User blog comment:Elseweyr/Mass reading for best Effect – Introducing the Mass Effect Book Club/@comment-5619827-20140326214822/@comment-4953843-20140328061456

it's actually unclear where the monolith came from. what's confirmed is that it was initially on a crashed turian vessel, then moved by researchers to the cavern where jack and ben found it. whether dug up on shanxi or just happened to be shot down to the planet while transporting the relic from some other place, we dunno.

if the vessel crashed during the FCW or well before it, we also don't know for certain (educated guess points at the former; humans would've found and looted the ship earlier if not).

as to the level of turian intel on reaper tech, it's probably safe to assume that the knowledge is just restricted to the arterius brothers and any tightlipped associates. the brothers have been shown to be ambitious and any perceived advantage they discover they hoarded to themselves. case in point is "ah yes reapers" and saren's clout before being proven renegade.

and yeah, back to foundation 9. i'm a goddamn admin for this wiki and even i can't legitimately handwave the introduced discrepancies. it's that bad in terms of continuity. maelon is present, however (the purplish-red salarian), though not as hysterical as the stg report said.