Category: Episode Enneagrams

We’re still on the Citadel, trying to prove that Saren has gone rogue. In the process of digging up clues, though, we assemble the rest of the team. Garrus the Turian is doing his own independent investigation, and when we find him he rolls in. Wrex, a Krogan badass, is ready to join us. And Tali, a Quarian who always wears her head mask, has information we need.

While on her Pilgrimage, a Quarian tradition, Tali disables a Geth and accesses its memory core. There she finds proof that Saren is working with them. When we take her and her recording to the Council, they finally declare Saren a rogue and grant our Shepard Spectre status so that we can hunt him down. Hopefully we’re now ready to leave the station and begin our adventure.

Tali delivers much information that isn’t completely relevant at this point, but we should keep it in reserve:

Saren seeks the Conduit, a form of Prothean technology like the Beacon. Then we’re introduced to the idea of the Reapers, an advanced machinist species that wiped out the Protheans 50,000 years ago. The Geth revere the Reapers as gods, and Saren is presenting himself as the Reapers’ prophet, and the one who can bring them back. Working with him (identified on the recording) is Matriarch Benezia, a powerful Asari elder.

Also, something mostly irrelevant until Mass Effect 2, Wrex explains about the genophage. The Salarians infected the entire Krogan race with it and now his people, unable to reproduce, are dying out.

We dock at a flying city, the Citadel. It’s the hub of galactic civilization, the home of the Council. (The Galaxy Council? The Universe Council? Three races represent the three Council seats and humans aren’t one of them.)

We’re here to complain about Saren and ask that the Council revoke his Spectre status. Instead, Saren deflects any blame and makes us look like whiny babies. We’ll need more proof to convince the Council.

Mostly we’re here to introduce ourselves to the world-building. All the races have ambassadors here, so we meet Elcor (the elephantine creatures who tell you their feelings aloud with no passion), the Volus (small, round creatures who breathe through a mask apparatus and work back-end finance deals), the Hanar (pink jelly tentacle creatures who speak in the third person), and, of course, the powerful Asari (blue-skinned women who live a long time), and the lizard-like and super-brainy Salarians. Turian, Asari, and Salarian are the Council members.

We have the opportunity to load up on side missions that basically deliver flavor and immersion. It works, but the fighting is at a minimum, which can get boring.

There’s nothing we can do for Nihlus. A dockworker saw the whole thing and tells us about this other Turian, Saren. On we go, fighting our way to the spaceport and the Beacon. However, Saren’s there first.

A cut scene shows Saren approach the Beacon and get caught in its beam. He leaves before we can arrive.

After we clear the landing area, we’re alone with the Beacon. Kaidan, curious, approaches. It tries to grab him in its beam. I knock him aside and end up caught in the beam myself. Visions of Geth and destruction are shown to me until I pass out and collapse. When I awaken, I’m back on the Normandy. Kaidan and Ashley brought me in. Doc clears me for duty. I really don’t want to tell anyone about my dreams — they sound so childish and unspecific — but we’re on our way to the Citadel to report our experience to the Council.

Meanwhile, in a cut scene, we see Saren on his ship (that threatening claw from earlier). He has an associate, The Matriarch, who discusses me, the Normandy, and my superior, Captain Anderson. That I’ve accessed the Beacon makes Saren . . .

. . . unhappy.

One of my crew, a young and enthusiastic lad, is killed immediately. As Kaidan and I continue on mission, we find another soldier, Ashley, fighting frantically to save herself. The enemy? Geth, a synthetic AI species created by the Quarians. 

They rebelled, driving their makers into exile, and then disappeared behind the Perseus Veil (great name, no idea what it means) 200 years ago. Their backstory doesn’t really matter. because they’re here to impale humans on metal spikes and turn them into zombie-like husks.

I’d like to try looking at the Story Enneagram of another game, and the grandaddy awaits, Mass Effect. Can I do it? I bought myself the Legendary Edition, all three games, and I haven’t played in years, so I have a tiny feeling of freshness and a large feeling of nostalgia. The minute that menu music started playing, I teared up. This and Dragon Age were my first RPGs. Let’s try!

Backstory begins. We’re told that humans in the year 2148 discovered alien ruins on Mars that jumped our space-faring civilization forward. We now have the plans — I think? — to build a relay machine, the Mass Effect. Yet, the universe and many alien races already use this technology, so Mass Effect relays are spread about the cosmos.