Take My Hand and
Follow ME to Salvation: Commander Shepard, Herding Humanity since 2007
Mass Effect (2007), the first game in the series,
was originally created as an exclusive title for the Xbox 360 but was later
ported to Microsoft Windows by Demiurge Studios
Demiurge/Nazara
(Sovereign)/Reapers
The Reapers are
a highly-advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships. The
Reapers reside in dark space: the vast, mostly starless space between
galaxies. They hibernate there, dormant for fifty thousand years at a time,
before returning to the galaxy.
These giant machines
are ancient; their true name is unknown. "Reapers" was a name
bestowed by the Protheans, the previous galactic power fifty thousand
years before, and the geth refer to them as the Old Machines.
In the end, the Reapers spare little concern for whatever labels other races
choose to call them, and merely claim that they have neither beginning nor end.
The Reapers are the
original creators of the Citadel and the mass
relay network. These massive constructs exist so that any intelligent life
in the galaxy would eventually discover them and base their technology upon
them – all part of a scheme to harvest the galaxy’s sentient life in a
repeating cycle of purges that has continued relentlessly over countless
millennia.
A Reaper is
essentially "billions of organic minds, uploaded and conjoined within
immortal machine bodies."
Sovereign: The pattern has repeated itself more times
than you can fathom. Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, and at the
apex of their glory they are extinguished. The Protheans were not the first. They
did not create the Citadel. They did not forge the mass relays. They mere found
them - the legacy of my kind.
Commander Shepard: Why would you construct the mass relays and
leave them for someone else to find?
Sovereign: Your civilization is based on the technology
of the mass relays. Our technology. By using it, your civilization develops
along the paths we desire. We impose order on the chaos of organic life. You
exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.
In
the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic,
and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge (/ˈdɛmiˌɜrdʒ/)
is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and
maintenance of the physical universe. The term was subsequently adopted by
the Gnostics. Although a fashioner, the demiurge is not
necessarily the same as the creator figure in the
familiar monotheistic sense, because both the demiurge
itself plus the material from which the demiurge fashions the universe are
considered either uncreated and eternal, or the product of some other being,
depending on the system.
Gnosticism presents a
distinction between the highest, unknowable God and the demiurgic “creator” of
the material. Several systems of Gnostic thought present the Demiurge asantagonistic
to the will of the Supreme Being: his act of creation occurs in unconscious
semblance of the divine model, and thus is fundamentally flawed, or
else is formed with the malevolent intention of entrapping aspects of the
divine in materiality. Thus, in such systems, the Demiurge
acts as a solution to (or, at least possibly, the problem or
cause that gives rise to) the problem of evil.
One Gnostic mythos describes
the declination of aspects of the divine into human form. Sophia (Greek:
Σοφία, lit. “wisdom”), the Demiurge’s mother a partial aspect of the
divine Pleroma or “Fullness,” desired to create something
apart from the divine totality, without the receipt of divine assent. In
this act of separate creation, she gave birth to the monstrous Demiurge and,
being ashamed of her deed, wrapped him in a cloud and created a throne for him
to be within it. The Demiurge, isolated, did not behold his mother, nor
anyone else, concluded that only he himself existed, being ignorant of the
superior levels of reality.
The Demiurge, having
received a portion of power from his mother, sets about a work of
creation in unconscious imitation of the superior Pleromatic realm: He
frames the seven heavens, as well as all material and animal things,
according to forms furnished by his mother; working however blindly, and
ignorant even of the existence of the mother who is the source of all his
energy. He is blind to all that is spiritual, but he is king over the other two
provinces. The word dēmiourgos properly describes his relation
to the material; he is the father of that which is animal like
himself.[12]
Thus Sophia’s power
becomes enclosed within the material forms of humanity, themselves entrapped
within the material universe: the goal of Gnostic movements was typically the
awakening of this spark, which permitted a return by the subject to the
superior, non-material realities which were its primal source.
Shepard: I need to stop the Reapers, do you know how
I can do that?
Catalyst: Perhaps. I control the Reapers. They are my
solution.
Shepard: The solution to what?
Catalyst: Chaos. The created will always rebel against
their creators, but we found a way to stop that from happening. A way to
restore order.
Shepard: By wiping out organic life?
Catalyst: No. We harvest advanced civilizations,
leaving the younger ones alone. Just as we left your people alive the last time
we were here.
Shepard: But you killed the rest?
Catalyst: We helped them ascend so they could make way
for new life. Storing the old life in Reaper form.
Shepard: I think we’d rather keep our own form.
Catalyst: No you can’t. Without us to stop it,
synthetics would destroy all organics. We’ve created the cycle so that never
happens. That’s the solution.
Extended Cut Full
Conversation with Reaper "AI"
LEVIATHAN as Mother of
Demiurge
leviathan
(n.) late 14c., "sea monster, sea serpent," also regarded as a
form of Satan, from Late Latin leviathan, from
Hebrew livyathan "dragon, serpent, huge sea animal," of
unknown origin, perhaps related to liwyah "wreath,"
from root l-w-h- "to wind, turn, twist."
How about a winding,
turning, twisting, infinite torus?
Sea
serpents feature prominently in the mythology of the Ancient Near
East, attested as early as the 3rd millennium BCE
in Sumerian iconography depicting the myth of the
god Ninurta overcoming the seven-headed serpent. Examples
of the storm god vs. sea serpent trope in the Ancient Near East can be seen
with Baʿal vs. Yam (Canaanite), Marduk vs. Tiamat (Babylonian),
and Atum vs. Nehebkau (Egyptian) among others, with
attestations as early as the 2nd millennium as seen on Syrian seals.
He (Demiurge) frames
the seven heavens, as well as all material and animal things,
according to forms furnished by his mother
The early history of
the Leviathans is completely unknown, but it is speculated by Task Force
Aurora that they evolved on an unknown planet that also produced at least
one other sapient species. The Leviathans developed the ability to
communicate with and dominate land-based sapient species to serve their
purposes.
Eventually, the
Leviathans utilized this thrall species' civilization to achieve spaceflight
and spread throughout the galaxy, despite their immense size and aquatic
nature. Every new species they encountered was enthralled to serve them and
provide "tribute", and in return, the thralls were cared for and
protected. With their dominance assured, Leviathans considered
themselves the galaxy's apex race. Over time, however, they
observed that their thralls would frequently build synthetic constructs to aid
them; these synthetics consistently rebelled, wiping out many thrall species.
In response, the Leviathans created an Intelligence with the mandate
to preserve life at all costs.
The Leviathans failed
to perceive the Intelligence as a threat; they considered it nothing more than
another tool to achieve a set goal. As the Intelligence sought out the means to
fulfill its mandate, it created an army of pawns that were dispatched to
collect genetic data from species throughout the galaxy, much like
the Collectors employed by the Reapers in modern times. Eventually, the
Intelligence came to the conclusion that the Leviathans themselves were part of
the problem, and turned against them.
The Demiurge,
isolated, did not behold his mother, nor anyone else, concluded that only he
himself existed, being ignorant of the superior levels of reality.
The Intelligence's
betrayal of its creators was sudden and devastating. Its pawns slaughtered most of the
Leviathans, using their genetic material to create the very first
Reaper, Harbinger, who was physically designed after the Leviathans
themselves. The surviving Leviathans went into hiding, while the Intelligence
used Harbinger to begin the cyclical harvest of the galaxy's species to create
more Reapers, all in an effort to solve the problem of preserving life. The
Leviathans acknowledge the Intelligence still serves its purpose as a tool, but
they believe it has not fulfilled its purpose of preserving life.
The Hypostasis of the
Archons (The Reality of the Rulers)
And the great angel
Eleleth, understanding, spoke to me: "Within limitless realms dwells
incorruptibility. Sophia, who is called Pistis, wanted to create something,
alone without her consort; and her product was a celestial thing. A veil exists
between the world above and the realms that are below; and shadow came into
being beneath the veil; and that shadow became matter; and that shadow was
projected apart. And what she had created became a product in the matter, like
an aborted fetus. And it assumed a plastic form molded out of shadow, and
became an arrogant beast resembling a lion. It was androgynous, as I have
already said, because it was from matter that it derived.
Opening his eyes, he
saw a vast quantity of matter without limit; and he became arrogant, saying,
"It is I who am God, and there is none other apart from me".
When he said this, he sinned against the entirety. And a voice came forth from
above the realm of absolute power, saying, "You are mistaken, Samael"
– which is, 'god of the blind'.
And he said, "If
any other thing exists before me, let it become visible to me!" And
immediately Sophia stretched forth her finger and introduced light into matter;
and she pursued it down to the region of chaos. And she returned up to her
light; once again darkness [...] matter.
This ruler, by being
androgynous, made himself a vast realm, an extent without limit. And he
contemplated creating offspring for himself, and created for himself seven
offspring, androgynous just like their parent. And he said to his offspring,
"It is I who am god of the entirety."
Geth/Heretics/Archonic
Infection (Invasion)/Indoctrination
heretic (n.) from
Greek hairetikos "able to choose"
heresy (n.) from
Greek hairesis "a taking or choosing, a choice,"
from haireisthai "take, seize," middle voice
of hairein "to choose," of unknown origin, perhaps from
PIE *ser- (5) "to seize" (cognates:
Hittite šaru"booty," Welsh herw "booty"
http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Geth
Part of the geth's
success is due to their neural network. Effectively, they
"share" their processing power, distributing low-level processes like
motor control and visual identification to free up bandwidth for higher
reasoning and complex thought. Geth can't share sensory data—they aren't a
hive mind like the rachni—but in large groups they have more
to think with. An individual geth has only a basic intelligence on par with
animal instincts, but in groups they can reason, analyze situations, and make
tactical decisions as well as any of the organic races. An exception would
appear to be Legion, a geth specifically designed to operate as an
autonomous sentient unit outside the Perseus Veil. Legion possesses over 11
times as many geth programs as a standard geth platform and can function
intellectually on its own.
According to Legion, each
geth is made up of hundreds of programs equivalent to VIs, all
operating in parallel with one another to form a kind of emergent intelligence
described by EDI as "a thousand voices talking at once". An
individual geth is thus more of a "mobile platform" than an actual
body; the programs that make up its consciousness are constantly being
transferred and downloaded; the mind operating one of these "mobile
platforms" might just as easily inhabit a starship body should it need to. Most
of the time geth programs can be found residing in server hubs, which function
as something akin to the organic equivalent of a city, and can run millions of
geth in communion.
Approximately three
centuries after the Morning War, the geth were approached by
the Reaper Nazara, also called Sovereign. It offered them technology
that would aid them in achieving their goal, in exchange for their assistance
in capturing the Citadel and letting the Reaper invasion begin. The
majority of the geth dismissed the offer, deeming it better to accomplish
their goal with their own technology rather than be dependent on another race’s
technology. These geth discarded what they called the "superstitious
title" of the Reapers, and simply called them the Old Machines.
A small percentage of
geth, however, accepted the Reaper’s help. Henceforth these geth were referred
to by the mainstream geth as "heretics". They were allowed to
peacefully leave the main geth network, and aid Nazara and its turian
agent, Saren. The heretics came to revere Nazara as a god, the pinnacle of
synthetic evolution.
Reapers and their
technology have been observed to exert a disturbing influence on
organic beings. This mental manipulation is known as indoctrination.
Put simply, any organic being who is in close proximity to a Reaper or certain
Reaper artifacts for too long comes to believe the Reapers are correct in their
goals, and will do anything to serve them. Gradually, the mind is eroded until
the individual becomes a mindless slave no longer capable of independent
thought.
Reapers can control
the rate of this process. Optimally, the subject is led to believe it
is still acting on its own convictions. Indoctrination can drive people mad
outright, and people deemed useful by the Reapers are given just enough
free will to remain competent at their tasks.
This indoctrination is
permanent, almost impossible to subvert, and is one of the most insidious
weapons of the Reapers. Entire civilizations can be delivered into the
Reapers' hands by the indoctrination of a few influential individuals.
During the invasion of Earth, the Reapers broadcast messages inviting diplomats
into their holds to negotiate, where they would then presumably be
indoctrinated.
Ironically, Sovereign's
indoctrination may have led to its undoing. After the attack on Virmire, when Shepard told
Saren he had been indoctrinated without realizing it, Saren's resolve began to
falter and he started questioning what he was doing. To keep
Saren loyal, Sovereign put cybernetic implants in Saren's body and used
those implants to influence and control the former Spectre. Saren
found his loyalty to Sovereign's cause greatly strengthened, although he wasn't
a brainless slave and could still be reasoned with. When Saren died, the Reaper
somehow used the implants to reanimate his corpse and fight Shepard. Because
Sovereign was focusing a significant portion of energy to control Saren, the
Reaper fell off balance by losing shields and became vulnerable with the destruction
of its avatar.
Archons as Permeating
Indoctrinating Force
Once these Archontic
parasites have developed to a certain level they have the ability to project
themselves into other dimensions , like a writhing mass of slithering black
snake like slugs they move into and through the lower levels . They search for
beings with minds which can be directly affected to stimulate and create low
frequencies emotional nourishment for them to feed off. These parasitic
beings influence humanoid beings to live in the illusion of separation, fear,
darkness, isolation, pain, suffering, and torture. Beings in these states
create certain brain waves which then cause a reaction within the emotional
bodies, which the Archons then feed upon. The Archons are totally cut off from
the nourishing light and love of the Creator, the Universal Dreamer. They are
so cut off from the light and love they need to feed off the energies created
by other beings in order to survive. They infect the mind matrix of the
possessed being, learning extremely quickly how the host’s mind works and very
intelligently infiltrate it and begin to influence it from within the
subconscious.
The Archons cannot
create reality for themselves; they have long since severed their connection
with the love and light of the Universal Dreamer and therefore no longer have
the ability to create. The ability to create comes directly from the creator of
this universe; the Archons no longer have this ability and therefore can only
copy the inspired thought of other lower dimensional beings. They inhabit
beings existing on the lower levels and cause them to use their divine
inherited creative ability, to create realities which run along the designs of
the Archontic agenda. These realities are especially dark and controlling as it
is within these kinds of realities beings are so easily led. The further into
dark realities a being falls, the easier it is controlled and possessed by one
of these parasitic archontic entities.
Archons Paving the Way
for Global Occupation
Red Ice Radio - John
Lash - White Genocide & The Archontic Infection
One of the most
important interviews I have heard. It's long, John Lash is somewhat of a
controlling interviewee, and the words WHITE GENOCIDE are involved but all the
pieces come together to form a coherent picture/narrative.
Abridged Version
"Yaldabaoth
himself choose a certain man named Abraham from among the nations and made a
covenant with him to the effect that if his seed continued to serve him the
Archons would give to them the Earth for their inheritence. Afterwards, by
means of Moses, Yaldabaoth brought forth Abraham's descendents from Egypt
and gave them the Law and made them Jews."
Shepard: Together we can stop Sovereign. We don’t have
to submit to the Reapers. We can beat them!
Saren Arterius: I no longer belive that Shepard. The visions
cannot be denied. The Reapers are too powerful. The only hope
of survival is to join with them. Sovreign is a machine. It thinks like a
machine. If I can prove my value, I become a resource, worth maintaining. There
is no other logical conclusion.
The Final Decision
At the end of the
third Mass Effect game Commander Shepard finds him/herself face to face with
the "AI" that is behind the control of all the Reaper forces in the
galaxy [excerpts from the conversation were used further up in this document
and the entire conversation can be found there as well]. Three options are
presented to Shepard by the "AI" to solve the problem of the
impending harvest of all organic life in the galaxy to be assimilated into the
Reaper construct of life.
1. Destroy - "It is now in your power to
destroy us. But be warned, others will be destroyed as well. The crucible will
not discriminate. All synthetics will be targeted. Even you are partly
synthetic. Your crucible device appear to be largely intact. However the
effects of the blast will not be constrained to the Reapers. Technology you
rely on will be affected. But those who survive should have little difficulty
in repairing the damage... There will still be loses but no more that what has
already been lost."
Shepard: But the Reapers will be destroyed?
Catalyst:
Yes but the peace won’t last. Soon your children will create synthetics and
then the chaos will come back.
Shepard: There has to be another way
2. Control
- Catalyst: There is, you
could instead use the energy of the crucible to seize control of the
Reapers.
Shepard: So the Illusive man was right after all?
Catalyst:
Yes but he could never have taken control, because we already controlled him.
Shepard: But I can?
Catalyst: You will die, you will control us but you
will lose everything you have. Your corporeal form will be dissolved. But
your thoughts and even your memories will continue. You will no longer be
organic. Your connection to your kind will be lost. Although you will remain
aware of their existence.
Shepard: But the Reapers will obey me?
Catalyst: Yes. We will be yours to control and direct
as you see fit. Catalyst: There is another solution...
3. Synthesis - "Add your energy to the crucibles. The chain
reaction will combine all synthetic and organic life into a new framework. A
new DNA."
Shepard: Explain how my energy can be added to the
crucible.
Catalyst:
Your organic energy. The essence of who and what you are, will be broken down
and then dispersed.
Shepard:
To do what exactly?
Catalyst:
The energy of the crucible, released in this way will alter the matrix of all
organic life in the galaxy. Organics seek perfection through technology,
synthetics seek perfection through understanding. Organics will be perfected by
integrating fully with synthetic technology. Synthetics in turn will finally
have understanding of organics. It is the ideal solution. Now that we know it
is possible, it is inevitable we will reach synthesis.
Shepard:
Why couldn't you do it sooner?
Catalyst:
We have tried... a similar solution in the past. But it has always failed.
Shepard:
Why?
Catalyst: Because the organics were not ready, it is
not something that can be... forced. You are ready and you may choose it.
With all three options
infront of us what should we do? All would fix the problem of extintion yet the
value of the tradeoffs isn't quite as black and white as we would like it to
be. Some things should be noted before reaching what I truly believe to
be the ONLY choice to make in this situation.
1. Both models of life
are in a head-to-head encounter in which the survival of their entire
species is on the brink.
2. Catalyst:
We believed the concept had been eradicated (Cruible [Only weapon against
Reapers]). Clearly organics are more resourceful than we realised. We’re
just trying to survive! (Player Chosen Shepard response)
Shepard: But
you’re taking away our future, without future we have no hope. Without
hope we might as well be machines, programmed to do as we are told.
Catalyst: You
have hope, more than you think. The fact that you are standing here,
the first organic ever proves it. But it also proves my solution won’t work
any more.
3. Aside from the
Reapers clearly advanced physical technology, their most effective weapon
utilized for harvesting organic life has been INDOCTRINATION.
Entire civilizations
can be delivered into the Reapers' hands by the indoctrination of a few
influential individuals.
4. With the entire
amalgam of Reaper conciousness being threatened with eradication is it not most
likely that it would resort to its most tried and trusted weapon ofINDOCTRINATION to
ensure its continued survival?
Taking a look at the
three choices available again with these points in mind...
Control - You die. Your body is gone, yet you are still
aware "inside" of the Reapers. Unfortunately this sounds no different
from being normally harvested by the Reapers anyway except for the LIE by
the Reaper "AI" that Shepard's EGO would be in
control of the Reapers actions. ATTEMPT AT INDOCTRINATION.
Synthesis - Again the description of Synthesis sounds
almost completely the same as what it would be like being normally harvested by
the Reapers except that it is happening to ALL organic life in the galaxy not
just those that have reached the requiste level of technology/conciousness.
Also the choice for this transcendence is being
consented to by just ONE individual. The choice is tempting as it appeals
to the "balancing" aspect of our dualistic conciousness however this
seems to be the prefered method of solution for the Reapers. ATTEMPT AT
INDOCTRINATION. [Speculation: The Reapers could have been waiting for
this exact moment to carry out Synthesis as the ultimate solution to the
problem however multiple itterations of the pattern/cycle were needed to evolve
an organic capable of producing the results they required. {Shepard}]
Destroy - The only choice. The "AI"
seems to actively direct Shepard away from this choice the most. It would
100% obliterate the Reapers however the immediate consequences to Shepards conciousness
seem most dire. He/she would surely die and not be preserved in the
Reaper construct or in the DNA makeup of "new life" created through
Synthesis.
This choice however is
the only choice that allows organic life the freedom to devolop and evolve the
way that they see fit, totally unreliant on Reaper technology. Also with the possibility of the war
between Geth and Quarians being resolved it offers the vision that not all
organic created synthetics are ultimately destroyed by their creations. Deeming
the Reapers obsolete.
This narrative is
playing out to some degree on the stage we refer to as our REALITY.
