So I was just replaying Mass Effect 1 and...

[NickCaligo42]

I may be oversimplifying this but...

If you found that on a stone wall 50,000 years later (or in a computer for that matter), would you believe it?

More to the point, 50,000 years is a pretty long time for a continent to last, much less a stone wall.

 

[Indecipherable]

Likewise there is the highly questionable plot hole that the Protheans were exterminated over the course of hundreds of years but yet again... they leave a number of broken beacons. How hard is it to write this down?

It's actually stated by Vigil that the Reapers spent years erasing every trace of the Prothean civilization, any message they'd left would have been removed before they left. There are a few relics left around the galaxy but they're mostly useless, there were two relics confirmed outside of Ilos that actually did something, the Reapers must have either missed them or not thought them a threat.

However, a message left on the Citadel definitely would have been found and removed. The only reason Vigil survived is that Ilos was secret from even other Protheans.

I don't believe any of the above is true. In fact the Reapers left some Protheans alive as indoctrinated who died of starvation over time. No mention of them removing 'traces' of Prothean information.

Further, how would it have been found. And by who. The Protheans were able to reprogram the Keepers, and no Reapers apparently have returned, else whey would have discovered that.

 

[OrenjiJusu]

The few protheans that went and disrupted the keepers programming were still under threat from a few reapers, as there was still some life left and more than likely they were terraforming planets so that new life would form. With a threat of being discovered they used the mini relay to get in, otherwise they couldve just flown there. At least thats what I believe happened.

 

[Mr. Socky]

I may be oversimplifying this but...

If you found that on a stone wall 50,000 years later (or in a computer for that matter), would you believe it?

This. Hell, no one believes about the reaper invasion even after A REAPER ATTACKS THE CITADEL! It was just a weather balloon, after all.

Them weather balloons be tough sons of bitches.
OT: I think one simple fact wipes out all else: The surviving Prothean relics that actually tell about the reapers are the only ones that the reapers (or their indoctrinated) didn't find. They are the small, unassuming things most people would miss. And they did. It's the same with any small resistance of an overwhelming force. Either what's given out to the general public isn't believed or it's hidden so deep down a rabbit hole that it takes years for anyone to find it and hence nobody would destroy it.

 

[Simon Pettersson]

Likewise there is the highly questionable plot hole that the Protheans were exterminated over the course of hundreds of years but yet again... they leave a number of broken beacons. How hard is it to write this down?

It's actually stated by Vigil that the Reapers spent years erasing every trace of the Prothean civilization, any message they'd left would have been removed before they left. There are a few relics left around the galaxy but they're mostly useless, there were two relics confirmed outside of Ilos that actually did something, the Reapers must have either missed them or not thought them a threat.

However, a message left on the Citadel definitely would have been found and removed. The only reason Vigil survived is that Ilos was secret from even other Protheans.

I don't believe any of the above is true. In fact the Reapers left some Protheans alive as indoctrinated who died of starvation over time. No mention of them removing 'traces' of Prothean information.

Further, how would it have been found. And by who. The Protheans were able to reprogram the Keepers, and no Reapers apparently have returned, else whey would have discovered that.

Eh there is actually a reaper that was left behind and that noticed that the keepers didn´t responded as they did before.
He let Saren look for Ilos so they could activate the citadel.

 

[Indecipherable]

Likewise there is the highly questionable plot hole that the Protheans were exterminated over the course of hundreds of years but yet again... they leave a number of broken beacons. How hard is it to write this down?

It's actually stated by Vigil that the Reapers spent years erasing every trace of the Prothean civilization, any message they'd left would have been removed before they left. There are a few relics left around the galaxy but they're mostly useless, there were two relics confirmed outside of Ilos that actually did something, the Reapers must have either missed them or not thought them a threat.

However, a message left on the Citadel definitely would have been found and removed. The only reason Vigil survived is that Ilos was secret from even other Protheans.

I don't believe any of the above is true. In fact the Reapers left some Protheans alive as indoctrinated who died of starvation over time. No mention of them removing 'traces' of Prothean information.

Further, how would it have been found. And by who. The Protheans were able to reprogram the Keepers, and no Reapers apparently have returned, else whey would have discovered that.

Eh there is actually a reaper that was left behind and that noticed that the keepers didn´t responded as they did before.
He let Saren look for Ilos so they could activate the citadel.

Only noticed after he sent the request and nothing happened. They weren't even aware they were reprogrammed. The Reapers were pretty much flying blind because Sovereign would go into hybernation constantly and only to emerge 'to see if civilisation had reached its zenith'.

 

[Indecipherable]

Likewise there is the highly questionable plot hole that the Protheans were exterminated over the course of hundreds of years but yet again... they leave a number of broken beacons. How hard is it to write this down?

It's actually stated by Vigil that the Reapers spent years erasing every trace of the Prothean civilization, any message they'd left would have been removed before they left. There are a few relics left around the galaxy but they're mostly useless, there were two relics confirmed outside of Ilos that actually did something, the Reapers must have either missed them or not thought them a threat.

However, a message left on the Citadel definitely would have been found and removed. The only reason Vigil survived is that Ilos was secret from even other Protheans.

I don't believe any of the above is true. In fact the Reapers left some Protheans alive as indoctrinated who died of starvation over time. No mention of them removing 'traces' of Prothean information.

Further, how would it have been found. And by who. The Protheans were able to reprogram the Keepers, and no Reapers apparently have returned, else whey would have discovered that.

Eh there is actually a reaper that was left behind and that noticed that the keepers didn´t responded as they did before.
He let Saren look for Ilos so they could activate the citadel.

Totally disagree because the Reapers didn't even know their own messengers were disabled. Vigil on Ilos gives you the data in a 2 second transfer, there's absolutely no reason it could not have been left on Citadel. If it were discovered by the Reapers it would be no loss anyway as it would only be destroyed, it (the information) could not be used against the Protheans or anyone else. However, the Reapers basically had no idea WTF was going on (again, evidenced by them not even knowing the Keepers were reprogrammed and by stating that Sovereign only awoke very rarely to see how civilisation was progressing). There is only evidence to support the fact that Reapers couldn't foresee what was happening.

 

[lolmynamewastaken]

im with the whole leaving of becons and VI crowd, there were loadsa warnings left, they were just in prothen.
as to leaving messages on the walls, maybe they really didn't like graffiti...

 

[Gitty101]

They left the Prothean Beacons as a warning, hence the visions you recieve after using them

 

[CommanderKirov]

Hmm lets see...

Language barrier perhaps?

You know, the ancient language of 50.000 years ago that was not known to anyone. And Shepard was only available to understand it because he touched upon the Prothean relic?

 

[Kristoffer Mattila]

They did. The beacons. duh

 

[Zenode]

So I was just replaying Mass Effect 1. Can anyone explain this.

The Protheans had a secret research base on Ilos.
After the Reaper threat was gone they went to the Citadel and reprogrammed the Keepers so that they would not send the 'attack' signal to the Reapers.

... they didn't leave some notes behind to say, "Hey guys, every 50,000 years a giant spacefaring army of sentient robots come in and exterminate all life. All that technology you found and never questioned? It's theirs. Here's everything we knew before we were wiped out".

A few of the Prothean relics are apparently unable to operate 50,000 years later but their statues and artwork in Ilos is perfectly intact. Why couldn't they just do things the old fashioned way and engrave it somewhere? Or, if the Keepers are going to remove that, put something small into orbit outside of their reach but at the citadel itself. I doubt the Keepers will remove things anyway, considering the Conduit was left totally untouched...

Have you ever tried reading a language thats 50,000 years old without a Rosetta stone, and even then, decrypting a thousand year old language gives scientists enough grief even WITH a rosetta stone.

The beacons left a sort of warning for any other Protheans that were out there, not for any other civilisation.

Vigil was the AI for Ilos he isn't some sort of warning left there. He just happens to know information about the invasion.

 

[Veloxe]

Interestingly enough, the way I understood the beacons was that they weren't even messages meant for anyone in the future. I know, I know, but bare with me here. After the dozen or so scientists were woken up by Vigil they sent out a signal to the beacons that was meant to warn any remaining Protheans of the reapers and show them about Ilos to give them hope (I guess they figured it was worth the risk or they were screwed anyways). The only reason Shepard could understand the Beacon's message was because he got the Cipher (which also allows him to understand Prothean because it effectively allows him to think like a Prothean) from Shiala. It was impossible to understand the message in the Beacon without the Cipher because it was coming from Prothean minds, meant for Prothean minds. The best you could get was that some serious shit went down and the Protheans got destroy.

So after they sent off the Beacon message they figured out the link between the Reapers/Citadel/Keepers and jumped through the conduit to go mess with the Reapers plans; remember, there is no food and very little water, if any at all on the citadel. They get there and tinker around with the Keepers, I'm going to assume they could mass update otherwise they would have missed some Keepers, and eventually figure out the code and either alter it slightly so it fails or just deleted that part of the Keepers entirely. They're intent (to what I understood) was to protect the less evolved species they had been studying and to trap the Reapers in the dark space forever. They didn't warn us because that wasn't what their mission was. Also remember the Keepers have a self-destruct mechanism (yay acid!) to prevent the Protheans from doing exactly what they were trying to do, that couldn't have helped. Their mission was to make it so we wouldn't need a warning at all and could just go on existing without knowing. They tried to break the cycle entirely, unfortunately they failed.

I think what it comes down to is how long it would actually take to hack into the Citadel and then alter the programming that a far advanced AI race had laid out. Then even if they had of left a message there isn't any guarantee that it would have made it through the 50,000 years or so before the Asari showed up on the Citadel. I mean, with Keepers doing around doing their Keeper stuff and possible Reaper sub-routines messing around with any data stored on the system any message left on the Citadel would have been destroyed. If they even had the time/energy left to leave a message at all after altering the Keepers.

 

[teebeeohh]

maybe we are thinking to low-tech and the simplest thing the prothean scientist could think off at that moment was the beacons.

i am not 100% certain but wasn't their intent to stop the activation signal for the reapers to keep them sleeping in dark space, hoping that the civilization to eventually encounter them will be advanced enough to just kick their asses