Niun s'Intel Zain-Abrin Was tall, even for his kind. He was Mri, long limbed and golden skinned. Had his face been visible, the blue scars of the Se-ta'al would have been clear on his high cheekbones.
His face was not visible. He was, as the Se-ta'al marked him, a Kel, The-Face-That-Looks-Outward, and as such he was dressed in a siga, a robe of pure black from collar to boots. His face and bronze hair was hidden by mez and zaidhe, veil and headcloth, for Mri did not show face to tsi'mri. All that could be seen were his brow and his eyes, narrow and golden as his skin.
His only adornment was a harness about his waist and chest that held his weapons, both the zahen'ein, the modern weapons, and the yin'ein, the ancient blades of the Mri tradition of honor combat.
He stood, silent and motionless, before a viewport. It was small, as every one he had ever seen was. The Edunei of the mri had few windows, and Mri did not move among tsi'mri except on ships of war.
On the other side of the viewport was a vacuum, and beyond that was endless stars. But between the viewport and the stars, was a planet.
Behind the impassive face he held even beneath the mez, Niun burned with desire.
He was twenty six, as Mri measured the years. In the years of the tsi'mri to whom the vessel belonged, he was ninteen.
The tsi'mri were of a type that called themselves Humans, and since long before Niun s'Intel Zain-Abrin had been born into the Kath, it had been Humans to whom the Mri owed service.
Niun had been born to the Edun of Earth, the house of the Mri upon the homeworld of the humans. He was Zain-Abrin, the son of those who bore those names, and s'Intel, of the Edun of She'Pan Intel, Mother of the Mri.
He was a skilled fighter, in both the a'ani single combat of the Mri, and the Modern Ways of fighting with tsi'mri. All his life, since he left the Kath behind and entered the Kel, the warriors, he had excelled.
And yet the She'pan had held him back, held him as his brothers and sisters of the Kel had left for service on the Human ships, and returned with Honor medals to hang from their harness, or earned their death and sun burial.
And then the human had come.
The Sen, the scholars of the Mri, knew of him, he was Anderson, a name in the networks the Sen kept. But those were a Sen matter, for scholars, not for the Kel.
As the humans always did, Anderson requested service of a Kel, but not simply for a ship, or to stand between a soft tsi'mri and harm.
He wished a Kel to serve Shepherd.
Shepherd was known to the Kel, a survivor, a killer, a skilled warrior.
The Kel'anth had called him forth. He had stood carefully, heart pounding, and stepped past the kneeling ranks of the higher circles of the Kel. Surely the She'pan would soon turn him away once more, and send him back to sit with the unblooded youths of a last rank.
She did not, but when he knelt before her seat her hand, thin and old and firm as steel, grasped his chin, and pulled his gaze to hers.
"Go, child of my Husband." She had said. "This is a service worthy of your skill."
And so he had left behind the tsi'mri Anderson, taking only his clothing, his harness and his weapons, for the Kel did not carry burdens.
All this he remembered as he stood before the viewport, and stared out at the world the Humans called Eden Prime.
He hoped strongly that here he would find an enemy.
So the Mass relays, the offer a way to get around relatively easily. But they aren't everywhere, not even close, and some are dark, or frozen over, or they've been nudged out of orbits and into interstelar space. Space is fucking huge, and some things just slip through the cracks.
Thus the Mri came into existance on Kutath, and the exodus left. And in their wake was a trail of barren worlds, wiped clean.
And then the Humans, in their first delicate forays beyond the warmth of Sol, found them, and the Mri offered service.
This is, of course, rather in advance of the canon timeline, But this is a What if, not a for want of a nail.
By the time Niun is born, it's been about a generation for the Mri, and they have found the Humans to be fairly good clients. the Mri have their new homeworld, not that most of them spend any time there, there are new colonies to protect, new edunei to build and defend and fill with Kath.
the first contact war happens about as canon, the Mri are good fighters, but not good enough to take down the established Turians, much less the Council. So peace proceeds as usual, Humans and Turians do not get along, Mri find the turians a bit more unpleasant than the humans, etc.
Essentially, the game as told by a seventh party member, who has some rather...different ideas about the universe.
His face was not visible. He was, as the Se-ta'al marked him, a Kel, The-Face-That-Looks-Outward, and as such he was dressed in a siga, a robe of pure black from collar to boots. His face and bronze hair was hidden by mez and zaidhe, veil and headcloth, for Mri did not show face to tsi'mri. All that could be seen were his brow and his eyes, narrow and golden as his skin.
His only adornment was a harness about his waist and chest that held his weapons, both the zahen'ein, the modern weapons, and the yin'ein, the ancient blades of the Mri tradition of honor combat.
He stood, silent and motionless, before a viewport. It was small, as every one he had ever seen was. The Edunei of the mri had few windows, and Mri did not move among tsi'mri except on ships of war.
On the other side of the viewport was a vacuum, and beyond that was endless stars. But between the viewport and the stars, was a planet.
Behind the impassive face he held even beneath the mez, Niun burned with desire.
He was twenty six, as Mri measured the years. In the years of the tsi'mri to whom the vessel belonged, he was ninteen.
The tsi'mri were of a type that called themselves Humans, and since long before Niun s'Intel Zain-Abrin had been born into the Kath, it had been Humans to whom the Mri owed service.
Niun had been born to the Edun of Earth, the house of the Mri upon the homeworld of the humans. He was Zain-Abrin, the son of those who bore those names, and s'Intel, of the Edun of She'Pan Intel, Mother of the Mri.
He was a skilled fighter, in both the a'ani single combat of the Mri, and the Modern Ways of fighting with tsi'mri. All his life, since he left the Kath behind and entered the Kel, the warriors, he had excelled.
And yet the She'pan had held him back, held him as his brothers and sisters of the Kel had left for service on the Human ships, and returned with Honor medals to hang from their harness, or earned their death and sun burial.
And then the human had come.
The Sen, the scholars of the Mri, knew of him, he was Anderson, a name in the networks the Sen kept. But those were a Sen matter, for scholars, not for the Kel.
As the humans always did, Anderson requested service of a Kel, but not simply for a ship, or to stand between a soft tsi'mri and harm.
He wished a Kel to serve Shepherd.
Shepherd was known to the Kel, a survivor, a killer, a skilled warrior.
The Kel'anth had called him forth. He had stood carefully, heart pounding, and stepped past the kneeling ranks of the higher circles of the Kel. Surely the She'pan would soon turn him away once more, and send him back to sit with the unblooded youths of a last rank.
She did not, but when he knelt before her seat her hand, thin and old and firm as steel, grasped his chin, and pulled his gaze to hers.
"Go, child of my Husband." She had said. "This is a service worthy of your skill."
And so he had left behind the tsi'mri Anderson, taking only his clothing, his harness and his weapons, for the Kel did not carry burdens.
All this he remembered as he stood before the viewport, and stared out at the world the Humans called Eden Prime.
He hoped strongly that here he would find an enemy.
So the Mass relays, the offer a way to get around relatively easily. But they aren't everywhere, not even close, and some are dark, or frozen over, or they've been nudged out of orbits and into interstelar space. Space is fucking huge, and some things just slip through the cracks.
Thus the Mri came into existance on Kutath, and the exodus left. And in their wake was a trail of barren worlds, wiped clean.
And then the Humans, in their first delicate forays beyond the warmth of Sol, found them, and the Mri offered service.
This is, of course, rather in advance of the canon timeline, But this is a What if, not a for want of a nail.
By the time Niun is born, it's been about a generation for the Mri, and they have found the Humans to be fairly good clients. the Mri have their new homeworld, not that most of them spend any time there, there are new colonies to protect, new edunei to build and defend and fill with Kath.
the first contact war happens about as canon, the Mri are good fighters, but not good enough to take down the established Turians, much less the Council. So peace proceeds as usual, Humans and Turians do not get along, Mri find the turians a bit more unpleasant than the humans, etc.
Essentially, the game as told by a seventh party member, who has some rather...different ideas about the universe.