beings in pain, a contrast to everyone around him. Tali tries to defend the Morning War by saying the geth attacked them and drove them from Rannoch, and Koris counters that of course they did — the quarians tried to destroy them first.
  • Even his reasons for opposing a war with the geth and wanting to have Tali found guilty are sound: the war is a long one, marked by brutalities on both sides, but if their people don't stop fighting they stand to lose everything; ergo experiments like the ones Rael'Zorah was running on the Alarei are things he cannot condone, because they treat the geth as less than people and he feels it's important to send a message that that view is untrue. Tali even admits she understands his position, despite not agreeing with it. And ultimately, he is vindicated regarding Rael's experiments; they were so terrible that if the truth is revealed after Shepard uncovers it, the entire gathered crowd are shocked and appalled by it, excluding Admiral Xen.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Is a jerk in Tali's trial, but makes it clear that it is not personal as he respects her greatly. As well as seeking peace with the geth, if you ask him about the Admirals' infighting after the first part of the trial he'll apologize for letting it interfere with the proceedings. If Tali is cleared, he'll thank Shepard for being there for her when the Admiralty board wasn't. He is also one of the lone quarians who support peace with the geth, and is the only Admiral other than Tali who votes against going to war with them in the third game. He is essential to brokering peace between the two sides in the Rannoch arc.
  • Expose Rael's actions in court and he warms up enormously to Tali and Shepard.
  • Even forcing a mistrial compels him to admit it was wrong to scapegoat Tali for what happened, and he apologizes.
  • It's also implied in both the second and particularly the third game, Koris is generally a cordial, selfless admiral all around who greatly values protecting the Quarian People along with the civilian fleet he commands, so much so that putting them in danger is why he's angry during the trial as now there are Geth on the Alerei that endanger the fleet.
• Kangaroo Court: Sets up one for Tali in 2, and goes so far as to try to deny her any legal representation at all. Shepard can shut the whole thing down simply by pointing out that Koris has no actual evidence of wrongdoing on her part and is only pushing the trial as a way to score political points.
• The Men First: After crash-landing on Rannoch, he's adamant that Shepard leaves him behind to save the rest of his crew. You can convince him otherwise, and despite feeling guilty, he agrees in hindsight that Shepard was right to do so (as he keeps his Civilian Fleet from faltering).
• My Country, Right or Wrong: He was against the war with the geth, his Civilian Fleet was against the war too, but they came anyway when the Migrant Fleet moved against the synthetics.
• Never Heard That One Before: Judging by how Tali warns Shepard to not ask about his name, and the exasperated way he explains that he tried and failed to get his ship's name changed in the past, the whole Quib-Quib situation is a source of this for him.
• Nothing Personal: If Shepard gets Tali acquitted without showing the incriminating evidence at her trial, he says this to Tali about the attempt to get her killed or exiled. Shepard can optionally refuse to buy it.
• Only Sane Man: In 2, he's the only quarian Admiral (in fact, one of the few quarians in general) who wants to avoid war with the geth. He is the only Admiral who realizes that an outright war is suicidal (justified, since he's in charge of the civilian fleets). This puts him at odds with Admirals Gerrel and Xen, who often mock him for being a coward and geth apologist (a "suit-wetter", in Han's own words). The combination of all this pressure has made him extremely frustrated and desperate, and it makes your initial impression of him in Mass Effect 2 a harsh one. By the third game, he has his act together. He is also one of few quarians who thinks that their ancestors were wrong to try and exterminate the geth.
• Ramming Always Works: When a geth ground cannon starts ripping through the quarian fleet, he crashes his ship into it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Not immediately obvious in 2, since he seems too willing to get Tali exiled for the sake of politics, but by 3 he fits this trope just fine.
• Resigned to the Call: Should you rescue him after his crash-landing, he becomes a hero to his people, having set foot on the homeworld and lived to tell about it. He's reluctant because the entirety of the rest of his ship's crew perished in the process. Ironic, considering he thought the idea of taking back Rannoch was suicidal folly at best.
• Senseless Sacrifice: If Shepard lets him die to save his crew, it becomes harder to avoid the Genocide Dilemma later. Moreover, the death of such a high ranking figure causes morale to drop in the fleet and some civilian ships to flee only to be butchered by the geth in the process, leading to thousands of senseless deaths that would not have happened otherwise.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Han'Gerrel's manly man. While Gerrel is a hawkish asskicker who leads the main battle fleet and would love nothing more than to get a piece of the geth, Koris looks out for the civilian fleet and wants nothing more than to make peace with the geth, even if that means forgoing the homeworld. He thinks the price of war is simply too high.
• The So-Called Coward: Han'Gerrel views him as a coward — a "suit-wetter", to be precise — because he believes in looking for a peaceful resolution to the geth conflict. In actuality, Koris is an exceedingly brave man, and proves it in 3. He crashes his ship into a geth planetary defense gun to save civilians, and then willingly volunteers to sacrifice himself to save his crew. Gerrel even tells Shepard if Koris dies that he would not have been able to accomplish the same thing.
• Stealth Pun: He occasionally considers transferring to a ship with a respectable name like Defrahnz or Iktomi. Which would make the last part of his name either "vas deferens", the part of the male anatomy that connects the testicles to the urethera, or "vasectomy", a procedure that permanently sterilizes a man by cutting the vas deferens.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Some dialogue options in 3 make it clear Shepard still absolutely detests him for his actions at Tali's trial, but works with him because of his strong leadership and the fact that Shepard needs as many fleets as possible for the war effort. The 'Intimidate' version of the conversation where Shepard convinces him to let himself get rescued basically consists of Can't Kill You, Still Need You and accusing him of being a moral coward. If you're working for the Golden Ending of the Rannoch arc by brokering peace, you need to ally with him and ensure his survival.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In 3, compared to Han'Gerrel's Took a Level in Jerkass. Although this is partially because this time around, Shepard has an interest in stopping the war just like Koris does (because Shepard needs as many fleets as they can get to fight the Reapers, and the quarians' decision to fight the geth could potentially cause a waste of valuable quarian resources). Depending on previous interactions, if Tali is promoted to Admiral in her father's place, the two form an alliance in the concerns of the Admiralty and vote against the invasion for the same reason.
• Unfortunate Names: He is proud of the Qwib-Qwib, and refuses to transfer over "petty insults". Which may be a good thing for him, because the two ship names he suggests are even worse (Vas Defrahnz/Vas Iktomi- "Vas deferens" and "Vasectomy"), though in the quarian language, these are actually proud names.

Admiral Han'Gerrel vas Neema

Fight well and fly safe.

"Blow up some geth on the way."

Voiced by: Simon Templeman

Admiral of the Heavy Fleet, and a warhawk through and through. He's also a childhood friend of Tali's father. His fleet is the main military force of the Flotilla.

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• Anti-Hero: Of the unscrupulous but mainly good variety, as he's pitted against the Reapers.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Unless reined in, he will launch a full frontal assault on anything resembling a geth ship. This includes the geth dreadnought that a fellow Admiral and a hero of the fleet is aboard, and later on he'll order the entire Migrant Fleet to open up on the geth fleet while they're disabled, and continue even when they've been upgraded with advanced Reaper coding unless Shepard, Tali, Koris, and Raan all order him to stop. In fact, even though Reaper-boosted Geth No-Sell his attacks, he'll continue to order the ships to fire at any cost instead of retreating.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He initially comes off as a Reasonable Authority Figure, but also supports Revenge Before Reason when it comes to the geth.
• Everyone Has Standards: Killing all the geth in the name of revenge is a-OK in his book, but what Rael'Zorah got up to aboard the Alarei — he reactivated geth platforms to use in weapons testing — is going too far, even for Han.
  (if Shepard keeps it a secret, then tells him afterwards) Keelah.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Expose Rael's experiments to the public and Gerrel will be appalled and horrified. He agrees that Rael should be exiled posthumously, while saying he never would have believed it. He sounds like he is on the verge of weeping when he admits it has to happen.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Rael when they teamed up to fight off a batarian attack before they were of age.
  Han: The crew called us heroes. The brass called us idiots. Slapped some medals on our chests and kicked us off to Pilgrimage a couple years ahead of schedule.
• Flanderization: In the second game, he was the most vocal admiral about wanting to go to war with the geth, but was otherwise incredibly respectful to Shepard and was one of the most sympathetic admirals towards Tali during her trial. Come to the war in the third game, and he becomes single-mindedly obsessed with destroying the geth at the cost of the Migrant Fleet's civilian ships and even Tali and Shepard while they're on board the geth dreadnought. That said, we never saw him at war in 2.
• Foreshadowing: His story in 2 about how he and Rael took on a batarian pirate attack with a small frigate ship hints at his Leeroy Jenkins tactics in the third game.
• General Ripper: Puts destroying the geth as a higher priority than preserving quarian lives, because he believes doing so will be beneficial in the long run. In addition, when Shepard reports to Hackett after escaping the geth dreadnought, it turns out Hackett immediately knows the name, as Gerrel had also been causing problems on the turian border for years.
• Going Down with the Ship: If you choose the geth in Rannoch, he stays onboard while his crew tries to escape.
• Honorary Uncle: Not to the same degree as Raan, but Gerrel's long-standing friendship with Rael, affectionate behavior torward Tali, and the fact that Tali chose Gerrel's ship to serve on after completing her pilgrimage all point to Gerrel being Tali's surrogate uncle. This makes his choice to destroy the geth dreadnought with Tali still on board look even worse, and the invasion debacle as a whole results in a major Broken Pedestal on Tali's part.
• Hypocrite: In 2, when Shepard mentions getting the quarians to help fight the Reapers, Gerrel states that if it comes to a fight, they'll need somewhere to put all the non-combatants while they do so. It's his stubborn desire to get Rannoch back that can potentially get those non-combatants killed to a quarian in 3.
• Jerkass: Seems to have switched places with Koris in 3, considering his over-eagerness to destroy the geth dreadnought before Shepard and crew were evacuated from it. But Gerrel and Koris never actually switched their primary goals. Shepard's own goal has switched from game to game; in 2, Shepard was primarily interested in exonerating Tali. Since Tali was the daughter of fellow warmonger Rael'Zorah and since Tali (initially) shared Rael's views, exonerating Tali would help Gerrel's cause and set Koris' cause back, so Gerrel is helpful to Shepard and Tali while Koris is a jerk. In 3, Shepard is gathering as many fleets as possible to take on the Reapers, so it's in Shepard's best interest that the quarians not be too busy fighting a war with the geth. So this time, Shepard's own switched goal helps Koris' cause and obstructs Gerrel's cause, so Gerrel is at odds with Shepard and Koris is on Shepard's side.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • He's completely justified to dislike and distrust the geth, who have been nothing but 100% hostile to all organics since the Geth War began ("Revelation" even mentions that they butchered diplomats from the Council when they tried to contact them) and gave no indication peace ever was a realistic option to begin with. It doesn't help that the only geth that have left the Veil in 300 years have been the Heretics (who the 'true' geth made no attempt to stop or even differentiate themselves from), and that the only potential shred of evidence that he's wrong in his opinions were the words of Legion... who presents no evidence for its claims (aside from its loyalty mission, which Gerrel wasn't witness to) and cut communications with Tali in the gap between the second and third games when she tried to set up negotiations. He comes across as especially justified if Legion died in 2, as peace between the two sides will then be impossible.
  • Shepard can also potentially concede that, given the options at the time, firing at the Geth Dreadnought immediately after the shields came down probably was the best option. Just warn Shepard about it next time.
  • If Shepard chews him out for firing on the Dreadnought but does not punch him and kick him off the Normandy, Gerrel will counter that Shepard would have done the same if they could retake Earth. This actually holds up credibly if Shepard later chooses to sacrifice all synthetic life to destroy the Reapers.
  • Siding with him over Raan in their argument results in him sacrificing a bunch of frigates, which ultimately allows him to save other, more important ships. This results in a net gain of war assets +25 for the Heavy Fleet. Jerk or not, he knows what he's doing when it comes to commanding a battle fleet.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: His hatred towards the geth is motivated more by paranoia than actual malice. If Shepard can genuinely convince him that the geth will not be hostile, he backs down from attacking them after much deliberation, though arguably also out of self-preservation. After this, he goes along with the peace, leading his Heavy Fleet alongside the geth against the Reapers.
• Kicked Upstairs: He tells Shepard that in his youth he and Rael went cowboy to save a merchant ship they were assigned to from batarian pirates, saving the ship and crew but incurring the disfavour of "the brass", who subsequently "slapped medals on [their] suits then kicked [them] off to Pilgrimage a bit earlier than usual".
• Knight Templar: By 3. As they say, War Is Hell.
• Leeroy Jenkins: His general strategy in battle is to order the Heavy Fleet head-on into the enemy, and then warn the Civilian and Patrol Fleets that, without support, his fleet will be wiped out.
• Manipulative Bastard: Some of Gerrel's tactics reveal the admiral's cunning political mind; by forcing the attack on the geth dreadnought, he put Raan in a position where she either had to back him or risk the destruction of the whole fleet, giving him the chance to destroy the geth flagship and give the quarians a fighting chance again. He tries the same thing after Shepard destroys the Reaper on Rannoch, and the Renegade way to Take a Third Option is for Shepard to calmly state that they aren't falling for it this time: if Gerrel doesn't call off the attack, Shepard will stand by and watch as the Quarians are wiped out in the ensuing Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Speaks with what can be considered a Received Pronunciation accent when he's introduced in Mass Effect 2, before switching to a vaguely Yorkshire-sounding one (the change in his vowel sounds are particularly noticeable) for his first few appearances in Mass Effect 3 - only to then try to mix the two during the Priorty: Rannoch mission.
• Revenge Before Reason: Well intentions or not, the conflict with the geth clearly also has a personal stain for him, which causes his General Ripper tendencies to get the better of him sometimes.
• Talk to the Fist: When Gerrel orders the Migrant Fleet to bombard the geth dreadnought Shepard and Tali/Xen are aboard, the aftermath discussion gives Shepard a Renegade interrupt to gut-punch him and boot him off the Normandy.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Tali and Legion in 3, as they don't agree with his approach in the war. Shepard also generally disagrees, but by how much is up to question.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: He goes from being a good friend of Tali and her father to willing to sacrifice her and Shepard to destroy the geth dreadnought. And that's not even covering what he does ^note or at least intended to do before thinking better of it should peace happen at the end of the Rannoch arc.
• The Unfettered: He will stop at nothing to have his vengeance on the geth. Even if you manage to get the quarians and geth to make peace, it's clear that he's absolutely furious.
• Warhawk: In his view, the extermination of the geth is the only war for his people to finally be free of this threat, so he constantly insists on waging war with them to wipe out the entire race completely.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In 2, he reveals that he believes Tali and Shepard about the Reaper threat (and is one of the few people in any position of authority to do so), and justifies the need to go to war with the geth by claiming that without a planet to shelter their noncombatants, the quarians would be unable to devote the full force of their fleet to the fight against the Reapers. In 3 he only attacks the geth because he believes that there is no other way to get back Rannoch and save his race, and also because he believes they're allies of the Reapers. He'll back down if convinced that peace is a realistic option.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He attacks a geth ship that Shepard's on as soon as the defenses go down. No one else is happy about it. There's even a Renegade Interrupt to punch him and kick him off the Normandy when he tries to rationalize it to Shepard. Paragon Shepard is more understanding, and simply tells Gerrel to give a warning next time.

Admiral Daro'Xen vas Moreh

Many things are impossible until they are done.

"Rael should have felt no more guilt experimenting on geth than I did while performing surgery on a childhood toy!"

Voiced by: Claudia Black

An eccentric but brilliant researcher, Admiral Xen is responsible for various research vessels in the fleet. Though her arm of the fleet is small, they play a critical role in technical advancement. She does not regard the geth as alive, but as malfunctioning machines.

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• Chekhov's Gunman: Her interest in Rael'Zorah's research. If you keep it hidden, she'll "thank" you in an email and gloat about how she plans to use it on the geth (expose what Rael did and she'll be furious). Her use of Rael's research is what starts the quarian-geth war in 3.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She wears a black suit, is voiced by Claudia Black, is commonly called crazy, suggests dissecting Legion, and has a generally sinister air to her. However, even though she seems Obviously Evil, she never actually does anything villainous, and is on the same side as Shepard and co. Even if you effectively sabotage her eventual plan to subjugate the geth via making peace between the two sides, she doesn't make a big deal of it and proceeds to serve with distinction in the fight against the Reapers.
• For Science!: Introduce Legion to her and she'll express interest in experimenting on it, freaking it out a bit.
  Xen: It has a name. Fascinating. The things I could learn under slightly different circumstances...
  Legion: This platform is not available for experimentation.
  • She'll do so offer twice again in 3, once with Legion/the Geth VI, where Shepard can either cut her off or tell her to wait until later, and also with the Geth Primes to help Shepard find if they are trustworthy.
• Gadgeteer Genius: She's the one who designed the arc pistol in 3. However, EDI will point out that the way it works on geth would be outright illegal if it designed for use on organics.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Should the quarians survive the war and Shepard sides with Xen over Tali in their argument, up to 45 war assets can be added towards the Crucible, much like siding with Gerrel in his clash with Raan.
• Just a Machine: Believes the geth are malfunctioning machines, comparing them to starships (that are superior in various ways but are still just tools), and, if Shepard refers to Legion's help beating the Collectors, she states that the same could be said of their pistol. Thankfully, nothing seems to comes of it to jeopardize peace should you achieve it in 3; she just gets shipped off to the Crucible, though at least one bit of cut content has her get killed by Hackett's people while trying to re-enslave the geth, an act that costs hundreds of Geth ships.
• Mad Scientist: If Tali dies in the suicide mission, she does all the hacking during the dreadnought mission. This includes making geth platforms dance for her (offscreen) amusement.
  Ashley: She's not all the way sane, is she?
• Non-Action Guy: Understandable, since she's a quarian and an admiral, but if she tags along on the dreadnought mission she takes no part in the fighting. Even when there are geth in the room with her she activates her Invisibility Cloak and leaves Shepard and their squad to do all the fighting.
• Only Sane Woman: In 2, she's the only judging Admiral at Tali's trial who's actually performing her duties correctly. While Koris and Gerrel try to score political points against each other, she's more or less objective. Though one could argue that that's only because of her lack of interest in the trial.
• The Sociopath: Comes across as one at times, showing a marked lack of empathy towards others and her indifferent tone while discussing how she performed complex surgery on her childhood toys.
• Toy-Based Characterization: Mentions having performed complex surgery on a childhood toy. Tali thinks it explains a lot.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Her ultimate priority is to recover Rannoch for her people, and wishes for the quarians to regain control of the geth in the process.
• You're Insane!: Tali's opinion of her plan to retake control of the geth, indicating that even among quarians, her views are extreme.

Admiral Rael'Zorah

"I promised to build my daughter a house on the homeworld..."

Tali's father. Somewhat distant to Tali due to the burden of being an admiral, he just wanted to build a house for his family on the homeworld.

---

• Anti-Nepotism: Despite being one of the most powerful people in the Fleet, he was apparently a big believer in Tali not being treated differently over it. Case in point: during the escape to Ilos in 1, if Shepard asks if Rael would protect Tali were they ever caught, Tali states that not only is stealing a ship a capital offense for the quarians, but Rael would probably insist on executing Tali himself.
• Apocalyptic Log: All we ever see of him, and he uses it to give his only child more orders about what to do with his findings.
• Beyond Redemption: His experiments aboard the Alarai involved bringing deactivated geth online to test weapons on them. This violates some of the quarians' most sacred laws, laws that preclude their exile from Rannoch. As such, playing evidence of his actions in court causes most of the audience to Gasp! in horror, he is posthumously exiled for his actions and the quarians in the background mutter about him being a sick bastard, or that they don't like the geth, but they think he went too far.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: In his letter authorising Tali's transfer to Shepard's command, he notes his concern that Tali may be lead astray by Shepard's influence and that if any harm comes to her whatsoever, he will not hesitate to bring the full wrath of the quarian Admiralty Board down on Shepard's head. He should've put the same thought into his own actions; despite Rael trying to minimize how much Tali sent him so that she won't be linked to his illegal doings, he and his crew end up getting killed and she gets charged with treason.
  Rael'Zora's letter: Should any harm come to her due to negligence on your part, this board will take severe and appropriate action.
  • If Tali is romanced, she implies in 3 that this would have been Rael's reaction to the relationship.
  Tali: I'm having a drink with my boyfriend. My human boyfriend! Ha! My father would have hated you!
• Crazy-Prepared: When Tali finds his body on the Alarei, she initially thinks he has to have an onboard stasis unit in his suit, masked lifesigns, or something! He always had a plan! When it becomes clear he's really gone, Tali breaks down before realizing that he would have thought to have sent her a message, just in case the worst happened. Turns out she's right and what's more, he knew that Tali would be eventually called back to the Fleet and that she'd attempt to mount a rescue. His final message for Tali is a set of instructions on how she can shut down all the geth onboard.
• Disappeared Dad: He wasn't as present in Tali's life as he could have been. In fact, she never even got to see his unmasked face.
• Foreshadowing: Han's story about their pre-Pilgrimage adventure against batarian pirates tells us he has a reckless side and isn't afraid of bending the rules. Apparently, promotion to Admiral only made this worse.
• Gadgeteer Genius: It's implied that Tali got her legendary technical prowess from him.
• Idiot Ball: Rael decides to run experiments involving live geth and networking them, apparently without either a marine presence or telling the rest of the fleet about what he was doing. This foolish decision gets him and his crew killed and his daughter charged with treason. The only reason that the whole fleet wasn't put in danger is that one of the other scientists managed to lock down weapons and navigation before the geth killed her.
• Karmic Death: He was using living geth as target practice. They later escape and kill him.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • His plan was to ensure Tali did not know what he was doing to protect her. His actions get her charged with treason, and potentially have her exiled.
  • If you expose his actions at the trial, this will happen to you; you get Tali acquitted, but it's a matter of luck if she survives the Suicide Mission, and negotiating peace between the Quarians and Geth is impossible even if she does.
• Married to the Job: Raan implies he wasn't always that way, but after Tali's mother died, he threw himself completely into his work.
• The Mourning After: Tali indicates that after her mother died, Rael became even more obsessed with his work, likely as this was the only way he could find to deal with his grief.
• Pet the Dog: Despite not having been a part of her life as much as Tali would have liked, Rael legitimately cares for his daughter. He ended up torturing and performing extremely morally questionable experiments on geth partly in the name of building Tali a house on Rannoch, and it can be inferred (through the comic series) that his determination comes out of a need to make up for being so distant to her.
• Posthumous Character: Nobody in the Migrant Fleet knows what became of him after they lost contact with the Alarei. By the time we find him, it turns out he's been dead a while.
• Sadistic Choice: Once you learn what he was really doing, you have a choice that can impact not just Tali's loyalty, but potentially Mass Effect 3. If you expose what he did, Tali gets acquitted, but any chance she survives the suicide mission is now based on luck, which will make the possibility of peace rendered a luck of the draw as well. Get Tali exiled, and she stays loyal, but peace is ruined because Shepard needs Tali as an admiral to get Han Gerrel to back down. Taking a Third Option prevents his name from being ruined, while keeping Tali loyal and as an admiral.
• Sins of Our Fathers: When Rael's experiments go awry, Tali gets caught up in the political fallout.
• The Extremist Was Right: Regardless of whether you expose his wrongdoings or not, his research is used to create the breakthrough that can potentially allow the Quarians to take back the home world.
• Un-person: If the truth of his actions is revealed to the public, Rael is posthumously exiled, and his name is struck from the register of every ship he served on. As far as anyone else is concerned, Rael never existed.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He wanted to build Tali a house on the homeworld, and was prepared to torture sentient creatures and endanger the entire Migrant Fleet in order to do so.
• When You Coming Home, Dad?: Conversations with Tali make it clear that even before Mrs. Zorah died, Rael was barely an emotional presence in her life, and while he did love her, he was appalling when it came to showing it, coming off as remote and distant even when he was there.
  Tali: I wanted a father who would take the sick-leave time and let me see his face without a helmet in the way. Instead, I got orders.
• Workaholic: Tali thinks it was his way of coping with his wife's death.

Veetor'Nara

Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from Swarms. Have to hide!

Voiced by: John Ullyatt

A shy, neurotic quarian with a history of anxiety, currently spending his pilgrimage on Freedom's Progress, a human colony that is attacked by the Collectors. While left alive and unharmed due to the Collectors being unable to recognize his biological signature, having to witness the "monsters" and "swarms" take everyone away is enough to traumatize the poor adolescent beyond rational capacity.

---

• Break the Cutie: A young, naive Quarian, much like Tali from the first Mass Effect. Having to witness the Collector attack broke Veetor, and it gets even worse if he's turned over to Cerberus.
• Character Witness: If you let Tali take him to safety, he and Reegar can be this during her trial.
• I Owe You My Life: If you didn't hand him over to Cerberus and Kal'Reegar is alive, then he'll step up to the plate with him to vouch for Tali during the "Rally the Crowd" option, arguing that she saved his life. Worth noting is that Veetor steps up before Reegar, despite having a fear of crowds.
• Madness Mantra: "Monsters coming back. Mechs will protect. Safe from swarms. Have to hide. No monsters. No swarms. No-no-no-no-no."
• The Paranoiac: He degenerates into this after the Collector attack, with his existing mental health condition and damage to his suit systems making him too terrified to distinguish friend from foe. He turns the colony's defensive mechs on Shepard and even the quarians sent to rescue him since he's terrified of the Collectors coming back to get him.
• Sanity Slippage: Tali notes that Veetor's always had some unspecified mental condition, preferring isolation, which is why he chose to go to a quiet human backwater colony like Freedom's Progress for his pilgrimage. The Collectors attacking Freedom's Progress did a number on the poor guy, reducing him to a babbling wreck muttering a combination Madness Mantra and Survival Mantra to himself as he controls his mechs from a makeshift bunker. If you hand him over to Cerberus, they stabilize him through brute-forcing medicine into him causing him to slip even harder to the point where he mistakes Shepard for a Husk during Tali's loyalty mission and is traumatized by the sight of them. If you didn't, he gets better — sort of. He states at the trial he's not quite right, but he's coping.
• Ship Tease: A very minor one but if Shepard asks if his burst of courage during the "Rally the Crowd" resolution to Tali's trial was due to being motivated by a pretty woman, he casts a glance over to his doctor Elan'Shiya and bashfully says "Well, maybe." hinting that he's developed feelings for her.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Only makes two appearances. His first is near the start of the game, and informs you of the impending threat posed by the new Big Bad, the Collectors.
• Third-Person Person: He tends to refer to himself as "Veetor" where "I" would be more appropriate when you meet him on Freedom's Progress. If you didn't hand him over to Cerberus then he drops this tic by the time you meet him again during Tali's loyalty mission.

Kal'Reegar

Kal'Reegar

Can't really comment on that, ma'am. I just shoot things.

"The geth might get me, but I'm not gonna die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That's just insulting!"

Voiced by: Adam Baldwin

One of a squad of Migrant Fleet Marines assigned to protect Tali on their mission to Haestrom. He's also the only one still alive by the time you get there, and whether he lives to see the fleet again depends on you.

---

• Badass Normal: No known genetic mods, not a member of a species with extreme physical advantages over humans, and yet he successfully distracts an entire geth platoon, including one of their walking tanks, by himself.
• Character Witness: During Tali's trial, along with Veetor, assuming he survives and Shepard chooses to "Rally The Crowd".
• Cultured Warrior: Implied by some of his throwaway comments; Kal's tactical knowledge can be very useful when trying to navigate the last part of Tali's recruitment mission, and if he survives Tali's recruitment mission, he displays quite a bit of knowledge of the political machinations involved in Tali's trial in her loyalty mission.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the third game. However, the bridge is far nicer to Kal than most examples of this trope: his death is sudden, but he dies a hero's death; thanks entirely to Kal and his squad, the turians don't get their communications messed up. He also gets a DLC weapon named after his family.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • He offers to distract a Geth Colossus with a rocket launcher. Shepard can save him either by refusing to let him do it or by destroying the Colossus before it kills Reegar.
  • Fully happens in the third game; he and his squad fix a vital turian comm relay, then hold the position until krogan reinforcements show up.
• Hidden Depths: If you bring Legion along to Tali's recruitment mission, Kal'Reegar does react in surprise, shouting that you've got a geth right behind you... but when Legion explains that Legion is an ally, Kal'Reegar's smart enough not to be picky about having some additional help in beating the Geth Colossus. Also, if you manage to exonerate Tali without revealing the evidence of Rael's crimes, or if you simply withhold the evidence and allow Tali to be exiled, Reegar manages to figure out that you did in fact have evidence but simply withheld it, although it's not made clear exactly how he figures it out. Of course, as a life-long soldier who's used to dealing with the quarian admiralty, it's not hard to imagine he's gotten adept at recognising bullshit when he hears it.
• Killed Off for Real: Even if you save him on Haestrom, he's doomed to die off-screen. An off-screen hero, however, whose squad is single-handedly responsible for the turians not losing an important communications relay.
• Mauve Shirt: Dies offscreen in the game after his appearance.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: He thinks that the quarian fleet shouldn't go to war with the geth; nevertheless, he states that as a soldier he will follow any given order. Tali seems to imply that such thinking is common among quarians ("We are expected to be loyal, even when it is difficult").
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Insists he's "just a soldier," and he "just shoots things". However, he's smart enough to conclude that attacking the geth for the homeworld would be suicidal, and also that Tali withheld evidence at her trial if you don't use it.
  Tali: ...I didn't say anything about finding evidence, Kal.
  Kal'Reegar: Noticed that, ma'am.
• Precision F-Strike: If you choose 'Rally the Crowd' during Tali's trial, Kal will speak up on her behalf and call out the Admiralty Board.
  Kal'Reegar: Tali's done more for this fleet than you assholes ever will!

Aria T'Loak

Aria T'Loak

I am Omega.

"I'm the boss, CEO, queen if you're feeling dramatic. It doesn't matter. Omega has no titled ruler and only one rule. Don't. Fuck. With Aria."

Voiced by: Carrie-Anne Moss

The closest thing Omega has to a ruler,^note Queen, if you're feeling dramatic Aria and her forces maintain what passes for order on the station.

---

• Anti-Hero:
  • She has her noble points and her nasty ones. She's a crime boss whose crimes are All There in the Manual, and she allows all manner of crime and misery on her station short of Collector slaving. If she really is Wrex's old friend Aleena, Wrex says Aleena chose to fight him on a station overrun with mercs with no one innocent to get in the way, and fondly says that she was always like that. In the Omega DLC Shepard can either soften her a little or get her to become more vicious.
  • And in Omega you find out Petrovsky's gambit that resulted in her losing Omega was by threatening to destroy it, and her, in one swoop after he pulled his troops out. Did Aria simply decide to preserve her life to fight another day, or did she leave because nearly 8 million people were at risk of being killed? Or both? They're both certainly possible.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: In her backstory, she beat a Krogan Battlemaster to a pulp to seize Omega for herself. She is implied to have fought Urdnot Wrex himself to a draw. In-game, all she needs is sheer presence to keep the position even without doing any fighting—although she's quite capable of that, too. As shown in the comics and Omega DLC, being the "queen" of Omega hasn't dulled her battle skills any. A Cerberus scientist expresses amazement at her biotic capabilities.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Paragon Shepard, ironically.
• Blatant Lies: She tells Shepard that Petrovsky is a brute who never shows mercy. Going by Nyreen's description of him, his backstory, the way he let Aria live when he took Omega, and his actions throughout the DLC, this couldn't be farther from the truth. That said, there is an audio log indicating that the General’s motives in granting safe quarter to anyone who surrendered, were not out of magnanimity - he contained them, so they could easily be converted into Adjutants as needed.
• Butch Lesbian: While she may kiss a male Shepard in the Omega DLC, she clearly enjoys it more with a female Shepard, and all of her other mentioned relationships have been women. She's also an iron-fisted ruler who enjoys tearing her foes apart in a straightforward, direct manner and has little interest in subtlety.
• Cultured Badass: After the events of Mass Effect: Invasion, she reads up on human history, if only to catch up with Petrovsky's cryptic historical references. It's only made apparent in the game when she addresses the survivors on Omega: "People of Omega: I have returned." This is a reference to Douglas McArthur's triumphant return to the Philippines after having famously promised that he would do so years earlier. The comics explicitly elaborate on Petrovsky's references, as well as the implication that he's on the losing side if Aria's playing the role of McArthur.
• Damsel in Distress: Unusually frequently in the Omega DLC.
  • Badass in Distress: But there is no denying that Aria is a badass. She only ends up in distress because she allows her desire for revenge to get the best of her. And even while bound during the final fight, she still manages to start tearing into the Cerberus troops and adjutants as soon as you blow up the first generator.
• A Day in the Limelight: She gets a short comic series from her perspective on Omega, Mass Effect: Incursion.
  • Stars in another 4 issue series called Mass Effect: Invasion. The Omega DLC makes a whole lot more sense if you read this first before playing the DLC.
  • She's also a central character in the Omega DLC for 3 in which she and Shepard take back Omega from Cerberus.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments in 3.
  Shepard: How do you plan on taking Omega back?
  Aria: I think I'm going to employ violence.
• Determinator: Aria has two moods, "in control" and "pissed." Even when she's in a firefight, she never loses her cool.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In the Omega DLC, she's frequently says "It feels good to cut loose" or similar statements when hitting enemies with Flare, her most powerful ability.
• Enemy Mine: Invoked by Admiral Hackett in 3 when Shepard gets Aria to commit to helping the Alliance.
  Hackett: Aria T'Loak! There's someone I never thought we'd be in bed with!
• Even Evil Has Standards: Think that Aria'd be okay with Collector deals on her station if it doesn't bother her? Think again.
  • Also, when told that an Ardat-Yakshi is in Omega, Aria is quick to point Shepard to the right direction. On the other hand, this may just be because she likes Shepard (and doesn't want a justicar making a scene). She comments that it doesn't matter to her so long as the Ardat-Yakshi doesn't try to seduce her.
  • With all the political maneuvering going on while the Reapers are invading the galaxy, Aria's matter-of-fact statement that if Shepard doesn't defeat them "it won't matter where I'm sitting," followed by her freely-given military support and resources, is all kinds of refreshing. Reasonable Authority Figure is not a trope generally associated with the ruthless pirate queen, but at least she doesn't waste time with politics.
  • She also states that she'd "rather disappear than be forced to kill someone."
  • While recruiting the Blue Suns, Aria prefers that Septimus Oraka be "bought off" to leave the Suns alone, rather than be assassinated.
• Evil Counterpart: As shown in the Omega DLC, Aria may qualify as this to Shepard. She even has her own equivalent to Garrus Vakarian, with whom she shares a...complex relationship. Like Garrus, Nyreen is a idealistic turian who felt boxed in by rules and red tape and decided to leave their organisation after meeting a powerful, charismatic person who "didn't let anyone else define [them]".
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Outright invoked by Aria on why she's giving Shepard mercenary fleets and a mountain of eezo: if the Reapers win, there will be nothing to rule over.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Wrath. Aria is normally cold and calculating, but when she sees the chance to take back Omega, she lets her rage drive her so much that she makes many mistakes that would have been fatal if Shepard had not been there. And that's just a quiet rage. When Nyreen Kandros sacrifices herself to take out a group of Adjutants, Aria goes into a berserk rage and starts wrecking everything in sight, charging into the Afterlife club and accidentally jumping right into General Oleg Petrovsky's trap.
  • Also, Pride. She's monumentally arrogant and, unlike Petrovsky, underestimates her enemies numerous times. Normally this would get her killed, but Shepard was with her and Petrovsky was unusually merciful the first time around.
• Femme Fatale: How she usurped control of Omega from Patriarch.
• Fiction 500: She has an eezo hoard so immense it's worth 300 War Asset points — the same military value as an entire army of geth or krogan.
• Foreshadowing: In the second game, you can find evidence that the merc groups of Omega are plotting to overthrow her behind her back. The fact that she missed such an obvious plot (the merc leaders literally leave notes containing the plan around their bases) is a hint that she's not quite as meticulous a schemer as she would like everyone to believe. Turns into Chekhov's Gun later, when first the Shadow Broker and then Cerberus manage to run rings around her intelligence efforts. That culminates in her nearly losing everything she has by the end of 3.
• Guest-Star Party Member: For the Omega DLC in 3.
• Has a Type: The only person she's confirmed to have had an actual romantic relationship with is Nyreen Kandros. The similarities between Kandros and Shepard go a long ways towards explaining the undercurrent of Belligerent Sexual Tension between them and Aria.
• Having a Blast: Her Flare power allows her to make a biotic explosion, much larger than Warp. The effects are comparable to a grenade or a missile burst. And on top of that, it's a combo detonator power, so there may be secondary explosions as well. The best part is that it's a selectable bonus power for Shepard back on the Normandy.
• I Am the Trope:
  • For starter:
    Shepard: You run Omega?
    Aria: I am Omega.
  • The Paragon Ending of Omega has her invert this during her Rousing Speech;
    Aria: We may be bruised, we may be bloodied... but we are Omega!
• I Have Many Names: Aria is just the latest in a long line of names she's had.
• I Knew It!: Aria's reaction to finding out an Ardat-Yakshi is hiding out in Omega, noting that nothing else leaves corpses so empty. invoked
• Iron Lady: Anybody who can keep power in Omega for centuries is not to be taken lightly. Also, Mass Effect 3 shows that she has connections as high as the asari Councilor and can bypass the immigration process of the Citadel simply by asking her.
  • Especially prominent in the Omega DLC during the retaking of Omega.
• Kick the Dog: Midway through the Omega DLC, she insists that Shepard immediately shut down the barriers they've found themselves trapped in, even if doing so would also destroy several life-support mechanisms on Omega and subsequently kill off many civilians.
• Large Ham: While much more subdued than most examples, Aria can be quite bombastic for someone played by Carrie-Anne Moss.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Aria isn't the most tactical of warriors. She overestimates her own abilities and basically boils down to Attack! Attack! Attack!.
• Lysistrata Gambit: One of the factors that led to her success in overthrowing the Patriarch for control of Omega was that — as she puts it when telling Shepard the story — the Patriarch's men had gotten used to "certain perks" that came with working with asari.
• Mage Marksman: Uses shotguns and has heavily offense-oriented biotics. She also can launch Carnage blasts, like James. In many ways, she's like the Vanguard from Mass Effect 1.
• Mama Bear: If she sees it as hers, she protects it, whether it's Omega itself, her underlings, or her actual children.
  • In Mass Effect: Retribution she believes that Grayson killed her daughter Liselle. Unfortunately, this made her fall right into Cerberus' plans, since it was actually Kai Leng.
• Morality Chain: Nyreen and Paragon Shepard take turns in this role during the Omega DLC, curbing Aria's more violent tendencies and suggesting other strategies that don't involve sacrificing troops as cannon-fodder for Cerberus. Renegade Shepard on the other hand encourages her.
• Mysterious Past: No one knows where she came from or who she was before she came to Omega, and her name is just a pseudonym. Once Shepard gains her trust (or as much as Aria ever gives), Aria will allude to certain aspects of her past. It's strongly hinted that she's Aleena, the asari commando that Wrex was friends with centuries ago.
  Aria: Sometimes you'd rather disappear than be forced to kill someone.
  Aria: Better luck next time.
• Never Mess with Granny: In the novel Mass Effect: Retribution, Aria reflects to herself that she's survived for "... over a thousand years." Since this is her internal monologue, there is no reason to suspect she's lying. Being over 1,000 years old puts her clearly in the Matriarch stage of her life and makes her old even by asari and krogan standards. Even though Mass Effect takes place in the future, Aria would have been born at least when Genghis Khan was alive on Earth.
• N.G.O. Superpower: If Shepard runs errands for her on the Citadel and helps her retake Omega, she provides the war effort with not one but two separate fleets which, combined with her aforementioned hoard of element zero, rival the military value of all the ships and commandos contributed by the Asari Republics.
• Noble Demon: She's by no means nice, but she's forthcoming with vital information Shepard needs, she approves of Mordin trying to cure the plague (that and of Mordin's willingness to resort to shooting people if the doctor route doesn't work), she's quick to try to help Shepard solve the Ardat-Yakshi problem, she gives you a reward if you do her a couple of favors (specifically she tells you the location of a planet with supplies on it), and in the comics she becomes extremely angry at the Collectors trying to make deals for live specimens on her station. Also, in 3, if you do a few errands for her, she gives you a Terminus Fleet with three "updates" each worth 50 War Asset points, which combined with the Fleet itself makes for a whopping 200 War Asset points (which is very noble of Aria because the majority of non-major-plotline War Assets are less than 100). Then, on top of all of that, helping her in the Omega DLC has her give Shepard an additional 375 War Assets minimum (405 if she gets to kill Petrovsky, otherwise Petrovsky gets a deal from the Alliance). Aria T'loak may be ruthless, but when she gives her word to help she means it.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: When she first came to Omega, Patriarch thought she was just another dancer. After crushing a few of his organs and breaking half of his bones, she's been ruling Omega for centuries.
• Not So Stoic:
  • Her entire persona consists largely of appearing emotionless and detached, aside from intimating her displeasure when her underlings get out of hand. Her expression when she realizes Nyreen is going to sacrifice herself is anything but the disaffected mask we've come to expect from her.
  • In addition, she is genuinely heartbroken by the loss of her daughter Liselle. It's enough of a character trait that Petrovsky uses it to manipulate her into acting foolishly twice. And it works both times.
• Odd Friendship: She'd never admit it, but by the end of Omega, it's clear to everyone she's got a great rapport with Shepard, paragon included.
  • Particularly with Paragon Shepard, who manages to edge her into Jerk with a Heart of Gold territory.
  Aria: I'd been waiting to kill him for months. I spend a couple of hours running around with you then I go all soft. You're like a disease.
• One-Man Army: In the comics. Put in a Tailor-Made Prison, relieved of all weapons, and suspended face-down with restraints on each limb, she frees herself, kills her attendant, and murders her way out of the compound and onto an escape ship with nothing but her biotics and fists. And that's just the second issue!
• Opposites Attract: With her former paramour, Nyreen Kandros; Aria is an unfettered, calculating queenpin who only cares about maintaining absolute control of Omega. Nyreen is The Paragon - no less intelligent than Aria, but much more morally upright. This might also explain her subtle-but-persistent Belligerent Sexual Tension with Paragon Shepard.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As noted elsewhere, Aria is normally very cold and calculating, which gives an idea of how enraged she is over the loss of Omega when she goes into a mindless fury when the time comes to retake it.
• Out-Gambitted: Over the course of Invasion. The Illusive Man is probably lucky Shepard got to him first — Aria wouldn't have made it so quick.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Easily one of the most purely destructive biotics in the series. One of her exclusive powers, 'Flare', is pretty much a biotic artillery strike.
• Pet the Dog: Has a number of these off-screen, as befitting her Noble Demon status. She gives out Shepard's contact information to a wannabe-merc (if Shepard stopped him from joining the mercs going after Archangel) so he can thank Shepard and gives Shepard's contact information to a grieving mother for the same reason. It's also implied that her reasons for asking Shepard to defend Patriarch aren't entirely to protect her standing.
  • A minor one in 3. If Shepard drinks enough in Purgatory to pass out, they come to next to Aria on her couch, despite the bar being a level and a half above where Aria is sitting. If Shepard then returns to the bar and gets that drunk again, without leaving that level, she opts not to extend that kindness and Shep wakes up in the elevator.
  • If Shepard talks the Patriarch into attacking the mercenaries by himself and his dies in a blaze of glory, Aria admits that it was better for him to go out that way than rotting away as her "advisor". If Shepard talks the Patriarch into letting Shepard serve as his krantt, then Aria is pleased that her old foe has rediscovered his lost pride.
  • Much as she tries to hide it, it's clear during Omega that she is deeply fond of Nyreen still, nature of their parting aside. She openly states that she bears her old lover no ill will and doesn't wish any harm on the turian, and even makes it clear that she doesn't blame Nyreen alone for their relationship crumbling, despite resenting her code of ethics. Given how revenge-prone she can occasionally be when she's angry, it's a surprising display of empathy.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Unlike the nominally heroic Council and many of Earth's other allies, she decides that her best bet of surviving the Reaper invasion is Commander Shepard, and to that end she willingly commits every resource at her disposal to the cause. Upon learning there's an Ardat Yakshi running loose on Omega, her only reaction is an I Knew It!, and dismissing that since Morinth hasn't tried to seduce her, she's not going to try to deal with her. invoked
• Precision F-Strike: "Omega has no titled ruler, and only one rule. Don't fuck with Aria."
  • "I like it. Easy to remember."
  • Alluded to in 3. "It looks like there's only one rule on the Citadel."
  • Mordin's Self-Insert Fic states he broke Aria's one rule — literally.
  • And appropriately reprised in the Renegade end of the Omega DLC: "Don't fuck with Omega!"
• Promoted to Playable: For the Omega DLC, and the way Shepard can learn the extremely powerful Lash ability.
• Psychotic Smirk: Shepard tends to elicit a few sideways grins from her.
• The Queenpin: She's the most powerful crimeboss in Omega and somehow has enough pull to influence the Asari Councilor. In 3, she can even potentially end up controlling three of the biggest mercenary companies in the galaxy.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She is one of the few leaders in the game to recognize that her political position won't matter if the Reapers kill everyone, so she unhesitatingly commits all her forces to Shepard to help stop them.
• Reclining Reigner: has a large couch in the Afterlife bar that she gives orders from, making it a kind of unofficial throne. During the events of the Omega DLC in the third game, there is an optional quest to recover this couch.
• A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: She says something to this effect about Shepard if Shepard chooses a mix of Renegade and Paragon options during the Omega DLC, saying that she cannot tell if Shepard is just trying to jerk her around. Considering how much stock she places in being able to read and predict other people, this a pretty big admission on her part. Shepard can cheekily respond that's how they like it, and they want to keep Aria guessing.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Omega DLC. Especially after Nyreen dies. Aria takes down Afterlife's defenses with biotics so powerful that Shepard gets knocked off balance... which leads to her getting captured.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Subverted. She's not using the speech to instill heroism and courage in Omega's populace; she's doing it to manipulate Nyreen with the threat of civilian casualties. Nyreen sees right through it.
  • Played straight with her final speech, either "We are Omega!" or "Don't fuck with Omega!" capping it off depending on a Paragon or Renegade Shepard.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: In her first scene in the third game, C-Sec threatens to throw her off the station (it only took them three weeks to figure them out she was there illegally). She replies by ringing up the asari councilor (Tevos or Irissa), who waves her through at once.
  Shepard: Looks like there's only one rule on the Citadel, too.
• Slouch of Villainy: Spends the entirety of Mass Effect 2 lounging on her couch in the nightclub Afterlife. In Mass Effect 3's core game, she spends her time lounging on a couch in the nightclub Purgatory.
• The Starscream: Became this towards the former ruler of Omega, who she later made her Dragon.
  • Although according to Aria, Patriarch betrayed her; she simply retaliated. Violently.
• Tattooed Crook: Although given that Omega has almost no "rule of law" to speak of and she herself is responsible for there being any "order" on Omega at all, she's only a crook "de facto".
• Teacher/Student Romance: With Nyreen Kandros, who she mentored in both biotics and combat. It didn't end well, and the two of them still aren't on great terms.
• Token Evil Teammate: When paired with Paragon Shepard and Nyreen. They can soften her up though.
• Too Clever by Half: She is cunning, but she's too arrogant to guard her flanks. This bites her on the ass when dealing with opponents like the Illusive Man, who manages to manipulate her into letting him underrun her and take over Omega, using her love for the station and her inability to recognize a real threat against her until it's too late.
• Under New Management:
  • As of the end of Mass Effect: Invasion, Aria is no longer the ruler of Omega.
  • After Mass Effect 3: Omega, she's back. And potentially a little gentler if you steered her that way.
• Tranquil Fury: If she isn't making a speech, Aria hardly ever raises her voice. She spends most of her DLC mission itching for revenge on Petrovsky, but still keeps the volume low even while she slowly and painfully chokes the life from him.
• Unstoppable Rage: When her Berserk Button finally gets pushed in Omega.
  Petrovsky: Now, it's over.
  Aria: This isn't over until your next of kin can't identify you!
• UST: Develops this with Shepard, both Renegade and Paragon.
• Villain Protagonist: In the Omega DLC, where she is perfectly willing to let thousands of innocents die just to save herself and preserve her power. Her level of Revenge Before Reason and chilling brutality is not matched by any other squadmate in the series with the possible exception of Zaeed, and his was on a relatively smaller scale. No matter what allegiances the situation has forced her to make, the woman remains a crime lord openly simmering with rage. You can potentially convince her to become an Anti-Hero at the end of the DLC.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Omega reveals that this was the case with Nyreen, who "oozes virtue" according to Aria. It's explained that the relationship failed when they both realised that they couldn't make Dating Catwoman work without changing the other.
  • Likewise implied with a subtle undercurrent of Belligerent Sexual Tension in conversations between Aria and Paragon Shepard.
• We Have Reserves: She's willing to sacrifice millions of Omega's citizens to keep her own power by throwing them at Cerberus machine guns.
• We Used to Be Friends: Aria and Patriarch used to be if not friends then at least allies before Aria made her take-over. Dialogue leaves it a little vague as to who fired the first shot.
• We Will Meet Again: What she promises General Petrovsky after he forces her to abandon Omega. They do. Petrovsky doesn't much appreciate her keeping to her word.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • She admits that she has a certain level of respect for the "Patriarch."
  • General Petrovsky also ends up being one; ruthless, cultured, and just as much of a Chessmaster.
  • She also comes to respect Shepard, even if she will deride a Paragon for being a "Boyscout/Girlscout".
• You Have Failed Me: The Omega DLC hints that she practices this. After she's informed that Nyreen has slipped away by Bray, whom she'd ordered to keep an eye on her, she glares at him and growls "if I wasn't already short-handed..."
• You Need to Get Laid: At one point, Aria will tell Shepard that they should find a "nice girl" (if Shepard is male) or a "nice young man" (if Shepard is female) to keep them warm in the meantime, since Shepard looks like they need to "loosen up a little."
• You Will Not Evade Me: Uses the Lash ability previously introduced in the multiplayer.

Patriarch

Voiced by: Jim Cummings

A krogan who once acted as ruler of Omega before Aria T'Loak arrived over a century ago. After she climbed her way to the top and both literally and metaphorically crushed him, the krogan renamed as "Patriarch" became Aria's close advisor... and her trophy.

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• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: He states that one of the reasons that he was kept alive was that he was still useful due to his knowledge of the politics of Omega, though those years are likely long gone.
• Defeated and Trophified: When Aria T'Loak usurped his control of Omega out from under him a hundred years ago, rather than kill the krogan she considered a Worthy Opponent, Aria decided to further cement her new power by leaving him alive and made an example of what happens to those who think of challenging her. Given that, as mentioned, she's stayed in power for at least 100 years, the gesture fulfilled its purpose.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "Patriarch" is not his real name, and the very few who do remember what it was, i.e. Aria, are not keen to share it. As the asari herself explains, since her people are an all-female species that has no real concept of masculinity, naming her defeated rival in a way that is meaningless conveys exactly what his life has turned out to be.
• Face Death with Dignity: If Shepard manages to convince him to go and face the assassins hired to take him out, Patriarch willingly charges into the storm of gunfire, putting an end to his miserable life in a way befitting of the Proud Warrior Race Guy he longed to be once more.
• Glory Days: He harbors great bitterness at Aria's decision to leave him alive, and the most enjoyment he gets out of life is to tell great tales of his warlord days to his "fans" (read: anyone with the patience and/or inebriation to listen to his self-grandizing)
• Throw the Dog a Bone: If Shepard chooses to kill Patriarch's assassins for him, he regains some of his pride through having a Krantt willing to fight for him.

Jonn Whitson

Jonn Whitson

"I grew up on Omega, I know how to use a gun!

Voiced by: Josh Dean

A young, overenthusiastic wannabe mercenary on Omega. He tries to sign up as a freelancer to go after Archangel, but it's immediately clear that he's got no clue what he's doing. A Paragon interrupt allows you to prevent him from getting his head blown off, and he'll later thank Shepard for preventing him from signing up.

---

• Call-Back: Looks and sounds exactly like Jenkins from the first game, so much so that they're both voiced by the same actor.
• Expy: Of Jenkins. It's likely that the irony was not lost on Shepard. A little bit of Fridge Brilliance: Same voice, same face. Shepard is remembering Jenkins, and they're not going to let it happen again.
• Good Feels Good: Stopping him from signing up and later receiving a message from him that he'll make the most of what Shepard did for him.
• Instant Expert: How he sees himself, thinking that all he has to do is know how to use a pistol. All of Shep's squadmates make varying comments about Jonn's incompetence on this matter.
  Grunt: He's soft and new. Dead in the first wave.
  Jacob: So does Archangel.
  Kasumi: A five-year-old can figure out how to use a gun.
  Miranda: You'll need to know more than that if you want to survive.
  Mordin: Don't be stupid. Dangerous work. Clear you're not suited for it.
  Zaeed: Yeah, you know enough to get yourself killed!
• Leeroy Jenkins: And unlike Jenkins himself, Jonn fulfills this trope completely. If you don't prevent him from signing up, he's the first freelancer to be killed by Archangel during the assault.
• Video Game Caring Potential: Using the Paragon interrupt to break his gun before he can get himself killed. Since Shepard does this right after he mentions spending a lot to buy the gun, this implies their other reason for jamming the heat-sink was to ensure he got a good refund.

Captain Preitor Gavorn

Preitor Gavorn

"Vorcha? Plan? Ha ha ha! They're a pestilence, nothing more. If they started planning, we'd all be in big trouble."

Voiced by: Gideon Emery

A turian enforcer in Aria's organization tasked with keeping the vorcha in check on Omega.

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• The Dreaded: Appears to be this to Omega's vorcha inhabitants, who are evidently suspicious of his "tricks" and refuse to interact with Shepard for fear they are one of his agents.
• Friendly Sniper: He wields an M-97 Viper sniper rifle, and is one of the friendlier faces in Aria's organization that Shepard can interact with.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being a minor character, he is the focus of three videos in the Shadow Broker's video archives which show him fighting vorcha on Omega and with his apparent boyfriend.
• Interspecies Romance: Heavily implied to be romantically involved with a male human.
• Straight Gay: No one would have ever guessed his sexuality if not for the video showing his apparent boyfriend.

Warlord Okeer

Warlord Okeer

"I will inflict upon the genophage the worst insult an enemy can suffer: to be ignored."

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy

A krogan warlord and scientist, Okeer was working on creating the ultimate krogan soldier to use against his personal enemies. In his lab on Korlus, he worked alongside a Blue Suns group led by Jedore, who wanted a krogan army.

However, by the time Shepard arrives to recruit him for the team, Okeer is betrayed by Jedore and killed when his lab is gassed. He lives just long enough, though, to make the final preparations for his ultimate soldier: Grunt.

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• Deal with the Devil: Metaphorically. He traded many of his species to the Collectors for the technology and/or knowledge to produce Grunt.
• Death by Origin Story: He dies during the mission, leaving Grunt to potentially take his place.
• The Dreaded: According to Wrex, Okeer is a very old, very hated name amongst the krogan.
• Dub Name Change: In some versions, namely the French one, it's spelt Hokir instead, though the pronunciation isn't changed.
• Elite Army: His end goal is to turn the krogan from a vast horde to a less numerous but more powerful and skilled army.
  Okeer: We will not need the numbers. My soldier is a template. It is a greater threat than all the phantom siblings that would have been at its flank. The galaxy still bears the scars of the horde. But it will learn to fear the lance.
• Evil Genius: Serves this role for Jedore, at first, since he produces cloned krogan soldiers for her army.
• Evilutionary Biologist: He's a geneticist and is more concerned with breeding the "perfect" krogan, rather than curing the genophage.
• Exact Words: Much is said about how "flawed" his cloned army of krogan is, but he points out that they are healthy, strong krogan soldiers, which is exactly what Jedore asked him for. The problem as he sees it is that she lacks the ability to command her own men, never mind a krogan.
• The Extremist Was Right: The Shaman and Wrex both acknowledge Okeer was a Mad Scientist, but also say his ideas of a genetically superior krogan was a brilliant stroke. The Shaman will send a letter to Shepard telling them that Grunt is extremely valuable to the krogan race, and to make sure he doesn't die. Imagine an army of Grunts, and anyone can see why.
• Genius Bruiser: In addition to being a krogan, he's a brilliant scientist and used this to become a feared Warlord.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: Averted. Being a scientist is one of the reasons he is so feared and hated by the other krogan.
• Legacy Seeker: Monomaniacally obsessed with creating a legacy in the form of the perfect Krogan warrior, believing that it would make the genophage obsolete and cement his name in history. In the process, he willingly collaborates with the Collectors in order to obtain the necessary materials, allies himself with insane mercenary captain Jedore, and abandons thousands of his creations for not living up to his standards - resulting in numerous deaths when the rejects begin attacking Jedore's troops. It ends up costing Okeer his life when Jedore turns on him, but his prototype super-soldier lives on as a member of Shepard's team.
• Not Worth Killing: He intends to make the Genophage "ignorable" by changing the krogan to an Elite Army, and it starts with creating the perfect krogan soldier.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He is more than glad Saren's "pale horde" of krogan slaves were destroyed by Shepard on Virmire — not even on moral or saving the galaxy grounds, but mostly because they would have been nothing but another mass-produced army who had nothing going for them but numbers, the very thing Okeer has been working to change with his experiments.
• Red Herring: Until the very end of the mission, the player is led to believe they are recruiting Okeer instead of bringing Grunt on board.
• Science Hero: The krogan equivalent. He used his talent for science to become one of the most feared krogan warlords ever.
• The Social Darwinist: Speaking to him reveals this is his basic mindset. He's proud of the krogan, but only so far; the old krogan horde (as well as Saren's horde) was designed to crush everything under weight of numbers, and the current krogan spend resources on making sure every krogan alive lives at least until adulthood. He believes that the current state of affairs enables the kind of coddling that allows "weak" krogan to survive where they should be dying out. His plans to rejuvenate the krogan start at creating a single super soldier that will serve as a template for other krogan to aspire to match.
• Visionary Villain: All his actions, morally and scientifically ambiguous as they are, were motivated by his desire to reinvigorate his species.
  Urdnot Shaman: Okeer was a madman, but he was a madman with a plan, and that's more than most have on this ball of rock.
• Warrior Poet:
  • Very eloquent, especially when describing Shepard's actions at Saren's base on Virmire.
    Okeer: Such a tale! Saren, the Spectre traitor, threatens the return of the krogan horde by curing the genophage, undoing the gentle genocide of the turians and the salarians. But before Saren can deliver his endless troops, in rides Shepard, securing victory through nuclear fire. I like that part. It has weight.
  • It's more than likely that he used neural imprinting to pass this trait onto Grunt, since he similarly demonstrates an exquisite word-choice only seconds after being decanted from his tank.
• We Have Reserves: Defied. Oh, sure, he cares very little for his failed krogan subjects and throws them away to buy Shepard time to reach him, but he hates how his species rely on superior numbers to win battles and calls Saren's planned slave army of krogan a "pale horde", opining that numbers alone aren't enough to win battles. He wants to create the perfect krogan as a template for the rest of krogankind to follow, believing they would be better off as an Elite Army than trying to Zerg Rush everything again.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Willing to strike deals with the Collectors to make his ultimate soldier.
• Worthy Opponent: In 3 it's mentioned by Grunt that he saw the rachni this way, likely for how they were the only other species in the galaxy who threatened the Citadel races like the krogan did.

Urdnot Wreav

Urdnot Wreav

"Human sentiment tastes like piss. Don't spoil a death with it."

Voiced by: Jim Cummings (2), Roger L. Jackson (3) (uncredited)

Wrex's brood-brother, and the more traditional of the two. Wreav appears in both 2 and 3 as krogan leader if Wrex was not recruited or killed on Virmire. Otherwise, he only briefly appears in 3 as a very reluctant follower of Wrex.

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• And There Was Much Rejoicing: If Kalros kills him in Mass Effect 3, Wrex isn't sad to see him go.
• Art Evolution: Looks pretty much like Wrex's twin brother minus the scarring in 2. In the third game, he has a darker colour.
• Asshole Victim: Wrex actually seems relieved after his death, calling him "a pain in the ass anyway." Considering his jerkass attitude and his intentions as krogan leader if the Genophage is cured, Wrex is probably right.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Standard krogan procedure. He gets the other clans to let him represent them through "a time-honored tradition of intimidation, threats and violence."
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: During the second game, he acts quite laid back, even downright friendly towards Shepard, before revealing his true colours in the third game.
• Blood Knight: Far more "traditional" than his brother. Whereas Wrex works to create a neutral zone where all clans are welcome, Wreav only co-operates with clan Gatatog because the two are at a stalemate.
• Bullying a Dragon: On both the giving and receiving end, with a Renegade Shepard giving precisely zero damns about antagonising him through 3, but he has no problem antagonising Shepard with threats of revenge when he needs Shepard's help. Javik even notes the stupidity of it.
• Butt-Monkey: If Wrex is alive then Wreav does nothing but get headbutted by Wrex, pacified by Eve, and finally unceremoniously eaten alive by Kalros...and is promptly forgotten about seconds later.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Wrex's Abel.
• The Cake Is a Lie: The promise of the genophage cure. Shepard can promise ending the genophage in exchange for Wreav and the krogan joining the fight against the Reapers. However it's possible to sabotage the cure, and Wreav will be utterly oblivious he's getting nothing in return until the very moment he returns home to find no victory party.
• Cultural Posturing: Tries doing this after the encounter with the Rachni in 3, boasting to Shepard how they needed a krogan to get out alive. Shepard can shoot right back by pointing out it was Grunt who saved them, not him.
• Demoted to Extra: He doesn't appear until the third game if Wrex survived Virmire... and is then killed shortly after.
• Dirty Old Man: If he shows up to Priority: Earth in 3, he gloats to Shepard that he's late because of all the mating he's been doing lately.
• Dumb Muscle: Unlike Genius Bruiser Wrex, he's basically a stupid thug with no greater ambitions beyond power and violence. Wrex might be smart enough to see through you if you betray him and sabotage the genophage cure, but Wreav sure isn't, something which Wrex himself makes note of in his confrontation.
  Wrex: Mordin wasn't my only source in STG. Or did you think I was dumb as my brother, Wreav?
• Eaten Alive: If Wrex is alive, he gets swallowed by Kalros.
• Enemy Mine: If he's the krogan leader in 3, then his interactions with any of the other races are this. It's made clear that he's almost certainly going to use the Genophage cure to bolster krogan forces and attack/threaten the rest of the galaxy when they're weak after the Reaper war.
  Wreav: Violence can be a powerful tool, Shepard.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He apparently disapproves — or would disapprove — of Maelon's experiments, forcing him to turn to Clan Weyrloc. However, like Wrex, he's angry if Shepard destroys the data.
• Evil Gloating: A restrained version in 2, as he admits that killing Wrex allowed him to take control and crush the reformist krogan that'd started springing up after Virmire.
• Fantastic Racism: He considers the krogan to be the apex race of the galaxy and has nothing but contempt for any of the others. The only non-krogan that he has any respect for is Shepard.
• Hidden Depths: If Eve dies he comments with some resignation that it "wouldn't be a war without a funeral", lacking any of his previous eagerness towards violence and death.
• Hypocrite: Insists the rachni couldn't be trusted not to start a war. Y'know, the thing he wants to do?
• If I Wanted You Dead...: Says to Shepard that if he thought they were a threat, Normandy would've been shot down the minute it got into Urdnot airspace.
• I Gave My Word: For what little it's worth, he does try to keep his promise to Shepard in 3. But, as Primarch Victus notes, his attitude pissed off the other clans, and they wouldn't help.
• Jerkass: He's pretty much a typical krogan thug, especially in comparison to Wrex.
• Jerkass Has a Point: As Garrus reluctantly admits, he's got a right to be pissed about that giant bomb the turians left behind on Tuchanka.
• Killed Off for Real: If Wrex is alive, Kalros destroys his vehicle. Wrex's reaction is a shrug and "He was a pain in the ass anyway."
• Mauve Shirt: If Wrex is still alive, Wreav's tomkah gets consumed by Kalros during the Tuchanka mission in 3.
• Miles Gloriosus: Wreav will take credit for curing the genophage, claiming he'll be even more famous than Shepard.
• The McCoy: To the salarian dalatrass's Spock and the turian Primarch's Kirk, only he's a lot less nice about it than Wrex.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Treats the fertile females in 3 like property and makes disparaging remarks about other species.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • If the genophage is cured to secure his aid Wreav is an invaluable asset in aiding the council races against the Reapers short term but a restored Krogan under his leadership may prove disastrous in the long term. Wreav makes no effort to hide his desire for a return to the warmongering days of old and the fact he knows the council races will be severely weakened by the Reaper conflict.
  • On the other hand if the genophage is not cured, Wreav (unlike Wrex) is tricked into providing aid in the fight against the Reapers. The krogan partake in the greatest victory in galactic history but are no closer to escaping their extinction and Wreav returns home to zero fanfare.
  • It's entirely possible for Wreav's and Shepard's actions to result in the krogan race being wiped out, leaving Tuchanka in the hands of the rachni. Ouch.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Wrex's blue.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Promises one against those responsible for the bomb on Tuchanka if it goes off.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: An e-mail he sends Shepard in 3 shows he's not got the best grasp of English. He's nowhere near as bad as Grunt, but it's pretty clear grammar is not one of his strong suits.
• Shiny New Australia: Before the final battle, he tells Shepard he wants "this thing you call Australia" in exchange for his help.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: By Wrex (with a headbutt), and then by Eve (with her moral suasion).
• Smug Snake: Spends much of 3 trying to threaten Shepard. He basically exists to tell the player "You screwed up and now you're stuck with this guy instead of Wrex." Despite this, he does have a grudging respect for Shepard, but only due to the enemies they've made. Everyone else — squadmembers, NPCs, politicians — he treats like dirt. He also bites his tongue around Eve, but only because she's in a position to cause him trouble if he doesn't play nice with her.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Comes across as one of these for Wrex at first, but it soon becomes clear that they're very different in some very important ways — namely, that Wrex is trying to unite the krogan and revive their long-forgotten culture, whereas Wreav thinks the krogan are just fine the way they are. And more critically, unlike Wrex, he won't notice if you sabotage the cure for the genophage.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Is noticeably kinder and more reasonable in ME2 than ME3.
• Try Not to Die: Before you try to summon Kalros; it's the most concern he ever shows for you and your team (provided he doesn't completely distrust Shepard).
  "Try not to get killed up there. Fight like a krogan, and you'll be fine."
• Unfit for Greatness: He's far too obvious about his plans for conquest, lacks any diplomatic tact and Shepard can use him as a mere pawn to secure further assistance for earth. You can even discuss this trope with Mordin in order to convince him it's a bad idea to cure the krogan whilst they're under Wreav's leadship and Eve's not there to temper him. Mordin agrees another war with the krogan isn't worth the risk, so agrees to sabotage the cure and then fakes his own death.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He's much less grateful than Wrex toward Mordin if he cures the genophage at the cost of his own life.
• Unwitting Pawn: Shepard can secure Wreav's help to bring the turians into the fight and get krogan boots on earth too, all without actually providing anything in return. By the time Wreav learns of the fake genophage betrayal, he's in no position to retaliate and has likely lost the support of all who followed him. What's worse is Wreav's attitude practically encourages betraying him for the greater good in the long run, especially if Eve is no longer there to restrain him, as curing the krogan just means another inevitable galactic war on the horizon. In fact, sabotaging the genophage cure also earns the full support of the salarian leadership too. Additionally, if Shepard speaks with Garrus after sabotaging the cure, the latter will even comment that, while Wrex probably would have been insightful enough to see through Shepard's ruse (something proven correct if Wrex is alive in ME3), Wreav is far too stupid to notice that anything is off or that Shepard played both sides.
• Wasteland Warlord: As the most influential and prominent clan leader on Tuchanka, as well as a complete tyrant and warmonger.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gives two to Shepard via e-mail in the third game, one if Shepard spares the rachni queen, which causes many krogan in Aralakh Company to die, and another if the bomb on Tuchanka goes off, promising a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in retaliation.
• Worthy Opponent: If Shepard killed Maelon and destroyed the genophage data in 2, Wreav will actually shrug off an attempt to apologize for it in 3, saying Shepard's almost become a worthwhile enemy.

Maelon Heplorn

Maelon Heplorn

Nothing I do will ever be justified!

"For such a smart man, Professor, you always had trouble seeing evidence that disagreed with your preconceptions."

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore

A salarian geneticist, former member of the salarian STG and student of Mordin Solus. Unfortunately, he ends up getting captured by a krogan clan, Weyrloc, who are attempting to reverse the effect of the genophage.

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• Anti-Villain: One of the most sympathetic antagonists in the series.
• The Atoner:
  • He views his research to cure the genophage as this. Mordin on the other hand, views his experiments as far too extreme.
  • If Shepard chooses to cure the krogan, and Maelon is still alive, he will send an ecstatic email to Shepard, revealing that he took Mordin's advice and opened another clinic on Omega. He had to scram when Weyrloc put a bounty on his head, but he's just relieved that something good came out of his work after all.
  • He also desires to apologize to the krogan females and beg their forgiveness — which basically amounts to just Eve, since she was the Sole Survivor.
• Back Story: Maelon's involvement with the STG was examined in Mass Effect Foundation.
• Boom, Headshot!: Mordin executes him at point-blank range if you don't choose the Paragon interrupt.
• Broken Pedestal: He once idolized Mordin, but not anymore.
  Mordin: Assumed... Never argued with necessity of Genophage.
  Maelon: How was I supposed to disagree with the great Doctor Solus? I was your student! I LOOKED UP TO YOU!
• Chekhov's Gun: His research data on the genophage. If you save it, Mordin/Padok can synthesize a cure from Eve's tissue with much less trauma, keeping her alive, and making the krogan war assets more valuable.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Maelon's storyline and the decision of whether to keep or erase the data he made on the experimentation is a classic moral quandry for research gained through immoral means, such as Nazi experiments on humans during World War II. Do you keep the research even though it was acquired through torture and genocide?
• The Extremist Was Right: His data proves crucial to the Tuchanka arc of the third game if it's kept, and he himself feels relief knowing that his data helped solve the problem.
• Foil:
  • To Mordin, fittingly enough. Where Mordin doesn't outwardly show guilt over his work on the Genophage modifications Maelon shows his very outwardly. Also unlike Mordin, Maelon has something of a Never My Fault attitude towards the atrocities he commits, even the ones that were entirely within his control. Mordin's entire character arc across ME2 and ME3 involves coming to terms with his guilt over the Genophage modifications and his role in them.
  • To Aresh, who is Jack's personal mission antagonist. Like Maelon, Aresh was never able to cope with the experimentation going on, and both are killed as a Catharsis Factor on the Renegade path, and both are spared by a If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him! argument from Paragon Shepard — and both will be The Atoner in 3 in the background, as Maelon runs Mordin's clinic in Omega for a while, while Aresh dies saving a bus full of children.invoked
• Heroic BSoD: He has been in one for some time, caused by the cumulative effects of the Genophage on the krogan and especially the fact that his race created the Genophage and he had a personal part in its handling.
  Shepard: You really think anything you've done here is justified?
  Maelon: We committed genocide! Nothing I do will ever be justified!
• Hero-Worshipper: Prior to his breakdown, he looked up to Mordin. Unfortunately, between the mission to distribute the modified genophage and the effects it had on the krogan, the relationship fell to pieces.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Apparently, Maelon thought the krogan would be able to rebuild Tuchanka peacefully with Weyrloc Guld in charge. True, he joined Clan Weyrloc because they were willing to go to lengths that Clan Urdnot wouldn't, but Maelon's fantasy of a krogan cultural renaissance sounds a little hollow while he's working for a chief who brags about how he'll take over the galaxy and eat salarian eggs as a delicacy once the genophage is cured.
• Just Smile and Nod: At the end of the loyalty mission, Mordin loses his temper over the experiments Maelon has performed and puts a gun to his former student's head; in the event that you take the Paragon Interrupt, Shepard begs him not to pull the trigger, as — in spite of everything that Maelon's said about him — Mordin isn't a murderer. Maelon can only smile and nod helplessly.
• Killed Off for Real: If you don't take the Paragon interrupt, Mordin blows his brains out.
• Mad Scientist: A well-intentioned one, though.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He's been wracked with guilt ever since he and Mordin upgraded the genophage, thereby accounting for the worst of his behaviour. The Shadow Broker archives show that it started during their first mission on Tuchanka, when they were discovered by krogan guards and had to fight their way out — unknowingly killing female krogan in the process. When Maelon tried to issue a formal complaint, arguing that it went against the whole point of their mission, Mordin had him sedated. Apparently, the return to "normality" on Tuchanka and the rising stillbirths drove him even further over the edge; Mordin himself confesses that his failure to notice Maleon's distress or do anything about it only worsened the problem. Thankfully, assuming he survives the loyalty mission, Maelon recovers by the third game.
• Never My Fault: When asked about why he didn't originally disagree with the upgraded genophage he blames Mordin's influence on his behaviour. Furthermore, when he's actively confronted over the test subjects killed in his search for a cure he once again blames Mordin's teachings, even going so far as to claim "The experiments are monstrous because I was taught to be a monster!" Mordin, who deplores the use of live test subjects, strongly disagrees.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mordin did not mention that Maelon actually protested the genophage during its employment. According to a Shadow Broker dossier entry from Mordin's report:
  Specialist Maelon makes formal protest, suggesting actions against female krogan violate mission parameters of maintaining population levels without negatively impacting culture. Specialist Solus requests protest be stricken from record due to Maelon's injured condition. Commander Kirrahe concurs. Maelon given additional sedatives, unconscious for remainder of operation. (Protest stricken from submitted copy of report.)
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: In spite of everything he's seen and done, Maelon still manages to be both idealistic and shockingly naive, even during a guilt-induced mental breakdown. Case in point: he claims that if Mordin's team hadn't upgraded the genophage, an expanded krogan population would have stopped Saren at Eden Prime, if only because the turian fleets would have been forced to keep an eye on the new krogan colonies in the Traverse. Mordin, on the other hand, believes that the turian fleets would have just declared war on the krogan and killed every last one of them; the third game confirms this by revealing that a turian bomb had been planted under Tuchanka's crust after the Rebellions, to be used if the krogan ever rose up again.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He really does want to cure the genophage and save the krogan.

Charr

Charr

"Oh, Blue Rose of Illium, let your roots dig deep into the hot soil of Tuchanka!"

A random krogan reciting poetry to try and impress his asari girlfriend, Ereba. In Mass Effect 3 he's a scout looking into the rachni relay.

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• Cultured Badass: Not many krogan are known for their poetry skills. His poem dedicated to Ereba is O Blue Rose of Illium. Considering that he was sent to scout suspected rachni territory, then he was very high on the "Badass" side of the scale.
• Endearingly Dorky: If Shepard helps bring them back together, they point out to Ereba it's obvious that Charr is crazy about her! He's actually written poetry and is serenading her with it! When was the last time anyone saw a krogan doing that?!
  Shepard: Awwwwww... look at him. It's obvious he's crazy about you.
• Killed Off for Real: Players will find his body during the Rachni Queen mission in 3.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: In 3, he and Ereba have wed. Other asari look down on Ereba for having a krogan husband fighting in the war, with the idea that he won't know who to shoot. Ereba doesn't take kindly to their prejudices.
• No Accounting for Taste: Other asari in 3 have this attitude towards Ereba.
• Nice Guy: A krogan who's an Endearingly Dorky, hopeless romantic.
• The Power of Love: If Ereba takes him back in 2 they're shown on Tuchanka, the krogan homeworld. She doesn't like it and is nervous about other krogan not wanting her there — Charr had to talk the chief around, which was probably easier if said chief was Wrex — but he believes that their love will make it okay. Ereba subsequently names her Citadel shop "The Blue Rose".
• Son of Trope, Daughter of Index: Ereba worries that he only wants her as a way to have kids, since with the genophage and all... She also admits that he didn't seem to have been aware that these hypothetical kids would always have been asari, not krogan, and when she explained that to him, "Charr was quiet for a long time, then he said he'd love our girls no matter what color they are."
• Someone to Remember Him By: If Ereba is convinced to take him back, then he makes a poetic reference to their unborn child.
• Warrior Poet: A literal example, being a krogan who writes poetry in his spare time. His very last act was to write a poem as he lay dying on the Aralakh mission to investigate the rachni rumors.

Niket

Niket

Voiced by: Keith Ferguson

An old friend of Miranda's who helps her rescue Oriana from her father on her loyalty mission.

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• Anti-Villain: As bitter as he is about Miranda keeping him in the dark, he does seem to genuinely believe Oriana will be better off with her father.
• Freudian Excuse: He grew up in poverty, so he believes that Oriana will be happier with her wealthy father.
• He Knows Too Much: He knew Miranda had spy programs in her father's system, so he never mentioned Oriana's exact location. When he admits this, Miranda declares him the only loose end and tries to shoot him. Even if you talk her down, he dies anyway.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: If you take the Paragon approach to dealing with him and stop Miranda from killing him, he is convinced to help Miranda keep Oriana safe. Before he can, however, Enyala kills him instead.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Shepard and Miranda can call him out on that Henry Lawson attempting to kidnap Oriana from her Happily Adopted family should have proven how terrible a person he was.
• In the Back: If Enyala is the one to kill him.
• Killed Off for Real: By Miranda or Enyala, regardless of what you do.
• Old Friend: Miranda's only pre-Cerberus associate.
• Only Friend: One of the few people Miranda trusts and her only friend while living with her father. It turns out that trust was misplaced.
• Suicide by Cop: Shepard suggests letting Miranda kill him was this, as a way of apologising for his sins.
• Wham Line: The revelation that the Eclipse mercenaries aren't hunting Niket down, but that he's working with them.
  Enyala: Niket has reached the terminal. He'll switch the family over to our transport.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He accuses Miranda of having stolen a child from her father merely for revenge.
  Miranda: I didn't steal [Oriana], I rescued her!
  Niket: From a life of wealth and happiness?! You weren't saving her, you were getting back at your father!

Mr. Thax's Representative

Unknown

A representative for krogan Citadel business magnate Thax Vorak. He makes contact with Lt. Commander Shepard if a specific shipping note was forwarded to Mr. Thax.

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• Affably Evil: His employer is strongly implied to be a mob boss, and the asari whose associate was skimming from Mr. Thax's shipment is practically shitting herself. There's a reason why forwarding that note grants Shepard a minimum of five Renegade points.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Krogan usually aren't as well-spoken as him. In a galaxy where sentient starships warp reality just by being there, this guy manages to be a frightening figure.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: His politeness is non-standard for a krogan and he outright hopes a confrontation will not be required. Even Urdnot Wrex reveres fighting to an extent.

Urz

Urz

A prize-fighting varren on Tuchanka. Urz will follow the player around in the area he is located in after being fed, Urz will even take part in the pit-fights run by the krogan.

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• Been There, Shaped History: According to the Alliance News Network, turns out that Urz has been travelling across the galaxy to many of the same worlds that Shepard has visited and even been partially involved in several of their assignments.
• Big Friendly Dog: Very lovable for a mostly hostile creature. According to a short story from Bioware, Urz has had many adventures throughout the galaxy, acting as a positive influence to those who met him.
• I Have Many Names: Apparently Urz is just one of the names he's gone under over the years. He's currently known as "Prince Grimrender of Gembat".
• Licked by the Dog: Despite varren usually trying to kill and/or generally being vicious towards Shepard, even a hardass renegade gets nothing but love from Urz.
• Palette Swap: Of every other varren ever seen.
• Retired Badass: Is actually a former pit-fight champion. Can be brought back to the ring after you feed him, and has a higher chance of winning as well.
• Team Pet: On Tuchanka.

Prazza

Prazza

"Now we're working with Cerberus?"

Voiced by: Mark Meer

A member of a Tali's squad on Freedom's Progress. He's openly hostile to Shepard and company when they arrive due to quarian animosity towards Cerberus. Despite Tali's best efforts, Prazza's actions lead to his death as well as the demise of most of his squad over the distrust.

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• Asshole Victim: Tali says it best.
  Tali: Prazza was an idiot, and he and his men paid for it!
• Foreshadowing: Prazza defying Tali's orders, along with the later mission on Haestrom where again, most of her squad is killed, is an early warning that Tali isn't suited to lead either of the fire teams during the suicide mission.
• Jerkass: Abrasive, surly, and openly resentful of Tali's command.
• Jerkass Has a Point: His hostility towards Shepard is justified by the fact that Shepard is working for Cerberus, and Cerberus doesn't have Veetor's best interests in mind. He's also telling the truth when he claims that Cerberus tried to destroy a ship from the Migrant Fleet in the past.
• Karmic Death: No tears are shed when he gets ripped apart by a security mech.
  Miranda: They did want to get to Veetor first.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Continually belittles both Tali (by questioning her decisions and disobeying her orders) and Veetor (dismissively calling him "unstable" and "delirious", which is true but doesn't mean he can't defend himself). He disobeys Tali one last time and promptly gets shredded by an YMIR mech that Veetor reprogrammed.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He and his team rush ahead of Tali and Shepard, and get killed by an YMIR mech for their troubles.
• Red Shirt: Appears just to get killed.
• Sacrificial Lamb: He's there to set the tone for the game by getting killed.
• Shadow Archetype: Prazza is essentially what Shepard would have been if Miranda had her idea of a control chip implanted in Shepard's brain approved: Undying Loyalty to his cause, Fantastic Racism against aliens, and being an idiot on the battlefield.
• Too Dumb to Live: His belligerence and recklessness cost him his own life as well as the lives of his entire squad. This is even more pronounced if Shepard tries to be cooperative with Tali, as Prazza tries to go off on his own anyway and consequently has no backup to protect him from the (fatal) consequences.

Feron

Feron

I am...was...an information trader. Not a slaver.

Voiced by: Yuri Lowenthal

A drell information trafficker who teams up with Liara in the Redemption comic. Cerberus recruits them both to retrieve Shepard's corpse from the Shadow Broker, who turns out to be Feron's employer. Feron balks at the Broker's deal with the Collectors and helps Liara, only to be captured and tortured as an example to the Broker's other followers. In the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, Shepard and Liara bust him out.

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• Badass Longcoat: In Redemption.
• Canon Immigrant: First appeared in the Redemption comic.
• Deadpan Snarker: Not even two years of imprisonment and Electric Torture can quite suppress it.
  Liara: We'll be back for you, Feron.
  Feron: [still restrained] I'll try not to go anywhere.
• Distressed Dude: The whole point of the Shadow Broker mission is finding him, no matter how many mercenaries, mechs or rogue Spectres try to stop you.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's more amoral than evil, but works for the Shadow Broker for the money until he learns that he's planning on selling Shepard to the Collectors. He also says it is not in his principles to betray a client or leave a job unfinished.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Liara in Redemption. She distrusts him, especially after she learns of his ties with the Shadow Broker, but in the end, she succeeds with his help and devotes herself to rescuing him. After his rescue and recovery, he becomes one of Shadow Broker Liara's top lieutenants.
• Implied Love Interest: It's left rather vague since it's ultimately an Anchored Ship, but after the completion of the Lair of the Shadow Broker, Shepard can ask Liara directly if she has feelings for Feron. She doesn't deny it, simply stating instead that it would be irresponsible on her end to push for a relationship when he's in such an emotionally vulnerable state.
• Killed Off for Real: If you don't get the Shadow Broker DLC, Liara's raid on the Broker's ship still happens, but Feron doesn't survive.
• Knowledge Broker: What he did for the Shadow Broker.
• Number Two: To Liara as the Shadow Broker, providing he survives.
• Oh, Crap!: Upon hearing the Shadow Broker addressing his agents after a confrontation with Shepard and Liara, Feron assumes the worst and immediately rushes to the control room with a pistol drawn. He shows immense relief when he discovers Liara is alive and posing as the Shadow Broker.
• Rescue Romance: Averted. If you romanced Liara, she clearly states she and Feron are just good friends. If not, she says it would be unethical to take advantage of Feron's gratitude given his state.
• Secret-Keeper: Amongst the Shadow Broker operatives at least, he seems to be the only one who knows that Liara has taken over.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: When the power to his torture chair fails, he vanishes in the second it takes a light to flick off and on. Must be a drell thing.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Holds off Tazzik, a burly and heavily armed salarian who is the Shadow Broker's top enforcer, so Liara can escape with Shepard's corpse in Redemption, leading to his capture.

Ronald Taylor

Ronald Taylor

Voiced by: Dave Fennoy

Jacob's long-lost father, the First Officer of the MSV Hugo Gernsback. He and the ship disappeared years ago, but Jacob has received information on its location.

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• Broken Pedestal: Jacob looked up to his father as a role model before his disappearance. After he learns what Ronald did during his loyalty mission, however, Jacob effectively disowns him.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Subverted. While initially the fate of the Hugo Gernsback was a good reason for him not being in Jacob's life, Jacob makes it clear he was never really there much to begin with. On top of that, despite the extreme but understandable control of rations and supplies to fix the beacon, Ronald isn't in much of a rush to go home once he holds all the power.
• Didn't Think This Through: Commander Shepard points out that he had to have realized his harem fantasy couldn't last forever, but there's no evidence he took any steps to ensure that the inevitable rescue team wouldn't find out about what he did.
• Dirty Coward: Ronald had already fixed the distress beacon years ago and the only reason he activated it now was because the exiled men had turned against him so he wanted someone to come save his hide and when he's confronted on his actions he desperately tries to convince Sheperd and Jacob that it's not his fault to avoid punishment.
• Disappeared Dad: As Jacob says, he wasn't around much to begin with. On top of that, before Ronald went with the Hugo Gernsback, he and his son hadn't spoken for three years.
• Drunk with Power: Originally, the rationing of the food was necessary. If the officers didn't fix the beacon, they'd all be stuck as drooling primitives. Unfortunately, power corrupts and they started taking advantage of the situation. In the end, Ronald killed or drove off anyone that could be competition.
• Good Parents: For all of his egregiously selfish actions on Aeia, Jacob does consistently describe him as having succeeded in raising Jacob into a good man while he was still in his son's life.
• Harem Seeker: A very, very dark example. After exiling, killing or brainwashing all the other male survivors of the Hugo Gernsback crash, he proceeded to rule over the female survivors and used the mind degrading fruit of the planet they were stranded on to keep them docile and stupid. Jacob point blank accuses him of taking advantage of the situation to live in a "juvenile fantasy."
• Hypocrite: Taught Jacob that a man always admits to his mistakes. He doesn't.
• I Did What I Had to Do: What he claims about his actions, but he is quite clearly lying.
• I Have No Son!: "I Have No Father" in this case. By the end of Jacob's loyalty mission, Jacob no longer considers Ronald his father.
  Jacob: I don't know who you are, 'cause you're no father that I remember.
• It's All About Me: He preserves food rations for only himself and, at first, other officers. Everyone else is forced to eat the local flora, which damages their minds. Eventually, he starts assigning the ship's women to officers as slaves, then killing the other officers when they feel remorse and exiling all men from the village (except the ones he trained as attack dogs) so they don't threaten them. On top of all of that he only activates the distress beacon, which had been ready to activate for years, when he feels like he can no longer keep the situation under control.
• Leave Behind a Pistol: If he is left to the mercy of the male members of his crew, Jacob gives him this option.
• Longer-Than-Life Sentence: A Paragon Shepard threatens him with ten years in prison for every year of his decade long stay on Aeia, which would put his theoretical sentence at a century.
• Never My Fault: When confronted on his actions, he insists that he had no choice, and everything he did was justified.
• Not Worth Killing: Jacob thinks he's not worth killing directly, but he certainly isn't opposed to leaving him to the mercy of the feral male members of the Hugo Gernsback crew.
  Jacob: He's not worth the fuel to haul him out or the air he's breathing. And he's damn lucky I don't even think he's worth pulling the trigger.
• Playing the Victim Card: After leaving the village, he contacts the team over an intercom system telling them that he'd been trapped and only just gotten free and other bold-faced lies about the situation. Jacob doesn't buy any of it.
• Shoot the Dog: Initially, rationing the food supply made sense. Only a few people were capable of fixing the beacon and if they didn't, then everyone gets to be drooling idiots. Unfortunately, he quickly got Drunk with Power and turned the survivors into his own personal kingdom.
• The Sociopath: Feels no true regret for his actions, even justifying not turning on the beacon ten years ago because the events would made him look bad to society instead of it being immoral.
• Unfit for Greatness: Ronald was promoted to Acting Captain of the Gernsback following emergency protocols after the previous captain, Harris Fairchild, was killed in the crash landing. Unfortunately, the position of captain proved to be one he was thoroughly unsuited for. At first, he rationed the uncontaminated food for the scientists working to get them all off the planet. Unfortunately, as time went by, he let the power go to his head, and he turned the camp and mindless crewmates into his personal kingdom. By the time Shepard and crew arrive, things have gotten bad. It's strongly implied no one on the ship, not even Fairchild, thought he was command material in the first place, and was basically Fairchild's assistant. The Gernsback was not a military ship, so command structure wasn't by rank.
• Villain Has a Point: Even as Jacob slowly realizes what his father has become, both he and Renegade Shepard acknowledge that rationing the safe food among the officers had to be done if anyone wanted to go home. The evil part was what Ronald did once the crew was under his control.

Info Drone/Glyph

Info Drone/Glyph

Attention enemy soldiers: Your life expectancy is now 15 seconds and dropping.

A specialized V.I. custom-designed to order by a previous Shadow Broker made to assist in managing their vast intel network, now inherited (along with the network at large) by Liara T'Soni. Originally didn't have a name, just being known as "Info Drone", it's eventually named Glyph.

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• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Subverted. During the Citadel DLC, Glyph will continue to get distracted by random items and details during the trek through the Citadel archives and storage houses, but always immediately performs any task when called upon. Justified in that its supposed to gather as much information as possible to assist the largest information broker in the galaxy, and it just got brought into the mother lode of sensitive Citadel Council secrets.
• Exact Words: Will serve the Shadow Broker, regardless of who it is. Also see Literal-Minded.
• Expy: An excessively polite and strangely egotistical floating, spherical robot with a voice that characters seem to find annoying? Glyph or 343 Guilty Spark?
• Fetish: In Citadel, Glyph seems to have a developed a bizarre fixation on elcor mating totems.
• Fling a Light into the Future: Liara seeds many worlds with copies of Glyph containing an enormously sophisticated universal translator program, records of this cycle's galactic history, records of the war with the Reapers, accounts of Shepard, and blueprints for the Crucible for future cycles in the event that they cannot defeat the Reapers. Glyph is more than pleased to, saying "And it will be a privilege to guide future discoverers of these records.".
• I Just Want to Be Badass: Glyph laments its lack of weapons when it sees CAT6 Disruptor Drones, expressing the desire that Liara may one day upgrade him to allow him to partake in combat. It seems he's noticed the sheer amount of firefights his owner gets into and wants to help out. As it is, Liara commands him to "lower their morale".
• I Shall Taunt You: During the battle of the Citadel DLC, Liara will have Glyph demoralize enemy troops. Glyph will respond by blithely telling the enemy troops negative statistics about their survival.
• Insistent Terminology: Addresses everyone as "Shadow Broker" in 2. Liara finally manages to program him to identify other people by the time of 3 and avoid calling Liara "Shadow Broker" publicly, although he has trouble dealing with Shepard and their clone during Citadel.
• Literal-Minded: Comes with being a V.I. When Shepard tells Glyph to "find Shepard" (when referring to their clone and failing to be properly specific about the description), Glyph simply floats in front of Shepard and exclaims that Shepard has been found.
• Ludicrous Precision: When calculating life expectancies and odds of survival of CAT6 mercs against Shepard and company.
• Nice Guy: The worst thing he's ever done is ramble a bit, and is always pleasant, helpful, and eager.
• Number Two: His entire purpose is serve as one for the Shadow Broker.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Personality-wise, one suspects Glyph is a true A.I., and not a virtual intelligence.
• Robot Buddy: To Liara.
• Romantic Wingman: Plays some mood music for Shepard and a romanced Liara at just the right time during her visit to your apartment in the Citadel DLC.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: His idea of being festive is to don a holographic bowtie.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Now assists Liara after she and Shepard killed the previous Shadow Broker.

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