Escape Theory. My Backstory for the Remnant, the Angara, the Kett and the Jaardan
Aug 22, 2018 17:58:27 GMT
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Post by krogshoj on Aug 22, 2018 17:58:27 GMT
Let's say I am a writer at Bioware. Casey Hudson says he wants to continue Andromeda's story in the next Mass Effect game. He needs a cool backstory that fits into events depicted in the game, tie into the Trilogy, and provide an iceberg that the writing team can reveal elements of in the ME:A 2 and 3. Here's what I'd submit.
The Jardaan was an advanced race that lived in the Milky Way galaxy in the cycle before the Protheans. When they learned about the Reaper threat, they sacrificed their organic forms and uploaded their consiousnesses to a synthethic ark to avoid detection. When the Reapers finished wiping out this cycle and retreated into dark space, the dormant Jardaan ark reactivated. The artificial intelligences on board decided that they needed to ecape the Milky Way and start anew in the neighboring galaxy.
...
Once they reached Adromeda after a journey that lasted tens of thousands of years, they began terraforming a cluster to carve out a new habitat. They constructed Meridian and the Vaults to achieve this goal, along with a host of robots to help them. This is Remnant tech. They also created the Angara ("reborn" in their language), based on their original organic form back in the Milky Way. They planned to use these creatures as hosts to redownload themselves into organic bodies.
This eventually happened on the planet later known as Havarl. However, the transfer failed. The Angara gained high intelligence, some language and faint memories of Jardaan culture, but didn't remember their past selves. Downloading a computer intelligence to an organic brain proved impossible. Dismayed by their failure, the remaining synthetic Jardaan overseers deactived their terraforming tech, and retreated to the space station later known as Khi Tasira. The Angara established a civilization of their own.
Millenia passed and Angara civilization flourished throughout the lush worlds terraformed by the Vaults. They collected and used Remnant tech, oblivious to its - and their own - origins. This is the state of Heleus that the FTV telescopes of the Andromeda Initiative picked up. However, this idyllic situation was interrupted by the conflict between the remaining Jardaan overseers and "The Opposition", which resulted in the the "Scourge" phenomenon.
...
What was this conflict? Well, as it happens, a Reaper fleet turned up from dark space in Heleus, having recovered the clues of the Jardaan ark during the Prothean cycle back in the Milky Way galaxy. Upon reaching Heleus, the Reapers turned on the Angara.
In order to save them, one of the synthetic Jardaan AI overseers, Jheln, devised a method that would destroy all Reaper forces in the cluster, based on an understanding of the Crucible, which was in the works for several cycles when the Jardaan had left. However, this weapon would target all synthetic entities in the cluster, including the Jardaan machines, leaving only the Angara intact. Jheln decided to unleash the weapon nevertheless, effectively sacrificing itself and the rest of its kind.
...
Before Jheln's sacrifice, the Reapers deployed their usual tactics against the angara: they created their ground army by indoctrinating and huskifying individuals of the targeted species. These Angara husks were the first Kett. When Jheln deployed the Scourge, the Reaper leading the expeditionary force found a way to escape destruction. His Reaper form was indeed destroyed, but he assumed direct control over one its Kett generals. This ambitious ex-Reaper, now in a semi-organic body, saw a window of opportunity to run a whole galaxy himself.
He escaped Heleus and laid the foundation of the Kett Empire on the planet Sarhesen. He developed a technology based on Reaper knowledge to absorb different species to grow his empire. This can be described as a local variant of harvesting civilizations - what is "ascension" in the Milky Way is "exaltation" in Andromeda. The former Reaper still rules as the eternal Kett Emperor, hiding his true Milky Way origins from his subjects.
...
In time, the Reaper-Emperor decided to cut all lose ends that could lead back the Milky Way, and sent the Archon back to Heleus to exalt the Angara. However, the Archon got fascinated by the dormant Remnant techonology, the Scourge and the Angara as well. Instead of blindly following his orders to grow the number of the Empire's mindless slaves, he dreamed of starting a breakaway empire in which he would rule over other civilizations but would keep their individuality and diversity intact.
To facilitate his revolution, he hoped to uncover the secrets of the Remnant and dragged the exaltation of the Angara to a standstill, a trench war that has now lasted for decades. This has raised the suspicion of his second-in-command, the Primus, faithful to the Emperor. This is when the Andromeda Initiative arrives in Heleus.
The Jardaan was an advanced race that lived in the Milky Way galaxy in the cycle before the Protheans. When they learned about the Reaper threat, they sacrificed their organic forms and uploaded their consiousnesses to a synthethic ark to avoid detection. When the Reapers finished wiping out this cycle and retreated into dark space, the dormant Jardaan ark reactivated. The artificial intelligences on board decided that they needed to ecape the Milky Way and start anew in the neighboring galaxy.
...
Once they reached Adromeda after a journey that lasted tens of thousands of years, they began terraforming a cluster to carve out a new habitat. They constructed Meridian and the Vaults to achieve this goal, along with a host of robots to help them. This is Remnant tech. They also created the Angara ("reborn" in their language), based on their original organic form back in the Milky Way. They planned to use these creatures as hosts to redownload themselves into organic bodies.
This eventually happened on the planet later known as Havarl. However, the transfer failed. The Angara gained high intelligence, some language and faint memories of Jardaan culture, but didn't remember their past selves. Downloading a computer intelligence to an organic brain proved impossible. Dismayed by their failure, the remaining synthetic Jardaan overseers deactived their terraforming tech, and retreated to the space station later known as Khi Tasira. The Angara established a civilization of their own.
Millenia passed and Angara civilization flourished throughout the lush worlds terraformed by the Vaults. They collected and used Remnant tech, oblivious to its - and their own - origins. This is the state of Heleus that the FTV telescopes of the Andromeda Initiative picked up. However, this idyllic situation was interrupted by the conflict between the remaining Jardaan overseers and "The Opposition", which resulted in the the "Scourge" phenomenon.
...
What was this conflict? Well, as it happens, a Reaper fleet turned up from dark space in Heleus, having recovered the clues of the Jardaan ark during the Prothean cycle back in the Milky Way galaxy. Upon reaching Heleus, the Reapers turned on the Angara.
In order to save them, one of the synthetic Jardaan AI overseers, Jheln, devised a method that would destroy all Reaper forces in the cluster, based on an understanding of the Crucible, which was in the works for several cycles when the Jardaan had left. However, this weapon would target all synthetic entities in the cluster, including the Jardaan machines, leaving only the Angara intact. Jheln decided to unleash the weapon nevertheless, effectively sacrificing itself and the rest of its kind.
...
Before Jheln's sacrifice, the Reapers deployed their usual tactics against the angara: they created their ground army by indoctrinating and huskifying individuals of the targeted species. These Angara husks were the first Kett. When Jheln deployed the Scourge, the Reaper leading the expeditionary force found a way to escape destruction. His Reaper form was indeed destroyed, but he assumed direct control over one its Kett generals. This ambitious ex-Reaper, now in a semi-organic body, saw a window of opportunity to run a whole galaxy himself.
He escaped Heleus and laid the foundation of the Kett Empire on the planet Sarhesen. He developed a technology based on Reaper knowledge to absorb different species to grow his empire. This can be described as a local variant of harvesting civilizations - what is "ascension" in the Milky Way is "exaltation" in Andromeda. The former Reaper still rules as the eternal Kett Emperor, hiding his true Milky Way origins from his subjects.
...
In time, the Reaper-Emperor decided to cut all lose ends that could lead back the Milky Way, and sent the Archon back to Heleus to exalt the Angara. However, the Archon got fascinated by the dormant Remnant techonology, the Scourge and the Angara as well. Instead of blindly following his orders to grow the number of the Empire's mindless slaves, he dreamed of starting a breakaway empire in which he would rule over other civilizations but would keep their individuality and diversity intact.
To facilitate his revolution, he hoped to uncover the secrets of the Remnant and dragged the exaltation of the Angara to a standstill, a trench war that has now lasted for decades. This has raised the suspicion of his second-in-command, the Primus, faithful to the Emperor. This is when the Andromeda Initiative arrives in Heleus.
