Liara T'Soni

Liara T'Soni in Mass Effect: Redemption v1 #1.

Liara T'Soni is a female extraterrestrial video game character who features in Mass Effect.

Biography

Dr. Liara T'Soni was an Asari who was the offspring of Matriarch Aethyta and Matriarch Benezia with her being one-quarter Krogan on her father's-side. As a 'pureblooded' asari, both her parents were Asari leading to T'Soni becoming socially marginalized in asari society. From an early age, she demonstrated a fascination with the Protheans who she saw as wonderous and mysterious beings. Whilst growing up, she did not relish being the daughter of the famed Matriarch Benezia and shied away from her mother's life as an important figure in galactic affairs. Her mother's position meant that high expectations were held on Liara by everyone. However, she decided to indulge her interests by embracing a career in archaeology which helped her escape the pressure of being the daughter of such an important figure. This led to her spending most of her time in quiet solitude as she as content in conducting her research. In 2182, she was contacted by Alec Ryder who had an interest in the Protheans and their empire. He also revealed to her that he was a member of the Andromeda Initiative that was undertaking the ambitious task of travelling to the Andromeda galaxy. Though an incredible opportunity, Dr. T'Soni believed that there was still much to be uncovered about the Milky Way and wished Ryder well on his journey. She then continued her work where she looked to study a Prothean ruin on the mining planet Therum located in Knossos situated in the Artemis Tau cluster. Liara was on the planet in 2183 when it was attacked by the Geth which forced T'Soni to hid in an old catacomb where she activated a barrier curtain. However, she unwittingly trapped herself in a suspended state within an energy field and was unable to deactivate it without help. She remained in that state for sometime until Commander Shepard came to Therum to look for Liara T'Soni and discover what she knew about the Protheans. Upon finding her, she pleaded for his help and was then freed from the barrier where she came to join the crew of the SSV Normandy.

On her first debriefing aboard the Normandy, Liara shares her theory of cyclical extinction: the Protheans were just the latest in a long line of civilizations to reach a violent end after reaching their apex. Liara notes that there is remarkably little evidence of the Protheans' existence, and speculates that their final fate has been deliberately covered up. As Shepard obtains fragmented visions from various sources during the hunt for Saren and his agents, Liara offers her melding abilities to try and make sense of the data. She constantly exhausts herself after each encounter, prompting frequent suggestions to report to Dr. Chakwas, but collects herself together long enough to explain what she saw. Once Shepard obtains the Cipher, the Mu Relay's location, and the distress call from the Prothean Beacon on Virmire, Liara finally recognizes enough clues to deduce the lost planet of Ilos as the Conduit's true location.

Having improved as a biotic, she used threats and other intimidation tactics to extort information. If the player imported a Shepard from the original Mass Effect that romanced Liara, she greets Shepard with a kiss. Liara assigns Shepard an optional quest to assist her in hunting down an agent of the Shadow Broker spying on her, known as the Observer. Liara's anger at the Broker stems from when he recovered Shepard's body and was prepared to sell it to the Collectors during the events of Mass Effect: Redemption. After certain dialogue choices, the player is finally able to break through her shell and reveal the real Liara, revealing that her darker personality is nothing more than a facade. T'Soni took pains in getting Shepard's body from the Broker and gave it to Cerberus so they could bring Shepard back to life. Liara knew that Cerberus would use Shepard for their own uses, but still gave them Shepard's body as she cares for Shepard and could not let the Commander go. She feared that Shepard would hate her for this, and apologizes. In spite of wanting to join Shepard, she declines Shepard's offer to join the team to continue her quest for revenge against the Shadow Broker. She expresses regret that she cannot join Shepard's squad. However, she makes a new appearance in the Mass Effect 2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker and joins Shepard's crew temporarily as Shepard decides to help her hunt down the Shadow Broker. Shepard gradually breaks her hardened shell after lecturing her about mindlessly running into battles, but at the same time she states that she won't stop "to enjoy the scenery" until she's done. As the Shadow Broker is killed, Liara takes the opportunity to fill in his now vacant role. She says she will use her newly bestowed status to help assist Shepard's ongoing mission to fight the Reapers.

Liara T'Soni returns as a permanent squad member in Mass Effect 3 and there are consequences for players that were unfaithful to her as a romantic interest in Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2.[11] After the events of Arrival, Liara realized what little time the galaxy had left before the Reapers arrived. Admiral Hackett, knowing this as well, commissioned for Liara's aid. However, this brought her into conflict with the Illusive Man. Eventually, through a process of elimination, mixed with desperation, she discovered plans for a Prothean superweapon on Mars. Unfortunately, by then, the Reaper invasion reached Earth. Regardless of whether or not Lair of the Shadow Broker was completed, she will become the Shadow Broker, but if it wasn't, she took on the Shadow Broker with dozens of hired mercenaries, but with Feron's death. If Shepard assisted her in taking out the Shadow Broker, she mentions that during the time that Shepard was in Alliance custody, Cerberus managed to track down the Shadow Broker's ship at Hagalaz, and sent a cruiser against it. As the aging ship was not suited for space travel, Liara and Feron loaded as much equipment as they could onto a shuttle as possible, then remotely sent the ship crashing into the cruiser, resulting in the destruction of both ships. Liara didn't have much love lost over the event, as the most crucial part of the Broker's operation is the galaxy-wide spy network, and the ship's destruction kept the Illusive Man from getting his hands on anything valuable. Upon meeting a surviving Prothean, Javik, she is initially overjoyed to have one serving aboard the Normandy, but slowly becomes more disappointed, having previously imagined the Protheans as the "keepers of wisdom and enlightenment" of their era, only to find them to be "cold and ruthless warlords". Eventually, this relationship reaches a breaking point after the fall of Thessia, where Liara is in Javik's quarters, frustrated with him for "not having the answers".

Overview

Personality and attributes

T'Soni's people, the asari, are a monogender-sapient homeotherm species with strong pansexual-panromantic orientation—capable of procreating with any sentient life form, and can reproduce with any known sex, gender or species—their offspring are asari, regardless their "father".[1] Liara has stated "I am not a woman; my species has 'one' gender" when responding to gender bias;[2] because of their "feminine" appearance by non-asari standards, they choose to use feminine third-person, singular personal pronouns as an efficient means of conversing with gender binary non-asari. T'Soni is a possible romance interest for both male and female Commander Shepard.

There was a certain social stigma attached to her status as a Pureblood as the asari believed that for them to improve themselves they needed to mate with other species to gain new genetic properties. If two asari mate as Liara's parents did, then it was believed that nothing was gained from the relationship. The term Pureblood was used as a cruel insult for children born of two asari. When asked about her second parent, T'Soni was only able to speculate that her parents were possibly embarrassed by the union, but she does not know for certain.

Initially, Liara is very shy, naïve and inexperienced. She often prefers to be alone, which is why she spends much of her time on remote digs, unearthing items. This can be explained by the discrimination she suffers due to being a "pureblood", a racial slur used for children born from two asari.

She is socially awkward and not good with people, a fault she admits and is proven when she makes a fool of herself by telling Shepard that, due to being touched by a Prothean beacon, he/she would make an interesting specimen for an in-depth study, only to realize afterwards how wrong that sounds. She's still beating herself up over this even when Shepard comes to talk to her again, to the point that she's done a background check on Shepard behind his/her back so that she doesn't say something else stupid, though she does apologize for this. After Benezia's death, Liara claims that she is fine, and that she prefers to remember her mother as who she was before she got indoctrinated.

T'Soni initially depicted a radically changed personality due to her experience as a black market information dealer. Acting much more like her mother Benezia, T'Soni has become an information broker on Illium in direct rivalry to the Shadow Broker.

Liara T'Soni was the daughter of Matriarch Benezia who was a well-respected and powerful Asari biotic.

Liara eventually reveals she has never been intimate with someone before and finds the idea a little daunting. She gradually comes to trust the Commander, feeling as if they share some special connection. However, she feels the times are too dark for them to give into each other and regrets having to make this sacrifice for the sake of the mission. During the Normandy's lockdown, she comes to Shepard's side to reassure the Commander, and they almost share a kiss before being interrupted by Joker.

Powers and abilities

As an Asari, she had a long lifespan with her being considered a teenager by her people standards when she was over a century old. Thus, despite being 106 years old, she was not held as an adult in Asari society though legally she was the age of majority under Citadel-law.

T'Soni acquired a number of skills in her life which included being a computer scientist, xenoarchaeologist, and cryptanalyst. However, her passion was the studying and working of Prothean technology. Liara was held as being the foremost expert in the field of Prothean archaeology, specifically evidence concerning the Protheans' demise.

She later gained an Info Drone V.I. that she named Glyph that served as her assistant and aide.

Notes

• Liara T'Soni was created by Casey Hudson and Drew Karpyshyn where she featured in the setting of Mass Effect.
• Her likeness was based on that of actress Jillian Murray.
• Due to budget concerns, BioWare realized they would be unable to make both male and female versions for each of the races, which led to the creation of an all-female one. The asari were designed as a race of "beautiful, blue aliens", to add a familiar science-fiction element to the Mass Effect franchise.[5] More alien-looking designs for the asari were made, but disregarded for their lack of human attractiveness. The hair fins arose from the designers mainly experimenting with different shapes, and the scalp tentacles on the asari evoke the image of a woman "emerging from the water with her hair swept back".[5] After the hair fins were introduced, the asari looked more aquatic and thus their design was altered to follow.
• Unlike other characters made for the game, Liara's face did not have a specific design; instead, her face was taken from the original concepts of the asari.[7] It was, along with the character's body, modelled after Jillian Murray. Ali Hillis voices the character in the Mass Effect video games. When Hillis first began voicing Liara, she was unfamiliar with voicing video game characters nor did she expect much out of the character.

Appearances

• Mass Effect:

External Links

• Mass Effect Wiki Entry
• Mass Effect Wiki Entry

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