"Mass Effect" fans looking for closure on what happened to the Quarian alien race in the franchise will have to read the latest tie-in novel for "Mass Effect: Andromeda."
The story of the novel follows the journey of the Quarian Ark Keelah Si'yah, which carries the whole alien race, into a new galaxy which they must colonize in order to preserve their race. The novel is titled "Mass Effect: Annihilation" and is written by Hugo and Nebula Award winner Catherynne M. Valente.
"This official tie-in novel chronicles the journey of the Keelah Si'yah as it carries 20,000 drell, elcor, batarian, and quarian colonists to Andromeda. A pathogen is discovered aboard the ark after many drell are found dead in their cryo pods. As the pathogen jumps species, the ship's systems begin to fail, making it clear this is no accident," says BioWare, the game's developer.
Apparently, the novel will also resolve one of the biggest questions in the franchise since "Mass Effect 3," which was how and where the Quarians ended up after Commander Shepard dealt with the Reapers once and for all. Much to the fans' dismay, "Mass Effect: Andromeda," the sequel to the third game, did not do much to fill in the gap.
The Keelah Si'yah seemingly also departed for the potentially colonizable Andromeda galaxy in the game universe only after the humans, asari, turians, and salarians due to delays in the preparation for their more complex needs as an alien race. The Quarians are highly sensitive to bacteria and have poor immune systems and had to wear special suits with helmets in order to interact with other races, lest they get sick and infected. Such situations could potentially wipe out their whole race.
The fans of the franchise though, are polarized on the matter, since a lot of them expected actual in-game content as a story closure for the Quarians. Unfortunately, Electronic Arts (EA), the game's publisher, and BioWare have declared that there will be no more follow-up single-player content for "Andromeda."
No exact release for the novel has been announced yet, but it is planned to arrive next year.
