Thane Krios

Thane is an alien assassin dude who is hideously loyal to Shepard. He arrived in September of 2010.

age: 39

origins: Mass Effect [canon]

app link: Character Application

hmd: How's My Driving?

played by: Alba

contact: AIM - NightblitzWakka

Setting
The universe of Mass Effect is an expansive galaxy. In the future, humanity discovers technology on Mars that excels their technology by two-hundred years at least. Quickly, they rose and joined the rest of the universe with several other sentient aliens; most are joined in a galactic union, primarily under the Council, which is composed of the galaxy's most powerful and influential aliens: the raptor-like turians, the beautiful and exotic asari, and the amphibious, intelligent salarians.

Although the races are supposedly joined together at the Citadel that house the Council, there is still a great racial diversity. Many humans feel as though they can only depend on themselves; turians in turn typically look down on humanity and at antagonistic about the krogan; the krogan are physically powerful warriors and most focused on battle and war and little else; the asari are some of the oldest species and most often the most understanding and fairly often the most entitled -- and so on. Throughout the history of the galaxy, races have risen and fallen in glory, and in turn have either learned to trust either or loathe each other, blaming one other and often missing the big picture. Such is the way of politics, especially with several races in the universe. Despite the many military and governmental attempts of unity in the galaxy, there is still rampant crime and corruption that rings through as well. Mercenary groups with varying degrees of morality, slave traders, renegade organizational groups like Cerberus, and cults.

Some alien creatures have the natural gift known as "biotics" handy; this is especially true for many asari. Biotics is essentially similar to telekinesis. Humans can gain the ability through the Alliance most of the time, but many tend to develop illnesses along the way. Other people gain biotics rather illegally, typically because of rogue factions of Cerberus.

The main reason the series is known as Mass Effect is due to the several mass relays set up around the galaxy. The mass relays permit a quick line of travel from one star cluster to the next, acting almost as a "hyper drive" of sorts. The mass relays cause a "mass effect" that permit quick travel.

The focus of Mass Effect is mainly on a human commander of the Alliance known as Commander Shepard; this human becomes the first human Spectre under the Council. Spectres are, more or less, agents that do not answer to anything but the Council directly and do not need to abide by laws in order to achieve their mission. Shepard is tasked with the mission to find a renegade Spectre turian known as Saren; on a deeper level, the commander prepares to fight both Saren and the Reapers. The Reapers is a threat that the Council refuses to recognize, but Shepard realizes is very real due to a vision the commander receives from a beacon from an ancient dead species known as the Protheans. The Reapers are, specifically, a mechanical species that has existed far older than any known creature at the time; they are capable of immense power, and to brainwash those who board it.

Eventually, Shepard defeats both Saren and the Reaper alike, becoming known as a hero. Knowing that other Reapers are coming, Shepard sets off with the rest of the crew of the Normandy to go hunting. It is here that the Collectors are introduced, insect-like aliens who are essentially brainless servants to the Reapers. While the Collectors blow up Normandy and kill Shepard, this really only serves to piss off the commander since Shepard is revived two years later by Cerberus in order to kick their ass. Dying has, unfortunately, also caused the Council to essentially once again denounce the Reapers' existence, therefore leaving Shepard alone to deal with the task of fighting them.

Determined to defeat the Collectors and in turn fight the Reapers despite the fact that it's quite bluntly a suicide mission, Shepard sets out to gain a powerful crew of unusual people. Thane is part of this group, one of the few remaining drell in the galaxy; he is a skilled assassin, joining Shepard for "no charge" once recruited.

Personality
At a glance, Thane Krios appears to be a distant person. Considering his profession, this is easily understandable. Still, he appears to be mostly a "lonewolf" type of person at first, keeping to himself and keeping quiet. After all, being a professional assassin doesn't leave too much room for socializing. As Thane has described before to Commander Shepard, he is more used to keeping his back to a wall and facing the door at nearly all times. It's a lifestyle he's used to, and the changes he has when he begins work for Shepard are a bit unusual for him.

On a deeper level, Thane has good enough intentions; he has a sense of mercy, and presuming his targets are not innocent, he will go out of his way on a mission to protect the unfortunate. On the other hand, if his target is indeed innocent, he will finish his contract without question. While he does have a sense of morality, he does not take responsibility for his actions as a killer. In his belief, his body is simply a mere tool for each kill -- not unlike a weapon. His soul, on the other hand, is entirely different than his body. The physical body is but a vessel for the spirit to him. However, he does feel the guilt of each kill, and prays for forgiveness after every target. Yet, at the same measure, he does not stop himself from acting on a contract. While some would perceive this as hypocritical, it does not change his perception much. Despite it all, it is his intention to make the universe a little brighter before he perishes.

As such, considering both his profession, his life, and especially his medical condition, Thane -- for the most part -- has little fear of dying. During his previous job prior to joining Shepard, he had completely expected to die in the process of getting to his target. However, since Shepard and the team the commander was with provided excellent distraction, Thane had less trouble getting to his kill and survived the mission. Accepting his job from Shepard, Thane fully expects to die on their suicide mission. By doing this, he expects to have been forgiven for the sins he has committed in his normal life.

As an assassin, Thane is a bit unusual, with his thought, emotions, and his religious positioning. However, his skills are nothing to scoff at. Thane is not particularly egotistical about it, but he recognizes his own abilities -- he rarely ever makes a mistake on his job. As such, he has been perceived by many, even the Illusive Man, to be the best at what he does in the entire galaxy.

Abilities & Weaknesses
Since the age of six, Thane has been trained to kill. As such, he is very skilled with stealth, hand to hand combat, submachine guns, and especially sniper rifles. His biotic powers -- although hardly as powerful as other team members like Jack and Samara -- do well enough. Specifically, biotics are similar to telekinesis; Thane is able to use two biotic powers: Throw (quite literally throwing something/someone around) or Warp (causing physical damage). However, it is his nature to prefer close combat.

As a drell, he has perfect memory, down to the point where if he recalls something, he will relive it, and describe the memory in bits and pieces that he cannot completely control. Additionally, most drell have had an operation to see ultraviolet rays in order to communicate properly with the hanar; Thane is one of these drell.

Physically speaking, Thane's main weakness would be attributed to his illness. Although it is not contagious, it is slowly killing him, giving him approximately a year left to live. Specifically, this sickness is called Kepral's Syndrome. The cause of it is due to the climate where Thane grew up, the hanar homeworld; its humidity affects all drell, causing the ability to absorb oxygen to erode, slowly spreading to other organs. This does not currently hamper Thane's skills, but in due time, he expects to die as there is no currently known cure. No longer applies. Since Motoko and SHODAN forced Thane into a surgery, his organs have been completely replaced with machinary. Due to this, Thane is in perfect health and no longer suffers any weakness towards humidity, nor is affected particularly by radiation.

Also, due to the operation on his eyes in order to see ultraviolet rays, he is incapable of discerning the difference between dark red and black.

Mentally, Thane has few weaknesses, as he has a general acceptance of his own being. That is not to say that it is impossible to discover any, but it appears he is very comfortable with himself. At worst, he is somewhat socially awkward, but that's not too unlike the rest of Shepard's crew -- a mishmash of vagrants, warriors, vigilantes, and the like, after all. At this time, due to his experiences with Motoko and SHODAN, as well as interaction with the Marker, Thane has developed an embedded temper problem when it is (rarely) unleashed, particularly when he is in battle. As such, he has become a bit more unhinged, thus prone to more violence and less clean kills. Additionally, due to the events, he's development a strong attachment to the Normandy crew and has become more protective of them.

Character Relationships
Commander Jane Shepard: There is no one in the entire universe that Thane trusts more than Shepard. Granted, the Shepard Thane knows is a man, Jane's actions almost completely match John's. The personality and attitude are essentially the same to him. As such, Thane knows he can place his trust in Jane without hesitation. Shepard could ask Thane to do just about anything, and he would not ask why; he would simply do it. For awhile, Shepard was Thane's only friend, the only one he bothered to socialize with; while things have changed, Thane still places his faith and loyalty in her completely. There is a degree in which Thane does care for her in a romantic sense, but it's kept completely to himself; he respects the relationship she has with Garrus and wishes them both well.

Officer Garrus Vakarian: Granted, while Garrus and Thane don't have a whole lot of interaction, the turian is a well trusted crew member -- definitely someone that Thane can count on to take care of Shepard. There has only ever been any doubt that has formed since the Marker made its scar into Sacrosanct, in which Garrus had almost decided to kill Shepard, but chose instead to take his own life. While the sacrifice is respected, Thane is still occasionally concerned. Then again, it's Shepard; she'd probably be all right anyway. Regardless, Thane counts on Garrus as a fellow member of the Normandy crew -- a strong ally indeed.

Professor Mordin Solus: While Mordin's scientific skills have never been in question, he and Thane were not particularly close until after the events of the Marker. Even then, it had mostly been that Mordin had been outraged at what Motoko had done to Thane, and informed the drell what Motoko had asked of him -- about mechanical organs. Since then, Mordin has ordered medical reports on Thane. Although it does make Thane a bit uncomfortable to discuss the matter, he does trust Mordin with the sensitive issue.

Kasumi Goto: While Thane is exceptional at finding multiple ways to infiltrate a location, Kasumi is almost possibly even better at it. The thief's perkiness is a nice balance to the crew, and Thane on occasion does enjoy joking with her in his own subtle way.

Lt. Kaidan Alenko: There isn't particularly much Thane knows about Kaidan other than he was an original squad member to Shepard on the first Normandy and that he is not very fond of Cerberus. Thane bears no personal grudge against the young soldier, and welcomes another biotic on the team. They could definitely use more.

Jeff "Joker" Moreau: The wisecracking pilot is possibly one of the few individuals that Thane found to be less-than-scarred from the Marker event, much to the drell's relief. The only thing that Thane is concerned about is how grounded Joker is; no ship to fly must bother the pilot greatly. That aside, while Thane and Joker are capable of quipping, they are not particularly close.

EDI: Despite the fact that EDI is an A.I., Thane finds her personality acceptable and seriously considers her a part of the crew itself. As such, he treats her with respect and remains very polite with her.

Zaeed Massani: The oddest damned friendships can form at difficult times; particularly, Zaeed and Thane found themselves having common complications after the horrors of the Marker. Zaeed demanded drinks, and Thane decided why the hell not and joined him, testing out his new organs in the process. From there, they discovered common ground, and determined that they really need to go to the bar more often together. From there, they've gone drinking and shooting together a few times. It's fair to say that Thane considers Zaeed about as close to being his best friend as he's ever had -- which has been never -- but confiding to him about his own personal difficulties is something he's been hesitant about since events transpired between himself and Motoko. Regardless, despite Zaeed's history and general attitude, Thane has zero problem with him and would go out of his way to assist him, as Zaeed has done for him. ...Such as, pulling Thane out of the drinking supply at Sacrosanct.

Commander Jamison Shepard: MOST TRUSTED'S PARAGON ALTERNATE?!

Anon: SPAR BUDDY

Thom AKA Noble-Seven: ICE CREAM BUDDY

Noble-Six: REMINDS ME OF MOST TRUSTED

Motoko Kusanagi: Complicated as hell. Far back, not long after Motoko arrived to Sacrosanct, her general attitude did not mix well with many of the citizens of the station. Thane in particular had no real issue with her, and as a matter of fact found her to be interesting. Eventually, they began to have several conversations together, and Motoko seemed interested in joining the Normandy crew. Thane did not provide an opinion, as it was Shepard's decision ultimately. Eventually, Motoko did join them. Over the course of time, Thane did tell Motoko about his illness and that he was dying, not finding it to be truly a secret he should keep to himself too heavily. The fact that Thane was dying from it seemed stupid to Motoko when there should be a cure; that was when Motoko decided to find a way to cure Thane. This desire was exploited when Motoko went to SHODAN for assistance; from there, it was difficult to tell how much Motoko was infected by SHODAN and how much had been Motoko's own actions. She had pretended to be Thane's dead wife by taking advantage of his hallucinations and vulnerability at the time, convincing him to come with her. After knocking him out, she left Thane to be operated on and have his organs replaced by mechanical ones. However, Thane was awake for the majority of the operation, and with no painkillers to boot. Remembering that and realizing she had pretended to be Irikah caused Thane to feel a massive amount of betrayal he had not before, as he had begun to develop a friendship with Motoko prior to this event. Since then, Thane has been bitter towards Motoko and outright told the crew of Normandy that she was no longer welcome. Afterward, Thane hunted and found Motoko's true body strung up like a puppet due to SHODAN; troubled by how easy it would be and unsure of how much Motoko had been manipulated, Thane ultimately chose to kill her anyway. Once Motoko had returned, her coldness and cruel remarks simply ensured Thane's resolve that she was no longer trustworthy; what bothers him most is that she has enticed anger and feelings of mistrust, things he can typically deal with and be complacent with -- but is no longer the case. Ultimately, Thane will not trust her again, as far as he is concerned.

Quorra: SPAR BUDDY'S BUDDY

Gem: V. ATTRACTIVE PROGRAM

Skyfire AKA Charles Sagan: SCIENTIST DUDE WHO BAKES COOKIES

Isaac Clarke: BUTTER MAN

History in Sacrosanct
In the beginning, Thane's history is little to speak of. Prior to being ported into Sacrosanct, he remembers a strongly renegade John Shepard and that Thane had become strongly loyal to him. Prior to being teleported into the space station, Legion's loyalty mission had just been performed, with the heretics being destroyed. Due to being used to a male Shepard in command, Thane meeting Shepard in Sacrosanct brought on a surprise to him. However, the behavior and mannerisms were still generally the same, so the adjustment was quick; Thane is still immensely loyal to Shepard, Jane or John or Jamison.

Most of his history has little to speak of. Thane was generally morbid, silently lamenting that he would die due to his disease rather than the battlefield as he anticipated. He never finished his final mission with Shepard after all, and was stuck dying on the station instead. Motoko, who had befriended at the time, was disappointed and almost insulted by this aspect. She intended to get Thane's organs replaced; she inquired him that if Shepard ordered him to replace them, would he accept? Thane reluctantly confirmed; he didn't prefer this outcome, but he would do just about anything Shepard asked of him.

Things escalated. The Marker made its appearance, causing Thane to hallucinate and imagine that he was seeing his dead wife, Irikah. However, he knew better, and kept reminding himself that she was dead with his perfect memory. This did not help his mentality, but it helped him try to clarify what was real and what was not for awhile. It did impede his physical health, causing him great stress -- and to accidentally cause Zaeed (who was seeing a dead beloved one as well) to shoot and kill Garrus. Eventually, even when Garrus came back, the turian began to also hallucinate Shepard -- as she had originally died due to the Collectors. When Garrus confronted the alive Shepard, Thane chose to silently follow him and be sure he did nothing to harm Jane. No harm was done to her, but Garrus did choose to shoot himself over the network.

Shepard went out of her way to study the Marker. Thane intended to follow, but stopped in one of the zones, becoming crippled by images of Irikah. It was then that Motoko appeared to him, pretending to be Irikah, taking advantage of the illusions. She coerced Thane through the teleporter, pretending to have found a way to remain unaffected by the Marker. Thane ultimately followed her, caving in; Motoko knocked him out, strapped him to a table, and had his organs replaced. However, not long after he passed out, Thane woke to the operation, experiencing all six hours of the pain of having everything replaced. Due to his perfect memory, Thane remembers literally everything about the operation. This, in particular, haunts him more than anything else. The amount of betrayal weighed heavy on his mind from Motoko's actions.

The nanites injected to Thane healed him sufficiently of both surgery and of mental wounds; the Marker could no longer affect him, making him the perfect agent to destroy it. Motoko released him to find Shepard. Thane eventually did, finding her affected by the Marker. The drell took her back to base, leading her to her room and closing the door -- not realizing that she was transforming into a necromorph.

When she had, Thane tried to shoot the necromorph, to no effect. It was Isaac Clarke that instructed Thane to dismember her. Reluctantly, Thane had no choice, and with Jamison Shepard's assistance, managed to take apart the monster that used to be Jane. Thane burned the remains, and went on to the Grid in order to help rescue individuals from SHODAN and CLU -- although it was mostly to let off some of his anger. It was here that Thane met the program Anon who was rectified. Their fight ended with Thane choosing to not destroy the program, leaving him instead, and returning back to his normal world.

Noble-Six of the Spartans had a plan to destroy the Marker and enlisted Thane; the drell quickly agreed, all too eager to destroy the Marker. With the help of various others, Thane used his biotics to help move the Marker; Twosix-six and Isaac Clarke also assisted in this mission, while most others kept the necromorphs at bay. By ejecting the Marker into space, Hypatia's self-defense systems automatically destroyed it.

Since then, Thane has been filled with bitterness. He is glad that his crew is back and together again, for the most part. It did enforce his bond with Shepard and Zaeed, and Thane has found friendship with others, but ultimately, Thane has been restless since the events of SHODAN and the Marker. He cannot meditate as he used to, and instead buries himself in silent rage and grief.