Samara

Samara is a nearly thousand-year-old asari justicar, a member of an ancient monastic order following a strict honor code. Though she is skilled with weapons, Samara usually relies on her powerful biotic abilities. Justicars rarely leave asari space, but Samara's pursuit of justice has brought her to Illium.

Samara is voiced by Maggie Baird and her face is modelled after model Rana McAnear.

Weapon proficiencies

 * Submachine Guns
 * Assault Rifles

Dossier
Like many asari, Samara's Maiden phase of life was marked by adventure and excitement. At one point she ran with a mercenary gang and discovered her talent for combat. Her membership in the gang came to an end when she led a transport mission and discovered the cargo was not weaponry or machinery, but slaves intended for sale to the Collectors. Samara tried to have the ship turned around, but met with resistance from her team and was forced to kill them. The Collector ship arrived just as the battle ended; fortunately, the ship was close enough to a mass relay for her to escape. Once safe, Samara gave the slaves a speech about self-defense and passed out the credits, weapons, and armor that had belonged to her mercenary comrades, then left them all at the Citadel.

Samara left her mercenary career after that and slowed down, eventually finding stability with an asari mate and raising a family. Samara had three daughters, but discovered, to her horror, they were all Ardat-Yakshi, suffering a genetic condition that made them kill their mates during melding. As Samara explains later, she herself is a pureblood; she believes that the stigma against them lies partially in their increased probability of giving birth to Ardat-Yakshi daughters.

Two of Samara's daughters, Falere and Rila, chose to live their lives in isolation and comfort. Her third daughter, Morinth, whom Samara described as the "smartest and bravest" of the three, refused to go into seclusion and fled, beginning a spree of murder and violence. Recognizing her daughter's growing addiction to killing her mates, Samara gave up her worldly possessions, swore herself to the Code, and became a justicar.

Samara hunted her daughter across the galaxy for centuries. At one time, Samara had discovered Morinth had perverted an entire village, making them worship her and bringing her young asari as sacrifices. When Samara arrived, Morinth fled, throwing waves of her minions at her and buying herself time to escape with their lives. When Samara was done only small children remained, who she left in the care of the authorities and continued her pursuit. At another time, Samara crossed paths with Nihlus Kryik after she witnessed him murder an unarmed civilian. She had no choice but to engage him. They fought for days on the planet, chasing each other in the wilderness. Eventually, Nihlus manipulated Samara by putting her in a situation where she had to let an innocent die or let him escape. Despite having lost to him, she was impressed that he had learned how to turn the Code against her and adapt.

By 2185, Samara had hunted Morinth out of asari space to Illium. Following a lead that Eclipse mercenaries had helped Morinth escape off world, Samara hunted them down and interrogated one of the mercenaries for the name of the ship Morinth was travelling on. When the merc refused to answer, Samara killed her only to meet Commander Shepard, who had come to Illium in the hope of recruiting Samara. She expressed interest in Shepard's mission, but was required to go into Detective Anaya's custody for a time.

Samara asked Shepard's help in finding the name of the ship—a task made all the more urgent by the fact that, after a day in custody, the Justicar Code would oblige Samara to escape, possibly killing many police officers in the process. When Shepard returned with the ship's name &mdash; the AML Demeter &mdash; Samara swore the Third Oath of Subsumation, binding herself to Shepard's morals, and vowing to fight the Collectors. However, her hunt for Morinth remained utmost in her mind.

Loyalty


Samara's loyalty mission concerns her hunt for her daughter, Morinth. Thanks to Shepard's help in discovering the ship's name, Samara tracks Morinth to Omega and learns that Morinth has just killed another victim. After Samara and Shepard investigate the victim's apartment on Omega, Samara offers a suggestion: Shepard will act as bait for Morinth and lure her into a trap. After discovering the password to Afterlife Club's VIP area, they head there and Shepard goes alone. Shepard must do at least two actions in the club to attract Morinth's attention. Once Shepard has her attention, she invites the Commander to a private table where Shepard seemingly shares "common interests" with her. When she is fully interested in Shepard, she brings the Commander to her apartment. Shepard continues to sound interested in Morinth by talking to her about the things in her apartment. Finally, when Morinth attempts to mate with Shepard, Samara rushes in and a battle between Samara and Morinth ensues. Eventually, their battle gets stuck in a deadlock, thus Shepard must choose to either assist Morinth or Samara. When Shepard chooses to assist Samara, Morinth is killed and Shepard gains Samara's loyalty. However if Shepard chooses otherwise, Morinth kills Samara instead and takes her place in disguise. Regardless of the choice, the mission is complete.

NOTE ** - For those having difficulty killing Samara or getting the paragon/renegade responses - there is a reason for this. Mass Effect I characters import up to *190* renegade/paragon. If you dont have a saved file (like me) you are losing all those points! That is why it is so difficult to get the correct answers to generate. I just had the option to kill Samara and my Paragon was only about 70% full. The reason it worked is because I had the extra paragon from the start and thus had enough to get the options. Without the import or paragon glitch, the option would not be available yet. All I did was used a glitch from the beginning of the game and gifted myself 100 paragon (only HALF of what was able to be transferred from ME I). :-)

Romance
Through conversations, Shepard has the option to show a romantic interest in Samara. However, due to Samara's commitment to the Code, she chooses to serve the code over romantic pursuit, which the code does not forbid, thus rejecting Shepard's advances. Nonetheless, she notes that she appreciates the interest. However, through further conversation options, Shepard may continue to push for a romantic relationship, which causes Samara to almost give in to Shepard's advances and share a kiss, but she stops Shepard at the last moment and asks for some time alone. After this conversation, she can be found observing the drive core from the Crew Quarters. If spoken to, she will simply reply "Please." She will return to Starboard Observation when Shepard leaves the deck. However, if Shepard is a Renegade, Samara will instead say that she does not feel the same connection and that she has seen Shepard do too many things that would compel her to violence were she not under oath.

Mass Effect 3
Samara will return in Mass Effect 3, provided she survived the events of Mass Effect 2.

Samara reunites with Shepard on Lesuss, where Reaper forces are assaulting an Ardat-Yakshi monastery, looking to convert the sterile asari into Banshees. Samara is able to rescue her youngest daughter Falere, but Rila -who was in the process of being converted- chooses to stay behind, sacrificing herself to destroy the other Banshees by detonating a bomb left by an asari commando unit.

With the monastery destroyed, Samara explains that justicar code would compel her to kill the last of her daughters, because Falere, as an Ardat-Yakshi, cannot live outside the monastery. Unwilling to do it, she attempts to commit suicide. Shepard can stop her by performing a paragon action, and Falere promises to remain to rebuild the monastery, thereby allowing her mother join the fight against the Reapers.

If Shepard prevents Samara from committing suicide on Lesuss, they can later meet on the Citadel, where Samara thanks Shepard for preventing her death, promising her aid in the final battle. She can also be spoken to via hologram before the second half of Priority: Earth.

If Shepard tried to romance her in ME2 and near shared a kiss, at the end of dialogue on the Citadel Samara takes Shepard's hand with both her hands and adds: "Your time is precious. Spend it wisely. And with those who care for you".

If Shepard lets Samara kill herself, however, then the option to either leave or murder her daughter is presented.

Trivia

 * In Arabic and Hebrew, the anglicized name samara translates as 'guardian', making it an appropriate name for a justicar.
 * Samara's armor and jewelry were created with feminine lines and ornate detailing meant to capture her archetypal description of "mystic warrior".
 * Interestingly, the holo-projector on level 28 of Zakera Ward that mentions a potential love interest by name if they are present is capable of saying "Justicar Samara", despite her not actually being a full-fledged romance option.
 * If Shepard is mostly Renegade, Samara comments that if she wasn't bound to Shepard by the oath, their meeting would have ended in violence. Otherwise she simply says that if Shepard makes her do something that goes against her Code, she will kill the Commander after their mission is over.


 * As with all squad members, Samara has unique dialogue that can be heard at various locations, during missions or assignments, or if a specific squad member is in the selected team.
 * The Shadow Broker has files on Samara which can be accessed aboard his ship.