Highlights

  • The potential presence of the Angara in Mass Effect 4 raises questions about how they could exist in the Milky Way, especially considering the vast distance between the galaxies.
  • The construction of a new Mass Relay shown in the 2022 N7 Day teaser could potentially explain how rapid intergalactic travel will be possible in Mass Effect 4.
  • The Geth may also return, which means BioWare will likely canonize a Mass Effect 3 ending in which they were spared, or introduce lore about their reconstruction.

It’s been over three years since Mass Effect 4’s first teaser trailer, and fans still know very little about the game. Most of what fans do know about it comes from scraps of information from the yearly N7 Day teasers. Last November saw the reveal of a mysterious figure in a long N7 coat and face-covering helmet. In addition to their reveal in the trailer, fans can also order a lithograph poster of the character from BioWare’s official merch store.

The poster also features a bar scene superimposed over the character’s lower body. Fans can make out several recognizable Mass Effect races, including figures who appear to be Angara and Geth. However, since the Angara only live in Andromeda, and the Geth are only in the Milky Way and possibly extinct, that raises the question of how both could end up in Mass Effect 4.

Liara Mass Effect
Related
Mass Effect 4: The Pros and Cons of Liara Possibly Being a Companion Again

Liara is one of Commander Shepard's most loyal companions, but bringing her back in the same role could bring with it some issues.

Mass Effect 4’s Logistics Problem

Mass Effect: Andromeda's Angara species live in the titular galaxy’s Heleus Cluster, where they are under attack by the invading Kett. Andromeda is over 2.5 million light years from the Milky Way, and even with the benefit of faster-than-light travel, it still took the Andromeda Initiative around 600 years to get there. Furthermore, while many races participated in the Initiative, the robotic Geth were not among them.

How Mass Effect 4 intends to solve that problem will depend on whether the game occurs in the Milky Way, Andromeda, or both. If the game does take place in Andromeda, it would simply be a matter of Geth traveling there for their own reasons at some point before Mass Effect 3. Being robots, the journey would likely be easier for the Geth than for organics. However, the teasers indicate the game will take place primarily in the Milky Way.

That said, the Andromeda Galaxy is visible in the opening shot of the 2020 Mass Effect 4 teaser trailer. Meanwhile, last year’s N7 Day teaser included an augmented reality game where the Systems Alliance receives a distress signal from Andromeda. This suggests that the new game will either see people arriving from Andromeda or the creation of a stable travel link between the two galaxies.

Either way, it would need to be much faster than the first time around, since a second 600-year trip is nothing to sneeze at. More than that, a 1200-year gap between the trilogy and Mass Effect 4 just seems unlikely. After 1200 years, the Milky Way would be an entirely different galaxy, and the Mass Effect 4 teasers also don’t give the impression that over a millennium has passed between the trilogy and the new game.

By comparison, 1200 years ago from today was 824, which was about 30 years into the Viking Age.

Renegade Male Shepard
Related
Why Mass Effect 4 Will Likely Skip Over the Paragon and Renegade System

As the fourth entry in the main series and the fifth entry overall, Mass Effect 4 will likely do away with the Paragon and Renegade morality system.

How Mass Effect 4 Could Bring the Angara to the Milky Way

Fortunately, Mass Effect 4’s 2022 N7 day teaser may hold the answer to rapid intergalactic travel. The image shows a Mass Relay under construction, though the design differs significantly from the originals. It also appears much larger than the already colossal constructs, though that’s hard to tell. Meanwhile, the audio clip accompanying the image alluded to humanity defying the Citadel Council. While this is just a theory, it could be that the Alliance is constructing a Mass Relay capable of reaching Andromeda.

Mass Relay travel is functionally instantaneous in the Mass Effect games, shortening a journey by years or even centuries. While the secondary relays only have a few hundred light years range, the primary relays range is in the thousands of light years. A Mass Relay connecting Andromeda and the Milky Way would need to be 1,000 times more powerful. Still, the roughly 600 years between the original trilogy and Andromeda is plenty of time to figure that out.

Granted, even if a Mass Relay could send ships from the Milky Way to Andromeda, they would need a second relay to get back. However, building a second would presumably be much easier once they know how to build one. Plus, this assumes that the Mass Relay is under construction in the Milky Way, when for all anyone knows, it could actually be in Andromeda.

Mass Effect 4’s Geth Face Questions About the Canon

Having the Geth be alive in Mass Effect 4 is also a can of worms, and there really isn’t a clean solution. If either Mass Effect 3’s Control or Synthesis endings are canon, then there is no problem. However, the ruined Citadel, dead Reapers, and possibly post-apocalyptic earth in the original Mass Effect 4 teaser imply that’s not the case. The Geth existing in Mass Effect 4 is incompatible with Mass Effect 3’s Destroy ending.

At a minimum, Mass Effect 4 would need to justify rebuilding the Geth after they were destroyed. At a more extreme end, BioWare could say that the Catalyst was either wrong or lying and that at least some of the Geth survived Mass Effect 3's Destroy ending. That, or Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut’s epilogue vastly overstates how different the three endings are.

Alternatively, BioWare could simply ditch the color-coded endings altogether. The Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC allowed players to refuse the Catalyst’s choice. This resulted in the Reapers cleansing the galaxy, but Liara’s time capsule wasn't destroyed, giving the next cycle a chance to survive. However, BioWare could declare that non-canon and instead say that the united galaxy succeeds in repelling the Reapers through conventional means.

Retcons are always controversial, and this would basically invalidate all of Mass Effect 3’s endings. However, given the controversy around ME3’s ending, some fans might view it as a change for the better.