User blog:4Ferelden/A possible plotline for ME4.

On this wiki there’s now a huge debate about the feasibility of sequels (or even just prequels/interquels) to our beloved Mass Effect. I have decided to contribute and design what I think could be a possible storyline for Mass Effect 4, set 50 to 80 years after ME3. (please forgive my clunky language, I’m not a native speaker.)

Prologue
''The Reaper War has been the greatest challenge the galactic community has known. Yet, it has been overcome where no other cycle has done so before, thanks to the unprecedented effort of the entire galaxy and heroism of the Commander Shepard. It was through his actions in the Battle for Earth that the Crucible has been activated to save the races of the galaxy from annihilation.

Yet, the price was huge. The combined casualties from all stages of war have reached trillions. Living conditions for the main planets have not recovered until the 22__ (insert the appropriate number, varies depending on the ending chosen). The damage to the relays has caused great disruption as the planets have become isolated from each other and from intergalactic trade. Many of them have suffered famines and medical crises of varying scale: some have even lost all their original population as the result. The Relays were eventually restored across the galaxy, but by that time some planets have been cut off from the rest of the galaxy for decades. Their technology, living conditions and culture have all become vastly different to that of the majority of the galaxy. As the galactic contact has been re-established, the unthinkable happened: the people on the most isolated planets felt a greater sense of unity with each other, regardless of race, than with their official governments. This has resulted in the formation of political factions aimed to form a single confederation of the most isolated planets, separate from the authority of the Citadel Council or the centralised governments of their species – the movement broadly known as Isolationists.

Within the Citadel itself, there have also been drastic changes. Asari, traditionally the oldest and most influential specie in the Citadel, have greatly suffered from the Reaper War, with their influence drastically diminishing as the result. The humanity, while being the Galaxy’s saviour specie, has suffered even more, with (1.7 million X the number of days Reapers held the Earth) dying on the Earth alone and therefore had mostly formal influence on the political matters. Instead, the power vacuum was filled by the salarians, who were only attacked late in the war and therefore emerged relatively unscathed and their specie’s adaptability has allowed them to take control of most important matters in the galaxy, especially when it came to researching the Reaper/Cerberus technology.

Outside the Citadel space, the power balance had also shifted strongly from its pre-war positions. Batarians, so feared before the war, were reduced to a few fleets and their specie’s reputation had ensured that it would stay that way. The pirates and mercenaries of the Terminus Systems have both lost a lot from the war and were effectively driven out of business by the damage done to the Relays.

One’s loss is always someone else’s gain, and the post-war times have seen the rise of volus and elcor. The two species have always been friendly and the Reaper War had seen their friendship re-forged in blood. Once the relays have been restored, volus have applied their reverse-engineering skills and wealth and gained the greatest from the former Reaper technology. They have used it not only to drastically improve their fleet and vehicle park, but also to augment their elcor allies, whose greatest weaknesses – the ponderous movement and slow wit – are being increasingly addressed by the joint implants and computer aids, the latter speeding up the elcor thought to allow them to communicate and respond as fast as the rest of the galaxy. The two species have now been emboldened and are poised to openly challenged the power of the Citadel. ''

Ending Variations
Destroy: The salarian – volus/elcor balance is shifted strongly towards the salarians and the Isolationists are the weakest and also most alienated from Citadel, as the Relays take the longest to repair in this ending and there is comparatively little Reaper technology left, meaning that the elcor/volus augmentations are at their weakest and there has been the greatest technological/cultural gap between Isolationists and others.

Control: The salarian/volus balance is relatively equal. The Isolationists aren’t as alienated as in Destroy and have the greatest technological development out of three endings because of the help from Shepbringer. The latter doesn’t participate in the upcoming conflict because it feels that it has done enough influence and stabilisation in the galaxy and doesn’t want to interfere with what it perceives as natural development in the galaxy.

Synthesis: (this one is obviously the most complex, so I may change what I have here many times) Sadly, the supposed happiness and organic-synthetic development that EDI has envisioned was not to be. The supposed mind link has become fractured and unwanted amongst the general populace, the various biological effects are still poorly understood, with some downright detrimental, and the supposed understanding was gone just as soon, as it became obvious that we’re the same deep down, and just as corrupt. The effects of this did help the elcor and volus greatly, as their controlled augmentations functioned smoothly alongside the re-written DNA and propelled them ahead in terms of galactic power.

Potentially Extinct Races
Consisting of rachni, krogan, quarians, geth, and maybe hanar and drell, these races wouldn’t play as much role as those factions highlighted in the prologue. Nevertheless, they will still have a lot of dialogue and side quests if present, and will also boost certain factions with their presence: geth are Isolationists’ icons and provide a guiding example for them, quarians are hated by the Isolationists due to the many of their planets being ravaged by the quarian resource-grabs and are affiliated with volus and elcor, as they see many similarities between these species struggle for recognition and their own. Rachni support the Council as the Queen is eager to cooperate with those who previously saved them and worked alongside them on Crucible and krogan will be present no matter what, due to their longevity. If the player cured the genophage, they will be closer to the Council as they see volus/elcor rise as a threat to their worlds, but if the genophage cure was destroyed, they will despise the salarians once more and work with the volus/elcor in hopes that their technology may engineer a cure. In both cases, there will probably be a certain fraction of them with the Isolationists.

Conclusion
Well, this is what I have. I believe that this is a workable plotline for Mass Effect sequels and it has significant advantages of addressing the player’s past choices quite well, not being set too far into the future and showing us more of the forgotten races of the original trilogy. Tell me what you think in the comments!