I'm Mac Walters, the Creative Director of the Mass Effect franchise, and today we're gonna talk about some of the unsolved mysteries of the Mass Effect universe.

Warning, there will be spoilers. [techno beat plays]

So our first question is, "Tell us what you believe the canonical ending "to Shepard's story and the Reaper War is?"

Well of course, the way I look at it, everybody's story, everybody's Shepard story is their own canonical ending, and that's kinda the easy way out. So for me specifically, the first time I really played through the trilogy, the canonical ending that I had was everything's destroyed, and Shepard died. And that was my first play through for it. And then in subsequent play throughs, I actually, one time when I did it, I was very into the sort of synthesis ending. I loved the concept of AI. If you want to get to some of the universal truths about the ending of Mass Effect 3, the Reapers were definitively defeated, the Illusive Man is out of the way, and now any of your friends and allies who have survived can now sort of carry on in that sort of chaotic universe.

All right, another question. "Do Reaper husks retain any of the personality "of the converted individual, even if they have no control "over their own actions?"

The answer to that is no. Reaper husks are husks, you must kill them. Do not hesitate if you see one, destroy.

"What do the Volus look like? "Are they just as squatty as the suits suggest, "or might they actually be beautiful under there?"

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but to me, it was interesting, I always imagined them to actually be quite almost delicate. Sturdy underneath their suits, but delicate. There's a sort of description in there of how, if they were exposed to our atmosphere, you know, their skin will actually split. So I always kind of pictured these creatures who are quite brave to be in an environment all the time that could literally kill them. But underneath all of that, perhaps maybe having some very soft and white smooth, silky skin. So I think it was quite fragile underneath it all. And I thought it was a nice juxtaposition to sort of think about what the Volus were like. Do we have that as a sort of concept? No, that's just in my brain.

"Let's ask the really important question. "Which Mass Effect species can commingle with others, "and which ones can't?" I think I know what that means.

- I was just thinking about you.

- I have been thinking about you too.

I think it's pretty clear, the Mass Effect universe is definitely a free love zone, and in my mind, I can certainly picture somewhere out there in the universe, you know, an Elcor and a Hanar slow dancing to "Purple Rain". But the question of course, I think, comes down more to biology and maybe even DNA, as far as, you know, who can have offspring.

- Anaphylactic shock possible so don't [clears throat] ingest.

On that account, I think, you know, there's obviously some clear obstacles that our beloved species would face. But then again, you know, the Mass Effect universe is also one of a high degree of technology and scientific understanding, so I think hope would spring eternal for most of those couples.

- I love you Grunt. [deep throated chuckle]

- "What was the writing process to get so much lore spun up and written for all the planetary descriptions?" Good question. "Were there any that you wish "the games could have explored more? And then example, "The planet Logan, "with its strange vanishing disturbances?"

A really interesting story about how we sort of generated a lot of the planet ideas on Mass Effect. Casey Hudson, he's a guy who does everything. He's an engineer, he composes music. So one of the things he did was he created a random planet generator in Excel. And this wouldn't just give you the name, which it did, but it would also give you these very accurate statistical details about that planet. How far away from the Sun it would be, the average temperature, all this other information. We would actually use that to generate lists of hundreds of viable planets that we could use in the game. And so we would go back and we also had our own tool within Unreel, and we would sort of map out one solar system at a time. And we would say, okay this one has seven planets. And then we would go to our list of the randomly generated planets, we start adding those in. When it comes to the actual, you know, how we did the lore, we would actually split that up among most of the writers. And I think one of the fun things for a lot of the writers is sort of those little lore bits that we would seed in throughout, leaving little bits of mystery, little tidbits along the way.

Next up, "Is there an in-universe explanation "for the difference in Saren's appearance "vs. Other Turians?"

You know, I think that was more of a, you know, it just looked really cool.

"Now that the Krogan Genophage is cured, "can the laws of thermodynamics support a Krogan population "reproducing at an unrestricted rate? "Giving them their own planet "only works for a few generations, "when Krogan females can produce "1,000 fertilized eggs in a year."

Well, that is very true, and I think when you get to the science of it, that is very true.

- Krogan female, tumors indicate experimentation.

But as we know with the Krogan, it's not just about science, it's also about their culture. So let's do a little thought experiment. They're breeding like crazy, there's eggs everywhere, and Clan A notices that Clan B has more eggs than the other guys.

- Hahahaha, I like this human.

- What do we think the Krogan are likely to do about that? They're not gonna live in peace likely. Some of those eggs are gonna get destroyed. On top of that, let's say all the eggs do survive. And then what do we have? A bunch of Krogan fighting for resources on their planet. I think nature is probably going to find a way, as it always does, even if sometimes it needs a, nefarious Salarian to help it on its way.

"There were a number of dark energy-related plot threads "left dangling after ME2's ending." Yes there were. "In the context of the ME universe going forward, "how important is that stuff?"

I don't think you can really talk about the Mass Effect universe without talking about dark energy. It's one of those great elements that fascinated us, as designers and developers, because it is something that actually sort of exists in our world, at least theoretically. This sort of mystical fifth energy, that in some ways binds the universe together. But in the stories, it's critical because you know, it's in everything. It's in everything from our Mass Relays, to the way we travel, to our weapons, to biotics. It really is the thing that makes Mass Effect, Mass Effect. So in that sense, I can't imagine a Mass Effect experience without it.

All right, next up we have, "The Lazarus tech developed by Cerberus "seems genuinely revolutionary - the ability "to conquer death. "How does that fit in to the overall ME universe?"

I think the key there was, we tried to explain just how expensive, time consuming, nearly impossible that technique was to replicate on a single human. This wasn't something that you could manufacture. So I think that's kind of how it fits in overall. This is a one and done.

"What exactly are Prothean Spheres? "Is there something inside of them?" Well, wouldn't you love to know? I mean, honestly that's kind of the point, that you have these spheres that you can't get inside of, but they're mysterious. To me, they're like a kinder egg surprise, you never really get to get inside of.

Okay, next question. "What's inside the superstructure of the Mass Relays?"

Again, one of those mysteries. Maybe marshmallows, maybe it's more of those kinder egg surprises.

"What's the source of the Scourge?"

Great question. Not going to say, but I can tell you it's not the Reapers, it's definitely not the Reapers. For sure not the Reapers.

"Is there anything that happened in the 'extended universe' "of Mass Effect that you wish had made it "into an ME game?"

One of the fun things about the extended universe is that we get to explore protagonists who aren't Shepard, and we kind of follow them on their journeys. But what inherently happens then is that those journeys and those adventures tend to be less galaxy wide. The implications aren't quite as high, the stakes aren't quite as high. There are interesting stories that we tell there, but we actually want to keep them in the extended universe because we can do more with them frankly.

"Reaper ground troops are adopted from other species, "so where are the Adjutants from? "Are they harvested inusannon?"

I think this is just one of the other sort of interesting things that we've seeded into the universe. And just as a side note, I think it's one of the things that's often missed in deep sci-fi, is the past.

- It has survived wars and the passage of centuries, it endures.

We don't often talk about what's happened in the past. We're thinking very forward. And in Mass Effect, the lore didn't just fill out humanity's history. We actually went back like life cycles of death and destruction and rebirth. And so that's where sort of some of these concepts came from. And I think, to me, that's one oof the things that sort of makes it hard to follow, even for us developers. But it also makes the world seem so much deeper and richer.

Next question, "What happened to Gianna Parasini? "She was teased to return as a romance, "but never appeared in the third game."

- Holy crap, Shepard? I thought you were dead.

That is a really good point. I think maybe we should do a comic about her or something.

"Is the Consort just a particularly wise escort, "or is there something deeper else going on?"

Definitely wise, but even beyond that, cunning. Maybe even a little sociopathic from a human standpoint. But I think that was, as one of the early sort of, Asari that you got to meet in the franchise, I think she did this amazing job of sort of conveying that sense of, there's always just a little something that they seem to know, and that they're not going to reveal. And that creates this sort of real mysterious air about them.

- And now, I must ask you to leave.

"Was the planet we found the Leviathans on "really their last refuge or were there more of them "hiding on other distant worlds?"

To the best of our knowledge, that was their refuge.

Okay, "The human Reaper at the end of ME2 answered questions "and raised more. "Is there a canonical answer for how that human Reaper "would have looked if it had been allowed to mature?"

It's funny, we actually discussed this quite a bit. If you look at the care press, it's replicated sort of on the Reapers. Clearly that was taken more from the original look of the Leviathans. And so I think it's fair to say that there might be some of that carried over into this giant human thing that walked around. But then it would also have this sort of blend of the human nature to it as well. The reason I think there'd be at least a little bit of the sort of armor on it is, our flesh is inherently kind of weak, so why would you even bother with building a giant human that could just be shot?

"When the Reapers took control of the Citadel "towards the end of ME3, what happened to the millions "of people on board? "Also, did the Reapers shut off life support, "or just leave them trapped to deal with later?"

So, in typical Reaper fashion, I assume they did the least amount required to actually move forward, and with very little consideration of the little ants that were all aboard their toy ship. But also I think, in their terms, every human that's still sort of on board is just a potential husk for the future. So I would imagine they would just leave them for later.

"How exactly did the Illusive Man control Shepard "and Anderson at the end of ME3? "Had he actually harnessed and recreated some "Reaper technology?"

- They're controlling you.

I don't think so. So well, I mean, he is the Illusive Man and his motivations and the way he does things are illusive, so we're not gonna know the exact answer to that. But I think one of the interesting questions around it really is more in line with, even if he thought he had harnessed something, did he really? Or was he just believing something that the Reapers were sort of seeding into him?

- No, I am the savior of humanity.

Did he have control? Was he in control at any point? And then, to me, similar to Saren, and the way he really believed in his cause and everything that he was doing, what's interesting about that is, did that belief come really from them, or did it come from the Reapers? And I think that's a fun mystery that you have in there with those characters. It makes them more gray and less black and white as villains.

Next question, "Cerberus control a powerful fleet in ME3." Yes they do. "But ME2 made it sound like they didn't have the funds "to build one after constructing the Normandy SR-2. "How did they get such a large fleet of ships?" Great question.

I think one of the things we tried to establish but maybe we didn't quite get there, was that Cerberus and certainly the Illusive Man had factions within it.

- I do my own research, Commander. A pity you left, Cerberus.

A lot of times, the right hand wouldn't necessarily be privy to what the left hand was doing. And that was intentional obviously, the Illusive Man likes to sort of divide and conquer. So in my mind, it was pretty feasible that we'd have this one group sort of wondering about funds and do they have enough money for their research? While somewhere else, mysteriously ships were being built ad nauseam.

"Was the ODSY drive created by the Andromeda initiative "based on Reaper technology recovered from Sovereign?

So the answer to that is no. If you look back in the history, the Andromeda initiative was actually starting a lot of its research and its plans to head to Andromeda before the war with Sovereign. And really it was that war with Sovereign that spurred everything on and sort of boosted them to overdrive. But they had to have a plan before that happened. So ostensibly, the ODSY drive or its core components were already at least theoretical and moving forward at that point.

"Is there a 'Jupiter-brain' at the heart of Ploba? "And if not, what are the structures "deep inside the atmosphere?"

That's sort of one of those mysteries that's seeded out there. I'd just like to say, heart of Ploba, I think that should be on a T-shirt somewhere.

Okay, next up we have a hypothetical. "If we take the refuse option as canonical "and cast our eyes out 50,000 years into the future "after Mass Effect 3, what primitive races "might we see leading the charge against the Reapers?"

I would probably put my money on the Vorcha. We have called them the cockroaches of the universe, so if you want something that's just gonna survive anything and still be out there. Leading the charge? Meh. But you know, they'll still be out there.

I think one of the things that I'm really enjoying about this whole process is just seeing how invested people are in the lore, and you know, to me, sort of reinforces that concept that we have as writers and designers and developers that you want to sort of really flesh out your lore, flesh out your universe with all these mysteries that potentially may never be answered, because it does get people asking questions. And often we find out that you know, our fans will come up with answers that are even better than anything we could have come up with ourselves. So thank you for continuing to ask those questions, and being so fervent in sort of digging into the lore, and finding all that stuff. We'll promise to keep putting that stuff in there as well. So that's it, I just want to say thanks again for all the amazing questions. I love diving into this stuff and really sort of going in the way back machine to sort of think about things that I haven't thought about in a long time

 Thanks very much to the Mass Effect subreddit, you really came up with some great questions that I hadn't considered before. And for all of you out there, happy N7 day.