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?
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?