The History of Mass Effect Through the Eyes of the Krogan

Mass Effect Legendary Edition was announced this N7 Day, finally giving fans who’d long waited for a remaster of the original trilogy just what they’d asked for. When Mass Effect first released in 2007, its world-building and unique alien races was one of its greatest appeals, and now they may look better than ever.

The krogan are the muscle of the Mass Effect universe. Warlike survivalists, the krogan have seen nuclear war, galaxy-wide conflicts, mass sterilization, and more. Here’s the history of the krogan species leading up to the events of Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Krogan are built to survive some of the toughest conditions in the Mass Effect galaxy. Standing over 7 feet tall and weighing almost 200 kilograms each, the krogan have the wide-set eyes of a prey animal, plated skin, and multiple major organs. Each krogan is decked out with two hearts, four lungs, and four testicles or “quads” which come into action if the krogan ever faces massive organ failure. They even have a back-up nervous system, making the species almost impossible to paralyze. In other words, it’s not surprising an individual krogan can live to be over 1000 years old.

Despite the extremely hostile environment of Tuchanka, the krogan home world, these adaptations quickly made the krogan the dominant species on the planet. Krogan naturally produce huge amounts of eggs when giving birth, and it wasn’t long until Tuchanka was nearly stripped clean of its natural resources. The krogan began to war over the remains of their planet, turning it into a radioactive wasteland with the detonation of nuclear weapons over petty territorial and resource-based struggles.

This threw the krogan back to the stone age, reducing their numbers to warring clans in the wastes. They remained this way for two-thousand years, until Tuchanka was discovered by the short-lived salarians. The arrival of the salarians would prove to be both a blessing and a curse.

The salarians gave the krogan the technology to move to a more hospitable planet, and raised the Shroud on Tuchanka, a large device which would help stabilize the atmosphere of the krogan home world over time. The krogan were happy to take the help, joining the Citadel forces in the Rachni Wars. Unlike the other races of the Citadel, only the krogan had the reproductive capacity to outnumber and eradicate their insectoid foe, which, eventually, they did.

As a reward for their victory, the krogan were allowed to spread out over the former rachni planets, as well as begin colonizing new planets in Citadel space. It wasn’t long, however, before the krogan were so numerous that they began spreading to planets already inhabited by Citadel species, like the asari planet of Lusia. In hopes of defeating the rachni, the salarians had released another quick-spreading, resource-destroying horde in its wake.

The Krogan Rebellions began when the Citadel tried to push back against krogan expansion, and lasted for around three centuries. The conflict was long and the krogan took huge losses. However, their military strategies had always been based on the idea that, no matter what, they could win a war of attrition simply due to their booming birth-rate.

It wasn’t until the turians of Garrus Vakarian fame were discovered that a solution came about. The turians helped spread a salarian-made bioweapon over the krogan-inhabited worlds which became known as the genophage, which left just 1 in 1000 krogan births successful, finally taking away the species’ reproductive advantage.

According to Mordin Solus, the genophage was designed to keep the krogan population at a pre-industrial size. Mordin also revealed that over time the krogan had begun to evolve ways to overcome to effects of the genophage, leading the salarian scientist to help create a new version of the genophage which would counter these adaptations.

Perhaps it is a hangover from their tough origins on Tuchanka, or maybe it’s a new cultural development resulting from the effects of the genophage, but by the time of Mass Effect 1, the krogan are by-and-large an essentially fatalist people. Believing that their extinction is inevitable, many members of the species take dangerous mercenary job or are hired as bouncers in criminal hubs like Omega.

One of the biggest effects of the genophage has been the krogan treatment of their own females. While it used to be common for krogan females to remain on their home worlds, by the time of the first Mass Effect game, the female krogan live in entirely separate clans from the males. Worthy males are invited to the female clans’ camps by envoys to attempt to mate if they can pass the Rite of Honor. If there are any successful offspring – as rare as they may be – these krogan children are then raised in the female camps.

The only place the krogan forbid violence is by their Hollows, burial grounds where the skulls of fallen krogan are laid to rest. The species is not particularly religious, though it is known that they once more closely followed an ancient pantheon of gods including Uzin, god of vengeance. If there’s one race the krogan blame for their sterilization, it’s the salarians who brought them into the galactic community to begin with. Though salarians only live for around 40 years, the long-lived krogan can hold a grudge.

Tuchanka is still inhabited, though the krogan there war with each other once again. Not much is known about the political situation in Tuchanka, other than that in 2185 Cerberus reported that one nation called the Republic of Ghurst faced a rebellion which was crushed by its government. Tuchanka is now part of the Krogan Demilitarized Zone, and the Citadel no longer allows the krogan to construct dreadnoughts. Though some warlords break the rules, they are usually killed by in-fighting before intervention is necessary.

By the start of Mass Effect, the krogan are driven by a near-suicidal nihilism. Having once swept the galaxy with confidence of their eventual victory, the krogan now see themselves as a doomed race. Whether that remains true will depend upon the choices players make in Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition is in development for 2021.

MORE: Comparing Mass Effect Legendary Edition’s Companions to Their Original

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