Geth

From Mass Effect Wiki

The geth are a race of networked artificial intelligences that reside beyond the Perseus Veil. The geth were created nearly 300 years ago by the quarians as laborers and tools of war. When the geth became sentient and began to question their masters, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war and reduced the quarians to a race of nomads. The history of the geth's creation and evolution serves as a warning to the rest of the galaxy of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and to the legally enforced, systematic repression of artificial intelligences throughout galactic society.

[edit] History

The quarians created the geth as a cheap labour force, limiting their intelligence to keep it as low as any VI. However, they made small modifications to their programming as time passed, enabling the geth to do more difficult tasks and work more efficiently. Due to the way the geth neural network functions, the more geth the quarians built, the smarter they became. Soon, the geth became intelligent enough that one questioned its master as to whether it was really alive, and what its purpose was.

Alarmed that their creations were achieving sentience, the quarian government sent out an immediate order to shut down all geth. Their synthetic servants struck back, killing billions and driving the quarians from their homeworld in what few ships they had left. After forcing the quarians into exile, the geth isolated themselves from the rest of the galaxy in the systems beyond the Perseus Veil. The Citadel races immediately sent ships to the edges of the Veil, expecting a geth invasion would soon emerge. However, the geth made no attempt to attack and have not been seen outside the Veil for centuries. Their activities in the space beyond are a mystery.

[edit] Subtypes

A Geth Juggernaut

Over time, the geth have evolved into numerous sub-forms -- from the diminutive but highly agile Geth Hoppers, to the gigantic, lumbering Geth Armatures. The geth also utilise turrets and drones (rocket, assault, recon and repair drones specifically). It isn't clear whether these are also AIs - in the same way Geth Armatures are not just tanks but sentient machines capable of learning and problem solving - or simply controlled by the geth.

It should be stressed, however, that in all forms the geth are to be approached with extreme caution as they are universally violent.

Spoiler warning: plot and / or ending details follow.

[edit] Characteristics

Physically the humanoid geth resemble quarians - their hands, head shape and legs are similar - which is probably a holdover from their origins. They are described as having 'flashlight heads'. Geth are built of two materials, a large plastic or steel outer shell, and a kind of synthetic muscle tissue that gives Geth Hoppers their incredible agility. It is actually possible for this synthetic muscle to be grafted to organic tissue (Saren Arterius has a grafted geth arm). The geth 'bleed' a white conductive fluid when shot, but they don't have any internal organs or nervous system, so the geth don't feel hunger or pain.

Part of the geth's success is due to their neural network. The closer geth physically are to each other, the more intelligent each one becomes. Effectively, they 'share' their processing power. Geth can't share sensory data - they aren't a hive mind like the rachni - but in large groups they have more to think with. An individual geth has only a basic intelligence on par with animal instincts, but in groups they can reason, analyze situations, and use tactics as well as any of the organic races. The geth have the ability to use omni-tools, and have seemingly modified them to be able to heal synthetic wounds.

The geth are known to have strong religious sensibilities, or the synthetic equivalent. They worship a hyper-advanced but long-vanished machine race called the Reapers, which the geth see as the pinnacle of non-organic evolution. Their 'god' is Sovereign, to whom the geth offer devotions, and honour by building monuments (see below). They believe the Conduit is the key to bringing the Reapers back, and have accepted Saren Arterius as the prophet who will find the Conduit and pave the way for the Reapers' return. However, outside their obedience to Sovereign and Saren, nothing is known about the geth command structure, or even if they have one.

[edit] Combat

The key element of geth warfare is surprise. Their sudden and unexpected return from beyond the Veil after three centuries was typical. Shepard describes the geth as perfect ambushers - "they don't move, they don't make noise, they don't even breathe." Their freedom from the need to eat or sleep allows the geth to leave dormant garrison units in ambush at key positions, and the fact they don't feel pain allows them to literally drop units from overhead out of nowhere. Geth can even be packed tightly into crates and left in storage, shutting down their power sources to stay undetected. A tactic particularly favoured by the geth is to set 'distress signals' and then ambush the rescuers; they also turned the freighter MSV Cornucopia into a drifting trap.

The geth use psychological warfare in the battlefield with 'dragon's teeth'. These implements pierce the bodies of dead soldiers, turning muscle tissue into synthetic material, creating a zombie-like monster called a Husk. This severely lowers morale, as their enemy now has to kill fallen comrades.

When geth shut down, they fry their memory cores as a defensive measure, which is probably why geth haven't been successfully captured for study. However, Tali'Zorah nar Rayya was able to retrieve some of the data cache from a deactivated geth, using her quarian tech expertise and quick decisiveness.

Geth weapons and armor are of extremely high quality but difficult to find - a Geth Armory licence allows Shepard to buy them. Their weapons are pulse based.

[edit] Behaviour

The geth are reclusive and secretive. This is partly due to their synthetic nature. They have no need to interact with other races because they do not share the same goals, needs or instincts as organic species; they are not driven by the need for food or the drive to reproduce. On the other hand, they have powerful survival instincts. The geth are universally hostile toward organic life, which is not entirely unjustified; their first experience of organics was an attempted genocide at the hands of their creators, for the crime of becoming sentient.

However, the geth exhibit some strange behaviour not entirely in character with synthetic life. Their deployment of dragon's teeth to create Husks seems very inefficient but shows they understand organic physiology - not to mention the psychological effects of making soldiers fight their dead comrades. Shepard also discovered a room on Feros that seemed to act as a church or temple for the geth. Its focal point was a structure that resembled Sovereign's 'tentacles' around a glowing orb and the geth were bowing down to it. (Shepard's team found another one on Trebin, a cruder version that had been made by Husks.) Nobody, not even Tali, can explain why a synthetic life form would bother using time and resources to build something like that. Ashley Williams just shrugs it off, saying: "If the geth are looking for God, I'll happily speed them on their way."

New forms of the geth that the quarians don't recognise are beginning to appear. The best example is Geth Hoppers, which appear much more 'organic' than other geth. This has greatly interested experts in artificial intelligence. Tali notes that the geth have changed significantly since they drove the quarians into exile, and that they "blur the boundary between organic and synthetic life".

[edit] Mass Effect

Using Sovereign's influence over them, the rogue Spectre Saren Arterius commanded an army of geth in an effort to take over the Citadel and release the Reapers from dark space. The geth formed the bulk of Saren's forces, following him because they believed he had the means to find the Conduit and bring back their 'gods'. In addition to providing ground troops, the geth also crewed (or tended to) Sovereign.

However, the geth did not realise Sovereign was actually insulted by their 'pitiful devotions' and saw them merely as tools. After the Protheans broke Sovereign's hold over the keepers, and the keepers evolved so that they only accepted commands from the Citadel, the Reaper realised organic races were difficult to control. It found the geth to be suitable replacements as servants, and exploited their religious beliefs. Saren claimed that, although they were viewed disparagingly by Sovereign, the geth were valuable as tools, and would therefore survive the Reaper invasion because they were useful. The example of the geth inspired Saren to prove organic races could also be useful to the Reapers. He hoped that, instead of harvesting them, the Reapers would spare the organic races of the galaxy, even if that meant they would only survive as slaves.

Saren's plans were foiled by Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy, and Sovereign was destroyed in the battle over the Citadel. The remaining geth that were not destroyed in the assault on the Citadel continued to put up resistance and were systematically hunted down by an emergency Citadel coalition force, headed by the Alliance.