ME: Speculation on origin of the Reapers

[WafflesToo]

***Going to keep it as spoiler free as possible for ME2 players, but no guarentees. Read at your own risk please.***


***



***seriously, if you haven't played ME2 and don't want anything spoiled at all, go away***


***


***Stop reading! Last warning!***


***



So I finished ME2 a few days ago, and it got me to thinking a bit more on the motivations of the Reapers and a few things that Sovern said in ME on Virmire ("We predate time, blah blah blah"). Doesn't seem possible, unless... Well, we learned a bit on thier reproductive cycle anyway.

Picture an ancient galctic civilisation of a dying universe, nearing the end of entropy and approaching the "Big Crunch". To preserve themselves through it, they make the Reapers and evacuate to the darkness to wait out the next big bang. Sometime during the intervening millenia the hive intellect goes nucking futs and decides that the form they're now in is the pinnacle of evolution, nothing is above them, everything is beneath them. Deciding to share, they create the mass relay network, checking in from time-to-time, and assimilate when they find anything worth thier interest, for millenium. If they predate the current universe, then Sovern's statement about being there at the beginning and such is absolute truth as far as we would see it anyway.

...sure glad the Protheans threw a monkey wrench in the works during the last cycle.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Yeah i agree with the part of assimilating new species. Beyond that im just waiting for ME3 to tie everything up

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

First off, too many Mass Effect threads.
Second off, how would they of put themselves into the Reapers without ending themselves?
Third off, don't you people have anything better to do than speculate stuff about Mass Effect based stuff?
Fourth off, If they were so close to Extinction, how would they of had time to make the Reapers?

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

I always thought they were created by a very advanced alien species and had a similar situation to the geth. Maybe the first reapers didn't look like the ones we are familiar with, but they evolved into what the reapers have now become.
Thats all i have. I'm hoping more will be revealed in ME3 but who knows

 

[gigastrike]

How exactly would the Reapers survive this "big crunch"? The Reapers wait outside the galaxy, not the universe.

 

[LordFisheh]

I always thought that, with Sovreign describing organic life as a 'genetic mutation', that they might be the original form of life. They're machines with some organic parts, so what if a mutation in these parts became organic life? To the Reapers, they'd simply be fighting an unnatural plague that they'd unleashed on the galaxy, trying to keep it from consuming their understanding of the natural world.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I think that they were created by Dr. Wily.

I dunno, this stuff made sense in Alistair Reynolds novels but, I dunno. Something about stopping life spreading and using up all the resources in the galaxy or something.

 

[Internet Kraken]

The Reaper's origin is impossible to determine. A lack of evidence makes any number of theories plausible. I don't know what to think about their origins. I still consider their motivation to be that of culture, but I can't think of how one species comes to have such a culture. Idea that the Reapers started as a rogue AI doesn't work for me. How does a rogue AI develop a culture around "ascending" organic life? Another theory is that the the first Reaper was made from a civilization that willingly converted themselves into Reapers. Seems unlikely, but it could have some truth. Perhaps they did it to avoid some great disaster. Or the first Reaper was the byproduct of a cruel experiment. Still, there isn't any evidence to support most theories about the Reapers origins. Will probably never be revealed. To confusing. Better to keep their origin vague, in my opinion.

And don't take what Sovereign said as fact. Sovereign was a lying bastard with a massive ego. Probably developed a hate for organic life over the years and his isolation as the vanguard of the Reaper invasion caused it to grow. Maybe he even forgot his own origin. Whats to say a machine can't be insane? Either way, I don't believe much of what he said as he was probably trying to be intimidating.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I still think they are just giant space squid with armor. And can read minds. And control them. And can travel FTL unassisted. And like to be really mean.


That's all though

 

[Uszi]

I always imagined that the reapers were essentially like the Geth from some civilization that is millions and millions of years old.

I also figured they harvested the galaxy for upgrades and repairs.
I have to say that the whole reaper larva thing was kind of stupid, but I suppose they need to make more reapers too.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Well the reapers are probably just some sort of AI with no actual physical form. From the looks of it they allow a race to grow and expand, so that they have sufficient organic material to "reproduce," which is why they where making a human reaper. So the last race they did it to would have looked similar to their squid-spaceship structure. I'm guessing that the race that initially invented them created a skynet type thing and where killed and harvested by their own creations.

 

[firedfns13]

How would a Reaper survive the end of a universe?
I just think they were a race that decided to make themselves into a giant machine. Then they decided to leave the galaxy or perhaps they're from a different galaxy all together!

I'd also like to throw this into the works: The Reapers (ironically) forgot about our obsession with genocide. Particularly for our own species. So I think eventually a human reaper would start killing other reapers. You know, for the hell of it, or diamonds, or a god.

 

[Thwarted]

Well we know that some of what Sovreign said on virmire was designed to confuse and intimidate. The universe is finite therefore nothing in it can be "Eternal". As most of the information regarding the origin of the reapers comes from that conversation it really is anyones guess how much of it, if any, is true (in a Mass Effect cannon sense anyway).

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I think it's clear that either Sovereign is lying, or that he's deluded.

I think the Reapers were probably built by some ancient civilisation, but have fogotten that, or else they were once a race of organics who transformed themselves into mechanics (through the process seen in ME2, but voluntarily to themselves), and have simply forgotten that there was not a time when they were not mechanic

 

[Valkyira]

First off, too many Mass Effect threads.
Second off, how would they of put themselves into the Reapers without ending themselves?
Third off, don't you people have anything better to do than speculate stuff about Mass Effect based stuff?
Fourth off, If they were so close to Extinction, how would they of had time to make the Reapers?

I'm eager to know why you think speculation of a video game is such a bad thing...

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

First off, too many Mass Effect threads.
Second off, how would they of put themselves into the Reapers without ending themselves?
Third off, don't you people have anything better to do than speculate stuff about Mass Effect based stuff?
Fourth off, If they were so close to Extinction, how would they of had time to make the Reapers?

I'm eager to know why you think speculation of a video game is such a bad thing...

Didn't say it was bad, just wondered why they didn't something else.

 

[Valkyira]

First off, too many Mass Effect threads.
Second off, how would they of put themselves into the Reapers without ending themselves?
Third off, don't you people have anything better to do than speculate stuff about Mass Effect based stuff?
Fourth off, If they were so close to Extinction, how would they of had time to make the Reapers?

I'm eager to know why you think speculation of a video game is such a bad thing...

Didn't say it was bad, just wondered why they didn't something else.

Well these are game discussion forums aren't they? ME is a very deep and interesting game which many people want to discuss...

 

[Thwarted]

All life exists to propogate itself, reproduction is not a means to an end, it is the end itself. Still, it will be interesting to find out why organic life is needed for that process, and even then very specific organic life at that. ah well, roll on Mass Effect 3.

 

[Sahasrahla]

The life span of the universe is nigh-incalculably long; the time elapsed between the fall of the Protheans and the rise of humanity is roughly 50,000 years, so it's conceivable the Reapers were begat only a few million years ago and likely didn't and won't survive the next Big Crunch. They were probably one of the first truly advanced species, but something happened (war, plague, famine) to require them to build extensive cybernetic systems to replace their bodily functions, and became the Reapers. The rise of the next smartest species (maybe Protheans? But then they'd be much older than 50k years) would inevitably threaten their dominance, so after the threat was dealt with they'd want to take steps to prevent any future race from getting "out of hand" and posing a challenge to the Reapers.

The relays, Citadel, all of that is explained in-game as a method of population control; but since the Reapers replaced most of their own bodies with cybernetics they can no longer naturally evolve themselves, so when a race produces exceptional genetic material (demonstrated by being able to fend off the initial Reaper assault like Shepard did) it is assimilated ("ascended") into a new Reaper, strengthening the race through a kind of forced evolution. They can then kill off all the other advanced life and start the struggle for genetic dominance amongst their "pets" again. It works as a closed cycle, but naturally after about the tenth or twelfth time you extinguish an entire sentient race you'd start to have delusions of grandeur.

I wonder if races like the Turians or Volus would be pissed to know the Reapers find humans to be genetically superior to them.