Saren Arterius

Saren Arterius

Saren Arterius is a former Turian Specture and the main antagonist of the first game. He is known for "getting results" by any means necessary. More often than not, he has resorted to killing anyone and anything in his way - be it the target, any witnesses, or even innocent bystanders. In the novel Mass Effect Revalation, he tortures and kills his victims mercilessly, rarely having any regards for sentient life or the lives of anyone in his way from getting the job done. In addition, Saren was responsible for sabotaging Captain Anderson Spectre candidacy because of his hatred of humans. His seething hatred of humanity is speculated to have stemmed from the loss of his brother Desolas at the hands of the Systems Alliance in the First Contact War.

After the events of the novel, and before the start of the first Mass Effect game, Saren takes command of an army of geth through the use of a Reaper known as Sovereign, an ancient ship that supposedly predates the Protheans. With a machine army at his command, he uses them to both do his bidding and oppose the player across the story of the Mass Effect video game. One of his main goals at first appears to be unleashing the genocidal Reapers upon the galaxy once again to take revenge on humanity. In reality, he is merely assisting Sovereign in bringing the rest of the Reapers into the galaxy to prove that organics are worth enslaving, rather than exterminating.

In the game it is revealed that Saren had known about the Reaper threat and had independently tried to discover a means to stop it. While it is unknown how Saren found Sovereign, the Reaper slowly began to Manipulate Saren through subtle subliminal messages into helping it bring back the Reapers. During the geth invasion of the Citadel, Saren uses the prothean Conduit to gain access to the Citadel to allow Sovereign to activate the Citadel Mass Relays. The player can then either attempt to kill Saren or appeal to Saren to fight his indoctrination, prompting him to commit Suicide. Either way. Shepard later has to fight Saren, who has been revived and controlled by Sovereign through his grafted cybernetics. Upon defeat of the Sovereign-manipulated Saren, Sovereign itself loses its defenses and is destroyed.

Saren is voiced by Fred Tatasciore.