(Just a fun thought I've had rattling around the ol' noodle for a bit now and finally wrote out while listening to Vigil's Theme.)

Imagine for a moment. A decade after the Reaper War.

Javik is becoming an older man now. He's been helping Liara write her book and, perhaps most importantly. His own curiosity about the nature of the Prothean Empire before the harvest of his cycle, has begun to pique.

Years pass. He mourns, he reflects. He bears witness to the final stands of of his people. Even spread over hundreds of years across dozens of systems that had been isolated centuries before he himself had been born.

One Last voice to mourn his civilization, tattered though it had become by the time he was born into it.

But... On this latest world, in yet another dusty place full of the half fossilized remains of his species, he hears a familiar signal.

Faint through the hard bedrock and the interference of a harsher atmosphere a thin voice chimes in half forgotten tonal patterns.

"You, Are Prothean. You are not indoctrinated."

For a moment his breath catches.

But no, it's just a VI.

This isn't even the first time he's encountered one, on these many digs Liara undertakes.

Just another fading system reacting to the fading remnant of a dead people.

"Is it time to wake?"

And suddenly, everything it means to be Javik, changes.

It's honestly rare at this point to find a alt fic where First Contact War is kept to it's canonical scales. Is there a reason why it's so popular to turn a border skirmish into all out war?

Introduction

• This is an idea I've been thinking about ever since I realize how similar the two series, with my thoughts going something along these lines "If these two series were in the same universe, what could happened, what would change if such similar but different series were somehow in the same universe." So here are some of the ideas I came up with, after a bit of clarifying things.

Some Clarification

• To firstly explain who the First Ones for any non-B5 readers, are various races that were, well, the first races to developed both sentience and space travel. The first of them was Lorien, who by the start of B5, is roughly 7 billion years old whilst also being naturally immortal having long since transcended flesh for a transcendent state of being. Both he and his race would then nurture and guide fellow races to space travel and come to dominate the galaxy until they eventual reach transcendence as well.
• Among these First Ones to be nurtured by Lorien and his race were the Vorlons and Shadows, who came to dominate the Galaxy for potentially billions of years, but they into conflict with one another due to their radically different philosophies on what is the best way to help and to teach the younger races. The Vorlons believed through order and obedience can younger races prosper whilst the Shadows believed that through the chaos of war and destruction is the weak cull and the strong remain.
• And that leave the Reapers, how they can worked in such a crossover due to two key facts: The Leviathans, at least to my knowledge, only existed as far back as a billion years ago before they were wiped out by their creations, however their genocidal campaign of wiping out all space faring races goes against and interfere with both Vorlons and Shadows who fight back and probably win against the Reapers. Thus, to finally get some proposed ideas.

The First Ones and the Reapers

• The Leviathans were a First One who due to their natural telepathic powers that allowed them to enslave whole races, began to conquer the Galaxy until their arrogance grew so much that they sought to overthrow then dominant Vorlons and Shadows, and thus began a galactic spanning war with the Vorlons and Shadows fighting against the Leviathans and their enslaved races. Eventually, they were defeated and for their actions, were banished to Hyperspace, unable to influence the younger races again. However, two potential ideas open on how the Reapers come to factor into this:
  • 1.The Reapers were created by the Leviathans in the aftermath who were designed to harvest and purge the galaxy 50k years to spite the First Ones who defeated them and to hopefully return to power themselves, though this has the unintended side effect of both Shadows and Vorlons likely destroying the Mass Relays and Citadel to prevent the Reapers from quickly returning until their conflict with another one consumed each other.
  • 2. In the aftermath of the devastating war that lay waste to the Galaxy and trillions of younger races, Lorien would take the Leviathans greatest creation, the Catalyst, and reprogrammed it to prevent such a conflict between the First Ones again and serve their interests. However, in the coming millions of years, the Vorlons and Shadows would go to war over and over again, the Catalyst, wanting to prevent such devastating conflict, proposed a twisted solution. Each 50,000 years, the Vorlons and Shadows would nurture their respective younger races, with the Reapers created from the 'winners' of each cycle. If a race nurtured by either Vorlons or Shadows emerged triumphant over the Galaxy, they would be consider a 'winner' and point given to the winning First One, whilst the nurtured Race would be harvested and their knowledge and civilization preserved for all eternity whilst the remaining races would be wipe out. These cycles would continue until after 50,000 cycles, the First One with the higher points would be declared the winner and the loser would be forced to leave the Galaxy.
• Third Idea - The Reapers are not from this universe or even dimension, rather they come the eldritch dimension simply known as Thirdspace. Thirdspace is an unknown and strange dimension that orginated from Babylon 5: Thirdspace Movie, inhabited by an unknown race called simply the Thirdspace Aliens who devoured all life in their dimension whilst using their immense telepathic ability to enslave all other life to be their cultists. Thus instead of the Thirdspace Aliens, there was the Reapers, who origins are totally unknown but seeks harvest life every 50k years, emerging from their eldritch dimension to harvest the galaxy for an unknown purpose. The Shadows and Vorlons came into greater conflict over how to best beat this unknown threat, with them narrowing beating back the Reapers each cycle, but in the current cycle, they've become consume with who is more right on both guiding the younger races but also to permanently defeat the Reapers.

Closure

Given how long this post already is, I've decided to split my various ideas on this crossover into a series of posts, if I think people are at interested in such ideas. Also please let me know your thoughts on what I suggested, primarily in regard to the Reapers, because I'm unwilling to sacrifice either side due to how fundamentally they are to their respective series. Also I can answer any questions you might have on such a crossover is anyone is curious.

Hi All.

I am new here. Thought to share I have been publishing a new Tali/ MSep fiction called “Homecoming”. Maybe 70% done with chapter coming roughly every 3-4 days. Only about 4 more to go!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/91601201/chapters/243868641

The Reaper war is over, and both Tali and Shepard managed to survive..barely. With their entire relationship having been based on defeating Reapers and saving the Galaxy, now what?! Perhaps its time to revisit THE Childhood dream...Rannoch.

Hope you like it

I just think with System Alliance having N7 pilots and mechs going to really tipped the balance of the galaxy so much and it'll be an interesting story.

Considering a portion of ME3 has Shepard’s dreams (or nightmares), do you include dreams in your ME fics? If you’re a reader, do you enjoy having them in fics or does it take it away from the rest of the story?

I'm new to this community - wondering what hidden gems or old favorites you have among ME fics? Maybe, a few sentences explaining what they are and why you like them? Any pairings, any ratings.

My favorite, for instance:
The Cari'ssi'mi series by joking611. FemShep/Liara, rated T. Some short stories, novellas, and novels. A phenomenal story interwoven with ME1 and the space between ME1 and ME2 (so far) from Liara's perspective, with a whole lot of original additions to asari culture and politics threaded through it, and a ton of excellent asari OCs related to the T'Soni Estate. Such a refreshing and heartbreaking take on what Liara goes through. A lot of clever nonlinear storytelling.

I am a fanfiction writer on Wattpad and I’ve been absorbed by Mass Effect and I am wanting to do a crossover between Mass Effect 3 (mostly the ending which will be slightly altered)and an anime that I like known as High School DxD.

I have a basic idea as to how I’m going to do this, however I for the life of me can’t think of a good catchy/eye catching title.

The basic premise is that Shepard still stops The Reapers at the end of Mass Effect 3 but instead of the Normandy being sent off to an unknown alien planet, it will take place after finding Shepard in the aftermath of the ending for the game. While on a mission to bring supplies to a planet that was heavily affected by The Reapers the Normandy comes across an energy signature that ends up being a wormhole. The wormhole ends up damaging the ship while also transporting them to the High School DxD Universe.
Joker is able to crash land the ship in a mountain range valley, but there is no possible way to get back to their universe.

This probably sounds really dumb, but in all honesty it was something I threw together in maybe twenty minutes or so. Any help with a title would be great, thanks in advance.

Just interested how much (if at all) people bend the canon to fit a good idea or whether your stance is canon is canon and it can’t be changed.

I see various posts in other fanfic-related subreddits about most-influential fics or writers in different fandoms. I never got the impression that there was one, or even a short list of them, in the Mass Effect fandom that “everybody” has read - but I could easily be missing it. Do any of you have an impression of the most-whatever fic or writer in this fandom that most readers in the fandom are familiar with?

The closest I’ve heard of is joking611’s Cari’ssi’mi series, which *is* my favorite and I’ve seen referenced by multiple others independently, but it might as well not exist if you’re not into FemShep/Liara. My impression is that our fandom is very decentralized by the degree to which player choice affects the games. Is that your impression too?

When writing your fics, how much backstory do you include and how do you introduce it?

Do you just leave Shepard’s backstory as what is outlined in character creation or do you bring in scenes of that?

I have backstories for colonist and earthborn and I’m trying to figure out the most natural way to introduce those without taking you out of the story- would they be better at the beginning and then a time jump? Would it be better in dialogue, but we don’t all sit there in real life and tell someone our whole “origin story” so would it be better shared in snippets? Or would a backstory in the middle of the story work, to give detail and world building and do it as a flashback but Shepard is relaying this information to someone without having he said/she said?

I’m trying not to get caught up on it but it’s got me feeling a bit stuck.

I see laurawho7 provides regular updates on their ME fic in this sub, and I posted a couple weeks ago about the dark postwar ME fic I’m working on. I’m curious, who else is currently working on a ME fic? What’s it about? Are you posting it somewhere?

Do you have certain songs/playlists for your fics?

I have always loved soundtracks and my fics also have some songs linked (in my head, they’re not written into the fic)

- Hopeless by Alexxi, Jacala, Rico 56 - my husband heard it and went “that sounds like something from one of the ME clubs” this is for Kaidan and FemShep fic

- Watermelon wormhole by Lane 8 - very atmospheric, like this for all my fics

- No End in Sight/Outro by Lane 8 - another atmospheric one, for my Garrus and FemShep fic

- Lane 8 in general

And then randomly:

- I don’t want to change you by Damien Rice - I found it by accident and it kind of fit with my Kaidan/FemShep story “wherever you go, know that I will follow”

- To Build A Home by The Cinematic Orchestra- this one for me has been linked to a FemShep origin when she is the colonist. Again it might not fit 100% on lyrics but something about the atmosphere feels right

I just wondered if anyone else has songs for their fics, listens to a particular soundtrack while writing/reading and the reasons for those choices.

For me it sets the mood…and now all I can think of is:

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope it would inspire a certain…mood”

Hello everyone!

Name's Wanderer D, you might know me or you might not, but that is irrelevant! (I mean, okay, I admit if you do know me, I'd be flattered.)

Either way, I wanted to invite you all to my new story: Retrocasuality Effect. Hosted on AO3.

This is a character-centric, slow-burn weekly fic focused mostly on Tali's perspective. It IS a time-travel fix-it, but not with the usual MO of the central character being the time-traveller.

Things change, old situations don't develop as they would in the game, some characters are introduced early, some are not. Hopefully the mystery of who the actual time-traveller is will be appealing to readers, although I'm not a master at mystery fics so if you guess right I'll try not to be offended :P

In case this is something that you find of interest, here's the description below... hopefully it helps tease your appetite for more Mass Effect stories!

Retrocasuality Effect

"The final cycle had taken place. The races of the galaxy had come together under the leadership of the humans and built the crucible to the point of being able to activate it and destroy inorganic life as it was known—including the Reapers.

However, that didn't mean it was the end.

It wasn't the first time it had been constructed after all. The Catalyst was them and they were the Catalyst, in a way organics could not understand. If the desired outcome was not possible, they could, and had in previous times, distorted time and space to send back instructions, data, knowledge within a reasonable time-frame. So they sent all needed pieces to change the final outcome. After all, if one miscalculated, one started again with more data.

What they didn't expect was that, through unexpected unique circumstances, their datapacket wasn't the only thing they sent back a few years into the past.

Tali'Zorah nas Rayya knows nothing of this, of course, and as she leaves the Flotilla for the first time for her Pilgrimage. She has no idea what's coming for her, or what role she'll play in changing the Galaxy forever."

based on the thousands of soulmate aus, which do you prefer for every race/species in Mass Effect, both Milky Way and Andromeda?

Do you prefer that each one has a different way to find their soulmate, or for it to all be universal?

I may or may not be thinking about a soulmate au (i love them, okay).

thank you!

Greetings - I'm relatively new to the fandom and I hope this is the right space to post this. I just finished my first playthrough about a month ago and promptly followed up with a short story. I'm working on another as a follow-up, and as I've been writing and researching, I've come to realize I have no idea how I should be tagging these stories to help readers find them.

How important is it to tag things like Earthborn Shepard, Sole Survivor Shepard, and other background/class/morality classifications? Because there are so may variations of Shepard out there I'm just not sure what is considered standard or expected. Full disclosure, I've not done much reading (yet) since I've been working on writing, so I don't have much to draw on from experience searching the tags. Any advice would be appreciated!

Edit to Add:

I should have made it clearer in my original post that I'm familiar with AO3 tagging in and of itself; it's the nuance of Mass Effect related tags specifically that I've been struggling with. I wholeheartedly appreciate the advice provided thus far in regards to things like content warnings/archive warnings, there have been some suggestions I've not seen before and I'm grateful to learn something new.

For reference these are the tags I used on my first fic:
Characters: Male Shepard (Mass Effect), Catalyst (Mass Effect)

Additional Tags: Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Alternate Ending, Introspection, Hopeful Ending, Post-Mass Effect 3, Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect)

An idea recently occurred to me that I’d like to get feedback on.

I’m working on a ~200k-word Mass Effect longfic, which takes place right after the events of Mass Effect 3. But riddled through it I have flashback scenes, most of which could stand alone, and (in my opinion) are really good.

Longfics are a big commitment, and not for everyone. Is it appropriate to post a stand-alone-ish excerpt from a longfic as a oneshot? Is it appropriate to use a oneshot as a teaser / gateway drug for a related longfic?

My big one has to be The Last Spartan by DinoJake.

It's a Halo/Mass Effect crossover

The way it just throws slipspace out like nothing, then goes on to explain that Halo humanity WILLFULLY just submitted to the council's rule, this is post Covenant War by the way.

It just makes no sense whatever that Halo humanity would just abandon Slipspace travel and AI research just because the council says so, it just straight up would never happen.

It was just so OOC that I just could get past like 3 or 4 chapters.