Fastest house on four legs YOU'VE ever seen

"The Citadel forces had been decimated by the geth, leaving the Alliance fleet unchallenged as the galaxy's single most dominant power." (TIM POV, page 4).

I'm... skeptical of this and inclined to credit it to TIM's human supremacy views.

The forces at the Citadel took a hard pounding when Sovereign and the geth came through.

However, the rest of the galaxy was cut off from the Citadel. Hence why the Alliance could come through and save the day - Shepard opened the mass relay to let them through.

However, were all of the Hierarchy's, Asari Republics', and Salarian Union's forces at the Citadel? Or even the majority?

I imagine that the standard defense forces were at the Citadel - maybe more than normal - and the majority of the rest of the fleets were scattered throughout their territories.

(The Council tells Shepard when they're grounded that there are "patrols are stationed at every mass relay linking Citadel Space to the Terminus Systems"! We know not everyone was at the Citadel!)

So like... the Alliance likely had an increase in their reputation as a military power (and rep is no small factor), but their actual forces (which are already stretched thing with their rapid expansion) were decreased due to loses during the Battle (especially if Shepard chooses to save the Council). While everyone who was away at the boarders would be just as strong as before. The only faction whose forces would have been seen as weaker after would be the Citadel Defence Fleet itself. Which would then call on its members (including Humans now! Thanks for the ships! *yoink*) to reconstitute it.

Right, right, I should have specified I meant Alliance Dreadnoughts, my bad.

"The Citadel forces had been decimated by the geth, leaving the Alliance fleet unchallenged as the galaxy's single most dominant power." (TIM POV, page 4).

I'm... skeptical of this and inclined to credit it to TIM's human supremacy views.

The forces at the Citadel took a hard pounding when Sovereign and the geth came through.

However, the rest of the galaxy was cut off from the Citadel. Hence why the Alliance could come through and save the day - Shepard opened the mass relay to let them through.

However, were all of the Hierarchy's, Asari Republics', and Salarian Union's forces at the Citadel? Or even the majority?

I imagine that the standard defense forces were at the Citadel - maybe more than normal - and the majority of the rest of the fleets were scattered throughout their territories.

(The Council tells Shepard when they're grounded that there are "patrols are stationed at every mass relay linking Citadel Space to the Terminus Systems"! We know not everyone was at the Citadel!)

So like... the Alliance likely had an increase in their reputation as a military power (and rep is no small factor), but their actual forces (which are already stretched thing with their rapid expansion) were decreased due to loses during the Battle (especially if Shepard chooses to save the Council). While everyone who was away at the boarders would be just as strong as before. The only faction whose forces would have been seen as weaker after would be the Citadel Defence Fleet itself. Which would then call on its members (including Humans now! Thanks for the ships! *yoink*) to reconstitute it.

Humans are therefore more diverse than the other species in C-Space because they are the latest species to join the interstellar community (meaning they have most recently developed the ability to freely intermix across the globe).

So 'humans are more diverse than other species' seems to be based on the idea that humanity was until recently an isolated 'island' and humanity will become less diverse in the future.

In my opinion this fails to take into account the idea that many colonies will have self-sustaining populations and therefore form isolated communities (equaling genetic offshoots for their species) but it's not as wild as humans are inherently more diverse than other species.

"Even accounting for the fact that many of the physical differences were obscured by their environmental suits, it was a safe generalization to say that quarians all tended to look pretty much the same. They were of an almost uniformly similar size and build, with far less variety than was was found in humans."

...

"That same degree of variance simply didn't exist in the quarian population.

"It's like that with all the other races, Kahlee thought to herself. For some reason, humans just have more genetic diversity than the rest of the galaxy. She hadn't really noticed it before, not consciously, but here on the bridge of the Idenna it seemed to strike home.

What I don't understand is why this would amount to loss of diversity ? Wouldn't random mutations, made all the likelier because of the greater population and the greater range of possible environments, be likelier to occur now ?

Sure, recessive genes no longer express themselves that easily, and the odds of reproducing with someone without such genes increase, so they might (maybe ?) be phased out of the general population over time (?), but is that the same as loss of genetic diversity ?

Then there's the fact that simply being capable of traveling does not people people are going to actually do that. There's the classic "What's holding you back from traveling the world?" "Money." exchange for starters. Most colonies aren't going to have a reason to visit either, so even the people who can afford to travel aren't necessarily going to travel everywhere. You're still going to have your backwaters and boonies. Not to mention, a big part of what the Galapagos Islands such a genetic cornucopia wasn't that they were completely isolated but that travel between them WAS possible, just difficult enough to be uncommon. Isolated areas that could diversify, and then exchange that diversity with other areas! Adapt, travel, adapt again, travel again, etc etc. Sounds a lot like the great distances between colonies, huh?

And then most damning of all, you have the Unification War. Turians colonization created such isolated communities that they became culturally differentiated to the point of rejecting all outsiders. It's a HELL of a lot easier to export a unified culture than it is unified genetics (see: americanization of media), and failed that? The Hierarchy had to make a massive concerted effort to prevent the natural isolation of colonies from bringing about a second Unification War... But somehow have so much inter-exchange that they homogenized their genetics on accident? Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.

now that you're glorious death, now that you're faithless flesh.

Kada & Vani doodlings

Turian: "We have our orders. Release of the genophage against the kogan has been authorized."

Salarian: "Not by my government."

Turian: "Your government invented it. What good is a weapon if you don't use it?"

@crapeaucrapeau noted in a comment in this post that the genophage may have existed for a long time and was only deployed when the turians learned of it.

Going by this recording... Yeah, that sounds likely. The Hierarchy saw a shiny new weapon and had to try it out.

Which is to say that the Turian government was (directly or indirectly) given all the knowledge and access needed to implement the Genophage (by the Asari govt?) knowing that they would use it, regardless of any official (insincere) objections. One singular government developing and releasing a genocidal plague is one thing. But splitting the responsibility? One making but not authorizing it, another using it but not developing it, a third neither making nor using it but enabling those who did? There's no single target to villainize. Anyone pointing the finger will have it deflected to someone else.

And at the same time, once it's been done... they can't say they are above it either. Everyone has to defend its use, because everyone was involved. If punishments were to be handed out, if its use were to be condemned, every major government would suffer the consequences.

"We're all to blame... so none of us are".

Or maybe I'm being overly melodramatic about it, and the Turians were given the keys because they were the new kids on the block and it saved face for the Council species. Turians getting a Council seat centuries later being unrelated.

It could also be groups within the Union and Republics wanted the genophage used, arranged for the Hierarchy to learn of and obtain it, and the official Union and Republic governments were not involved.

Neither the Union nor the Republics strike me as very centralized. I can easily imagine a Salarian clan or asari Republic going behind their government’s back ‘for the greater good’. (Which is not to say their government would necessarily disapprove if they were aware.)

Regardless of the details, once the genophage was deployed I’m sure everyone was very happy to lean into group responsibility means no one can actually be held accountable.

Turian: "You have so much to learn. And when we conquer your Earth I look forward to teaching you."

...Yeah, that's not a "traffic stop" as I've seen the Battle of Shanxi sometimes described.

The turians fully expected to absorb humanity into the Hierarchy, probably as another client species.

Moreover the turian is very casual in how he says it. He's not worried he might be reprimanded; he's probably expecting a promotion and to be made Governor or the like of the new species he conquered.

Turian: "We have our orders. Release of the genophage against the kogan has been authorized."

Salarian: "Not by my government."

Turian: "Your government invented it. What good is a weapon if you don't use it?"

@crapeaucrapeau noted in a comment in this post that the genophage may have existed for a long time and was only deployed when the turians learned of it.

Going by this recording... Yeah, that sounds likely. The Hierarchy saw a shiny new weapon and had to try it out.

Which is to say that the Turian government was (directly or indirectly) given all the knowledge and access needed to implement the Genophage (by the Asari govt?) knowing that they would use it, regardless of any official (insincere) objections. One singular government developing and releasing a genocidal plague is one thing. But splitting the responsibility? One making but not authorizing it, another using it but not developing it, a third neither making nor using it but enabling those who did? There's no single target to villainize. Anyone pointing the finger will have it deflected to someone else.

And at the same time, once it's been done... they can't say they are above it either. Everyone has to defend its use, because everyone was involved. If punishments were to be handed out, if its use were to be condemned, every major government would suffer the consequences.

"We're all to blame... so none of us are".

Or maybe I'm being overly melodramatic about it, and the Turians were given the keys because they were the new kids on the block and it saved face for the Council species. Turians getting a Council seat centuries later being unrelated.