Mass Effect: 10 Things You Must Know About the Systems Alliance – TheGamer

In the Mass Effect universe, humanity has come together, at last, united in the endeavor to explore the stars and create a civilization in all of known space. This is the Systems Alliance andit features everything from diplomats and ship engineers toa mighty (space) navy. Fans will remember that people considered Commander Shepard an Alliance hero even before becoming a Spectre.

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The Alliance is not alone, however. Humanity is taking its first steps onto a vast and complex galactic landscape complete with centuries-old political alliances, interstellar nations, and more than a few rogue pirates and bloodthirsty mercenaries. How will the united humanity rise to the challenge? And what key features or events define the Systems Alliance as a whole?

Humanity has made a strong impression on the other alien races with some impressions being more flattering than others. The Batarians hate humanity and the Turian people are a bit cold toward them. But the Salarian people are eager to form strong ties with the Alliance. Why is that?

Like humanity, the Salarians have a can-do attitude.Due to theirdriven by scientific curiosity and a strong eye for detail, they see potential in just about everything. Ideologically, the Alliance and Salarians have a decent amount in common. So, the Alliance earned itself an ally in the Salarians.

Unfortunately, inequality and extreme wealth disparities are still a fact of life in the 2100s. Overall, the Systems Alliance has made huge gains in medical and military technology, as well as science and engineering overall. But some parts of Earth's citizens reaped the benefits more than others.

At its best, the Alliance is a true sci-fi wonderland complete with sparkling steel cities, high-tech spaceships, and robots. But poorer parts of the Earth still exist in the early 21st century, lagging far behind the apex of the Alliance. For some of Earth's citizens, outer space is still very far away.

Even in the 2180s, the Systems Alliance is quite aware of the achievements of the 1900s and 2000s. They named many cities and space stations after major figuresduring humanity's efforts to colonize outer space. For example, the moon's capital city is Armstrong and it's easy to guess where that name came from.

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Similarly, the outer Solar System is home to Gagarin Station named after Yuri Gagarin, the Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human being to reach outer space. Mars, meanwhile, is home to Lowell City and named after Percival Lowell.He once thought that Mars was home to irrigation canals and fields of crops that came and went with the seasons. It turned out that he was actually observing dust storms.

The Systems Alliance innovated many wondrous things in its time, but humanity needed outside help for some projects. For example, the Alliance was baffled when people started using biotic powers-- the telekinetic powers exhibited by characters like Miranda and Jack. It took time for humans to even realize that element zero (eezo) plays a role at all.

So, the Alliance reached out to the aliens, mainly the Turians, to figure out how to train biotics (for public image reasons, the Alliance didn't ask the Asari people). Even now, humanity lags behind the other races when it comes to understanding and using biotic power.

Mars has always captured humanity's imagination, such as picturing terrifying three-legged war machines invading Earth or just little green men. In reality, the ancient Protheans had observed humanity from that world, and the remains of their Mars colonies unlocked the secrets of FTL travel for humanity.

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This critical discovery allowed humanity to expand beyond the Solar System. Up to the current time in the games, Mars is home to vital archives, secret blueprints, and Prothean relics. This is why the Cerberus organization raided the planet early in the Reaper invasion.

Should the Alliance get help from the older alien civilizations and accept all the strings that are attached? Would humanity look weak or put itself deep into debt to the Turians or Asari if they did? This is a matter of debate.

Some members of the Alliance are ready to work together with alien races to establish new colonies, create political ties, set up trade routes, learn new technological secrets, and more. Others, such as the Terra Firma party's members, don't trust the aliens and want humanity to expand strictly on its own terms. Cerberus is the ultimate expression of that sentiment.

Humanity has mixed views on its many alien neighbors, and in return, many aliens are cautious about the Alliance, or downright afraid of it. Why? Humanity is expanding quickly and recklessly claiming new resources and worlds. Some aliens fear that humanity will react poorly if it is denied anything that the Alliance wants. Will humanity throw a violent tantrum if the Alliance is denied certain trade deals or worlds for colonization?

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The aliens are not yet sure, since they have not known the Alliance for long. No one is fully sure how the Alliance tends to handle its problems. It follows that some of the other species see humanity as a powder keg. The Alliance is young and fledgling which makes it a wild card.

By this point in human development, the concepts of race and ethnicity are changing. After all, the human race is now just one race of the Milky Way Galaxy.But the Systems Alliance is calledso for a reason; all of humanity, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or class, is united in its attempts to move society forward and colonize the stars.

Fortunately for the Alliance, the feuds and clashes of old Earthseem to be gone. Earth's denizens have blurred the gene pool a great deal. Most people have two or more major ethnicities to their name. What's important is that an Alliance citizen is humanwhether they are part Canadian, Korean, Filipino, Nigerian, or otherwise.

In the late 2150s, the human colony world of Shanxi came under alien attack. The Turians had arrived and the panicking Alliance officials thought that the extinct Protheans had returned. All of humanity's "alien invader" nightmares came true, but the war was a short one.

Humanity calls it the First Contact War since these Turians were the first aliens the Alliance had ever met. Meanwhile, the Citadel races called that conflict the Relay 314 Incident which puts things into a different perspective.

It was merely a misunderstanding in one obscure neck of the galaxy according to them, and they had a name for the mass relay involved. For the Alliance, that conflict was a big deal; for other aliens, it's more like "Oh right, didn't the Turians accidentally attack some humans that one time?" But not all Turians or humans are so cavalier about the incident as many fans will remember.

Some militaries in the galaxy are noted for having a particular style. The famed Turian military is based on rigid discipline and order while Asari Commandos are like elite space ninjas. The Salarians take the initiative and win via superior spying and planning while the Krogans have impressive numbers and redundant organ systems. The Alliance military, in contrast, does a bit of everything.

It's true that the Alliance can't stand up to the Turians in a straight fight. However, given the Alliance's youth, it's impressive that the Alliance military is already so powerful and advanced. Its ships and soldiers can adapt to nearly any type of battle or campaign by making use of battle fleets, infantry battalions, mobile tanks, some biotics, and more.

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Mass Effect: 10 Things You Must Know About the Systems Alliance - TheGamer