In the past, we’ve covered a few of the races found in the Mass Effect universe, like
the Asari and the Reapers. But there’s still plenty that we haven’t even had a chance
to cover. So this week we’re going to spotlight some of the series other prominent species:
the Krogan and the Turians. Two cultures with a very heavy emphasis on tradition and military
might, but in many ways couldn’t be more different.
Let’s start with the Krogan.
The Krogan have learned to survive and fight in the most brutal of conditions.
And Grunt, being a genetically engineered super-soldier, you know, like Captain America
but uglier, is one of the toughest Krogans around. So it might come as a surprise then
that the look and design of Grunt was heavily inspired by...a newborn baby. That’s right,
according to the lead character artist Jaemus Wurzbach, Grunt was designed to look "young,
like a baby." This is reflected in his skin, which the artist says is extremely fine and
resembles a lizard's scales rather than the tortoise-like skin of the other Krogan. That’s
not all, you may notice that the segmented crest on Grunt’s head is not yet fully formed
into a solid plate, this is reminiscent of the separated bones of a newborn human baby's
skull. Grunt's armor is also very clean in comparison to other Krogan, giving the impression
that Grunt still has a lot to learn. And speaking of the Krogan, the species themselves
get their look from a very different source: bats. Matt Rhodes, a concept designer behind
Mass Effect, gave away this detail in an interview saying: “There are some bats that just look
alien already, when you see them you can barely believe they live on this planet...so you
just starting blending the stuff you’ve seen and that ended up with this. If you look
at especially wrinkle-faced bats, it is pretty much a little Krogan with wings.” One detail
that was changed during the development of the Krogans was their eyes, originally they
were going to have eyes on the sides of their heads, instead of ones that look straight
ahead. Late into development though this was changed because the team discovered that predator
species almost never have eyes on the side of their heads that way, that is more of a
prey thing. The team wanted the evolution of their newly created species to make sense
and be somewhat plausible, so they gave his face a minor makeover.
Next up is the Turians, whose culture actually draws on one particular Earth culture a lot:
Ancient Rome. That’s because “Turian” is taken from the word “Centaurian”, the
name of officers in the Roman legion. Similarly, Palaven , the Turian homeworld is based on
Palatine Hill, the center of the original seven hills of Rome and one of the most ancient
and significant parts of the city. Of course, the Turians’ Rome obsession makes sense,
as their military doctrine also mirror that of the Roman Empire, especially their troubling
habit of colonizing their enemies. Turian names and culture are also highly influenced
by the great empire. Not everything about the Turians is taken
from Ancient Rome though, like their culture of public service. As you might know, every
Turian citizen from the ages of 15 to 30 serve the state in some capacity, supplying the
government with everything from historians to janitors. This mirrors the Terran Federation,
the society found in Robert Heinlein’s classic 1959 military sci-fi novel Starship Troopers,
where every citizen had to serve the government or military in some capacity for at least
two years to be granted full voting rights and citizenship.
The design of the Turians also changed during the development of the game. Originally, they
were going to be much more bird-like, with very long protruding beaks and at one point,
even wings. This idea didn’t make it too far however. But the designers claim the influence
of birds can still be seen in them, especially their skeletal structure and hands, which
were inspired by bird anatomy. In fact, according to The Art of Mass Effect, the development
team even found ways to incorporate layers of plates into the design of Turian ships
to roughly symbolize the feathered appearance of the species.
Oh and have you ever noticed that many of the species in Mass Effect, especially the
Krogan and the Turians have quite a bit of their bulky alien features around their back
and shoulder area? This was no accident. As Matt Rhodes revealed in an interview with
Gameinformer, this was done for a very specific reason. All of the alien designs in the game
had to be built on top of the preexisting human model. According to Rhodes: “Because
this had to be animated on a human skeleton, there was only so many places we could adjust
and make them alien. Which is actually why our aliens who are supposed to to be bigger
than human have a lot coming off of the back, it’s one of the few safe areas you can really
play with the silhouette without getting in the way of combat animations or conversations…”.
And now it’s time for our comment showcase, Raging Melon has a really interest fact about
a lot of the names featured in the series. Saying that every frigate is named after the
real world battle locations like Stalingrad and all the dreadnoughts just so happen to
be named after Earth locations as well. Thanks for that comment, Melon!
Next up is our shoddy comment! We have a comment from Le Emperor Otaku who says “Fact: the
first men to come into contact with the Asari died of crushed pelvises.” Make of that
what you will. Now for some trivia. Last week’s Pokemon
Go episode asked what Pokemon Magikarp evolves into and you basically all got it right. It
was D) Gyarados. This week our question is all about Mass Effect: what is the capital
of the Krogan homeworld of Tuchanka?