Talk:Genophage

The Cure
It sucks that Shepard destroyed the cure instead of attempting to copy or salvage it... I assume most players would have wanted to.

Perhaps in later Mass Effect games, you could return to the ruins on Virmire, and find something that survived the nuclear blast?

Perhaps Sovereign carried it in his memory banks, and once destroyed, it may be recoverable from debris in the Citadel? Perhaps some of the geth had already transmitted the cure to their base, where Shepard finds the geth OSD that he gives to Tali to decode?

Is there any other indication, speculation, or hint that the cure got offworld?


 * As Saren was able to find a cure, it's clearly possible. So other scientists can do this, too, if they want. The last point will probably be the problem... --Irian 14:41, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The Codex entry for the genophage states that every cell in every krogan had to be infected for the genophage to be effective, otherwise the krogan could use gene therapy to counteract it. If you turn the logic around, that means that if you could find a krogan cell without the genophage present, you could use gene therapy to cure it. Maybe Saren found some krogan leftovers from the Rebellions, before the genophage: some krogan warlord who stuck himself in cryogenic stasis or was preserved somehow. Failing that - Saren's krogan troops are presumably 'cured' of the genophage, so all you'd have to do is take one alive (heh, volunteers?) and study their DNA to see what's different. --Tullis 09:08, 27 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I wonder if there was a pre-genophage krogan found on the same ship that the rachni eggs were found on. Boter 22:19, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

The cure was cloning... there were stuff that looked like clone tanks and many people said so in the official ME forums..


 * I don't think the cure would be anything as obvious as cloning. Someone would have tried it already. And furthermore, cloning in and of itself would not constitute a cure, as the clones would also be afflicted with the genophage. It would be the same as building a car with a fatal design flaw, then mass producing it as is but claiming to have fixed it. And not to be rude, but just because something "looks" like something else doesn't mean it's the same. And just because "many people" said something on a forum (official or not) doesn't make it so. Unless it comes directly from the game, books, or BioWare, it's heresay, nothing more. SpartHawg948 01:25, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * True, we can't include mere speculation in these articles. Are there any in-game sources that can prove how the genophage cure works, one way or the other? EliTe X HeRo 11:52, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

So what's up with the language in the article like referring to Shepard's "inexplicable" actions? I presume they're explicable if you actually play the game... 76.90.74.72 09:19, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * From that I take it you haven't played Virmire. The language is hyperbole (and may be edited for bias later) but it's understandable hyperbole.
 * A lot of us who've played it wanted the chance to secure the genophage cure rather than just blow up the facility. But there's absolutely no opportunity to do so and Shepard has no chance to mediate between Kirrahe and Wrex to agree to a compromise (say, find the cure but restrict its use). There's not even a chance to discuss it, Kirrahe just decides for you. People talk a lot about the Rachni Queen choice on Noveria, but Virmire forces you to agree to let the krogan go extinct when there's a possible alternative, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Given the rest of Mass Effect's choices, 'inexplicable' sort of covers it. --Tullis 12:49, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * In early drafts of Virmire there was the option to take the cure. It was discussed twice - once during the confrontation with Wrex, and again where you found it in Saren's base. I don't know why it was cut; I suspect it was a scheduling / complexity thing. -- Stormwaltz 16:17, 8 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe it was for the drama. They may have wanted to keep their options open for future games. I would've liked to save the cure, but I think it would be dramatically lame to do so in the first part of the trilogy.--Effectofthemassvariety 07:30, December 4, 2009 (UTC)

Krogan Clones
If you read the Krogan Doctor's entry in the Wikipedia, it says that there are CLONING chambers in his office or whatever.

This is possibly what the "Genophage cure" was. Cloning.


 * This has been discussed above, along with an explanation of why straight cloning is likely not the answer. Also, cloning chambers could used for more than creating literal clones; replicating tissue samples, for example. Actually, that line from Doctor Droyas' article should probably be taken out; there's no evidence that they're cloning pods. --Tullis 04:56, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

Binary Helix
You know, I feel really stupid, but I never put the cure and Binary Helix together. I'm just trying to figure out how the cure could've gotten into Saren's hands. There are many possible ways. I'm interested to hear what others think about this.--Effectofthemassvariety 07:24, December 4, 2009 (UTC)
 * If you listen to one of the random vid-broadcasts in the elevators on the Citadel and talk to the people on Noveria, you'll find out that Saren invests heavily in Binary Helix and that Binary Helix was contracted by a group of krogan to develop a cure for the genophage. Although the vid does say that it "produced no viable results", that doesn't mean that it isn't possible that they developed the cure and Saren convinced them to not use it. This is all just speculation on my part, but I think that this is the most likely scenario. UnluckyIrish14 22:11, December 16, 2009 (UTC)

Use of 'Total War'
Wasn't as much space in the edit box as I would have liked to flesh out my reason for removing the inaccurate use of the phrase total war. Basically, what it boils down to is this: Militarily speaking, total war is a domestic policy term. Total war is when every possible resource at the disposal of the state (personnel, industry, agriculture, etc) is committed to the sole purpose of supporting the war effort. It has very little, if anything, to do with offensive action taken against the enemy. Of course, it is impossible to actually have a state of total war, as there will always need to be resources relegated to non-war functions, but good examples of the closest approximations we've seen would be Germany, the Soviet Union and, to a lesser extent, the United States during World War II. The use of the genophage against the krogans would be better likened to either absolute war or massive retaliation, both of which are terms used to describe offensive action. SpartHawg948 02:16, December 12, 2009 (UTC)
 * Sure. The change still makes sense to the casual reader, and with a Wikipedia link, I have no problem with the edit. --Tullis 13:30, December 12, 2009 (UTC)


 * Dude you just gave a speach out of world war z concerning total war. 68.61.39.252 12:08, December 20, 2009 (UTC)


 * While that is a good book, and I eagerly await the movie, the post I made above was in my own words, based on my own understanding of the concept, supplemented by the wikipedia articles, and I suppose maybe also a little bit subconsciously by World War Z. Gotta watch out for them zombies! SpartHawg948 12:12, December 20, 2009 (UTC)

SO?
The genophage was never meant to render the krogan extinct acording to mordin, nor does it actually effect their fertility it actualyl prevents children developing properly, and also according to him the rate at which the krogan reproduce because of the genophage is actually pre industrial levels and not meant to kill the species, i can understand all of this in fact i had speculated most of this. But are these massive retcons or are they clarifications on facts, thats all i want to know. ralok 17:49, January 31, 2010 (UTC)

I would say clarifications, Wrex himself says the main reason why the krogan are dying is because they're not united and wouldn't stop killing each other. For all we know krogen can lay 1000 eggs at a time.

Uh.... Don't Krogan birth live young? I would assume they do, based on the fact there isn't evidence to contrary. And the only sapiant race not to do such is Salarians. And besides, Wrex said only one in a thousand make it to being born alive. Most are still born. If Krogan laid eggs, they'd never hatch.--Allurade Dendra 03:13, February 14, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, Krogan birth live young - 'pregnancy' is mentioned in one of the Codex entries. But given their extremely high natural fertility rate, we can only guess that in order to have such a high fertility rate they must have a short gestation period and probably a rapid development from child to adult. Couple this with a long lifespan and perhaps a similarly long period during which their bodies produce ova, and their fertility rate becomes extremely high. A lot of it is a matter of perception.

Wrex and other Krogan see their species as dying because they're not growing or getting stronger, and the constant reminder of all those miscarried/stillborn children certainly can't help their impression. But even Wrex admits that if they concentrated on breeding for one generation, they'd get stronger even with the genophage, which coincides rather well with Mordin's explanation.

The use of the term 'fertility' may be confusing however, since it's generally perceived to mean the capacity to conceive. I wouldn't call it a retcon, but it may be a confusing way to phrase it since people assume that adjusting the fertility rate would not result in increasing miscarriages or stillbirths.--Mnemnosyne 11:49, February 14, 2010 (UTC)

WHAT ABOUT GRUNT MORONS!
I am sure he was made to be the cure he does say he is a Pureblood Krogan. So mabe he is amune to the Genophage.