Saren Arterius

“Your race must learn its place, Shepard.”

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Saren Arterius, born in 2139, was the most experienced and long-serving turian among the Spectres, an elite group of operatives reporting directly to the Citadel Council. For 24 years, he was an agent of the Council's will, a zealous defender of galactic stability in the uncharted border region known as the Skillian Verge.

Official information about the Spectres is classified, but it is known that Saren followed turian traditions and joined the military at the age of 15, as is customary for his people. In 2155, he was deployed for active military service after just one year of training, although it is still unclear whether his squad participated in battles against human forces during the First Contact War in 2157.

In 2159, he became the youngest turian to be honored with joining the Spectres in the history of the organization. Intelligent, cunning, and capable, Saren quickly earned a high reputation for his ruthlessness and efficiency. And although rumors of the brutality of his actions circulated regularly, no one ever questioned his results.

In the following years, Saren became a fierce opponent of human advancement. Like many other non-humans, he believed that the Systems Alliance had become overly aggressive in its desire to present Earth’s people as the dominant race in Citadel space. Historically, races took centuries to achieve what humanity had already acquired, and he pointed out that some races were already beneath humans, despite their long presence in the Citadel long before humans arrived.

His racism is believed to stem from the First Contact War, when the turians attacked Shanxi. In the novel, Mass Effect: Revelation, Anita Goyle (the then-ambassador of Earth to the Citadel) informs David Anderson that Saren lost his brother in that war and has hated humanity ever since. Following their joint unfortunate mission, Saren harbored personal animosity toward Captain Anderson.

Saren shows no regard for the lives of others. If innocents must die to complete a mission, they must die. He does not view saving lives as a priority, only if the Council explicitly instructs him to do so, or if he can extract useful information from them. He remained the Council's top agent, even despite his characterization: Saren may be cruel and calculating, but he accomplishes everything he sets out to do.

Mass Effect: Revelation

In 2165, Saren investigated illegal arms dealing on the planet Usche. A mercenary group called the Dark Bane, partially composed of humans, was buying stolen weapons from turian suppliers, some of whom Saren knew personally. After eliminating almost all the mercenaries and suppliers, Saren interrogated the only survivor, who tried to bargain for his life in exchange for information. Saren learned that the weapons were originally intended for the Blue Suns, who were planning a large operation, but they canceled the deal at the last minute to avoid attracting the Spectres’ attention.

Saren became intrigued by their activities and tracked down a member of the Blue Suns, a batarian named Grito Ib-ba, catching him in a Sanctuary brothel. Saren slowly tortured Ib-ba for information, learning much about the Blue Suns' operations on Sidon. After Ib-ba told him about Kali Sanders and the krogan bounty hunter sent after her by Edan Hadda’h, Saren snapped Ib-ba's neck and followed Scar to find Kali, along with the evidence of the Alliance's illegal activities on Sidon that they so desired.

Saren found Scar on Elysium and intervened when the krogan attacked John Grissom's house. He saved Kali, along with David Anderson and John Grissom, then interrogated Kali about Sidon. Saren accepted her lie that Sidon was a training ground for human biotics, but did not dismiss his suspicions. Knowing that Scar was key to uncovering the truth, Saren leveraged his connections to determine the krogan's next step. After Scar destroyed the Dath'tan Manufacturing Company on Hadda’h’s orders, only one survivor remained, a batarian woman named Jella, who was Hadda’h's informant. Jella was severely injured and burned during the attack but managed to tell Saren who orchestrated the assault. Learning of Hadda’h's actions, Saren coldly shut down the life support systems keeping the woman barely alive, allowing her to die.

Desiring to track down Hadda’h, Saren spread word that Kali Sanders was on Kamala, a planet under Hadda’h's control, knowing he would take the bait. After Kali was captured, Saren received orders from the Council to work with David Anderson, ostensibly to evaluate Anderson’s capabilities for possible recruitment into the Spectres. Nonetheless, the two hated each other from the start; Saren had a disdain for all of humanity, while Anderson was outraged by Saren's brutal methods.

Truth be told, Saren cared little for saving Kali; he only wanted to find Hadda’h, along with Dr. Shu Kyan, as he was heavily interested in the artifact the two had uncovered. When Saren and Anderson headed to the zero-element cleansing plant where Kali was held hostage, Saren allowed Anderson to go ahead, then sabotaged their joint plan by destroying the cleansing plant. Saren found Hadda’h and Dr. Shu Kyan in their hideout. He killed the doctor at Hadda’h’s suggestion, then, despite a deal with the batarians, shot him and took their research data.

Later, Saren gave the Council a very negative assessment of Anderson, stating that he had raised alarms and alerted the cleansing plant's guards, ruining the operation. Saren then devoted himself to searching for the artifact mentioned in Dr. Kyan's data, believing he would find a weapon to control the geth and conquer humanity once and for all.

Mass Effect

Alliance with the Machines

After the events of Mass Effect: Revelation, Saren ceased to openly display his actions and went into hiding. The only account of that time came from **Urdnot Wrex**, who was hired by Saren, along with several other mercenaries, to attack cargo ships, including a volus trading vessel. While Wrex sought something to loot aboard, he saw Saren passing through the ship, completely ignoring the mercenaries and their attempts to speak to him. Wrex did not know why Saren targeted this specific ship; it had nothing valuable on board, at least as far as he knew, but the krogan had a bad feeling about the job and left the deal before getting paid. His intuition was confirmed; all the other mercenaries involved in the job were found dead. It is still unknown why Saren attacked the trading ship or if he found what he was looking for.

During this interval, Saren fully prepared for the unveiling of the artifact discovered by Dr. Shu Kyan and encountered the Reaper. From the ancient Reaper, he learned of the fate of many civilizations of the distant past. Instead of using the Reaper as a weapon, as he originally intended, Saren set his goals on preserving the races of the galaxy by aiding the Reapers, wishing to prove to them the worth of organic life in exchange for mercy. He believed that serving was the right course of action, instead of yet another fight to the end.

However, the Reaper had other plans. The more time Saren devoted to serving the Reaper, the more he was subject to indoctrination. His free will was gradually suppressed and replaced by the desires of the Reaper, and the values of his people, which he still believed in—that the life of one turian is secondary to the good of the entire race—were corrupted so subtly and deeply that he remained convinced of his own righteousness. Slowly, Saren became the most powerful and prominent agent of the Reaper. Finally, for the first time in several centuries, the Reaper could begin to execute his plan. While the Reaper concealed his true nature, Saren acted as the Reaper's chief figure on the front lines, never revealing his true master. The geth from the Veil of Perseus were offered to serve the Reaper, and they agreed, calling Saren their prophet and the Reaper their god.

Shepard's Intervention

Saren committed heinous crimes against the citizens of the galaxy, killing those he swore to protect, using representatives of intelligent races for his personal experiments. He even killed his old friend and fellow Spectre, Nihilus Kryik. When colonists unearthed the Prothean Beacon on the human colony of Eden Prime, Saren led the geth to the planet to exploit the beacon without interference and discover clues that would lead him to the Conduit, as the beacon was set up so that only organic beings could comprehend the message embedded within it.

Furthermore, Saren intended to destroy the colony on Eden Prime to cover his tracks, but he was thwarted when the Alliance ship Normandy reacted to the situation faster than Saren anticipated. Captain Shepard, leading a ground team, aimed to save the beacon but failed, and the beacon self-destructed, managing to transmit a message into the Captain's consciousness. Instead, he learned that Saren and the geth were behind the attack. Later, Saren was informed that Shepard had successfully made contact with the beacon and decided to eliminate the Captain.

After the initial reports to the Council regarding Saren's criminal activities, the Council dismissed them, claiming that one of their best Spectres could not be a traitor. During the hearing, Saren denied the accusation of murdering Nihilus, although there was a witness to the act—a dock worker named Powell—who testified. Saren claimed he learned of the events on Eden Prime only from Nihilus's reports that reached him after Nihilus's death. Moreover, his previous history with Anderson complicated matters, and the Council found no evidence to detain Saren. Because of this, Shepard was forced to find more evidence of Saren's treachery, while Saren himself was fully aware that the Captain was on his trail and remained free to act.

Traversing through the assassins sent by Saren, Shepard’s investigation led the Captain to a young quarian named **Tali'Zorah nar Rayya**, who was on her Pilgrimage, retaining an audio file from a killed geth proving that Saren attacked Eden Prime. Saren bribed one of the human agents of the Shadow Broker, Fist, to ensure that the quarian would remain silent forever, but Shepard saved both Tali and the audio file. With the newly acquired evidence, the Council stripped Saren of his Spectre status, but this did little to slow his advance.

Hunting for the Conduit

Accompanied by Matriarch Benezia—who attempted to steer him back to the light but instead fell under the Reaper's indoctrination—Saren continued the hunt for the Conduit, unceasingly strengthening his army. He decided to reinforce the geth with resurrected rachni, using an egg containing the queen found on an ancient ship, thanks to Saren’s influence and the investments of Bynari Helix. The additional assistance from the Rachni Queen came in the form of genetic memories about the location of the Mu Relay, which Benezia forcibly extracted from the memories of the rachni. Saren believed that the Mu Relay would lead him to the Conduit. On Feros, Saren sacrificed a powerful ally, Shiala, handing her over to a turians to obtain knowledge about the Prothean Cipher. This cipher would help him understand the vision given by the Prothean Beacon, although it had missing parts. Fearing that Shepard could also obtain the cipher, Saren ordered the geth to eliminate the turian to cover his tracks.

More significantly, he created a Genophage cure enabling the control and manipulation of krogan, giving them a capability for full reproduction. Along with the geth, Saren believed that he would soon have an unstoppable army executing the will of the Reaper.

Nevertheless, Saren gradually began to worry more about the power of the Reaper's indoctrination, fearing that it could affect his freedom. At his main base, on the remote tropical world of Virmire, which held a krogan incubator, Saren added a large laboratory complex entirely dedicated to studying the effects of indoctrination. He hired scientists, such as Ranu Tanoptis, and ordered experiments to be conducted on the salarians captured by his intelligence and espionage forces.

From the studies, Saren discovered that the longer the Reaper controls a personality, the less it resists. Saren believed that if the Reaper deemed him an important resource, his consciousness would belong only to him. Saren convinced himself that he was necessary to the Reaper to find the Conduit and that the Reaper would release him in return. However, his concerns about indoctrination grew; he suspected that the Reaper was manipulating his thoughts.

After an extensive pursuit across several worlds, Shepard finally came face to face with Saren on Virmire. During the battle, Saren attempted to persuade the Captain to adopt his beliefs. To which the Captain replied that Saren had succumbed to indoctrination and that the Reaper was so subtly controlling him that he did not even notice it. Saren rejected these accusations and fled, barely escaping before the nuclear explosion that destroyed the base.

But Shepard's words cast doubt in Saren's mind. The Reaper saw that his indoctrination was beginning to falter and implanted control implants into the turian, turning him into a cyborg, fully devoted to the cause of the Reapers. Saren considered himself the ‘future’, a true cyborg, a union of organic and technology, embodying