Commander Shepard

'"I'm packing fire and steel, if they want to fight with claws and teeth it's their funeral." '

Lieutenant Commander Shepard is the human protagonist of Mass Effect, whose gender, appearance, skills and pre-service history are all customizable and have an impact on the story.

Shepard was born 4.11.2154 (making the commander 29 years old during the events of Mass Effect), is a graduate of the N7 special forces program (service no. 5923-AC-2826), and is initially assigned to the SSV Normandy as Executive Officer (second in command). Shepard later becomes the first human to join the Spectres, an elite security force for the Citadel Council.

The male Shepard is voiced by Mark Meer, and the female Shepard is voiced by Jennifer Hale.

Profile Reconstruction
Profile Reconstruction is the character creation system of Mass Effect. The process is begun by the player selecting a preset character or creating a custom character.

When creating a custom character, the player can choose to play as a male or female. The default names are John Shepard for male characters, and Jane Shepard for females, though only the first names may be customized.

See also Codex/Personal History Summary.

Pre-Service History
The player then selects Shepard's pre-service history, by choosing either Spacer, Earth born or Colonist. This choice affects how others talk about the main character, and also modifies the rate at which Shepard gains Paragon and Renegade points. Some assignments in the game will only appear depending on the selected pre-service history.
 * Spacer: Both of your parents were in the Alliance military. Your childhood was spent on ships and stations as they transferred from posting to posting, never staying in one location for more than a few years. Following in your parent's footsteps, you enlisted at the age of eighteen.
 * Spacer characters gain a large bonus to Paragon points received, allowing them to max out their Paragon bar faster.
 * Spacer characters can have a short conversation with Hannah Shepard, the PC's mother, through an assignment that only appears with this background. (In both of the other backgrounds, Shepard's parents are deceased or otherwise absent.)
 * Earthborn: As an Earthborn, you had a rough childhood in the slums of Earth, and have a gritty edge to your personality. You enlisted at the age of eighteen, in order to avoid falling into the trap of gang culture and poverty.
 * Earthborn characters gain a large bonus to Renegade points received, allowing them to max out their Renegade bar faster.
 * Earthborn characters also have a unique quest. A member of a gang Shepard belonged to in youth will approach Shepard outside Chora's Den in the Citadel Wards. Shepard is asked to help free a member of the gang from a turian in the bar.
 * Colonist: You were born and raised on Mindoir, a small border colony in the Attican Traverse. When you were sixteen, slavers raided Mindoir, slaughtering your family and friends. You were saved by a passing Alliance patrol, and you enlisted with the military a few years later.
 * Colonist characters gain a small bonus to both Paragon and Renegade points received.
 * Colonist characters also have a unique quest. When exiting the docking bay elevator, you will receive a request to help a fellow survivor of Mindoir, having been taken by slavers during the raid on Mindoir when you were sixteen.

Psychological Profile
Following a selection of pre-service history, the player must choose a psychological profile: Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless - each of which relates to a specific event in Alliance history and places Shepard in a prominent role.
 * Sole Survivor: During your service, a mission you were on went horribly wrong. Trapped in an extreme survival situation, you had to overcome physical torments and psychological stresses that would have broken most people. You survived while all those around you fell, and now you alone are left to tell the tale. The Sole Survivor's unit was slaughtered in a thresher maw attack on Akuze.
 * Sole Survivor grants neither Paragon nor Renegade points and affects the story of the UNC: Dead Scientists mission.
 * War Hero: Early in your military career you found yourself facing an overwhelming enemy force. You risked your own life to save your fellow soldiers and defeat the enemy despite the impossible odds. Your bravery and heroism have earned you medals and recognition from the Alliance fleet. The War Hero almost single-handedly repelled an attack by batarian slavers on Elysium.
 * War Hero characters gain bonus Paragon points; this background slightly affects the dialogue of the UNC: Espionage Probe mission.
 * Ruthless: Throughout your military career, you have held fast to one basic rule: get the job done. You've been called cold, calculating, and brutal. Your reputation for ruthless efficiency makes your fellow soldiers wary of you. But when failure is not an option, the military always goes to you first. The Ruthless character sent 3/4ths of his/her unit to its death and murdered surrendering batarians on Torfan.
 * A Ruthless background adds bonus Renegade points and slightly affects the story of UNC: Major Kyle.

Class
The player must then accept a military specialization, which determines a set of talents. The six classes are Soldier, Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel, and Vanguard. The class choice will also affect weapon proficiency - if Shepard is not proficient with a weapon, the commander can still fire it, but cannot zoom in with it, and many weapon bonuses are void. This applies to all weapons except the pistol, which all classes receive training in.

The player's choice of class does not affect the story in any way; there is only one minor variation in dialogue (when speaking to Kaidan Alenko) which refers to any chosen biotic class or biotic bonus talents.

Bonus Talents
If the player is creating a second character, at this point any unlocked bonus talents may be selected. These talents are unlocked by gaining the achievement for each talent. The player can choose one additional talent to add to their skill base. This talent is not reliant upon the existing class or prerequisite talents. For example, a pure Soldier can still have a tech bonus talent, and an Engineer could still be given Singularity without needing Warp.

Appearance
The penultimate stage of customization, the player may alter their character's facial structure, head, eyes, jaw, mouth, nose, hair, scarring, make-up (female only) and beard (male only). Alternatively, the player may select the default appearance.

Finalize
Before the game begins, a profile summary is shown for review, and a chance to return to previous stages of customisation and make changes is available.

Mass Effect 2
"I'm gathering specialists for a mission. It's not going to be easy. The chances of surviving are slim." 

The Mass Effect 2 Teaser gives Shepard's birth date and service record number. At the end of the teaser, Shepard's current status is given as "killed in action" over the image of bloodied N7 armor, but the truth or circumstances of this are yet to be explained. A recent trailer, however, depicts Shepard alive and well, though some characters seem surprised by this.

It has been confirmed that it is possible Commander Shepard may die in one of Mass Effect 2's endings, based on in-game choices.

Trivia

 * The default male face for Shepard is based on that of Dutch model Mark Vanderloo.


 * John Shepard, the default male character, has nearly the same name as the Stargate Atlantis character John Sheppard. They also share similar roles, with Sheppard being the Military Contingent Commander of Atlantis.


 * The female Shepard is played by prolific voice actress Jennifer Hale, who voiced the Jedi Knight Bastila Shan in BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Obsidian Entertainment's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords.


 * Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was the second person and the first American in space (May 5, 1961). He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission in 1971 and became the fifth person to walk on the Moon, and also the first person to play golf on the Moon.


 * When Shepard becomes inducted as a Spectre, according to Admiral Hackett Shepard is, technically, still part of the Alliance military (though Captain Anderson claims otherwise). Therefore, Shepard should still be referred to as a Commander, even though Shepard is outside of the Alliance military's chain of command and only answers directly to the Council.


 * In the commander's role as a Spectre, Shepard is occasionally described (particularly by Liara) as being "the best that humanity has to offer". The same phrase was used in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to describe the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak before they fell to the dark side.