There’s plenty of character development in the Mass Effect series.
This entire article is filled with spoilers.
What Are Reapers?
Reapers arelifeforms of tremendous size, both biological and technological.
They werenamed Reapers by other species to reflect their nature as bringers of deathand seekers of a harvest.
What Do They Want?
Thecharacters in Mass Effect generally misunderstandthe motives of the Reapers throughout most of the trilogy.
As surprising as it may seem,Reapers want to protect organic life from synthetic life.
Where Do They Come From?
Reapers reside in what is known as dark space, the empty starless void that stretches between galaxies.
While in dark space, they hibernate, engaging in very limited activity.
What Is The Origin Of The Reapers?
They became concerned that other organic species might someday create artificial life to overthrow them.
To combat the problem, they created their own artificial intelligence tasked with solving the problem.
Almost predictably,this artificial intelligence proved to be the one that overthrew them, becoming the first Reaper.
What Is Reaper Indoctrination?
It might seem almost supernatural at first, but it’s justanother aspect of their advanced technology.
The longer the exposure, the greater the effect, eventually fully indoctrinating someone.
The exact results of indoctrination vary.
This has been debunked by the developers, but it’s still a compelling idea.
Did The Reapers Make The Citadel?
The Protheans had simply been the latest to use it in a long line of harvested civilizations.
They were designed to encourage dependence so that the Reapers would have predictable places to strike.
How Many Reapers Are There?
Only a few Reapers have been shown to have individual names, or communicated with directly.
Who Are Sovereign And Harbinger?
Sovereign and Harbingerare figures you’ll hear discussed a lot by Mass Effect players, with good reason.
They’re the two Reapers you’ll have the most interaction with, playing important parts in the story.
Sovereign is the first Reaper encountered in the trilogyand the one behind most of the events of the game.
It is the Reaper which communicates with Commander Shepard on the rare occasions the Reapers decide to do so.
What Happened To The Reapers?
Depending on your level of galactic readiness and the choices you make,there are four main outcomes.
The Destroy outcome seesthe Reapers, as well as all synthetic life in the galaxy, being destroyed.
Afterward, organic life is able to begin to recover from the short but brutal war.
Shepard orders them to begin repairing the damage they caused and to protect the galaxy.
There is also the concern of Shepard, being an artificial intelligence, losing their humanity over time.
This removes the need the Reapers see for their war, andthey begin peacefully helping reconstruction efforts.
They retreat back into dark space to await the next harvest.
