Mass Effect/Characters

Commander Shepard is the main character controlled by the player in the Mass Effect series of video games created by BioWare. Shepard's gender, physical characteristics, past and first name are determined by the player, and in effect becomes the player's "alter ego". Bioware also provides a default character model for each gender that players are free to use instead of creating their own. The default first names for Shepard are "John" if male and "Jane" if female, however, as the first name is never said in the game, the player is free to use whatever name they wish, albeit within a ten-letter limit. The female version of Shepard is voiced by Jennifer Hale, while Mark Meer lends his voice to the male version.

Background
According to BioWare, Commander Shepard is a veteran human soldier and an Alliance Marine Commander stationed on the SSV Normandy, who has 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 must be sacrificed in furtherence of 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 sacrifices that result.