Traveling across the stars to a whole new galaxy in Mass Effect: Andromeda had players eager to meet all the exciting new life forms that lived there. Upon arrival, however, the Andromeda Initiative discovered the Heleus Cluster wasn't teeming with nearly as much life as they expected.
First contact introduced them to a highly militaristic race of beings called the Kett, but the Initiative soon discovered that even the Kett weren't native to Andromeda. The only sentient race that could claim to have originated there were the Angara -- and even their origins turned out to be mysterious once the player started digging.
When the Andromeda Initiative first encountered the Angara, it was obvious they were a race of survivors. Prompted by a decades' long war with the Kett, their relationship with their oppressors began with gifts and false promises of friendship. However, once the Kett secured Angaran trust, they began abducting Angaran leaders. It was no small wonder the Angara struggled to meet the aliens who came to their galaxy with wonder and excitement. The last visitors had corrupted their peaceful way of life, and it was impossible for them to guess what the Initiative had in store for them.
The Angaran Resistance movement tested the Andromeda Initiative and their motivations when high-ranking member, Jaal Ama Darav, volunteered to temporarily join and observe their crew as they went about aiding the Resistance. Resistance leader, Evfra, warned Jaal before he left that he could be very well going to his death, but many wanted to understand the Initiative's intentions. If they could truly help in their efforts against the Kett, the risks that came with finding out were worth it.
As Pathfinder Ryder aided the Resistance and earned the trust and welcome of the Angara, the Heleus Cluster natives spoke with them about what little they knew of their history. According to them, they were once highly advanced as a species. Though the technology found across the Cluster suggested was true, further exploration revealed that the Angara were actually the biological creations of another race called the Jardaan.
The Jaardan seeded the Angara throughout the Heleus Cluster prior to the Scourge, placing them on five of the planets. After the Scourge, which resulted from a battle between the Jardaan and an unknown enemy, the Angara found themselves in a technologically devoid period. In time, they rediscovered the technology they needed to achieve space flight and communication with the other Angara of the five worlds.
They were in the process of expanding through the Cluster again, reestablishing their society, culture and government, when the Kett arrived and begin secretly pitting them against one another. As discord arose among the Angara, the Kett exploited their weakness and began relentlessly attacking and enslaving them.
Unbeknownst to the Angara, the Kett were not only using their captured people as slaves, but harvesting useful genetic data from their prisoners. The Kett, which reproduced their numbers by exalting the races they conquered, stole valuable traits from the Angara that would strengthen them before converting numerous prisoners into new Kett and placing them on the battlefield against their own people.
Despite their hardships, the Angara worked tirelessly to preserve what remained of the culture they cultivated before the Kett arrived. They were vastly emotional beings who followed those emotions down whatever path they were led -- even if it resulted in violence. They were also prone to sharing families with one another, with many parents taking the children of the others in their community into their lives and home to nurture them and help them grow.
It was perhaps because of this community-minded nature that, as a collective, the Angara structured their societies around the idea that the needs of the community were more important than those of an individual. Though they certainly had individual liberties and freedoms, their mindset prompted the majority of the Angara to think on a community level, rather than thinking solely of their own wants and desires.
Angaran society deeply respects a female scientist and explorer referred to as the Moshae. That title, inspired by Angaran mythology and beliefs about their lives before the Scourge, displayed a sense of reverence as well as respect, which their current Moshae, Moshae Sjefa, thought to be ridiculous. Though she openly admonished those who bestowed the title on her, in time, she came to see what her teachings, discoveries and research meant to her people, and she took pride in all she could bring to them as a society.
Winning the Angara over as an alien from the Milky Way wasn't an easy task for the player. Though their cultures shared similarities, the Angara were very different than their visitors. Taking the time to learn about and understand Angaran culture, as well as investing time and energy to see to the betterment of their people, won some of them over -- but not all of them.
The Roekkar, a faction of Angara who loathed all aliens and sought to destroy them, provoked some amount of discord between the Initiative and the Angara. However, handling the situation with finesse went a long way toward improving relations. With BioWare's recent announcement of a new game in the franchise, which will combine both the original Mass Effect trilogy and Andromeda, one can only hope this means fans will have the opportunity to get to know the Angara even more intimately than they already have.
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