Saren Arterius

Saren Arterius, born 2139, is the longest serving turian member of the Spectres, the elite 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 concerning 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, species take centuries to accomplish what humanity had achieved in less than one, and there are several species that have a "lower" standing on the Citadel compared to humanity, despite having been part of the Citadel community longer.

His speciesism is speculated to have originated in 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 retained a particular dislike of Captain Anderson.

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

Saren is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.

Mass Effect: Revelation
In 2165, Saren was investigating an illegal arms dealing on Juxhi. A mercenary group called the Grim Skulls, consisting partly of humans, were buying stolen weapons from turian sellers, something which Saren took personally. After wiping out nearly all the mercenaries and sellers, Saren interrogated a sole survivor, who tried to bargain for his life with information. Saren learned that the weapons were originally intended for the Blue Suns, who were planning a major operation, but they pulled out at the last minute to avoid the attention of the Spectres.

Saren became interested in their activities, and tracked down a member of the Blue Suns, a batarian named Groto Ib-ba, cornering him at the Sanctuary, an upper-class brothel. Saren patiently tortured Ib-ba for information and learned much of 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 followed Skarr to find Kahlee, wanting proof that the Alliance had been acting illegally 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 the truth, Saren used his contacts to ascertain the krogan's next move. After Skarr destroyed the Dah'tan Manufacturing Company on Had'dah's orders, there was only one survivor, a female batarian 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 a 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. However, the two disliked each other from the beginning; Saren had a universal dislike of humans, and Anderson resented Saren's brutal methods.

In truth, Saren did not care about rescuing Kahlee; he only wanted to find Had'dah, along with Dr. Shu Qian, as 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 ahead, then abandoned the plan, 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, 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 the operation. Saren then 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 Urdnot Wrex, who was hired along with several other mercenaries to attack freighters, including a volus cargo freighter. While Wrex was looking for valuables, he saw Saren walking through the ship, ignoring the mercenaries who spoke to him. Wrex did not know why Saren chose to attack the freighter; there was nothing particularly valuable on board, at least as far as he was aware, but the krogan had a bad feeling about the job and left without waiting to be paid. His instincts were validated; every other mercenary who had been involved was found dead within a week. It is still unknown why Saren attacked the freighter, or if he ever found what he was looking for.

During this time, Saren made his final preparations to discover Dr. Shu Qian's artifact, and encountered Sovereign. Through 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 gradually sapped and supplanted by the desires of the Reaper, and the values of his people that Saren still believed in &mdash; that an individual's personal needs are always subordinate to the greater good of the group &mdash; 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 as their 'prophet'.

Shepard's Intervention
Saren committed horrific 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, as the message sent through the beacon was coded so only organic minds could understand it.

Yet 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 were behind the attack on the colony. Later, Saren was informed that Shepard had made contact with the beacon, and decided to eliminate the Commander.

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, even though it was witnessed by a dockworker, Powell, claiming he only knew about events on Eden Prime by accessing Nihlus' files after his death. Furthermore, his past with Anderson complicated matters, 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 led the Commander to a young quarian named Tali'Zorah nar Rayya on her Pilgrimage, 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 ensure the quarian would be silenced, but Shepard saved both Tali and the audio file. With the new-found evidence, the Council revoked Saren's Spectre status, but this did little to slow Saren's progress.

The Hunt for the Conduit
Accompanied by Matriarch Benezia &mdash; who had tried to guide him back to the right path but instead, ended up partially indoctrinated by Sovereign &mdash; Saren continued hunting for the Conduit while building his army. He intended to supplement the geth with rachni, brought back to life from a queen egg found on a derelict ship, thanks to Saren's influence and investments in Binary Helix. A bonus from the Rachni Queen was the genetic knowledge of the Mu Relay's location, which Benezia forcibly extracted from the rachni's mind. Saren believed the Mu Relay would lead him to the Conduit. On Feros, Saren sacrificed a powerful ally, 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 Thorian to cover his tracks.

Most significantly, he found a cure for the genophage to breed, control and manipulate the krogan. Alongside the geth, Saren believed he would soon have an unstoppable army to carry out Sovereign's will.

However, Saren became gradually more concerned about the power of Sovereign's indoctrination, fearing that it might be affecting his behavior. At his base of operations on the remote tropical world of Virmire, which housed his krogan breeding facility, Saren added a major lab complex to study the effects of indoctrination. He recruited scientists, such as Rana Thanoptis, and ordered experiments to be performed on the salarians his forces captured from a recon and espionage team.

From the research, Saren discovered that the more control Sovereign exerted over an individual, the less capable they became. As long as Sovereign saw Saren as an 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. Nevertheless, he grew afraid of indoctrination, suspecting that Sovereign might be manipulating his thoughts.

After being hunted across several worlds, Saren finally met Shepard 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 did not realise what was happening to him. Saren denied these accusations and escaped, narrowly escaping the nuclear blast that destroyed the complex.

But Shepard's words bred doubt in Saren's mind. 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."

&ldquo;Join us.&rdquo;
The next confrontation between Shepard and Saren would be on the lost Prothean world of Ilos, where the Conduit was hidden. Because Shepard was delayed by the Council, who thought a blockade would stop Saren from attacking the Citadel, Saren was able to reach Ilos 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 made his way toward the Citadel's master control unit, intending 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 from dark space. Saren was interrupted, however, when Shepard and the Ilos ground team rushed in.

If Shepard's Charm or Intimidate skills are high enough, the Commander can convince Saren that, indoctrinated or not, he still has a way to stop Sovereign. Saren commits suicide by shooting himself in the head, to prevent himself from opening the Citadel relay, but not before muttering, "Goodbye, Shepard. Thank you." Otherwise, Shepard is forced to battle Saren atop the Council platform. At the end of the combat, Saren falls through the glass floor of the Council Chambers and is fatally impaled by a large glass shard. Shepard's team assures Saren's death by shooting the rogue Spectre in the head. Sovereign, however, reanimates the misguided turian's body, burning away all of Saren's flesh, revealing the extent of the cybernetic "upgrades".

By controlling Saren's corpse and speaking in his voice, Sovereign had the turian fight one last battle. Shepard and the team managed to destroy the nightmarish construct, and Saren's synthetic remains disintegrated. The avatar's destruction appeared to result in Sovereign losing control of its shields, allowing the Alliance fleet to destroy it.

Despite the victory, Shepard knew that fundamentally, Saren was right. Sooner or later the Reapers would return, and Shepard vowed to find some way to stop them.

Mass Effect: Ascension
Saren's influence outlived him. Publicly, the attack on the Citadel was attributed to 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 remained that of a traitor.

Mass Effect 2
In 2185, the Council is unwilling to acknowledge the truth of the Reaper threat. They have convinced themselves that Saren swayed the geth to his will by his supposed diplomatic talent.

For Kasumi Goto's loyalty mission, a golden statue of Saren is forged and given to Donovan Hock upon arrival at his party as a gift. However, it is merely a Trojan Horse of sorts, as it conceals Shepard's weapons and armor for infiltrating Hock's estate. Shepard, however, stares uncomfortably at the statue on occasion, remembering the turian whom it represents.

Trivia

 * According to The Art of Mass Effect, Saren's left arm is actually a grafted geth arm.
 * There are several cybernetic ports visible in the back of Saren's head during the events on Eden Prime, ports which are not readily noticeable on Saren's hologram during the first meeting of the Council, as well as his artificial left arm. The port going into his leg also appears to be missing. He may have tried to hide them to avoid suspicion.
 * The platform that Saren rides when being fought was originally intended to be used by geth troopers (see The Art of Mass Effect) but was later made exclusive to Saren. Like all geth technology, it has a distinctive flashlight 'eye' and may be controlled using Saren's cybernetic implants.
 * Early concept art for Saren portrayed him in a different outfit that was black and sleek, as well as wielding a sword or cane intended to tie into his biotic powers (see The Art of Mass Effect). This was later changed to make Saren more of an armoured, military figure.
 * Saren's armor can be purchased for male Xbox Live Avatars for 320 Microsoft Points.
 * Fred Tatasciore, who voices Saren Arterius, Balak and Warden Kuril, also provided the voices for The Grand Oak, Swiftrunner, and Cyrion in BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins.