Salarians

Salarians are an alien species that features in Mass Effect.

History

The Salarians were a race native to their homeworld of Sur'Kesh with them being a primitive species around 50,000 years ago. During the age of the Protheans, they were classed as a lizard people who were a delicacy with the primitive creatures eating flies along with licking their eyes.

Afterwards, in 520 BCE, the Salarians discovered the Citadel and opened diplomatic ties with the Asari. This culminated in the founding of the Citadel Council in 500 BCE leading to the two species making the Citadel as the capital of galactic community. Thus, they became the second species to join the ranks of the Citadel.

This led to them advancing the development of the primitive Krogan race in order to use them as soldiers against the Rachni.

Overview

In appearance, the Salarians were warm-blooded bipedal amphibians that had a hyperactive metabolism. This high-speed metabolism that allowed them to operate on just a single hour of sleep a day. Thus, their minds and bodies worked faster than most sapient races which made them appear as a restless or hyperactive people. As such, they thought, talked and moved fast with this resulting in them viewing other species as being sluggish and dull-witted. They possessed photographic memories which meant that they never forgot a fact. In addition, they had a form of psychological 'imprinting' leading to them deferring to those they knew in their youth. A disadvantage of this active metabolism was that it shortened their lifespan allowing them to live for 40 human years. They reproduced as haplo-diploid egg-layers whereby unfertilised eggs produced males whilst fertilised ones formed into females. Once a year, Salarian females laid a clutch of a dozen eggs though social rules meant that only a fraction were fertilised leading to 90% of the race being male. Hatching of the eggs was considered a solemn ritual whereby a ruling matriarch Dalatrass isolated themselves with the eggs with the young psychologically imprinting on her and tending to defer to her wishes. During the hatching of daughters, the Dalatrasses of the mother and fathers clans were present at the time of the imprinting to ensure equal loyalty to both groups by the offspring in order to ensure a desired dynastic and political unity.

Salarians were well known for their observational capabilities and non-linear level of thought. This manifested in an aptitude towards research and espionage. As a result, their kind were constantly experimenting and inventing. As a consequence, it was accepted that the Salarians always knew more than they said to others. As a race, they were not noted for their great strength or military but instead relied on their intelligence gathering skills.

Their kind had no concept of romantic love, sexual attraction, biological impulses or the social rituals relating to such practices due to their method of reproduction. As such, male-female relationships tended to be rare due to the scarce number of females and any such interactions were more akin to friendships among humans. Thus, sexuality was strictly used for the purpose of reproduction with ancient social codes determining who fertilised the eggs that produced daughters to continue a bloodline. Fertilisation generally only occurred after months of negotiation between the parent clans with these being done so for political and dynastic alliances with no Salarian defying these codes. Any offspring born were given a Salarian name that was quite complex and consisted of a full name in order that included the Salarian planet, duchy, barony, fiefdom, family and finally their given name. Female Salarians were typically cloistered on their worlds with this being done out of tradition and respect. They became political kingpins and dynasts with them wielding power as Dalatrasses that were able to determine the political course of a region through shrewd negotiation. Male Salarians were able to rise to position of great authority in business, academia and the military but rarely had a role in politics.

Their government was the Salarian Union that consisted of labyrinth web of matrilineal bloodlines involving political alliances formed through interbreeding. This political network functioned similar to the noble families of Earth's Medieval Europe. Structurally, this government consisted of fiefdoms, baronies, duchies, planets and marches that were colonization clusters with these being human nicknames for this groups as the original Salarian word was unpronounceable. Each of these areas was ruled b a matriarchal head-of-household known as the Dalatrass who represented an increasing amount of territory and prestige within the Salarian political web. The inner circle of a Salarian clan approached 100 members that comprised of parents, siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins. The next circle included second cousins and similar relations with these reaching over 1,000 members. The fourth or fifth circle of a clan numbered into the millions. Loyalty was considered the greatest to the first circle and diminished in the other circles. Their photographic memories allowed the Salarians to recognise all their different relatives.

The Salarian military was similar to the Alliance in that it consisted of a small volunteer army that focused maneuver warfare. A key difference between them and humanity was the rule of their intelligence services and rules of engagement as Salarians believed wars should be won before they even began. This allowed them to know everything about all the parties present allowing for their small military to respond with maximum effectiveness. Thus, before fighting broke out, they already held full knowledge of the enemy's positions, plans and timetable. In every war they fought, the Salarians always struck first and without warning as they believed it to be folly to allow a foe to execute their plans. Furthermore, they saw it as sheer insanity for themselves to announce their own attack with them finding the concept of not firing unless fired upon to be naïve. In defensive wars, they launched devastating pre-emptive attacks hours prior to an enemy's assault whilst on the offensive they never showed their intentions by declaring a war against their enemy as they had struck their foe by that point. It was known that biotics were virtually unknown within their ability and such abilities were deemed too valuable for use by cannon fodder with them being assigned to intelligence. Though capable in defending themselves, the Salarians were aware that they were a small force among more dangerous powers which was why they forged alliances with larger powers such as the Turians.

A noted intelligence agency within their government was the Special Tasks Group (STG). It was in fact the model for the creation of the Citadel's Specter program. Agents operated in small cells that specialised in espionage, infiltration, sabotage and assassination. Operatives tended to favour clandestine strikes against the enemy that affected the battle before it even began. Application into the STG was noted for being a rigorous process but after acceptance then candidates were expected to work in the field immediately. It placed an emphasis on quick thinking and resourcefulness with its operatives working in enemy territory with little in the way of support. Their motto was said to be, "Always expect trouble. Failing that, create trouble for someone else."

Their naval forces had every single vessel equipped with bleeding-edge technology. Research along with intelligence gathering mission led to them creating dreadnoughts with stealth capabilities and electronic countermeasures.

In terms of small arms, the Salarians had created:

• Scorpion : originally issued to the STG, these heavy pistols fired high-explosive fillers that contained an adhesive securing the projectile to the target. The low-velocity squash-head projectile then detonated on the target or could be fired onto the ground where it became a proximity mine. It allowed the smaller Salarian units to contain much larger forces but eventually it came to be sold across the galaxy.
• Venom : a shotgun developed by the Salarian Special Tasks Group where the double barrel fired ammunition that detonated on impact whilst a third barrel below could fire a round of microgrenades. STG assignments often were covert in nature with the Venom intended for use in exit strategies where they were used by operatives to help extract a compromised uncover agent.

Members

• Mordin Solus :
• Kirrahe : a male Salarian officer who joined the military where he rose to the position of Captain of the 3rd Infiltration Regiment of the Special Tasks Group.
• Jarun Tann :
• Zevin Raeka :
• Kallo Jath :

Notes

• The Salarians were created by BioWare and featured in the setting of Mass Effect.

Appearances

• Mass Effect:
• Mass Effect II:
• Mass Effect III:
• Mass Effect: Andromeda:

External Links

• Mass Effect Wiki Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.