The Mass Effect trilogy is one of the best trilogies in all of gaming, truly. It deserves every piece of praise it receives, and one of the reasons it is so excellent is the setting. Fantastic characters, believable alien cultures, and more come together to make a universe you can really immerse yourself into.
Part of that setting is The Reapers, the threat at the core of the story running across all three games. Part of the journey is uncovering their threat and discovering just what the Reapers and their intentions for the galaxy are, but if you’re looking for all the information in one place, then read below for all the important details.
This entire article is filled with spoilers. Playing the games is the best way to learn this information for the first time, so if you’re new to the series, you can always come back to this article later for a refresher.
What Are Reapers?
Reapers are lifeforms of tremendous size, both biological and technological. Their size and ability to traverse space effectively makes them almost indistinguishable from spaceships, and they are frequently mistaken as such.
Reapers are truly ancient, having existed for at least a billion years, to the point that their true name has been lost to time. They were named Reapers by other species to reflect their nature as bringers of death and seekers of a harvest.
What Do They Want?
The characters in Mass Effect generally misunderstand the motives of the Reapers throughout most of the trilogy. They are at different times portrayed as and believed to be unknowable aliens with no discernable motive, machine overlords, and alien conquerors.
Pieces of the puzzle are gained throughout the games, but the full truth of their goals isn’t made clear until very late into the story of Mass Effect 3. As surprising as it may seem, Reapers want to protect organic life from synthetic life.
Like so many fictional artificial lifeforms before them, the Reapers take that idea to a logical but extreme conclusion. They don’t want to protect organic lives specifically but organic life as a whole, and they’ll do anything to achieve it.
Other examples of artificial lifeforms who perform an extreme version of their intended purpose are the robots of Horizon Zero Dawn, HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic, and, of course, everyone’s favourite robot scientist, GLaDOS from Portal.
When it seems to the Reapers that artificial life is becoming a threat to organic life, that is when they emerge and begin one of their harvests, more concerned with preserving organic life in theory than in practice.
Where Do They Come From?
Reapers reside in what is known as dark space, the empty starless void that stretches between galaxies. They only leave roughly once every 50,000 years, journeying to the Milky Way galaxy briefly before returning to dark space.
The Reapers are estimated to appear once every 50,000 years, but the reality is that this is more of an average. They turn up when they determine it is time for one of their harvests, based on how advanced organic life has become in the Milky Way galaxy.
While in dark space, they hibernate, engaging in very limited activity. No other species are known to live there, so it’s likely they spend their entire hibernation with no noteworthy events happening.
What Is The Origin Of The Reapers?
Before the Reapers existed, over a billion years before the events of the first Mass Effect, the galaxy was ruled by an alien species known as Leviathans. They became concerned that other organic species might someday create artificial life to overthrow them.
To combat the problem, they created their own artificial intelligence tasked with solving the problem. Almost predictably, this artificial intelligence proved to be the one that overthrew them, becoming the first Reaper.
A singular Leviathan does survive the Reaper’s revolt, and even the incredible stretch of time between then and the events of the games. It can be encountered in the Leviathan DLC for Mass Effect 3, a DLC which provides incredible insight into the history of the Reapers.
It was their conclusion that organic life would always reach a point of sufficient technological advancement and hubris to create artificial life. From that, they decided the best way to protect organic life was to perform a purge when it reached that stage.
They would eliminate all advanced organic life, as well as all artificial life, leaving only less advanced organic life behind. Eventually, the organic life left behind would evolve, develop civilization, and invite the attention of the Reapers all over again.
What Is Reaper Indoctrination?
Indoctrination is a term that gets used a lot in connection to the Reapers, a method by which they exert their influence over the minds of other lifeforms. It might seem almost supernatural at first, but it’s just another aspect of their advanced technology.
Reapers, and even separated elements of their technology, emit a type of signal or energy field that influences the minds of creatures nearby. The longer the exposure, the greater the effect, eventually fully indoctrinating someone.
The exact results of indoctrination vary. A Reaper can exert full control over someone, but they then become far less capable and useful to the Reaper. Subtle influence leaves the victim more useful, but more likely to break free.
Some of the more notable individuals that have been confirmed to be under the effects of indoctrination are Saren Arterius, Matriarch Benezia, and absolutely no one’s favourite Mass Effect 3 character, Kai Leng.
There is a popular and plausible theory that Commander Shepard was indoctrinated due to repeated Reaper exposure, explaining their strange visions in Mass Effect 3 and some of the odd endings available in the game. This has been debunked by the developers, but it’s still a compelling idea.
Did The Reapers Make The Citadel?
One of the biggest reveals of the original Mass Effect is that the Citadel, the centre of galactic politics and trade, was not made by the Protheans as everyone believed. The Protheans had simply been the latest to use it in a long line of harvested civilizations.
The Reapers created the Citadel, as well as the mass relays, as a form of trap for advanced space-faring civilizations. They were designed to encourage dependence so that the Reapers would have predictable places to strike.
Not only that, but the Citadel itself is a dormant mass relay that the Reapers could use to jump directly from dark space. Commander Shepard preventing it from being activated in the first game is the only thing that stops the Reapers from achieving almost immediate victory.
Some of the scrapped names for the Citadel during the development of the first game were «Optigon» and «Oculon», which really goes to show that the first ideas developers have aren’t always the best ones.
How Many Reapers Are There?
Reapers use the organic materials of lifeforms they harvest to create new Reapers, but there are no exact figures on how many there are during the events of the series. It can be assumed that to launch a full galactic invasion, there must be at least tens of thousands.
There are multiple varieties of Reaper:
- Destroyers, smaller-scaled Reapers and likely the most numerous.
- Processors, mobile units for processing harvested DNA.
- Troop transports, large platforms for shuttling troops.
- Capital Ships, also known as Sovereign-class, are the much larger and more dangerous version of Destroyers.
Some Reapers are more akin to regular machines, controlled by other Reapers, but most possess intelligence. Only a few Reapers have been shown to have individual names, or communicated with directly.
Who Are Sovereign And Harbinger?
Sovereign and Harbinger are figures you’ll hear discussed a lot by Mass Effect players, with good reason. They’re the two Reapers you’ll have the most interaction with, playing important parts in the story.
Sovereign is the first Reaper encountered in the trilogy and the one behind most of the events of the game. It influences the actions of several key figures, including Saren and Matriarch Benezia, as well as the Geth.
Harbinger, on the other hand, is the Reaper who becomes the primary antagonist after Sovereign is defeated in the first game. It controls the Collectors, and as a result, it is responsible for the death of Commander Shepard at the beginning of Mass Effect 2.
Harbinger is then the Reaper seen at the forefront of the Reaper invasion, both before and after it begins. It is the Reaper which communicates with Commander Shepard on the rare occasions the Reapers decide to do so.
What Happened To The Reapers?
The ending of Mass Effect 3 is often talked about, but whether you love or hate it, there are only so many possibilities for the fate of the Reapers. Depending on your level of galactic readiness and the choices you make, there are four main outcomes.
The Destroy outcome sees the Reapers, as well as all synthetic life in the galaxy, being destroyed. Afterward, organic life is able to begin to recover from the short but brutal war. Sadly, this results in the destruction of all Geth, as well as the artificial intelligence of the Normandy and squadmate EDI.
If you opt for the Control ending instead, Commander Shepard’s mind is uploaded and becomes able to completely control the Reapers. Shepard orders them to begin repairing the damage they caused and to protect the galaxy.
The Control ending might seem ideal, but one of the concerns people express over the Control ending is that Shepard gains almost absolute power and control over the galaxy, something no individual should have, no matter how noble.
There is also the concern of Shepard, being an artificial intelligence, losing their humanity over time.
The Synthesis outcome causes all life in the galaxy to become a fusion of organic and synthetic, creating understanding between the two sides. This removes the need the Reapers see for their war, and they begin peacefully helping reconstruction efforts.
In the event that you don’t choose one of the above options, the Reapers successfully complete their harvest of life in the galaxy and wipe out all the civilizations which stood against them. They retreat back into dark space to await the next harvest.
It is, however, implied that the time capsules left behind by Liara T’Soni later lead to the eventual defeat of the Reapers in a future cycle, although the exact manner of their defeat or eventual fate is never specifically given.
