List of Mass Effect characters

This article describes notable characters who appear in the Mass Effect fictional universe. These characters are explored in the novels Mass Effect: Revelation and Mass Effect: Ascension, the comic series Mass Effect: Redemption, and the video games Mass Effect, Mass Effect Galaxy, and Mass Effect 2. This list describes only major protagonists, antagonists, and party members that appear in the games, novels, and comic, although these storylines feature much larger supporting casts consisting of dozens of minor characters.

Commander Shepard

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Commander Shepard
(default male version)

Commander Shepard is the main player character in the Mass Effect trilogy. Shepard's gender, appearance, history, combat-training and first name are determined by the player before the game begins. Shepard is 29 years old in the first game. The default male Shepard, the model used by BioWare for trailers, is called John while the female default name is Jane; both defaults are of the Soldier class. Shepard is a veteran soldier who begins the game as a candidate to become an elite "Spectre" agent. As the game progresses, Shepard undertakes a series of important missions and is authorized to do whatever it takes to get the missions done. At the end of the game, Shepard kills villain Saren Arterius and helps defeat the Reaper Sovereign. One of the most important decisions Shepard makes is at the end of the first game, and determines the fate of the Citadel Council and humanity's role in the galaxy. Shepard can choose to have the Council saved, resulting in humans being granted a Council seat; Shepard can order Sovereign to be attacked directly, which unintentionally kills the Council and results in a new, human-controlled Council being created; or Shepard can order the Council to be left undefended, which dooms the Council and sets humanity up to be the dominant species in the galaxy. The female version of Shepard is voiced by Jennifer Hale, while Mark Meer lends his voice to the male version. Fashion model Mark Vanderloo was the model for the default appearance of the male commander Shepard.

In the first teaser trailer for Mass Effect 2 released by developer BioWare, Commander Shepard is stated to have been killed in action. Regarding the issue of Shepard's death, BioWare Director Casey Hudson explained that based on decisions made during Mass Effect 2, Shepard can die in some of the game's multiple endings. Hudson stated "If you do die in the ending of Mass Effect 2, it will not come as a surprise, nor will it be random. It will be pretty obvious that you headed into the final mission knowing that Shepard probably wouldn’t make it out alive." Hudson also confirmed that team members would be affected by the player's decisions as well: "You might have an ending where Shepard’s entire team survives, or where the entire mission is a bloodbath and everyone (including Shepard) is killed, or anything in between." Lastly, Hudson revealed that if the player's Shepard dies in the second game, he or she will not appear in the prospective Mass Effect 3; instead, the third game would have to be played with a new Shepard started in that game, or with one who survived Mass Effect 2.

Characters in Mass Effect

Squad members

Mass Effect has six characters that the player can recruit over the course of the game. Decisions the player makes can affect if a squad member is recruited at all, and can also lead to a squad member's death. Players can also pursue different romance storylines with certain characters.

Ashley Williams

A 25-year-old human Alliance Marine who enlisted straight out of high school, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams is a competent non-commissioned officer. She joins the party during the first mission, replacing Corporal Richard L. Jenkins (who was killed in action). Ashley is a pure soldier, skilled with weapons and heavy armor but unable to use advanced tech abilities or biotics. She is a possible romance interest for a male Commander Shepard. She hails from a military family: her great-grandmother, grandfather, and father all served in the Alliance Navy. Her family suffers from the dubious service history of her grandfather, however, as he was the only human officer to ever surrender to an alien force, specifically the turian fleet at the colony of Shanxi. Ashley says that she and her father have been passed over for many a promotion because of the stigma her grandfather still holds among the Alliance brass. Her mother raised Ash and her three younger sisters on various colonial worlds while her father was on duty. Williams is highly religious, though her precise faith and denomination are never elaborated upon, except for her belief in Judgement Day. She also occasionally expresses "human-centric" views, as a result of her grandfather having been disgraced in the First Contact War against the turians.

Late in the game, on the planet Virmire, Ashley is one of two characters who can opt to assist a salarian commando unit in their assault on Saren's lab complex. During the assault, the player is confronted with a choice that may result in Ashley being killed when a nuclear warhead is detonated. Williams is voiced by Kimberly Brooks.

Ashley has been confirmed to appear in Mass Effect 2, provided she lived through the first game. She is seen in the launch trailer defending a colony against a swarm of paralyzing collector bugs, but ultimately is overwhelmed. She is last seen being paralyzed by a bug. Upon being rescued, she voices disapproval towards Shepard's alliance with Cerberus. Should there have been a romance between Shepard and Ashley, she will send him an email after her encounter with him on Horizon. In the email she apologizes for her behavior, and expresses her desire to be with him once more.

Liara T'Soni

A 106-year-old asari companion who has a passion for studying and working with Prothean technology, Dr. Liara T'Soni is an expert in the field of Prothean archaeology, specifically evidence concerning the Protheans' demise. She is, in fact, found in a Prothean ruin, trapped in a kinetic bubble prison. Liara is a possible romance interest for both male and female Shepards. The asari have only one gender, and can reproduce with any gender or species. Liara's class is unique to her as an Asari Scientist, skilled mainly in biotics, but unable to build skills in weapons and tech abilities. Unlike the human equivalent Adept, however, Liara can learn "Electronic" skills.

Liara is the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, a well-respected and powerful asari biotic. It is unknown precisely who Liara's other parent is, except that she was another asari. There is a certain social stigma attached to this, as the asari believe that for them to improve themselves, they should mate with other species to gain new genetic properties. If two asari mate as Liara's parents did, then it is believed that nothing is gained from the relationship. The term "Pureblood" is used as a cruel insult for children born of two asari. When asked about her second parent, Liara is only able to speculate that her parents were possibly embarrassed by the union, but she does not know for certain. Her face and body is modelled on actress Jillian Murray, and she is voiced by Ali Hillis.

In Mass Effect 2, Liara has a a radically changed personality. Acting much more like her mother Benezia, Liara has become an information broker on Illum in direct rivalry to the Shadow Broker. Having improved as a biotic, she uses death threats and other intimidation tactics to extort information. If the player imported a Shepard from the original Mass Effect that romanced Liara, she greets Shepard with a kiss. Liara assigns Shepard an optional quest to assist her in hunting down an agent of the Shadow Broker spying on her, known as the Observer. Liara's anger at the Broker stems from when he recovered Shepard's body and was prepared to sell it to the Collectors. After certain dialogue choices, it is possible to break through her shell and reveal the real Liara, revealing that her darker personality is nothing more than a facade. Liara took Shepard's body from the Broker and gave it to Cerberus so they could bring Shepard back to life. Liara knew that Cerberus would use Shepard for their own uses, but still gave them Shepard's body as she cares for Shepard and could not let the Commander go. She feared that Shepard would hate her for this, and apologises. She declines Shepard's offer to join the team to continue her quest for revenge against the Shadow Broker, although expresses regret that she cannot join Shepard's squad.

Kaidan Alenko

A 32-year-old human male who accompanies Shepard from the very beginning of the game, Alliance Navy Lt. Kaidan Alenko serves as a possible love interest for a female Commander Shepard. In game, he is what is known as a Sentinel, a soldier highly skilled in both tech skills and biotics, though with little in the way of actual combat ability. Alenko has had a troubled relationship with his biotic abilities - he is one of the rare users of the controversial L2 implants, which have since been discontinued due to the long list of horrible side-effects discovered after their initial creation. Kaidan is regarded as "one of the lucky ones" as he only suffers from migraines, though many others suffer from crippling physical pain or insanity. If questioned by Shepard, Kaidan reveals that as a teenager he killed an instructor, a brutal Turian mercenary, at the biotics training facility he attended, during biotics training by breaking his neck with a full-force biotic kick. The death had been an accident, as Kaidan was enraged when the instructor injured a girl he admired.

Late in the game, on the planet Virmire, Kaidan is one of two characters who can opt to assist a Salarian commando unit in their assault on Saren's lab complex. If Ashley is selected to lead the unit, Kaidan is the primary technician for activating a bomb that destroys the facility. During the assault, the player is confronted with a choice that may result in Kaidan being left behind when the nuke is detonated. He is voiced by Raphael Sbarge.

Kaidan also plays a role in Mass Effect 2, provided that he survived in the first game. Since the first game's events, Kaidan had been promoted and was stationed on the planet Horizon to help protect a human colony from the Collectors. Using Kaidan's connection to Shepard as bait, the Collectors attacked the colony and Kaidan was stung by a Collector Swarm, leaving him temporarily paralyzed. Shepard soon learns that Kaidan was sent to the colony to install a network of defense cannons to safeguard against future Collector attacks. After multiple firefights with the Collectors and Harbinger, Kaidan is ultimately rescued by Shepard. The two reunite with a handshake (or a warm embrace if the player chose to import a Shepard from Mass Effect that had pursued a romantic relationship with Kaidan) and Shepard tells Kaidan that s/he has been dead for two years. However, upon learning that Shepard is working with Cerberus, Kaidan grows suspicious and refuses to join Shepard on his/her mission. Later on, if Shepard romanced Kaidan in the first game, he will send Shepard an apology letter stating that he has been worried about her and still wants a life with her after the Collectors have been defeated.

It has been rumored that Kaidan will make an appearance in Mass Effect 3 and players that keep him as a romance interest in Mass Effect 2 will be rewarded.

Garrus Vakarian

A male turian, Garrus is a member of the Citadel Security force (C-Sec). He has never liked or trusted Saren and was investigating his activities, but wasn't able to prove any blatant acts of treason. He chafes under the red tape, rules and regulations of Citadel Security and had become unsatisfied with his role there. He believes in using any means necessary to either prevent or solve crimes, almost seemingly regardless of the consequences; this is a direct result of a case he was involved with that came to an unsatisfactory conclusion. During his investigations, Garrus came across a case in which a salarian named Doctor Saleon had sold many organs through the black market. When his employees were questioned they were found to also be Dr. Saleon's test subjects as they were growing the cloned organs inside their own bodies, in many cases resulting in traumatic physical and psychological injuries. Unfortunately, the doctor escaped C-Sec custody and fled the Citadel, and Garrus felt that it was the hesitation and regulations governing C-Sec that allowed Dr. Saleon to escape.

Garrus was at one point targeted as a Spectre candidate, but was dissuaded against it by his father, a C-Sec officer who was strictly "by the book" out of personal fear that Garrus would end up like Saren. When given the opportunity to pursue Saren alongside Shepard - who is not bound by rules and operates outside the law - he is happy to accept. He is a turian Agent, skilled at both weapons and engineering, similar to an Infiltrator class. Depending on Shepard's advice and actions, Garrus may at one point apply for the Spectre program, with or without re-applying for C-Sec in the process. Garrus is voiced by Brandon Keener.

Garrus also appears in Mass Effect 2 as the "Archangel". He had come to Omega a few months before the game's beginning and started causing all sorts of trouble. In response, the local mercenary groups teamed up to try to take him down. When Shepard arrives at Omega, Garrus has already been fighting several hours. Shepard pretends to be a freelance mercenary to get transportation to Garrus's location, but then turns on his mercenary allies. He meets Archangel, who proceeds to remove his helmet and reveals himself to Shepard. He helps Garrus escape and Garrus rejoins his team. After Joining the team female Shepard can pursue a relationship with Garrus.

Urdnot Wrex

Wrex is among the last of the krogan Battle Masters. They are rare individuals who can combine biotic abilities with advanced weaponry. Wrex quickly gained fame for his battle powers and became a leader of one of the smaller Urdnot tribes at a very young age. To date, Wrex is the youngest krogan to be granted the honor in 1,000 years. Following the krogan genophage (a salarian bioweapon which causes a genetic mutation that causes stillbirth in 99.9% of the krogan population), Wrex realized that his people had degenerated from the honor-bound people they once were and had become senselessly violent, preferring death in battle rather than saving their culture through peaceful means. Wrex turned his back on his people when his father, a krogan warlord who wanted to resume the war, betrayed and attempted to kill him. Wrex escaped, though not before taking his father's life in retaliation. During the past three centuries, Wrex has worked as a bodyguard, mercenary, soldier and a bounty hunter. One operation as a mercenary was with Saren Arterius as his employer, though Wrex immediately sensed something very troubling about the turian and left the contract without even waiting to get paid. His instincts were right: every other mercenary on the ship they were on turned up dead within a week. Despite his menacing appearance, Wrex rarely loses his temper. Likewise, Wrex doesn't voice his thoughts very often. But when he does, people are more than willing to listen. The mere threat of his anger is enough to ensure that.

Late in the game, at the planet Virmire, Wrex learns that Saren is developing a cure for the krogan genophage to create an army of krogan soldiers. Uncertain as to who he should listen to now, Wrex has an angry confrontation with Shepard over whether or not the facility should be destroyed. Depending on the player's choices, Wrex can be killed by either Shepard or Ashley, or he may survive. Wrex is voiced by Steve Barr.

Wrex returns in Mass Effect 2, provided he lived through the first game. If Wrex survived, he is encountered on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, where he has united the various krogan clans under Clan Urdnot to strengthen his ailing race in the face of the genophage. He introduces many sweeping reforms to Krogan society, but faces fierce opposition against more traditionalist clans.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya

A female quarian party member, Tali'Zorah is introduced as a person who possesses information that can implicate Saren in the destruction of the human colony of Eden Prime. Saren himself sends assassins after her, and once Shepard rescues her, she joins the player's party. Tali is on a "Pilgrimage," which is a quarian coming-of-age rite in which a young quarian leaves the home fleet and finds something valuable, which is brought back to the fleet to prove their willingness to contribute to the community. She has some trouble adjusting to the quiet atmosphere of the Normandy because the ships she lived on at her home were all rather loud and clunky, and silence usually meant an air filter or other important component had broken. Later on in the game, it is revealed that her father serves on the fleet Admiralty board making him a prominent figure amongst the quarians. This puts Tali under more pressure than most to ensure that she finds something important during her pilgrimage. Later in the game, either on Feros or in the main geth base in the Armstrong Nebula (in an optional side quest), Shepard can find information on the geth that can be given to Tali so she can complete her Pilgrimage. She is voiced by Liz Sroka.

In the sequel, Shepard encounters Tali again while investigating a Collector attack. However, she cannot join Shepard's team at the moment due to another critical mission she must complete. Later, Shepard tracks Tali to an abandoned Quarian colony, where she is investigating why the system's star is aging much faster than it should be. Shepard rescues her and what's left of her team from a Geth attack, and she finally decides to join his crew. After joining the crew, Shepard can pursue a relationship with Tali.

Antagonists

Saren Arterius

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Saren Arterius

Saren Arterius is a former turian Spectre and the main antagonist of the first game. He is known for 'getting results' by any means necessary. More often than not, this meant he killed everyone and everything in range—the target, any witnesses, and innocent bystanders as well. In the novel Mass Effect: Revelation, he tortures and kills his victims mercilessly, rarely having any regards for sentient life or the lives of anyone in his way from getting the job done, even deliberately killing innocent bystanders and witnesses (after he had extracted key information from them). Saren himself does not consider his methods harsh; for example, when he brutally tortures a batarian in the novel until he has been exhausted of information, Saren snaps the batarian's neck while he is unconscious and claims that it was an act of mercy and that he isn't "a monster." His seething hatred for humans is speculated by other characters in the novel to stem from the loss of his brother in the First Contact War.

After the events described in the novel, and before the start of the first Mass Effect video game, Saren takes command of an army of geth through the use of a mysterious artifact known as Sovereign, an ancient ship that supposedly predates the Protheans. With a machine army at his command, he uses them to both do his bidding and oppose the efforts and actions of the player across the story of the Mass Effect video game. One of his main goals at first appears to be to unleash the genocidal Reapers upon the galaxy once again to take revenge on humanity. In reality, he is merely assisting Sovereign in bringing the rest of the Reapers into the galaxy to prove that organics are worth enslaving, rather than exterminating.

In the game it is revealed that Saren had known about the Reaper threat and had independently tried to discover a means to stop it. It is unknown how Saren found Sovereign, however, Sovereign slowly began to manipulate Saren through subtle subliminal messages into helping him into bringing back the Reaper threat. During the Geth invasion of the Citadel, Saren uses the Prothean Conduit to gain access to the Citadel to allow Sovereign to activate the Citadel Mass Relay. The player can then either attempt to kill Saren before he can activate the relay or appeal to Saren to fight his indoctrination, prompting him to commit suicide. Either way, Shepard later has one of his/her crew members shoot Saren a final time in the head to make sure he's dead, but he is still revived and controlled by Sovereign through his grafted cybernetics, transforming him into a powerful enemy who engages Shepard and his crew in one final battle. Upon defeating the Sovereign-manipulated Saren, Sovereign itself loses its defenses, allowing the Citadel Fleet and the Alliance Navy to destroy it. Saren is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Matriarch Benezia

An asari matriarch who is in league with Saren. She is also the mother of Liara T'Soni. During the course of conversation, Liara speculates that Benezia was ashamed of mating with another Asari, but is not entirely certain if that was the case. She is enslaved by Sovereign into finding the location of the Mu Mass Relay. She is killed by the player after revealing this fact and (if Liara is present in the shore party) making peace with her daughter. She is a master of Biotics. She is voiced by Marina Sirtis.

Sovereign

A member of the race labelled by Protheans as the Reapers, who was left behind as a vanguard and espionage unit for the next Reaper invasion, Sovereign was tasked with monitoring organic evolution and to hence activate the Citadel relay once organic advancement had reached a critical point. It is a massive, artificially intelligent starship, far larger in size than any dreadnought hitherto created by the presently known organic species; Sovereign is the largest ship capable of landing on a planet's surface and is belevied to have a massive element zero core, whether all Reapers are of a similar manifestation is unclear, though Vigil implies that this is the case, referring to "Reaper fleets."

Sovereign possesses a power known by organic species as indoctrination, which enables the Reaper to gradually assume control of the minds of organic beings; though the details of this method of mind control have yet to be elucidated, Vigil explains that the ability is common to all Reapers, who utilise their organic slaves as spies and infiltrators, increasing the efficiency of their genocidal scheme.

During Shepard's discourse with Sovereign in Saren's laboratory on Virmire, Shepard makes the discovery that what they assumed to be an ancient Reaper warship is, in point of fact, a Reaper; aside from claiming that organic beings are of an inherently limited epistemology, such that they are utterly unable to understand the actions of the Reapers, Sovereign also demonstrates arrogance in its assessment of the threat posed by the organic species. Sovereign tries to intimidate Shepard by saying that "organic life is nothing but a genetic mutation, an accident" and by also calling itself "the vanguard of your destruction" and saying the Reaper's will "darken the sky of every world".

Subsequent to Saren's death, Sovereign possesses Saren's corpse through cybernetic implants, transforming him into a robotic adversary for Shepard. The Reaper itself, after being rendered defenceless seemingly by Shepard's defeating the possessed Saren, is destroyed at the end of the game by the Alliance Fleet.

In Mass Effect 2, it is revealed that the council tried to make the rest of the galaxy believe that Sovereign is nothing more than a geth Warship. The geth platform known as Legion also reveals that Sovereign originally identified itself as Nazara, and that the name Sovereign was in fact coined by Saren. This contradicts the fact that Sovereign introduced himself by that name to Commander Shepard, though it could be that it simply chose to introduce himself as such for convenience's sake or because it took a liking to the name.

Sovereign is voiced by Peter Jessop.

Characters in Mass Effect 2

Squad Members

Jacob Taylor

Jacob Taylor is the protagonist of Mass Effect Galaxy, and will also appear in Mass Effect 2 as a party member. In Galaxy, he is a former Systems Alliance soldier who is re-recruited to investigate the batarians and discover why they have sent Jath'Amon, who claims to be an ambassador seeking peace with the Citadel Council. With the help of Alliance informant Miranda Lawson, he uncovers and thwarts Jath'Amon's scheme to assassinate the Council. Jacob is voiced by Adam Lazarre-White.

In Mass Effect 2, Jacob is revealed to have joined the pro-human organization, Cerberus, some time after the events of Mass Effect Galaxy, due to being disillusioned with the Alliance military. He is a possible romance option for a female Shepard.

Miranda Lawson

Miranda Lawson is a supporting character in Mass Effect Galaxy, and will also appear in Mass Effect 2 as a party member. In Galaxy, Miranda communicates with Jacob Taylor as a hologram, and is his main source of information on how to stop the batarian threat. Miranda is voiced by and modeled after Yvonne Strahovski.

In Mass Effect 2, Miranda is revealed to be a high ranking operative of the pro-human organization, Cerberus, and has been genetically altered for superior intelligence and physical traits. She is shown to be a capable leader, despite feeling she doesn't command respect like Shepard does. Miranda is one of the only members of the squad to successfully lead a fireteam in the final mission with out anyone dying. Aboard the Normandy, she is effectively Shepard's second-in-command and Executive Officer. Provided the player completes a mission to prevent her sister's abduction, she ultimately becomes loyal to Shepard. In one of the story's possible endings, she proves her loyalty when the Illusive Man gives her an order to prevent Shepard from destroying the Collectors' Space Station by refusing and announcing her resignation before ending the communication abruptly. She is a possible romance option for a male Shepard.

Thane Krios

Thane is a Drell assassin who is dying of a disease known as Kepler's Syndrome. He is encountered on the Asari colony world of Ilium. Raised on the Hanar homeworld after the Hanar saved the Drell from extinction, Thane was trained as an assassin from a young age. He joins the team in an attempt to atone for his actions in life. In addition to his assassin skills, he also possesses powerful close-combat biotics. Thane's wife was murdered many years ago by mercenaries attempting to capture him. This event caused him to abandon his young son, Kolyat, a decision that still haunts him. In the mission to gain Thane's loyalty, Shepard and team must travel to the Citadel to stop Thane's son Kolyat from following in his father's footsteps and taking up the career of assassin. Kolyat's first assignment is to kill a Turian politician. Shepard must stop Kolyat from carrying out the assignment, either by telling him that Thane is dying, or by shooting the gun out of his hand. After this mission, Thane will become a loyal member of Shepard's team. Thane is a possible romantic interest for a female Shepard.

Grunt

Grunt is a pureblood, tank-bred krogan who will appear in Mass Effect 2 and can be recruited as a party member. In the mission to gain Grunt's loyalty, Shepard must travel to the post-apocalyptic Krogan homeworld Tuchanka. Shepard and the team arrive in the Urdnot clan's bunker; here it is revealed that Grunt is coming of age and must perform a ceremonial rite to gain admission to a clan. As a member of Shepard's crew, Grunt selects Shepard as his krantt - an advocate or sponsor. During the ritual, Shepard's squad must survive attacks by varren and ultimately survive a Thresher Maw on foot. Defeating it will earn the "Big Game Hunter" medal and earn renown for the team: they are the first to defeat the Maw since Urdnot Wrex. After surviving or defeating the thresher maw, Grunt is inducted into Clan Urdnot. Instead of staying on Tuchanka, Grunt continues to serve under Commander Shepard, whom he names as his battlemaster.

Jack

Referred to as Subject Zero in pre-launch promotional material, Jack is a human female with great biotic and firearms abilities who can be recruited as a party member. She sports a buzz cut, and her body is covered with tattoos. She is also highly aggressive, both in battle and personality. She is a possible romance option for a male Shepard.

Mordin Solus

Mordin is a salarian scientist who joins Shepard on Omega after developing a cure for a virus. Mordin is one of a team of salarian black-ops who redesigned the genophage virus when it was seen that krogan were rapidly gaining immunity. Mordin has as genius-level intellect and becomes the chief scientist on the Normandy, allowing the player to research upgrades to improve combat effectiveness.

Mordin introduces comic relief both during combat and in personal encounters.

Samara

Samara is a powerful asari biotic who can be recruited. She is a Justicar, a member of an asari sect devoted to bringing criminals to justice. Samara is voiced by Maggie Baird.

Morinth

Morinth is the biotic, fugitive daughter of Samara, the Asari justicar. She is also an Ardat-Yakshi or "Demon of the Night Winds." Ardat Yakshi are Asari with a gene mutation that causes them to ravage the nervous systems of anyone with whom they mate. The process acts as a narcotic to the Ardat-Yakshi while leaving the mate dead or in a vegetative state. Samara is pursuing Morinth in order to end her reign of terror. Morinth will only join Shepard's mission if he helps her trap Samara so that Morinth can execute her. Morinth is a possible romance option for Shepard, although it results in his temporary death.

Legion

Legion is a geth terminal with 1,187 active geth A.I. programs making up the individual "geth". Legion belongs to the majority faction of the Geth (the Geth you fight in both games are referred to as "heretic" geth, and do not represent the Geth majority) who believe that organic life does have the right to exist. EDI give him the platform the name "Legion" based on the Gospel of Mark 5:9 "My name is Legion, for we are many." They, like all geth, are still connected to the geth collective. They refer to the geth who seek to destroy organic life as the Heretics. They have a certain fascination with Shepard and save him on board a Reaper ship. Unlike other geth, which contain roughly a hundred geth identities within each unit, Legion possesses over a thousand geth identities, for which they received their name. Their primary mission was to find Shepard as well as destroy a virus capable of turning all geth into Heretics. In the mission to gain Legion's loyalty, Shepard must travel to a geth Heretic station and either choose to destroy all heretic geth who chose to join Saren and Sovereign in the attack on organics using a virus provided to the Heretics by Sovereign, or to reprogram the virus so that the Heretics will rejoin the non-heretic geth. After completing the mission, Legion will become loyal to Shepard and will eventually reveal that the heretics decided to help Sovereign in the original Mass Effect in order to receive a Reaper body so that all geth could upload themselves and join together to become smarter; they call this the geth's Future. The non-heretics believed that the geth should achieve their Future through their own means and that the process is as important as the results. Legion reveals that the non-heretics intend to do this by building a massive Dyson Sphere.

Zaeed Messani

Zaeed is a human bounty hunter that is available in downloadable content that will be shipped with the game on release. He is the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter, and joins Shepard's crew solely for the cash Cerberus offers him. When joining Shepard's crew, Zaeed mentions a mission that he would greatly appreciate the completion of if Shepard has any free time. There is no small amount of animosity between Zaeed and the leader of the Blue Suns, Vido Santiago, the latter having shot the former in the face. Shepard can go with Zaeed to the Blue Suns base and either quest after the death of Santiago, or rescue a group of innocents from the base.

Garrus Vakarian

Shortly after Shepard's death, Garrus assembled and led a squad of vigilantes and started combating crime on Omega. As a result of his good deeds, the locals call him Archangel. Garrus has been confirmed to appear in Mass Effect 2, and can be recruited as a party member in that game as well. Unlike the first game, Garrus becomes a possible romance option for a female Shepard in Mass Effect 2.

Tali'Zorah Vas Neema

Tali can be recruited on a former Quarian colony conducting research on why the planet's sun is deteriorating at an extremely rapid rate. Tali has been confirmed to appear in Mass Effect 2, and can be recruited as a party member in that game as well. Unlike the first game, Tali becomes a possible romance option for a male Shepard in Mass Effect 2.

Antagonists

Collector General

The Collector General is high ranking member of the Collectors, and the primary antagonist of Mass Effect 2. His appearance differs considerably from other Collectors, as he appears more arachnid than humanoid. Although he resides in a heavily guarded space station, far removed from the battlefield, the Collector General maintains a strong link to his troops using Reaper technology, and is capable of taking control of them at any time due to their implants. This ability also enables him to use an individual soldier as an avatar to communicate with others. The General himself appears to be at least partially controlled by the Reaper Harbinger, similar to how Sovereign manipulated Saren and Benezia in the original Mass Effect. Instructed by Harbinger to create a Human-Reaper hybrid, the Collector General orders his troops to attack human colonies in the Terminus system, kidnapping survivors and harvesting their organs. The Collector General is killed when Commander Shepard destroys his space station and he is abandoned by Harbinger moments before his death.

Harbinger

Harbinger is a Reaper, and the real mastermind behind the Collector General. His plans included the creation of a Human-Reaper hybrid. With the use of advanced Reaper technology and the implants within each Collector he is able to control the Collector General from Dark Space. After Shepard destroys both the Collector Base and the prototype hybrid, Harbinger asserts that this is a temporary setback. It is last seen awakening its fellow Reapers from hibernation.

Major characters in other media

Protagonists

David Anderson

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David Anderson

David Anderson is the protagonist of the novel Mass Effect: Revelation and mentor of the player character Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. He is voiced by Keith David.

In the novel, David Anderson is depicted as a young lieutenant who discovered the massacre at the research station on Sidon and lead the ensuing investigation into those responsible for it. Lt. Anderson is considered one of the Alliance's 'elites', having been trained in the N7 Marine program, graduating from the Arcturus Academy, as well as serving with honor in the First Contact War between the turians and the Alliance. Before he began his investigation of the massacre at Sidon, Anderson served as the Executive Officer of the SSV Hastings. During the investigation, Anderson fell in love with key witness/prime suspect Kahlee Sanders. However, they mutually agreed not to continue a romance after the investigation, in part because she was assigned to a classified scientific project, and also that their careers made marriage impossible. Anderson was capable and had been considered a suitable candidate to represent humanity in the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance (Spectre) of the Citadel. However, Saren, a turian and the antagonist of Mass Effect, blamed the failure of a mission on Anderson, effectively eliminating his chances of being selected.

In Mass Effect, David Anderson is the commanding officer of Commander Shepard, the central character. At first he commands the Normandy, but is quickly put into early retirement to give Shepard command of the Normandy. After that, he can be found on Citadel Station, beside the human Ambassador, Donnel Udina. When the Normandy is locked down by the Council, he unlocks it by either going to the Ambassador's office and overriding it, or sneaking into C-Sec and changing it there. After the Geth invasion of the Citadel, the player can choose him (regardless if the player decided to allow the Council to die or not) to become the human representative of the Council. By the time of Mass Effect 2, Anderson is promoted to the rank of Admiral in the Systems Alliance Navy.. If he was selected as the Council representative, he retains Ambassador Udina as an advisor. Anderson is happy to see that Shepard is still alive, but harbors some resentment due to Shepard's affiliation with Cerberus.

Kahlee Sanders

Kahlee Sanders is introduced in Mass Effect: Revelation, and returns in Mass Effect: Ascension; the character has yet to appear in any game. She is the daughter of Systems Alliance Admiral Jon Grissom, and participated in artificial intelligence research on the planet Sidon; it is during the events on this planet that she meets and falls in love with David Anderson, but the relationship is not pursued. A decade later, she becomes a director of the Ascension Project, which was looking into experimental techniques to improve biotics. When she discovers the Cerberus organization's ties to the Project and intentions, she becomes disillusioned and seeks to dismantle the Project.

Antagonists

The Illusive Man

The Illusive Man is introduced as the antagonist of Mass Effect: Ascension, and returns for Mass Effect 2. He is the enigmatic leader of the Cerberus organization and was responsible for Cerberus' split from the Systems Alliance military shortly before the events of Mass Effect. His ultimate goal is to elevate humanity to its "rightful place" in the galaxy.

Essentially nothing is known about the Illusive Man, except that he is most likely a business tycoon, given the apparent ocean of wealth and resources at his disposal. His demeanor is of a driven businessman, rather than the xenophobic extremist he is portrayed as by enemies of Cerberus. He is almost never met in person, and with the exception of Liara T'soni and Miranda Lawson, deals exclusively through holographic communication. His name derives from his designation in official Alliance reports, which in turn derives from an anonymous anti-alien manifesto released during the First Contact War described as "survivalist rhetoric written by an illusive man" which sparked the foundation of Cerberus.

Although he was the primary antagonist of the novel, in Mass Effect 2, the Illusive Man forms an uneasy alliance with Commander Shepard to investigate the disappearance of several human colonies, which both Shepard and the Illusive Man believe is somehow connected to the Reapers. Cerberus actively provides Shepard with information and supplies. The Illusive Man is voiced by Martin Sheen.

The Illusive Man is also the antagonist in the novel Mass Effect: Retribution.

Jath'Amon

Jath'Amon is the central antagonist of Mass Effect Galaxy. A batarian, he arrives in Citadel space to negotiate with the Council on behalf of his people. It is later discovered that he is a terrorist mastermind, and that his plan all along was to get close to the Council members and expose them to a deadly biological weapon. His plan is disrupted by Jacob Taylor, and he is arrested by C-Sec.

External links

• Mass Effect official website