"Mass Effect" - Universe [6] Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rachni War

The Citadel species found the rachni during early exploration of the galaxy, and mapping of the mass relay network. One relay led them to the rachni, which attacked. The Rachni were an incectoid species that could survive very harsh environments. They also maintained a hive mind, making their attacks extremely well coordinated. The Council was losing the war when the salarians found the krogan on Tuchanka. The krogan could also survive harsh environmental conditions, and had very violent tempers. The krogan had not achieved spaceflight, so the salarians gave it to them, uplifting the krogan from their homeworld. The Citadel Council used the krogan against the rachni. The krogan could land on harsh rachni worlds and chase them into their tunnel networks.

The krogan hunted down every last rachni that they could find, and the rachni were eventually declared extinct. The Citadel Council gave the krogan a number of worlds to settle as thanks. The uplifting of the krogan by the salarians would set the stage for the krogan rebellions a few centuries later.

Answer: Eezo

In the "Mass Effect" universe there was a substance called element zero (eezo). Running an electric current through this substance would create a field of larger density, or, by running the current in the opposite direction, would create a field of lower density. It was this effect from which the series got its name. Eezo allowed faster-than-light travel and communication, and propelled humanity forward technologically speaking (ironically, this is exactly what hidden higher powers wanted).

When humanity was still had a crude understanding of eezo, there were a few accidents. Some pregnant mothers were exposed to eezo fallout at a spaceport accident, and later their children exhibited some telekinetic capabilities. Humanity had discovered biotics, though it took them a while to link them to eezo.

Children with an affinity to biotics were taken to special camps and academies to help them control their abilities. They were implanted with bio-amps to aid in the control process, and to magnify the biotic effects.

Kaidan was a part of the early biotic training programs, and could share some of the horror stories when prompted. The "Mass Effect" codex and novels also give insight on the nature of biotics and those that underwent the training to use them.

All asari had a natural affinity for biotics, making the individuals of their military very deadly. In a few rare cases, a krogan would have a natural affinity for biotics. These krogan were very powerful and respected and feared in krogan society. Wrex was one such krogan.

Helium-3 was used as spaceship fuel in the "Mass Effect" universe. Omni-gel was a gel that could be made from almost anything (weapons, armor, upgrades), and could be used for a variety of applications, such as fixing vehicles. Kolto was a healing agent from the "Star Wars" universe, and was featured heavily in Bioware's previous title "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic".

Answer: Asari

While the asari did not have the largest and most powerful fleet of the Citadel races (that would be the turians and the humans), they did have the single strongest vessel, and the flagship of the Citadel fleet: the Destiny Ascension.

The Destiny Ascension used asari style, incorporating gentle curves and smooth surfaces. The ship had four spokes centered around a main gun. It had a crew of nearly 10 000. The Destiny Ascension was at the Battle of the Citadel, and when the geth started their attack, the Citadel council was evacuated to the massive ship.

Depending on Shepard's choices, the Destiny Ascension, along with the Council, could either have been saved or left to die.

Answer: Krogan Rebellions

After the krogan had been uplifted, they were given new planets to settle as a reward. The krogan took to colonizing very well. They could survive hostile environments, and they had an extremely large birthrate. The planets they were given were often ones that the other Citadel species could not settle anyway.

However, the krogan started expanding on their own into the territory of other species. The Council warned them to stop, but the krogan continued their expansion. Eventually war broke out. Around the same time, the turians found the Citadel. They already a massive fleet, and used it to help repel the krogan for the Citadel Council. The krogan proved to be too much for even the turians, and even the turian fleets were being pushed back.

Salarian scientists developed a solution to the krogan menace: the genophage. The genophage was a modification that altered fertility rates in the krogan, virtually destroying their ability to reproduce. With their numbers suddenly declining, the krogan soon lost the rebellions. For their help against the krogan, the turians were offered a seat on the Citadel council. From then on, the krogan remained distrustful and hateful of both salarians and turians.

Answer: The volus and the elcor

Every citadel species had an embassy, but the volus and the elcor had to share one. Even humanity, which only joined the galactic community 26 years before "Mass Effect" had an embassy to themselves (and theirs was much larger than the shared volus/elcor embassy). The volus ambassador was particularly irritated by this.

Neither the quarians nor the geth had an embassy on the Citadel, and the two species were hostile towards each other, though they generally tended to avoid encounters.

Answer: Quarians and turians

Individual amino acids are short chains consisting of two carbon atoms and a nitrogen atom. The middle carbon atom makes four bonds. One goes to the other carbon atom in the chain. A second goes to the nitrogen in the chain. A third goes to a lone hydrogen atom, and the last bond goes to what is called an R-group. The R-Group is what differentiates amino acids. It could be a simple methyl group (alanine), or a complex like a benzene ring (phenlalanine).

Because this center carbon is making four bonds, and each bond is different, this carbon can be chiral. This means that there are two possible configurations. One way to distinguish the two orientations is to label them as either dextro (right-handed) or levo (left-handed).

Life on earth has evolved to use levo-amino acids, as has life on many other worlds in the "Mass Effect" universe. The exceptions were the quarians and turians, which used dextro-amino acids. If a species ingested the wrong amino-acids (amino acids are the building blocks of proteins), then the molecules would most likely have had no effect. In the "Mass Effect" universe, it had been hinted at that there could be negative repercussions for eating foods with the wrong chirality.

Answer: Morning War

The geth fought the in the Morning War against their creators, the quarians. When the quarians realised that they had accidentally made an artificial intelligence, an act with severe consequences and illegal according to Citadel conventions, they tried to shut down the geth. However the geth had grown too smart, and defended themselves.

The war resulted in the quariens being driven from their homeworld, Rannoch. The geth took up the role of caretakers for Rannoch, cleaning up and repairing the damage from the war. A majority of geth resided in orbiting space stations. The geth called the conflict the Morning War, because they "woke up".

Answer: Krogan

There are two species in "Mass Effect" that can live to be about 1000 years: the asari and the krogan.

It was never specified just how long other species lived, but unless otherwise explicitly stated, it was seemed it was comparable to a human lifespan. Humans in "Mass Effect" were said to "be lucky if [they] made it to 150."

The salarians had the shortest lifespan of only about 40-50 years, though they only slept about an hour a day.

In "Mass Effect 2" the vorcha were introduced. They had a natural lifespan of about 20 years, but tended to die prematurely because they often worked as cannon fodder for gangs and merc organizations.

Answer: Quarians

The quarians created the geth as mechanical servants. Their individual programming was simple, and non-sentient. However, they were programmed to share processing resources when nearby. Eventually enough geth were close enough together that a rudimentary intelligence formed. The quarians became frightened at the idea that they had created an artificial intelligence (illegal in Citadel space), and tried to shut down the geth. However, the geth had grown too advanced, and rebelled in self-defense. The quarians pleaded the Citadel Council to help them contain and destroy their creations, but the Council refused, and instead stripped the quarians of their embassy on the Citadel. The resulting war between the quarians and the geth left the quarians without a homeworld, and what remained of their species began living on the Migrant Fleet.

That war was 300 years before the events of "Mass Effect". The quarians, after living for so long in the sterile environments of the fleet, grew dependent on full-body environmental suits. They also came to be regarded by the other races as beggars and degenerates. The quarian politics mostly revolved around maintaining the fleet, and whether they should find a new world to settle, or to take back their homeworld.

Answer: Turians

The turians, due to their entire militaristic society, had the largest fleet. Almost every turian was a part of the turian military, which was synonymous with the turian hierarchy.

The asari did not have the same military strength as the turians, but did boast the largest and most powerful ship in the Citadel fleet, the Destiny Ascension. The Destiny Ascension was the flagship of the Citadel fleet, and was where the council was evacuated to during the geth attack on the Citadel.

The salarians did not have much of a fleet at all. Salarian society and mindsets lent themselves to fighting wars with information and strategic strikes rather than large-scale battles. The salarians had excellent espionage rings, and always knew in advance if they were about to be attacked. Often they would mount a covert mission to prevent a war rather than let one start in the first place. The STG was the group that salarians used to perform assassinations, strategic strikes, and gather information behind enemy lines.

The humans also had a strong military, comparable to the turians. Humanity was seen as a bully because they often got what they wanted. The Systems Alliance's fleet was large enough that most species didn't want to anger humanity, or let any disagreement escalate into war.

The Systems Alliance used their fleet to protect the Citadel during the geth attack, and earned a seat on the Citadel council much the same way the turians did.

Many species were not represented in the Citadel fleet because they didn't have large military forces (like the volus), or because they were not part of the Citadel community (like the quarians and batarians).