I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the Raloi, the bird race who were discovered between Mass Effect 1 and 2 but retreated to their home world and attempted to play dumb hoping the reapers would ignore them. I’m hoping we get to meet them in the next mass effect game.
@@MrHulthen I’d definitely be a good video to make seeing as you only learn about them from the crawl text on the Cerberus Network which doesn’t even exist anymore. Everyone I talk to about it has never heard about it.
Too bad Humanity did not follow suit, @@cbhensoncbhenson5515. I figure the Yahg would also be spared despite already being a spacefaring species. At least that is what I understand from the Shadow Broker DLC. Maybe that bird species had prior knowledge of the Reapers. If so they may had done literally whatever it took to make it seem as though they are a poor primitive species not worthy to be Harvested.
I've seen volus biotic god corps, drell infiltrator, quarian engineers in previous mass effect. But where's Elcor walking tank, and hanar...troopers 🙃🤣 ?
Yeah Elcor are said to be artillery capable of going toe to toe with a non biotic Krogan. I want that as a party member. Hanaar have a planetry defence grid.
Technically your Ryder didn't implant themselves but it's a good point. The Initiative would be easy for the Reapers to control except the Krogan who flat refused to get implemented.
The biggest tell that the Star Child was truly sapient is that it developed the one condition that is typically only common amongst intelligent life; It was completely insane. That really does explain a lot of it thinking. Listening to it explain its reasoning, it sounds like the ravings of a madman...because that's exactly what they are, the ravings of a madman. I think that's what's scariest about the whole concept of the Reapers as a whole. The only thing scarier than a race of angry, neigh-invincible machine-gods, as a race of angry, neigh-invincible machine-gods under the direct control of someone/something that has gone completely stark-raving mad.
Nah, it's just bad writing. The Reapers original motivation for harvesting organics had something to do with dark energy and entropy and there are moments in ME2 that hint towards this (like the star Haelstrom prematurely going supernova) but the plot was scrapped by Mac Walters for ME3 because he's a hack. The head writer for ME1 and 2 was much better and Walters was just riding on that success
Exactly, @@antonironstag5085. I deeply hate ME3's multi-colored endings. Such crap each and every one of them. The Synthesis Ending is by far the worst ending of all. I also detest the fact ME3's writers circlejerked each other pretty much saying in multiple interviews over the years that ME3 was pure genius and/or similar BS.
See, I didn't gather that the catalyst was insane, what it seemed to me was the quintessential example of the divide between synthetics and organics. The catalyst was presented with a problem, and given a mandate to solve that problem. What it lacks is the context of suffering. It was told to preserve life in the galaxy, and to identify the underlying threat to that preservation. The catalyst found that the threat was an inherent problem of the system, not an external issue that can be separately resolved. It reasoned - rightly or wrongly - that the only means by which life could be preserved on the whole would be to prevent this problem from ever arising, like tipping out a full bucket as it fills and splashes everywhere. The issue at hand when speaking to the catalyst, the thing that it conspicuously does not address, is the suffering endured by those being harvested. It lacked a fundamental understanding of the experience of being organic, and thus could not identify the suffering it caused as a reason not to use its solution.
The statues depicting the Inusannon were originally supposed to represent the Protheans. Heard Bioware had to change the lore when they decided to make the Collectors modified Protheans
We need a Mass Effect game set during the Prothean Empire or pre-prothean Empire, during their conquest. Generally just any cycle pre- Reapers, with focus on the many different races and the political landscape.
I disagree. Mass Effect was always about a looming threat and the desperate hope to beat the odds. If we played a prothean during their empire, we would already know the outcomes of everything that happens. That's why prequel storied almost always suck. If you know how it all ends, there's never any real tension.
An animated mini-series with about six 90-minute episodes. Each one covering major events from Mass Effect lore would be great. 1) Humans discover the Relays. 2) Human/Turian war. 3) Reaper creation. 4) Qurian/Geth conflict and exodus. 5) Asari discover Citadel. 6) Salarians release genophage.
The think for that, it would have to be a comic. Without humanoid characters, there wouldn't be broad interest (besides hardcore Mass Effect fans) to invest millions on production. Check out some of the comics if you haven't. They're really good.
If the Reapers main goal was to preserve biological life and prevent A.I. from becoming too advanced, I would imagine they had/have catalogues and samples of DNA from all species of previous cycles. I never thought about it before, but ME4 could easily expand on that concept, reviving many of these extinct alien races, especially if this is many years after ME3.
The reapers are a combined form of synthetic and organic life forms. They store the genetic and biological material from species that they harvest, thereby preserving and “saving” organics from being utterly destroyed.
I forget the name of the species but the were supposedly sort of Bird like in the face. They had been discovered by the Elcor but it was the Asari intervention that allowed them to advance their technology. When the Reaper invasion began they destroyed all of their satellites and some other technology in hopes that the reapers would see them as too primitive to harvest and just move on.
@@MrHulthen Don't forget to mention the last individual of the species who breathes a mix of air and krypton and was saved by the alliance. Yes reference to superman.
I just finished Mass Effect 3 and, if I remember correctly Javik implies the Densorin were able to study these concepts that far exceeded Prothean understanding because Leviathan, or at least a Leviathan, was controlling them, like those miners on that asteroid where Garneau found an artifact
I had no idea the statues on ILOS weren't Prothean! I always assumed that the statues were the initial design, and then when the collectors origins were devised, they changed the prothean design ti Javick. Great vid
That would be because they were meant to be prothean originaly, then it was all retconed. In ME1, they were meant to be prothean originaly (that was confirmed by an artist and ou cna see in concept art booklet that these were quite entended to be the rogiinal concept for prothean). Then by ME2 they made the collector and decided they were tranformed prothean then made javik for ME 3 and since the appearance was compellty different, they made an explanationf for why the statues looked so diffeent.
What was the race that developed & shot a giant kinetic weapon so powerful that it disabled the reaper in me2 that you retrieved the iff from, and left a scar on a planet visable from space? That was impressive.
Another great video my friend! I always love reading all the descriptions of the different planets in every system you visit. Trying to flesh out and imagine what these extinct alien races were like has always been fascinating. I also love diving into the lore and reading all the codex entries on everything. I'm kind of a nerd that way. There is so much that BioWare can do with this universe! Can't wait for the next entry!
At this point, there’s need to at least be an animated short about these races and their conflict with each other and the Reapers, with the Protheans at the center of it all. There’s so much wonder and lore behind it all that it’d be a shame not to traverse into the worlds that came before Earth in Mass Effect.
There was a race described in Cerberus Network DLC that was more like an Avian humanoid species. Much more so than the Turians. They had been welcomed into Galactic Society, but severed all ties and all Spaceflight Tech once they heard about the Reaper threat, thinking that the Reapers would deem them to primitive to harvest. The Raloi or something.
I want to thank you for this video. I call myself a lore squirrel, but these little bits... are off the beaten path. Still, you jogging my memory is actually going to help me with my magnum opus Mass Effect fanfic... which is an "Reaper-Free" universe re-write, and is already longer than LOTR. The whole part about the Zha'Til, Oravores, Metacon war... I can use those as basis (with a few minor tweaks) to explain how the Protheans in my universe went extinct, even without the Reapers. Also, given that the Protheans COULD cause a star to go nova, somehow.... does give me an idea for how to explain the prematurely aging Dholen (the star of Haestrom). I shall say no more. But I will give you MAD thanks for getting my mental gears grinding.
The inosamon images famous in me1 strongly remind me of what happened to the scion , could the status be of reaper blended enemies as a warning to future races maybe these twisted shapes be the equivalent of the banshees like saren chose to blend
Amazing..i didn't know any of this, even tho i played the trilogy multiple times. It would be super cool if at some point we actually got a prequel in some other cycle with totally new ideas. Even thought we would know the Reapers would wipe them out eventually, it could be an incredible story nevertheless. Kind of like Halo : Reach. In that game we very well know from the beginning what will happen at the end of the game, but it's still an epic journey.
We need a new mass effect game where we play as the protheans or one of these ancient races fighting and inevitably getti destroyed by the reapers, kinda like Halo Reach vibes
This was brilliant, thank you, now I'm even more eager to replay the series. 😉👍👌 One little thing though, if I may - sometimes transitions/cuts between scenes are too fast, kinda forces me to pause a video from time to time. I understand it's mostly for a reason, just letting you know that it might be a bit distracting from a flow 😉
I wish we could get comics or some origin source material in the future, about the lost species civilizations, it would be more like "The Lost Age cycles" or "Lost cycles of ancient species"
Sort of makes me wonder if there was a cycle of races that wiped themselves out before the Reapers arrival. That would be interesting. Or what if some of the aliens from Andromeda are actually from our galaxy as well. They just fled the Reapers 50,000 years ago or more and their civilization reset.
Even if thats not the case that would be a great excuse for the random intelligent alien race evolving along a similar path to all the milky way species.
I would love to some of these races come back again like how the human and other Species left the Milky Way to live past the reapers it would be cool seeing them return I honestly always loved having a prothean, I think having some of the dead races return would be good for the Series, they could make it so we have to fight them or something
From what we learned about the cycle process during the trilogy, each Reaper ship represents a species that had been harvested. Each ship carries the DNA of that species, so in theory the Protheans, Adjutant and all those that came before could be restored. That would create chaos and could make for a good story if done right.
I have to disagree with the Catalyst being labelled a liar, throughout the main story, the Organic/Synthetic conflict needed no motivation from the Reapers; they had no issue declaring war on each other before the Arrival when you've seen it happen over and over constantly, you don't need to prove it to anyone when you are going to harvest them anyway. The Metacon War was a direct cause of the Reapers to make their harvest easier.
There are no references that the Reapers would’ve caused the Metacon war. And the Geth war was certainly started by the Quarians both originally, 3 centuries ago, and now in ME3. But regardless, we can have the nicest, most peaceful synthetics, EVENTUALLY there will be one which is hostile, and way more advanced. Organic evolution is limited, unlike synthetic evolution. Also the Reapers don’t need a “reason” for the harvest. They just come and wipe out all. They don’t intend to persuade us that they are right. They don’t even normally communicate with people. Vast majority of the extinct races never even knew why it is happening.
My thoughts about those species and their fan art: Arthen: Bald headed space Gorillas. Densorin: The eyes remind me of the Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) Inusanon: Creepy tentacle faced people. Oravores: The children of Drell and Twilek. Thoi'Han: Protoss who lived a live as a bodybuilder. Zaioph: pretty cool Insectoid-bird hybrid Zha'Til: Strange cyborg-people who turned into the cybernetic version of the Zerg.
I truly hope Mass effect 4’s protagonist would be Shepard again, otherwise not really interested. However a spin-off could be also great, having the focus on the protheans.
The reapers are hypocrites. I love how the reapers were supposedly harvesting organics to stop the conflict between organics and synthetics, but they go out of their way to encourage synthetic beings to turn on organics every chance they get, the zha’til and the geth being good examples. I agree the catalyst was extremely faulty.
One complaint for this video - I would have loved to see sources for each of these aliens, are they mentioned in some games' dialogue, codex, maybe in some non-game material, like novels or comics? Also what about Raloi species
They are all mentioned in the codex, and Javik speaks about them (if you have the Ashes DLC for ME 3 and take him on the Normandy). The pictures are artist's interpretation of what these species looked like Raloi aren't extinct , they just destroyed their satelites and orbital stations so the Reapers think they are primitive and don't attack them
The Catalyst wasn't faulty. When the Reapers forced war between synthetics and biologicals they only accelerated what was inevitable. The Geth/Quarian conflict is just one more indicator to this. Because the synthetics, in this case the geth, were not the ones who started the war. Look, there is this highly underrated and misunderstood scene at the end of Matrix 3 where the architect and the oracle talk to each other. "How long will this peace last?" - "As long as the humans allow it to last". There will always be biologicals that can't accept equal co-existence with "things" they build. And so if the machines are intelligent enough to realise that they are either to submit or to be destroyed and if they are self-aware enough not to want any of those, there will always be war. So the catalyst is right and the only real ending for the game is Synthesis. Every other ending is just postponing the (next) war between synths and bios to somewhere in the future.
Yes, that’s why they made it the ultimate paragon ending, which requires the highest war asset, and highest paragon score. It creates the “perfect” utopia. It was always meant to be the “best” option. But the other two options are also clever, because all of them can be perceived as best, based on our mindset.
@@juzoli Well, when you look up the "Best Ending ME 3", you'll almost always find Destruction with a high enough war asset that you see a glimpse of Shepard being alive. They kind of forget that without the mass relays he will never again meet with his crew who left the system in the last second. It's even quite unlikely that he survives at all because he was heavily injured and the people on earth will have a lot of other things to do than to check the whole citadel for survivors. But hey, if people like that perspective... They are free to chose that. By the way: There is a fourth ending: Continuing the cycle. The reaper will then be stopped by the next civilisation thanks to Liaras blackboxes... But I don't know if anyone thinks that is the best ending. ^^
@@ThamiorSilberdrache We don’t know if the next civilization succeeds. Probably not… We just know that Liara left a message… Destruction is the most popular ending, not the best. It might be the best for Shepard, and we like Shepard, that’s the confusion. Also Destroy is the best ending if we want to continue the story in ME4. I want to live in a perfect utopia, but a game based on it would be very boring:D
@@juzoli Of course we know that the next civilisation suceeds. It's what the Epilogue says. Or at least as I know it, maybe you'll have to achiev a certain war asset score for them to say that...
Where exactly does the info about the Zha'Til come from? I only remember Javik mentioning the Metacon War and something about the Zha'Til getting controlled by their AI implants. I don't think he ever mentions that the Reapers were responsible.
What? Not even a "runner-up" award for the 8000+ year-old starship with a race of virtual aliens discovered by Jordan Detweiler? It was on the Cerberus network news and everything!
The Oravores are the "Jealous Gods," to which Liara referred. In Asari Mythology, the Goddess Athame, a Prothean(s) perceived as a Goddess whose image began to resemble the Asari over time, rather than the Protheans, protected the early Asari from "Jealous Gods." The Protheans, who were studying Asari and Thessia (Asari homeworld), not unlike the Protheans studying Earth from Mars, discovered the Oravores' plan to strip Thessia of its resources. Javik said that the Protheans, aka "Athame," pitied the Asari and saved them from the Oravores, aka Jealous Gods. The Protheans also cultivated and guided the progression and evolution of the Asari, as well as other alien races.
There's a pronunciation for Athame provided in game by Liara in 3 if you bring her to the Asari temple. Only bring it up since it'd different than both ways you said it.
When i first been to the planet with the tentical aliens, i was just amazed, the look and atmosphere, was so alien... Also is it me, but does the orobors look sorta like the ungarin (prob spelled wrong)
I think the Densorin are more of an analogue to the Carthaginians than the Mayans or Aztecs - they’re in the middle of an ongoing war with another superpower, they’re a highly technologically advanced society, and they commit mass sacrifice of children in a time of conflict, and celestial mechanics could be an analogy to the unparalleled Phoenician seafaring.
One of the things I never totally understood about Mass Effect story is the games take place in the Milky Way Galaxy and when an alien race evolves enough the Reapers come back to wipe them out. The Leviathan seem to be god like beings who created the reapers but do the reapers only wipe out advanced life in the Milky Way or in the universe. The game makes it seem like only in our galaxy cause it can take thousands of years before the reapers wipe out whatever advance races are around at that point. Maybe they only deal with the Milky Way and there are other leviathans for other areas of the universe and maybe other reapers for other galaxies. It is never really explained from anything I’ve seen, heard, or read.
The biggest problem with the catalyst is that it's a VI not an AI. It's been harvesting life for over a billion years and it's still looking for a solution to a problem given by its creator eons ago and it still tries the same solution. It has the same reasoning as Avina and the VI on Noveria.
The Densorin. The race who gave up their own children to pacify the Reapers. That failed and only made the harvest faster and easier. It was mentioned that the Densorin's technology was even beyond the Protheans' technology.
I don't think the Reapers intentionally caused conflict between synthetics and organics so they would need to do harvest the galaxy. When talking to "the intelligence" or the child during the ending of mass effect 3, it talks about trying to achieve synthesis in previous cycles but states "it is not something that can be forced. I assume that's what they tried during the Prothean era but instead caused the Metacon war and therefor had to complete the harvest
The Protheans probably could have defeated the Reapers if A. they weren't just recovering from a long war. And B. If they actually took the Reaper threat seriously from the start and consolidated their assets immediately instead trying to defend everything at the same time.
I am not sure you were correct about the Zha'til at the end there. I am pretty sure the Protheans claimed victory in the metacon war long before the reapers appeared to wipe them out so the Zha'til couldn't have been the same synthetics that they fought in the metacon war. As the Zha'til were not corrupted until after the Reapers invaded. I am pretty sure the Synthetics that the Protheans fought during the Metacon war are unnamed.
Most races are converted into genetic code by the Reapers. So that The Reapers can continue to develop. Which can be read in Mass Effect 2 during main quest. Every extinct race, in fact, is not extinct but forced to become the next reaper. That is terrible end and fate of every race that had fought against the reapers
It’s kinda bogus that the reapers want to harvest because organic fight synthetics when there are examples of organic sand synthetics working together and some times merging (virtual aliens). I know BioWare had to rush the ending but why would it be so blatantly obvious that the reapers logic is wrong? In most of our play throughs, the worked with the Geth. The real ending should’ve been us proving that the reaper logic is flawed.
One correction the morning war was not caused by the reapers. The quarian started the war fearing a geth rebellion when a geth asked does this unit have a soul.
The asari don't actually look like that. They are powerful biotics naturally and emit something like a field that makes them look like them, but attractive to you. So everyone sees them slightly differently. The ones we saw was their power making them look as attractive as they could be to shepherd
Interesting, they should have in the new ME game a Systems Alliance that is focused on not being the underdog again, an Alliance that goes back to its roots a humanity centered around ingenuity advancement and relevance, a humanity similar to the cold War United States and Soviet Russia and part of that is research and development of all Prothean caches and exploring those systems where the other ancient species inhabited adding that knowledge to humanity. It's funny how the species the Orovores? (Whichever one fought the densoron ) favor the Kett. Also cerberus should be brought back either as apart of the new Systems Alliance now called the Unified Systems Alliance (ikr) as their version of DARPA or they create a new faction of humanity who felt as if the HSA didn't do enough to protect them ,just an idea. Also in one of those systems they rediscover a relay nexus that have the first found intergalactic relay that connects to Andromeda and to the planet where the events of Anthem takes place. Bioware should focus on uniting these franchises into one universe and from there a wealth of stories comics games television movies will come
The first races planet wasn't killed by something unknown...you said it suffered several "kinetic impacts." This tells us that it was likely hit by an object from space that caused an extinction level event.
I like to imagine the Reapers were horrified by the species that killed their own children and thought: “nah……that’s fucked up man.” Then they killed the aliens.
The Pathfinders in Andromeda literally turned themselves into the Zha'Til by interfacing and implanting a mutually beneficial AI. The Reapers were right. The cycles continue.
I wonder if there's some connection between the Thorian and Thoi'Han, perhaps the Thorian came from the same planet they came from? Maybe the similarity in name is more than coincidence?
@@badusernam Ah indeed. At first glance from a distance, I thought it was one of the Yahg species (shadow broker before Liara) but upon closer inspection I saw it was in fact the Ogre from Dragon Age.
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the Raloi, the bird race who were discovered between Mass Effect 1 and 2 but retreated to their home world and attempted to play dumb hoping the reapers would ignore them.
I’m hoping we get to meet them in the next mass effect game.
I might make a new version of this video as people seem interested :)
@@MrHulthen I’d definitely be a good video to make seeing as you only learn about them from the crawl text on the Cerberus Network which doesn’t even exist anymore.
Everyone I talk to about it has never heard about it.
@@cbhensoncbhenson5515 I do remember this! There was a also a race that uploaded themselves to a sphere, right?
@@cbhensoncbhenson5515 It’s actually mentioned over the news loudspeaker in ME3
Too bad Humanity did not follow suit, @@cbhensoncbhenson5515. I figure the Yahg would also be spared despite already being a spacefaring species. At least that is what I understand from the Shadow Broker DLC. Maybe that bird species had prior knowledge of the Reapers. If so they may had done literally whatever it took to make it seem as though they are a poor primitive species not worthy to be Harvested.
I've seen volus biotic god corps, drell infiltrator, quarian engineers in previous mass effect. But where's Elcor walking tank, and hanar...troopers 🙃🤣 ?
We need Blasto as an actual squadmate!
Yeah Elcor are said to be artillery capable of going toe to toe with a non biotic Krogan. I want that as a party member.
Hanaar have a planetry defence grid.
@@kyleellis9177 man I wish I can see rhose elcor in action, cuz they're pack a punch.
@@kyleellis9177 We will need a slow walk button for that:D
@@juzoli or lease and wheels.
Implanted themselves with symbiotic AI technogy.
"Ryder, this area can be mined for resources."
Ryder = Swarm confirmed 😂
lol xD XD
Technically your Ryder didn't implant themselves but it's a good point. The Initiative would be easy for the Reapers to control except the Krogan who flat refused to get implemented.
The biggest tell that the Star Child was truly sapient is that it developed the one condition that is typically only common amongst intelligent life; It was completely insane. That really does explain a lot of it thinking. Listening to it explain its reasoning, it sounds like the ravings of a madman...because that's exactly what they are, the ravings of a madman. I think that's what's scariest about the whole concept of the Reapers as a whole. The only thing scarier than a race of angry, neigh-invincible machine-gods, as a race of angry, neigh-invincible machine-gods under the direct control of someone/something that has gone completely stark-raving mad.
Nah, it's just bad writing. The Reapers original motivation for harvesting organics had something to do with dark energy and entropy and there are moments in ME2 that hint towards this (like the star Haelstrom prematurely going supernova) but the plot was scrapped by Mac Walters for ME3 because he's a hack. The head writer for ME1 and 2 was much better and Walters was just riding on that success
Exactly, @@antonironstag5085. I deeply hate ME3's multi-colored endings. Such crap each and every one of them. The Synthesis Ending is by far the worst ending of all. I also detest the fact ME3's writers circlejerked each other pretty much saying in multiple interviews over the years that ME3 was pure genius and/or similar BS.
Cool but... what does that have to do with unknown Mass Effect races?
See, I didn't gather that the catalyst was insane, what it seemed to me was the quintessential example of the divide between synthetics and organics. The catalyst was presented with a problem, and given a mandate to solve that problem. What it lacks is the context of suffering. It was told to preserve life in the galaxy, and to identify the underlying threat to that preservation. The catalyst found that the threat was an inherent problem of the system, not an external issue that can be separately resolved.
It reasoned - rightly or wrongly - that the only means by which life could be preserved on the whole would be to prevent this problem from ever arising, like tipping out a full bucket as it fills and splashes everywhere.
The issue at hand when speaking to the catalyst, the thing that it conspicuously does not address, is the suffering endured by those being harvested. It lacked a fundamental understanding of the experience of being organic, and thus could not identify the suffering it caused as a reason not to use its solution.
Easy, @@diesenutss. The other little known Mass Effect species and unknown Mass Effect species are hopefully spared from their Reaper Harvest.
The statues depicting the Inusannon were originally supposed to represent the Protheans. Heard Bioware had to change the lore when they decided to make the Collectors modified Protheans
Aye, i always thought so too. Eh, ah well :p
Still amazing me you see these ststues in kasumi dlc i hope we stlesst get to see something from that race in me4
@@Phillip_Simpson_3 probably more ruins in that case but who knows, they might have survived :)
@@Phillip_Simpson_3 Wait, you see these statues in her dlc??
@@bitchpudding2945 yeah its only 1 kasuma calls it creepy lol you can watch itvon youtube its when you break into the guys safe with all the statues
We need a Mass Effect game set during the Prothean Empire or pre-prothean Empire, during their conquest. Generally just any cycle pre- Reapers, with focus on the many different races and the political landscape.
The milky way is a big place and the council races banned opening new relays. This leaves a lot of room for more exploration new races and conflicts.
I disagree. Mass Effect was always about a looming threat and the desperate hope to beat the odds. If we played a prothean during their empire, we would already know the outcomes of everything that happens. That's why prequel storied almost always suck. If you know how it all ends, there's never any real tension.
Нам нужен Mass Effect Origins
Действия которые происходят в изначальное время Левиафанов и ИИ Катализатора(ёбонного звёздного мальчика)
No we don't. Move forward, past the slop in ME3, not back.
I love how the mass effect community is alive again. Hope bioware notice this and work hard on Mass effect 4
I would like to see a movie or game based on leviathans and the creation of the reapers.
That'd be insane. Here's hoping lol 🍻
An animated mini-series with about six 90-minute episodes. Each one covering major events from Mass Effect lore would be great.
1) Humans discover the Relays.
2) Human/Turian war.
3) Reaper creation.
4) Qurian/Geth conflict and exodus.
5) Asari discover Citadel.
6) Salarians release genophage.
@@DamienDrake2940 yes the fist contact war, and human technological jump are the one that'll make people understand a bit about Mass Effect Lore
Yea we fucked up. End credits
The think for that, it would have to be a comic. Without humanoid characters, there wouldn't be broad interest (besides hardcore Mass Effect fans) to invest millions on production. Check out some of the comics if you haven't. They're really good.
If the Reapers main goal was to preserve biological life and prevent A.I. from becoming too advanced, I would imagine they had/have catalogues and samples of DNA from all species of previous cycles.
I never thought about it before, but ME4 could easily expand on that concept, reviving many of these extinct alien races, especially if this is many years after ME3.
Aw yeah, i didn't think of that! Thanks for the idea, might add it into a future video now :D
They are made up of dead alien races
Each Sovereign-class Reaper was a Massive DNA sample of its respective species.
The reapers are a combined form of synthetic and organic life forms. They store the genetic and biological material from species that they harvest, thereby preserving and “saving” organics from being utterly destroyed.
This is pretty much explained in Mass Effect 2, though.
I forget the name of the species but the were supposedly sort of Bird like in the face. They had been discovered by the Elcor but it was the Asari intervention that allowed them to advance their technology. When the Reaper invasion began they destroyed all of their satellites and some other technology in hopes that the reapers would see them as too primitive to harvest and just move on.
Raloi i think
@@michelalc3883 That's it.
@@michelalc3883 right! The Raloi. Man, i should've included those. Future video, here we go lol!
@@MrHulthen Don't forget to mention the last individual of the species who breathes a mix of air and krypton and was saved by the alliance. Yes reference to superman.
@@MsTrgi man you guys are in this deeper than me. I just realized that this video could be even longer. Heck, i'll make a part 2 in the future.
I just finished Mass Effect 3 and, if I remember correctly Javik implies the Densorin were able to study these concepts that far exceeded Prothean understanding because Leviathan, or at least a Leviathan, was controlling them, like those miners on that asteroid where Garneau found an artifact
I had no idea the statues on ILOS weren't Prothean! I always assumed that the statues were the initial design, and then when the collectors origins were devised, they changed the prothean design ti Javick. Great vid
That would be because they were meant to be prothean originaly, then it was all retconed. In ME1, they were meant to be prothean originaly (that was confirmed by an artist and ou cna see in concept art booklet that these were quite entended to be the rogiinal concept for prothean). Then by ME2 they made the collector and decided they were tranformed prothean then made javik for ME 3 and since the appearance was compellty different, they made an explanationf for why the statues looked so diffeent.
What was the race that developed & shot a giant kinetic weapon so powerful that it disabled the reaper in me2 that you retrieved the iff from, and left a scar on a planet visable from space? That was impressive.
Considering that was 37 million years ago, I doubt there's any record left.
It always will be legendary in my opinion. No other video game had such a mass effect on me. Probably the closest to was Half Life.
You sir, just won the Pun award of the day! 🥇😂
@@MrHulthen Thank you 🙂
Nice one
For me, the closest to ME, is Control.
@@fireblade295 Hi I'm not familiar with Control. I must check it out.
Another great video my friend! I always love reading all the descriptions of the different planets in every system you visit. Trying to flesh out and imagine what these extinct alien races were like has always been fascinating. I also love diving into the lore and reading all the codex entries on everything. I'm kind of a nerd that way. There is so much that BioWare can do with this universe! Can't wait for the next entry!
Aye, the Codex was one of the coziest things about the games. They just gotta give us more :D
At this point, there’s need to at least be an animated short about these races and their conflict with each other and the Reapers, with the Protheans at the center of it all. There’s so much wonder and lore behind it all that it’d be a shame not to traverse into the worlds that came before Earth in Mass Effect.
There was a race described in Cerberus Network DLC that was more like an Avian humanoid species. Much more so than the Turians. They had been welcomed into Galactic Society, but severed all ties and all Spaceflight Tech once they heard about the Reaper threat, thinking that the Reapers would deem them to primitive to harvest. The Raloi or something.
Alternate Title: 7 Extinct races you may not know about
I want to thank you for this video. I call myself a lore squirrel, but these little bits... are off the beaten path. Still, you jogging my memory is actually going to help me with my magnum opus Mass Effect fanfic... which is an "Reaper-Free" universe re-write, and is already longer than LOTR. The whole part about the Zha'Til, Oravores, Metacon war... I can use those as basis (with a few minor tweaks) to explain how the Protheans in my universe went extinct, even without the Reapers. Also, given that the Protheans COULD cause a star to go nova, somehow.... does give me an idea for how to explain the prematurely aging Dholen (the star of Haestrom). I shall say no more. But I will give you MAD thanks for getting my mental gears grinding.
Oh wow that sounds cool! I'm glad i could help! 🍻😉
Curious if you'd hapoen to post your work on archiveofourown or similar I'd love to read it thanks
Every race here was totally wiped out by the reapers. The first race, kinetic impacts! Not a coincidence.
The inosamon images famous in me1 strongly remind me of what happened to the scion , could the status be of reaper blended enemies as a warning to future races maybe these twisted shapes be the equivalent of the banshees like saren chose to blend
Amazing..i didn't know any of this, even tho i played the trilogy multiple times. It would be super cool if at some point we actually got a prequel in some other cycle with totally new ideas. Even thought we would know the Reapers would wipe them out eventually, it could be an incredible story nevertheless. Kind of like Halo : Reach. In that game we very well know from the beginning what will happen at the end of the game, but it's still an epic journey.
We need a new mass effect game where we play as the protheans or one of these ancient races fighting and inevitably getti destroyed by the reapers, kinda like Halo Reach vibes
We truly do!
did we know Reach would fall before playing tho?
Well technically you can, jsut take the "refuse" ending :p
@@phillipalexander7862 yes
This was brilliant, thank you, now I'm even more eager to replay the series. 😉👍👌
One little thing though, if I may - sometimes transitions/cuts between scenes are too fast, kinda forces me to pause a video from time to time. I understand it's mostly for a reason, just letting you know that it might be a bit distracting from a flow 😉
Ah! Thanks for telling me man! I'll be sure to slow it down abit :)
I'd love for there to be a Mass Effect game set in the previous cycles. I know it'll probably never happen, but it'd be pretty neat
any one of these could be the next shadow broker.
I think you should cover all the cool background aliens in Mass Effect Andromeda. They were really interesting.
I'll make sure to do that! :)
@@MrHulthenthanks really adds to the Kety making them feel very pseudo Roman.
Damn you really did your research for this one! Great job you got me right out of the gate with the first one.
Hahah thanks man 😄
If they can only provide us a game with these races
Only recently found this channel, great content output, really looking forward to the game
Thanks! I'm doing my best! :) me too, it's going to be a blast!
I wish we could get comics or some origin source material in the future, about the lost species civilizations, it would be more like "The Lost Age cycles" or "Lost cycles of ancient species"
Sort of makes me wonder if there was a cycle of races that wiped themselves out before the Reapers arrival. That would be interesting. Or what if some of the aliens from Andromeda are actually from our galaxy as well. They just fled the Reapers 50,000 years ago or more and their civilization reset.
Even if thats not the case that would be a great excuse for the random intelligent alien race evolving along a similar path to all the milky way species.
Awesome stuff. I love learning about new races!!!
“7 races you may not know about”
I know all of them because I’m a dork
Road to 1 mil baybay! Lets get it!
Wooooooo!
I would love to some of these races come back again like how the human and other Species left the Milky Way to live past the reapers it would be cool seeing them return I honestly always loved having a prothean, I think having some of the dead races return would be good for the Series, they could make it so we have to fight them or something
I was half expecting the ME: Andromeda races to be on here lol
I did wonder if some of the races in Andromeda were refugees from The Milky Way.
@@inthebellyofmoby it would’ve made a hell of a twist that the remnant were in fact the Inusannon
@@titanjakob1056 That's what I thought!
question. where did you learn all this? I'm curious.
Javik
From what we learned about the cycle process during the trilogy, each Reaper ship represents a species that had been harvested. Each ship carries the DNA of that species, so in theory the Protheans, Adjutant and all those that came before could be restored. That would create chaos and could make for a good story if done right.
It deffo would be absolute chaos, but it could be cool! :)
I thought the same thing
Thanks for sharing this one bro! 👍 It was good to learn about these species because I knew of the Inusannon only.. Keep it up 👍
No worries 😉👊
I've heard about the Densorin and Inusannon when I talked to Javik after a mission.
I have to disagree with the Catalyst being labelled a liar, throughout the main story, the Organic/Synthetic conflict needed no motivation from the Reapers; they had no issue declaring war on each other before the Arrival when you've seen it happen over and over constantly, you don't need to prove it to anyone when you are going to harvest them anyway. The Metacon War was a direct cause of the Reapers to make their harvest easier.
Well alright :p
There are no references that the Reapers would’ve caused the Metacon war. And the Geth war was certainly started by the Quarians both originally, 3 centuries ago, and now in ME3.
But regardless, we can have the nicest, most peaceful synthetics, EVENTUALLY there will be one which is hostile, and way more advanced. Organic evolution is limited, unlike synthetic evolution.
Also the Reapers don’t need a “reason” for the harvest. They just come and wipe out all. They don’t intend to persuade us that they are right. They don’t even normally communicate with people. Vast majority of the extinct races never even knew why it is happening.
@@juzoli Interesting
My thoughts about those species and their fan art:
Arthen: Bald headed space Gorillas.
Densorin: The eyes remind me of the Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis)
Inusanon: Creepy tentacle faced people.
Oravores: The children of Drell and Twilek.
Thoi'Han: Protoss who lived a live as a bodybuilder.
Zaioph: pretty cool Insectoid-bird hybrid
Zha'Til: Strange cyborg-people who turned into the cybernetic version of the Zerg.
Deep cuts! I only vaguely recall one or two of these.
Trust me, i just explored this the other day 😅
Don't forget the Raloi, the avian race that was welcomed to the galactic community literally one year prior to the Reaper invasion.
damn they didnt even get to be in the galactic community for a year
I'm a life long fan of Mass Effect. Thank you so much for this video! You have a new subscriber. Thank you so much for this video! 👍
Javik also mentioned that the Prothean Empire was made up of dozens of species. So it would be cool to learn about all of those species.
I truly hope Mass effect 4’s protagonist would be Shepard again, otherwise not really interested. However a spin-off could be also great, having the focus on the protheans.
The reapers are hypocrites. I love how the reapers were supposedly harvesting organics to stop the conflict between organics and synthetics, but they go out of their way to encourage synthetic beings to turn on organics every chance they get, the zha’til and the geth being good examples.
I agree the catalyst was extremely faulty.
The orators look a hell of a lot like KETT
One complaint for this video - I would have loved to see sources for each of these aliens, are they mentioned in some games' dialogue, codex, maybe in some non-game material, like novels or comics?
Also what about Raloi species
They are all mentioned in the codex, and Javik speaks about them (if you have the Ashes DLC for ME 3 and take him on the Normandy).
The pictures are artist's interpretation of what these species looked like
Raloi aren't extinct , they just destroyed their satelites and orbital stations so the Reapers think they are primitive and don't attack them
ME’s lore is fascinating. I hope to one day see a Tolkien for sci-fi.
The Catalyst wasn't faulty. When the Reapers forced war between synthetics and biologicals they only accelerated what was inevitable. The Geth/Quarian conflict is just one more indicator to this. Because the synthetics, in this case the geth, were not the ones who started the war. Look, there is this highly underrated and misunderstood scene at the end of Matrix 3 where the architect and the oracle talk to each other. "How long will this peace last?" - "As long as the humans allow it to last". There will always be biologicals that can't accept equal co-existence with "things" they build. And so if the machines are intelligent enough to realise that they are either to submit or to be destroyed and if they are self-aware enough not to want any of those, there will always be war. So the catalyst is right and the only real ending for the game is Synthesis. Every other ending is just postponing the (next) war between synths and bios to somewhere in the future.
Yes, that’s why they made it the ultimate paragon ending, which requires the highest war asset, and highest paragon score. It creates the “perfect” utopia. It was always meant to be the “best” option.
But the other two options are also clever, because all of them can be perceived as best, based on our mindset.
@@juzoli Well, when you look up the "Best Ending ME 3", you'll almost always find Destruction with a high enough war asset that you see a glimpse of Shepard being alive. They kind of forget that without the mass relays he will never again meet with his crew who left the system in the last second. It's even quite unlikely that he survives at all because he was heavily injured and the people on earth will have a lot of other things to do than to check the whole citadel for survivors. But hey, if people like that perspective... They are free to chose that.
By the way: There is a fourth ending: Continuing the cycle. The reaper will then be stopped by the next civilisation thanks to Liaras blackboxes... But I don't know if anyone thinks that is the best ending. ^^
@@ThamiorSilberdrache We don’t know if the next civilization succeeds. Probably not… We just know that Liara left a message…
Destruction is the most popular ending, not the best. It might be the best for Shepard, and we like Shepard, that’s the confusion.
Also Destroy is the best ending if we want to continue the story in ME4. I want to live in a perfect utopia, but a game based on it would be very boring:D
@@juzoli Of course we know that the next civilisation suceeds. It's what the Epilogue says. Or at least as I know it, maybe you'll have to achiev a certain war asset score for them to say that...
@@ThamiorSilberdrache Just checked, you are right. I forgot about the second epilogue.
Where exactly does the info about the Zha'Til come from? I only remember Javik mentioning the Metacon War and something about the Zha'Til getting controlled by their AI implants. I don't think he ever mentions that the Reapers were responsible.
What? Not even a "runner-up" award for the 8000+ year-old starship with a race of virtual aliens discovered by Jordan Detweiler? It was on the Cerberus network news and everything!
Looking at the visual concept presented, I wonder if the Zeioph (Zayav) were the original template for the keepers on the citadel.
The Oravores are the "Jealous Gods," to which Liara referred. In Asari Mythology, the Goddess Athame, a Prothean(s) perceived as a Goddess whose image began to resemble the Asari over time, rather than the Protheans, protected the early Asari from "Jealous Gods." The Protheans, who were studying Asari and Thessia (Asari homeworld), not unlike the Protheans studying Earth from Mars, discovered the Oravores' plan to strip Thessia of its resources. Javik said that the Protheans, aka "Athame," pitied the Asari and saved them from the Oravores, aka Jealous Gods. The Protheans also cultivated and guided the progression and evolution of the Asari, as well as other alien races.
"7 races you and everyone else in the Mass Effect universe may not know about"
There's a pronunciation for Athame provided in game by Liara in 3 if you bring her to the Asari temple. Only bring it up since it'd different than both ways you said it.
I smell a prequel
Where are you getting your info on these races?
When i first been to the planet with the tentical aliens, i was just amazed, the look and atmosphere, was so alien...
Also is it me, but does the orobors look sorta like the ungarin (prob spelled wrong)
What's the ungarin? :D
@@MrHulthen yes, couldn't remember how to spell it, mass effect andromeda
Yeah...I was like why does this thing look like the kett.
He means the angaran
I think the Densorin are more of an analogue to the Carthaginians than the Mayans or Aztecs - they’re in the middle of an ongoing war with another superpower, they’re a highly technologically advanced society, and they commit mass sacrifice of children in a time of conflict, and celestial mechanics could be an analogy to the unparalleled Phoenician seafaring.
One of the things I never totally understood about Mass Effect story is the games take place in the Milky Way Galaxy and when an alien race evolves enough the Reapers come back to wipe them out. The Leviathan seem to be god like beings who created the reapers but do the reapers only wipe out advanced life in the Milky Way or in the universe. The game makes it seem like only in our galaxy cause it can take thousands of years before the reapers wipe out whatever advance races are around at that point. Maybe they only deal with the Milky Way and there are other leviathans for other areas of the universe and maybe other reapers for other galaxies. It is never really explained from anything I’ve seen, heard, or read.
A Mass Effect Prequel would be amazing
Now knowing that last part is going to influence me to do the destroy ending
Those thoi'Han are cool asf, wish they were in the games
The biggest problem with the catalyst is that it's a VI not an AI. It's been harvesting life for over a billion years and it's still looking for a solution to a problem given by its creator eons ago and it still tries the same solution. It has the same reasoning as Avina and the VI on Noveria.
nice video, i know off them, i see u forget the raloi :D, future video incomming
Hehe yeah! Deffo will make a second video since i forgot so many lel 😂
The Densorin. The race who gave up their own children to pacify the Reapers. That failed and only made the harvest faster and easier. It was mentioned that the Densorin's technology was even beyond the Protheans' technology.
I don't think the Reapers intentionally caused conflict between synthetics and organics so they would need to do harvest the galaxy. When talking to "the intelligence" or the child during the ending of mass effect 3, it talks about trying to achieve synthesis in previous cycles but states "it is not something that can be forced. I assume that's what they tried during the Prothean era but instead caused the Metacon war and therefor had to complete the harvest
The Protheans probably could have defeated the Reapers if A. they weren't just recovering from a long war. And B. If they actually took the Reaper threat seriously from the start and consolidated their assets immediately instead trying to defend everything at the same time.
good research bro
Thanks man :>
I am not sure you were correct about the Zha'til at the end there. I am pretty sure the Protheans claimed victory in the metacon war long before the reapers appeared to wipe them out so the Zha'til couldn't have been the same synthetics that they fought in the metacon war. As the Zha'til were not corrupted until after the Reapers invaded. I am pretty sure the Synthetics that the Protheans fought during the Metacon war are unnamed.
Most races are converted into genetic code by the Reapers. So that The Reapers can continue to develop. Which can be read in Mass Effect 2 during main quest. Every extinct race, in fact, is not extinct but forced to become the next reaper. That is terrible end and fate of every race that had fought against the reapers
It’s kinda bogus that the reapers want to harvest because organic fight synthetics when there are examples of organic sand synthetics working together and some times merging (virtual aliens).
I know BioWare had to rush the ending but why would it be so blatantly obvious that the reapers logic is wrong? In most of our play throughs, the worked with the Geth. The real ending should’ve been us proving that the reaper logic is flawed.
One correction the morning war was not caused by the reapers. The quarian started the war fearing a geth rebellion when a geth asked does this unit have a soul.
The asari don't actually look like that. They are powerful biotics naturally and emit something like a field that makes them look like them, but attractive to you. So everyone sees them slightly differently. The ones we saw was their power making them look as attractive as they could be to shepherd
Interesting, they should have in the new ME game a Systems Alliance that is focused on not being the underdog again, an Alliance that goes back to its roots a humanity centered around ingenuity advancement and relevance, a humanity similar to the cold War United States and Soviet Russia and part of that is research and development of all Prothean caches and exploring those systems where the other ancient species inhabited adding that knowledge to humanity. It's funny how the species the Orovores? (Whichever one fought the densoron ) favor the Kett. Also cerberus should be brought back either as apart of the new Systems Alliance now called the Unified Systems Alliance (ikr) as their version of DARPA or they create a new faction of humanity who felt as if the HSA didn't do enough to protect them ,just an idea. Also in one of those systems they rediscover a relay nexus that have the first found intergalactic relay that connects to Andromeda and to the planet where the events of Anthem takes place. Bioware should focus on uniting these franchises into one universe and from there a wealth of stories comics games television movies will come
The first races planet wasn't killed by something unknown...you said it suffered several "kinetic impacts." This tells us that it was likely hit by an object from space that caused an extinction level event.
I'd like some stand alone games set in earlier cycles.
That would be a dream come true or better an RTS like warhammer 40k with all the races to play and fight against that would be awesome :D
I like to imagine the Reapers were horrified by the species that killed their own children and thought: “nah……that’s fucked up man.”
Then they killed the aliens.
There are many that believe the Thorian were in fact the Thoi'han. That it was a small error in translating the name of the race
Hmm interesting!
They need to put these characters in the next game all of them. Or rename some of them for the next Mass Effect game.
Are those races mentioned in the Codex?
Codex, Javik & planet descriptions :)
Arthen:- Reapers killed em
So the Thoi'Han used to have a leader named Artanis and they worshipped the Khala? Got it.
The Pathfinders in Andromeda literally turned themselves into the Zha'Til by interfacing and implanting a mutually beneficial AI. The Reapers were right. The cycles continue.
What if the Oravores survived, lost most of their species (and technology) and slowly turned into the Kett?
I wonder if there's some connection between the Thorian and Thoi'Han, perhaps the Thorian came from the same planet they came from? Maybe the similarity in name is more than coincidence?
Does anyone else think of: "the ood" or "the silence" from doctor who when they see the Inusannon?
so the seeker swarms used to be people wonder what the other creatures alongside the colectors are made from
Hi. 2024 here.
Modded Legendary Edition is fucking amazing.
? Where is all this information. I remember 1 or 2 things, but nothing like this, and I read every codex entry. Does some of this come from Andromeda?
I want to know what species the aggressive looking fella is on the statue in the vault of the guy you raid in Kasumi's loyalty mission.
That my friend is onr of the og're race, not much is known about them but we do know that they spawn in the dark.
@@badusernam Ah indeed. At first glance from a distance, I thought it was one of the Yahg species (shadow broker before Liara) but upon closer inspection I saw it was in fact the Ogre from Dragon Age.
so is it time for bioware to bring some new species and one thats never made the cut?
I really hope so!
Commenting to receive the blessings of the algorithm.
Thank you, my friend
Were the Elcor and Volus in Game 1?
"the inusannon were wiped out by the reapers"
you dont say
They should bring this species back to mass effect Andromeda The Oravores.