I have been specifically forbidden from trying to use our oven to make an omni-blade.
But you can buy one on ebay for $190 (including international shipping), which is apparently much more reasonable than risking acrylic getting all over the inside of the oven.
I've got a chunk of cash going out to Kickstarter this weekend, so I'm holding off on anything sizable for now, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to snag one some time mid next year in preparation for Fan Expo 2014 (20th anniversary at that). The booth is already booked, though we're going with a slightly smaller one to condense the awesome to space ratio.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I am totally confused as to the objections to Ashley's analogy. It's an analogy, so it's not meant to be taken literally. Whether the metaphorical owner actively sics the dog on the bear or not isn't the point of the analogy. What matters is that the owner leaves the dog to save himself.
Which is what happens in Mass Effect 3. When the Reapers attack, the unaffected races are all out for themselves and leave the humans and turians to die. At least until Shepard can solve everyone's not really that important at the time can it please wait problems.
I am totally confused as to the objections to Ashley's analogy. It's an analogy, so it's not meant to be taken literally. Whether the metaphorical owner actively sics the dog on the bear or not isn't the point of the analogy. What matters is that the owner leaves the dog to save himself.
Which is what happens in Mass Effect 3. When the Reapers attack, the unaffected races are all out for themselves and leave the humans and turians to die. At least until Shepard can solve everyone's not really that important at the time can it please wait problems.
That reminds me, and I haven't ever vocalized it before, but fuck the salarians, and to a large extent the asarians.
under wraps, even when every other race is falling in line.
The Dalatrass is a goose. The other salarians you meet individually are all cool dudes.
Mordin, Kirrahe, the salarian stg/spectre who helps you. That salarian scientist who you help clone a freaking dinosaur for the krogan.
Regarding Ash Williams's analogy: Humans don't wind up in the role of the dog in ME3 because they aren't still serving at the will/whim of the council at that point, but are part of it. They aren't compelled by and other race to fight the reapers... not that they get much choice.
In the context of ME1 and early ME1 Ashley, I thought she was stating her opinion that there's a good chance another race will value the lives of their people over the lives of other races, (not talking about Turians specifically right?) and if you choose to blindly follow and give them complete trust, they might use that to serve themselves in the event of a crisis. They may love you, but you're not really one of them in their eyes. And really, there's plenty of evidence for that being the case in Mass Effect 1. Those notions are broken down a bit more by ME3, but her opinion is grounded in the realities of the galaxy of ME1.
As you explore the citadel and meet Wrex, you are presented history about a scenario not unlike what she describes regarding the Krogan. Of course, it isn't a simple cut and dry good guy/bad guy dog/bear situation, as thankfully they turn that into a complex and interesting story. Ashley's comment is relevant to that plotline. Were the Krogan treated as equals and given a seat on the council following their saving council space? Nope. They were given a generous treat and told to behave. They didn't behave, and so the council punished them. In a questionably ethical manner (I mean, the Krogan did some bad stuff too, let's not forget that). Almost in a manner that you (we) deal with an animal (pet, like a dog). (Bob Barker reminds you to spay an neuter your Krogan!)
In ME1, humans are the council's 'dog' in some ways with regards to the Skyllian Verge and providing a buffer to the Terminus Systems. The council doesn't have the resources or will to deal with the pirates and Batarians and all that jazz on that border of council space, so they just say, "Hey, you humans want colonies, right? Here, you can colonize between our space and the lawless space. We won't help you out if there's trouble though... but just make sure you set up your camp between us and that bear cave. Yeah, right there. That's perfect."
The council doesn't see humans as having earned their place yet. It's not quite all out using humans as cannon fodder, but it's not too far off either. I may be known as The Butcher of Torfan, but I'm not the one who started that war, I'm just the one who ended it.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early). And that's WITH a human on the council now. Thank goodness for Cerberus, right?
Shepard was investigating the issue at the beginning. The first human Specter responsible for saving the council, and her ship get wiped out by an unknown attacker that is raiding human colonies (there was a crew full of eye witnesses, and probably tons of data showing the collector ship) and the council just says "sorry, not our problem".
The citadel needs a more integrated military force. Their, "every race for themselves" military strategy pretty much necessitates organizations like Cerberus. I mean, Cerberus -through Shepard- put together the most racially diverse crew presented in the series. Even the merc bands divided themselves racially.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early).
The citadel needs a more integrated military force. Their, "every race for themselves" military strategy pretty much necessitates organizations like Cerberus. I mean, Cerberus -through Shepard- put together the most racially diverse crew presented in the series. Even the merc bands divided themselves racially.
Point of fact, Ash/Kaidan are not Specters in 2, that was a covert Alliance mission they were on. Which... yeah the Council was being dumb again. But remember that in 2 it can possibly be an ALL HUMAN Council and you somehow still get this outcome, which is just Bioware budgeting shenanigans honestly.
To me, when all the chips were down, Ashley was wrong. Sure, there was uncertainty in the beginning, but at the end of the day, it was on Earth that the battle for the galaxy was decided. The other races didn't decide to leave Earth to burn and have a final battle elsewhere. They did it there.
The "owner" didn't "sic the dog on the bear and run to save itself", they all worked together and saved as much as they could.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
In ME1, humans are the council's 'dog' in some ways with regards to the Skyllian Verge and providing a buffer to the Terminus Systems. The council doesn't have the resources or will to deal with the pirates and Batarians and all that jazz on that border of council space, so they just say, "Hey, you humans want colonies, right? Here, you can colonize between our space and the lawless space. We won't help you out if there's trouble though... but just make sure you set up your camp between us and that bear cave. Yeah, right there. That's perfect."
That was our idea, the rest of space thinks our expansion is ludicrous and predatory.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early). And that's WITH a human on the council now.
Alliance, not Council.
Given our aforementioned push into dangerous "we don't mess with this space" space, reckon they figure we got what we signed up for.
Shepard was investigating the issue at the beginning. The first human Specter responsible for saving the council, and her ship get wiped out by an unknown attacker that is raiding human colonies (there was a crew full of eye witnesses, and probably tons of data showing the collector ship) and the council just says "sorry, not our problem".
Yeah, that was dumb, the Council was totally fully of it by that point. Though, a three-person (four person with human Councilor) group making all the decisions for multiple galactic civilizations seems like a terrible approach, they can't possibly know all the things they need to know.
If they live on Sur'Kesh, shouldn't they be "the Sur'Kesh" or something? I mean, human is just our word for our own species, but "Salarian" seems to follow the convention of place-of-origin names in scifi. Usually your planet or star system. (Granted, the Asari and Krogans aren't named Thessians and Tuchankans, buuuuut. Names usually...come from somewhere.)
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
under wraps, even when every other race is falling in line.
The Dalatrass is a goose. The other salarians you meet individually are all cool dudes.
Mordin, Kirrahe, the salarian stg/spectre who helps you. That salarian scientist who you help clone a freaking dinosaur for the krogan.
Morlan.
But yeah fuck the salarians as a whole
If memory serves, right before the game came out Bioware had some in universe articles for the leadup to the Reaper War, and one mentioned the STG was considering a coup, on account of the Dalatrass being so shit at her job.
Salarians play politics like crazy people, and it happens they had the bad luck to land on someone incompetent JUST before things got intense.
If they live on Sur'Kesh, shouldn't they be "the Sur'Kesh" or something? I mean, human is just our word for our own species, but "Salarian" seems to follow the convention of place-of-origin names in scifi. Usually your planet or star system. (Granted, the Asari and Krogans aren't named Thessians and Tuchankans, buuuuut. Names usually...come from somewhere.)
I mean... you disprove your own argument pretty handily. We are humans, we live on Earth. The Asari came from Thessia. Occasionally you'll get the Vulcans from Vulcan or whatever, but the opposite happens too.
+1
FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
In ME1, humans are the council's 'dog' in some ways with regards to the Skyllian Verge and providing a buffer to the Terminus Systems. The council doesn't have the resources or will to deal with the pirates and Batarians and all that jazz on that border of council space, so they just say, "Hey, you humans want colonies, right? Here, you can colonize between our space and the lawless space. We won't help you out if there's trouble though... but just make sure you set up your camp between us and that bear cave. Yeah, right there. That's perfect."
That was our idea, the rest of space thinks our expansion is ludicrous and predatory.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early). And that's WITH a human on the council now.
Alliance, not Council.
Given our aforementioned push into dangerous "we don't mess with this space" space, reckon they figure we got what we signed up for.
Shepard was investigating the issue at the beginning. The first human Specter responsible for saving the council, and her ship get wiped out by an unknown attacker that is raiding human colonies (there was a crew full of eye witnesses, and probably tons of data showing the collector ship) and the council just says "sorry, not our problem".
Yeah, that was dumb, the Council was totally fully of it by that point. Though, a three-person (four person with human Councilor) group making all the decisions for multiple galactic civilizations seems like a terrible approach, they can't possibly know all the things they need to know.
If they live on Sur'Kesh, shouldn't they be "the Sur'Kesh" or something? I mean, human is just our word for our own species, but "Salarian" seems to follow the convention of place-of-origin names in scifi. Usually your planet or star system. (Granted, the Asari and Krogans aren't named Thessians and Tuchankans, buuuuut. Names usually...come from somewhere.)
under wraps, even when every other race is falling in line.
The Dalatrass is a goose. The other salarians you meet individually are all cool dudes.
Mordin, Kirrahe, the salarian stg/spectre who helps you. That salarian scientist who you help clone a freaking dinosaur for the krogan.
Morlan.
But yeah fuck the salarians as a whole
If memory serves, right before the game came out Bioware had some in universe articles for the leadup to the Reaper War, and one mentioned the STG was considering a coup, on account of the Dalatrass being so shit at her job.
Salarians play politics like crazy people, and it happens they had the bad luck to land on someone incompetent JUST before things got intense.
Stupid Linron.
Yeah, the Salarians had just finished their election and the winner (who we saw in ME3) was trying desperately to hold on to her newfound power.
I mean... you disprove your own argument pretty handily. We are humans, we live on Earth. The Asari came from Thessia. Occasionally you'll get the Vulcans from Vulcan or whatever, but the opposite happens too.
Can't work out the etymology of it, is all.
"Human" actually does derive from Earth. Or rather, from our convention of calling the land we live on "dirt." (Human, from the Latin Humus, soil. Our mythical progenitor, Adam, is also named after soil, having been allegedly made from it.) Salarian...I dunno. Does it describe their shape, their relationship to Sur'Kesh fish-frogs?
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I mean... you disprove your own argument pretty handily. We are humans, we live on Earth. The Asari came from Thessia. Occasionally you'll get the Vulcans from Vulcan or whatever, but the opposite happens too.
Can't work out the etymology of it, is all.
"Human" actually does derive from Earth. Or rather, from our convention of calling the land we live on "dirt." (Human, from the Latin Humus, soil. Our mythical progenitor, Adam, is also named after soil, having been allegedly made from it.) Salarian...I dunno. Does it describe their shape, their relationship to Sur'Kesh fish-frogs?
Based on that, we'd have to have detailed knowledge of their ancient languages to know where the word 'Salarian' comes from.
Edit: I don't think you're right about the etymology of the word human actually. The Romans used the word homo for man. Even the word humanis derives from homo, not humus.
under wraps, even when every other race is falling in line.
The Dalatrass is a goose. The other salarians you meet individually are all cool dudes.
Mordin, Kirrahe, the salarian stg/spectre who helps you. That salarian scientist who you help clone a freaking dinosaur for the krogan.
Morlan.
But yeah fuck the salarians as a whole
If memory serves, right before the game came out Bioware had some in universe articles for the leadup to the Reaper War, and one mentioned the STG was considering a coup, on account of the Dalatrass being so shit at her job.
Salarians play politics like crazy people, and it happens they had the bad luck to land on someone incompetent JUST before things got intense.
Stupid Linron.
The historical analogy would be the United States circa 1856, with the Southern states rattling their sabers like crazy and secession looming, so whom do we elect as President ? James Buchanan.
In ME1, humans are the council's 'dog' in some ways with regards to the Skyllian Verge and providing a buffer to the Terminus Systems. The council doesn't have the resources or will to deal with the pirates and Batarians and all that jazz on that border of council space, so they just say, "Hey, you humans want colonies, right? Here, you can colonize between our space and the lawless space. We won't help you out if there's trouble though... but just make sure you set up your camp between us and that bear cave. Yeah, right there. That's perfect."
That was our idea, the rest of space thinks our expansion is ludicrous and predatory.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early). And that's WITH a human on the council now.
Alliance, not Council.
Given our aforementioned push into dangerous "we don't mess with this space" space, reckon they figure we got what we signed up for.
Hey, the council races only think our expansion is crazy because they already did it several hundred years ago and almost wiped themselves out. But it's a valid point that humans are expanding fast. But the only reason we survive or are at all relevant in the galaxy is because of our military power fueled by our expansion. The Turians would have just wiped us out at first contact if we were weaker.
I think you may be right about the Skyllian Verge... It may be that the System's Alliance is willingly taking the risk in expanding to these new colonies and it just so happens to benefit the citadel races. But the council dictates who can colonize where, I thought Eden Prime was the Alliance's first big settlement.
Now I've been reading back up on the initial expansion and trying to piece things together. I almost forgot that humanity's first encounter with an alien species (the Turians) involved them wiping out a human fleet trying to activate a relay without even trying to communicate with them. The Turians really were assholes to the humans. The Turians, and thus the council seem to adhere to the LAPD paradigm of Police enforcement: if they're unconscious or dead, they can't break any laws.
And then the council only got involved in negotiating peace when it was obvious that the Turians weren't going to win the war easily. I mean, is that how the Batarians were introduced to the galactic community too? I'm starting to understand their hostility towards aliens.
Presumably the Council has some kind of authority over settlement on new worlds. I think that when it comes to worlds like Eden Prime, which is near the Terminus Systems over which the Council can't exert control with its law and its militaries, their policy is just that you can settle it, if you can defend the planet and its shipping lanes on your own. If you can't, your problem.
So far as I know, they never came out and said which world the Alliance settled first after opening the Charon relay. Eden Prime was one of the earliest established colonies, though. And a really nice planet, aside from the location.
As far as I can tell the Latin for human and deriatives comes from "dhghem," meaning lower-case earth in Proto-Indo-European, but that language is reverse constructed through linguistic analysis and therefore speculative. We just can't drill far enough back into pre-history to conclusively say why people decided to use one sound for something vs. another!
We can, however, say that salarian and asari etc. were chosen because they sounded cool and sci-fi-y. They could invent any number of lore reasons for that, whether a translation hitch or a miscommunication or simply someone coining them that and the universal translators adjusting everyone else's alien word to English "salarian."
Presumably the Council has some kind of authority over settlement on new worlds. I think that when it comes to worlds like Eden Prime, which is near the Terminus Systems over which the Council can't exert control with its law and its militaries, their policy is just that you can settle it, if you can defend the planet and its shipping lanes on your own. If you can't, your problem.
So far as I know, they never came out and said which world the Alliance settled first after opening the Charon relay. Eden Prime was one of the earliest established colonies, though. And a really nice planet, aside from the location.
I accidentally found it on the wiki this morning, but Demeter was the first extrasolar human colony. I don't remember ever finding it in the games, so maybe it's from the books? Both Eden Prime and Terra Nova are in the Exodous cluster (first stop from Earth) so I always assumed those were settled before the council even knew what a human was.
Eden Prime is one big jump from Earth, if I recall correctly. It isn't some Terminus Systems colony on the border of lawless space. It's well within the borders of the System's Alliance. The fact that a Turian acting under the council's authority nearly wiped it out was a huge deal politically. I know I didn't catch the significance of it the first time I played ME1. I didn't understand why the council was putting up with Udina being so uppity, but once I thought a bit, it made sense. It wasn't some backwater colony getting hit by pirates. This was a major colony in protected space. The very least they could do was grant the request for a human specter.
As far as I can tell the Latin for human and deriatives comes from "dhghem," meaning lower-case earth in Proto-Indo-European, but that language is reverse constructed through linguistic analysis and therefore speculative. We just can't drill far enough back into pre-history to conclusively say why people decided to use one sound for something vs. another!
We can, however, say that salarian and asari etc. were chosen because they sounded cool and sci-fi-y. They could invent any number of lore reasons for that, whether a translation hitch or a miscommunication or simply someone coining them that and the universal translators adjusting everyone else's alien word to English "salarian."
They're called Asari because Titsari doesn't roll off the tongue as well. :P
They're called Asari because Titsari doesn't roll off the tongue as well. :P
That just means you haven't tried hard enough.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
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CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
For that matter, there's nothing to say that the names Salarian and Sur'kesh aren't alien "translations" of completely different Salarian words. For example, in English we use the word Japan for the name of a country and Japanese for the language and people, while Japanese speakers use Nippon/Nihon for the country, Nihongo for the language and Nihonjin for the people. Maybe the Salarians in their own language are really Keedles from Keedle-dék
The Asari Councilor says (in ME2) that the Council warned humans about the dangers of settling out in the Terminus systems.
Now, I understand where humans are coming from. The Council asserts authority over council space, which Earth just happens to be in, and you finally reach the stars only to learn that all the nice safe class-M planets are settled and the ruling body hands you a ticket and tells you to get in line "openings will be available soon and by 'soon' we mean 'lol'".
So you really are faced with:
a: War
b: Accept that your expansion will be artificially limited on a curve such that you will never be allowed to be more powerful than the Asari/Turians/Salarians.
c: Take big risks and settle the Terminus systems.
Humanity opted for c. I might have done the same. It worked out very well for them for a short while, with humanity seemingly calling the Council's bluff and rapidly becoming a peer to the 'big three' races in a way that the Elcor and Volus never did because they fearfully played in the little box that the Council designated for them.
Then of course it all went to hell. Turns out the Councils strategy of keeping the peace by reigning everyone else in weakened everyone. They didn't know that, and their strategy and reasoning prior to the Reaper invasion certainly made sense in light of their past wars and they had, after learning hard lessons, become reasonably good at keeping the peace (compare previous wars with Rachni/Krogan/Turian to how quickly and neatly the Turian-Human conflict was aborted by the council).
I always looked at the council as kind of a NATO-style organization. It exists as a result of various treaty agreements between members, so its resources are considerable (i.e. turian fleet) even though it doesn't command any of its own really.
the thing with eden prime was basically the council saying 'look, we know you want colony worlds and all but that one's kind of a long way away so you're on your own as far as protecting it,' and the humans (or possibly some human corporation) going 'screw you ah do what ah want.' Which is why, when you go to the council for help in ME1, they're like "yeah we told you that shit was a bad idea in the first place."
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
As far as I can tell the Latin for human and deriatives comes from "dhghem," meaning lower-case earth in Proto-Indo-European, but that language is reverse constructed through linguistic analysis and therefore speculative. We just can't drill far enough back into pre-history to conclusively say why people decided to use one sound for something vs. another!
We can, however, say that salarian and asari etc. were chosen because they sounded cool and sci-fi-y. They could invent any number of lore reasons for that, whether a translation hitch or a miscommunication or simply someone coining them that and the universal translators adjusting everyone else's alien word to English "salarian."
yeah I mean, part of the artifice of the in-game dialogue is that we don't really get to hear what any of the alien languages sound like (even if we accept the little conceit that everybody happens to speak galactic-standard-that-conveniently-sounds-like-english.) I bet in the mass effect universe there are huge email lists where professors argue over what the proper localization of 'turian' is.
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I'm pretty sure it says somewhere, probably in the Codex, that the Alliance's colonization efforts in the Traverse were subsidized, since part of the point was combating pirates and mercenaries in the area, which also benefited Council trade.
I'm pretty sure it says somewhere, probably in the Codex, that the Alliance's colonization efforts in the Traverse were subsidized, since part of the point was combating pirates and mercenaries in the area, which also benefited Council trade.
Yes I don't remember the exact details, but I know that the council wanted human colonies there because it benefits the council races, but they also didn't want to assume any risk for it.
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Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
But you can buy one on ebay for $190 (including international shipping), which is apparently much more reasonable than risking acrylic getting all over the inside of the oven.
I've got a chunk of cash going out to Kickstarter this weekend, so I'm holding off on anything sizable for now, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to snag one some time mid next year in preparation for Fan Expo 2014 (20th anniversary at that). The booth is already booked, though we're going with a slightly smaller one to condense the awesome to space ratio.
plus youd need to swap out all your amino acids
Which is what happens in Mass Effect 3. When the Reapers attack, the unaffected races are all out for themselves and leave the humans and turians to die. At least until Shepard can solve everyone's not really that important at the time can it please wait problems.
That reminds me, and I haven't ever vocalized it before, but fuck the salarians, and to a large extent the asarians.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
If you don't do that, they keep their
under wraps, even when every other race is falling in line.
The Dalatrass is a goose. The other salarians you meet individually are all cool dudes.
Mordin, Kirrahe, the salarian stg/spectre who helps you. That salarian scientist who you help clone a freaking dinosaur for the krogan.
Morlan.
But yeah fuck the salarians as a whole
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
In the context of ME1 and early ME1 Ashley, I thought she was stating her opinion that there's a good chance another race will value the lives of their people over the lives of other races, (not talking about Turians specifically right?) and if you choose to blindly follow and give them complete trust, they might use that to serve themselves in the event of a crisis. They may love you, but you're not really one of them in their eyes. And really, there's plenty of evidence for that being the case in Mass Effect 1. Those notions are broken down a bit more by ME3, but her opinion is grounded in the realities of the galaxy of ME1.
As you explore the citadel and meet Wrex, you are presented history about a scenario not unlike what she describes regarding the Krogan. Of course, it isn't a simple cut and dry good guy/bad guy dog/bear situation, as thankfully they turn that into a complex and interesting story. Ashley's comment is relevant to that plotline. Were the Krogan treated as equals and given a seat on the council following their saving council space? Nope. They were given a generous treat and told to behave. They didn't behave, and so the council punished them. In a questionably ethical manner (I mean, the Krogan did some bad stuff too, let's not forget that). Almost in a manner that you (we) deal with an animal (pet, like a dog). (Bob Barker reminds you to spay an neuter your Krogan!)
In ME1, humans are the council's 'dog' in some ways with regards to the Skyllian Verge and providing a buffer to the Terminus Systems. The council doesn't have the resources or will to deal with the pirates and Batarians and all that jazz on that border of council space, so they just say, "Hey, you humans want colonies, right? Here, you can colonize between our space and the lawless space. We won't help you out if there's trouble though... but just make sure you set up your camp between us and that bear cave. Yeah, right there. That's perfect."
The council doesn't see humans as having earned their place yet. It's not quite all out using humans as cannon fodder, but it's not too far off either. I may be known as The Butcher of Torfan, but I'm not the one who started that war, I'm just the one who ended it.
Then, in ME2, 12 human colonies are wiped out. Twelve. Wiped out. There were like, 10 survivors. And 6 of them are Quarians. The council sends a single rookie human specter to investigate (and they only survive because Cerberus/Shepard shows up to scare off the Collectors early). And that's WITH a human on the council now. Thank goodness for Cerberus, right?
Shepard was investigating the issue at the beginning. The first human Specter responsible for saving the council, and her ship get wiped out by an unknown attacker that is raiding human colonies (there was a crew full of eye witnesses, and probably tons of data showing the collector ship) and the council just says "sorry, not our problem".
The citadel needs a more integrated military force. Their, "every race for themselves" military strategy pretty much necessitates organizations like Cerberus. I mean, Cerberus -through Shepard- put together the most racially diverse crew presented in the series. Even the merc bands divided themselves racially.
Origin: Viycktor
Point of fact, Ash/Kaidan are not Specters in 2, that was a covert Alliance mission they were on. Which... yeah the Council was being dumb again. But remember that in 2 it can possibly be an ALL HUMAN Council and you somehow still get this outcome, which is just Bioware budgeting shenanigans honestly.
Also, it's "Asari", not "Asarians", and the homeworld for the Salarians is Sur'Kesh.
The "owner" didn't "sic the dog on the bear and run to save itself", they all worked together and saved as much as they could.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Given our aforementioned push into dangerous "we don't mess with this space" space, reckon they figure we got what we signed up for.
Yeah, that was dumb, the Council was totally fully of it by that point. Though, a three-person (four person with human Councilor) group making all the decisions for multiple galactic civilizations seems like a terrible approach, they can't possibly know all the things they need to know.
If they live on Sur'Kesh, shouldn't they be "the Sur'Kesh" or something? I mean, human is just our word for our own species, but "Salarian" seems to follow the convention of place-of-origin names in scifi. Usually your planet or star system. (Granted, the Asari and Krogans aren't named Thessians and Tuchankans, buuuuut. Names usually...come from somewhere.)
If memory serves, right before the game came out Bioware had some in universe articles for the leadup to the Reaper War, and one mentioned the STG was considering a coup, on account of the Dalatrass being so shit at her job.
Salarians play politics like crazy people, and it happens they had the bad luck to land on someone incompetent JUST before things got intense.
Stupid Linron.
Why I fear the ocean.
I mean... you disprove your own argument pretty handily. We are humans, we live on Earth. The Asari came from Thessia. Occasionally you'll get the Vulcans from Vulcan or whatever, but the opposite happens too.
To be fair, we are humans, we don't call it huma.
Link.
"Human" actually does derive from Earth. Or rather, from our convention of calling the land we live on "dirt." (Human, from the Latin Humus, soil. Our mythical progenitor, Adam, is also named after soil, having been allegedly made from it.) Salarian...I dunno. Does it describe their shape, their relationship to Sur'Kesh fish-frogs?
Based on that, we'd have to have detailed knowledge of their ancient languages to know where the word 'Salarian' comes from.
Edit: I don't think you're right about the etymology of the word human actually. The Romans used the word homo for man. Even the word humanis derives from homo, not humus.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
iow we dinnae really ken why we call ourselves human. maybe its a phonetic rendering of the prothean word for primitives
The historical analogy would be the United States circa 1856, with the Southern states rattling their sabers like crazy and secession looming, so whom do we elect as President ? James Buchanan.
I see what you did there...
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Hey, the council races only think our expansion is crazy because they already did it several hundred years ago and almost wiped themselves out. But it's a valid point that humans are expanding fast. But the only reason we survive or are at all relevant in the galaxy is because of our military power fueled by our expansion. The Turians would have just wiped us out at first contact if we were weaker.
I think you may be right about the Skyllian Verge... It may be that the System's Alliance is willingly taking the risk in expanding to these new colonies and it just so happens to benefit the citadel races. But the council dictates who can colonize where, I thought Eden Prime was the Alliance's first big settlement.
Now I've been reading back up on the initial expansion and trying to piece things together. I almost forgot that humanity's first encounter with an alien species (the Turians) involved them wiping out a human fleet trying to activate a relay without even trying to communicate with them. The Turians really were assholes to the humans. The Turians, and thus the council seem to adhere to the LAPD paradigm of Police enforcement: if they're unconscious or dead, they can't break any laws.
And then the council only got involved in negotiating peace when it was obvious that the Turians weren't going to win the war easily. I mean, is that how the Batarians were introduced to the galactic community too? I'm starting to understand their hostility towards aliens.
Origin: Viycktor
So far as I know, they never came out and said which world the Alliance settled first after opening the Charon relay. Eden Prime was one of the earliest established colonies, though. And a really nice planet, aside from the location.
We can, however, say that salarian and asari etc. were chosen because they sounded cool and sci-fi-y. They could invent any number of lore reasons for that, whether a translation hitch or a miscommunication or simply someone coining them that and the universal translators adjusting everyone else's alien word to English "salarian."
Eden Prime is one big jump from Earth, if I recall correctly. It isn't some Terminus Systems colony on the border of lawless space. It's well within the borders of the System's Alliance. The fact that a Turian acting under the council's authority nearly wiped it out was a huge deal politically. I know I didn't catch the significance of it the first time I played ME1. I didn't understand why the council was putting up with Udina being so uppity, but once I thought a bit, it made sense. It wasn't some backwater colony getting hit by pirates. This was a major colony in protected space. The very least they could do was grant the request for a human specter.
They're called Asari because Titsari doesn't roll off the tongue as well. :P
Origin: Viycktor
That just means you haven't tried hard enough.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Now, I understand where humans are coming from. The Council asserts authority over council space, which Earth just happens to be in, and you finally reach the stars only to learn that all the nice safe class-M planets are settled and the ruling body hands you a ticket and tells you to get in line "openings will be available soon and by 'soon' we mean 'lol'".
So you really are faced with:
a: War
b: Accept that your expansion will be artificially limited on a curve such that you will never be allowed to be more powerful than the Asari/Turians/Salarians.
c: Take big risks and settle the Terminus systems.
Humanity opted for c. I might have done the same. It worked out very well for them for a short while, with humanity seemingly calling the Council's bluff and rapidly becoming a peer to the 'big three' races in a way that the Elcor and Volus never did because they fearfully played in the little box that the Council designated for them.
Then of course it all went to hell. Turns out the Councils strategy of keeping the peace by reigning everyone else in weakened everyone. They didn't know that, and their strategy and reasoning prior to the Reaper invasion certainly made sense in light of their past wars and they had, after learning hard lessons, become reasonably good at keeping the peace (compare previous wars with Rachni/Krogan/Turian to how quickly and neatly the Turian-Human conflict was aborted by the council).
how do you calibrate how much to feed your turret?
the thing with eden prime was basically the council saying 'look, we know you want colony worlds and all but that one's kind of a long way away so you're on your own as far as protecting it,' and the humans (or possibly some human corporation) going 'screw you ah do what ah want.' Which is why, when you go to the council for help in ME1, they're like "yeah we told you that shit was a bad idea in the first place."
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
yeah I mean, part of the artifice of the in-game dialogue is that we don't really get to hear what any of the alien languages sound like (even if we accept the little conceit that everybody happens to speak galactic-standard-that-conveniently-sounds-like-english.) I bet in the mass effect universe there are huge email lists where professors argue over what the proper localization of 'turian' is.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Yes I don't remember the exact details, but I know that the council wanted human colonies there because it benefits the council races, but they also didn't want to assume any risk for it.