Hello, Ric here it’s been a while since I made a video on one of my favourite science
fiction universes, Mass Effect and since there is very little news on the series, I’m taking
the minute interest generated by similarities in another franchise to talk about the Repaers
(Picard). This video explores the lore behind their re-emergence and the threat that they
pose to the species of the galaxy to give those not in the know a quick rundown, so
beware spoilers for Mass Effect and I guess Star Trek Picard ahead.
The story begins long before the emergence of the Human Systems Alliance onto the Galactic
scene and even before the creation of the Citadel Council, the governing bodies of the
Mass Effect galaxy. In fact, we’ll have to start with the Protheans. For now. This
society appears to have left its markers and ruins all throughout the galaxy in the form
of archives of information and the foundations of intergalactic travel, the Mass Relays.
These powerful devices are constructed of an unknown, seemingly impenetrable alloy that
creates a corridor of zero mass down which a ship can travel to another star system.
At the centre of this web was the Citadel, a meticulously maintained station in the middle
of the artificial Serpent nebula. Many systems of now space-faring species have become an
interstellar power by uncovering such ruins within their home systems and reverse-engineering
the technology. Such is the case with Humanity, which found a Prothean archive on Mars and
the Asari who had such an archive on Thessia, their homeworld. Such libraries of information
were often covert observation posts from the Protheans who had studied their time’s primitive
species such as Stone Age mankind. Thessia held a beacon, a telepathic repository of
information and the housing for a dormant A.I. The Protheans even defended the early
Asari from other hostile races, ending up being interwoven into Asari mythology as goddesses.
Approximately 50,000 years ago the Protheans disappeared. Gone without a trace. All their
technology was left behind, although much was ruined and plundered, some like the Citadel
were preserved by bioengineered Keepers. However, with ramping aggression from the Geth, (a
species of A.I. robots created by the Quarians in the 19th century) comes the gradual reveal
that much of the technology on which galactic civilization is built was not Prothean in
origin, but the remnants of a far older and more malevolent power, the Reapers. These
Reapers had returned 50,000 years ago and began a clinical extermination of organic
life throughout the galaxy, destroying any interstellar power that had reached a certain
technological zenith. From what was studied, as well as the testimonies
provided by Javik, a Prothean from suspended animation in 2186, some idea of Prothean culture
could be constructed. Although it should be noted that Javik is a warrior born in a time
of conflict and the Avatar of Vengence for his people, so his viewpoint may not be reflective
of the culture as a whole, just its final, desperate years.
They were aware of the other developing species in the galaxy even having interacted with
the Asari and manipulated the genetic direction of the Hanar. The Protheans are revealed to
be not a single race, but in fact a myriad of different aliens species that were assimilated
into the Prothean Empire. This empire expanded with the simple notion that other species
fell in line or were destroyed. They also encountered hostile synthetic life in their
cycle. Just as the Geth in the Council era revolted against their creators, the Zha’Til
turned on the Zha. Although this was at the behest of the Reapers, it hints at the larger
picture. The Prothean Empire had risen to power after
discovering the same ancient ruins and technologies that mankind and countless others had and
will do. In the time of the Protheans however, they assumed them to be remainders of the
Inusannon, a species that had mysteriously vanished over 50,000 years before the emergence
of the Protheans. Sound familiar? Thus had the cycle repeated. Every 50 millennia
a species would rise, discover Mass Effect technology developed by the previous cycle
as well as the vast interstellar network of Mass Relays with the Citadel station at its
centre. They’d build their empire, monarchy or council on the supposed gifts of their
precursors and just as they began take note of the historic cycle, the Reapers would return
and wipe the slate clean. In the case of the Protheans, it was their unity and conformity
that spelled their end. So focused had they been on making a single monolithic power,
turned to one way of life, one way of being, with no diversity, that when the Reapers came,
they effectively only had to contend with a predictable set of tactics and every sacrifice
that the Protheans made was turned to the Reapers advantage.
But what drives this cycle of death? Or more specifically, harvest? What are the Reapers?
Well their origin is the beginning of the cycle. Hundreds of thousands of years ago,
the Leviathan, we don’t know their true name, were an aquatic species that could mentally
manipulate and indoctrinate other species into serving them. Equally eldritch-like in
appearance too, the resembled giant cuttlefish or squid and began to enslave species to serve
them. They became the first known spacefaring empire and being so long lived, watched a
pattern emerge. Their servitors would frequently construct artificial intelligence and synthetic
species to help make their lives easier, but every time, those servants would turn on their
creators and overthrow them, wiping them out. Billions were lost with every synth uprising
or rogue A.I. In an ironic twist, the Leviathan would go
on to create their own artificial sentience, the Catalyst in order to protect organic life
and try to prevent this frequently witnessed extinction. But the Catalyst soon decreed
that organic life, including the Leviathan were responsible for the problem and therefore
turned on its creators. Harvesting the Leviathan using its own servitor species, it saved their
genetic data, their culture, history, their essence into a new form that would last. A
Harbinger, the first Reaper. Thus did the Reapers begin their first cycle, waging war
on organics and synthetics alike and converting entire cultures into new synthetic entities,
a new Reaper. When their work was done, and the only species left were fledgling races,
yet to achieve spaceflight, the Reapers prepared for the next cycle. They left the traces of
their civilization, the Mass Relays and the Citadel as well as numerous bread-crumbs of
technology throughout the galaxy so that sentient races would progress along predicted evolutionary
paths and congregate at the Citadel. Then the Reapers retreated into Dark Space,
beyond the edge of the Galaxy to wait. Here, they hibernated, leaving behind a vanguard
to watch over galactic progress and just when the new civilizations began to have trouble
with artificial intelligence and the threat of extinction presented itself again, the
Reapers would return. They’d first deactivate the Mass Relays, capture the Citadel and sweep
through the galaxy, preserving organic cultures as a new Reaper then they reset the board.
It was a hellish time where even the dead were repurposed into technologically infused
husks, or augmented into horrific weapons and indoctrinated agents of the Reapers undermined
the political powers left standing. Of course, intelligent species began to note
theses cycles in history, but by then, it was often too late to stop it and the Reapers
were so far more advanced than any other power, that none really stood a chance anyway. On
top of that there is the handicap of most species building their entire culture’s
progress off of second/third hand reaper tech. There however existed two options for most.
A warning and a legacy. The Protheans, for example left behind their “Beacons”. Telepathic
archives that would reach out to nearby minds and fill their head with visions of the Protheans
and the Reapers, all the collected knowledge that they had amassed. However, the Beacons
were configured for a Prothean’s mind and therefore garbled or unintelligible to most
others, often resulting in unconsciousness. The other method was far grander. Many species
over the countless cycles fought valiantly but all came to the conclusion that they were
doomed so the bequeathed their works to then next cycle. Over the eons scraps of information
were passed to the next galactic government through preserved archives. Who then added
to the knowledge and eventually, this took the form of a device that would attach to
the Reaper’s own Citadel and reactivate the Catalyst, presenting it with a number
of handily colour coded options. It was not a weapon, not really.
It was an attempt to break the cycle that the Reapers had established by presenting
new options. Should Synthetics and organics have found a way to coexist the reapers could
be remotely destroyed. Or the user could gain control of the Reapers to use them as effective
guardians to watch over the galaxy in an uncertain future. Or finally and most drastically in
my opinion, was the ability to fire out a synthesis wave that would elevate organics
life and synthetic life into a merger of both but something new and more.
However it ends is up to the player. But all of these result in the closure of this repeating
galactic chapter. There are a lot of surface level similarities
between this and Picard’s unfolding storyline, the use of telepathic beacons and the fact
that Reapers are effectively hyper-evolved synthetics that aim to preserve through destruction.
But the deeper motivations are there too. The fact that this happened to a civilization
before and then threatens to occur again centring around the conflict between organic and artificial
life, the idea that rebellion always occurs and that the only way to prevent it is destruction
of one side. The Reapers were ultimately acting to preserve cultures by creating a new form
of life, but their method was cruel and in many ways was simply an evolution of that
same conflict, a perpetual stalemate, waiting for an out.
I honestly don’t mind that Picard maybe is borrowing heavily from the setting to Mass
Effect as Mass Effect borrowed heavily from Star Trek among many others. There are too
as many differences as similarities, but the reason attention is being drawn to the similar
plot elements is that Mass Effect’s entire universe was structured around this deep lore,
but Star Trek was not. In fact, Trek has always gone out of its way to protect and preserve
artificial life and the cause for many of these rebellions is always, mankind becomes
fearful of its creations, which doesn’t line up with the Federation’s approach.
So this storyline kind of feels a little shoehorned it. Saying that, as of typing these words,
Picard has not concluded so I withhold final judgement
So there we go, still a lot of background and minutia that I’ve skipped over, but
as I said, this was mostly to bring people unfamiliar with the Mass Effect cycle quickly
up to speed as to why Star Trek Picard is receiving such comparisons.
Thanks for watching this video and I’m curious to see if you’ve played Mass Effect and
if not, did this video help? Thank you again for watching either way, I’ve been Ric and
I’ll see you next time! Goodbye.