Game Concept : ME

En 2148, l'humanité découvre sur Mars les vestiges d'une civilisation disparue, les Prothéens, qui lui permet d'acquérir assez de technologie pour permettre de voyager plus vite que la lumière. Suite à cette découverte, il s'avère que Charon, le satellite de Pluton n'est pas d'origine naturelle mais en fait un relai géodésique, une technologie prothéenne permettant grosso-modo de se téléporter d'un endroit à l'autre de la galaxie. Commence alors une phase d'exploration spatiale et la constitution de l'Alliance, une sorte de super-état regroupant toutes les nations du monde en vue de l'exploration et de la défense des intérêts de l'Humanité. Peu après cette phase d'expansion, un premier contact est fait avec une civilisation extraterrestre évoluée, les Turiens. C'est ainsi que l'Alliance est progressivement intégrée au sein d'une communauté galactique vivant autour des relais et ayant pour capitale une immense station spatiale nommé Citadelle, située au point de convergence d'un très grand nombre de relais.

Le jeu se déroule en 2183, l'Alliance dispose alors d'une ambassade sur la Citadelle et a entamé de longue dates des tractations pour qu'un humain intègre enfin le cercle prestigieux des Spectres, un corps d'agents d'élites au dessus des lois et n'obéissant qu'au Conseil, l'instance dirigeante suprême de la Citadelle. Un vaisseau spatial expérimental, le Normandy vient d'être construit pour l'Alliance en coopération avec les Turiens pour tester des nouvelles techniques de camouflage et de furtivité. Le joueur, incarne le Commandant Shepard alors que le Normandy se dirige vers Eden Prime, une colonie humaine ayant découvert un nouvel artefact Prothéen...

Les biotiques manipulent les champs gravitationnels en se servant de dizaines de nodules d'élément zéro présents dans leur système nerveux, qui réagissent aux stimuli électriques du cerveau.

Les amplificateurs permettent aux biotiques de synchroniser les nodules pour former des champs puissants qu'ils peuvent manipuler. Les amplificateurs peuvent améliorer un talent ou une discipline particulière.

Un implant est une interface nécessitant une chirurgie invasive, à laquelle on connecte les amplificateurs. Chez les Humains, l'implant est généralement placé à la base du crane pour des raisons pratiques et son utilisateur doit veiller à sa bonne hygiène.

Les implants étant extrêmement évolutifs, le marché des add-ons et autres modifications est en pleine expansion. Les meilleurs implants sont fabriqués par les artisanes asari, mais les implants L3 de l'Alliance interstellaire, disponibles depuis 2170, marquent une évolution majeure dans ce domaine.

After a series of starship accidents in the 2150s, which dispersed element zero over various settlements, the first human biotics were born, though not all were initially detected. By the time the children were teenagers, the Alliance had realised the enormous military potential of biotics through contact with the Citadel, and set up a company called Conatix Industries to develop implants for humans and track down element zero exposures. There are rumours that, after the link between element zero and biotics was made, some human colonies may have been deliberately exposed under cover of 'industrial accidents'.

In 2160 Conatix established the BAaT programme on Jump Zero, quietly hiring turian mercenaries as teachers, but after one of these instructors, Commander Vyrnnus, died, BAaT was shut down. The Alliance military eventually set up other training programmes to handle biotics, but the records pertaining to BAaT remain classified. Later projects would prove more successful. Human biotics currently have some oversight from the Alliance Parliamentary Subcommittee for Transhuman Studies.

Most modern human biotics use the Alliance's L3 implant, which is safe to use but not particularly powerful. However, some older biotics are stuck with L2 implants, which allow abilities to spike higher - using an L2 implant, Kaidan Alenko's abilities are apparently comparable to an asari's - but at a cost. L2 implants are notorious for causing medical complications such as insanity, mental impairment, or extreme physical pain. It is possible to 'upgrade' from an L2 to an L3 implant, but the procedure is unethical because it carries a high risk of brain damage. Many L2s are angry at the way the Alliance has - in their view - abandoned them and want reparations for their suffering. In some cases, extreme physical or psychological stress can cause even stable biotic implants to flare up and cause similar health problems.

Human biotics can face prejudice from those who are religiously or philosophically opposed to their physiological modifications. This is mostly due to ignorance: some people (wrongly) believe that biotics can read and control people's minds. There have also been cases of biotics who misuse their abilities - cheating at roulette, for example, or playing practical jokes like pulling people's chairs out from under them - being attacked by frightened mobs, and sometimes even killed.

Despite these concerns, the Alliance military welcomes biotics with open arms and offers huge recruitment incentives. Because of the massive physical efforts involved in biologically generating dark energy, biotic soldiers have a larger daily calorie ration and are given energy drinks to keep their blood sugar and electrolytes up. The electrical fields in their bodies mean they are also prone to small static discharges when they touch metal.

Biotics are classed according to their strength and implantation:

* L1. These biotics can manipulate small objects but aren't strong enough to be offensively viable, because the L1s were implanted after puberty.
* L2. The L2 implants were first implemented in 2167. The results vary wildly - some L2s are hardly stronger than an L1, others are strong but unstable, while a few are powerful and stable, but suffer discomfort from their implants. L2s are all around the same age.
* L3. In 2170, the L3 implant was developed. L3 biotics are consistently stable with moderate ability; while their upper limit is less than an L2, L3s are safe from dangerous side effects. Because of the implementation date, most L3s are 25 or younger. Some are older, having been implanted later in life.
* L3-R. Short for 'L3-retrofit', this is an L1 or L2 who has undergone extremely dangerous brain surgery to replace their implant with a newer model.
* L3-X. Implants installed in an unsuitable candidate.
* L4. A new implant used on the children in the Ascension Project; these implants use biotic amplifiers with inbuilt VI interfaces to allow for monitoring and improved performance. L4 implants give about a 10-15% increase in biotic ability in 90% of subjects, compared to L3s, with no currently known side effects.
* L5x. In Mass Effect 2, Adepts are outfitted with L5x biotic implants.
* L5n. In Mass Effect 2, Vanguards are outfitted with L5n implants.

Some unstable human biotics have turned their back on the galactic community for their own reasons. Many L2s, frustrated with their health problems and the lack of support, are quite militant in their anger toward the Alliance and take direct action. Other biotics believe they have been abandoned by the Alliance and, rather than fighting back themselves, seek prominent figures who can champion their cause, or join communes. A few, the most dangerous, believe biotics are the 'evolution of humanity' and that their talents make them innately superior to other humans.

Summer: The events of Mass Effect, or Eden Prime War, occur. Saren Arterius's attack on Eden Prime is revealed to be part of a larger plan orchestrated by Sovereign, a Reaper seeking to return the rest of its brethren to the galaxy. After suffering a vision from a Prothean Beacon, Commander Shepard and the crew of the SSV Normandy track Saren, uncover the truth behind the Conduit, and defeat Saren and his geth army aboard the Citadel while the Alliance Navy takes on Sovereign. The Citadel Council is irrevocably changed by Shepard's decisions.

One month after the Siege of the Citadel, the SSV Normandy is attacked and destroyed by an unidentified assailant, resulting in the death of Commander Shepard. Later, the Systems Alliance officially declares Shepard "killed in action".