User blog comment:Elseweyr/Mass reading for best Effect – Introducing the Mass Effect Book Club/@comment-24699512-20140330211518/@comment-5619827-20140401173330

An artifact to alert "someone" to the presence of advanced species clearly points to the Reapers. There's also the constant mention of everyone affected saying "prepare". Prepare for what? It sounds like "the Arrival". The point of the monolith, however, is clearly not the same as dragon's teeth. As Desolas says, the single goal of those touched by the monolith is to create more of their kind. They are not inherently hostile (at least at first) which is unlike any Reaper creation we see in the games. They also seem to posses greater intelligence (Ben retains his ability to speak English and they clearly have their own Reaper-language).

I also started wondering a few things at the end. When Saren contacts Desolas after sealing the temple he mentions surprise at his being unaffected and indirect contact. It's not specifically shown (we see him shaken up) so is the assumption that he grabbed Desolas and threw him away from the monolith after Ben pushed him? If so, him touching the Arca Monolith in the same way that Illusive Jack did (great name by Temp) raises a potential question about indoctrination. If we assume that they are both indoctrinated in some way then they almost become two sides of the same coin.

As for Saren's motivations, they're probably more complex than a normal turian simply hating humanity for the FCW. While a hallmark of turian society is sacrifice for the greater good and all of that, clearly the Arterius family doesn't conform to social norms. Desolas comes right out and says how he intends to overthrow the "sniveling civilian rulers" on Palaven before turning to the galaxy at large. In a way his idea for turian dominance at the expense of other races is almost like a turian-Illusive Man (an idea which you could argue Saren develops later).

From my end it seems like his hatred for humanity is part FCW related (humans as a symbolic threat having held off the turians on Shanxi showing that turians are not invulnerable militarily) and then more specifically at Jack and (especially) Ben for being more directly responsible for what happened. At the very least, if you remove humanity from the equation, Saren may believe that Desolas would have been spared contact with the Arca Monolith and still be alive.