#sur'kesh

[otohik0]

Garrus: Look, Shepard, I know you can find something a little closer to home. Shepard: I don't want something closer to home. I want you. I want someone I can trust.

[crapeaucrapeau]

Headcanons : Thessia and Sur'Kesh

Thessia is a paradise ; Sur'Kesh is vibrant wilderness.

It's been said that geography isn't destiny. That is true, to some extent ; it should be best to say that geography sets a stage and dictates conditions in which it is easier - or more difficult - for life to thrive or perish.

Temperature, Landmasses and Humidity

At 25°C for the average temperature at sea level, Thessia is warmer than Earth by nearly 10°C ; nonetheless, an abundance of water has resulted in greater overall rainfall and the oceanic climate being much, much more prevalent than on Earth (though the other biomes, from tundras to hot deserts, also exist), and a greater total area of fertile, arable land relative to Earth — even though Thessia's total landmass is actually smaller than Earth's. The reason is topography : most land on Thessia is close to the sea and smaller than Earth's landmasses, with very little of the harsh continental interiors one finds on Earth.

Thessia's warmer climate wasn't caused by more carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases in the atmospheric mix, relative to Earth, but by three other factors :

Thessia is closer to its parent star, Parnitha, than Earth is to Sol, at 0.94 AU ; both stars are G2V's, generating a broadly similar amount of light and heat

while both Earth and Thessia are still undergoing a glaciation - since on both planets there are permanent ice sheets at the poles - on Thessia, most of the icecaps cover oceans, not landmasses, and remain well past both the Arctic and Antarctic circles ; as they are thinner by necessity, the result is that most of Thessia's water is not locked away in ice

there are far less mountain ranges running from north to south on Thessia than on Earth, allowing the winds carrying moisture from the ocean to go much deeper inland

The result is a surfeit of islands and reefs, many inland seas, and seven small, broadly interwoven continents.

An unforeseen beneficial effect of such natural serendipity is that Thessia's climate is very stable : whenever Thessian flora has absorbed too much carbon dioxide, the resulting cooling of the climate led to the expansion of the icecaps, the appearance of glaciers and the lowering of sea levels, thereby reducing the total amount of Thessian flora… allowing carbon dioxide to rise again and warm up the climate back to its starting state.

Sur'Kesh, meanwhile, has the same average temperature as Thessia ; but as it is even wetter, with far more water vapor in the air than on most regions of Earth, it usually feels hotter than either Earth or Thessia. These wet climates allowed the moisture-reliant amphibian-like clade that would eventually give birth to the salarians to thrive and out-compete rival clades also emerging out of the oceans, whereas in other conditions such animals would have suffered from an insurmountable disadvantage.

Sur'Kesh's lower atmosphere contains both more oxygen and more carbon dioxide than Earth's, though not in quantities which would put the health of an alien visitor at risk. The atmospheric mix, which has a lot to do with the development of the planet's climate and biosphere, remains broadly stable by dint of a carefully monitored equilibrium between fauna and flora.

Thanks to how warm and wet Sur'Kesh is, the primary characteristics of the salarian homeworld are great landmasses covered by lush rain forests separated by large oceans : jungles are the most common type of ecosystem on Sur'Kesh, stretching much further north and south than on Earth, and there are few actual deserts in the warmest latitudes. Sur'Kesh's temperate bands, meanwhile, reach almost to the poles.

That is because of Sur'Kesh's resemblance to Earth during its Cretaceous period : unlike Earth or Thessia, Sur'Kesh has no ice at the poles, and its distributed continents are broken up in such a way that the oceans are free to circulate warmth along the east/west axis at all latitudes — resulting in the temperature gradient between Sur'Kesh's poles and equator being very shallow. Furthermore, three of Sur'Kesh's continents are connected by land bridges and align on the equator, resulting in a fairly large biome along the east/west axis, warmed by the equatorial current on its long northern shore.

In consequence, the winds on Sur'Kesh are very light (outside of the monsoon season wherever it applies), and the oceans tend toward stagnancy, with little upwelling.

This climatic homogeneity is also enabled :

by few tall mountain ranges (or at least, by few mountain ranges on coasts which would create a rain shadow),

by a thick atmosphere (at 1.42 atm), enabling more transport of heat relative to Earth,

and by an axial tilt close close to 0°, resulting in very little seasonal variation during the Sur'Kesh year, though seasons still occur — the festival of Betau, for instance, marks the end of winter in the southern hemisphere.

Impact of Geography on History

Compared to humanity, asari civilizations developed with far greater ease in jungle islands and peninsulas, irrigable floodplains on every continent, and along the coastlines and in the archipelagos strewn all across the planet. This greatly influenced asari history, as agriculture developed in far more places than on Earth (i.e. China and the Fertile Crescent) and prehistoric sailors navigated across the entire breadth of a world whose geography fostered maritime trade and the exchange of ideas in a network of coastline villages.

The same couldn't ever be true of salarian civilizations : as freshwater amphibians, seawater is deadly to them. Instead, salarian societies developed along river basins first and then laterally through jungles to other river basins ; the historical importance of the basin as the basic geographical unit is evident in the name salarians chose to give to their home cluster, the Annos Basin. Sur'Kesh's geography was changed further by the many canals and artificial lakes ancient salarians dug up as they built their dams, mounds and lodges. Those waterways, both natural and artificial, were the primary avenues of transportation and communication for most of Sur'Kesh's history, conveying both people and goods during times of commerce and war. The development of sea travel, which developed out of fishing practices, was eventually but belatedly spurred by demographic pressures in the original continent salarians evolved in.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I've wanted to imagine what Thessia and Sur'Kesh look like for a long time. While I'm happy to say that Sur'Kesh owes mostly to the books I read (particularly Thomas Halliday's Otherlands), I could never find a set-up which suited Thessia, as I wanted the planet to be a warm paradise unlike Earth that would foster decentralization and exchange while keeping its canonical ice caps, with my broad initial idea being that Armali and Serrice would be on a cluster of large islands like the Arctic Archipelago but much closer to the equator, perhaps linking two continents — that is, I couldn't until I discovered the imaginary Earth known as Seapole, which is in no way mine. Thessia as I imagine it is Seapole, and I could never have come up with it on my own ; I heartily encourage you to check it out and support the author if you can (or like).

"Why ?" you might ask. Because I can, and because the only way I know to create is (unfortunately) with far too extensive worldbuilding.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

The Empire of Preys

***

It is 2166CE when Voice-Dalatrass Tschastarissi finally dies, rearing the Salarian Union awake from the passive slumber of her decades-old regime. But while the iron-willed dalatrass Linron plots her route to power with the aid of a reluctant turian diplomat assisting from the shadows, her daughter Jurlan loses herself to the past, uncovering dormant truths that may better stay untouched —and several stars away, two asari sisters pressured by money and haunted by false-starts must decide whether to let their ambition threaten far more than their lives alone.

This is a story about the empires that cling on.

Read now!

***

The Empire of Preys is part 2 of the Halfway Homes series based on the Mass Effect universe. It is both a prequel and sequel to Halfway Home, but can also be enjoyed as a standalone. Contrary to Halfway Home, it will be released hopefully at the rate of one chapter per month, but realistically: whenever a chapter is ready.

It's a gen fic with a side-serving of romance (lesbian and straight), a deep-dive into my weird headcanons for salarian, asari and turian culture, an exploration of neo imperialism and the casual devastation that comes with soft power --and what happens when soft power no longer suffices.

This is a multi PoV story with the following cast:

Rhanda T'selvi, ex asari commando and current security freelancer on Illium

Nagatha T'selvi, ex financial adviser and current unemployed babysitter for her sister's daughter

Nemore Linron, aka the dalatrass Linron, yes this one

Jurlan Linron, her miracle of a daughter, a case in genetics whose image shapes opinion across the entire galaxy

Auren Cæpta, a chronically ill turian diplomat sent on Sur'kesh for a critical secret mission

[sky--phantom]

old photo mode pics (2022) of ME3, part 1

[selfpossesedghost]

Sur'Kesh

Mass Effect 3

[cerberusdailynews]

[CRIME] Notorious Cat Burglar Turns Self In, Claims She "Was Tired of the Whole Business"

Police Baffled by Self-Report via Clancy Tavish, the Sirona Star [SIRONA] Police at the 42nd Precinct Station of Senturom were baffled yesterday as an elcor alleging herself to be the infamous “Crawler of Grisaron” turned herself in, citing a climbing dissatisfaction with her work/life balance. Thirteen artifacts of considerable worth were recovered in her ensuing arrest, lending significant credence to her claim. “We had no idea what to make of it,” said Police Sergeant Eduardo Spaulding, who was present at the time of arrest. “We still don’t, frankly. Here we are, three Citadel homeworlds and over a dozen colonies trying to pin down this master art thief, and she just lumbers into our podunk town and turns herself over.” The Crawler of Grisaron is currently wanted on Sur’kesh, Thessia, and Earth, along with a number of other major colony worlds for the theft of countless priceless works of art, often stolen under spectacular circumstances. Thefts attributed to the Crawler include Athame by Siphoni M’Stal (c. 2100 BCE), the statue Lady with an Orange by 21st-century sculptor Uriah Blau, and the painting Tore Nura Scheming Against the Gods by Siron Sogan. The last of these, commissioned by Clan Dragel after their first successful manned mission to the planet that took their name, is a Union treasure and was considered impossible to steal before its disappearance in 2166. The alleged Crawler (current name unknown) has refused to divulge the means by which she procured any of these items, nor has she identified any co-conspirators who may have assisted herself, citing only “extensive research” the degree of which “has encroached on my social life.” Attempts to identify her via biometrics have similarly failed, though investigative representatives from the Union, Republics, and SATAE have promised to combine their efforts to determine just who she is and how she managed to commit each crime. Until then, the Crawler has been detained in Sentorum’s maximum security prison wing pending extradition to one of the aforementioned homeworlds. “Matter of fact: it will be nice to get some much-deserved time off,” she said in a statement to the Star before her detainment. “Smug: Perhaps, once I get out, everyone will finally be better at looking after their toys.”

[effectingsomedragons]

Sur'Kesh is genuinely a beautiful planet for what little time we get to spend there.

[hustlemeanokay]

Rescue Eve . Sur'Kesh . Mass Effect 3

CDR Marian Shepard . Dr Mordin Solus . Eve

Salarian NPCs