Why Geth and Quarians are Enemies in Mass Effect

Mass Effect contains many different races that inhabit the Milky Way, and each has a rich and unique history. However, because players view the game from a human perspective, they are not present to witness the events that defined the lives of other races. As a race that joined the rest of the Milky Way’s inhabitants in galactic travel and politics, humans did not witness many events that shaped the relationships and cultures of other races working with them after first contact was made and the resulting war. be resolved. .

Quarians are one of the many races that Commander Shepard works with throughout the Mass Effect trilogy, and Tali is the most notable member. Tali joins Shepard as a crew member on the Normandy, and she can be courted in Mass Effect 2 and 3. Like a race, Quarians have some defining characteristicsthe first being the most notable: their suits and visors. They are also known for their intelligence and scientific knowledge, but these abilities led to a rather damaging event for the race in general.

Quarian History with the Geth

Why do they have bad blood?

While working with Tali, Commander Shepard learns about the Quarians and the Geth, since these races are linked to each other and, at the beginning of the trilogy, they maintain hostile conditions. With Geth being a common enemy Throughout the first game, it doesn’t seem unusual for the Milky Way races to dislike them. However, this antipathy stems from completely different reasons to the Quarians, because the Geth have not always been hostile towards them, especially on their home planet of Rannoch.

At the time of their creation, the Geth were not as advanced as the version Commander Shepard first encountered. The Quarians created the Geth when they still inhabited their homeworld of Rannoch to perform simple tasks and help with the work that needed to be done to keep their society running. So the Quarians continued adding more complex tasks to those the Geth ultimately handled. resulting in the Geth beginning to become sentient. Considering the Council’s laws on artificial intelligence, the Geth becoming sentient was never intended by the Quarians.

As the Geth became more sentient and began asking questions about its own existence, such as Legion’s famous question about whether it has a soul, the Quarians became increasingly concerned about the state of their creation and worried about what this could mean for the future. As a result, the Quarians decided it was time to eliminate the Geth. The Geth, however, fought back, reducing their creators’ population to less than one percent, which is why the Quarians fled their homeworld and began living on ships to avoid total elimination.

The future of Geth and Quarians is decided by Shepard

Choose a side or create peace

One of the hardest choices Mass Effect is figuring out whether Shepard should side with the Quarians, the Geth, or find a way to convince the two to work together. It’s not an easy task, as aiming for the peaceful option requires Shepard begins to perform specific actions in Mass Effect 2but brokering peace between Quarians and Geth is the best outcome for both sides involved. Additionally, it’s a good way to increase Galactic Readiness before the later sections of the game.

In terms of history and lore, brokering peace seems the most satisfying conclusion to a long-standing rivalry between natural and artificial life, shown through the shared history between the Quarians and Geth. After all, the Quarians created the Geth, and there was a time when they coexisted on Rannoch, which was beneficial for both partiesuntil fear resulted in war. Considering how long it has been since the Quarians left Rannoch, and looking at the state of the planet during the mission to ME3the Geth would be a great help for the reconstruction.

Much thought has been devoted to the world Mass Effect when it comes to events from the past, and it makes the galaxy feel more alive when the species that live in it have a rich history that includes their own conflicts and successes. At the same time, it’s easy to miss how significant these events were when playing as a human, a race that wouldn’t join the rest of the galaxy until much later. Because of this, the scope of how devastating the war between Geth and Quarians was ends up getting lost in the narrative of Mass Effect.