Fanfic / And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy

And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy is a Mass Effect Fan Fiction by Full-Paragon. It is a first contact AU story, with the Canon first contact between the humans and the turians being delayed to allow humanity to meet the quarian species first and form the Independent League. The stories timeline spans several decades, running from 2157 when humanity first meets an alien species to 2176, when the First Pan-Galactic War occurs. The story takes place from a Rotating Protagonist view from the stories, with the main characters primarily being the younger versions of the Normandy's crew and their families.

Now a Completed Fic. Has a sequel, The Heavens Shall Tremble, and an All There in the Manual supplement, Background Information. Unfortunately the second part of this overarching story is dead, due to the author taking great interest and focus in the Konosuba fandom, so it’s very unlikely they will ever return to continue this story.

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Tropes contained in And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy:

• Adaptation Name Change:
  • A retroactive example. By the time Mass Effect: Andromeda came out, Garrus' father was revealed to be named Castis. Here, his name is Flavus.
  • Jack is named Urdnot Jak, after being taken in as the adoptive daughter of Urdnot Wrex.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • While they didn't know each other long in canon, here Mordin and Wrex became friends due to the former defecting from the STG to help Wrex cure the genophage.
  • Jack (named Jak here) ends up becoming the adoptive daughter of Wrex and Bakara.
  • Miranda never ends up joining Cerberus, instead becoming an agent of Tevos (and later Aria after Tevos' death) on Omega.
• Adaptational Heroism: Many characters that clashed with Shepard in the games get a chance to shine in this fic due to the altered timeline.
• Adaptational Villainy: While many characters get a dose of Adaptational Heroism, there are others who get a dose of this as well.
• Age Lift: Mordin Solus was born earlier in this fic. This results in his death by old age before the events of the first game can even occur.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The story takes the premise of first contact changing (having humanity make first contact with the quarians instead of the turians) and snowballs from there. Some of the changes include:
  • Eden Prime is attacked way ahead of schedule, though by batarians instead. On Mindoir, in contrast, the colonists were ready.
  • Garrus' father Flavus, after seeing the human fighting up close, chooses to become a Spectre instead.
  • Zaeed doesn't get discharged to go mercenary and the Blue Suns are founded by someone else instead.
  • The turians don't share their stealth frigate plans with humanity, instead choosing to collaborate with the salarians and asari.
  • The threat of the League has Tevos decide that the asari cannot stagnate any longer.
  • General Williams was honoured, not shamed.
  • Fleet and Flotilla is a fictionalisation of Vexxu and Hackett's relationship instead.
  • Tela Vasir resigned from Spectrehood to take up an admiral's commission.
  • Technology has rapidly advanced due to humanity and the quarians working together, forming a mutually beneficial partnership; Humans providing a strong military, numerous colonies for settling and an abundance of resources, while the quarians provide their knowledge and experience, coupled with a natural aptitude for technology. The Council, naturally, responds to that, leading to a Lensman Arms Race.
  • As a result of the League alliance, 95% of the geth side with the Reapers, with only 5% still friendly to the organics - a reversal from canon
  • Saren has the yahg and the Collectors as soldiers alongside the geth, with the Eden Prime assault by geth simultaneous with a yahg attack on Kahje and a Collector assault on Thessia. Also, he has Grunt on his side thanks to the Collectors deceiving Okeer, and rather than Benezia it seems Morinth is set to be Saren's asari sidekick in this timeline.
• Anyone Can Die: In And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy alone, major named characters who bite the dust include Rael'Zorah, Mordin Solus, Urdnot Wrex, Tevos, and Flavus Vakarian.
• Author Avatar: A very minor one, Tali's teacher's name is "Mr. Paragon," an obvious reference to the author's pen name, Full Paragon.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Garrus, Sidonis and Solana in chapter 22 against some xenophobic bullies.
• Badass Boast: Tevos gives one to Aria in chapter 16.
• Battle Couple: Admiral Vexxu'Herato and Steven Hackett are both high-ranking officers in the League's fleet.
• Beneath Suspicion: Regina, the disenfranchised human bartender that Aethyta hires to work at Eternity. It's later revealed she's actually an undercover League operative.
• Berserk Button:
  • In chapter 16 Aria sits up and pays attention when Tevos talks about the League trying to build their own Mass Relays.
  • In chapter 22 Liara freezes with Tranquil Fury when it looks like she's been questioned about being a pureblood asari.
• Blood Oath: The krogan have several blood oaths, usually involving vengeance or justice. They swear a blood oath to protect humans and quarians after a human and quarian science team cures the Genophage.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: In chapter 27 it's said that independent thinking is not something praised among turians.
• Break the Haughty: Boy howdy does Aria get put through a ringer. She comes out of it with a much less self-serving temperament though.
• Can't Argue with Elves: The asari certainly assume this is true, but it's shown to only work if everyone else agrees. They flounder when someone actually disagrees with them and refuses to be swayed.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Shepard and Tali eventually become this.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Anytime Zaeed shows up, though not actual F-Bombs. Jak for a while, until she's adopted by krogan.
• Contrived Coincidence: Tyri, an information broker, lampshades that one of the top researchers at the Temple of the Goddess would come to her for information when she's been trying to get a contact in said temple for months. Even more so as Tyri is a Independent League informant and Liara's working on the top secret project for the Citadel.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In the opening days of the war between the Citadel and the League, this trope is simultaneously played straight and averted; Han'Gerrel's fleet, with their new superweapons and drone fighters, inflict colossal casualties on the salarian navy to the point of crippling it (60,000 salarian losses to 3,000 League dead). However, the salarians managed a strategic victory by disabling the League's only path to the Council core worlds.
• Dead Fic: While And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy was properly finished, The Heavens Shall Tremble is dead, having last been updated in 2015.
• Death or Glory Attack: The Turian Hierarchy's post-First Pan-Galactic War destroyer is built around sneaking up on capital ships and opening up with a massive Alpha Strike, but if that fails to take out the target, even its disproportionately heavy armour can only do so little to protect it.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: The geth as a whole when it turns out that the quarians are losing interest in retaking Rannoch. Then the Reapers show up...
• Didn't Think This Through: Lampshaded by Hannah Shepard that the Council should have known better than to stick dozens of POWs together with pilgrims who haven't been properly searched and only a dozen or so guards.
• Dissonant Serenity: A signature of Samara.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Philip took to the bottle after Rael's death.
• Dynamic Entry: Accidentally done in chapter 41 when Garrus and Nyreen drop from a roof and land on a hostile krogan.
• Eldritch Abomination - The Reapers are described with these very words. Characters exposed to them for any length of time suffer Sanity Slippage and tend to fall prey to the Reapers More than Mind Control.
• End of an Age: Rael'Zorah's death appears to have marked the end of the last major push among the quarians to reclaim Rannoch.
• Evil Counterpart: The Citadel and League races usually see the other as their own. Citadel races consider the humans' attitude of mutually assured destruction, the quarian development of the geth, and the krogans' history in general as evidence the Independent League consists of an unhealthy mix of Always Chaotic Evil, while Leaguers tend to see the turian policy of "shoot first, ask questions when necessary," the asari insisting that you Can't Argue with Elves, and the salarian's part in the Genophage as proof the Citadel is a Lawful Evil empire.
• Evil Is Petty: After rigging a League colony to explode, Saren still takes the time to execute a quarian civilian mourning a dead human child.
• Faking the Dead: Mordin, twice. The first in chapter 8 to switch sides from the STG to the krogan, and then a second time in chapter 20 to deliver the full Genophage cure and escape retaliation from The Illusive Man and others who only wanted to give the krogan a partial cure. By chapter 23 the gig is up, at least where Aria, Nihlus and Tevos are concerned.
• The Federation - The Independent League, a single entity formed of the humans, quarians, and later the krogan.
• Flat "What": Henry Lawson's reaction when Daro'Xen talks about having a daughter.
• Foil: In chapter 20 Mordin has this opinion of the League and the Council.
• Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Chapter 48 is one.
• He's Back!: Aria in chapter 38 after spending a lot of time sulking in defeat from Tevos.
• Home by Christmas: The turians attack the seemingly-weak human-quarian alliance expecting a cakewalk. It doesn't end that way.
• Honey Trap: Liara falls for one, leading her to unwittingly become The Mole for the League. It unravels impressively in chapter 31 when she learns the truth.
• I Call It "Vera": Zaeed names his rifle Jessie after a fallen comrade from the Second Contact War. Even when he replaces it, the new rifle is always "Jessie".
• I Was Never Here: Invoked by Flavus in chapter 21 to Berr.
• In-Series Nickname: In chapter 28, the batarian rebels call the Indoctrinated "killed". Indoctrination is effectively death of the original person anyway.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Though they meet younger and under quite different circumstances, Miranda and Jack still don't like each other.
  • Saren still hates humans (and now quarians) despite not losing his brother in the war against them, this time because of the humiliation the turians suffered in the war.
  • Miranda still ends up running away from home with her sister in tow, in order to give her a better life.
  • Despite the different circumstances, the attack on Elysium still happens, with the attack almost single-handedly fended off by John Shepard.
• Information Broker: Tyri Hd'vassa's job. It's cover for being a League agent.
• Innocent Prodigy: Young Miranda.
• Insistent Terminology: Daro'Xen considers Oriana an experiment.
  • The use of the term "Alien" is played with. Due to human-quarian society becoming so highly integrated, in addition to the krogan later on, the League ends up considering each other merely kin of another species. Lampshaded by various Council characters, who pointedly note that in comparison, the League do consider them to be "aliens".
• Ironic Echo Cut: In chapter 41 Garrus wonders if the foes he had just been fighting were "as scared, surprised and confused as he had been", then perishes the thought. Cut to said foes expressing that very sentiment.
• Killed Off for Real: Wrex in chapter 36.
• Killed Offscreen: Rael'Zorah, who died due to a severe allergic reaction to Xen's experimental "Suitless Serum". The worst part is that he didn't even die because of the serum itself, but because of an allergic reaction to one of the ingredients used to preserve the serum.
• Knight Templar:
  • The turians are described by the quarians as "Shoot first. Ask questions, maybe."
  • Asari justicars, especially Samara.
• La Résistance: One develops among the batarians against the Indoctrination programs.
• Mood Whiplash: Chapter 18 is an adorable episode of Shepard's early days at Jump Zero, including a visit from Tali and family. Chapter 19 starts with Saren, Nihlus and Flavus' creepy up-close experience of a "dead" Reaper and continues to remain disturbing throughout.
• Mundane Luxury: For the Quarians, homes to themselves and genuine wood.
• Mutually Assured Destruction: Weaponizing Mass Relays would result in both sides using colony drops to wipe out entire planets. Councilor Julieus admits that while the League would hesitate to use them, the Hierarchy would not and the League would retaliate once the Hierarchy destroyed one of their worlds.
• My Greatest Failure: Philip holds himself responsible for Rael'Zorah's death, despite several people telling him there was nothing he could have done.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In chapter 8, Mordin says "Must be me. Someone else could get it wrong." It keeps recurring.
  • Chapter 20 has the infamous "Ah yes, Reapers" and airquotes, along with salarian talk of uplifting the Yahg.
  • In chapter 27 Garrus' new ethics lecturer muses on how things might have been different if the humans had met the turians first.
  • "Emergency. Induction. Port" in chapter 28.
  • Chapter 32: "You sound like a bunch of quarians with a bellyache!"
    "Sir, I am a quarian with a bellyache sir!"
  • Chapter 33 mentions reach and flexibility with Garrus in the picture.
  • In chapter 42 Tali cracks a joke about using omnigel to hack systems.
• Named by the Adaptation: In canon, Jack's real first name is revealed to be Jennifer, though no last name is given. Here, her full name (prior to becoming Jak) is Jennifer Carmichael.
• Never My Fault: The turians, or at least Sparatus and Saren, are shown to be furious over the losses they accrued during their war with humanity and the quarians, along with their treatment as POWs, all while ignoring that they started the war they found some civilian ships near a dormant Mass Relay and opened fire without asking any questions.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Tevos pretends to retire and become Aria's pet. It's actually the other way around.
• Oh, Crap!: Flavus' reaction in chapter 19 when Liara shows a projection of a Reaper.
• Painting the Fourth Wall: The speech of a character getting Indoctrinated is shown in text where the words are broken up by Zalgo-esque symbols.
• Peaceful in Death: Mordin in chapter 31.
• Power Trio: Both major galactic powers are made up of these.
  • The League species: Humanity are the The Leader, the quarians are The Smart Guy and the krogan are the The Big Guy.
  • The Council species: asari are The Leader, the salarians are The Smart Guy, and the turians are The Big Guy.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Most of the krogan and turians, and even a few of the humans, especially Jak, aka Subject Zero.
• Race Lift:
  • In canon, the Illusive Man is the Caucasian male Jack Harper. Here, he is the Latino male Ramon Gerado.
  • Miranda's sister Oriana is human in canon, while here Ori is quarian.
• Raised by Wolves: Jennifer (better known as Jack or Subject Zero in the games) is raised by krogan.
• Related in the Adaptation: Due to Xen entering a relationship with Henry Lawson, she ends up becoming Miranda's stepmother.
• Remember the Alamo: Initially, "Remember the Belari!" is used as a war cry after the quarian ship Belari performed a heroic sacrifice saving a human medical ship from a turian fleet.
  • Later comes back as "Remember Kelphic!" after Saren nukes Kelphic Valley on Tuchanka.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: In chapter 35 one of the bullies who tormented Garrus in earlier days returns as an evil mercenary.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • Councilor Julieus goes behind the Hierarchy's and Council's backs to sign an agreement with the League to prevent weaponizing Mass Relays, knowing that such a weapon would result in galactic extinction.
  • Liara ends up exposing the existence of the Reapers with the aid of Vendetta and Samara, but at the cost of essentially becoming a criminal to her people (due to stealing that information from the prothean beacon on Thessia and exposing its existence).
• Shout-Out:
  • Mordin takes up the codename "the Doctor". The first time they meet, he and Hackett talk about wood and sonic screwdrivers.
  • Chapter 10 has at Jump Zero a door marked "Dragon - The Enemy's Gate is Down". In chapter 18 the Shout-Out turns out to be In-Universe too.
  • In chapter 12, Miranda and Daro'Xen do the "What are we going to do tonight?" routine.
  • In chapter 16 the Scientific Method song is sung to Oriana.
  • In chapter 18 the biotic trainees at Jump Zero In Series Nicknamed themselves "jedi".
  • Chapter 22 ends with a wagon ride straight out of Calvin and Hobbes, with a philosophical Kelly Chambers as Calvin and a panicking Tali as Hobbes.
  • Chapter 22 also has "Friendship really is Magic!"
  • In chapter 24 Ashley and her father recite the "Thou art thyself, though not a Montague" speech from Romeo and Juliet.
  • In chapter 26 we learn that an In-Series Nickname for The Illusive Man is "Sorcerous Tim".
  • The League-built Mass Relays are codenamed "Stargate".
  • In chapter 28, the Batarians' sea god is revealed to be named "Keeyogre".
  • In chapter 40 there's a League unit called "Protector's Own".
  • In chapter 42, Miranda sarcastically hopes that they don't have to find Mount Doom to toss a Reaper artefact into.
  • The protheans used to use CRISIS Mini-Mecha.
• Taking the Bullet: The Belari doing this to protect the Carl Jung prompts the blood brothers attitude humans and quarians develop.
• Tempting Fate: In chapter 42 Tali thinks they can win the current battle, then Banshee-fied Tevos shows up.
• That Man Is Dead: In chapter 20 Miranda rejects her birth name and takes up "Miri Goldstein" instead.
• Theme Naming: Some of the League's Attack Drone types are named after martial arts styles, such as Muay Thai or Jiu Jitsu.
• Tranquil Fury: Liara in chapter 31 when she learns the truth about Tyri.
• Trust Password: N7 Oro'Veskar has one with a bartender on Illium. After an assassination, she heads to the bar and orders "her usual". If she gets a Home Sweet Home, she's in the clear, while a Saint Dextros means the authorities know where she is.
• Unholy Matrimony: Daro'Xen and Henry Lawson. Though here they're more like Heroic Comedic Sociopaths than full villains.
• Unstoppable Rage: Aria in chapter 42 when she sees Saren Banshee-fy Tevos.
• Undying Loyalty: Humanity to the quarians after the crew of Belari sacrifices themselves without hesitation in order to protect the hospital ship Carl Jung from the full brunt of the turian salvo. Later, the krogan, after the League along with Mordin helps cure the genophage.
• Unwitting Pawn: Cerberus unknowingly becomes one to the Reapers at the end of And the Meek Shall Inherit the Galaxy, after Ramon Gerado/The Illusive Man enters into an alliance with the Collectors.
• Villainous Rescue: In chapter 35 some geth managed to rescue Tali from a bunch of mercenaries who had killed her fellow pilgrims and intended to have their way with her.
• We Can Rule Together: Aria gives Tevos such an offer in chapter 16.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Vexxu's reaction to Fleet and Flotilla, which in this story is a fictionalization of her relationship with Hackett.
• Working the Same Case: In chapter 29, Thane, a Spectre and a N7 group find themselves going after the same batarian slaver.
• The Xenophile: The League is built on this philosophy.