Mass Effect: Blackwell

Salarians are salamander-like aliens who, while not physically strong, have tremendous will. Their metabolism is almost twice as fast as a human metabolism. This gives them faster reflexes and a superior mental agility than humans, allowing them to adapt to new situations quickly. This metabolic phenomenon has a drawback, however. Salarians rarely live to be forty years old.

The salarians have an almost medieval political structure. There government is made up of millions of secluded female dynasts, who make policies among themselves with little input from males. The dynasts spread their influence through intermarriages and negotiation. By annoying one dynast has a chance of accidentally annoying many more due to influential ties. They are politically liberal.

The salarian economy is the smallest of the three Council races. It is based on “bleeding-edge” technologies, with salarian industries leaders in most fields.

The salarian culture and military believes in the idea of a preemptive strike. Salarians do not declare war, and find the idea of waiting for a known enemy to attack preposterous. In every war they have ever fought, they have struck first and without warning. Their military makes up for its smaller numbers with superior equipment. The salarians have the best intelligence services in the galaxy, and are experts in cyber-warfare incursions.

Salarians rescued the krogan nearly 2000 years ago from the devastating nuclear winter the krogan created for themselves. The salarians gave the krogan advanced technology and relocated them to a planet that was not plagued with lethal levels of radiation, toxins and deadly predators.

• Intellectual: Salarians are known across the galaxy for their intelligence. A Salarian begins play with a d6 in Smarts.