Mass Effect/Characters

This article describes the characters of Mass Effect, an Xbox 360 action role-playing game developed by BioWare. The game was released on November 20, 2007.

Commander Shepard
Commander Shepard is a veteran soldier, having seen action in multiple engagements across the galaxy. As a newly recruited Spectre agent, Shepard is assigned the most important missions in the galaxy and authorized to do whatever it takes to get those missions done. Something may have to be sacrificed to further the mission, and as all of Shepard's decisions are important ones, people's lives, and the fate of the galaxy, hang on the details of each choice. It is up to the game player to make those choices -- and to live with the consequences that result.

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
A human female Alliance Marine that enlisted straight out of high school and is a competent non-commissioned officer. She joins the party during the first mission (after the death of her squad) replacing Corporal L. Jenkins. Ashley is a pure soldier, great with weapons, but no skills with biotics or technology. Confirmed romanceable for male players. Williams is voiced by Kimberly Brooks.

Liara T'Soni
An asari companion that has a passion for studying and working with Prothean technology. Confirmed romanceable for both male and female players. In the game world created by Bioware for Mass Effect, the Asari are all female, there are no male Asari. Liara is voiced by Ali Hillis.

Kaiden Alenko
A human male party member that accompanies Shepard from the very beginning of the game. Kaiden is highly skilled in both engineering and biotics (he is a Sentinal character class). Confirmed romanceable for female players. Voiced by Raphael Sbarge.

Garrus Vakarian
A male turian party member. Garrus is a member of the Citadel security force, a detective who has never liked or trusted Saren. He is skilled at both weapons and engineering (very similar to the Infiltrator character class). Voiced by Brandon Keener.



Urdnot Wrex
Wrex is among the last of the krogan Battle Masters. They are rare individuals who can combine biotic abilities with advanced weaponry. Wrex quickly gained fame for his battle prowess and became a leader of one of the smaller Urdnot tribes at a very young age. To date, Wrex is the youngest krogan to be granted the honor in 1000 years. Following the krogan genophage, Wrex realized that his people had degenerated from the honor-bound people they once were and had become senselessly violent, preferring death in battle rather than saving their culture through peaceful means. Wrex subsequently turned his back on his people. During the past three centuries, Wrex has worked as a bodyguard, mercenary, soldier and a bounty hunter. Despite his menacing appearance, Wrex rarely loses his temper. Likewise, Wrex doesn't voice his thoughts very often. But when he does, people are more than willing to listen. The mere threat of his anger is enough to ensure that. Wrex has abilities very similar to the Vanguard character class (a mix of combat and biotic skills). Voiced by Steve Barr.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya
A female quarian party member. Tali'Zorah is introduced as a way to get to Fist, a gangster and owner of a gentlemen's club on The Citadel. She is an engineer (specializes in tech abilities) and is away from her home because of her culture's belief in a necessary journey away from home. She has some trouble adjusting to the quiet atmosphere of the Normandy because the ships she lived on at her home were all second-hand and thus were rather loud and clunky.

Tali (as she likes to be called) is a pure engineer, a technical specialist with minimal gun handling skills but great technical abilities. Voiced by Liz Sroka

Captain David Anderson
Captain of the Normandy and main character, and partner/rival of Saren in the prequel novel, Mass Effect: Revelation. Captain Anderson, as a top tier human Alliance officer, serves as Shepard's mentor and close advisor through out the game.

Jeff "Joker" Moreau
The pilot of the Normandy. He suffers from a hereditary disease that caused the bones in his leg to become brittle to the point where his legs were breaking in the womb. As a result of this, he became a pilot (as it wouldn't require any standing) and is now the best in the Alliance fleet. Voiced by Seth Green.

Navigator Pressly
Navigator Pressly is the second-in-command of the ship, under only Commander Shepard himself. He takes over the ship when Shepard is out. He, as well as several other human members of Shepard's team, has some problems getting along with his alien companions.

Corporal L. Jenkins
A member of Shepard's team during the first mission on Eden Prime. Confirmed to be a Leeroy Jenkins reference. Jenkins is killed in a manner similar to his namesake as well. Without waiting for orders, Jenkins dashes from cover where he is immediately cut down by the Geth.

Nihlus Kryik
A decorated turian Spectre agent, Nihlus is first encountered aboard the Normandy at the beginning of the game. He is killed mid-way through the first mission by Saren in a pre-scripted event that the player has no control over.

Nihlus has a back story found in the Mass Effect novel. He was born in a small colony outside of Hierarchy space. After the death of his father, his mother forced him to join the turian military. Despite his exceptional marks in class, he was never truly accepted by his peers due to his outsider status. While Nihlus was undeniably an excellent soldier, his reckless behavior in battle earned him nothing but criticism from his superiors.

It was during his third reassignment that he met Saren Arterius, a fellow turian and renowned Spectre. Impressed with the young soldier's abilities, Saren befriended Nihlus, and offered to mentor him. Within a year of meeting Saren, Nihlus was asked to join the Spectres.

Nihlus soon stepped out of Saren's shadow and quickly established himself as one of the Council's most able bodied agents. He maintains a cool composure when under dire circumstances and has an uncanny ability to root out an enemy's weaknesses and exploit them. While his methods are not as brutal as Saren's, he will take any steps necessary to get the job done--and eradicate anyone or anything that stands in his way. He is killed by Saren on Eden Prime.

Shialia
Shialia is known as the Consort and you first find her (if you look) in the giant space habitat called the Citadel (which you go to after the first mission). There are several quests associated with Shialia and she has a number of acolytes who follow in her footsteps. Shialia is first presented very much as a Oracle, though her acolytes claim she is just an unusual Asari.

Saren Arterius
A Spectre turian agent gone rogue, Saren Arterius was best known for 'getting results' through brutal but efficient means. He harbors a seething hatred for humans, which is speculated by other characters in the novel to stem from the loss of his brother in the First Contact War. After the events described in Mass Effect: Revelation, Saren takes command of an army of Geth. He serves as the primary antagonist of the video game.

Benezia
An asari matriarch who is in league with Saren. She is voiced by Marina Sirtis.

Sovereign
A single ship/entity of the Reapers. Saren uses this ship as his main weapon. It is unclear whether Sovereign is the ship itself or simply a computer that exerts control over the ship.