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View Full Version : [Mass Effect] Using it for a fantasy premise



Kiero
2012-08-07, 06:56 AM
Here's a random idea I had which has developed a life of its own in my head. Take many of the standard species in the present "cycle" in Mass Effect and put them into a traditional fantasy type setup.

So here's the backstory. It's some 60,000 years before the time of ME1 and the height of the Citadel society we know well from the games. Consider it pre-history of the series, if you will. It's the pinnacle of Prothean Empire, they command all they survey in the galaxy. Their military is unbeatable, all opposition has fallen before them and been integrated into the Empire. Their scientists probe the very depths of all that is known and bring the fruits of those endeavours back to bring further glory.

One such group of scientists are xeno-anthropologists studying primitive species who might one day be worthy of joining the Empire. In order to get extensive, longitudinal data on said species, they've taken a habitable world (liberated from it's original inhabitants who foolishly tried to resist to their last) and populated it with a number of primitives.

That was several millenia ago and the primitives have grown their populations, formed nations and advanced their technology to a sustainable but low, basic level. They've mastered metallurgy, agriculture and animal husbandry. They have no idea that their very existence is at the behest of the Prothean Empire and have nothing beyond superstitious beliefs and rudimentary mathematical understanding of the galaxy beyond their world.

Small adjustments were made over the course of the experiment. Only the long-lived, blue-skinned, monogendered species have naturally-occurring biotics. Analysis revealed many of the other species have the potential with surgical augmentation. So a small-scale programme of uplifting both key individuals and randomly selected, but suitable candidates were extracted for uplift and returned to observe the impact.

Furthermore, it was necessary early in the experiment to adjust the extremely high fertility of the large, aggressive, reptilian species to prevent them overrunning the entire planet. This was coupled with placing them in the less viable, more hostile regions to act as a natural bulwark against expansion.

So there we have it, the various species of the Mass Effect universe all intermingled in a fantasy setting. Note that while biotics takes the place of magic, it is not changed or expanded out to fill out that role. It is just as limited as it is in the games, though that still covers a lot of stuff.

Humans are the majority in terms of numbers, but varying greatly in their position. They rule some kingdoms, are slaves or the underclass in others, rove the borders of civilisation as "barbarians" in other places still. I'm not so sure what roles you might see some of the other species in.

I'd imagine the asari are a significant power (but relatively small in population), possibly with advisors in many/most courts and small enclaves in major population centres. Maybe the odd kingdom headed by an asari dynasty where they're not happy to merely guide the affairs of other species.

So we have the asari in the sort of role you'd expect the elves to fulfil. Maybe the krogan are like dwarves (if much taller!) or ogres. Turians; hmmm, maybe I should just drop the trad-fantasy analogues and just assume they're going to be different. There's no volus, the Protheans didn't want to completely rebuild their respiratory systems to be suitable for oxygen-breathing.

I wonder if they might have altered the turians and quarians so they can eat the same food as everyone else (rather than perform some weird terraforming to make the world dual-compatible). Or should we leave those two out altogether?

Who's with me on this crazy ride?

Adam...?
2012-08-09, 11:43 AM
Looking at the species in Mass Effect and fitting them to fantasy analogues is actually a pretty interesting idea. Here's some more thoughts on that.

Krogan definitely strike me as more Ogre-like than Dwarf-like. They definitely have the big and violent thing down for that. I'd also imagine that even with the pseudo-genephage keeping their numbers down, they'd still have the military power to conquer most of the world if they weren't so busy fighting amongst themselves. In the Mass Effect universe, being in the same room as an angry Krogan is bad news, even if you have a high-tech shotgun and the Krogan is unarmed. Yeah, part of that is probably due to the armor and kinetic shields, but these guys are still going to be ****in' terrifying if the best you can bring against them are swords or crossbows.

Asari as elf-analogues actually makes a lot of sense. They've got the long lifespans down, and with that the wisdom and a knack for long-term planning. Also, they're generally considered graceful, which seems to mesh well with DnD encouraging them towards combat with rapiers and longbows. Obviously, they don't have the same nature affinity elves generally have, but besides that it's a pretty good fit. Oh, and they don't have pointy ears, but maybe head tentacles is a close approximation?

Turians are a little harder to pin down, but I'd say they're probably closest to dwarves. Mostly because they have a strong tendency towards lawful, what with their hierarchy-type military society and strong senses of honor and public service. No beards, no ale, no mining (although that could be a pretty logical jump to make, if you wanted to), but their culture is at least pretty dwarfy.

Salarians are kind of a weird one. I'm pretty sure there's no real fantasy equivalent for a short lived, intelligent race with a knack for espionage.

Quarians are also weird, in that they're mostly defined by sci-fi themes. They crated AI, were kicked from their homeworld, and are great with technology and salvaging ships. You could equate them with any traditionally nomadic race, but that's about as far as the comparison would extend. But now that I think of it, in a fantasy setting, they could be interesting as a seafaring race, maybe?

Korivan
2012-08-09, 11:48 AM
look up "Mass Craft". Someone made a pdf that runs a pen/paper version of mass effect using a more current timeline. You could adopt it for your purpases easily enough (especially since the tech never advances past me1 before being reset.)

Yora
2012-08-09, 12:36 PM
After worrying a long time over giving the lizardfolk for my setting a background that is not Aztecs, I eventually settled on Turians. They are just the right blend of being pragmatic and disciplined, while finding the humor enemies trying to start a fight with them. :smallbiggrin:

I was always considering to let Salarians influence the outlook and mentality of gnomes, which are inquisitive and prefer to avoid direct confrontation, but not being a comic relief race and being able to be quite nasty and ruthless when it is neccessary and unexpected. There are not many other references to use as orientation when designing such a race.

And insect-geth. Maybe a race of humanoid snails.

Also Ilos is a great reference for the ruins of fey people that left their castles and moved back to the spiritworld, allowing primitive humanoids to come out of the stone age.

And the Collector Base is the city of a race of insect people. The architecture is already perfect, just remove the levitating platforms.

Quarians are also weird, in that they're mostly defined by sci-fi themes. They crated AI, were kicked from their homeworld, and are great with technology and salvaging ships. You could equate them with any traditionally nomadic race, but that's about as far as the comparison would extend. But now that I think of it, in a fantasy setting, they could be interesting as a seafaring race, maybe?
Alchemists! Who experimented with ways to turn simple animals into more autonomous working animals suited for more complex task with minor supervision. Like giant snails. :smallbiggrin:
And the animals became way too smart and kicked them out. Now they are confined to a few remote island colonies that are horribly overcrowded, so lots of them travel the seas (maybe on Elemental Vessels like from Eberron) desperately trying to get the islands supplied with food by selling their services as alchemists.

Kiero
2012-08-10, 03:48 AM
Looking at the species in Mass Effect and fitting them to fantasy analogues is actually a pretty interesting idea. Here's some more thoughts on that.

Krogan definitely strike me as more Ogre-like than Dwarf-like. They definitely have the big and violent thing down for that. I'd also imagine that even with the pseudo-genephage keeping their numbers down, they'd still have the military power to conquer most of the world if they weren't so busy fighting amongst themselves. In the Mass Effect universe, being in the same room as an angry Krogan is bad news, even if you have a high-tech shotgun and the Krogan is unarmed. Yeah, part of that is probably due to the armor and kinetic shields, but these guys are still going to be ****in' terrifying if the best you can bring against them are swords or crossbows.

Asari as elf-analogues actually makes a lot of sense. They've got the long lifespans down, and with that the wisdom and a knack for long-term planning. Also, they're generally considered graceful, which seems to mesh well with DnD encouraging them towards combat with rapiers and longbows. Obviously, they don't have the same nature affinity elves generally have, but besides that it's a pretty good fit. Oh, and they don't have pointy ears, but maybe head tentacles is a close approximation?

Turians are a little harder to pin down, but I'd say they're probably closest to dwarves. Mostly because they have a strong tendency towards lawful, what with their hierarchy-type military society and strong senses of honor and public service. No beards, no ale, no mining (although that could be a pretty logical jump to make, if you wanted to), but their culture is at least pretty dwarfy.

Salarians are kind of a weird one. I'm pretty sure there's no real fantasy equivalent for a short lived, intelligent race with a knack for espionage.

Quarians are also weird, in that they're mostly defined by sci-fi themes. They crated AI, were kicked from their homeworld, and are great with technology and salvaging ships. You could equate them with any traditionally nomadic race, but that's about as far as the comparison would extend. But now that I think of it, in a fantasy setting, they could be interesting as a seafaring race, maybe?

Krogan would definitely be extremely tough when you don't have anything beyond blades, arrows and biotics to take them down.

Batarians as the orc-analogue? Or perhaps hobgoblin-analogue (since they've got the strict, disciplined society thing).

To be honest, I wouldn't be that bothered by quarians just not being included. However, I know there's people who'd play them by preference.


look up "Mass Craft". Someone made a pdf that runs a pen/paper version of mass effect using a more current timeline. You could adopt it for your purpases easily enough (especially since the tech never advances past me1 before being reset.)

I don't need system recommendations, I already have one I'm actually playing and several alternatives that I like. This is purely a setting-type thread.