17 réponses à ce sujet

[Zanramon]

Only went to the middle of the presidum

[Tirigon]

because they had no power left. Vigil had to turn the lifesaving machines out.

[Jedi Master of Orion]

Are you referring to the ones that went to the Citadel? There was no food or water on the Citadel. The state that you see it in now is because the Asari and Salarians have lived there for thousands of years. There isn't any natural lakes or plants there.

[Zanramon]

Jedi Master of Orion wrote...

Are you referring to the ones that went to the Citadel? There was no food or water on the Citadel. The state that you see it in now is because the Asari and Salarians have lived there for thousands of years. There isn't any natural lakes or plants there.

I don't think they'd be suck though.

[Jedi Master of Orion]

How would they get back? They have no ships. The Reapers wouldn't have just left one in the hanger. The Conduit presumably only went one way.

[Der Kirk]

Poor guys starved/ were dehydrated... not fun.

[Daewan]

The Conduit is definitely only one way; that was the whole point of it.

There was no food or water on the Citadel, and if there had been any ships, they couldn't have used them because they were trying to hide from the Reapers, remember? Using ships would have attracted attention, and then the Reapers would have found Vigil, thus defeating the purpose of the scientists going there in the first place. Even if the Conduit had let them return to Ilos, Vigil didn't have enough power to put them back into stasis anyway.

[bas273]

But how did they run out of power? It's the future, the least you would expect is that they have sufficient energy (wind, solar energy, nuclear energy?). The scientists were dead but after all those years there was still enough power for the VI to work.

[Bogsnot1]

bas273 wrote...

But how did they run out of power? It's the future, the least you would expect is that they have sufficient energy (wind, solar energy, nuclear energy?). The scientists were dead but after all those years there was still enough power for the VI to work.

1) To hide from the Reapers effectively, they would have needed to maintain a low EM (electromagnetic)and physical signature that would not be detectable on scanners as anything other than natural emenating from the planet. This rules out both nuke/Mass Effect field generators (EM signature), and solar energy (reflective panels glinting on the surface)
2) The eradication of an entire species takes centuries. The power requirements required to maintain a cryo-stasis pod for those years would be astronomical. In comparison, the energy requirements to keep a PC running for that time, most of which would be in standby mode with timed "awakenings", is but a drop in the ocean.

[bas273]

Bogsnot1 wrote...

bas273 wrote...

But how did they run out of power? It's the future, the least you would expect is that they have sufficient energy (wind, solar energy, nuclear energy?). The scientists were dead but after all those years there was still enough power for the VI to work.

1) To hide from the Reapers effectively, they would have needed to maintain a low EM (electromagnetic)and physical signature that would not be detectable on scanners as anything other than natural emenating from the planet. This rules out both nuke/Mass Effect field generators (EM signature), and solar energy (reflective panels glinting on the surface)
2) The eradication of an entire species takes centuries. The power requirements required to maintain a cryo-stasis pod for those years would be astronomical. In comparison, the energy requirements to keep a PC running for that time, most of which would be in standby mode with timed "awakenings", is but a drop in the ocean.

Ah thanks that explains a lot.

[kalpain]

Also keep in mind that while the Prothean tech was "futurist" this was roughly 50,000 years ago. Vigil's last remaining power didn't last very long once he turned on that one last time to talk to Shepard so he could use the conduit.

[Sand King]

profean?

[TK Dude]

Because there were no food or water in the Citadel.

[Pacifien]

That's an extremely thorough purge to eliminate any source of food or water on the Citadel, but I suppose the Keepers are programmed for clean up then a return to stasis until the next spacefaring civilization arrived. That would mean the Keepers would have to know the Prothean scientists didn't fit the bill for next spacefaring civilization.

It's speculation on Vigil's part that they died, however. Still, even if they did manage an escape off the Citadel, there was only 12 of them, likely old. But if they were all of viable reproductive age, I'd debate Vigil's belief that 12 wasn't enough to create a viable population afterwards. There's considerable evidence of several species on Earth suffering some population bottleneck but surviving still. I only mention it because there's this (very slight) suspicion on my part that the original Protheans might show up still.

[Zaxares]

Yes, it is technically possible for a species to rebuild itself from so few surviving members, but it would require a lot of technological assistance, and a LOT of luck. The main danger with having such a small gene pool is two-fold:



1. First, with only 12 individuals, you're going to have a LOT of inbreeding, which will greatly exascerbate the risk of hereditary diseases,



2, Because their genetic makeup will be so similar, the surviving Protheans will be at great risk of being wiped out by a single virulent disease or even just a year with a particularly bad strain of an annual disease like influenza. This will be worsened by the fact that the surviving Protheans were all scientists, and probably elderly (Vigil said it took them decades to re-program the Conduit launch their counter-attack) to boot. They're not likely to be specimens in prime physical health or condition.

[Pacifien]

When Vigil mentioned it took the scientists decades to come up with their plan, my initial reaction was that they must have been very old. But then I reminded myself that asari and krogans lived for centuries, so the protheans may have been the same.

Gah, talk of susceptibility to disease made me think "Oh my god, the protheans are quarians!" No, I don't think that. At all.

However, species do seem to recover from extreme bottlenecks, though how successful that recovery is depends on how much the inbreeding exascerbates recessive and harmful genes. It's speculated that cheetahs suffered a bottleneck reducing their population to under 10 individuals thousands of years ago. They are an incredibly fragile species, but they do survive.

[Steel Dancer]

Most likely there were some some food and water available on the Citadel (Keeper protein vats, anyone?).



But combined with there only being 12 of them (and those certainly being the best in their fields. Vigil did not select for breeding potential, only for those capable of possibly being able to work on completion/use of the Conduit after the Prothean genocide) and the lack of any likely transport off of the Citadel they probably did indeed die very sad and lonely deaths.



Their only possible consolation the hope of future species being spared the same thing.



Sweet dreams all, sweet dreams.

[Bogsnot1]

Zaxares wrote...

Yes, it is technically possible for a species to rebuild itself from so few surviving members, but it would require a lot of technological assistance, and a LOT of luck. The main danger with having such a small gene pool is two-fold:

1. First, with only 12 individuals, you're going to have a LOT of inbreeding, which will greatly exascerbate the risk of hereditary diseases,

2, Because their genetic makeup will be so similar, the surviving Protheans will be at great risk of being wiped out by a single virulent disease or even just a year with a particularly bad strain of an annual disease like influenza. This will be worsened by the fact that the surviving Protheans were all scientists, and probably elderly (Vigil said it took them decades to re-program the Conduit launch their counter-attack) to boot. They're not likely to be specimens in prime physical health or condition.

Quite true.
With human DNA, we would require a minimum gene pool of 32 people per gender, a relaxation of morals so people are not polygamous, and some very meticulous paperwork, to avoid inbreeding.
That being said, we are only assuming they didnt try. With the advanced tech on the Citadel, which again we are assuming was turned off when the Reapers left, they might have been able to bypass these problems. They woulld have been able to scrape together enough resources to last a few years, but with no way off, and no way to create any forms of sustenance, starvation would have gotten them in the end.