All rights go to Bioware
Mass Effect. Fear.
(You may want to listen to Adam Freeland’s Mind Killer while you read this. This was written to the nearly 11 minute long mix from area 5 of REZ called Fear if you want to get the true feeling of it. Youtube it and make sure it’s something like 10 minutes and 55 seconds, there’s another mix of it out there that is also from a REZ soundtrack CD called “Gamers’ Guide To REZ,” that’s not it. Youtube)
Setting.
The battle of the citadel was won. Sovereign, and their puppet, Saren Arterius, have been destroyed. The Heretics have retreated. The tank-bred Krogan soldiers have been eliminated along with the cure for the genophage. The council was saved. One more thing. Shepard is dead. Cerberus is hard at work tinkering at what remains of Shepard, still trying to figure out what’s flesh and what is hardsuit. Project Lazarus has a long way to go. Disjointed branches of Cerberus move in dark corners of the galaxy, conducting devious experiments. The healing process has finally begun for the Citadel. The Rachni begin to rebuild in secrecy, preparing for the day they can right the wrongs of their mothers’ soured songs. Clan Urdnot moves to unite Tuchanka. The Quarian migrant fleet rings with hushed speculation over a possible move to retake the homeworld. Rael Zorah begins taking risks using data brought home by his daughter and the debris she now sends him. Every day, more people are hurt for the sins of their kin, be it Batarian attacks on Humans, Krogan attacks on Turians, or general conflict with the Geth. Reports of human colonists going missing have been waxing. Worse still, Silently drifting closer to home, is a malevolent power mentioned in myth. Their servants are already here, hiding beyond the Omega 4 relay and moving among us, wearing our faces and hiding behind known threats. Monsters are coming to harvest us all and the only one who understands, the only one who can DO anything about it is dead. Only SHEPARD faced the servants, only SHEPARD opposed the monsters, only SHEPARD toppled a god. Why? Because only Shepard heard the Protheans’ cries.
But wait! Hold the phone! Au contraire!
It’s true that Shepard is the only one who came in contact with the beacon, but its psychic message was broadcast throughout the galaxy. Thousands of seemingly completely random people experienced the very images and emotions experienced by commander Shepard. Based on reported hallucinations, the spread of the signal has been mapped and clocked as travelling at speeds of 23,298,611,111.111c without the use of any sort of mass accelerator; exactly how is unknown. In the span of ninety earth days, the Prothean distress broadcast had covered the entire galaxy. Of the thousands of people who experienced it, very few imagined it may be more than a trick of the mind. A few clever souls tied the experience back to doomsday myths of their people, and their horsemen of the apocalypse. These eccentrics, these believers, these fearful ones now scramble to prepare for war with forces unknown.

Where you come in.

We, the Fearful, do take upon our backs the burden of understanding
And carry it from here to the end;
Resigning ourselves to the compulsion to fight,
Not from a sense of duty
But the struggle against the sensation of helplessness.
And although we have not met, and though we might not yet,
In time we will be close as blood.
So take up your spear in hand
And in the other take mine
And together we will march towards that unknown destination,
The beating heart of Fear.

- Unknown Volus poet, published via extranet 1 month after the events of Eden Prime.
Whether or not you heard the beacon, whether or not you believe the Reapers are coming, a revolution is happening around you. Where do you stand?

~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*| HOW IT WORKS |*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~

This Roleplay is designed to give you maximum freedom within a timeline that portrays the Mass Effect Milky Way as we most prominently know and love. Too many roleplays have tried the “After Shepard changed everything” approach. Make your character(s) based on the following sheet. There are no concrete rules on what you can be. You can fight for the galaxy’s survival, your race, your beliefs, your agenda, your revenge, it doesn’t matter. The beacon pulse is just an excuse to let select others know about the reapers and try to fill commander Shepard’s shoes.
If you have a well-funded organization behind you, that trusts you enough to support a wild-goose-chase like Shepard’s, it will afford you a ship and freedom. Not to say it’s the only way. You could also be backed because you have your own “Saren” to hunt.


Godspeed, good hunting, may your enemies be strong enough to keep you sharp, a prayer for the wicked, and keelah se’lai.



~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*|~*~*| Character Generation|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~|*~*~

NOTE: BEFORE I GET ANY MORE OF THESE CHARACTERS - Guys, seriously, your characters are repeatdedly looking like the Macho-Man space-marine silent-protagonist archetype that overpopulates the futuristic FPS genre. No more of that. Look at the girls! ...or at the moment, the one girl's posted prfile. It doesn't center on where her training came from or what she can blow up, or who she defeated, or WHAT SHE HAS ACCOMPLISHED. Your characcter can be ripped, and toned, and have noteworthy training, but no more of this ridiculous expression of their gamer statistics and how they are super strong and fast and can use any weapon. This is a Roleplay. The combat situations aren't affected by your statistics, only your creativity. The stronger your character is, the shorter the combat segments are. Kaboom, they're dead, I win. I've had to send at least 6 "please rework your character" PMs at this point. we're all just characters in the Mass Effect times. not necessarily super-soldiers. Also We already have a ton of stealth characters, including a ninja or two. PM me about making an original stealth class if you want one.

Update & notes - All updates will be underlined within the body of the form or written here if they are miscellaneous.
- Don't forget to put down a description of your Loyalty ability and a description of your loyalty outfit. The loyalty outfit will correspond with crew colors, so captain's choice.

To get a better emotional sense, try to post song & artist names that inspired you posts/character(s). You could also post whatever you think would fit it more.

Name:
Most races have a Given name and a Family name. Krogan have Clan name and Adopted name. Hanar have Face name and Soul name. Volus have Given name and Clan name. Quarians (I bet you know this one by now) have Given name, Family name, particle, and Vessel name. Synthetics have no name with the exception of Reapers who have their own names (I.E. Nazara). AI networks occupying a single platform will temporarily adopt a metaphorical name much like a Hanar soul name, when working closely with organics who are incapable at communicating at the speed of light, such as Legion or Sovereign. VI platforms, such as power loaders and other utility mechs have model numbers, network numbers, and registration/serial numbers. Organics would most likely refer to them by their Network number. Don’t forget to list code-names and Alias.

Race:
I won’t name ‘em. You should know them. Just go for it. Employ any sentient race you want, just please try to make them realistic to each culture. If you want to make a Reaper character, be sure to operate through an avatar, like Harbinger’s power over the collectors. It might be fun to have some Reaper adversaries and indoctrination could bring us some cool drama. Since Sovereign was supposed to be the only vanguard Reaper in the Milky Way, we don’t want too many reapers making personal appearances without a proxy. Oh, and please no Yahg characters, they are quarantined. Oh, and Raloi. Not enough data. Beware of racial combat limitations. There’s a reason you don’t see all races in combat. Now if you excuse me, Blasto is on.

Gender:
Most races have some level of sexual dimorphism. Asari, Rachni, Collectors & Hanar are unisex. In speech, Asari & Rachni are referred to in the feminine. Sex is not applicable to Synthetics. Synthetic voices (such as Hanar vocalizers, public service Vis, and mechs) can sound more masculine or feminine.

Age:
How long your character has been alive, active, undead, conscious, what have you. Earth years is fine, most garden worlds have comparable year lengths. You should already know the approximate life-span for each race. Reapers’ ages are indeterminate.

Appearance:
Pics are nice, especially when you make ‘em yourself. Non required. I’ll draw OCs if you want. I’d really love to try a group pic when we get enough characters and things.

Affiliation:
Organization(s) your character associates with. Cerberus, Aliance, Blood-pack, Council, Team Rocket, Decepticons, OZ, Planeteers, Rebel Scum, Horde, etc.

Rank/Position:
Rank within organization. Asari Matriarch, Krogan Warlord, C-sec Detective, Batarian Terrorist Leader, STG Commando, whatever. Who do you answer to? Who calls the shots and decides where you go? If you want some serious freedom, go with spectre, or justicar, or something with license to blow shit up. Keep in mind, regardless of the freedoms you have in your own culture, you will likely not have the same rights in others. Remember, if you are high enough rank, you need to assemble your own crew. If your captain is out of commission and you become the ranking officer, leaders & vessel owners reserve the right to assign their own chain of command, regardless of previous official rank. Take care to assign crew functions, such as medical officers, science officers, engineering officers, helmsmen, yeomen, navigators, gunnery officers, psychiatric councilors, village bicycle, maintenance & service (confectionary/janitorial) crew, equipment specialists, first officers, etc. For vessel owners, I will be posting ship specs and suggestions.

Class:
You can get inventive if you want. If you make up a class, tell us its focus and its special ability. If you’ve come out with a 3,000 year old Rachni Death-knight, you’ve done something wrong. There are plenty of commonly known classes for whatever race you selected out there, if you’re feeling conservative, or just lazy. For example, Asari are often things like, Matriarchs, Huntresses, Justicars, & Commandos. “Level 87 Krogan Red-Mage!” No! Shut up! D:< “Drell Sith apprentice?” *sigh*

Spoken Languages:
Languages your character can communicate in and/or understand. If not both, note which. If you can speak it, odds are you can understand it as well, but not necessarily the other way around. In this RP, the omnitool’s translator is limited to pre-programmed vocal-aural languages and is only about as effective as a fancy modern online translator. This is to say it occasionally stumbles over grammar and such. Remember, GSTL (Galactic Standard Trade Language) is there for you, use it or have another means. Sign Language, Binary, Brail, Morse-Code, Bar-Code, Semaphore, Spanish, whatever. Some Terminus-based Batarian colonies have boycotted GSTL and will only speak in their mother-tongue. Other cultures have very intricate forms of communication that the standard, unmodified omnitool would not pick up on. Things like pheromones, body language, telepathy, bioluminescence, inflection/tonal intricacies, melody, and other things. A little off topic, but if left unfiltered through a translator, the Prophets’ sermons (from Halo) sound like Gregorian chanting. I think this may be a bit like how the Rachni hear their own words. How Fucking Cool Is THAT? List languages as the number of common or uncommon dialects of a race (I.E. 4 prevalent Asari languages).

Weapons:
Now we’re getting somewhere, right? I expect one or twoish weapons plus one heavy weapon (go ahead, make ‘em up), but I’m flexible. Everybody’s gonna’ list the Carnifex and the Widow, right? It’s fine, no penalty for being uncreative. I want the Widow, myself, but it can only be wielded by the sturdier races & modified ones. I think the Phalanx is kicking more ass than the Carnifex, right now. Knives and swords and such are cool if your character can for some reason show up at a shootout with ‘em an’ come out with the same number of holes. Also a good place to take inventory of your utility belt. You know, grappling-hook, smoke-bombs, batarangs, rocket boots.

Known Tech Talents:
Tech talents your character will demonstrate or has demonstrated. Got an idea for a new tech power? Go for it!

Known Biotic Abilities:
Biotic Abilities your character will demonstrate or has demonstrated. You come up with something cool, but not godly unbeatable, I’ll be all for it. Synthetics are incompatible. Only biotic focused classes are powerful enough for the big stuff. For example let’s only see someone who is as trained or gifted as a Matriarch use things like telepathic thought-sharing.

Bio:
Motives, origin, and that. Avoid things like last survivor of Krypton or bitten by a radio-active Thresher-Maw, out to avenge the death of pet turtle. Habits, hobbies, vices, interests, online-dating profile all go here. Be sure to mention if you know someone who heard the Protheans’ call. Non-leader characters will have recruitment & loyalty mission(s) that make good opportunities for character development. Leader characters, of course, don’t have either, but they are free to fit autocentric missions into their itinerary. For drama’s sake, ask many questions of other characters, even if you might know the answer. I also support inter-player character romances. Don’t be afraid to make up names of artists your characters like or something. You can base them on existing artists to give us a feeling. Little details about your vision are useful. It was the little things that made some of the characters very sexy. For instance, every male player with a male Shepard went for Tali because of her cute accent and the adorable girl-next-door learning to soldier-up way about her. Every player with a Female Shepard went for Garrus for his plagued cowboy nature and because, well… he looks great in sunglasses and black leather dress-shoes.