Mass Effect/Characters

David Anderson is a fictional character in Bioware's Mass Effect series of video games and novels. Created by writer Drew Karpyshyn, Anderson appears as the protagonist of the novel Mass Effect: Revelation, then later as the supervisor to the player's Commander Shepard in the first video game.

Mass Effect: Revelation
In the novel, David Anderson is depicted as a young lieutenant who discovered the massacre at the research station on Sidon and lead the ensuing investigation into those responsible for it. Lt. Anderson is considered one of the Alliance's 'elites', having been trained in the N7 Marine program, graduating from the Arcturus Academy, as well as serving with honor in the First Contact War between the turians and the Alliance. Before he began his investigation of the massacre at Sidon, Anderson served as the Executive Officer of the SSV Hastings.

It is confirmed that Anderson was capable and had been considered a suitable candidate to represent Humanity in the Spectre agency. However, Saren, a Turian and the antagonist of the game, spoke poorly of him in front of the Council causing Anderson to be overlooked.

During the investigation, Anderson fell in love with key witness/prime suspect Kahlee Sanders. However, they mutually agreed not to continue a romance after the investigation, in part because she was assigned to a classified scientific project, and also that their careers made marriage impossible.

Mass Effect
David Anderson is the commanding officer of Commander Shepard, the central character of the video game. At first he commands the Normandy, but is quickly put into early retirment to give Shepard command of the Normandy. After that, he can be found on Citadel Station, beside the Human Ambassador. When the Normandy is locked down by the Council, he unlocks it by either going to the Ambassador's office and overriding it, or sneaking into C-Sec and changing it there. After the Geth invasion of the Citadel, the player can choose him (regardless if the player decided to allow the Council to die or not) to become the Human representative of the Council.

He is voiced by Keith David