A wrote this a little while ago when I was wondering what really makes a race "bad" in Mass Effect. The only bad race we ever really get in any kind of detail is the batarians. It seems they were destined to be enemies of the Council because they have a rigid and racist society that practices very cruel and sadistic forms of slavery. The krogan are the next example, and a more interesting case. True their war-like culture seems to be a deliberate attempt to put them in the antagonist category, but if you look more closely you realize that what actually necessitates them being outcasts and 'villains' is their biology. Their high birth-rate and instincts, bred on a lethal world, are unsuited to a somewhat less-hostile galaxy. When the environmental pressures of their homeworld are removed the krogan are put on a collission course with their neighbors.
So I set out to invent my own unique species that would be opposed to the Council and other races not out of ideology, but simple biological need. Another motive for this was that I was disappointed in ME2 to finally see the Terminus and mostly just meet species I met in ME1. I'd been hoping for more new species and for the main "Council" races to play smaller roles or different roles. Why not that salarian off-shoot race or maybe rogue turian worlds who aren't part of the Hierarchy? I digress.
Here is the species I imagined:
Name: Tiresian (rough translation)
Homeworld: Saida (rough translation)
Average Lifespan: approx 200 years (natural)
Avg Height: 6.5 ft
Avg Weight: 150 lbs
Top Running Speed: 50 mph
Preferred Environmental Temperature/Pressure: 200 degrees Fahrenheit, approx 4-5 Earth atmospheres
Primary senses: heat, echolocation, visible light
Note: eyes are very sensitive to light and blinded by levels of illumination considered normal by most other species. They do not have color vision.
Primary method of communication: echolocation.
General facts: Omnivorous, give birth to live young, warm-blooded, levo-based.
Appearance: Tiresians are tall compared to most sentient species, usually dark in complexion ranging from dark brown to obsidian, and lean. Their skin has a smooth appearance and in places their tight muscles and hardened skin give the appearance of an exoskeleton or carapace. They possess neither. Their skin hardens as part of their bodies attempt to regulate heat and moisture, but this provides minimal defensive or offensive benefits when paired up against modern weaponry.
Their head is elongated with a skull which extends backward and a large, thick snout that protrudes upwards of a 12 to 16 inches. This contains an organ which allows them to generate intense but imperceptible (to most species) sound waves which they use for echolocation. Above their snout they have two compound eyes which provide them with amplified vision in dark environments, though the vision quality is poor and they cannot sense colors as most other species understand them. Their vision is mainly geared toward supplementing their echolocation and heat sensing abilities. In particular their vision is sensitive to movement.
The tips of their snouts contain “pits” which sense thermal radiation similar to a terrestrial rattlesnake. This serves as their secondary sense of perception after their echolocation. Below their snout they have a small mouth lined with tiny pointed teeth. They cannot vocalize at all and do not breath through their mouth; rather they breath through slits on the sides of their neck.
They are agile and strong, and quick in their movements, but their lightweight body plan makes them lightweights in physical combat. Their physiology as well limits their endurance having evolved in an environment where prolonged exertion risked quickly overheating.
Government: Interstellar Union of independent states, usually governing individual planets, though some are broken up into regional terrestrial states. They occupy a single star cluster consisting of some eighteen inhabited stars. Outside their cluster a handful of colonies exist but they are not affiliated with the homeworld and are considered independent.
They are considered part of the Terminus Systems due to their location and hostility towards the Council.
History:
The tiresian species first made contact with the Citadel approx 200 years before the outbreak of the Rachni Wars. Their unique physical characteristics meant they could not easily use media or goods produced by other species, limiting their capacity to integrate into the interstellar economy. Only the volus have any significant trade contracts with them. Even basic communication proved to be difficult, requiring elaborate translation technology similar to that used by the hanar.
Relations with the Citadel were hampered as well by their desire, or need, to heavily terraform garden worlds to suit their biology. This involves raising global temperatures, often by hundreds of degrees, and/or in some cases blocking out natural sunlight. One such world had already been colonized in this fashion when contact was first made. For the next three centuries relations remained civil, but eventually the tiresians needed to expand and they began terraforming new worlds. At the threat of sanctions the tiresians agreed to limit their colonization to enclosed environments. Slowly they spread out beyond their home cluster.
Shortly after the onset of the Rachni Wars the tiresian Union allied with the Citadel and committed military forces to the war effort in the form of a modest fleet of ships and commando teams capable of pursing the Rachni into their burrows. During this time and afterward relations with the Council were warm and their economy boomed. Though their ground teams played pivotal roles in early battles their contribution was ultimately overshadowed by the addition of the newl uplifted krogan to the Citadel alliance armies.
In the period between the Rachni Wars and Krogan Rebellions the tiresians came under attack by krogan; some of the krogans' earliest conflicts over colonization involved the invasion and annexation of tiresian worlds. The Council was sought for help, but the governing body of the Citadel proved largely indifferent, preferring instead to placate the krogan and quietly build up their own forces for the inevitable conflict. Feeling betrayed the tiresian government withdrew from the Citadel and began to terraform worlds once again. Soon they were dragged into a protracted conflict with the krogan which ended with the loss of most of their colonies beyond their home cluster. Their native cluster as well would have been lost had it not been for a climatic series of battles known as the “War of the Gates” which evicted the krogan from their clusters' main relay junctions. This has remained their greatest military victory into modern times.
Over the next millenia several of their lost colonies were reclaimed and new worlds were terraformed as they began expanding their sphere of influence beyond their home cluster. In an attempt to bridge their physiological differences with other species they invested heavily in artificial and virtual intelligence research, patterning with quarian research programs and development organizations. This came to an end with the geth uprising and quarian expulsion from their homeworld and colonies. The instability this created in the Terminus as well as the litigation which followed restricting research in these areas had a negative effect on the tiresian economy. Over several decades they withdrew to their home cluster, abandoning all the stars they had colonized beyond it. Those colonies which survived are considered independent from the tiresian Union.
Modern Analysis:
Currently they have very poor relations with the quarians as they have refused to allow the Migrant Fleet to pass through any of their systems. To date the only species they have good relations with is the volus, who still manufacture specialized goods for them. A minority vorcha and krogan population inhabits some of their colonies where they exist at the bottom rungs of society, either living as laborers or outlaws erecting illegal settlements on the outskirts of tiresian society.
Tiresians are rarely seen outside their home cluster. A very small number (less than a 100) are purported to inhabit Omega. Their native cluster has a population of some 30 billion and the independent colonies are estimated to have a combined population of over 500 million.
Their military is believed to utilize technologies largely up to Council standard, but it is a relatively small force primarily comprised of defensive space stations around the mass relays leading to their territory.
They are considered hostile to the Council though no major confrontations have occurred since end of their second expansion wave approximately 300 years ago.
The tiresians were untouched by the Reaper War, likely because the Reapers did not consider them an important target and planned to mop them up after crushing the grand fleet. In the aftermath of the war they are in a unique position to take advantage with their infrastructure completely intact. In the span of a few months they have gone from a minor power to a major one. Analysts predict they will soon embark on a massive new wave of colonization beyond their cluster.
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