Eternal Recurrence

-Mass Effect Spoiler Warning-

After deliberately taking many days to poke every stitch of fabric, every lance of the needle that went into its creation, I have finally gazed upon Mass Effect in its full physique. For everyone else who has looked forward to this as much as I had, the final moments of the game open up a great empty hole within you, and you know that it will be years before the final games come together, and you can relax. The climax of the game was equal parts Star Wars and 20,000 Leagues under the sea- the overeager technologies of the Citadel races invite the destruction of the reapers, and are saved by humanity in the end. Humanity is rewarded a seat in the council at the end, and all seems well -not unlike the procession at the end of A New Hope. But I wanted to take this time to discuss what the entirety of the game opens up as far as the sequel is concerned. Here are some key points that I'd like to point out:

-It is the Normandy, an Alliance ship, that lances Sovereign, not a citadel ship. It is to be assumed that humanity will be at the head of a lot of political motions at the beginning of the next game, some of them foolish. There are too many clues in the game about humanity being a headstrong, and avaricious race to be ignored. Although humanity has earned a seat in the council, there are still two games for it to prove its worth to the rest of the council races. Humanity will use its position as the race that saved the galaxy to get motions passed.

-The Reapers are still at large. The AI on Islos mentions that Sovereign was probably a contingency for the Reaper invasion. Although this isn't 100% certain, as far as we know, Sovereign's job is to watch the progress of "life" and call in the reapers from darkspace via an organic slave (in the case of the game), or through activating the Keepers to open the citadel relay directly. Both of those options failed, and Sovereign is dead. The reapers will probably have another contingency plan.

-The Citadel is now compromised. Now that the council races are aware of the Citadel's true purpose, it will probably be evacuated and studied carefully. We will probably see a new capital being built, along with a separate relay -not unlike the one on Islos.

-The Protheans have made Shepard aware of other beacons that may or may not be out in the galaxy. The Citadel races will want to find them to find a better way to combat the Reapers.

-There are still many races that aren't part of the Citadel, and will be jealous that Humans finally made their way in.

-There's another problem: What is considered canon in the game? There are some people that will play through with Ashley, Wrex or Kaiden dying. There is also the issue of who you select to serve on the Council.

-You still haven't seen any of the home worlds of any of the races.

-Reapers have the power to control the will of organic life, but exactly how far that power reaches is still unknown. Sovereign's ability was different depending on the proximity to his being.

-There's too much mentioned about the Terminus system to leave it alone. Something along the lines of "giving the Terminus system a common enemy."

-Shepard is named "Shepard" for a reason. If anyone's going to save the Citadel races (or at least humanity) it's going to be him, not the government.

Okay, What I'm about to write now is about 50% instinct, 50% based on facts found in the game.
The major question that is on my mind is, "How are the Reapers going to come back?" I don't think bioware will re-enact the Sovereign scenario and plant another giant reaper ship somewhere to possess someone. But I do see there being more dormant reapers in the universe. I haven't read the Mass Effect novel, so I still can't comment on this but, as far as I know, the means by which Saren procured Sovereign are still unknown. Meaning that Sovereign could have been a dormant ship that just decided to awaken one day. I think that's going to be the case here as well, but under different circumstances.

I have this gut feeling that the basic flow of good and evil in this game is going to be similar to the star wars trilogy. In the first game, you rise up, blow up the death star, and get a medal. There's still the empire to contend with, but the most pressing danger has been suppressed for now. The next game will see the true danger reveal itself, scatter the alliance, and end with Shepard at a surrender. Finally, the third will have Shepard fight back to the top, simply put.

Taking this framework, here is how I see the next game running:

It's a year after the events of the first game. Humanity has taken the reigns of the council, and is exhausting its resources -human, financial, and capital- to scour all corners of the galaxy for remaining Prothean artifacts. There are research teams at Islos researching the Prothean ruins to attempt to create their own mass effect drive, so as not to rely on the one at the citadel. Although there is still much research activity at the Citadel - so as not to rely on the Keepers (I think we'll see the two Keeper scanner guys from the first game again) and finally grasp the real Reaper technology- there is work on a new galactic hub underway.

Shepard and Ashley are at a memorial service for the people who died in the conflict in previous game. (I have a strong belief that Ashley will survive into the second game. She's too strong of a character, and important to the development of humanity to kill off. She's essentially a racist God-lover, who fundamentally believes that humanity is right in everything. I think we'll see more people like her, such as the Terra firma candidate for office in the first game (I think he'll be back and have won.) Both of them lament the fact that the former Captain (forgot his name) is getting out of hand on the Council. He's too strong, and only knows how to use the military to enact every bill drafted at the council. His word is absolute because everyone reveres the Alliance, and its military is burgeoning. There is no free government any more, and people are too afraid of the humans to do anything. The galaxy is practically under martial law, and what's more, the military is expanding the borders of the citadel government into the Terminus Systems through forceful territorial expansion.

Meanwhile, the otherwise boorish and uncooperative races that occupy the Terminus System are being wiped out by skirmishes with the ever-adventurous Alliance. Planets are being taken over to serve as research bases, and the individual gangs, cartels, and other ruffians are being scattered. Suddenly, a figure appears, banding groups together to fight back against the Alliance military. Terminus races have grown to hate the Alliance, and joining this guy seems like a good idea for everyone. The most striking feature of the terminus military is its fleet of titanic destroyer ships that seemed to have come out of nowhere (The implication of course is that these are the dormant Reapers that have influenced the Terminus races to hate the humans and unite against them).

It's at this point that I think that the council will make a stupid, cocky decision, and lose to the Terminus fleet. Shepard will flee the military with whoever he's banded with at the time, and try to find a way to stop the Reapers.

I think that the reapers wont aim for the citadel this time, but rather try to capture the other mass relays that the Citadel races built through the Prothean design. It seems a bit repetitive to have everything focus around the citadel again, thereby necessitating either damage to the citadel, or some other unforeseen condition. Regardless, all of the races will be scattered in the conflict, and we'll probably begin to see the Reapers terminate all organic life. The second game will see Shepard and co. using some Stone Fox tactics and making a big attack at the end of the game. I have this feeling that we're going to see everyone dress up like Quarians and use the Flotilla for an attack -Quarians are neutral, and would be able to penetrate the Terminus systems without drawing the attention that say, a Salarian, Turian, or now, a Human would.

There will probably be a lot of missions to visit planets and save colonists that were hit by an initial barrage. Also, considering the mention of the Protheans not being able to warn the other galaxies in the initial attack, I think you'll have to send word around and unite people while the attack is still fresh.

I expect to see a lot more Prothean contact, with either an AI, or equally likely, a Prothean scientist that survived the 50,000 years in cryo-stasis. It is through interactions with that character that the races will slowly begin to defend themselves, and form a new alliance through working together in the interests of organic life. Strange parallel, but I feel like he'll be the Merlin to Shepard's Arthur.

Anyway, that's all I want to write down for now. Discuss, and post your own ideas.