Mass Effect General Discussion (spoilers)

They were always that long-lived. Their birth rate and biology are the way they are because Tuchanka is a terrifying hellscape. They breed like rabbits, but have extremely long lifespans, and are ridiculously hard to kill by conventional means, because their planet is so deadly that most of them don’t make it adulthood.

Take away the danger of their environment and they become a classic invasive species. Population explodes with no means of slowing it down, and it threatens to overrun the galaxy. The twist is that they’re sentient, so what can you do about it?

It's alright. To deal with the yahg, we're prepared to uplift a fabulous species of gorilla that thrives on yahg meat.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 15th 2019 at 12:35:30 PM

So its pretty much a fucking cycle isn't it?

That's the beautiful part. When the yahg are wiped out, the gorillas simply starve to death.

Wouldn't they just make Yahg farms though?

Shit.

@ those explaining the long life thing, Aaah, ok thanks. Now it's clearer. And even though Tuchanka has probably stayed the same hellscape, it has been pointed out that krogans are often in the merc business, that isn't as much of a balance. If I recall nobody batted an eye about a violant exploding breeder race with long lives until krogans were off Tuchanka in large numbers.

Once the genophage is cured, I'd expect you'd to see less mercenaries — well, less mercenaries per krogan. It's mentioned that part of the reason so many krogan turn to mercenary work is because they're fatalistic; they feel the species is doomed to a slow extinction. Ironically that's true of Wrex as well: he turned to a long period of mercenary work after his father's betrayal made him feel most krogan weren't interested in rebuilding.

So with that lifted off their shoulders, combine that with a more established krogan society that's also, hey, growing rapidly and in need of skilled labourers, diplomats, etc. In the case of solo Wreav, I'd also expect a lot of soldiers need to be recruited. Because, well, solo Wreav might not be the best choice for the galaxy.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 15th 2019 at 12:59:58 PM

Wreav ends up thwarted if Eve survives.

"WE SHALL BREED A NEW RACE TO CONQUER THE GALAXY!"

"No."

For the moment... though the attitude and reverence to the females means he's at least probably held in check for a while.

Wreav's entire hold on the Krogan is held together by Ductile tape and Prayer

it wouldn't take much for Wreav's Jenga tower to collaspe

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Aug 15th 2019 at 8:32:53 AM

It'd only be a matter of time for Wreav to fall. The only question is who else he'd drag down with him.

Well according to the many epilouges, Wreav manages to take the entire Krogan race with him... or atleast makes sure Tuchanka NEVER become anything other then a dustbowl

then again that might be optimistically overestimating Wreav's ability as Mad man...

Cause Wreav's biggest flaw... Is He's a Moron

like He's Dumb by Dumb Muscle Krogan Standards. The only reason he's in Charge is all the more Capable Krogan Are Dead 'Either killed by Wrex, Killed by Shepard or have Killed each other since that is whats used to explain how he's unified a good chunk of Tuchanka if Wrex ain't around to do the heavy lifting.

Wreav and Eve surviving means the Krogan go into a civil war. Riveting.

Wrex and Eve are able to terraform Tuchanka to where its not just one giant bombed out wasteland.

Actually I wonder was Tuchanka a ridiculous Death World before The Krogan Nuked each other so bad it turned into a mad max wet dream or it was already Deathworld it was just more along the lines of Space Amazon with lots and lots of Super Efficient predators

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Aug 18th 2019 at 5:52:29 AM

I think the crazy thing about the Tuchunka is there's not just been one Fallout-style apocalypse, there's been SEVERAL.

It probably looked less bombed out and barren of plant-life, but yeah, Tuchanka was probably pretty predator-filled beforehand. The Space Amazon might not be a bad comparison. A barren wasteland isn't that great for a bunch of predators to grow on; then again, it's not particularly great for anyone. I think this ending slide◊ sort of shows some grass regrowing? An ancient krogan murial depicts a massive Thresher Maw, though, so I don't know if they can actually thrive in rainforests, or if it came after the initial nuclear war, or the war allowed it to grow...

The codex mentions that until the krogan developed gunpowder weapons, 'eaten by predators' was their number one cause of death — and it's probably more likely they developed firearms before developing and utilising nukes. So predators were there beforehand, of course.

I swear, I remember hearing somewhere that was part of the problem. Industrial revolutions can dramatically shift the lifestyle and politics of any culture. For a species with a birthrate like the krogan, industrialisation, medicine — we've talked of the krogan as an invasive species for other planets, but their survival rate going up too quickly would cause a lot of chaos internally.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Aug 18th 2019 at 12:54:37 PM

Well according to the Wiki

Tuchanka was basically Catachan

A massive Jungle world where the Animals and Plants were constantly trying to kill each other in a cycle of Darwinism that makes your head spin

then the Krogan learned how to make Atomics

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on Aug 18th 2019 at 6:58:15 AM

Tuchanka is so arid now that the only plants that are still around are carnivorous ones. The soil is just that bad. Meaning every living thing on Tuchanka is a predator.

It does beg the question of what the Yahg homeworld of Parnack is like, if it produced a species like the Yahg.

Edited by M84 on Aug 18th 2019 at 9:09:20 PM

Everything is big there.

Edited by slimcoder on Aug 18th 2019 at 6:11:05 AM

I mean, compared to the krogan, the yahg did evolve to become Parnack's apex predator, compared to the krogan who became the dominant species on Tuchanka despite being a prey species.

There is nothing really absurd about an extremely tough species. Evolution does what it does. The whole issue with the Krogan was that their Explosive Breeder nature came from the necessity of living in a Death World. Being largely removed from that environment by itself gave them an artificial advantage to regroup and Zerg Rush all the major predators, and that's not including the technological leaps given to them from being uplifted.

It's probably one of the most concise ways of explaining the purpose behind the Prime Directive in Star Trek. It would be interesting too to explore the opposite, taking a super-predator out of their environment ends up exposing an unforeseen evolutionary flaw.

It is rather interesting that while the Krogan's evolutionary path made them the hardiest prey species, the Yahg's evolutionary path made them the ultimate predator species.

The Krogan's biology is all about being able to survive long enough on a Death World to breed quickly. The Yahg's biology is all about being able to immediately detect and catch prey.

Which unfortunately is why First Contact with them went so poorly. The same Super-Senses that let them detect even the slightest presence of prey also made them a Living Lie Detector race. So when they met a team of diplomats — people who essentially have to lie a bit as part of their job — they became mad as hell. Especially since the diplomats were acting as if they were equals to each other as opposed to there being a clear pack hierarchy like the Yahg practice.

Edited by M84 on Aug 18th 2019 at 11:18:18 PM

I think the Yahg would be the only time conquering another civilization would be justified.

Cause they would want to enforce who is truly superior on a galactic scale with no possibility of peace so the only conclusion would be them in charge or them under someone's heel.

Edited by slimcoder on Aug 18th 2019 at 8:36:07 AM

Maybe not justified, but it'd be practically inevitable if they leave their homeworld on a massive scale. The Yahg would force the issue.

Which is why the Citadel quarantined the planet in the first place. They realized that peaceful coexistence and cooperation with the Yahg would be nigh impossible.

Edited by M84 on Aug 18th 2019 at 11:41:31 PM