Reaper
From Mass Effect Wiki
The Reapers are supposedly a hyper-advanced machine race worshipped as 'gods' by the geth who vanished 50,000 years ago. Mention of them was found in a data file recovered from a geth's memory core by Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. The geth believed that Saren Arterius was the prophet for the Reapers' return and that the mysterious Conduit was somehow the key to bring them back. Commander Shepard, driven by the vision from the Prothean Beacon, believed the Reapers were real but the Citadel Council, with no evidence of their existence, refused to take them seriously. According to the Council, the Reapers were just a story Saren was using to bend the geth to his will.
In fact, the Reapers are an extremely advanced race of synthetic AIs that reside in the unexplored region referred to as dark space; the empty, starless space between galaxies. They hibernate there, dormant for thousands of years before they are given the signal to return. Their origins are completely unknown. The only Reaper known to have communicated with organic life, named Sovereign, claimed that the Reapers had not been built, that they had neither beginning nor end and were the peak of evolution - "we are each a nation".
The Reapers were the original creators of the Citadel and the mass relays. They created these massive stations so that any intelligent life in the galaxy would discover and use them – all part of their ingenious scheme to harvest the galaxy’s sentient life in a repeating 50,000 year cycle that has been looping for countless millennia. While the other Reapers hibernate, a single Reaper, Sovereign, remains behind, hidden in the depths of space. This vanguard can lie in a dormant state for 50,000 years, scanning the galaxy periodically for signs that intelligent organic life has advanced far enough. At what point their advance is sufficient is unclear, but the latest victims of the genocide (see below) were harvested soon after they reverse-engineered a mass relay, so this may be the required trigger.
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[edit] The Cycle of Extinction
For reasons unknown, the Reapers (as they were dubbed by the Protheans: their true name is unknown) cull the intelligent races of the Milky Way galaxy, taking with them all technology and resources and leaving no evidence of their conquest – only desolate, barren ruins of those who came before.
The trap created by the Reapers was simple. A sentient species would develop FTL drive, but would still be limited in its speed. By leaving a network of relays capable of instant transport across the galaxy, the Reapers virtually ensured that they would be used. Placing the impressive Citadel at the hub of the relay network, the Reapers ensured that it would become the center of galactic civilization. Further, Sovereign implies that the presence of the mass relays would lead the sentient species down a predetermined route with regards to weapons and armour technology (both of which are based upon element zero technology for the Citadel races). It is probable that this reduces the possibility of organic life discovering alternative, more advanced technology and progressing down a different 'path'.
Once the sentient races have established themselves on the Citadel with the aid of the keepers - an organic race either created or enslaved by the Reapers in order to maintain the Citadel’s basic functions without revealing its secrets - the vanguard sends a signal to the Citadel, instructing the keepers to activate the station’s hidden mass relay. This opens a path between the Citadel and dark space. The Reapers then flood through, killing the leaders of the assembled species before branching out and obliterating all spacefaring life around them.
Because the Reapers first enter the galaxy at the point that they have ensured will be the center of galactic politics, information and finance, they are able to decapitate any resistance almost before the prevailing civilization has any idea what hit it. The Citadel also gives them control of the relay network, cutting off star systems from each other and destroying communications. The Reapers use the data from the Citadel to track down every settled planet and attack them, either strip-mining the worlds of resources or enslaving the populations with indoctrination and turning them into sleeper agents. Once they have harvested the galaxy, they wipe every trace of their existence from record and retreat back into dark space. Scans of the planet Klendagon in the Hawking Eta Cluster hint that the cycle has been going on for at least the last 37 million years.
[edit] Characteristics
The geth worship the Reapers as 'gods', considering them to be the epitome of independent AI. Wherever the geth become entrenched they build monuments to the Reapers that resemble the 'tentacles' on Sovereign around a glowing orb, and bow down to them. Sovereign was apparently insulted by the adoration of such simple, base synthetics, but it did see their value as pawns and possible replacements for the flawed and organic keepers.
Reapers and their technology have a strange effect on organic beings. Both Dr. Shu Qian and Edan Had'dah began acting oddly after coming into contact with a possible Reaper artifact (see Mass Effect: Revelation), and Sovereign itself produces an effect known as indoctrination. Put simply, any organic being who is aboard Sovereign for too long comes to believe the Reapers are correct in their goals and will do anything to serve them. Gradually the mind is eroded until the individual becomes a mindless slave, unless they can prove their value. Only beings of immense mental strength, such as asari matriarchs, can resist this indoctrination but even then, their resistance only lasts a short time and only forestalls the inevitable. Benezia chose to die rather than risk falling under indoctrination again, and if Saren finally rebels against Sovereign he kills himself to prevent doing any further damage to the galaxy. This indoctrination is permanent (with the single possible exception of Shiala) and is one of the most insidious weapons of the Reapers.
It should also be noted that the Reapers may not just be a race of vessel machines as we are led to believe. In the vision that Commander Shepard experienced from the Prothean Beacon there were glimpses of what looked like half machine, half organic beings harvesting the Protheans. You also catch a glimpse of one these beings mouths screaming in the vision. This would also explain why Sovereign actually has an interior and the infrastructure to carry passengers. If they were merely a race of synthetic vessels they would have no need to have the ability to transport organics, unless it is to disperse their indoctrinated slaves across the galaxy. What is also seen in this vision is what looks to be synthetic matter "growing" onto an organic surface. This hints that the dragon's teeth are in fact Reaper technology that turns organic material to synthetic, and it could hint at one of two things or both: the harvesting processes might include turning the advanced species of the galaxy to artificial life and enslaving them, or that new Reapers are "grown" out of the harvested races. If the mecha-organic Reaper theory is used, it can be postulated that, given the "billion year old genetically-engineered starship" (the 'leviathan of Dis') found on Jartar, the Reapers have existed in their present state for at least a billion years.
[edit] The Vanguard
- Main article: Sovereign
The only Reaper to be witnessed by any living intelligent being after the Protheans became extinct, was designated Sovereign. It was a colossal dreadnought, several times the size of any known vessel – even dwarfing the massive asari flagship, Destiny Ascension. At first, it was presumed to be the flagship of the rogue Spectre agent, Saren Arterius, by those who encountered it. Sovereign did act as transport for Saren and his geth minions – however, it was later discovered by Commander Shepard that it was in fact Sovereign who was truly the mastermind behind the genocide. Saren began his search for Sovereign at the end of Mass Effect: Revelation using research stolen from Dr. Shu Qian, eventually finding the Reaper near or within the Perseus Veil.
Sovereign, and presumably all Reapers, created a mind-altering effect in those who were subjected to prolonged exposure to the vessel. This process was known as indoctrination – the wills of those around Sovereign were slowly eroded until their free will (and often sanity) shattered, and they became the mindless and obedient slaves of the Reaper. It was in this way that Saren and his servants, such as Matriarch Benezia, were controlled.
Sovereign’s destructive power was unrivaled in the known galaxy; its gigantic spinal-mounted gun was able to sear through the hulls of even the largest of capital ships with trivial ease, going straight through their kinetic shields. It bore superficial resemblance to a cuttlefish, with a bulky semi-cylindrical body and a mass of metallic ‘tentacles’ extending from its front end.
[edit] The Prothean Counterattack
After the last cycle, which obliterated the Prothean empire, a cadre of elite Prothean scientists hidden on Ilos survived the genocide. They had perfected the technology of the mass relays, and using this knowledge, they constructed what they referred to as the Conduit, essentially a ‘back-door’ entrance to the Citadel that was linked to Ilos. The fate of the scientists after they went through the Conduit is unknown, but they had a plan to break the cycle of extinction. It appears to have worked; the keepers have deviated from the protocol originally set by the Reapers. They now only respond to instructions from the Citadel itself, rather than an outside signal. This greatly complicated matters for the current Reaper vanguard, Sovereign. In order to unleash its brethren from dark space, it would have to find a way to manually activate the relay from inside the Citadel. While Reapers are undoubtedly beings of terrible power and ferocity, a single Reaper would not be able to survive the combined might of the assembled Citadel races in a direct assault. So, it needed to find an agent that would lead it to the Conduit… an agent like Saren.
Fortunately, Saren was stopped by Commander Shepard and company, and Sovereign was destroyed. How long this will stall the eventual and inevitable return of the Reapers remains to be seen. Shepard knew the Reaper fleet, though dormant and hibernating, was still out in dark space and vowed to find some way to stop them. Which hints at a 2nd and maybe even 3rd game.
