| Liara T'Soni | |
|---|---|
 Is it wrong that part of me wants this? | |
| Vital statistics | |
| Title | The Shadow Broker |
| Origin | Mass Effect |
| Voice Actors | Ali Hillis |
| Activities | Fighting the Geth, Fighting the Reapers |
| Weapons and Powers | Various Mass Accelerator firearms and biotic powers. |
| “ | Me? I am afraid I am not very interesting, Commander. I spend most of my time on remote digs unearthing mundane items buried in long forgotten Prothean Ruins.
— Doctor Liara T'Soni
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” |
Liara T'Soni was a gifted asari researcher during the Repears' invasion of Citadel-space. Before the arrival of the sentient machines, she often explored ancient ruins on old and forgotten planets to discover more information about the Protheans, an ancient race of aliens that are believed to have invented most of the major technology in the galaxy. Like many of her fellow asari, Liara is an incredibly powerful Biotic, and prefers to deal with enemies using her Biotic Powers whenever she is forced into a conflict.
At the age of 106 during the original Mass Effect, Liara could hardly qualify as a child in the scope of her own people, and like many children she has a somewhat optimistic and bright-eyed view of the galaxy and it's inhabitants, which often balances the more cynical and sarcastic nature of her fellow members of the Normandy crew.
Liara was a party member in Mass Effect, appeared as an NPC in Mass Effect 2 and was the star of a comic bridging the gap between the two.
History
Mass Effect
| “ | I know you took a chance, bringing me aboard this ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me- they do not trust me, but I am not like Benezia. I will do whatever I can to help you stop Saren. I promise.
— Liara
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” |
When Commander Shepard began the investigation to find and bring the rogue Spectre, Saren, Shepard discovered that he was being helped by the asari Matriarch Benezia, Captain Anderson passed information on Benezia's daughter's last known location- the Artemis Tau Cluster. Shepard launched a mission to the Artemis Tau Cluster, and eventually tracked Benezia's daughter to the planet Therum, and was forced to fight through a Prothean Ruin dig site before finding her locked up in an energy field. Benezia's daughter identified herself as doctor Liara T'Soni and asked Shepard to help set her free, as she is being held captive by a Krogan bounty hunter and a small army of Geth sent by Saren to either force Liara to help him, or ensure she can't use her knowledge of the Protheans to hurt his efforts or aid the Council. Shepard destroyed the energy field and killed the Bounty Hunter, before escaping the ruins in the Mako Tank, returning to the Normandy.
After being rescued, the asari agrees to join Shepard's squad and joins the crew of the Normandy on many adventures through space. She reveals her relationship with her mother is stressed and the two have not spoken in years, though she has difficulty accepting that her mother is working for such a dangerous terrorist. When she is first brought aboard the Normandy, she melds her mind with Shepard to help him interpret the images recieved from the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime, and believes Shepard that the Reapers are responsible for the destruction of the ancient precursors, claiming the systematic lack of information on them seems to be a massive cover-up, like someone or something deliberately covered the information up.
Over time, she and the Commander grew closer, and she was able to explain her parentage. Her mother did not mate with a member of another species, like custom usually dictates. Instead, Benezia joined with another asari, in a relationship looked down on highly, comparable closest to incest in our own species. In order to hide the embarrassment of such a high ranking asari having a "pureblood" child, she was never told who her other parent was, and the social taboo of being pureblood partially caused her to become much more secluded. She chose to be an archaeologist in part to escape the social pressures she faced.
On one of Shepard's missions, to the planet Noveria, the Normandy and it's crew finally catch up with Benezia, who is inside a facility. When Shepard lands on the planet, Liara can tag along to confront her mother. After driving through harsh cold and heavy snow in the Mako, the team reached the facility where the Matriarch was at, and as they explored they were attacked by Geth she had smuggled in and long extinct alien bugs- the Rachni. When they get all the way through the facility, Liara and Shepard battled Benezia and her asari Commandos, and during the battle Liara's mother was fatally wounded. As she died, she revealed to Liara that she had been indoctrinated by Saren and his allies, and the brainwashing was too deep to remove, but she offered final consoling words to her daughter before dying.
During the course of the mission, Liara was fascinated by Shepard- having been touched by the Prothean Beacon, the commander had first-hand visions of the ancient alien species. However, her research became something more as she began to study Shepard, though she was too scared to talk to Shepard herself about it for fear she'd say something to look like an idiot. She begins to develop a crush on the Commander, and Shepard can choose to pursue her as a romantic interest.
When Shepard and the team ventured to Illios, she was the only member of the crew fascinated by the prothean planet, and decides that when everything is over, she will have to come back to do further research on the relics and ruins there. When the Reapers are finally revealed to be working through Saren, who they indoctrinated like Benezia, Liara helped Shepard activate the Conduit to transport back to the Citadel, where they were able to defeat Saren and the Geth, before the Normandy managed to kill Soverign, the Reaper that was working as Saren's ship to attack the Citadel. After the defeat of the Geth, she continued to serve on the Normandy to prepare for the Reaper's coming invasion.
Mass Effect: Redemption
After the events of the original Mass Effect, Liara was still a member of the Normandy crew when the ship was attacked by an unknown foe. The hostile ship used advanced beam technology to rip through Shepard's ship. The Normandy quickly took critical damage, and Liara was forced to abandon ship with the rest of the crew, and Commander Shepard was killed in an attempt to rescue Joker.
Liara refuses to let go, and begins a quest to find her Commander's body, a task the Collectors, the aliens that killed the Normandy, also wanted to accomplish. She found her way to Omega where she meets her friend and contact, the Drell named Feros. In a battle between the Blue Suns and Cerberus for possession of Shepard's body, the two are captured by Cerberus forces.
Cerberus' leader, The Illusive Man, informs Liara that the Collectors have hired the Shadow Broker to retrieve the body, and the Shadow Broker had hired the Blue Suns in turn. Liara agrees to help Cerberus retrieve Shepard's body to keep it from the Collectors, though it is a hard choice.
Liara and Feron return to Omega to look for Shepard's body once more, meeting with "the Queen of Omega" Aria T'Loak. Aria is reluctant to share information with the two, but admits the transfer of the body is going to happen in an old mining facility in the lower levels. They see the Shadow Broker's only hit man- Tazzik arrive and begin negotiations. The two attack, but Feros misses a surprise shot aimed at Tazzik, alerting all involved. Liara tries to attack Taz directly, but only narrowly avoids a grenade, and when she recovers, Tazzik has already escaped, presumably with Shepard's body still onboard.
Feron and Liara pursue Tazzik in his ship, heading to the only planet in the system that the Shadow Broker uses for transport- Alingon. The two infiltrate Alingon and Liara attempts to hack the Shadow Broker's system, but they are only dealing with a proxy and are promptly shut out. Feron reveals he is actually an agent of Cerberus and the two chase after Shepard's body. Feron and Tezzik fight, and he buys Liara enough time to get away, though he is left captured by the Shadow Broker. Liara gives the body to Cerberus, though she has reservations about the idea of bringing him back to life, she realises she can't let him go.
Mass Effect 2
During the two years Shepard was dead, Liara was working on Illium to hunt down the Shadow Broker and take her revenge on him. When Shepard arrives on the planet, she is surprised and tells him they cannot speak freely because everything they say is being recorded. Nonetheless, she is incredibly happy to see Shepard again, espiciallly if she and the Commander were in a romance in Mass Effect. Her anger and hatred of the Shadow Broker has twisted her and she has become much more violent and dark, though Shepard can still break through to the original Liara for a moment. The Commander agrees to help her find one of the Shadow Broker's agents on Illium, named the Observer.
Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
The Illusive Man managed to get data pinpointing the location of the Shadow Broker and he passed it along to Commander Shepard, with a request to team up with Liara to bring down his one-time rival. The data also reveals that her old partner Feron is still alive and held by the Broker. Shepard returned to Illium, and presented the data to Liara, and she advised the Commander to meet her in her apartment so they can talk about the data freely. When Shepard books a taxi and takes it to her appartment, however, Liara is gone, and an asari Spectre named Tela Vasir. Tela's investigation of the ransacked home is turning up nothing, so she invites the Commander in to look. Shepard finds a hidden message in the form of a picture of the SR-1 Normandy, ID locked to Shepard's touch, which then turns into a picture of Prothean Ruins. Searching the various Prothean Ruins located in Liara's home, the Commander finds a hidden recording between herself and a salarian contact discussing the data and revealing they are at the Dracon Trade Center.
Shepard and the team arrive, and discover the facility has been bombed and is under attack by mercenaries in the Shadow Broker's pivate army. Tela starts at the top of the Trade Center, and Shepard at the bottom, and the two worked their way through floor after floor of Shadow Broker agents before arriving and finding the contact dead. Liara appears from the shadows and holds Vasir at gun point, revealing that she is an agent for the Shadow Broker, and that it was Vasir who had attempted to assassinate Liara. Shepard, Liara and one more crewmate chase Vasir through the traffic of Illium in a taxi, before tricking the asari Spectre into damaging her own vehicle, forcing her to land on the erotic hotel Azure. Shepard and Liara corner the agent on Azure, and fight her, eventually defeating the powerful Biotic.
With the new data, Liara and Shepard plan to infiltrate the Shadow Broker's ship, kill the Broker and rescue Feron. The group boards the top of the ship, and fight their way through the ship's automated defense drones, mechs and patrols of Shadow Broker mercs. After scaling much of the ship, the team bunkered down to cut their way into the hull, defending against waves of drones and mechs. After the battle, the team snuck into the ship, and found Feron- but discovered that he could not be freed from his torture untill the Shadow Broker was dead. Despite the fact that he was surely waiting for them, Liara and the team broke into his room, and held him at gun point. The Shadow Broker rose and revealed itself to be a Yahg, a massive lizard like alien species, and it took the combined effort of Shepard and Liara to finally kill the Broker.
With the Broker dead and Feron free, Liara looked at all the data and feeds the Shadow Broker was getting, and was briefly overwhelmed, as all the Shadow Broker agents began asking what was going wrong. Liara hesitated only for a moment, before leaning forward, and telling the agents that everything was fine and to resume operations, that she was the Shadow Broker, and wanted an update on everyone's status. With that, Liara T'Soni had become the newest in the line of Shadow Broker.
Mass Effect 3
TBW
Behind the Scenes=
As one of the party members in a Bioware game, Liara T'Soni is massivly popular, and has multiple fansites, fangroups and obssessive fans. Liara has the most consistant romance option in the trilogy, first appearing in the original Mass Effect, having strong ties in Mass Effect 2 and further continued in Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker and Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect: Redemption never says one way or another, but does read with minor overtones that Liara has feelings for Commander Shepard, if not blatantly in love with the Commander, and the fact that gender is irrelevant from a gameplay standpoint means that everyone can romance her if they choose.
There is a t-shirt available in the Mass Effect apparel section of the Bioware store, available only in female sizes, of Liara using biotics to blow the head of an alien off in a sketchy design.
Appearances
- Mass Effect
- Mass Effect: Redemption
- Mass Effect 2
- Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
- Mass Effect 3