ᴄᴅʀ. ᴊᴏʜɴ sʜᴇᴘᴀʀᴅ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boyscoutking) wrote2029-03-02 07:24 pm
boyscoutking) wrote2029-03-02 07:24 pm
INFO
PERSONALITY:
Shepard is neutral good on the alignment system, striving to do the right thing in service to the Alliance military and as the commanding officer of the SSV Normandy. His past indicates that he is a dutiful, decorated military man but that he also has the capacity to seek out other methods to do the Right Thing, exemplified by his working with Cerberus to save human colonies. In this example he works with (but never truly trusts) a known terrorist organisation in order to save as many people as possible, believing that the Alliance aren't doing enough to stop the abductions. His development as a person (predominantly starting from the beacon on Eden Prime right the way through to being back on Earth for the last stand against the Reapers) is the growth between defining himself as a proud Alliance soldier through to understanding that he doesn't need to define himself by the Alliance and his service to them. He can trust himself to do the right thing by as many people as possible even in the absence of the orders, structure and chain of command that the Alliance provides.
His decisions are paragon, always trying to get the best possible result for everyone out of any given situation. He welcomes any information that will give him extra insight or help him make decisions but he's also not afraid to act on his gut instinct either. He has proven an effective negotiator, military tactician and inspiring leader to his crew. He's also innately accepting and supportive of other races, with over half of his squadmates from non-human races.
Having been officially identified as a human biotic at the age of 17, Shepard understands what it's like to have society regard him as different. While this fact didn't hold him back in his future military career, being distrusted due to the views of society at large regarding people who are different is something that he understands personally. It's this experience that helped grow his capacity for both understanding and accepting differences in other humans and races and not judging them for it.
His sense of duty was instilled in him from a young age, coming from a military family, and his service to his homeworld and beyond is an integral part of who he is and how he identifies himself. He keeps himself to high standards both because nothing less is good enough and because his decisions in the past have meant the difference between life and death to both himself, his squadmates and others.
Patience is a virtue that Shepard has a reasonably good grasp on, but he doesn't give people a chance to mess him around. It takes a lot to spike his anger but when that happens he's not afraid of using his physicality to defend himself or make a point where it's needed.
Downtime is a bit of a mystery to Shepard, having come straight from a highly decorated military career and the war of a lifetime against the Reapers. Time off has been short (sometimes sweet) and given his regimented daily life serving in the military, struggles with having too much free time on his hands. Shouldn't he be busy saving the galaxy?
Shepard as a friend is steady as a rock, reliable and though his friendships are 99% formed through people he has served with or commanded, he's someone that can be both honest and sensitive in his approach. He appreciates his friends being open and direct because he generally doesn't have time to investigate what's being said between the lines. With that said, he is more than willing to take time out to ensure he helps his friends with things that are important to them. Whether it's checking in with them at their post, spending some downtime together or getting something done that means a lot to them, he aims to be as helpful and supportive as he can.
In terms of mental health, Shepard has a lot to work through specifically from his career. There are various points from his canon that have harmfully affected him (e.g. wars, losing friends he's served with, making impossible decisions that are both directly and indirectly responsible for friends dying, actually dying himself due to asphyxiation in the vacuum of space(!!!) and then being brought back to life by a terrorist organisation lol), resulting in (and not limited to) suffering disturbing dreams connected to the horrors he has experienced and living through periods of doubt in his own abilities. In addition to this, he feels the hefty weight of being a role model and held in high regard by all who work for him or with him, with the expectation generally on him to make the right choices that lead the galaxy to victory.
Concerning his romantic liaisons, Shepard simply didn't have time to fall in love for most of his military career. His attention was almost always on the job and he never stayed in one place for long enough to strike up anything more than friendships or casual hook ups. The most emotionally intimate relationships he's had have been with the crew on the Normandy, and of those, only ever struck up a romantic relationship with crewmate and long-time friend, Major Kaidan Alenko, not long before the climax of the Reaper War.
BACKGROUND:
2149 | humans discover a massive dormant piece of alien technology called a mass relay which instantly transports them to another mass relay 36 light years away. They discover that there is a vast network of mass relays which allows travel across the galaxy.
2154 | Shepard is born to Alliance military parents (the military responsible for representing Earth and its colonies in Citadel space) and spends his childhood on ships and stations as his parents are transferred from posting to posting.
2168 | Shepard receives secondary exposure to element zero. Permanent biotic inclination manifests.
2171 | Shepard is officially detected as a biotic and fitted with L3 implants.
2172 | Shepard enlists in the Alliance military, aged 18.
2176
Skyllian Blitz. Shepard rallies the colonists of Elysium against Batarian invaders, and when enemy forces break through the colony's defenses, Shepard single-handedly holds them off and seals the breach. He is rewarded with the Star of Terra and widely regarded throughout the Alliance as a true hero.
2183 | Eden Prime, one of humans' first colonies in Citadel space, is attacked by a rogue Spectre, Saren, with the help of the Geth (a machine race). Responding to the attack, Shepard encounters an alien artifact from an ancient civilization. The Prothean beacon warns Shepard by way of powerful vision of an imminent Reaper invasion.
At the Citadel, Shepard accuses Saren of his crimes but the Citadel Council are unwilling to believe it based simply on Shepard's say so and vision. Later he receives irrefutable audio evidence as to Saren's involvement. The Council finally believe Shepard's accusations. Shepard is made first human Spectre (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch).
Shepard is given the SSV Normany SR-1 and follows leads as to where Saren has gone and how to stop him. During these missions, he finds out that the Geth believe Reapers to be gods and that Saren is a prophet sent from them.
A fateful mission on Virmire, following up another lead as to the whereabouts of Saren's base, brings Shepard to the difficult decision of having to choose the fate of two of his squadmates - Ashley Williams and Kaidan Alenko. He only has enough time to save one of them, and he chooses to save Kaidan, leaving Ashley to die in the explosion of the bomb set to destroy Saren's base.
Saren escapes and Shepard returns to the Citadel, but the Council have decided that Reapers don't exist and that a Conduit mentioned by Saren isn't worth investigating and ground Shepard and the Normandy.
Stealing the Normandy to chase Saren to Ilos, Shepard races against Saren to reach the Conduit first. The Conduit is a mass relay itself with a direct connection to the Citadel, bypassing its defenses. Shepard learns that Saren's ship, Sovereign, is actually a Reaper, and that it has indoctrinated Saren and other organic lifeforms to do its bidding and start off the Reaper cycle again. Following Saren to the Citadel, Shepard battles him until both he and Sovereign are defeated. Humanity is offered a seat on the Council thanks to Shepard's bravery.
Following on from this, Shepard is free to conduct his Alliance business aboard the SSV Normandy SR-1, fully in the knowledge that the Reapers will be coming, but after an attack the Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is spaced after ensuring his crew get to escape pods. He's last seen struggling to breathe as he's caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby planet.
2185
Cerberus, a pro-human terrorist organization, who want Shepard to work for them, rebuild his broken body with the addition of synthetic, cybernetic implants, stimulating electrical impulses and eventually bringing him back to life after 2 years of being dead.
Cerberus build the Normandy SR-2 and give it to Shepard to complete his mission for them - stop the mysterious Collectors from attacking human colonies and abducting humans. Given dossiers on a team to build to help him stop the Collectors, Shepard goes about recruiting them.
On Horizon, another human colony, he bumps into former Alliance squadmate Kaidan Alenko who had believed Shepard was dead. Shepard asks why the Alliance isn't doing anything about the abductions and says that he's working with Cerberus as a means to an end - to stop the Collectors. The Collectors invade Horizon and Shepard fights them off.
The Collectors retreat beyond the Omega-4 relay and in order to chase them, Shepard extracts a Reaper IFF from a derelict Reaper, installs it on the Normandy and makes the jump. Once on the Collector ship he encounters the cocooned bodies of the thousands of human colonists taken to be broken down into raw genetic material to feed the human-Reaper larva they have built. It becomes clear that Harbinger, a Reaper, has possessed the Collector General and is controlling the Collectors through it. The human-Reaper is killed and the Collector base destroyed.
2186
Shepard turns himself in and is detained by the Systems Alliance military for working with Cerberus. The Normandy SR-2 is seized by the Alliance and retro-fitted to their standards and in Alliance colors. During his detention, Shepard is called to an Alliance committee meeting where it becomes clear that the Reaper invasion is already underway. The Reapers (highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships) emerge from dark space to reset all organic life in the galaxy, an event which happens cyclically every 50,000 years.
Admiral Anderson, Shepard's superior, helps Shepard and crew escape Earth on the Normandy and Shepard promises he'll return with help to fight the Reapers off.
On Mars, Shepard runs in to an old friend, Liara, at the Mars archives and they find blueprints to a weapon that can help destroy the Reapers. It's called the Crucible. While the Alliance start work on constructing the Crucible, Shepard is tasked with securing aid from the other races in the galaxy. Through helping these races deal with their problems, he is able to amass better war assets in the eventual final battle against the Reapers.
He fights a Cerberus assassin, Kai Leng, to find a Prothean VI that can identify what the Catalyst is for the Crucible to get it working. Once he has the information - the Citadel - he returns to Earth with his amassed forces to finally take on the Reapers.
Using a Conduit to get to the Citadel, a badly injured Shepard faces off against the leader of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man wants to be able to control the Reapers, but Shepard disagrees and urges him to see the truth - that he's indoctrinated. Fighting the indoctrination for long enough to take a pistol, the Illusive Man shoots himself in the head. Shepard is free to open the arms of the Citadel to allow the Crucible to dock, completing the weapon that is able to stop the Reapers.
The Catalyst appears to Shepard in the shape of a young boy he watched die on Earth when the invasion first started. It explains the purpose of the Reapers, that they are to reset advanced organic civilizations so that the synthetic beings they create don't overthrow them - thus ending life in the galaxy. The Catalyst explains all options to Shepard and what he can do. Shepard chooses to synthesize all life, combining both organic and synthetic life so that neither one need to overthrow the other, rendering the need for Reapers obsolete. In the process, he gives his own life, throwing himself into an energy stream to give a new type of DNA, part organic and part synthetic. These changes ripple out and affect the whole galaxy.
Shepard is neutral good on the alignment system, striving to do the right thing in service to the Alliance military and as the commanding officer of the SSV Normandy. His past indicates that he is a dutiful, decorated military man but that he also has the capacity to seek out other methods to do the Right Thing, exemplified by his working with Cerberus to save human colonies. In this example he works with (but never truly trusts) a known terrorist organisation in order to save as many people as possible, believing that the Alliance aren't doing enough to stop the abductions. His development as a person (predominantly starting from the beacon on Eden Prime right the way through to being back on Earth for the last stand against the Reapers) is the growth between defining himself as a proud Alliance soldier through to understanding that he doesn't need to define himself by the Alliance and his service to them. He can trust himself to do the right thing by as many people as possible even in the absence of the orders, structure and chain of command that the Alliance provides.
His decisions are paragon, always trying to get the best possible result for everyone out of any given situation. He welcomes any information that will give him extra insight or help him make decisions but he's also not afraid to act on his gut instinct either. He has proven an effective negotiator, military tactician and inspiring leader to his crew. He's also innately accepting and supportive of other races, with over half of his squadmates from non-human races.
Having been officially identified as a human biotic at the age of 17, Shepard understands what it's like to have society regard him as different. While this fact didn't hold him back in his future military career, being distrusted due to the views of society at large regarding people who are different is something that he understands personally. It's this experience that helped grow his capacity for both understanding and accepting differences in other humans and races and not judging them for it.
His sense of duty was instilled in him from a young age, coming from a military family, and his service to his homeworld and beyond is an integral part of who he is and how he identifies himself. He keeps himself to high standards both because nothing less is good enough and because his decisions in the past have meant the difference between life and death to both himself, his squadmates and others.
Patience is a virtue that Shepard has a reasonably good grasp on, but he doesn't give people a chance to mess him around. It takes a lot to spike his anger but when that happens he's not afraid of using his physicality to defend himself or make a point where it's needed.
Downtime is a bit of a mystery to Shepard, having come straight from a highly decorated military career and the war of a lifetime against the Reapers. Time off has been short (sometimes sweet) and given his regimented daily life serving in the military, struggles with having too much free time on his hands. Shouldn't he be busy saving the galaxy?
Shepard as a friend is steady as a rock, reliable and though his friendships are 99% formed through people he has served with or commanded, he's someone that can be both honest and sensitive in his approach. He appreciates his friends being open and direct because he generally doesn't have time to investigate what's being said between the lines. With that said, he is more than willing to take time out to ensure he helps his friends with things that are important to them. Whether it's checking in with them at their post, spending some downtime together or getting something done that means a lot to them, he aims to be as helpful and supportive as he can.
In terms of mental health, Shepard has a lot to work through specifically from his career. There are various points from his canon that have harmfully affected him (e.g. wars, losing friends he's served with, making impossible decisions that are both directly and indirectly responsible for friends dying, actually dying himself due to asphyxiation in the vacuum of space(!!!) and then being brought back to life by a terrorist organisation lol), resulting in (and not limited to) suffering disturbing dreams connected to the horrors he has experienced and living through periods of doubt in his own abilities. In addition to this, he feels the hefty weight of being a role model and held in high regard by all who work for him or with him, with the expectation generally on him to make the right choices that lead the galaxy to victory.
Concerning his romantic liaisons, Shepard simply didn't have time to fall in love for most of his military career. His attention was almost always on the job and he never stayed in one place for long enough to strike up anything more than friendships or casual hook ups. The most emotionally intimate relationships he's had have been with the crew on the Normandy, and of those, only ever struck up a romantic relationship with crewmate and long-time friend, Major Kaidan Alenko, not long before the climax of the Reaper War.
BACKGROUND:
2149 | humans discover a massive dormant piece of alien technology called a mass relay which instantly transports them to another mass relay 36 light years away. They discover that there is a vast network of mass relays which allows travel across the galaxy.
2154 | Shepard is born to Alliance military parents (the military responsible for representing Earth and its colonies in Citadel space) and spends his childhood on ships and stations as his parents are transferred from posting to posting.
2168 | Shepard receives secondary exposure to element zero. Permanent biotic inclination manifests.
2171 | Shepard is officially detected as a biotic and fitted with L3 implants.
2172 | Shepard enlists in the Alliance military, aged 18.
2176
Skyllian Blitz. Shepard rallies the colonists of Elysium against Batarian invaders, and when enemy forces break through the colony's defenses, Shepard single-handedly holds them off and seals the breach. He is rewarded with the Star of Terra and widely regarded throughout the Alliance as a true hero.
2183 | Eden Prime, one of humans' first colonies in Citadel space, is attacked by a rogue Spectre, Saren, with the help of the Geth (a machine race). Responding to the attack, Shepard encounters an alien artifact from an ancient civilization. The Prothean beacon warns Shepard by way of powerful vision of an imminent Reaper invasion.
At the Citadel, Shepard accuses Saren of his crimes but the Citadel Council are unwilling to believe it based simply on Shepard's say so and vision. Later he receives irrefutable audio evidence as to Saren's involvement. The Council finally believe Shepard's accusations. Shepard is made first human Spectre (Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch).
Shepard is given the SSV Normany SR-1 and follows leads as to where Saren has gone and how to stop him. During these missions, he finds out that the Geth believe Reapers to be gods and that Saren is a prophet sent from them.
A fateful mission on Virmire, following up another lead as to the whereabouts of Saren's base, brings Shepard to the difficult decision of having to choose the fate of two of his squadmates - Ashley Williams and Kaidan Alenko. He only has enough time to save one of them, and he chooses to save Kaidan, leaving Ashley to die in the explosion of the bomb set to destroy Saren's base.
Saren escapes and Shepard returns to the Citadel, but the Council have decided that Reapers don't exist and that a Conduit mentioned by Saren isn't worth investigating and ground Shepard and the Normandy.
Stealing the Normandy to chase Saren to Ilos, Shepard races against Saren to reach the Conduit first. The Conduit is a mass relay itself with a direct connection to the Citadel, bypassing its defenses. Shepard learns that Saren's ship, Sovereign, is actually a Reaper, and that it has indoctrinated Saren and other organic lifeforms to do its bidding and start off the Reaper cycle again. Following Saren to the Citadel, Shepard battles him until both he and Sovereign are defeated. Humanity is offered a seat on the Council thanks to Shepard's bravery.
Following on from this, Shepard is free to conduct his Alliance business aboard the SSV Normandy SR-1, fully in the knowledge that the Reapers will be coming, but after an attack the Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is spaced after ensuring his crew get to escape pods. He's last seen struggling to breathe as he's caught in the gravitational pull of a nearby planet.
2185
Cerberus, a pro-human terrorist organization, who want Shepard to work for them, rebuild his broken body with the addition of synthetic, cybernetic implants, stimulating electrical impulses and eventually bringing him back to life after 2 years of being dead.
Cerberus build the Normandy SR-2 and give it to Shepard to complete his mission for them - stop the mysterious Collectors from attacking human colonies and abducting humans. Given dossiers on a team to build to help him stop the Collectors, Shepard goes about recruiting them.
On Horizon, another human colony, he bumps into former Alliance squadmate Kaidan Alenko who had believed Shepard was dead. Shepard asks why the Alliance isn't doing anything about the abductions and says that he's working with Cerberus as a means to an end - to stop the Collectors. The Collectors invade Horizon and Shepard fights them off.
The Collectors retreat beyond the Omega-4 relay and in order to chase them, Shepard extracts a Reaper IFF from a derelict Reaper, installs it on the Normandy and makes the jump. Once on the Collector ship he encounters the cocooned bodies of the thousands of human colonists taken to be broken down into raw genetic material to feed the human-Reaper larva they have built. It becomes clear that Harbinger, a Reaper, has possessed the Collector General and is controlling the Collectors through it. The human-Reaper is killed and the Collector base destroyed.
2186
Shepard turns himself in and is detained by the Systems Alliance military for working with Cerberus. The Normandy SR-2 is seized by the Alliance and retro-fitted to their standards and in Alliance colors. During his detention, Shepard is called to an Alliance committee meeting where it becomes clear that the Reaper invasion is already underway. The Reapers (highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships) emerge from dark space to reset all organic life in the galaxy, an event which happens cyclically every 50,000 years.
Admiral Anderson, Shepard's superior, helps Shepard and crew escape Earth on the Normandy and Shepard promises he'll return with help to fight the Reapers off.
On Mars, Shepard runs in to an old friend, Liara, at the Mars archives and they find blueprints to a weapon that can help destroy the Reapers. It's called the Crucible. While the Alliance start work on constructing the Crucible, Shepard is tasked with securing aid from the other races in the galaxy. Through helping these races deal with their problems, he is able to amass better war assets in the eventual final battle against the Reapers.
He fights a Cerberus assassin, Kai Leng, to find a Prothean VI that can identify what the Catalyst is for the Crucible to get it working. Once he has the information - the Citadel - he returns to Earth with his amassed forces to finally take on the Reapers.
Using a Conduit to get to the Citadel, a badly injured Shepard faces off against the leader of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. The Illusive Man wants to be able to control the Reapers, but Shepard disagrees and urges him to see the truth - that he's indoctrinated. Fighting the indoctrination for long enough to take a pistol, the Illusive Man shoots himself in the head. Shepard is free to open the arms of the Citadel to allow the Crucible to dock, completing the weapon that is able to stop the Reapers.
The Catalyst appears to Shepard in the shape of a young boy he watched die on Earth when the invasion first started. It explains the purpose of the Reapers, that they are to reset advanced organic civilizations so that the synthetic beings they create don't overthrow them - thus ending life in the galaxy. The Catalyst explains all options to Shepard and what he can do. Shepard chooses to synthesize all life, combining both organic and synthetic life so that neither one need to overthrow the other, rendering the need for Reapers obsolete. In the process, he gives his own life, throwing himself into an energy stream to give a new type of DNA, part organic and part synthetic. These changes ripple out and affect the whole galaxy.