Warning: long. Lots of speculation for everybody ![]()
Okay, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not exactly a fan of moving to Andromeda. Mainly because I cannot find a lore-friendly way to accomplish it. But I have said several times that if a way could be managed, I'd be all for it. So in that spirit, I have tried to think of one.
The two main theories that get tossed around are
1) Finding a way around the discharge limitation for ships (typically through reverse-engineering reaper technology) and putting a crew in stasis. THe problems here are questions of how long it would take the galaxy to make such leaps in technology, even with pieces of it to examine, and the question of, if the Reapers already have this level of tech, why haven't they used it themselves?
2) Wormhole Theory. Sending people through a stable (or not so stable) wormhole leading to another galaxy. This has the advantage of circumventing the tech problem as well as being something that cannot be easily replicated, making back and forth travel difficult if not impossible, and answers the question of why the Reapers can't simply fly to Andromeda themselves. The problem here comes from one of contrivance. THere just "happens" to be a wormhole leading to a place the Reapers can't access. It was, imo, a better option that 1. But still not great.
But then I realized there is a third option. The option is the same method used to travel across the galaxy itself: a mass relay. A unique one, not part of the network. Like the Conduit.
This of course has problems of its own. THe top one being a relay requires a pair. That means someone has to get to Andromeda without a relay in order to build it. We're right back to the problems of option #1.
But...the problems with discharging cores and such are a problem with mass effect technology. If there were other methods of ftl travel, those limits could be circumvented.
Problem: All races for the last billion years or so have used mass effect technology. They are hugely dependent on it. The Reapers have made sure of that. Technology seems to stagnate shortly after the discovery of the CItadel. Who knows how long it would take a post-Reaper civilization to make any inroads into new branches of technology?
Solution?: Don't look to the future, look to the past. There is a race that predates the Reapers. Likely by a good long time: The Leviathans. An apex race that subjugates other organics demands tribute like they are god-kings.
What's more, they are the only race that has successfully managed to avoid extermination by the Reapers. Their race persists into the current cycle, albiet in a highly diminished state.
So imagine, more than a billion years ago, Leviathans (or a slave race) travels to Andromeda. They establish a primary mass relay to the Milky Way with the intention of making their empire intergalactic. But the Catalyst turns on the Leviathans before they could. A few Leviathans manage to use the relay to escape. Not in enough numbers to establish a new empire. But enough to see the continuance of the race. This would explain their escape and how they can continue to keep tabs on the galaxy without the Reapers being able to stamp them out completely.
Now, why can't the Reapers use this relay as well? Thy may not know it exists. They missed the Conduit after all, and that was on the Presidium of the Citadel. Space is BIG. The Mu relay stayed lost for thousands of years after it got knocked off course by a supernova. The Crucible was built in space between the stars. Plenty of room out there to get lost.
Alternatively, The Catalyst might know of the relay's existence but thinks it was destroyed. Like it assumed all copies of the Crucible plans were lost.
Perhaps this lost relay is finally uncovered and used to colonize Andromeda. Either during or after the war. Of course, this may lead to the problem of making it too easy to get back to the Milky Way. So perhaps it is damaged. Or low on power (it does have a range longer than any known relay after all) Perhaps it has to be destroyed to keep it out of the hands of the Reapers, who finally track it down.
The Reapers. Ah yes
. How come they can't make that original journey just like the Leviathans of old? Well, the Reapers are still based on mass effect technology, even if it is far more advanced than anything this cycle has. It may well be that, powerful though they are, the gulf of dark space is still too much for them. It may also be that, due to the "preservation" techniques used on them, other forms of technology may be denied them. Their software simply isn't compatible. This may not preclude the possibility of Von Neumann probes or something showing up with Reaper programming. But that would be something different from actual Reapers.
There are still problems to iron out of course. What have the Leviathans been doing in Andromeda for the last billion years? Are there other apex races that have risen up without a Reaper cycle of destruction to cut them down periodically? Have synthetics managed to wipe out organics as the Catalyst believes? Do organics wage a constant war with Reaper probes?
Anyway, here's my attempt to be "positive" about the new setting.





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