Alright sluts, listen up: I'm an expert on all things Mass Effect (several degrees and two masters, a thousand plus hours on-field experience), so here's the lowdown.
• Destroy ending plus Geth/AI survive, with various amalgamations of choices and whatever additions/changes BioWare feel is relevant. Essentially an end-state that is
technically not achievable by anyone in the Trilogy, thus providing a neutral blank canvas for everyone, but draws from the Trilogy's best-case-scenario situations for potential of broader storytelling.
• Reapers are dead as dead. The Illusive Man and Cerberus absolutely obliterated in all forms. Quarians and Geth united on Rannoch. Krogan live and Genophage cured, under the rule of Wrex.
• No synthesis. All ending slides for all endings negated and irrelevant to this canon timeline.
• Relays damaged but under repair.
• Shepard dead as dead.
• Galaxy is in a post-war depression. Each species is balancing the optimism of having conquered the Reapers alongside the stress of
what is next. Each species confronted with the reality of the war; collecting and burying their dead that number in billions, evaluating the destruction and rebuilding worlds where possible, aiding refugees and those in crisis despite the war having ended, all the while scrambling for stability and resources. Post war tension and desperation, like a simmering pot, not unlike WW2 -> Cold War.
• Damaged relays make connecting between worlds more difficult than before, despite repairs. Resource scarcity and changes in the political landscape lead to a mandate for looser restrictions on Relay activation. New relays are activated and opened, with some caution, in order for species to quickly find garden worlds to populate and ease the burden of the post war crisis.
• Krogan and Quarian/Geth Unity in the most advantageous position due to their isolated victories. Asari decimated due to destruction and loss of homeworld. Turians forming new alliances. Salarians retreating into secrecy due to conservative attitudes to the war. Humans doing whatever humans do (boring stuff).
• Relay activation allows for exploring new, previously uncharted regions of the galaxy. New planets/systems/etc. Work a story of new discoveries in here.
• System found
outside of Relay network. System is home to new species that has advanced to spacefaring technology without the use of any Reaper tech. Theory being a Relay for that system, or planet housing technology, was destroyed early on in some natural galactic cataclysm, and thus fell completely off the Reaper's radar with each cycle (the lore supports this, as the Reapers use the Relay network and Citadel hub to navigate and monitor the galaxy). New species has had the fortune of essentially being able to evolve and develop over millennia outside of Reaper influence and knowledge, giving them a totally unique technological evolutionary path. Reaper extinction cycles have been going on unbeknown to them (maybe they document strange galactic phenomena, but not sure what it is).
• Narrative explores their introduction to the rest of the galaxy, especially given their stability.
• New protagonist. New set of squadmates. Cameo and/or references to previous cast only.
• Level/game design similar to Mass Effect 2/3. Listen I love open explorable zones and feel the future of the series would benefit tremendously from them. I just don't think BioWare necessarily has the chops to do them well. It's not their forte, so I'd rather them pull off something they evidently can do well.
• Lots of planets and locations to visit, even if we're only there briefly. Planet hopping is important.
• Tighter cover shoot/bang/biotic/tech stuff and not the bullet sponge Destiny-lite stuff from Andromeda.
• Andromeda is a solid premise and I actually grew to enjoy it more than I thought once I finally saw it through a month ago, and I do want to see the mysteries resolved. But the lukewarm execution of the lore, premise, galaxy itself, cast, etc dampened the entire experience. Despite the intrigue I'm not actually sure I want to go back, and I don't know how salvageable it is, even if a ~good video game~ is made in that framework. I'm not sure Mass Effect fans by and large will care.
• Ignore people obsessing over Trilogy canon. Everybody had their own experience, their own Shepard, their own timeline, and their own choices and ending. It's obviously logistically impossible to cater to these people and a separate timeline starting a new canon on the bedrock of the trilogy does not negate a players individual, personal experience with the trilogy. The above hypothetical is simply not
my Shepard from the trilogy, and if you're careful with the lore then it's
nobodies Shepard.
• Absolutely no prequels. They're inherently limited in storytelling and scope and will forever have the trilogy's baggage hanging overhead.
• No remakes. Remaster the trilogy and leave it as that. Move forward.
This is my fan fiction, thank you for reading.