Saren - Commander Shepard

Commander Shepard

Commander Shepard is the main protagonist of the Mass Effect trilogy. When starting a new game, the player chooses Shepard's gender, appearance, history, combat-training, and first name. Shepard is 29 years old in Mass Effect, chronologically 31 years old in Mass Effect 2, and roughly 32 in Mass Effect 3. By default, male Shepard is called John and female Shepard is called Jane; both defaults are of the Soldier class.

A member of the Systems Alliance Navy, Shepard is a veteran soldier who captains the SSV Normandy. In Mass Effect, the Citadel Council (a board of representatives from the galaxy's most influential species) inducts Shepard into the Spectres, an elite cadre of operatives acting on behalf of the Council and tasked with preserving galactic stability by any means necessary. As the game progresses, Shepard pursues rogue Spectre agent Saren Arterius, hunting him across the galaxy in a desperate attempt to save galactic civilization from the Reapers, a species of artificial intelligences that purge all life every 50,000 years. Shepard eventually kills Saren and helps defeat Sovereign, a Reaper tasked with spearheading the assault on organic species. When the Citadel comes under attack by Sovereign's forces, the player can choose to save the Council, resulting in humans being granted a Council seat, or leave the Council undefended, which dooms the Council and sets humanity up to be the galaxy's dominant species.

Mass Effect 2 starts one month after Sovereign's defeat. An unknown warship destroys the SSV Normandy, killing Shepard. Shepard's body is recovered by Cerberus, a rogue human organization that's been keeping tabs on Shepard for their actions in Mass Effect. Over the course of two years, Cerberus rebuilds Shepard, using a combination of cutting edge cybernetics and nanotechnology. Upon recovering, Shepard investigates the numerous disappearances of human colonies, gathering a crew of specialists to follow the Collectors, an enigmatic species with unknown origins, through the fabled Omega 4 Relay.

BioWare Director Casey Hudson explained that, based on decisions made during Mass Effect 2, Shepard can die in some of the game's multiple endings. Hudson stated, "If you do die in the ending of Mass Effect 2, it will not come as a surprise, nor will it be random. It will be pretty obvious that you headed into the final mission knowing that Shepard probably wouldn’t make it out alive." Hudson also confirmed that team members would be affected by the player's decisions as well: "You might have an ending where Shepard’s entire team survives, or where the entire mission is a bloodbath and everyone (including Shepard) is killed, or anything in between." Lastly, Hudson revealed that if the player's Shepard dies in Mass Effect 2, they will not appear in Mass Effect 3; instead, Mass Effect 3 would have to be played with a new Shepard started in that game, or with one who survived Mass Effect 2.

In Mass Effect 3, Shepard starts grounded after the events of Mass Effect 2's "Arrival" DLC. Suddenly, the Reapers attack Earth, forcing Shepard to flee the planet. The game's main plot features Shepard traveling across the galaxy and rallying support from the galactic community to save Earth and defeat the Reapers once and for all. Apart from building a massive united fleet, Shepard must also construct the Crucible, an ancient superweapon capable of defeating the Reapers. According to BioWare, Mass Effect 3 concludes Shepard's story and marks their final appearance in the series.

Most endings in Mass Effect 3 imply Shepard's death. Players see Shepard alternately disintegrate into the Crucible or get swallowed in its explosion, and surviving squad members place Shepard's name on the Normandy's memorial wall alongside Admiral Anderson's. However, if the player chose to destroy all synthetic life in the final moments of gameplay and has a high EMS rating, squadmates don't place Shepard's name on the wall. This, coupled with the cutscene of Shepard breathing in the rubble, leaves the Commander's final fate ambiguous.

Many years into the future, Shepard becomes a legendary figure known only as "The Shepard".

Mark Meer voices male-Shepard and Jennifer Hale voices female-Shepard. Bioware based male-Shepard's default appearance on fashion model Mark Vanderloo's face.