Saren Arterius

"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard."

Saren Arterius, born 2139, is the longest serving turian member of the Spectres - the elite military operatives answering directly to the Citadel Council. For 24 years he has been an agent of the Council's will, a zealous defender of galactic stability in the unsettled border region of the Skyllian Verge.

Official records of Spectres are sealed, but it is known that Saren followed turian tradition and entered the military at the age of 15. In 2155 he was promoted to active service after only a year of training, though it is unclear whether his unit was involved in any of the battles against human forces during the First Contact War of 2157.

In 2159 he became the youngest turian ever accepted into the Spectres. Intelligent, cunning and capable, Saren quickly developed a reputation for ruthless efficiency. Although there were a number of unsettling rumors about the brutality of his methods, there was no denying his results.

In recent years Saren has become an outspoken opponent of human expansion. Like many other non-humans, he believes the Systems Alliance has become overly aggressive in its efforts to establish the people of Earth as a dominant species in Citadel space. Historically, races take centuries to accomplish what humanity has done in less than one, and there are several species that have a "lower" standing on the Citadel than humanity, even though they are the most recent addition. Saren's opinions on humanity are based on his predisposition to the species, but not completely unjustified.

The root of his racism is speculated to be based from the First Contact War when the turians attacked Shanxi. In the novel, Mass Effect: Revelation; Anita Goyle informs David Anderson that Saren lost a brother in the war and has disliked humanity ever since. After their abortive mission together, Saren has retained a particular dislike of Captain Anderson.

Saren has little regard for life. He doesn't see saving lives as a priority unless the Council deems it necessary, or there is information to be gathered. He remains the Council's top agent despite his record - Saren may be ruthless and calculating, but he gets results.

Saren is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Mass Effect: Revelation
' "I have two rules I follow," Saren explained. "The first is, never kill someone without a reason."   "And the second?" Anderson asked, suspicious.   "You can always find a reason to kill someone." '

In 2165, Saren was investigating illegal arms dealing on Juxhi. A mercenary group called the Grim Skulls, mostly turians, were selling weapons to humans... something Saren took very personally. After killing almost all the mercs responsible, Saren interrogated the last one who tried to bargain for his life with information. The weapons were originally intended for the Blue Suns, but they pulled out at the last minute to pursue a bigger job. Saren became interested in what they were up to and tracked down a member of the Blue Suns, a batarian named Groto Ib-ba, finally cornering him at the Sanctuary, a high-class brothel. Saren patiently tortured Ib-ba for information and learned all about the Blue Suns' actions on Sidon. After Ib-ba told him about Kahlee Sanders, and the krogan bounty hunter whom Edan Had'dah had sent after her, Saren broke Ib-ba's neck and went to follow Skarr in turn to find Kahlee, wanting proof the Alliance had been doing something illegal at Sidon. Saren found Skarr on Elysium and intervened when the krogan attacked Jon Grissom's home. He saved Kahlee, along with David Anderson and Jon Grissom, then interrogated Kahlee about Sidon. Saren accepted her lie that it had been a training ground for human biotics but remained suspicious. Knowing Skarr was the key to finding out the truth, Saren used his contacts to look for the krogan's next move. After Skarr destroyed the Dah'tan Manufacturing Company on Had'dah's orders, there was only one survivor, a batarian woman called Jella who had been Had'dah's contact. Jella had been badly burned in the attack, but managed to give Saren Had'dah's name in hospital before Saren let her die.

Wanting to flush out Had'dah, Saren decided to quietly leak news of Kahlee Sanders' extraction from Camala, knowing Had'dah would take the bait. After Kahlee was captured, Saren found himself assigned to work with David Anderson on the Council's orders, supposedly to evaluate Anderson as a possible Spectre candidate. But the two men disliked each other from the beginning: Saren had a universal dislike of humans, and Anderson resented Saren's brutal methods. In truth Saren didn't care about rescuing Kahlee; he only wanted to find Had'dah, along with Dr. Shu Qian, because he was becoming more interested in the 'artifact' the two had discovered. When Saren and Anderson headed to the element zero refinery where Kahlee was being held, Saren let Anderson go on ahead, then broke with the plan and began destroying the refinery. Saren found Had'dah and Dr. Qian in hiding; he killed the doctor on Had'dah's suggestion, then, despite Had'dah's bargaining, shot the batarian too and took their research.

Later, Saren gave a very negative report on Anderson to the Council, claiming he had alerted the refinery's guards and wrecked their whole operation. Then Saren dedicated himself to using Dr. Qian's research to find this 'artifact' and use it, believing he had found a weapon to control the geth and humble humanity once and for all.

Alliance with the Machines
After the events of Mass Effect: Revelation, Saren's activities are something of a mystery. The only report from that time comes from Wrex, who was hired along with several other mercenaries for what seemed like an easy job attacking freighters, including a volus cargo freighter. While Wrex was looking for valuables, he saw Saren walking through the ship, ignoring the mercs who spoke to him. Wrex did not know why Saren chose to attack the freighter; there was nothing particularly valuable on board, at least not that he saw, but the krogan had a bad feeling about the job and left without even waiting to be paid. His instincts were right; every other merc who had been involved turned up dead within a week. It is still unknown why Saren attacked the freighter, or if he even found what he was looking for.

During this time, Saren made his final preparations to discover Dr. Shu Qian's 'artifact', and encountered Sovereign. From the ancient Reaper, he learned the fate of the many civilizations of eons past. Instead of using Sovereign as a weapon as he had intended, Saren made it his goal to save the races of the galaxy by aiding the Reapers, proving the worth of organics to the Reapers so that they might be spared. He believed that servitude was the logical answer, instead of instinctively fighting to the finish.

However, Sovereign had other plans. The more time Saren spent in service to Sovereign, the more indoctrinated he became. His free will was quickly being sapped and supplanted by the desires of the Reaper, and the values of his people that Saren still believed in - that an individual's personal needs are always subordinate to the greater good of the group - were twisted so gradually that Saren remained certain he was right. Slowly Saren became Sovereign's most powerful, and visible agent. Able to begin the plans Sovereign had been laying for centuries while the Reaper kept its true nature hidden, Saren acted as Sovereign's agent on the forefront, never revealing the true enemy. The geth were sought out from behind the Perseus Veil to serve Sovereign, looking upon the massive ship as their new machine-god and Saren its chosen 'prophet'.

Shepard's Intervention
Saren committed horrible crimes against citizens of the galaxy, killing those he had sworn to protect, using people for his private experiments and even murdering his old friend and fellow Spectre, Nihlus Kryik. When a Prothean Beacon was unearthed on the human colony of Eden Prime, Saren led the geth there to use the beacon and find clues that would lead him to the Conduit, because the message sent through the beacon was coded so only organic minds could understand it. But Saren's attempt to destroy the Eden Prime colony to cover his tracks failed when the Alliance ship SSV Normandy responded more quickly than Saren had anticipated. Commander Shepard led a ground team to secure the beacon, only to learn that Saren and the geth had attacked the colony. Later, Saren was informed that Shepard had made contact with the beacon and decided to eliminate the human.

After the initial reports to the Council of Saren's rogue activities, the Council refused to believe that one of their most highly decorated Spectres had betrayed them. During a hearing, Saren denied killing Nihlus, though it was witnessed by a dockworker, Powell, and claimed he only knew about events on Eden Prime because he had gained access to Nihlus' files after his death. Further, his past with Anderson complicated things and the Council found no evidence to convict him. Because of this Shepard was forced to find more evidence of Saren's treachery while Saren, duly warned that the commander was on his trail, remained free to act. While avoiding assassins loyal to Saren, Shepard's investigation turned up a young quarian on her Pilgrimage named Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, who carried an audio file taken from a destroyed geth proving Saren attacked Eden Prime. Saren bribed one of the Shadow Broker's contacts, Fist, to make sure the quarian would be taken care of, but Shepard saved both Tali and the audio file. With this new-found evidence the Council revoked Saren's Spectre status, but that hardly slowed the rogue agent down.

The Hunt for the Conduit
Accompanied by Matriarch Benezia - who had tried to guide him back to the right path but ended up partially indoctrinated by Sovereign - Saren continued hunting for the Conduit, while building his army of krogan and geth. He intended to supplant the geth with rachni, brought back to life from a queen egg found on a derelict ship thanks to his influence (and investments) with Binary Helix. But a bonus from the Rachni Queen was the genetic knowledge of the Mu Relay's location, which Benezia forcibly extracted from her. Saren believed the Mu Relay would lead him to the Conduit. He also found a cure for the genophage to breed, control and manipulate the krogan. Saren also 'sacrificed' a powerful ally on Feros, Shiala, to the Thorian to gain the knowledge of the Cipher. This would allow him to comprehend the vision, but parts of it were still missing. Fearing that Shepard might also gain the Cipher, Saren ordered the geth to destroy the ancient alien to cover his tracks.

However, Saren began to develop concerns about the power of Sovereign's indoctrination, fearing that it might be affecting his behavior. He established his base of operations on the remote tropical world of Virmire, which housed his krogan breeding facility and a major lab complex to study the effect of the indoctrination, recruiting scientists like Rana Thanoptis and running experiments on the salarians they captured from a recon and espionage team. Saren discovered that the more control Sovereign exerted over an individual, the less capable they became. He hoped that the research from his facility would protect him from the effects of indoctrination. As long as Sovereign saw Saren as a useful resource, Saren believed his mind would still be his own. Saren convinced himself Sovereign needed him to find the Conduit and that the Reaper would offer him a reprieve in return. But he grew afraid of indoctrination, afraid that Sovereign was controlling his thoughts.

After being hunted across several worlds, Saren and Shepard finally met face-to-face on Virmire. During the battle, Saren tried to recruit Shepard to his cause. The commander told Saren that he was indoctrinated, and that Sovereign was manipulating him so subtly he didn't realise what was happening to him. Saren denied these accusations and fled, narrowly escaping the nuclear blast that destroyed the complex and killed one of Shepard's team. But the damage was done and Saren could not forget Shepard's words. Sovereign saw his conviction beginning to falter and implanted Saren, making him cybernetic and completely devoted to the Reapers' cause. Saren thought of himself as "the future", a true cyborg, a fusion of both organics and technology, comprising "the strengths of both, the weaknesses of neither."

"Join us."
The next confrontation between Shepard and Saren would be on the lost Prothean world of Ilos where the Conduit was hidden. While Shepard was delayed by the Council, who thought a blockade would stop Saren from attacking the Citadel, Saren got an early start on Shepard and made it to Ilos' surface first. The activated Conduit brought Saren to the Citadel where his geth and Sovereign mounted a surprise assault. After killing the operators of Citadel Control, Saren began using the Citadel's master control unit. He intended to transfer control of the Citadel to Sovereign to activate the latent mass relay, paving the way for the rest of the Reapers to enter through dark space, but was interrupted Shepard and the Ilos ground team came rushing in.

If Shepard's Charm/Intimidate skills are high enough the commander can convince Saren that he has become a pawn in Sovereign's plan. Saren commits suicide by shooting himself in the head, to prevent himself from doing any further damage to the galaxy, but not before whispering to Shepard (regardless of whether Charm or Intimidate is used) "Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you." If Shepard's Charm/Intimidate skills aren't high enough Shepard is forced to battle him atop the Council platform. Saren falls through the glass floor of the Council Chambers and is bloodily impaled by a large glass shard.

Despite Saren's injuries, Shepard's team ensured Saren was actually dead by shooting him in the head. However, Sovereign was not ready to relinquish its hold on the misguided turian. Through the implants Saren had received from Sovereign, the ship reanimated his lifeless body, burning away all of Saren's organic flesh revealing a skeletal synthetic body, exactly like a Husk but with the agility of a Geth Hopper. Controlling Saren's corpse through the implants and speaking in his voice, Sovereign had the turian fight one last battle. Shepard and the team managed to destroy this nightmarish construct, and Saren's synthetic remains disintegrated on the spot. This avatar's destruction resulted in Sovereign losing control of its shields, allowing the Alliance fleet to destroy it. However, Shepard knew Saren was right about one thing -- the invasion couldn't be stopped forever, and vowed to find some way to stop the Reapers.

Mass Effect: Ascension
Saren's influence outlived him. Publicly, the attack on the Citadel was given as a rogue Spectre leading an army of geth, while Sovereign's true nature remained classified.

But even this was enough to attract the interest of the quarians. They began digging into Saren's personal history, looking for any clue as to how he had managed to supposedly control the geth. They even contacted Kahlee Sanders, who had only met Saren briefly in 2165. After word began to leak suggesting that Saren had used a Reaper to override the geth's intelligence systems, the quarians began to wonder if it was possible for them to find another Reaper and do the same. However, to the galaxy at large, Saren's legacy was still that of a traitor.

Trivia

 * Saren appears to have undergone some cybernetic modification even before being implanted by Sovereign. The left side of his body, especially his left arm, look as if they have been enhanced in the same way as a Husk. This is more obvious in concept art but can also be seen in-game.
 * It should be noted that Saren is shorter than the average turian, about 5'10". This can be seen when Saren grabs Benezia by the throat in the cutscene after Eden Prime, as he is only about a head taller than her, and he is a little shorter than Nihlus, who towers over Anderson. When seen in cutscenes, Shepard (male) and Saren are about the same height, with Shepard even being an inch or two taller.
 * Saren may be a member of a turian sub-species as evidenced by his facial "horns". There are five on top (as opposed to three) and two large "ear-horns". The latter could also be part of Saren's cybernetic mods (they have ridges and faint blue lights that appear artificial).
 * A little interesting fact: if one look closely the back of Saren's head during the cutscene where he kill Nihlus, one can see what looks like three tubes apparently going into Saren's brain from the top of his back. It's only one of the numerous hints that Saren is already cybernetized by this point. More interesting however, is the fact that those tubes are gone on Saren's hologram during the first meeting of the council. He may try to hide them to avoid suspicion from the council.
 * When Saren's flesh is burned away and his cybernetic implants are being controlled by Sovereign, the reanimated Saren looks startlingly like General Grievous from the Star Wars series.