Urdnot Wrex

Urdnot Wrex is a krogan originally from Tuchanka. He arrived in-game on TBA and currently lives in TBA.

age: 745

origins: [Mass Effect]

app link: Here.

hmd: Here.

played by: [Jyuu]

contact: AIM @ jyuuchan, plurk @ kaijyuu

Setting
Mass Effect takes place in a universe where, in 150 years or thereabouts, humanity discovers the ruins of an ancient space-faring race on Mars, setting off a chain of events that lead to Commander Shepard teaching a krogan how to love again.

Wait, no.

So humanity discovers alien ruins, the first real sign of other life in the universe, and they're apparently long gone - about 50,000 years long gone, and with no sign of why. Still, the information contained within the ruins is a boon to humanity, exponentially furthering their development in the sciences - and alerting them to a new toy in the form of a massive artifact orbiting Pluto.

Using information from the ruins, humans activate the artifact - in fact a mass relay, one of many nodes on an interstellar transit system - and use it to begin expanding beyond their home system, colonizing as they go, and activating every new mass relay they come across. Unbeknownst to humanity, that's kind of a big no-no. Remember this part, we'll come back to it soon.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, while humans were figuring out democracy and writing the bible, other sentient species came together on an enigmatically abandoned space station to form the Citadel Council. Founded by the asari and the salarians, the massive station proved very useful as neutral ground in which to form a galactic community, welcoming other races as they gained space-travel and inevitably made contact with the Council's member races. Few of the races hold power on the Council itself; the salarians and asari are only joined much later by the turians, a militaristic race which won their acclaim by helping to subdue an even more violent race - the krogan.

The krogan had been upraised by the salarians while still in a nuclear age (read: not yet space-faring) in order to fight an invasion of hostile insectoids called the rachni. The krogan, a naturally hardy race, proved more than adept at swatting flies; the rachni were declared extinct within several hundred years and the krogan were granted a new homeworld on which to rebuild and flourish. Never a race to half-ass anything, the krogan population exploded exponentially and they began to colonize other planets, including ones that didn't belong to them.

Then came the turians, making their first contact with the Council in the middle of what would be called the Krogan Rebellions. In addition to bringing pure military might to the table, the turians employed a salarian-engineered bio-weapon called the genophage, designed to reduce viable births in the krogan population. Combined with attrition due to hundreds of years of battle, the krogan population was no longer able to replenish and they fell into decline (though by no means happily or peacefully).

After this, nothing much interesting happened until we get back to humanity making its way through the galaxy and poking their noses where they don't belong. I told you we'd get back to them.

In the middle of activating another mass relay, the turians show up to enforce Council law, which proscribes the activation of dormant relays. Instead of giving any warnings to a new race ignorant of their laws, the turians deem it prudent to instead blow them the hell up. Retaliation comes swiftly as a human fleet blows them up in return, beginning a short but explosive conflict called the First Contact War.

The Council steps in shortly thereafter to negotiate peace and the war ends. Humanity comes to play on the Citadel, but like any new kid in town no one likes them - most see them as violent little upstarts, needlessly antagonistic and grasping for power and influence they don't deserve.

Twenty-seven years after the First Contact War, humans are continuing to insinuate themselves into the community of the Citadel, adapting tremendously well, and human-turian relations are even getting better - with their knowledge combined, they constructed the Normandy, a fast and deady frigate-class ship. On which ship the game itself begins proper.

Short form is that the Alliance send Commander Shepard to recover another Prothean artifact - Protheans being the disappeared race whose ruins were found on Mars. Shepard found the artifact, and also that the colony was being attacked by geth (networked AIs in robot bodies gone rogue), and led by a Spectre named Saren Arterius.

Reporting his findings, Shepard is eventually granted Spectre status as well, the first human to be given the honor, which gives him the ability to work outside the law of the Council - to do whatever he might need to get the job done. His orders are to track down the rogue Spectre Saren and stop him, whatever he's doing. In the process, Shepard learns that there is an even bigger threat: Saren is controlled by the Reapers, an ancient machine race that cyclically razes all sentient life from the galaxy every 50,000 years or so.

Wrex is recruited by Shepard when the Commander is following leads on the way to tracking down Saren, and the krogan sticks around when it seems like Shepard really goes where the action is. That turns out to be more than an understatement, but Wrex isn't complaining, not when he gets to fight a good fight - and when the possible consequence is the loss of all current sentient life. The krogan can hardly return to prominence in the galaxy if they're dead along with everyone else, right?

Personality
Almost more than anything, Wrex is practical. Not so driven by practicality to the exception of anything else, but it very obviously touches many of his beliefs and how he conducts himself, making him nearly the antithesis of your average rage- or greed-driven krogan. For instance, he has never toed the party line on krogan ideals, at a fairly young age taking advantage of his clan leader status to push for repopulation on Tuchanka when everyone else - including his father - were attempting to gather forces enough to wage war, presumably on all those that had a hand in inflicting the genophage on the krogan or just because krogan like to kill things dead. Wrex understands that the krogan aren't numerous enough to sustain a war in any way right now and while sitting back and focusing on breeding should be the logical path, it's just not krogan-like.

Despite how angry he is about the fate of his people and their inevitable extinction if they can't get themselves on some sort of plan to rebuild, Wrex seems to hold little in the way of a grudge - at least when the alternative is a vengeance hard-on only satisfied by tasting the flesh of his enemies, anyway. With other squadmates under Shepard's command, he's at the least civil and at worst snarky and somewhat belligerent. That isn't to say he doesn't hold the turians and the salarians responsible for the genophage, but he also understands that most members of each race had nothing to do with it personally (not that this always keeps him from bringing it up as a pointed comment).

And as much of that anger he does direct at other races, a good portion of it is for his own; the krogan seem dead-set on getting themselves extinct, despite what Wrex sees as very clear signs to change their ways. He can remember a time when krogan were a "proud and fierce race", worthy of the statue erected in their honor in the Presidium, and he'd like to see them returned to that. When in his youth he tried to do so, his father tried to kill him for it, leaving him rather jaded and bitter about ever even trying again. So practicality is also overlaid with a good bit of reluctant bitterness and disappointment in Wrex, at least where the future of the krogan is concerned up until he meets Shepard.

As of the end of Mass Effect, Wrex has grown to respect Shepard and follows him less like a gun-for-hire and more like a comrade, offering his opinion when necessary or asked and aiding in the seemingly thankless task of stopping the Reapers. While Wrex is a good leader, he's not averse to following someone else - if they've got the spine and skill to do so. Even if Shepard isn't as calculated or ruthless as Wrex himself would be, he's come to see how Shepard works and if he doesn't always agree then he at least sees why the man makes his decisions. That Shepard does so fairly even when it's not necessarily in his own favor has won the krogan over, and Wrex of course will happily go where he's pointed if he gets to kill things.

With Shepard dead though, Wrex is left at a bit of a crossroads. Working with the Commander revitalized Wrex in a way he hadn't considered, and instead of going back to his life as a mercenary he eventually decided on returning to Tuchanka to dropkick the krogan into rebuilding themselves. They wouldn't do it themselves, but if a lone human could hope to fight the Reapers, he couldn't do any less by his people - even if it means pushing and shoving to get his way. And they are krogan, so that seems more than likely. s

In speech, Wrex is blunt, uncompromising and honest in his opinions, and when he speaks other people generally listen closely. He's not cruel, at least not without reason, but he won't hesitate to tell you what he thinks even if it's not going to be nice. The aforementioned anger also doesn't translate into the usual krogan temper; don't get me wrong; he will shoot you in a second if you give him reason, but his reactions aren't anywhere near knee-jerk or reckless as is usual for krogan and he will in fact use just the threat of his rage as a way to get what he wants. It works with unsurprising frequency.

Abilities & Weaknesses
Wrex is, like all krogan, extremely hardy and difficult to kill. They're stubborn and strong, heal quickly, can withstand extremes of temperature, and eat anything they damn well pleased - even their alcohol is said to be like drinking ground glass for anyone but a krogan. Krogan have redundant organs in case of injury or failure: most of the major ones, and even duplicate testicles for which they are somewhat famous. If that weren't enough, they have a back-up nervous system consisting of a neuroconductive fluid that makes them almost impossible to paralyze by conventional means.

Wrex is also one of the rare krogan with biotic abilities, which means he can harness mass effect fields using element zero nodes within his body to effect objects and space around him. Typically he uses these abilities to his advantage while fighting, to "throw" a person or object away from him, to construct a barrier between him and incoming gunfire, or to hold an individual within a mass effect field and effectively paralyze them. He also has the ability to "warp" or rapidly shift mass effect fields within a specific vicinity, which can be especially devastating to a flesh and blood target since it basically tears matter apart.

Aside from that, Wrex is just damn good at fighting. He's got 700+ years of experience and makes good use of it, which is why he's still alive in the first place.

But despite all that, he is mortal and can be killed. Sufficient gunfire or another skilled combatant can take him down, and anywhere he doesn't have armor is obviously weaker. His natural armor is probably like heavier-duty rhino skin - capable of fending off weak attacks, but unable to stop a bullet or the directly applied point of a knife or other sharp object with sufficient strength behind it.

For Sing, Wrex's biotic abilities are almost nil - he can still access them, but they're barely a spark in comparison to the full-blown fireworks show they used to be. It will not please him, but he's far from helpless despite this.

Character Relationships
None yet!

Free Space
Nothiiiiiing.