Rana Thanoptis

Rana Thanoptis is an asari neurospecialist. Commander Shepard encounters her at Saren's base on Virmire.

Rana Thanoptis is voiced by Belinda Cornish.

Mass Effect
Rana is hiding under her desk when Shepard and the squad enter her office. She begs them not to shoot her, and offers information in exchange for her life. Rana was employed by Saren and assigned to Virmire to continue the research there, but soon realised the dangers of studying indoctrination. She informs them that indoctrination does not just affect the subjects, such as the captive salarians, but the support staff too; Rana's first test subject was her predecessor. She tells Shepard more about indoctrination and Saren fearing that it might be affecting him too. She offers the squad access to Saren's private lab, where another Prothean Beacon is stored.

Once Rana has told them everything, Shepard may shoot Rana as punishment for her actions or suggest she start running. If the latter option is chosen, Rana is horrified to hear they are planning to destroy the facility and flees, much to the squad and Shepard's amusement.



Mass Effect 2
If Rana is allowed to leave Virmire, Shepard will encounter the asari on Korlus while seeking Dr. Okeer. She has mixed feelings about crossing Shepard's path once again, but insists she did not put the second chance she was given to waste &mdash; despite being a part of the project involved on Korlus. Rana mentions that she had shut off the security cameras once she saw Shepard's approach to the facility. Once allowed to escape, she quips that she "knows how Shepard operates", and expresses her intentions to get as far away from the facility as possible &mdash; this is likely referring to the nuke that Shepard had set off on Virmire. One of Shepard's squadmates will sarcastically comment on Shepard's decision to let her go again. This may hint that Rana could return in Mass Effect 3.

Trivia

 * The word "rana" may refer to the Ranidae genus of frogs that are frequently used in medical experiments. Her surname may be derived from "thanatos" which means "death" in Greek.