Needing a Chapter Master to outsmart time

[Messor]

I'm pretty sure this is the right place for this. I'm developing two chapters and a CSM legion based on the Mass Effect franchise; a chapter modeled after the Systems Alliance, the other based on Cerberus, and the CSM based on the Reapers(So almost all the characters are based on Mass Effect counterparts). The trouble I'm running into is that the Cerberus chapter is a successor to the Alliance chapter, being 25th and 23rd founding, respectively, but I need the Chapter Master's to be contemporaries as they are in Mass Effect (One represents Commander Shepard, and the other represents The Illusive Man). That's a time disparity of thousands of years!

 

The (hopefully) temporary solution I currently have is that Shepard has long since been interred in a dreadnought, now known as Atlas Shepard, if that's not too cheesy, and the current Chapter Master is an incarnation of Kaidan Alenko. The only other options I can come up with, which I'm not really happy about so far are:

 

1. Master lost in the warp; returned.

2. Founding Master was someone else(Where I can't think of a meaningful character), and Shepard is the Master at the time of the Cerberus chapter founding

3. 'The Sleeping Dead': The Chapter history includes Sus-an Membrane failure as a gene-seed defect, -other irrelevant background-, Shepard's Sus-an triggered sometime after the founding, and he has been the only Alliance marine to awake from hibernation...only after a couple thousand years.

 

Problem with 1 is the obvious cliche, problem with 2 is a can't think of another character to fill the founding chapter master's role, and problem with 3 is that there is already a canon 'longest recorded Sus-an hibernation'.

 

Does anyone have any other suggestions, or input on these options, that could get space marine Commander Shepard and Jack Harper on the same battlefield?

 

tl:dr How to get two Chapter Masters from foundings thousands of years apart on the battlefield at the same time?

[Jacobius]

What about the Admiral guy, Anderson? He seems as good an antecedent to Shepard as anyone. He was the original Captain of the Normandy and was the first graduate of the N7 Marine programme

[Messor]

What about the Admiral guy, Anderson? He seems as good an antecedent to Shepard as anyone. He was the original Captain of the Normandy and was the first graduate of the N7 Marine programme

 

 

That could work, although I'd included Anderson as the Head of the Chaplaincy, so that would leave that spot empty of a suitable 'spiritual leader' character. That aside, Anderson would definitely be the best choice for an alternate founding Master.

[Jacobius]

If it was me I'd be using a male version of Samara as my chaplain and Anderson as the previous chapter master.

 

If you have other ideas for Samara, Liara or Thane would also be suitable.

 

-J-

[Fenrykus]

I quite agree with using Anderson as the previous Chapter Master. However, I would use Samara as a Librarian rather than a Chaplain, given her powerful biotic abilities, and I'd probably use Kaiden as the Chaplain, or maybe Garrus.

[Messor]

If it was me I'd be using a male version of Samara as my chaplain and Anderson as the previous chapter master.

 

If you have other ideas for Samara, Liara or Thane would also be suitable.

 

-J-

 

Hm. I'd actually ignored the female characters, but Samara does fit the role well. I'll definitely be toying with this idea, see how I might adapt Samara for the Master of Sanctity. I have incorporated Thane, though, as Master of the Rites.

[Messor]

I quite agree with using Anderson as the previous Chapter Master. However, I would use Samara as a Librarian rather than a Chaplain, given her powerful biotic abilities, and I'd probably use Kaiden as the Chaplain, or maybe Garrus.

 

Well let me share the list with you guys, so you can see who's currently where:

 

Master of Sanctity: Davian Androssen

Forge: Mordin Solis(MoF/Vulkan He'stan)

Apothecarion: Kairn Chakwas

Chief Librarian: Javik Perjidas

Watch(2nd): Salaris Kirrahe-Yellow

Arsenal(3rd): Urdnos Wrex-Red

Fleet(4th): Joak Moreaux-Green

Marches(5th): Zaeedum Issanis-Black

Rites(6th): Thane Krios-Orange

Victualler(7th): Kartneus-Purple

Recruits(10th): Garrus Vakarian(Torias Telion)

 

I tried to play to each character's strengths, so of the Biotics I went with Javik for Librarian. Why do you suggest Kaidan or Garrus for Chaplain, Brother Mikael? I think I could see Garrus in the role, but I'm curious what your reasoning was.

 

edit: and glancing through, I see one female character had made it onto the council.

[Fenrykus]

I'm sorry, I was typing two different things and didn't quite clean up the one I scrapped. I meant I could see Garrus as Master of Recruits and Kaidan as MoS, but thinking about it now, I think Thane would be a better choice. I know you have him as Master of the Rites, but Thane is a very spiritual character in the games, and so fits easily into the role of High Chaplain, with minimal tweaking.

[Messor]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys!

 

Hm, the more I think about it the better it sounds to make Thane the MoS. He probably isn't there already because I sort of went matching characters with titles, rather than titles with characters, and by the time I got to Thane, Master of the Rites was the most spiritual thing left. Samara could probably fill that role just as well as he could, though, and if he took MoS, that would leave Androssen open to be the founding Chapter Master. Its certainly looking like the best option!

[Orlunu]

An alternative to the "Lost in the Warp" trick that's a bit less cliche is the "Got really ;) angry and went on a ten thousand year purge of Celtor's Flux" or somesuch. Could represent the Omega 4 relay stuff. But it's still very similar to the norm, so I would only advise this if you really want Shepard to be your founding chapter master.

I am astounded that this hasn't been pointed out, but how can any ME tribute miss out Tali? She probably has the strongest following of any of the characters and would make a more appropriate MotF than Mordin with his biological bent. Although I suppose she wouldn't make a very convincing SM, but neither would Chakwas?

This is making me think way too much, :P I just took the simple route of making a quarian meltagun cultist and calling my starships Normandy, Orleans etc.

[Messor]

An alternative to the "Lost in the Warp" trick that's a bit less cliche is the "Got really ;) angry and went on a ten thousand year purge of Celtor's Flux" or somesuch. Could represent the Omega 4 relay stuff. But it's still very similar to the norm, so I would only advise this if you really want Shepard to be your founding chapter master.

I am astounded that this hasn't been pointed out, but how can any ME tribute miss out Tali? She probably has the strongest following of any of the characters and would make a more appropriate MotF than Mordin with his biological bent. Although I suppose she wouldn't make a very convincing SM, but neither would Chakwas?

This is making me think way too much, :P I just took the simple route of making a quarian meltagun cultist and calling my starships Normandy, Orleans etc.

 

 

Hahaha, good point on Tali, Orlunu. When I did the match ups it was more based on the character's role, and less the personality, and secondarily, how easily the name could be 'Grim-darked'. I'm not a huge Tali fan, and I thought all I could get out of Tali vas Normandy was a workable first name (Talius or something), but I realize now I forgot a whole part of her name. Tali Zorah will be pretty easy to translate, so the MotF can only be based on her! I'll probably move Mordin to Apothecarion.

 

Really, when it comes down to it, an alternate Founding Chapter Master is the best way to go, so I think that's what it'll be. Thanks guys. Hopefully I'll have IAs for each chapter soon.

[TrashMan]

If you want to make a chapter based on some other franchise/legend/story...make it SUBTLE.

 

If someone can instantly tell after reading only 2 lines what your chapter is all about, you're doing it wrong.

[Messor]

Can you give me an example? I'm not really trying to keep it a secret, just bring it into the universe, but if there's a compelling strength given to the story by a more veiled approach, I'm happy to find a way to apply it.

[Wulfebane]

As far as timing (leaving/hibernating/returning) I would've pegged Necrons over CSM for Reapers.

[TrashMan]

Can you give me an example? I'm not really trying to keep it a secret, just bring it into the universe, but if there's a compelling strength given to the story by a more veiled approach, I'm happy to find a way to apply it.

 

 

Well, Ultramarines are a good example. They styled after roman legions, but it's not immediately apparent.

 

Space Wolves are a ...not-so-good example.

 

There's pletny of DIY chapters where the influence of the main "theme" is subtle enough that many people don't even notice it.

 

Heck, my own chapter has 3 different themes/inspirations, but few people can spot more than one (Phoenix).

[Messor]

As far as timing (leaving/hibernating/returning) I would've pegged Necrons over CSM for Reapers.

 

Very true, Wulfebane, the Necrons are a close match in a lot of ways, with synthetics, hibernation, violent comebacks, but I went with Chaos because of indoctrination. You can't really represent that with Necrons, the closest they have is the relatively uncommon Pariah(I don't know my Necrons, so don't quote me on that). The three armies kind of portray a progression, the pure Alliance, Cerberus, teetering on the edge and playing with uncontrollable powers, and the corrupting force of the Reapers. A Chaos interpretation of the Reapers can also disappear into 'dark space' every whatever thousand years before returning to 'harvest' again. So that's why I've gone with Chaos over Necrons.

 

Well, Ultramarines are a good example. They styled after roman legions, but it's not immediately apparent.

 

Space Wolves are a ...not-so-good example.

 

There's pletny of DIY chapters where the influence of the main "theme" is subtle enough that many people don't even notice it.

 

Heck, my own chapter has 3 different themes/inspirations, but few people can spot more than one (Phoenix).

 

I see what you mean, but at the same time, I'm not sure its applicable to this scenario. Roman legions, for example are more a doctrine/organization method than anything, there's hardly a theme to identify, not to mention how broad such a theme is. For other Chapters, the theme could even be seen as selling point. Lots of people choose Space Wolves because they're clearly bad@$$ space vikings, and they're one of GW's own creations. Can the creator do their own thing wrong? My main difficulty with applying your idea is that I'm dealing with something as general as roman legions, or even Nordic themes, but I have specific characters. No one would ever recognize these forces as Mass Effect adaptations without these characters, they are the cement that grounds the transplanted universe, if that makes sense. See what I'm getting at? Confined not only to one of ME's races (which happens to be ours/Man) with which to represent this other universe, I think some certain, obvious pillars will be necessary.

[Brother Michaels]

Hey mate looking at this post and your alliance chapter, would it be better if I created the protheans and the reapers as actual races, and the alliance find artefacts on worlds of the protheans and Cerberus is always behind them and it escalates until the point where they find out that the Protheans are a lot older than anyone thinks but are losing the war versus the reapers, an unknown race that are as old as them. You help the last Protheans fight back against these machines. They find out there is more life and that if you dont stop them here then they will turn to terra and start there.

[Messor]

Bah! After all the help you guys gave me helping steer the Alliance away from a Lost in the Warp cliché, and its still gonna happen anyway in the Cerberus Chapter. I don't think there's any avoiding this one. Ah, well, at least we saved Shepard :rolleyes: