Saren App CapH

[brokenspectre]

PLAYER STUFF
Name: Sam
Pronoun: she/her
Email address: nonvieta@gmail.com
Preferred contact: plurk or email
Other characters: Rodimus, Verity Carlo


CHARACTER STUFF
Name: Saren Arterius
Aliases: none
Canon: Mass Effect
Role: Villain
Species: Turian
Gender: Man cat
Age: 44
Appearance:


Origin story: Saren Arterius spent the early years of his life in a manner typical of Turians; that is, joining compulsory military service at age 15 (Turians and humans have roughly equivalent life spans and year measures) where he excelled, being rapidly promoted to active duty, proving himself capable above and beyond even the stringent Turian standards. His excellence in this regard was noticed by the Citadel Council and by the age of 20, Saren was offered and accepted a position as a Spectre - an organization whose agents, chosen by the multi-species Council are entrusted with the power and free agency to uphold galactic peace and stability....through whatever means they deem necessary.

Saren's earliest encounter with Reaper tech is shortly before becoming a Spectre, when his brother Desolas, a General, took it upon himself to use a reaper artifact (the Arca Monolith) to indoctrinate and turn into husks the people of Palaven. Although he initially helps his brother, Saren eventually sees that the monolith and Desolas are a danger to the planet and calls down an airstrike to destroy them both.

It is later, during his Spectre years that Saren is led once again to a Reaper artifact, although this time he becomes interested in tracking it down himself after learning of its existence during the investigation of a large illegal arms trade operation. Saren cuts a bloody path to this artifact, wiping out nearly two entire mercenary groups in the process (although this was something he was likely going to do anyways). Saren believes that this artifact will be the ultimate weapon in the service of controlling the wayward advances of inferior species (Geth, Krogan) and securing the position of those already in power (the Council races) while perhaps giving the Turians the boost up they need to put them on equal ground with the Asari.

The exact nature of the artifact and Saren's activities after finding it are something of a mystery, but the most important event is that he encounters Soverign, a being that appears and functions roughly as an extremely large, extremely advanced Starship, but is in fact a long thought to be extinct (or mythical by some) Reaper. Rather than using it as a weapon, Saren witnesses the past fate of organic races at the hand of the Reapers and decides instead that the best course of action is an alliance. He believes that proving themselves useful, organics can survive the inevitable destruction that Reapers will rain upon the galaxy once again. He believes himself to be exempt at first, from Sovereign's mind control, as indoctrinated individuals are less useful and have less agency, but it eventually becomes obvious that Sovereign still exhibits a significant amount of control over Saren's actions and thoughts.

It is this relationship that brings Saren to Earth. Although the Galactic Counsel at this point has not yet had contact with the humans, the Reapers have long been aware of their presence, keeping an eye on earth's progress for millions of years. Sovereign and Saren both travel to Sol as part of a precursory search for a suitable species to harvest. Saren has no vested interest in the human race, and is less concerned about helping protect them than he is about making sure the Reapers see his own species and those of the Citadel as useful enough to keep alive. If some other unknown, underdeveloped race in a backwater solar system must fall to save the citadel races....so be it.

Personality: Saren is in many ways the very pinnacle of Turian ideals. He holds the values instilled in him by Turian culture very highly; values about duty, honor, and the sacrifice of the individual for the greater good. If anything, Saren takes his dedication to serving the greater good to an extreme, and in his role as a Spectre is ruthless and determined in the pursuit of criminals. Saren is not the type to make arrests...his dealings with criminals are usually extremely final, and this attitude goes unquestioned. It is the right of Spectres, in most people's eyes, to dole out justice as they see fit. This unchecked power has likely gone to Saren's head over his many years as an agent, and he operates with obvious disdain for anyone else's authority, seeing himself above and impervious to the law that he enforces.

Those who work directly with and witness Saren in action often describe him as being intensely detached and cold-blooded during his operations. He has a callous disregard for the life of anyone who he feels is an impediment to the overall stability of society, and has been known to claim that you can always find a good reason to take someone out of commission. Despite this, when not dealing with criminals, Seren is generally regarded as charismatic and diplomatic. He is publicly well regarded and generally in the Council's good favour. Saren's good public demeanor and ability to twist any event to his advantage allows him to get away with things most other people would not. (Like murder, hoho)

It is these aspects of Saren's personality that make him an appealling agent to Soverign (as he is well connected, and trustworthy figure amoungst the Citadel Council and Spectres) and so easily manipulated into doing what is best for the largest portion of the population possible. Saren works very closely with Sovereign and firmly believes himself to not be indoctrinated...he adamantly denies that Sovereign has significantly altered his thoughts or is directly controlling him, although this is becoming more difficult to him to believe as indoctrination is insidious and slow effecting. The fact that some or all of his thoughts may not be his own is not something Saren wishes to dwell upon, and if anything he'd rather live in fierce denial of any indoctrination than face the reality that he may be more so than he believes.

Differences from canon: The important difference is that the entire events of Saren's life are about a hundred years earlier than canon. Humans have not yet made contact with the Citadel Counsel or left their solar system. As such, the Turian-Human contact war did not happen so Saren doesn't have any strong negative ill-will towards those uppity humans. He instead merely views them as an inferior race that hasn't even yet left the cradle and isn't worth preserving.
.
Power level: C

Powers:
-Generally a bit bigger and stronger than the average human, by default but nothing significant.
-Limited biotic/space-magic abilities
-Has had a fairly extensive portion of his body augments with cybernetics
-Mentally linked to Sovereign (who's probably hanging out somewhere in the solar system' hidden)
-Sweet robot arm
-Super impervious to getting a tan (Turian plating is provides no extra protection from physical damage but evolved to protect from strong solar radiation on their home planet)
-More advanced technology and weaponry than on earth, but likely limited by ammo/energy sources (better guns, computers, drop ship etc)
-Omni-tool that serves as a basic computer (does maps, and information gathering)
-Access to highly advanced Reaper tech (use of this is of limited value and mostly dictated by Sovereign)

Team affiliation: none

First person sample: Email to Nihlus Kyrik
Prose sample:  Arrival on Earth