State of the galaxy:
It has been eight years since Commander Shepherd saved organic life by destroying the Reapers and bringing a lasting peace to the galaxy.
Recovery has been a long, rough road. While the mass effect relays have been repaired, there are tight restrictions on travel to avoid strain upon them.
Of all the races directly attacked by the reapers, only humanity is recovering with any real speed, and that is primarily due to sexual reproductive issues unique to the race. With many of the "reaper babies" just starting elementary school, the future looks bright for humans, as the planet Earth has only recently physically recovered from the invasion. With just about every human on and off planet a combat veteran, the Systems Alliance sank all of its efforts into reconstruction. As a result, for the first time in living memory non-combat MOS(primarily construction) greatly outnumbered frontline infantry. While this isn't a bad thing, it has allowed for the rise of a number of new semi-private military and mercenary forces. While the Arcturus First Volunteers, Eden Prime Pitchforks and Zhu's Hope Thorians and a few others are part of the Alliance in all but name, others are not. Perhaps the vest example of this is Exogeni, which now has Exo-Sec. Of greatest concern are the Sons of Shepard- a mercenary outfit that is starting to turn into a gang composed of anti-Cerebus fantatics that seem to be hunting down any and all even tangentally related to the disgraced organization. A counter-movement, called Tartarus, has risen to oppose them, and the conflict between these organizations has started to spread to human colonies.
While the turians have survived the conflict, they are far from thriving. While the construction battalions work to return life to Palaven and Taetrus, the fact that turians can neither eat bullets nor live in cannons is often repeated by the purple robed Valluvien Priests, who have become a common sight on the latter planet and have a toehold on the former. While they make no overt moves to disrupt the hierarchy, their pacifistic doctrine, which encourages the "healing of the spirits" of both planets through dedicated reconstruction -even if this means never leaving the civilian caste- makes the Turian Hierarchy nervous. Already 10 to 12% of turian of educational age on the world have foregone the traditional third step of turian education and have focused on architecture and engineering as Valluvien acolytes, and this is enough to alter the miltary readiness of the planet. Still, the speed at which the Valluvien acolytes have reconstructed major parts of their world is astonishing to even jaded eyes, although their works lack the distinctive turian military aire. Taetrus has begun to heal while Palaven has merely scabbed over in comparison.
On Thessia, reconstruction continues apace, but an old religious movement is making waves there as well. Worship of the goddess Athame has bloomed among younger asari, and an organization known as the Vessels of Athame- an odd combination of private librarians, cultural researchers, museum curators and fertility cultists- has formed. It encourages asari to mate freely and carry children to term even in their matriarch stage of their lives to help the population return to its former levels. These children would be raised at their nunneries and steeped in the ways of their people. While their missionaries are welcome in just about every human colony they visit, they are something of an embarrassment to many asari, who, although they feel the loss of life and culture on Thessia heavily, cannot quite get past the combination of exploitation of unflattering stereotypes and the parallels to the monasteries of the ardat-yakshi. Still, the movement has the backing of several asari matriarchs, at least one of whom has offered a daughter to be raised by the movement.
The Quarians are undertaking the joyous but heavy burden of retaking their home planet. Without the geth to aid them(many have been turned into monuments on the planet), the going has been slow and confusing as the technologically-oriented race has little experience with agriculture and terrestrial construction. Add to that the fact that it will take at least two full generations for the race to re-acclimate to the planet and one has a recipe for if not disaster, then discomfort. The Admiralty Board is doing everything they can to resettle the population on the surface, but even the few colonies they have set up have a clustered, chaotic feel- they have no idea what to do with so much physical space- and at least two liveships have simply permanently moored themselves upon the planet. Still, the average quarian is happy to be back home.
However, not all quarians have made it back as of yet. There are some trapped by poverty on backwater planets or ill luck in general, mired in poor health that makes travel unlikely or difficult, some that just don't believe the stories of a free Rannoch, or are simply too deeply entrenched into their traditional nomadic lifestyle to settle down just yet. It is these Quarians who are the unfortunate victims of a strange resurgence of bigotry, as many feel that now that the Quarian homeworld is free, all should go there with all haste, and view those who have not with an even greater degree of suspicion than ever experienced before- one that is, sadly, mirrored by quarians who have. A quarian who is not actively making their way home is an oddity both within and without. Are they sick or up to no good? Or both?
The Krogan are probably the only race happier than the Quarians. With the end of the genophage, they have a new lease on life, and krogan from all over the galaxy are flocking to Tuchanka for a chance to mate. As powerful as Clan Urdnot has become, the race is making a major turn towards matriarchal leadership, as a set number of krogran from each clan must petition the female clans directly for mating opportunities. There are q small amount of clans that find this disagreeable, and as the female clans have established sacred Hallows within their grounds to forswear violence within their territory, many eager krogan from rival clans meet with "accidents" and ambushes from rivals while en route to be evaluated by the females. Already scores of krogan have been born, and it is enough to make even the most depressed krogan smile. However the inherent aggression of the krogan- along with mathematical projections of even conservative population booms- have some worried. While this may not happen for generations, eventually Tuchanka will not be big enough for the krogan socially, and the race will have to create colonies elsewhere. With the council in disarray, there are some who feel that the old colonies that were the site of the major battles of the rebellions would be best place to ensure a safety valve for their people, reasoning that as long as they do not build warships the old agreements will be upheld. There are others who feel that this would start war anew with the salarians and the turians- Palaven or no, the turians can never truly be trusted...can they? Although the females continue to call for cautious growth, and clan urdnot keeps an eye on overzealous clans trying to stir up trouble, but there are still little pyjaks out there whose future for the krogan looks too much like the not-so halcyon past.
The only council race to be comparatively lightly touched by the reaper war, Salarians either throw themselves headlong into cutting edge construction and repair work, shake their heads while looking at the troubles of the galaxy and saying "I told you so": The humans are still dealing with cerberus. The asari have turned to an ancient cult to lure hormonal species into mating with them. The turians don't know how to balance their militaristic tendencies against their need for repairs. The Krogan slowly but steadily rebuilding their numbers. Usually, they find a way to grouse while aiding their fellows: Salarians have become an increasingly common sight as far away as earth as everyone finds themselves in need of the technology that makes reconstruction efforts flow smoothly. Only on Tuchanka are salarians truly unwelcome, but distrust towards the race is starting to grow as in other areas as the fact that salarians moreso than turians are responsible for the genophage and the fact that they suffered the least at the hands of the reapers while simultaneously putting forth the least effort in resisting them begins to merge with horrifying conclusions in the minds of the less logical races of the galaxy.
The citadel has been repaired, but the council itself lies in ruin. With three of the four major races of the citadel bleeding from near-loss of their home worlds, various understudies and aides took their places here as they saw to concerns at home. The salarian dalatrass appointed to the Council in the days of the Reaper War retired in disgrace when Shephard saved the universe, and her replacement was largely as lost as her peers. What was once the most important place in the universe was rapidly becoming a secondary concern in the face of reconstruction. Not wanting to end their careers in obscurity and eager to show that the council's word still held weight, an improptu election was held and the hanar were elected to be the next race to have a seat on the council. This has had an unintended effect as, perhaps through kismet, an unparralleled number of hanar were already clamoring to move to the citadel as it was the last public sighting of the last Prothean. It is largely hanar credits that bankrolled the physical reconstruction of the citadel in advance of this election, and afterwards the labor of the drell that brought it to being. C-Sec and the Citadel Defense Force have swollen with Drell applicants, which has rattled the old guard among C-Sec, as many of their newest recruits have been identified as "persons of interest" in certain crimes. This bias is absent in the CDF, which is an organization some see as adrift without Commander Shephard, whom it was created to assist. Instead, it has become of great use to Spectre agents, who still answer to the council and do what they can to protect the council and all its' member races, even as the council begins what looks like a long, slow decline into obscurity.
On the other side of the galaxy, omega remains firmly in the hands of Aria, who is confident that she has finally rooted out the last elements of Cerberus within the station. She adamantly maintains Omega as neutral ground no matter what else seems to be going on, and there aee those who have headed to it for the stable government she offers. However the neutrality of the station is endangered by claim the dozens upon dozens of Batarians take refuge there, the station being the closest thing they have to a home as they have lost their homeworld and colonies as they can practice their more eyebrow raising cultural beliefs without interference. The batarian name for the station in face translates to "second home" and while only the most foolish do not respect aria as queen, there is a growing continent that sees her as a background noise. Eclipse and blue Suns have been contracted by aria to deal with any delusional batarian upstarts, but there is a disturbing rumor that a batarian expatriot seeks to court her in an official sense.
